Sunday kind of Folk

All right. I found a office supply place open and I have a new toner cartrige.
The pressure is off, so I went back to Folklife festival.
Heard a wonderful Chicago-blues band by the name of

Sassparilla

Called themselves a jug band but I saw no jugs. Washtub bass, washboards, homebuilt guitars, they sat on plastic buckets, but no one hooting away on a jug. Made no difference. I loved it!
I really love the blues. There are people who argue that Jazz is based on the blues.
Nonsense, I say to "those people", ALL music is based on or inspired by the blues. There is the tautological argument that composers write because they feel that there should be more to life, therefore they feel they are getting less than they deserve and have no other way of trying to get it than writing music, even though they know it is impossible.
That's the blues Dear readers.
Recently I heard Seattle Opera's excellent rendition of "La Boheme"
Lost love, the enevitability of death, having a good time in the meantime.
That's what the blues is all about.
"Fidelio" is a fantasy about a longing for freedom. The blues.
"Turindot is a fantasy about dealing with cruelties of the powers that be (The MAN). The blues
Beethoven's 9th Symphony is about longing for a good time. The blues
Studying composer's biographies, you will find very few truely happy stories.
Even Haydn had to work for the man. The blues.
Read Mozart's story and tell me that blues man's type of life
"Flying Dutchman" is a fantasy about impossible love. The blues
"Porgy and Bess" well, yeah, willing to admit it.
It's a little known fact that Michael Pretorius was a kick-ass blues shouter.
It's so little known that even I don't know it.
I think I've made my point.
If you don't agree, please be kind, I'm feeling a little down lately.

P.S. This whole blog is me singin' the blues, innit?
"The Seattle Symphony kicked my ass blues"
Sounds real good on hammered dulcimer

And speaking of Celtic music.....
Speaking of the cultural feelings of people tossed out of thier homes by forces over which they have no control....
Famines...
Evictions....
Being hot property in the muscle market...
All of us.
Everyone who looks up experiences the blues.
If you listen to religious utterances closely, what are they saying but, O lord I am so down and you are so up, please be kind.
Which is all I ask of you.

Today

As I looked out my window this morning, I saw the yard. Smooth grass peeking over the windowsill. The large bush off to the right. Then I realised that my window is on the second floor! So I had to fire up the old Honda and shorten the lawn a bit.
Turns out the large bush was actually the 20 foot tall apple tree!
Then I went to Folklife festival heard a great percussion jam session on a bunch of marimbas, including a gigantic double-bass that had me planning how to make one for myself. Not that I have any room for the darn thing.
Also, besides digeredoos, blues guitarists, child flautists, violinists, cellists, banjoists,etc, I heard a wonderful hammered dulcimer trio. One of those things is ethreal enough, but three together is O.T.W. (as DeKoven used to put it) or even O.T.G.
My lovely and talented ex-wife doesn't like my new picture.
That's because the old one is a fuzzy silouette and you can't see all the wrinkles or my beady little pig eyes.
I guess.
Anyway, I still love the folklife festival. I always visit the musical instrument craftsman showroom.
I am always jealous because the workmanship is several orders of magnitude better than mine.
My goal in life has always to raise myself to mediocracy, and, whether or not I've made it, I'll let myself believe I have.
Derrick, my brother in law's 3-year-old boy is outside right this moment banging on the big 5-foot gong I made from the end of an oil tank.

O My!! I've got to get a score printed and bound and to the Northwest Symphony Orchestra call for scores. Not that they'll actually want the darn thing. I keep trying. It's the third movement of the clarinet concerto and I don't have the faintest idea of a name to call it so that it sounds like a piece in itself.
Plus, my printer cartridge is running out and the next two days are holidays and my composition class is one of them and the thing is due the 1st!!
It features neither Double-Bass Marimbas nor hammered dulcimers (love that sound).