Is It True?

I have to confess that as I grow older, I start distrusting my memory more often. It happened to me again just the other day. Or was it the day before that? Let me give you more background to it than you will ever want.

I switched from using Twitter/X to Threads some months ago. Generally, I use it to post a link to a song each day. Sometimes the song is jazz, sometimes folk, sometimes classical, sometimes…well, you get the point. I also respond to other people’s posts that pose questions about music and occasionally books.

I wanted to answer a question about concerts that I had attended by mentioning one that I went to when I was a student at Indiana University (IU) in 1966 or 1967, I couldn’t remember exactly when. My memory was saying the concert bill had the Dave Brubeck Quartet, The Ramsey Lewis Trio, and Louis Jordan. The concert stood out in my mind because Paul Desmond wasn’t able to play with the Brubeck Quartet that night, and Gerry Mulligan filled in for him.

Since I couldn’t remember exactly, I went online to the IU Auditorium Archives and searched. I couldn’t find the concert. I found The Ramsey Lewis Trio listed in 1966, but not Dave Brubeck or Louis Jordan. I don’t think that I imagined the concert. I know that it didn’t happen in 1965 because that was my freshman year and I saw the Quartet alone that year. I know it didn’t happen in 1968 because Dave dissolved the Quartet sometime in 1967. So when? I don’t know.

While looking through the Archives I was fascinated to see some other concerts that I would have enjoyed but probably didn’t attend because I never had much money. Among the ones I wish I has seen were Ray Charles with B.J. Thomas, Errol Garner, Nancy Wilson, The Supremes, Ella Fitzgerald, The Chad Mitchell Trio, and the most unusual groups on the same concert bill – Sergio Mendes & Brazil ’66 and The Backporch Majority. Now that must have been something to see!

Slight changes, more freedom

Back on March 23, 2020, I posted a link to a song on Twitter. That was my first Song for today. So far there have been approximately 1,775 different songs posted. I say approximately because there have been a few days that I missed for various reasons, and two or three inadvertent duplications; I am human and make mistakes.

I started posting songs because I was upset at what was happening in our world, specifically here in the U.S.A., and felt that music stated my feelings better than a 144-character post. Plus, I like sharing the music that speaks to me with other people. Most of the music that I listen to was recorded in the 1960s through the 1980s, with excursions back as far as the 1920s and forward to the 2020s. Over time, the way I chose songs changed a couple of times, but I stayed with music that I enjoyed.

I stopped posting on Twitter and moved to Threads in November of last year. There were several reasons that I moved, but it boiled down to dissatisfaction with the changes that were being made to site. Threads has been a better fit for me.

Anyway, I have kept track of the songs posted in an Excel spreadsheet. Yesterday, February 6th, I opened my PC and found that my spreadsheet had disappeared. I spent time searching on my PC, my laptop, and the cloud. It was nowhere to be found. So, it was decision time; should I just stop posting music, or should I start anew? I decided to start over.

That decision feels freeing to me. I don’t feel that I need to avoid reposting any of the first 1,775 songs. So yesterday I went back to where I started with my first song, and posted a link to Emmylou Harris’ C’est la Vie. Today it was The Pointer Sister’s (back when there were four in the group) Yes We Can Can. Tomorrow? Well, you’ll have to check me on Threads to find out.

Farewell Twitter, Hello Threads

I deleted my Twitter account last week. Or, at least, I started the process of deleting it. The process isn’t complete until I remain off the site for thirty days. That won’t be hard.

One of the reasons I left Twitter was the fact that I had a hard time finding content that I liked. Many of the people I had been following had already left Twitter and moved to other platforms. Most of the remainder had become more strident in their posts. Some had even stooped to consistently using foul language when describing the person they were ranting about. It got so bad that I found myself muting or blocking their posts.

The only posts I found interesting were dealing with music. But let’s face it, after a while you can tire of a steady stream of praise for John Coltrane. At least I did. What about Jerry Jeff Walker, or Diana Krall, or Tom Russell, to name a few. It just wasn’t satisfying.

So, I moved to Threads. One reason I chose Threads was because I read that it was the platform that was the most similar to Twitter. I didn’t want a steep learning curve. Another reason I chose Threads was because many of the people I had followed on Twitter moved to Threads.

So far, all I have posted is a link to a daily song. It may be all that I post unless something else strikes my fancy. Time will tell.

Mind Sparks

I took this picture in 2022 on a corner in Winslow, Arizona. That was a fun vacation.

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Have you ever just been sitting in front of the TV, watching something innocuous, when a memory from you past just pops into your mind? Or perhaps you wake up in the morning and there is a song running through your mind? Maybe that memory or song takes you to someplace completely different like the narrative of a novel written in a stream of consciousness mode. That happens to me quite often.

In fact, I know I’ve written about such occurrences in the past. I’ve started to call these occurrences Mind Sparks. I had a Mind Spark last night. I was in bed and had just turned off my reading light. Out of nowhere I thought “Three Billy Goats Gruff.” Why? Darned if I know. But like most of my Mind Sparks, my curiosity was piqued.

So, I reached over, turned on my phone and checked out Three Billy Goats Gruff on Instagram. Here’s something I learned; the story is originally from Norway. Who knew? Well, there are probably a ton of folklorists who knew it, and probably most Norwegians know it. Just because it was new to me doesn’t mean it wasn’t well known.

That’s just one of the small lessons in humility that I have trouble remembering. I am only one person in this vast world. All of the other people in the world have bits of occasionally obscure knowledge in their mind. Some have more, some have less, but it is all important. We are all important.

I love my Mind Sparks. They give me the chance to investigate the knowledge that other people have obtained and have shared with others. I hope you investigate your own Mind Sparks…unless, of course, I’m the only person in the world who has them.

Tell me some of your Mind Sparks, or I’ll have to believe I’m one of a kind.

A wonderful gift

fte

Yesterday I received this lovely creation from Brittany, a.k.a. fairytaleepidemic. I started reading Brittany’s blog around nine years ago. At first I was drawn in by her poetry and then by her prose pieces about the long hikes she would go on, along with the accompanying photos. It wasn’t long before I was commenting on her blog, and she started reading ClassicalGasbag. We went from commenting to emails to actual letters. An internet friendship blossomed, and despite some setbacks, has grown stronger over the years. I hope that our friendship continues to thrive. I know that I’ll work to keep it going. Perhaps we can even meet in person someday. After nine years, that would be fun.

We have occasionally sent gifts to each other. This gift, however, outshone anything previous. I knew that Brittany worked on art projects, and I had seen pictures of some of them. but there had been nothing on this scale. When I opened the package yesterday, Cindy’s reaction and my reaction was the same, “It’s beautiful!” The photo above, while nice, doesn’t do credit to the piece. The three dimensional aspect (quilling) is hard to make out. The piece is now hanging in our office/library where I will see it every day.

Thank you Brittany. You have created a beautiful piece.

Books that inspired

Over this past weekend a good friend of mine posted on Facebook about her tattoos and the books she read in her youth. She knows that I am not on Facebook, so she was kind enough to send me a copy of her post because we had traded texts about the books she had read. At the end of her post, she asked her readers which books inspired them in their youth, and what their tattoos meant.

I started thinking about those questions because I hadn’t thought much about books that had inspired me before my final year in high school. The question about tattoos was easy to answer since I have none. As Lou Gottlieb of the Limeliters used to say “Clean mind. Clean Body. Take your pick.” I picked a clean body. But books? I needed to think about that.

Having thought, I decided that there were multiple books that I should mention. The first were comic books that my older sister, She Who Must Not Be Named, read to me before I was old enough to read. That was the beginning of my lifelong love of comics. While I no longer collect comics, I still read graphic novels and buy two or three each year. The melding of the written word and sequential art (Will Eisner’s term) can still draw me in and keep my mind occupied.

Then there was The Giant Golden Book of Elves and Fairies. It was a gift from my grandmother and my Aunt Louisa. That was the first book I remember owning, and I still have it, though it is in poor condition. The artwork by Garth Williams never stops amazing me. That book introduced me to the fantasy world that later led me to Middle Earth, Nehwon and other fantastical lands.

John R. Tunis wrote novels of the sports world for juveniles. I found them in our local library, starting with The Kid from Tompkinsville, the first novel in his series of eight about the Brooklyn Dodgers. I didn’t realize it at the time, but later figured out that these juvenile books dealt with issues such as racism and the importance of teamwork. Plus, I became a Dodger fan even though they played in New York and Los Angeles while I lived in the middle of the country.

Another series of books that I found in the local library were biographies of historic Americans. I don’t remember who authored and who published these books, but I have enjoyed reading biographies ever since. I remember these books as having blue covers. When I Googled what I remembered to see if any were still in print, I couldn’t find any that had blue covers. There were red covers, tan covers, black covers, and aqua covers. Maybe the books I read had aqua covers, but I remember blue.

All these books inspired me to keep on reading. I believe that even the worst book you might read can teach you something. And I want to keep learning.

Now I ask you; what books inspired you in your youth? And what do your tattoos mean?

A new N-N-1 call-out

My good friend at Cupitonians has posted the call-out for a new N-N-1 to end out the year. I am passing it on in hopes that you will be inspired to participate. You need not have a blog of your own, just a willingness to join in this International fun. If you wish, you can remain anonymous, or you can proudly attach you name to your pictures and words. If you haven’t seen an N-N-1 before, you can write in prose or poem. Finally, if you wish, you can send your entry to me, and I’ll forward it to my friend in England. I hope that you decide to join us.

N-N-1: Farewell, 2021!

Posted by CUPITONIANSon

It’s been a while since we hosted an N-N-1 photo sharing post, and so thought I’d get in touch with you before the year is out. 

The other day, I was walking in the countryside near my new home and found the most adorable post office cosy. Someone had crocheted a nice Christmas scene to keep the post box warm during this cold winter. With the year we’ve all had, this random display of humanness brought a smile to my face. 

As I continued my walk, I came across a memorial for an old fish and chip shop that no longer exists. We get so wrapped up in the news and in all the stress that comes with living the last two years that we tend to forget that we are also magic. And so, the idea for the theme of this N-N-1 was born (thank you, Norm!)

If you want to participate in the last N-N-1 of 2021, here is your mission. 

1. Send me a photo that you’ve taken of a building or street art or cityscape that makes you feel that Christmas cheer or that reminds you of how wonderful we can be as a human race. 

2. Add a write-up for 50-100 words about your picture. 

3. Send both to me by the 31st of December so I can publish the compilation as the first post of 2022. 

4. Invite your friends and family to participate. The more, the merrier! 

I am looking forward to all of your lovely photos! Feel free to reach out if you have any questions x

A question about fortune cookies

Friday evening Cindy and I met one of her cousins at a Chinese restaurant for dinner. We all ate from the buffet, and I admit to eating more than I should. When the wait person brought our fortune cookies, I could not force myself to eat mine, so I took it with me to enjoy later. After all, they are a tasty treat.

Well, Saturday morning rolled around and when I sat down in the car, there was my fortune cookie, still in it’s cellophane wrapping. I was about to open the wrapper, eat the cookie, and read what my future held. “But wait.” I thought, “If you don’t open, eat, and read immediately after your meal…if you wait until the next day…is the fortune nullified”? It was an important question. The future of your life could depend on it.

Imagine if Albert Einstein had put off reading a fortune cookie that said E=MCHammer and then he believed it? We might all be floating in a parallel universe wearing parachute pants! Or what if Genghis Kahn read his cookie fortune too late and believed He who never leaves home is the wisest of men. Or perhaps the fortune is not nullified. Someone might have read Donald Trump’s fortune to him, but he failed to believe Run for President and become the butt of a million jokes. Think of how world history might have changed!

I thought of these things and decided to consult a panel of experts. The responses ranged from a definitive “Nope,” to “It depends on how superstitious you are,” to “Huh?” So, there you are, a hung jury.

I decided to bite the bullet, so to speak, and bite into the cookie so as to retrieve the fortune. With trepidation, I peeled the cellophane away from the crisp treat, delicately broke the cookie in half, popped one half in my mouth, and began munching as I pulled the fortune slip from the remaining half cookie. I read:

20210904_122042

Evidently, if you wait too long you don’t get a real fortune. What a ripoff!

Early morning thoughts

Mason & Anna

Here is a picture of a very happy day a few weeks ago. My grandson, Mason, and his delightful bride, Anna. Despite the small number of socially distanced people, it made me feel like we may be moving beyond the worst of the pandemic.

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What do you do when you wake up at 2:30 a.m. and can’t get back to sleep? Well, this morning I started thinking about another mixtape I might do for Anju’s blog, This Labyrinth I Roam, and title the mixtape Songs of ’65. After I mentally jotted down a few songs that I could use and what I would say about them, I started thinking about the ones that I’ve already done. It isn’t surprising that in many cases those songs have brought back memories, some of which I hadn’t thought about in a long time. Also not surprising is the fact that often those memories involved women I dated long before I met Cindy. Hey! I was past 40 when we got married. I had plenty of time to date. There were, in fact, some women who were quite memorable. Without naming names, and in no particular order, I thought of the woman who almost broke my heart, the judge’s daughter, the woman with great legs, the college student, the other college student, the married woman (no, I’m not proud), the older woman, and the woman who did break my heart. Oh, and there was my landlady, though we never dated.

I was thinking of those women and trying to tag them with a particular song so that I could do a mixtape about them. I could only pin a song on three of them. They must not have been as memorable as I thought. But I could think of a story or two for each of them. And those are memorable stories. Cindy has heard most of the stories, so I might write about them one day. Now that I think of it, I did write about one of them a few years ago. That was the woman who almost broke my heart. I wrote about her the first year I participated in NaNoWriMo, the National Novel Writing Month. As I told a friend, the one who read it, that story was about 85% true. I should probably go back and do some heavy editing. I might be able to turn it into a short story.

Another thing that the mixtapes I’ve done for Anju did for me was bring back some emotions. One emotion in particular that swept over me was elation. My mind conjured up the feeling of elation I felt walking hand-in-hand with a girl with whom I was infatuated. I can think of nothing like that feeling. It is not the same as love, and certainly not the same as lust. It is more a feeling of happiness mixed with personal connection and even a bit of pride. I think it is a feeling felt only by the lucky young. And then I remembered the nervousness that comes with trying to decide if a first kiss is appropriate on a first date. It is different with each first date, just as every first kiss is different with every woman.

Back to sleeplessness: When 4:30 rolled around and I was sill awake, I got out of bed and started writing this post. It is about 9:45 now, I am finishing this post, and I still haven’t been able to get back to sleep. Maybe this afternoon.