Harlem & Paris, Together at Last!

Posted on February 1, 2010 by Leslie Sigal Javorek | 1 Comment

Posted by: Leslie Sigal Javorek • Date: Mon. Feb. 1, 2010 9:15 pm

The segues between thoughts and subjects my mind makes often seem to befuddle people, including my Hubby, until I backtrack and connect the dots for them. Now, in Don’s case, this is a guy who actually passed the test to get into Mensa so he ain’t a mental-lightweight by any means! He’s told me the problem is that where most folks think linearly, I seem to able to jump from point “A” and go immediately to “Z” to reach a conclusion that’s just as sound and logical as those who tackle things by consciously thinking them through one step at a time. He’s right about that, or so it seems, because while most of the time I can fill in each of the steps in-between to show why my “Z” was not only logical but often the best answer, in reality I hadn’t reached that “Z” by consciously going through those steps. My mind simply just went there. How that actually works on a biological level, I’ve absolutely no idea but I do know for certain that the wiring in my brain is rather convoluted and fudged together as a result of having epilepsy, having had a stroke at age 27, having gone through chemo so many times, and then partly due to just being me. 😉

Today’s post is just one of those odd segues. It started out with a new set of icon/clip art images I created after noticing a growing interest in my prior releases of alpha-numeric icons. I played with a few different styles until I decided on doing a dulled metal finish on an Art Deco style font that in my mind resembles the structural steel of the Eiffel Tower. While I was working on it, a melody kept going through my head and when I realized that it was the great jazz standard “Harlem Nocturne” it instantly made sense to me. While most people probably recognize that tune best as the theme from Stacy Keach’s Mike Hammer show, it was written in the 1930’s and first recorded in 1941. In the 1920’s through the 1930’s the Harlem neighborhood of NYC was going through a tremendous renaissance and was at the top of it’s artistic form as far as exposing the creativity,sensitivity,massive skill,and tremendous heart of the newly developing northern, urbanized black culture. From visual artists like Aaron Douglas and Lois Mailou Jones to poets and play-writers like Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen to musicians like Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, and Billie Holiday. Harlem was the hottest, sexiest place on earth. Art Deco was also in it’s hey-dey at that time and the particular brand of that art movement which came out of Harlem was in perfect harmony with the stark sensuality of the works coming out of Paris typified by anything having to do with Josephine Baker.

Ironically, the composer of Harlem Nocturne, Earle Hagen, was not only a white guy, he was also responsible for composing the theme songs for “Gomer Pyle”, “The Andy Griffith Show” and “That Girl” – Hardly compositions you’d confuse for great black jazz standards… ;-( I’ve no idea how Earle played this tune himself or what his original concept for it was meant to sound like, but the version I grew up loving was played by a local jazz trio at the Theatrical Grill, a dark, smoky nightclub in downtown Cleveland, Ohio – which even in the early 1960’s was the only place where both white and black customers would come together to dig the black saxman belting out this melody in such a hungry, heartbreaking manner that it could stir you to tears, spur you to drag that bartender (or cocktail waitress as your choice may be) into the coatroom to get it on right then and there, or all three at the same time.

Ahem. Now that I’ve got my composure back, thought I’d turn y’all onto a web page titled “42 Versions of Harlem Nocturne”. It’s hosted by Radio Station WFMU and they’ve got MP3’s on that page for each of those 42 very, veeeeerrrry different versions. The earliest version they’ve got was recorded by in 1941 and they’ve got variations as diverse as the Quartet San Francsco, which has a violin and obie alternating turns on the main solos which give it a decidedly gypsy feel; to Esquizel’s version where the traditional alto sax part is replaced by what is either an absolutely incredible female vocalist or a Theramin (with my narrow level of hearing I honestly call tell the difference); to a ukelele plinking away au natural; to The New York Jazz Orchestra’s Ska rendition; The Ventures doing it up surf-style; Terry Edwards and the scapegoats with their post-punk interpretation, and of course the version that most of you probably recognize as the theme from the 1970’s tv show, “Mike Hammer”. With perhaps the sole exception of the version by Wildflower (?who?) each one has it’s own kind of cool that makes me want to stop everything I was doing just to listen. I’ve still got the version from my childhood rumbling in my brain as my all time favorite and having a hard time deciding which of the versions on WFMU’s BEWARE of the BLOG will take it’s place. According to the Earle Hagen link, Harlem Nocturne has been recorded by at least 500 different artists! Which is your favorite?

Free Icons of the Day

The following is a reduced-size preview of my “Eiffel” Alpha-Numeric icon/clip art series. As you can see, it inludes Capitals A-Z, Numerals 0-10, plus some punction and coordinated ding-bats and of course, the obligatory Eiffel Tower. To download the entire set in one fell-swoop, simply right-click (or control-click) anywhere on the preview. The zipped file contains all images as 512px X 512px .png’s.

Lest We Never Forget, What?

Posted on January 28, 2010 by Leslie Sigal Javorek | 1 Comment

Posted by: Leslie Sigal Javorek • Date: Thur. Jan. 28, 2010 4:30 am

Yesterday was International Holocaust Remembrance Day; a day designated by the United Nations in 2005 for all people all over the world to remember the victims of the Holocaust. I have also used it as an opportunity to reflect on what led up to it, allowed it to happen, and we have – or have not – learned from it.

I was born just 9 years after World War II ended. The proximity of that event to my birth was the same as the attack in the United States on September 11, 2001 will be to the babies born this year. And just as we are still somewhat raw in 2010 over the shocking, hideous loss of 2000 innocent human beings, slaughtered in a single stroke by a handful of obedient, zealous young men who were but the tools of a single, charismatic individual with a belly full of irrational fears, hatred, narcissism and a passion for destruction, my parent’s generation in the mid-1950’s was still struggling to recover from the loss of millions at the hands of Hitler and his Nazi SS. As the years went on and I was old enough to attend Sabbath School, I remember that every week I’d take a portion of my 25¢ allowance to Sabbath School to place in the Tzedakah Box for planting trees in Israel. Living in the lush green state of Ohio, it was hard for me to imagine what it was like to live in a desert or why anyone would even want to, so I was happy to help with these donations so the kids in Israel would have trees to build tree-houses in. (At least, that was the picture I had in my mind.) The classes I attended didn’t really attempt to teach much about spirituality. In the conservative branch of Judaism that I was raised in, the spiritual side of religion was not “taught” as we believe that God lives within us and we each have the individual responsibility to develop our own one-on-one relationship with God. So at Sabbath school our teacher taught us about the 6000+ years history of the Jewish people from the time of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob up to May 14, 1948 when the State of Israel was declared a sovereign nation. Mrs. Tischler would begin and end each class by reciting, in a deep and solemn tone, the phrase:

“LEST WE NEVER FORGET.”

Maybe I was too young or just an inveterate smart aleck, but whenever Mrs. T. would say this, I’d say to myself, “Forget What?”. I made light of what was the most important lesson that there can ever be because I simply didn’t get it. Why would anyone want to remember the horrors of the Holocaust? Shouldn’t my parents and grand-parents and the whole world try to put it behind them as I was told to do when I would awake screaming from a nightmare?

Somewhere between my childhood and giving birth to my own child, I finally understood. The mantra of “Lest We Never Forget” was not espousing either revenge nor living in a state of shock and mourning for the rest of eternity. What we are never to forget is that while there were evil people in the past, present, and will be in the future, what is far more important to remember is that a Hitler, Ho Chi Minh, Sadaam Hussein, or Bin Laden, were only able to rise to their positions of power and wreak the havoc and destruction they are infamous for, because those who could have and should have stopped them, didn’t. It was those of us are are not evil who failed those who became victims to these monsters. We failed to notice the danger that was coming for a variety of reasons, some of which are the lamest of excuses and others which sound reasonable and righteous and once the danger was finally at our door steps, it was too late to avoid the consequences.

What we must not forget is the power of the individual. Because if we do not use our power to reach out a hand to all who will join us, regardless of race, gender, religion or ethnicity, to raise each other up and take a firm stand against those who only want to hate and destroy, we are dooming our children and our children’s children to a world that has forgotten and did not learn.

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Free Icons of the Day

The subject of my offering of free icons/clip art is relevant to this morning’s post topic as would be John Lennon’s “All We Need is Love” as the idealistic dream resolution for all the world’s problems… Sigh… These are also a good head start for your Valentine’s projects. Enjoy!

The following is a reduced size preview. Simply right-click (or control-click) on the preview to save a zipped file to your desktop that contains all images. Each image is 512px X 512px in .png format.

Damn the Facts and Full Speed Ahead!

Posted on January 26, 2010 by Leslie Sigal Javorek | Leave a comment

Posted by: Leslie Sigal Javorek • Date: Tue. Jan. 26, 2010 5:00 am

My little family tends to be rather irreverent. All in fun, of course. It’s our way of not only laughing in the face of death, but getting the Reaper himself reduced to such peals of laughter, that he wets his pants and then melts in his self-made puddles. Does this really keep death at bay? Most Actuaries, Religious Leaders, Doctors and just about everyone else would say “NO!” At the same time, there is a dearth of credible research suggesting that laughter and optimism are the only common denominator for those who have recovered from grave circumstances and extended their ability to survive beyond any other medical explanation.

I can surely testify to that enigma. The quantity and complicated mix of diseases and conditions that have kept myself and my doctors jumping hurdles and running in circles for so many years should have killed me long ago; yet here I lay in my bed tonight, writing this blog. Where science leaves off in it’s ability to explain that which is undeniable, is where Faith begins. Yet while I have a very deep and rich spiritual faith in a “higher” power, I have a just as deep need for rational thought and logic. So I ask myself, what good would it be to have God looking over your shoulder with his grace and blessings, if you either didn’t want to go on living or were so wrapped up in self-pity that you didn’t even notice He was there by your side? And that’s where I figure optimism and laughter come in.

If having the compulsion to draw “Happy Faces” or rolling on your heels guffawing has the potential to be so powerful, does this mean we can one day achieve the ability to be immortal? Some folks believe it and some scientists are even trying to make it happen. Personally, as much as I’ve always wanted to live to 200, I’ve come to the conclusion that immortality is probably not a wise thing to strive for. Just like a successful farmer doesn’t try to get corn from stalks left untouched after last year’s harvest, nor plant oats in the same field year after year without rotation, people need to be rotated as well to ensure our species remains strong and able to adapt to the changing physical world around us. Evolution didn’t end when the first human placed his feet on earth. If it had, mankind as a species would’ve become extinct thousands of years ago. So in a way, I figure it’s kind of our duty not interfere too much with the natural order of things. … But not today. Heck, I’ve still a couple thousand e-mails in my in-box from people who’ve sent me the latest jokes, silly photos, or ridiculous news stories to keep me laughing and a life filled with a handful or two of dear and loving family and friends that keep me smiling, and too much left on my list “To Do”. I just haven’t got the time to give up now!

SCIENTIFIC STUDIES ON EFFECTS OF LAUGHTER & FAITH & HEALTH

Free Icons of the Day

Tonight brings an eclectic mix of images related to life, death and what makes it all worthwhile. Enjoy!

The following images are either full or reduced size previews. Simply right-click (or control-click) on the preview to save the image(s) of your choice to your desktop. (Unless otherwise noted, downloads are 512px X 512px in .png format). Create Commons license applies (see sidebar for details)