"if you wanna hear some boogie like i'm gonna play, it's just an old piano and a knock-out bass..." lotsa websites ref'ed below, too

this wkend at school, we did a writing workshop w/sharon doubiago (http:// www.new college.edu/ review/doubiago.htm - parental guidance suggested). she had us write about 1st memories, of which i've thought i have few. i was grateful, once the unearthing began, to realize mine are of family, safety, color, music (my baby mobile, my crib, smiling parent faces & support, the piano). i found myself writing about the piano & realized how its formidable comfort & resonance completed me (i was a backward kid, like so many). the piano was my companion for so many yrs! i still play on a 1930s-era kimball spinet, which mom & dad bought from my lovely piano teacher, a classically-trained welshwoman who let me play boogie-woogie. the piano & i had each other, & we still do... in a few hrs, i have my 1st piano lesson w/carl sonny leyland (www.carl sonnyleyland.com)! i've also had one lesson each w/nat dove (www. nat dove.com) & gene taylor (www.gene-taylor.com), the latter of which was especially useful! w/all the banging & pounding i've done w/dusk devils, i've worn out my thumbs & wrists some. carl suggested the book "pain free" by pete egoscue -- after just one day of its gentle moves, i can now again play for 2-3 hrs w/o pain! here's a link to the book: www.egoscue.com ... now i'm working on joplin & gershwin from manuscript, trying to get those fingers to stretch & cooperate like they used to & rebuild muscle memory (i'm happy how fast it comes back!). it's wonderful to be able to play again w/o suffering. i've forgotten the tactile pleasure of "really playing" & hope to get "rhapsody in blue" back up to speed, to play for mama's birthday (she doesn't read this, so she won't know). other exercises i've been able to do lately post-surgery are from "western yoga" (www.are store.com), recommended by my kindly little "witch dr" bridget (www.drbbonnet dc.com) ... they really get your heart going & energize!
so that's enough linking for now, my friends. hope you visit these friends' sites! wish me luck that, in front of awesome carl, i don't freeze up. he told me he wants to "hear how i play." yipes!
i know, tho, that it'll work out & i'll be a better player from it. i relish the chance to learn from carl, who is super-studied & devoted, in addition to considerably talented!
this is so exciting!!!!! the more i think of it, the more.... wow!!!!! :)
(sing) happy trails to you, until we meet again...

deficit omne quod nasciture

rest in peace, my childhood friend, a bright, big-eyed girl who in her adult life became, i believe, defeated; and rest in peace, my favorite childhood teacher, a talented musician, a noble soul, a vietnam veteran, a drunk. marcus aurelius kept a journal of thoughts on life & death ("meditations"):
1. Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart.
2. Despise not death, but welcome it, for nature wills it like all else.
3. Everything that exists is in a manner the seed of that which will be.
4. Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth. 5. Forward, as occasion offers. Never look round to see whether any shall note it... Be satisfied with success in even the smallest matter, and think that even such a result is no trifle.
6. It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.
7. Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig.
8. Loss is nothing else but change, and change is Nature's delight.
9. Such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.
10. The act of dying is one of the acts of life.
11. When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.
12. Where a man can live, he can also live well.