The Adventures of Bloggard

Been Around the Block. Got Some Stories. These are Them.

On This Day: The Saxophone and Tchaikovsky

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Dinant, Belgium, November 6, 1814: Adolphe Sax is born, and will eventually invent the saxophone. The saxophone never became popular during his lifetime, as it was considered an illegitimate instrument, and not fitten to be played. Then along came that no-account jazz music, and musicians who thought differently. Without Mr. Sax, what would have become of Paul Desmond, Stan Getz, and Jim Grantham?

St. Petersburg, November 6, 1893: Composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky died after drinking unboiled water during a cholera epidemic. His last work was Symphony No. 6, the Pathetique. (For the exclusive benefit of Sir Ola, I’d like to add that Tchikovsky was also famous for the beautiful Le Sacre du Printeps.)

Leap Up, Fall Down – the Daylight Savings Scam

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Medford, Oregon – Daylight Savies Day, 2017 — Before I share my handy tip with you, I gotta say that in my opinion, William Willett has a lot to answer for, because best I can tell he was the scurvy dog — not Benjamin Franklin — who actually “invented” what is now Daylight Savings Time. Or maybe I should say he was the scurvy dog who unleashed the Daylight Savings Scam upon an unsuspecting populace.

‘Only a white man would believe that you could cut a foot off the top of a blanket and sew it to the bottom of a blanket and have a longer blanket.’ — Indian Saying

Ain’t it just the truth!

And right here, right now I want to put to rest the scurrilous rumors that [Read more…]

“Astro-Turfing” – How Media Manipulates Us with Fake Information

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Medford, Oregon and TED Talk, October 28, 2017 — Surprising information —

  • 90% of news media are controlled by six corporations. As a result,much of what you read and see can be an orchestrated story created by special interest groups
  • “Astro-Turf” means to falsify fake news, fake “information” so it appears to be a grass-roots movement. (IE: “fake grass”)
  • Alas, Wikipedia is often hijacked, because pages can be controlled by anonymous editors on behalf of special interests who reverse edits that go against their hidden agenda

Those of you who know me may remember that I’m not big on conspiracy theories because I think (a) humans do poorly at keeping a secret, and because (b) humans are poor at concerted action. Few events, however dreadful, require explanation of a wide conspiracy, when simple greed will suffice as explanation.

And I think that simple greed may be operating here, because …

Special interests have permeated our government, and with the weakening of newspaper revenues their journalistic integrity has slipped. Yesterday in conversation with a friend who once ran a department at the New York Times I heard confirmation that media’s ability to generate accurate original reporting is far less than what it once was.

An Eye-Opening Article about How We Are Tricked

Here is an eye-opening article which seems sound, spelling out how [Read more…]

Me and Fats Domino and Lee Perez

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MB Corral, Wichita Falls, 1959 — Well, the way it was, was that Fats Domino was real popular when he was still touring around after his big 1956 hit  (“Blueberry Hill”)  which had done so well, and so he was coming to the MB Corral in Wichita Falls on Friday night..

Me and several high-school friends had cars and money enough, so we decided to go hear him. And a fair amount of beer was involved. There was me and Billy Ray Johnson, and some others, and Tony Haberman. The music was good, we were listening to a famous singer, and for some foolish reason they were serving us beer there at the MB Corral.

So naturally I got a teensy bit tipsy, or maybe a tipsy teen topsy, or maybe I was actually just drunk, but I was able to navigate to the men’s room, once it dawned [Read more…]

The Root of All Magic and Freedom

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[reprinted from my former site How to Tune a Human, March 7, 2010]

For thousands of years,  systems have existed which we might call magic, or manifestation, or self-help. The common denominator of many of these systems is that they depend upon visualization.

Some folks do well with this; other people never seem to succeed.

What do you want from such a system?

You want (a) success; (b) rapid success; (c) reliable success. Just like your Ford automobile, you want it to always start and carry you down the chosen road, to start quickly, and to operate reliably as expected.

In these various systems, different factors are touted as helping to attain success, rapidity, and reliability. These include —

Farewell, Daisy Dog

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Daisy and Charlie

Medford, Oregon, August 30, 2017 — My sweet dog Daisy has reached the end of her road. Got her in the summer of 2005. I came home from the guitar shop and found this young, skinny little white dog prancing in my back yard.

Now 12 years later, she has worn out.

Her last birthday, according to Adrienne, was that she was 12 on June 12, 2017.

She’s been creaky, has lost proper control of legs especially her back legs, and staggers when she walks, sometimes falling down. She’s lethargic, sleeping a lot, drinking lots of water, passed up her food yesterday and today, and either losing control of bladder or just can’t get up, so pees where she lies, including this morning on the carpet. Her eyes are moving erratically, and her vision seems impaired.

Same symptoms as Tulip. I had appointment with Dr. Chilton at 3pm. She thinks Daisy had a stroke, and that she’s dizzy, finding it hard to function. Not a happy puppy.

I suspected this was Daisy’s last day. And at 3:30, less than a minute after the injection, she’s gone.

Now it’s just me and Charlie.

When I got home and set her collar on the shelf, my computer beeped. Her gps tracker telling me that she had left the area, but that she was now back home. The gps tracker is mistaken. She’s not here.

Thank you Universe for that sweet Daisy, who’s been my pal for 12 years now. God bless her.

 

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Larry’s Last Gig

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San Francisco, July 14, 1993: Today being ‘Bastille Day’, the French National Holiday, I was hired to play a gig at a French Restaurant on Polk Street. Wearing my tuxedo, with my tapping instrument and amplifier, I was wedged into a small niche near the door, and the wine was flowing freely as the evening progressed.

I’m playing my usual blend of Beatles, Bossa Nova, and Standards, when a fellow came up, introduced himself as Tom Bullock, and said he’d been a keyboard player. Over his wineglass, he started telling me about himself and his buddy Larry, a horn player.

The Gig from Hell

As a nominee for ‘The Gig from Hell,’ I think it merits attention. Here then is the sad, sad story of Larry’s last gig …

They were trying to get this regular gig at the Officer’s Club, and so they took this free gig at the Country Club, where the Colonel in charge of booking was supposed to come and hear them. They were to receive a free meal, and if they were a hit, then they would [Read more…]

On the Road to Santa Cruz

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August 18, 2011, on the road to Santa Cruz:  Duffel bag and picnic basket packed, I’m driving, on the road to Santa Cruz, where a class of Tantra Yoga teachers eagerly awaits my vast wisdom about what works best when marketing services and products via cyberspace.

For road trips, I always put myself in a light trance, programming my subconscious mind that the journey will be safe and relaxed, and quick, and that the time will be productive. And the journey is always productive. I get some brand new idea, or a realization about how to do some, or how to do something better. Works every time.

And while we’re on the subject, I’d like to share my favorite thought about traveling …

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Of course, it will take more than that to get there.” — Anonymous

 
 

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