Jazz Journalists Awards Redux

The results were in last week, and the Lifetime Achievement Award in Jazz Journalism did, in fact, make out to the Left Coast. Actually, the NorthLeft Coast, since the deserved winner was Doug Ramsey, who lives in the Pacific Northwest, but whose reach as a journalist, author and blogger extends far beyond the Olympic rain forests (check out his excellent Rifftides blog at http://www.artsjournal.com/rifftides/).

I did, however, come to one conclusion after seeing the results of the JJA awards -- the thought that maybe it's actually a little too soon for me to be receiving a lifetime award of any sort. The final verse from Carl Sandburg's poem, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" has been quoted far too many times. But it's been running through my mind a lot over the last few days:

"The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep."

Carl Sandburg