Undercurrent of Blessings

It's Sunday morning as I prepare to re-enter the workaday world after a fine ISTE conference, a relaxing weekend fishing with my brother Ed, then a week at home catching up with writing, hanging out with family, and prepping a cubic yard of cables and archaic tech gear for next weekend's yard sale. I'm ready for it.

Kind of surprisingly, I miss my team at MNPS Virtual School and I am very much looking forward to the hard work ahead as we address the closure of Summer Success 2013 and the beginning of the 2013-14 academic school year.

As I prep for re-entry, I've been listening to some of my dear brother (from another mother) James Morrison's music on YouTube, as well as his "Son to the Boy" CD, and in doing so I stumbled across a lovely little interview he did a couple years ago for  a YouTube series called "The New Media Artist." It's worth a watch, both because it's Jimmy, and because his musings remind us of some important things. Watch

Son to the Boy Interview

My dear brother-from-another-mother Jimmy Morrison (he's one of the only people left who call me Scotty), mostly known as James, was featured in an interview at LA Canvas blog, and I think you should read it. The last line is something that goes a long way toward explaining why artists make art:

Interviewer Jacob Rohn asked him:

"JR:  What is your ultimate goal?

 He answered:

"JM:  Any kind of music has to be supported by playing live.  I’m working to put a band together and play a few shows.  But ultimately, music lives inside you, it’s up to you, the artist, the make sure that it doesn’t die inside you, cause just like anything else you can’t take it with you."

My dear departed daddy used to sum it up this way:

"Ain't no pockets in them shrouds." 

...although I must say he was talking more about his inability to save money and his great talent at spending it, whether it be on his family or his mistress of 20 years, than about creating art. But that's another story. This one, especially the public statement of my godson Seamus's victory over brain cancer, is well worth a read, and the music it describes is indescribably beautiful. Of course I'm most fond of "Lifeguard Girl," with the airy and mellifluous addition of my lovely daughter Miranda's voice weaving through its wry lyric so perfectly that Jimmy ended his recording with an instrumental version of the song as respite, replete with Miranda's voice as instrument. Go get it all at CDBaby or iTunes. Now.