Learning Archives - Paul Yanuziello

A Week In My Life

September 4 . Issue #54

A weekly newsletter that gives you 5 personal interests that I share with you.

This week I look at methods for coping with a pandemic, listen to Jazz Icon Charlie Parker “Bird”, study owls and more…

Here are the five things I found interesting this week and I want to share with you all.

1. Legendary jazz musician Charlie Parker, nicknamed “Bird” or “Yardbird”, was born Charles Christopher Parker Jr. on August 29, 1920, in Kansas City, Kansas. This week I celebrated the birth of one of the greatest originators. And my favorite recording, perhaps the greatest jazz concert of all time, Jazz at Massey Hall featuring “The Quintet” made up of five of the superstars of Bebop: Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Charles Mingus, and Max Roach. Recorded Live, May 15, 1953. Some reviews from the evening care of Massey Hall.

2. Have you found some methods to effectively cope with the pandemic? I have tried Ikebana the Japanese art of flower arrangement. The featured image is one of my creations. My reference book for inspiration, Ikebana with Living Plants by Ichiba Ashida.

3. Walking through the forest this week during dusk, I heard the strangest of sounds. A bag of kittens abandoned in the woods? That thought crossed my mind as I aimed my iPhones powerful camera light into the bush. A creature flew up out of the noise and perched above me in a tree. Still making this, awesome, screechy, purring, crying kind of noise. According to Nature Canada the sound I heard, the short-eared owl.

4. One of my favorite instruments is the guitar. My cousin Joe Yanuziello happens to be a luthier, a master guitar maker. I don’t play the guitar, but I would love to own one of these guitars. It has my name on it for goodness sakes. In this Ted Talks video, watch and listen to contemporary master Bill Frisell, performing on his custom Yanuziello guitar.

5. Do schools kill creativity? Check out the most viewed Ted talk ever presented by Sir Ken Robinson. I am reading a book by Sir Ken Robinson, and he certainly thinks so and I fully agree.

I’m also reading a fun mob book, Disorganized Crime by Alex A King.

Thanks for reading, if you think someone you know would like my newsletter please share it with them. If you’re looking for a great children’s book, check out my book, Samba on a Snowy Day.

Please consider a contribution to our next book project by buying me a coffee (in a ceramic mug), swing by Ko-fi.com. Every coffee helps out during these challenging times.

Check out my blog, follow the link, sign in. Get the weekly newsletter in your inbox, no spam I promise.

Newsletter 40

Hello all and welcome to my weekly newsletter. I want to share with you 5 things that interested me this week and might bring you some enjoyment.

1.There are many truly amazing people who are helping others during these crazy times. Jacob Collier, the young Grammy award winning musician is one individual who comes to mind, this week he put on an 8 hour marathon of harmonization and creativity, Jacob Collier’s #IHarmU. He did this to raise funds for his touring band and crew, who are all out of work, as are most people in the entertainment industry.

This week I found myself caught up listening to interviews and podcasts of some great harmonica playing influences. These are some entertaining folks. Liam Ward, an award winning harmonica player featured a great interview with Rob Paparozzi, one of the original Blues Brothers. Here I share Rob connecting with Italy “Forza Italia”.

Tomlin Leckie is another fine harmonica player who has been working on podcasts and I caught a few great ones. The first with Liam Ward, then one with PT Gazell, and most recently with Jason Ricci.

Ricci has presented a few stay at home concerts to help out his band mates “Quarantine Concerts” .

2. I have made an interesting discovery, Bonobos they are distant relatives. I did not even know what a Bonobo was. Do you? Bonobos are closely related to chimpanzee, they have a couple of major differences though, check out the Lola ya Bonobo sanctuary for a glimpse into the good work these caregivers provide.

3. My wife Nina and I got out to deliver a care package to our daughter who lives out of town. On the way back home we decided we would make a stop at the lake and do a little lakeside stroll.

4. My visual entertainment this week has been via a great animated Netflix original, Isle of Dogs. The wizards behind the scenes are making magic.

5. Reading Bushido, The Soul of Japan by Inazo Nitobe and learning from Joanne Harris, author of Chocolat and many other books including, 10 Things About Writing. Learning from Kim McDougall the different ways to create conflict, reading her e-book Creating Compelling Conflict. Kim is the designer of my book Samba on a Snowy Day.

Thanks for reading, if you think someone you know would like my newsletter please share it with them. If you’re looking for a great children’s book, check out my book, Samba on a Snowy Day.

Please consider a contribution to our next book project by buying me a coffee (in a ceramic mug), swing by Ko-fi.com. Every coffee really helps out during these challenging times.

Check out my blog, follow the link, sign in. Get the weekly newsletter in your inbox, no spam I promise.