Pop Has the Drop!

 

            In the l980’s when I grew up there was no pop.  Michael Jackson was the “King of Pop,” but the musical genre pop almost was nonexistent.  Therefore I was immune to it.  It was fantastic.  Instead I learned other styles of music upon which to base my professional

keyboard playing skills.  Among these were Motown with which I never had a problem.  Then again North and South Carolina were a Mecca for beach music.  It is a colloquial style unto itself which integrated tuneful melodies, rich harmonic progressions, and a steady shuffle like rhythm that lent itself to the couple’s dance the “Shag.”  The music was romantic and intimate, thus the communities that utilized it were a close-knit body

of upper middle classed beach dwellers.  During that time in which I was learning my

keyboard craft, I was not fond of this music.  I was a jazz musician, and this simplistic style seemed vanilla.  It was not until decades later I learned to appreciate the lessons I learned from this music.  First like disco and southern rock it utilized

the keyboard as a rhythmic anchor.  It did not, like pop, use the strumming of the guitar.  It had the rhythmic feel of the piano which associated logically with both classical music and jazz.  With this pianistic spacing of notes, I never had to do battle with a rhythm

section that purposely compressed the rhythmic subdivision.  This is what pop does, and consequently the way it is articulated creates a façade that gives the illusion of a skilled and talented musical performance.  In fact it is devoid of the one element that defines music, discernable time.  Pop effectively like smooth jazz has created its own fake stage upon which modern music today is being pitched.  The understanding, skill, and passion once that was necessary for music performance has been circumvented in lieu of selfish, short-sighted, shallow egotism.  The movement has been implemented with such skill and planning most of America does not seem to notice the huge vacuum of real human musical expression.  Likewise this human expression is becoming demonized further to keep pop at the top.  With my recognition of this now prevalent musical style, I began to become dismayed when looking back musically with this new found knowledge.  It turns out pop has been a potent force in the recorded lineage of American popular music.  I was sad to find out that many true jazz pioneers began to exploit this newer rhythmic feel including Count Basie, Nat King Cole, and Quincy Jones.  The trouble I have with pop is that for a keyboardist it demands you change your technique.  Like the loose strumming of a guitar pop almost is the direct opposite of classical or jazz technique where you strive for control of phrasing and dynamics on the keyboard.  Instead it intentionally is loose and sloppy, and the ictus of downbeat is rushed forward actualized by a jabbing motion.  This single action is what defines its rhythmic style.  Like some African music it could be considered to be in a ¼ time signature, because normal groupings of notes into phrases are absent.  This simple playing ahead of the perceived downbeat negates the necessity of the musician actually from counting, feeling, and articulating accurate time on their instrument.  Pop has become a force.  It seems to be everywhere.  It is there because it does not need schooled musicians to perform it.  Instead it relies upon a computer to generate its masquerade.  I had a rude awakening upon coming back from a cruise ship contract this week.  I had only my third gig on land since I have been working on ships for a decade.  What transpired?  The bassist was ensconced in pop.  He played in the same exact style as all of the novice musicians on the ships.  It was not real.  There was no perceived time.  Time.  Instead it was a fake show of jive.  All I could think was the statement that older black jazz musicians played with a pulse, a discernable time feel when they played.  How could a genre of music exist that sought to do just the opposite?  It does it because instead of stimulating the heart, mind, and soul of the listener, it masturbates their egos.  It robs the music of any potential soul stirring power instead

empowering the listeners to think they are special.  If there were a powerful rhythmic force present, then the listeners would have to accommodate it in some way.  Traditionally this was done by dancing.  I guess in some ways pop could be, like smooth jazz, a cool version of traditional rock music.  It stays cool by denying the emotional connection that is evident in most music.  Okay, I can dig that.  What I can’t dig is throwing away 43 years of learned keyboard technique in lieu of a style of music that demands I can’t feel time when I play.  It robs my soul instead of filling it.  I guess I am just “old school.” 

The Epic Struggle

            The majority of time I remember living in Fayetteville, North Carolina someone always was trying to revitalize our downtown.  While I was attending Terry Sanford Senior High School in the early l980’s our rector at St. John’s Episcopal Church himself championed this movement.  Unfortunately it only amounted to the placement of wrought iron street lights and over-sized black pots on  Hay Street nearest the Market House.  Needless to say this was not successful in promoting the economic growth of downtown.  Over the past three decades this attempted metamorphosis has continued.  The second  chapter in the visual revitalization of downtown Fayetteville was the “cleansing” of the 500 block of Hay St.  Although the movement was successful in the elimination of downtown’s bawdy entertainment atmosphere, it did not cleanse one element

that is hindering the cultural renaissance desired by a small group of wealthy patrons.  Pundits may not agree that the “cleansing” of the 500 block of Hay Street of its old movie theaters, its clubs and bars, and its massage parlors was a fruitful economic policy. During her hey day photos of Fayetteville’s Hay Street can be seen teeming with life and activity.  Who was to say the entertaining of Fort Bragg’s G.I.’s was a bad thing?  If you had been training in the field for the last two weeks with very few amenities, a cold beer and some female companionship would be both appealing and necessary.  Despite its “low brow” functionality people were frequenting the businesses in downtown.  This designation itself could be a metaphor for the types of businesses a few Fayetteville elite are attempting to eliminate.  While I feel the last decade in particular has been the most successful in rejuvenating Fayetteville’s downtown, a value judgment could be placed upon the types of businesses that seem to be emerging.  In its hey day large department stores occupied downtown.  Both Sears and Robuck and The Capital department stores  were staple businesses on Hay St.  The emergence of Cross Creek Mall nailed a final stake in their presence.  Another movement had transpired that effectively moved the hustle and bustle of Bragg Boulevard to Skibo Rd.  No longer was this corridor from Ft. Bragg to Hay Street a needed route for soldiers to migrate downtown for entertainment purposes.  No longer was a rail trolley needed to chauffeur inebriated soldiers back to their barracks.  This seminal movement changed downtown forever.  The evolution has taken many turns and the building of a military museum and memorial has been effective in putting Fayetteville’s downtown on the map.  Still there is one annoying and tenacious deterrent.  No matter how much downtown developers try to market Hay St. as a future cultural Mecca, one reality will remain.  Unlike many other small Southern towns Fayetteville pragmatically has endured because of her economic base.  This economic base never has been music, art, or culture.  It has been the military, the presence of the military, and the service of the military.  The Strategic Rail Corridor Network (STRACNET) must be able to handle a full deployment of 450 fully loaded rail cars in one day.  While a study of rail operations in downtown Fayetteville stated that these fully loaded military trains only are needed a few times a year, the infrastructure for such defense activity must actively be in place.  The resultant rail commerce that is integrated with the service of Ft. Bragg is lucrative, and it continues to flourish.  Ironically it is the economic hub of downtown, not culture.  While it is admirable that developers have been successful building housing and businesses downtown, the realization that twenty to thirty trains pass through this area everyday is impossible to ignore.  It also is  impossible to ignore that CSX-T chooses God’s day of rest for which to assemble their freight trains.  Air transportation has limitations of operation considering the health and well being of nearby residents.  The rail industry does not so it seems.  They operate uninhibitedly whenever they please despite the semi-artistic community that is determined to give downtown a much-needed facelift.  The reality is that any real estate that exists in Fayetteville’s downtown is subject to this sensory skirmish.  Sound and vibration both are present in great amplitude and pressure most of the time in downtown.  The colloquial, genteel, cultured atmosphere that many people seek is not possible in the wake of this large-scale industrial commerce.  While it may not appear large-scale to the eye, the ramifications of its process are.  They are inescapable. 

An Increasing Totalitarian Fayetteville, NC

 

            No one asked me whether or not I wanted a shit load of new military personnel in my hometown.  One reason why I left this town was because of this overt military presence.  I, unlike the Baby Boomer’s, had no reason to feel nostalgic about this presence.  It bypassed my generation.  I had no expired draft card.  I had no military pension.  I had no military benefits.  What I did have was a town that, because of this overt military presence, was different than almost every other town in America.  Other towns had colleges and universities, but without the strange war like ruminations.  This town does have a college and a university, but they are not the same as other town’s colleges and universities.  It is not unusual that our university is afro-centric.  There are other predominantly black schools in North Carolina, but none are built around a railroad spur that services the largest military installation in the United States.  Imagine being in class or at a classical concert when one of those fully loaded military trains clanks by carrying tanks, howitzers, and Hum Vees.  That image certainly would not instill a sense of peace, prosperity, and artistry in aspiring students.  Maybe it would.  Maybe indigenous acclimation somehow has shielded the minds and hearts of these students from this picture of war.  If their immediate family or friends were involved in or associated with America’s military, they could and would understand its purpose.  They might not be affected by the purely visceral effect of the world’s most powerful locomotives hauling weapons of mass destruction past their school.  Believe me, it has an effect on a town, and that is why our town is not the same as any other American town. 

            Back in the day veterans were heralded.  There was prestige and valor associated with military service.  That changed during Viet Nam’s tenure.  I’m not sure about military aesthetic during Desert Storm.  What I do know is the thousands of newly enlisted lower ranked G.I.’s were not all to happy to be shipped off to active duty in the deserts of the Middle East.  They were more content to absorb the paycheck without risking their lives in service of the U.S. Military. 

            Possibly because of the fatalities incurred during the War in Iraq, military salaries have risen.  In light of the recent economic downturn in the United States, military personnel now are seen as profitable citizens.  What does that mean?  That means that the “locals” in their host town probably are suffering more economically than they are.  They are being taking care of with health benefits, housing subsidies, and pensions.  Locals are not, but that is not true of all locals.  The prudent, mostly Republican, influential ones used their familial old money to take advantage of this overt military presence.  In essence they learned quickly how to take advantage of these beached military personnel.  Along for the ride whether they want it or not, the locals are subject to the same exploitation.  Prices for vehicles are unusually high.  Shelves in stores often are depleted. Ammunition for home armament is limited.  Governmental services for citizens grossly are inferior to areas where there is no pool of servicemen.  Simply put a Department of Motor Vehicles serving a a metropolitan population of 374,157 demands a larger facility than that of an old 7/11 store in Eutaw Village.  This disservice to the community could be a metaphor for the continuing exploitation of Fayetteville, North Carolina’s all ready fragile infrastructure.  While B.R.A.C continues to tool away on base expansion at Ft. Bragg, local citizens are being bullied by a government intent upon eliminating many small businesses deemed to be unacceptable.  Using Eminent Domain the city of Fayetteville has begun taking small businesses sacrificing them for a plan being implemented behind closed doors and not necessarily representing the best interests of all economic classes.  Not unlike New York city’s Times Square, a clean up has been devised and implemented unbeknownst to many of Fayetteville’s citizens.   Who will benefit from this influx of military personnel, elimination of small business, and implementation of a totalitarian governmental process?  There is only one answer. 

Radio Station Politics

            Each day when I crawl out of bed in the morning, I have two choices of media with which to help ease the transition from slumber to wakefulness.  Both by today’s standards could be considered antiquated and anachronistic, but that only should be considered in terms of popular culture.  Fortunately as academic institutions have proven, knowledge, ideas, and resulting processes do stand the test of time.  I have mixed feelings about traditions.  Certainly a core liberal arts education could and would be a substantial basis upon which to grow one’s own life.  Conversely as I graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, I wanted nothing more than to escape four years of UNC’s traditions.  Unlike many of my classmates who remain diehard Tarheel fans, I felt an intense need to continue academic growth in a different geographical area with different people.  Traditions are necessary for civilization.  We as human beings need ethical, moral, and Christian models upon which to pattern our lives.  The concept that emerges with this decision to change is growth.  How can one continue to grow when one’s environment is staid? 

            A striking realization occurred to me recently when visiting one of my former alma maters.  It had been twenty-three years since I left Columbia, South Carolina after completing a Masters degree in music composition at USC.  Since then I have completed the course work for a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Composition at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.  Also since then I have worked as a professional pianist in the cruise industry for ten years.  That is two very large chapters of my life that have been lived since I graduated from Chapel Hill or the University of South Carolina.  What was startling upon visiting Columbia was it had not changed.  Twenty-three years of history and as the world around us has continued to evolve, expand, and influence, Columbia had not changed.  It became clear to me the reason.  It was because of the university.  Columbia, because of its university, was a city of tradition.  Strikingly also it is a city of tradition because of the Civil War.  Although I had passed through South Carolina and Georgia to embark ships in Florida, I in twenty-three years never had stopped to give the historical traditions of these states another thought.  For the same reason I wanted to leave Chapel Hill, I wanted to leave not only Columbia but the entirety of the American South.  After living in Columbia for five years, it became apparent that there was an underlying dictating infrastructure.  It is ensconced at the root level of Southern society.  I realized that “Old Money” controlled the South.  Consequently there was very little financial mobility available without first recognizing and then interacting politically with this organization.  I chose growth and once again left for another area and new people.  It seems this type of growth and thus lack of it markedly has affected the growth of America.  There is no greater metaphor for this process than the two choices of media I face each day when I awake.  I can choose the local FM jazz radio station or the local FM classical radio station.  While it may not be readily apparent how this choice personifies the growth of America, it is startlingly accurate.  This choice incorporates race, nationality, politics, government, and institution.  The unnerving conclusion is that radio is racist.  Because I have studied the history of music at the doctoral level, I never have drawn boundaries around particular musics based on skin color.  Music is one of the few transcendent art forms that allows for the blurring of these human biases.  It will be clear to some of us that radio always has been segregated.  Two seminal music figures influenced the watershed of blurring race on the airwaves.  They were Elvis Presley and Barry Gordy.  Elvis was white but sang like a black man thus presenting him with musical opportunities not afforded to the original Negro artists.  Barry Gordy Jr. similarly shaped the music of original Negro artists into a form that was deemed palatable by white American radio.  It was called Motown.  While his record label was a success for the music industry, I always have felt it was a disservice to the original artists.  I am different because I am a musician.  I do not draw racial boundaries around music. There was an American consensus that Negro culture from Africa was too intense for the more conservative Caucasian sensibilities.  Fundamentally this cultural idiosyncrasy could be the talking point of a plethora of issues fundamentally affecting Americans, but has been blurred by a more recent social concept.  Instead of recognizing, examining, and celebrating our cultural differences, instead in America we are attempting to blur these differences by fabricating a likeness of humanity with little to no historical precedence.  By blurring gender we are in a sense attempting to eradicate thousands of years of relevant human culture driven by it.  The male female relationship is what has driven the world since its inception.  This has changed. 

            Ignoring the racial bias of radio, there are many concepts being represented by the simple choices of music to be played publicly.  With the recent seeming extinction of traditional record labels due to the shift of music consumption on the internet, the organizing and thus reinforcing of these cultural differences is ebbing.  Instead we are being pushed into a homogenous indeterminate group of consumers with very little artistic sensibility. 

            Simply the choice of the classical radio station is better.  As a staunch purveyor of jazz music, still I have evolved to believe the European traditions of music have proven more tangible.  Without trying to disparage America’s only indigenous art form, “If it is not on the page, it is not on the stage.”  When I began my composing career it revolved around the jazz idiom.  I studied jazz performance for many years, and as a ship pianist continued to evolve as an improvising musician.  It is a very high art form that never should be looked down upon.  The difficulty today is, America has changed.  The traditional driving forces of humanity subtly are being challenged and changed thus rendering ineffective our cultural heritage.  How is it possible that jazz is dead?  It is because the principles of our modern day life do not relate to the principles of jazz.  Since Hip Hop, an indigenous, artistic, socially conscious music form was pushed off the shelves in lieu of pre-packaged pop offerings, nothing has emerged in the field of music that accurately can summarize America’s mainstream.  We do not have a mainstream.  We have become a diluted, disparate, desperate lost culture looking for the once available incentives provided by both government and merchants.  They no longer are there.  Without the traditions of academic institutions it is plausible this culture could be lost forever. 

            As a jazz musician I try to listen to the local jazz radio station.  Nine times out of ten I cannot.  It is disappointing as an academically trained musician that I cannot put faith in the programming of this station.   The reasons are the same reasons that are predicating our lives today in America.  The programming is a façade as has become our governmental and socioeconomic policies.  Neither is relating to America at the grassroots level.  That level has become so disguised by the conscious efforts of a select few that our existence has become a distortion of reality.  We are not operating candidly face to face on a Christian level.  Instead we are enjoying the process of distortion for entertainment reasons.  When the pure cultural heritage of a society becomes cloaked, then the rules become changed.  This is how Republicans traditionally have won when they can’t win on the playing field.  Instead they change the rules of the game in favor of themselves. 

            Who is benefiting from this distortion?  When what calls themselves a jazz radio station fails to play the seminal catalog of recorded jazz that has been amassed and studied academically for decades, what conclusion can be drawn?  They are a façade that is operating for covert reasons.  If the programming they choose is devoid of the artistry, wisdom, soul, and inspiration capable in music, then they are emasculating their listeners with tepid, superficial, selfish music.  It is not new.  The robbing of power from the people began with George W. Bush’s presidency, and it continues. 

            The programming of a radio station as a metaphor for our struggle for economic and social success in America easily can be exemplified by Time/Warner’s systematic hoarding of America’s popular music.  When such an entity brazenly purchases and hides America’s history, what conclusion can be drawn?  How in modern times can the roots of America’s civilization have been plucked and hidden from us?  It is because we are operating in a façade, not America’s once reality. 

            Music is and always has been embraced for its sheer power to move the human condition through emotion and intellect.  If you want to dumb down your population your rob them of the fundamental tools they use to evolve and grow as human beings.  Music and public education are two of these fundamental tools. I can’t expect to turn on the radio and hear authentic representations of America’s only indigenous art form.  Art is too powerful for the masses, as we continue grossly to underestimate the sensibilities of the American population. 

            The classical station is the better choice, because although there is unsuccessful music in this repertoire also, it at least has a tried and true process of checks and balances.  It has sustained the test of time, and this test has empowered this music to become stronger and even more tenacious against imposters.  What is being played on this particular “jazz” radio station merely is pop music, and I assume God is the one who makes the determination of whether you prefer art or sugar for your musical preference. 

The Burden of the Military

 

          Unless you have lived in an overtly military town, you may not have the perspective of many Baby Boomer retirees still laced with patriotism.  Today that perspective has been lost as have many American traditions.  Culture dramatically has changed in America, and I do not recognize it.  Unashamedly I never liked America anyway.  Capitalism is for the rich.  You cannot make money without money.  Government has ceased to stimulate small businesses.  Large corporations have raped America, and crucial manufacturing jobs flew to Asia to fuel their emerging middle class.  It was funny while it lasted.  Maybe that was a few months more than the similar flight that went to Mexico.  At least the yen and China’s economy has not collapsed.  That only is because their currency is more valuable than ours.  The peso was not, and America left many South Americans empty handed after robbing them in the name of cheap labor.  Mexico was not ready for NAFTA and America’s manufacturing jobs.  China was, but their over-populated infrastructure was fragile.  Now finally the movement is attempting to reverse itself.  I will believe it when I see it.  I will believe it when corporations begin paying a decent wage with benefits empowering America’s citizens.  The only way they ever did this was under the pressure of Jimmy Hoffa who disappeared.  You can’t be a hypocrite.  Either you believe in America’s people, or you don’t.  You as prudent businesses used to do, invest in them and treat them well and they will support you.  You cannot treat them as expendable labor.  All of this aside living in an overtly military town gives you a different perspective than that of the fading Baby Boomers.  The United States military no longer is fueled by propaganda.  The once patriotic movement has not been instilled in America’s subsequent generations.  Maybe we can remember a moving ceremony honoring fallen heroes.  Maybe.  What I remember is what it is like to grow up in a military town in North Carolina.  At one time there was moxie accompanied by a thriving nightlife.  Now it is just a mundane job defending America abroad from invisible terrorists.  The glory of World War ll is gone.  All of those images of returning soldiers kissing their gals in Times Square is water under the bridge.  Now it seems to be unemployed soldiers with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome and no legs.  In addition living in a military town one witnesses first hand the level of intellect of your average G.I.  Often they are high school dropouts.  Often they have a propensity for violence.  Often they engage in criminal behavior.  Often as exhibited by many gay military porn sights, they are sexual deviants.  This influence as experienced by middle class working people is negative.  It is annoying that Wal Mart shelves always are empty.  Living near a drag strip also is annoying, especially at night.  The fear of strafing from an Apache attack helicopter or an Obama drone by mistake is disconcerting.  Low flying C-130’s over your neighborhood do not make you feel safe at all.  They instill fear from the unknown.  When the ground shakes from the artillery fire and you can hear the rat-tat-tat of machine gun fire, it is not consoling.  It is difficult to differentiate the sounds of war from a patriotic mission to protect Americans.  While a military is necessary, it should not be the focus of America or American politics.  This inflated war machine has bled America to death, and it is due time for Washington to pour America’s money back into her. 

Defending Our Rights, Mano e Mano

 

            It was unnerving watching a vexed Rachel Maddow last night try her best to comprehend what traditionally has been recognized in America as an “Extreme, Right-Wing, Militia” perspective.  Ironically since 9/11 our home-spun domestic extremist movement has become overshadowed by an extremist movement 180 degree opposed.  While right wing militia movements in America may have slipped from sight, their roots  continue.  It is the National Rifle Association that has become their speaking voice.  It could be easy to get the two confused considering the amount of spin that is placed upon every political issue these days.  Grass root militia movements simply are Americans that believe, “A well-armed militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”  They believe in freedom in America.  They are not interested in terrorism.  Contrarily often they are baited by the very acts of America’s federal government.  They respond, which is more than a majority of so-called Americans with their heads buried in the sand.  These militiamen pay attention, and if they feel threatened again by the federal government they will make it known.  I’m not positive if the NRA is the proper liaison.  Like other branches of an increasingly extreme right wing, losing sight of one’s philosophy in lieu of participating in a hollering match on capital hill is a mistake.  The media may not have helped.  A differentiation must clarify the difference in two extremist movements.  First our domestic militia movement is not violent.  They only vehemently will go to extreme lengths to protect the freedoms the United States Constitution seeks to provide.  If that means living in underground bunkers armed to the teeth in the great plains of the MidWest so be it.  It is probable these die hard patriots more likely are to be incited by thoughtless unconstitutional suggestions of policy and legislation by the United States government.  An example of that could be an absurd stripping of a soldiers right to express faith.  We ask these soldiers to die for us in action, but now we are going to suggest taking away their God-given right to express personal faith?  I’ve never heard anything so ludicrous in my life.  An example of anti-Christian policy all ready has taken place with the expiration of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”  It is common in the last decade a decisive movement has appeared that seeks to excise Christianity from America.  If this fundamental building block of society is removed, then evil men will be able to continue with no moral conscience at all.  They will not have to be accountable to anyone, except God when they burn in the pits of hell.  In the meantime we have to keep it on the table in full view.  Otherwise our small earth may cease to exist at all in our lifetimes.  I feel the effort is merited.  Muslim Extremists hate America, and a large part of this sentiment was created by Osama Bin Laden.  He was not at all happy about America’s response to Saddam Hussein’s invastion of Kuwait.  He also was not happy that he was passed upon to provide a capable fighting and protective force for the Saudi government.  He was pissed and only wanted us out of his native land.  Still we are there.  There is not enough time to discuss the myriad of reasons America is involved there, most probably none of it having to do with weapons of mass destruction.  Suffice it to say, “Rich in natural resources.”  We cannot fund the country now by squeezing drops out of stones.  Why not sell opium?  I just wish we could get it together.  If as Rachel explained ten percent of the population believe American citizens will have to take up arms against the U.S. Military, there must be a reason.  In my opinion is has to do with excess, military excess.  This always has been a priority of Republicans.  It is obvious this excess has bankrupted the country.  Being at war and funding this military has created the financial crisis we are feeling today.  Other short-sighted strategies have not helped.  Wall Street Hedge Funders were working their magic at the same time, selfishly emptying America’s coffers even more.  In an unprecedented presidential move, George W. Bush upon exiting office, stuck his hand in our cookie jar and handed these cronies our cash.  It is sickening.  Upon reflection these assholes for years have been funding presidential campaigns.  Just as has happened in history, the Hank Paulson’s get in there and steal our money.  How are normal Americans able to do anything about this corruption?  There is only one way, and it is not extreme to entertain the notion that eventually the American citizen himself will have to take up arms against unfair rule.  There are simply too many examples in recent history that document this movement.  Government can become so corrupt and uncontrollable that Americans will be required to take action.  No one wants to believe it.  Certainly mainstream television hosts would have a difficult time realizing that America is not about gloss, glamour, or television.  It is about principal.  It is about roots.  It is about freedom.   It is about goodness.  Ironically enough simple and misunderstood organizations such as the Hell’s Angels are exercising their American freedoms.  That an increasingly conservative, weak, and tepid faction continues to try to conflate their own agenda with traditional American values is surprising.  You can understand the grass roots movements are resistant.  In certain ways this resistance defines conservation.  They would rather stay with what is tried and true.  The trouble is those values are being eroded continuously by another movement.  Abstractly it could be considered this anti-American movement actually is the Extreme Muslin agenda but being practiced from within our own population.  While President Obama continues to seek these native terrorists, it should become readily clear that arming one’s self is the last line of defense.  Again as Rachel mentioned could one conceive that an American militia movement would instigate a strike against the federal government?  The answer is it would be the easy and appropriate counter strike to unstoppable corruption.  First the United States’ military has been over deployed for years. The number of troops available for a domestic altercation upon our native soil is small.  Secondly and more importantly as proven by a tenacious Viet Nam war, it nearly is impossible to defeat an indigenous population on their own land.  It is because Americans all ready live in her trenches.  No one else more is accurately aligned to defend America than her citizens.  If you believe our mighty fighting military force, without the proper leadership, is going to successfully secure America’s borders, then show us an example.  When in history has America had to defend itself against such an attack?  The attack on Hawaii’s Pearl Harbor occurred in the South Pacific.  While it does seem improbable that advancing extremist forces will come from Canada or Mexico, no one really knows.  To be safe it is more consoling to have a closet full of guns.  That way whoever seeks to abolish our Constitutionally assured personal freedoms (including the government) will have to contend with their defense.  It is not extreme that these freedoms for which to be fought would be defended hand to hand on America soul.  Our forefathers knew this, and only an immature, naïve, and misguided consort of Americans could believe otherwise. 

           

Segregated Radio Stations

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            The most striking thing about the American South is it has not changed.  The reasons why I left in l991 still upon reflection are exactly the same as reasons I would choose to leave again today.  I may not have been sure two decades ago, because I was emotionally vulnerable.  I suspected as much.  I suspected the American South was a “Good Old Boy” network.  There was “Old Money.”  There was a society bred upon wealthy slave-owning plantation owners.  They patterned their transplanted roots upon Victorian England.  They named their children Muffy and Bif.  Above all there was no defeating them.  They controlled the Old South.  It was old, stuffy, moldy money that had been sitting in a safe and was not going anywhere soon, much like now.  It was not going to be made available to a youthful generation.  A youthful generation was not going to be honored or empowered with the reigns to the kingdom.  Instead these insolent land-owners ate their children like they ate everyone else.  It is beyond me how a generation can become so Goddamned selfish as not to respect their offspring.  Who was going to take over when their blood dried up?  “We won’t worry about that now.  We merely will get all we can, can it, and sit on the can.”  That once conservative philosophy has failed America miserably.  The good news is that idea is not prevalent everywhere.  It is not prevalent in New England, California, or the Midwest.  These places have chosen to be progressive engaging life and future life with zest and money.  They, rather than sit stagnantly on their covered porch admiring their tall trees sipping a lemonade or ice tea, would rather engage life and a new future.  Prospects.  New Money.  I left the American South for these reasons.  There was no foreseeable future.  In fact it was a hard dead end. 

I literally had people saying to me, “Why do you think you are any different?  What makes you so special that you believe you will have anything other than this?”  Sometimes you just have to change the environment.  When it fails you, like Motown, go somewhere else.  I chose Columbus, Ohio.  Some people would laugh.  “Cowtown!” they say.  I had an underlying motive.  Not only could I pursue the D.M.A. degree in composition, Columbus was a capital city of a million and a half people.  There were opportunities. I was right.  Unfortunately I tried to transplant my own Southern sensibilities to Columbus, and they would not have it.  There was a stark different in culture.  While Southerners, because of the climate and geography, could relax and provide some quaint charm and hospitality, Columbus was urban.  There was nothing around it.  What you had happening was life.  There was no room to sit back and enjoy the works of God or nature.  I was amazed out how much more aware and literate the people of Ohio were.  They knew things, and they paid attention to the appropriate things.  There was no society to disguise or control reality.  That crust of manipulation was removed, and boy was it refreshing.  There was no Old Money.  It was New Money, and if you worked hard you could be both appreciated and rewarded with a place in society.  That American South is not like that.  It surprisingly still is segregated.  The perfect example of this segregation and an issue I have been trying to understand is musical segregation.  As a musician myself, a purveyor of both improvised jazz music and written European-based concert music, I don’t consider music to be privy to any particular race or culture.  I do know the history of a lot of music, but I as a human being never saw fit to segregate music.  What’s the point?  When I returned to the American South it has become obvious still it is segregated.  What am I talking about?  I completed all of the coursework necessary for the acquisition of a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Composition at The Ohio State University.  The only reason I did not finish was because the eye disease Kerataconus demanded I have cornea transplants in both eyes.  This took time, and after their healing I needed to make money, not be in school.  Still I retain all of that knowledge and have not given up on being a successful musician again.  It is difficult being surrounded by the Old South, because it has not changed and in my humble opinion never will.  It is not progressive.  It still is stuck in the staid habits that have sustained it all there years.  While there are glimmers of progress, such as our local symphony conductor programming Mahler and Stravinsky, the culture of the South will stay the same.  It is sentimental.  It is sweet.  It is violent.  “Hey ya’ll!”  At one time the traditional Southern Bell could melt me.  I realize today it was not a product of love or admiration or desire.  It purely was sexual.  Those women are both alluring and physically desirable, but I don’t want that.  I don’t want to be controlled by my libido.  I don’t want to desire something so much I lose control of my wits.  I rather would desire it, because I see and understand something that is appealing to me.  I don’t want to be slain by a bimbo.  That is the way women operate in the South.  Know they will take your money, and your house, and your life.  I don’t want to be controlled by traditions and customs that openly don’t accept my independent opinion and appreciate it.  Why would I?  My example is while many years of my life were involved with the study and performance of jazz-oriented music, I can’t listen to the local jazz station here.  I have tried.  Their programming is too off base for me to appreciate.  Am I so unusual having studied the recorded lineage of jazz music not to be able to enjoy their contemporary programming?  I think it is because as a well versed and studied musician, I don’t compartmentalize music.  I understand styles of music and their origins, but for me they just blend together into what is the aesthetic of my life.  That aesthetic, because I have traveled away from the South, I see now is far more diverse than others around me.  This reinforces that notion that the South is sheltered, not progressive, and unwilling to change, grow, and experience new things.  They like their security blanket of country clubs, smooth jazz, and old money.  It highly is oppressive.  Why does the local jazz station not play the known and recognized iconic jazz recordings and artists?  I have asked myself this many times.  I thought once it was because they didn’t have the revenue to pay the royalties on the most important and influential music.  I think still that may be true.  I don’t know if radio stations pay by the track, artist, record label, or style.  I would like to know.  Whence does the royalty come?  What I do know is the program this station offers is sheltered.  It is not progressive.  It is not meant to challenge the listener, the listener’s sensibilities, or societies' acceptable social norms.  It, like modern pop music, instead puts a bandaid on life’s tough spots.  It seeks not to be heard, felt, or understood.  It is the ultimate “Uncle Tom.”  Its only purpose is to say, “Yessah massah, whatever you say.”  I guess it is this principle to which I most object as a composer and musician.  No one in my mind has the right to dictate what or how I perform music.  That is not how it is today.  That freedom has been curtailed, and I am not sure by whom.  Time/Life and Time/Warner must have a hand in it, because they bought the majority of the performance rights to America’s most popular recorded music.  Consequently we don’t hear it anymore.  What gives?  Is that not sheltering, concealing America’s musical past?  The majority of what is played on our local jazz station is not jazz at all.  It is pop.  How am I able to make this distinction?  Because “Once Upon a Time in a Far Away Land,” students were required to study styles of music.  “Once Upon a Time in a Far Away Land,” pop music was not part of the musical curriculum at reputable music school.  That has changed.  “Once Upon a Time in a Far Away Land,” the guitar was not recognized a viable tool for teaching music.  There is a reason for this.  Pop music, while erroneously considered to mean popular, really defines a musical style.  It is a style, unlike traditional jazz or orchestra musics, that does not demand an intellectual comprehension of rhythmic style.  Most jazz oriented music in America in the last decade has reverted to this much less skilled and therefore irrelevant style of music, because it takes very few brain cells to actualize it.  To me it is a horrific disservice to trained and talented musicians.  Alas corporations can design and implement pop music because it consists of no real music in a traditional sense.  Radio stations like ours are not helping the situation by playing this garbage.  That was not my point.  My point was that in addition to playing “Yes Man,” the music is segregated.  It represents only one particular group of people, and that is disheartening.”  I guess you don’t notice it if you only have experienced the American South.  The segregation exists elsewhere.  The station to which I turn for musical diversion while of quality, adheres to the same aesthetic.  It does not ever play music that is challenging to the emotions.  It like many sheltered places does not even recognize the Second Viennese School.  Did anyone know there was a Second Viennese School?  Who was the first?  It was Beethoven, Hayden, and Mozart.  Alas there have been many more decades of music making since the High Classic period.  Our local classical station abstains from playing any contemporary music.  Rarely will you ever hear Schoenberg, Berg, or Webern.  Rarely will you hear Charles Ives, one of America’s greatest composers.  Why is this?  It is because one must grow intellectually and emotionally to understand and appreciate this music.  Why can’t a radio station be responsible for this awakening?  Is it because they also are playing “Uncle Tom?”  I guess so. 

Carpel Tunnel and Railroad Demons

 

            Each and every day I wake I am confronted by demons.  As I rise from bed they swirl around me like blind bats. The difference is their intent is purposeful and strong.  They seek to keep peaceful serene joy away.  Oddly as I reflect it not only is when I wake that I begin to be confronted by these demons.  I also am tormented by them every night when sleeping robbing me of the essential rest I need to be able to confront them when I wake up.  Why must I hit the ground running like war?  I am not in a war, but I am at war.  Is this the way life is now?  There is no peaceful serene joy left?  Is this what God provides with the proper amount of organized religion?  Is this why in the midst of evil, treachery, and deceit bible compounds continue to flourish raging a covert pacifist war against the ensuing urban sprawl?  I have learned over the years to be a realist.  It is more healthy than burying your head in the sand and singing the praises of Jesus.  When you walk out of the church you will be confronted with the same evil that was there before you walked in.  It is like being at Guantanamo.  Torture.  The most prudent method of extracting the truth from a suspected terrorist is to rob them of sleep yielding them incapable of coherent lucid thought.  It is a common.  If Republicans were smart enough to get former president George W. Bush elected with the state of Florida, they are smart enough to know how to control the population.  Why does it seem to be being practiced upon me?  I do understand Jesus, God’s only Son sent to earth in human form to spread the Christian faith, was persecuted.  I am not Jesus.  Why do I feel like am being persecuted?  Is it because I am a realist, and I understand what is occurring around me?  Jesus’ teachings were met with cynicism and disdain by the evil.  It took time to convince doubters of His goodness.  The evil never changed.  The wily, like wealthy Republicans of the past, strongly will assert you are the demons.  Any time I begin to talk about AC Traction the mighty railroads rear their powerful heads and assert, “Never could there be problems with our technology!  After all it never has been studied or tested by the Federal Railroad Administration or the Department of Transportation!  After all Siemens, General Electric, and General Motors all produce this ground breaking technology with no oversight!  After all American could not survive without the great rail system!  Never could there be problems with our wonderful American constructs of society! We are the world’s oyster! America could not function without the moving of freight.”  My demons I believe are being created by this technology.  It is difficult to pinpoint the source since there are multiple source options.  Unlike my friends that lived on Rogers Drive directly underneath the radio transmission towers that are dead from cancers, I never questioned the source of my Kerataconus.  An absolutely new case of Carpel Tunnel Syndrome in my hands has me confronting the physiological manifestations of these demons.  Since the onset of pollen season in the American south, my torture has been more direct.  Pollen deposits on hard contact lenses cause excruciating pain.  Infrasound easily passes through most walls not reinforced with steel and concrete.  The predominance of micro-dust pollution in our air is produced by diesel engines.  A combination of diesel micro-dust and pollen being projected by an infrasound wave through the walls of a house or business into your eyes is disturbing.  It also is painful and time consuming to remedy.  The tinnitus that accompanies an infrasound wave is disturbing.  Most disturbing is the heat that accompanies the dust and pollen.  It largely is responsible for global warming. 

Again I hear the faint voices of the airlines, wireless telecommunication companies, the railroads, and the cruise lines begin to murmur, “How could our multi-million dollar example-setting corporations serving Americans be of any harm?”  It’s called burying your head under the sand.  It is called not being a realist.  Is ignoring simple facts and pretending to worship God under the ruse of organized religion enough to stop the deterioration of the earth caused by this technology?  The answer is no.  I see no end in sight.  I see no American Renaissance.  I see no future at all.  American has run the course and now is subject to the same consequences of each and other emerging nation.  America’s focus on education, teaching, and artistry has been usurped by shallow greedy toy manufacturers elusively who raised the bar of their products to include the mainstream markets.  We have developed into a generation of toy users who have lost the ability to function as human beings, learn a trade, develop a skill, or sustain America’s work force.  It is not our fault.  That fault lies with Capitalism’s provider of money and our government.  Without either it is extremely likely humanity would return with a vengeance.    

Corporate America's End of the World

 

            If only I had a com, a radio, some way to communicate with my personal Beechcraft Super King Air 350ER.  Somehow we lost communications, although its reconnaissance is steadfast.  If only I could reestablish communications with my personal Department of Homeland Security Multi-Role Enforcement Aircraft.   Maybe I could supply a relevant directive.  Somehow the flight crew of four, two pilots and two sensor operators, have become confused.  To exacerbate the loss of communication a mirror

Super King 350 has imparted a search and rescue.  They may be trying to communicate “Top Gun” style.  They fly in repeating circles intersecting closely within visual range.  I wonder if they flip each other off.  I feel their lost directive has instigated a much more dramatic overtone to their mission.  Because underneath them lies Fort Bragg, the home of the United States Army Airborne Forces, Special Forces, Army Forces Command, and Army Forces Reserve Command are they afraid?  With such massive capability on the ground and in the air, why would the DHS mistakenly embark on reconnaissance here?  It is plausible that the crew of the two planes have gone rogue and entered a contract with local law enforcement.  Although Commander in Chief Obama has raised their salaries dramatically in response to recent loss of life in Iraq and Afghanistan, still dollars can be made on the black market.  Remember Viet Nam?  It makes military life a little more fun.  I cursed my lost planes last week and they relocated.  This week again they returned to their original flight path.  At first with no leadership or mission they intently were interested in my chopping of trees with an axe.  Admittedly old fashioned swinging of an axe into dead wood can be antagonistic, especially when your muscular force usurps that  both of the military and the Strategic Rail Corridor.  They respond almost immediately when I fell a tree.  I wonder how my tax dollars can be better spent.  “I must reestablish communication with my charges!”  When I ride my finely-tuned, hidden, secret weapon in those prepared woods is the only time I feel release from the brazen, brawny, and overt military-industrial influence.  Only then am I able to circumnavigate their waves.  When I try to smoke a cigarette outside, my smoke moves parallel to the ground like paratroopers deployed in Viet Nam.  Stealthy it reciprocates one direction to the other 90 degrees perpendicular to what traditionally happens via Mr. Newton’s principal of universal gravitation.  “I can’t French inhale!”  Somehow Mr. Honda discovered the secret to military defeat decades ago.  It is called physical pleasure.  Who knew the purr of a expertly designed and manufactured four stroke engine could ignite the G spot of a nation.  Only if they knew.  Instead like most of the uneducated and misguided military, they resort to the lowest common denominator yet the most prevalent and available.  It is the “Harley Hog”, and a hog it is like our military.  It is large.  It makes an incredible roar.  It is a status symbol.  Isn’t that the Republican definition of our military? 

How is it the force that was designed for and to protect the tax payer has become its own unwatched independent entity not unlike its brother the Department of Homeland Security?  Like so many other American policies and directives, they become cloaked in secrecy when peoples’ attention is focused on their latest iPhone app.  No one cares about the law, government, and policies.  They just whine when their lives are not improving.  It is conceivable, because news reporting has spun American infrastructure into a depressing, violent, and negative affair.  It is difficult to read the news at all.  It is much more prudent to the New World Order for the masses to be uneducated and simply tune out.  This policy of abandonment began with Generation X, and it is unconscionable.  Universal greed quite possibly has implemented the beginning of the end of the world.  With no invested force to continue the management of the affairs of the planet, there is no other choice that it will fail.  This short-sightedness should teach a lesson to this stingy self-serving contingency.  It won’t.  They all will be dead.   The meek will not inherit this earth, because God all ready has begun preparation of our new planet.  That could explain His marked absence in the recent past.  Forging a new world is a tall order.  What about us?  The tentacles of that fiercely-guarded money are long, tenacious, and stubborn.  Extricating the deserved youthful generation will be difficult.  It will not happen without a fight.   As in literature the examples all ready have been set.  “V” did it in England.  Is this stubborn thirst for money more powerful than our own survival?  Are these people so shallow, irreverent, and evil they will take the planet down dying with their hidden money?  Not only have they extracted their money from our economy stymieing mobility, they have inflicted severe physical and mental austerity upon us resultant from the technology empowering their wealth.  Shrewdly this technology is invisible, but it is not undetectable.  When you control the government you can change the rules.  The Federal Communications Commission formerly would not license certain frequencies of the microwave spectrum, because they were considered physiologically dangerous to the human race.  Electro-magnetic waves, a duality of electricity and magnetism, conclusively has been proven by federal studies to cause cancerous tumors.  The heat and vibration inherent in the energy cause cells to mutate forming cancer cells.  Unfortunately electro-magnetic waves for communication are not the only culprits.  The United States military makes great use of this energy, and it is crucial to their infrastructure.  Unwatched they continue to ignore the physiological ramifications of their technology upon human beings.  How can the military continue to kill human beings in the name of protecting them?  Low frequency electro-magnetic waves are the most invasive and were studied with the unveiling of the military’s “Ground Wave Emergency Network” (G.W.E.N.) communications system.  They need ways to generate and transmit low frequency radio waves to penetrate the polar ice caps staying in contact with the United States’ nuclear submarines.  Because the length of the antenna logistically nearly is impossible, the United States military decided to cloak creation of this energy behind a favorable initiative.  The High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program was born.  Neatly tucked away in America’s northern-most state, H.A.A.R.P.’s directive is to study ionospheric physics and radio science.  Who knew production of low frequency radio waves would become the focus?  Everywhere we look slowly this technology has infiltrated our infrastructure.  Sadly corporate America continues to shout from its soap box that the world will end if their products are not utilized.  Who could know it is their products that would create the end of the world? 

eBay Vintage Skateboard Gouging

For all of those who are seeing fit to list vintage skateboard items on eBay at ludicrious
prices, "But It Now, or Best Offer," please stop.  No collector or skateboard aficionado ever
will purchase your trumped up product.  You only are debasing the real art of skateboard collecting.
There is a small group who are imprudent enough to think that listing vintage skateboard gear
somehow will see fit to ascribe a value to it that simply is insane.  Please stop.  You only are harming
the once fun and diversionary sport of collecting memorabilia that somehow connects you with
a nostalgic and pleasing past.  Not any more.  If I see another board, set of trucks or wheels, or
anything listed at a ridiculous price it just makes me want to find you and.... well you know.  It's the same
with music.  What once was a reputable, artistic, and respected art form now has been debased to
nothing.  Drive integrity into the ground.  Yes, satan all ready is here once again on earth, and we just
are waiting for God to make His second appearance.  Anytime.  I have had my fill of the bullshit.  Once
collecting, assembling, and photographing vintage skateboards was fun.  Now it is a mockery.  Please
you assholes, take your trumped up shit off eBay and take a powder.  We know the value, and it is NOT
what you decide.  Your auctions are a joke, so please stop humiliating yourselves.  I have seen the same set
of non-vintage, fake, not valuable trucks for going on two years.  Please take them off eBay and rather
try sticking up your @#$%.  They would find your self ascribed value there.  Thank you.  Sincerely, Jay
Adams, Tony Alva, Stacy Peralta, Lance Mountain, Tony Hawk, Steve Caballero, Tommy Guerro, and Moi.
Jesus, please save us from this insult.

Beleaguered Education

 

When I look backward at my life, there is one thing I know for sure. 

When I graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

In l985, beginning teacher’s salary was too low to lure me into such a demanding vocation.  Although both of my parents were teachers, my instincts told me taking such a low level job would be pointless.  It was beneath me.  Not only would I not make enough money to have a family, I barely would have anything upon which to live myself.  Is this why I spent four long years at a reputable university, to emerge into a job market in North Carolina that was  sub standard?  I have been able to reflect more recently about the state of North Carolina having returned for a short while.  The one thing I know for sure is, it is an embarrassment to live in such a backward state.  North Carolina under the helm of former governor Jim Hunt was a much different place.  I was afraid to ride my mini bike on the street, drive drunk for fear of a two day pass to jail, or commit a crime in general.  In the l980’s North Carolina was conservative.  Now every where I turn there is another unlicensed motor scooter, a car or truck with illegal window tinting, or blatant drag racing.  Teachers’ salaries, just as in l985, are in the top five LOWEST of all fifty states.  Ironically North Carolina state income taxes are in the top five highest of all fifty states.  Like a dinosaur the both expensive and cumbersome vehicle state inspection has lumbered on draining the taxpayers' pockets yet filling what seem to be the empty coffers of the North Carolina state government.  At least the new governor is trying to change this.

What I know for sure and have remembered clearly is North Carolina attempts to take your money.  If you don’t sign your car registration, there is a fine.  If you car’s stop engine light won’t go off so your vehicle will not pass the outdated state inspection, you had to spend at least five hundred dollars trying to get it fixed before the state will give you a waiver.  I know one thing for sure.  It is embarrassing to live in this state.  The realm of crimes being committed here would challenge any ghetto neighborhood in Watts, the Bronx, or Harlem, and the state governmental infrastructure, like our federal Congress can’t seem to solve any of the problems.  What do they do?  They spend our money.  What does President Obama do?  He and Joe Biden spend our money.  Instead of trying to create capital supporting small businesses, investing in manufacturing, and encouraging entrepreneurial thinking, government simply spends our well-earned tax money.  They spend, and spend, and spend.   Maybe it was Ronald Reagan that stopped this government spending.  One thing I know for sure is during his Trickle-Down Economics life was better.  Things were expensive, but our quality of life was high. 

Now our quality of life is a joke.  Food manufacturers, instead of trying to sell us nutritious wholesome food, have instigated a plan of deception to skim pennies off of the top of their sales.  Now you can’t buy a regular sized can of pork and beans.  You must buy the BIG one that costs three times as much.  Containers deceptively are smaller as are our ABC store liquor bottles.  You don’t get as much, and it costs more.  That the government gets HALF of what we pay for alcohol, tobacco, and firearms emphatically says, “We have no way of creating jobs, educating students, or building this country into a superpower again.”  “It says we are broke, we will still spend the money we do not have, and we will continue to do so until someone says no.”  Does that mean for our lawmakers to become competent once again there must be a revolution?  It has happened before and in many countries.  Should it happen here?  There appears to be no real alternative.  It is dismal, and embarrassing to turn on the news in North Carolina.  After having lived in George Voinovich’s state for comparison, it is like venturing to the Adirondacks.  The Hatfields and McCoys are feudin’ it out everyday.  Is to this what North Carolina has sunk?  To add insult to injury, my chosen profession of teaching has become the butt of George W. Bush’s “No Child Left Behind.”  All I ever have heard from colleagues about this beleaguered legislation is that it emphatically stymies effective teaching.  Now a process is in place, a plantation owner, a Hitler, or a Mussolini that demands you produce test scores.  How did Communism make it into our public education system?  This legislation must be repealed for teaching to begin again.  I look at academia, a dissertation and exam away from a doctorate degree in music, and my stomach turns.  They are saying, like North Carolina, schools would rather hire beginner or novice teachers that will work for less money.  Who needs the pinnacle degree representing wisdom beyond your years?  Who needs someone that smart?  Instead let’s begin to scorn and ostracize the academic elite.  I look back at the prospect of completing that degree and see hardship, heartache, and disappointment.  Why bother?  No one cares about education anymore.  Once it was a respected profession.  Like all of the baby boomer jobs, that generation is taken care of.  They were the last.  America abandoned Generation X, and they abandoned me.  Thinking of starting a publishing company only has me thinking of how I am going to pay Uncle Sam.  That’s what we do in America anymore.