Raise a glass

Happy 242nd birthday to Ludwig van Beethoven!

It is the process [of creativity] that motivates every human activity, from the Sunday Sermon to the Happy Hour at the local bar. Only the consciousness of the fact differs. If you know it incredibly well you write Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. If you refuse to even consider it, than cocktail hour may be your most important experience. This is not to suggest that Beethoven's cocktail hour might not have been momentous.

—Keith Jarrett (liner notes
for Concerts, 1982)