ABC News toasts my buddy Paul

ABC News has published a story by a fraternity brother of mine, Steve Dorsey, about a fraternity brother, Paul Ruffner, and quoting another fraternity brother, Kevin Carter. Here's the article: "Stevie Wonder With a Sax?"

The Sound of Sight
Blind Student Plays Sax to Raise Money for Charity

By STEVE DORSEY

Dec. 14, 2007 — Not many people can say they have perfect pitch. But one man is taking his gift of pitch to the next level. Paul Ruffner, a junior at American University in Washington, D.C., has decided to use his talent to give back to a world in which he has struggled.

Ruffner has been playing charity concerts with his saxophone since September to raise awareness and money for large swaths of West Africa that were devastated by massive flooding in late summer 2007. But Ruffner has been fighting a problem that he can't even see.

He is blind -- and has been blind since birth.

"Being someone who needs and uses services, I think it is important to give back," he said. "If everyone neglects answering the call to service, then that effort is drastically scaled back."

Ruffner said he got involved in the relief effort over the summer while teaching at a language immersion camp for children.

Ruffner was teaching Spanish, and his French-speaking colleagues, many of whom have families in the devastated African region, asked him to play at these charity concerts.

"The average American citizen is not going to stop the genocide in Darfur, but what can be done with this flooding is having a great impact through grass-roots efforts," Ruffner said.

It takes only a few dollars to purchase mosquito netting and repellant, which can substantially reduce the spread of diseases like malaria, which is common after flooding, he said.

Ruffner seems to have developed a special relationship with music, which he uses to express the things he cannot see, and often uses it to connect with his world in ways others often cannot imagine.

"It's almost a religious type of feeling -- a spiritual sort of feeling [playing music]. John Knox, a Protestant reformer ... had a saying that when one plays music, one is essentially praying twice," he said.

The marriage between music and charity seemed only natural for him, he said.

Aside from Ruffner's musical abilities, his friends call him admirable.

"He's never let his blindness get in the way of anything he's wanted to do," Kevin Carter, Ruffner's fraternity brother, said. "I think Paul relishes these challenges, whereas others would struggle with such adversity."

Ruffner has a 3.88 GPA, is fluent in Spanish, and majors in international politics and Latin American studies. He is from Prescott, Ariz.

Copyright © 2007 ABC News Internet Ventures

Codine and stuff

I performed my untitled song of beauty last night at a private party. I was using a 12-string guitar sound on my keyboard to play the chords I had envisioned, which duplicated the guitar arrangement of Donovan's take on "Codine."

Then I went home and strummed out those chords on the guitar for the first time, accompanying myself on guitar. I have trouble with the A major chord. I can play an A power chord, but getting that C# to sound and make it an A major is what I have trouble with.

I also got my buddy Chris on the phone to talk about early Donovan. Chris has been watching Donovan's performance at the 1966 Monterey Pop Festival. I've been listening to the opening tracks of his two-CD collection Troubadour a lot lately. Until this morning, what I didn't realize -- and what Chris may not either -- is that two of those songs, "Codine" and "Universal Soldier," are originally by Buffy Sainte-Marie. They're on her album It's My Way! and also on her best-of collection.

• "Codine" was also covered by a group called the Charlatans, their version making it to Rhino's four-CD box set Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From the First Psychedelic Era 1965-1968. I have had this set for years and never realized, until today, it is the same song.
• Another group from that era, Quicksilver Messenger Service, also made a cover version. I haven't heard this one, but it's on the compilation Sons of Mercury (1968-1975), along with their take on "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You," which is of course originally by Anne Briggs and covered by Joan Baez before it was famously reinterpreted by Led Zeppelin.

A song of beauty

[Untitled]
Lyrics (c) 2007 Steve Sauer

I just came up with this text last night and today, and I'm going to set it to a melody over top of some acoustic guitar that reminds me of early Donovan.

Might I have your attention?
If it pleases the court,
I have now a case
One could easily support.

As to who is the fairest
Maiden in the land,
I offer a solution
You may understand.

In the matter of beauty,
My lady, you'll find,
Has a count'nance so striking
It boggles the mind.

Her hair and her skin
Are so soft to the touch.
It's really no wonder
That she is loved so much.

'Tis my pride to nominate
Such an attractive sight.
Every glimpse of my lady
Causes utter delight.

Who is this one lady,
This one and no other?
You know her well,
For she is your mother.