Throwback Thursday #14

Image by Hans Linde from Pixabay

Ahh…

Summer is winding down here in the northern hemisphere.

Days are shorter.

Nights are longer and cooler.

Late summer/early fall flowers are blooming.

It is one of my least favorite times of year (except for the blooming flowers…)

Spring and summer lift my soul.

Autumn much less so.

I don’t know how much of this is related to the dread and sadness I used to feel as a child and teenager about having to go back to school each fall.

And how much of it may simply be a visceral response to the shortening daylight hours.

I have always been acutely sensitive to — and sad about — endings.

Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay

As I may have mentioned in a previous blog post, my father and mother each told me (separately) that when I was an infant, I would always cry when they sang “Good Night, Irene” to me as a lullaby.

If that is true, I’m not sure why they kept singing it to me (maybe to see if — yet again — it would move me to tears?)

But apparently they did.

And I always cried.

Deep breath in.

Deep breath out.

Today I am throwing back to a blog post from October 2014 which features the song “Something Good” from the movie version of The Sound Of Music.

It is another song which moves me to tears.

I recorded it with pianist Doug Hammer when we were working on a show called “Songs About Parents and Children.”

I used to think that it was written by Rodgers & Hammerstein, but it turns out — as you may already know — that it was written by Richard Rodgers after Oscar had died (from stomach cancer on August 23, 1950 at his beloved Bucks County farm in Pennsylvania).

Image by congerdesign from Pixabay

Another deep breath in.

And deep breath out.

Ahh, beginnings…

Ahh, endings…

Are YOU a fan of autumn?

If so, please leave me a compelling comment about how I can learn to appreciate and savor it more in the weeks ahead….

Thank you to the generous and talented photographers at Pixabay for these beautiful images.

And thank YOU for reading this blog post.

There’s Nothing I Wouldn’t Do…

Zina Goldrich and Marcy Heisler

Today’s song was written by the very gifted team of Marcy Heisler (lyrics) and Zina Goldrich (music).

They are a well-known songwriting team based in New York City, and they have crafted a bunch of stand-alone songs — along with entire musicals — which are beloved by performers.

A few of their NYC-area hits include “I Like Them (Bald),” “Alto’s Lament,” and “Taylor, The Latte Boy.”

Jinny Sagorin and I recorded their song “There’s Nothing I Wouldn’t Do” with pianist Doug Hammer a few years ago.

Originally from South Africa, Jinny has lived in the Boston area for the past two decades.

You can check out her website by clicking here if you are curious.

In recent years Jinny has expanded beyond musical theater and cabaret to becoming a cantor.

We both share a sense that music can be very sacred (as well as silly, sexy, heartfelt, and open-minded).

Will (with broken elbow), Jinny and Doug — Photo by Jeremy Schmahmann

And performing in a synagogue, library, church or retirement community can be just as satisfying as performing in a bar or club — although we have both done plenty of that, too!

I first met Jinny when I was co-hosting an open mic at The Cambridge Center For Adult Education in Harvard Square (where I also was employed as an events manager and PR person).

Eventually we put together an entire program of songs called LIFE MATTERS.

Jinny also invited me to perform as a special guest when she debuted her solo CD, IT’S FOR YOU, to a sold-out crowd at Scullers Jazz Club in Boston.

And she has performed many of my original songs when I have done showcases of my own work.

In addition to being a performing artist, Jinny is also a visual artist.

Here’s an example of a work of art she created for an annual show called ART/Word in which she is a regular participant.

Thank you to Marcy and Zina for writing this song.

Thank you to Jinny and Doug for recording it with me.

Painting by Jinny Sagorin

Thank you to Stephen C. Fischer a.k.a DigitalFisch for designing the graphic to accompany it.

Thank you to Dr. Jeremy Schmahmann for taking the photo of me, Jinny and Doug.

And thank YOU for reading this blog post!

PS: If you feel like streaming this song on your favorite digital music platform, please click here for links.

PPS: I haven’t mentioned the current challenges here on planet earth (wars, heat waves, forest fires, floods, spreading diseases, rising costs, lack of food/fertilizer/fuel, political upheaval, etc.) in recent blog posts.

But I remain vividly aware of them.

And I continue to find inspiration and hope from the courageous candidates and hard-working GOTV (get out the vote) organizations at work around the USA.

As you are probably well aware, there are a bunch of very inspiring human beings stepping up at the local, state and national levels these days.

Let’s support them — with tiny donations of time and/or money— as much as we are able.

Deep breath in.

Deep breath out.

Sea Of Lies…

Molly Ruggles

My friend Molly Ruggles recently released a new song called “Sea Of Lies.”

She was inspired to write it by the ongoing challenge of sorting through all the news and advertising and sound bites and spin and “blah blah blah” coming at us on an hourly/daily/weekly/monthly/yearly basis.

I originally learned a version she created for four voices (the same four who sang on “My Sweet Honeydew (A Cappella).”

But then she decided to re-write/re-arrange/re-focus it for two voices plus her piano accompaniment.

That’s the version she ended up releasing to various streaming platforms.

It is the sort of melody — and message — which easily gets stuck in my brain on auto-repeat.

“Need a little peace… just a hint of hope — with a hand to hold, maybe I can cope.”

Molly sings lead vocal plus some extra harmonies.

I sing a few harmonies.

I think my favorite moment of the song is when we both sing “Save me… please save me” in harmony.

You are welcome to click here to stream it if the spirit moves you.

Molly also designed the artwork to accompany her song.

She is a multi-talented human being.

I am curious to learn — or be reminded — about how other human beings deal with all of the (dis)information coming at us 24/7.

I know some wise people turn off their phones and computers for hours at a time.

And others make sure to exercise (walk, swim, bike, and more), do some gardening, sit in meditation, cook with friends, take a bath, read a book, lie in a hammock, do some yoga, and/or cuddle with their loved ones (human, feline, canine and otherwise).

Deep breath in.

Deep breath out.

What are YOUR coping strategies these days?

One of mine is — no surprise — making music and doing music-related activities such as this blog.

Image by Alicja from Pixabay

I also find a lot of hope and inspiration learning a few details about people who are brave enough to run for office — whether on the town, city, county, state or national level — all around our country.

And then there are the flowering plants of the world!

They always lift my spirits.

Thank you to Molly for writing this song and then asking me to sing harmony with her.

Thank you to the generous and talented photographers at Pixabay.

And thank YOU for reading — and listening to — yet another blog post from me…

One more deep breath in.

And deep breath out.

PS: Just learned that “Sea Of Lies” has been added to the “Today’s Tunesmiths and Troubadours” playlist on Pandora!

My Sweet Honeydew (A Cappella)

Graphic Design By Stephen C. Fischer

I hope you are well as you read this blog post!

Today I have been inspired by the aphorism “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

You may have seen it on posters, coffee mugs, etc. — attributed to Albert Einstein.

But according to an online search, there is little evidence that Einstein ever said it.

Instead I learned that a writer — Rita Mae Brown — created this quotation and attributed it to a fictional character in her 1983 book Sudden Death.

Thank you, Ms. Brown!

I think about this aphorism when I am reminded that one is supposed to budget an equal amount of money to market/promote/advertise one’s product as one has spent creating it in the first place.

Yikes!

I have never done this.

Other than maintaining my website, pitching a few songs to music bloggers, and writing this blog, I have spent very little money to promote my music.

However, this particular piece of marketing advice comes up fairly often when I am reading books/articles and watching videos about how to navigate the business of making music in the 21st century.

Now I must pause for a moment for a digression…

Over the past thirty years, I have observed that the music business — like life itself — is always changing and evolving.

So it is virtually impossible to do the same thing over and over again for more than a year or two.

And as a result of personal computers entering our daily lives, we have to keep endlessly learning the latest versions of many different programs/applications — as well as updating our hardware and software.

So as much as I would love to be able to do the same thing over and over again — while drafting new songs using Apple’s GarageBand or making videos using Apple’s iMovie, for example — I am forced to learn the latest updates (and alleged improvements) in order to continue making music.

Deep breath in.

Deep breath out.

This has always seemed to me to be a huge waste of time AND money in order to make a few tech company owners, tech company employees and tech company stockholders rich.

Graphic Design by Stephen C. Fischer

I keep hoping to find a research study which would document the billions of hours which we human beings have wasted in the process of learning — and re-learning…and learning yet again — how to use various computer programs.

I would also like to find studies which explore the cumulative toll on our mental health due to the Sisyphean frustration of having to update and re-learn so many basic tasks/skills on an ongoing basis.

Another deep breath in.

And deep breath out.

So I am happy to report that my friends Molly Ruggles, Ellen Epstein, Michael Cicone and I went in a pre-industrial — and some might even say late-Paleolithic — direction with our most recent song release which we recorded a cappella.

You may remember an earlier version of “My Sweet Honeydew” (recorded with pianist Doug Hammer) which I featured in a blog post from January 8, 2022.

You are welcome to click here and visit — or re-visit — that blog post if you are so inclined.

A couple of years ago singer/songwriter/pianist Molly Ruggles took my original version, added an entirely new section of music + lyrics, and then arranged it for four voices to perform a cappella.

Our new version is in the player at the beginning of this blog post.

You may recognize Molly as a vital part of my trio recordings with Carole Bundy.

Molly, Ellen, Will & Michael (Photo by Doug Hammer)

I have known the other two singers on this recording — Ellen and Michael — for decades.

If you are a fan of contemporary folk music, you may be familiar with them as part of a musical trio with singer/songwriter/guitarist Cindy Kallet for forty-five years.

Ellen and Michael have released three beloved CDs of music with Cindy as well as appearing on many of her solo recording projects.

So I feel very honored and excited that they agreed to be part of this recording!

Now I will circle back to the aphorism that “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Molly and I are doing something new with this recording.

We have hired a fellow singer-songwriter, Erik Balkey, to help us promote it to folk radio programs/stations around the USA.

Erik puts together compilation CDs of new recordings every two months and sends them to a couple hundred folk DJs and program directors.

We were surprised — and pleased — to learn that he chose “My Sweet Honeydew (A Cappella)” to lead off the second CD in his July/August promotional compilation.

If you happen to listen to a folk program in your neighborhood — or maybe far away from your neighborhood via an internet radio station — please let me know.

Then I will check and see if Erik sent his July/August promotional CDs — including “My Sweet Honeydew (A Cappella)” — to your favorite station/program.

It will be interesting to see what does — or doesn’t — unfold regarding airplay for our song this summer…

Another deep breath in.

And deep breath out.

Thank you to Erik Balkey for his radio outreach.

Thank you to Doug Hammer for his collaborative production skills (and spontaneous photographic impulses).

Image by congerdesign from Pixabay

Thank you to Stephen C. Fischer for his graphic design gifts.

Thank you to Molly Ruggles for creating this new version of my song.

Thank you to Molly and Michael and Ellen for learning, performing and then recording it.

And thank YOU for reading and listening to yet another blog post from/by me.

One final deep breath in.

And deep breath out.

P.S. You are welcome to stream “My Sweet Honeydew (A Cappella) on your favorite digital music platform by clicking here.

Throwback Thursday #11

Image by Hans from Pixabay

One of the pleasures of doing a Throwback Thursday blog post — as you may well know — is rediscovering something one once wrote (which one may have completely forgotten!)

In the case of this Throwback Thursday, I also rediscovered a song by Stephen Sondheim called “Everybody Says Don’t” which I had forgotten I’d recorded.

You can click here to check it out if you are curious.

A new biography of Mr. Sondheim came out earlier this year which my sister gave me for my birthday.

I just finished reading it and — not surprisingly — come away with renewed respect and gratitude for the wealth of songs and shows he helped to create over the course of a 50+ year career…

If you are not very familiar with his work, he wrote the lyrics for two blockbuster Broadway favorites — WEST SIDE STORY and GYPSY.

But what he really wanted to do is create both music and lyrics — which is what he finally got to do with A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM, A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, COMPANY, SWEENEY TODD, INTO THE WOODS, ASSASSINS, PASSION and other shows.

Image by Christiane from Pixabay

Mr. Sondheim experienced a few flops along the way, including ANYONE CAN WHISTLE and MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG.

But he continued to work on the latter show for decades until he (and various collaborators) finally arrived at a version which was one of the hottest tickets on Broadway — starring, among other talented human beings, Daniel Radcliffe (the original Harry Potter) — during 2023-2024.

A version of this production was filmed and can be watched via various streaming platforms.

And I learned from Wikipedia that Richard Linklater is filming his own version of it over many years (as he has done with other creative projects). Sounds like we may have to wait for a decade or more to see THAT version…

Mr. Sondheim did not have many of his songs become big pop hits, although Judy Collins recorded a lovely version of “Send In The Clowns” from A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC.

He crafted his songs to advance the plot of each show and often wrote them for particular actors to perform.

This specificity may have made it more challenging for pop musicians like Frank Sinatra or Barbra Streisand to pluck one of this songs out of the context of a particular show to become a more generic pop hit — although Ms. Streisand DID include many of his compositions in her two albums devoted specifically to Broadway songs.

Image by Couleur from Pixabay

And Mr. Sondheim, bless him, did agree to write additional lyrics for Ms. Streisand’s version of “Send In The Clowns” so that it made more sense for her to sing it (out of the context of the original show).

I think I may have featured photos of hydrangeas in a previous blog post, but they are what is blooming right now in my neighborhood as summer officially gets underway in the Greater Boston area…

And I LOVE them.

Happy summer to any and all readers in the northern hemisphere of planet earth!

How About You?

Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland

I recorded this sweet song as part on an hour-long program of music written for — or strongly identified with — Judy Garland.

It was written by Burton Lane and Ralph Freed for her and Mickey Rooney to perform in the 1941 MGM movie BABES ON BROADWAY.

I learned from Wikipedia that the lyricist, Ralph Freed, was the baby brother of producer/lyricist Arthur Freed, who co-wrote the song “This Heart Of Mine” which I featured in a recent blog post,

Having spent a fair amount of time — especially during the summer — in Manhattan as a child and teenager, I savor all of the geographical references in the lyrics.

I only wish they had mentioned Chock Full o’ Nuts, my favorite place to get a burger (with ketchup, mustard and relish) plus a big orange drink — which was a mixture of orange juice, sugar and water, I think, churning endlessly in a big, glass dispenser until it was sold to thirsty customers.

Chock Full o’ Nuts started during the roaring ’20s as a chain of — no surprise — nut shops.

But when the Depression hit, the owner William Black pivoted and turned his stores into lunch counters where — according to Wikipedia — one could buy a cup of coffee and a cream-cheese-with-chopped-nuts sandwich for five cents.

Jackie Robinson with a fellow Chock Full o’ Nuts employee

And his coffee proved to be so popular that he started selling it for people to make at home or in their office.

William Black — whose last name was originally Schwartz (which means black in Yiddish) — seems to have been a somewhat progressive employer.

Most of his company’s cooks and waitstaff were African-American, and when baseball superstar Jackie Robinson retired from playing, he became a vice president and director of personnel at Chock Full o’ Nuts.

Mr. Black was married to two female singers (not at the same time…) who performed his company’s radio and TV jingles. His second wife also became very involved with their family’s philanthropic efforts.

They gave millions of dollars to medical research and helped to start the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation.

And there is even a William Black medical research building at Columbia University’s medical center (Mr. Black was a Columbia alum…)

But back to “How About You?”.

Burton Lane

Burton Lane was a very successful composer — originally from Manhattan — who worked at various movie studios in California.

Interspersed with his time in Hollywood, he co-wrote songs for Broadway shows including FINIAN’S RAINBOW (with Yip Harberg) and ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN SEE FOREVER (with Alan Jay Lerner).

He is also one of several people who claim credit for bringing Judy Garland to the attention of the powers-that-be at MGM after he saw her perform with her two older sisters at the Paramount Theatre in Los Angeles.

So not only do we have Mr. Lane to thank for the great songs he co-wrote, we also can (at least partially) thank him for helping to bring Judy Garland and her extraordinary gifts as a performer to a much wider audience.

I would also like to thank Doug Hammer for his playful piano impulses and painstaking production skills as well as Stephen C. Fischer for his patient and collaborative graphic design work.

If you’d like to stream our version of “How About You?” you can click here.

Every stream, every “like,” and every “save” encourages the mysterious algorithms of the digital music platforms to share a recording with other potential listeners.

Here’s the graphic for “How About You?” which features what was probably my last professional headshot as a teen performer in NYC.

One final note…

As I was drafting this blog post, the New York Knicks were engaged in an extraordinary series of basketball games which culminated in them becoming NBA champions.

I especially like New York in June when the Knicks win the NBA playoffs after a 53 year drought!

How about you?

Although I am not a big basketball fan, I became swept up in the drama and virtuosity of the NBA playoffs.

Twice I went to bed early — thinking the Knicks had lost — and awoke to discover that they had triumphed.

Wow!

Oh, me of little faith…

Since their victory, I have been savoring the enthusiasm of the Knicks’ fans — in NYC and around the country.

Jalen Brunson

And I love what one of their star players Jalen Brunson said following their record-breaking comeback from 29 points down to win game four.

“You’re allowed to think about the worst possible scenario, but you gotta go out there and do something about it.”

Deep breath in.

Deep breath out.

Those are great words to live by…

Thank you, Knicks, for bringing millions of us — from many different political and cultural and ethnic backgrounds — together during this challenging time here on planet earth.

You gave — and continue to give — us hope and joy and inspiration.

And THANK YOU to everyone who is willing to read and listen to yet another one of my blog posts.

In Praise Of Pandora

Image by Duc Tinh Ngo from Pixabay

I am a huge fan of Pandora.

Not the woman in Greek mythology whose wedding gift/jar/box released evil sprits upon the world — along with Elpis aka Hope (“a single blessing to ease mankind’s suffering” according to a Greek mythology website I found online).

And not the jewelry company.

I am a fan of the music streaming company named Pandora.

However, I am also aware that the mythology of Pandora IS quite resonant right now.

Some days it does indeed feel like a bunch of evil spirits are ravaging our neighborhoods, our country, other countries, and our planet.

Thank goodness for Elpis ie: hope!

I had completely forgotten this crucial part of the myth — that the gods give us hope as an antidote/counterbalance to all of the evil spirits released by Pandora.

Deep breath in.

Deep breath out.

According to the Greek mythology website mentioned above, Elpis/hope is often depicted as a young woman carrying flowers — hence the flower images in this post.

And music can inspire a sense of hopefulness in many of us — so maybe Pandora isn’t a horrible name for a music streaming company after all.

Image by Hans from Pixabay

Now you may be wondering why I am choosing in this blog post to praise the music streaming company named Pandora?

It is because they have been the most consistent beacon of helpfulness and humanity I have encountered during my five-year foray into the business of streaming music.

I wrote about them a little bit in a blog post last March.

Although they are currently part of a larger company, Sirius/XM, their cultural norms of accessibility and friendliness have not (yet) been contaminated/eliminated in a short-sighted quest for increased profit.

I love that all of the Pandora staff members with whom I have interacted are themselves musicians — and many of them use Pandora to share their own music with the world.

I have been told that Pandora listeners are located only in the USA.

But apparently some people around the world are clever enough to use a VPN — a virtual private network which, according to NordVPN “protects your internet connection and privacy online (by creating) an encrypted tunnel for your data.”

If you use a VPN, you can stream music via Pandora from anywhere there is internet service on planet earth (if I am understanding this VPN option correctly).

I think using a VPN also allows for some privacy regarding one’s internet history — which might be wise for more of us to consider using?

Anyways, back to Pandora…

The Pandora staff have created a bunch of free promotional tools which musicians like me can use — such as creating personalized audio messages to share with one’s listeners.

Image by Annette Meyer from Pixabay

One can also feature a particular song for up to two months at a stretch (six times per year…)

And every month Pandora offers two free training sessions via Zoom, which allow independent musicians to learn how to use their promotional tools and — more importantly — to build relationships with real human beings.

This is the crucial piece that so many companies seem to have completely devalued in recent years.

Many (if not most) of us human beings want to build relationships with the people in our daily lives — whether it’s our mail carrier, or a teller at our local bank, or the staff at our local grocery store, or the folks who run our favorite restaurant, or the doctors/nurses/staff at our local hospital, etc. etc. etc.

Chatbots may save money, but they do not help to build actual human relationships.

And it’s actual human relationships which tend to create a foundation of customer loyalty.

Another deep breath in.

And deep breath out.

As regular readers of my blog are well aware, there is a steep learning curve when one starts releasing music to be streamed via companies like Pandora, Apple Music, YouTube, Spotify, Tidal, Amazon Music, etc.

In addition to recording a song, mixing it and then mastering it, one also needs to get a graphic designed for it, select a company to distribute it (I use CD Baby), register it with the Copyright Office in Washington DC, and then enter it into one’s account at various organizations which collect money for the use of one’s song — including ASCAP, SoundExchange, Songtrust and the Mechanical Licensing Collective.

CD Baby used to have wonderful customer service until it was bought by another company which made a lot of changes…

And now the company which bought CD Baby — Downtown Music — is being sold to Universal Music Group (one of the three largest music conglomerates) after they were given permission from a European tribunal weighing the anti-trust implications of such a purchase.

Image by David Underland from Pixabay

G-d only knows what changes this purchase will bring into the lives of tens of thousands of independent musicians like me who currently use CD Baby to distribute our music…

Maybe UMG will use some of their enormous clout on our behalf?

Maybe they will improve customer service at CD Baby?

Or maybe they will find new ways to cheat, fleece and otherwise take advantage of us?

Time will tell…

Yet another deep breath in.

And deep breath out.

I can attest to the effectiveness of Pandora’s promotional tools.

My total streams on Pandora recently surpassed 200,000.

So I will continue to use these promotional tools AND will continue to remain grateful for Pandora’s terrific staff.

The song I included at the beginning of this blog post was written for a show called FUNNY FACE which starred Fred Astaire and his older sister Adele in the1920s.

I attempted to release this version, which I recorded with pianist Doug Hammer, last year.

But CD Baby mysteriously messed up the metadata attached to the recording — listing Doug as a primary artist rather than a featured artist — and he asked me to remove it from distribution so that it wouldn’t confuse the fan base (much larger than mine) he has built for his solo piano compositions.

Sadly, I have been unable to get any definitive answer from the customer service staff at CD Baby about how this mistake happened in the first place and whether I’ll ever be able to re-release it with the correct designation (featured artist not primary artist) for Doug.

Image by Jan Van Bizar from Pixabay

Deep sigh.

Thank you to Doug for recording it with me.

Thank you to the Gershwin brothers for writing it in the first place.

Thank you to Pixabay for the lovely photos of spring flowers.

And thank YOU for reading and listening to another one of my blog posts.

You are always welcome to visit my website — willsings.com — if you are curious to learn more about my musical life here on planet earth.

I’ve begun a new postcard-writing campaign with a bunch of people in my neighborhood.

We are reminding Wisconsin voters that they have an important Supreme Court election coming up on April 7th.

It’s a small task.

But doing something — anything — to withstand/offset the chaotic cyclone of destruction being unleashed by our current political leadership helps me stay connected to a tiny sense of Elpis/Hope.

As does the melting snow outside…

And the promise of spring flowers!

Throwback Thursday #8

Image by Shirley Hirst from Pixabay

The only flowers remaining these days in my neighborhood are chrysanthemums and asters.

They are a hardy bunch, bless them.

We’ve had a few frosts; so most bees and butterflies are gone…

I’m already counting down the days to the winter solstice, when daylight in the Northern Hemisphere will again start to lengthen!

In recent weeks I’ve re-discovered the pleasures of tea — my current favorite being Celestial Seasonings’ Bengal Spice with some honey — and soup (today chicken, squash, carrot, potato, onion, garlic and ginger, are simmering together on the stove…)

Yum!

Image by pramod kumar v a from Pixabay

I hope your Thanksgiving was delicious and calm and heartful.

Today I am throwing back to a very short blog post about why I love leading Music Together classes which features a somewhat silly song which I recorded using GarageBand on an Apple laptop many years ago.

“I’m A Baby Monkey” remains very popular with children of a certain age…

In closing, I thank you for reading this blog post and possibly jumping back to my Throwback Thursday post

My stats are fluctuating from modest (seven visitors on 11/28/25) to quite a few (55 visitors on 12/2/25).

I don’t know if my site is being hacked/scraped by some sort of bot or if these are actual visitors.

To quote singer-songwriter Iris DeMent, I’ll just “let the mystery be…”

Deep breath in.

Deep breath out.

May your spirits remain light as we head towards the shortest day of the year here in the Northern Hemisphere!

ps: Thank you, too, to the great photographers at Pixabay

Under My Umbrella

Image by wal_172619 from Pixabay

Autumn has arrived in New England.

Deep breath in.

Deep breath out.

Autumn is probably my least favorite season.

Partly this is because I do not like being cold.

Partly this is because I do not like the shorter days.

And partly this is because I do not like being reminded that everything dies in the end.

I do however like being reminded of how amazing mother nature is — creating a system of fully recyclable and compostable solar collectors in the form of LEAVES!

Hurrah for leaves and photosynthesis!

Image by Chu Viết Đôn from Pixabay

I wrote the first version of “Under My Umbrella” while camping in North Truro on Cape Cod.

Then my friend Molly Ruggles wrote a new bridge section — which is the version she and I and our friend Carole Bundy recorded (in the player above).

You can click here to read — or re-read depending upon how long you’ve been following my blog — a short post from 9/10/24 which features the earlier (pre-Molly) version of this song.

And here is a link to the Molly, Will & Carole version in case you might be willing to play/like/share it on your favorite music streaming platform.

We recorded it with me, Carole and Molly singing plus Molly playing Doug Hammer’s Schimmel grand piano in his studio north of Boston, MA.

Thank you to Doug for his excellent engineering and music production skills.

Thank you to Molly for writing a new bridge and also a bunch of lovely harmonies for all of us to sing.

Photo by Rada Ruggles

Thank you to Molly for playing piano AND for designing our graphics.

Thank you to the gifted and generous photographers at Pixabay.

And thank YOU for reading and listening to another of my blog posts!

I remain very grateful for our wonderful WordPress community.

Deep breath in.

And deep breath out.

Asleep At The Karmic Wheel

Image by Mabel Amber from Pixabay

I hope you are well as you read this bog post.

Thank you for dropping by!

“Asleep At The Karmic Wheel” is a song I wrote many years ago after I stumbled upon a particularly satisfying chord progression on my ukulele.

My understanding of the concept of karma is that each of our actions has consequences.

Here’s a more detailed explanation from The Himalayan Institute if you are curious to learn what they think...

I love combining the idea of a karmic wheel with the idea of us all (or many of us…) being asleep at the wheel — which is, of course, an extremely dangerous situation both for the person who is driving and also for all the other beings who are on or near the road on which this drowsy person is driving!

Because I have set up my daily life to be walkable, bikeable and/or busable (as dictated by the weather), I almost never drive a car.

Image by Jessica Latorre from Pixabay

Every time I am able to walk or bike from point A to point B (such as from home to Music Together classes or from home to Trader Joe’s), I am happy that I am not adding to the ever-more-precarious imbalance of greenhouse gasses in our planet’s atmosphere.

But I do ride to gigs at retirement communities in either a hybrid car or a regular gasoline-burning car — depending upon which accompanist I am working with on that day — which can leave me feeling like I am part of the problem rather than part of the solution.

Deep breath in.

Deep breath out.

I remain aware that advertising agencies, the companies who hire them to inspire/hypnotize us into buying lots of things, and our various media who feed those messages (hundreds per day!) to us have created a completely misleading narrative about how to find happiness and meaning in our lives.

And now we are living in a period of reckoning — both politically and environmentally — for all of the untruths and PSYOPs to which we have been exposed.

Here’s a fascinating example of how maddeningly f–ked up things have become here in the 21st century.

Apple, a company which prides — and markets — itself on protecting its users’ privacy recently settled a lawsuit which alleged that it, in fact, was recording its users’ conversations and sharing them with advertisers.

What???!!!

I do not have an iPhone or iWatch, but I do own several Apple laptops (going back twenty years), a couple of iPods (also going back many years), and I continue to love Apple’s GarageBand musical composition program.

What a disappointment…

Here’s an AP article/explanation from 1/2/25 by tech writer Michael Liedtke:

“Apple has agreed to pay $95 million to settle a lawsuit accusing the privacy-minded company of deploying its virtual assistant Siri to eavesdrop on people using its iPhone and other trendy devices.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

The alleged recordings occurred even when people didn’t seek to activate the virtual assistant with the trigger words, ‘Hey, Siri.’ Some of the recorded conversations were then shared with advertisers in an attempt to sell their products to consumers more likely to be interested in the goods and services, the lawsuit asserted.

The allegations about a snoopy Siri contradicted Apple’s long-running commitment to protect the privacy of its customers — a crusade that CEO Tim Cook has often framed as a fight to preserve ‘a fundamental human right.’

The proposed settlement filed in an Oakland, California federal court would resolve a 5-year-old lawsuit revolving around allegations that Apple surreptitiously activated Siri to record conversations through iPhones and other devices equipped with the virtual assistant for more than a decade.

Apple isn’t acknowledging any wrongdoing in the settlement, which still must be approved by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White. Lawyers in the case have proposed scheduling a Feb. 14 court hearing in Oakland to review the terms.”

Image by Luiz Antonio Toni from Pixabay

Yowza!

I just checked online and learned from BloombergLaw.com that on 2/20/25, “A federal judge gave his preliminary approval to a $95 million settlement that would end a five-year class action over alleged privacy violations by Apple Inc.‘s Siri virtual assistant.”

It truly makes one wonder how one can trust any company whatsoever…

And it confirms what my brother-in-law Andrew had started noticing many summers ago when we were camping on Cape Cod — that conversations we were having within earshot of his iPhone were triggering uncannily specific ads (directly related to what we had been discussing) on his Facebook feed.

Another deep breath in.

And deep breath out.

Graphic design by Stephen C. Fischer

G-d only knows what our individual — and shared — karmic reckonings will be in the hours, days, weeks, months and years ahead…

Thank you to Doug Hammer for playing so elegantly and engineering/mixing so patiently on this song.

Thank you to Stephen C. Fischer for his beautiful graphic design work.

Thank you to the talented and generous photographers at Pixabay.

And thank you to everyone who has been streaming my music on Pandora, Youtube, Spotify, Amazon, Apple Music, and other digital music platforms.

Slowly but surely, my total number of streams continues to rise.

And so do the tiny amounts of money I receive each month from my music distributor.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

You can click here if you’d be willing to stream “Asleep at the Karmic Wheel” once or twice (and maybe even give it a thumbs up or add it to a playlist…)

One final THANK YOU for making it to the end of yet another one of my blog posts.

I will end with a deep breath of gratitude in.

And a deep breath of gratitude out.

I welcome any strategies about how YOU are not falling asleep at the karmic wheel in the comments below.