DAK Closed in 2013 in Brunswick Country

I just can't get on with my day, until I write what I am feeling.  I don't have a Broadway musical as a voice, but I do have a prospectus for one.  Life in the trenches (I mean in a tin can). (I mean "at sea").  I really mean life in the close confines of a sailing ship (and the word "sailing" is figurative).  Life working for the cruise industry has its ups and downs.  For musicians mostly it is compromise.  There is little chamber music, although once Carnival did employ a classical trio.  There is not much jazz, because those who can play jazz more than not would not choose to work in the close confines of a metal cruise ship.  It doesn't represent the "jazz" lifestyle, which is an anachronism in America.  After watching two top shelf Hollywood-produced films yesterday, certainly "The Golden Age" of either film or television also is an anachronism.  It was almost unbearable the emotional and artistic content of these movies.  It is something we have lost as a culture, but these things do happen.  As someone who has lived six American decades, the loss seems unbearable.  There is nothing to replace it.  I only ask myself why would commercial flights be flying over the city of Fayetteville, instead of turning right and flying over a more rural geographic region east of the Cape Fear River?  What could be there that would have enough influence to lobby the FAA and have traditional flight paths changed after decades of usage?  There is only one conclusion.  It is not modest housing communities on Cedar Creek Road.  For a scant moment I thought it might be affluence in Eastover or at Cypress Golf Club.  Wealthy people live in these areas, and the more enlightened would have an opinion about low-flying aircraft.  With the convenient and indispensable aid of GOOGLE maps, the answer is clear.  It is a Mexican-owned PET plant now serviced by the Norfolk Southern Railroad.  Let me clarify.  It is DAK Americas, a manufacturer of thermoplastics.  DAK closed their Brunswick Country facility in 2013.  Ask why?  Ask why they are situated conveniently on the banks of the Cape Fear River.  Ask why the Fayetteville plant remains.  Ask why for some uncanny reason incoming and outgoing air traffic at Grannis Field now run LEFT and fly directly over downtown Fayetteville instead of turning right and sparing citizens a thermal blast of carbon monoxide and soot.  Is the eastern bank of the Cape Fear River so pristine so that it merits these kid gloves?  I'd say they are polluting like Chemours, and with no aerial observation they can get by with it.    

God Save This Planet, Please!

I have a lot about which to complain, and it is tiring.  I don't like to spend my time complaining, because it distracts you from progress.  My emotions are fairly accurate, so when I can't muster my own self-fulfilled happiness I have to figure out what is amiss.  Most often it is something happening around me.  I possess a keen instinct for truth, and without consciously hearing or seeing news often I can discern what is in the air.  That is why they say, "It is in the air."  In New Orleans the music is, "In the air."  You can feel it, because literally sound in its best sense is feeling.  Sounds waves travel in the air, air moves, and thus it moves the listeners senses.  Calling this extra sensory perception may be a misnomer.  Simply it means your instincts are working, and as human beings we have the ability to sense reality in different ways.  One thing I don't like is being surveilled.  No one would, but after 9/11 George W. Bush created his Department of Homeland Security.  A presidential declaration of war approved by Congress opens pandora's box for governmental overreach.  A president can pretty do much whatever he wants in the name of war.  The Patriot Act got passed, the NSA was expanded, and everyone in America became a suspect.  The government has been monitoring citizens ever since.  Today it is difficult to separate government, military, and corporate America.  In these here parts they are almost one entity.  Fully I understand Apache helicopters with Longbow targeting systems.  Fully I disagree with the widespread implementation of millimeter wave phased array radar and G5 wireless protocol.  Phased array radar is much more powerful and produces more heat than traditional radar.  It is many transmitters bundled as one antenna, and they are steerable by phase shifting their signals.  These devices are in the nose cones of military aircraft, they are in Elon Musk's Starlink satellites, and they were developed at the HAARP facility in Alaska mainly to transmit low frequency radio waves through the ionosphere.  If the world feels hotter to you, it probably is.  A feeling of being monitored or surveilled isn't a pleasant one.  How I know is when I do specific things such as talk out loud, play music, or otherwise be human, I feel something in the air respond to me stimulus.  There is a simple answer for this annoying nuisance.  It is the AN/TQP 53 built by Lockheed Martin.  Just about all military activity produces infrasonic refuse.  Helicopters and military transport planes are a fact of life, but I don't have to like them flying over our house.  Now that ISR, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance are such a huge trend in the defense industry with sensors galore, the air is filled with aberrant electricity of many frequencies accompanied by its complimentary magnetism.  Not all of it is electromagnetic, but much of it is.  I didn't put two and two together until I saw a short video cip of the AN/TQP 53 in operation.  It spins, so it is similar to Doppler radar.  I thought it was aimed directly at the enemy.  This would explain the modulation effect its produces on infrasound waves.  The Taos Hum was similar in that there was a slow modulation of its signal.  Maybe it would be flattering to think someone thought your activity interesting enough to monitor.  I'm sure John Lennon did not feel this way, and they killed him.  Richard Nixon hated John Lennon, because perhaps he had more influence on America than him, the President.  Now he's dead from some concocted theory.  American "intelligence" agencies are good at digging in the dirt and recruiting malcontents, degenerates, and otherwise unsavory would-be criminals.  I am positive the Nixon Administration had John Lennon killed, because he was a quintessential pain in their arse.  They blamed it on some poor schmuck, and the world lost a musical icon.  I don't like Big Brother commenting on my activity, because it breaches my right to privacy afforded in the United States Constitution.  Infrasound in general does the same thing.  It connects together otherwise unconnected things, such as people in homes.  I would rather not hear my neighbors voices in my own home, especially after we have spent thousands of dollars on insulating materials.  Unfortunately our neighbors have not done the same.  Many have the same antiquated single-pane glass windows, rock wool batting, and nothing else.  We on the other hand have modernized our sixty year old home.  The realization that pine pollen travels right through the walls as does infrasound is not pleasant.  The reality that our lives are made much worse by constant corporate and military pollution truly is an infringement of our civil rights.  We live in a war zone, and some activity is expected.  That CSX runs amuck, unregulated, and predatory belies explanation.  Tribal domination is barbaric behavior away from which humanity has grown, and yet still in third world counties with a lack of God's presence it festers.  Only the love found in Christianity can save this planet.  

The American Neo-Nazi Political Party

As a musician and keyboardist I have been through a handful of permutations of live-play rigs.  If and when you find yourself an employed working musician, the best way to ensure you stay that way is to have the best sound.  "The musician with the best sound wins, hands down."  In jazz music in particular sound, feeling, and interpretation become the holy trinity.  To play jazz you must swing.  To be listenable you must have a good sound.  To be artistic you must synthesize years of jazz history, personal perspective, and creative wisdom.  It is not called "America's True Art Form" for nothing, and it would be nice if the country began to recognize and understand that.  There is nothing to be afraid of from the "Jigs."  Black men and women, while susceptible to the same ills as everyone, don't carry the Voodoo curse.  What they do offer is the struggle of the African-American throughout our history.  Many would rather not listen to this story.  We can bury out head in the sand and ignore the extreme brutality of slavery and Jim Crow through the years.  It seems wise not to base our current reality solely on this scenario, but we should be cognizant of this history and more importantly understand what is possible in the human race.  Our tendencies can be extreme, violent, and antagonist when our souls are not nurtured.  Soul nurturing is something America has chosen to shift to another realm.  At America's inception you can believe we were engaged at a physical and environmental level.  "The Lost Colony" didn't survive.  Pure survival was paramount for early American, and it was enough.  As a nation we have become spoiled and complacent, and Covid 19 has spanked our ass.  Most of the useful and wise information garnered by previous generations has been shelved in a naive and narcissistic campaign of self worship.  This change in large has been promulgated by a small and evil faction actively who chose to exploit the youth of America.  Economic trends suggested teens had the most salient income in Capitalist America, so a conscious decision was made to exploit our children.  I would suggest Generation X and Z have been the most neglected generations in American history.  American society on purpose deprived them of the appropriate tools to survive ensuring a docile, naive, and spending future populace.  It is unconscionable.  When I see the confusion, ignorance, and hatred of America's youth, only can it be attributed to our own American society.  They are a product of what we have become.  In short the Republican siege, the communist attack on America is responsible.  Only during this extreme, violent, racist time has the nurturing of our youth been discarded.  In the last two decades I have watched notable figures in American culture die off with no one to replace them.  There is no one to fill these shoes, because the hard knocks school of success and Protestant work ethic have been abandoned for quick cheap fixes on iPhone apps.  Literally we have brainwashed our youth, but it is not too late.  If and when an individual decides not to be confused about their gender is when a transformation will take place.  We will realize currently solidarity isn't the answer, because we have few concepts over which to unite.  It is the new age of individualism, because we are on our own.  Certainly two years of extraneous, misleading, sometimes erroneous information about a life-threatening disease is enough to heighten our personal awareness.  We cannot reply upon Washington, the CDC, or Big Pharma, and without close scrutiny our state governments are nothing more than country clubs for the wealthy.  Not much has changed in America over the centuries, but Republicans would have you believe it.  The more things change, the more they stay the same.  It was been a long time since pure lies as propaganda was commonplace.  The Nazi party may be disguised as Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, and Madison Cawthorn, but we are onto them.  

Our Modern Holocaust

I want to get this out of my system, because I don't like to complain.  I have been cast a complainer before, and you know what?  Twenty-five years ago in Cowtown it was for the exact same thing I have to complain about now.  First let me clarify my point of view.  I am a musician.  Musicians are different from everyone else, and America understood this once.  The main difference between a musician and an average person is, a musician is an artist.  What is an artist?  An artist is someone who chooses to study, reflect upon, and comment on the human condition.  They choose to express their own personal point-of-view through their chosen medium.  Most often this personal perspective also is an expression of emotion resultant from reaction to world stimulus.  Artists are compelled to express themselves with emotion through an aesthetic they have chosen.  Mine is music, and when and if I am lucky I get to purge my emotions through it.  Through the years I have developed my musical expression, and it encompasses different instruments and composition and arrangement.  I don't do much composing anymore, but I am compelled to keep playing.  I play our Hammond A-100 console organ in our den from time to time.  Organ has different aesthetics, and because my first love was jazz I play from that perspective.  I pay attention to black gospel organ, and whether it is jazz or church my organ playing happens at a deep cathartic level.  I am able to express my inner feelings on the Hammond organ.  I am a good improviser on trumpet, and I can play a funky groove on electric bass.  Jazz piano probably is my most accomplished field, but rarely do I have a chance to indulge in its mysteries.  Jazz is dead, and in the second most populated military city in America there are few venues for this mostly black music.  Music necessarily relies upon sound, and therefore audible sound is important to musicians.  Herein lies the first huge lie of Rock 'n' Roll.  "The check is in the mail."  Music while possible on an Sony Walkman, iPod, or in earbuds is most efficient, expressive, and successful at its mission when it is live.  That means live sound.  Live music.  That means instruments, amplifiers, and a P.A. system to broadcast sung vocals.  With the Covid lockdown many things changed.  Things all ready were changed in America's music industry.  The advent of the personal computer as a recording studio has had the most impact on the music industry.  Add Covid to the mix and musicians are recording in their closets and piping it to their band mates.  This is not the traditional path of music for most of the history of America.  In our history music was performed on street corners, on wharves, on sidewalks, in clubs, in churches, and eventually in theaters and stadiums.  The prevalence of live music in America has waned, and there are reasons.  There is an interesting dichotomy which exists that most people don't know about.  If told about it, most people choose not to listen.  When I was branded a complainer in Cowtown, people did not want to listen.  They did not understand the complexity of the issue I am about to describe.  America was built by the "Iron Horse," and the railroads were responsible for westward expansion across the Rocky Mountains eventually connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.  It was an important accomplishment laying this rail, blasting tunnels, building trestles and creating infrastructure for America.  No one could or would discount the importance of the rail industry in America's vital history.  Consequently the sound of early steam locomotives shaped American history in many ways as did the sound of horses hooves.  The "chug-chug-chug" and "clop-clop-clop" created the rhythm upon which was based much early American popular music.  Both the tempo and kernel of rhythm were found in these defining ambient atmospheric sounds.  Without consciously thinking about it musicians began to emulate this feeling or aesthetic of newly emerging American life.  It helped create blues, ragtime, and jazz.  The steam train is ingrained in American consciousness as it should be.  For many decades the sentimentality of these trains remained.  Like all good things usually they come to an end.  The rail industry's transition to diesel was not so organic, but rest assured in musical circles this change was felt and mitigated.  This change from steam to diesel is a major marker in American history, and enough has not been said about it.  Imagine this long-standing, sentimental, and nostalgic backbone of America, then imagine its extinction and replacement with something much more volatile.  This transition all ready was represented by the compositional style of "Expressionism."  Composers needed a new way to express the changing life of the world, and so they chose the cacophonous sounds of modern cities.  They emulated these sounds in their newly developed compositional style.  The trouble is most people never have transitioned to such an abstract notion of music.  They prefer the familiar and melodious strains of popular tunes to the challenging polyrhythms and dissonance of modern American music.  For me it was a logical transition in my field of study.  American jazz music would have had a tough time competing with the sheer power of diesel.  Thus amplification came into vogue and Rock was born.  The sheer ability to amplify one's musical sounds above the noise of the city was indispensable.  Like the "chug-chug-chug" and "clop-clop-clop" that came before it, American found new patterns upon which to base its expression.  Music necessarily had to grow balls to have a chance of survival.  This gave rise to several decades of intense, prolific, rewarding popular music in America.  Music at this time truly was a reflection of society and its successes and failures.  The music industry became the moral conscience of America.  That no longer is the case, and we have lost this trusted companion.  We have lost this companion, because we no longer have this symbiotic relationship of sound.  We have lost track of sound, and we have been raped with sound.  America today conversely is is a sea of non discriminant noise with no viable or logical definition.  No wonder people are crazy and on drugs.  There is no sound in our environment that represents humanity or spirituality.  Instead we hear noise, and often we don't "hear" it at all.  Most often today in modern America, the biggest detriment we face is inaudible sound, infrasound created by huge, hulking, diesel prime movers.  This onslaught has occurred on the down low the same way the emergent, far-right, extremist Republican party has tried to introduce communism in America.  They are sneaky these Republicans, and so far we have not learned the lesson.   I began complaining about this radiation as soon as I realized its source.  It took a while to arrive at this conclusion, about the same amount of time it took to locate the source of the Taos Hum.  Interestingly they are the same thing.  The Taos Hum continues all over the world, although the moly mine eventually went bankrupt in New Mexico.  About what residents complained in Taos, New Mexico is what is plaguing the world today.  It is intense, never-ending, ruthless, mind-numbing radiation of the third kind.  If you only choose to remember Thomas the Train, that is understandable.  Most things the Republicans have implemented are so egregious and heinous, we would have a difficult time accepting, like the Holocaust.   

When Biden Says "Billions to Ukraine for Munitions," the Fayettenam Wheels Start Turning

Midterm elections in North Carolina are in May.  They have been delayed numerous times because of gerrymandered voting districts drawn by the Republican majority in the State House.  Democrats sued for these incursions, and the maps have been both overturned and resurrected.   It depends on who you get in court.  Is it a Trump-appointed judge?  "Let them stand giving a notable advantage to Republicans!"  The Supreme Court of the United States ultimately denied the Republican appeal, agreed with the Democrats, and decreed voting maps in North Carolina will be drawn by outside experts.  (It is possible the new maps will only apply for this particular election, so stay tuned)  Issues or the policies determining the quality of life of district constituents seem to be secondary.  In North Carolina it seems to be a popularity contest.  Who has enough money to join the country club?  Who won't rat on his friends?  Who will siphon the most money to the City Council?  Who will give his buddies the best municipal contracts?  I am thankful for a handful of things in Fayetteville which have come to fruition under Mayor Mitch Colvin.  They built a long-awaited skateboard park at the location I suggested.  (The land was owned by the city, so it meant more money for the park itself.)  The Rowan Street or Grove Street bridge was replaced as were the bridges over the Cape Fear River and Cross Creek.  (This was a major accomplishment)  Splash pads were built all around the city.  The Woodpecker's baseball stadium was completed.  The Prince Charles Hotel was renovated.  Finally Hay Street was smoothed and paved.  Aside from the Market House being inaccessible and barricaded by fencing, the visual aesthetic of Fayetteville has improved.  Under this facade of progress real issues fester.  Issues seem to be secondary in North Carolina elections, because they are difficult.  Especially they are difficult in Cumberland Country.  Four hundred million dollars extra won't solve these issues.  What is the best example of a deep-seated, difficult, seemingly-eternal problem in a country?  Chemours.  Chemours is a Chinese-owned spin off company of DuPont, who famously has been disrespecting Americans since the 1960's.  It is a sordid past.  DuPont's solution was to change the name of their toxic chemical and rebrand the subsidiary Chemours.  The questions is:  "How and why is it possible a notable manufacturing company believes they are not responsible for disposing of their own toxic waste?"  Make Teflon, but in the process of manufacturing this ground-breaking product toxic by products must be disposed of properly.  "Clean it up!"  Duke Energy feels the same way, and they think it is not their responsibility to dispose burned coal ash.  Although their spill into the Dan River wreaked havoc on the environment, they were sued and found liable, and Pat McCrory drastically reduced their financial penalty, still they charged consumers for the clean up.  Shitting on Americans is commonplace in United States corporate history.  Kinlaw Farms championed treating their fields with hog urine and feces to the surprise of those living nearby.  It takes lawsuits to grow them an environmental conscience, but the isolation of a penthouse suite, five star amenities, and a lack of God keeps CEO's and boards of directors in the dark.  The quintessential function of living and working in a country, the ideas of community responsibility and fellowship, and vocational mentorship are absent from the minds of these lofty  companies.   It is like there are no dues to be paid to exploit America.  It's free range capitalism.  When regulations are inhibiting profits deregulate.  This is what happens.  Chemours now purports to want to be our friends.  They have proposed a six story tall one mile long retaining wall to separate their plant from the Cape Fear river.  You're a day late and a dollar short.  Let's take into account how much disease they have caused with the releasing of PFAS into the air, nearby ground water, and the source of drinking water for the city of Wilmington.  This has been happening for decades, and now they want to be our friends.  They are not.  I complain about commercial and military aircraft flying above our neighborhood, and the military community thinks I am a malcontent.  Fully I understand deployment, maneuvers, and training.  Fully I don't understand Piedmont, Endeaver Air, PSA, and Mesa flying their outgoing direct-to-Charlotte flights directly over our house.  Somewhere in time some corporate entity thought it was okay to save fuel.  The airlines were in a pinch during the Covid lockdown, but this has been happening for a long time.  How and why could and would anyone say blowing carbon monoxide and black soot onto neighborhood homes and foliage was a good idea.  Ask our oak trees?  The lids of our garbage cans are covered in black mold like the marble dome of the Jefferson Memorial.  It is going to cost five million to clean up their mess, but I the consumer must do it myself.  Black soot and carbon monoxide from the sky.  "Oh joy!"  That is a wonderful thing to wake up to everyday at six a.m., the roar of a commercial jet flying flying over the top of our house.  Who makes these decisions, and who could be so callous and irresponsible?  They are not our friends.  The Aberdeen and Rockfish, while a profitable short line railroad, also is not our friend.  Do they think twice that their noise, heat, vibration, and electricity could be disturbing those living in Fayetteville?  If I were running for office in Cumberland Country, and I wanted to pinpoint issues that affect the quality of life of residents, what would I say?  First we must restore the police force.  Gina Dawkins has not been an effective Chief of Police.  Why?  If you fear for your life when you drive to the store, then there is an issue.  Three men were murdered in cold blood at the former Holiday Inn on Owen Drive this past weekend.  Violent crime is off the cuff.  Traffic laws are not enforced, people speed, and driving is like a NASCAR race.  We need police.  If Fayetteville is having trouble keeping sworn officers, then something should be done.  Raise their salaries, offer them benefits, and provide community support.  We are passed the lynchings of 2000, and order must be restored.  A community cannot survive without the police.  Homelessness is endemic.  There are few mental health facilities, shelters, or kitchens.  Vagrants are camping out in tents under the MLK.  Guess we are no different than San Francisco or LA.  The vestiges of puritan fire-and brimstone are so antiquated, we have no idea how to host healthy living.  Fayetteville was more well adjusted when Hay Street was a smut farm.  At least someone recognized the needs of the people. 

Russian Nepotism and God's Patience

 It was both surprising and rewarding to hear news anchor David Muir begin his ABC broadcast with the specific information that Russia was launching long range cruise missiles from ships in the Black Sea.  The Black Sea has a strategic advantage for Vladimir Putin's egregious attack on Ukraine.  Obviously Comrade Putin was in staunch disagreement with the dissolution of the U.S.S.R. and has waited patiently to attempt to reverse the watershed Belovezha Accords forged by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev.  Ukraine's geopolitical history as a bastard child ruled by other nations has made it a target for the Communist dictator.  While its 1993 constitution declares Russia a democratic, federative, law-based state with a republican form of government, the incestuous, nepotistic, Russian "good old boy" network placed a neurotic, sociopathic, autocratic, zealot, ex-KGB henchman in power.  Aside from his annexation of Crimea, President Putin largely quietly has sat.  While the United States sorely needed to end a meandering and deadly twenty year guerilla war with no clear enemy or victor, the absence of United States boots on the ground has oiled Putin's machine.  While Russia's former invasion of Afghanistan should have been foremost in American military minds (and perhaps it was), transparency for the American people was opaque.  "Why were we there?  To whom were we selling helicopters?  Who was the enemy?  What country was reaping the rewards of Afghanistan's poppy industry?"  The illicit drug trade was a stain on the the blue dress.  The profit and coincident influence of defense companies became weighted, and these war profiteering industries obliterated the peace and serenity of America's Eastern Seaboard.  What once were sandy beaches and ocean breezes rife for the leisure industry, largely have been invaded and conquered like Vladimir Putin's siege upon Ukraine.  While fishing, swimming, and boating we watch aerial military maneuvers and listen to munition trains rumble down to Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point.  The exploitation of the Atlantic's beachfront majestry is not dissimilar from the industrialization of the Mediterranean Sea in Europe.  We should learn vast waterways attract vermin.  Venice's surrounding industrial geography looks like a toilet.  The exploitation of expanses Earth for war and industry lacks an awareness of the pure fragility of human life.  If we do not become accountable for Mother Nature's Health, she will abandon.  Only the human species could muster such conceit to believe were are immortal.  One only has to look at history written in scholarly books to understand the probable and possible abominations of an angry God.  The Plague.  While the Bible assures us this is not possible, the sacrifice of good from within man's spirit for monetary gain makes it easier for Satan to manifest himself inside you.  Beelzebub is having a bacchanal, and his human minions appear like characters from the "Theater of the Absurd."  America will tire of extremism, and its adrenaline-laced cocaine-induced high and relax into a more reflective, sensual, spiritual form of human love and compassion which reflect God's mentoring.  Patiently he is waiting but America largely has shut the door.   Otherwise the world's end is near. 

Asking the Right Questions

I don't feel like writing, but I feel unrequited.  Therefore I must write.  About what to write?  As I watch Vladimir Putin's attack on Ukraine, it does not make sense.  There are so many questions to be answered, and the American media is doing a poor job of asking.  News reporting is an anachronism.  Like so many professions, vocations, occupations, and jobs, America was led astray by something as simple as an iPhone.  Social media "apps," little graphic anodynes that erode your thinking and your awareness.  They are addictive, and America is on the hook.  Sobriety is a bitch, and we must ditch the smart phones.  Make a choice.  As I shopped for groceries today, there were people who were aware, and there were those being controlled by their phones.  What is the analogy?  An invisible puppet master pulling your strings but from your own palm and seemingly at your discretion.  Like the Covid pandemic the affects of the iPhone are deep, far-reaching, and destructive.  There is a sinister quality to their power, and it is called addiction.  Covid has had us on the hook for two years.  We cancelled school.  We shuttered businesses.  We become more reliant upon Amazon and its convenience.  It is a coincidence a handful of people expanded their wealth during Covid, or is it?  Once upon a time in America there were all kinds of professions, vocations, occupations, and jobs.  Then we recognized the human equation in life and nurtured it.  Now we nurture the iPhone, and it has left humanity in the lurch.  North Carolina is a big fat whore, and we are all about the money.  Bill Bowman, the publisher of "Up and Coming" went to bat for state senator Kurt Deviere.  He is working "across the aisle" from our Governor.  They, through mostly Republican inroads, found and additional four hundred million dollars for Cumberland County in the budget.  It's all about the money, but money does not solve problems.  It creates them.  Human thinking solves problems, when America was able to recognize humanity is the core of our existence.  It is not money.  We have four hundred million dollars sprinkled on the cake, but the deep-seated problems of Cumberland Country remain.  Homelessness.  Pollution.  Political corruption.  Crime.  These are real issues, because they are human.  They are not an entertaining iPhone app.  They are not a computer game.  America has lost the ability to discern the difference between the two.  This was the mission statement of Japanese programmers.  Deep fakes.  The ability to mislead, misinform, and hijack American freedom.  Big Brother.  What are the questions that need to be asked about the War in Ukraine?  First and foremost, "What is Putin doing?"  Bombing a nation out of the blue?  "Whence are the attacks coming?  Are they air-fired missiles?  Are the coming from the ground?  Who is determining at what they are aimed?  Is there a pattern?"  At first I thought he was trying to overthrow the Ukrainian government.  He wanted to oust their own leadership and take control.  Then the attacks became haphazard.  "Who is he bombing?"  Civilians?  Hospitals?  Carnage.  Fascism.  Hitler.  The Nazis.  "Is he doing this for fun?"  Why would anyone, especially if they wanted control of nation, destroy their infrastructure?  He doesn't want Ukraine.  He does not care about Ukraine.  He despises Ukraine.  What Vladimir Putin wants is their spoils.  He wants the geographic region of Ukraine and what is produces.  He is a barbarian.  He wants their products, their natural resources, and their money.  He wants their money.  Putin wants and needs their money, and he will kill  to get it.  He is similar to Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani.  The Russian Mob has substantial influence on these men.  When someone threatens to cut off your fingers or worse, you will do amazing things.  "Who is behind it?  Who put the nerve agent in the Covid virus?  How and why were Russia-owned American aircraft granted the freedom by the FAA to fly wherever they please?"  We don't know who yet, but the media needs to begin asking the right questions.  

Best Male Actor in a Feature Film

"The Revenant" was not a particularly good film.  Leo bought his best actor award with this film of which he was a part of the production.  It was my first taste of director Alejandro Inarritu, of which comedically I searched for a nickname to lessen the severity of the movie's impact.  Chris Rock achieved this at the award's ceremony donning a bear outfit, making light of the carnage.  I didn't think the film deserved much of anything, because it was short of real drama.  It made use of digital effects to try to illicit the same response as real acting.  Maybe Mr. DiCaprio did act in the film, but the part fell short of a vehicle for Best Actor.  It was a shallow victory, but he wanted it sorely.  As the water passes, and "The Revenant" subsides, its place has been taken by much better, ground-breaking, Oscar-worthy performances placing Leonardo DiCaprio squarely at the top of the best living actor category.  This position is shared with others, but his lineage of leading actor roles in notable films has blossomed in the last decade.  While under the spell of Covid, many things have been neglected.  Realizing the blessing of an actor of such talent is something America should acknowledge and appreciate.  His performances sustain the test of time, and I have found myself influenced by his characters and monologues.  They are exemplary.  When dialogue contained in scenes of movies becomes second nature in your own life, you know a film has accomplished its goal.  It has not necessarily coerced you into submission.  It has not bludgeoned you to the point of surrender.  Simply it has integrated with life in a way to nurture humanity, and humanity has come into question.  Anything that elicits human nature, a soul, or spirituality that transcends racial hatred is welcome.  We could even go as far to say that human desire, jealousy, greed, sloth, happiness, and fervor are welcome as well.  These emotions which truly make a human being have been demeaned and packaged into an iPhone.  We have become androids using this iPhone as a core or battery.  Thinking and feeling for ourselves without the necessity of real time reinforcement has become a thing of the past.  The stream-of-consciousness once that was our own mind now has become social media.  Hence we no longer are driving.  We are riding the wave of pop tech culture, and it has led us astray.  Not only that it has attacked us at our most vulnerable.  America is a flock of abandoned kittens needing guidance and love, and it is nowhere to be found.  God sits abandoned.  Reinforcement by film is important, and always in America it has been.  Hollywood traditionally has been the social conscience of Washington, DC.  America's children through the decades have learned from Hollywood, and not always was television bad.  This is a recent digression, and too many channels created the problem.  By switching from Spectrum "Gold" to "Standard" we eliminated much of the noise that has become communist propaganda.  I was relieved and surprised not to be assaulted by television programming with much fewer choices.  The cable channels have become extreme like American politics, and we do not need this in our ears or on our eyeballs.  What we do need is more performances by Leonardo DiCaprio.  Whether it is in The Aviator, Shutter Island, Django Unchained, or any of the rest, this man has done the work to become one of the world's greatest actors.  It is important we recognize this achievement, and let this man grow into the icon he deserves to be.  Certainly he is a much better choice than Donald Trump.  

American Communist Oppresion

 Columbus, Ohio is considered the testing ground of American sensibilities, because it is landlocked.  There are no winding ski slopes, warm sandy beaches, or Southern hospitality created by temperate weather.  Instead Columbus is as real as you can get, and as such it is more relevant and visceral than most places.  It was lucrative study destination for this reason.  It allows you to dive in and focus upon what is important to you.  There is no military presence.  There are no chain guns rattling in the sky.  There are no howitzers.  Only is there Midwestern modesty and fervor.  If a product or sensibility has balls, it can make it in Columbus.  If your passion conversely is tepid, happenstance, or moderate it will not survive.  This breeds a high level of artistry especially in the jazz community.  Your life is what you make of it, and for jazzers it is their music.  Otherwise you wake daily to the chasm of the abyss.  Nothingness.  You better get up and get something done, preferably something about which you feel strongly and will grow an able crop.  You only reap what you sow.  Fayettenam on the other hand is a testing ground of its own, because it is dominated by the military.  It is the pinnacle of a military industrial complex, and the Pentagon pays the bills.  This extreme war-like existence challenges sensibilities in its own way.  If you are human, although subsidized by the military, you may seek enlightenment outside of the profits of war.  You may not.  At the moment there is scant representation of progressive ideas.  We have laudable musical theater and orchestral music, but we have no jazz.  Jazz is the soul of America of which the Communist regime, Trump, the Far Right want to deny.  It represents freedom, and freedom in America is what is under siege.  Freedom as represented and ensured by democracy is what is under attack.  Corporate America, who I write about often in an abstract way, tangibly has become this communist force.  It would be trite and short-sighted to call corporate America communist, but when examining the philosophy of recent American corporate behavior, Communist becomes their overt adjective.  A railroad who feels they can run trains 24/7 in the backyards of ordinary citizens with no recognition of zoning or emissions, or an airline who feels they are free to fly jets directly over your neighborhoods and homes is a clear and brutal projection of the communist philosophy.  Citizens are secondary to corporate and mostly elite affluent profits.  Ordinary people don't matter and are expendable.  How the FAA was infiltrated and replaced with corporate stooges in the Trumpian style should be a source of outrage.  How were commercial jets able to fly into the World Trade Centers in downtown Manhattan on 9/11?  Have we asked ourselves this question?  I will give credit where credit is due, and although W. opened Pandora's Box for deregulation, he has keep America safe thus far.  The "Pandemic" transpired during Donald Trump's presidency.  It lost him re-election, but how are we to know he wasn't a part of it?  We watched him spew conspiracy theories about rigged elections, when no one in the Democratic Party had thought about it.  He did this because he himself was thinking about it.  For Vladimir Putin to say there are American biological warfare installations in Ukraine means he has them.  This is pure "Trumpspeak."  It is an advancement to hear about unregulated, Russion-owned, American aircraft allowed by our Federal Aviation Administration, but but using the terms biological or chemical warfare in the midst of the Ukrainian war is short-sighted.  Why don't we connect the dots and suggests any installation of this nature produced Covid 19?  Every fact suggests this conclusion.  Oligarchs with luxury Airbus jets, yachts, and international travel privileges?  Putin's current demeanor and overall health suggest he merely is a puppet.  His neurotic rhetoric is reminiscent of Rudy Giuliani melting down with brown hair dye running down his cheek.  He is a pawn and is being told what to do.  There is a deeper presence to his declaration of war on Ukraine, and it involves the mob.  It involves the world outbreak of Covid 19.  It involves the esteemed Nazi doctor, who became the champion of gay men during the AIDS pandemic.  The self fulfilling prophecy, creating chaos and then creating its solution for martyrdom.  It is sickening.  Jazz represents freedom, and Communism discourages or outlaws such personal expression.  It sees it as the most vital and dangerous foe for economic oppression, control, and profit.  America once was the example of the economic bounty of freedom, and that all has been quelled by the Far Right assault.  We'll be living in bunkers eating rations before its all over. 

They Just Don't Get It

 Teetering on the edge of nerdism and cool is taxing.  Your nerdism is created by those who aren't capable of understanding.  What don't they understand?  "It don't mean a thing, if you ain't got that swing."  What?  "You either got it, or you don't."  If you don't got it, then you may see those who do as nerds.  I don't understand the "out" crowd.  Traditionally they like Garth Brooks.  That is a blow to Chris Gaines, because although Garth is a competent country artist, and he did break ground for "New Country" music, his alter ego of Chris Gaines did not grow wings and fly.  Once counter culture was cool.  Once defying "the man" was cool.  "Selling out" was admitting you forsook your inner conscience and compromised your ideals for money.  Those truly who are cool usually are those who flip off the man and march to the beat of their own drummer.  Miles Davis did this.  America greatly has changed, and the communist infusion has skewed any recognition of cool or nerd.  We don't know the difference, or what they are.  All we know is there is this bat shit, crazy, far right contingency masquerading as miniature Vladimir Putins.  All they really want is communist control of America.  All roads unequivocally point to this conclusion.  It is cloaked in lunacy, spin, and hyperbole, but underneath only is it a communist siege.  Take for example this scenario which presented itself today.  My mother went for her annual physical, and after spending over half a thousand dollars at the doctor was afforded prescriptions for her future well being.   Her doctor, after careful consideration and query, wrote her a prescription for pain medication which was questioned by her insurance company.  If your doctor is the recognized medical professional, who after years of intense schooling and practice is able to synthesize complex information and offer a solution, is second guessed or deemed wrong on his choice of medication by a bureaucratic entity formed to make money, it is called Communism.  Communism.  The "State" or the government have final say over your care.  What?  What is this?  This is communism, and HMO's were the beginning of this almost fascist hierarchy.  Let insurance companies determine what medication you need from tables of probability or statistics?  This is inhumane, and communism is inhumane.  It cares more for "The State" than it does for individual people, and yet that is what America allows.  Thank God SCOTUS ruled against the "Independent State Legislature Doctrine," which would compromise voting rights for all of America.  This fight is on, the Cold War is resurrected, and WWlll is at its inception.  How long until the rest of the civilized world decides to put boots on the ground? 

The Russian Connection

 If anyone cares to remember there was a tangible Trump via Giuliani Russian connection.  Former disgraced president Donald Trump's liaison with communist dictators was not subtle.  He feigned a love affair with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, and gushed when shaking hands with Russia's now war criminal Vladimir Putin.  There is no mistaking the "Russian Connection."  Fast forward to Joe Biden's presidency and the American withdrawal from Afghanistan.  Trump had intentions of pulling U.S. troops from Afghanistan and ending America's longest war.  He hedged several times during his presidency at the insistence of military advisors.  It never clearly was stated that we were in Afghanistan to thwart Russian aggression.  Instead George W. Bush's "War on Terror" was the prospectus.  We were fighting ISIS, ISIL, the Taliban, and Hezzbolah, not the Russians.  Were the Russians propping up these groups?  It is a maze of confusion, and more likely Iran and the lower Saudi royals could be the culprits.  The Prince and Vladimir Putin brutally assassinated their nay-sayers with nerve agents and dismemberment.  This is of what they are capable.  Ironically with U.S. troops gone from Afghanistan their purpose there now is clear.  Putin has declared war on Ukraine, and his invasion is the non-celebrated beginning of World War lll.  There is no mistaking this.  Not in our lifetimes have we seen Communist terror unfold in murderous violence for the sake of things.  We have experienced repercussion for botched diplomacy, and consequently we have for the most part left the Middle East via Afghanistan.  Instead of quelling violence, violence from that region, without knowing we opened the back door for Putin's pipe dream of of a new USSR.  The news is not reporting anything about Ukraine and its politics, nor are we remembering Donald Trump via Rudy Giuliani's collaboration with these new mafia henchmen.  Which is worse for corruption, Ukraine or Russia?  If you were Putin you would feel threatened by this presence in Ukraine, and probably it inspired his invasion.  The riches of Ukraine cannot be discounted.  Only do we have to turn on the TV and hear the insipid fake prophesying of Joe Manchin and his empty compassion for the constituency in his state.  He feigns caring about the people of West Virginia, but his interests are his own.  "Sanction Russian energy!"  Without missing a step he is on the bandwagon for energy profits to revert to domestic source including coal-fired electricity.  This man is a hypocrite as is Senator Lindsey Graham.  The interests of one man's investment in a back woods, anachronistic, destined-to-fail energy sector do not represent the needs of the rest of America.  I would rather take up the hammer dulcimer and sell apples on the side of the road.  While Mr. Manchin has credible credentials, it would seem he is inflicted with the same dementia as the rest.  Hitler's neurosis was related to syphilis, and he treated it with methamphetamine.  What is Trump taking, horse steroids?  As a nation we must begin to recognize mental illness, as it casually was swept off the table from Geraldo's reporting.  Either you fix the problem by fixing the system, something nearly impossible today because we would rather play on our iPhones, or you sweep it under the rug allowing mental illness to run amuck in American society.  There are requirements for a free America.  There are prices to be paid for commercial economic freedom and its rewards.  You must pay twenty dollars for the room and two dollars for the condom to have your fun.  American billionaires and Slavic dictators want to pay nothing. 

I Should Have Been an Investigative Reporter: Russian-owned American Planes

 

On Your On

As I listen to Mr. Joel, Billy the Joel, aka Billy Joel, the Piano Man, only can I think "genius."  I never absorbed the Beatles, until I was in my mid 30's, because I never listened to American popular music.  I was a classically trained pianist, although my reading skills were underdeveloped.  A classical pianist is forged with the eyes.  There is no other way.  How much complex classical music can you absorb by ear?  Tangible melodies can be copped by ear, but Chopin's notes, as are other Romantic composers, are dense and complicated.  So many notes!  Clumps of grapes they are called fondly by the commercial music community.  It takes a special musician to read this material, and it is dependent upon visual acuity.  You must be able to read dense music well, grand staff, concentrated content.  It is possible to be an excellent musician without this talent as proven by American popular music.  Although Early Jazz surprisingly to me was reading music (who knew?), Louis Armstrong would prove that aural skill equally was as important.  Listeners can't discern how accurately you are realizing these clumps of grapes.  What they do know is if your musical product, your rendering of sound and feeling, is original, expressive, and communicative.  I would say without feeling and a keen ear, your music will fall on deaf ears.  Let's say the classical idiom is reserved for those blessed with exceptional eyesight, and American popular music forged a new path.  Louis Armstrong could not read music.  Erroll Garner could not read music, and yet they were ground-breaking prodigious musicians.  The visual notation of music is secondary to the music itself, and with its need comes a vast expanse of musical politics.  The interpretation or rendering of written music may be one of the grayest and most contentious areas in humanity.  Most often it is realized poorly and with pretension by those with little musical talent.  Billy Joel's German-born father was a classical pianist, and Billy was born in the Bronx.  They moved to Long Island where he grew up.  My only question is whence did his vocabulary come?  His whole style of music, the rhythmic groove, the melodies, the piano riffs, and the lyrics.  Holy cow!  It is no wonder he is one of the best selling artists of all time.  160 million albums sold.  I did listen to Billy Joel in high school, one particular album on a cassette tape.  That was enough.  It had Rosalinda's Eyes on it.  That marimba!  I have tried to  tighten up, and from Youtube I have been expanding my historical knowledge of American popular music.  There is a plentitude of music, and it is rife for appreciation and learning.  I guess you are born with such a musical perspective.  Lucky you!  Pops, or Satchmo, or Louis didn't read music.  Instead he absorbed what was around him and interpreted it musically.  Louis Armstrong was sent to a "Waif's Home" in NOLA after firing his father's .38 revolver into the air in celebration of New Year's Eve.  He was determined to get out of there and quickly learned how to play the trumpet.  Some people are blessed.  I had to work diligently to become a competent trumpeter.  It took six weeks at Governor's School East at St. Andrew's College in Laurinburg for it to happen.  Playing the trumpet five hours a day will make you a better player quickly.  It was not fun a first, but as we learned the more sophisticated wind ensemble literature, trumpet took on a new meaning.  We had six in our section, because there weren't enough strings to fill two orchestras.  They made us a Wind Ensemble lucky for me.  I didn't make it the first cut.  Only after they expanded the trumpet section was I offered this opportunity of a lifetime.   Over the course of six weeks finally I was able to play lead on the Charles Ives Symphony.  It is my greatest triumph as a trumpeter, and I listen to this recording often of my ability to lead the ensemble.  My tonguing became my best skill, and with it I defined the rhythmic time feel of the group.  It was years later I discovered I was tonguing between my teeth, a no no.  I had a tangible musical interpretation which came from twelve years of piano lessons, and consequently the ensemble developed an emotionally mature interpretation of our performances.  You must be able to play time to be a musician, and modern day American pop music ignores this.  The "feel" that has been championed in American popular music does not require real time and the ability to internalize quarter notes at different tempos.  This ability is what creates the possibility of feeling in music.  The continuity and steadfastness of these quarter notes without straying allow the creation of a mood.  Upon listening to one of my first Billy Joel CD's, a live in the studio recording, all I could think is that the technology has speed up the performances like a turntable turning at the wrong speed.  "Live at Sigma Sound Studios" was a complete surprise, because Mr. Joel, Mr. Wonderful, sounded so young (and so full of coke).  Oops!  Did I say that?  We are listening to music from a different era, and there is no more appropriate time.  I have forgotten all my preconceptions about American music and am trying to absorb it for the first time.  It is unsettling, because America always has been rife with controversy and oppression.  There were drugs in the 1980's, and cocaine was one of them.  Cocaine also was readily available to Louis Armstrong, although history says he was chose marijuana.  Supposedly he smoked three blunts a day.  That is telling to realize this was common activity in the 1920's, the "Roaring Twenties."  You could get cocaine at the local drug store.  Today it is illicit fentanyl imported from other countries via the "Dark Web."  It is a shame what America has become, and most of it is at the behest of communist infiltrators.  They would like nothing more than the fall of the free world.  Communist practices sneaked into America unnoticed and set up shop in the middle of our lives.  I am ashamed to call myself American at the moment.  (so Republicans would say, "Leave.")  I say Mr. Trump should move to Russia to be with his lover.  We have not survived two years of Covid, and these two years have turned us into complicit, docile, complacent servants of "The Man."  This attack has been as egregious as the Holocaust.  Manufacturing an often deadly pathogen which robs you of your sense of taste and smell?  I have not been able to cook, because I have not been able to smell for two years.  I have had Covid thrice!  Damn this enemy, and damn those who created it!  It was manufactured and released upon us, and the "vaccine" isn't a vaccine at all.  It is an antidote.  When your country forsakes you or drops the ball center field, you know you are on your on.  Probably American through the centuries have been on their own as well, so it is best we figured it out.  

Coronavirus Revelation

Everything about Covid 19 is disheartening.  The only upside of the pandemic perhaps is learning something.  If you want to live, you better learn something.  The public information we have been offered has been scant.  To put it more succinctly we have received very little relevant information at all.  It has been a snipe hunt.  Two years later we still do not know what hit us.  After having lived through this disease and its ramifications, I am convinced there is no way it can be naturally occurring.  This leads me to suspect that the AIDS virus also was manufactured.  Wasn't it convenient that a deadly disease emerged which targeted homosexuals and intravenous drug users?  If you believe Judy Mikovits, the life saving drugs were withheld for several years to obtain patents for profit.  Now the most knowledgeable doctor America has is saying immunity  for Covid wanes.  After a vaccination and two boosters, immunity to Covid wanes.  It is a simple realization.  Covid affects the nervous system.  How can a simple virus do this?  There are dangerous viruses in existence, and one America knows is the poliovirus.  Poliomyelitis destroys nerve cells in the spinal cord, but we developed an effective vaccine for this disease.  We have yet to develop an effective vaccine for Covid 19, because those who conceived, manufactured, and dispersed the disease don't want it.  They want to maintain control, and a vaccine will defeat that purpose.  What could be better in the ongoing Cold War of Vladimir Putin, military invasions, and assassination by nerve toxins?  Release a biological/chemical weapon from aircraft, and instead of finding a real vaccine offer antidotes to ease the suffering.  What we have been given in America is an antidote, not a vaccine.  As such the pharmaceutical companies are complicit.  The bigger picture and what completes this evil dichotomy is the Big Lie.  The Republican Party's treasonous conspiracy is coming to light only now.  They had their constituents duped.  As I begin to understand this caucus from within North Carolina by examining the state General Assembly, it becomes clearer.  The metaphor for the conspiracy is district gerrymandering.  At a grassroots level and locally fudging boundaries to get your buddies to win may not seem severe.  At the core of politics this would be the most egregious act.  You don't win from truth by honestly representing your district.  You win because you manipulate the system to exclude your opponents and include your friends and supporters unfairly.  If you represent a particular geographical district that seems to include those who don't support your agenda, then you move the boundaries of the district to exclude those people and include people who do.  This is what the Republican majority General Assembly  has been doing in North Carolina.  Finally after multiple lawsuits which have proven these drawn boundaries violate the state constitution, judges are continuing to strike down the maps.  This will happen again this week.  This proves that even under public scrutiny, the Republican Party thinks is is cavalier and maverick to break the law if it means you win.  Trump has set the example for this wrongdoing.  He does it in your face and with style, and consequently he gets away with it.  This cannot continue, because democracy in America will not sustain if this Republican Party, having proven this propensity to err, remains in control.  They do not care about anyone except the people in their group.  This turns out to be many of the industrialists who are causing grievous irreparable harm to the planet Earth not to mention poisoning us.  Chemours has the audacity to run a television ad which says they are our friendly neighbors.  They have been dumping their carcinogenic waste into our air and the Cape Fear River for years, and they see themselves as our friendly neighbors.  If you keep biting on the Trump hook, you will be dead soon enough. 

The Republican Masquerade

I don't get it.  Last week, only a week ago, the six o'clock evening news, both local and national, was a barrage of  Coronavirus.  "We need more tests!"  Free tests are being purchased and distributed.  Only can I ask myself, "Why?"  Who cares about being tested for a disease, when the results of contracting that disease often are deadly?  You will know it when you have "the vid."  Many end up in the hospital, and some on ventilators.  Many die.  Those who don't have symptoms of the flu, "A stringent flu," in the ephemeral words of the former president.  The bottom line is you will know it when you contract Covid 19.  Who cares about taking an inaccurate test formerly that would take a week for Labcorp to process?  Home tests.  Overnight tests.  It's all a heap of rubbish.  Why?  Because the only people concerned with taking a test are those who refuse to take the vaccine.  Certain events now require proof of a negative test, so now tests become fodder.  "Get your test here!  Five dollars!  Tests on the downlow.  Tests in your pocket.  Step right up and get your tests from the pusher man."  Only a week ago on the six o'clock evening news, both local and national, was a barrage of Coronavirus.  It was all upon which they could report.  Coronavirus.  Coronavirus.  Omicron was omnipresent, and hospitals were at full capacity.  It was a national tragedy worse then before.  Overnight with the seeming flip of a switch Covid cases are down 35%.  People mask up, while the Republican Party is screaming about unmasking?  People get vaccinated, when the Republican Party is screaming about the right to choose?  It doesn't make sense.  What does make sense is that someone is controlling the Coronovirus for political reasons.  Flip a switch, record Omicron cases.  Hospitals at capacity.  Flip the switch the other way, Covid cases are down 35%.  Life does not work that way.  People do not work that way.  Fascists work that way designing and implementing an often fatal pathogen to implement for political purposes.  Not enough drama?  Flip the switch.  Too much drama?  Flip the switch.  Things going the way of red?  Flip off the switch.  Things turning blue?  Turn on the switch.  Politicization of a disease?  The only answer is Covid 19 is a terrorist assault.  It was planned, manufactured, and implemented, and it is being dispersed from the air by infiltrated aircraft who in proceeding American history had no reason to fly over the tops of your neighborhoods.  They do now.  They do in Boulder.  They do here.  Commercial and private aircraft freely strafe our homes unabated flying just above the treetops.  I watch it occur daily, one plane after another.  Many are hidden from scrutiny.  "No information available."  "Data blocked."  "No public registration."  Aberrant unabated private aircraft free to do as they please.  Why is it important that commercial jets should be able to fly over our homes?  How could the lobby be so strong to justify such an unusual practice?  Why would PSA insist their "Blue Streak" must turn and fly directly above your neighborhood at only 2000 feet?  It doesn't make sense.  It doesn't make sense unless there is a reason for it, and it is not saving fuel.  

Red Richard Hudson

 Our everyday lives today belie explanation.  It is like a spell has been cast over humankind, and witch hunting has become normal.  Upon glancing at the Fayetteville publication "Up and Coming," the editorial was by Congressman Richard Hudson.  As a member of the Republican party in the red state of North Carolina, it could not be expected his words would be anything other than Trump rhetoric.  The Republican Party, in the words of minority leader Mitch McConnell, wants to run in the mid term elections, "With no issues."  Let me clarify these words.  The Republicans want to run for leadership positions in state and federal offices without voicing any concerns, goals, or clarifications.  They do not want to address issues of any kind.  They want to be elected in the same way we choose student body officers in junior high school.  There is little to do except hold power, have notoriety, and stand above others.  They are not required to address immigration into America.  They are not required to balance the federal budget.  Certainly they are not responsible for assuring all Americans are treated equally and have secure voting rights.  The Republican Party en mass is passing restrictive legislation making it more difficult to vote, not easier.  Mitch feels we should elect our public leaders without listening to their opinions and for good reason.  Evidently they are too stupid to have an idea about anything.  They are too busy feeding from the golden teat of Mr. Trump.  We ask ourselves why and how our elected officials look so unofficial.  It is because "Political Action Committees" or PAC's are picking and funding our candidates.  They pick the most compliant and unaware person available to be a puppet for their needs.  Address the issues of Campaign Finance Reform?  Limit the amount of influence outside bodies have on elected leaders?  America in a century has not been in such a dire place.  Mr. Hudson's issue, the thing he chose to write about, was the mask wearing of Stacy Abrams.  He said, she said.  Of all of the things this Congressman could address in a penned letter to the people, he chose to write about whether a gubernatorial candidate in another state chose to wear a mask or not.  "We like things the way they are.  We like for those in power to stay in power.  Those with the money get to keep the money.  It is not important if we lie or gerrymander voting districts."  Mr. Hudson has shown his true colors, red. 

Screwminations of N.C. (Trying to make sense of it all)

 While I did grow up in North Carolina, I found respite for a brief time in the wonderful city of Columbia, South Carolina.  When my tenure came to an end, I was thrust back into military life now which defines most of the Carolinas.  I survived for a year but searched for another living destination more appropriate for musical productivity.  My move to  "Cowtown," (Columbus, Ohio) was inspired by a pattern by the late Dr. John Emche.  Dr. Emche was the Director of Jazz Studies and my cooperating professor, while I completed a masters degree in jazz and commercial music at USC.  After graduating from UNC-Chapel Hill with a music education degree, I was awarded a GTA in this jazz program.  It financed my secondary college education.  It has taken many years fully to understand "jazz life" is fleeting.  Columbia was a haven for jazz.  It was an enclave of warmth and creativity, and the jazz music scene was rich nurtured by the presence of a young saxophonist, Chris Potter.  Traditionally it would be the other way around; the local jazz did influence Chris.  A strong presentation of Bebop from the Terry Rosen group, featuring Johnny Helms, Teddy Linder, and Frank DuVall was ferocious.  These musicians loved jazz, and they transformed Pugs at Five Points into the jazz club of the city.  I spent many evenings in this below the sidewalk bar, and it smelled like beer and cigarettes.  The jazz spirit was strong and loving, and I learned much.  When it came time to leave, I went through severe jazz withdrawal.  This phenomenon is common, and is why jazz disappeared from American consciousness.  Jazz cannot exist of itself.  It must have a support system.  When that support system wanes or disappears completely, jazz will follow.  I am in the throes of trying to discover the appropriate American music which is independent and self-sustaining.  This means the feeling of this music will be an innate part of current American consciousness.  Currently this music does not exist.  The intellect of American folks no longer has the ability to process complex issues.  Is it because we are more stupid?  Is it because we don't care about such issues?  Is it because our brain and its ability to synthesize complex thought has regressed in function?  Have we devolved as a species?  If one looks at the current "Conditions of America," it is clear America, or at least the folk quorum of America, seems not capable of such thought.  Is it possible the potential of the human mind genetically has been altered?  Considering genetically altered foods have become standard without our consent, and Monsanto was sold to the Chinese, we have no idea what we are eating.  People concur the sabotage of our food system is one root of our problems.  How has this happened?  The answer is the same for most of our problems as a nation, and it is the absence of oversight and regulation.  The private sector of America has proven they cannot be trusted with the health of the nation.  Government oversight is required.  We must have regulatory agencies to canvas and police corporate America.  Slowly over the last two decades this oversight has been minimized by an overt lobby on Washingtonian elected officials.  Deep pockets set up shop in our nation's capital and wine and dine naive politicians coercing them into passing legislation to favor their profits no matter what the cost to human health.  The health of the human species and the planet eart now are at risk.  This cavalier behavior by industry is incomprehensible, and Donald Trump is proving mental illness is a viable and volatile American weakness.  It has reached a level where psychosis is being made to appear normal for political gain.  This is called "gaslighting."  Much of this sentiment can be understood by watching one Hollywood film.  The movie is "The Campaign."   It is a 2012 political satire based on the fourteenth Congressional district of my home state, North Carolina.  District 14 is the district of my home.  Because I opted out of the North Carolina experience soon after college, I missed some of the carnage of the metamorphosis of Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde.  When I lived in Chapel Hill for four years as a music student at UNC, then Governor Jim Hunt ran a tight state  Before I arrived at UNC, Chapel Hill held a record for the most beer consumed in the United States.  Jim Hunt changed that statistic with one stroke of his pen.  "DUI," driving under the influence, became "DWI," driving while impaired, and if you were caught it was a mandatory two nights in jail plus the loss of your license.  The same was true for passing a stopped school bus.  If you were caught, you lost your license.  The "P.C." climate of America, whence it came nobody knows, prevents us from governing ourselves in the most primitive of hazardous situations.  Still we are driving while texting.  America cannot even tell herself what kind of mask to wear during a pandemic.  The political climate of North Carolina capsulized in the film "The Campaign," has become truth.  It seems too rude, offensive, and over-the-top to be true, but this methodology won Donald Trump the White House.  North Carolina has become a big, fat, compliant whore, and although Governor Roy Cooper has a heart, his "Good Old Boy" genes render him incapable of fighting the Republican Machine.  The Chinese own Chemours.  DuPont changed the name of the disease causing, 3M manufactured chemical and sold its Teflon unit to China.  It is called Chemours, and it is in Cumberland County, District 14 about which is this political parody.  It was a lot to digest Will Ferrell's portrayal of Cam Brady.  When you connect the dots and add his "Hank the Tank" and "W." characters, the aesthetic of this southern villain becomes clearer.  North Carolina truly is represented accurately in these farce depictions, and it isn't good.  The concept is simple.  The more ignorant are the people, the more wealth can control their geographic region.  The more gullible are the folks, the more lobbyists can line their pockets.  The more naive are the electors, the more the Trump Campaign can bribe them.  How does wealth via politics oppress a geographic populace?  Let's take roll.  Contaminated drinking and bathing water via "Chemours."  (Thank China for this)  Tainted air to breath via "Chemours."  (Thank China for this)  Judicious amounts of EMF and infrasonic radiation via "CSX."  (Thank the railroads)  Chemtrails of soot and smog directly over our neighborhoods via commercial air traffic.  (Thank PSA Airlines, Delta, Piedmont, and the rest)  Infrasound is a never ceasing carrier wave of pollution rendering your personal privacy moot.  (Thanks to the diesel engine, and its EPA exempt graven image of profit)  Like the film says, North Carolina is a mess.  We wonder why our children overdose on drugs, and returning veterans commit suicide.  Try living at Fort Bragg.  The housing market would have you believe North Carolina is the destination because of affordable housing.  District 14 is the Theater of the Absurd, and an overtly homosexual contingency wants national recognition for their tepid drag tendencies.  Wake up and smell the coffee!  America does not give it away for free.  No one gives it away for free.  You have to work for it, and that the Koch Brothers have done. 

Dr. Dre's Return

I am bold enough to embrace the Super Bowl half time show, touted before it premiered as "The greatest half time show ever!"  Those are strong words, but how could we know if they are true?  As a nation we have been listening to strong words from past President Donald Trump for four years, and most were lies.  He set the example for untruth in America.  The Republicans eagerly embraced lying as a kind of sensationalism, because before his supporters knew they were lies, they believed them and voted for him. Two years and a many felonies later, we realize this.  It is difficult to digest, a recent President pulling the wool over our eyes.  It is called, "Eating humble pie."  For those who bit on his hook, this is challenging.  Lying and misinformation have become commonplace in America.  It is everywhere, mostly on the internet and now television.  Television is a soiled medium, and there is not much to believe.  Take caution!  It was announced this would be the greatest half time show ever.  Okay.  That is good Afro-centric marketing; I am not being racist.  I am being realistic.  Think back to the Apollo Theater in Harlem, and the artists who played there.  James Brown decided his people should collect the door and keep the money rather than forfeiting it to a mob boss.  He had the strong arms to enforce this idea.  Black culture is different than white culture, and black music proved throughout our history many American whites were more comfortable with it.  Black music is the history of America, and yet we fail to recognize and apprciate jazz.  Emotional expression isn't racially universal.  There are those  emotionally stunted not possessing the genes necessary to experience deep emotionality.  We used to call them "tight ass."  With
"Political Correctness" things in America which were accurate became inappropriate.  No longer could you call a Jew a Jew.  No more ethnic jokes.  We became sensitive and entitled, and now this particular generation won't make it, because their skin is too thin.  Life never has been easy, and the quicker you grow that tough skin the more likely you will succeed and be happy.  America does not give it away.  No one gives it away.  You must work for it.  Dr. Dre has worked for it, but at one particular point those controlling America decided it was over.  Hip Hop and black popular culture came to a screeching halt.  MTV, VH-1, and BET stopped playing music, and the music video died.  Pop Country came in, and we have not been the same since.  I did not follow Hip Hop music personally, but its influence was everywhere in my job.  I was a ship pianist from 2003 until 2013, and the music we played could not escape the influence of Rap and Hip Hop.  I am not be a fan of Gangsta Rap or  its misogynist content.  I don't abuse women, smoke dope, or shoot up the neighborhood.  What I did like was the musical integrity and groove of Hip Hop, because it picks up where jazz left off.  Hip Hop swings like jazz, and before we knew it this music became its modern equivalent.  Before I left for ships I became well-versed in funk and Hip Hop, because I played in a band.  I spent hours trying to understand these styles of music and how to execute them on keyboards.  There are a myriad of nuances and concepts in this music, and I made sense of them with my analytical mind.  This is when I discovered Hip Hop swings, and it became second nature to me.  "Shuffle Funk."  I didn't pay attention to the profane lyric content; I just enjoyed the rhythmic feel and the sonic satisfaction it provided.  As I continued on ships this music was the underlying fabric that held things together.  There was music in the shows, the white man's interpretation of life, and there was music played in the crew bar late at night.  Hip Hop was the predominant style, because it was the music which if you allowed it, fulfilled your soul.  That is a deep concept, and I am too tired to discuss it now.  Suffice it to say, Dr. Dre.  Poet and don't know it.  I feel it was the appropriate choice for this half time.  First the recent history of these shows is controversial, not musical.  Like Trump's lies we have lost sight of the reality of music.  Musical artist.  They lip sync to prerecorded tracks.  That's all.  That is not the case with Dr. Dre, the first American musician and producer to become a billionaire.  It wasn't Elvis.  It wasn't Hendrix.  It wasn't Madonna.  It was Dr. Dre, and that is because he is an accomplished producer and visionary with very large and musical ears.  I have been listening to "What's My Name, Part 2" for a long time, and still it is artistic.  Dr. Dre's appearance at the Super Bowl was like an appropriate protest of the Civil Rights Movement.  He has worked his ass off producing in the music industry (and has made a lot of money), but he as a black man has been denied national recognition.  With going on three years of Covid and a disgraced white President, Dr. Dre's appearance was, "Why don't we try this on for size again?  It was working before, and it will work now."  Not everyone is a tight ass hillbilly extremist.  There are the rest of us who are able to understand the groove of the music and enjoy it.  Comparatively it was a well-produced show.  They were  having fun doing what they do best.  There was no jive.  There was no scandal.  There was no Trump.  It was just, "We are going to have a good time and enjoy this music."  Fully I understand those not embracing a street dressed white boy with a hoody.  If you have seen any of Eminem's Dr. Dre produced videos, you have a different opinion.  Those videos were the pinnacle of protest, anger, sexuality, art, and expression in America.  The bar had risen so high there was no where else to go, so the white men just wiped the slate clean.  We have not recovered.  Dr. Dre said, "We are still here doing what we always have done."  Still it has power, love, and spirituality, and still it entertains.  Watch the Eve and Gwen Stefani video, " I Wanna Blow Your Mind," and you will see integration at its best.  America knows how to live together in peace and harmony, but that doesn't make money for Donald Trump.  

What Really is "The Blue Streak?"

"It's always something you don't want to do," in the immortal words of Wynton Marsalis.  Speaking about race relations and civil rights in the history of America, "There is always something you must do, muster the sheer willpower to persevere."  To me it's writing about Covid.  I can't say it's not my responsibility to think about Covid.  It is, like it is for every living soul.  We all must think about Covid, whether we want to or not.  We don't have a choice, because it is still here.   The news reports today Covid infections are down 35 percent.  That's because Covid infections go down, when they quit dropping it out of the sky.  No assault with a chemical or biological weapon, infections go down.  It's simple.  Does it seem conspiratorial?  Does it seem radical?  Does it seem demented to think something has created a weapon and is assaulting us with it?  When the lower Saudi royals masterminded the attack on the World Trade Centers, and the twin towers collapsed in rubble, it felt conspiratorial.  It felt radical.  It felt demented.  How could anyone have done such a thing?  The only attack on America's homeland in decades happened on Wall Street in lower Manhattan.  Think about that for a minute.  Someone, actually many, took the time to immigrate to the United States and slowly infiltrate our society.  These men became pilots for major airlines and in the blink of our eyes flew commercial jetliners into skyscrapers in New York City.  Almost it was inconceivable, but it happened.  You must give George W. Bush credit, because although the Department of Homeland Security is bureaucratic and cumbersome, his administration did keep America safe until now.  We have been safe until Covid 19.  For some uncanny reason there has been no speculation that the outbreak of Covid could be a terrorist attack.  Why?  Bill Maher said it succinctly tonight on his HBO program.  The medical establishment has lost all of their rights and privileges.  The response to Covid has been so convoluted, mysterious, and rhetorical, it is like they really don't want to cure the illness.  They want to prolong it, the way the American Cancer Society does to keep their funding.  In brutal reality they don't want to cure cancer.  The medical profession has become this way, and it began with the onset of HMO's and insurances companies controlling your health care.  Who ever thought this was a good idea?  Insurance, as I am learning, commoditized our health care system in a way that that would reward shareholders, not guarantee a fair price of treatment for American citizens.  It is an interesting concept, marketing.  I do believe it is the American way, an important and revenue earning tenant of our economic system, Capitalism.  For example, there is a wonderful jazz singer Melody Gardot.  Unbeknownst to most she was in a serious accident which left her severely disabled and sensitive to light and sound.  With few options for happiness in your recovery, she turned to music.  Necessarily the music needed to be quiet and sensitive to abide her new sensitivity.  She performed for a while in this manner producing a startling and moving communication with people through music.  Now when I Google her name I see glamour shots.  It is like no one knows the roots of her musical inspiration and language.  They just want to tart her up and sell records with a sexy image.  Welcome to the new world of American music.  It's not music.  It's disgusting, but I guess when Hip Hop spun out from gang violence, something had to fill that sexual hole.  (so to speak!)  Pop Country has been tooling around for a while, and I can't watch or listen to it.  I am not an adolescent.  I did have a Farrah Faucet poster when I was a teenager, but she didn't try to sing.  Making something out of nothing is what marketing has become, because America has so few products.  The infrastructure to spawn new ideas has been monopolized by Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.  Trying to nuture small business was tossed to the wayside years back.  It has to be big.  It has to make millions to satisfy shareholders.  Shareholders don't do anything but buy stock.  America has lost her core.  In all of this technological haze we have lost reality, and the reality is Covid is a terrorist attack.  My idea of it coming from the sky isn't farfetched.  It is the only way such a pathogen could be dispersed.  It has been done many times before in many countries, but the fog of the Republican Siege, the gaslighting, and the disinformation have done their job.  They have distracted us from real learning.  I have been writing about global warming and industrial pollution for twenty years, and the method of discounting my words simply was to say, "He's crazy.  There is no science.  There is no religion."  In fact the humanities are the core of our existence and the explanation of our planet and solar system.  Science is the only thing that is real and what will save us.  We just have to jail the naysayers in due time.  In this ruse of distraction and deception, inexplicably the FAA allowed the airlines to redraw their flight paths to account for a shift to GPA guidance.  The industry was moving from flight-based radar to satellites.  Overnight commercial jets now were flying over our neighborhoods at extremely low altitudes to save fuel.  They were not required to do what had been the standard since the inception of commercial jet travel.  This has been happening in our neighborhood, and I only can drop my jaw in disbelief when we get strafed by a commercial jet flying just above the tree line.  In addition at certain times on certain days, a magic carpet of jet exhaust blankets our neighborhood.  If you drove around the city you can see this gift, layers of black soot so consciencously laid just above the tree tops and only on our specific neighborhood.  These are flat chem trails, not ascending or descending commercial flights, and they surprisingly stick like taffy.  I understand we are the home of the 82nd Airborne Division, and I understand deployment.  I understand maneuvers.  They fly fighter jets through here on occasion.  This action, this mysteriously appearing blanket in the sky only over our neighborhood is unusual.  I have photographed it, and when it appears I grit my teeth and spew profanities at an industry who has obviously has become selfrighteous and profane.  To think your company has the right to spew chemtrails over neighborhoods to save on fuel?  I don't believe it.  I believe this solicitation to change flight paths was as concerted as the 9/11 attacks.  It was planned and implemented in a slow and savvy campaign of patience and terrorist fortitude.  When the time came and no one was looking, they began dropping Covid from the sky.  At first I could not help but suspect collusion from the military, but that is a far stretch.  I did not want to entertain such a conspiracy.  The more logical explanation under the unregulated and everychanging aircraft industry, is any rogue airline could be infiltrated easily.  They shift planes.  They have blanket companies.  They have partnerships.  They fly under the logo of this with the name of that.  It is so convuluted no one could keep up.  I have a backlog of aircraft data from the Flightaware website, and the planes and airlines are ever changing.  If I had a rocket propelled grenade and I knew which plane it was dropping Covid on Americans, I'd do what the Afghans did to Russian helicopters.  I don't have an RPG, but there is no other logical explanation.  I wish PSA would stop flying the "Blue Streak" over our house.  I'm tired of being sick. 

The Continued and Disturbing Prevalence of Covid 19

 While purposely I have chosen to ignore Covid for the last few months, largely because I have had three shots (the maximum recommended deterrent), its recurring antagonism is inescapable.  I think I have had "The Vid" four discrete times.  I sidestepped this ominous virus for almost a year, until our electric clothes dryer died.  A gas dryer would have been optimum, but gas appliances must be vented directly to the outside.  The space afforded our humble home for its dryer is in an internal downstairs bath with no tub.  The washer/dryer combo snugly fits into this space with a bit of anxiety.  Previously the bath had sliding louvered doors to hide them.  We kept these doors until now, because they were a defining characteristic of the house as is the back French door.  All ready we replaced the washer, and it was a major effort.  I spent time on the internet researching commercial washers and looking for the right model.  We solved this problem, and it was a success.  Instinctively I knew the dryer would be next.  Unfortunately the dryer madeappeared at a local Sears Surplus, and I was forced to frequent this store in the midst of the Covid pandemic.  Although we wore masks, I contracted my first Covid during this purchase.  We picked up the dryer in our Toyota van, and I installed it myself carrying it from the driveway to the back yard.  I attached the strain relieved 220 volt power cord.  The dryer took its toll, and the games began.  The symptoms of Covid for some are not related to the lungs or sinuses.  I had little mucous, congestion, or sore throat.   I had the the more lethal challenges of this pathogen.  It was stark and severe.  "Grog Head" is one description of what ensues.  Covid causes murky thinking.  Its effect is on the central nervous system.  It has been reported those with Covid are walking around, and they keel over.  You must fight this foe with sheer force.  Willpower is what maintains your lucidity.  Any weakness you have Covid will seek out exacerbate.  This includes bacterial and fungal infections, traditional challenges to human health.  There are a plethora of fungal and bacterial infections.  These infections are caused by particles in the soil, water, and air.  I have been an active yard worker, because our yard demands it.  With two live oak trees in our front yard and a plenitude of pines, the work is continual.  Growing up our neighborhood kids played in the woods.  We loved the out-of-doors, and a relationship with Mother Nature began.  I plow, dig, and plant but not as much.  These infections are caused by bacteria or fungus in the soil, rotted wood, and decaying plants.   I have taken pride in digging in the dirt, and my Uncle Randall says the more you do this the stronger your immune system becomes.  I believed this until Covid.  Covid turns Mother Nature against you in the most vile and afflicting way.  It is evil the effects of Covid, and they are not naturally occurring.   The first time I got Covid it found two discreet infections in my body, one bacterial (most likely Staph) and one fungal (probably Candida).  I found  often they coexist.  When they do they are more difficult to eradicate, because you need two differing drug treatments.   I had this malady for two years, two different infections apparent in my appearance.  I was pallid.  My skin was ghostly white, and I tried with diligence to find the right drug combination to cure this ailment.  After I stumbled upon the right choice, some of my suffering lessened.  Septic arthritis persisted mostly from my prolonged use of Cipro.  I have a fused bottom vertebra.  Over time if you are missing a disc, the bones will grow together.  My lowest vertebra is fused to my pelvis.  This explained two years of lower back pain.  With these differing episodes of Covid, which are covert and elusive, it is difficult to make heads or tails of your health.  When the vaccines became available my mother got one first, because she is ninety years old.  When it was available avidly I received it.  Both of us got both  boosters.  These shots saved my life.  My body told me I was over the hump, and I might feel normal again.  As the world has realized, we  live with Covid.  Like the flu it will be around forever.  These vaccines are available to save our lives.  The grift of Covid is its mission.  It seeks out and destroys from everyday maladies.  More importantly it attacks the central nervous system hindering your ability to feel, move, and coordinate.  It has a nerve agent in its DNA, and this is not normal.  Perhaps it is.  I am not a scientist, but I have discovered the amalgam of deadly pathogens used in chemical and biological warfare. With malice man likes to infect others, and there are a myriad of ways to do it.  Covid 19 is just one of them, the most recent since HIV.  Is AIDS naturally occurring?  I don't know the answer, but I do know that the continual spread of Covid is not attributable to those not  vaccinated.  It is being inflicted on us.  The most logical method is by aircraft following a long lineage of unethical and inhuman warfare experimentation by many nations including Russia and Japan.  America's contribution to this heinous practice was the dispersion of Agent Orange in Viet Nam to exfoliate their agricultural fields exposing strategic locations of the enemy.  This was accomplished with a specific aircraft, the Fairfield C123 Provider built specifically for the military.  The pathogens are administered as an aerosol suspension released in vaporous gas in the air over the intended enemy.  A doctor friend of mine emphatically told me a virus needs a human host.  My theory of dropping Covid from the sky was conspiratorial and delusional.  It is common.  Viruses need human hosts to multiply.  They are complicit to exist on their own for several months or years aided by external conditions.  In above freezing temperatures they can live for several years and prefer the dark.  More importantly they can live for several days on inert surfaces, until someone touches them and moves the viral particles to their mouths, noses, or eyes.  Here lie the ACE2 receptors responsible for the contraction of the virus.  Not much has been said about the eyes, but it should be noted that biofilms forming on contact lenses are a cause of concern.  This was my case, because my two year stint with an acute double infection most likely was promulgated by infected contact lenses.  (CT)  I soaked these in alcohol which killed the infection.  My health almost overnight began to improve, but in a few weeks the alcohol destroyed the lenses.   I had spares.  Losing ones taste and  smell is annoying.  When it happens continually, it becomes a litmus test for Covid.  The onset of fatigue, "Grog Head," and neurological difficulties seem to be consistent with the virus.  Only recently was I beset with upper respiratory symptoms including congestion, labored breathing, and sore throat.  All of it is destructive to human life, but the presence of a nerve agent points specifically to whom?