tag cloud

You know…when your tag cloud highlights the words “end times”, “rapture” and “left behind”, you’ve got problems, so I’m categorizing this with everything else to get a new lease on life.

And if that doesn’t work, I’ll just start tagging words like “naked”…

Movies & More

Just a few random notes:

Wendy and I saw “Once” this week. It may have only been shot for $150,000, but it was great filmmaking, wonderful passionate music, and a movie that has stuck in our imaginations. Personally, there is a scene in a music store where the two main characters collaborate that just sucked me in. I wholeheartedly recommend it to my artistic and creative friends who find joy in passionate filmmaking and don’t get hung up on foul language…although the Irish really don’t say the f-word right, so it’s really not swearing…is it?

I read Bird By Bird by Anne Lamott last week on a recommendation from a friend and just had a great howl. She has a chapter on jealousy that should be read by every artist (and non-artist, really). I haven’t laughed that hard reading since Searching For God Knows What by Donald Miller. She inspired me to write more and let it all hang out there. Good stuff. I also recommend this to anyone who loves good literature or is bent to create (whether it is writing or whatever).

I also had the pleasure of reading Kansas City Jazz by Chuck Haddix and Frank Driggs. I thoroughly enjoyed learning more about the heritage of my dear Kansas City and was in awe by the K.C. musical innovations and influences that made jazz what it is today. I was most interested and drawn to a female pianist from the heyday of jazz in Kansas City named Mary Lou Williams. Not only was she a phenomenally talented pianist who played with Andy Kirk’s Clouds of Joy, but she was one of the most sought out arrangers of her day (arranging for the likes of Woody Herman, Duke Ellington and Count Basie). Her musical longevity is uncanny and her influence on bebop musicians such as Charlie “Yardbird” Parker and Dizzy Gillespie is well documented, yet she sits in the shadow of our American Musical History. Thanks to Haddix and Driggs, I was able to “discover” her in 2007!