Rhythm @ MindSay 
I'm back in the hotel enjoying a great Jon Stewart show - liberals arguing the war. I lean to the realistic which on some points, like how fast a 'draw down' or withdrawal can occur, actually is NOT Stewart's view.
Though he did make a funny editorial comment I agree with that 9/11 can't be a Bush conspiracy for one reason : it worked.
But on a lighter note - I love my Your Place pub. I don't know anyone well since I am a very irregular regular, but some of the characters I enjoy interacting (or not) with. Tonite I met a guy, career army, on his way back to Iraq for the 4th time, in town from Ft. Drum, NY to meet with his ex, herself a two-time vet of Iraq, to celebrate together a late birthday for their December born son. Interesting guy, a sniper, but not. A couple of notches below, according to him. He is the one called to hit physical targets, not personnel. Suspicious vehicle at 500 yards? Done. Suspicious item on a bridge strut? done. He now drives fuel trucks ("I got tired of being on point") so we had some cool discussion of convoys, Haliburton, and Blackwater. He was envious of the civilian pay until I told him how firms really worked, keeping that elusive tax free pay out of reach as a way of keeping contractors hooked for 'just a few more months'.
Meanwhile a 30-ish Backstreet Boy wannabe ( gelled hair, turtleneck, with gold jewelry outside the sweater) kept playing music that proved Kurt Cobain did us a favor with that shotgun. God! Psycho chimps screaming into mikes while beating up bass guitars is not music (sorry Sean!).
Salvation at last. A guy I have had a couple of brief conversations with over the years was there. A
ZZ Top-esque guy. 50's, long gray hair (maybe a Jerry Garcia clone) sat annoyingly doing nothing while we were all subjected to this screaming crap. Finally, he got up and approached the juke box. A few minutes later Michael Jackson came on with some 80's era tune that you can't help but smile to. I knew I had been saved. The next hour or so I was treated to this guy's great choices - from R&B to blues to rock to fun pop to deep country (early Cash and Willis). But the one song came on, and I realized I have an emotional problem.
There are some things that bring tears to my eyes and I have no control. Marching band music. The Star Spangled Banner; Extreme Home Makeover; Brian's Song; and this tune which as years go by, I think may surpass "Hotel California" as my favorite song in the world. It can play on forever and I would never get bored. I don't even know the lyrics so have no idea what the impact of the content should be. I just know I hear this railroad rhythm backbeat, the mournful sound of the vocals, and I drift into neverland.
I want to close my eyes, cry, and slip away.
So, WITH further ado which I just bored you with, my fave (or at least tied with 2 others - I'll have to tell you the other some other time), by the Counting Crows "Hey, Mrs. Potter".
Turn it up, sit back, close your eyes, and I DARE you to not be rocking back and forth in time and pounding the beat on the armrest within the first 20 seconds :
I just had to wait 7 minutes to post this so I could hear the song again :
"If You've Never Stared Off Into The Distance Then Your Life IS A SHAME!"
Well I woke up in mid afternoon cause that's when it all hurts the most
I dream I never know anyone at the party and I'm always the host
If dreams are like movies then memories are films about ghosts
You can never escape, you can only move south down the coast
Well I am an idiot walking a tightrope of fortune and fame
I am an acrobat swinging trapezes through circles of flame
If you've never stared off into the distance then your life is a shame
And though I'll never forget your face sometimes I can't remember my name
Hey, Mrs. Potter, don't cry Hey, Mrs. Potter, I know why
But, hey, Mrs. Potter, won't you talk to me
Well there's a piece of Maria in every song that I sing
And the price of a memory is the memory of the sorrow it brings
And there is always one last light to turn out and one last bell to ring
And the last one out of the circus has to lock up everything
Or the elephants will get out and forget to remember what you said
Oh and the ghosts of the tilt-o-whirl will linger inside of your head
Oh and the Ferris wheel junkies will spin there forever instead
When I see you, a blanket of stars covers me in my bed
Hey, Mrs. Potter, don't go, I said Hey, Mrs. Potter, I don't know,
but Hey, Mrs. Potter, won't you talk to me
Well all the blue light reflections that color my mind when I sleep
And the lovesick rejections that accompany the company I keep
All the razor perceptions that cut just a little too deep
Hey, I can bleed as well as anyone but I need someone to help me sleep
So I throw my hand into the air and it swims in the beams
It's just a brief interruption of the swirling dust sparkle jet stream
Well I know I don't know you and you're probably not what you seem
Aw, but I'd sure like to find out So why don't you climb down off that movie screen
Hey, Mrs. Potter, don't turn Hey, Mrs. Potter, I burn for you
Hey, Mrs. Potter, won't you talk to me
When the last king of Hollywood shatters his glass on the floor
And orders another Well, I wonder what he did that for
That's when I know that I have to get out cause I have been there before
So I gave up my seat at the bar and I head for the door.
Yeah. We drove out to the desert just to lie down beneath this bowl of stars
We stand up in the Palace, like it's the last of the great pioneer town bars
Aw, we shout out these songs against the clang of electric guitars
Well, you can see a million miles tonight But you can't get very far
Aw, you can see a million miles tonight But you can't get very far
Hey, Mrs. Potter, I won't touch and Hey, Mrs. Potter, it's not much
but Hey, Mrs. Potter, won't you talk to me ? . . .
hmm, I just posted the lyrics as an edit - I've never seen them before, after noting those that I highlighted, maybe there's something to subliminal messages after all.
Change happens around us. It happens in nature, in the seasons. It happens in the weather, the turn of the earth, the plants and animals around us change, and most importantly, the people around us change. Change is continuous.
What's the point? For those of us who are followers of Jesus, the point is that He takes us from where we first turn to Him, from that time we first look to Him for forgiveness, for mercy, for help, for strength ... and He begins to pour His love into and over us. Now, I believe He does this for every person, but many do not apprehend it for what it is. Anyway, the love of God is the greatest catalyst to change there is.
No matter where we are when we first reach out to God, He is there, and from that point on, He faithfully “Shepherds” us, though He never moves the way I expect or wish. He supplies our needs, not our comforts or wants, necessarily, but our needs. He'll “move” us to the provision sometimes, and other times the provision arrives by other hands. Remember Psalm 23 ... The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want! You see, God has a plan, and it involves change. He wants us to be free!
The matter concerns our hearts. Mine, at least, and most I know, are prone to selfishness, but this is contrary to God's heart. Thus, He lovingly and sovereignly orchestrates situations, events, and people in and out of our lives for the purpose of building into us His heart, His unconditional love. It doesn't happen overnight, and it is not without some pain, tragedy and heartbreak. And the kicker is, we control how much love grows in us. The one thing God cannot do is change us against our will, because that would go against His nature, but He never stops loving us. There are churches filled with people who know about the love of God in their knower, but they have not permitted God's love to have its way in them, to change their heart. It can be frightening, for sure. Intimidating. In a very real sense, God asks us to trust Him with every detail of our lives. Much easier said than done!
So, change is a continuous part of our journey from whatever our beginning place until we see Him face to face. At that instant, the Bible says, we will be changed to be like Him. Do I understand this? No! But I have witnessed enough amazing things to convince me of the probability.
There is a rhythm to God. There is a rhythm to the changes He brings. Most importantly, there is the all-telling evidence as His love grows in us. It enables us to follow Him more confidently, to trust Him more intimately, and to love others with fewer and fewer strings.
I welcome change ... even knowing it may be painful. The more God pours His love into me, the more attentive I am to the needs of others and the more free I am to to be uniquely ME.
~ B
You - the faithful light
Me - asking you to stay
You - shining bright in my Life
I say, my dearest Love,
You are the one
Who cares for me -
Day after day, compassionately
You are the one
Who takes care of me
Even while I dream,
Night after night, soulfully
You are the one
Who guides me
Time after time
The same as the loving Angels
Smiling sweetly from above
You are the one
Who keeps my heart safe,
From the moment I wake
Until I go to sleep,
Drift into sweet dreams
Until the next blessed sunrise
You - No one can deny
Divine moments happen when we have faith
You believe in me
I believe in you
God said - His voice gentle
Like the whisper of leaves blowing in the wind
You are the one for me
_
©RmA2007
So, Knuter and his brothers had their second show last night. A bit of group history.
They are, in reverse order, Knuter, JK, and BK. Yes, one of the more attractive things about Knuter is the way he gets along with his family. Anyway, the three brothers have all had the same boss at one point, and the relationship there is more than just work-related. Previous to JK's wedding, the four of them went to Vegas together, and while there, got to see the Blue Man Group.
I definitely recall Knuter saying how cool they were, but it later turned out that their boss thought the three guys in the group reminded him of the three brothers, and thought that they should put together something like this. All three brothers are into music in some form (JK and Knuter are both percussionists),
That was in spring. At the end of summer, they did throw something together, which ended up being very cool. These three are generally awesome. They seem to have this collective idea that anything that comes by, they can do - and with that kind of attitude, they actually can do it. There's also an interesting amount of creativity there, and a clear sense of That Which Is Cool.
So, somehow it became a good idea for them to do something for our Winter Concert. I'm not sure if our director heard about it first or Knuter just mentioned it and our director leaped on it, but either one is plausible. Winter concert doesn't involve the Jazz Band or show choir, so we had the band and choir half, and then the guys did the second half.
According to BK, Knuter did about half the work for putting this together. I know he wrote any of the music that wasn't already composed (he'd send me midi-blurbs for something he was making progress on). I'm not sure how much he had to do with the building of their instruments, but I know it was a lot. One of their pipe-instruments spent a good amount of time in their driveway over the summer, and looked like a giant crab that would come to life at night, flip over, and scuttle down the hill to torment the neighbors until morning.
Another cool thing about the brothers is that they're the ones to praise each other, they don't blow their own horns. Simply, they are awesome.
Knuter was also the one doing a lot of the planning for how things would be set up on stage. Twice he had a flip-out afternoon (as much as Knuter ever flips out, anyway) because somebody at his house had moved his plans and he couldn't find them. I think he had to start over once because he never did find them. For the last month, the two best places to look for Knuter were in the ceramics lab (unrelated to the show), or the theater workshop. Planning, planning, planning.
Get into the last two weeks, it's been planning, building, building, planning, and at some point transport (the only way they can move the crab and the pipe-pack that BK uses/wears is with the truck). As of dress-rehearsal night, they still had one trick only half-built.
Dress rehearsal was the first time I'd seen the show. In general, it wasn't too bad. They had some cool ideas, but a lot of technical problems. Knuter described it later as, "Scary," and before intermission, the theater master (who knows me well as Knuter's girlfriend) asked me, "So, you nervous?" As soon as they'd started, though, it was clear they'd pulled it together.
Audience absolutely loved it. No one knew what to expect for this show (I was the only non-theater person who'd seen the dress rehearsal), so there was a collective air of uncertain anticipation hovering before they began. There's a fundamental rule of performance - the more the audience is getting into the show, the more you as a performer will enjoy the show, therefore the better the show will be, and thus, the audience will enjoy it more. We usually just sum it up as, "As long as you're enjoying it, the audience will enjoy it." You can have a first-rate show, but if the audience isn't getting into it, it will just tank.
On their final piece, the crowd could barely wait for them to finish (and there's a bit of a false conclusion in that one) to leap from their seats and give them full applause. They'd laughed, they'd wondered, they'd gone 'cool!' in their heads, and it had been awesome.
Both of my girlfriends that I'd been sitting with turned and said, "That...was awesome." I definitely need a thesaurus for this entry, but I don't care. Our director's already planning on getting them in again for another concert, and with a response like that it's rather likely that someone else is going to want them for something, too.
As I said, they, quite simply, are awesome.
An example would be how a rhythm section in a jazz band would feel the moment, and come together as a unit, through body language, and gestures, to deliver a lock and key powerful performance. The audience would remember such a feeling, and struggle for the right words to describe such an even to their friends,
but the memory would linger with them, as magic, and and would be even more heavily embedded with the musicians that delivered the moment. 
Forget the aspect of recording, and appreciate music as a live art, one that happens and then ends. Playing to play, and not striving to get that perfectly polished sound mastered to tape. Futhermore, appreciation of ideas, even if they aren't ready for radio right now, or our cup of tea.
So what I am getting at is reliant upon the principle of musical moments that happen by accident, that you don't even know are magic moments, until after they have been played, and are in the past. For example, imagine some of the great jazz musicians that have laid out one of a million routine improv solos, nothing different at the time, and gone as soon as the sound waves have ceased in their oscillation, but perhaps one here or there would have surprised the musician had they been able to listen to it again maybe even months or so down the road.
Accident, and Chance, and the moment all compose the idea that I am getting at: and while recording technology offers so much to the musical arts, it sometimes makes us forget about the time where live performance was not just the only form of musical expression, but it was the essence of the art itself. It was the magic, and the moment, and the sound that was heard only once, and perhaps that was what made it magical, or mundane, yet I am sure that the musician got goosebumps at least.
SO as I truly hold a passion for improvisation, and the ideas that were developed in the movement of music that is one of the United State's original styles of music, I would have to say that I have drifted more toward an approach to composition that is derivative of "make it up as you go along"........And I have spent hours and hours going through stacks of half scratched up cd's, in search of nothing specific and for most of the time realizing that most of these sonic sketches aren't worth another listen, or equalization, or remix, or perhaps a harmonic transcription, and really cringing as I listen, I do discover passages, motifs, melodies, and sometimes complete pieces of work, and every once in a while there is a diamond in the rough, and as rare as a needle in the haystack.
is such a small word, that really can't say enough about itself. The artistic and abstract implications that are involved are beyond explanation with a word; in general art is characteristically so as it encompasses human emotion which most certainly is so varied and individualized from being to being and moment to moment, that now single word could ever cover all the meanings and explanations. We must accept that art is abstract, and ever changing, and without a scientific set of rules and laws that are predict, govern, and classify, the creation of music, in the context here. There is not right answer, and really there isn't a true definitive nature of the study of "Music Theory" as it is called, since the ear is ever evolving in respect to its anatomical design as well as the way that humans perceive sound waves and appreciate, or "Un" appreciate music.
I challenge everyone to get away from their selves, or at least open their minds up to other artists in a way that is focused on their first and initial opinions about other artist's songs. The reason I challenge musicians to think this way, is because they aren't hearing music purely for what it sounds like, but a true songwriter is hearing music on a higher and more appreciative level. What musician is not able to name other
musicians and songwriters whom they are positively influenced by and look up to, yet the respect and appreciation for a diverse understanding and appreciation of music is filtered by our own individual and opinionated personal human preferences. We love to hear it black or white, good or bad, dissonant or consonant, even though the evolution of music is sure to eventually stray away away from the very music theories, and ideas of the present time. 
Perhaps we can't listen ahead of the sound of our time, we aren't capable of hearing into the future. Or maybe we don't want to put for an effort to do so, as we have enough on our hands trying to transcribe, and explain the scores of material that are songwriters of the past have already written. Often so caught up in music theory, analysis, and reasoning of the work of our prior "masters of music", we refute the concept of music evolution and the unstoppable transformation that will become the music of the future. Most fit this category, but someone is bound to hear ahead, or progression in music style, and composition would never exist, and we would all still love to listen to Gregorian Chants, and the harmonic structured unison octaves would soothe our desire for complexity just fine. There wouldn't be a love for the minor ninth, the extensions 11, 13, 15+ in modern jazz theory and harmony, and experimentation with micro tones would be just far fetched musical fiction.
Really just treasure it all when it comes to listening, hearing, feeling and expression of sound, and music. What I am saying is all about not just hearing.........open your mind and your senses and you will taste it and feel it, and even smell the way that music sounds!
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