Our Father Harry Alan Quinn, Retired Career Foreign Service Officer With The American Embassy Died 14 Years Ago On President's Day : Remebering Him

This was pretty emotional for me when my brother announced at lunch that our father had passed away fourteen years ago today on President's Day. It caught me off guard this bit of information and I must say that I paused and teared up inside away from the notice of my mother and younger brother.
It was a very emotional time for me fourteen years ago and the armor went up not down as I flew out to California, to San Leandro outside of San Fransisco to be exact to be a part of the last moments with my father's ashes and all those that were coming to pay their respects to him as a man, a friend, a family man and father and a business associate. I was both moved and touched by the warmth and the display of respect and the stories that were shared with us about him - many of which we had no idea about and yet which were so very welcome.
Our father was always rather quite a private man. It may have all started way back when he returned from doing his military service during World War II and his experience in France which must have deeply scarred him. He never spoke about it : no details just the names of a few of the places that he had been in France but never any details about his experience there in France.
I would have loved to have heard about them. I would have loved to have heard more about his life before I was born. Being the first son born in 1953 it would have been nice to have heard more about his experiences in California when he met our mother that is still alive and was at lunch with us earlier today in West Virginia, Martinsburg to be exact.
Mostly what returned earlier today at the mention of our father's death being today on President's Day was the last few years of conversations over the phone. He would call me here in northern Virginia as he went back to school at Berkeley and he would simply tell me about his wine discoveries there in California and ask me how I was as well as how was my family? I liked that, no judgment : just warmth and concern and interest in me , my life, food and wine and of course my family. We would talk ballet and art and culture, too. I liked that : little or no stress, just good building blocks to luxuriate in and grow from. Thanks Dad.
At lunch my brother gave me a copy of his book of poems that he's just published ( a copy for me and one for my son that he was thinking was going to join us for lunch ) called " AMASSUNU " : Poems by Eric Quinn & Ampersand Press 2010. As he writes : " Ammassunu " is an Ameridian word meaning " the sound of water ". Both the Amazon river and Amazonas State in Brazil take their names from it. My brother was born in Brazil. I look forward to reading these thirty or so odd poems and will include more about them soon.
It was great to see both my mother and my brother today and we all looked and felt great. It was a real treat. We spoke both of our other brother and of our father and it was a very enriching time for the three of us which is always the five of us as we have been a family of five for forever and each one of us carries the other four with them always.
Cheers to us all that are still alive and cheers to you Dad that is still alive in the four of us. I hope that this reaches others that you have known besides us and that you and your presence and example have influenced and touched over the nearly seventy years that you lived here on this earth with us. Take care, TONY

Not Happy With Undisclosed Service-Pricing Of Invisible Fence Brand/ 12/1/2010 & No Follow-Through To Discuss It By Manager In Service Dept.

On my recent call to the Invisible Fence Brand service department people I ended up talking with manager Brandon here in Fairfax County/Annandale, northern Virginia and I explained how my wire was inadvertently cut by our neighbor repairing our border wooden fence. I told him where it was and what I thought had happened and arranged for someone to come check on the problem and solve it. At no point in this conversation or any of the previous two that I had ( there were a number of messages going back-and-forth for a week or so ) was the cost mentioned to us of a service call. Silly me, I should have asked up-front as when I heard the charge from serviceman Pete I immediately exclaimed : " That's highway robbery! "

Pete had come and looked inside and then gone outside to where I believed the damage had been done. He was out there ten minutes or so and perhaps ten minutes or so inside : and for these twenty minutes I was charged $142.60 which included him coming ( $85 ) and his time ( $45 ) and the cost to repair the fence ($12 ). That's " highway robbery " in my book.

What about the fact that this was our first call in seven years ? What about a discount for being a good, loyal customer? What about telling us up-front what to expect? It's the holiday season, too. Pete was nice and professional enough and my beef is not with him : it's with Invisible Fence that should know better than to hire managers that do not discuss up-front charges and possible costs.

Heck, for that kind of money I could have gone outside and fixed the problem myself with wire that I bought from Home Depot. Maybe that's what they should recommend in the future : that the customer fix it himself.

So, in summary I am not pleased with the results here as it has been several days and Pete knew I was quite upset and marked it on the bill and I have not received a call or an explanation from Brandon or anyone else at the Invisible Fence Brand people.

The fence has worked well and for the last seven years I have not had a beef with that at all. As a matter of fact I am very pleased with that, just not this recent series of calls back-and-forth and then being charged an exorbitant sum in my humble opinion for twenty minutes of work max to fix a really simple problem.

Find other ways to make extra money and keep loyal customers happy with all your service. For $142.60 you just bought yourselves a whole lot of bad will that was unnecessary and so easily fixed with a call ( on the spot - from Pete to manager Brandon ) and some concession to my complaint.

I probably should not post this but then again I am quite unhappy and this is my way of being heard by someone I hope. Being in the retail service business I am quite aware of customer service.

There should be some compromise on this type of pricing. My afterthought after hearing Pete tell me the pricing and then explaining it and saying that I should have been explained up-front before his call the pricing is : that I should have kept him for the full hour that I paid for , the extra forty minutes doing handy-work on the fence or other things as I had paid for forty more minutes and got nothing for it except the feeling of being royally ripped off.

I'm a nice guy and I do not like to complain : but this is how I felt and still feel - ripped-off. TONY

Spring Jazz Jam Take 4 / Michael Bowie ( Bass ) and Gene Bertoncini ( Guitar ) Jamming With Drummer Ken Kimery / March 2009 @ Lee & Leslie's

As I have been saying all along this Sunday afternoon of live jazz at Leslie and Lee's home in 2009 was an experience not to be missed and one that I treasure as a great moment for me to be so close to these fabulous jazz musicians as they played together and off one another and alongside one another. What an amazingly rich and vibrant and lively/thrilling/inspiring bunch of sounds they intertwined together to make this music that as I see and listen to it and them play it now makes me stop in both awe/appreciation and amazement.

Everyone involved deserves a big hand of applause. Karen , my friend and photographer took my " raw " foot age of this event and has really made it so much more complete and watchable. Thanks everyone, cheers, TONY

PS : Look at all these live jazz " takes " and there are still more to come.

Spring Jazz Jam Take 6 Michael Bowie ( Bass ), Robert Redd( Piano ) , Marshall Keys( Saxophone ) @ Lee & Leslie's Home March 2009 / 2nd Event

This was truly inspirational for all of us lucky enough to have been invited over to Leslie and Lee's for a Sunday afternoon treat of live jazz, food and wine and whispered conversations in 2009. It's such a great thing to see how Karen has taken the " raw " footage of this event and woven it together to help show how these four musicians played together and added their own spin on the jazz music for it to be so rich and inspiring all in one. I love it : I loved filming it. I'm all inspired.

Everyone involved deserves a big round of applause! Enjoy this and the other several " takes " that will be downloaded here for you to enjoy. Cheers, TONY

Live Jazz Music Take 5 ; Robert Redd ( Piano ), Michael Bowie ( Bass ), Marshall Keys( Sax ) & Gene Bertoncini ( Guitar ) @ Lee & Leslie's 3/3/09

This was such a fun ( 2009 ). impromptu moment for me and I loved watching and listening to these very talented musicians play off of one another/inspired by the others/watching sometimes the others as they played to them and with them and alongside them ; intertwining melodies and weaving their own notes into a fabric of existing sounds already to make the whole richer/fuller and more alive with all the highs/lows and middles that make a listener gasp and be stunned into almost a blithering state of wonder and disbelief and awe at having just been caught-up and swept along on a musical journey to match them all ... I loved it, really. This was a great event in the home of Leslie and lee celebrating and playing jazz. Everyone involved deserves a big round of applause.

Here with the help of my friend Karen Akerson ( a good customer of mine as well ) and photographer : she has taken my " raw " footage of this afternoon in Maryland back in 2009 and given it a bit more life and structure. Cheers, TONY

PS: There are two more here that I will download in the next day or twoo so stay-tuned for more. TONY

Live Jazz Music TAKE FOUR , Sunday Afternoon Last March 2009 @ Home Of Lee And Leslie

I'm having fun now finally putting this all together with my photographer friend Karen Akerson as it happened back in March of last year, 2009. She knows how to edit and get what I filmed in large and small snippets of video at Lee and Leslie's home last year into an enjoyable and cohesive format that may be enjoyed here by you and your friends.

I want to say up front that these photographs and videos here were done as my " thank-you " to a long friendship and strong bond that I feel for both Lee and Leslie. I marveled at the first Sunday ( 2-5 PM ) afternoon Live Jazz event at their home back in early 2008. At that point I only took pictures using both my camera ( that ran out of battery life - argh! ) to take the pictures that I down-loaded and posted on my blog at : chatart.blogspot.com. You may check those out at your convenience. It begins to tell a small part of the story. I am glad to have included it because it includes some people that were not at the second Live Jazz Sunday Afternoon in March, 2009.

Once that my battery ran out I went in search of Lee that quickly discussed things with Leslie and one of their cameras was made available almost immediately. It belonged to one of their daughters and I started snapping away immediately and that is what I left behind as my gift to both Lee and Leslie and really as much to their two wonderful daughters that will grow into all of this and be able to appreciate and share this with their parents as they understand the marvelous and memorable times these were that drew so many talented jazz musicians to their home to play each year live jazz. I mean Gene comes all the way from New York to play his vibrant and enthusiastic/story-telling guitar. That's impressive and he's charming and has a wonderful smile, too.

At the first Live Jazz Sunday Afternoon at Lee and Leslie's I even knew one of the musicians : the bass upright strings you see playing here in the second 2009 Live Jazz Sunday Afternoon. He's also in one of the pictures from 2008 I believe that I captured as I walked into Lee and Leslie's home?

You may also go to: chatart.blogspot.com again and look at the pictures and the story that I have already posted back in 2009 to see more of the pictures from the Live Jazz 2009 " happening " at Lee and Leslie's home. I even included some of my poetry on that blog entry as I was inspired by seeing these pictures and remembering the sounds and the people and all of their talent as it came from within themselves, their voices and their various musical instruments. What a special moment all of this was for me, really.

On this Jazz 4 snippet of video you get a sense of the whole event that was focused in this room but also spread out into two other rooms as well with all the talking and the lively banter and excitement of the moment as people hurried to say things/ express themselves before the next bit of music started as the players ( singers and musicians ) changed places and got ready for the next piece.

Cheers, TONY

Live Jazz Music TAKE THREE , Sunday Afternoon @ Lee And Leslie's Home, 2009 / Robert Redd ( Piano ) & Bart Stringham ( Guitar )

I want to say that Karen Akerson ( my video editor and very talented photographer ) are doing this for the love of the music and the musicians here that sing and play their various musical instruments to create such an engaging " live " jazz sound that cannot fail to stir the soul and churn the gut and inflame the imagination, mind and loins, too. This is exciting stuff, this is " racing for the finish - for the wonderful prize - whatever that may be ! " I love it. I am thrilled to have been included here by my two great friends Lee and Leslie. Thank you both. Accept this video and all the others as a token to our friendship over these long, glorious years.

I also want to say that neither Karen and I are in this for the money. We are not making a penny from this : that was never our idea. Rather, my idea has always been to share this with Lee and Leslie as well as to share it with all those involved. It preserves a small part of a moment but at least it does exist and I hope that when the people there see this that they will smile and relax and sit a spell to listen and to remember the lively, energized and inspiring and elevating times we all shared gathered together with great people, great talent wine and food and " live jazz music ". Wow! these last two events in 2008 and 2009 have been something else and something very special.

I could not have put this together in such a lovely, cohesive and interesting format for you all to watch without the help of Karen Akerson my very talented photographer friend. Thank you Karen for all your help so far and all your help still to come for both this blog and also for helping to put it all together in and interesting format to be put on a c.d. for Lee and Leslie to enjoy. You are dedicated and passionate about this work and you even sent Stephen by to help me get your last work done here on Live Jazz 3 and Live Jazz 4 copied onto my blog site so that I could write the story and post it in time before the next Sunday Afternoon of Live Jazz at Lee and Leslie's coming up at the end of March, 2010. I like this. This is all good and I cannot wait to come to this next event. Thanks again for including me. It is so much fun and so memorable.

On this Live Jazz 3 there is some great piano finishing with some excellent guitar work. I'm pleased with the sound and the images and Karen you really helped to get them into a nice format here so that it all flows together nicely.

I will get all the names of those musicians and singers that participated here in 2009 and include them soon. I did meet everyone and say " hello " but I was busy here at work filming and taking pictures. On top of that I took my invitation with the names and got it signed by everyone there and then gave it as my present to Lee and Leslie as a souvenir for them.

I'm really pleased that I have done this for my good friends Lee and Leslie. It's a great moment and it takes a whole lot of work, planning and energy and they deserve to have a memento to look back at and listen to as they are so busy entertaining and making sure that everyone is fine and having a good time that it is hard to really focus on this grand live music. Now they can and that pleases me enormously.

Now I am being proactive. On the invitation that we received in the mail the other day it says : Live Jazz provided by : The Music Teaching Project : Michael Bowie, Jamie Broumas, Ken Kimery and Robert Redd.

So stay-tuned/ jazz-tuned for more to follow on this 2009 Sunday Afternoon as well as the one to follow shortly.

Cheers, TONY

P.S. Having just returned from yesterday's live Jazz performance at Lee and Leslie's I am a bit better prepared. That was Sunday, March 27th, 2011 and it was superb. I have pictures and video and portrait sketches that I did of all the musicians to share here soon with Karen Akerson's help. I got more great footage and I was using a better camera, too. We will soon see and soon hear what we will both see and hear! Cheers, TONY ( Monday, March 298th, 2011 here at home in northern Virginia ).