The 100th Post

 

It is the last day of the year, December 31st.  With the posting of this piece, I will have 100 blog posts for this year. 

Back on January 1, was a notion perhaps an aspiration but not a full-fledged and firm objective.  I started out strong posting every day in January.  The months of February, July, August, October, and now December were good months getting to this century mark with a day to spare.  The goal became a true and doable objective on the 4^th of July when I realized I was at 52 posts for the first half of the year.  I could do this.  This could happen.  By November, it was more like I absolutely will do this.  All of my postings are written in an MS Word document.  I have written over 75,700 words across 132 pages.

I was not interested in just breaking my old record of 92.  I was not interested in 105, 110, or 120.  I was interested in exactly 100.  Why exactly 100?  Beyond it being the first three digit good round number, I don’t exactly know.

It will feel good to post this bloggy bit.  I will have achieved an objective.  I will be happy and feel like I accomplished something… and, for me, I have.  But the happiness and small celebration will not last.  These kinds of objectives are fleeting.  The very next day, January 1, the year 2023 will begin and the counter will be at 0 once again.  Will I want to go for 120 which is 10 postings a month? Or might I want to go with something different?  Perhaps I could set out to write a book and use the blog/journal approach to write it over the course of the year.  That was my original intent with my daily journal back in 2002.  Maybe I just blog a few times a month as topics inspire me and put together a Best of This Side of Fifty book?  This is not a bad idea as in February 2023, I begin my 20^th year of This Side of Fifty.

What were my favorite posts of this year?  That is a hard question.  The Top 5 that I provide today may be very different from the list I would give a week or two from now.  One thing I know for sure is that this piece, More of a Crumble than a Ramble, got a few readers revved up to provide comments like:

You’ll blog about anything won’t you?

Where do you get these stupid ideas?

How does your mind work?

Of course, these dear friends have totally missed, as usual, all my claims of this being a blog about nothing.  They totally glossed over the subtitle that includes the words Musings and Meanderings.  The Crumble piece was a perfect post about nothing.  I definitely mused and meandered on this one.  Thus, it is one of my favorites.

Other favorites include:

• Thank You Dennis
• February 2022: 19th Anniversary Letter - Part II
• The Glory of Fall – The Rainy Edition
• Buying School Supplies
• Çidem İnç: Driving into Van

Thanks to everyone that reads this blog.  Wishing everyone a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year.  Let’s see what 2023 will bring.

On Writing about Nothing and Procrastinating About It

 

I ran across this quote on Twitter this morning.  It is from attributed to a playwright named Paul Rudnick.  I had never heard of Rudnick nor his most important play Jeffrey.  An internet search revealed that he has written 10 plays or musicals, 5 novels, a memoir, book of essays, several screenplays, and 13 articles for The New Yorker.  He wrote the screenplays for The Addams Family, Addams Family Values, and The First Wives Club, all of which I have seen.  As I have come to fully realize and accept, I simply cannot know everything and everyone of note.

Is writing 90% procrastination?

Procrastinating as much I do, (and mind you, others have noticed this as well), I feel a need to comment on Rudnick’s quote.  Is writing 90% procrastination for me?  It would be easy to say yes, because at times it seems like all I do is procrastinate.

When there is a deadline, I do what most of my students do and exactly what I did when I was a student.  I wait until the last minute and then work furiously to meet the deadline.  That is classic postponement and, yes, a lot of procrastination is involved to get me to that last minute. 

I have written about procrastination at least twice:

• Procrastination or JIT?
• Procrastination Revisited

There is a few exceptions to my procrastination.  One is when I am writing the AYF Olympics and posting daily articles from Wednesday to Monday over the Labor Day weekend.  There is no time for procrastination.  I have to be at the various events, take photos, and immediately write articles often beginning at 10 or 11 pm.  Circumstances do not allow for any procrastination.  It is not a surprise that I, um, blogged about  the volume of writing this takes up in September:  Chidem Inch: The Olympics.

When I am writing without a deadline, that is another story.  It will always look like procrastination and half of the time it is.  The other half of the time, I am thinking about what I want to say and how I want to say and organize it before putting pen to paper or finger to keyboard.  In this latter case, I am actually working on the piece but dang if it doesn’t look exactly like procrastination simply because nothing is being written

Does this thinking before writing process work?

Again, this is debatable.  The answer is a wishy-washy sometimes yes and sometimes no.  What does this mean?  Sometimes the advanced planning and contemplation produces a winner.  Other times not.  Whether a piece is gets a lot of views, which in my views determines if it is a winner or not, is more dependent on the topic than how much thought I put into it.  Nostalgic memoir blogs, reminiscing about growing up, generally fare better.  Sometimes it is just the timing of the piece as it was

If it is a stream of consciousness or esoteric piece, then viewer ship is down.  The esoteric piece are written mostly for my benefit.  I find myself trying to make sense of something political, something that seems to be confounding to society in general, or some aspect of the business world that is seemingly bone headed.  The steam of conscious pieces go from a complete ramble to me just playing around and trying to be clever at the same time.  The response is often, “What was that piece all about?” or “Where the hell do you come up with these things?”  My answer to both lines of questions is that “Sometimes it is just a blog about nothing.”  And again, I have bloggy bits on this very topic:

• Bloggy Bit about Nothing
• A Late Night Blog about Nothing
• #blogworthy
• Just a Stroll in the Park

Oddly, the bloggy bits ranked 2-4 of my posting with the most views were spontaneous.  There was almost no time between the idea popping into my head and the creation of the piece.  Passion for the subject matter certainly played a role in these pieces.

• The Detroit Lions
• Killings in Christchurch
• For Love of the Music: Hachig and Richard

To sum things up, I do procrastinate and true to the subtitle of this blog, I most definitely muse and meander.  And, I am OK with both. 

Old Guy Movies

 

I watched two movies in the past few days:  Astronaut and Driveways.  I had not heard of either.  I found them surfing around the movies on the channel guide and reading about them.

Driveways was the first I watched.  The Xfinity channel guide blurb was terse and not entirely compelling: “(2021) A lonely boy goes with his mother to help clean out his aunt’s house.”  It had ratings of 99 and 86 percent.  It was early in the morning, there was nothing else on, the ratings were high, so I gave it a shot.  It starred Brian Dennehy (1938-2020).  This was his last movie.

The next morning.  I repeated the channel surfing exercise with the same aim of finding a suitable movie to pass the time (dare I reveal while I was preparing a blog post).  I found Astronaut.  The title of this movie was more promising as was the channel guide blurb: “(2019) A widower wins a once in a lifetime change to travel on the first commercial flight to outer space.”  It only had a rating of 66% but the title and channel guide blurb hinted that there might be more action and thrills.  This movie starred Richard Dreyfuss (1947) and this is not his last movie as he has made five since.

In both movies the main characters, Angus Stewart (Dreyfuss) and Del (Dennehy) are retirees, basically near the end of their lives.  Both of them were widowers that missed their wives and were dealing with regret for maybe not appreciating them enough and not spending enough time with them.  They both also have to deal with their daughters putting them in assisted living/nursing homes.  Neither of them is happy about it. 

Angus, a retired civil engineer, encouraged by his grandson applies to a lottery to be an astronaut on the first commercial space flight.  He lies about his age to qualify and gets selected as a finalist.  He is not chosen in the television interview of each finalist, he had a senior, cognitive meltdown, moment that easily disqualified him.  But, while on sight of where the liquid hydrogen powered space plane was to take off on a really long runway, he had plenty of cognition to realize there was an O-Ring like flaw not in the vehicle but the aging runaway (he was a civil engineer that worked on road and runways), that would have catastrophic effects during the vehicle launch.  Of course, he was not initially believed because he was old and had that senior moment on national television.  He perseveres, convinces everyone, saves the day, and gets to fly the mission… his last hurrah before passing.

In Driveways, the lonely boy, Cody, did accompany his mom to empty out the house of his aunt, his mother’s sister, who was an epic hoarder.  While his mother was dealing with that, Cody and the gruff old, retired cop next door, Del, became friends.  They became really good friends.  They were just what the other needed.  When his mother told him she had decided to move them into his aunt’s house, Cody was excited to move next to Del.  It was the same day, sadly, that Del’s daughter told him she was moving him to Seattle from Poughkeepsie and had arranged a facility for him to move into.  At this point, the movie gently drifted into an ending that implied Del passed and that Cody would OK for the experience of having Del as his friend.

Driveways was a more of an art film than Astronaut.  I did enjoy them both.  I was just a wee bit unsettled as I was able to relate to both Del and Angus in a way.  I was glad that my channel surfing today did serve up another of these old geezer last hurrah movies.

 

 

Chidem Inch: Iconoclast, Miconoclast

 

Sometimes, I think I know what a word means.  I trudge along fat, dumb, and happy using the word according to the dictionary in my head until… I actually look up the word.  Then I realize I have not been using quite right. 

The word that got me writing this post is iconoclast.   I kind of use to refer to the people I run across that in a higher and mightier way disagree with the majority view on specific set of topics.  I use the word for people who simply want to make people uncomfortable with a particular mainstream view or lifestyle they have without any other objective than a to confirm their feeling of superiority and having some keener insight to life.  You may know about the kind of people I am talking about.  People that enjoy and thrive from making others uncomfortable, upset, and, even better, mad.  A simpler definition of how I use the word may “contrarian asshole.” 

What is the actual definition?

Per dictionary.com:

[1] a person who attacks cherished beliefs, traditional institutions, etc., as being based on error or superstition.

[2] a breaker or destroyer of images, especially those set up for religious veneration.

 Asking the internet for examples of iconoclasts, it responded with Walt Disney, Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, and Dick Fosbury.  This only served to confuse me.  Disney was an iconoclast of animation.  I found him to be a creative innovator.  M. L. King and Rosa Parks were more visionary and brave change agents.  And Fosbury?  He was the creator of the Fosbury Flop style of high jumping that was revolutionary at the time and totally the norm now.  All of these iconoclasts did indeed challenge the traditional beliefs and traditions.  They did so in a way of making things better and moving society or their professions forward.

Notice that the definition includes the word “attacks.”  The way I use the word iconoclast focuses more on those that focus more on attacking with offering no positive alternative.  Most of the folks I know of this ilk are Armenian.  I have met some world class characters like this.  I am always amazed by their incessant need to kick the stools out from under the rest of us, laugh, and continue disparaging without ever proposing any alternative. 

Do Armenians have proportionally more curmudgeonly contrarian assholes than other ethnicity?  It may well be.  I don’t think so.  We are a small ethnicity.  Being an active Armenian has us interacting with, basically, everyone in the community.  That means every socio-economic group, every profession, every level of education, and personality trait.  It is harder to cut out, or just ignore, these negative iconoclasts from our lives.  They are just there.  All the time being contrarian asshole iconoclasts.  The only way to avoid them is to leave the fold.  Many do just that.

I don’t really care for these iconoclasts.  I find them just as irritating as others do.  Sometimes I want to argue with them knowing no argument would ever change their mind or make them stop.  At other times, I want to punch them in the face.  But yet with the theoretical increased patience and wisdom that comes with maturity, I pay more heed to their attacks and try to conjure up alternatives even if they can’t. 

Bottom line?  I cannot imagine being Armenian without these iconoclasts, these contrarian assholes.  They spice up and add color to our lives and give us something to talk, and of course complain, about.  In the true spirit of being Armenian, I would say that we do not proportionately have more of these iconoclasts, but know that our Armenian contrarian assholes are the way better than those of any other racial or ethnic group.

It feels good to be #1.

Christmas Letter 2022

 

Every year, I write a blog post on Christmas morning, a Christmas letter if you will.  I usually am up early and writing before dawn.  I often would refer to the stillness of the night, the darkness but for the glow of the computer screen, and “not a creature was stirring,” Some, well only Ara, would make fun of these openings the way Charles Schultz had Snoopy overuse “It was a dark and stormy night…” as the first line in many of the beloved Beagle’s novels.  Well, there is no chance of me starting my Christmas Letter in that cliched way that this year.  I am writing this letter at 2 in the afternoon.  The sky is blue, the sun is shining, it is still wicked cold but certainly lots of creatures are stirring.

While the opening was always predictable, so was the sentiment and purpose of my Christmas Letters.  Mostly, it was to acknowledge and appreciate the family and friends that enrich my life, that give meaning to it, that provide the texture and spice to the wonderment of life we so often take for granted when routine tasks and duties occupy so much of our time.  As predictable as the opening of my Christmas Letters have been, the content was equally predictable. 

Why do this at Christmas when it would seem more appropriate to do so at Thanksgiving?

Well, there are two reasons for this.  First, I got into the habit of sending a Christmas morning email to the people who reported to me (either solid or dotted line) during my Latin American days at Colgate-Palmolive.  I began with a greeting of the season and then expressed my thanks and appreciation for being associated with such a hardworking and amazing team.  It seemed like a wonderful way to start a special day.  Secondly, I often referred to the old Armenian tradition of the going house to house in the neighborhood to personally wish friends and family a Merry Christmas have a drink and a small bite, kind of a Christmas tapas tour, at each stop.  As I could not do that with friends and family being spread out geographically, I evoked the spirt of such via the Christmas Letter.

As is our tradition, I had a phone call with my friend Andres in Uruguay.  At the close of our conversation, we expressed the appreciation of friendship and pledged, as we do every year, to be in contact more than once a year.  I believe this year we actually did do that.  I hope to keep it up.

Uncle Rouben Gavoor, Cousin David Gavoor,
 and half of myself circa 1975

My Great Uncle Rouben used to always ask if I was “Keeping up with my correspondence.”  In my teens and twenties, I found the question a bit amusing and did not take the question seriously.  Staying in touch and communicating with friends and family is an art.  Like many things, we do not truly value the importance of such when we are young. 

Uncle Rouben asked his question in the time when correspondence meant letter writing.  You would think it would be so much easier today with e-mail, texting, and VoIP video calls (think FaceTime and WhatsApp).  It really should be. But one must want to keep up with their correspondence.  Wanting to keep up is good, but only a start.  Then, one must develop the habit of keeping up with their correspondence.  Social media tools and technology are nothing more than facilitators.

Am I good at it?  Maybe.  I know I can and should better.  My habit of keeping up with my correspondence is not the kind of business process I was known for advocating and implementing in my industrial career.  Not by a long shot.  Others than point out, “What are you talking about?  Your blog is there for anyone and everyone to read.”  While that is true, I suppose I, and certainly Uncle Rouben, were talking about more one-to-one, personal letters, emails, texts, and phone calls.  In another bloggy bit, Remembering Ms.Trosko, I wrote:

There is a lesson here.  If you think fondly, have warm memories, or appreciated the contributions someone made in your life, tell them.  Tell them the moment you think about it.  Write them, email them, call them, or tell them in person.  It doesn't matter.  They would appreciate it, especially if it is someone that you have lost touch with or haven't connected with in years.  When the thought comes into your mind, listen to what the Nike folks are always touting and, just do it.  You will be glad you did, and the person will most definitely appreciate hearing from you.  I speak of this from experience both as a recipient and initiator of such contacts.

 Christmas time is a wonderful, if not perfect time, to have such thoughts and vow (well if not vow, make a New Year’s Resolution) to do better at keeping up with our correspondence.  If I achieve my goal or come up short, I know that in a year from now I will being preparing to send out a message just like I  about to do here:  I wish all of my friends and family a most Merry Christmas and a most happy, healthy, and prosperous 2023.  May we all do better at keeping up with our correspondence and appreciating those we value and love.

ChatGPT: A Game Changing Tool

 

Image by

Jim Clyde Monge

It is barely a secret that I am going for 100 posts this year.  I am currently at 94, which by the way is already a record for this blog.  With this post I will be at 95, I have three topics in mind not counting this one, and, with a week left in 2022, this should be quite doable.

By wonderful chance, there was a Facebook ad on the very topic I am addressing in this blog.  It was for AI Create.  Their ad said “See how AI can write a blog post in minutes.”  Cleary, I could produce a blog post of 500 or so words in a fraction of the time it now takes. 

On Friday, December 16, I was driving into North Park for the last day of the semester.  Per usual, I was listening to NPR’s Morning Edition as usual.  They had a segment on ChatGPT which is a Microsoft funded venture that, like AI Create, is a writing and research assistant.  Here is a link for the NPR segment:  Has AI reached the point where a software program can do better work than you?  Apparently, it has an application that students are already using to write essays.  This semester I have detected a disproportionate number of students writing above what I thought their capabilities were.  I wondered why, and settled on the glass half-full conclusion, that they were all trying harder.  After hearing the NPR segment, I backed off that conclusion a bit thinking that maybe some of our students are already using this innovative application.

So, when I got to my desk, I went to the ChatGPT website signed up, and began playing with it.  The first thing I did was ask it to “prepare an essay on the Toyota Production System.”  This was a topic one of my classes was preparing an essay on.  In 30 seconds, ChatGPT gave the following (329 words): 

 

The Toyota Production System (TPS) is a manufacturing approach developed by the Toyota Motor Corporation to increase efficiency and eliminate waste within the production process. The TPS is also known as "lean manufacturing" or "just-in-time (JIT) production," and has been widely adopted by companies around the globe due to its ability to improve quality, reduce costs, and increase responsiveness to customer demand.

At the heart of the TPS is the concept of continuous improvement, or "kaizen," which encourages all employees to identify and eliminate waste in their work processes. Waste, or "muda," can take many forms, including unnecessary steps, defects, overproduction, excess inventory, and unnecessary motion. By eliminating waste, the TPS aims to create a more efficient and streamlined production process.

One key aspect of the TPS is the use of small batch sizes and frequent deliveries, known as JIT production. This approach helps to reduce inventory costs and increase flexibility, as it allows for production to be adjusted quickly in response to changes in customer demand.

Another important aspect of the TPS is the use of standardized work processes and visual management techniques. Standardized work processes help to ensure that all tasks are completed consistently and efficiently, while visual management techniques, such as the use of visual cues and signals, make it easier for workers to identify problems and opportunities for improvement.

In addition, the TPS emphasizes the importance of teamwork and communication in the production process. This includes the use of "huddles," or brief daily meetings, to discuss progress and identify problems, as well as the use of "gemba," or "actual place," in which employees go to observe and understand the work being done.

Overall, the Toyota Production System has proven to be an effective approach to manufacturing, with many companies around the world adopting its principles in order to improve efficiency and reduce waste. Its focus on continuous improvement, JIT production, standardized work processes, visual management, and teamwork has made it a model for manufacturing excellence.

This was not bad at all.  I like my students to give me essays in the 500-700 word range.  So, I asked next asked ChatGPT to “prepare a 637 word essay on the Toyota Production System.” This time it  came back with the following (439 words).

 

The Toyota Production System (TPS) is a manufacturing approach developed by the Toyota Motor Corporation that has been widely adopted by companies around the world. It is based on the principles of continuous improvement, or "kaizen," and the elimination of waste, or "muda." The TPS aims to create a more efficient and streamlined production process by identifying and eliminating waste in all forms, including unnecessary steps, defects, overproduction, excess inventory, and unnecessary motion.

One key aspect of the TPS is the use of small batch sizes and frequent deliveries, known as just-in-time (JIT) production. This approach helps to reduce inventory costs and increase flexibility, as it allows for production to be adjusted quickly in response to changes in customer demand. JIT production also helps to reduce the risk of defects and excess inventory, as it ensures that only the necessary materials and components are produced and delivered at the right time.

Another important aspect of the TPS is the use of standardized work processes and visual management techniques. Standardized work processes help to ensure that all tasks are completed consistently and efficiently, while visual management techniques, such as the use of visual cues and signals, make it easier for workers to identify problems and opportunities for improvement. By standardizing work processes and using visual management techniques, the TPS helps to minimize variability and improve quality in the production process.

In addition to these core principles, the TPS also emphasizes the importance of teamwork and communication in the production process. This includes the use of "huddles," or brief daily meetings, to discuss progress and identify problems, as well as the use of "gemba," or "actual place," in which employees go to observe and understand the work being done. By promoting teamwork and effective communication, the TPS helps to create a more collaborative and responsive production environment.

The TPS has been successful in helping Toyota and other companies to increase efficiency, reduce costs, and improve quality. It has also been credited with helping to create a culture of continuous improvement and innovation within Toyota and other companies that have adopted its principles. However, it is important to note that the TPS is not a one-size-fits-all solution, and it requires careful implementation and ongoing management to be effective.

In summary, the Toyota Production System is a comprehensive approach to manufacturing that aims to increase efficiency, reduce waste, and improve quality through the principles of continuous improvement, JIT production, standardized work processes, visual management, and teamwork. Its success has made it a model for manufacturing excellence, and it has been widely adopted by companies around the world seeking to improve their production processes.

This was equally as good.  As it was AI driven, it was different from the first and thus making it tough for a plagiarism detection software like Turnitin to detect anything.  I was a bit disappointed that it didn’t give me the word count I asked for.  Then, I thought if I outlined the paper into four or five bullet points and asked ChatGPT to provide an essay on each subtopic, I could easily cobble together a 700-2,000 word essay.

As it is a college paper, I would naturally have to include references.  I asked ChatGPT to “provide 6 references for the Toyota Production System in APA format.”  Voila, it gave me the following classic references on the topic:

 

1.     Liker, J. K., & Meier, D. (2006). The Toyota Way: 14 management principles from the world's greatest manufacturer. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

2.     Ohno, T. (1988). Toyota production system: Beyond large-scale production. Cambridge, MA: Productivity Press.

3.     Womack, J. P., Jones, D. T., & Roos, D. (1990). The machine that changed the world: The story of lean production. New York, NY: Harper Perennial.

4.     Rother, M., & Shook, J. (2003). Learning to see: Value stream mapping to create value and eliminate muda. Cambridge, MA: Lean Enterprise Institute.

5.     Imai, M. (1997). Gemba kaizen: A commonsense, low-cost approach to management. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

6.     Shingo, S. (1987). A study of the Toyota production system: From an industrial engineering viewpoint. Cambridge, MA: Productivity Press.

 

I then asked it to give to “provide 7 URL references for the Toyota Production System in APA format”

1.     Toyota Global. (n.d.). Toyota Production System. Retrieved from https://www.toyota-global.com/company/toyota_traditions/quality/toyota_production_system/

2.     Lean Enterprise Institute. (n.d.). Toyota Production System. Retrieved from https://www.lean.org/lp/toyota-production-system/

3.     Toyota Motor Corporation. (n.d.). Toyota Production System. Retrieved from https://www.toyota-global.com/sustainability/environmental_technology/toyota_production_system/

4.     Lean Manufacturing Tools. (n.d.). Toyota Production System (TPS). Retrieved from https://www.leanmanufacturingtools.org/toyota-production-system/

5.     Management Study Guide. (2021). Toyota Production System (TPS). Retrieved from https://www.managementstudyguide.com/toyota-production-system.htm

6.     Wikipedia. (2022). Toyota Production System. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Production_System

7.     ASQ. (2018). Toyota Production System (TPS). Retrieved from https://asq.org/quality-resources/toyota-production-system

 

I could get quotes from a few of these references and add them to the longer essay and easily get to my 637-word objective. 

This is most cool and a bit scary.  This could be a negative game changer or a positive one, depending on how we react to it in our course design.  It is not unlike the dawn of cheap scientific calculators and impact they had on science and math classes.  “Do we allow calculators to be used in math exams?” was a huge question academia grappled with until we realized they were a tool which math courses needed to incorporate.  The same could be sad about Excel and other software applications.  It is just coming to the writing side of academics now.

I really liked the ability for ChatGPT to assemble a reference list on the Toyota Production System.  I will definitely use it more for this.

Lastly, I found an article, ChatGPT and the rise of AI writers: how should higher education respond?  I asked ChatGPT to summarize the article as this was something that was touted as a feature.  It impressively responded:

 

It is not possible for me to summarize a specific article without having access to it. However, I can provide some general information about how higher education institutions may respond to the development of AI writing tools such as GPT and RISE.

 

One potential response could be to incorporate the use of these tools into the curriculum, perhaps as a way to teach students about the capabilities and limitations of AI and how it can be used in writing and other areas. Higher education institutions may also consider the ethical implications of using AI writing tools and how they may impact the role of human writers.

 

Another response could be to study the effectiveness of these tools and how they compare to traditional writing methods. This could involve conducting research on the quality and accuracy of writing produced by AI tools, as well as the impact on student learning and engagement.

 

Higher education institutions may also consider the potential for these tools to democratize access to education, particularly for students who may face barriers to traditional writing instruction. However, it will be important to carefully consider the potential consequences and ensure that the use of AI writing tools does not lead to the displacement of human writers or educators.

 

Overall, higher education institutions will need to approach the development of AI writing tools with caution and carefully consider their potential impact on students, educators, and the broader field of writing and education.

 

Well, I will have to figure out how to use this tool in a positive way in my courses.  I will also need to figure out I should or should not use it to make me a more prolific blogger.  The future, in these regards, might be kind of awesome.

Note:  This word count of this piece is 1,968 of which I actually wrote 759 of them.

For Love of the Music: Καναρίνι μου γλυκό

 

From the 1930s: 
Lambros, Eskenazi, and Tomboulis

Growing up, we called the music we love, that I love, Armenian music.  Mostly it was.  But we also played a fair amount of Turkish, Greek, and Arab music.  Occasionally, an Israeli, Persian, or Balkan song might enter our repertoire.  We were open to other cultures and embraced the music… especially tunes that fit in with the core Armenian music we played, moved us, and made people dance. 

I know a lot of songs.  I love the old songs I grew up with more than the newer songs I have learned over the years.  I love the old songs more than I like classical music (Turkish classical music) which I really like.  Of the old songs, I really like those that lie in that intersection of the Greek and Turkish, with dashes of Armenian.  I am talking about the taverna music, the music of the old 78s, the music of places I have never been like the 8^th Avenue night clubs, Club Zara, and Sammy G’s.  The music that we die-hard kefjis live for.  A lot of that music is from Smyrna where Greeks, Turks, and Armenians lived before… well you know. 

Like many of my peers, we learned from the likes of John Berberian, Harry Minasian, Kelly Kuchukian, Richard Hagopian, John Bilezikjian, Hachig Kazarian, Souren Baronian, Carnig Mikitirian, and so many more.  We would learn from their records and live recordings.  Sometimes, we learned a song that wasn’t recorded.  We would hear it a few times and learn it old school… by memory and the age-old aural tradition.  Sometimes I learned songs on a gig when the clarinet player played it in a medley.

One such song is one I heard growing up in Detroit and listening to the inimitable Hachig Kazarian and the Hye-Tones.  I heard Hachig play one of these Greek-Turkish songs a few times, perhaps even with Richard Hagopian.  The melody was familiar and quite natural.  I played the song a few times with my old band in Detroit, the Johnites.  The first time we played it, John Tosoian, our clarinet player, just went into it.  I perked up and delightfully followed him.  It was very nice.  I don’t think I have played this song with any other group since I left Detroit in 1990.  I have continued to play the tune when I practice without ever knowing the name of it.  I always assumed it was a Greek song or a Greek version of a Turkish song.]

Fast forward to 2022, listening to Roza Eskenazi, the famed singer of Rembetiko, and boom, I heard the song and learned the name:  Καναρίνι μου γλυκό or My Sweet Canary.  What a great song.  She was born in Istanbul in the 1890s to a poor Jewish family.  Her birth name was Sarah Skinazi.  The family relocated to Thessaloniki.  Roza found work in a tavern owned by a Turk.  The owner heard her singing while doing chores and put her on stage.  She quickly grew into a singer and dancer, eventually to be known for her voice, the voice of the Rembetiko or Rebetiko – The Greek Blues – The Music of Life style of Greek music.  Per Roza Eskenazi: canary of the Aegean,

Eskenazi was the queen of rembetika, the Greek blues, a genre that sprang up in the Aegean’s port towns in the 1920s. She was a prodigious and prolific talent, revered for her soul and her charisma, as well as for giving a voice to the underclass: the displaced, the poor and the desperate.

Another excellent website, Rebetiko – The Greek Blues – The Music of Life, defines Rebetiko as:

Rebetiko, a subculture, appeared around The Mediterranean, usually in coastal towns, around the early 1900s, it’s a genre of music generally associated with poverty, the lower class, crime, drink, prostitution and drug addiction.

 The oud player that often played with Roza is Agapios Tomboulis.  He is on My Sweet Canary and has the taxim at the beginning of the recording.  When I first knew of him several years ago, someone told me he was Armenian.  Others have told me he was Greek.  Wikipedia, not always the most accurate reference, said with a reference that he was born Hagop Stamboulian “in 1891 in the Pera district of İstanbul to an Armenian father and a Greek mother.”  He passed away in 1965.  Half Armenian and half Greek?  I’ll take that.

Really, as student of the music, I should have known all about this song years ago.  While I have some knowledge of this music, I am not an ethnomusicologist by any means.  There are very astute PhDs and some very good, dedicated amateurs that are obsessed with the history and lore of this music, classical and folk.  Maybe I should have asked and inquired.  Then again, my ad hoc method of discovery and learning aided by the wonderland of YouTube works for me.

There was another song that I always loved.  It was another Turkish song from the era of 78s.  I believe I heard it on a record sung by Marko Melkon.  But, that recording is nowhere to be found in my repertoire or on YouTube.  I will occasionally play this song in my practice sessions and would hear what I thought was Marko singing it in my head.  Again, John Tosoian surprised me by randomly going into it few times.  I missed playing the song with a full band.  I recorded myself playing it this past August and sent it off to fellow musicians I thought would know song.  They did not.  In October, while playing at the Keghi Night in Detroit.  Hachig Kazarian was part of the large group of volunteer musicians.  I asked him about the song.  He knew the song immediately and commented that it was our mutual friend Chris’s favorite song.  He did not know the name.  During the gig, he glanced over at me, winked, and went into it.  It was a very good moment.

In the process of my stumbling onto My Sweet Canary, YouTube offered up a mix of Roza Eskenazi songs.  I just put it on while doing some grading.  In the middle of this mix, the song I played with Hachig popped up.  It is called Mes' To Vathí Skotádhi (In the Deep Darkness).  Pure Rembetiko.  Another loop closed.

Here are YouTube links to both songs.

 

 

Καναρίνι μου γλυκό (My Sweet Canary)

Mes' To Vathí Skotádhi (In the Deep Darkness)