Author: Matthew Groff

  • Fats Waller

    I’m working today, and I needed some music to help me get through a rather mindless task that was going to eat up several hours.

    What was that, Spotify? You think I should listen to Fats Waller due to my recent selection of Art Tatum and Thelonious Monk? I will go with you on this, as I do know a little about Waller, at least what are his most popular songs, and his ability to stride on the piano.

    And then I thought I should look him up on Wikipedia…

    Did I ever mention that I used to live in Harlem? I used to live in Harlem USA, and I loved it. The community and the neighborhood were awesome.

    Of the many things I loved about Harlem was that I was surrounded by so much great an important history. Culturally, so mush of who where are as Americans came out of Harlem. Music, theatre, thought, literature, and social consciousness. It is such a vital and vibrant place.

    I’m missing Harlem today.

    And I was reading up on Fats Waller, thinking about my old neighborhood, I saw that the first place he played professionally was the Lincoln Theatre at 135th Street and Lennox. Not only did I know where that theatre was, I also knew that it was still standing, even though it no longer functions as a theatre, but is a church.

    I don’t know, but there was something very satisfying in knowing that I walked down the same street as someone as great as Waller. We might have been separated by 80 years, but he was there. The man who made all that great music.

    I don’t know. Just missing Harlem today.

  • Grown Ups Suck

    I try very hard to get my four-year-old to behave with manners and respectively to others. I feel that is one of the more important jobs I have as a father, besides, feeding and sheltering her, and making sure she knows that she is loved. I feel I am tasked with helping her become a strong and confidant woman in this world. But also, to help her become a well-adjusted adult.

    And the older I get, the more I really don’t like adults. They really are awful people, and they make everything worse. Kids can be terrible to each other, but adults can be horrible, and they also can kill people. (That might be more dramatic than I want to be in this…)

    Part of this is coming from a general disappointment in my fellow adults for not being more adult.

    There are the man-child faux adults that still ware t-shirts all the time and watch cartoons and take Star Wars too seriously. I can almost forgive those guys. At least Star Wars has a moral code to it.

    No, I am talking about adults that are selfish and hypocritical, but some how try to spin it as being a realist in the world. That their general distastefulness is merely a reaction to the world we live in. “I got them before they got me.” I can’t seem to find any intelligence in such a philosophy, other than a rationalization of clearly acknowledged bad behavior.

    I was under the impression that as we get older, we become wiser. That we have learned through experience how to become better humans.

    What I am seeing is that adults have no intention broadening their understanding in the world. Sadly, they are selfish and are looking out for themselves.

    Adults are a disappointment.

  • Flashback

    I was checking a shared work folder in my DropBox, when I saw a folder of documents that I haven’t looked at for over a year. It was a protection folder that I had from my last job in New York, which contained email and documents that I could use as evidence of the unprofessional behavior and harassment that I was receiving from people in the theatre department. Funny thing was that I thought that the “company” would want this information when I filed a complaint, but at the end of my time there, it became clear that the Exec’s decided that I was the expendable one. Not that I was fired, but no one wept for me when I left for California.

    And when I looked at these documents again, I had a pure flashback of the anxiety and stress of that time in my life. The whole situation tested my moral center as this was a situation where people were clearly doing unethical things, bordering on illegal, but nothing happened to them. I had believed, and still do, that if you behave badly, it will come around. Somehow, it still hasn’t happened. And it might never happen to those two guys.

    The other awful part was that people aw what was happening to me, and no one said anything. People looked the other way and didn’t want to get involved. That’s how bullying works; it the fear that bully will turn on you.

    And I thought about deleting all of it. Just clearing it out of my life.

    But, I think I need the reminder. I don’t think it’s healthy to never remember that situation.

  • Gobbley Thoughts

    This hasn’t been as creative of a day as would have liked. I got caught up with work, and the news seems to be dominating my few other thoughts.

    But it is cool out on Norther California, and after have a week of 100 degrees what seems like last week, and it was, Fall seems to be coming around.

    Halloween will soon be discussed at home as to what we will all dress up as, and then we will start to think about Thanksgiving and Christmas.

    Having lived in the northeast for so long, October has felt like the start of the end of the year.

    When I was living in Texas, October was still hot. Maybe not 100 or even 90 degrees, but 85 can feel hot out, especially when you very much want to put on a sweater.

    These are the thought bopping around my head today, and that is what I want to share.

    Why do you do this blog, I ask myself when I look at it, and I say back to myself that creativity comes in many different forms. Also, you don’t have to have a point to create, just create. And how long have you been talking to yourself? Which I have to admit that I have always done

    See, even when I am writing, I will jump up from my desk, and continue the thought that I am trying to express in words, by saying it out loud as I walk down the hall. The wife has learned to live with this.

  • Frank Zappa

    I have nothing against him. I could pick him out of a lineup, but I couldn’t name one of his songs. There were a group of guys I used to hang out with in high school, and try to write comedy with who just loved the hell out of him. I couldn’t get into his music, but I could respect and admire his output and commitment to music, and to satirizing everything. Zappa embodies the definition of a true artist; A true artist does just create great work, a true artist is always creating work regardless of its value.

    I don’t have a deeper reason of bring that up other than it just popped into my head as I sat down to write just now.

    First thought, best thought.

    There is creation, and there is production, and that also means that there has to be consumption. Creation is the act of bringing an object or form into existence. Production is the manufacturing the same object repeatedly for consumption. Which leads to consumption which is using up of an object or form.

    There might be some bigger theory about art, but I’m not sure I can put those pieces together today. What I would like to say is that I think most people put themselves in one of those three categories, though I believe that you can be all three. Some people would like to be creators, but they are producers. The worst are consumers who think they are creators.

    Just some random thoughts.