November 5th 2023 I posted about the sad news that my first-born son Jason had passed away. Almost 2 years later, I still can't believe he is gone. The other day I rummaged through a cache of memories that his last companion had forwarded to me. Several gigabites of stuff he had put on her laptop. There is still lots for me to sift through. Bits and pieces of practice music, photos, files and stuff. This is held in a folder on my external HD where I also placed whatever I could find on my end in old photoalbums and stuff I could get from his Facebook account and messages between us.
This was the post from November 2023:
After all this time, I am still not over it.
Perhaps it is the fact that I had no physical contact with him, or for that matter, with anyone from my family in Canada, since last time I visited in 2016, already 9 years ago. I am still in contact via Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp as well as phone calls on a frequent basis..... so at times expecting to get a phonecall in the middle of the night is not as odd as it sounds.
IN MEMORY OF JASON RAPP
Solo Keys is a composition by Jason Rapp aka Jay Wormbox
VIDEO by Otto Rapp in memory of his late son JASON RAPP aka JAY WORMBOX
produced with Microsoft Clip Champ
Original Music composed and performed by JASON RAPP
clips and photos by Otto Rapp, Jasons Family and Friends
When I posted this on Facebook yesterday and marked my family, I got a number of responses. To one I replied:
"I still miss his phone calls - my time in Vienna at around 3 AM! For the longest time I would wake up automatically, thinking: haven't heard from him in a while, maybe I should call ...... until I clue in that he is not with us anymore. In retrospect, I wish I had recorded his calls."
Subsequently, I dug up another old photo, one I haven't published so far, from our time together in Venice, Italy from July 1981 (he was just 10 years old then):
My caption:
both Mary Jane and son Jason Rapp are not with us anymore. Jason passed away October 2023 to be with his mother who left us in 2009. I am still hanging in there - for how long?
Do check out the video - I spent a whole day putting it together, playing with all the bells and whistles that Clipchamp provides. When you do, maybe leave a thumbs up and maybe a comment. I would appreciate it.
Today, I tried to compose a tribute on Suno.com
there were two, this, the second one is a bit better, but when it comes to music with AI, I am a bit out of my depth (much better with visuals).
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PRINTS OF MY ARTWORK AVAILABLE HERE:
Bonus Special: FAA ARTWORK ON INSTAGRAM
FAA provides these square promo images suitable for posting on Instagram. So I thought I just make a video with them.
should you not be on the blockchain, or have no upvote power, or this post is already older than 7 days, you can always just buy me a coffee.
Final Words of wisdom and a pet concern of mine, especially about art diplomas:
I had in years past come across quite a few 'fake diplomas' that pretend to be academic credentials. Next to 'Pay to Play Galleries' they are the scourge to be avoided. The summary of a paper about this spells it out
DEGREE MILLS - THE BILLION DOLLAR INDUSTRY
If you google the title you will find where this book is available, but also there are many videos on this subject.