Music Quiz

Reggae swings backwards. It is some of the hippest music there is. It is soul music, and you have to experience it as a cultural event related to social injustice.

Afro-Cuban quintessentially is ensemble music. Each musician must know their individual part and must play it authoritatively but independently from the other players in the band. These musicians rely upon one another for rhythmic support, and it rotates democratically through the band. It often uses a clave, a fancy term for a rhythmic pattern of 2/3 or 3/2 found in a bar of 4/4 music. Saxophones usually play the “riff,” a repeated melodic fragment, and the brass punctuate. Harmonically Afro-Cuban may use the augmented fifth of a chord provoking a primitive feeling. In mambo gutteral grunts and shouts can be heard from the percussionists and even dancers. Afro-Cuban is mostly dance music.

In medieval music mensuration of perfect tempus and major prolation has a symbolic association with the Holy Trinity.

Hexachordal Combinatoriality in the 12 tone method of music composition combines halves of two different tone rows.

The Ripieno group in a Concerto Grosso is the larger group of players usually with not as much talent. The concertante group is the smaller group of more skilled players. This group serves as the solo “instrument” in a concerto for an ensemble. The J.S. Bach Brandenburg Concerto’s might be the most well known of the genre.

Arch form is ABA.

Stophic form consists of repeated stanzas.

The Super Locrian or Locrian Sharp two is a mode of the Lydian Chromatic Concept, a scholarly treatise by George Russell, used to define a scale choice for improvisation over a half-diminished chord.

Metric Modulation is a method of changing meter in music that makes use of polyrhythm. It superimposes a different but multiple time signature over the original and begins to use it for its main metric subdivision.

Art Quiz

French Jazz: Stravinsky’s Ebony Concerto written for Woody Herman who died a pauper poor. Parade music. Moulin Rouge. Decadence.

Impressionism: A term neither Claude Debussy or Maurice Ravel liked. It was coined to describe a style of painting with dots. It was soothing and pastoral and often emulated the sea. Its harmony is similar to American jazz.

Expressionism: A style of music from the l920’s meant to represent the hustle and bustle of a modern day city. 12 tone serialism and atonality are components of expressionism. It is most often heard in the orchestra or in chamber music.

Abstract Expressionism: A style of painting concerned with conveying raw emotion through extreme styles. Jackson Pollack threw paint on the canvas. Andy Warhol used comics. Mark Rothco used intense color. Mapplethorpe shoved a bullwhip up his buddy’s ass.

NeoClassicism: A style that uses traditional classical forms (such as the sonata or concerto) but in a modern context.

Musique Concrete: Music that was recorded onto analog tape, cut into pieces, and reassembled. Two Pierre’s at IRCAM were influential, Henri, and Schaffer.

Improvisation: A type of paraphrasing of a melody of an American popular song most often attributed to Louis Armstrong that later turned into a complete statement in the field of music.

Tailgate Trombone: One voice of the intricate counterpoint found in New Orleans jazz extemporized by trombone, trumpet, and clarinet.

Leitmotif: A recurring theme associated with a particular character in a musical work most often attributed to Richard Wagner.

Motivic Development: Taking a leitmotif and expanding it in various ways. In music the phrase can be augmented, diminished, transposed, and inverted among other things.

So How Were Those Ship Production Shows?

There are two production shows you must play. Each is tracked, meaning there are all ready pre-recorded tracks of the parts the band is supposed to be playing. Depending on the cruise line, the ratio varies from ship to ship depending on the sound technician. I can think of no harder sound mixing situation than this. If the musicians can’t play the music, they use the tracks. The live musicians still attempt to play, but their efforts are not “in the house.” It appears that they are making the music, but in fact they are not. As the musicians begin to learn the music, the ratio of recorded track to live performance changes. On certain cruise lines they allow a live monitor feed of the tracks in the orchestra pit. This makes the sound technician’s job infinitely more difficult because of the potential feedback into the live microphones. The pre-recorded tracks are programmed with a computer. The piano track is MIDI track programmed by the arranger of the show (or one of his assistants). It uses a quantizing algorithm generated by the computer to simulate the rhythmic feel of pop music. It is rigid, unbreathing, and unmusical. When the rest of the musicians use it as the metronomic base of the band, the live piano player’s job is over. There is no way a live piano player can attempt to play like a computer. Most of the ship bands are brainwashed to believe this is what real music is. It is far easier than having to learn the various styles of music in each show. This concept creates havoc for the live piano player, because why would he be the only one in the band expected to play like a computer sequencer? It becomes a fight to the death most of the time with the piano players quitting. One particular cruise line lost all its piano players for this reason. The printed music provided for the piano players often is unplayable. They are again computer program extractions that have not been corrected. Spacing, accidentals, voiceleading, and key and time signatures are ignored. The scoring of the piano part is not musical and not musically related to any previously known style of music. They are exercises in ego and entertainment for the arranger. The piano player is viewed as a large puppet, and his playing amounts to gestures chosen by the arranger to entertain the audience and cast. They enjoy seeing him sweat trying to play music that is unpianistic. The basic requirements of music realization are abandoned in ship production shows. Instead of thinking about the musicians and their challenges trying to play a live show with track, the arranger uses smoke and mirrors to empower himself and make the cruise lines think he knows what he is doing. It is politics.

The Condition of America

It is becoming easier to define America as the smoke begins to clear:

1. George W. Bush is not smart enough to be part of a conspiracy. He may have been an unknowing pawn. As former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan has written in his book, Bush’s republican party was only interested in gaining power. To them it was of no consequence they would not know what to do when they gained the power. Looking at Bush’s track record of public service, it is obvious he was unqualified for any job in public service, much less government. He, like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jesse Ventura, was elected for reasons of notoriety or celebrity. Unlike former President Ronald Reagan, Bush was incapable of leading the nation. His reason for invading Iraq was an elementary and juvenile desire to see expanding democracy in the Middle East, something that would document a positive influence of his presidency on the world.

2. We are a lazy country. The reason for our downfall is because our manufacturing infrastructure has been abandoned. Physically lazy Republicans began looking for ways to make money without the meat and potatoes method of industry still viable. They turned to a variety of investments. They padded housing futures escalating home prices beyond what Americans could pay resulting in bloated credit markets and their eventual collapse. They single-handedly destroyed the potential for .com commerce attempting to exploit an entrepreneurial entity for big business. They pushed easy credit as a substitution for salaries that keep up with inflation. They invested in pharmaceutical companies rather than socialized medicine attempting to treat symptoms rather than illnesses. They bought out media and entertainment with no regard for tradition or talent expecting an easy return on their dollar.

What we have is a group of childish rich kids with no skills or intellect. Like spoiled brats they systematically almost have ruined the infrastructure of the United States. With no playground upon which to play, where will little Johnny go next?

Americana

If anyone were to take a moment and ask why America is fucked up, it wouldn’t be difficult to explain. We are too worried about putting food on the table, gas in our cars, and paying for medical bills. What kind of quality of life are we to have if America’s masses can’t rise above the lowest of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs? We are too busy working our fingers to the bone, eating fast food, and watching worthless television to do much else. Unfortunately the one thing we used to have was a setting upon which romance could take place. America was built upon that premise. Settlers traveled in wagon trains across the Rocky Mountains, but they had each other. The vast natural offerings of America provided the perfect backdrop for romance. That now is over. The Extreme Right successfully has wrangled America right out of Americans’ hands. They have been left seeking solstice in military-like compounds with temples surrounded by gated walls. Is this what George Washington had in mind? It is ironic the skills of his Free Masons are utilized in the building of these compounds today, but that is a guild from two centuries ago. Maybe he knew something back then, that the freedoms for which our founding fathers fought so fervently one day would be questioned. America used to be a melting pot of open arms watched over by our Statue of Liberty. Now the tired and poor are tunneling under walls to get into America. America never has been a country about walls. It has never been about gated communities, exclusive resorts, and eminent domain. America has always been plural, and somehow government found a way to preserve the ideals of immigrants from many foreign countries within the boundaries of America. Family was the binding tie and their surrounding culture. Never did immigrants stray too far from their familiar family habits. As the New World Order attempts to destroy foreign cultures at the expense of democracy, attention needs to be paid to sustaining our own cultural habits. Without these we will lose the very fabric of our society and lives. Without culture and philosophy democracy is just a title. Religion is a crucial component of culture, and that among other things is being questioned on a daily basis by big money. Why should we as Americans have to justify our culture? We were born in America as Americans. Our culture is our constitutional rights to the pursuit of happiness. Maybe we can still pursue happiness, but it is much more difficult when the backdrop continues to be taken away. When quiet nights, clean air, fresh water, and the smell of fresh spring flowers are replaced with sounds of gunfire, the smell of CO2, and extreme heat, no one feels much like courting or creating culture. Nature all ready knows this. When the major sensory sensations of human beings are taken away, we are left with the sour, fattening, and unsatisfying offerings of a fast food America. The senses that are so much a part of the arts sacrificially have been offered to the pagan gods of petroleum. Drive your car. Drive your car. Drive your car. When I was a kid, we used to ride out bicycles to the neighborhood 7/11 to buy candy. It was the highlight of a particular weekend. Now at the exact same shopping center, the owner won’t allow bicycles in his parking lot or on his sidewalks. With the price of gasoline reaching $4.00 per gallon, a merchant in an American town has forbidden bicycles. In our historic district of downtown roller blades, skateboards and bicycles are no longer allowed. What kind of America is this?

Cruising....

There are few good cruise ship gigs and there are many bad ones. Politics determines which ones you will get. At their worst the ships are 80% gay, the food is inedible, the officers are incompetent, and the music is cheesy. You also get to live in a cabin the size of a bathroom with a closet not large enough to house a coat hanger in horizontal position. Chances are your roommate will be a Filipino hypocrite. He will get up religiously at 3:30 a.m. to have sex with a prostitute, but he will watch the religious channel in all spare hours to requite himself of the notion he may not get in heaven. The musicians mostly will be French-Canadian robbing them from any inclination to sing jazz. They will have no background in commercial music. The music will be pop, and the band will be dominated by a guitar player. The Musical Director will be from Argentina, will speak little English, and will hate the Polish musicians in the band. The drummer will be an egomaniac and will not swing. No one will know how to improvise. The production shows will be ‘tracked’ with a necessary click track blasting in your ear. Even if you do learn the written music, the rest of the band will not play it in the correct style. Stage techs will be irreverent. Most will be gay. The singers will be gay as will be the male dancers. The female dancers will be 20 years old, not old enough to drink a beer. The Safety Officer will be qualified, but will leave training the others at your Emergency Station to your Muster Station Leader. They will fail miserably, and you will end up doing all the work at PAX boat drill. There will be no fresh loaf bread and no peanut butter. The Cruise Director will be gay. Daily soups will be fish and pork. There is no such thing as boneless chicken breast. The Crew Bar will be cold, dark, and smoky. It will be filled with the antagonizing sounds of video games and poker machines. The fooseball machine will be broken and covered in beer cans. The Crew Activities Manager will have signed off with no one to take their place. The ship will go into “Code Red” at least twice in the first month. You will have to sanitize the entire ship before you are granted shore leave at your home port. Many will be overworked and they will sue the company. You cannot wear short pants in a guest area, even if you are going to the beach. You may not have a showing tattoo. You must button your shirt to the first button. You simply smile and say, "My pleasure." Welcome to your first cruise ship gig.  Jazz not allowed. 

American Traditions

MSNBC reported that Oprah’s ratings were down, but she still was ahead of Dr. Phil. In reflecting the iconic days of American television, nothing could be more stark than the absence of Phil Donahue, Johnny Carson, Merv Griffin, Dick Cavett, and Tom Snyder. Even Brooke Burke, Rita Sever, and Stephanie Miller cast positive images onto the screen. Now we have soap box shouters like Glen Beck, Nancy Grace, and Judge Judy. It’s being forced to eat your vegetables. “Take your tabloid TV, or the evil witch will boil you in her pot and eat you.” That campaign of fear and intimidation has reached new boundaries, and it seems to be everywhere. The movies abandoned higher ideals and settled on primitive tribal themes. Even with differing plots they still use the same jungle drum cues. Sony introduced infrasonic frequencies to the theaters, and they haven’t stopped yet. The sounds of explosions, traffic noise, and thunder have become the backdrop of our cinematic lives. Music, soothing, massaging, tempering music has been stuck in a drawer of the vanity until the little princess comes home. Sentimentality is gone, because there is nothing to be sentimental about. Glamour is bulimic waifs striding angrily on the runway. Fashion is a hood rat with his pants half off. (What Michael Jackson and the K-Mart blue light special have in common) Eloquence and class are passé. Why has America become so abrasive, sarcastic, and selfish? Why on American Chopper are we being primed to wait for Paul Sr.’s angered outburst? Why has America become “Low Brow?” It is because shows are uninteresting without the drama, but we have failed to pass the torch of the arts to a youthful generation. Without the tools of the stage, sound production, lighting, scenic design, and talent the entertainment industry will continue to fail producing television and film. Spoiled children don’t deserve to produce TV shows. Adam Sandler wasn’t chosen. He decided for himself, and within the genre he so avidly produces the greater moments in American history are lost. When we decided to become low brow our higher aspirations were filed away with the rest of the history of literature and drama. Somehow we became so full of ourselves we forgot about our history. That is why Memorial Day is a bust. Basing your entertainment on a historical perspective solves the credibility problem. We don’t have to reinvent American society every time someone wants to make a TV show. That is a large task, and that’s what Sony’s Hollywood and Rupert Murdoch’s Fox are trying to do. There is an American tradition in place, and who’s to say there was anything wrong with it? Chemistry Professor Holden Thorp recently was chosen to be Chancellor of the University of North Carolina. He, like most graduates of Chapel Hill, has a dedicated allegiance to the traditions of the Tarheel state. Tradition is the major component of an education at Chapel Hill, because they started strong and continued over time. Television has a strong tradition, and it is a shame modern day producers are extemporizing without a blueprint. While an attempt at Thorp’s entrepreneurial savvy is being tried on television, devotion to the tradition would serve it better. To be successful at it you need talent, and we have stopped teaching that.

Patriotism?

The current generation plays video games. They are comfortable living in a reality created mostly by computers. They are comfortable playing army on the screen. They are comfortable with the security their cell phones provide with mommy only a phone call away. They are comfortable on MySpace and FaceBook and on iTunes and iPhones. The Baby Boomers and Generation X have almost graduated life, and Generation Jihad is waiting. Nobody knows what that is and what they will want. Swinging is passé, or is it? Book clubs are stuffy. When is the last time you heard a dirty joke? It is not P.C. to tell jokes anymore. It seems conservatives have strangled America so much in public Generation Jihad has taken to the trenches to live their lives, the trenches of the computer. It is like World War ll. They are hiding in tunnels trying to escape the brutal reality of a war against an enemy they seemingly didn’t provoke and don’t even know. They are the victims of a residual hate left on their plates undevoured by generations before them. Why do they have to live through a war that doesn’t even concern them? They didn’t invade Iraq. They didn’t care about Kuwait. They just wanted to live their lives in America not necessarily around the graven image of the automobile. Those choices were made for them by those voted into power meant to care about them. Be patriotic about what?

The Tepid Echoes of Patriotism

Hugh Hefner is selling an image with Playboy Magazine. Oprah Winfrey is selling an image with her media conglomerate. Only the times are capable of telling, like with real art, if that image currently is palatable. Reality has the amazing ability to weed out the bullshit. President Bush quit playing golf during the Iraq war. Skateboarding died a quick death the beginning of the Viet Nam War. The pet rock, the chia pet, and the hula hoop all took dives at appropriate times. What is the most real image anyone can fathom today? It is not difficult, and it also is not pleasant. Anyone living in close proximity to a military base, especially on Memorial Day weekend, can’t help but be effected by their own mortality. The sheer determination and patriotism of returning Iraq veterans is commendable. They, with their military code, are sworn to the service of their Commander-in-Chief. On this Memorial Day weekend the echoes of patriotism were weak. The Republican spin machine attempted to use it in their favor, but Senator John McCain’s meeting with President Bush thwarted that. If anyone could have played the patriotism card well, it would have been an ex-Naval aviator and prisoner of war. Bush is an ex-pilot too, but in the Air National Guard. He didn’t see much action in ‘Nam. The Republicans, with a well-calculated blow to Barack Obama, exposed how much we don’t know about him and his past. Does such a diverse upbringing equate to the rigid standards of patriotism we normally ascribe to the presidency? In today’s time the answer is yes, because like Playboy and Oprah have and are becoming anachronisms, so is patriotism in America. Like our current government, we don’t have much to remember that is positive. It might be the test of patriotism is the true breaking point of the Baby Boomer generation. Generation X did have ramifications of Desert Storm, but watching a war on TV is not like taking shrapnel at Normandy. What does the current generation have to be patriotic about?

Kings of Porn

It seems extreme that the extreme state of Texas recently raided a polygamist camp, took custody of over 400 children, and brought the whole lot before the state judicial system. Little Red Riding Hood cried wolf, and like Durham ex-District Attorney Mike Nifong, the Texas authorities bounded into action. What happened to their “Presumption of Innocence?” A much more appropriate target might have been Hugh Hefner in his Los Angeles area Playboy Mansion. With episode after episode of “The Girls Next Door” showing on the E! network, Mr. Hefner is shacked up with not one but three Playboy bunnies. It is unfortunate that the sexual imagery depicted in the show is such an anachronism. Does anyone really believe that Playboy business anymore? In the l950’s in America Playboy may have been cutting edge. Jim Crows from Alabama lived too sheltered lives to understand that people really don’t own luxury sports cars, sip cognac from rotating beds, and have sex with three women at the same time. Hef was selling an image, a dream, and a façade. What the inhabitants of the Yearning for Zion ranch were doing was living reality. It was a reality they themselves had created and one to which they had agreed. While complaints of child abuse carefully should be investigated, it was premature to cast a blanket stereotype over the sect. How much different are they than the bunnies in Hef’s reality show? They might be doing the same things, but the Zionists were attempting to do it with familial and religious support. The question is, “Are they sincere?” Are they using the institutions of family and religion hypocritically to disguise immoral carnal behavior, or are they exercising our said Constitutional freedoms? Once it was thought America was great because we allowed adults to choose. Liberally we tried to impede big government from trying to legislate morality. How is it we can make a value judgment on these Zionists but we can’t on “The Girl’s Next Door?” Their show a fitting example of the low brow nature of today’s America. It is not cutting edge. It is not wise. It is not clever. It is not representing much of anything other than an outdated image of the sexual revolution. No one in America probably remembers that anyway, since the majority of our recent history systematically is being suppressed. When sexuality is actualized in its quintessential state, you don’t need pole dances, grottos, sex toys, and rotating beds. You don’t need to sell the image of sex, and that is what America is good at. If we had the betterment of our people at heart, we would stop trying to sell imagery and allow America the freedom to live in her own created reality. We wouldn’t need a totalitarian state trying to dictate what was right and wrong. Government is afraid that if we stop trying to sell the imagery the greenbacks will quit flowing, people will relax in their lives, and we could live peaceful existences. Certainly we can’t allow that! There is enough money in America to go around, but that is not what government wants. They want to control the people. They want modern slavery and a New World Order but in clandestine form. Once America may have been the moral conscience of the world, but our scruples have been suppressed or destroyed completely rendering us incapable of leading. Our system is corrupt, because it has become one that doesn’t support our people. The intellect, talent, and creativity of our people is what allows us to lead. Our government can’t support our own population. We can’t provide well-paying enough jobs to afford basic health care. We can’t control our borders. We can’t control the quality of our state-run propaganda. We can’t control the environment. America has run so amuck with governmental extremism no one knows who is at the helm. Is Capitalism selling false dreams? Do we have to continue to disguise reality with “television reality?” Must we continue to use gambling as an antidote for true financial stability? Must we continue to dispute our own, national, cultural heritage? For these reasons it seems foreign powers are at the root of this upheaval. Slowly we have let foreign interests buy up America relinquishing our government of the responsibility of maintaining a constitutional governing philosophy. We have let the American mainstream become so diluted that it may be impossible to get America back on track. Entrepreneurs like Australian Rupert Murdoch have brought their own shallow perceptions of life to America and undermined our watershed events of human morality. “Go put some more shrimp on the barbee, Rupert” and leave the big issues to u.s. The same goes for Sony. Children are not allowed to rule the world.

The Continued Success of Terrorism

While the 9/11 attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade Center in downtown Manhattan certainly were a blow to the United States, recovering from that one fatal event was possible. As with any death-related occurrence the intense bereavement process is the most challenging obstacle. Thousands of family members must grapple with the long term ramifications of a seemingly unprovoked terrorist event. Dealt with as a continuum finding closure for the loss of one’s loved ones is first. The scope and breadth of the politics of the event are too great to expect closure soon. Still the United States has not been effective providing relief to the victims of the crime. Conversely the desires of the terrorists have been met continuously with almost methodical calculation. It must be speculated that a president’s expanded wartime powers are appealing. Nothing else in the constitution grants a sitting president the privileges offered in this wartime scenario. These privileges coupled with other unconstitutional actions in the Bush administration must be considered in speculation of a conspiracy theory. Interpreted even broadly these legislative decisions easily define the nature of a Totalitarian political regime. It is described as thus:

Totalitarianism (or totalitarian rule) is a concept used to describe a political system where a state regulates nearly every aspect of public and private life. Totalitarian regimes or movements maintain themselves in political power by means of an official all-embracing ideology and propaganda disseminated through the state-controlled mass media single party that controls the state, personality cults, central state-controlled economy, regulation and restriction of free discussion and criticism, the use of mass surveillance, and widespread use of terror tactics.

FBI and CIA-like activities in the aftermath of 9/11 such as warrantless wiretapping, political detainment, monitoring of internet usage and bank/credit activity, and reading of E-Mails coupled with the decline of antitrust legislation, deregulation of major industries, and monopolization of the media suggest a conspiracy. Even with liberal scope it would be hard not to suggest something is amiss in America. The majority of these activities are at the expense of the 9/11 attacks, and that is not providing closure to thousands of Americans. In addition the exorbitant expense of the continued wars in Afghanistan and Iraq contributing greatly to the decline in value of the American dollar, a staggering economy, and failed domestic policy pale in comparison to the satirical rise in the price of petroleum. The mass genocide of 9/11 was only a minute part of the terrorist strategy to incapacitate the world’s greatest superpower. The American response has done nothing but play directly into the hands of the purveyors of 9/11 which are middle eastern oil interests. Our military is overextended and our home front is exposed. While there may not have been another domestic terrorist event since 2001, the time quickly is drawing near for the utter collapse of the nation. Isn’t this what the terrorists had in mind?

May Garriage

It is not surprising that because the United States Constitution blatantly has been so misinterpreted, that the Bible would follow. Marriage is a holy sacrament defined in the Bible. Sodomy is a sin defined in the Bible. Because of a breech in the “Separation of Church and State,” the California Supreme Court ruled gay marriage is to become legal. Because the Supreme Court has no jurisdiction over the Bible, they must be ruling on the legal agreement. This is the agreement gays seek, because a religious condonation of their union really would mean nothing. It is the perks of the legal agreement they are seeking. Religion once again is humiliated for monetary gain at the hands of the hedonistic human. Rest assured that even if gays are afforded that picture-book wedding in a church, God will not be smiling. Maybe He would favor Bill Clinton’s “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy in the military. If the love of your partner is what you cherish, then who cares what society thinks? The monetary perks of marriage should be reserved for heterosexual unions, and the rest will just have to suck it up in the privacy of their own homes. Using gay as a platform for notoriety is wrong as is sexual predatoriness. The California Supreme Court is wrong.

American Idolatry

One good example of America abandoning her cultural traditions for monetary gain is in automotive design. At its inception as with most artistic things, functionality is coupled with design. The duality of functionality and visual appeal are strong sellers. They equate well in marketing. The best example of this can be in the now defunct vocation of commercial music. Music alone is not enough to stake an artistic claim. It needs a logo. It needs something compact and catchy to sell its message. The world is just too big for everyone to absorb everything. Usually the most successful at being sold are the ones with clever and effective marketing. All of these things used to be exercised at their fullest potential in American business, but that has changed. Marketing and advertising are all but lost arts. Their tried and true principles have been discarded like most American traditions at the expense of the vanity of our youth. To create a trend in mainstream America you need more than a duality. You need a trinity. Some help from the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost wouldn’t hurt. Music alone is not enough to influence millions of people, and America knew this in the l980’s. Commercial music used “the stage” to advance it cause. Drama, life exaggerated and acted out to the fullest, was an effective means to communicate music’s message. It not only conveyed its message through the music but also through a fashion representation and choreography. It was musical theater but in epic rock form. America loved this imagery and the feelings embodied in its realization drove the decade of the l980’s. Due largely to negative connotations of drug and alcohol use, the music of the 80’s was written off as meaningless. Symbolically Times Square in New York city was cleansed of its strip clubs and adult bookstores. In walked the Walt Disney Company, but under the surrogate leadership of another. Seattle Washington was having nothing to do with it. In a reaction to the Lion King, the Little Mermaid, and Aladdin unhappy youths began pouring their frustration into an alternative form of rock that became Grunge. Grunge did not have a politically correct fashion statement, and it didn’t want to. It meant to be anti mainstream and rebellious. Nothing really has been able to compare in scope to the success of disco and arena glam rock. It is because they had the trinity, a type of music, a fashion statement to represent it visually, and the dance moves. These three things are what create successful and long lasting commercial music. One only has to ask the “Material Girl” how a not-so-talented singer was able to become the success that Madonna still is today. Likewise Cyndi Lauper and Gwen Stefani have continued the trend. Hip Hop tried and succeeded in doing the same thing for a while until the messages in the music dried up. It seems “Pass the Courvoisier” didn’t have enough gang angst or political activism to sustain the test of time. The recent lineage of automotive design broadly represents the dilution and diffusion of mislead American culture. At its onset American car design encompassed both functionality and design. The demands of an automobile were clear. In the past decade these demands have been abandoned for monetary gain. The safety of the driver, although disguised by continuing safety tests, dramatically has been reduced by the dispelling of traditional design. Functionality gave way to superficial appeal. No better example of this can be the automotive taillight. If a functionality test were done to test what height, pattern, and luminosity most effectively alerted a rear driver to stop, it would not be the potpourri of Amityville designs found at the rear of most American-made cars. Functionality was deemed less important than visual appeal. The question should be asked what is more important, a pretty pattern of lights that look like E.T. or a stark signal that demands a driver stop before crashing into another driver. Automotive design in the U.S. is an uncontrolled, non-conceptual, ill attempt to sell cars. The majority of traditional designs that inspired America that became to be called “Americana” are all but gone. Why have these models been abandoned?

Computer Idolatry

An understanding of gender needs only to look at the role and function of gender. All men may have been created equal, but men and women are not the same. Just look at the genitalia. In looking at a phallus, does it appear two of these things are meant to go together? Who thought up the idea that because a man does not have a vagina, we could in substitute put the phallus in another man’s ass? Does this appear to be logical thinking, or just desperate? Desperation seems likely. If men are and have been inspired to put their phallus in another man’s ass, then there must be a reason why concerning the female gender. Human beings learn the “facts of life” early. It doesn’t take a necessarily smart baby to realize that what he or she has is unique, interesting, and different than his or her sister or brother. Intrigue is created. “What am I supposed to do with this?” It takes many years of adolescent growth, social experimentation, and trial and error to discover the answers. While sexuality is a core issue and function of the human race, it is not physics. Like any discipline the results will be more favorable if a suitable model is applied. This is what art attempts to do. While many pundits believes art can be a reflection of society, at its most quintessential function art can and does provide examples of an enlightened existence. This is why art if valuable. If society disperses with the notion that we needs role models, then art becomes less valuable. Life becomes like the “Wild, Wild, West.” Everyday is a new frontier devoid of traditional boundaries created by colonial England. (In the United States that is) The problem is, is if we as a country disregard our traditional models for society, then there had better be something in place to take their places. “Shooting from the hip” is not good enough, unless there is enough talent and knowledge all ready there to predicate a reasonable outcome. Today because of lack of quality education, America is “loosing from the hip.” In a few short years we have abandoned almost every available societal model in favor of immediate, juvenile, selfish gratification. Why is this? It is because for traditional models to be effective, we must live in an environment that can support enlightened living. That means that through sheer human effort, traditions are created with intellect. “I think, therefore I am” applies as man uses his brain to plan, create, and execute his world. This is how the disciplines of art and science were created. For them to sustain they must be recorded, preserved, and taught in an orderly system. Media has all but abandoned cultural tradition in favor of the “Wild West.” Because businesses in the U.S. have outsourced their jobs, the traditions of America no longer seem relevant to life now. A virtual “Wild West” has been created catering to the youthful generation. A generation gap has been created, again, but possibly in a more sizeable proportion. Throughout history there has always been a generation gap, but electronic media seems to have widened it. Electronic media seems to have infiltrated every aspect of everyday American life. In certain ways it is not a bad thing. Who could argue the laptop computer is a pinnacle of convenience? It can take the place of a newspaper, a notebook, a stereo system, an encyclopedia, a dictionary, the United States mail, and a dating service. That is a judicious amount of service offered from on unit that sits on your lap. It may not be able to render a pleasing lap dance, but the plethora of pornographic images readily available on the net make a suitable substitution. As a nation we must admit the personal computer is a valuable tool, but it should be a tool and a tool only. Now it has effected mainstream America so greatly, every facet of our lives is grappling with the task of accommodating its presence. Students take notes on it. Parents pay bills on it. Teachers post syllabi and grades on it. Colleges post applications on it. The function of the computer has begun to become our cultural lives. The core interests of the human race are changing and in favor of the computer. Little league, soccer, the Cub Scouts, the Key Club, the chess team, and the debating clubs all seem to have taken a back seat to the computer. Why is this? It is because America in her environment must provide a place that is able to sustain and nurture intellectual activity. When the environment becomes suspect, the process of natural selection begins to create subtle but long lasting genetic mutations that cause us to change. Slowly we as a race of Americans are being manipulated by our environment. The appearance of Attention Deficit Disorder should have been a major clue signaling the inception of the process. Why are we no longer able to concentrate? Why have we become dependant upon immediate gratification? It is because our environment has become so overrun with mania, we literally are being pushed to our maximum velocity by unknown events. While “Life in the Fast Lane” can feel desirable, so can a certain amount of social stability created by something other than Myspace. It used to be church. Church, the nature of forcing oneself to get dressed, commute, and attend a service commemorating the acknowledgement of a Being more supreme than ourselves, gave us the discipline to remember. We learned that there was Something else that altruistically, unequivocally, and unselfishly was concerned about our health and happiness easing social fears. The long term understanding that God was there for us made it easier to tolerate the foibles of life. Today God seems to have lost that power. It seems as if America really is in the “Old West,” and we are scrambling for survival. The introduction of terrorism on our native soul did not help. Neither has a “Campaign of Fear and Intimidation.” Faith is the act of the American people rising above our current social and economic challenges and believing without certainly solutions are to be found. God would not want the extinction of the human race, would He? It is up to man to live up to God’s standards and prove we are worthy of life on His earth. So far we are failing.

The American Caste Political System

What a simplistic nation we are. When the current President of the United States can reduce a presidential primary to the simple task of national security, we are in trouble. Is it fitting a synonym can be inferred between a panchayat of the conservative Jat caste in the northern Indian state of Haryana and our United States President? A father murdering his own pregnant daughter to maintain power, status, and property is an extreme example, but so is denying diplomacy is the core of foreign policy. Maybe in President Bush’s eyes he is not dealing with politics. Maybe as the elected Commander and Chief of the United States military, he believes he is the sheriff of America. Maybe he believes the job of president is similar to being a ranch owner. That is why we have a Secretary of State, a United Nations, and legislative committees on foreign policy. Unfortunately within our traditional system of checks and balances it is easy to “pass the buck.” When things go awry, it is easier to point the finger at another agency such as FEMA. One would assume like in corporate America, politicians as CEO’s have had to work their way up the ladder of success. This would allow them the time and experience to learn the job. A solid record of political achievement therefore would be beneficial to the President of the United States. Politics. Politics has many definitions, but which ones most appropriately apply to the United States President? The study of government and the state? Activities associated with governance? Seeming sensible and judicious under a set of circumstances? A specific set of beliefs or principles? Activities within an organization aimed at improving someone’s status? It is unfortunate that over time many of these definitions of politics have developed negative connotations. That would mean, like the interpretation of the United States Constitution, politics has become corrupt. Wouldn’t it be easier to abandon the negative connotations and instead reinforce the positive results of good politics? That means that a simple, effective, and positive model should be available. That is impossible in modern America, because our current government systematically has failed at its task of governing our country. There is no role model in recent history that personifies success in politics, at least not in the last eight years of Republican rule. Media is not helping. The adoption of Newspeak, the spin and disguising of the truth and history, has helped disguise the inefficiency and corruption of the Bush administration. Let’s adopt a positive definition of the word politics. Let it embrace diplomacy, the skill of managing relations at both the domestic and international levels. Let it embrace scholarship, the academic study or achievements in government. Let it embrace philosophy, the nature of reality and existence. Paradoxically enough governance is a component of politics, so maybe electing governmental leaders through politics isn’t the most effective method of achieving leadership in a country. It is necessary, because we have chosen democracy as our form of government. Politics becomes necessary when the masses have to elect our leaders. From this process could have come the negative connotations of politics, because the process of electing our leaders has itself become corrupt. The Republican party, a corporate board, instead of inferring meaning from being a part of life, attempts to study it hypothetically. Instead of engaging in the political process philosophically, they engage it systematically coolly calculating each cultural faction of the American population devising a suitable and winning solution for themselves. Politics has become poker. The political system somehow under the negative influences of recent pop culture, has become gambling. This is because in a country with ADD, nature triumphs over nurture by substituting the immediacy and superficiality of tabloid media over tried and true philosophies. These philosophies have to be upheld and maintained in mainstream arenas other than academia. As mainstream America grows up they become more disconnected from academia leaving media responsible for carrying the torch of culture. That is media’s responsibility, not tabloid journalism. Media along with government has failed America in tandem abandoning the core philosophies of the United States Constitution. We no longer are free. We like so many other countries have fallen to the corrupt rule of militaristic dictator. It is just the process has been covert. At the inception of the Bush presidency the process was devious. Over time now it merely has been exposed as selfish and ignorant.

LIB- Life in the Box

Slowly but surely substantial definitions of “Life in the Box” are emerging in America representing the major disparity between Conservatives and Liberals. How they became extreme is unknown, but one cannot mistake the stark difference between the two. The easiest way to define “Life in the Box” is as a shelter. Living LIB, our new acronym for “Life in the Box,” is the antithesis of the ‘lib’ in liberation. Living LIB means the person never is engaged in the deepest level of humanity. A person never is required to study, understand, and be responsible for their own perception of themselves, man, and human existence. LIB is a shelter from having to grow up. LIB in modern America has become a defense mechanism effectively being used to shield Conservatives from the effects they themselves have created living LIB. Hiding from the demands of mother earth have created effects which are inhibiting the progress of the human race and the earth. LIB temporarily shields Conservatives from these responsibilities. The majority of America now is living LIB, because we all can’t help but be effected. In a narrow scope artisans could be considered Liberals. Broadly this defines a working class person engaged in creating something. Attention must be paid to life and its requirements. Conservatives on the other hand could be considered robots, those with money who directly never deal with the creation of a product. They are our CEO’s used to making decisions (and taking vacations) from the comfort of corporate offices surrounded by the security of their Board of Directors. They have lived lives with a silver spoon in their mouths immune from the necessity of having to toil to make a buck to put food on their tables. They are not conscious of the struggle of man to survive. LIB has stunted their affectual experiences.. It is easier to live LIB, because they are not required to be engaged. (This is when barbiturate pharmaceuticals come in handy.) Things have been conservative for them. In a loose perspective it could be said Liberals “party hardy” and Conservatives do not. Conservatives ALWAYS are worried about their money; there is no time for partying. When one parties, they let their guard down. Someone could take advantage of them and take their money. As a result Conservatives exhibit conservative behaviors such as being reserved in conversation or outward representation of emotion. Liberals conversely embrace their need to “let go” purging their endorphins of “demons.” Music, dance, and other physical activities are part of this process. So is alcohol. Recently the media tried to expose what Hillary Clinton really was. Their perception was the disparity between a seemingly sophisticated wine sipper and a beer guzzler that enjoyed downing BoilerMakers. (a shot of whiskey in a beer) Simplistically these stereotypes still apply in what is left of mainstream America. There are geographic regions that are accustomed to manual labor for a living and its offshoots, and there are regions of ghetto where work is not so highly favored. Seriously I mean regions such as the skyscrapers of New York City that don’t have to get their hands dirty in the sewage of life. Today the traditional model still applies. There are the poor, the middle class, and the rich. It is not that hard to understand. What is difficult to swallow is LIB has spilled over into the working class, because these jobs are disappearing. Our environment also is disappearing, so we are left with nothing else except to live LIB. This has not been an active choice for modern America. It has been a decision pushed upon us by Conservatives who are comfortable in their black boxes. The rest of us who live in paper bags don’t have as thick walls, and therefore not as clean air, not as quiet evenings, and not as much immunity from crime. The traditional things that made up are existence are leaving us in a clandestine exodus. The infrastructure of America as we always have known it has disappeared into Hurricane Katrina, and we are yet to get it back. We are left sitting in the box, staring at the box, typing on the box, attempting to pay for the box. It’s too bad the slang vernacular of “box” doesn’t apply here, because it would be more pleasant. That too seems to have been taken away from us. Prostitution is legal in many other more enlightened and liberal countries, because they embrace sex as an integral part of human life. Instead of spinning the meaning of sex into tireless products, they choose simply to allow the product to be sold in its purest form. In many ways the actualization of this process shields them from the gender confusion that is so apparent in modern America. What would life be like without this spin? Pleasant.

Walk Tall and Carry a Big Bankroll

A Big Texas Sheriff

The state of Texas has an extreme history, and as a result we have an extreme Texas sheriff as the President of the United States. “If you mess with America, then you are going to get messed with back.” It seems of no consequence we lose our country in the midst of the fight. Most people know the best fighters are the smartest ones. If a smaller contestant chooses to fight a bully on his terms at a time of his choosing, the underdog surely will lose. If the underdog instead uses his brain, swallows his pride for the moment, and begins to study his opponent, then he has a chance of winning. This simply is because we as human beings stuck on one planet are in it for the duration. One of the best pieces of advice a person can be given is, “Don’t shit where you sleep.” If a bully decides to invoke your wrath, then it becomes his responsibility to deal with you every day in his own neighborhood. When he realizes his life is nothing more than a nano-sketch, a minute cog in a much larger wheel, then the desire to excel can usurp a less important fleeting desire to immediately conquer. No one could teach this lesson better than past Secretary of State Madeline Albright. As human beings hopefully we all learn this lesson as we evolve through life. On the limited front of America, a country that continues to overdevelop, overpopulate, and become depleted of natural resources, the Texas tradition of staking a claim to land has become an anachronism. Instead negotiation or politics has become necessary. It is too bad our president erroneously has mistaken the role of the American President. We have a bullying traffic court judge sitting in his own jurisdiction of Texas (the United States) waving a big stick. His big stick almost has spent all our money, and through processes like these the American people learn about the abuses of power. Being President is a job, and the first step to being successful at it is understanding its purpose, its role, and its function. George W. Bush seems not to understand any of these and instead bases his job on depictions of Buford Pusser or Cool Hand Luke. Brubaker may be a more suitable role model, because the aforementioned strategy being used by Muslim Terrorists could be thwarted.

Global Thermal Nuclear War (Great Moments in Presidential History)

"We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is — the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."

George W. Bush

“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall.”

Ronald Reagan

Gender confusion in America

During the l980’s heavy metal bands began to realize that although playing to nearly sold-out crowds, the crowds to which they were playing were men. Consequently Glam-Rock was created feminizing the male performer’s appearance. Big hair, eye shadow, and tight colorful clothing amazingly began to attract more women to their concerts. This in itself is a paradox, but that trend continues today. This male image, startlingly different than that of Adonis, Casanova, or Sampson has become that of woman sex symbol early in American film. Women’s Liberation and Feminism effectively turned the tables in American media and made man the bimbo. Advertising has continued this trend substituting a “six pack” of male ab muscles for a large “rack” of female breasts. Because this image has become so gender confused, it seems a “shemale” better could represent sexual desire in American marketing. No one would have to contend with the difference in gender God created and intended as His reward for the suffering incurred during man’s journey for survival. Personified in an idyllic setting in the movie “The Blue Lagoon, the connection between man and woman is strong enough to drive man’s desire for survival. The most important thing God gave us as a compromise for the probable misery of human life, America selfishly has misused for monetary gain in the Capitalist socioeconomic system. Looking to Europe, the root of Western Civilization, calmingly clarifies America’s mistakes. There have been many. The confusion of gender may be the worst. Against the wishes of the Gay Agenda, gender confusion should be exposed and clarified. While dysfunctional familial behavior created by mis-education often is its cause, this does not mean gender cannot be understood. Seen as a component of maladjustment in a parent child scenario, it is easy to condone homosexual behavior for children who never learn the basics of gender. Again contrary to the beliefs of many self-proclaimed atheist/agnostic American scientists, one only has to look to the Bible for guidance. While in some ways it could be easy to agree with Albert Einstein’s opinion in a previously unrecorded letter of the l950’s, the Bible at a more in depth understanding can and does provide lessons of morality for the human race. The stories at first glance may seem childlike, but God was preaching to the gamut of human intelligence. This seeming elementary teaching and understanding of the gospels has continued in the American South breeding the “Fire and Brimstone” concept of God. Erroneously people were coerced into believing God was something of which to be afraid, because this elementary discipline seemed to coincide with the intelligence and maturity level of the native people. Like in America today this was a great underestimation of the knowledge of the people of the United States. As tabloid television continues to reinforce, life eventually drops to the lowest common denominator. Only the rich and privileged are able to survive, buying their sanity with a purchased environment. For the rest of us we are at the mercy of the corner hawker, the soap box preacher, or the television set. The mismanagement of the environment in America has put an unnecessary burden on the traditional requirement of gender. No longer are our senses able to be satisfied healthily without the aid of human created-anodynes. Mother Nature, as she was intended, has been raped and pillaged for energy. Her artistic model of the environment has been cast as a sacrificial lamb to the pagan gods of energy. No one but the Extreme Right could make this decision, because they are the only ones that can afford to buy these traditionally free offerings of Mother Nature. Gender has been left to take up the slack, and it is not capable. The quintessential essence of gender needs and has to be supported by Mother Nature, because Mother Nature was cast by God as the artistic model for gender. Man has been successful personifying gender through romance in the arts, but like Mother Nature the arts have been deemed expendable by the Extreme Right. Gender commonly has been misused throughout the history of America, and there could be no better example than that of slavery. Only a people that could fundamentally misunderstand and misuse gender could be capable of extrapolating that to a greater level to man enslaving him at the mercy of the elite. These two principles could the demise of world in the eyes of God. We are lucky in America Abraham Lincoln took on the battle of human slavery, and he invoked and suffered the responsibility of the deaths of thousands of Americans during the Civil War for its cause. The deaths of thousands of Middle Easterners at the hands of Extreme Islam could be considered the second battle for equality in gender at the hands of abusive, misguided, homosexuals. Such a faction of men grossly could misunderstand the concept and role of gender as an essential component of human life leaving them on the verge of psychosis, anarchy, and genocide. It is ironic America as a capitalist nation has set the example for gender abuse. Because the founding fathers chose a capitalist socioeconomic system as America’s infrastructure, gender has continued to suffer at the expense of business. Gender became business, and the business has always been the marketing and selling of human beings. When America could no longer sell the human being for service, covertly she began selling the image of gender instead. The most successful periods in American history conversely have been during industrial eras, when the focus of business shifted to manufacturing and providing goods to a gender adjusted population. Goods and services were designed to support humanity in the quest for a more enlightened existence. When these Americans became too expensive to employ and support, businesses abandoned them. They began to out-source their means of production of goods effectively un-employing the very people America was meant to support in a capitalist system. The balance of power in America has reached a disproportional bias toward the elite rich, and today they are using the misrepresentation and misunderstanding of gender to sell a superficial level of products. Business has attempted to became surrogate parents of foundling new couples effectively disempowering the American people. The basic philosophy of America has been abandoned. At the most primitive level the pharmaceutical has taken on the role of gender in America. Food is a close second. To once again find an effective model of gender, America should turn to older civilizations for healthier models.

A Time for Americans

One only has to look at the environment in America to understand Nature vs. Nurture inevitably will fail. In the last decade with the lack of support of our public schools, lack of support for the quintessential role of the Environmental Protection Agency, and the horrific increase in violence in electronic entertainment, it just would be a matter of time before the Baby Boomers die, Generation X becomes complacent, and Generation Jihad takes over the world. While President George W. Bush’s foreign policy, in an extremist point-of-view, could be understood, it is difficult to understand how this single intention, a reaction, has usurped the entirety of traditional American culture. Why was it during the Viet Nam War between l965-l975 music flourished? It was because music as a humanitarian art was held in high esteem by the American people. Music had a tradition of providing happiness, hope, and diversion from the brutal reality of life in the United States. How else could it have been Big Bands financially were able to travel America’s back roads providing entertainment to a war torn country during the l930’s and l940’s? It seems music served a different function than it does today. It was concerned with broader human values influenced by the not too distant memories of American slavery. With what issues have Generation Jihad had to deal? American Idol? Getting kicked off the island? Not getting your sweet 16 party from daddy? American television has been no role model for behavior for our youth. Conversely the highly esteemed, American mandated, role model of television has reversed leaving the box nothing more than a dark, disturbing, shock-producing look into dysfunctional familial behavior. Who gets kicked out of the house? What does rock star daddy play with today? How much of a temper tantrum can shrimp boat captain throw tonight? Formulaic isn’t a strong enough word to describe television’s ill attempts at programming. To be formulaic there would have to have been enough thought to produce a formula. A formula could also imply there might be an underlying concept. What we have instead today is a sparring match of non-thinking, hedonistic, spoiled children that know no better. Nature vs. Nurture has failed and in the eyes of all of America. There is no talent. There is no concept. There is no formula. Nurture is providing nothing. Nature is providing what it will continue to provide until we as a race decide otherwise. If and when we decide what Mother Nature has to offer is beneficial to the human psyche, then an attempt will be made to preserve it. The things that provide inspiration, serenity, and love that motivate the human being to excel once again will be thought worth preserving. Otherwise we as a race will continue to fight, kill, and self-destruct until the second coming of Jesus Christ. It is not too late for America to redeem her place in the world, but there has to be a change of intent. Like brutal warriors we no longer only simply can respond to the seeming random threats of Muslim Extremists. We have to find a way to be smarter than terrorists, and that is not going to happen with the current state of domestic life in America. We must start on our home front attempting to provide peace and security to the human soul, before we can go off half-cocked to fight the War on Terror. We are suffering terribly as a culture, and it is time for the focus to change. We are Americans. We want to be nurtured for what we have to offer our country. We are not concerned with the people of Iraq, or we would have moved there. The President of the United States should be taking care of his own people.

Jesus of Nazareth

If I hear one more self-proclaimed agnostic, atheist, Darwinist scientist say they cannot understand how any culture would worship a historical figure who sacrificed his only son on the cross for us! Let’s just say such an inept philosophical statement characterizes the nature of the Extreme Right in America. From now on we could just call the Extreme Right the anti-Christ. That would cut out the spin and middlemen of which American media and politics are so fond. To even believe an academic-level scientist could utter such a narcissistic phrase embodies the ridiculous self-righteousness of man at an unusually dark age in world history. All Biblical pointers magnetically seem to be drawn to this horseshit. If we as a civilization wanted to avoid Armageddon, we could just suck up the humility to ensure our existence continues on the planet earth. Why is it in our lifetime we have to re-live original sin? Why is our generation plagued with grandiose and epic human drama with which to contend? Some of us just want to get on with our mortal lives. God and the preservation of the human race can be too daunting a subject. The Nationalism of Pop is a fitting title for the music that represents the American anit-Christ. It, like this misguided view of Christianity, simple speaks only for its meager self. “I can’t be bothered with you.” The reason why this music has no soul is because it has no pain. A soul is not created until there has been pain. The process from which a human being creates a soul is pain. “If anyone is listening…. The ultimate sacrifice, the ultimate example of loss, was God offering his only son to us.” It was the example of the most painful sacrifice. It was meant to show us that no matter how much we suffer in everyday life (for those Christians, Jews, and Muslims who admit suffering is a part of life) no one could have suffered more than God. His sacrifice was meant to teach the agnostic, atheist, Darwinist scientists that their idolatry, their narcissistic worship of the graven image of science means nothing without the suffering of man. Science is meant to serve man, and man is not science. Man is a human, and this realm of humanity is a completely different aesthetic with which America quickly is losing touch. The humanities are music, drama, art, language, and the myriad of other things which attempt to personify man and his epic struggle with the universe. If man were meant to be science, then we would not have a soul.

Barbara Walters and The Peanut Gallery

The recent Barbara Walters interview on television’s ABC coolly defined who really is the beer-swilling, hockey-watching, female magnate in the American media. It could not have come at a better time, because her interviewer coolly and easily defined the Extreme Political Right. What girly-man actually himself would believe that people do not killed everyday? As an active journalist working in a decade where violence has escalated to historical terms, how could anyone with a straight face actually believe it was politically incorrect to ask a sitting Russian president if he had killed anyone? It was a great question. Conversely implying that flirtations with a dictator also were politically incorrect cements the sheltered, naïve, and self-serving persona of the Extreme Political Right. Whence does this breed come? “Dick and Jane get married right out of college, buy two car home, have babies, and live happily ever after.” Wake up and smell the coffee man! In what universe are you living? “A mafia? You mean a crime family exists from Italy that actually ‘whacks’ people?” The disparity between interviewer and interviewee clearly defined the two extremes present in everyday American politics. It simply showed the people who work and enjoy working for a living and those given life on a silver platter. “Don’t want daddy to get his hands dirty jerking off old Fidel?” Daddy would rather sit at corporate board room table with his reading glasses in a gray suit asking ridiculously anachronistic questions.” It’s easier. It couldn’t have come at a better time. With the recent days media barrage of “Who is the real Hillary,” it was refreshing to see two things. One was a good journalist, and one was a liberal.

The Nationalism of “Pop”

Whereas Peter the Great chose the nationalism of Tchaikovsky musically to represent Russia during the nineteenth century, George W. Bush has chosen the “pop” of Rupert Murdoch to represent America in the twenty first century. His News Corp., a corporate monopoly, in an insatiable conquest to compete with Ted Turner recently bought the long standing traditions of the Wall Street Journal. Will there be any media left unmaimed from his voracious appetite for a New World Order? All ready the Russian Five’s need to rely on intrinsic folk and religious elements, in American, have been replaced with Rupert Murdoch’s Nationalism of Pop. Bush has chosen this Nationalism of Pop delivered by News Corp. to represent Big Brother, disguising America’s attempt at the Russian Five. While the internet briefly became the “new revolution” of music, quickly it succumbed to the sheer monetary power of corporate monopolies. Microsoft’s recent attempt to buy Yahoo is another attempt in a long line of well-planned corporate mergers meant to centralize media at the expense of freedom. Why would Time/Warner want to own the rights to all American music? Is this a good thing? Is it a good thing America’s past music systematically has been taken off the airwaves leaving them drenched in the conservative whining of new Pop Nationalism? America once was a country of “Rebels Without a Cause.” We were the Russian Five, not the Communist Nationalism of Stalin. Rupert Murdoch’s sheer wealth has bought the former venues of American musical freedom, and they now are stained with the skid marks of Carson Daily, Jimmy Kimmel, and Jay Leno. These late night talk show hosts are nothing more than hawkers for the man. Only Craig Ferguson, as he proved when speaking for the white House Press Corp., is worthy to battle such a covert incumbent revolution. He sees it for what it is. David Letterman used to be the bearer of this torch, but Ed Sullivan like in the Night of the Living Dead, inhabited his body. How could it be in such a short period of time the freedom, exuberance, and creativity of the Apple Macintosh via “the internets” has become constrained and dictated by corporate America? It seems the only place this freedom may be found today is in the nurturing world of academia. Unless you have a child in college or have the scratch to take a college course, the rest of America has to sit while Rupert Murdoch shouts at us through his network. The simple cultural traditions that have made America great are buried beneath cheap circuits in digital media. Liberate music! Free the vinyl LP. Free the ferric oxide cassette tape! Let the earth’s elements that are slowly evaporating in the cloud of Global Warming take on new purpose and strength and battle the evil microwaves. Matter over mind. Analog over digital. Man over machine.

Two prolific kinds of music offer the gamut of human experience. European-based orchestra and chamber music and American jazz music embody historical, traditional, and culturally human traits. That is why they have and will sustain the test of time. On a smaller level other styles of music have made inroads to becoming art. Afro-Cuban music as a component of jazz spawned a sizable repertoire of Caribbean styles. Reggae, with its socially conscious lyrics and undulating rhythmic feel has carved out a niche for itself. While Rock ‘n’ Roll was a tour de force in American popular music, because of its definition it is not able to represent the entirety of the human experience. It is meant to be “all orgasm.” Therefore as both music listeners and humans we must look elsewhere to find the means to satisfy the vast appetite of the American soul. We are a diverse culture and as a result require and should demand what we deserve. Shrinking the musical persona of America to the extremely narrow scope of “American Idol” is a huge disservice to the American people. The near death of radio in accordance with the propaganda of American Idol has created a vast musical vacuum in America. Even with the benefit of a new subscription-based satellite radio service, the once alive and motivating arena of music is still gimp. How in one short decade could one important component of the entertainment industry have lost its drive? The advent of the MP3 has been cited as the cause of the demise of traditional record labels. When services such as Napster allowed computer users to download music for free what formerly had to be purchased with money, the value of American-produced music inappropriately dropped. Teenagers single handedly with recently acquired spoils set the trend that would murder the music industry. Tipper Gore did not help. While some pundits argue the music industry is alive and well, how could that be when the advances of A&R men are no longer available to finance creative, artistic, musical projects. Music for the first time has dropped from its ivory tower no longer able to lead society away from cultural darkness. When the means is castrated, how can a process continue? It is difficult to be artistic when the majority of time needs to spent satisfying the most basic of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The question needs to be asked if this process was a conscious decision on the part of some ruling faction. So it seems. Whereas the glamour of the American music scene drove the economy of the l980’s, the entertainment industry indeed has been both neutered and spayed in recent political years. Would attempting to abolish an aesthetic that is capable of motivating and changing human perspectives be helpful to a New World Order? The answer is yes, and an unmistakable parallel can be seen between the aesthetics of music and religion. Formerly these two institution held the primary responsibility of being a catalyst of change. Change of perspective comes with a change of heart, and religion and music both are acutely capable of accomplishing this. They along with other misplaced disciplines in academia have fallen from grace in the eyes of our modern day media and political regime. Orating, debating, and other skill sets concerned with moving the human soul have all but vanished in current media. Does this not sound Hitleresque? It was not that long ago in Europe that Stalin and Hitler would not recognize American jazz as an acceptable form of music. Instead the Nationalism of Tchaikovsky was chosen as the only acceptable form of music in Russia at that time. The Russian Five, much like jazz musicians from America, based their views upon rebellious principles. As a result their arguments were stymied. Many Europeans at that time thought America as the “land of the free and the home of the brave” and migrated here looking for political freedom. In the last few years we clearly have seen both religious and political freedoms dwindle, and no one seems to be doing anything about it. Nothing could better represent this hypocrisy than a sitting American president saying he can’t do anything about rising oil prices. If the government is not capable of governing in a free market, Capitalist, socio-economic system, then it should be replaced with an entity that can.

Improvisation

In recent years the controversy over Darwinism vs. Creationsim has been used to sell magazines. Time magazine did a cover story on it. Put into perspective the tone of recent journalism has taken on characteristics of the Theater of the Absurd. Saturday Night Live did a sketch this past weekend with a news anchor interviewing Senator John McCain about being old. The rhetoric spewing from the commentator’s mouth was a Socratic comedic double talk entirely meant to fluster Senator McCain. After both parties realized what was happening the point of the interview became clear. The interview was not supposed to be a hypothetical forum allowing Senator McCain to express preconceived political views. It contrarily it was meant to be an extemporaneous improvisation. Without an artistic model from which to pattern itself, the interview easily could have escalated into a shouting match. There are artistic models for many things, but unfortunately they have been put on the shelf at the expense of a young and naïve media with eyes of narcissism. While improvising in real time in the heat of the moment does have its virtues, aspiring artists will soon find out inspiration is only 10% of the equation. 90% is sweat, the sweat caused by researching one’s topic. Any serious artist eventually learns their personal medium will evolve more quickly if there are sound ideas upon which to base their inspirations. Motivation and inspiration are not enough to produce long lasting and historically relevant art. Therefore the best improvisers are the one’s with the most knowledge. While there is such a thing as natural talent and that does figure importantly into the equation, knowledge is what organizes, guides, and henceforth creates the artistic statement. Going into a shouting match unprepared… Well you know the outcome. There is a solid reason why the Boyscout motto is “Be Prepared.” The process of improvisation could be elusive, but if based upon a sound model the chances of success are heightened. America has lost touch with the art of improvisation for several reasons. First it requires that its purveyors expose their souls in public. With the current state of our media, that could be a catastrophic faux pas. The primary intention of tabloid media in recent years has been to destroy celebrities. There has been story after story on the belligerence of the paparazzi toward celebrities. Somehow in the stew of life the perks of being a celebrity became lost behind the sheer desperation of a ravenous media feeding themselves. It is not fun anymore being a celebrity. Instead of sharing their talents with the public, celebrities have been pushed to live lives incognito protecting themselves from poison darts of contempt. With such a prevalent current in the United States, the stage upon which an improvisation could occur greatly has been diminished. There simply are no forums left for the art to transpire. When looking for a model for improvisation there is no more logical place to look than jazz music. Jazz music is based upon the art of improvisation, and without it it would be nothing more than instrumental pop music. Improvisation is the framework upon which jazz lives. Improvisation means there has to be a camaraderie developed between the purveyors allowing them the trust to expose their souls. America has lost that as a whole. Evidently the stark realism of Capitalism has driven man to the brink of existence scuffling for his very life. We are so concerned with earning a living there is no time left for the finer things. We are in a cultural Dark Ages with the bubonic plague being represented by mental rather than physical illness. ADD has robbed us of the ability to create art in real time in a forum that provides the necessary shelter and security to speak from the heart without fear of repercussion. As a result life and media in general have become shallow, immediate, and disposable. The ability to create a mood (a feeling) has been rendered impotent. It seems no one is interested in sustaining a thought for more than a few seconds, because if we did the ignorance of the American people would surface immediately. The knowledge that would need to fill that void of time would be epic. We as a nation have come to rely upon improvisation but improvisation based on a shallow framework of immediacy. We spar like inexperienced boxers with no strategy. Miles Davis would be a good role model upon which to base a future aesthetic. He studied boxing and used it in his curriculum of jazz music. Unlike many people believe his music was expertly worked out over time. He studied a concept, exercised it, and manipulated it until it became a refined art form under his name. This is why Miles Davis was so successful in the field of jazz music. Many people have the talent to be able to spar in the ring. Few have the resources to be able to refine the fight into a work of art. If America would recognize that we have lost this ability and begin to embrace this artistic process, our lives would be enriched. We could learn to trust one another and therefore hope for a more secure future of stable and fulfilling lives. This will never happen if we continue the way we are now.

The Computer.... the Ultimate Little Black Box

America is replete with personifications of living in the "little black box."  Everyday, everywhere we look we are reminded that we as a nation are not free at all, but we are living in the artificial boundaries surveyed, cast, and enforced by someone else.  In George Orwell's novel l984 "Big Brother" sets those boundaries.  In a plethora of science fiction movies a similar faction does the same.  It is a common theme, man against the machine, "Rage Against the Machine."  Media has not helped the cause of man in the last three years.  Almost every depiction they render wreaks of the black box.  In more concise terms living in the black box is a dilution of life.  Instead of dealing intimately with the humanities, the black box inconclusively extrapolates human responses in an insensitive, uncaring, and uninformed way.  It attempts to negate the quintessential purpose of the arts, to expose and communicate with the human's innermost thoughts and feelings.  Why would anyone want to do this?  Idle speculation could say it is because ignorance breeds bliss, bliss created from monetary products.  Without art, humanity, and mother nature man is at the mercy of machine.  We become dependent like a suckling child on the nipple that is big business providing us Maslow's hierarchy of needs.  As with many truths, enlightenment is but a fraction of an inch away.  All it takes is the courage to acknowledge what is happening.  The "black box" is represented clearly in many ways in American life.  The black box of the television camera began as just the opposite, a tool of enlightenment and communication.  It was not until recently that the media faction decided it was more important than humanity itself.  In television production that is when the camera took on a hypothetical life of its own, casting judgements and opinions that mean nothing.  Without a brain and a heart a camera can have no viable opinion.  Filmmakers of yesteryear knew this, and that is why film making and television were high art forms.  Moral and ethical responsibility were taken for how the American public perceived what the camera filmed.  Then it was the director and the producer that brought the human message of the screen writer to fruition.  Now in the frantic pace of life the camera, like an untrained dog, trots, paces, pants, and barks like the unintelligent being he is.  It says nothing.  The computer is no different doing only what its owner instructs it to do within the means of the software creator.  It has no opinion of its own.  Pop music unfortunately has molded to this life in the black box reducing all the possibilities of human expression in music to one diluted, static, selfish form.  It seems all most musicians can do today is stand there and strum on that infernal guitar.  They are being instructed by the box, holding the box, within the box of pop music.  Life in the box feels stilted.  It is rectangular, awkward, and stammers like a drunk.  It is not stealth, lucid, wise, and playful.  It is high on methamphetamine stumbling along in a drunken non-reality attempting to live within the boundaries that are being set for us on a daily basis.  Art has always attempted to break this mold.  It embraces feeling, opinion, dissension, fury, passion, thought, love, despair and everything Big Brother tries to take from us as humans.  We were not meant to live in a box, nor were the animals.  When taunted violent things happen, such as a tiger escaping its cage at a San Diego zoo and maiming and killing it tormentors.  It will be just a matter of time before Americans realize, have had enough, and somehow put a stop to our social and political oppression.  

Diaries of a Beauty Queen

Before Bill O'Reilly finishes lambasting Billy Ray Cyrus on national television for allowing his daughter Miley to be photographed backless by photographer Annie Leibovitz, he should take a moment to reflect on the JonBenet Ramsey murder case. "Oops! I Did it Again" was released in the year 2000 when Britney was eighteen. Her parents and producers made the wise decision. While the song and video appeal to a younger audience, Britney had reached the age of consent leaving her immune from possible legal backwash that could have occurred as a result of negative media coverage. JonBenet Ramsey's parents made the wrong decision, preening her from almost infancy to compete in beauty pageants. Miley Cyrus falls somewhere in between these two examples of "female idols." LeeAnn Rimes was only thirteen when her debut single "Blue" was released, and she became the youngest artist in history to win a Grammy Award. It could have been then the poison infected the wound, and the exploitation of America's youth began at the expense of the unholy greenback. Country music in recent years has not been known for virtuous artistic achievement. Conversely base elements of Hip/Hop, R&B, Rap, and Glam Rock have infiltrated the aesthetic of country music. Unlike Garth Brooks and Shania Twain country music videos became ripe with attributes of soft-core pornography leaving them nothing more than eye candy for a country audience looking to have a good time. Gone were the heart wrenching and soul searching melancholic lyrics of traditional American country music. "We just all want to have a good time, Billy Ray!" The concept of teen idols is an old one, and it could be best represented by Walt Disney's inception of the Mickey Mouse Club. Would Bill O'Reilly have felt the same way if Annette Funicello was photographed backless in l955 on the set of Beach Blanket Bingo? There seems to be something unsettling about modern country music imagery. There was plenty of teenage skin being exposed in the l950's and recently on shows such as MTV's" The Grind," a dance showed aired from l992-l997. Everywhere you look there are examples of teenage sexuality, but it is the context that makes them acceptable or deplorable. Many Americans would probably agree that an artistic image of a young woman backless captured by a notable photographer isn't necessarily sexual. One only has to ask Johannes Vermeer's wife in the novel "Girl with a Pearl Earring" what she believes. In the context of the novel and film, Cornelia Vermeer adamantly feels the portraiture of their newly employed cleaning lady by her esteemed husband painter is marital sacrilege. In his and Griet's perspective the portrait is an expression of art in many ways. Vermeer finds a connection and understanding from Griet that is itself beautiful and satisfying in a way very different than the love for his wife. It is not necessarily sexual at all, but viewed from an unhappy and jealous wife's perspective, the relationship takes on new found contempt and scorn. This kind of understanding could best characterize what is beautiful about the youthful generation. In the throes of puberty and adolescence there is a kind of naivete that is hugely appealing, because many of the negative connotations of life experienced in adulthood are absent. In many ways youthfulness provides an empty canvas upon which to paint. Just as parents understand with altrustic love, admiration for their children for these qualities does not mean they want to have sex with them.

A Sacrificial Filly

Two sacrificial lambs were offered to the pagan "Extreme Right" gods this week. Both mares suffered unconscionable deaths, one public and one private. Which death was worse, lying feet up on your back in front of millions of viewers, or solely hanging in the dark of a musty tool shed? Euthanasia is one of the most painful human experiences, but choosing to inflict it upon one's self?That must have been excruciating. It is interesting how life in America has driven us to the point of no return, where death seems more appealing than life. Dennis Klebold and Eric Harris thought death would be more pleasing, and as they exited the United States they inflicted their pain upon fellow students at Columbine High School. Seung-Hui Cho inflicted his personal pain on 32 people at the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute as he exited his tormented life in the United States. Timothy McVeigh inflicted his pain upon 168 people at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, a significant modern act of genocide in the U.S. It was not until September 11, 2001 he was trumped by irreverent, psychotic, Muslim idolatry. In tandem mental illness and narcotics covertly have lost the war for "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" in America. Methamphetamine singlehandedly has taken the place of the lineage of American anodyne drugs that served to anesthetize us from the brutality and failure of American life. The question must be asked if the drugs of the "Flower Power Generation" were as deadly? When these kinds of things are going on, when fillies are being slaughtered in public, and Geisha Girls are committing suicide in tool sheds, we must ask ourselves what is wrong? Dr. Larry Bramlage, Eight Belles veterinarian, had never seen a racing injury of this magnitude. Things seem to be escalating and people and things are dying. The honey bees are taking a hike. The coral reefs are saying adios. Life as we once knew it drastically is changing, and there must be a reason. If we don't cut through the gay, financial, religious, fanatical agenda and find the roots of humanity again, life as we knew it will soon be over.

Life in the "Black Box"

The puppet master is omnipresent in our everyday lives, because our lives are no longer our own. Subtly and without warning our comfort systems have been replaced with bloodsucking leaches. Like the "Night of the Living Dead" we wander around while Big Brother pulls our strings. It will take a great deal of strength to wean ourselves off this false mother's milk and stand up to the poison that is being injected into our daily lives. Our normal lives have become so infected with this disease, Americans would have a hard time distinguishing it (like video game reality) from the freedoms of traditional American life. Our educational system has become so indoctrinated "teaching to the test" by "No Child Left Behind" the processes of critical thought, free thinking, and formation of a personal opinion seem to be of no value. "Do only what the Great Oz has said!" Everywhere one looks in modern society, which have been the normal vehicles of communication, have become shining examples of "living in the box." Television began this tirade when it began to give more credence to the black box itself, the camera, than to the actors performances. Likewise in popular music the artists themselves quickly took a back seat to the process of pop music. No longer was the industry interested in the messages of the artists. Instead they took and exploited the system for their own personal gain. No show could be a greater example of this than American Idol, and no person could be more responsible than Simon Cowell. Who was it that made the decision that decisions of Americans were no longer important? Was it Rupert Murdoch? Was it Warren Buffet? Was it Les Moonves? The only media mogul to continue to support the traditions of America is Ted Turner. We must be suspect of the rest. When our senses are bombarded daily with depictions of living in the box, there comes a time when Big Brother will break our will and we will forget. Nature vs. Nurture says clearly environment is half of our selves. When our environment becomes polluted then it becomes that much more difficult to distinguish reality. Try breathing dirty air. Try eating non-nutritious food. Try looking at anarchy every day. Without some glimmer of enlightenment, which traditionally came through schooling, we are destined to fail as a country. Upon what then will the puppet masters live?

A Eulogy to Deborah Jeane

Nothing could better represent the hypocrisy of the invasion of the Extreme Right than the death of Washington, DC madam Deborah Jeane Palfrey. The almost entirety of the last decade of American politics has stunk of spin. Suddenly in only eight years of a Republican presidency the fundamentals of a nation have become so decentralized, vague, insincere, base, and violent it is difficult to remember what America is and has stood for since her declaration of freedom in l776. What could be a better icon to what could almost be called conspiracy than the “temples” that have sprung up on street corners owing homage to the pharmaceutical companies. Isn’t it ironic how much they resemble the FLDS temple in Schleicher County Texas on the Yearning for Zion “ranch?” The Washington Madam’s death by hanging in a tool shed outside her mother’s mobile home in rural Florida all but characterizes the feeling that New Yorker’s must have had when skyscrapers began to emerge in downtown Manhattan. Immigrants who traveled thousands of miles across oceans to escape the social injustices of their own countries found their cornerstone world ripping apart at the seams. Suddenly the nitty gritty basics of life in downtown New York changed, not unlike how life changed when our American economy shifted to the financial markets. A huge parallel can be seen between the two, as out-sourced manufacturing jobs today represent life on the streets by the “Gangs of New York.” The hustle and bustle of the neighborhood market has been replaced with an almost hypothetical algorithm or strategy of an economy. No longer does the concept of supply and demand apply, because a strange, elusive, and evil coalition disconnected with the gamut of human need and desire has infiltrated American politics. Deborah Jeane Palfrey is the “bottom.” She through death personifies now how bad it can be. Isn’t it both absurd and hypocritical that a woman providing sexual gratification to hundreds of disguised Washington power players should be forced to commit suicide? Who could agree with this? Her death could represent the feelings of many Americans pushed to the brink of insanity through the Right Wing Invasion. Having our true human lives robbed from us through a conservative think tank on selfishness that hides in the shadows taunting art is nothing short of a revelation, and maybe that is what it is. The time must be drawing near when God will return to the earth and resurrect the good and condemn the evil at Armageddon. Do we necessarily want our meager human lives to be plagued with such epic content? I think the majority of Americans would settle for a human compromise under Hillary’s tutelage.

The Washington Madam

Deborah Jeane Palfrey was a hypocritical scapegoat of the American judicial system. The Extreme Right, Zip Coon, sits and waits disguising his own disgusting behavior waiting to make an example of Jim Crow. Deborah Jeane Palfrey became Washington's scapegoat. I hope the hundreds of john's for which Pamela Martin and Associates provided sexual gratification take a moment to ponder if their own infidelity was worth a woman's life. Is this another Chappaquiddick? Obviously in the moral judgment of her clients the services she offered were worth the legal risk of being exposed publicly. Time and time again we see mainstream politicians, clergymen, and celebrities fall from grace because of their sexual desire. Is this physical act that God created and gave us worth this public humiliation and personal despair? Prostitution is legal in many other countries. How can it be that a former porn producer and actress successfully married a preacher with a Ph.d from Stanford, took over his tele-evangelical ministry, and continues to preach on television with no repercussions from the media? Pastor Melissa Scott, like Tracy Lords, is a shining example of a woman who successfully and eloquently works and beats the system. Tracy Lords charmed a judge and jury into dropping her case of underage adult film acting. Deborah Jeane was more humanly vulnerable, and ironically like Norma Jean her death should be remembered just as tragically. She may have not been a Hollywood star, but evidently she provided a service that many high-powered men felt was important. Whatever the service may have been, providing immediate physical release or prolonged sexual titillation, what these women did is and has been thought important to America. It is only when an Extreme Religious Right enters politics does the hypocrisy begin. Vulnerable women are bait for the debacle that is the media, the paparazzi, and Hollywood. Scant to be found is an ounce of compassion, expertly personified in David Lynch's classic movie Mulholland Drive. Conversely Betty Elms, a dream character with rose-colored glasses, ultimately is Diane Selwyn, a lesbian who commits suicide after not finding fame and fortune in Hollywood, California. It seems Deborah Jeane's story is not that unique and uncommon. The bottom line is what are we all here for? Do we really care about gas from Iraq? Do we really care about housing futures? Do we really care about financial portfolios? When the quintessential elements of life are bled from us by a selfish, greedy, and hypocritical political faction that hides behind an ivory pulpit, then the likes of the Dark Ages have all ready been thrust upon us. We do not need a Black Plague, because a plague of moral darkness has been put into motion.