Dumb America

I will start with saying always I am surprised by historical jazz music.  There was a lot going on back in the day with what often is called American's true art form.  (Bluegrass music should hold a similar moniker.)  It takes thought to process jazz music.  It does not take thought to appreciate it.  One only has to be open to its influences, and allow themselves to feel something.   That being said the Bluebird Label has its own distinct character, and my introduction to it was Benny Goodman's orchestra.  There is a bit of a formula to the tunes and the arrangements, and it relates to World War ll dance music for the American masses.  One must be ready for that dynamic.  As I listen to Duke Ellington's band circa 1940-1942 starkly it is in this vein.  It is unlike any other Duke Ellington music I have heard.  The same might apply to Count Basie's orchestra early on.  The early Kansas City Basie is the best in my opinion.  The surprising thing about "The Blanton/Webster Band" is the tunes are very arranged in American popular song style.  They are danceable swing tunes, but they are in that familiar radio format with an easily palatable vocal lyric.  Early jazz bands evolved through a series of styles, and eventually they sought to discard stereotypical forms.  Duke Ellington, although adhering to societal norms necessarily for a time, eventually broke barriers of feeling and human expression.  I am not in the dance mood, so these quintessential music collection is a bit to stomach.  The overt feeling is romantic, and that is fine.  On the other hand America has become "Special Needs."  As I listened to the fine rendering of the January 6th Committee's hearing on television this evening, it was apparent their argument was being broadcast almost for "Special Needs" individuals.  Evidently we have become so ignorant as a nation with an inability to discern truth from fiction, the Trumptopian scenario was being handed to the American public on an hors d'oeuvre tray like junior high school.  The LGBT QRST radicalized faction of miscellaneous separatist groups are the same.  They are not capable of being responsible adults alternately demanding special treatment from society for their proclivities.  Why should they receive preferential treatment for choosing to have sex within their same gender?  There is nothing exemplary about this, and the more I understand their propaganda the more it incites me.  I have worked my whole life to excel at music, and never did I stop to demand society give me preferential treatment, because I defied the norms of traditional American society.  No longer do we know what these are, and our modern times have been nothing other than a catastrophe of deconstructionism.  We must be the stupidest nation on earth. 

Tending to Fayetteville's Homeless

It was a long day yesterday.  I don't remember why.  Shortages in staff for assisted living facilities are wreaking havoc on seniors.  My mother is included, and surprisingly today the seminal CNA who held together her floor resigned.  (I hope my mother's added responsibility to her daily load was not the cause)  She could bring down the Holy Roman Empire if given the chance, and that is why I am feeling blue.  It takes time for me to recognize the negative stimulus and change gears.  When she is unhappy her traditional protocol is to project her unhappiness onto those around her blaming them.  The reason doesn't matter.  Often it will be a moot point, something that may be applicable, or something about which she has been stewing for days or weeks.  She loads and cocks and fires at will feeling no responsibility for her attack.  Those receiving most often are trying to help her.  It is a painful scenario, and it is incumbent upon the recipient to discern the unjustified attack and divert it.  Today was the first day I left this facility in futility.  There was nothing I could do to help, so I left.  It is their job to do this work.  In actuality it was a timely thing my exit, because in coming home I was able to accomplish something substantial.  I was not able to plant a garden this year, because of my mother's health problems.  (I have been to busy trying to manage her care)  Conversely I did remove a huge and troublesome magnolia tree from our back  yard, because it was wreaking havoc on the sanctity of our summer.  Without it the maintenance of our backyard during the summer is minimal equating to a mowing every month.  With this tree in its leadership position, its refuse (hundreds of large decaying leaves) covered what would be a pretty green lawn.  Now it is gone, and because I left her facility early today so is its stump.  The remaining stump of our felled sycamore tree abutting her close line post also is gone.  It is a success.  This removal was accomplished in about one hour's time, and conveniently both piles of wood pulp were saturated with two and a half inches of hard-falling rain.  Things are progressing, although I resisted the temptation to shovel silage in my sandals.  There is bacteria in this soil and also in decaying wood, and I have been sick for over three years.  Covid was a major component of my illness.  Patiently I am waiting until next Friday to receive my fourth booster.  Each previous shot has been the only thing that allowed me finally to recuperate from these bacterial and fungal infections.  Damn Covid and who created it.  It would help if my mother's facility could do their job.  It would help if the American labor force was not hobbled by two years of Covid.  It would help if corporate America, the railroads in particular which have become a corporate monopoly, would do the right thing.  Only is it one hundred degrees, because the 82nd Airborne is hauling their gear back from Poland via Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point.  Those cargo ships motor up to those three deep water docks, and the AC locomotives do a little dance continuously until the junk has been stowed at Fort Bragg via Fort Junction.  My ears ring continuously from the tinnitus, and the pressure on the human vessel is almost past the breaking point.  Truly it is survival of the fittest, and the majority of the seniors in Fayetteville have not made it.  They have dropped like flies, and rest assured the real estate industry will try to make a profit selling their homes.  Gentrification has commenced in Fayettenam.  The moniker "History, Heroes, and a Home-town Feeling" long has expired.  We have become the ghetto, and no one can dispute it.  Perhaps a new city government will help.  Shall we ask how Governor Cooper will spend 750 million dollars in opioid settlement money over 18 years?  I would begin with the homeless.