About

Good Jazz, Good Books, Good Friends and the Freedom to Enjoy Them. Life Doesn’t Get Any Better Than That.

Hi, my name is Dave Pancost. I’m the chief cook, and care-taker of DAPancost.com. I currently live in the capitol city of the state of Washington — Olympia. It’s a beautiful area located on the edges of a temperate rain forrest here in the Pacific Northwest. Huge amounts of gorgeous, lush, green countryside.

The problem with living in a rain forrest, however, is that you get lots of rain. Lots and lots and lots and lots and LOTS of rain. I’ve been here for almost 10 years. I was not born a duck, but during my shower yesterday I noticed that I’m beginning to evolve webbed feet. Did I mention that we get lots of rain?

Jazz Lover

As the subtitle of the site says, I’m a true lover of jazz. No, not the basketball team, the music. My heart belongs to the likes of Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, and others of their great era. I’m also a sucker for big band music, and the crooners of American Popular music — Sinatra, Martin, Bennett, as well as more modern versions such as Harry Conick Jr. and the love of my life, Diana Krall. You picked the wrong man, Diana. Of course, the fact that you don’t even have a clue that I actually exist might have something to do with that, but it’s OK. Really. Honest. Seriously. I’ll get over it. I’ll just sit here depressed, suffering deep feelings of personal rejection…<*sigh*>.

Avid Reader

Where was I? Oh, yeah. I’m also an avid reader. Mysteries — especially private eye novels by Dennis Lahayne, Robert Crais, and Robert B. Parker. Suspense novels, everything from Dan Brown to Vince Flynn. Occasionally, I’ll dip into some science fiction and I read lots of business books. I’m also a big fan of audio books. Kind of reminds me of being read to when I was a kid, only instead of my Mom it’s by a professional. I’ll take any chance to relive my childhood….

Social Networker

Social networking is next up, and that is really, REALLY cool. Or is it hot? I’m never quite sure. Anyway, you can usually find me blithering away on Twitter. I’m also found on Facebook, though I’m still figuring out how to jump through all the hoops they set up. FriendFeed is also another great site I’m often playing with. I invite you to become a follower or friend on any of these sites. Please…I need friends. I’m all alone, slave to a demanding web site. Cut off from…Oh never mind.

Individualist Freedom Lover

Finally, I’m an individtualist and freedom lover. The words of the American founding fathers have wormed their way into my heart, and I long to see an America that they envisioned. We are so far away from that America today. I’m heart-broken as I know our founding fathers would be. I can’t be humorous about this. Over the last 50 years we have successfully created a society of false victims and dependent weaklings. I long to restore a heart for entrepreneurship and “can do” spirit that I know we can once again achieve.

That starts, by the way, by dropping the belief that Government can actually solve the problems that we face. Problems that it is mostly responsible for creating in the first place. Remember the words of Ronald Regan: “Government is not the solution to our problems. Government IS the problem.” Amen, to that.

DAPancost.com

So that’s me. “Website slave”, jazz lover, avid reader, enjoyer of people, and huge fan of America and the freedom to pursue life, liberty and happiness. But what about the “demanding” web site? Simply put, it is a place for me to express and explore the passions I’ve listed above. I’m not interested in stuffing anything down anyone’s throat, though I will get political from time to time. I’m not going to be hawking product after product, though I am an affiliate of Amazon.com and I might take on a few more. Rest assured, however, that on this site, the marketing will be quite non-intrusive.
Mostly I’m looking to share myself and make some connections and hopefully some friends.

I plan to do this in kind of a organized way to start with. Here’s my current approach:

On Monday’s I’ll be publishing the “Monday Motivator“. Some positive thoughts to get you going for the week. Uplifting and full of spirit and challenge.

On Tuesday I’ll be publishing “Tuesday Thoughts“. Here it can be anything from interesting tweets I’ve seen on Twitter throughout the previous week (with proper attribution, of course), a review of a good movie or book, or some other thought that keeps banging around in my head. Could be anything.

Wednesday and Thursday will be off days as I’ll be writing for reasons other than posting on this blog. I might share some of those writings later on, but for now Wednesday and Thursday will be days without a post.

Fridays bring “Freedom Friday“.
Warning: This is where I’ll get political and philosophical. If you can’t stomach the views of one who believes that truth is objective and can be known, or get sick over an opinion that promotes America in a positive fashion, then it’s probably a good idea for you to avoid reading posts on this day. Just thought I’d give you a proper heads up.

Saturday brings “Saturday Night Jazz“. This is in memory of what used to be a highly enjoyable tradition for me on Saturday nights. There used to be a restaurant/smoke shop here in Olympia that had live jazz every Saturday night. The musicians would play in the bar/smoker’s lounge. I used to go every Saturday and enjoy a good drink, a great cigar (the only ones I’d have all week), some awesome jazz and intelligent conversation with others. This was a wonderful time until the idiotic busy bodies in the state legislature passed a no smoking law which killed the event. So in honor of a harmless, enjoyable tradition that was completely squashed by politically correct morons I’ll be sharing links to great music I find on the web.

Sunday? Please people. I need to rest some time.

So that’s it. That will be DAPancost.com at least for the immediate future.

I invite you to read, enjoy and comment. I look forward to getting to know you and sharing my thoughts and passions with you.

Oh, one more thing. I’d love to hear what you think about the things I write. I currently use Disqus for my comments. On each post’s page there is a place for you to leave a comment. Please feel free to use this as often as you’d like. It’s the one way I can get to know you, which I really would like to do. Thanks.