It was 1950, probably May, when I peered out the window to get my first glance at my new piano teacher. She had pale skin, blue eyes and red hair. So, of course, twenty-four years later, I married a woman who looked like her. Thank you, Sigmund you-know-who. But I digress. I was an immediately hotshot at the piano. Big fish, small pond. Middle class Midwestern neighborhood. Lots of kudos, relatives et alia swooning at the piano. But after three years , I began to grow weary of it all. As luck would have it, my parents sent the piano to be refinished, and soon thereafter dad had some severe business reverses and they couldn’t pay the refinisher. So the piano sat in the shop for two years, which was absolutely great from my perspective. But the day finally came when the piano, a beautiful Chickering BTW, was again ensconced in our living room. I was panic stricken. But my folks, who had very high IQs, concocted a gambit to get my flying fingers back to the piano.

So, how did I find myself pursuing a field you can’t get a degree in? It was kind of out of necessity. I had mentioned the path included heartbreak, existential crises (yes multiple), and #growth. Also there was a dash of theater and copious amounts of drinking. I was always conflicted – I had always wanted to be a visual artist, likely an illustrator, collagist, or sculptor, centered on community building (very altruistic) but the pragmatic and the very real need to provide for myself and potentially my family steered me towards something a bit more grounded. It all starts with a good foundation, which my family and I thought would be engineering.

Drizly has a problem. Technically, two problems. And a CEO with a problem. In 2018 Drizly had a cyber incident where instead of data being extracted from their servers, an employee of Drizly posted login information for Drizly’s servers on Github, a software coding repository that stores all kinds of information about free and open-source software and software snippets. This login to the Drizly servers was used to install crypto mining software, allowing individuals to mine crypto currency without having to pay for server usage or power and cooling. Access to the servers also exposed customer data, though no data appears to have been affected.

On April 26, 1968,  Paul Robert Cohen was arrested in Los Angeles for wearing a jacket. An ordinary jacket that had the words "Fuck the Draft" written in red on the back. He was charged with violating a state "breach-of-the-peace" law. In 1971, The case eventually made it to the Supreme Court, where Cohen prevailed with a 5-4 vote. Justice John Marshall Harlan II  suggested that those offended by Cohen's message on his jacket "could effectively avoid further bombardment of their sensibilities simply by averting their eyes."" Judge Harlan stated, "The constitutional right of free expression is powerful medicine in a society as diverse and populous as ours; however, governments might soon seize upon the censorship of particular words as a convenient guise for banning the expression of unpopular views."

What defines home? The general description of a home encompasses the physical structure, made of lumber or brick or other such materials to shelter one from the harsh elements. But home is so much more than that. Home is subjective; It is – in large part – feelings of security, stability, comfort, and love. You can stay in any one building long enough and start to become attached. Case in point: how many hours do a lot of you readers spend in an office building? Chances are that you wouldn’t jump at the chance to define your office as “home”, but I’m willing to bet that the cumulative hours spent there have embedded feelings of familiarity that feel very much like home. That one coffee machine that sputters at the end of a brew cycle, that fluorescent bulb that facilities keeps forgetting to fix, the conference table at which you might have pitched some of your best (and worst) ideas…I’m almost certain that these memories will all stick with you subconsciously, so much so that when you eventually leave that job, you might just sigh with longing as you push through the revolving doors of the marble lobby one last time. 

Have you ever wanted to channel your inner rockstar for a day? To look and feel effortlessly cool and confident while getting treated like a VIP? Well, imagine actually stepping into that version of you for a weekend in New York City. You. Getting styled by your very own fashion stylist. Shopping for clothing that brings out that rockstar vibe. Having your photos taken by a professional photographer in front of iconic NYC landmarks wearing all your new duds.

Creature, take me home when earth soaked sour fruit apple roots siphon. Tight Skins puckering through.

The score of a musical work is fascinating. As a composer, I spend hundreds of hours alone with a score to unearth and present the uniqueness of every sound. I consider the physicality of a sound, both in the depth of overtones and frequencies and in the most mi-nuscule human motions it takes to produce them. I consider texture, the harsh and grinding color of the cellist utilizing over-pressured bowing, and the intimate fragility of the flautist's unstable multi-phonic. I consider shape, from violent rhythmic gestures to light, lyrical flurries. I consider, how variations larger blocks made up of colors, texutres, layers, and rhythms work together to highlight every unique aspect of a sound. I consider the weight of each and every observance I make, and I ensure every mark in the score best reveals the essence of a sound.

It's that time of year. Pumpkin everything, parades, gift nightmares, travel woes, and family drama. Have I covered it all? Not likely but you get the point. Me, I stick it out here in NYC. Anyone who runs a business, retail or not, knows that this is one of the busier times of the year. Sales this, savings that, charge now/pay later and the like. With that being said, KARJAKA is running full force with all of that and more, no doubt you'll catch a few advertisements in this edition.