As you know Concrete Zipper has taken over exmormon.org. I am still around in a more diminished role. I play in a number of bands, an orchestra and organized a big band named Scenic City Sound. Like this site, I let music get a bit away from me recently and got too busy. I had 4 concerts this week with different groups, so I will be leaving a couple of them after this season to slow down on music as well. Life as a retiree and ex-Mormon is good. Please do not pay tithing. Pay yourself and your family first. The corporation will not help you to have a lifestyle you enjoy when you retire.

Looking forward to Concrete Zipper doing great things with this site.

I am holding the tenor sax on the left side of the picture from a concert we performed Thursday night. Ms Senior Tennessee is our vocalist and was excited to wear her sash and crown. Mormonism was never this enjoyable.

https://www.facebook.com/ScenicCitySound/



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/03/2018 11:46AM by Eric K.

This deserves its own line paragraph, title..whatever..

"Please do not pay tithing. Pay yourself and your family first. The corporation will not help you to have a lifestyle you enjoy when you retire."

Put it in the title to for more visibility for those who may NEED to see it, but don't post..

Thanks for sharing the picture. That is so cool. I'm glad you are enjoying life and following your bliss.

That is the competition the church fears: people following their passion and enjoying a fulfilling life instead of giving money and year after year on senior missions.


Remember your OWN oxygen mask first, not the church's. That's how you truly help others.


Thanks for the years of advice and example. I know the music you share is a gift to others, more powerful for wellbeing than pray, pay, obey. This is what it means to follow your bliss and live an authentic life.

Hi Eric!
:)

Fantastic group you have there.

Enjoy.

I have to say it.

Your community is fortunate to have an active Jazz scene. Jazz is the purest form of American art, and it languishes in too many parts of the United States.

They are lucky to have people like you and your colleagues to keep the traditions alive and to save people from the banalities of what passes for music today.

Pffft...not an Imagine Dragons fan I take it.

I listen to Imagine Dragons sometimes, but I don't think they'll be remembered in a century. Jazz will, however. It is a unique and enduring form of art.

So I think that people who keep Jazz alive are doing a service to the public.

Jazz is incredibly alive - and popular - in France. I agree this is a good thing ;-)

This is a great photo of you, and all of you!!

I am so happy that you can now devote yourself to the things which are the most rewarding to you--and to the audiences you play for!

Thank you for this, Eric.

We appreciate it.

I agree your suggestion of NOT paying tithing! Let's each spend our money in ways that enrich our families and ourselves.

Love the picture also, love, love, love Jazz and big band as well, Blues too.
Do you play Baritone sax as well? Ever play C Melody?
Don’t know if they make them any more.My grandpa had one of those

I play alto and tenor sax for jazz and play bass clarinet in an orchestra. I don't own a baritone sax but it is on my list if I were to buy one more instrument. Three saxophones and 4 clarinets including bass clarinet are enough for me to handle right now. Bass clarinet is a great doubling instrument. In December I am playing in a musical and switching between tenor sax and bass clarinet as the parts call for them.

The c melody is a relatively rare saxophone. I have never seen one.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/05/2018 08:56AM by Eric K.

Tithing vs. family is a real sore point for me. Thanks for bringing it up.

I love the band picture.

With tithing, the cost benefit of giving that large a sum of my gross income over each paycheck wasn't worth it in terms of what I, or my children, received back from the morg. That money would have served a far better use on my children's direct needs. TSCC didn't care squat about what we went without. They sucked whatever it could from me in terms of my time, talents, and money. And gave us nothing in return. There was not enough time in the day to meet its demands. There came a time where that in itself caused a major crack in my shelf, because there was zero support when we needed it.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/03/2018 06:13PM by Amyjo.

You never knew if a Mormon Bishop was going to help when you applied for Deseret food or some other urgent need. Often LDS children were left at risk because parents were considered "not worthy". Often the unworthiness issue was something very minor.

I have never stopped regretting what my children didn't get, because I was stupid enough to pay tithing.

If you had not stopped believing, you would likely be preparing for that mission now! No chance to use a music talent. You'd be broke from many years of dishing out tithing and sending your kids on missions, and now you'd get to sacrifice the rest of your life and money for TSCC. They might call you to clean temples somewhere, or to work for free on one of their ranches.For THEIR profit. Then on your deathbed, they might push you to sign over your property to them, cheating your children of an inheritance.

The Mormon cult takes tithing from children!

How low can you go?

Glad you're enjoying your retirement, Eric. You deserve it.

Most of us have extended family that could use some extra money. And mormondom says people in need should turn to their families first for help before they go to the government or the church,

So why mormons are coerced to pay full tithing doesn't really make sense from their own logic.

Thanks for the update, Eric!
And, the band picture is great!

Great pic Erik and great advice. I never paid a cent of tithing. My family always came first. We never went hungry but there were times I wondered where I was going to find money for groceries but I always managed to.

Same here. Even after leaving TSCC. I consider small miracles at times when feeding my children - when blessings sometimes literally dropped into our laps. At some point I stopped worrying about worrying, because somehow we seemed to get by with enough.

Spending money in almost any way will be more beneficial to society than giving it to the church.

Even many large corporations give more than 1% to charity.

Putting aside the down-side of giving your money away, there is a much more important reason for not paying tithing. When you pay tithing, you feed a monster. The mormon cult lives on money. Much of the harm done by the mormon cult is fueled by donations from good, but gullible people, just like us. What we need to do is to starve the mormon monster to death, by denying it of any more money. Maybe by now, this cult can survive without our donations. But why empower it even more by giving it your money? The idea is to starve the monster, not to feed it. There is no law of tithing. Donating money to Mormonism is a sin, even if the church claims to not be mormon anymore.

You do a good service here Erick, by telling people not to pay tithing. Hopefully people will listen and use their own money only on things that do good for themselves and for others. For those who donate to real charities that do good things with the donated money, feel free to keep giving if you want to.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/04/2018 02:51PM by azsteve.

Feed me, Seymour!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GLjook1I0V4

Feeding a monster. Nice analogy.

Sounds about right.

Excellent advice! I need to do more music myself.

Good for you for having a productive and enjoyable retirement. Unfortunately, for many mormons, though, it is not about that. It's about buying your way into heaven. My father truly believed he could do that and certainly gave it his best shot. Family was far down the totem pole of what you spend money on in your retirement years. Corporation of President of the COJCOLDS was number one. Part of me hopes there really is some kind of conscious "next life" where he got to see the futility in that.

Shout out to my fan club whose holy undies are in a wad right now because I once again voiced my opinion about he who could do no wrong. You don't like it--get the hell off of RFM. How hard can that be?

Eric, Keep making that music. Let me know if Scenic City Sound ever makes it to the West part of the state. As I tell my granddaughter, music is biggest hope we have left for unity in this world.