Jump to content

Post a good thing that happened in your life today


Betty LaRue

Recommended Posts

In my youth I tried violin and guitar but was rubbish with both even though I had a good singing voice. Sadly gone now due to lack of use over many years.

 

Allan

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was so non musical as a kid (and still) that when I got put in the chorus for the elementary school play, I was told to just lip sync.  Couldn't even keep time with a tambourine.  Was always envious of the kids with music talents.  But I do love to listen to music of all kinds!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

57 minutes ago, Michael Ventura said:

I was so non musical as a kid (and still) that when I got put in the chorus for the elementary school play, I was told to just lip sync.  Couldn't even keep time with a tambourine.  Was always envious of the kids with music talents.  But I do love to listen to music of all kinds!

You've just reminded me that I was banned from the compulsory choir class at one school I attended.

I was told that I should spend that period in the library🤣

Phil

Link to comment
Share on other sites

32 minutes ago, Ed Rooney said:

 

I won't bore you all again with more tales of my astonishing musical virtuosity. I'll just sit here and pat myself on the back for a few minutes. Ouch! That's my bad arm!

 

🤨

Any chance to hear about Gene Smith!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Allan Bell said:

In my youth I tried violin and guitar but was rubbish with both even though I had a good singing voice. Sadly gone now due to lack of use over many years.

 

Allan

 

I thought my voice was gone, too. All it takes is to start singing, and little by little, the rust flakes off. While it is not what it used to be, it’s passable.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Bryan said:

Music helped get us through the lockdowns, I regret that our grandchildren haven't been pushed to learn an instrument - as yet.

 

In my youth most households would include a person or people who could play. My dad played the clarinet, mouth organ and latterly the guitar, while my wife's family had a piano and her uncle played the banjo. We had been playing at Washington Old Hall, but that had to stop because of Covid. However we have been allowed back since the summer, first playing in the garden, then in the hall itself. Sadly, due to the financial losses incurred during lockdown, the Hall is closing over winter and will be shutting at the end of October.  A couple of weeks ago a bloke asked if we had any CDs, an incredible complement for couple of very amateurish musicians. In truth if you confine yourself to pieces that are not too difficult and don't try to play too fast, even the most untalented can make a satisfactory sound. 😉

Music is the universal language.

Back when our kids were growing up, my sister’s family, our family and my mother would go camping at a beautiful lake in southern Oklahoma every year. Days were spent swimming, boating, water skiing and fishing. Each evening, we’d sit around the campfire and my brother-in-law would play his guitar. He, my mother, my sister and I sang.

All of a sudden applause would break out, surprising us. Then we’d realize people from surrounding campsites had quietly brought folding chairs and were sitting in the dark just out of the campfire light.

My mother was a big fan of Jimmy Rogers (Rodgers?) an old time folk/country singer from the depression era. She could sing his songs which usually had yodeling. People ate that up when she sang. Google “Mule Skinner Blues” by Jimmy Rodgers and you’ll see. Dolly put out a version, so did Merle Haggard.

I’m working on that song.  If I can learn to sing and play it, my kids will be brought to tears, because I will be channeling their beloved grandmother, gone these past 10 years.

  • Love 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, John Morrison said:

 

Oh, go on Ed. We're all ears. It's not like there's anything else happening on the forum...

 

ear! ear!

 

Allan

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

W. Eugene Smith? Did I not already tell of my minor path-crossings with the great man? ???

 

In the late 1950s, Smith was living in a loft building just north of Greenwich Village. A young friend of mine, a guitar player, brought me up there one night to join in the continuous jam session. Zoot Sims was there and one or two other guys I knew. I didn't know who Gene Smith was at the time, and I don't think we were playing in his loft, rather in one of his friends. I wonder if anything I played that night is on the Jazz Loft Project recordings? Don't know. My young jazz friend was also the guy who took me over the another jam session at a club in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. That was great night. The club was jammed, and I was the only white face. I was a trumpet player back then. 

 

I became a photog in 1960. Harvey Zucker was a friend. He owned a fish and chips restaurant in the Village and had a custom black & white printing business. He was in one of Gene Smith's darkroom workshops and took me along one afternoon to deliver some stuff to Smith. I got to watch the master make two prints. 

I'm confused as to when this was.

 

Sometimes I think it was before I moved to Rome and sometimes I think it was a decade later. It must have been later, because Smith was not living at the Jazz Loft then. Later still, Harvey Zucker opened a photography bookstore in SoHo, A Photographer's Place. 

  • Love 2
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 minutes ago, Ed Rooney said:

W. Eugene Smith? Did I not already tell of my minor path-crossings with the great man? ???

 

In the late 1950s, Smith was living in a loft building just north of Greenwich Village. A young friend of mine, a guitar player, brought me up there one night to join in the continuous jam session. Zoot Sims was there and one or two other guys I knew. I didn't know who Gene Smith was at the time, and I don't think we were playing in his loft, rather in one of his friends. I wonder if anything I played that night is on the Jazz Loft Project recordings? Don't know. My young jazz friend was also the guy who took me over the another jam session at a club in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. That was great night. The club was jammed, and I was the only white face. I was a trumpet player back then. 

 

I became a photog in 1960. Harvey Zucker was a friend. He owned a fish and chips restaurant in the Village and had a custom black & white printing business. He was in one of Gene Smith's darkroom workshops and took me along one afternoon to deliver some stuff to Smith. I got to watch the master make two prints. 

I'm confused as to when this was.

 

Sometimes I think it was before I moved to Rome and sometimes I think it was a decade later. It must have been later, because Smith was not living at the Jazz Loft then. Later still, Harvey Zucker opened a photography bookstore in SoHo, A Photographer's Place. 

 

Great story and worth repeating if you have already told it to this forum!  I can almost see a movie being made of those days of photography and jazz in NYC.  I loved that store, A Photographer's Place, I always made it a point to visit anytime I was in NYC...bought a few books there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My mom was very musical.  She owned and played a baby grand piano and an electronic organ.. the big kind they used to make, not these digital ones that are common today... however, no matter how hard she tried to teach me, I did not have the aptitude for it... I took after my dad I guess... I still have her organ, which I inherited after she passed away... can`t bring myself to get rid of it... they depreciate like cars, so wouldn`t be able to get much for it anyway.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Michael, maybe if you bought books at A Photographer's Place in the late '80s, you bought them from me. I worked there on weekends after losing my income and savings in Oxfordshire to Black Monday in October 1987. I had put down a deposit on a cottage in Woodstock just before the stock market crashed. 

 

By the way, Johnny Depp just made a film called Minamata where he plays Smith.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Ed Rooney said:

Michael, maybe if you bought books at A Photographer's Place in the late '80s, you bought them from me. I worked there on weekends after losing my income and savings in Oxfordshire to Black Monday in October 1987. I had put down a deposit on a cottage in Woodstock just before the stock market crashed. 

 

By the way, Johnny Depp just made a film called Minamata where he plays Smith.

 

 


I will look for that movie!  And yes, I was usually in NYC on weekends and visited a lot in the 80s….so quite likely we crossed paths there!  Many of my hometown friends settled in New York after college so I many reasons to visit.  I almost moved there too but got a good job as a photo studio manager for a DC commercial photographer (he was from New Jersey, just across from the Manhattan. Worked with him for six years before heading out on my own.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

36 minutes ago, MDM said:

Well the good thing for me is that I just got home from hospital after 1 week after my oxygen levels dropped significantly.  They started giving me oxygen through a mask and I was gradually been weaned down to normal room levels. I am tired but very happy as struggling to get enough oxygen into one's body is not a pleasant experience/

 

Before that I had a bad fever for 9 days. Been really well-looked after by the NHS, excellent care and great vegetarian food. I didn't want to post about the situation as I wasn't really up to anything for a long time. So despite being doubly vaccinated and having had Covid before, it is still possible to get serious Covid. I met a few people in hospital who have been doubly vaccinated and were having a hard time/

 

So I just wanted to say a truly heartfelt thanks to all those who were wishing me well on the other thread. Really appreciated guys. I did tell Allan where I was a few days ago but asked him to keep it under his hat for a few days. Thanks friend.

 

So forum friends do take care, real care.

Welcome back, Mick - great to see you!

  • Love 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, MDM said:

Well the good thing for me is that I just got home from hospital after 1 week after my oxygen levels dropped significantly.  They started giving me oxygen through a mask and I was gradually been weaned down to normal room levels. I am tired but very happy as struggling to get enough oxygen into one's body is not a pleasant experience/

 

Before that I had a bad fever for 9 days. Been really well-looked after by the NHS, excellent care and great vegetarian food. I didn't want to post about the situation as I wasn't really up to anything for a long time. So despite being doubly vaccinated and having had Covid before, it is still possible to get serious Covid. I met a few people in hospital who have been doubly vaccinated and were having a hard time/

 

So I just wanted to say a truly heartfelt thanks to all those who were wishing me well on the other thread. Really appreciated guys. I did tell Allan where I was a few days ago but asked him to keep it under his hat for a few days. Thanks friend.

 

So forum friends do take care, real care.

 

You are welcome Mick (friend), and it is a relief to hear that you are out of immediate danger and back home.

 

Allan 

 

  • Love 1
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Went into Lincoln today as the weather was nice and needed to do something other than hanging around the bungalow. Took some pictures. Visited Lincoln castle and used my annual ticket to see the exhibitions. The Magna Carta (one of the original copies - yes there is more than one Magna Carta) is in a vault and people are allowed into see it on an almost individual basis, only up to four at a time from my observation. I was surprised how small the real life document is. Also on show is the document signed by Henry III (King John's son) giving rights to the people of the use of some forests. There is also a cinema where there is a shortish film on the history of the coming about of the Magna Carta. Very Interesting.

 

Later I popped into an Oxfam book store and found a book in the photography section entitled "The Hulton Getty Picture Collection 1930's" by Nick Yapp. Bought it at a very reasonable price.

 

Allan

 

  • Love 2
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Ed Rooney said:

 

9 days with fever is some ordeal, Michael. Not being able to breath is no fun either. Your story tells us to take covid very seriously.

 

Definitely not a nice experience Edo but it has focused my mind on what is really important in life. I feel potentially full of life again but am going to take it easy for the foreseeable future. There are so many things related to photography that I want to do now and I am really valuing my family - my wife and son have been so supportive. 

 

You take care and take no risks amigo.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Cecile Marion said:

Welcome back! What an ordeal for you. So glad you’re better and that you were well taken care of during the worst of it!

 

Thanks Cecile. Much appreciated. The care was excellent and totally free. I had a room to myself for the first 5 days. The last two nights were in a ward with 4 other men, some of whom were having a terribly hard time.  I thought one of them was actually going to die as he was really struggling for breath - way worse than anything I experienced. There is always somebody worse and seeing this and the problems the other men have has made me very grateful for my rapid recovery. Sleeping in a room on my own tonight is going to be heavenly.

  • Love 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.