Music And The Words Behind It

Music like art can have as many meanings as we the audience want. It can be interpreted to fit most any situation. But you must listen or gaze to obtain anything from the piece.

Words can be malleable like that, but the art of communication is a bit more strict in it's proper implementation. To be successful, to be good at communicating means a practiced art of listening. Not formulating your thought while the interviewer is speaking.
Absorbing all that is laid before you, not trying to bring it in for a landing...prematurely. There is naught gained by this. The initial idea might have been empathy,

"I know what you are saying, so I will finish the sentence to show you that we are grokking."

By its utterance we have abdicated our responsibility to the other person and have dismissed their thoughts. I know what you are saying is not the same as we share much in common.
To SHARE you have to give & take.

Dominance? Dismissive? Superior? Boredom? Disinterested?

Why don't we want to take the time to listen?

To play a musical solo well we are listening first and then answering. If not it was a canned riff in response to the song.

When you get a new record, do you look at the cover and tell Carlos, Eric and Jimi,
"I already know what you are about to say, so allow me to finish this album for you?"

It is a practiced thing, both musically and while communicating. We are born with the ability to hear the pleasing sounds but it takes practice to sit through a complete piece to gain the perspective looking back can impart.

(Open Country Joy - Mahavishnu Orchestra. It begins with a serene rambling sort of jam...fades. A vibrant call and answer piece begins. The piece ends abruptly and the serene rambling jam returns - my head jerked up..."This was one tune?")

Lesson taken...now to work it into a polished thing.

The Mind To The Fingers

How you get what you hear in your head out into the world is a strange mix of muscle memory and a unique perspective. Savants know what I am talking about.

Music is a symbolic language - like math.
It evokes everything - emotions, intellectual thought, love, hate and everything in between. There is the autonomic - a rhythm of 60 to 100 beats will cause an involuntary reaction - it mirrors a heartbeat.
There are voluntary and involuntary reactions.

Some of that is unique perspective - but mostly it is hardwired. What we refer to as a musical ear.
I don't understand the mechanics of why I hear what I do. But I hear music in noise, in whispers of faith and joy and love. I hear music in almost everything I do.

Because it is so very integrated within me it seems perfectly natural to me.

My music issues always stem from my thoughts, not my physical prowess or lack thereof. My fingers are very much slower than 40 years ago and yet my playing is so much better.
My maturing as a person has allowed for the thoughts and sounds in my head to flow fairly easily.
This is not to say that I never have writer's block. I do, frequently. But when I hear something it is easy for me to translate the image into sounds.

I feel harmony more than I did as a kid. I depend on others and appreciate a team effort. As a kid I was the rebel, Cool Hand Luke. I needed no one or anything. That has changed with time. I have come to appreciate people and the ties we make and keep so much.

And yet, except for my very formative years, it has never been that difficult for me to express myself with music.

Call me Rainman.

Verizon Tale Update

Verizon finally received the returned phone and acknowledged it,
 6/14, 10:49amVerizon Wireless

Thanks Ernie, we reply to messages in the order they are received. I do see that the warehouse has notated your account to indicate that the device was received in the warehouse and a refund will be applied. Did you have any other questions or concerns we could assist with while we're reviewing the account? - Dan

I did notice a charge for the phone on my bill, $355. I called a verified that I was not to pay that charge and that the charge would be removed in the following cycle.

Today as I was examining by bank account I saw a credit from Verizon in the amount of $66.19 - this was the upgrade fee ($40 + CA sales tax). "Uh oh," 

I think. "This can't be good."

I call Verizon and speak with Felicia who tells me that yes the $355 will be credited the next cycle and the refund of the $66.19 was a goodwill gesture.

I was one who wanted to see the breakup of Ma Bell and now regret what I got in return.

That said, we all make mistakes...monoliths tend to miss them more than the rest of us. But it what we do in response to the mistake that defines who we are.

Kudos Verizon.

Bwahahahaha

My Replacement Phone - A Positive Verizon Tale

My old phone, a Motorola Droid DX2 is long in the tooth. Very long.
As a birthday gift I was given the opportunity to acquire an updated phone. A Samsung S4 Mini. It too is not brand new in terms of technology but it is a quantum leap beyond the DX2.

I order the phone - a refurb. It arrives in two business days.
I go through the activation process, it ends with, "You have successfully activated your new phone."
At this point you are to, "Turn off your old phone now."
I removed the battery. (Um, this is not shutting down the phone, ya dope)

After a while I noticed the new phone stayed with the charging screen and nothing else - no phone properties whatsoever.

A quick live chat session with Verizon support which then led to a call to Verizon Wireless customer support on the old phone. While I am talking to the CS agent I realized my error in the shut down process - since I had not shut the phone down it was active and the new phone was just a flashlight at this point.
I saw the red Verizon screen bloom on the new phone. I ended the call and then properly shut the old phone down. The new phone continued the process and a setup wizard appeared.

It works and I am pleased. But the battery goes from 100% to 30% in a couple of hours.
Hmmm...
The next day I go to turn the phone on and it fails to power up. I do the three finger dance to boot into safe or developers mode...nothing. It's dead.

I pulled the battery, waited and then replaced the battery and plug the phone into the charger. The phone boots. This scene is repeated twenty times or more during the day...every time I try to turn the phone on.
After farting around all day trying one thing after another that I found online  I decided to call Verizon again.
Two hours later...yeah, I am frustrated like a librarian in an E-Book store, I got a sympathetic supervisor to replace my flaky phone with a new one, not a refurb. There are a few hoops in between, but they are the price of business these days.

New phone arrived on Saturday. I have had practice with the activation procedure...so now it goes smooth as silk. I put the battery into the phone and wait for it to charge and then prepare to use it until it reaches 20% or so before charging it again.
(Li-Ion batteries can be damaged if discharged too much too often or if plugged into a charger all the time)
It's Sunday - I rode my bike for two hours, used the phone. Ate lunch, used the phone. In other words I used it moderately. And yet I am at 72%?

As a friend pointed out, this is how it is supposed to work.
Gawd, I am grateful. For both the gift and the working technology.