The Piano And The Guitar

Hello Music Enthusiasts, 

Today, I'd like to discuss the differences and similarities between the guitar and the piano. I just started playing the piano seriously over the weekend and I've made a momentous leap in my playing. I've learned songs and tons and tons of chords, jazz chords, inversions, and some major scales. It's been a blast! Playing the piano and practicing it is as much fun as playing guitar. It's definitely more relaxing. You get to sit down. Maybe it's even better. First the similarities. 

Chords

The piano and the guitar are both primarily chordal instruments of the chordophones family. Meaning that the piano and the guitar both can play multiple notes [or chords] on it at the same time. Unlike a saxophone which can only produce one tone at a time [or if they use free jazz over-blowing technique, they can get overtones, giving them a chord-like sound, but this is rare in most jazz, classical, and pop]. 

Accompaniment

As well as both instruments being able to produce and play chords, both instruments are used primarily for accompaniment, or as we say in the jazz world, for comping [comping is short for accompaniment]. Think about great rock songs that feature piano like With a Little Help From My Friends by the Beatles. The piano is holding the song together by comping chords throughout the song. In addition, think of how the piano in a jazz song becomes a focal point of introductions for songs into comping for the horn lines of the tune. 

Easily Accessible to Everyone

The piano and guitar are both great standard starter instruments for virtually anyone and everyone. Most parents get their young kids to play the piano or guitar at a very young age and let them develop an interest in the instrument. Once they get serious they become good musicians and may later form bands and possibly have a career in music. I would say the piano is more accessible to everyone than guitar because actually playing the piano chords doesn't involve as much finger dexterity, strength finger bending, and finger arching, although the piano's touch and feeling really has to do with what type of piano or keyboard that you are playing. A weighted grand piano will be much harder to play physically than a cheap plastic keyboard. 

Differences

Chord and Scale Fingerings

The main difference I've found between the piano and guitar is a hardcore difference of philosophy in terms of chord and scale fingerings. On the guitar, once you learn a chord voicing fingering or scale pattern, you actually know the chord voicing or scale in every key. Why? Because the guitar is built on patterns. You play a G major barre chord and then you move it up a 5th and you're now playing a D major chord. You can use the exact same kind of chord voicing and all of a sudden you know that chord in literally every key. The guitar is based on a concept, in a sense. You don't have to know that there are 2 sharps in the key of D.

Piano, however, is less based on concepts like the guitar, and more based on the literal notes in front of you that you need to play. Most chords all have different fingerings. Most chord inversions have different fingers. Most scales all have different fingerings. This is where you can see that the piano is a much more serious instrument that requires and demands more attention to what are the actual notes in the chord [the names of the notes], the notes in the scales, the sharps or flats in the key signatures, and you have to know all of this. That's the biggest difference in my humble opinion. 

Of course there are more differences but to keep this short I'll keep things simple with this. I'll stay in the loop and keep you all updated on my piano progress. I can already play simple jazz standards like Autumn Leaves and All The Things You Are. In terms of rock I've tackled Lennon's Imagine and Pilot's It's Magic. I recommend everyone reading this to try out the piano. You might like it. You might even learn to love it. 

Video Games Made Quarantine Better

Video games have made quarantine better. Like way, way, way, better. In the world of 2020, where covid-19 is running amok across every nation, every state, and every city, the world of video games has not only become more open and welcoming, but it's made life and quarantine better. 

I'm a pretty busy guy. I have a job, I read lots of books, I write a lot, I have friends and family to attend to, and I play guitar, bass, and piano. So I'm usually short on time most work days. However, the quarantine has really given us all a lot more time. Time to ourselves. In some of these moments I immerse myself in the world of PC video games, and the results are almost therapeutic. 

I only play team based competitive games. I'm a big fan of Blizzard's Heroes of the Storm and Overwatch. In addition, I've played some 200 hours on Steam of Valve's Team Fortress 2. I always play the role of support healer, the character that stands back, avoids damage, and doesn't die often, healing the team and keeping them alive. This element of support [they call me Dr. Love] gives me a sense of cooperation, teamwork, and accomplishment that single player games can never provide. Because, as they say, we are all in this together. The best way to win a team-based competitive game [no matter what title it is] is through teamwork, experience, information, communication, and awareness. Ironically, these things are also needed to combat covid.  

The fantasy realities that these games provide gives the player an outlet. An outlet for their frustration, an outlet to escape from their work from home jobs or on site jobs, an outlet away from their friends, families, and coworkers. Aside from the occasional gamer trolls, it's a safe house. It's a happy place. And when I'm just chilling at home at the crib, that's where I want to be. 

Meditative Improvisational Mind

Good evening, 

I've been practicing and playing music a lot more often lately. As I've started live streaming jazz standards and improv with my good friend Jason, I've been practicing, playing, and recording much more often. It's good to be inspired. For a few years way back in 2013 I stopped playing guitar. It's good to be back in the saddle again. Here I'd like to jot down more notes on what goes on in the mind of an improvising musician. Check my first post about it here. 

But in today's post I'm going to keep things simple and talk about how to really tap into that meditative improvisational frame of mind. 

So we all know what improvisation is. It's the ability to play something, something well, off the cuff, as if you never played it before. I practice improvising most often in the form of jazz guitar. How do you improvise? It's a tricky question as there are actually many different ways to improvise but the best way for me is to tap into a meditative state while you're playing. This means that all other thoughts in your mind are turned off and you go into the present moment. The only thing that you're attuned to is your very nature; your daesein [your worldhood of the world]. 

Essentially, this means everything pertaining to you: How are you feeling that day? How is your day going? Are you happy, sad, or have no emotional attachment to anything in particular at that current time while you're playing? Is your guitar tone how you want it? Is your band mate giving you the space you need to improvise well? Did you eat a good lunch or a lousy lunch? What's the temperature in the room that you're playing in? Did you wake up early or late? Are you tired? Energetic? What I'm getting at is that to you need to be truly attuned to yourself, your world, your daesein [beingness, beingness in the world]. 

So in order for me to attune myself to an improvisational frame of mind I have all these things in mind while I'm playing. Now here's where things get interesting. Your playing is influenced by all those things listed above but it doesn't have to be. The goal is to have everything in mind but turn it all off, not rely on your old favorite licks and tricks and chords and live in the spirit of the moment. 

The spirit of the moment. This is an interesting concept. While truly improvising in the moment you will never really time to think about the future. You will mostly focus on the present moment in time which is exactly what you want in order to improvise well. Like a true jazz musician. 

The means to getting there is deeply intense and spiritual. The hard way I've learned is through endless jamming on jazz standards, free form improvisation, deep meditation, and calming the mind [with camomile tea]. Eventually, you'll get there and you'll realize that you can truly improvise. You'll play things you've never played before and continue to do so the more you tap into the spirit of the moment and enter that meditative musical state. The hardest part of turning off and tuning in is that you have to let go of your thoughts and even yourself. It's an intense experience. You must let go of attachment and suffering. But it's also soothing. 

It's a lifelong practice. The jazz giants have mostly left us so it's up to us, the younger generation to keep jazz music alive. Hopefully, a newer generation like mine can do the tradition justice. Also, keep in mind that these ideas apply to other disciplines as well, not just jazz guitar. 

Blues Notes #1

Hello, 

I did another livestream today. We're going to make it a weekly performance. We'll continue to do standards and improv. Enjoy the music. Don't forget to like and subscribe to my YouTube channel. 

Thanks, enjoy 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ikzDWiTXHc 

King Crimson

Today was an interesting morning. As soon as I woke up I kept thinking about a certain King Crimson song. The song was Lament from their album Starless and Bible Black. It's a terrific record, as most of their early records and late records are. What makes that song in particular so interesting that I was reciting them in my head upon wake up?

Well, the song is, well, a lament of sorts. The song features some interesting lines. Here are some:

I guess I tried to show you how
I'd take the crowd with my guitar
And business men would clap their hands
And clip another fat cigar

 

But now it seems the bubble's burst
Although you know there was a time
When love songs gathered in my head
With poetry in every line

 

I like the way you look at me
You're laughing too down there inside
I took my chance and you took yours
You crewed my ship, we missed the tide

 

And strong men strove to hold the doors
While with my friends I passed the age
When people stomped on dirty floors
Before I trod the rock'n'roll stage

 

Those are all pretty damn good lines for vocals. Even in the 70s. And the music was topnotch art-rock with heavy feedback guitar and mellotron [a synth].  

So yeah those lines in particular really stood out to me. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I can't escape the influence of King Crimson on my life. When I was 19 years old I would sit in the freezing basement in Wisconsin. I would invite my friend David over and we would smoke a lot of weed and blast progressive rock. But it was always King Crimson that was our favorite progressive band from England. 

 

There's something about King Crimson that makes them stand out apart from the other English art-rock bands from the 1970s. Robert Fripp's guitar playing and lead role in forming and keeping the band going through many permutations made them a much better band than say, ELP, Genesis, and even Yes. Fripp was a art-rock guitar god. He knew how to play any chord for any feeling. He was like a jazz guitarist in a rock band. He knew many great 'noise chords,' as I would call it, but he could always mellow out and play something that a nice jazz guitarist could play. I credit him for this day for helping me develop my guitar sound. 

 

 

What's also interesting is the fact that when my friend and I were listening to King Crimson stoned all those years ago is that we are both black kids. I know this might be kind of arrogant to think, [but I definitely believe this is true] but I actually believe that David and I were probably the only black kids [or at least part of a very select few] in America in the mid 2000s that listened to and loved King Crimson. That's actually truly remarkable. 

 

King Crimson is one of my favorite bands. I listened to them more than any other band from England, including those four lads from Liverpool [who they were inspired by of course]. Their legacy lives on. Fripp was and still is a monster and I credit him [and countless others] for inspiring me to make noise on the guitar. The art-rock thing died but its influence will live forever through indie rock and its noise variants.

 

As Pete Townsend [the guitarist from The Who] said about the first album, the critically acclaimed In the Court of the Crimson King, "an uncanny masterpiece."

Capacity for Happiness

Today was wonderful.

I got eight hours of sleep. I played video games. I played guitar. I got to read a great book. And although I worked till one in the morning in a retail gig, it was still pretty damn good. 

What does it take to be happy? Why am I so happy? 

Well, the answer is simple. Although difficult to explain. The answer is that I have the capacity for happiness. No matter what happens to me my capacity for happiness is so abundant, that I'm probably the happiest person out of all my friends, coworkers, and casual acquaintances. I'm actually almost like a saint. A philosopher. A rock and roll guitar player that dabbles in jazz. Perhaps in another life I would've joined the priesthood and spread the Gospel of Christ.   

What's their problem, you ask? Well, they simply lack the capacity for happiness. One guy is upset because he's not doing the career path he wants in life. One is upset because he's depressed. One is upset because he thinks he can only do one job in his entire life. Coworkers are upset because they think the hum drum life of retail will never improve. 

So what do they do? They find solace in escapism. We all do, at least to a certain degree. Especially during COVID. So they go out on vacations and live like a bourgeois for a while. They buy fancy dinners. They take lots of drugs and drink lots of alcohol. They drive their cars fast. They become connoisseurs of consumerism and continuously need to buy more and more things. They fuck all the time. But it doesn't sustain them. They're still not happy. Why?

Simply because they lack the capacity for happiness. Their problem is existential. Meaning that they don't yet know that they lack the capacity for happiness. Some of them will never know. And that's where the true tragedy lies. Thus spoke Orlando Figueroa.

So yeah, today was a good day...

Covid Versus Retail, Fall Edition

Hello all, 

Thought I'd jot down some general thoughts about what's been like working at the market during this point in the pandemic, this far into it. 

It's been a long time coming. This virus will not turn on the breaks. It will take more and more lives. Working retail at the market is getting more fatiguing. Sometimes it feels like the customers really don't give a shit about the workers anymore. Yes, there are still some customers who like and support us so called 'essential workers', but the vast majority are people who see us as beneath them. The only purpose we have is to serve them, in their eyes. 

Yeah, working retail during COVID has become very dark very fast. The stress can destroy you. If you have health problems the stress will hurt you even more. Not to mention you'll be so much more irritable. I've seen it in most of my friends and coworkers. The most important thing now is to keep your sanity, save your health, and find a way to live with or without happiness. Can you manage that? If not, you're in trouble.

In terms of health and safety, my job isn't doing so great. They stopped giving masks to employees because it was cutting into their cost. Which means that we have to provide our own masks out of our own pockets. In addition, most of the time, nothing is cleaned, leaving a never-ending smear of germs on nearly everything that's touched. God to honest truth, I'm shocked we haven't had a more serious COVID problem, although there was two cases in the beginning of the pandemic. 

Thing are taking a sinister turn with this virus and the sword of Damocles hanging over our heads, [the election]. Do the things you love and really try to find a way to live, with or without happiness. The next three weeks are very important in terms of COVID and the state of this great lodestar state. Remember, this is a battle for the soul of this nation. If we lose, then everything that's good and righteous will be cast into the fire. Goodbye peaceful protesters, hello white supremacist militia groups. The voice of the American people will be heard. If they choose Trump again, and the COVID response remains lackluster, say goodbye to some of your loved ones. 

It doesn't get much worse than this. The Trump demagogue has become a true death cult. The brutal murder of George Floyd, the death of Herman Cain, the Rose Garden ceremony, and Trump Rallies confirm this.

Jazz Music Live Stream

Hello all,

Here's a jam session from today, this afternoon. We just played improv, straight-ahead jazz style, as I know how to play it on the guitar. I've been getting more and more into jazz guitar, and Jason's alto saxophone playing has really pushed me. The key is blending in the guitar with the saxophone. 

Thanks for watching and listening. Have a great day! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyRVeekA-yw

Eddie Van Halen

Eddie Van Halen died on October 6th, 2020. The music world has been deeply saddened by his death, as have I. 

Eddie was one of those quintessential guitar players. You might not like Van Halen or heavy metal but the fact remains that he was one of the pivotal guitar gods of the 1980's. He played on Michael Jackson's Thriller. Through his influence, there was a guitar boom during that time and everybody wanted to shred the guitar, leading to great players like Randy Rhoads. Eddie is the best guitar hero of the 80s, without a doubt. His influences, ironically, also my influences, the 1960s-1970s classic/blues rock, is evident in his playing, and helped develop his classic hard rock, "brown sound," if you will. 

What is the brown sound? Well, it's that most perfect hard rocking loud distorted guitar tone that every rock guitarist goes for without necessarily trying to because it's so good so why change things up? Eddie perfected it with his own hands, guitar modifications, and guitar effects like the phase 90 and tube screamer stomp boxes, guitar pedals, and electronics.

A guitarist named Ronn from a classic rock band from the 70s, called Lightning [find them on YouTube, he's a killer guitar player], also told me about Eddie, "He plays licks from outer space, from Mars." Well, that certainly makes sense considering how blazing fast, bluesy, and melodic Eddie was. There was something otherworldly there. His guitar playing had everything; heavy rocking riffs, decent vocals, blistering melodic solos, and a good band to keep everything going. Not to mention the intensity of a Van Halen stage show performance. Might as well jump! He had it all and did it all. 

His passing is especially sad during the middle of COVID, where some 200,000 Americans have died due to the novel virus. Although he died from cancer, we will never really know if perhaps his death was 'covid related,' as many deaths are these days. His death is personal for me because when I was a teenager I was obsessed with all things guitar. And when I discovered Van Halen, it changed my life for a while. 

I could see that although heavy metal wasn't the kind of music my kind of people listen to, the music resonated with me because of the power of Eddie's crushing guitar sound and melodic fast solos. It wasn't so much the anthems [Jump, Panama, Runnin' with the Devil, Jamie's Cryin', Hot for Teacher] rather it was just the fact of the matter; the heavy guitar riffing saved my teenage soul. After hearing Eruption I went on to learn parts of it. And even later I learned all the scales and modes so I could shred the fret-board like Eddie. It was a good time. It's good to be young. 

I also had a Van Halen disc golf that I cherished because I loved the band so much. I became a great Frisbee golfer back around 2011 and took great care to never lose my Van Halen disc golf, no matter how many trees were in the park, day or night.

Now that I'm older I see that people like Eddie Van Halen are rare. They won't come again. There will never be another Eddie Van Halen. There will be others similar to him but they will never be able to capture that intrinsic something, that epic guitar god status that is sorely lacking in today's musical environment because rap and pop have taken over and rock guitar has taken a back seat since then. 

But his legacy isn't over. Even someone like me, a guitarist in his 30s, has been influenced by Eddie, and his playing lives on through guitar players like me, who learned from him, honored, and respected him, loving the music and learning from it. 

Yeah, it's just heavy metal but it was MY heavy metal. 

"I know, it's only rock and roll but I like it."

*Rest In Peace*

Smartphones are good, but they aren't great.

Hello, readers. I recently got a smartphone, a cheap android phone. It's my first smartphone. Here are some general thoughts upon the first time ever having a smartphone. 

Going from never owning a smartphone to now owning a smartphone is like going from black and white television to colour television. It really is that much of a big difference. The ability to have a mini computer in my pocket on the go is much needed for the 21st century. 

However, we must beware of the 21st century schizoid man [king crimson reference, from the first album, great album-In the Court of the Crimson King and song-21st Century Schizoid Man]. I've already noticed some good AND bad elements of owning a smartphone. First the good.

1) Mini-computer always on your person. If I need to go online to check literally anything from emails, Twitter, Facebook, and apps like Instagram, the smartphone is always there for you. The ability of WI-Fi literally changed the world and made life for the young modern person that much easier. Data too is like virtual energy, like a spell by Tesla.

2) I can use the Lyft app to call a ride in case of an emergency. If I'm ever super late at night at someone's house and end up without a ride, Lyft is always there for me. 

3) I can use the transit app if I want to take the bus, anywhere, and know what time the bus will arrive. 

4) I can go on social media and dating apps and potentially meet people. 

Now for the bad!

1) Always having a mini-computer on your person is terrible. You'll be compelled to always be on your phone, literally at all times: upon wake up, at work, on work break, on the walk back home, late at night, before bed...It begins to take a bad toll upon you. It is very toxic and most people are like this.

2) Overusing apps is terrible. I started off on a bad start by calling 4 Lyft rides in one week. That's such a waste of money. There was a way I could've got home via transit, or even asked a friend.  

3) It's a time waster. Get hooked to it and you'll forget about real life. You'll go on it on a date, you'll go on it while talking to your girlfriend, you'll go on while talking to your kids, you'll be on it while on the job at work, the time it will take away is virtually unlimited. 

So yeah having a smartphone for the first time is quite the experience. But if anything, being connected online all the time doesn't feel good, it feels like people can get to me much easier because of it. These things have their uses but relying on them too much will lead to idiocy, the likes of which we see everyday when somebody's in public glued to their phone when the moment would be better off without it.    

Psycho Circus

It's October 4th, 2020. Trump got the virus three weeks before the Election. Welcome to the psycho circus [coincidentally also a great song and video by the rock band Kiss]. 

There's so much division and hate these days. And the 24/7 news cycle added with social media is not helping us, its hurting us as a people, all across the nation. The more people look at a screen the more their brain becomes deficient. My much younger friend, he's about 24, and I'm 31, told me today that he's Republican, and that it shouldn't matter what political affiliation he is, or who he's voting for, and that the world would be a much better place if everybody sat in a circle and hugged each other. Very much a hippie. I was shocked that he was Republican but of course it doesn't change anything to me. But for many other Democrats, it would become a symbol of contempt. 

It's easy to see why someone would dislike somebody for voting for Trump. It's much harder to actually defend Trump and defend the so-called "good," that he's done for the country. But my friend tried. He said he's a Republican because it's been that way in his family a long time. And that he likes Republican economic policies, and that Trump's done well with his economic policies. Oh boy, here we go. 

Instead of arguing I let him speak. It is what it is. He's a soft spoken, kind, caring man who unbeknownst to him has a way with women but the political spectrum he chooses is one that shows disregard for the other; the less fortunate, the poor, the black and brown peoples, the LGBT community, anyone who isn't white and Republican. It's very telling, revealing but I can look past it because he's a genuine great person. 

What I've come to learn is that Biden can't change the hearts and minds of these type of voters. As they say, Republicans fall in line and Democrats fall in love. He loves Kennedy, which was pretty cool, but who doesn't like Kennedy? Trump will get these voters because they're already Republican, probably their whole lives, even if the economic policies that they say are so great, is really nothing but redistribution of wealth from the poor to the richest, leading the richest people not to create jobs, but play the stock market for fun and make even more money. 

So no, Biden won't get these diehard Republican voters and he has a hell of a fight for this upcoming election. Trump is playing on the sympathy of the entire country to his benefit, even though the whole reason why so many Republicans have COVID right now is because of him and that Rose-bowl speech. Trump is also the reason why over 200,000 Americans have died due to COVID. We didn't have a smart plan. Trump botched it. If not because of the fact that he's a white supremacist and won't renounce white supremacy or even the Proud Boys [which should be an automatic disqualification for President by the way], or the fact that he said and did nothing when George Floyd was murdered for the entire world to see [a real leader would have condemned the cop], the fact that Trump got over 200,000 Americans killed because of a failed COVID plan should result in a loss of power and possible jail crimes for undermining American democracy [among other things]. 

So Trump got COVID. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy. The clown show is over. Maybe RBG gets the last laugh in the Great Afterward. I share her mirth.

Thoughts on Tolstoy's War and Peace, Parts X-XV

So I finally got around to finishing the 1200 pages that is War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. If you haven't kept up to date with my writings on the novel check these posts out here, and here.

Those posts cover the first quarter and half of the book. Now I will write about parts X-XV, the ending, and epilogue. 

The entire second half of War and Peace turns into a lot of war and philosophical exposition. The war scenes in this book are probably the best war scenes I've ever seen described in a book, aside from Homer and Plutarch's Romans. Nothing else really comes close. You get such a nihilistic sense [this goes back to the philosophy] of what war really is, how it is perpetrated, and the end result in terms of history of mankind. 

A bit of history. The novel spans the years 1805 to 1820. Catherine the Great was still in the minds of older Russians. She made French the language of the Royal Court and made the nobility to learn about French culture. Louis Antoine, Duke of Enghien is executed in 1805 and Alexander I rules Russia in the Napoleonic Wars. 

"Key historical events woven into the novel include the Ulm Campaign, the Battle of Austerlitz, the Treaties of Tilsit, and the Congress of Erfurt. Tolstoy also references the Great Comet of 1811 just before the French invasion of Russia. Tolstoy then uses the Battle of Ostrovno and the Battle of Shevardino Redoubt in his novel, before the occupation of Moscow and the subsequent fire. The novel continues with the Battle of Tarutino, the Battle of Maloyaroslavets, the Battle of Vyazma, and the Battle of Krasnoi. The final battle cited is the Battle of Berezina, after which the characters move on with rebuilding Moscow and their lives." [wiki]

If you know history, you know how the French lost this war. Napoleon killed thousands of Russians and eventually sacked the capital, Moscow. However, the French needed supplies to keep up their troops. The problem was that the French were very far from home, low on supplies, and the Russian winter is a deadly cold winter. This was what saved Russia. 

The French had to keep retreating while the Russians attacked their supplies and counter-attacked them. Although more Russians died and their army was smaller, therefore weaker, their will, their spirit was stronger, and the fact that they attacked the supplies of the French forced the French army to fight without supplies, namely food, resulting in a devastating, humiliating, defeat. But it is the way that Tolstoy describes all of this that is downright remarkable and ultimately creating an unforgettable war story. 

Pierre, the principal character gets captured by French soldiers in Moscow and becomes a prisoner of war. This part of the book is so lifelike, so visceral, you know that being a pow is exactly like what is described here. It's like a historical document. Prince Andrey, an important secondary character dies after eating a grenade. The result is that her betrothed, Natasha, ends up marrying Pierre, who was Andrey's friend. Very awkward and bad timing, but the way Tolstoy writes it is that Pierre and Natasha had actually always loved each other, and were happy to finally consecrate their love. What is revealing is that Pierre never loved his first wife and he's even happy when she dies. However, it's not the storytelling of the book that highlights parts X-XV, it is the ideas. 

The very last part of the epilogue is intriguing. Tolstoy writes of a historical philosophy that disclaims the fact that heroes or great men are the leaders of destiny, the creators of history, like Plutarch's Romans [the idea of the ancients]. Rather, it is the collective will of the multitude of men that makes or breaks history. Basically, great historical events are the result of many smaller events driven by the thousands of individuals involved. 

The other two parts that I've written [listed above in the second line] go into more of the philosophical details of War and Peace. Namely, the fact that Tolstoy wrote this not as a novel, not as a history, not as a chronicle, but as something philosophical. Tolstoy himself said the novel was his response to Schopenhauer's  The World as Will and Representation. 

Moving on, the critics didn't take the book well when it first appeared in Russia in 1865 [it was serialized and took till 1889 for book form]. "However, the most prominent Russian writers of the time supported the novel wholeheartedly. Goncharov, Turgenev, Leskov, Dostoyevsky and Fet have all gone on record as declaring War and Peace the masterpiece of the Russian literature.  Fyodor Dostoyevsky (in a May 30, 1871 letter to Strakhov) described War and Peace as "the last word of the landlord's literature and the brilliant one at that"." [wiki]

Lastly, my closing thoughts. This is without a doubt, one of the best works of Russian literature. Going beyond that, it's one of the best books I'll read or will ever read. The book challenged me in a way that no other work of fiction ever has. Each line is potentially thought provoking, forcing you to commit to all of it without hesitation. This book will make you smarter because it will make you think a lot about people, emotions, history, and ideas. The more you read it, the more you keep thinking, and the more you can understand. Even understanding just a slight bit more and more, every time you read it, is ultimately satisfying. 

I talked to a lot of everyday people about War and Peace and most of them said, "its too long," and, "I'm not ready," and some even, "I'm not worthy," well the truth of the matter is that most people talk about Tolstoy but haven't actually read him. My advice to these people and others is that Tolstoy is for everyone and you should read War and Peace in particular. Yes, its long, and sometimes even grueling, but in the end the reward is a lifetime achievement of ideas. 

No matter who you are out there, read this book.

October 1st, 2020, Thoughts

So, here we are, 2020, October 1st. Let me start that by saying it's a blessing all of us reading this are even alive today. As of this writing over 200,000 Americans have died due to COVID and it's expected that at least 400,000 will die by the end of the year, and those are considered "good numbers". Grim to say the least. Tonight I will jot down some ideas on life, politics, work, music, reading, writing, a little bit of everything to show some appreciation for the fist day of October. Happy Halloween folks!

The reaction on the internet today is mostly praise or disavowal of the Presidential Debate last night. Most of my Facebook feed was disavowal but you can imagine that some of my right-wing friends were praising the President. It easy to see that Trump would never condemn white supremacist groups, in fact, I believe he's only condemned white supremacy once as President, and he only did so when he was asked three times, and said it with no conviction. 

So we know that Trump is a white supremacist. We know that he likes the fact that these right-wing militia groups support him. He will use them as force if necessary to quell violence between right-wing racist groups and leftist protesters who get a little too aggressive, maybe Antifa or BLM. He would be cool with using the Proud Boys as an intimidation tactic in black and brown communities to get people to steer clear from their voting stations, so they can't vote, so they can't vote for Biden, and so they [Proud Boys] can undermine American democracy. Yes, we know all that. 

So it seems fair to say that we don't need to spend much air time on national TV news talking about how much of a racist he is and how he won't condemn right-wing white supremacy groups. Another thing we know is that most Americans are middle of the road. They aren't entirely overly left-wing or right-wing, they're mostly moderates in middle class or lower middle class. The one thing I don't get is how upset and/or surprised white people are over the, "stand back and stand by," which is a military language. 

Dear white people: 

Stop being surprised by Donald Trump. We all know what the man is about, what he stands for, and how he's corrupted every aspect of American government and organizations. That's why his cronies are trying right now to jump off the sinking ship. Former Trump supporters and government officials are trying to get Biden elected. That's very telling. We, collectively, as a nation, as a body politic need to stop being surprised by what Trump does and come together as a country to elect a real leader, in this case, Biden/Harris. 

The more airtime that Trump gets on TV and/or online news for being a "race-baiting, xenophobic bigot," the more we see that he's a disgusting monster. The problem is that's all old news. If people keep thinking like that, they'll say, "this is why I hate politics, I'll stay clear of all that shit, I don't need to vote," and that's how he will get lots of more votes because he will make good people think that politics and voting isn't for them. Obviously those people are intimidated and will be fearful about taking action by voting against him. I know lots of people like this in my friendship groups. It is what it is. 

But we have to stay vigilant. It's much harder being a good man than an evil man. Nobody ever said having a democracy would be easy. That's why we're here. 

In other news I had a great jam session with my friend Jason, who plays the alto saxophone. I'm beginning to get a better feel for jazz guitar. I realized in a simple jam that if I play a lot of simple triad [chords that are only three notes] but use a lot of inversions, that I can get that real authentic jazz guitar sound from the 50s. Instead of relying on big chords all the time I need to play more triads to play smoother and faster chord inversions. Chord inversions are the sounds of the same chords but the notes are re-arranged. On piano it's a little more tricky to play but on guitar there's a physicality to it, a formula form, if you will. It's all shapes, chord shapes that every guitarist knows, but maybe haven't played extensively before. 

Also, I've learned to tighten up my solos more. I start with a slow melody, expand upon it, get some speed in there, and end it with some more melodies. I'm beginning to tell a story with my solos, a beginning, middle, and end. Things make a lot more sense that way rather than playing everything fast. Heck, I think jazz guitar solos sound better when they're slower anyways because its more bluesy, and I think it meshes more with the saxophone if I don't shred that much, if at all. A more moderate, medium tempo for the licks gives it much more form, in my humble opinion. 

In other news, I'm about 100 pages away from finishing Tolstoy's War and Peace. This novel took so much out of me on an emotional level and a philosophical level. I thought a lot about love, misery, despair, existentialism, war, brotherhood, wife-hood, and much more. What made War and Peace so difficult for me was not the fact that its 1200 pages long; rather it was the fact that every sentence is somewhat thought provoking, every line-paragraph-page-chapter-book kept making me think a lot, more and more, even when I wasn't reading the novel. It's a powerful force. I will definitely read the book Tolstoy considers his first real novel too at some point: Anna Karenina. But War and Peace is unforgettable. Most of the readers I run into at work say that they've never managed to read it, either out of intimidation of the challenge of such a long emotive work, or possibly they think the 1200 pages much too long. The book is worth the time and effort to read it and it reveals much. I'll be sure to write my last post about it tomorrow or sometime thereafter. 

Work has been much slower this year due to COVID. In most of my years working this current job, I was working over 40 hours a week due to being the go-to guy who helps out and covers other peoples' shifts. But due to COVID the store has cut down most employees' hours so much that most of the emergency staff hired from the beginning of the pandemic have already left or quit, most of them did so after only a month or two of work. It's crazy that the company is cutting hours so much even though my store is a million dollar store [its like LAX, you'll run into everybody and anybody there] and they're doing very well there, they decided it was the time to cut hours and not give workers more pay. As for me, I can still pick up extra hours here and there but it seems like for now my hours will stay pretty low but steady. I've realized that most people are hurting from COVID, they're unemployed and relying on unemployment. Lots of them are going to food banks to get food to feed their families. The hard thing for me to do has been to find a way to live with less money and spending less money. But the more difficult problem for so many Americans is how do you find a way to live during COVID without a job? Or also, how do you find a way to live during COVID if you're working from home, stuck with your family and kids all day? There's a whole discourse to be talked about on the subject for sure.  

Lastly, its October 1st and it was 100 degrees today. Let's hear it for California! October is a great month because its right after my birthday and I've always loved Fall and Fall weather. Halloween is always a fun holiday, as it's really the beginning of the regular holidays after the high Jewish holidays. 

I end with a jest. Lucifer [Milton's Lucifer] gave rock and roll to you down at the crossroads. Happy Halloween!