Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, and Personal Musical Reflection

After a recent local symphony concert I found it odd I felt off balance, because I did not know how to pronounce the concertmaster’s name or know his country of ethnic origin. Likewise after not reading the program notes, in particularly ones relating to Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, the Pastoral Symphony, again I felt off balance. As a composer myself almost possessing a D.M.A. in Composition from the Ohio State University, I remembered the necessity of “program notes” as a tool for selling your piece. While the composer tolls countless hours (“The piece lives in the time it takes to compose”) inside the piece, an unknowing audience has had no time with the piece before its first hearing. This raised a question in my mind for the first time as a listener. Also with countless of hours listening and studying music, I once never entertained the thought of having to listen, absorb, and understand a piece of music from an musically uneducated point-of-view. Because my entire life I have dedicated myself to the study, composition, and performance of music, I never would allow myself to listen to music without a myriad of preparatory information. This concert was different. Because I have been at sea for nine years, it has been nine years since I have heard any kind of concert. Isn’t that strange? I have been making my living as a professional pianist but not have had one opportunity to hear live music in a concert setting. This is an atrocity! When you perform music full-time as a vocation, it must be your interest in music declines. Your ears become tired, and the magic once that could be found in an inspired musical performance dissipates into the air like an early morning fog. It becomes rote like any other job. When I leave the ship job, my only desire is to escape the musical environment not only to rest my mind but my body. Performing music is mental prowess. Yes you must have the necessary learned physical technique, but performing music comes solely from the mind. The heart is involved but without the mind music performance would be impossible. It is a highly engaging combination of parameters that allow a quality musical performance. Unluckily a ship job ignores many of them. They provide you a “click track” to keep the time. They also provide you with pre-recording backing tracks in case you cannot play your part. In short it is not a real life music-making environment, but it pays the bills. At my first symphony concert in more than ten years I was surprised to be at a disadvantage. I was in my hometown, but a hometown of many years past. I was listening to a group I had heard before, but also not for many years past. I was listening in an auditorium in which I had performed numerous times at a college that now was a university. Ironically the Chairman of the Department of Music at this University and I shared the same doctoral advisor at Ohio State almost fifteen years ago. He completed the degree, but I did not because of affecting medical needs. That is why I began working for the cruise lines after my surgeries. I needed to make money from music, not spend it. Listening to both the Beethoven Pastoral Symphony and Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in this setting was unbalancing. While alone I know I have a wealth of historical musical knowledge stored in the recesses of my brain, in this setting I was transmuted back to my childhood prior to the events that molded my now professional life. Being in one’s hometown inevitably demands you again become a child surrounding by antiquated unchanging memories. It could be the prime example of “Nature vs. Nurture” with your surroundings demanding you once again submit to your uneducated youth. As with all sentimental occurrences one believes a strong defensive cognition should not be required to healthily survive. That is not the case here. Society, or rather the geriatric class of Americans never in my experience transfer the balance of power to their younger social class. They wield it competitively until they are dead. That humorously is the only time a young person can acquire a lucrative and fulfilling orchestral job, when a geriatric dies. Thus America is presented with again a continual dilemma about her future. Without an investment in her younger generation, how will the power and integrity of a once affluent country be ensured? While I was not thinking about this as I listened to this symphony concert, I was thinking about how disconnected I felt. I knew quite a bit about the music, and as I challenged myself to enjoy the concert it was necessary to engage my mind. Then I began asking myself without my cognitive reflective process could I enjoy the music? Without an understanding of harmony, form, rhythm, and style could this music communicate with me? A popular adage concerning jazz music is that you do not have to understand it. You only must be able to “feel” it. This throughout life has been a crucial part of my own philosophy of music. I would not be involved with music composition or jazz improvisation, unless I could express my own internal experiences and feelings. That is my sole inspiration for musical composition. In former years one always feels a need for acceptance by one’s peers, but in time that necessity dwindles with one’s own faith in America’s cultural society. Lastly you compose because it is meaningful to you. Isn’t this the best method? Charles Ives sold insurance to make a living thus protecting his own compositional musical aesthetic. Without this attitude the need to be commercially successful surely will take over, and the pure, quintessential, artistic compositional aesthetic will be lost. As I listened to Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, I could not help but be surprised. While fully understanding Beethoven was a composer of the classic period, what I was hearing sounded romantic to me. The dates l780-l790 surface in my head as being the height of the “Classic Period” in music history, yet this symphony sounded like Brahms to me. Then it began to sound more like Aaron Copland’s Rodeo. It was “pastoral” I though to myself, so how does a composer achieve such a feeling? The melodic themes because of the time period were diatonic. The chromaticism of Wagner and the “Romantic Period” were still years away, but Beethoven was a visionary. His Grossa Fugue pushed the classical tenants of composition also alienating him from some in traditional Austrian society. This is what I liked about Beethoven. He was one of my favorite composers. Upon listening to this particular work my pre-conceived notions about Beethoven were being challenged. First the pure bravura of Beethoven was altered with the theme of a “Pastorale.” There were folk elements that seemed to drive the work. “This is unusual for Beethoven,” I thought to myself. How far is Ireland from Vienna? The triple meter and almost Scottish “snap” motive meant I could be listening to an Irish Jig. One movement labeled Andante sounded like a Johann Strauss Waltz. “That was a little more plausible,” I thought. While these elements certainly were different than the Egmont Overture or Eroica Symphony of which I knew, certain telltale Beethoven devices were in play. His accompanying countermelodies and pizzicatos in the low strings came and went. “Ah, that I recognize!” Only once though through the devices of “Sturm Und Drang” was his traditional classic aesthetic heard. It came as the thunder I later found out after reading the program notes. Beethoven successfully pushed his own composing dynamic with the Symphony No. 6. In retrospect after the drama of the 5^th Symphony this piece would be a logical reaction to such bravura. The Romantic treatment of this orchestra disguised the true nature of what I knew to be Beethoven, but that was okay. I was feeling almost sickly sweet from a man known to be confident, pompous, and arrogant. Other themes seemed to be pushing toward the Romantic Period, so that also was okay. What I heard in Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 was similar. There were a slate of musical ideas reaching out to many time periods, ethnic backgrounds, and composers. Synthesizing them is the key and both pieces adequately achieved that goal. With only two pieces on the program, I experienced a wide range of musical ideas. With my own personal musical discomfort came a challenging of my own knowledge. Similarly to what happens in a ship band, you are not battling your own demons. You are battling the perceptions of others.

Rumor Has It, There is a Dilemma

The Dilemma is a successful version of Neil Simon’s anachronistic attempted comedic farce Rumors. When I went to see this movie, I was not sure for what I was in store. I saw a resurrection or second chapter of Vince Vaughn’s work in the Break Up. There even was a canal for his tour boat. In actuality The Dilemma, directed by Ron Howard, was an in depth sometimes heart-wrenching character study of two married couples whose husbands are partners in the auto business. I believe fully Vaughn stepped up to the plate and could be chosen M.V.P. of the sincere, passionate, emotional leading man role. While many of his emotional responses were honed in the The Break Up, the presence of two co-leading ladies, Winona Ryder and Jennifer Connelly, diverts the painful ones or eases them with comedic intervention. One does not know upon entering the theater what genre the movie is. It unfolds as a drama that successfully masquerades as a comedy. The King of Queens handles the other male role. Why is The Dilemma successful and Rumors not? In this case The Dilemma is not a farce. In Rumors Simon needs more preparation setting the scene of an act in the Theater of the Absurd or the Three Penny Opera. Somehow an exquisite mansion and formal wear imply nothing of a forthcoming what-should-be light-hearted comedy. Instead it is pretentious making the consequent attempts at comedy fail. The characters do not know whether to be lowbrow, highbrow, or what results naturally in his play, neurotic. Watching neurotic affluence, while probably natural in their own circles, is unnerving. It is like watching a car careening out of control down an embankment with no happy ending in sight. At least in the Dilemma this is something about which the King was compelled. Rumors should be in the suspense category like a cheeky Agatha Christy novel, something sure to doom a Broadway bound production. Rumors emerges as an unsuccessful attempt at theater. There were a few good ideas, but Simon didn't show the technique to pull it off. The Dilemma does pull it off. It allows human moments unknown to the audience to unfold, develop, and drive the plot absorbing you in the drama. It breathes, improvises, and eventually shows compassion, something lacking severely in Simon's Rumors. Rumors is stiff just like its characters. Ron Howard opens the film with a large dose of Jennifer Connelly’s affection possibly foreshadowing the ending. Her's and Vaughn's chemistry seemed genuine, more than his chemistry with Jennifer Anniston in the Break Up. That is why they broke up. This makes the movie more palatable as a comedy. It had a happy ending, at least for three. Kevin James's marriage did suffer the consequences of its fate. The discovery of his friend’s wife’s affair created the dramatic tension, and Vaughn's resulting neurosis was the film. Luckily as a good guy should Vaughn remained true to his would be spouse, stays off the gambling, and eventually is loyal to his friend and business partner. Although psychologically continually the movie insinuated Vaughn would come out the loser, he won. It was a triumph.

Let's play some rhythm changes on El Trumpeto!

The Not So Successful Rumors

While everyone seems to think a Neil Simon play inevitably will be a hit, I have to disagree with Rumors. After seeing a recent local performance of what was called a farcical comedy, I came out hating the play. Even, as with most theater performances I attend, my sincere effort to try and enjoy the play by supporting its actors was met with a queasy unliking to by the end torture at being trapped in the enclosed theater with those who seemed to love it. Symbolically it personified my own self prescribed war between those that love pop music and those who appreciate jazz and classical music. One is selfish, sickly sentimental, and inept at delivering a Freudian does of ID, and the other embraces the true human condition. As America seems to have forgotten, the ID is the driving force of human nature. If we as adults cannot continue to appreciate mature sexuality is our present from God for being human, we as a cultural and artistic county will continue down the road of despair. I, as a 48-year-old single adult male, have to self-medicate because of the lack of healthy sexuality in America. Everywhere I turn conversely I am confronted with gay rights. The message is not about being straight and nurturing humankind with what God intended. The message is about an aberrant behavior probably worthy of being accommodated but needing to be kept on the down low. That exactly is why past President Bill Clinton’s policy of “Don’t ask, don’t tell” worked. Making homosexuality a platform for notoriety is exactly why this local performance of Rumors failed. It didn’t deal with the real issues. It created a false platform for actors to be appreciated for their work, not the content of the play. This has been the trend in popular music for quite a few years now beginning with Glam Country. America, along with her cultural history, has abandoned the need for a far reaching and substantial philosophy of life. We have regressed into the most base consumerist society peddling shallow anodynes to a purposely uneducated populace for the financial gain of those who hold private stock. There is no money in art, so America would think. The artistic aesthetic, once valued and collected for the spiritual enlightenment of Americans, has been replaced with cheap immediate gratification commodity. With over 300 million cellular frequencies in use today, the mobile telephone distinctly has changed the cultural habits of America for the worse. The sheer necessity of having to ambulate to achieve social development has been bandaged with convenience, a convenience that has stymied the emotional dynamic that once fueled American popular music. How can art exist if there is no life? Rumors proved that. It did not exist, because there was no life. It was a farce so off the beaten track from what is now mainstream America, it almost was almost incomprehensible at least to me. I hated it. Hate is a strong word, but it is better to understand your suppressed feelings than suffer the consequence of depression. Acknowledging and understanding negative emotions is crucial for survival in the human race. Without being unpatriotic how can I express my vehement dislike of Rumors, a Neil Simon play? I can say that in l988 at the height of Reganomics and a recently created upper middle class, watching neurotic rich people behave badly may have funny. Today in our current social and economic climate it almost incited an Extreme Muslim type of reaction in me. “Why are these rich people being indulged in public at my expense?” They were not funny, and in a rare dichotomy it was on two discreet levels. The characters in the play were not funny, and the actors themselves were not funny. This raised the scenario if the play could have been successful with a different cast. Ask Ellen Chenoweth. Secondly is raised the scenario if the play could have been successful with a different director. Probably both are true. It would have saved the cast from humiliation, and only the play would have been bad. I kept hoping for that as the minutes tooled by. Unfortunately the dichotomy continued with no salvation, except for the utterance of a few profanities and some carpet crawling. It just didn’t work for me. Because it has been several decades since I have been exposed to the elite rich, luckily I had forgotten their vanity. The cruise industry in its tremendous favor has eliminated social class for the most part. Only recently on my last vessel did its ugly head rear condensed in one short sentence. “These guests’ money pays our salaries.” Suddenly my life as a cruise ship musician was reduced to Reganomics for the first time in ten years. I am working for the man, and I am being expected to do what the man says, not what my experience and education has taught me. That would be construed as talent, and as it now commonly should be known, America does not seek talent. How can that be true? Although I never once in my life have watched a reality or talent show on American television, I can instinctually say they have nothing to do with talent. The themselves are farces, much more successful ones than Neil Simon’s Rumors. I found myself throughout the dull narrative yearning for a Woody Allen moment, steeped in heterosexuality, warmth, and harmless self indulgence. Instead I got a grand peacocking glorification of the wealthy replete with their arrogance and expecting acceptance in society solely because of their money. It was repugnant to me, exactly like it was in the l980’s when I played music for the same social class. Both my retribution and salvation for hating the rich came from moving to the Midwest away from the South’s old money. I started a new life as a doctoral student and opened up my life forever away from the oppressive Good Old Boy network in place in the South. I was able to grow into an adult with an identity of my own, respected for who I was and what I believed, and accomplishing many of my personal artistic goals. It was blissful, and now it is over. Rumors proved that.

America is Not Swinging

America is not swinging. Wynton knows it, and now I know it. I have given this

issue the benefit of the doubt for about a year now. As time passes it becomes more and more apparent, America is not swinging. The funny thing is I feel like the bad guy, and I have been treated like the bad guy. It seems there is a huge conspiracy in music circles to keep it concealed that America is not swinging. Who could ever think that producing true feeling in music ever could be considered bad? I have to know who is responsible for this movement, this movement of no swinging. Was Louis Armstrong bad? Of course not, and we have a sizeable history that proves Louis Armstrong was swinging. Maybe he was the first swinger, because in jazz circles often he is given that title. The First Swinger. It was not Bix Biderbeck. Louis not only loosened up the rhythm of American popular music, but he constructed the first viable improvised solos. These two things directly are related to the expression of true personal feeling. I am not talking about any of the hype we see on television today that passes as music. We see pantomiming puppets pulling strings of guitars with absolutely not one drop of talent. Talent. That must be the defining word. No talent, and America is not swinging. I guess it is my sole responsibility to define talent and swinging so there will be a remote possibility that America could again begin to swing. Will he have to wait for an end to the depression? Glenn Miller swung his ass off all through World War ll. It seems then America wanted good feeling music. It seems America has been duped to believe the music that is being performed today falsely in “pop” style has good feeling. That only could be if there were no feeling. Stravinsky or Schoenberg said music was incapable of producing feeling of itself. Of course not. Do you hear a tree fall in the woods if you are not there? For a feeling to be created, there must be a human being present to synthesize the stimulus and create the appropriate or desired feeling. Can feeling be transmitted via music? I believe non-swinging America will agree that most of us would not listen to music if it did not MOVE us. That means moving our emotions, or creating and/or manipulating our feelings. The first time I heard true sadness personified in music, it was in a G.F. Handel concerto grosso slow movement. I asked myself how anyone could not perceive this music was meant to produce or purge human sadness? While visual art, especially Abstract Expressionism, can produce emotional responses the musical aesthetic has the most potential. That is because emotions are waves of varying frequency, and sound is waves of varying frequency. While only now is it becoming known that electromagnetic waves affect both our thinking and our emotions, even non-swinging America would admit the reason why we go to concerts is to have our emotions moved. Music can do it. Why then is non-swinging America replete to the core with non-swinging music? I have been asking myself this for a few years now. After watching a PBS fundraiser showcasing the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, I had to blog and expose their music for what it is not. It is NOT rock, yet non-swinging America seems not to notice. Rock music swings. The Beatles and the Rolling Stones proved that, and their great successes came from their swing. Today swing seems not necessary for some reason. It must be because America has become so self-centered or rather spiritually needed, that we cannot bare the notion of a band that knows more about music than us. Enter the worst idea ever in non-swinging America, Karioke. This is where the movement must have begun. Forget the band. Forget Louis Armstrong. I want to get up on stage drunk and try to sing. Let’s in one fell swoop demolish the successful and lucrative history of American popular music. Let’s create the MP3 and demand music be free to the listening public. Let’s emasculate the record companies that shaped our adolescence and allow music to be traded online instead. It all became about us, not the music and its musicians. Musicians are a dying breed. All one has to do is turn on the tube to see music is a dying craft. The Trans-Siberian Orchestra was the worst possible example of a hypocritical musical ensemble. Hiding behind the guise simply of playing some traditional classic music, this ensemble concocted a cinema-like live stage show that had zero musical content. Yes, they were playing the notes of Mozart, but it was not Mozart. Does non-swinging America need a Mozartian to explain why the music was shallow and empty? It was because either by neglect, sheer ignorance, or conscious misguided choice these musicians were playing mechanical, metronomic, sterile notes devoid absolutely of the elements that create feeling. I assume that they did not really want feeling music. They wanted a stage spectacle glorifying the self-centered listener. If one wanted actually to hear music, he would go to an orchestra or chamber music concert. Should this orchestra be allowed to rape Mozart for their own personal gain. I think Mozart, if he could rise from his early unmerited grave, would protest if he were rich. Then again if her were poor and was receiving royalties for the performance, he probably reluctantly would agree to the performance. What is it exactly of which I am writing? Phrasing, dynamics, tempi, and rhythmic feel. Playing the way the Trans-Siberian orchestra plays is easy. It takes no talent. It takes very little musical technique to play “their” way. All one has to do is watch and see if there is a kinesthetic connection between the musician and his/her instrument. Is there a connection? Is there a connection? Like Charlie Haden, the illustrious Ornette Coleman’s bassist, are they making love to their instrument? Are they even getting to first base? Are they trying, or are they just raping their instruments with insincere, unfeeling, disdain? Usually human beings become musicians because they feel a need to express themselves individually. They want to speak through their instruments. Why would anyone take the time to learn musical technique on an instrument, and then stop at the most crucial part of music production? I asked the three questions previously. Without phrasing, there are no sentences. With no sentences there can be no paragraphs. While the words seem to exist (notes) they are displayed in a jumbled barrage of unfeeling misunderstanding. This is the definition of “pop” style. It is a stagnant line of repeated notes. The elements that bring life to the notes are absent. Instead of the inherent quintessential expression possessed in the mind and soul of the composer and the piece, a bullshit theatrical circle jerk is concocted attempting to masturbate the crowd with jive attitude. The true nature of the music is ignored or worse not even recognized. Why play Mozart at all? Is this to what America has evolved in its musical community? The mass public demands Musica Reservata, the antique practice where the groups’ needs outweigh the importance of the composer’s music. There was a time when America appreciated Louis Armstrong. Is it that there is not in existence currently a musical artist that exhibits true talent, a deep philosophical understanding of music history, vast personal experience, and an ability to synthesize these elements into a moving musical performance? That is the requirement of a collegiate music program, and they are failing. Because the record companies have declined and personal glorification devices are fueling our weak economy, quality live and recorded music is at an American low. America is not swinging.

The New Scarlett Johansson

The long anticipated exposing of Scarlett Johansson’s voluptuous bare breasts is upon what Hollywood filmmakers should be doting. While the complete package of Halle Berry voraciously has satisfied most yearning adolescent males, the lineage of maturation on screen has great potential. Woody Allen successfully created a more adult and liberal role for Ms. Johansson in Match Point. The Island turned her into a full-fledged Hollywood screen beauty. The prudent preening of the once one-legged Grace Maclean could create box office history. What other child star has America seen who grew such bankable breats in such a short time? Jennifer Love Hewitt had hers in I Know What You Did Last Summer. They were a major visual focus of the film. Leelee Sobieski had hers in The Glass House. Lindsay Lohan and Kim Kardashian single-handedly launched their media careers with the leaking of home made sex tapes exposing their all ready developed bodies. Only Johansson’s breasts have developed on the silver screen like well-cultivated melons seeking the proper expose at the state fair. Who will provide the proper vehicle for such an exposure? Noel Black’s treatment of Betsy Russell in Private School for Girls created a cathartic adolescent sexual fantasy. Matthew Modine, dressed in drag, infiltrated the all girl dormitory of his object of desire Phoebe Cates. Russell, albeit with surgery-enhanced breasts, was given the appropriate seductive scenario for the exposure of her curvaceous cleavage to the then transvestite Modine. Johansson needs a similar scene in the appropriate movie, more tastefully coupling her own personally discovered sexual desires. Only with this personal awareness will the true power of her yet-to-be-uncovered breasts be released. It is a savvy art director and cinematographer who will harness the true potential much like Howard Hughes did of Jane Russell. The proper palette is crucial for the unveiling of what could be the most revered breasts in Hollywood. As with the passage of time creating children undoubtedly always has its consequences. It is fortunate Jennifer Connelly’s dark side has enabled her to continue acting in roles demanding deep emotional reflection. Her catalog is diverse and substantial. With her desire to act in dramatic roles came the slow demise of the exact same potential her breasts displayed in many Hollywood films. A pang of remorse must be felt at the dying of a once highly esteemed adolescent fantasy. Johansson stands firmly in a position to inherit the coveted grail of Best Hollywood Breasts only if they are exposed in exactly the right moment.

Heart and Soul

It seems the era of Obama increasingly is becoming one of non-convention. While an era attempts to define itself looking back at many periods in history, what will determine its major defining characteristics? The entertainment industry traditionally has had a sizable impact on pop culture, but will the current roster of artists stand any chance of influencing today’s America? Justin Biber? Lady Gaga? Katy Perry? Do any of these adolescent appealing performers stand a chance of usurping both the 60’s and 70’s monumental power of molding America’s social, political, and cultural habits? The answer is no and for one simple reason. America’s popular music once was focused on more substantial humanistic issues. There is a parallel between the current trend of popular music and America’s fallen economic leaders. Neither was concerned with anything other than immediate human gratification. Because of Napster, American record companies lost their power. Consequently artists have had to rely on the internet to market their music. Politically the last decade has seen a campaign of “Fear and Intimidation” fostered by Bush Jr. Political Correctness and Gay Rights have squeezed any remaining rebelliousness out of the American populace. We have become a generation of couch potato gamers concerned with nothing. Luckily with Egypt and Libya’s example Wisconsin has returned to something tangible in the history of America. They have resurrected the ghost of Jimmy Hoffa, protesting in the streets for union labor rights. Unfortunately with a swift slash of the pen Republicans in the Wisconsin Assembly, even with the picketing absence of democratic leaders, forced a vote in the wee hours of the morning passing legislation severely limiting workers rights. The process was a success, but much like the resulting Presidential election decided in the state of Florida by the Supreme Court, savvy lawmakers used their legal knowledge and political prowess to succeed in the vote. All the moxy in the world, while necessary in garnering spiritual support for truly American issues, cannot defeat lawyers. Still as a nation we are not sure whether to embrace them and their system or continue to spurn them like the Wall Street traders that led is into the current crisis. The quintessential battle between heart and mind, soul and reason, and logic and emotion continues. Maybe we need a few more lessons from Spock and Captain Kirk.

Tax the Rich

Arianna Huffington’s Huffington Post now represents a trend made viable by corporate deregulation under the George W. Bush administration. In the face of a continually decreasing American economy, the rich continue to try to acquire equity in products themselves are not able to create. This is the antithesis of the core philosophy of Capitalism, although in recent decades with a swell in Wall Street trading it is being perceived as the real McKoy. The Grass Roots movement in America best viewed in the lineage of the Gilded Age represents a viable model of economic prosperity in America. The buying and selling of companies on Wall Street is not. While it is obvious the chasm between the poor and the rich has grown since the Bush presidency, the disparity between the working class and affluent America always has been present. One only must turn on the tube or watch a spate of emerging retro 80’s flicks at the theatre to see this tenacious disparity continue. Memories of the Reagan Era are creating a sentiment that seems to be ever increasing in Hollywood. Likewise re-emergent mall landscapes are an eerie physical incantation attempting to raise the ghost of trickle down economics. It will be interesting to see if mainstream America bites. More realistically the creative and artistic mall scenarios probably will bite it themselves, because the pocket change America carried in the decade of the 80’s no longer exists. This dichotomy, an elitist economy on top of the real economy, is the fatal illusion that is impeding progress in America. While fiscal progress because of the government’s huge accruing debt is foremost in most people’s minds, jump-starting the economy via Capitalism is the only way to revitalize America. The corporate pattern of the last decade engineered by Bush Jr. is not the right model. It was an elitist model devised for those all ready possessing money. Reagan was more successful in his administration, because culture and education were at a high point in American history. Reducing tax rates for the rich for the first time from 70% to that akin of middle class America worked, because the rich invested their money back in the infrastructure of America. Unlike Wall Street cronies of this decade, they did not pocket the cash. This first emerging class of wealth saw the need to re-invest their monies in the system that was creating their lifestyles. We have seen an unparalleled greed in the American economy in the Bush and post Bush years favoring an earthly presence of the anti-Christ. Could this symbolically be the sign that the second coming of Jesus Christ is near, and the epic significance of 2012 is credible? Judging by media’s depiction of the crisis it seems otherworldly in nature. Could it be the quintessential battle between rich and poor has surfaced again as the metaphor for the battle between evil and good? Will we ever recover from this human-induced drama, or is some kind of spiritual intervention being summoned? Solutions to the economic crisis, while not intangible, seem to bathe themselves in the hypocrisy America has sported since its inception. For America’s economy to resurrect, the real philosophy of the America Dream must be reestablished, aid for the middle and lower classes must be provided, and the rich must be taxed.

Current State of Affairs

A few thoughts after a long respite from blogging. Leaving a ship always is difficult. The average working person in America knows nothing about living at sea for six months at a time, in a small room, with a same-gendered roommate of your non-choosing. Then acquaintances and your familiar working environment in the blink of an eye are all gone. After laborious travels you arrive at a different place (the cruise lines call “vacation”) and attempt to reorient your life. Many people experience an extreme depression at the sudden loss, or at least seeming loss and drastic change. Only with discipline and the power of mind are you able to integrate once again into American society. The memories are the luck of the draw, sometimes sentimental, sometime melancholic. You must decide what to remember and what to leave behind. It seems the lower southern half of the eastern seaboard is drastically polluted with what must be diesel micro-dust.

Even in Nassau the air was fowl with aroma of the burning of fossil fuels. To a cruise guest this must not seem like a vacation, only a re-visiting of what has become the stark reality in America. Also the violence seems to increase proportionately as you drive south with Miami being the sole destination. Did not Florida used to be a tourist state? Only American musicians have any real grasp of American music. What must cruise lines continue to fill their bands with Europeans with no interest or ability in Motown, Jazz, or R&B music? Television has become trite propaganda produced for what must be attention deprived idiots. Corporate merging has dispensed with any system of Checks and Balances simply in the attempt to earn the coveted quarterly revenue for which prostrate shareholders desire. Wall Street once again has cursed the real economy of Capitalism and mainstream America. Soon, as predictions would have, a giant computer will rule the earth. Those without God will be left fighting on the deteriorating earth until their deaths. Many historic cultures believe the world will end in 2012. Y2K was pigeon poop compared to what is to come. Multi-Culturalism voraciously was murdered by Globalization furthering the economic and social gap between the rich and the poor. How can the rich perceive skating and bicycling as threatening in any way? They used to be methods chosen to ambulate to businesses. Now they are perceived as a grievous threats to elitist society. Gas prices again are rising. It has become apparent an evil dictator is on the take solely from the U.S. After being forced from power by effective but deadly public protests instigated by Facebook posts, he makes off with billions received for exercising sovereignty strengthening the rights of the U.S. to use the Suez Canal for transportation of black gold. The U.S. is experiencing the highest budget deficit in history, and that even with President Obama’s budget proposal, seems never to be fulfilled. Is a coup imminent?

How to Carve on Your Skate Board

While there are two approaches to carving, the most effective method of cornering sharp bowls or curved transitions is to separate the upper half and lower half of your body. The 2 legs must be able to move independently and twist in the opposite direction of the torso. Your waist is a pivot. The thighs move in tandem like the movement in the dance “The Twist” and freely follow distribution of weight instigated by the upper body and arms. You in effect are torquing your entire body throwing your upper body and arms in a circular motion instigating the carve or turn. The lower body follows the movement pivoting on the back trucks and wheels sometimes utilizing the “kickturn” as a method to make the turn when it is to tight to carve with the wheels on the wall or bank. Both things should happen simultaneously with the upper body twisting in the direction of the carve, and the lower body doing a normal carve with the feet in normal carving position. Basically the knees remain close together like slalom snow skiing or slalom water skiing, and the pivot actually occurs below the knees. Because you are vertical and in a tight curved transition the throwing twisting motion of the upper body is needed drive through the carve at the apex of your upward line to the coping. If you did not use the torque of the upper body to rotate the carve, chances are you would continue on your upward line and out of the top of the pool. Because of the steep angle of the vertical wall and because your body is perpendicular to the transition it is difficult to use the angle of your ankles to push the leading edge of the board back into the pool. This is way you must carve on the back trucks in a tight radius. You could consider the carve a carving kickturn dragging your back foot to stabilize your speed. When kickturning a carve to help make it, differently you are using your weight distributed on the leading edge of the board to bring it back into the pool.

"Don't Ask, Don't Smell"

In true fashion of the Californian judicial system, Federal Judge Virginia Phillips slipped in the back door of the Department of Defense a worldwide injunction immediately stopping President Clinton’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy from l993. Sidestepping Congress completely and the probable desires of the American majority, Judge Phillips plead in favor of the Log Cabin Republicans, a gay advocacy Republican group. While covertly her ruling could be seen as an Obama success (his administration tried to slip in the repeal as pork in the recent defense spending bill), Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates speculated that an abrupt ending to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” would have enormous consequences for the troops. We are at war. The federal government is deciding whether to appeal the decision, despite their own previous attempt to repeal the what most people consider anachronistic legislation. If Obama does appeal most pundits believe the courts temporarily will lift the injunction while the appeals process commences. The question here is whether the ruling stands for the good of the many or the good of the few. While personal civil liberties are important in the Constitution, rulings concerning the masses or class actions have more far reaching ramifications. In certain situations where many victims suffer at the hands of a law-breaking culprit, a class action is appropriate and can be helpful. For a spiritual and private liberty and one that can fall under the aesthetic of religion, legislating a global injunction affecting the entirety of America’s military would be a mistake. No one seems to be making a case for the adverse consequences of “Gay in the Military.” While the gay contingency continues it pursuit of American civil liberties, no one really wants to openly say sexual preference is a religious issue. Likewise religion in general and a belief in God has been spun as unpopular by many large media conglomerates. For whom is it elected officials are going? Hispanics? Black? Gays? Sexual harassment is not bridled just to heterosexuality, and until that issue is confronted in terms of a largely male fighting force often cloistered together in remote areas, real enlightenment over the effects of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” will not be found. While homosexuality on television is a relatively tame affair, anyone that attends any of the many gay activist activities immediately would see what aberrant behavior is possible behind the close doors of same sex bunking. For the many well adjusted and couple homosexuals living common lives with no outward vigil, the repealing of the legislation could seem Constitutional. Why can’t homosexuals openly serve in the military? It is because the military is unlike any civilian organization. Civilians do not form battalions, brigades, or platoons. Civilians do not eat, sleep, and work together as a huge cooperating force. Civilians do not spend long hours forced together in extreme and often dangerous situations. It is for these reasons the Department of Defense has launched a probe in the effect of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” which are forthcoming on December 1^st. Any attempt to change the law before them, no matter how California-appropriate, would be a mistake. Fruits, flakes, and nuts don’t necessarily represent the best interests of the national security of this country. They tend to represent their own, which is proven again and again in California’s judicial system. Homosexuals are not celebrities, although they seem to want to be.

Pop's Box

What is “pop” attempting to say? Without an authoritative study of the history of “pop” as a musical style, some inferences deserve to be made. First the “Pop” charts in America give this rhythmic style a particularly high place in American music history. The “charts” or ranking as determined by Billboard Magazine or Rolling Stone recognize “pop” as a discreet musical style. Somehow “pop” music inherently sells and therefore makes money. Who was it that determined that this particular style was the choice of America’s masses, and what is it about “pop” that creates such a valuable commodity? Covertly hundreds of bands seemed to understand this phenomenon and without opening a musical cans of worms exploited this “style” to benefit themselves and their record companies. It must be assumed that this particular “style” of music lent itself well to the histrionic stage presentation that accompanied it. Was it really this style of music accompanied the histrionic stage presentation itself? This author believes the latter to be true, and that “pop” music was the perfect vehicle for such an exhibition. The greatest example of the validity of this statement is the band AC/DC. Upon casual acknowledgement AC/DC seems to be a heavy metal band. If one is sitting at a bar and hears AC/DC on the jukebox, it is most likely a clangorous cacophony of banging garbage can lids will ensue and one will become annoyed if not all ready versed in the art of Angus Young. This was my experience. I heard or felt nothing that engaged me in any way. That is because AC/DC is a “pop” band. They are not a rock or heavy metal band in the sense of Aerosmith or Metallica. While this might be surprising to most, it seems the same secret exists for fans of AC/DC as the hundreds of bands that exploit this style. Angus Young, while appearing to be full of vitriol, covertly is a softy. He pantomimes grand kinetic gestures, but when it comes to striking the strings of the guitar his touch is a soft as a kitten’s belly. This was surprising, perplexing, and alarming to me as a fellow musician. How could it be I had spent forty years perfecting my touch on the piano, embodying strength, power, tonal clarity, and dynamic nuance, and this man barely touches the strings of the guitar and represents hundreds of thousands of angst ridden adolescent youths who buy AC/DC’s records? It simply was not fair. How did he accomplish such a feat? The underlying secret of pop music’s success is such. While I cannot explain the universal appeal of the “pop” rhythmic feel, I can describe the technique that controls it. It ain’t much. In fact there is little to describe. There is no “clave” or interesting rhythmic pattern. There is nothing even that proves “pop” music is in 4/4 time, unless you define that by the chord movement. Like African music utilized by the fusion band Weather Report (who were the first to perform semi-commercial music in a ¼ time signature) pop really is in ¼. So is the music of Count Basie. Perhaps this is what makes “pop” so universally appealing. There is NO grouping of the quarter note to define actual bars of music. “Pop” music is just a string of eighth notes that go on interminably, just like a porno soundtrack. It takes no thought to digest the music, because one basic element of music of the holy trinity of three, rhythm, does not exist. As it does it is the most base level to what rhythm can be reduced while still qualifying as music. This foundation supplies the necessary framework for the grandstanding of alter musical egos on stage. It appears that “pop” musicians represent fire, pathos, and virility, but underneath there is nothing.

Poppy Cock

The West Coast’s seeming reaction to the heated pyrotechnics of the East Coast’s Bebop during the l950’s could be seen as a parallel to Europe’s own dichotomy of Classical versus Romantic styles. Romanticism followed Classicism as a musical “style,” but Cool Jazz usually is seen as a reaction to the precursory musically aggressive style of Bebop. Bebop was the Rock ‘n’ Roll of jazz music, while the Cool School was Adult Contemporary. The only difference was the series. The refined eloquence of the High Classic Style preceded the emotional and personally expressive style of Romanticism. The constraint and seeming distance of the Cool followed the energy and aggressiveness of Bebop. It is just a matter of where you tune in. Pop music in America merits its own study, because although pop is a derivative style it inherently possesses some of the same contrasting musical elements represented in both of the former examples of music lineage. What is America’s pop music attempting? Hip Hop was in popular music’s case the precursor to Pop. It was anti-establishment. It was aggressive. It was raw. It felt good, and you could feel it in your body. While its themes were controversial, often violent, and misogynist the rhythmic concept of Hip Hop was very similar to America’s jazz music. Who knew it swung? That itself historically must define part of the expression of Hip Hop music and why it dissolved. Jazz it is said dissolved in the bottom of a whiskey bottle. What happened to Hip Hop? Evidently more skill was needed to produce Hip Hop than was known, because after the elimination of quite a few of Hip Hop’s major figures the music began to flounder. Cheap electronic imitations began to surface as corporate America attempted to capitalize on Hip Hop’s former influence. The effort was not successful, and modern R&B has not recovered. Instead Pop music became the music of choice for America’s airwaves. How did this happen? First was the disappearance of sample loops, something that ensured Hip Hop always would have an engaging rhythmic feeling. Sampling hit records is not a bad way to ensure the success of your future project. With sampling could have come a neglect for the artistry of live music performance. While this was not so evident at the time, it could have had long lasting ramification for the music industry. If A&R money evaporated with the emergence of iTunes, then the focus of music became not live performance but preconceived, prepackaged, prepared “Boy Bands.” Corporate producers became the major purveyors of popular music shaping the sounds we would come to hear on America’s airwaves. Was this a successful movement? With this trend came the reliance upon pre-recorded tracks and a computer-created click. Tethered to this dragon bands would begin to lose the ability to improvise. Their music became a corporate created product void of the traditional angst driving and accompanying most teen-oriented pop music. While there may have been angst visible on stage, the skill of manipulating it musically and extemporaneously began to get lost. The Greatful Dead officially were dead. Cruise ship bands did not help this movement. With a decline in quality of music education, young musicians now were surfacing that had heard nothing other than America’s own choosen insipid pop music. They were programmed to believe that by conforming to this now created construct of seeming money production, they were satisfying the requirements of the art of music production. In fact there is no art involved at all. Unlike both the Cool School and Bebop, pop require no soul connection whatsoever. Often the vocal can express some emotion, but the underlying rhythmic feel inherently is incapable of stirring anyone’s soul or feet. The pop rhythm comes from the strumming of the guitar, and people’s dancing feet are in no way related to this rhythmic concept. That could be pop’s major downfall, because it fails miserably to connect with the human body unlike much of America’s previous popular music. Why has pop remained “popular” in America? Simply it is because it takes no musical skill whatsoever to create it. While techniques are required to play the notes, no rhythmic feeling is necessary making the instrumental accompaniment to vocals impotent. It seems some contingency of America has grown to love this tepid, submissive, and vaporous music. Could it be the same contingency that supports homosexuality? While that may seem like an extreme conclusion, many of the passive traits associated with this sexual transgression are exhibited in pop music. Pop music is music “in-the-box.” It is performed within the construct of a box. It is not free. It is not romantic. It is conformist at the highest level of conformity and in no represents the previous tenets of America’s music. It is Politically Correct. It is Conservative. It is nothing, and the quickly America moves on the more successful we will be at rebuilding a viable, virile, potent America free to express the deepest of her soul driven concerns.

America's Middle Class Jobs

The news continually is reporting the American job market has not recovered from the recession. Middle class jobs in particular are scarce after massive corporate cuts to shore up those reeling from a huge Wall Street economic break down. While in the short term it is easy to cast blame on the pooling and selling of sub prime mortgages on the open market, other historical and far reaching political decisions have sealed the fate of America’s middle class. NAFTA or the North American Free Trade Alliance, a watershed institution under past President Bill Clinton, failed miserably and caused the peso collapse of South America. It seems those Mexican workers were not quite ready for the amount of hours Asians spend in their sweatshops. The venture capital evaporated as dreams of employing millions of Mexicans at cheap prices vanished. Many lost their life savings as Mexican “workers” continued their own cultural habits. Interestingly enough many of the same workers “flew the coop” penetrating the Texas/Mexican border seeking work as illegal aliens. This is an issue unto itself, and the employment status of these workers eventually will appear before America’s Supreme Court. Should businesses be penalized for utilizing the help of these willing workers? Since Americans themselves are unwilling to pursue these hard labor farm-oriented jobs, why shouldn’t practical businessmen capitalize on their willingness to work? It seems the fertile soil of America laced with the American Dream is more appealing than the rituals of South America. Conversely the continuing displacement of America’s middle classed jobs would point in another direction. It was not that long ago corporations began establishing hubs in foreign countries, and Argentina was a prime choice. These were middle-classed jobs, and a college education and relocation were required. To find a good middle classed job today one must relocate to a foreign country? It seems to be a dichotomy. Middle class jobs that require college always have been scarce therefore competitive in America. Now that corporate America has “out-sourced” many of their total jobs, these jobs are even more scarce here. America’s job market now is not in America. Was this the goal of “Globalization?” While the dismantling of the Berlin Wall and the eradication of the Cold War could have been painted as a national defense issues, wasn’t the opening of global “markets” the goal? America is a Capitalist nation, therefore dollars are needed to ensure the long term economic security of here citizens. How was this to be accomplished exporting her jobs to India and China? As corporate America always has deemed appropriate, they pay the bottom line for free market labor and keep the rest for themselves and their shareholders. Is this the American way? Buying and selling shares of companies on Wall Street seems to be the downfall of Capitalism if it is accomplished greedily and with spite for the American middle class. Religion could play a role here, as our forefathers all ready knew. Capitalism with no conscience is evil. That candidly was proven with Wall Street’s aberrant behavior concerning sub prime lending. The repealing of the Glass/Steagall Act did not help. Allowing what once were discreet financial institutions to merge and interact without the watchful eye of the federal government created a new breed of upper class criminal. Maybe it was destined to occur. It could be the unspoken catalyst for the coup waiting to transpire in America. Luckily or not Obama came to the rescue and George Bush’s head was spared in the public square. Ironically although Clinton was an effective president in many ways, his precursory political legislation fertilized things that were to come. He and Bush’s heads have been spared. Speaking candidly about this situation is the only way to open discussion for the reemergence of America’s middle class. These jobs must come from somewhere, and if corporate America is not given some incentive to bring these manufacturing jobs back to America’s home soil, it will not occur. People keep shouting over these jobs. “I am disappointed with Obama’s lack of success decreasing unemployment in his short tenure as President.” While Clinton himself believes “Green Jobs” are the key, America as a Capitalist country must produce a Gross National Product. We must produce something and not just money. The pipe dream of manipulating money with no means of production is gone. The federal government must realize that to return to her former greatness, pride must return over America’s products.

Count Basie's Pop Music

When I play a big band gig on piano, eventually and inevitably the director will ask me to play like Count Basie. Each time it happens I cringe a little bit, because I forget that playing piano in a big band has very little to do with jazz music. Although Count Basie is considered to be a jazz pianist, his big band was a dance ensemble. I did not know this when I was playing his music in college. We just enjoyed playing swing-oriented music in an ensemble that offered more freedom of expression than the traditional wind ensemble or orchestra. The jazz ensemble was appealing to us because you got to “cook” a little bit. You also got to “solo.” It seemed hip, hipper than the square classical music the other music students were studying to perform. In my undergraduate days I was ignorant of jazz music history. A good historical jazz education was difficult to come by in the early l980’s, especially at the undergraduate level. There were only about ten universities then that offered a D.M.A. or Phd. in jazz studies. It was said because the music was so young a significant enough amount had not passed to amass the relevant pedagogy. Jazz also was shunned because of the interconnected drug culture. The “Ivory Tower” didn’t understand that drug use did not necessarily thwart art. Jazz musicians I found out later used alcohol and drugs to help facilitate the euphoric personal expression necessary for the realization of quality jazz music. Although Miles Davis, one of jazz music’s iconic creators, created his voice from a mainly melancholic type of expression, swing music should be considered “happy” music. Miles changed this, and with his new direction he changed jazz music for good. If you need a diversion from the “happy” swing music Miles should be your choice. While it would be wrong and stereotypical to call all jazz happy music, swinging could and should be considered a happy musical style. Upon examination most music scholars probably would agree that to “jazz it up” is to bring a kind of happy personal feeling to the music. The perfect example of this dynamic is the piece “The St. Louis Blues March” performed by the Glen Miller Orchestra. Miller, after enlisting in the United States army, created the first successful military, commercial music reliant, propaganda music force in American history. While “nationalism” had been in place as a music tenet in many European countries, an American Tchaikovsky or Wagner hadn’t necessarily been discovered. Miller, in an ingenious conception, actualized a plan that satisfied many high profile demands. First he offered his services to the war effort like many young Americans were forced to do resulting from military conscription. Second he created a U.S.O.-type of internal troop moral building music machine. Third he advanced the art form of swing-oriented music. Fourth he cleverly advanced his own personal music career. All of this was accomplished utilizing swing-oriented music. Miller’s accomplishment alone proves the value of swing music, but also pigeonholes its own musical potential to “happy” music. Miles resulting musical commentary could be seen as a reaction to the preceding dance-oriented big band music. The outlawing of dance floors in clubs during the war did not help. A new type of music had to be created that of itself possessed the capability to keep listeners tuned in. That music was Bebop. Bebop was seminal in the development of jazz music, because by its own definition it was music solely for its artists and proponents. Bebop musicians relished the concept their music was not “for the man” and not for dancing. It was a strong individual reaction and evolution of civil liberties spurred by the slavery experience in America. The feeling of the blues developed in the fields of the American by slaves could be considered what brings soul to swing music. Similarly the early jazz musicians of Louisiana were familiar with the street funeral dirges inherent in New Orleans culture. The feeling of sadness was a crucial part of human expression and thus deserved to be preserved in jazz music. The funeral parade with their “Second Line” would sing the lament of death, and upon burial of the individual would celebrate their resurrection to heaven. How does Count Basie relate to this history? The definition of a jazz ensemble as a dance entity effects the freedom of rhythm. Because dancers demand a steady uncompromising “beat,” this requirement takes precedence over the individual musician’s personal expression. Count Basie’s orchestra with Freddie Greene as guitarist is the most obvious example of this limitation. While Basie’s arrangment are musically interesting in melody and harmony, the rhythmic concept that came to define them is historical “pop” music. A constant strum of quarter notes on the guitar of itself is not musically interesting. What it does do is satisfy the apparent need of the pop music patron, a simple, continual, rhythmic pulse providing a base for a melody. Consequently is it academically correct to call Basie’s music derivative? While they were doing all that they could to continue working, and resultantly were advancing big band music it should be noted that The Count Basie Orchestra was not the highest achievable example of swing-oriented big band music. It is the most popular because it was the most well-known.

Gays in the Military

The absurdity of placing the value of one’s sexuality above one’s career security can be exemplified by a UNC-Chapel Hill undergraduate’s grievous mistake of “coming out” her senior year to senior ROTC officials. Almost at the completion of a full ROTC scholarship at one of America’s finest institution, this cadet had the bright idea that her sexual preference somehow became more important than her lifelong love of the military and her dream of becoming a military officer. What was she thinking? Often in adolescence where love is a primary part of an individual’s self-perception, selfish emotions drive achievement. Only later in life after educational and social maturation occur does the need to control one’s emotions with the mind become more important. It is possible this grievous mistake was necessary in beginning this process of development. American culture with its capitalist root does not help young people’s schooling on love and sex. Without the necessary (but often disdained) intervention of religion or education, there is naught left to assure young Americans can make an enlightened decision regarding their sexual definition. The task of separating one’s sexuality from the ranks while in America’s armed forces could seem overwhelming. For this reason “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was created and suggested by then Secretary of State Colin Powell to President Bill Clinton. It was a simple plan. It said that gay soldiers, if not in uniform, could not be persecuted if they attended gay bars or participated in gay rallies. It was a simple modest plan that promoted both humbleness and humility, a combination that took into consideration religions’ labeling of homosexuality as sodomy. Only without this contingency could homosexuality be considered moral. With the continuing surge of homosexuality in America whether coincidental or not, major institutions have taken pot shots at Christianity in the last few years. It seems the gay agenda has been put into place and a large populace still is attempting to gain its acceptance into mainstream American society. Why are homosexuals so concerned about defining a public platform with which to define themselves with an issue traditionally private and discreet? America itself has struggled with the commercialization of sexuality, and in most cases this actualization has proven a failure. America’s social conscious over decades decided to replace the sometimes bawdy and depraved and not-so-inconspicuous display of commercially available sex in Times Square in New York City. Who is to say it was a success? Disney and sex seem to be polar opposites. Was it appropriate that the Lion King replaced Linda Loveless? It can’t be mistaken that America has puritan roots, roots often that desire to be overlooked. If asked if Shaker, Amish, or Quaker customs would be acceptable to most modern Americans, unequivocally the answer would be no. It has been up to Larry Flynt to decide the dividing line between conservative and liberal sexuality in America. It is true America is based upon principles of freedom, and it is understandable that homosexuals are seeking asylum like many oppressed immigrants. “Give me your tired, your poor.” The difference here is a religious issue, one that must be mitigated by God. Literal translation of educational scriptures are anachronistic, so it is conceivable homosexuality may not buy you a ticket to hell. The reluctance to accept what traditionally has been perceived as immoral behavior into America’s mainstream is understandable. Its acceptance into the modern American military armed forces should be delayed until a greater understanding is achieved.

Pop Art

As much as I try to love “pop” music I can’t. After nine years of collegiate study in music and after two years of desperation studying the style and trying to recognize its financial contribution to American history, still I cannot love it. I’m sorry. There is nothing to love. “Pop” music is just that. What? Some people consider “pop” a shortening of the world “popular.” “Like, admired, or enjoyed by many people” could be an anthem for the world derivative defined as “having a value deriving from an underlying variable asset.” That is true in the sense of a pure music education. “Pop” music is nothing of itself. It only can be defined by other more tangible underlying musical ideas. Why then must “pop” music exist at all? The reason is simple. Music is an art form, and because music has become such a crucial part of the American ideal an easy way needed to be developed to realize it with no skill. “Pop” music is folk music, music for the folks. The interesting thing is the “folks” in America always seem more intelligent than expected when interviewed on television. Why then must we subject the folks to such inane music? The reason is simple. Money. Commercial music at one time in America was a high art form. In the l930’s through the year two thousand, viable music sound stages existed in film, television, and radio that gainfully employed high level musicians. These were predicated by a high degree of music education and performance skill. Music was operating as an art form, and hence the artistic ideal was part of film, television, and radio. That is not necessarily true today. Modern day music media companies are attempting to clone previous successful music vocations, but without the necessary education and experience producing music, their product is falling short. They are attempting to produce an art form without the meaning, feeling, or substance. It is a crutch. It is substituting for “education,” the process of attempting and failing, an immediate gratification without peering into one’s soul. If one sits in front of a computer all day and never makes an effort to talk to another human being, how can we consider ourselves a social nation? This has been the trend of this entire decade driven by technology that attempts to do just that, substitute a shallow seemingly pleasant mantra for what should be a “hard knocks” school of growing pains. It is soft-core porn. I prefer the hard-core kind where you get your hands dirty and experience a tactile and tangible reward or response from an effort driven by desire. Desire is what motivates, and it used to be what motivated musicians. It still might, but the desire for money is what is motivating commercial music houses today. With a lack of mainstream from which to draw inspiration, the commercial musical community eventually will have to return to the collegiate classroom to find its roots.

"Don't Ask, Don't Tell"

Upon a casual reading of the definition of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in Wikipedia, it should be obvious to the most dense American the integrity of our nation’s fighting forces should be more important than an individual’s sexual preference. The depth of Wiki’s definition alone should mandate that a casual attachment of the Murphy Amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act would be shortsighted. While the repealing of relevant portions of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was supposed to be contingent upon the completion of a study by the Department of Defense on its effectiveness and long term ramifications, it appears the casual and immoral approach of American sexuality erroneously has been extrapolated to law making. A social issue that directly affects the national security of the United States demands a more in depth study, one that stealthly should not be attached to other legislation as “pork.” As America recognized the “Separation of Church and State” as a fundamental part of our Constitutional responsibility, the “Separation of the Military and Sexuality” should remain a humble and discreet process. “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” has been corrupted. Absence of integrity out of sight of the eyes of authority both in the ranks and administration has bred abuse. Witchhunts were common attempting to segregate probable homosexuals from the mainstream of the military. This not only existed in the military, but America’s views on homosexuality are changing at the urging of television. It has become common in the last decade for the casual needs of pop culture to at least attempt to instill their value system in mainstream American education. With the lack of funding and emphasis on America’s public education, the value system of an undefined and unstudied contingency has crept into our consciousness. With the vacating of America’s middle classed manufacturing jobs little has been left to define a mainstream. The often contempt for Christianity in America has left a segregated, selfish, and undisciplined population that is bathing in a false security. A misrepresentative “pop” culture has created a soft and malleable bandaid attempting to cover the festering wounds of a continuing “Campaign of Fear and Intimidation.” Music, once a potent force of change in the expression of American ideals, has become a depressive narcotic anesthetizing America to the real soul moving vibrations necessary for a thriving economy. The mis-education continues. Amy Poehler’s comedic narrative last night on the season premiere of Saturday Night Live summed up the much-too-casual approach to repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” While representing one interpretation of “Gays in the Military,” her conclusion fell horribly short of the possible long term socio-psychological effects of mainstreaming homosexuality in a traditional heterosexual protective fighting security force. It is true and apparent that being shipped to Afghanistan for several years risking your life for your country is not much of a reward for “Seeing someone’s pee pee in the shower.” Unfortunately that does not scratch the surface of the common practices of homosexuality in the military. Saccharin pop sensibilities once again are attempting to soften America’s once lofty and respectable ethical and moral values. Media continue to bathe what once was a stark, visceral, and educational process of socialization of young Americans with tepid, shallow, temporary sensory anesthesia. A more appropriate depiction of “Gays in the Military” would be one of the many gay military porn sites. In Fayetteville, North Carolina officers in the army actively recruited young enlistees to participate in their gay sex videos placed online for a profit. This type of abuse of authority and exploitation of a nurturing environment much more is representative of the probable corruptions of “Gays in the Military.” The repealing of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” would open the door for such illicit and depraved sexual activity to continue. There once was a time when the mainstream in America clearly was defined and social, religious, cultural, political, and socio-economic habits were much more clear. We are living in an age of spin where our political parties, once defined and respectable organizations, have succumbed to the tribal barbarianism of the ethnic and religious sects of the Middle East. They lob fire bombs at each other while the diplomatic communicative processes that ensure any nation evolve shrink further away masked by convenient sound bites and iPhone text. While our starving economy needs Gross National Product, all of the convenient telecommunications products in the world cannot replace a traditional American “Readin’, Writin’, and Rithmatic” education. The influx of net technology into our schools has transformed the educational process into arch enemy number one. Many of America’s once tried and true virtues casually have been replaced by a non-proactive, complacent, and lethargic acceptance of original sin. We are weak as are gay men. If given a choice, if Islam Extremists invaded your town would you want gay men fighting for you? Pink sarongs, spiked heels, and wigs are no match for the bullets of angry Muslims






.

Lay Off Obama!

It would be a near impossibility for one man to turn around the status of the badly tattered United States economy. The shortsighted need for immediate gratification, like an epidemic, is haunting President Barak Obama’s relatively new administration. It would be a grievous error to call it fledgling, because fledgling it is not. In stark contrast to its tabloid television media coverage, Obama’s administration systematically has been enacting legislation to turn the social and financial systems around in America. Many people have been confused by the serialization of those acts. Obama had no choice first to take the reins of the TARP bailout money. As much of the country demanded they quickly passed an economic stimulus package rightly that produced its own bastard political party. The “Tea Party” was begun, and there was nothing wrong with objecting to the “Porkulous.” The county as a whole still has no idea whether the emptying of America’s pocketbook at the expense of Wall Street was helpful. Have any jobs been created? It was a necessary gamble in an attempt to stabilize our economic infrastructure hoping and opting for employment in the future. In retrospect now we all know it was a heinous atrocity that was abused corporately like a Catholic alter boy. So was Communism.
His second overlooked, misunderstood, and erroneously politically disparaged legislation was “Universal Healthcare.” Again the need for the continuing gratification of the wealthy demands attention from Obama in response to his call for the coverage of America’s forty million uninsured citizens. As per the quintessential nature of Conservatism, why would the wealthy, privileged, and empowered want any change? They are afraid of a “restructuring” of Americas entitlement system, historically one that can serve the poor and middle class depending upon whether a democratic or republican administration is in power. The appropriate response to America’s wealthy comes from the movie “A Few Good Men.” Fundamentally we are supposed to fight for those who are not strong enough to fight for themselves. Unfortunately like the abuse of the TARP funds, this process itself becomes abused breeding yet another bastard entity, the lazy poor. They and the illegal immigrants who are taking advantage of America’s entitlements enrage republicans as they should. What is difficult is isolating the deserving undeveloped, overlooked, and underachieving Americans that need a leg up. It would stand to reason immigration reform is likely occurrence following the serial of Obama legislation.
It is wise to take a moment to digress and speak loudly that….. THE WAR IN IRAQ IS OVER! On time and as planned America’s troops are LEAVING IRAQ. This is huge news, but it is not surprising that America’s media has given it little attention. They are continuing the same pattern of partisan and republican partial reporting of Obama the wealthy desire. It clearly is media bias.
Without citing his entire presidential history, it is necessary to quell the minutia of America’s minority vocal demand that one man solve economic problems that began with the Clinton Presidency. While effective as a president the enacting of NAFTA and the repealing of The Glass-Steagall Act both were the founding of the economic crisis that festered during George W. Bush’s tenure as president. Obama merely stepped in at the worst possible moment, a probably reason why the first African-American was elected president. It would be nice if Christian America would “Give a brother a hand.”

Obama the Martyr

Despite the ongoing smear campaign by the Republican-led telecommunications industry, President Obama like a martyr continues to rebuild America’s socio-economic infrastructure after its decimation by the Bush Administration. It is a large task healing the weeping wounds left by the Bush Administration. Considering Americans have been left coldly in the lurch by industry, how are we expected to put food on the table and a roof over our heads? Starkly but not surprisingly America during the Bush regime became a country of the wealthy and privileged. The essence of our constitution was tainted by Bush’s greedy, egocentric, and unchristian legislation favoring only the rich. Now abstract tenants of the “American Dream” that citizens have enjoyed for decades have become a vapor evaporating vehemently and tenaciously resisting Allah’s Christian-like mantra. How could America’s constitution spiritually have been tainted, and right and good been made bad and evil? It was a formidable task, but one that the Bush Administration seems to have completed aptly. The hypocrisy is the media continues to paint the opposite picture. If Obama is the socialist how can we explain the government employed 60% of the population before his emergence into the Presidency? America always has been a socialist nation disguised by the desired and fought for privileges of capitalism. Someone has to fund capitalism, and it always has been the government. With Bush’s exit from the Presidency, he took that funding. Now America’s private citizens are left holding empty pocketbooks. It took a thief and Bush was a clever one. Just as he got the hell out of Dodge, he stuck his hand back in America’s purse and stole the bounty for his friends. It could have been the most controversial political act in the history of the nation. Anywhere else Bush would have been beheaded in the public square. Here in a politically correct nation of indoctrinated submission by a campaign of fear and intimidation, Americans have been threatened like vulnerable jews in Poland and squeezed inadvertently into their own private gas chambers. The question now is in spite of Obama’s heroic efforts to right the wrong, has America’s concept been maimed permanently? Can anyone even remember how America used to work? Is it conceivable America can ever return? How can the success of a country be left only on one man’s shoulders? If America quickly does not reinvigorate its educational system caring about its future leaders, the America we have always known will become a myth. Baby Boomers are not the fuel this country and this economy needs. America cannot afford to fund its privileged anymore. It has to begin anew with a grass roots effort to reinvigorate capitalism as it was meant to function, what products Americans need and the best domestic men provide them. China and India do not enter into the equation. The aristocracy hiding America’s lost fortune will not last forever.

The Timothy McVeigh Tapes

While grotesque in appearance the biography of Timothy McVeigh’s convictions through hundreds of hours of recorded cassette tapes on MSNBC offers a telling expository narrative of a post traumatic Desert Storm veteran. Skilled and cunning McVeigh was indoctrinated by non other than the American armed forces during Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait. After viscerally living a life of combat against terrorist forces, McVeigh found despondency returning to the continental United States. A mundane life of daytime television and fast food could not meet the expectations of a tried and true war veteran. After suffering a year’s tenure of depression and post- traumatic stress, McVeigh in a futile attempt began to conceive his own vigil based upon the mistreatment of the Branch Dividian followers of David Koresh at the Mount Carmel property near Waco, Texas. In McVeigh’s eyes the 168 human beings murdered during his bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building were martyrs intended to represent the hundreds of thousands of innocent victims persecuted by an increasingly fascist American government. Posthumously his own execution was a Socratic touché vehemently objecting to his own hypocritical indoctrination during the United States military’s war against Iraq. It was a plea for peace.

Gordon and Smith Skateboards

It is highly recognized the Gordon and Smith continued carrying the torch for a flexible skateboard deck. While the original Zephyr board actually may not have flexed because of its heavy glass and resin construction, the G&S boards did. Skip said the rocker design was meant to keep the dense stiff fiberglass from cracking under weight. Whether the rocker profile changed the glass and resin structure is speculative, but it seemed to solve the problem simultaneously creating an ergonomic slalom-styled deck. G&S began creating decks that actually moved in response to the rider’s weight. They were dynamic creating a new responsive deck that interacted with the moves of the rider. The G&S Fiberflex became the Cadillac of skateboards during the late l970’s, and its model never has been replicated. Gordon and Smith customized their Fiberflex with newly available Bennett Trucks and World Industry produced Road Rider wheels. This was the second school of the original Sure Grip truck and Cadillac wheel. “Mr.” Bennett used aircraft aluminum to create a highly technical truck that was tall, sharp-turning, and efficient returning the hanger to center after it had been torqued in a turn. The Road Rider easily replaced Frank Nasworthy’s Cadillac wheel mostly because of its new sealed precision bearing. The Cadillac wheels had open ball bearings that could spill out and crash the rider if too much weight was placed on the wheels. Likewise they could get dirty and rusted easily if not cared for properly. The Hoover bearing set the standard for sealed precision bearings and although originally found in vacuum cleaners made the transition to carrying people easily. The combination of the G&S fiberglass deck with Bennett trucks and Road Rider wheels revolutionized the skateboard production industry.

The "Carve"

The key to skateboard “set-up” or design is an intuitive geometry or feng shui among its components. In the Old School control turning predicates a ratio between axle length, wheels width, and board width. The efficiency to turn the board via torquing the truck on its bushings is achieved by this magic ratio. The variables can be very different. Any combination of short vs. wide can used as long as logic is applied to the size the components. A narrow width board could demand a wider truck to create stability. A wide board could demand a narrower truck to create a tighter turning radius. Three elements fully must cooperate in the conceiving of a functionally operating skateboard. 1) The width of the board. 2) The width of the hanger and/or axle, 2) the width of the wheel. There are some proponents insisting the wheels cannot extend beyond the edges of the board, but how is one to visually see his “balance beam” without seeing the total extension of the wheels and axle? The ability to “carve” the board is what is created with the magic ratio. Carving is a stylized turn created by weighting and un-weighting on a pivot axis rather than merely tilting the board forward or backward over the front and back trucks. Carving is what demands perfect symmetry in the cooperation of these three components.

New School vs. Old School Skating

First a few thoughts on vintage skate paraphernalia. For street cruisin’ 7 ply concave top decks are not the way to go. Transportation means long distances traversed on four wheels two feet. A concaved deck is not copacetic with the arches in the feet. Only a few deck manufacturers seems to have picked up on this bit of ergonomic information. While for skate rats adhering to the motto “Skate and Destroy” concave decks may offer heightened control for Ollie tricks, a flat top is more suited to long distance travel. Imagine hours or miles of friction created by the opposite geometry of concave vs. convex. It just doesn’t make sense. “Old School” and longboard manufacturers seem more in tune with the concept of traversing long distances, carving mellow banks, and rolling over rough concrete and asphalt. Flex, rocker, or “give” in the board offer a more comfortable ride, especially to those over 30. The concept of pumping the skateboard has experienced a new awakening, and this equally can apply to both longboards and shortboards. As with any aesthetic the boundaries become blurred, and the connoisseur fully must understand the intent of their craft. A carefully chosen stick can satisfy a number of requirements. Sadly the art of slalom skateboarding has been overlooked as the root of LBP or “Longboard Pumping.” In the seventies getting through the cones quickly meant not only being able to turn or carve on a dime, but weighting and unweighting as one navigated the tightly spaced path. A “tall,” narrow-width axle, and loosely-turning truck was conceived for such an act. Not many people seem to realize the Jeff Ho and Skip Engblom designed and built original Zephyr skateboard served such as purpose. The conception of this watershed design is what allowed Dogtown’s Z-Boys to devise and develop their personal surf-oriented skateboard style. While based upon Hobie’s rockered and railed fiberglass Super Surfer model, the Zephyr board included the Sure Grip truck and Cadillac wheel as needed customization. Only so much performance could be eked out of compressed nut shells wheels and open ball bearings. The combination of these four elements produced a skateboard equally qualified for slalom, carving banks, and achieving speed by pumping the board. The rocker shape contoured to the body compressing into a turn, the rails prevented “wheel bite,” the somewhat tall Sure Grip trucks provided a tight turning radius, and the urethane wheels both gripped and slid on pavement when necessary. It was a catharsis, one that would not have occurred had it not been for Skip Engblom and Jeff Ho. While the stylistic roots of skateboarding had been pioneered in an earlier decade based upon other board sports, this configuration is what allowed skateboarding to flourish fueled by the talent and devotion of Dogtown’s Z-Boys. To understand the nature of skateboarding at its core, an examination of the Z-Boys style crucial. The New School of skateboarding, while in some ways similar, is quite different. The requirement of intricate balance is not such an imperative. The boards have a lower center of gravity, have concaved edges, and have longer noses and tails. In comparison to the surf shape they almost qualify as balance boards. Therefore a clear delineation must be made in choosing one’s aesthetic and one’s board.