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 / Thursday, August 13, 2026 / 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 / Tuesday, August 12, 2025 / 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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Fear of Trying

Conscious Life, Jazz, Music, Personal / Wednesday, March 15, 2023 / 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 / Saturday, August 13, 2022 / 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 / Saturday, December 19, 2020 / 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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COVID-19- To Isolate or Not Isolate, is that a question?

Conscious Life, Personal / Tuesday, March 24, 2020 / 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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The Love of Life

Personal / Friday, September 25, 2015 / 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 2

Art & Culture, Dead Horse Records, Indonesia, Jakarta, Jazz, Music Education, Personal, Road Life, Travel / Wednesday, February 19, 2014 / 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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Java Jazz Festival – Indonesia take 2

Art & Culture, Indonesia, Jakarta, Jazz, Music Education, Personal, Road Life, Travel, World Music / Thursday, July 9, 2009 / 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 / Wednesday, July 8, 2009 / 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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Taping the Marion McPartland’s Radio show

Dead Horse Records, history, Jazz, Music, Personal / Saturday, March 7, 2009 / 2 minutes of reading

As I walked into the studio, I recalled the famous photograph taken in 1958 “Great Day in Harlem”. The first time I saw that photo I was amazed at all of the legendary people that were there that day, but what really struck me was the image of Marion McPartland and Mary Lou Williams side

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Smokey Joe

Personal / Friday, July 22, 2005 / 1 minute of reading

My last entry was about a new life, this one is about the end of a life. Today we put our Smokey to sleep. To explain his malaise would be to complicated. All I know is that the cause of his affliction is a mystery, the effect however is devastating for a cat. He’s lived

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The Allergy Season

Birth, Creation, Death, Lifestyle, Personal / Monday, May 5, 2003 / 1 minute of reading

Yes, I know, it has been a while. Sometimes I don’t always feel inspired to write about anything, but today that is a different story. I want to write about the allergy season. I suffer from allergies. And when I say I suffer, I mean I suffer. Probably not anywhere near the level as people

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Is It Possible?

Conscious Life, Peace Activism, Personal / Wednesday, January 29, 2003 / 1 minute of reading

This peace thing. What is it about the concept of peace that people don’t understand. Why would anyone be opposed to it? Why would anyone support it? Definition: A state of mutual harmony between people or groups, especially in personal relations. If we go and kill “the others”, would we be any happier as individuals.

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