Turn to the voices

As anyone who has read these pages knows, I am not much of a music buff. There are many styles I like to listen to. They range from rock to jazz to swing and other genres that fit a particular setting or the mood I am in. I enjoy listening to Andrea Bocelli on occasion. That being said, I don't really know (Bo) diddly about music. (The fact that I made that reference was a stretch for me). I think my family was astonished when I had piano lessons as a boy.

What surprises me is how interested I have become in the blind auditions from the television show The Voice. Once those first few episodes are complete, I rapidly lose interest. When American Idol first appeared, I was impressed by the multitude of vocalists and the wide range of talent. After the first season I was more interested in the odd-balls that were really bad. Then, I stopped watching all together. I also don't watch much television in the first place. It is more 'background noise' in my home than anything, at least for me. My Beloved controls the remote.

The Voice rekindled my interest, not necessarily in the show itself so much, but in the performers. Again, the array of talent is remarkable and the passion they bring to the audition. Many have rich voices and strong stylings. They not only sing to an audience but to their judge's backs. It made me think of what the indie writer goes through. It is our audience however that has their back to us. We must put forth such an effort to make our readers turn around and take notice of our efforts. Our passion is in our written words, yet the readers do not know us. We are the voice in the hotel bar and the country stage in nowhere America looking for a break.

If you are a fan of reading, give the indie 'voices' a listen. You might be surprised at what you read.

The Sounds of Summer

As opposed to the Simon & Garfunkel hit "The Sound of Silence", from late 1965.

We are winding down the last days of a long, hot summer in our area. The children have been back in school for a few weeks, older students have gone back to college, and I am still retired. Thankfully.

When I was a child, school did not begin until after Labor Day, which seemed to make summer last a very long time. What I associate most with my childhood summers are the sounds:

- untold numbers of crickets and other insects making their lovely cacophony of chirping and other noises, especially if you were fortunate to be out at night away from the city

- a baseball bat being dragged across concrete, barrel side down, as I walked to another game of pickup baseball

- tennis shoes (pronounced "tenna shoes") being scuffed across walkways of large gravel, making it sound somewhat like metal baseball cleats crunching on that gravel

- the wind in my ears as I rode my bike everywhere at a fast pace

- a warm, soft rain, gentle and peaceful, with a calming effect best noticed if you were in a glider on the front porch

- a loud thunderstorm that shook the house

- the "thwack" of a wiffle ball against a wiffle bat

- the "thonk" of a rubber ball slamming off the front steps, the steps of the church next door, or the side wall of the apartment building behind us as I played countless games of baseball in my head

- the solid crack of a bat smashing into a hard-thrown baseball

- the trumpet sounding "Charge!" to spur on the Columbus Jets against their foes. I recall Richmond, Rochester (thought it was "ROD-chester"), Syracuse, Buffalo the most

- kids "popping" an empty, upside down plastic-coated paper Coke cup on concrete at the ballpark

- fireworks on Independence Day

- Sainted Mother ringing the dinner bell to call us home

These are the sounds that first spring to mind when I recall my childhood summers. I know there are hundreds more "sound memories" just waiting to bubble up to my conscious thoughts. I wish I could recapture them all.

City streets

Although I lived in two homes growing up the majority of my childhood years were at one place. It is the one I think about when I discuss home with friends and family. Even though I own my own home it is different from where I was reared.

I currently am a suburbanite living just outside a major Midwestern city. I suppose urban dwellers may even call it the country as just down the road their are farm fields and just about every neighborhood around used to be those fields. It is a peaceful place where not much happens. It is a growing area but it is anything but a vibrant or dynamic street.

Contrast that to my work environment. It is in my nearby city and though it is not in the 'downtown' area, the streets are indeed a thriving urban environment. The lanes are busy with autos and buses, bicycles and pedestrians. There is a definite hustle and bustle to the area. The main thoroughfare houses shops and restaurants, banks and schools.

 I never forgot these sounds of the city from when I was a little boy. I heard them again the other day as I traveled through this neighborhood. But then I heard a set of notes that harkened back to those times, a sound I don't hear in my world. I heard church bells. I miss their sound and their meaning. They are a lovely noise in a busy world.

It was a good day.

My first trilogy

Years ago when I started down the writing pathway, I bought a small computer from Radio Shack and had-at-it. The memory of that little unit wouldn't hold a single chapter at the time. I had to save everything on 3.5 inch floppies. At long last, this first work will see the light of day.

Originally titled "The Crystal Point", it has now been adapted to a trilogy. "The Dream Valley" is the first book in the series titled 'The Crystal Point Legacy". As I have grown as a writer I have gone back over this work several times to polish it and give the reader the experience I had hoped I could when I first sat down to the keyboard.

I hope all who decide to read this enjoy the story and appreciate the effort involved. It is available as an ebook through Amazon.com and Smashwords. The other two books in the series will appear in a few months as covers are developed and final edits are made.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/227411

Something about nothing

Jerry Seinfeld famously said his idea for his long-running television show was "it's a show about nothing".

In honor of Jerry's show, and the fact that it has been over a month since I last posted a column on here, I present my blogpost about nothing:

- Sainted Mother threw out my baseball and football card collection when I went away to college. I was 75 miles away, and came back for a weekend visit to find my cards had been pitched. What, she never expected me to return? I always hoped one day I would discover one certain card at a card show, one on which I had printed a word in the margin on the back, and thus let my mother partially off the hook for my not achieving immense riches via my collection. Not that I would ever have sold them, unless really, really desperate.

- When I was attending morning classes at The OSU the first winter I was there, I had an 8:00 class that met in Denney Hall, where my counselor worked. I always arrived quite early, thanks to the bus system, and attempted to pleasure-read a book of Greek plays. I never got far into it, and usually used the book as a face cover to get in a short nap prior to the warning bell for first class. Later, after I had met my counselor for the first time, she asked about me always napping under the book. I told her it was not for class, and she was relieved.

- I had dine-in restaurant food three times in the past 24 hours; Happy Birthday to me. Burp!

-  One of my six grandchildren is about to become a baby supermodel. What a ham.

-When I graduated from The OSU, tuition was being raised from $298 per quarter to $312 per quarter. I ranted about how people could no longer afford to pay for college.

- Ahh, the quarter system, what a quaint way of holding classes. Thank heavens I did not have to spend 15 weeks in Bio100, Statistics, or Spanish101, among others. Ten weeks was more than enough.

- I currently have a runny nose, which I can't stand. (Told you this was about nothing.)

- Graybeard still has not quite grasped the concept of sending e-mails, but at least he does not give me a phone message asking if I got every one, the way he used to do. Luddites have a way with technology that is different from the rest of the world.

- He always blames it on his system. Computer people always say it is down to operator error.

- I told Robert T that I had finished three sci-fi e-books I had been sent, but that I found much of the plot to be way too unbelievable. He said, "It's science fiction. How can it be 'unbelievable'?"

- I still think I was correct.

- The Seekers were a hugely successful folk/pop singing group in the early-to-mid 60s. Many in the US thought they were British, but they actually were from Australia. The lead singer was the beautifully-voiced Judith Durham, who still sounds lovely today, at age 70.

- Target is back this year with more horrible back-to-school musical commercials. They are so bad they aren't funny/stupid, merely stupid.

- CBS seems to have a habit of putting good shows on Sunday nights at 10:00, then cancelling them after the ratings tank in the fall. Gee, do you think it may have something to do with football running way over each week (and now the afternoon games will be starting later), followed by a post-game show, followed by their insistence on showing their 7:00, 8:00, and 9:00 p.m. shows in their entirety first, followed by the 10:00 show, which may start at any time between 10:00 and midnight, it seems. It means I will have to set my DVR to record The Mentalist this year with a 2-hour end-time extension. That is as far as I can extend it. I hope that is enough. CBS says they will put a crawl on the screen to tell what time the later shows will start, put it out on Twitter, and on their website. If I do not have CBS on, am not near a computer, and since I never have or will go wherever it is you go to get Twitter, I will have to hope for the best.

- Nothing more today.

A new short story

It is often said writing is an art. For some it is a passion and for others it is work. For me, it is something I have grown to enjoy. It is a challenge. It is an escape from the daily grind. What can I do to this story today to make it better? Is a story every truly complete? Those are what challenges me and drives me to write on.

I hope all enjoy this short story. My thanks to kyleparkerdesigns.com for the cover and North of 50 for editorial review.

http://amazon.com/Lily-ebook/dp/B00917PKBM

Available at Amazon.com for purchase on a Kindle.

I'll try harder

This is something I don't think I quite understand. It's about those who sign contracts, specifically athletes. There is a story in the sports world currently concerning a runningback for the Jacksonville Jaguars of the NFL. He was the leading rusher in the league last year. He has two years left on a multi-million dollar deal he signed a couple of years ago. Now he want to renegotiate his deal.

On the surface that sounds okay. He is a valuable member of the team and as a rule, they aren't very good. They need him. From the owner's point of view, you signed the contract. He didn't put a gun to your head to do so. The life of an NFLer is not very long. The average player is out of the league in approximately two and a half  years. That's not very long and the window to make significant money doesn't happen often. I don't blame them for the 'get it while you can' mentality.

What I don't understand is when they use the phrase, "out-played the contract". How is that possible? Does that mean if I only gain 1000 yards I get the full contract payment? What happens if I get 2000 yards? Do I now get double the contract? If that were the case, if you only gained 500 yards, shouldn't you give some of it back? Obviously you weren't trying if that were the case.

No, the contract is the contract and just because you had a stellar year doesn't mean you outplayed the contract because you are supposed to give 100 percent effort. Any less and you didn't live up to the contract. Run like you mean it and if you have another outstanding year you can take that into the negotiations the next time.