J. Ojanpera

   I know; there are a thousand or more churches with the name " New Life ". That's not what I am talking about. I want to talk about what it means to find yourself in a situation that literally makes you feel like an ingredient has been added, and it opens you up to a completely new kind of life.    I'm talking about music in particular. Any time you add new elements to the old, it produces new life; musically. My way of viewing the group setting is through a wide lens. I love to improv (jam) with random people. Achieving something congruent with complete strangers is a feeling that I will describe; maybe.    A group of five people sit down at a conference table. One member puts a piece of paper on the table that has a short line drawn on it in pencil. The others observe the line, then pull their instruments out. One may have a red colored pencil, one a heavy black marker. (some musicians may use this as a muse; for the vapors .) These two turn their g...

This is sad; really sad.

   Gray, in my sense of the word, is not a dull, washed out mixture of boring colors. I imagine it to represent the ground between extremes; the diplomatic center. Although I am not fond of gray shirts, I appreciate the enormous implications of anyone or any organization straying to either side of gray. Left or right doesn't matter. Top or bottom doesn't matter. What matters is that we should all be anchored in the gray.    The song, " The Beauty of Gray ", by the band Live, explains it well, and matches conceptually with what I want to convey. In it, Ed says, "We will all learn to appreciate the beauty of gray".    What do we find in the "gray"? First we find all of the arts, the balance of our government, acceptance of all cultures without bias, basic and intrinsic human rights, tolerant radicals, and many others. There is plenty of room for everyone. The problems begin when we, as a society, rife with cultural diversity, divide ourselves ...