Maybe I'm Milking It, but. . .

. . .I can't help it.

THE END OF THE WORLD

Why does the sun go on shining?
Why does the sea rush to shore?
Don't they know it's the end of the world,
'Cause you don't love me any more?

Why do the birds go on singing?
Why do the stars glow above?
Don't they know it's the end of the world.
It ended when I lost your love.

I wake up in the morning and I wonder,
Why everything's the same as it was.
I can't understand. No, I can't understand,
How life goes on the way it does.

Why does my heart go on beating?
Why do these eyes of mine cry?
Don't they know it's the end of the world.
It ended when you said goodbye.

Why does my heart go on beating?
Why do these eyes of mine cry?
Don't they know it's the end of the world.
It ended when you said goodbye.

by Arthur Kent and Sylvia Dee
performed by Skeeter Davis


Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano opens the May 23rd Monday Night Songwriters Showcase at Brewer's Alley Restaurant & Brewery with 30 minutes of solo, Gonzo, Fractured Jazz and Improvisational Terror Tactics at the Piano. (take the elevator on the right to the 2nd floor) 124 North Market Street, Frederick, MD 21701, tel: 301-631-0089, Fax: 301-631-1874
www.brewers-alley.com
Frederick Acoustic Music Enterprise (F.A.M.E.)


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P.S. . .

. . . It's 5/22/2011, 12:18 EDT. The world did NOT end.

Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano opens the May 23rd Monday Night Songwriters Showcase at Brewer's Alley Restaurant & Brewery with 30 minutes of solo, Gonzo, Fractured Jazz and Improvisational Terror Tactics at the Piano. (take the elevator on the right to the 2nd floor) 124 North Market Street, Frederick, MD 21701, tel: 301-631-0089, Fax: 301-631-1874
www.brewers-alley.com
Frederick Acoustic Music Enterprise (F.A.M.E.)


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Posting this one early. . .

. . . just in case the world DOES end tonight, maybe you'll be able to read one more blog from me.

Well, what can I say? The only thing that bothers me about this whole WORLD ENDING TONIGHT thing is that a massive unforeseen earthquake (or other disaster), or cosmic crash, or stray meteor or WHATEVER could happen at ANY TIME. It's just a friggin' fact. That's what it's all about to be a human being in the year 2011. NOTHING IS CERTAIN. No Bible, no Quran, no Pentateuch, no Vedas, no Raelian rantings, no Golden plates - NO ANYTHING that is truly infallible nor factual. It's just we human beings in our frail, human, mortal, self-awareness. The more of us that realize that soon - THE BETTER.

BTW, someone put up a pet care website which was pretty smart. They charge a fee to take care of the pets of we sinners when we're gone and they're probably making a killing. That's the Amer-i-can way!!!
PET CARE FOR SINNERS




Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano opens the May 23rd Monday Night Songwriters Showcase at Brewer's Alley Restaurant & Brewery with 30 minutes of solo, Gonzo, Fractured Jazz and Improvisational Terror Tactics at the Piano. (take the elevator on the right to the 2nd floor) 124 North Market Street, Frederick, MD 21701, tel: 301-631-0089, Fax: 301-631-1874
www.brewers-alley.com
Frederick Acoustic Music Enterprise (F.A.M.E.)


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ANOTHER SHOT
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Our Integrity

Fifteen minutes of glory, maybe less. What I wouldn't give for the chance to confess all my intimate secrets; all my hopes and my desires. I don't care just how valid you think that they are, they've been mine for a long, long while and I'm not ashamed of them. Shut up Joe. How do you really know what's going down? How can you tell if there's a problem somewhere to be found? We all need to gather round to help everybody else to see that running your mouth aloud makes it that much more difficult for you and me and OUR INTEGRITY.

Went to work at the factory at fourteen. Thought I'd finish my schooling sometime in between drunken weekends and futile street fights and the visits to my best girl. But the time slipped away. I've got bills here to pay. I've got small ones depending on me. My vision is limited. Shut up Joe. How do you really know what's going down? How can you tell if there's a problem somewhere to be found? We all need to gather round to help everybody else to see that running your mouth aloud makes it that much more difficult for you and me and OUR INTEGRITY.

All my life I've known I'd want to say something to my fellow man today. Couldn't let the facts get in the way.

We weren't that well acquainted, never were. An occasional run-in we preferred. There's one thing that we both believe in; heard it over and over again. It was something about all the fondness we felt; how the heart can't miss what's not around if the mind doesn't value it. Shut up Joe. How do you really know what's going down? How can you tell if there's a problem somewhere to be found? We all need to gather round to help everybody else to see that running your mouth aloud makes it that much more difficult for you and me and OUR INTEGRITY.

©2008 Raymond M. Jozwiak


Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano opens the May 23rd Monday Night Songwriters Showcase at Brewer's Alley Restaurant & Brewery with 30 minutes of solo, Gonzo, Fractured Jazz and Improvisational Terror Tactics at the Piano. (take the elevator on the right to the 2nd floor) 124 North Market Street, Frederick, MD 21701, tel: 301-631-0089, Fax: 301-631-1874
www.brewers-alley.com
Frederick Acoustic Music Enterprise (F.A.M.E.)


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ANOTHER SHOT
by Ray Jozwiak

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The blessing and the curse. . .

. . . of aging is perspective. Although I choose to concentrate upon the blessing (and I use the term in purely secular fashion) aspect to be sure. That aspect was vividly, yet unexpectedly brought once again to my attention when pondering the talents and the moving music produced by Eric Dolphy.

In case you're not familiar with Eric Dolphy, he was a (chronologically) post-bop, jazz reed virtuoso, equally skilled and emotionally proficient on flute, alto saxophone and bass clarinet (which has, since my acquaintance with his music, become one of my favorite reed instruments). Born in 1928 in Los Angeles, he died in Berlin in June of 1964 of complications of a diabetic coma and sheer neglect. It seems the hospital staff, after Eric collapsed on stage, succumbing to the stereotypical view that all (or most) jazz musicians were drug addicts, left Eric in bed, unattended, to allow the alleged drugs to run their course. A brilliant, but tragically short, life.

My first exposure to Eric Dolphy is to the credit of my old school chum Bob Z., who had sometime around 1973 purchased an Eric Dolphy LP, which I cannot readily now identify due to record companies' haphazard practice of issuing unrelated and insufficiently documented recordings as an 'album', which contained mostly live material and a seminal performance of the old standard LAURA. The recording, now available as one of three "Live in Europe" CDs, still gives me goosebumps when I hear it.

The 'blessing' and the 'aging' to which I previously alluded come into play as follows. The pieces to which I was listening were recorded around 1960. I was hearing them in the early seventies. That means that music was made about thirteen years prior to my discovering it. In my innocent youthfulness, I perceived that mere 13 years as "A LONG TIME" ago. And the 36 years of age Eric had attained was really very young by most objective standards, but old to one of fifteen years.

Now, at fifty-three, listening to this glorious music and looking at photos of Eric Dolphy online, the apparent truth of the matter is that, when Eric passed away, he was only a kid. But what a BRILLIANT kid!


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Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano opens the May 23rd Monday Night Songwriters Showcase at Brewer's Alley Restaurant & Brewery with 30 minutes of solo, Gonzo, Fractured Jazz and Improvisational Terror Tactics at the Piano. (take the elevator on the right to the 2nd floor) 124 North Market Street, Frederick, MD 21701, tel: 301-631-0089, Fax: 301-631-1874
www.brewers-alley.com
Frederick Acoustic Music Enterprise (F.A.M.E.)



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ANOTHER SHOT
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There's a handful. . .

. . . of selfless gentlemen in and around the Frederick, MD area who sacrifice healthy portions of their free time to organize, promote, facilitate and execute, among other events, the Monday Night Songwriters Showcase at Brewer's Alley. Rod Deacey, Ron Goad, Todd Walker and Tomy Wright shall not remain nameless here. The show takes place every Monday evening, with the exception of the month of December when the venue (owners of which must also be commended for their generosity in lending it for the purpose at 'reasonable' terms) is utilized for holiday events.

As Rod puts it: "Monday Night Songwriters' Showcase (now in its seventh year!) is held every Monday evening upstairs at Brewer's Alley, 124 N. Market St., in beautiful downtown Frederick, MD. The program starts at 7:30 pm with a piano prelude, followed by three or four songwriters doing three songs each (so you can't get bored). The featured songwriter for the evening goes on around 9 pm for 45 minutes, followed by three more three-song performers. Somewhere in the mix we throw in some poetry from our resident poet, John Holly. Our MCs are Ron Goad, Todd C. Walker and Tomy Wright, frequently interrupted by Rod Deacey on sound. Most of you know all this.... Our shows are FREE -- we collect tips for the featured songwriter, but there is no door charge, so come and support LIVE MUSIC!

Our featured songwriters are a mix of national and regional touring performers, with many award winners from all genres. If you would like a calendar for the next six months of 2011, please e-mail me back and I'll send you one. For information about playing a three-song spot, contact Ron Goad: MisterGoad@aol.com. For info on featuring, contact me, Rod Deacey: roddc@xecu.net

Brewer's Alley Songwriters' Showcases, along with Songwriters Songfests and Open Mikes at Frederick Coffee Company and Beans in The Belfry come under the umbrella of a new non-profit organization --
Frederick Acoustic Music Enterprise (F.A.M.E.)
Information and membership forms are available at these events."

Monday Night Songwriters Showcase at Brewer's Alley Restaurant & Brewery (take the elevator on the right to the 2nd floor) 124 North Market Street, Frederick, MD 21701, tel: 301-631-0089, Fax: 301-631-1874
www.brewers-alley.com

Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano opens the show this week, May 23rd with 30 minutes of solo, Gonzo, Fractured Jazz and Improvisational Terror Tactics at the Piano.


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I Have No Limits. . .

. . . said Jay Graboski, my long-time musical collaborator and friend (many years ago- possibly more than even he remembers) when debating with a potential employer about our musical 'combo', trying to convince the man that we could provide whatever kind, type or genre of music the man was seeking for his desired, whether real or imagined, clientele.

And I say this ( i.e. I have no limits, meaning in my musical interests, tastes and avenues to which I am willing to devote or otherwise apply my energies) in jest, of course, but only as an introduction to a wonderful piece of music by another, newer musical associate and friend, Garth Baxter.

Garth is a member (now of the 'executive' or 'steering' committee of the the Baltimore Composers Forum, an association with whom I became involved late in 2009) of the Baltimore Composers Forum and a composer and educator par excellence!

I hope he doesn't mind my posting an aria from his new opera, "Lily", to which he treated me recently, here for all to enjoy.

The delightful performers are vocalists Lydia Beasley and Jason Buckwalter, with Andrew Stewart, pianist.




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