I have a confession to make. I’m obsessed with birthdays, anniversaries, national observance days and months. Because I am that way, I always start with a calendar.
My obsession started back when I was hired to be a computer scheduler. Each distinct system had its own calendar which had to be blended into one definitive source, to make every job in the system run in the correct sequence. I learned a lot of things about the structure of years and months. For instance, did you know that Friday the thirteenth only happens when the month begins with a Sunday?
When I started blogging for Smooth Jazz Chicago, the first thing I did was open up a calendar and begin to find birthdays for my favorite artists. I thought that in a week, I would have a calendar with one jazz artist for every day of the year. Boy was I wrong! I am still working on it and although I have over two hundred and twenty artists, with both smooth and old school jazz, I still do not have someone for every day!
Some were easy, one google and done. Some were a bit more obscure. Wikipedia, blogs, Jazz Encyclopedias and artist’s websites are great sources. Ninety percent can be resolved, but on rare occasions, I’ve resorted to emailing musicians and typically I get a very nice response.
Usually, I give some thought to the theme that is being hailed that month. For instance April is Jazz Appreciation Month, May is Asian Pacific Heritage Month, etc. But somehow August doesn’t have a theme, which is beyond comprehension. However I do understand why December doesn’t need one.
Using this method suddenly caused a dilemma for me. At the end of September, I saw that somehow I had missed Hispanic Heritage Month. With so many magnificent folks to choose from, there wasn’t enough time to do stuff that would to do them justice. I filed it in the back of my mind, marked my calendar for next year and moved into October. I was confused to find that Hispanic Heritage Month was not over! Seems that this is the only month in the pantheon of special months that starts on the 15th of September and ends on the 15th of October. And that puts me in further predicament. I found out that October is also Polish and Italian Heritage month! So, I ask you, isn’t that a good reason to move something to August?
Barnesversation 