John Coltrane

"My goal is to live the truly religious life and express it in my music. If you live it, when you play there's no problem because the music is just part of the whole thing. To be a musician is really something. It goes very, very deep. My music is the spiritual expression of what I am - my faith, my knowledge, my being . . . When you begin to see the possibilities of music, you desire to do something really good for people, to help humanity free itself from its hangups. I think music can make the world better and, if I'm qualified, I want to do it. I'd like to point out to people the divine in a musical language that transcends words. I want to speak to their souls."

John Coltrane

Perpetuum Mobile

Wurlitzerlust.

It will be mine.



Oh yes. It will be mine.

Don't expect a care package from me any time soon.

If I could make a list of my favorite things to do, going to the post office would rank at the absolute bottom of that list. It's a place I've come to thoroughly despise. From the moment you walk in, the smell hits you like a brick wall - something between the spectrum of smelly feet and mothballs, among various junk that's probably been sitting there for years - some discounted office supplies, stale mini-paks of M&Ms, the greatest hits of Willie Nelson. Some awful elevator-type music is always noodling overhead, usually Kenny G or something along the lines of smooth jazz.

Apart from the depressing ambiance, what really gets me is the people that work there. Everyone behind the counter seems bitterly aware that they have the worst job in the world and nobody has any qualms about showing it with the "kill me now!" attitude they plainly exude. You are forced to wait in a line longer than the Nile and inhale that nauseating fish-mothball air for what feels like a year, to interact with people who hate their lives and consider dying from licking too many envelopes a legitimate cause of death. It's hot and stuffy and the people in line clearly think along the same lines as you do, loosening their collars and wondering how fast they can do this before bolting for the exit. Once I asked one of the workers if I could borrow her pen to address my envelope, and she gave me a toneless, "there are pens in Office Depot next door." She wouldn't let me use her pen!! She might as well have just shrieked, "I have a letter opener and I'm not afraid to use it!"

Finally, the ridiculous cost of shipping these days is the cherry on top of my unpleasant post office excursions. Any time I try to mail something it always ends up costing me like a billion dollars. Which is why I say, I am avoiding that place like the plague. Or you better thank me with arms open for mailing you the birthday card that cost me $8.00 to send you. (I'm not naming any names...Spencer.)

Oh and while we're at it, another thing that really annoys me is people who take the elevator (or, "the lift") to the 2nd floor. But that's another post.

joie de vivre

Joie de vivre (from the French joie, "joy"; de, "of"; vivre, "to live, living"; "the joy of living") is a term sometimes imported into English to express a cheerful enjoyment of life; an exultation of spirit. Joie de vivre, as one scholar has written,

"...can be a joy of conversation, joy of eating, joy of anything one might do… And joie de vivre may be seen as a joy of everything, a comprehensive joy, a philosophy of life, a Weltanschauung. Robert's Dictionnaire says joie is sentiment exaltant ressenti par toute la conscience, that is, involves one's whole being."[1]

In English common usage, the phrase is sometimes corrupted to joie de vie. This would translate to "joy of life" or "zest for life," rather than the more affirmative "joy of living."

WHO is rolf harris?!?

I'm in the throes of writing a press release on this guy Rolf Harris who's coming to the Opera House for his first show in 10 years. I'd never heard of him before, but apparently he's HUGE in Australia and even bigger in the UK. I'm talking headliner at Glastonbury, people dubbing him "the king of music," sold-out stadium crowds in the 70's and 80's. My coworkers say that he's a big deal because he's made a career doing these things called "novelty songs" - goofy songs that everybody eats up like hotcakes because they're just so ridiculous and out there to be taken seriously - such as his cover of "Stairway to Heaven" (below). His claim to fame is the instrument he's dubbed the "wobble board" - while shaking off a painted canvas to dry one day, he discovered the interesting sound the cardboard made as it flopped back and forth. hence, the wobbleboard was born. It's so scathingly brilliant. Seriously, if stuff like this excites you as much as it excites me, get off your arse and watch this right now.