The Reticent Blogger.....on books & working at the Kennedy Center

     Here I go again..... such an itchy scratchy feeling, writing a blog, although not as much as when I journal and feel somewhat ridiculous because it always seems like I should be writing to someone.  A real someone, who answers back.  Other than myself.  Because, honestly, if I pose a dilemma or question to myself?
     I already know the answer.  
     I never wonder what I'll say in response like I would a letter from an actual person. Which is why blogs are definitely a step up from journalling since there is the potential that it might actually elicit a response from someone.
      So.....I've written a book.  And finished it.  Called Kella of Opulent Faith.
     I don't know why I've been clutching this secret to my chest like a penny pinching housewife in the grocery store with her coupons (me!  Except for the housewife part.  And the fact that me, armed with coupons, = spending more than ever "because its on sale").
     It's just such an exhilarating feeling that I needed to swill it around the gladness region of my spirit for a while before releasing it since, over the past fifteen plus years, one manuscript after another has been discarded because.... well, never mind.  I was about to go way far off-topic, and into my psyche, and wear you out, totally.
     Anyway I wanna get to the book - and I will - but I think, as a salute to the "parts coming together for the good of the whole" I spoke about in the "Why Jazz?"blog, that I should tell you the back story of how the book came to be from the beginning....
     Once upon a time, God looked down from heaven and noticed a crochet designer scrambling around for opportunities, praying and clinging to Him like a leech, and He sighed and sent husband-and-wife angels in human form to sit next to me at a Christmas party and proclaim, "She should work at the Kennedy Center!", and proceed to give me all the info I needed to get in there.
     So ten months later, (long months, filled with much misfortune including car needing brakes which forced me to walk the trails to work, etc. where I glimpsed a cougar

less than fifty yards away but didn't believe my eyes - because it was so far removed from my perception of reality - that I actually strolled right on past where I saw it enter the woods.  Then two days later, people in Alexandria, Virginia were on the news saying they'd seen a cougar.  An experience (among others during this period) that I drew upon for the cheetah scene in Kella of Opulent Faith - but more on that later....), I found myself working in the Costume/Wardrobe department for six weeks on the international premiere of Little Dancer at the Kennedy Center....

     .....I'm grimacing and flinching at the time - need to run catch up with it - forgive me.  Will get back to this next time.
Until then,
xoxo
Vanessa
#Crochet #Vannazhandz #FinishedABook

Why Jazz?

     So right away I wanna explain that this blog is not specifically about jazz.  It's about the concepts of jazz, the implications of the word that suggest parts coming together for the good of the whole.  Like ordinary things that make each other extraordinary as a whole.
     Like a forest, or when I take a piece of string and wind and knot it together into something somebody can wear, or like two people in love, or all of the things in the span of one's life, or the universe at just this precise moment.
     Also, I'm not a musician, technically speaking.  Even though I sing - in fits and starts - on my church choir, to mixed review.  And occasionally disturb others with my music volumes and personal concerts.  And write songs but seldom finish them.  And daydream about being a part of a trio of backup singers for somebody famous on their world tour, or I might even find myself daydreaming about just singing with the church choir if I happen to have missed a few Sundays.
     Oh, and I actually do love jazz.  Like right now I'm listening to Alice Coltrane and Pharaoh Sanders - you cannot stay droopy, or angry, or fearful when you listen to them - their music helps you remember yourself.  The good part of you that can solve all these problems that get thrown in your path, and stabilize yourself through the highs and lows of relationships.  I'm really serious.  Their music is like magic for the psyche.
     But the things I want to talk about in this blog have to do with the things that created the emotions that brought people like the Coltranes, Davis, Jimmy Smith, The Pharaoh, Maurice Brown, etc. to convey the beauty that is jazz.
     I hope I don't blog about jazz and/or music all the time.  I'm going to try not to, even though I just did...
xoxo
Vanessa