LENNON'S "IMAGINE" 2022 INTL JAZZ DAY CONCERT

2022 INTERNATIONAL JAZZ DAY ALL-STAR GLOBAL CONCERT

        LIVE AT 2 PM PDT today -- SATURDAY APRIL 30 

               VIEW ON YOUTUBE, FACEBOOK or .....

On April 30th AT 5 PM US EDT, watch the International Jazz Day 2022 All-Star Global Concert, streamed live from the UN General Assembly Hall in New York, featuring dozens of acclaimed artists affirming the importance of jazz as a means of achieving unity and peace through dialogue and diplomacy.

"Paris and New York -- UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay and UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Herbie Hancock ... announced the program for the 2022 celebration of International Jazz Day, with events taking place in more than 180 countries.

The flagship Jazz Day event, a spectacular All-Star Global Concert, will be staged in the UN General Assembly Hall, in NewYork, emphasizing the importance of jazz as a means of achieving unity and peace through dialogue and diplomacy.  With Herbie Hancock serving as Host and Artistic Director and John Beasley as Musical Director, the program is set to feature performances by some of the world's most accomplished jazz artists..."

The jazz day web site continues ...

"This concert will be webcast worldwide today on April 30th at 5 pm EDT/2 pm PDT/11 pm CET on jazzday.com, unesco.org, hancockinstitute.org, the International Jazz Day YouTube and Facebook channels, UN Web TV and US State Department outlets.  

Jazz carries a universal message with the power to strengthen dialogue, our understanding of each other, and our mutual respect.  As the world is affected by multiple crises and conflicts, this international day highlights how much music and culture can contribute to peace," said Institute Chairman Herbie Hancock, who co-chairs International Jazz Day with the Director-General of UNESCO."

There have been a number of exciting jazz artists I've heard in recent decades including vocalists, instrumentalists. bands.   Jazz is very alive, thriving and exciting as performed by creative and talented musicians in countries around the world even though less prominent to many in our country in recent decades.   

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Did you view Michael Douglas introducing on PBS-TV Saturday 30th International Jazz Day I first viewed Friday night the 29th as I write this.  Unforgettable performances were featured by Herbie Hancock, Andra Day, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Dianne Reeves, Marcus Miller and many more.  

This introductory program closes with various artists with Sean Lennon, son of composer John, joining to sing his father's memorable "Imagine" so poignant for our world today.

Check your Public Television Station (PBS-TV) for the airdate and time you can access!

Upcoming Airdates on our local Los Angeles Southern California PBS-TV stations:

Saturday.   April 30       3 am PDT on PBS SOCAL TV 50

Wednesday, May.  4     10 pm PDT on KCET TV 28

Thursday,     May.   5.      2 am PDT on KCET TV 28

Click on this website's "EXTRAS" for videos of many jazz artists performances including "Manteca" featuring an unforgettable performance at the historic Gran Teatro de La Habana -- Latin America's oldest theater.

WILDLIFE ON EARTH DAY -- OLDER PEOPLES NEEDS

Earth Day in SoCal was highlighted with groundbreaking for the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing to be completed in 2025. 

The world's largest such construction with more SoCal wildlife bridges across freeways hoped for in the future.

Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing.         

Erin Myers reports for the KTLA 5 Morning on April 22, 2022

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Living in place and thriving as I age presents increasing challenges the older I become.  Talking with a friend a decade younger but who is coping with issues of her's and husband's our conversation evolved to some of the needs we have.   My family lives across country from me and, especially since Covid rarely is able to visit, unlike her family but they live in  different communities so cannot easily visit their parents either.

Wouldn't it be nice if there was a pre-screened group of people, maybe even senior high school or college students wanting to pick up a few hours of paid work occasionally, to provide assistance for incidental tasks?

Instances of retrieving boxes of items stored in high storage areas or replacing them, for example -- all those once simple actions that are no longer easy or even wise to undertake for physical or safety reasons.  Somebody could pop in for a couple hours with advanced schedule coordination and take care of an accumulated list of tasks we prepared.

Most of the available help seems to be only those to do house cleaning or provide nursing or personal care such as bathing, cooking/feeding, companionship.  There is a woman where I live who advertises as a Girl Friday who comes closer to providing such service, but she only runs errands, or shops for people.

Not all older people have such needs as my friend and I discussed, but perhaps some of you do or have thought about a source of such help.

PETTY PROBLEMS -- SURVIVAL LAUGHTER

Bringing this topic up with all the very real problems each of us likely have I probably should feel embarrassed.   These "little aggravations" can be the proverbial back-breaking straw that becomes overwhelmingly exasperating -- especially if the problem does not easily respond to resolution.   This is one I had years ago, may have written about here before.   I thought it had been permanently ended.  As my loving brother would have quipped, "We don't pay you to think!"

I manage to cope with the big issues that come up, but then if a bunch of little matters like this one pile on they can reach a point where even one more can break me down.  I find myself wondering if that's just my weakness or if any others have the same experience?

In the realm of annoyances, after several halcyon years I noticed in a dirt area next to my front entrance the soil has again been recently disturbed with obvious digging much like that made by cats in a litter box.  Sure enough, a cat appeared on my back patio one day.

Another day for several hours, every time I peered out my window that same cat sat by a hedge at my front driveway's edge near my garage door.  I don't know if the cat is new to some neighbor since most have dogs or has been dumped here as has occurred in years past.  

This predominately gray cat with flecks of white I've since seen again, appears to be well cared for so may have a local owner.  People must keep their dogs inside and I wish the same was true of cats.  They discourage birds from my yard, not to mention the hazard the outdoor roamers can present to our declining avian population.

We had a neutered male cat his long entire life so I'm not anti-feline, but I just think owners need to be more responsible, especially given the risks to the kitty's nine lives here at the mountains lower foothills edge.  Selfishly, I don't want a cat creating a personal litter box immediately next to my front door, either.  "Go in our own yard, kitty!"

I went through an unwelcome period of time some years ago when that same dirt area by my door was commandeered by some cat as a personal litter box that began to attract even more felines.  Repellent efforts with some commercial deterrents were unsuccessful but eventually the felines permanently seem to disappear.

Those unfortunate cats may have been the victims of wildlife predators that prowl our community for a tasty morsel.  Those hunters come mostly at night, such as coyotes, bobcats, mountain lions and even bears have been known to appear.  Coyotes, reported to have dens in our city, are the only ones I've ever seen, but I do have a coyote whistle our city distributed to residents to carry when out walking.   Owners of small pets, cats and dogs, are cautioned to take care letting their pet outside, especially after dark.  

When I've looked daily at that front-of-my-house area soil I had smoothed over, there has continued to be obvious digging disturbance.  I may try spreading a common hot spice cooking powder suggested as a possible repellent.  Supposedly, sprinkling the red hot pepper powder over the soil will result in the cat getting some on their paws.  They would then lick their paws when bathing after covering their business and find the smell, taste, or other quality totally unacceptable, even offensive to them, and not return.  Furthermore, all other trespassing felines would avoid the area, too, should any appear.  I wonder if anyone else has had success using such seasoning with this approach?  

You can see after reading this, what one of the most immediate pressing petty issues in the scheme of life is in my current daily existence.  This is that proverbial straw exasperating me when I have more important matters on which I need to focus my attention.  

I'll end this now by digressing to a cartoon that tickled my funny bones "borrowed" ...  okay! ...  stolen from my go-to blog for laughs:  Oddball Observations.

CODA -- LADY GAGA -- RESPECT OLDER PEOPLE

Some of the more recent noteworthy Academy Award Oscar winners and nominees have been over-shadowed by a now notorious face slapping  event.  One such Oscar was the best motion picture award (reviewed by the New York Times) to CODA  (child of deaf adults) -- a first major award for a film with a predominantly deaf cast.

The social uproar occurred with the recent Hollywood Academy Awards of the Oscars when the best actor prior to his award being announced unexpectedly walked on stage, slapped hard the comedian host for making a joke about the actor's wife.  Once the actor returned to his seat, he proceeded to utter a few curse word threats warning the comedian not to mention his wife's name.  All for which the actor ultimately apologized later.

Given that the comedian's joke referred to the actor's wife's bald head, which is due to a medical condition, I am of the view these type jokes should be off limits.  Making jokes about people who have a medical condition seems more than inappropriate to me to say the least -- such as how they look, walk, talk, react, and more.  Not known is if the comedian knew the wife shaved her head because of a medical condition, though this was public knowledge.  There  still is no excuse for the actor's actions.

The actor's reaction, after I observed him initially laughing at the joke, was quite an illegal physical assault on the comedian for which the actor could and, perhaps, should have been arrested on the spot, removed from the premises, and maybe even jailed.  How the whole situation was handled is another issue I won't even discuss further here.  There still was no excuse for the actor's behavior.

If an individual has a medical condition which they are comfortable publicly discussing and choose to laugh at or make jokes about, then that makes such humor about themselves more acceptable but not otherwise in my opinion.

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Liza Minnelli, celebrating the 50th anniversary of "Cabaret", the film that earned her an Oscar for best actress years ago, presented the best picture final award in spite of the adverse effects she was experiencing from medical problems.

Lady Gaga was a class act keeping the presentation going by assisting Ms Minnelli without ever being patronizing or awkward.   She, Liza, was enabled to retain her dignity despite the variety of medical issues that have challenged her functional abilities in recent years.

Lady Gaga and Liza Minnelli present Best Picture Oscars 2022.  ABC Live

My years as a Speech-Language Pathologist I worked with a rehabilitation team of other therapy disciplines and medical professionals.   Though I initially trained and planned to work with children who had severely disordered language, I evolved into working primarily with  adult patients of all ages but mostly older adults, in hospitals, eventually in long term  care including skilled nursing in my later years of practice.

I encountered individuals with many varying medical diagnoses that included a broad variety of communication, swallowing, cognitive and related difficulties, some such as Ms Minnelli has encountered.  In every instance with all patients, whatever the diagnoses,  their retaining personal dignity and being respected by all professionals, family members, friends, and any others they might encounter has been a vital element in enabling them as human beings to optimize achieving their highest potential functioning level of which they are capable at any given point in time. 

They and all of us want little more for ourselves than respect and dignity, too, even if our only issues are that we've become old.  Maybe we've reached an age we tire more easily.  Perhaps we're less able than we once were in some functional areas ... vision or hearing not as sharp ... thinking sequentially a little slower ... recall sometimes short-circuited ... some words not always available ... feeling overwhelmed occurring more readily ... walking not as fast or far, or not at all.  We may occasionally make mistakes in our words or speech that are not over-looked by some others as similar errors when we were younger that we laughed about then.   

So it is, that I've been so impressed with Lady Gaga as she has shared the stage with Tony Bennett who has Alzheimer's and now Liza Minnelli coping with her own, but different challenges.

Here's Liza in her prime singing the title song ... in the 1972 movie "Cabaret" of that Broadway show.  The setting is:

"Berlin, 1931.  As Nazism rises in Germany, flamboyant American Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli) sings in a decadent nightclub and falls in love with a British language teacher (Michael York) ... [this] carefree, tolerant and fragile cabaret world is about to be crushed under the boot of the Nazis as Berlin becomes a trap from which Sally"s German friends will not escape".

That government's oppression and Russia's behavior toward Ukraine today is what an autocracy offers that all should remember come elections in our own and other countries.  Be not fooled by lying autocrats with their appeasers appearing to be different with promises of enrichment for all.

Perhaps you have some thoughts about some of the topics I've mentioned?

BOOK BANNING -- POTPOURRI -- RIGHT-SIZING

My life did become a bit busy as I predicted previously.  I had scheduled posts in advance but did read your comments as I moderated them, found them stimulating, though I did not take time to add my own views as I usually do when I publish them.  

I appreciated concentrating more of my time on the activities with which I became involved.  Some issues I was experiencing were resolved which I welcomed -- some major, some merely pesky little ones needing intervention, and some unanticipated new ones to hassle, all together reaching close to overwhelming proportions it felt like.   Even now more have arisen.

My son was able to visit  to assist me, also in initiating some long overdue "right-sizing" in my house.  We filled a special trash/recycle bin for starters.  I continue the process since his departure as I had been gradually doing on my own in recent years with just the usual smaller weekly bins.   

Of course, there are sorting items for shredding, donation, other special dispositions.   As usual, there are always more issues requiring my attention along with some that seem to unexpectedly emerge, but they can be more readily integrated into my daily activities now.  These efforts seem like so much more because I'm slower than in years past, I think.

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I'm pondering the pros and cons of getting this second Covid booster shot though I've tended to think I would wait until Fall.   I'll monitor what science information is forthcoming about the efficacy of taking this new booster sooner since I don't really experience a lot of situations  and other people that might expose me to the virus whatever the variant. 

Still, reportedly, this latest variation is much more contagious even if the illness is not more serious for those who have been vaccinated plus had the first booster shot as I have.  More viral variations can always surface sooner or later as they seem to be doing.   

Why don't people just use common sense, critical thinking, and judgment weighing science reports and health officials recommendations?   Instead they complain of being confused, tend to blame officials for not telling them specifically what to do in this evolving ever-changing situation the virus dictates.   This virus situation often seems like a "kill the messenger" reaction by some people.

It really is a tragic circumstance for all of us trying to protect one another to think that if more people had cooperated for preventative measures with vaccines, masking, etc., our nation could have had a higher percentage of more virus-resistant people but most significantly less deaths -- even today.  

Possibly we could well have circumvented this virus continuing to be such a threat in our country on a permanent yearly basis.  Perhaps even more tragic are all those countries that still don't even have some of the basic vaccines and medications in quantities available here and in a few other nations.

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California is destined to another drought year weather authorities tell us as our so-called wet season, which has been quite dry, ends.  Our water shortage is such that we likely are going to incur having mandatory usage limits since voluntary cutbacks have been insufficient.  

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Putin's Russian army unable to overwhelm Ukrainian's forces in the manner they expected have withdrawn in some areas, leaving behind boobytraps and bombs to kill the innocent.  Wherever possible they also seem to be increasing slaughter of the helpless citizens, women, children, old people and their homes.   That once proud Russian nation fought against Hitler's Nazis and now emulates them in too many ways while their leader lies to the citizens.

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Have you read any good banned books lately? 

PBS Newshour -- Book Banning 

Seems to be a lot of book banning going on in parts of our country -- along with efforts to suppress voting under the guise of false claims alleging election fraud.  Amazing the number of people who continue to believe these sensoring extremists, lie mongers and conspiracists.

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Maybe you have some thoughts on your mind to share here?