Spin My Swivel Chair

Up early, as always.  My friend whom I’m sharing this room with snores.  I’ll spare him the sound of my typing and gather my things to head down stairs.  Up on the big screen in the lobby of this Renaissance hotel it’s all about soccer.  No sound, mercifully.  Just two teams battling it out and zoom in close ups of key plays and commentators.  I have to get some work done.  I’ve been running so hard on this visit, that a backlog of work is piling up.  I find a place by the wall, plug in my devices and spin my swivel chair around to get started. 

Not sure what lead me here.  I’ve otherwise had nothing but Brazilian music on.   But, as I usually do when I want to work, I searched for some bop to drive my progress.  I stumbled upon a track of Eric Dolphy’s that I’d never heard before: “Springtime.”  Magisterial, the head of the song sweeps out like a broad plane upon which everything is possible.   I played the nineteen-minute song over and over again, sitting there and eventually I took it upon myself to write three key friends to tell them, that if they hadn’t yet hear the song they must do so immediately.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjgSHCGBh2o

Later after the gym and a shower, I was giving a simple speech about Chinese history and Chinese business and doing my best with my fledgling knowledge of Brazil to tie it into something contextual for the setting of Sao Paulo.  And I think it went well.  People are refreshingly ready to entertain a discussion about history and even a small segue into Chinese remarkable historical progression, can, I believe help people to contextualize that which is otherwise a blur, from the daily news cycle. 

We had a generous walk then, over to another neighborhood where my friend and colleague wanted to introduce me to a business contact.  We arrived early at this informal Italian restaurant that was devoted to jazz.  Every inch of wall space profiled some jazz luminary or other.  Behind me was the famous photo of Harlem in 1958 when seemingly everyone who was anyone made it out on the porch stoop for that famous photo: “A Great Day in Harlem.”  A larger than life Lady Day had pride of place on the opposite wall and I considered the remarkable influence of music from the United States, on the rest of the world.

Wednesday 3/27/19