A lovely day.

Hum the Bill Withers hit to yourself as you read this post --- it has been a lovely and ironic day indeed. A few serendipitous moments: discussing the Pat Metheny tune "James," my favorite right now and how it is as pleasing to the ear. My friend Jess remarked that she found James Taylor pleasing to her ears. I found out later that Pat Metheny wrote "James" as a tribute to James Taylor for the 1982 album Offramp. If you don't know this Pat Metheny fave, click here to have a little listen. It is indeed a treat.

Ironic incident #2, discussion during lunch regarding the virtues of myspace, and my comments about how I would like to use it to track down my long last friend Brian. I met this dear, sweet friend in high school and we have lost touch over the last couple of years. I can't help but think of him often - his birthday is shortly after mine, he is politically savvy and very smart, not to mention hilariously funny. To my complete surprise and delight, he left me a friend request on myspace.com (that I got the moment I returned from lunch). I am such a lucky, lucky girl.

Though I don't consider myself extremely religious, I often do a little reflecting during Easter week. Before I got into humming "James" this morning, I was singing the arrangement of "House of Gold" from the Kenny Rankin Album. It seems ironic that I somehow lived my whole life listening to the beautiful orchestration of this particular song and didn't know it was a Hank Williams tune. The Hank Williams original (find it on iTunes if you want to hear it) is visceral, raw and edgy. What an ironic contrast to the Kenny Rankin take, which is lush and velvety. Also ironic: there's a James Taylor tune on the same album. Sometimes life really does come full circle.