April 25th, 2019
“Cualli tlanecic” “Good Morning !!!” to you all in Nahuatl or Aztec, a Uto-Aztecan language spoken mainly in central Mexico.
How was your Easter? I hope you found the eggs, enjoyed the candy and celebrated a wonderful feast. This year we gave up our easter egg hunt, all were too busy but we did dye eggs. Egg dying technology has changed quite abit since my mom first put those little tablets of color into the coffee cups filled with vinegar but it was still fun. We had a wonderful family feast of Ham, home made Mac & Cheese, Grilled Broccoli and Flan for dessert. Yum but it didn’t do my diet plan any favors!
Also I hope the Jews in our congregation, enjoyed a wonderful Passover Seder with all its stories, wine and matzah. I grew up with both these holidays. In fact when I was like 8 or so I found out that while all of us took off the Christian holidays – Christmas and Easter, the Jews had some special ones too. I asked my mom if I could be Jewish for the first time. Later when I was like 14 or so, I was curious about the Jewish faith again and my mom took me to a synagogue where I spoke to a Rabbi who helped me come to the decision that perhaps I might not be a happy jew. Anyway, many of my friends were Jewish and seemed to truly enjoy their Passover Seders with all their family members around, especially the stories.
This week I learned some stuff:
• Today, April 25th is WORLD PEQUIN DAY, World Penguin Day recognizes one of the unique birds on the planet. There are 17 species of penguins, and all their natural habitats are in the Southern hemisphere. These guys have made almost ever human on the planet smile at one time or another. Disney has a new Penguin movie out this week and if you bought a ticket, $.20 went to the Wildlife Conservation Network to support penguin conservation.
Website Update:
• A new Vocabulary Quiz!! Yeah!!!!!
• Last week for the new UJT Music Trivia Quiz.
• I added the lyrics for “Drops of Jupiter” this week. The song is written by Patrick Moynahan and performed by Train.
• I came up with a tasty leftover disposal recipe a day or so after Easter. I call it Leftover Ham Magic. A couple of days later, I used the bone to make some seriously delicious Bean Soup.
• I am still battling it out with my hosting service and their !@#$@$#!#@ tool “support” to get their bugs fixed which would allow me to maintain my site better. I am sorry I haven’t been able to put UJT Updates or some recipes on their correct pages (They still show on the New Stuff Menu at the bottom of each page for the week that they come out).
Writing, Ceramics and Painting Update:
• I managed to complete some more paintings this week. I started on a few more too. I also worked the Flamingo’s body in Ceramics Class this week.
• Grandpa Stories is still not re-published.
Weird-Stuff-O-Meter:
• I know this will not surprise most of you, but sometimes stuff just pops into my head! .. Yeah yeah.. you all are just jealous that you don’t hear the voices! All kidding aside sometimes I just think of stuff that seems completely out of context for the situation that I am in but none the less valuable (at least to me) but for much of my life I have chosen to let it pass with out noting the specifics. Sometimes later, the concept might work its way into a poem or my journal but most often, I am afraid, I have just let them go – too busy or too distracted or not really valuable to anyone except me. Something like that happened to me this week. Apropos to nothing at the time, this crystal clear image of thought came to me. Only this time I had the wherewithal to capture it. Some how it felt right and made me wonder if it might be worthwhile to go back over my journals and see what else there might be. Oh .. the thought was like a quote from an old man to a young man… “You will never have trouble getting someone’s disapproval and judgement … Reasoned perspective is harder to come by but always worth the wait.” Anyway, I am going to make an effort to capture these things from now on. Little crumbs left in space and time to let others know where I have gone… like that.
• How do you bite the inside of your own cheek??!! I understand how I might mange to chomp on the outside of someone else’s cheek but the inside of mine baffles me. I was just sitting there eating something and felt the pain. Its just not right!
• Well, my demounting from the wagon was dignified and decorous but has come to an end once again. I enjoyed drinking again but I also enjoyed not drinking, as well. So for awhile anyway, I will continue enjoying some cocktails for a week and not for a month and see how I like that.
Music Update:
I hope you all enjoy this week’s musical selections.
• Van Morrison — Days Like This — In 1967 all the radio stations played, “Brown-Eyed Girl” from his first album so often that I came to dislike it. Then everybody and their brother covered it and the radio stations played their versions till I really hated it. But there has always been something about Van Morrison. In this song, he gives it away to everyone. And he is still singing! He released his last album, “Keep Me Singing” in 2016. Check it out:)
• David Feder — Warm Wind — Another cut from his “The Time in Between” album released 2004. My thanks to Karl Hiaasen!!!
• Mark Knoffler — Good On You Son — This is another cut from his newest release “Down the Road Whenever”. His guitar is so clean and subtle. He just keeps getting better. I love this new this record.
• Train — Drops of Jupiter — Even though it hasn’t quite been a year since I included this song in the UJT Radio program, I heard it again this week and fell in love, again. I always have liked it but I never really investigated the lyrics.
• Snow — Informer — This one came up this week. It had been a while since I heard any ..”leaky boom boom there…” This is something about t his silliness that makes me smile.
• Natasha Bendingfield – Unwritten — This lady knocked it out of the park commercially with this, her first single which is a title cut for her 2nd album. This song is just so well written and thoughtful. I hope you like it enough to check out some of the other songs by this very interesting woman.
• J.J. Grey & Mofro — The Sun Shines Down — Another cut from these boys. This one comes from their “Country Ghetto” album released in 2007. It’s got kind of a cool old-timey gospel thing going on.
That’s it… Do the best you can; Laugh every chance you get; And always remember … The best is yet to come!
As always, thank you for being my friend!
James