The Darkness. . .

. . .You must acknowledge it.  Then, you must overpower it.  Afterward, although it's always there, you keep it in check.

What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html

OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD) OHO is Jay Graboski, David Reeve and Ray Jozwiak.

My latest solo release, '2014' of original, instrumental piano music, can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

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Dance to Rockin' Bands . . .

. . . in Ocean City

On your mark get set
Disconnect that internet
Every girl and boy
Breathing in the joy
Not a care at last
Sit outside and bask
In rays of summer's bliss 

Crabs and fish and shells
Feel your tensions melt
Fries and pizza pie
Smiles won't be denied
Everything is cool
in 2 1 8 4 2
Feel the sparkle in your eyes

Catch a wave and ride
Cars and motorbikes
Bikini babes in the sand
Vibin' to rockin' bands
Ocean City

From Memorial to Labor Day
We beckon you to play
To a boardwalk beat
Miles and miles of beach
Your memories to take
Currents dance and sway
leave your footprints in the sand

Fireworks at night
Give your love a kiss
Sail and fish the sea
Here life is a beach
in Ocean City

Now is the time that's right
For you only live once
Time does drag when it's all work and no fun
The ocean gateway calls you
Sport your shorts and shades
It's so divine to dine at life's buffet
It's almost heaven and
There's so much more we can say

Catch a wave and ride
Cool cars and motorbikes
Bikinis on the sand
Dance to rockin' bands
Ocean City


Ocean City Ditty
Live at Johnny's, Ocean City, MD-August 2014 [field recording by OHO - Jay Graboski, David Reeve and Ray Jozwiak]




What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html

OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD) OHO is Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak

My latest solo release, '2014' of original, instrumental piano music, can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

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Accuracy . . .

Thank you for allowing us the privilege of hosting you during your upcoming  vacation! 

At this time, please allow us to remind you that the final balance remaining due on your rental is past due.  Per the terms of your Guest License Agreement, full payment is required 60 (sixty) days prior to your arrival and access to the vacation rental cannot be provided until this balance is paid in full.  Please see the attached document for the details of the vacation rental to which this pertains.

If you feel our records are incorrect, to make your payment by credit card, or if we can be of any additional help while you plan your stay, please contact our office immediately.  We are happy to assist in any way we can!

================

Did you look at the last page of the contract that we signed, dated and scanned via email? 

At the very bottom of page 6 you will find the following statement: If you would like your final balance charged to the same credit card used to secure your reservation on the due date, please sign here.  My signature  follows that statement.

Surely you have the same information.  And if so, why are you sending us this email advising the balance is overdue???  Why didn't you bill the balance to the credit card you have on file per the lease agreement???

This is aggravating.  We don't understand why you offer the option to bill the balance when due and then not note your records. 

We gave you permission to bill the balance to the credit card. Call me if we are misunderstanding the process.

================

Why not instead, change the statement to read, "If you would like your final balance charged to the same credit card used to secure your reservation on the due date, and would like to receive a nasty email from us shortly after the balance is due, please sign here."  That would be more accurate.

What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html

OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD) OHO is Jay Graboski, David Reeve and Ray Jozwiak.

My latest solo release, '2014' of original, instrumental piano music, can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

Tweet

A Warm August Night . . .

Ghosts are in the air, they're not visible
but they're there in Frederick on a warm August night
History hides in the cracks of every edifice
in fact, in Frederick on a warm August night

There's magic everywhere, no dazzling tricks
but you won't care in Frederick on a warm August night
Many patriots, crooks and good citizens too,
I've read in books, have been through Frederick on a warm August night

You'll find emotions deep inside those places that you
thought were so good to hide;  Frederick on a warm August night
Come flowing through a tear or smile given birth
by artistry of depth and mirth; Frederick on a warm August night

What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html

OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD) OHO is Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak

My latest solo release, '2014' of original, instrumental piano music, can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

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Indecision. . .

Franklin had a big secret.  It was the kind of secret that he had to keep to himself. It's not that he wanted to tell anyone the secret. It was just that his secret preoccupied him much of the time.  He didn't think that anyone did or would ever detect that he was preoccupied . . . he didn't think.  In fact though, he was. Most of the time as a matter of fact. Would telling his secret to someone else be of any help to him?  Would it relieve him of being preoccupied with it or would it make no difference at all? That was a question that Franklin could not readily answer. He would like to have thought it might do some good.  Might lessen his load.  His burden, if you will. But even of this he was not absolutely certain. It was not a certainty either, whether he really wanted to tell anyone his secret at all.

What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html

OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD)

My latest solo release, '2014' of original, instrumental piano music, can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

Tweet

At Johnny's . . .

 . . . downeyaishen HON . . .

For anyone not from the Baltimore metropolitan area, we here at home have a distinctive dialect of the Mother tongue, ranging from the mild to the severely unintelligible, called Balmerese. . . (and we frequently refer to each other as Hon and we always vacation in Ocean City). . .


Just as an illustration . . . 
(from http://www.baltimorehon.com/)
A
    Aig...the kind with a yoke
    Amalance...You know, the vehicle that takes you to the hospital
    Ann Runnel...Glen Burnie's county
    Anyfink..As in anything goes
    Arn... What you do on an arnin board
    Arnjuice...from the sunshine tree
    Arsh...People from Arlin
    Aspern..."Take 2 and call me in the morning"
    Authoritis...arthritis
    Awl...goes into the crankcase
    Ax...as in Ax me no questions, I'll tell ya no lies


B
    Baffroom...see "rostrum"
    Balamer...our home town
    Barrie...as in I need to barrie some money off you
    Bawler...what the plumber calls your furnace
    Beeno...A famous railroad
    Beero...bedroom dresser (with jroors fulla cloze wif jewry and nick nacks on top)
    Bethlum...A steel mill
    Bidness: as in nunyer bidness
    Birfday...blow out the candles on this day
    Blare...City in Harford County
    Bleef...What you believe in
    Blow...opposite of "above"
    Brefist: Champions eat it...meal you eat (or drink) before lunch


. . . Anyway . . . OHO was in Ocean City recently, dig . . .


Slough of Despond
Live at Johnny's, Ocean City, MD-August 2014 [field recording by OHO - Jay Graboski, David Reeve and Ray Jozwiak]




What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html

OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD) OHO is Jay Graboski, David Reeve and Ray Jozwiak.

My latest solo release, '2014' of original, instrumental piano music, can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

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I Never Picked Cotton . . .

 . . . and understandably so.  I was the son of the offspring of Polish immigrants who came to Baltimore in the early 20th century to escape deplorable economic conditions and an unstable political climate. There are no cotton fields in Baltimore.  (Trust me.) But the song, I Never Picked Cotton, written by Bobby George and Charles Williams is the inspiration for this musing.

(from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Never_Picked_Cotton) ". . .The plot of "I Never Picked Cotton" is told in first-person, mostly in flashback from the perspective of a native of a poor sharecropping family in Oklahoma.

In the first verse, the song's protagonist — the youngest son of a coal miner who died working in the mines — bitterly recalls his family's past and upbringing. He recalls (as a young boy, too young to work on a cotton plantation) how his mother, brother, and sister all picked cotton to support the family, while his dad died in the coal mine. Seeing that this is not the type of life he wants to live, the boy resolves that when he is old enough to do so, he will leave the farm and his family.

One night, the protagonist makes good on his vow, stealing $10 and a pickup truck, and leaving the plantation, never to return. He then turns to a lifestyle of partying, "and I took it all with a gun". His criminal lifestyle ultimately leads to a fight with a local redneck on a Saturday night in Memphis, Tennessee; the redneck insults the protagonist's origins and is killed in return.

The protagonist, fingered as the killer, is found guilty of murder and sentenced to death by hanging. Just hours before he is sentenced to die, he reflects on his life and notes that "there ain't a hell of a lot, that I can look back on with pride" – except that he made good on his vow to "never pick cotton" like his family did. . ."

My earliest recollection of hearing this tune, which I then thought was one of the 'toughest' and now think one of the most clever and well-constructed country songs I've ever heard was from somewhere around 1970 or 71.  My parents undertook, on a regular (with occasional exceptions) an outing to our local 'Topps' retail outlet, to shop for . . . I'm not exactly sure WHAT. I thoroughly enjoyed accompanying them  to visit the record (vinyl LP) department, but in my later childhood years not so much.  On one particular Friday evening, after partaking of our regularly scheduled Catholic, Friday, fried fish dinners, I respectfully declined from participating in that evening's shopping event and instead offered to stay behind and wash the dinner dishes. When choosing to spend my Friday evening in such a manner, which I did numerous times, I would tune into WBMD-AM, our local country music station, on an old RCA combination phonograph/AM-FM radio in the dining room, turn it to a sufficient volume level to be able to hear it in the kitchen next door while washing dishes, and proceed with my post-dinner activity. Silly, trite, trivial - maybe.  But it's ALL MINE!

What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html

OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD) OHO is Jay Graboski, David Reeve and Ray Jozwiak.

My latest solo release, '2014' of original, instrumental piano music, can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

Tweet