It's been a while... R.I.P. Jack Bruce

It has been a while. There's nothing wrong personally. I've been busy. I had places to go, people to see. I'm in demand baby! Well maybe not. I'm working much more than I wanted to when I semi-retired. Four days instead of five days a week for considerably less money than before. The money is not the issue except that every two dollars I earn over a certain limit, I get one dollar less on my social security check. I have a good boss and I've explained it to her. We have a good relationship and I just to work a bit less.
This Friday I will be having oral surgery. I am getting dental implants. Originally I wrote, "I'm getting implants" but I decided to change it just so you won't think I was having two medical procedures instead of one. Besides I'd have to get an all new wardrobe. After Friday I'm taking the next two weeks off and I'm not looking forward to a diet of mushy things. I have plenty of vacation time as I worked full time for a quarter of the year earning time off every week. I've only taken two weeks off this year and have been accruing hours off all along. I have three and a half weeks in the bank at this point.

Last weeks weather was less than desirable. One day the wind was gusting to 50+ miles an hour. It brought a branch down in my next door neighbors yard. That neighbor happens to be Arlene.

A swing set and a hammock were ruined but apart from that there was no other damage. For some reason my computer is working better now and I have spent many hours looking at all our vacation pictures because Arlene mentioned that she would like an actual photo album to look at. I've already printed out one and I have enough different pictures to make another. It's taken quite a while but it was alright because I enjoyed looking at all of them. It's a place we have fallen in love with and have not had enough of yet.
So that's where all my computer time has gone and I'm not quite done yet.

On a sad note at least for me and his family, friends and fans, I mourn the passing of my favorite musician. Jack Bruce. He hit it big in the late 1960's with the group Cream. From early 1966 to Nov. 1968 they were huge. At the height of there fame they broke up. They sold 35 million records in two in a half years including the first ever platinum selling album. It's the group that made Eric Clapton a superstar. They were in Beatle territory. They were the first rock band who could really play.

Jack Bruce was the singer and principle songwriter for the group. He like his former band-mates were considered the best musicians in popular music. He was actually a jazz bass player and a classically trained cellist. He gave Rock a try and he hit it big. He never attained his former popularity but went his own way. He was a very good pianist and also played the guitar and harmonica. He's best know as a bass player, A great bass player. He played almost any style of music, be it jazz, rock, classical, blues, folk. He had a distinctive tenor voice and wrote songs in almost any style. He was a uniquely gifted musician. A rarity in Pop music. He died Saturday Oct. 24. He was 71 and in frail health. He had a liver transplant in 2004 and was still active in the Spring of this year, releasing his last album. He was distinctive because of all he could do. Here's a little video I made featuring a few bits of his music with pictures  of Jack and three of Cream. A familiar snippet of Cream, the song that launched a million guitar players including me, then a bit of a song from his early solo career and one of my favorite Jack Bruce songs featured complete. A Latin flavored number that he wrote sang, played the piano and bass. It's called the Consul at Sunset. A wonderful song.

    
I was fortunate enough to get his autograph in 1980 when he played here locally in Cambridge. I got to see him in my home town when he played at Tufts University and I got to see him one more time in 2005 when Cream reunited and played at the Royal Albert Hall in London and then at Madison Square Garden in New York, the show I attended, though my friend went to both shows in London and New York. They were two different bands, a studio group and a live group who brought a jazz sensibility to Rock with long improvisations. No other group could touch them instrumentally. A Jazz drummer and bass player with a young Blues guitar hero. Few groups if any have tried to emulate them because they couldn't. Cream was just that good. Thanks for all the music Jack. You were brilliant.

Need a laugh? Who doesn't?! Friday night Arlene and I watched the movie Bruce Almighty with Jim Carrey. God makes Bruce (Jim Carrey) God and Jim has a little fun with his new position. He works at television station and decides to have a little fun with the news broadcaster while he's on the air. We laughed till we cried over this scene.

 
So that wraps up this little adventure in the blogging world and though I am off today I do have things to do, not to mention laundry. Until next time...
I'm outta here.