If You Hate This Blog, There's Another "Beggars All"

Oddly enough, someone else has put together a blog with the name: Beggars All. This person claims, "My name is junior. I'm just a beggar trying to show other beggars where to find bread." Apparently, he's s a Reformed Baptist.  I'm going to simply assume Junior didn't know about this blog, and I'm tempted to speculate he's unaware of Luther's connection to the phrase.

Since I'm not any sort of stat monger, combined with my best efforts to lose as many readers as possible on a daily basis, I wish Junior the best in carving out his plot of cyberspace.

Addendum #1
As a way of extending a hand friendship to the competition (for lack of a better word), today's entry on the alternate "Beggars All" was a video link to the Beastie Boys singing "Sabatoge." FWIW, the Beastie Boys have a very interesting instrumental album called, The In Sound from Way Out! Here's a sample.

In terms of my own musical taste, I've been fascinated recently by Music for 18 Musicians by Steve Reich. It's minimalism (and an acquired taste). For those of you fluent in music theory, you'll recognize that while it's minimalism, it's an extremely complicate piece of music. I'll assume most of you will simply watch this video for about a minute and then lose interest.





Addendum #2
On the other hand, after 15 years I picked up the Chapman Stick yesterday. I bought a new set of strings, and plan to begin playing again. It's funny picking up an instrument after such a long period of time. Below is the Stick in action, played by a man I took a few lessons from many years back, and who I found out recently passed away:





I first saw Frank Jollife play at a little nightclub in Clifton New Jersey. I had heard about the Chapman Stick, but had never seen one that close up. I had no idea I was going to see Frank Jollife play the Chapman Stick. Frank played jazz standards and was accompanied by a woman who sang. What I remember most about Frank was his ability to play so effortlessly. It wasn't that long afterwards that I ended up buying a Chapman Stick, pictured here:

Somewhere on old cassettes I have recordings of the Stick lessons given to me by Frank. As I think about it, he was responsible for a large chunk of my musical life. Had I not seen him play that night, I probably would not have pursued the Stick. Out of all the Stick players you'll find on the Internet, I would think Frank rates in the top 5. I can think of only one or two other players that have the same comfort and ability that Frank had on the Stick.