Jazztruth gets 1,000,000(one million) hits

I started jazztruth in the summer of 2010; I remember sitting in a rented apartment in midtown, watching my newborn boy, listening to the sounds of tourists and native New Yorkers outside the window as I typed furiously about Jazz then and now. Well, it hasn't really been that long, and yet, noticing in my stat count that I've received over one million hits feels like a milestone of sorts. I honestly don't even know if that is a good amount of hits? Is it all from one person? Is it one hit from one million people? Is it mostly from spammers? Is Brent Black stalking me again? Well, the important thing is, it seems as though some people like what I'm doing. Hopefully, my writing will help to keep jazz and creative music alive a bit longer.

Another good thing for jazztruth is that some of my past interviews are being re-cyber-published on allaboutjazz.com. My interviews with Buster Williams, Zach Brock, and Billy Childs are already posted. I'm glad that they liked my interviews so much. I have many more coming down the pike, and there's still a lot of musicians that I'm hankering to interview.

It's good to feel as though you are doing something important. Some of us feel ambitious about our legacy; we want to know that we have accomplished something, and want to feel as though we leave something important for which to be remembered. (If you are from Portland, you might be confused at this point. Just know this:  winning the award for most bong hits in one night is not a "legacy".) However, when you consider Dinosaurs, it makes you pretty insignificant. Why am I considering Dinosaurs, you ask? Well, I am reminded of Dinosaurs daily by my son; all he talks about are Dinosaurs and the planets of the Solar System. ( Earth is pretty small next to many other planets in the Solar System. The fact that you can fit 100 Earths into Jupiter should make you feel insignificant. Well, I should add that there aren't exactly 100 Earths lying around to insert into Jupiter. Would they even fit inside Jupiter? You'd be surprised, since Jupiter is mostly made of gas. However, I have a feeling that Jupiter wouldn't appreciate 100 Earths inserted into it's airspace.Or should I say, gas space. Also, who's going to have the strength to put 100 Earths into Jupiter? And these are 100 Earths in present day; with the population explosion and the North American Obesity Epidemic, Earth is as heavy as it's ever been. So it's gotta be somebody strong. What about God? Believe me, God's got way more important things to do than find 100 overweight Earths lying around and then put them into Jupiter just to make a point about how freaking big Jupiter is. Why, God has

Earth compared to Jupiter

Kim Kardashian's career to tend to......)

When you consider the fact that the dinosaurs dominated the Earth for 135 million years, and died out 65 million years ago, you realize how insignificant the measly few thousand years of man's recorded history seems to be. ( Just think about one million years, and how long that is. If you went to Portland public school, think a little harder. You'll get it eventually.....) We are a blip on the radar screen. Think about how much importance we put on the complete works of J.S. Bach. In comparison to the millions of years of history of dinosaurs, or even just  the mere fact that Earth has existed for over 4.5 billion years, Bach is not even a speck of dust in the cosmos. What does that say for the significance of my forthcoming CD?( "The Endless Mysteries", on Origin Records, featuring Jack DeJohnette on drums and Larry Grenadier on bass, coming out in late November, by the way...) I think it's a great way to
keep things in perspective. Although if you are ambitious, don't let it bring you down too much. (And if you are in Portland, just hit that bong again...)

"Now let's see, where did I leave that humanity I created?"

Thanks to my dinosaur-obsessed son, I can't help but wonder if our perception of God is correct. I mean, we think of God as an all knowing, all seeing, all loving deity. But I question his awareness of humanity. If he created the Universe billions of years ago, and dinosaurs ruled the world for 135 million years, and when you consider man's insignificance in all of that, God might not even remember that
he created man. Let's face it, human history is like this: when you consider your entire house and everything in it, furniture, electronics, appliances, toys, etc.., and that's the history of Earth. Human history is like a tiny dirt covered Frosted Flake that you find underneath the stove.

"Honey, how did this Frosted Flake get under here? I don't even eat Frosted Flakes! Did somebody have Frosted Flakes in the kitchen?"

"Yeah, when my friend Sarah stayed here back in December, she had her own box of Frosted Flakes. Remember?"

"Oh, yeah. I had forgotten. Well, I put it in compost. This kitchen is filthy...."

Sometimes, we wonder if God hears our prayers. Some think that, considering the state of the world, perhaps God has forsaken us. I think God probably just forgot about us, in the same way that you forgot about that 10 dollar charge you had on that Macy's Credit Card that you never used after you bought that shirt 8 months ago, and then you find the bill in the bottom of a huge box of receipts and unopened bank statements. "Oh, drat, I should have paid this. Now it's 15 dollars...."

Humanity to God might be like if God is the CEO of a company and humanity is this one dude who works in the basement in maintenance and God sees him every now and then on the elevator, and doesn't ever remember his name. "Good morning......uh.....Frank? Bob? Oh I'm sorry, Humanity?..."
God the CEO has a lot on his mind, so if he forgot our name, we should cut him some slack.

In some ways, we have it all backwards. Human history is so insignificant compared to the infinite history of the cosmos. Even Dinosaur History is way more significant than Human History. And yet we just lump Dinosaurs into species. Yes, we know about the Tyrannosaurus Rex and Triceratops, Stegosaurus and Brachiosaurus. But what about individual accomplishments? Who was the dinosaur equivalent of J.S. Bach? Or the Triceratops equivalent of Galileo? The Stegosaurus counterpart of Ashton Kutcher?

I realize that Dinosaurs had smaller brains, but maybe they had more capacity for thought than we give them credit for. We can't know for sure, right? Maybe there were some dinosaurs who had ambition, who wanted to leave a legacy. " Everyone's going to remember me as the Tyrannosaurus Rex who

Jerry, the T Rex

killed the most Triceratops in all of Tyrannosaurus Rex history. Me, Jerry Tamblowski, the T Rex."
I think if Jerry Tamblowski the T Rex could see that his contribution to Dinosaur Society has been completely glossed over, he would be very, very disappointed to say the least.

This makes me also wonder about, yes, that's right, Dinosaur Ghosts. Why do we think humans are the only ones that can have ghosts? Why not the Dinos? Maybe the ghost of Jerry Tamblowski the T Rex might come back to set the record straight. I imagine a group of people might be having a seance, sitting around a ouija board, attempting to channel the spirit of a loved one. All of a sudden, the medium starts channeling Jerry in a ghostly dinosaur voice. "This is Jerry the T Rex, I killed the most Triceratops of any T Rex, you must tell the world...." And the people who hired the medium would say, "Hey, Miss Medium, stop clowning around. We are here to try to make contact with our dear cousin Herschel, who died suddenly, and forgot to tell us where the key to the garage is..."

Our view of dinosaurs is so unfair; it's as if some unknown future Earth species would learn history like this:

"A long time ago, humans walked the earth. They were the dominant species for a few thousand years. Their reign ended when someone named Glenn Beck got a hold of a nuclear device. OK, let's move on...."

So the moral of the story is, one million hits is nothing to get too excited about. One million bong hits: that's another story......