An update is even more overdue

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Time—that slippery conduit through which we pass—has eluded me once again; at least where this blog is concerned. I don’t know where to begin, so I’ll simply start to ramble, as usual, I suppose.

Fir

The first thing that is coming to mind is my hair. Yeah, I know, we sort of got over all that hair business way back in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Well, my hair was never really that long in those days. Last summer, my hair was getting a little long, so my wife said, “If you want to have your hair a long, I’m going to take you to my hairdresser for your 60th birthday present.” I have the sort of hair that I can have shortish and longish which allows me to go a few months between haircuts. My wife likes my hair both ways.

So, off we went and had this very nice girl, Brandy, tidy-up my hair. I looked on the floor and said, “Not bad hair for 60.” Then came the reply that just simply caught me, “If you had a foot of it, you could donate it to cancer patients going through chemotherapy.”

What an idea! I could try my hair long and then do something good with it. Great! That was in mid-August and I am getting there slowly—very slowly, it seems. Perhaps it has slowed down a bit. It has been pretty unmanageable. Having long hair for a while is a neat idea, but getting there is not as easy as I thought it would be. Anyway, I am still working on it.

Writing (& book)

In case someone might actually be following my blog and might just be having some remote thoughts about my book, it is still underway. I have discovered, actually I’m sure I sort of knew, that the writing part is far easier and takes less time than editing. Most books are severely under-edited. I’m not ready to employ and professional editor to pour over my work through several versions, so I am recruiting people I know to be reader/editors.

I began by printing each of the three sections of the book and inserting them into three binders. Each reader/editor would get a coloured pen and an instruction/feedback sheet along with other information, such as target audience. The first person got section one. When they finished, I gave them section two and gave section one to the second reader/editor. It worked rather well and I got plenty of great edits and feedback. I have done this a couple of times as well as working through it with my writing coach.

I now have a couple of copies of the entire book out to do the same sort of process. This takes a long time. Busy people are doing this in their spare time and so am I. As the editing moves slowly along, it is difficult to maintain momentum and keep the energy up. It is interesting when I talk to people about my book. I only have to get started and everybody has something to say regarding their own experiences with technology. I remind them that my book is about being human and that we need to focus on that in the midst of the Technojungle that is devouring us.

Music

Here is an area of my life that has suddenly gained tremendous momentum and energy. Music was eluding me for years. I didn’t know what to do, or how to get started. Then an opportunity came up to play some Christmas carols just over a year ago now. Then I got invited to join a small band called The Deep Cove Old Time Jazz Band and play in retirement and care homes. I had done this over 25 years ago and had not played since. It was tough to get going again.

In June we played our last gig. So I asked the fellow learning to play banjo in the band if he would like to get together to play some tunes over the summer. I didn’t want to lose what I was beginning to gain. He said that he would. Then I wondered if the trombone player might like to join us. We had known each other some 35 years prior at the Hot Jazz Club. He said he would. He also said he knew of a couple of other fellows who might like to join in. Thus began an all summer long task of trying to get a group together. Everyone was going away at various times.

By mid to late August we were getting close to beginning to practice. I was amazed at how many tunes I know and can play. Soon another banjo player came who I also knew back in the Hot Jazz days. We practiced weekly until he went to play down under for a couple of months. We took Christmas off and are now having causal practices to get up to speed again.

I have some amazing news about my a cornet. I think it deserves a special entry, so look for a separate article about my cornet dream of a dream cornet.

Photography

Photography is an area that I have not done much with for a long time. I guess I am sort of waiting to see how my life goes. I do have a lot of photos I have just started to do something with and I do have two blogs about photography that I would like to work on. That is enough to keep me busy. I suppose I am concerned a bit about the age of my camera. It would be nice to get to the point where I could get or even need a new camera. I have one in mind, but it is expensive to keep up on technology.

Graphics

It has been a lot of years since I did any graphics work. Actually, I worked in training people around 15 years ago. I never considered myself a designer.

Last year, my friend Glenn, said he wanted to start a newsletter business. I didn’t know what to think, since printed flyers seem to be going the way of the dinosaurs. Nevertheless, I said I would help do a pilot. I found some open source software and struggled along with it.

Suddenly one day, the newsletter gained a companion flyer for a local shopping centre. We completed both on high quality paper and hand delivered them to the community. Since then, we have done three more and two or three are in the works. I have had to switch software a few times and gained some inexpensive yet powerful software. It is amazing what is out there now since Adobe started to rent their software and many users simply don’t want to follow that model. I have had some great compliments, done some photography (getting paid for the first time in over 45 years of holding a camera) and I have been amazed at how much I enjoy the work and even have fun. I have had to do some late nights though.

Baking

I continue to do my regular baking of pizza shells for Friday night pizza night, buns, bread, pasta and a few other things. Usually, I still grind ancient grains into flour in our Vitamix blender. For New Years Eve, we had another party and Glenn and I made the decadent Sin-O-Man (cinnamon) buns. They were amazing again.

Family

Well, my daughter, Michelle, came home from living a year in Australia and jumped right in to training to become a personal trainer. She is now working in this field everyday for long hours. Malcolm did a co-op job working on some helmet technology that can reduce the risk of concussions. It was very timely, since this sort of problems has been in the news a lot. He even made it to the news. He is now back in class studying Mechatronics Engineering. We are all living together in our home and having normal family dynamics.

Enough

That should be enough for now. I have continued to write a bit everyday, not always for an hour as I did to complete my book, but I have managed to amass a plethora of articles that I could put on this blog or my Technojungle blog. I just seem to be a bit short on time and I will be getting busier in the near future. Yet, many people do say that to get something done, one should give it to a busy person. We shall see. I have had doing this writing you are reading and a couple of other related tasks on my todo list for a couple of weeks, I think. We shall see. I still need to edit this and keyword it before I can upload it.

Music Notes

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Those who know me know I have quite an interest in music and the genre of most interest to me is vintage jazz and swing of the 1920s, 30s and 40s. I am not much of a musician, however, I did play the trumpet in my younger years and was a collector of the aforementioned recorded music. This background is enough for me to be able to converse with musicians whenever I can. I often make it a goal to engage a musician, particularly in a setting where they may be playing to a somewhat non-attentive crowd. Thus, my goal becomes to make sure they are not playing a ‘wallpaper job.’ This term was introduced to me by a trumpet player who was heading to a gig and called it a ‘wallpaper job,’ one where the audience is not paying much attention and they can play whatever they want.

Finding opportunities to talk about my true interest in jazz music do not present themselves often. These days, I find I must keep as in tune as I can with a few varieties of music. This can stretch me a bit and that, I suppose, is a good thing. Although I was not necessarily a follower of the popular music of my youth, it was surrounding me and I seem to have soaked some of it up. Actually, relative to the current pop music of today, the music of the 1950s, 60s and 70s seems to have more substance than I ever thought at the time.

I could write a whole blog on music, but, I have to start somewhere. Let me now relate to you my latest encounter with a musician. After curling last week, we went into the lounge to talk. A guitar and sound system was sitting in the corner and I knew it probably belonged to Geoff Gibbons. My wife and I used to go to 25 cent Wing Wednesday when Geoff was playing and I have spent quite a bit of time talking to Geoff. Sure enough, pretty soon he appeared and greeted me warmly. Then he asked, “Any requests?” Well nothing came to mind, so, I blurted out Malaguena. “Malagu… what?” came the response. I described seeing Roy Clark play it on TV many years ago. He agreed that Roy Clark was a really great player. The next thing that came into my mind was something I had seen on the PBS special John Sebastian’s Folk Rewind. It was a black and white clip with Judy Collins and Pete Seeger singing Seeger’s Turn, Turn, Turn, taken from Ecclesiastes in the Bible. We had still not found a song for Geoff to do, so, I went on to talk about the Glen Campbell Goodtime Music Hour from the late sixties. Glen had appeared on the Smothers Brothers show and took over from them one summer, ending up with his own show. Glen had another musician, John Hartford, on the show to add to the musical segments. The show contained music and skits. There would be a weekly guest and they would perform and then appear in skits that often ended up with the participants loosing it in laughter.

The show was musically unique by todays standards. The stage had a walkway that led to a central circle ( I am pretty sure there is a name for this, but, I can’t think of it at the moment) in the audience where Glen sat and played with his guests and John Hartford. John played guitar, banjo, fiddle and sometimes danced on a sheet of plywood to add extra rhythm to his solos. I always looked forward to the music in the circle because, well, it was great music without the frills. I looked particularly forward to the times when John Hartford played. There was something about him that made me understand that he was the genuine article for his music and a really great talent. A couple of times I heard him do a song called “The Old Washing Machine Song.” During the song he made sounds to imitate the new and old washing machine. Very clever, I thought.

Geoff said, he would do some Glen Campbell and then played Gentile On My Mind. To be honest, I did not remember John Hartford’s name that night, so, I went home and did a bit of research. I found Roy Clark doing Malaguena and other songs. I even found Charo doing it. I couldn’t remember ever knowing Charo played guitar. She sure bent the strings. Next, I found the clip of Judy and Pete doing Turn, Turn, Turn. Then, I turned to John Hartford, who added the ‘t’ in his last name on the advice of Chet Atkins (a really great guitar player who helped many musicians). I always wondered what happened to John.

Evidently, John Hartford wrote Gentile On My Mind which became a standard in the genre of pop music. Geoff just jumped right in and played it without music. It provided Hartford with some income so he could dedicate his life to his music. He spent decades piloting a steamboat up and down the Mississippi river, playing his bluegrass music. In later years he contributed to the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? and created a new variant of bluegrass music called newgrass.

John Hartford is gone now, but, he truly left his mark on the history of music. The other musicians mentioned here also left their mark. While Geoff plays in a variety of places around the Vancouver area, he also writes music for movies.

This musical encounter with Geoff lead me to learn a lot. I sent Geoff some of what I learned and some links. I like sharing with musicians and if we can both learn something, the encounter becomes even more fruitful.

I guess there is a link here to my interest in jazz. The river boats on the Mississippi, carried early jazz and musicians up the river from New Orleans where they eventually landed in Chicago and their music became the Chicago Style of jazz.

I have met many dozens of musicians over the years, some famous and some who simply remain in the background staying true to their music, some who have done both, like John Hartford. The world is full of truly great musicians who, for by choice of otherwise, never attain fame or fortune, or have turned away from it.

Some of the Mississippi riverboats were quite large and put on shows. They were flashy with Minstrel shows, white entertainers dressed in blackface created from burnt cork. The banjo was an important instrument in these performances. A popular stage musical from the 1920s, Showboat, depicted a showboat that brought entertainment to towns along the river. I found a clip on the Internet with John Hartford steering a riverboat and talking and performing. The wheel was nearly as tall as he was. I got the feeling that he could tell a lot of stories. Anyway, the boat was full of tourists and there was a lady behind John who was playing ‘Ol Man River on an organ, a tune from Showboat. John explained that he never liked the tune and then imitated the low voice of the person who sang the song, a reference to Paul Robson, who originally sang it.

I found many other clips of John Hartford and I am glad I rediscovered him. Encounters with musicians like Geoff are times I value deeply. These musicians are important contributers to the culture of mankind.

When I thought about writing this I considered adding links to each reference, however, then I realized that, while valuable, some readers might click on each of them as they read. This would break up my writing. Thus, I encourage you, the reader, to use copy and paste to discover for yourself what I have learned. Now, go explore music!