Having read my various papers this morning, and finding nothing to write about that would make anyone feel better about anything, I’m going to share something I stumbled across last night, just before heading for bed.

I had opened the YouTube app on the Apple TV, and as always, it was offering me videos it thought I might like. One of them showed a young woman sitting at a piano. She didn’t look familiar, so I hadn’t watched anything featuring her before. The words appearing in the video frame said, “Ladyva’s Epic Boogie Woogie Piano Per…”

“Ladyva?” Did someone try to enter “Lady Gaga” and it got garbled? And when have I ever watched a Lady Gaga video? But what grabbed me was “Boogie Woogie.” But how would YouTube know that the only thing my fingers still retained from when I took guitar lessons as a kid in Ecuador was this one short boogie-woogie riff that my teacher taught me? (I remembered nothing else. He kept trying to teach me chords and I didn’t understand why, and didn’t learn them until years later, but the boogie-woogie stuck. Not that I play it well or anything.)

So I clicked on it, and wow. Just watch it. It should brighten your day.

My wife was already reading in bed, so I took my iPad to her and got her to watch it. And I told her, “If I could do that, I’d never stop doing it all day.” Not just the boogie-woogie. Obviously, this woman could play anything that came into her head, and improvise and just run all over the place with it, and how would that ever get old?

We have one person that I know of in our little community who can do things like that — Phillip Bush. So Phillip, how do you ever stop? Do your fingers cramp up, so you have to rest?

Still, until that happens — what joy!

Oh, one last thing. You see this was an “international” music event. So what nation do suppose Ladyva is from? Nope, not this one, even though this is where that kind of music came from. And not… well, you’re not going to guess, so I’ll just tell you.

Switzerland.

Really. Obviously, not all Swiss music features yodeling. Mind you, I didn’t think that, being a worldly, cosmopolitan sophisticate, but some of you might have been thus misled by stereotypes.

Certainly, we all have access to the internet, even up in the Alps. People are exposed to all sorts of music. But where did she hone the skill to play this kind of music like that? Well, obviously, the roadways of Switzerland are loaded with juke joints. Who knew?

Anyway, enjoy…

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