Valentine
Happy Valentine's Day to all of you! May the Spirit of Love prevail in these days and all the days and nights to come. Love is the one thing all human beings desire, long for, and write about. All you need is love... love makes the world go round... put a little love in your heart... love is a many-splendored thing... love is just a four letter word... God is Love. So many musings on the subject, and yet, so little we know of love. But we do know that without love, human beings seem to fade away for lack of soul. Making love makes soul. Making music makes soul. Loving something, someone, some place makes us better human beings. Love makes more of itself once it gets going. Sometimes, it seems as if it is frozen in place. But, when the heart is broken open, the ice breaks, a flood pours out and love grows green again. So here's to Love, the thing we are supposed to do. It's hard to get it right, but so worth the effort! It's our life's work.
Speaking of a lifetime of work... here's to one of the great ones... Miss Molly Ivins. She was the exacting voice of sanity in this crazy, crazy world, and so damned funny, the very essence of rapier wit with a Texas swing. As a friend of ours said of her death: "The silence is deafening. " I reckon I'm gonna have to conjure her up now that she has passed, and when I hear myself wail, "What will we do without her? ", I hear her dry drawlin' reply... "Git out there and do it yerself! Make it happen! Don't let them get away with this stuff! The folks up there in DC are wingnuts spinning out of control! We The People have to step up and remind these elected officials who they are supposed to be working for. It is our House, our government, our votes, our opinions (please God have one! ). Don't be afraid to speak up... step up! " She probably was afraid, but we never knew it. She stayed private, carrying her cancer the best she knew how without burdening any of her readers, and never, never, never quitting her post. It's our duty and privilege to keep up her legacy. Hate this War? Then let's stop it, any way we can. It's our job as responsible citizens in a fairly free country. Maybe it's time to dump the tea in the harbor again, eh?
Some nice things: Went to a swell cd-release/birthday party at the Triple Door here in Seattle for Lisa Koch. What a wonderful job she did, organizing the whole thing, and there was a raft of great musicians including Jen Todd, Laura Love, Barbara Higbie, Roxanna Ward, Mel Watson (Fruit), and Peggy Platt as well as a bunch of Seattle players whose names I do not know, but am going to get to know as they are so good, and I am loving being a part of this Seattle Scene! It was funny and fine and so much fun! Nice! Another nice thing: a huge double rainbow arching over the city, so stunning, so beautiful that we kept driving up the street trying to bathe in it, find the end of it, unwilling to let it go back into the grey skies, all the while listening to Marian McPartland"s Piano Jazz Show featuring three women from the Montclair Women's Big Band. Nice! Also: Judy and I were invited to the Triple Door (Seattle's premier Jazz venue) to hear the Seattle Women's Jazz Orchestra. Wow! Great charts, great players, great club! Went home with jazz cluster chords in my brain! Nice!
For those of you who have remained interested in my cat Kiki's health: she is nearly 10 pounds, clear-eyed, feisty, eating everything and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound! Many of you have asked for Dr. Kate's opinion concerning your own animals, which is so great! We love them so much and they teach us all the while about real love. We got thumbs, but they got true loving Spirits. You do the math.
I hated to see the beautiful horse Barbaro go down. What a trier he was! He just didn't know how to stop living. It brought me to tears in an instant; it brought me right into the very clear memory of having to put my horse Stiletto down. To this day, every time I drive by his last place on earth, the vet hospital in Oregon where he spent his last hours, my heart tears again... not hard, not massive, just a rip in the fabric, reminding me of how great a love was there for him. I have written a song for him, and one of these days, I'll trot it out again.
Speaking of new songs: I've hit a gusher! I've written new tunes and it appears that a new cd is on the very near Horizon. I reckon I'll be heading into some studio somewhere to capture them so you can have them in your lives. Again, I thank all of you for the enduring support you offer all the time. It helps me get it done.
Meanwhile, we are aiming for 12 more Changer Shows, beginning mid-March in Hawaii... 3 shows in Honolulu, Maui and Hilo, in that order. I haven't played there or visited for such a long time, and all of us in the Changer Band are so looking forward to playing there and enjoying some Island Time! (Maybe you should plan a visit to Hawaii and be there with us! )
That's it for now. Please take care of your Self, and each other as well. until next time... Cris