Addicted to Talent Shows and Some Music

The Pimpernel has been facing some MINOR medical challenges. LOL, really, they are minor; but, must be dealt with and hate seeing doctors and am a very bad patient. I am nice enough; but, I am not very cooperative and there are some things I just won't do. I have an excellent medical plan and had a great doctor who actually cared about me, I think. He tossed me off his list of patients because I would not do anything he told me. Anyways, I am getting ready to see a new doctor and some of the people I work with know this. I told them it is nothing worrisome and it is not, so to all my dear readers believe me when I say it is not a big deal, just something I need to take care of. Here is the bottom line, I may be offline for a few days and it is absolutely not life threatening, more embarrassing.

Now, on to what matters, music. I have been watching more and more YouTube videos of talent shows. I understand that they are really about pulling at your heart strings, that is the genre. Not long ago I came across a singer from Britain. She had gone on the Voice UK and was not picked up. Then she went on Britain's Got Talent and made it to the semi-finals. She should have lost on the Voice UK, she didn't pick the right song. She should have gone further on Britain's Got Talent because she found the right songs, Torch Songs, my favorite. I want to post some torch songs for you. At heart, I love jazz the best, it just feels right to me.

Jazz is, wow, I don't know what to say. Jazz is freedom of the heart. I took my wife, now my ex, to a restaurant once a very long time ago. We were poor at the time, I had just graduated and was working two two full time jobs at minimum wage. I won a contest at work, I couldn't tell you what it was if I had to. I got dinner for two at a very nice local restaurant, what a treat it was. There was a piano player at the restaurant, he played some accessible jazz, things everyone would like. I gave him a very big tip and asked him to play what he felt in his heart and not what the people might expect, he did and loved it as did we. Jazz has to be from the heart to be great or it is just music.

Jazz must effect your heart on the deepest level. Opera is the hardest to sing and classical music is the hardest to play; but, technical skills can get you buy. It is not like that with jazz, it has to be from the heart or it is just music. Rock is about attitude (and I know at least one of the people that reads this blog is in a rock band), jazz is about heart. You don't learn jazz, you feel it or you do not. You do not appreciate jazz, you live it, you feel it, you absorb it and share with it. It is the most intimate of all music genres.

Rock is a celebration of the joy within us. Classical is the celebration of what we are capable of. Jazz is the turning of pain into the sweetest of feelings, it is the nexus between pain and pleasure. If you do not hurt, you cannot understand the joy. The lack of pain can be the greatest pleasure. Anyone who has ever suffered from Cluster or Migraine headaches can understand that. Now for some jazz.

YouTube - Alice Fredenham singing 'My Funny Valentine' - Week 1 Auditions.

YouTube - Linda Ronstadt - Down So Low.

YouTube - Judy Garland - "The Man That Got Away" from "A Star Is Born"

YouTube - Ella Fitzgerald - Misty

YouTube - Dusty Springfield - The Look of Love

YouTube - Roberta Flack - Killing Me Softly With His Song. I may have said this before; but, Ms. Flack wrote this song about having seen Don McLean sing in Los Angeles. He is the guy that wrote and sang American Pie and this song. YouTube - Vincent (Starry Starry Night) Don McLean.

YouTube - Bee Gees- How Can You Mend A Broken Heart

YouTube - Harry Chapin - Taxi.

YouTube - i don't know how to love him- helen reddy.

YouTube - Phantom of the Paradise - Old Souls.

Now I will tie this all together and it is really stupid. My bottom hurts, lets leave it at that. It is not life threatening and I just have to have the doctors make it not hurt. ROFL. If the Pimpernel was in any possible danger, I would make sure that I left a final post or gave access to my blog to make such a post. This is not it. I had notify some of the people that work with me about my situation. I am devastated by their responses. I was at work today and the love I was shown purely blew me away. Wow, so many people worried about me, people who wanted to visit me in the hospital. You name it.

Ever since my father passed away and I got divorced, my friends have been so amazing to me that words escape me and I write a lot. To know that the people who work for me actually care about me is the greatest achievement I have ever made in my life. If you are ever blessed with people to be responsible for, make them matter to you because you are responsible for them. Hope you enjoy the music.