The spiritually generous Enrico Borsetti sent me a gift of this image.
He said he thinks of it as my Seal. I’m thrilled. What it stands for is sacred:
Three years ago, on February 21, I posted my first blog-entry: an announcement of the 2008 Jazz at Chautauqua. JAZZ LIVES gives me immense pleasure among dear friends and a new community. I’m having the time of my life, thanks to the music, the Beloved (whose idea it was I start a blog), and to my readers.
February 25, 2011, marks another anniversary: it is one month since I began my experiment in asking my readers to give something back to the musicians. As I write this, the JAZZ LIVES fund for the musicians has collected $758.00 from eighteen people (including myself and the Beloved).
I promised at the start that I wouldn’t editorialize or have an animated thermometer to show how much money was coming in, or not. And I know that times are tough and that some jazz fans don’t have disposable money. But a young musician, a young woman musician in the Midwest, sent me five dollars — her gum money for the week — to support the jazz creators she admires and has met on this blog. That makes me feel good, and I trust that it does the same for my readers.
These donations are, I am sure, only the first of many!
Finally, on the night of February 28, 2010, I was coming home from a wonderful night at The Ear Inn. I will say only that my heart stood still (to quote Lorenz Hart) and I woke up face-down on the sidewalk: less than a week later I was the proud possessor of an incision, a pacemaker and defibrillator. Now I keep excellent time, should you ask. A year of being newly alive is something to celebrate, I hope you will agree.
JAZZ LIVES, too. Thanks to all of you!
SENDING THANKS WARMS THE HEART: CLICK HERE. ALL MONEY COLLECTED GOES TO THE MUSICIANS!
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=VBURVAWDMWQAS
