Dust and Such

Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life

-Berthold Auerbach

Etta James "Evening of Love" .... A great way to wash away last weeks dust!

A Time of Mourning

When despair for the world grows in me
And I wake in the night at the least sound
In fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds,
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and I am free

-"The Peace of Wild Things" by Wendell Berry


I've been listening to some Mississippi John Hurt and Dinah Washington..... or listen to something which soothes you..

Again, please give what you can for those who are in such need and despair...

Words have Failed Me

I have been unable to write anything at all for this past week. The absolute horror of what has been transpiring in the Gulf Coast, and in particular in LA has left me utterly bereft. The images of those trapped lin New Orleans and surrounding area was not bad enough, but the response from the US government was staggering. Watching that wave of humanity suffering, pleading for help, desperate and in shock is something that none of us should ever forget. How, in the name of all that is precious, did this abomination happen? Why were these people left to bake in the heat without water, food, the basics of human dignity for days. The whole world was witness to the complete and total failure of the Federal government in the US to act on what can be described as the largest natural disaster to befall it's shores. What followed that hurricane is a disgrace. Words seems completely inadequate. I have cried, ranted and raved as much as I can stand. There is so much more I want to say about this but this is not the time. So for now please give what you can. Give to the Red Cross or other reputable charities.

New Orleans

My thoughts and prayers for all of those in New Orleans as Katrina approaches their shore. I love New Orleans and the people there, the music, the food and the history and feel ill when I think about what they are facing. Please make donations to The Red Cross or other charities which will be helping those wonderful people of New Orleans after Katrina has passed.

Ahhhh Sundays

When the pain is present, it is all encompassing
But when it is gone, it has no history
-Hannah Arendt



Listen to Koko Taylor I got what it Takes.. Blues at their best!

Piano

Piano

Softly, in the dusk, a woman is singing to me;
Taking me back down the vista of years, till I see
A child sitting under the piano, in the boom of the tingling strings
And pressing the small, poised feet of a mother who smiles as she sings.

In spite of myself, the insidious mastery of song
Betrays me back, till the heart of me weeps to belong
To the old Sunday evenings at home, with winter outside
And hymns in the cozy parlor, the tinkling piano our guide.

So now it is vain for the singer to burst into clamor
With the great black piano appasionato. The glamour
Of childish days is upon me, my manhood is cast
Down the flood of remembrance, I weep like a child for the past.

-D.H. Lawrence



listen to Thelonius Monk Round Midnight ... or perhaps in the mood for McCoy Tyner

Good Morning Heartache

I do not know the things which drove me ungentle
nor do I know the things which now bloat me with regret.
I know the you are gone and gone away and I am sitting here
too young to be left this old.--B. MacDonald

Listening to Billie Holiday's " Good Morning Heartache"

I've got those Sunday blues, straight through Monday blues

A Sunday Kind of Love

And the last perhaps will not return and knows me not, although I burn
And the trees over hang glowingly and I feel no one feeling me.
- Woman's Lament, Rainer Maria Rilke



Listen to Ella Fitzgerald...." A Sunday Kind of Love"

Saturday

Music that gentlier on the spirit lies,
Than tired eyelids, upon tired eyes
-Alfred Lord Tennyson

Listen to Elmore James "The Sun is Shining".....(but it's raining in my heart)

Farewell to Mr Jennings

After silence, that which comes nearest to espressing the inexpressible is music
- Aldous Huxley

Farewell Mr Peter Jennings, a man of talent and integrity. I choose some soulful Ben Webster.

The Power of Music

We love music for the buried hopes, the garnered memories, the tender feelings it can summon at a touch- L.E.Landon

Somewhere Over the Rainbow....Judy Garland

Universality

Music is the universal language of mankind- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow



Thanking whatever Goddess that be for lives of all of those on the Air France flight and remembering that we are all connected.

Acker Bilk's Stranger on the Shore .. such a haunting yet joyful song

Without Music

Without music, life would be a mistake. I would only believe in a God that knew how to dance--Fredrich Nietzsche




Big Mama Thorton "The Big Change"..... still believe she was robbed. Elvis made a hit of her Hound Dog and Janis Joplin made Thorton's Ball and Chain mainstream.

WTF

I was perusing the morning papers today and came upon this story in the UK Guardian. About halfway through the article my WTF meter hit the red zone. The stories regarding the torture, yes torture, not mistreating, of detainees by soldiers in Iraq, Afghanistan and Gitmo have been leaking for some time now. As with most civilized human beings I was, and continue to be outraged at this flaunting of international law and basic human rights. The detainee in the article describes one of his female interrogators as being Canadian. The outrage of most Canadians following the kidnapping, and subsequent torturing, of Mr Arar clearly indicated that our nation has little tolerance for such abuse. I would hope that an explanation from our government is forthcoming.


British detainee's tale of US 'torture by proxy'

Making Music

Nothing on earth is so well suited to make the sad merry, the merry sad, to give courage to the despairing, to make the proud humble, to lessen envy and hate as Music- Martin Luther


Sonny Boy Williamson.. Help Me ... Great blues!

Saturday Night

The music in my head I bore, long after it was heard no more- Wordsworth

Missed the Saturday dance
Heard they crowded the floor
It's so different without you
Don't get around much anymore


Always loved this tune, Duke's rendition is wonderful

At the end of a long day

At the end of a long, difficult or stressful day, a little Tom Waits "Nighthawks at the Diner" helps me to relax

The Possibility

"When we consider absolute reality, there is no end, no beginning;emptiness is the same as fullness, just seen from a different perspective. We say that this coffee cup is empty;but empty means filled with space, filled with possiblities, ready for anything:milk, water, tea, wine. Every moment of time, every point in space, is completely open for what wants to come. That is why it can be filled" -- Fa-Tsang

Oh the possibilities of the day!

Gato Barbieri " Earths Cry, Heavens Smile". It is magnificent!

Out of the Rain

Looks like we might actually get those T-storms they have been forecasting. Good day to relax and enjoy Etta James "Out of the Rain"

Blue Monday

Music
Music when soft voices die,
Vibrates in the memory
Odours, when sweet violets sicken
Live within the sense they quicken,
Rose leaves when the rose is dead,
Are heaped for the beloved's bed.
And so the thoughts when thou art gone,
Love itself shall slumber on.
-Percy Bysshe Shelley

Monday, listen to Luther Allison's "Living in the House of Blues". A great tune by a great (and sadly missed) artist

Easy like a Sunday morning

Sunday has always seemed like the perfect day to spend time with some of my favourite jazz artists.