Reflections on Chick Corea

 This past week the world lost a fantastic musician and giant of jazz. Chick Corea, at 79 years old, succumbed to a rare form of cancer.  It came as a surprise to most - the cancer was only recently diagnosed, and Chick had remained active musically, online at least during these Covid times, until about 4 weeks prior to his death.

There are already some great posts, youTube videos and articles that chronicle Chick's music and impact on jazz fusion. Today I wanted to take a few minutes to capture my personal experience and memories of the music of this jazz fusion giant.

As a young guitarist in high school, like many my age, I fell in love with music through high energy 80s rock. I had the great fortune of having a best friend who was already a talented drummer, and together we discovered music in the pre-internet days by reading magazines and perusing record/CD stores, as well as the nascient MTV and VH1.

The rock band Journey, and specifically guitarist Neal Schon and drummer Steve Smith, were some of my first musical heroes.  Gary Gomez, the aforementioned best friend, was a huge fan of Steve Smith, and to my great fortune we picked our early heroes well. Steve Smith was much more than a typical pop rock drummer. He is a fantastic drummer across many genres and came up through the Berklee School of Music, a premier breeding ground for U.S. jazz and fusion artists.

Steve Smith led a jazz fusion band called Vital Information, and it was through this band's two first albums that Gary and I discovered our love for jazz fusion. It was a great introduction for two 16 year-olds that loved the energy of rock and already were appreciating great musicianship.

So, armed with this new found love of great drumming and the genre of jazz fusion, with open ears we discovered several artists that had huge impact on my development as a musician and that I still love to listen to more than 30 years later. Although many of these artists are guitarists and drummers, other instrumentalists certainly found their way into this cabal. On the keyboard we have Jens Johanssen (from Yngwie Malmsteen), Jan Hammer (not because of Miami Vice, but because of Mahavishnu Orchestra and Al DiMeola) and of course Chick Corea.

I'm not 100% sure of my first exposure to Chick Corea; it is one of two paths that happened at about the same time; either way it was because of Gary's drum teacher and Modern Drummer magazine.  Here are the two paths:
Gary -> Steve Gadd -> Al DiMeola (Album Electric Rendezvous) -> Al DiMeola's debut album Land of the Midnight Sun -> Short Tales of the Black Forest

AND/OR

Gary -> Dave Weckl -> Chick Corea Elektric Band -> Got a Match

I probably heard "Short Tales" first, but didn't know that it was Chick that played piano and composed until later.  What an amazing tune.  Listening back now, I still marvel at the interplay and virtuosity. The piece seems to me closer to modern classical composition.  The imagery created, and the fact that so much music is created from basically just piano and acoustic guitar (with a gong and some marimba thrown in for sabor). 

I love the first Elektric Band album. Every song just blew me away. I had never heard guitar playing like Scott Henderson and Carlos Rios layed down throughout the album.  A few years later, the first synth I bought was a Yamaha, almost certainly because of this album. Chick Corea's playing and compositions combine fun, improv, arrangement, virtuosity, and room to interact as a band that I find so enthralling. Also, it has a wide range of moods and grooves throughout the album, yet clearly has a common element which ties the whole thing together. It was almost as if Chick Corea was composing a soundtrack to an imaginary cyberpunk story.

As a bonus, one of the tracks was released as a single and the video got pretty heavy rotation on VH1's jazz show. I caught it on VHS, and I remember just soaking up the solos.  When later that I realized that the guitarist in the video, Scott Henderson, didn't play on that track, and it was Carlos Rios, I was still impressed because Scott had obviously learned the solo note for note just so it would be authentic for the video. And I had not one but two guitarists that were new influences.  Ya gotta love a jazz musician ripping on the keytar too! Elektric City, 1986

A few years later in college, when I had more exposure to traditional jazz, and got a copy of a  Real Book, it dawned on me that I only knew a small portion of Chick's music. I remember trying to keep up on Spain during a jam session with my friend Paul Nemeth at DU. 

I'm spending some time today and in the near future listening to some of his most famous works, and of course some of my favorites whether they are famous or not. I hope you take some time to find some Chick Corea music that you love.

Tuesday - Nymbl RIF

Today's Key Points

• President Trump's vision of getting churches full on Easter
• U.S. just crossed critical threshold
• Nymbl shifts

President Trump's vision of getting churches full on Easter

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1242537995103846400?s=20

This is the worst thing I've ever heard him say, ever.
Also, it was exactly one month ago that he said: 

Donald J. Trump

@realDonaldTrump

· Feb 24

The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries. CDC & World Health have been working hard and very smart. Stock Market starting to look very good to me!

U.S. just crossed critical threshold

http://systrom.com/blog/the-us-just-crossed-a-dangerous-threshold/

Nymbl shifts

Rough day.  We did layoffs of our staff - 2 people (out of 9) and all remaining staff took pay cuts.  Our goal is to extend our runway from 9 months to ~18 months, assuming we won't be able to do a proper fundraising round for a year or more.

Tri-County Call

Question via *3 on phone

Dr. Douglas 

Colorado is 7th, epidemic is likely increasing dramatically, but we don't know because we can't test enough

Social Distancing is critical strategy

Schools Closed

<10 people

50%

bars, restaurants, casinos

Tri-county is considering a stay-at-home to align with Denver county

-- probably into effect on Thursday, same as Denver's order

Trying to optimize use of PPE, monitoring stocks

"Let's get together for Margaritas"  in Douglas County

Influx of scam websites leveraging covid for misinformation. --Be sensible on your data sources

colorado.gov.cdle ==> website for unemployment

- reach out to your lenders, i.e. credit card, mortgage, etc.

There are not enough tests to be able to say (Now I'm negative, now I'm positive) so therefore.  Stay home when you are sick; assume that it is Covid.

tchd.org

covid19.colorado.gov

Covid Daily

Starting today, I'm going to jot a few thoughts down about Covid-19 more-or-less every day - my personal experience, stats that catch my eye, references to articles, etc.
This is mostly for my own purposes, but I'll do it in blogger, just cuz.

Catch-up (3-18-2020)

I'd say I realized about a week ago that we were about to undergo a "tectonic shift" due to this Covid. I started remote working on Thursday the 12th, but we did go to a small (12 people) gathering at a coworker's house Thursday night.

Yesterday Carson and his friend Nicole were leaving Moab to head back to MSU in Montana. They had just started heading north when I got word of an earthquake (5.7 Richter) outside of Salt Lake City, and right on their route back. We had them re-route to here instead.  Upside - We get to see Carson!

At 11:30 last night we got word that MSU is closing their campus for the remainder of the semester and does not want students returning to campus AT ALL.

Other notes:

• We heard about our first person we personally know that (presumptively) has Covid-19. He's 52 and in bad shape up in Greeley, being intubated.
• We heard of 6 people (3 teachers and 3 students) in Highlands Ranch High school tested positive
• I read an article indicating from the CEO of the hospital in the Vail valley that he thinks there are hundreds or maybe thousands of people in the Vail Valley that have it and test results are continued to be delayed. https://www.cpr.org/2020/03/18/in-coronavirus-hotspot-vail-health-ceo-makes-dire-call-for-social-distancing/

Today

We are late to the game, but we are in the game. Social distancing has been pretty informal, and we as a family today have stepped it up a lot.  We feel bad, but made the hard decision to not allow Kyra to have any friends over.  Lane, the next door neighbor, came over yesterday.  Her family is aware of the situation but has interacted with several other families, and Carson and Nicole just came back obviously, so it is in the best interest of both households to distance.

News / Sources / Highlights

https://www.ft.com/content/a26fbf7e-48f8-11ea-aeb3-955839e06441

https://twitter.com/jburnmurdoch/status/1240373707224363014
U.S. on the same trajectory for cases as Italy.

Some early VERY good news:
https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/19/french-study-finds-anti-malarial-and-antibiotic-combo-could-reduce-covid-19-duration/

Nicole

Nicole, Carson's friend from school and fellow mountain biker is from Minnesota.  We are figuring out how we can get her back home.  I really feel for these freshmen - just on the edge of becoming more and more independent, and then shifting suddenly back to their parents' homes - it can feel like a step backward for many.

Current plan is that her cousin happens to be coming through Denver on his way to driving back to Minnesota. We will rendezvous somewhere with him tomorrow and Nicole will hitch the ride back to her homeland.

Journey's "Dead or Alive": Hidden Progressive Rock Brilliance - Part 3

 In 1981, when their Escape album hit the record stores, Journey had already established themselves as pop icons, with the FM radio regularly transmitting “Any Way You Want It”, “Lights” and “Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'”.  But Journey hadn’t completely abandoned their progressive roots, nor had their musician’s skills eroded in any way, as shown by the 8^th cut on the Escape album, "Dead or Alive".
 I remember learning the guitar part to "Dead or Alive" in the late 80's, and I’ve always loved it.  But it wasn’t until this year, when I had an idea to re-arrange it, that I really delved into the other parts of the song. It was then I realized what a hidden gem of progressive rock this song actually is. 
Part 1
Part 2

Unfairly Effortless - Steve Perry's Vocals

Like the guitar part, I've known the vocal part and sung along with Steve Perry for years.  Prior to delving into this analysis, my impressions of the vocal was that from a technical perspective, this song is one that didn't particularly highlight Perry's well-known vocal capabilities.  I had programmed the drum part, recorded the bass and guitar parts, and added the piano part - I decided that I might as well and go ahead and record a scratch vocal track.  Now, I would never even begin to put myself anywhere near Perry's echelon of vocals, but I can carry a tune and have a decent range.  When I tried actually recording the vocals though, yet again I gained a new respect for Steve Perry as an incredible singer and musician.

During the verses, the melody is actually doesn't span a large range of notes. The melody fits with the mood and energy of the song by being staccato and syncopated throughout the verse. This is actually much more difficult than it sounds, particularly at the tempo and note range, yet Steve makes it sound effortless. Perry's timing is impeccable and it is easy to hear that he started out as a drummer with his attention to the rhythm and accuracy.  The chorus, with a two-part harmony, has some of that classic Journey arena rock sound.  On the studio cut, it sounds to me that Perry is singing both the harmony and melody. On the live version from a 1981 concert, Cain and Schon are taking the lower harmony parts.

Just so one doesn't forget that we are dealing with a vocalist of nearly superhuman capabilities, Perry ends the last chorus with an octave-and-a-half vocal glissando, ending on E above middle C.  Steve had used this type of styling previously such as on Infinity's Can Do.  Whereas in Can Do the technique comes off a little corny, in Dead or Alive it works to great effect, clicking up the energy one more notch as the song burns toward the finish line.  The uniqueness of this last vocal line stands out from the pop norm, also adding to the progressive rock nature of the tune.

Lastly, it is worth mentioning that the topic of this song has nothing to do with summer nights, falling in love, romance, making rock music, dancing, or drugs.  That alone separates it from 99.9% of 80's pop music!

Epilogue - Outlaw

I mentioned way back in part 1 that the impetus for this analysis came from an idea I had to create cover or homage to the song.  I had been practicing guitar, and happened to have a clean sound on the amp. I played the lead line of the song, with a bit of a swing feel and thought "this song might sound pretty cool as a country-rock shuffle."  So, once I had analyzed and mimicked all of the parts, I rearranged things a little, added a swing feel, slowed the tempo slightly, and changed up the instrumentation, turning the song into an instrumental, that certainly had some stylistic influences from another of my musical heroes, Steve Morse.  Check out the final version here.  Comments welcome!

Journey's "Dead or Alive": Hidden Progressive Rock Brilliance - Part 2

 In 1981, when their Escape album hit the record stores, Journey had already established themselves as pop icons, with the FM radio regularly transmitting “Any Way You Want It”, “Lights” and “Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'”.  But Journey hadn’t completely abandoned their progressive roots, nor had their musician’s skills eroded in any way, as shown by the 8^th cut on the Escape album, "Dead or Alive".
 I remember learning the guitar part to "Dead or Alive" in the late 80's, and I’ve always loved it.  But it wasn’t until this year, when I had an idea to re-arrange it, that I really delved into the other parts of the song. It was then I realized what a hidden gem of progressive rock this song actually is.
Part 1

All About the Bass

80’s pop rock and arena rock are notorious for having very simple quarter or eight note basslines that basically just pump the root note of each chord. While Dead or Alive takes this approach somewhat in the vocal sections, Ross Valory on bass keeps it interesting with little bass fills that fit the song well. He also reminds us that he is no average bass player by doubling the tricky guitar line of the “part A” motif.  From my perspective, this puts the bass well into the “progressive” category from my perspective.

Guitar, Guitar, Guitar

Just after the opening drum fill, Neal Schon announces that this is clearly a rock-guitar driven song, with his aggressive "Part A" riff. Amidst the odd time signature, the line seems to flip and turn around yet still groove.  Melodically it is rooted in the E mixolydian scale, with the flat 3rd adding the blues-rock, or maybe even a country-influenced, vibe.  Upon listening closely, it is so impressive how impeccable Neal's timing and ability to inflect notes is on this song, while cooking away at a 190ish BPM. And then there's the guitar solo. Neal constructs the solo using several of his signature riffs and patterns.  The solo has a nice melodic arc and creates excitement throughout.  Near the end as he rips through a blistering lick high on the neck, he uses the whammy bar to great effect, coaxing a vocal-like "Whaa-Whoo" out of his instrument.  Then finishes the solo with an tri-tone sounding riff that ends on a C, which should be dissonant to the A blues/mixolydian that the solo section is in, but instead works as a beautiful flat 7 that resolves to the D major of the chorus.

During the outro part, during the 7/4 section, Neal's accenting of the top note G is crucial to keeping the groove driving hard before finally coming to a breathless stop on the Hendrix-esque E7#9.

Jonathon Cain on the Keyboards

At the time of the Escape album, Jonathon Cain had just joined Journey, replacing founding keyboardist Gregg Rolie.  Cain is credited with co-writing every tune on the Album, but on "Dead or Alive" the keyboard part is quite sparse, mostly accented octaves in the higher register which fills out the spectrum nicely, and a few finger-slides that echo back to Jerry Lee Lewis era rock.  I have no idea how the song really came together in the studio, of course, but I imagine something like this:  Jonathon is familiar with the Journey hits, and knows that Neal is an incredible guitarist.  They have been playing and jamming together for a bit and maybe even recorded a couple of the other Escape tunes.  One day Jonathon walks into the studio and hears Neal, Ross, and Steve Smith jamming on the song that will become "Dead or Alive.  Damn. How am I supposed to keep up with that?!? Jonathon thinks to himself.  "Hey guys, that sounds really great.  Umm, I'm going over there to help Perry with the lyrics, 'kay?"  To be fair, Jonathon is no slouch and on the subsequent Frontiers album created some of the most definitive synth riffs of the 80s; but I think it would have been incredibly intimidating to be in the same room with these guys in 1980/1981.

In the concluding Part 3, we will touch on Steve Perry's vocal part, highlight that this song didn't just live in the studio, and I'll share my homage to the song, which started this whole analysis in the first place...

Journey's "Dead or Alive": Hidden Progressive Rock Brilliance - Part 1

The rock band Journey is known by most for straightforward 80’s rock anthems like “Don’t Stop Believin’” and Steve Perry’s love-it-or-hate-it soaring vocals.  They have been derided as a sellout or a commercial rock band.  Most people are unaware of their jazz-rock fusion origins, where on their first few albums you were likely to catch several instrumental tracks, guitar-keyboard solo trade-offs, odd time-signatures, and lengthy tunes – hallmarks of progressive rock.  In 1981, when their Escape album hit the record stores, Journey had already established themselves as pop icons, with the FM radio regularly transmitting “Any Way You Want It”, “Lights” and “Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'”.  But Journey hadn’t completely abandoned their progressive roots, nor had their musician’s skills eroded in any way, as shown by the 8^th cut on the Escape album, "Dead or Alive".
I started playing guitar in 1984, and Journey’s Neal Schon was (and continues to be) one of my heroes.  I remember learning the guitar part to "Dead or Alive" in the late 80's, and I’ve always loved it.  But it wasn’t until this year, when I had an idea to re-arrange it, that I really delved into the other parts of the song. It was then I realized what a hidden gem of progressive rock this song actually is.

Part 1

Song Structure

Okay, so I kind of already had this one for free, since I’ve known the guitar part for so long.  I always appreciated the emphasis on the different instrumental sections of the song, along with the typical verse/chorus sections.  This is how the song is structured:

So what is so progressive about this structure?  For starters, there are more instrumental sections than vocal sections.  But more importantly, the variations in the sections really emphasize the progressive nature of the song. The “part A” motif is played several times, but each time there is a variation. It is played through up a fourth the third time, and then leading into the solo, the structure is abbreviated, as well as a final quote to finish the song like it started, creating nice symmetry.  Another really subtle variation -  a single extra beat is added when the “part B” section is reprised near the end of the song.

Tempo, Timing and Drums

This whole journey (ha!) started when I thought I’d just whip up a midi drum track for my new arrangement.  Shouldn’t be too hard, I already know the guitar part, right?  Oh, so wrong.  After my initial underestimation, I sat down and brought my analysis skills to bear.  My approach was to create a MIDI track that I could A|B compare with the original track and to the best of my ability add each part of the drum kit mimicking Steve Smith’s performance.  I set up the track, matched the initial tempo, and…kept getting out of synch.  I realized that the original recording certainly wasn’t performed to a click track.  It took some effort, but eventually I recreated the tempo - they look something like this: 

Although the changes are subtle, part of the energy of the recording is the organic “breathing” of the tempo, which shifts a few percent throughout the recording.

Even though I had learned the guitar part long ago, it wasn’t until I was transcribing the drums that I had to really figure out the time signature.  Both instrumental sections are far from a straight 4/4.  Like iconic progressive rock groups such as Kansas or Genesis, Journey has several songs that feature odd time signatures. Dead or Alive has its roots in straight, quick 4/4, but the “part A” motif is a little all over the place.  Here’s how I ended up mapping it out:

The “Part B reprise” section near the end of the tune is in 7/4, but to my ear wasn’t obvious since it seems to flow and groove without seeming that different in feel from the rest of the song.  Part of this is accomplished by the drum patterns themselves.

Steve Smith took a “four to the floor” approach on this song, the same as he did to the iconic “Don’t Stop Believin’”, with the kick drum pulsing out every quarter note.  This approach can serve to obscure odd beat measures since the kick drum doesn’t change like it would in a standard 1-3 approach.  Smith is locked-in with the syncopation of the guitar and bass parts throughout the song, emphasizing the accents.  The other thing that I really appreciated about the genius of Smith’s playing on this song was how he consciously varies the looseness of the hi-hat, creating more energy as the end of a section approaches.

In the next installment, we'll explore the bass, guitar and piano parts of this song...
Part 2

Finding Artistic Inspiration in Santa Fe

My wife and I recently had an impromptu getaway to Santa Fe. It was first and foremost a holiday for the two of us to spend some much needed "just us" time, and Santa Fe is a special, meaningful place for us. Not to mention it also has our favorite cuisine and an apparently is a nearly bottomless source of good variations of margaritas. There was secondary purpose that emerged during this trip as well, which is actually the subject of this post - I re-energized some of my artistic, creative side, finding inspiration in several areas which will hopefully continue now that I'm back home.

Music

The last thing I loaded into the car, almost on a whim, was my little Luna traveler guitar. I was hoping to have some time just to keep my fingers warm. It turned out much better than that.  While sitting in our little casita strumming, a new acoustic piece came to me, nearly composed (at least in draft form) as fast as I could play it.  In a matter of minutes I had an outline for a completely new song, and something that has a different feel than most of my other compositions.  The working title is "Santa Fe Solstice".  If that weren't enough, two days later, again just practicing while Catherine was getting ready to head out, another tune came nearly unbidden to me.  This second tune has a more distinctive spanish-influenced vibe. It coincided with our driving down to Albuquerque's Frontier Restaurant to get our favorite breakfast burritos and a few dozen tortillas to bring home to the family.  The working title of this tune is "Tortilla Run". I'm planning on flushing out both of these compositions and recording them in the next week or so.

Added into the mix, we ended up getting to see and hear live music nearly every night while we were on this trip.  We heard a mariachi band with great harmonies at the Bell Tower in La Fonda, a 29-year-old local that has been regularly playing at the Cowgirl since he was sixteen, and an angelically-voiced singer-songwriter, Eryn Bent, who plays in a style echoing Jewel and Sarah McLaughlin. She is worth checking out and she seems to come through New Mexico and Colorado fairly regularly.

Photography

Santa Fe is always a visual inspiration.  I took a few phone camera snapshots at sunset that came out nicely. One morning I got up early and walked the grounds of La Posada and a neighborhood skirting the Plaza with the "good camera" and I ended up getting a few shots that are worth a look.

Drawing and Painting

I've dabbled a little over the years in digital art, with varying results and satisfaction. I recently purchased the new Windows Surface Pro laptop, which has a really nice "active stylus" that I'm hopeful will provide a new digital drawing experience for me. I am just barely scratching the surface (ha!) here so far, and my first two sketches are very rudimentary, but they were fun to do. The first I did in a program called Leonardo. I used one of the sunset pictures above as an inspiration, but I did the sketch from memory, not looking at the photo at all.  I'm thinking I will redo this one soon, but here was the first draft.

Next, I did a simulated pencil sketch just using the built-in Windows Ink workspace. The cool thing that I was experimenting with in this drawing was the Surface Pro's ability to detect pen angle.  As I would tilt the pen, the width of the line would change in real time. It was really cool! On the other hand, the blending of the pencil strokes was pretty unintuitive; I ended up going with the flow and letting the strokes drive the style of the sketch. This was a sketch of the view outside our casita. 

Beyond my own humble work, we had the opportunity to take our time visiting several galleries along Canyon Road. I discovered a couple of artists of which I was previously unaware.  The level of talent and beauty of some of the pieces that we saw was both inspiring and daunting.  The new (to me) artists that really had an impact on me:

• Ernest "Darcy" Chiriacka - a 20th century immensely talented artist who started in illustration and eventually became famous for western/cowboy related fine art. He was featured at Casweck Galleries.
• Vladimir Kush - Heralded sometimes as the Russian Dali, this artist is only 4 years older than me. His work is beautiful, intelligent, thought-provoking.  Wow. I can't believe I hadn't across his work before. He is featured at The Longworth Gallery. As an aside, we had a wonderful conversation with the owner, Lisa Rodgers, who effortlessly demonstrated her facility with dialog and language, just as you might expect of one whom originally hails from Oxford, England.
• Roger Montoya - another artist featured at Casweck, this local artist had a beautiful, unique style that just jumps off the page in rich, dynamic southwestern color.  Apparently he is a renaissance man who was a professional dancer in NY earlier in his life, and now resides in New Mexico. His art was also at the Casweck Galleries.

These in turn reminded me of a couple of other favorites always worth turning to for inspiration:

• Michael Whelan - Upon returning from Santa Fe, I went to his website.  In 2016 he challenged himself to publish a work every week based on his "leftovers" that he has always been in the habit of doing throughout his career.  His capricious sketches and "throwaway" art that he does just on leftover palettes just for fun are for me a testament to the immense talent and creativity of the man. Truly a master of his art. Check this out! It was so successful, he is doing a variation again this year.
• Michael Parkes - Some reproductions of his most famous works are featured at the Longworth Gallery. It was nice to see them at original scale. For me, his style, although of amazingly high quality like the other artists here, comes from more of a pencil/drawing perspective which is easier for me to relate to as an artist.  Some of the stuff that Whelan, or Darcy, or Kush does just seems so far beyond where my abilities would ever be...but Parkes' work seems a little closer to attainable because his style seems more rooted in drawing.
• Frank Frazetta - I can't not mention Frazetta. He is just awesome. Let's also not forget Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell.

I realize that my taste in art tends toward the fantastic/surreal/magical realism styles.  After all, I think my first real inspirations artistically were Michael Whelan's covers of Burroughs' John Carter of Mars series.  But, hey, I can appreciate the lauded masters as well! There is also a temporary exhibit of several masterworks that are housed at the Prado, and have been reproduced for an outdoor presentation on the grounds of the Loretto chapel. It was nice to see works by Velasquez and Rubens, Titian, and Sorolla.  I was particularly impressed by Rubens' "The Taking of Europa", which he had actually copied from an earlier Titian work. It is interesting to see them at the same time:

 TitianRubens

I also was just so impressed by the confidence and mastery of the brush stroke to imply form in Sorolla's "Chicos en la Playa". Look at the top-most boy's left foot closely, for example.

In Conclusion

Well, this little blog entry took me about three times longer than I was anticipating. Now that I've put in the images of some of these masters, my little digital sketches seem a bit ridiculous.  Thanks to Santa Fe, and of course to my wife and muse Catherine, for the refueled inspiration!