Good evening good folks in The Territory! One of the hardest parts of being in the territory is the knowledge that you and I will never be able to read all of the good books that we want because of that pesky death thing we all have to do. The hardest part is that every good book you read leads you to another good book or perhaps a great book and dammit, the more you know the more you know you don’t know and so I figure that the most annoying part of dying will exist in the last five minutes thinking “Dammit! I never got to read ________” and then keel over. Which is why my plans for this weeks jaunt into the territory is not going to go as planned. I was going to bring Gogol into The Territory but the good folks at Dharma Books returned a book I lent to them about a year ago and forgot about until I just happened across them and the had the book. The stars have aligned in The Territory and since we do die we gotta stay spontaneous and roll with the tide of things. I know I’ve been hitting the music books hard lately but today I bring you an awe inspiring story of NINA SIMONE. I will only spell NINA SIMONE’S name in capital letters from now on because NINA SIMONE is huge. NINA SIMONE wrote an autobiography called I Put a Spell on You and it is so interesting to read what it was like to be a black woman classically trained on the piano in that period of American History. NINA SIMONE played piano better than any of her white teachers and had this undeniable world of music that grew and grew and transcended race, sex, politics and every other box people tried to fit her in. The story takes one through abusive husbands, bad managers people who try to steal money and her struggles with self doubt and doing her best to stay away from definition all while trying to make the world a better place through communication. It’s hard trying to make the world a better place. It usually means you gotta tell people that something’s wrong first which people don’t want to hear. NINA SIMONE’s book is a great how to guide of making the change that the world will always need. check it out.