Read karephoo Lee, as your options have not changed

Lawrence Ferlinghetti passed away recently, here is a fold-up-table street vendor in front of City Lights Book Store, not quite sure what he is selling but it looks like a regular chilly afternoon in the shadowed canyons of San Francisco.

Powell Street Bart Station at Market St— Some C level executive is somewhere wondering how to increase profits, maybe dealing with a recall of 200,000 products, some other person is operating a crane downtown, another person in a nursing home is cleaning up excrement off the patient and bed while this woman is busy finger-pointing at and lecturing the tourists standing in line for a cable car ride. I wondered what she does with the other parts of her life.

California, Street, runs one side to the other across the city from the piers of Embarcadero to the Pacific Ocean

Market Street I see this man, I think how lucky he can flex his hips and legs like that, maybe he is Christian and believes in Saint John .Maybe he looks at me and thinks “How lucky he ate this this morning .

I wonder if rural people understand the logistics of city life. Lots of people, lots of problems, lots of responsibilities , it can take years to build a tall building, a project with constant flow of materials, trash, critical needs human emotions, In the rural area they may burn their trash, store stuff in the barn, even stick useless vehicles in a field. and take a walk to get away.

Human made shapes are different than natural shapes, they organize the information of the landscape differently than natural environment creating a different experience of uniform lines, colors and shapes

Parks with open space are important for people, taxes are higher for upkeep of the parks, financial city managers are held to higher, often more transparent, standards than in private enterprise. and are dependent on taxes for their budget. this all requires a lot of politicking .

Alameda Creek

Now, I’ve got four or five puppies,
Got one shaggy hound,
Takes all them dogs to run my
Women down.
Saturday Blues Ishman Bracey

Walking pretty much daily along Alameda Creek I can listen to radio, podcasts, and sometimes just think—I can feel sorry for myself, think about a pressing problem, sing an old song or try to close up some inconsistencies in some theory,

What is Blues music? Some definitions refer to the blues “feeling” of the music. Another refers to the technical aspect— each verse is twelve measures long with one basic chord progression and a few common variations.

Maybe you think doing every song the same would be boring, but get a few hours of the works of great blues artists, such as Muddy Waters or BB King ,sit down and lesson.

While jazz spread around the globe the twelve bar blues grew as a worldwide musical language. .Pretty much anywhere in the world where musicians play “popular urban music”, they know it and at the drop of a hat they con sit down, and join in from the first downbeat.

This is the origin of structured improvisation in jazz music. Whether its a specific musician/ instrument, or as in most jazz groups each instrument gets it chance to improvise while the rest of the group knowingly plays the 12 bars, this is a global language created in the USA.

Early 1900s King Oliver a cornet player who improvised over his band playing 12 bar—vertical bars separate the measures—blues. . Louis Armstrong joined the band to improvise on top of King”s improvisation

FYI_King’s wife’s name was Ruby Tuesday, the same name as a 1960’s pop song by The Rolling Stones.

The chord progression using I, IV amd V symbols for the three chords where the roman numerals designate the basic three chords of a pop song, such as A, D, E7; or G, C and D7.

four meaures of I;
two measures of IV,
two measures of I;
one measures of V
one measures of IV
one measure of I.
one measure of V.

So if you are playing-blues in they key of A then I =A; . IV = D; and V = E or E7

At the last measure the music may sound as it is walking up or down steps into another room, this is called the turn-around, it turns the song around to start the 12 bars over again and just on thisonemeasure part alone if you listen you will hear some interesting and creative variations.

There was also an Eight Bar blues, from the Louisiana Delta region, known as Delta blues, artists such as John Hurt, Skip James, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and Robert Johnson . Its not so common post 1950s, but you could hear Slim Harpo doing eight bar blues and personally I think his harmonica playing influenced that of Mick Jagger.

Chuck Berry had his own way of playing and listeners never seem to grow tired of it. Bob Dylan has used the 12 bar structure for many songs.

To say only one blues song, Statesboro Blues , written by Willie McTell who played 12 string guitar, a feat in itself as you either play the instrument or it plays you. He was blind and toured accompanied by his wife who might also sing on recordings. There are many great interpretations of this song, McTell was from Georgia, so was the Allman Brothers Band which did an excellent electronic version.

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The Boston Phoenix was a “larger than usual” alternative tabloid in the 1960s closing in 2013, Five decades ago living on the Cambridge side of the river I had a small business which advertised in The Pheonix and once a month I would go down, stand in line and pay for the ad. There was a dearth of movers then, all you needed was a van, two men and a phone, show up on time and do the work. There were over 250 college and post high school schools in Boston lots of students and recent grads (hang arounds) in the area with a bed, dresser, some kitchen tools, a table, chairs and books—all fit nicely in a van which is convenient to park and drive on busy streets.

Jamaica Plain early one Sunday morning out behind some business buildings in a snow field about 50 years ago this kid and I crossed paths, I vaguely remember the overall duration, I saw him,. made the image and we passed, cannot even remember whether there was a nod or any sort of acknowledgement, just two people passing each other on a vacant lot in a city. Without the photograph I would have forgotten about it.