[Dixielandjazz] Special Thanks

[Gluetje1 at aol.com]

In a message dated 2/3/2008 3:30:22 P.M. Central Standard Time,  
eupher61 at hotmail.com writes:

to Ginny  Luetje for joining me in St Louis to play at my mom's living 
facility.   Yes, she did it for free.  And I am truly grateful!
Another Snip:

And Ginny agreed to do it as well...why, I don't really know, but it's  
wonderful that she did.  It turns out that Ginny and Elliot share a past  life with 
a  specific B&D Symphonie model, and have many mutual friends  in St Louis.  
 
You're welcome, Steve, and since you mused about my motivation on-list,  I'll 
talk about it.  Bottom line was I did it because I wanted to!  My  way of 
looking at life is that payment is not always green stuff.  As a  result I have 
less of it than people who think all payment is green.  But  at the moment I 
have all I truly need which is different from having all I might  momentarily 
want.  When you asked, I knew it was for free.  But the  harder part of the 
decision was getting up at 7 a.m.  LOL.  But I had  lots of data.  I enjoy your 
posts on this list.  I enjoy your YouTubes  with Turpintyne Ragsters.  I could 
tell your mom and family were  important to you.  I wanted to meet you face to 
face and I'm glad I  did!  I have a mom in Assisted Living.  It was only about 
20" from my  home.  I enjoy bringing pleasure to folks in Assisted Living--I 
assumed you  and Elliot could do that all on your own, but I figured I would 
enjoy crashing  your party.  I was really, really impressed with the audience's 
 delight.  Since we had all just met we had no schtick or act or even much  
of a plan for the audience.  What a magic effect I believe it had, to  instead, 
just give them our genuine selves.
 
Your family is the best!  I totally enjoyed them AND one of my  favorite 
lunches--eggplant parmigiana.
Meeting and visiting with Elliot was a great dessert  starting pre-meal.  His 
playing is total ear candy and he's a warm,  neat guy in addition to being 
talented.  I have made the initial inquiry to  see if it's possible to track 
down that Symphonie tenor he once  owned.
 
Now, before, everyone gives up on both of us as idiots.  By the time I  was 
saying to you, "Steve--next time charge--You were assuring me before I could  
get the words out that you would be charging for a return appearance.
 
Bob Ringwald--really sorry I can't do a repeat JazzSea to Alaska this  summer 
to hear you guys!  And on one of your points in yesterday's  posts.  Some 
don't realize how many themed cruises there are--dozens?   hundreds? Mystery 
Writer's and fans cruises.  Quilting cruises.   Square dancing cruises, etc., etc. 
 They all operate pretty much the same  way.  So the musicians who view this 
as a vacation have lots of company in  lots of professions.  (One opportunity 
I could not work out once was as a  college professor teaching a course.) Such 
cruises offer a special opportunity  to do something people like doing more 
than visiting the ship casino--in fact  casino sales, which is a cruise lines 
big revenue maker, is way down  on these cruises.  Bar sales down also, gift 
shops, jewelry, etc.  I  leave it up to the money people and the bean counters 
to figure out who is  getting the richest--could buy some stock I suppose.  But 
basically I just  keep it simple.  It is worth $100  bucks extra to me to jam 
with 100  different people in a constantly rotating situation.  More good 
surprises  than bad ones.  Lots of good new friendships formed, contacts in many  
places including England--Hi Jude, last year Scotland.  I love the JazzSea  
cruises, but have no interest in some other agents jazz-focused cruises--the  
Jammers' focus of JazzSea is the selling point for me.  By the  way, various 
pro band members sit in with us from time to time per  their own interest.  Some 
of them have done short workshops.
Ginny
 
 
 



**************Biggest Grammy Award surprises of all time on AOL Music.     
(http://music.aol.com/grammys/pictures/never-won-a-grammy?NCID=aolcmp003000000025
48)