Dead blogs are beautiful reminders of the creative impulse that lies in all of us, and stern reminders that only hard work begets real results.

This blog, long forgotten, will reemerge, like Brigadoon, to mix once more with the world that has passed it by to announce:

Jeff Jablonski, tenor, has hung out his shingle to teach voice lessons and piano lessons in Lombard, IL.  He wouldn’t mind drawing clients from Glen Ellyn, La Grange, Elmhurst, and Villa Park as well.

To that end, he has set up three websites:  jeffjablonskitenor.com, lombardvoicelessons.com, and lombardpianolessons.com.

Unlike this blog, however, this endeavor will flourish because of the lessons learned from dead blogs everywhere, bless them.  So singers, learn to sing with a song of thanksgiving for those creative gardens that fell into neglect.  We will cultivate our voice to sing your praises, and the praises of beauty.

Are they cute or what?  They probably can’t spell entrepreneurship, unless they are budding Kavya Shivashankars.   If you can, you are probably adult enough to actually start a “real” business, whichs is a beautiful thing.

Recently, (with the immeasurable help from my brothers) I launched a publishing company called MJMbooks that will print customized children’s books for proud parents and doting relatives.  What sets it apart from the terrible versions of other personalized children’s books is the level of customization.  Customers can choose from hundreds of combinations of images to find one that matches their child.  Most other custom children’s books only allow for the name to be replaced, so we think we’ve got a special product catalogue that will be especially popular as a Christmas of birthday gift.

It has been an empowering journey to go from making a cute Christmas present for my niece to making it available to the world on the interwebs and I have felt a sense of pride and connectedness to the American Dream and Capitalism.  The Boy Scout in me is saluting the flag right now.  The wholesome sense of empowerment, and can-do attitude that entrepreneurship breeds is truly a beautiful thing.

Our Logo. Whoda thunk it...

    Here’s a semi-funny cartoon that I made all by myself.  Doing things yourself reminds you of the infinite possibilities in your life.  I bet you never knew you could install that sink, but you did.  And now that you’ve done that, you feel confident that building that bookshelf is well within your capacity.   In an age where people feel intimidated to venture too far from their particular skill set and defer constantly to “experts”, doing it yourself is empowering, enjoyable, and best of all, cheap.  Granted, there are some things that you should not do yourself.  For instace, dentristy, and pyrotechnics.  But greivous bodily harm aside, doing it yourself is overall very positive.

Guilt gets it’s mention in the Tribute to Beautiful Things because it is precisely why I am writing another post.  It has been so long since the last post, that I felt a sense of guilt at my neglecting my quest and abandoning my readers.  Ha ha, “readers”.  Stay tuned for the next post, “Beautiful Thing no. 245:  Inflated Senses of Importance.”

 

Within the next few days, I expect the one thousandth visitor to this site (who will win absolutely nothing).   And yet for one silly reader requesting an RSS feed, I abandoned a very sleek and simple layout theme, ruining the aesthetics of something supposedly dedicated to beauty.  I argue that this grave sacrifice is in istelf beautiful (had I done it without complaining, which I didn’t), and shows today’s Beautiful Thing to be very powerful indeed.  So to all the friends out there, you are beautiful and more important that the way a blog looks to a thousand strangers.

Devoted readers will note this post’s shocking use of the word “I”.  Remember when I said “turning point in this blogs illustrious history”…  dun, dun, dun.   Stay tuned… 

By the way, if you haven’t already, please click on the picture.

SHOW ME MORE BEAUTIFUL THINGS!

   I am reminded of an article by an esteemed publication known as The Onion about the importance of opposable thumbs to the dominance of humanity.   Despite its silliness, the article makes a valid point.   Our hands make us special.  They are the ultimate tools.   They climb rocks, knead dough, snap, move pieces around a Monopoly Board… everything.

    Go ahead, give yours a flex.  Neat, huh?  I love to watch the ligaments move slightly as I twitch each finger.  I’m not even going to talk about the palms.  So they’re creased, so what?  Give me knuckles, and violinists and guys who can tear phone books in half over palmistry any day when we’re talking about interesting facets of the hand.  And fingernails… what’s up with those anyway?  But can you imagine if they were just nubbins with no nails.  That’d be wierd.

 SHOW ME MORE BEAUTIFUL THINGS

Irony is the universal bitch-slap that puts fools in thier place.  Irony is swift and unmerciful.  Irony is often deadly.  Also pilferred from Wikipedia: ”In 1900, Charles Justice was a prison inmate at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Columbus. While performing cleaning detail duties in the death chamber, he devised an idea to improve the efficiency of the restraints on the electric chair. Justice designed metal clamps to replace the leather straps, thus allowing for the inmate to be secured more tautly and minimize the problem of burnt flesh. These revisions were incorporated into the chair and Justice was subsequently paroled from prison. Ironically, he was convicted in a robbery/murder and returned to prison 11 years later under a death sentence. On November 9, 1911, he died in the same electric chair that he had helped to improve.”  Did I read that right?  Was the guy’s last name “Justice?!”

Here is a fine wikipedia example that encapsulates the defeated, “Humph”- factor that quality irony induces: “Both hydrogen and oxygen are flammable elements, but together form water, which is non-flammable.”

SHOW ME MORE BEAUTIFUL THINGS

   Some may remember beautiful thing #82, Sharks!  They were admiringly considered to be like underwater jets.  Yes, toothy jets under the water are cool and beautiful, but you know what else are cool and beautiful?  Toothy jets in the air.  There is something about their aerodynamic shape, the scream of the afterburners, and the remora-like missiles hitched onto the wings that inspires unashamed awe.

    Head on, they are terrifying, mean-looking, animal.   Predatory and powerful, they inspire a visceral reaction.   Personally, when I see a fighter jet up close, I want to touch it; to pet the sleeping monster.  When I see one making maneuvers in the sky, my heart leaps with jingoistic patriotism.  

    I could go on, Jets are man-made things that fly, a testament to technology, etc.  The simple fact is they are sweet.  Flying works of deadly art.

SHOW ME MORE BEAUTIFUL THINGS!

  Not to get to hoity-toity and philosophical, but when we brain about Descartes’ quote “Cogito, ergo sum” (I think, therefore I am) and we combine that with our knowledge that thinking is done in the brain, we see that the brain is perhaps our most preciously beautiful possession.  It is the house in which our consciousness and memory resides.  I don’t know about you but I brain that is pretty freakin’ sweet.

   If you want a bit of a brain blow, check out this link to a National Geographic article about Memory.

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   Now that that guy is gone, you and me, we can rap.  Can you Handel that?   As I said before, music is so transcendentally beautiful, it’s been called the Universal Language (If you’ve been reading lately, you’ll remember that Language is Beautiful Thing #50).   We turn to music to express what words cannot, or to add power to our words.  Take these words,

But the Colorado rocky mountain high
I’ve seen it rainin’ fire in the sky
The shadow from the starlight is softer than a lullabye
Rocky mountain high

  Those are some mighty fine sentiments, but add a little acoustic guitar, perhaps some string accompaniments, and a melodious tenor voice and you’ve got pure magic.

  In all seriousness, we have music to calm our nerves, excite us to battle, dance the night away with that mysterious stranger, celebrate rituals,  and even soothe us when grieving.   Every once in a while, at a special moment or just driving in your car, music can touch that nameless place in your soul and makes you go, “Oooo yeah, that’s the spot.  Don’t stop, music…  don’t… stop…” 

Don’t stop, music.  Don’t stop. 

SHOW ME MORE BEAUTIFUL THINGS!