Jazzissimo
Basic
A Long Overdue Greeting and Statement by Steve Wiest (AKA “Jazz”)
LITOPIANS! ‘Tis I -The Prodigal Jazz Man!!!
I return for a brief visit with an update and some mighty business indeed.
First of all: Hello and MUCH LOVE to you from what used to be known as The United States of America. Sadly as you know, that grand old experiment fueled, inspired, and created by YOUR ancestors and MY ancestors was voted out of existence on 5 November, 2024 by the U.S. of FREAKING A itself. What is my country now? Where is it going? I have my ideas and beliefs and ALL of them are sadly tinged by years of sci-fi, fantasy, and romance.
So, there’s that…
PART ONE: The Non-United States of IDIOCRACY
Suffice to say that wherever you fall on the following metric, things here are now quite dicey, dodgy, and in flux…
Here is that spectrum:
The USA of IDIOTS Spectrum of Doom or Hope
HOPE
The Churchillian Side:
“You can always count on Americans to do the right thing, after they’ve tried everything else.”
–PM Winston Churchill
That is one of my favorite quotes even though it is said that the great man didn’t actually say it. “SO WHAT!” Says I. Stevie writes fiction, yo! I attribute this quote happily and with respect to Sir Winnie.
ALL POINTS IN BETWEEN AKA various levels of well thought out rational thought. Check out the link for one of my all-time favorite blues tunes by ZZ Top that is almost SCARILY applicable to today.
_________
DOOM
The King Mango Side
“I encourage Russia to do whatever the hell they want to any NATO member country that doesn’t meet spending guidelines on defense.”
–President-Elect of the USA Donald Orange Mushroom Mussolini Trump
He didn’t REALLY mean that right? All metaphor and jokey-jokey making a point with fear…right? Well, over 73 MILLION Americans believe that he meant it and they WANT it folks. And some THIRTY MILLION Americans just stayed home and said “FUCK IT! I’m worried about the price of EGGS!” WOWZA!!!!!
Well, where I was raised in the southern part of Old America …I would just shake my head right right now and say “LAWD Ha’B Mercy.”
_____
We are now LIVING in a science fiction dystopian NON-FICTION Stephen King book!
“Hey, I was just being facetious when I referenced the old proverb “May we live in interesting times!
DAYUM.”–Steve Wiest, 11 November 2024: New Chicago, The Old USA
My friends, as I find myself sitting over here in a temporarily comfy and safe place, I can only imagine how you are feeling. But being a deep empath with an ASTOUNDING polymath-level creative capacity, drive, and imagination (no brag, just fact) I actually CAN imagine it. And I grieve for my dear friends “across the pond” and wish to offer you all as much love, comfort, and help as I can.
Also, as we say in the south… “Fixin’ ta git REAL, Y’all. Might want to gird your loins.”
I have always trafficked in blatant hyperbole but now I get to LIVE it. To quote Herr Drumpf: “I am living it…Whether I like it or not.” (Heil Trump!)
It is simply NOT hyperbole at all to say that we currently stand at an insertion point that is a direct reflection of Berlin Germany circa 1930. …except THIS time, we have toxic and ubiquitous social media, thermonuclear weapons, Stephen Miller, Elon Musk, Artificial Intelligence, find ourselves on the exponential cusp of quantum computing, and who knows WHAT else from back-engineered non-Earth biologicals (DIG THIS)
What do I think will happen over here? Well, along with considering the aforementioned boatloads of caveats aplenty, I’ll get to that in a minute.
Right now, though, I want to say THANK YOU.
____________
PART TWO: Well Shit. I Should’a Known Better…
Back in 2014 I recorded an album called CONCERTO FOR FOLDED SPACE. It was a jazz fusion rock opera cinematic EXTRAVAGANZA that for me, was a dream come true. I had a HUGE grant from The University of Denver, and I made it all happen. As an interesting wrinkle I thought, “HEY! I’ll write a short story to go with the ten pieces or movements that make up the concerto. I am very well-read in my chosen areas and can surely come up with some fun tales.”
So, I DID. And it ended up turning into 300 pages of stuff that I felt was on par AMAZINGLY with CLOUD ATLAS by David Mitchel. (OF COURSE I did!) LOTS of my friends agreed, my family LOVED it, and all my university students went nuts awarding the book quite the local cult status. (Do you see a very naïve and inexperienced pattern there my very wise and experienced friends?)
At that point in time–in the world of music–I had the golden touch…I was the WUNDERKIND! Anything I wrote, anything I manifested, ANYTHING I went after succeeded. WILDLY! We’re talking circa 1981-2014 here. Not a bad run!
However, I soon learned just how naïve I was in the arena of “prose-birthing” (a hilarious noun given to me by my pal Spider Robinson). My paraphrase of the old chestnut is as follows:
“Do you know how to make God laugh?”
NO, HOW?
“Tell Her your plan.”
And all the angels and heavenly hosts had a GRAND laugh the year that I leapt into my author “career.”
“I shall be just as successful at this as I have at everything else! RIGHT AWAY!” I thought!
D’OH!
Yeah, not so much.
My stories were GREAT! No brag, just ABSOLUTE fact. I STILL stand by that.
I could write “by ear” quite well by just harnessing my many years of READING.
ALSO: I had NO idea about point of view, grand arc, character development, and a HOST of other important basics.
Essentially, I was an IDIOT who was dancing happily into the jaws of certain and universal rejection.
And it took me YEARS to sort this all out.
“What is this wizardry?”
“People DON’T like what I’ve written?”
“WOW! People don’t even want to READ what I’ve written!”
“GREAT GOOGLY MOOGGLY! In the world of writing fiction “famous Grammy boy,” you ain’t SHIT! Like a complete unknown!” (Thanks Bob Dylan)
I was presented with two options:
OPTION ONE Get REALLY mad, quit, bow out ungracefully and say FUCK IT! –while quite likely blaming anyone but myself!
OPTION TWO. STOP. Take a break, come back refreshed and LEARN from others. Your stories ARE good, now get some technique, craft, and professional experience together. THEN go after it again. TAKE YOUR TIME AND DO IT RIGHT.
As you might have guessed, I chose OPTION TWO (after a brief and embarrassing rebound relationship with OPTION ONE… just sayin…)
I submitted a new idea to Agent Pete’s wonderful Pop-Up Submissions and I WON that November! Yay. It turned out that Pete didn’t want the book, (I now understand why…bless you Pete) nor did anyone else at the shops I was placed in thanks to Pop-Up, but SO VERY MUCH good DID happen, and THAT is why I’m here today to say THANK YOU to ALL OF YOU at Litopia…
Dig:
When I first met Peter Cox, it was on what I now call my “World Tour of Rejections and Realizations” sometime around 2021. I had already been rejected some 200 times by a long parade of Literary Agents, I had written probably around 200 variations of ineffective and unprofessional (uneducated) query letters, but I was also starting to conduct a DEEP dive studying, analyzing, and sussing out what was going wrong.
Then I found Pop Up Submissions via Query Tracker.
Hooray, Huzzah, Halleluiah, and HELL YEAH!
As I had very little dignity left at this point, and no need for ANY caution at all, let alone “throwing it to the wind” …I dove right in. Agent Pete saw…something? I truly don’t know what…but he saw something and invited me into the November YouTube showdown.
And I ‘won!” This turned out to be my one-and-only success in those early literary career days of three years ago (AKA …A CENTURY AGO). But I am VERY grateful.
Bless you PROFUSELY Agent Pete. Heck, you even turned me on to Garamond font!
Then I went a step further: I joined Litopia! I was welcomed there with open arms and learned about my new friends in the UK, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and beyond.
I think I told you all about my roots, no? (at this point you can feel my wife Deborah rolling her eyes…but there’s nothing for it) King Henry VIII had a girlfriend named Mary Boleyn, I’m sure you’ve heard of her.
NOT the sister who lost her head, the younger Boleyn girl who got preggers with a Tudor babe. King Hank decided to get her married off to a bloke who eventually had other children with her and in so doing made her an “honest woman” (as we say here in the south) This brought Queen Ann to her eventual doom.
The rest, as they say, is history.
But what about that illegitimate young Tudor bastard?
“HELLO! Here I am!” Said the surprise great ancestor.
Yep. On my mother’s side I am a DIRECT descendant of Mary Boleyn via her pal Henry VIII.
I know right?
But do I ever get invited to special events in England? Royal marriages? HELL no.
And so it goes…
All that to say that I have a lifelong love affair with England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Be it the Beatles, Richard III (The Hide-And-Seek World Champion!) Or the people from the first story in my book CONCERTO FOR FOLDED SPACE from the reign of Henry II…
“Will NO ONE rid me of this troublesome priest!?”
“On it, Sire.”
“I’m sorry, what did you say?”
“Never mind my Liege.”
Or my FAVORITE “Space Baron,” Sir Richard Branson.
I LOVE me some Britain, Scotland, and Ireland.
And YOU, the happy denizens of The Net’s Oldest Writing Colony, have taught me SO very much in such a short period of time. I took notes at every Huddle that I attended (you all are a hoot AND a holler! SOMEDAY, I owe EVERYONE OF YOU many a pint and will HAPPILY pay-up!) I memorized as many Peter Cox Video Seminars as I could, and submitted my titles and ideas to the fiery crucible that is the Litopia Collective Brain Trust. WOW! Truth, Justice, and The Litopia Way.
I thank you, one-and-all.
And where am I today? Well that brings us back to 5 November I’m afraid…
PART THREE: I’d Love To Know What is NEXT My Friends…
Kinda says it all, don’t it? A bit over seven days ago, I was tilting at financial windmills trying to figure out the US Music “business.” I was sure that the dawning of The Age of Aquarius was upon us, and I was spreading joy and hope to everyone who was rightly worried.
“We GOT this folks! Kamala will win by Midnight tonight!” Said the clueless optimist.
I got the “Midnight” part of it right.
As it turns out the USA by a fair-and-free election, using it’s peculiar yet time-honored methodology– voted down the promise of 1776 for the vulgarity and lies of 2024. Why? Well, we’re still in the sus stage on THAT. Gonna take a minute y’all. Folks gotta make some money off of it all first. Just ask Prince Elon (Hail Trump)
But my belief at this point is that the majority of our electorate was more interested in “the price of eggs” then they were in any silly and lofty notion of “That shining city on a hill.” Sorry President Reagan by the way, but you stole that lovely imagery from a 1630 sermon by that English Puritan Lawyer John Winthrop who founded our Massachusetts Bay Colony. Yep.
Then there are Irish folks like George Bernard Shaw who gave us:
"Some look at things that are and ask why. I dream of things that never were and ask why not?"
-George Bernard Shaw
THAT, has become my personal mantra. Thanks George.
Ominously, I believe firmly that we here in “Old America” have released the frightening original animal of humanity that lurks deep within all of us. Check out this article by our magazine “Rolling Stone” for more on the why and how of this mess, I believe it says it all: Americans Didn't Vote for What Donald Trump Is About to Give Them
The US of A (in my opinion) is on the verge of a Civil War 2.0 and that does NOT bode well for the world. How might this work? I see it this way: Our states will become fiefdoms and countries of their own (as an aside…I wrote about this back in 2014 in that book that NOBODY wanted…just sayin’ folks… but it DID win November’s Pop-Up Submissions!)
And how might this new restructuring of the American continent work?
Dig, if you will, my theory:
All these and more I believe might potentially fight for dominance in our country within the next few years. Could I be wrong? OF COURSE! I was wrong about Kamala Harris and the Age of Aquarius. At the end of the day, I’m a jazz trombonist who likes to play high notes and draw cartoons.
What the HELL do I really know?
But speaking viscerally, anecdotally, spiritually, and from my “heart” I feel much of all of this to be true. So much so in fact that I am approaching an epiphany today, and that is one of the reasons I’m writing to you. One of MANY.
And here they are:
I hope to see you there!
Peter: I’d like to link to Litopia as one of our chat categories, and I welcome your suggestions and input. NO LIMIT.
We DO have a published “Code of Conduct” at WIESTORLD however. I am NOT an anarchist like King Musk (Heil Trump) Nor am I a narcissistic Objectivist like Ayn Rand (pardon me whilst I return my breakfast with a rainbow-hurl flourish!) I AM a member of the United Methodist Church (remember John Wesley?) I’m an old school Christian, I’m a humanist, and I’m a full-fledged member of The Federation of Planets. (An Admiral actually…a story for another time. Am I joking? If it’s more comfy for folks to think that, then yes )
Here is a heartfelt gift of gratitude to you ALL …TWO gifts...
Please be SAFE my dear friends. Be good to each other. Love yourselves, live the NOW and know that this flawed fella here in Old America Loves You MADLY!
Steve Wiest
November 2024: New Chicago, Old U.S.A.
zoon.eejazz@gmail.com
+1 940-391-8170
Steve Wiest
_____________________
PS: I didn't even touch on climate change which is a ship that will likely sail sometime in the next year or two. It is ALWAYS good to remember THIS from my hero Carl Sagan:
And as another gift from me to you, here is a song that I wrote for my horn band Vinyl Hampdin called "One Song." It is my imagining of what the Earth would say to us if she had only One Song. Enjoy, and please do all that you (WE) can to reverse climate change.
LITOPIANS! ‘Tis I -The Prodigal Jazz Man!!!
I return for a brief visit with an update and some mighty business indeed.
First of all: Hello and MUCH LOVE to you from what used to be known as The United States of America. Sadly as you know, that grand old experiment fueled, inspired, and created by YOUR ancestors and MY ancestors was voted out of existence on 5 November, 2024 by the U.S. of FREAKING A itself. What is my country now? Where is it going? I have my ideas and beliefs and ALL of them are sadly tinged by years of sci-fi, fantasy, and romance.
So, there’s that…
PART ONE: The Non-United States of IDIOCRACY
Suffice to say that wherever you fall on the following metric, things here are now quite dicey, dodgy, and in flux…
Here is that spectrum:
The USA of IDIOTS Spectrum of Doom or Hope
HOPE
The Churchillian Side:
“You can always count on Americans to do the right thing, after they’ve tried everything else.”
–PM Winston Churchill
That is one of my favorite quotes even though it is said that the great man didn’t actually say it. “SO WHAT!” Says I. Stevie writes fiction, yo! I attribute this quote happily and with respect to Sir Winnie.
ALL POINTS IN BETWEEN AKA various levels of well thought out rational thought. Check out the link for one of my all-time favorite blues tunes by ZZ Top that is almost SCARILY applicable to today.
_________
DOOM
The King Mango Side
“I encourage Russia to do whatever the hell they want to any NATO member country that doesn’t meet spending guidelines on defense.”
–President-Elect of the USA Donald Orange Mushroom Mussolini Trump
He didn’t REALLY mean that right? All metaphor and jokey-jokey making a point with fear…right? Well, over 73 MILLION Americans believe that he meant it and they WANT it folks. And some THIRTY MILLION Americans just stayed home and said “FUCK IT! I’m worried about the price of EGGS!” WOWZA!!!!!
Well, where I was raised in the southern part of Old America …I would just shake my head right right now and say “LAWD Ha’B Mercy.”
_____
We are now LIVING in a science fiction dystopian NON-FICTION Stephen King book!
“Hey, I was just being facetious when I referenced the old proverb “May we live in interesting times!
DAYUM.”–Steve Wiest, 11 November 2024: New Chicago, The Old USA
My friends, as I find myself sitting over here in a temporarily comfy and safe place, I can only imagine how you are feeling. But being a deep empath with an ASTOUNDING polymath-level creative capacity, drive, and imagination (no brag, just fact) I actually CAN imagine it. And I grieve for my dear friends “across the pond” and wish to offer you all as much love, comfort, and help as I can.
Also, as we say in the south… “Fixin’ ta git REAL, Y’all. Might want to gird your loins.”
I have always trafficked in blatant hyperbole but now I get to LIVE it. To quote Herr Drumpf: “I am living it…Whether I like it or not.” (Heil Trump!)
It is simply NOT hyperbole at all to say that we currently stand at an insertion point that is a direct reflection of Berlin Germany circa 1930. …except THIS time, we have toxic and ubiquitous social media, thermonuclear weapons, Stephen Miller, Elon Musk, Artificial Intelligence, find ourselves on the exponential cusp of quantum computing, and who knows WHAT else from back-engineered non-Earth biologicals (DIG THIS)
What do I think will happen over here? Well, along with considering the aforementioned boatloads of caveats aplenty, I’ll get to that in a minute.
Right now, though, I want to say THANK YOU.
____________
PART TWO: Well Shit. I Should’a Known Better…
Back in 2014 I recorded an album called CONCERTO FOR FOLDED SPACE. It was a jazz fusion rock opera cinematic EXTRAVAGANZA that for me, was a dream come true. I had a HUGE grant from The University of Denver, and I made it all happen. As an interesting wrinkle I thought, “HEY! I’ll write a short story to go with the ten pieces or movements that make up the concerto. I am very well-read in my chosen areas and can surely come up with some fun tales.”
So, I DID. And it ended up turning into 300 pages of stuff that I felt was on par AMAZINGLY with CLOUD ATLAS by David Mitchel. (OF COURSE I did!) LOTS of my friends agreed, my family LOVED it, and all my university students went nuts awarding the book quite the local cult status. (Do you see a very naïve and inexperienced pattern there my very wise and experienced friends?)
At that point in time–in the world of music–I had the golden touch…I was the WUNDERKIND! Anything I wrote, anything I manifested, ANYTHING I went after succeeded. WILDLY! We’re talking circa 1981-2014 here. Not a bad run!
However, I soon learned just how naïve I was in the arena of “prose-birthing” (a hilarious noun given to me by my pal Spider Robinson). My paraphrase of the old chestnut is as follows:
“Do you know how to make God laugh?”
NO, HOW?
“Tell Her your plan.”
And all the angels and heavenly hosts had a GRAND laugh the year that I leapt into my author “career.”
“I shall be just as successful at this as I have at everything else! RIGHT AWAY!” I thought!
D’OH!
Yeah, not so much.
My stories were GREAT! No brag, just ABSOLUTE fact. I STILL stand by that.
I could write “by ear” quite well by just harnessing my many years of READING.
ALSO: I had NO idea about point of view, grand arc, character development, and a HOST of other important basics.
Essentially, I was an IDIOT who was dancing happily into the jaws of certain and universal rejection.
And it took me YEARS to sort this all out.
“What is this wizardry?”
“People DON’T like what I’ve written?”
“WOW! People don’t even want to READ what I’ve written!”
“GREAT GOOGLY MOOGGLY! In the world of writing fiction “famous Grammy boy,” you ain’t SHIT! Like a complete unknown!” (Thanks Bob Dylan)
I was presented with two options:
OPTION ONE Get REALLY mad, quit, bow out ungracefully and say FUCK IT! –while quite likely blaming anyone but myself!
OPTION TWO. STOP. Take a break, come back refreshed and LEARN from others. Your stories ARE good, now get some technique, craft, and professional experience together. THEN go after it again. TAKE YOUR TIME AND DO IT RIGHT.
As you might have guessed, I chose OPTION TWO (after a brief and embarrassing rebound relationship with OPTION ONE… just sayin…)
I submitted a new idea to Agent Pete’s wonderful Pop-Up Submissions and I WON that November! Yay. It turned out that Pete didn’t want the book, (I now understand why…bless you Pete) nor did anyone else at the shops I was placed in thanks to Pop-Up, but SO VERY MUCH good DID happen, and THAT is why I’m here today to say THANK YOU to ALL OF YOU at Litopia…
Dig:
When I first met Peter Cox, it was on what I now call my “World Tour of Rejections and Realizations” sometime around 2021. I had already been rejected some 200 times by a long parade of Literary Agents, I had written probably around 200 variations of ineffective and unprofessional (uneducated) query letters, but I was also starting to conduct a DEEP dive studying, analyzing, and sussing out what was going wrong.
Then I found Pop Up Submissions via Query Tracker.
Hooray, Huzzah, Halleluiah, and HELL YEAH!
As I had very little dignity left at this point, and no need for ANY caution at all, let alone “throwing it to the wind” …I dove right in. Agent Pete saw…something? I truly don’t know what…but he saw something and invited me into the November YouTube showdown.
And I ‘won!” This turned out to be my one-and-only success in those early literary career days of three years ago (AKA …A CENTURY AGO). But I am VERY grateful.
Bless you PROFUSELY Agent Pete. Heck, you even turned me on to Garamond font!
Then I went a step further: I joined Litopia! I was welcomed there with open arms and learned about my new friends in the UK, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and beyond.
I think I told you all about my roots, no? (at this point you can feel my wife Deborah rolling her eyes…but there’s nothing for it) King Henry VIII had a girlfriend named Mary Boleyn, I’m sure you’ve heard of her.
NOT the sister who lost her head, the younger Boleyn girl who got preggers with a Tudor babe. King Hank decided to get her married off to a bloke who eventually had other children with her and in so doing made her an “honest woman” (as we say here in the south) This brought Queen Ann to her eventual doom.The rest, as they say, is history.
But what about that illegitimate young Tudor bastard?
“HELLO! Here I am!” Said the surprise great ancestor.
Yep. On my mother’s side I am a DIRECT descendant of Mary Boleyn via her pal Henry VIII.
I know right?
But do I ever get invited to special events in England? Royal marriages? HELL no.
And so it goes…
All that to say that I have a lifelong love affair with England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Be it the Beatles, Richard III (The Hide-And-Seek World Champion!) Or the people from the first story in my book CONCERTO FOR FOLDED SPACE from the reign of Henry II…
“Will NO ONE rid me of this troublesome priest!?”
“On it, Sire.”
“I’m sorry, what did you say?”
“Never mind my Liege.”
Or my FAVORITE “Space Baron,” Sir Richard Branson.
I LOVE me some Britain, Scotland, and Ireland.
And YOU, the happy denizens of The Net’s Oldest Writing Colony, have taught me SO very much in such a short period of time. I took notes at every Huddle that I attended (you all are a hoot AND a holler! SOMEDAY, I owe EVERYONE OF YOU many a pint and will HAPPILY pay-up!) I memorized as many Peter Cox Video Seminars as I could, and submitted my titles and ideas to the fiery crucible that is the Litopia Collective Brain Trust. WOW! Truth, Justice, and The Litopia Way.
I thank you, one-and-all.
And where am I today? Well that brings us back to 5 November I’m afraid…
PART THREE: I’d Love To Know What is NEXT My Friends…
Kinda says it all, don’t it? A bit over seven days ago, I was tilting at financial windmills trying to figure out the US Music “business.” I was sure that the dawning of The Age of Aquarius was upon us, and I was spreading joy and hope to everyone who was rightly worried.
“We GOT this folks! Kamala will win by Midnight tonight!” Said the clueless optimist.
I got the “Midnight” part of it right.
As it turns out the USA by a fair-and-free election, using it’s peculiar yet time-honored methodology– voted down the promise of 1776 for the vulgarity and lies of 2024. Why? Well, we’re still in the sus stage on THAT. Gonna take a minute y’all. Folks gotta make some money off of it all first. Just ask Prince Elon (Hail Trump)
But my belief at this point is that the majority of our electorate was more interested in “the price of eggs” then they were in any silly and lofty notion of “That shining city on a hill.” Sorry President Reagan by the way, but you stole that lovely imagery from a 1630 sermon by that English Puritan Lawyer John Winthrop who founded our Massachusetts Bay Colony. Yep.
Then there are Irish folks like George Bernard Shaw who gave us:
"Some look at things that are and ask why. I dream of things that never were and ask why not?"
-George Bernard Shaw
THAT, has become my personal mantra. Thanks George.
Ominously, I believe firmly that we here in “Old America” have released the frightening original animal of humanity that lurks deep within all of us. Check out this article by our magazine “Rolling Stone” for more on the why and how of this mess, I believe it says it all: Americans Didn't Vote for What Donald Trump Is About to Give Them
The US of A (in my opinion) is on the verge of a Civil War 2.0 and that does NOT bode well for the world. How might this work? I see it this way: Our states will become fiefdoms and countries of their own (as an aside…I wrote about this back in 2014 in that book that NOBODY wanted…just sayin’ folks… but it DID win November’s Pop-Up Submissions!)
And how might this new restructuring of the American continent work?
Dig, if you will, my theory:
- Texas (I lived there for quite a while during my association with North Texas State now UNT) Texas is HUGE, with a GDP greater than most countries of the world. They have a proud history of beginning as a Republic back in the 19th Century (“Remember The Alamo”) They were founded by criminals, independent souls, cowboys, and outlaws…similar to the penal colonies of Australia, and they STILL act like that today. I suggest that you do a scary deep dive into their world and you will see nothing but bleak. I think Texas looks back longingly for those years and would JUMP at the chance to be a country again.
- California is HUGE! They too have a GDP beyond MOST countries on our planet. If they were to unite with like-minded states such as Oregon and Washington State, they could form a nifty federation and call it something like “Pacifica.” Hollywood’s finest are standing by…
- Utah, Idaho, and other like-minded areas will quietly turn into something called perhaps “Deseret.” And in so doing offering up a surprise reminder of their epic Mormon history.
- Chicago where I live? Well, I compare us in a way to Ukraine. We are a blue island surrounded by a heavily armed and angry red sea of IDIOTS. Can we survive? I have LOTs of friends in “Pacifica” We shall see…
- New England. That lovely group of states that hearken back to YOU and represent our beginnings here on this continent when we stole the BEST from the Iroquois nation and called it America. WOWZA! Does that sound a bit harsh? Was that my “outside voice?” My wife Deborah would say it sounds quite jaded (she is a FAR more advanced and exemplary human being than I. But I’m starting to believe it’s simply the TRUTH. New England! I simply ADORE that area of our country: New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, BERNIE SANDERS! “Where’s my SOUP!?” That land is beautiful and would make a lovely Euro-style country indeed.
- The South. I grew up in the deep south in this country, specifically Mississippi and Alabama. This area can be quite racist, brutal, ignorant, dirt-poor, and completely reliant on HUIGE money crops that need immigrants or slaves to make profits. I shudder to think what their new confederacy might be (“the South Shall Rise Again!”). I have MANY super intelligent friends in Mississippi such as my best pal and blood brother from the 7th grade called Jon Fairbank who is a Civil Rights Attorney in Jackson, MS. I think of Jon as my own personal Atticus Finch, and I fear for his safety.
All these and more I believe might potentially fight for dominance in our country within the next few years. Could I be wrong? OF COURSE! I was wrong about Kamala Harris and the Age of Aquarius. At the end of the day, I’m a jazz trombonist who likes to play high notes and draw cartoons.
What the HELL do I really know?
But speaking viscerally, anecdotally, spiritually, and from my “heart” I feel much of all of this to be true. So much so in fact that I am approaching an epiphany today, and that is one of the reasons I’m writing to you. One of MANY.
And here they are:
- Peter Cox, please know that it would be my HONOR to speak on any of your shows, podcasts, Pop-Up, Litopia, a Huddle, ANYWHERE, ANYTIME. Free, and ZERO charge. This stuff is BEYOND important, and I hereby volunteer to help you and yours in any way that I can. I’m at zoon.eejazz@gmail.com and +1 940-391-8170 Please feel free to contact me while we still can and let me know my marching orders.
- My sword is YOURS Sire.
- To my friends at Litopia and Continental Europe, The UK, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Scandinavia, EVERYWHERE, I stand today as someone who wants to help via LOVE.
- As your great artist John Lennon once said, “Love is all you need.” He also sang “Love is the Answer.” And my personal HERO, your Sir Paul McCartney, has stood for love since the early 1960s. Bless his heart and I am SO glad that he was born. There is NOTHING stronger than love. Full Stop.
- I assure you and give you my word that the following is NOT a ploy to make money, but it IS an invitation for all of you to join FOR FREE my new endeavor. I have left all social media except YouTube. I preach to the choir here I know, but I recommend that you do the same. Social media is literally KILLING people and contributed greatly to the recent seismic events of last week. Run away while you still can! I am working FULL TIME now on a SAFE zone not unlike Litopia where people can feel free to express themselves WITHOUT Ayn Randian Corporate algorithms, A.I, and any other financial shenanigans. It’s part of my website, where I DO try to sell things, but this endeavor is in the early stages and is simply an autonomous gathering of people of good faith–a true town square–not unlike the analog days of old when we would all talk IN PERSON! Those were good and healthy times, and I want to go home to that again. If you feel the same, please sign up and join the conversation. ESPECIALLY if you disagree with me on issues. I CAN handle the truth, and I want to learn. I want to GROW; I want to flourish, and I want to stay in touch with YOU.
I hope to see you there!
Peter: I’d like to link to Litopia as one of our chat categories, and I welcome your suggestions and input. NO LIMIT.
We DO have a published “Code of Conduct” at WIESTORLD however. I am NOT an anarchist like King Musk (Heil Trump) Nor am I a narcissistic Objectivist like Ayn Rand (pardon me whilst I return my breakfast with a rainbow-hurl flourish!) I AM a member of the United Methodist Church (remember John Wesley?) I’m an old school Christian, I’m a humanist, and I’m a full-fledged member of The Federation of Planets. (An Admiral actually…a story for another time. Am I joking? If it’s more comfy for folks to think that, then yes
)Here is a heartfelt gift of gratitude to you ALL …TWO gifts...
- My recording CONCERTO FOR FOLDED SPACE
- And the Rewritten Book of the same name: (Dropbox Link)
Please be SAFE my dear friends. Be good to each other. Love yourselves, live the NOW and know that this flawed fella here in Old America Loves You MADLY!
Steve Wiest
November 2024: New Chicago, Old U.S.A.
zoon.eejazz@gmail.com
+1 940-391-8170
Steve Wiest
_____________________
PS: I didn't even touch on climate change which is a ship that will likely sail sometime in the next year or two. It is ALWAYS good to remember THIS from my hero Carl Sagan:
And as another gift from me to you, here is a song that I wrote for my horn band Vinyl Hampdin called "One Song." It is my imagining of what the Earth would say to us if she had only One Song. Enjoy, and please do all that you (WE) can to reverse climate change.
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