Time for Pie! - 23 September 2021 - Plague Journal Day 560

Micah 6:8
1 Kings 17:11-16
Yes, your life matters.

Some of you are still sheltering in place, but fear not: I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

Today is National Great American Pot Pie Day! How exciting is that? Clearly the way to celebrate this spectacular holiday is by partaking of a pot pie. Homemade pies are great - Heidi has an excellent way around a chicken pot pie - but the cheap frozen ones from Banquet are great too. I've tried some of the "fancy" frozen pies, and I think they just try too hard. The crust isn't right, the gravy is too thick, there aren't enough peas, and many other niggling complaints could be laid here. Suffice it to say that I'm happier with the cheap ones when we don't make our own.
So - go make a pot pie for dinner today, whether from scratch or purchased. (I know, sometimes one runs out of scratch, and that makes it hard to have either kind of pie.)

Today is also the 95th birthday of that musical genius, John Coltrane. The man simply redefined jazz sax playing, and his stuff is still adventurous all these years later. Grab a disc and play some Coltrane while you eat your pot pie. It will be good for you.

On a less positive note, what the hell is going on in these United States? Somehow, someone has transported thousands of refugees from Haiti to the Mexican border. (I can't believe they all swam from Haiti to Mexico - you tell me how they got there.) Then the biden administration announces it will deport all those Haitians - to no crazed media outcry at the blatant racism of that planned action - only to do their standard capture and release, asking only that they promise to show up at a processing facility at a later date. Are these people insane, or do they just hate these United States and their citizens? I'm truly puzzled, mystified, befuddled, and getting ever angrier.

Keep Calm and Don't Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.

Music To My Ears - And Soul - 07 July 2021 - Plague Journal Day 482

Micah 6:8
Psalm 150
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?


Today is Gustav Mahler's 161st birthday. Thinking back on my musical journey, he was either the first or second of the out-of-the-mainstream composers I discovered. (I think this photo makes him look like he belongs in a Harry Potter flick.)
By that mainstream I mean Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, and the like - the composers everyone has heard of (and probably heard something they wrote) .I came across both Mahler and Sibelius browsing for records at the Student Union or maybe Discount Records in Ann Arbor back in my university days.

One thing we miss by having lost most of our record shops is random discovery of music based on what the store was playing. I found a lot of classical and jazz that way in Ann Arbor. I found more of those as well as some off-beat pop and folk and so forth later on at Harmony House and Village Records in the greater Grosse Pointe Metroplex. Mahler, Sibelius, Al DiMeola, Return to Forever, Asleep at the Wheel, Richard Thompson, the New World Renaissance Band, the list goes on and on.

I miss record stores - and I miss live music. Fortunately, that's coming back, and we're already scheduled for a festival in August and our DSO tickets are set for the upcoming season with our new music director, Jader Bignamini!

Keep Calm and Don't Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.

Keep Trying Until You Get It Right - 29 May 2021 - Plague Journal Day 443

Micah 6:8
Psalm 118:23-26
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

There's a narrowly-held theory (as opposed to a widely-held one) that the Middle Ages (or Medieval Times, as it were) ended as a result of musicians beginning to improvise rather than play exactly the same thing over and over.
This is analogous to the difference between Old Time music and Bluegrass music. In the former, it's regarded as a terrible faux pas to actually deviate from the notes recorded in the deep hollers of Appalachia when the first recordings were made, while in the latter a more jazz-influenced approach is taken.

It is for this reason that today marks both End Of The Middle Ages Day and International Jazz Day. I plan to celebrate by listening to Thelonious Monk and John Coletrane's classic recordings of Gregorian Chant Improvisations. (Blue Note Records #666 I believe)

Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.

What Are You Doing? - 24 April 2021 - Plague Journal Day 408

Micah 6:8
Deuteronomy 6:1-3
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

Remember yesterday's post of Christopher Walken dancing with abandon? Shortly after posting that, I came across this quote: "You cannot improvise unless you know exactly what you're doing." - Christopher Walken, actor/dancer.
I'm sure fans of his work on SNL (Saturday Night Live) back when it was regularly funny would recognize that aspect of Walken's approach to things, but in fact, that really is the case.

In the jazz and bluegrass worlds, unless you know the tune you're playing well, you have no business improvising on it. Further, unless you really know your instrument - what it can and cannot do, and how to coax what you want out of it - you have no business improvising on it either. Unless you know exactly what you're doing, you cannot improvise successfully.
I'm sure I've mentioned Ellis Marsalis's comment that much of improvising is recovering from a mistake. That's still consistent with this idea, as it's hard/impossible to recover from a mistake if you don't know what you're doing.

I think that's enough for today.

Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.

23 May 2020 - Plague Journal Day 72

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

It appears our governor has struck another blow against sexism. She's proving that a woman can be just as capricious, opaque, and authoritarian as any man. Well done?
OK, that's enough politics for now.

It's International Jazz Day, so get out on your front porch and play a riff or two on that instrument you bought yesterday from Joe's Music. No need to be shy or embarrassed about your abilities. Remember, improvisation can even be just getting back to what you meant to do after you make a mistake.

For no doubt completely unrelated reasons it's also Crohn's and Colitis Day. I'm pretty sure this isn't the official song of this day, but I'm equally sure it should be. At the very least it makes me smile. The other option for today's song would be this one. Either way, enjoy! 

Now, please let me shift gears for a moment.
Our church has been hosting a virtual 12-hour prayer chain the last several Saturdays. I've taken one of the 15-minute time slots each week, and have been amazed at how quickly that time passes, as well as how intense and moving this time of prayer has been.
As the weeks have gone by, I've found different ways to focus my prayers, from the list of church members needing prayer, to the hymns associated with the stained glass windows of our sanctuary, to the various creeds of the church found in the hymnal, to praying the Psalms.
That's where I was today, and I found myself on Psalm 50, and decided to stay there. It's a powerful, convicting, and comforting message, so allow me to share it here, and pray that it will bless you as it did me today.

 Psalm 50 English Standard Version (ESV)
A Psalm of Asaph.

The Mighty One, God the Lord,
    speaks and summons the earth
    from the rising of the sun to its setting.
Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,
    God shines forth.

Our God comes; he does not keep silence;
    before him is a devouring fire,
    around him a mighty tempest.
He calls to the heavens above
    and to the earth, that he may judge his people:
“Gather to me my faithful ones,
    who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!”
The heavens declare his righteousness,
    for God himself is judge! Selah

“Hear, O my people, and I will speak;
    O Israel, I will testify against you.
    I am God, your God.
Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you;
    your burnt offerings are continually before me.
I will not accept a bull from your house
    or goats from your folds.
For every beast of the forest is mine,
    the cattle on a thousand hills.
I know all the birds of the hills,
    and all that moves in the field is mine.

“If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
    for the world and its fullness are mine.
Do I eat the flesh of bulls
    or drink the blood of goats?
Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,
    and perform your vows to the Most High,
and call upon me in the day of trouble;
    I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”

But to the wicked God says:
    “What right have you to recite my statutes
    or take my covenant on your lips?
For you hate discipline,
    and you cast my words behind you.
If you see a thief, you are pleased with him,
    and you keep company with adulterers.

“You give your mouth free rein for evil,
    and your tongue frames deceit.
You sit and speak against your brother;
    you slander your own mother's son.
These things you have done, and I have been silent;
    you thought that I was one like yourself.
But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.

“Mark this, then, you who forget God,
    lest I tear you apart, and there be none to deliver!
The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me;
    to one who orders his way rightly
    I will show the salvation of God!”


Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.

30 April 2020 - Plague Journal Day 49

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?


Apparently lots of folks are concerned about the state of their coiffures. One supposes the closure of hair salons is the main (mane? ha!) source of this angst - that and the fact that today is Hairstyle Appreciation Day.
In what is, no doubt, a pure coincidence, today is also International Jazz Day.
Perhaps, then, today is the day to raname these COVID-Dos or Quarantine Coiffs. How about calleng them "free improvisations" rather than bad hair days. Now don't you feel better?

I can't find the original source, but I remember watching Ellis Marsalis talk about the art of improvisation on some TV show or other. His basic point was: If you make a mistake, just keep going until you get to where you meant to be. That's improvising.

Here's a Fabulous Bonus for Today -
It's Poem in Your Pocket Day.
I've composed a lovely haiku to enhance and encourage your celebration:

Write a poem for
Poem in your pocket day
You can sit on it

If you do write a poem today, why not post it? Tag it with these:
#GrandTeutonPoetryChallenge or #PlagueJournal49

Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.