"some jazzy philosophics"

For today, just some philosophical thoughts about jazz (one of my favorite pastimes!)
if you take all of mankind, and separate the people who have once in their life heard jazz from the people who haven't ever, and take from the first group the ones who actually like jazz, and again, divide the remaining group into the ones who really do like jazz in all its glory and the ones who only like ragtime and dixie (which by the way I have absolutely nothing against), there are maybe two people left in the entire world, and one of them probably is a jazz student and dreams of a concert career.

and if this takes place in the states, it's still kind of plausible, because well, it all started out there. but what now and again strikes me as extremely funny (I mentioned it before, but I will again!) is that there are so many people studying it in switzerland - the land of cuckoo clocks and yodeling. There are six jazz schools in our sweet little land! In each of these schools you'll find 50-100 students (I'll do a little research for next time!), so there's a whole lot of young people who'll learn to play Someday my prince will come. Kind of a jazz army, really, who plays at weddings, funerals, birthdays - always at your service for a good time! if it's not too loud, 'cause please, we're eating here, and could you maybe play something with a melody?

And who sometimes even lands the occasional gig, in a nice jazz club, with a bunch of nice people! really a great thing to happen.

I'll keep posting about the swiss jazz scene and the everyday life as a jazz student, but any questions or inputs are welcome!

Family reunion...

I saw my whole family yesterday, there were almost a hundred people, and I'm telling you, I had to fight for words. What just a day before seemed to me like the rock'n'roll, unconventional side of me lived out through jazz (the crazy music nobody cares for - "ooh, you know, I love jazz, I'm going nuts over some good old dixie"), appeared shallow and useless, when described to people who couldn't know less about what I'm doing. People who got married very young, had four children and that was it (not meant to sound condescending at all). When faced with one's own history, it can get really frightening, somehow one gets thrown back and has to look at oneself as others might, and although I'm happy (at least most of the time) about the road I chose to take, it's still hard to see that I'm so fundamentally different from almost everyone of them - people who are my family.

So that led to rather blue thoughts. Really bad day today.

The Paraglider and coffee and newspapers, and for once: no doubts!

This saturday seems to start out as THE perfect day! First coffee and newspapers with The Paraglider, which we haven't done in ages. Some other time I'll have to describe The Paraglider. Let's just say today: he's more than a nice guy...

Piano playing is going very well lately. I'm learning quickly, have good ideas, my hands seem to be in a very good condition, and pretty hard things seem not so hard after a few days, which makes me feel for a second like a giant brian with a future...

Yesterday for just a split second I had some sort of vision, complete with accessories and everything. I saw myself sitting in an office, and getting the blues for a life not moving forward - exactly like it often happens to me now. This got me thinking - if I do complete my jazz studies, I'll always be able to look back and think: man, these were the days, when for three years I did something really rock'n'roll and out of it. So just for today, I don't have any doubts about trying to pursue a small jazz career on the side. I'm still longing to start livin', you know? to be able to buy things. but still.
I always beat myself up metaphorically when I'm complaining about my life, because I know I'm granted a big chance - being able to study what I think I want, even if it has also rough sides to it. give me a second, and I'll say: nothing worth having comes easy (as Dr Kelso put so nicely). Let's put an end to this cheesy stuff.
But it's nice feeling warm and cozy!

And loved. man, the Paraglider and me, we're having a great time, since almost four years. in fact, I don't really know how it's possible that two people can be so good together. I just hope, if somebody ever reads these scribblings, that you can say the same about your relationships. feels kind of indescribable.

oh and I nearly forgot: I saw Rocky Balboa last night. my personal conviction is to let bad movies stir for a while, so they can really sink in later (and so my friends can painfully be reminded of them again).
but wow!!! i will never need a seminar on how to be life-affirming again.
and sylvester stallone has the craziest biography, quitting university shortly before his degree to shoot very questionable movies.

i'll admit it: i've never cried so much to a movie. so the question raises itself: is rocky the perfect hero for a chick-flick??? my my

the living absurdity of the swiss girl studying jazz music

so, being a jazz student basically involves behaving as a storm in a waterglass (as swiss people would say), watching a little herd of other waterglasses happily prancing about - while nobody on the whole entire planet would ever give a rat's ass about the teensiest bit of it all - it being a storm in a waterglass.

why? who fricken listens to jazz anyway, except for the poor watermstormglassians and their even poorer waterstormglassianteachers?
and all we do is try to stir it up so we can attempt to create something special to put on a cd to which nobody in their right mind will ever listen to, or come to listen to in concert (there's not much hope for escape with an audience consisting of mum, auntie trudy and a stranger in a tent-like-t-shirt dancin' himself to the stars).

to me personally, the funniest bit of it all is the following: i'm swiss!! it's just hilarious. would i be cool, like from brooklyn, i could say, yeaah, you know, i'm from brooklyn or whatever, it's my national heritage, and anyway, i'm from brooklyn, so everything i do is cutting edge, and i like to play in rotten places, 'cause if gives me something to do you know, and all the cool cats are here anyway.

i admittedly have loads of clichés about the us of a, but let's return the favour: think of your typical swiss person. see a mountain there, a nice little blue lake, and two cows, an older man with a twinkle in his eyes, holding a cuckoo clock in one hand and a fondue pot in the other? or even better: think of your typical swiss girl: does she have braided hair and the happiest smile one person could ever have shown to this ugly world?
and now, brace yourself: imagine this heidi-figue PLAYING THE JAZZ PIANO!!! what a disrupture of such a lovely sight!

man.
(for all the concerned: of course over the past few years i've come to love jazz music, and most of the time find myself enjoying it deeply, all the while not being sure about needing a degree for that. and: i'm not a spoiled brat, i'm working hard and always earned my money for myself. of that i'm proud.)

It's just SO MUCH FUN to stop and think of the slight absurdity of the life i'm leading at the moment! so much fun. and sometimes not so much. but hey: i'll always have my music (pffhaaahaaahaaa)

fine days for anybody!
this blog should be about mary anybody, mid- (or rather end-)twenties music student, who after getting her degree as a teacher decided to still try to be as good as possible at piano playing, so that seventy-year-olds could watch her at their early-bird-bashes on the lake of zurich.
so you see: not always happy with her decision. and looking for people who maybe share her many interests, who might have similar blue feelings on sundays. Even if we are really ashamed of them, because we were lucky and still are, and still seem to fight for a normal life, and still fight for something outstanding.
bucketload of blabla already! It's disgusting.
Anyway, people all over the world, who are in their midtwenties, who think about taking their relationships to the next level, who think about what their goal for the next year could be, and generally about how to find a nice cozy place, physically and metaphorically - Mary Anybody would be so happy to hear from you! And she would be thrilled to hear from people who also turn twenty-eight this year and already have found a lot!