Operation 365... Blog 329

Operation 365 - Jefferson Jay - Archives - 335 Jefferson Does Gu Zheng 2-12-10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kwxu2tt6lMU


I will create something today. What this will be, I don't know. I will play music today. This makes me happy. I am as free as I allow myself to be. This is up to me. If I will free, I am free. If I allow myself to feel afflicted, that that's what I will be. There is black or white. There are an infinite array of colors to choose. Things can be however we want them to be.

So, today, I revisit an old artistic adventure. Maybe this will help it become new again for me. In early February 2010, I bought a ancient Chinese zither, known as a gu zheng. I was on an acquiring interesting instrument tip, inspired by thoughts of my friend Don Truesdail. I picked up an accordion, a couple banjos, a sitar and the gu zheng. I took lessons on the ones I couldn't figure out, which was most of 'em. I was playing all those instruments a bunch back then too. Not so much these days. I liked it. It was fun. These days, I don't usually feel like dealing with the hassle of takin' 'em out, settin' 'em up and puttin' em away. Sad.

I actually got OK on the gu zheng after a bit. I could play a little when this was filmed. I like the first bit the most. Maybe I should have cut it there. After, I offer my takes on Zeppelin's "No Quarter," Charbra's "Sugar," Black Sabbath's "Iron Man," and "Mary Had a Little Lamb" on an instrument from over 1000 years ago. Yes, the gu zheng goes way back. It is old school.

Enjoy!

Operation 365 - Jefferson Jay - Covers - 335 "Comfortably Numb" by Pink Floyd
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXJLzYPeHy0


For a long time, I would answer "Comfortably Numb" if anyone ever asked me my favorite song. That or Led Zeppelin's "The Rain Song." Life is always changing. It's hard to have favorite anything for too long these days. I used to answer my favorite movies were "The Breakfast Club" and "Silence of the Lambs." Then those answers go old, but I had no replacements. I don't know what movie I want to sit and watch that I've already seen. Those movies affected me when I saw them. That's what I liked about them, I believe.

"Comfortably Numb " and "The Wall" had a profound effect on me when I was first trying to find my way in this sometimes dark and psychedelic world. The two guitar solos David Gilmour does in the album version of this tune are still easily two of my favorite solos on any instrument ever. Unfortunately those do not appear in this version. It is hard to do justice to such a great tune. So I just did the tune. Roger Waters and David Gilmour. Those guys wrote the heck out of this number, and the whole 1970s for that matter. What an epic decade it was for Pink Floyd. That's the kind of decade I fantasize about as a musician. "Meddle," Dark Side of The Moon," Wish You Were Here,""Animals," "The Wall." If that's not 5 epic albums back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back than I don't know what would be. Thanks, Pink. It's meant a lot to me.

Operation 365 - Jefferson Jay - Originals - 335 "Time to Find an Answer"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uab_1KzsHM


I was making this one on the spot and then I stopped when I realized it needed a little more attention. So I wrote some lyrics, made up a couple changes and that was about that. "Time to Find an Answer" was born. The answer is in our minds. We have the answer. We can choose peace, calmness. We can worry about what we want or think we can need or we can bask in the blessing of everything we are. There is a glass. Half-full? Half-empty? We have a glass. And if there's anything in it, that's another cause for celebration.

When we are supposed to have things we will. If you want something put that out into the universe. It's listening. It will hear you and when the time is right it will respond. Will it be the response you want? Who knows? Will it be the response you need? Most likely. We have to trust ourselves and the universe. Life is a lesson in patience every day. Waiting for whatever it is you've set your mind. Happiness, financial stability, love. All we can do is our best and be the best we, we can be. Everything else, we have to give up to faith and trust in universe. Or we can swim in the winter. We decide.

We can be open. We can let the answer reveal itself to us.