…..And how many of you remember playing that video game?….I probably spent a first-year worth of college tuition playing it….Toru Iwatani was the young gamer who came up with the idea….the game wasn’t called Pac-Man when he came up with the idea back in the 70’s….it was called “PuckMan”….Paku Paku Taberu is a popular phrase for gobbling up something….paku paku mimicked the sound of a snapping mouth and taberu meant something to eat….while drawing up ideas for a game based around food….Toru grabbed a slice of pizza from a box and had an epiphany…..the remaining pizza slices formed the Pac-Man shape….and like he said….the rest was history…..when the game was imported to America…..they weren’t feeling the PuckMan name….because they felt some players would replace the “P” with an “F”….so the name was changed….and the game became an instant hit….with nearly 300,000 units sold worldwide from 1981 to 1987…..every time I would eat that “Power-Up” pill….I would chase those suckers….eat every one of them I could get to….until I had to say “oh Shit”….and haul ass….this game was among the titles added to the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2012….the reason this game was so popular was its simplicity in play it….and it took nearly 20-years for someone to complete a perfect game….finishing it with no lives lost and the maximum number of points from each level…..something I never accomplished…..but Billy Mitchell did it in 1999…and he’s one of a handful of players to do it.

WE LOST ANOTHER GREAT ARTIST…..An artist I’ve had the pleasure of knowing for many years….and performed with….an artist who recorded with such legends like…..Dinah Washington, Pearl Bailey, Clark Terry, Cannonball Adderley, Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane, Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, Wynton Kelly, Stan Getz, Wes Montgomery, Art Pepper, Gil Evans, Miles Davis, Paul Chambers, Kenny Burrell, J. J. Johnson, Sonny Stitt, Massimo  Farao´, Nat Adderley, Benny Golson, Hank Jones, Ron Carter, George Coleman, Fathead Newman, Geri Allen, Earl Bostic, Leo Parker, Charlie Rouse, Ernie Royal, Philly Joe Jones, Bobby Timmons, Walter Booker, Jerome Richardson, Keter Betts, Jimmy Cleveland, Sam Jones, Red Garland, Joe Henderson, Eddie Gómez, Bill Evans, Jeremy Steig, Richard Wyands, Peter Bernstein, Richie Cole, Nancy Wilson…..and more….my friend passed away last Sunday…..after a long battle with cancer….I will really miss you Jimmy Cobb…..until we meet again……R.I.P.

THANKS FOR THIS ONE LOIS……

“I will give zero apologies for what I’m about to say because while we’re busy working to save people’s lives we’re also growing really concerned about the conspiracy theory BS that’s seeming to become a bigger problem than covid19. We don’t have time while we’re working to save lives to also be on social media explaining, with the depth of knowledge most of us have acquired over years and decades, how to understand with scrutiny the science of everything that’s happening right now and why the science is so important. So, if you don’t know how to keep a SARSCoV2 patient alive and you’re posting your opinion on vaccines, population control, Bill Gates, shutdown hoax, deep state, your personal liberty to go out in public without a mask or whatever bullshit crap fake news is about to come next let me just say this… The health care professionals I know, including myself, give the SAME high-quality heart and soul, brains and brawn, care to the victim and the drunk driver. We WILL fight for your life if you end up on life support whether you got coronavirus accidentally or because your dumb ass went out to protest the lockdown without a mask. So, have a little respect and know that if you don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about it’s okay to just shut the fuck up right NOW. This is not a joke.

95,533+ DEAD -1,591,245+ INFECTED WITH THE VIRUS……Wake-up America…. “STUPID” wants businesses to opened again….but the military is on lockdown with travel restrictions…..no movement unless it’s on the base…..our service members are canceling vacations….which is ok….since most countries are closing their borders……wake up America…..globally….5,178,911+ infected….336,404+….dead!…..there are states saying the infection rate is growing….a hairdresser who was showing symptoms….infected 91  people….another one infected over 56 people….a Arkansas high school swim party didn’t end too well….and now “STUPID” is screaming at Governors to reopen churches…I hope many places of worship have underground crypts to store the future dead…..he deems houses of worship essential amid this pandemic we’re dealing with…..this idea is coming out of the mouth of a man….who doesn’t even attend church services….and doesn’t understand people do not need a church to practice their faith…..remember that anti-malaria drug he was hyped and wanted people to take….it’s linked to a higher mortality death rate….were closing in on 100,000 dead people…..and that figure is coming from 671 different hospitals in six different continents…..a study found out patients taking the drug were five times more likely to suffer from a serious heart rhythm…..here’s the thing folks….yes, you want to go out again….you want to eat in restaurants again…you want a drink in a bar again….but has it crossed your minds….to think about this….are you sure the person preparing your food isn’t infected….are you sure the person serving you isn’t infected….are you sure the bartenders who are pouring and mixing your drinks aren’t infected…I worked as a bartender and we use our hands a lot…..are you sure there aren’t any traces of the virus still lingering on the glass you’re drinking out of…..yeah, the one someone drank out of before you…..is the fork you’re using to shove food into your mouth…..was properly cleaned?…..if you don’t take care of yourself…..y’all gonna die!….because the REB-publican’s way of taking care of you goes like this…..the Senate basically goes on vacation…..and “STUPID” decides to go play golf while more people die.…..his favorite propaganda TV station….Fox News is starting to realize….he’s unfit to run the country…..and by the time you read this….over 100,000 people in America will have died….just check the front page of The New York Times…..so, at least he reached his quota.

THANKS FOR THIS ONE TRICIA….. “There is no normal for us to go back to. People sleeping on the street wasn’t normal, children living in poverty wasn’t normal, neither was our taxes helping bomb the people in Yemen. Using other people’s lives to pileup objects wasn’t normal, the whole thing is absurd….surely it’s time to start imagining something better.”