Ruby Speaks ...

Rrf!  Hello Folks ... Ruby here!
Thank you for waiting so patiently for me to speak. Now that I have your attention, I hardly know where to begin :)  Look at my close-up picture for a few moments and you may think you see my lips moving :)

Yes, I have my service vest, after having visited doctors' offices and businesses around town for a while, I took the plunge and am service dog for Clara in a supportive way ... and also, in a general sense, for Gerald, who for some time now has not been able to walk more than a few steps even with his walker, but cannot use a wheelchair because it would be difficult to get someone to transfer him in and out of the chair due to his weight (a hefty medical person needs to bring a chair out to the car each time). So we have a car now in addition to Clara's truck. The car was originally bought to be a Rubymobile because it's hard for me to climb up and safely get down the step of the truck. But the Rubymobile also transports Gerald whenever he has an appointment. He requires considerable help in getting in and out of the car. Once at the appointment, he needs additional help and that's majorly where I come in. Everyone oohs and aahs and sort of reverently moves out of the way of our entourage as Clara, doctors, aides, and I help him to his destination.

Stepping back in time a few months, I was blessed at the Blessing Of The Animals service at Westside UU Church during October. It was a lovely service and Rev. Carol obviously enjoyed planning and conducting it.  

I'm now ten years old (January 1st) with a sketchy background and I look like the jet black German Shepherd that I am with some wolfy possibilities and colorations between my toes. I understand many words even when they are spelled (even spelled backwards) and when I growl it is the most fearsome, gutteral, baritone lyrical semi-howl sound. I only growl when I hear other dogs barking or yapping.

Recently I had the distinct pleasure of visiting Rev. Jenny at Borderland Tees in south Knoxville. Folks, if your organization wants awesome tee shirts at great prices, Borderland is the place to go. Rev. Jenny is a community pastor; she and her partner Bob have employed and assisted, with ongoing success, members of society who are on the fringes (borders) of society. I had a great time there being welcomed and petted :)

Now, I've held back this post until I could tell you something definite about Clara's new music video.  I love music and will stop whatever I'm doing, even if I'm napping, to come into Clara's music studio and sit right next to the amplifier.  She recently recorded two songs at Songwriters Recording Studio in Knoxville, with multi-talented William (Sandy) Garrett at the helm. One of the songs is a re-make of her original "Conversation". The other is an amazing, spellbinding (see I told you I know a lot of words) arrangement of the song from the '50s, "Only You"; it is featured on the video. There are special reasons that Clara chose to do this song and I am inwardly smiling as I think of what a beautiful, romantic song it is. HP Video of Knoxville is preparing the video and the YouTube link will be posted on this blog soon!

I am so enjoying this opportunity to write this guest post here and would like to remind everybody to please adopt a shelter animal. I was a shelter animal and so lucky that Clara walked in and saw me (I was depressed and wouldn't even look at her that day). She took a leap of faith and filled out the papers ... and here we are, the perfect match of human and canine :)    

Thank you for reading my guest post.
Ruby Dog
Rrf!

"Never In A Million Years"

This post will be a bit of whimsy and nostalgia. I'm placing it here as the first post so that people will be curious and log onto the blog and see the post about Leo and his rescue organization which is directly after this one :)

This post will require a bit of imaging. Most people who are acquainted with me know that my childhood and youth (well, most of my life) was in music performance at venues of many descriptions. My mother was a very active "stage mom"  :) When I was 19 years old and had left my home of origin (actually, had been run off by my sibling who was not a nice person), my mom saw an ad in the newspaper about a vocal group looking for an additional singer who can do harmonies. She renewed her interest in being backstage and insisted that I inquire and I found myself with three guys who were going to sing and one additional guy who was a talented piano player. The building was very old and in the center of New Haven (CT), about two or three floors up in an old building. The floors were that nice, worn-looking kind of wood. I didn't really want to be doing this kind of music... I was 19 and these guys were in their mid-thirties (old) and the piano player, Tony, must have been in his 50s. They called what we were doing "progressive jazz"; of course I was much more enthused about rock and roll. Well, we practiced there and at each other's houses for a while, then added our own instruments ... me on piano, Charlie on guitar, and Geno on bass ... or sometimes Charlie would play the bass and Geno would play some kind of hand rhythm instrument ... later Ray entered the scene and played drums. By this time I was really enjoying the harmonies ... very close jazz chords on some terrific old (at that time) songs ... and Tony kept saying "Rock won't last, it won't last!" This is all leading up to what I want to tell you :)

One night while we were in the old building, we heard footsteps coming up the stairs.  It was a  smiling middle-age man of stocky build and I think he was carrying in his own huge stand-up bass. The guys knew him and asked him if he'd like to do a song and in a split second he responded by saying "Sure" and I heard my very first vocal and bass solo as he launched into a spell-binding rendition of "Never In A Million Years". I'd never heard the song before.  It was mesmerizing to me and at that moment, the bass became a much-loved instrument to me. I later realized that the bass sound is very important to me when I play piano or my split keyboard (which has a bass function). As a matter of fact, a saxophone player who came to my house five or six years ago, jubilantly exclaimed "A keyboard player with a left hand!"  

The song "Never In A Million Years" has stayed alive somewhere in the background of my mind and, recently, I looked for the lyrics on the Internet.  I made myself a lead sheet and have added the song to my repertoire :)    

Dancing With Life (Clara's Update) --

Hello Dear Readers,

Apologies for my posting lapse.  Someone recently told me that "blogs are dead" and the only thing that people read now is Face Book.  I hope that isn't true.

Blogs, to me, are original by their very nature and, as I'm an innovative and mostly autonomous person -- I do like to set my own parameters.  Anyway, I was kind of set-back at having been told that what I'm doing is pass`e and disdained.

Often readers send me e-mail comments, which I enjoy and appreciate getting.  Sometimes I gently urge them to also send comments via Google's comment options (which include an anonymous feature), so that others can read them.

Always, your interest is appreciated.  If you're an animal lover, please check out the animal ministry blog at http://animalministry.blogspot.com. Also, I've updated my own website at www.claralandau.com.  My song player is now on the home page and has twenty songs on it.  I LOVE my most recently recorded original song "Dance With Me".  It's of course what I sing to my lover, but it's also what I sing to Life itself.  Life is a dance, folks -- it really and truly is.  Do we hold this partner stiffly and fearfully in our grasp? Or do we nestle in close, embrace it passionately and surrender to it?   Do we look off to the side, or do we gaze into the eyes -- of Life?  

Please let me know if you'd like a copy of "Dance With Me".  E-mail me at claralandau@yahoo.com; call me at (865) 659-5383.

The Full Moon Of May's Dwindling Days ...

 ... is in the astrological sign of Sagittarius (the moon is always full in the opposite sign of where the Sun is ... hence Sagittarius the 9th sign/Gemini the 3rd sign, with the moon in a fire sign and the sun in an air sign.   

I have put my newest song “Vanishing Freedom” up on my Reverbnation page at http://www.reverbnation.com/clarasolobluesjazzandexoticmixes.  Different in character and genre than my usual stuff, it provides me with an opportunity to vent some of my thoughts and feelings about what the government has done and continues to do with our lives, the earth, logic, and ethics. I think it’s worth a listen and hope you’ll tune in :)

Over the past weeks and months I’ve been putting a lot of time and work into a different kind of project that I’m really looking forward to unveiling via this blog, when its time is right. Yes, I’m excited about it and will post about it as soon as I can. My above comments about the astrological signs bring to mind the concept of “cusps”.   My project is on the cusp of becoming news!

Drum circle, anyone? I’m eager to find or form a recreational and/or shamanic drum circle so my wonderful djembe Ruby and loyal hand-drum Gabriel can meet and enjoy the camaraderie of other drums :) The two circles I used to attend are no longer meeting.  I drum almost every day as part of my meditation. The drumming puts and keeps me in the moment and is very soothing in a quietly exciting way.  Playing piano or keyboard and singing also provides me with a blissed-out though different kind of feeling; the hand-drum is especially centering.  If you're in the Knoxville area and are interested, please let me know.

I found a wonderful organization that is working to save U.S. wolves from annihilation. Howling For The Wolves has a marvelous website at http://www.howlingforwolves.org/  To help rescue and protect U.S. horses from slaughter and inhumane transport, please check out all-volunteer Southern Winds Equine Rescue at http://www.southernwindsequinerescue.org/ .

Peace, love, light, and blessings!

Sugar, Spice And A Toss Of The Dice!

Welcome back, dear readers!  If you had deserted my blog I wouldn't have blamed you.  I haven't posted to this, my original blog, in a year or so.  I'll try and make my posts stimulating and I'd like to strike some balance between serious and inane :)

420 --

Yes, April 20th is the long-established day that honors the amazing, yet vilified Cannabis plant, which was re-named marijuana many years ago by our government in the effort to misrepresent it and make it sound foreign and scary.  My comments about it here aren't from the perspective of a user, but rather, from the standpoint of an herbal and wildflower enthusiast who thinks that God knew what He/She was doing when He/She created the Earth and populated it with plants and animals.  The Cannabis plant is among the most versatile, useful, and beneficial in this world.  Fortunately (although 75 years late) its prohibition, persecution, and blatantly untrue bad press are showing signs of ceasing, with two progressive states declaring it a legal plant and many other states coming forth with various decriminalization measures.  You can follow this progress by going to the website of NORML at http://norml.org/.  Anyone who wants to know the truth about what happened 75 years ago -- and how and why the government escalated its persecution and imprisonment of cannabis users -- to include seizing their homes and cars -- can refer to the History Channel's documentary and several other historical publications.  It's obvious that the federal government  had deemed itself wiser and mightier than the earth's Creator and that it was accountable to no one.

New Song --

I've written another new song (not sure where my music reporting left off in my earlier blogging).  This song is not in my usual blues, jazz, ballad, spiritual, light classic genres; it is a protest song.  Instead of being played on guitar like most protest songs of the past that I've heard, it is done on the piano.  For recording purposes, I'll play it on my split keyboard so I can use the bass feature, too.  The name of the song is Vanishing Freedom.  The song's content covers some challenging territory and, yet, remains lyrical.  When I get it done, I'll put it up on my website and on Reverbnation.

Reverbnation --

Some months ago I joined Reverbnation and have some songs up there on my page.  The title of my account there is "Clara (Solo) Blues, jazz, and Exotic Mixes".  I hope you'll visit.
http://www.reverbnation.com/clarasolobluesjazzandexoticmixes   

Facebook Artist Page --

When I joined Reverbnation, I found that my days as a FB hold-out (I didn't want to join) were over because Reverbnation considers a subscriber having a FB page as a given.  So I created, with the help of a dear friend, an "artist" FB page.  The artist pages are somewhat different from the regular FB accounts.  I'm still learning the drill as far as how to navigate the page and how to post to other people's regular FB pages.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/claras-music/378791192206945

Two New CDs --

During the past year, I did two new music CDs.  They are both for sale on  my new and improved website at www.claralandau.com.   The first, "Clara (solo) The Journey and The Gem" has some truly mesmerizing songs ... some originals and some awesome covers.  The second, "Songs for Spirit" is a collection of original spiritual (not religious) songs ... and one of the songs is by my friend, Sandy Garrett.  His song is absolutely beautiful and I dare say that mine are nice too :)  You can hear some of my stuff on my website's Song Page link, but you will need to get the CDs to hear some of the most delectable renderings.

New U.S. Secretary Of The Interior --

The appointment of new U.S. secretary of the interior Sally Jewell took place last week.  She replaces Ken Salazar.  This change in leadership governing our public lands and environment has been needed ever since  Salazar took hold of the reins; the role he chose to play was disastrous for the environment and endangered species.  I am especially hopeful that Secretary Jewell will return protection to U.S. wolves (who were removed from the Endangered List during the final moments of W's presidency and are currently being pursued and killed).  Also I'm hoping that Secretary Jewell will put a stop to the horrendous helicopter wild horse round-ups that lead many terrified adult horses and new foals to their deaths ... and that she will protect U.S. horses from being barbarically slaughtered in the U.S. or across the borders in Canada and Mexico.

Our Fellow-Beings the Non-Human Animals --

A recent mailing from ASPCA about the rise in animal cruelty, including instances of cruelty involving many species of animals -- seems to echo the violence being perpetrated on humans by other humans.  Also, I've got a mailing from WSPA that speaks of the routine very inhumane treatment of animals who are considered "food" and food-producing units.  It doesn't need to be this way. Why are so many members of our species so hell-bent on cruelty?  Where is the compassion?

My Magazine Article --

About six months ago, I finally wrote my article that chronicles my other-dimensional experiences ... events that were uplifting, amazing and, in several instances, saved my life.  I don't know what publication to submit it to.  It's entitled "An Angel At My Shoulder", though it's about many circumstances and spiritual beings.  But I feel the title is appropriate and the term "angel" fits well my benefactor and guardian (several years ago I wrote a song by the same title).  The article is, at once, shamanic and mystical and enthralling.  Perhaps I'll publish it on my blog.  Please let me know if you have an ideal publication in mind that might be suitable for it.

Update On Dixie Lee --

My beautiful dog is doing fine following the very difficult year she/we had with her fistula situation.  She miraculously recovered during summer of 2012 and has been well ever since -- all traces of the condition are gone!  She is looking forward to her 11th birthday this August.  For those of you who are interested in the science of numbers, 11 is a mystical number and one with which I'm very familiar in the best sense of the word : )

Blog Post Reprint --

This would be a good time for me to reprint my long-ago published post that lends some levity (and truth) to our current national and world conditions.  Here it is (reprinted from an earlier post that appeared in my now-deleted "Classic Clara" blog).

Vagabond Shoes –

That is the name of a song sung/recorded by a man named Vic Damone back somewhere in the 50s or around there; his many other hit recordings were love ballads. When I first heard Vagabond Shoes, I found it to be sort of infectious, in a good way. The song had a different kind of beat (pre rock & roll) for its day and its lyrics spoke to a pair of shoes, vagabond shoes to be exact. I’d love to get my hands on that recording. Anyway, I’m going to see if I can remember/find the the complete lyric (I remember the melody) and, if so, revive the song in my own way. What started me on this trend of thought is the new pair of shoes I got at New Balance here in Knoxville. These shoes are made in the USA, folks. These are wonderful shoes and feel soooooo good! It’s fun to walk when your feet don’t burn and ache. So they are my official vagabond shoes. On Classic Clara, my other blog, I’ve put up a post about walking. So, "vagabond shoes, why did you roam? Why did you take me far home?", etc. Sing it, Vic.
　
　
　

“That Old Black Magic” –

I’m talking about the song, written by composer Harold Arlen and lyricist Johnny Mercer in 1942, for the film "Star Spangled Rhythm". I happened to hear a piped-in version of it recently while at Savelli’s Restaurant. Never before having realized what technical potential is there in that song, I’m having a lot of fun with it now. Lots of nooks and crannies support all kinds of little riffs and bass lines and the lyrics are fun to sing, too. Add this to my covers list :)

Blissful Heart --

Last week in church, the choir sang a D. Brunner song called "In Safety and Bliss". The simple, yet profound line of lyric that brought tears of appreciation to my eyes, was "May all creatures be of blissful heart". It's a beautiful wish.