Music is a gift for any day of the year!

My 10 year old great niece came to visit me on Christmas Eve. I asked her what she wanted for Christmas. She said a cell phone. I then asked what ELSE she wanted for Christmas. She said a squishmallow? I handed her my phone and said find it and show me. Three seconds later she had the above screen shot. Beija is today’s gift wish.

Cash money. Thanks to modern banking and cash transferring apps, this is the most cash I’ve had in my wallet in two years. I’m married with children so it won’t last long. So cash is the gift on today’s Christmas list.

Started using DR Strings on my bass guitars sometime in the 90’s. No intonation problems. Great resonant sound. Long lasting. Smooth. Same for my guitars. Try ’em if haven’t already. Great budget gift for the guitarist in your life.

Boy how time flies! Two years ago we had 27 trees removed from our backyard. A few were very large and close to the house and were a threat to fall towards it. Apparently we needed to have 28 trees removed.

In June of this year we called the tree company and they said they’d get the tree sometime this Fall when they were in our area. This company is very reputable with reasonable prices so we waited. Tree is still here. We’ll wait. My wish for today is to have it done sooner rather than later.

This is what time a fell asleep this morning. And up at 5:30! My gift for today is a good night’s sleep.

Homemade chocolate chip cookies. A good gift for any day. Blessed to have a live-in pastry chef. And the orange for the perfect healthy food balance…..

I said-a hip, hop, the hippie, the hippie
To the hip hip hop-a you don’t stop the rock
It to the bang-bang boogie, say up jump the boogie
To the rhythm of the boogie, the beat

In 1978 I was invited to speak at my elementary school’s sixth grade graduation. In my speech I wrote about my extracurricular activites which included sports, music and writing poetry. My teacher (who was an excellent well-respected black male teacher) “encouraged” me to exclude my interest in poetry because it was “unusual” for black boys.

In the Fall of 1979 as a seventh grader on my way to junior high school I heard the above lyrics jump out of the school bus speakers. AT THAT VERY MOMENT I KNEW THAT MUSIC HAD CHANGED! I listened to this song literally a thousand times. Transcribed the lyrics and sold copies to my classmates. Wrote an English paper on how rap music would be the new jazz or new rock and roll. People laughed……

All these years later and I still love poetry. Funny how all those other black boys liked poetry too…..

Yea. Written poetry. Spoken word. Hip hop. Share the gift of artistry this Christmas.

This 1/10 scale remote controlled truck from Traxxas would look good under a tree and even better in the dirt!

Eleven days of Christmas. And you know what you can never have too much of for Christmas? Toys, what else!?! Man I’ve always loved toys and had some of the coolest in my neighborhood. Remote controlled cars and planes were some of my favorite gifts to receive. Man I owned 1/16 scale Blue Angel that I wish I still owned. Or someone could buy me an RC FA18 Hornet like the one pictured above.