mike hammer stuff for 11/20/23 meet

 

 

The Song to end all war

The fiddle was glowing softly already from when The Wonderful Musician used it to charm the Secret Service men but now as he stood before the president of the U.S.A it was brighter than he had seen it in centuries. The musician’s fingers firmly caressed the fiddle’s neck and strings, and his bow dazzled as he produced a song that filled the president’s ears with happiness, his heart with determined faith and his mind with a powerful fixation.

As his fiddle filled the air with gorgeous melodies The Wonderful Musician told the president that music could unite everyone, and war could be vanquished once and for all with the songs of John Coltrane.

The Wonderful Musician had heard the John Coltrane Peace Theory years ago at a spoken word performance from Henry Rollins. He knew a great song made us feel better, transformed us and took us back to when we first heard it. Great music moments were frozen in time and cherished, never to be disturbed. 

The president smiled, walked over to his phone and began dialing, all the while The Wonderful Musician played. The doors to the Oval Office were secured. He debated having the president phone a major news network real fast to issue a statement, but he didn’t care if the world knew the reasons, he just cared if the world knew peace.

The musician thought about the friends and countries he’d seen destroyed by war over his centuries, the ones his fiddle couldn’t save. He knew the horrors would end once the world rallied round something other than power.

Several hours of the president yelling, promising and begging ended with instant action. They don’t call him the most powerful man in the world for nothing, The Wonderful Musician thought.  The country’s war chest makes lots of friends too, he mused. The Wonderful Musician continued playing and looked on as the president launched his laptop computer and brought up video feeds from across the world that showed planes dropping John Coltrane cds on every battle field across the planet. The soldiers began listening to the music and the fighting stopped and they became friends as they discussed Coltrane’s powerful loving bop sound and the grace he played it with and the wonder and awe and kindness it made them feel. The president led the musician to the a balcony overlooking the White House lawn, it was a wonderful clear and crisp night and The Wonderful Musician finally stopped playing and through the night they heard John Coltrane across the world.

 

 

LSWG homework 11/20/23

I have been inspired to write throughtout the years by the need to have a play to perform, the need to put prtty words together to make a point of my thoughts, the need to promote music and the need to make good journalism. When writing things, even those that result in paychecks, my goal is always to be memorable, to have the reader LOVE the piece or HATE the piece or ponder it for hours and days and weeks or to have it stick in their memory bank someplace to be whipped out later. As long as the writing is not just OK and forgettable.

 

“What inspires me to write”. (For instance