1. It’s September? It’s September. It’s September?!? It’s September! It’s September. It’s September . . . (it’s September) . . .

2. I was sorry to hear of Glenn Cornick’s passing this week. He was the bass player on the first three Jethro Tull albums, as well as playing in a few precursor bands, and co-writing the group’s first single, “Aeroplane,” mistakenly credited to “Jethro Toe.” He was a fantastic musician, and it’s hard to imagine how such signature early Tull songs as “Living in the Past” or “Bouree” would have been so wonderful without his tasty chops holding them together. Click those two links in the prior sentence, and actually listen to the bass. Incredible stuff, truly. He had a fine post-Tull career as well, that I wrote about in a post a few years back about Heavy Organ Music, and I highly recommend his work with Wild Turkey, Paris and Karthago, if you can find it. (Paris also featured the brilliant Bob Welch, who has also flown away from us, sadly, as I wrote about here). I was “friends” with Glenn Cornick on Facebook for a couple of years, back when I was more profligate in my social media practices, and his communications there were always fun, enthusiastic, engaging, and endearing. He seemed to be a generous man who loved and was proud of his family, as well as a gifted musician who played an important role in an important band for me. Here’s wishing his friends and loved ones peace through difficult times.

3.  Another thing I enjoyed about our recent trip in Europe: I had no cell phone coverage or connection, so I would check in via the hotel’s business center or our Netbook occasionally, but otherwise was fairly blissfully disconnected from the digital world for most of the day while we rambled about some of Europe’s great cities, seeing sites, taking pictures, drinking beer, and eating all of the things, all of them. It was effortless and delightful, and I’ve tried to eliminate a lot of online connections since returning home (e.g. sorry if I am not your Facebook friend anymore, nothing personal, really) to preserve that sense of actively living in the real world, without feeling obligated to monitor the virtual one, continually. That being said, I hereby authorize anybody reading this article to punch me in the head repeatedly if I ever succumb to writing one of my least favorite internet memes, wherein highly-connected dooders or doodesses cut him/herselves off from all electronic toys for a day/week/month/whatever, and then blog about it as though the experience were analogous to living in a Somali refugee camp for two years. It’s not that dramatic to be disconnected, people, honest. Most of our internet activities are nothing but habits, and if we make a little effort to break said habits (since most of them are bad habits, if we’re honest with ourselves, right?), and successfully do so, then . . . . well, then, nothing, because it’s not really a big deal. Seriously. And if you ever liken misplacing your Smartphone or closing your Facebook account to losing basic fundamental human requirements like food, water, and real face-to-face contact with peers and loved ones, then you’re kind of a schmuck, honestly, and there’s probably a reason why you don’t function very well in the real world. Just saying.