One of the habits of trying to write at least 500 words a day is the habit of avoidance. I know I have to write and there are distractions from doing so. For instance, I use Google Drive to write this and also use Google Photos. Both are buttons very close to each other on my browser.

And I figured that I had better start writing and clicked the wrong button and fell down a very pleasant rabbit hole, looking at photos of Bill for a few minutes. A lovely slideshow was created, courtesy of Google which I duly shared with a few variations of Bill.

Presently a documentary on Joe Strummer is on, ‘The Future is Unwritten’. I’ve seen it before and wasn’t keen on viewing it again. Don’t get me wrong, it’s very good. Various talking heads, and associates of Joe Strummer intersped throughout interviews and videos of The Clash.

There were 2 documentaries on Joe Strummer, the other was ‘Let’s Rock Again’. One of the two, or maybe both have footage of JOe on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City, close to begging indifferent people to see him with the Mescaleros. The people were indifferent to Joe and it was sad.

Never saw the Clash or the Mescaleros. Each time I had a chance I figured I’d see them next time and then they didn’t exist anymore.

I’d like to think my easy distraction tonight is from riding 12.8 miles this afternoon. I usually do 14 miles but today it was different though the route was basically the same. I did not stop off and buy a cigar en route like I usually do, but would that account for 2.2 miles? No, it would not.

And on top of all that, I’m pretty much tired from all that today, more than I would be if I rode 14 miles. I ride through Jersey City to Liberty State Park. It’s a good ride and I like to think a safe route that I take, but things do happen. Nothing bad happened today though.

It had been raining most of the week and today, Saturday was quite nice and sunny and the yellow grass of Liberty State Park was verdant, and with a week of rain, the ground was dry. There were quite a lot more people out and about in the park this afternoon.

I have an electronic device on my bike as a bell to let people know I’m approaching. It’s nice but it doesn’t register with people generally until the tone goes from bells to a buzzer. I also have a Brazilian Carnival Whistle which I used today and it did get people’s attention. I’d blow the whistle from about 50 feet away and that definitely got their attention.

Pedestrians are one breed and the other are the Citibike renters. They are generally clueless and ride all over the place. And on top of all that, there are the delivery guys. They all have electric bikes and there are a lot of them. They do not follow the rules of the bike lane.

More about them some other time.

For the past couple of years, I have taken notes and sent them to me as texts. Usually, songs that float through my head, and then post the videos on the social medias. Yesterday evening I texted myself a line for the Herbie Hancock Mega Mix that was everywhere on Black radio 40 years ago. For me in the tri-state area that means Kiss FM and my favorite, WBLS.

The line was from a song in my head “Cut it DST cut it D just cut it!” I could picture a crazy person saying that and then I wondered if I would at some point be that crazy person saying it aloud. There are so many songs playing in my head, that I often remark I don’t need headphones or a device when I go outside. I also mention that one should be careful on the streets, headphones or earbuds would prevent you from hearing “Look out he’s got a knife!” or “Watch out that car has jumped the curb!”

I then try hard not to talk about the influence of John Cage on my life. That was from back in the eighties when my then-roommate Jimmy Lee gave me his copy of John Cage’s book, Silence. It was that grain of sand that altered one of my life’s paths.

Pretentious? Moi? Precocious? C’est moi!

So I posted the Herbie Hancock video for Mega Mix. Just a photo of the album cover with the audio track. I seem to remember Bill telling me he did not like the Mega Mix a few years ago. Now he says he likes it. He likes most things Herbie Hancock related. One year for his June birthday we went to see Wayne Shorter and friends, including Herbie Hancock at Carnegie Hall. It was a great event, very lively. We sat behind Stanley Crouch the late Jazz critic.

I’m not much of a Jazz fan, but is. When I saw Herbie was playing the Blue Note around the December holidays I thought it would make an excellent gift. Two table tickets were scored in the cramped club and Herbie took the stage. It was not as lively as the show with Wayne Shorter, it was quite minimal. Painfully minimal. There was no Road to Jazz Damascus conversion, it put me off Jazz for quite a while. I still haven’t recovered.

We did see Jon Hendricks and Annie Ross a few years later, this time opting for seats at the bar. I was a fan of Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross since I stumbled onto a kinescope of them on Dave Sanborn’s Late Night show, coming home one early morning from Maxwell’s. I told my brother Frank about what I saw and he got me a cassette of Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross’ Greatest Hits.

Lambert died in the sixties in a car crash I think. Hendricks and Ross were estranged for a number of years, finally reuniting for a final set of shows. Now they’re all gone but I was happy to see them. Jazz.