Veronica

A full box of The Art of Michael Franks CDs

The Art of Michael Franks – Tallying 16 Years’ Restock

Dead Horse Records, Jazz, Michael Franks, Music, Personal / / 6 minutes of reading
Occasionally, I will go through my Blog posts to see what I published over the years. I tend to do this when I feel that I’m not being productive, dragging my ass, beating myself up about not posting enough. Those little excursions down memory lane help me overcome such nonsense and divert my attention to […]

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Bidin’ My Time.

Art & Culture, Conscious Life, history, Jazz, Lifestyle, Music, Personal, Songwriting / / 6 minutes of reading
For a while now the phrase “Bidin my time” has filtered into my consciousness. It’s an old phrase that I heard frequently when I was growing up. I’m not sure if it’s used anymore, but just those three words, when spoken together, hold a multitude of meanings. Perhaps it’s the political climate or maybe it’s

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DAYA Music Festival of Indonesia 2024 (pt. 3)

Art & Culture, Dead Horse Records, Full Gallop Music, Indonesia, Jakarta, Jazz, Lifestyle, Music, Music Education, Travel, World Music / / 7 minutes of reading
Monday, July 8, 2024 Well, it’s done, the festival has ended and to say that I’m humbled by the experience would not be the most accurate words to best convey the joy and fulfillment I feel. I only slept about 3 hours and yet I’m still pumped up with adrenaline from the activities of the

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DAYA Music Festival of Indonesia 2024 (pt. 2)

Art & Culture, Dead Horse Records, Full Gallop Music, Indonesia, Jakarta, Jazz, Lifestyle, Music, Music Education, Travel, World Music / / 6 minutes of reading
Wednesday, July 3, 2024Up earlier than planned but still, I was excited for the day. We had lunch at the campus. Today was rehearsal day for the upcoming fundraising concert held in the spectacular home of Dedi Panigoro. With the band – Deviana piano, Jennifer Vincent bass, Suhandin Kosasih percussion, and Wahyu Prastya drums, we

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DAYA Music Festival of Indonesia 2024 (pt. 1)

Art & Culture, Full Gallop Music, Indonesia, Jakarta, Jazz, Lifestyle, Music, Music Education, Travel, World Music / / 8 minutes of reading
In 2009, I shared a blog post about my first trip to Jakarta, Indonesia. Since then, I’ve had the privilege of returning multiple times, each journey focused on the discovery and promotion of culture and art—specifically, the rich and diverse culture and art of Indonesia. Most recently, I embarked on my fourth visit to this

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Fear of Trying

Conscious Life, Jazz, Music, Personal / / 7 minutes of reading
Those of you who are familiar with my podcast, Tales From the Jazz Side, will know that I have a fascination with fear, or more specifically, all the things big and small that scare us. And on that show, I talk with artists about those fears in relation to all aspects of their lives as

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2020 + 2021 = Now

Conscious Life, Jazz, Lifestyle, Personal / / 6 minutes of reading
According to the public health John Hopkins Education May 24, 2022 article – Where We Are in the Pandemic by Lindsay Smith Rogers, Covid-19 is not over and will not be over at least for the foreseeable future. Yeah, that’s right, it is still here. And thus far we are not exactly sure what it

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2020 Vision

Conscious Life, Personal / / 4 minutes of reading
At the beginning of year 2020, I had great hopes for the future, our businesses, our lives. My life. It would be the year where I would buckle down and begin to have gratitude for myself, step up and envision new possibilities. Write music, play the bass in live performances (something that gives me shivers

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Tari Piring – Traditional Indonesian Dance

Art & Culture, Music Education, Road Life, World Music / / 3 minutes of reading
During the Covid 19 pandemic and choosing to self isolate, I decided that this was the perfect time to tackle some projects, confident that once this was all over, it would be difficult to come back to work on them at a later date. In the past, my schedule limited me from working on long-term

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COVID-19- To Isolate or Not Isolate, is that a question?

Conscious Life, Personal / / 3 minutes of reading
I was thinking about those who have relatives and friends that are not taking this coronavirus COVID 19 pandemic seriously. They think it’s just media hype or they say stuff like, ‘I never get sick’. Let’s look first at ‘I never get sick’. There is always the first time and my question to that person

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Why Woodstock?

Conscious Life, Peace Activism / / 3 minutes of reading
When I talk to people and they ask me where do you live, my response is always, house in Woodstock, apartment in Brooklyn. The reluctance to let go of Brooklyn as my official place, because I do so love me some Brooklyn, is puzzling to me somewhat, yet, Saturday I was pleasantly surprised by my feelings about how much

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Mission Unknown

Conscious Life / / 3 minutes of reading
The beginning of a new year and some of us reflect on years from the past, perhaps focusing on the most recent one, we ask ourselves where are we headed this year, what do we want to accomplish? What sort of goals should we set for ourselves? Some of us are using the same goals

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The Love of Life

Personal / / 2 minutes of reading
“Life contains the capacity, like flames that reach toward heaven, to transform suffering and pain into the energy needed of value-creation, into light that illuminates darkness. Like the wind traversing vast spaces unhindered, life has the power to uproot and obstacles and difficulties. Like clear flowing water, it can wash away all stains and impurities.

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All In A Day’s Work…. part 3

Art & Culture, Indonesia, Jakarta, Jazz, Music Education, Road Life, Travel, World Music / / 4 minutes of reading
The final installment of my miraculous visit that became an unexpected journey. I would say that this is perfect timing. Why? Because in 3 days, I will back in the land of Java continuing another exploratory excavation of the hidden inside all of us. But before I get into all of that, I will finish

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All In A Day’s Work….part 2

Art & Culture, Dead Horse Records, Indonesia, Jakarta, Jazz, Music Education, Personal, Road Life, Travel / / 4 minutes of reading
Part two of a three part series about renewal of faith and the telling of an adventure that returned a lost heart. Mine. Let’s see where was I, ah yes….. The first day of school. IMDI- The Institut of Musik Daya Indonesia. I walked the lengthy road heading toward the school and what I cam

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All In A Day’s Work…..part 1

Art & Culture, Indonesia, Jakarta, Music, Music Education, Road Life, World Music / / 6 minutes of reading
“When traveling is made too easy and comfortable, its spiritual meaning is lost. This may be called sentimentalism, but a certain sense of loneliness engendered by traveling leads one to reflect upon the meaning of life, for life is, after all, a traveling from one unknown to another unknown.“ D.T. Suzuki (1870-1966) This posting is

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A “Know it All” Reprise

Jazz, Music, Music Education / / 5 minutes of reading
Another turn of the wheel,  a year older and trustingly wiser.  Perhaps its the perpetual entrance of a birthday that brings a deluge of crowded memories vying for their place in the dusty archives where we store our experiences. Recently my reminiscing has circled and landed on the years that I’ve lived and played music.

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Couldn’t Have Said It Better….

Dead Horse Records, Michael Franks, Music, Songwriting / / 3 minutes of reading
“Music, at its essence, is what gives us memories. And the longer a song has existed in our lives, the more memories we have of it.” Stevie Wonders Working on the new CD is really challenging and educational. This being my first endeavor to record a CD of all original songs, those “originals songs”  being

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“Art for Art sake”

Art & Culture, Indonesia, Travel / / 3 minutes of reading
Here to report on my mini-quest to understand the “World” community and how being an “artist” fits into the grand scheme of things. People separate the “artist” community from the “everybody else” community. The artist has all types of myths shadowing their lives. Are they in it for the money or for the pure love

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Java Jazz Festival – Indonesia take 2

Art & Culture, Indonesia, Jakarta, Jazz, Music Education, Personal, Road Life, Travel, World Music / / 8 minutes of reading
Little did I know that the following month I would be back in Indonesia playing music with my dear friend and conducting workshops at the school. I arrived on Monday, March 2nd and it was much hotter than I remembered. I was met at the airport by a representative from the Java Jazz Festival and

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May in Paris!

Personal, Travel / / 4 minutes of reading
Now is the time to write about my trip to France. Even though I made this trip a year ago, I’m feeling very Bohemian and Parisian today. And I’m ready to tell my story. In preparation for the trip, I began learning French 6 months before I decided to go, actually, it was a year

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