Gate Opener.

Lily Tomlin, a genius comedienne!  She was born September 01, 1939. 

All these years focused on her talent and the characters she created there was no notion, or focus on her legs, and how pretty she was. Thinking back it was incredible a feat to divert an audience, much less a man, from paying strict attention to these attributes!

'Nothing like a great pair of legs' was a refrain from a commercial at the time this photograph was taken.... - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 4/6/18

Ya' Hear Jimi?

JIMI HENDRIX

In the depth of his genius and originality the gem of his words, "When the power of love is greater than the love of power the world will know peace." came forth like the hot waters of geysers in the lands the Americans stole from the Nez Perce, the Absaroka and others to establish the worlds' first national park: Yellowstone.

Jimi Hendrix being a Black Indian meant a great deal to Native people who knew this and to Black Indians who understood the danger of being or admitting to being a mixed breed in those days... It took great commitment to his art to free himself as the musical conduit, and others in the 1960's collective struggles to change lives, and to change the world as they knew it. Jimi Hendrix represents many things. In 2012 he is strange because the concept of freedom he lived and embodied then does not live in the current phenomenon of today's dictatorial patriotism stilted in an idea of freedom in the narrow spheres of one class of people. – Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 5/23/12 

Symbols worn by Sher Nero-Mejia. 

I identify her with care.

Annie Leibovitz, a photographer of note.

Mysterious WE ARE

Hummingbird & the Woman in the Air

"Every creative genius has been a channel. Every masterwork has been created through the channeling process. Great works are not created by the personality alone. They arise from a deep inspiration on the universal level, and are then expressed and brought into form through the individual personality." - Shakti Gawain 


"We will discover the nature of our particular genius when we stop trying to conform to our own or to other people's models, learn to be ourselves, and allow our natural channel to open." - Shakti Gawain 

tattooed body of the globe

MYSTERY STORY

Artwork of Nicole Kallenberg



There is always a sense of ourselves, a manifestation of who we are, the spirit of who we are visible to some eyes, sensed by some senses, and discerned by the living breath of redemption, songs sung, and the memories of our changes that is the spirit, or shadow or the aura of every person. 

How it is captured by the brush, a glimpse, photography, poetry, music or the re-telling of story is dependent upon the creativity one can muster up from within to make sense of the mystical, the magical parts of life and living that don't need to makes sense or agree with cultural rational. Such is the art of the artists, sculptress, the Creator and the Creatress alive or dormant within us who is us at the same time in a moment the mystery of our unfolding! 

I see all of these things in this one image you've created. I am reminded of all this in what you've done with your art. Thank you. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 11.29.13

Art work of Nicole Kallenberg
October 26, 2012

The Blues, a scholarly approach

 

The Blues

 -Blues Changes
-Special Kinds of Blues
-The Blues Scale
-The Minor Pentatonic Scale
-Pentatonic Minor Pentatonic
-And Blues Scale Equivalents

 Traditional Music theory doesn’t “explain” the blues very well. Consider This: The I chord in the blues is a dominant 7th chord. Also, the blues scale is unlike any other scale found in Western Music. Take a look the image below, which shows the blues scale based on C.

Blues scale in C

It has two minor 3rds (C to Eb and G to Bb), a chromatic passing note between F and G (F#), and consecutive half steps (F,F#,G) intervallic arrangement not found in such western scales as the major and melodic minor scales. The interval structure of the blues is “minor 3rd, whole step, and half step, and minor 3rd, whole step.”
Jazz evolved in nineteenth century from diverse African-American, and Latin-American sources, including African call-and –response chants, field-hollers, gospel music, marches and popular songs of the day, ring shouts, and a largely Cuban influence called “The Spanish Tinge.” However, no one source of Jazz was more than the Blues.

The blues has its own traditions, but also the single biggest part of the jazz tradition: Blues Changes.
There are zillions of “Blues changes.” Having said that, let’s get back to reality. There is a single, commonly accepted set of three-chord blues changes, more or less unchanged since the earliest days of jazz, and still plays today.

Modern examples of three-chord blues include Miles Davis’ “Blues By Five” and two by Thelonious Monk, “Blue Monk” and “Misterioso”. 

by Rashid Booker

Thelonius Monk and Miles Davis

Go to https://www.academia.edu/12875596/Monk_and_Miles_Played_The_Blues 
 

The Prince of Darkness



Miles Dewy Davis III playing his trumpet

Trumpeter-bandleader Miles Davis (1926-91) was a catalyst for the major innovations in post-bop, cool jazz, hard bop, and jazz-fusion, and his wispy and emotional trumpet tones were some of the most evocative sounds ever heard. He was also one of the most identifiable and misunderstood icons of the 20th century.


The book: The Miles Davis Story:The Miles Davis Story is a remarkable, in-depth look at one of the most influential figures in jazz, from the Birth of the Cool to his collaborations with legendary pianist Gil Evans to his controversial 1970s albums and beyond.


https://youtu.be/OIHjqTdRnX0?list=PLqCjLhOxHNnLzDFIHOc0F4E5oT-R-HR1c





Miles Davis
Is that Jack DeJohnette on the drums?

 

Didn't say much, but said it all.

IRock JAZZ

Miles Davis 


The Prince of Darkness. His approach to music and genius as an innovator affected my music and life profoundly. It was a study in itself to learn indirectly from people who'd mastered a craft, or to be directly penetrated by their creative energies linked to the African spirituality coursing through the bloodlines. Those two things amongst other factors created bodies of work, and better musicians. I am a part of that 'guild'. My ability to honor the large number of influences, the traditions who informed me, the ancestors I am connected to, and the few masters I've personally built relationships with and the masters, like Miles Davis, whose life and times upon the Earth changed the psychology, the theology of cultures. Crucial to my creative processes is an important honoring ceremony done with my life, the way I live and play my music. This is an honoring of Miles Davis, but it extends to all others. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 10.17.13




singers Robera Flack, Mick Jagger and Phyliss Hyman

Roberta Flack taught school here in Washington DC, and is well known from that generation. There is also a forgiving attitude from DC about her focus on musical integrity and her lack of fashion sense that taught people about priorities. In her time and before priorities and their placement was fundamental to how Black folks functioned in their lives. It was part of the dignity of Negroes, Colored folks and later Black Americans, who bore a hole into world cultures with a daring grasp upon cultural awareness. Style as we defined it came from the epicenter of one's creativity and reaction, or response to the culture challenges of living in the United States, and a global citizen which came more in vogue as access to the financial hub of the country became more than a dream.

There is a lot to discern from the older musicians, and singers, and a lot cast aside by newer musicians and artists without an historical grasp of their art forms. Different messages go out and into the winds, and we all know the winds they are a changing! - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 10.17.13

Contrasts or Similarities

It seems an Asian woman in the fashion industry is just as rare as a dark skinned model. This petite model showing off shoes for High On Heels is subject to an outdated ideal of womanhood. Or perhaps the idea of high ideals has become scorned because of the inability of many to hold authority over their words, their spirits, thus pushing from the ascended places beyond the cruelness of judgment and suspension of the movement within ideals. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 4.21.13

The shoes could be found here.
April 16, 2013

It isn't easy to find dark skinned models in print, or online that are the subject of higher art, and not entwined in the oily pools of pornography. - Gregory E. Woods 4.21.13

Liberace's movie face

Liberace's Plastic Surgery Left Him Unable to Close His Eyes — Even While He Was Sleeping

By Kimberly Potts | Yahoo! TV

CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images - Liberace in the CBS special "Leapin' Lizards, It's Liberace!" (1978)

"Now here is a bizarre movie I won't go to see, and I like movie challenges. I, like the rest of the country in those days, was compelled to watch Liberace. I didn't know a neighborhood where I cat like him could live to see the next day, or a church that would let him in the door, but I didn't know many not compelled to watch him perform. We'd never seen anything like him flaunting something we dared not say. 

A feminine man bedazzled in jewels and flamboyant, and happy in the 1970's? We contradicted ourselves and watched every show he was on. The nation did this as well as my own family and friends. There was nothing appealing about sissies then. But, Liberace was pushing at some boundaries I was not sophisticated enough to fathom so I watched him intently studying every move and word..." - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 5.25.13



"The film should have focused on the genius of Liberace as an excellent and very talented performer and entertainer, but viewers will not see that, they will only focus on the disturbed life style of the gays." - Justoneinthecrowd  


"... as my daddy said ingenuity/intellect and insanity often walk hand and hand. the meaning of that old saying is crazy people are gifted." - Jim 

3 JAZZ GIANTS

by Bruni Sablan

KEITH JARRETT:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Jarrett

MARY LOU WILLIAMS:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Lou_Williams

ROBERT JOHNSON: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Johnson


Bruni, I am all about the fluid motions in Keith Jarrett you captured, the steady cool and restrained elegance of pianist, Mary Lou Williams, and the eyes. The eyes of Williams and blues man, Robert Johnson are alive telling stories about a time, a time and the times they lived, and created music in. 

As my father would say upon seeing your work, "You tellin' it like it T I S!!!! - Gregory 

Wild Life

Heather V. Black Planet gallery

There is a sense within American youth to aspire to a wild life loosely defined by excessive drinking, hooping and hollering, movies, videos, drugs, long and wild parties, and a generally practiced detachment mistaken for cool. Unbridled passion often leads to regret, and young people engrossed in music that gives free expression to wanton behavior, anger, and crude calculated destruction are particularly at risk of deep troubles in their short lives. 

I am old enough to have a sense of the effect of soldiers returning home from World War II. It mostly comes from my teenage years suddenly wondering why I was watching James Dean, and Elvis movies with the rebellious white punks with the slick hair styles. My parents would have not gone for any of that behavior in me, but subtly these guys were become models. 

After World War II white soldiers came back home with a restlessness that transferred into the motorcycle gangs that eventually, and quickly turned into rebel gangs.The restlessness and the way white soldiers dealt with the stress of war sickness was different with Black soldiers because of race, and the social climate it engineered for them. The characters James Dean, Elvis and others came out of that era, that angst, and struggle to connect with themselves and society. Connecting with self, and society was deliberately harder, and more dangerous for Black men, in particular, and Black people over all. 

Today those are subtle, less obvious influences on children because of the newness they feel alive and fresh from their mother's wet wombs. The 1960's unleashed genius upon the planet in a way that very well may never be duplicated in the world again. There are unique factors to the charge of energies that shaped the youth from the late 1950's through to the1970's that created a mass introduction of ingenious ideas, and approaches to every academic discipline, and socially restructured a rigid environments for young people's exploration.  In turn those young hippies and revolutionaries are now adults, and grandparents. A ball or two was dropped, and the parents carrying the ball now are absorbed in attendant fears, obsessions, and distractions that have little, but mostly nothing to do with the development of the creativity within their children. A return to the rigid social and family structures that were blind to their contradictions is a visit back to the 1940's and '50's without apologies or introspective conversations. 

I don't know who suffers the most in these games of partying like it's 1999, as Prince used to sing, the women, or the men? Women are often depicted in popular movies badly. They are drunk, or made drunk to be fondled, and taken advantage of, or they are bad ass chicks who kill and take without regret, or remorse, or they are the lovable Thelma & Louise types, or merely sex kittens. The boys and the men pretend to be, or are often violent. Women, to them, are second rate beneath their male friends who they romp around with breaking the law, and seducing women under the thin guise of badly insinuated romance that is contemptuous. 

Seeing women flagging their precious selves like wet rags or flags in the wind to get attention, to give up their pussy for pleasure, money or acceptance is painful to behold. I use the word behold on purpose. It is important to convey the enormity of what is being bartered away for cheap thrills and short rides. The boys and men in this game need to receive the ability to see through their daughter's eyes, and women need to learn how to see themselves their daughter's eyes and the perception of divinity. should be sought after, if they want to be perceived as men women need to trust.Women need to be Known by men in a way unknown to most men on this path. How that could conceivable occur is dependent upon men. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 

Black woman sitting crossed legged on car - Kristy !!!!

G E N I U S

"Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid." - Albert Einstein