Page three the other day in the L. A. Times' Calendar section had a delightful interview with key voice of the Henson empire, Frank Oz. The article leads off with Oz' emphatic statement he does not trot out Yoda for parties, gags and shtick. His voices are very developed and personal, too much like one's children for that. Impressed, I am!

There is a vague light at my parents' (and my own childhood) house. It could be dawn or dusk, being put up for sale always being proposed, but when I'm over there practicing saxophone, as well as lawn watering and laundry---the washer and dryer being about the only non-kitchen items left---some figures from the early 1970's loom steadily in this murk. My problem, my construct, I know.

That's when I took up saxophone and these people had overbearing ideas about their directions, others', and some about mine.

In the 90's I was privileged to hear the Turtle Island String Quartet, who perform swinging tunes as well as legit. And footage of the Canadian Brass, among others, who feature much comedy and whimsy. But these approaches are based on foundations more solid than these friends' hard heads and more flexible than the latter's veering's off, which tended to simply break over time.

I am thinking of two friends, and several more figures, who variously aspired to pop songwriting and singing, art, and film. And even among those I remember with a grimace there were some foundations of note. But narcissist personality disorder, or too cool for school, or something burned in these people like cheap and quickly expended fuel. The individuals with Turtle Islander and Canadian Brass all played, purposely and consciously, with many straight forward musical ensembles during their previous years---and still do.

These people I knew, again, had varying degrees of not wanting to go through "B", "C", "D" and so on to, well, ditch the alphabet, "A" coming along because they were young and starting out. It was part of a past to be shoved down.

The point has worn out its welcome, and by our year 2012 the pattern here has been community bands and lessons, the latter about transcriptions and scales for instance, among a few woodwinds. I can say my ghosts look down on much of this as much as I look up, and look all around.

Maybe I can blame the house for some of the residue of the 70's version of these folks I have not seen for a l-o-n-g time.

To soldier on, one way is to use fete one of Frank's stages and utilize The Force. Don't drop "The", Dan; it may be common and simple but it's potent.