What's the Bottom Line?

I am tired of being mind fucked.

The Future American Economy

            For survival’s sake we as human beings have to be flexible.  I have found the older you get the more flexible you must become.  Actually in my life compromising my life long musical ambitions became the norm.  In music always one had to be competitive to stay ahead.  I learned this early or rather just worked hard because it was the thing to do.  You could either drink beer and smoke pot, or excel in some particular field.  Because I have been a musician since childhood it seemed normal to try to excel in music.  Luckily my background and training paid off and my diligent dedicated labor kept me ahead in the musical game.  I was able to begin playing “gigs” and making money from playing music.  I never made a conscious decision to be cocky.  You just had to be to be competitive.  When I moved to the Midwest from the American South, I received a rather rude awakening.  The acclimation that took place over several years was one that was socialist.  The musicians in Columbus were not concerned with being told how good you were.  They were honest and genuine enough to want you to be a part of their fraternity, because there was a common thread.  You all loved music.  That love was what allowed you to become a part of their community and thus “gig.”  I learned a gigantic lesson in sincerity.  Over the years it became boring to me to concern myself with self-promotion.  I had had so much of myself over the years, I was not interested in hearing myself tell anyone how well I played and that someone should give me a gig.  I begin to pursue music because it was the right thing to do.  What could that mean?  The right thing to do is part of the Protestant Work Ethic.  We work hard as men, because it was why we were put here on this earth.  Our job is to succeed.  It is right to continue to learn, be creative, and be productive.  That is why I do music.  I have forgotten in America the field of commercial music is a dog eat dog scenario.  I had been involved in academia for almost nine years.  I wasn’t having to compete in the “real world” for recognition as a musician.  I had paid my dues.  Now that I no longer immediately am involved with academia, the rules of engagement seem to have changed.  The game has changed.  Above all the music has changed.  The kind of music I was taught and to which I listened was personal.  It allowed for personal expression.  If the music performance didn’t have your soul in it, you would fold.  It would become very cold.  You no longer would be playing music in public.  Now the game is to be flexible.  The game is to compromise.  The game is to not play like we played by my learning.  If you do you become an outcast for not lowering yourself to the lowest common denominator.  Recently I have been trying to become re-motivated about music.  Because I have been a professional musician for over twenty years, I play well.  Because I have studied music at the doctoral level I know a lot about music.  I can’t help it.  When I play I feel like I am stepping on people’s toes.  Is this because of the weak economy?  Is it because people are too uneducated to get what I do?  Is it that people have become so self-centered that they no longer are able to stop what they are doing and listen to someone else’s opinion?  Karioke was the beginning of the end for professional music.  Whoever decided that people should try to perform musically, no matter how un-trained they were, should be shot.  There was a time when music attempted to be artistic.  It attempted to transcend.  With these efforts came communication and communing with the public.  Now music sucks up to the public and sacrifices its artistry in a lame excuse of entertainment.  It has been emasculated.  This trend must be a component of P.C., a premise that has become a joke, but stealthy still is dictating our lives.  Slowly in America the freedoms and ideals human beings have forged and prolonged are being replaced with communist ideals.  We are being manipulated over time to become mindless, soulless, money-spending androids.  The reason why the economy in America is in the dumps is because we have no product.  Moving money around, while it worked for a while for many who became rich, no longer is a viable source of income.  The money all has been received, and those who have received it certainly are not putting it back into the American economy.  It is laundered in some Grand Cayman bank and sent elsewhere.  America has been abandoned, and I for one wish those rich people with the money would shut the fuck up.  There is no way the economy in America can be re-fueled by the poor.  It takes money to make money, and  those small business loans and credit lines have been absorbed by those crafty rich.  Until people are employed, a product is produced sold and bought, and that money circulates, there will be no revitalization of America’s economy.  The Grassroots roots program that started America will have to return.  Maybe the disappearance of those crafty rich is what is necessary.  History shows what is to come. 

What Actually is the American Economy?

            Twice only in my short life have I experienced mental illness.  Mental illness can be stealth.  In certain ways it can be more difficult to understand and treat than physiological illnesses.  That is why we have psychology and psychiatry.   What do I mean by “mental illness?”  Perhaps the term mental illness is inappropriate jargon.  If one becomes off balance in their daily routine for some unknown reason, is this mental illness?  Mental illness better clarified would mean an ailment or affliction that sustains the test of time.  It is not a temporary navigating of the stormy seas of everyday life.  It would be something that sticks around.  In professional terms that would be categorized as “chronic.”  Some deviant situation that recurs for a length of time likely could cause mental illness, because the mind loses the ability to remember what is healthy.  It would be often in the evolution of man the human mind and body have enabled themselves to survive by the process of accommodation.  When faced with a non-changing environment within which we are forced to operate for financial sustenance, our minds can accommodate the situation by adapting.  Upon scrutiny we may alter our moral or ethical codes to justify our economic freedom.  Is this freedom worth the social and psychological freedom we pursue as human beings?  More astutely characterized is this “American” freedom worth the psychological price?  We cannot be so shallow to recognize many other global cultures are not afforded any civil liberty, so the boundary between human and civil liberty must be defined.  One could use the United States Constitution as “ground zero.”  That could be why many foreign cultures seek asylum in the United States.  They understand, respect, and admire the rights outlined in our Constitution.  Sociologically the challenge is to understand human rights and how they have been defined and implemented by different political regimes.  What is an unacceptable environment?  In the field of labor, an entity that Abraham Lincoln considered synonymous with America, unions were organized to mitigate conditions of labor.  Today the term “labor union,” like many things in non-mainstream America, can elicit bipolar responses.  In recent decades America politically has become more polarized.  The term “mainstream” has gone undercover leaving the defining of our own society to ourselves.  We have become forced to become better educated on our own to survive in an increasingly hypocritical and often evil socio-economic construct.  Once afforded government-provided amenities have vanished.  With them has vanished our quality of life forcing us to buy the creature comforts our country once provided.  This has become the “New American Economy.”  We are living off one another, not for one another.  Ironically and erroneously Republicans shout, “Socialist” at our President, when their already-rooted communist economic infrastructure is the enemy. Grass roots artistic and intellectual aesthetics have become disguised and decreed unimportant.  We are experiencing a modern “Dark Ages” perhaps or perhaps not fueled by a teetering economy.  It is the prospectus of this economy that should be in question.  

An Artistic Healing of Neurosis

            Upon watching Woody Allen being interviewed by Jay Leno, it became perfectly clear that his comedy is a metaphor for Jewish neurosis.  A light bulb went off in my head!   I have been asking myself the last month how I am going to understand and heal my own neurosis.  His answer was comedy.  Over the decades after the obtainment of security (personal wealth) he was able to use his neurosis positively as a motivation for creativity.  Although misunderstood many would be surprised to know upon study artists do the same thing.  “When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade!”   The argument presents itself that neurosis should not be necessary for great art.  Upon study it could be proven easily that it is this unresolvedness often that prompts attempted healing by use of artistic metaphors.  Artists study and understand, synthesize, and abstract their aberrations into artistic renderings.  The thorough study and expunging of their afflictions in the present helps to cure the eventual, longer lasting, emotional effects the neurosis may cause in the future.  What is interesting is, “Will an artist have able material with which to create if there is no such rift?”  Consequently are artists naturally and openly sentenced to lives of continual neurosis? 

            The primary and painful step in the healing process is attempting hypothetically to understand its cause.  A hypothetical or disassociated survey of one’s own history attempts to quell painlessly neurosis’s symptoms.  The artistic process on the other hand may use the emotional unrest of neurosis and funnel it into creative impetus.  While it could be understood traditionally only good emotion is used as motivation for art, history has shown that also art has been used for catharsis.  The film Goya’s Ghost provides a perfect example of such art.  The argument could be presented that creativity which is intelligently and skillfully channeled may only be an attempted diversion or escape from  neurosis.  It is now that the subconscious mind is brought into play.  As synthesizers humans should not be expected cognitively to understand the total minutia of their own psychology.  If we were then the Romantic period in art and literature may not have ever existed.  A balanced combination of Classicism and Romanticism could be viewed as a suitable recipe for the healing of neurosis. 

Ms. Saigon at CFRT

            Ms. Saigon has been around for quite a while.  I had never seen it.  I have played some of the music in cruise ship production shows, because I recognized a few tunes.  I did not do any mental preparation before seeing the show.  I did remember upon seeing the people-filled lobby, it takes some effort to absorb “live” musical theater.  It never is like a movie, where you can just relax and enjoy the drama.  Navigating the other patrons in my eyes is the largest obstacle to overcome when trying to enjoy a play. 

            I found out upon entering the theater the orchestra was on stage.  “Oh. Chicago,” I thought.  What was the purpose of that?  Then I noticed there were virtually no sets on stage.  There were only chairs on either side like two jury boxes or better yet, choir pews in a church.  For me this set the stage for what was about to transpire.  It would not be a run-of-the-mill musical.  It would be more like a straight play with music.  Then when the lights came down and the music began, I realized it was an operetta.  Like Les Miserable it was all music with no spoken dialog.  Then Jesus Christ Superstar and Godspell came to mind.  It was kind of rock music with a little oriental flavor sprinkled in.  I didn’t like the first act at all.  The music seemed boring, vanilla, and long-winded.  It was bad Andrew Lloyd Webber.  I felt the characters were portrayed accurately.  Then I realized I had to meet and build a relationship with each character before I could begin to enjoy the show.  First there was a stoic quiet seventeen-year-old Vietnamese girl who was being forced to sell her body for money.  How could I empathize with her without a better setting of the scene?  I realized Ms. Saigon was a “Broadway” depiction of fairly serious subject matter.  It was attempting to do two things, reveal a truly dramatic story and entertain a theater audience.  It was Chicago, Oliver, and Sweet Charity in one.  There were similarities.  First Engineer reminded me of Fagen.  Instead of instructing degenerate boys how to “pick a pocket or two,” he was instructing young Vietnamese women how to have sex for money.  At the culmination of Act II he cemented the similarity to Chicago.  Engineer created a prospect of the story with a rousing solo production number called “The American Dream.”  “This was the lawyer in Chicago,” I thought to myself.  He was the comedic relief, calculated as such.  That felt like an old television show with a clown coming on intermittently to relieve the tension.  That works.  Then Cabaret came to mind.  A narrator was hosting the show.  That also works.  Immediately at the start of the show it is necessary quickly to set the scene.  There is no foreplay for the drama.  Ms. Saigon begins with a loud, aggressive, brothel scene except the drama is being played in front of a theater orchestra.  That was strange.  It made it intimate.  How could the mood be set for a sultry, sexy, alluring whorehouse in this environment?  It is a lot to expect your audience cold to warm up to such an intent.  People are eating or working or just living, and then immediately they are projected lingerie-clad young women gyrating on chairs.  Normally as an adult male I should enjoy this.  In a “theater” show where I am more accustomed to serious themes being explored, it was difficult to accept such a gratuitous offering.  I tried.  Still because I am fourty-nine, watching neighbor’s children doing local theater does not push my buttons.  I watched the G.I.’s dance with the girls and felt absolutely nothing of what they were intended to feel.  It was like watching high school kids spoon.  I was too old and did not have the time to waste dredging up a feeling that I knew would be pointless.  I watched hypothetically as the main character seemed to fall in lust with the young seventeen-year-old Kim.  I could be sympathetic to the situation, because I too had done the same thing.  I would never be so juvenile to fall in love with a prostitute, because it wouldn’t be love anyway.  It would be lust, or love based upon physical desire.  I have learned my lesson over time that this is not love.  For a helpless G.I. stationed in Vietnam, it is plausible he could be that naïve, like Radar in the television series M*A*S*H.  To solidify their purely physical attraction they kissed a lot on stage.  I find this also difficult to watch, because it does my psyche absolutely no good whatsoever.  Why would I want to watch this on stage?  It is personal and boring to me. 

            I began to understand the story as it approached the conclusion of the first Act.  Then a completely new and seemingly strange Tinkerbell-like character stepped from stage right.  She appeared while Kim reflected at her miniature romance alter which appeared repeatedly throughout the show.  Now there were two Kims, but one was wearing a black negligee and was surreal.  Upon reflection Ms. Saigon did attempt to offer you clues to its disguised unfolding story.  That was smart but also needed.  The music was not sufficiently strong to carry the play without sets.  It needed an ensemble of things to bring it off, and some of that was sheer effort.  Without getting distracted I must admit I was grievously disappointed in the pianist.  (Being a professional pianist myself for the last ten years aboard cruise ships, I am equipped to be able to make a value judgment about musicality.)  I felt the rest of the orchestra was capable, but this man failed to deliver the goods at the keyboard.  He did what most every pianist is doing these days, skating over the performance with no tactile connection to the piano.  His sound was thin, devoid of tone and bass, and flaccidly performed.  His limp waving wrists proved there was no physical connection to the music, only cognitive.  You could feel it.  Better yet you could not “feel” it, because there was nothing to feel.  Admittedly he had his hands full conducting the long and complex score.  Trying to cover both bases is too much for one person, but that often can get you the gig.  A solid, heart-felt piano performance was needed to bring the show up to CFRT standards.  I longed for both a bass fiddle or guitar, and a solid, meaty piano sound.  The piano truly was piano in this show, too much so.  It played a solidly subordinate role to the overpowering woodwinds.  That will be the drawback to placing your orchestra on stage.  I wondered again at the logic of it.  Did they not want to deal with sets?  The scenic designer at CFRT is top notch.  I remember a scene from Miss Saigon in a ship show that had the couple in a lofted treehouse- like bed.  It was effective.  This truly was a strange setting.  The sound quality was poor.  While the actors did need to be miked to be heard over the on-stage orchestra, the sound quality through the speakers was both harsh and often distorted.  I came to realize the show could have been produced acoustically.  That would have been fine.  By the end of the second Act, volume levels did reinforce this was a rock opera. 

            After suffering through the first Act, finally I began to be able to “feel” what was happening in the show.  It was a tough nut to crack and more attempts are needed to polish this retro piece.  I never thought a sole alto saxophone would provide the much needed warmth the show required to be intimate. 

           

America's Incognito Geronimo

While strategically attempting to operate incognito it is a natural consideration whether to release photos of Osama Bin Laden’s body. Conspiracy theorists easily could speculate Bin Laden’s murder was a fake. Many believe 9/11 was, although not a fake in that it rendered historical suffering for the United States, a publicity stunt. Considering the current socio-economic situation and with America involved in three wars, it was time for a military victory. Soldiers have continued to die for what has become a nebulous cause. Is ten years too long to be at war to find one man? While it is well known Osama Bin Laden was the instigator of many terrorist acts upon the United States, posthumously remaining organizations in differing countries will continue to antagonize the United States. It is a great victory. Upon querying the loved ones of many lost in the collapse of the twin towers, closure seems not an option. Loss seems to last forever. Justice brought by Bin Laden’s execution should send a message to those remaining Extreme Islamic factions. Whether hiding in a farmer's cellar or a seeming militarily protected mansion, the United States will find you and serve justice for the American people. Bin Laden declared war on America with the greatest domestic attack since Pearl Harbor instigating World War ll by the Japanese. Under the cloud cover of Wall Street’s hedge fund and Ponzi schemes, for ten years the U.S.'s financing of the epic hunt for Bin Laden with it's War on Terror has been exponentially costly. During the process former President George W. Bush dipped his hand in the federal reserve and handed it to many of these criminals. Americans decided when offered a choice of funding this war or necessarily rebuilding our own fragile economy, we are the priority. This opinion clearly was conveyed by former United States Senator Richard John Santorum in a recent speech on C-SPAN. As he reminisced about Reagonomics America’s choice of us over them became clear. Who can say Santorum’s view is what America wants, but it seemed plausible. Astutely he capsulized the American political front. He urged a renewed federal anti-corporate commitment to the American ideal domestically. There was no mention of globalization or outsourcing. In the perfect symptom of the raid on Bin Laden’s compound, Santorum incognito mandated economically the appropriate use of our armed forces. Defense. Ironically enough President Obama, with his boldest move as current Commander-and-Chief, implemented an offensive tactical strike fueled by years of cumulative intelligence painstakingly collected by the U.S. and her allies. Under the shadow of the Battle of Mogadishu, Operation Eagle Claw, and the Bay of Pigs, President Obama’s sanctioned Operation Geronimo exemplified a decisive role of leadership for the United States. Singlehandedly it should restore America's top, global, military prowess. While our defense technology could have been superior, without the courage and heroism of men it never would be seen. Man it seems has stepped up to the plate. God would be happy.

The Cruise Industry and the Messiah

Most everyone I tell I work on cruise ships responds with a smile. After almost ten years I have to ask myself do I still like the work. When I first began working in the cruise industry I could only think having a job on the ocean in the entertainment industry must be delightful. The travel is the highpoint. Having to “Greet and Smile” every single crewmember and guest within a ten foot radius all day long is a chore. If it does not feel like a chore, then you become brainwashed to believe this is real life. As soon as you return to the states shock will set in, unless you simply ignore your environment and continue with your learned protocol. In this situation you can be a good influence on America. The United States Armed Services providing this service to the Middle East is suspect. Where in the historical philosophy of America did our military absorb the role of Christian missionaries? While Ronald Reagan favored a large defense budget, I’m not sure this would have been his view. Star Wars was a satellite-based missile defense system intended to protect the continental United States from a rogue nuclear attack. The operative words are National Defense. Currently our military is playing National Offense. Strategically playing strong offense can be the best defense, but it is more expensive. The media currently says the United States is involved in three wars. Recognizing missionaries in full combat dress must be confusing. It is liberal. It is bleeding heart liberal. Being involved in three wars in the Middle East seems Islamic. Using the United States military as Christian/Islamic missionaries seems Obamic. Is it correct many of the opposition to President Obama’s policies pointedly refer to his middle name Hussein? These realizations seem to mark the President as a prophet. Is that what we need in a President? Does America further need to empty her pockets as a closet imperialist paving the way for Republican globalization? Has Haliburton suddenly grown an ethical partner exploring a new way to drain the pockets of other countries? It is a complex issue. When I see American military leaders communing Christianly with the indigenous peoples of countries with which we are at war, it turns my stomach. Isn’t war ugly? How can we promote peace with the local populaces and still effectively defeat their insurgencies? Suddenly Donald Rumsfeld’s military strategy for defeating Saddam Hussein doesn’t seem so bad. It was a war. It was dirty and ugly and brutal. Mercilessly we bombed strategic points of Iraqi infrastructure rendereing their country impotent of maintaining civil life. All the while Haliburton was poised to save the day and fill their pockets. Whose pockets will be filled if successfully we are able to democratize Afghanistan? Who will reap the rewards of all those poppies? Who will harvest their vast supply of natural resources? Who currently is tapping those destroyed oil wells in Iraq? The media doesn’t seem to have much to say about Iraq these days. What is going on there? Formerly the French and the Russians maintained successful oil contracts with Iraqi suppliers. Christian/Islam beliefs although meritorious to man don’t work in times of war. What happens? The wars linger on in an attempt to breed American allies overseas. What happened in Korea and Viet Nam? President Nixon masterminded our exit from the Viet Nam war, and little subsequently was heard about the evil regime of Pol Pot. The decision is made and we wash our hands of the altercation, such as Iraq. I for one in belief in the concept of war feel it should not be painted over with happy tidings. Rebuilding countries from within within our construct is nothing more than Imperialism. We can act the Messiah when doing it, but is Christianity and Islam the right path for war? It certainly is the most expensive.

An Obituary

In a heartfelt shout out I must express my sincere condolences for Mr. Seagate Barracuda 9.2GB Ultra SCSI 3.5LP Internal Hard Drive purchased from MacMall in Memphis, Tennessee at a cost of $242.94 on December 29, 2000. On April 27, 2011 this worthy piece of gear humbly passed away quietly ceasing to exist. It flawlessly produced 12 CD projects of my own in a home studio driven by an Ohio State University surplus PowerMac 7100/80. On a shoestring budget I was able to piece together a professional MIDI/audio production tool seamlessly integrating digital audio and MIDI sequencing. With the help of Digidesign’s Sound Designer ll, Mark of the Unicorn’s Digital Performer and Unisyn, SampleCell ll, Adaptec’s Toast, and a Sharp MD-720 Mini Disk Recorder I was able to create music as good as any professional commercial recording studio. It kicked hard to the end scanning over 70 pieces of music on an Apple One Scanner lost with its demise. While I still possess several other SCSI hard drives, one possibly with Apple’s OS 8.5 still installed, I could recreate my personalized suite of music software. With tomorrow comes the task of retrieving my original install disks and CD-ROM’s of audio files. With a little luck and patience I may be able to resurrect this worthy computer-based audio/MIDI production system. All is not lost, because I have been diligent to upgrade this software with each purchase of a newer Apple laptop computer. This seemingly archaic combination of hardware utilizing NUBUS technology made producing music a snap. Maybe my removal and storing of the MOTU Micro Express MIDI interface was too much for it to handle. It felt the loss and decided it could not stand alone. Somehow in a stroke of good fortune I saw fit to copy my FreeMIDI setup to a floppy disk. While Mac OS X seems not to recognize these worthy files, still the archiving may be fruitful. Ten years is a reasonable existence, although many of these years were spent sitting idle in a box. The years it functioned saw great demand for its product recording digital audio flawlessly. Never once did I have a problem with this hard drive, and I will keep it as a token of my appreciation to the Creator for blessing me with the ability to compose, perform, and record music.

America, To Be or Not To Be?

The Republicans still are in control. The initiative of the political campaigns leading up to November 2012 elections should be regaining control of the House of Representatives. The Democrats need 25 seats to regain a majority of 218 out of 435 seats. This is reasonable.

Recently President Obama said there was no easy fix to rising oil prices. This is the answer. Without Democratic control of both the Senate and House of Representatives, no successful economic legislation is possible. Somehow the President pushed through a Health Care Reform. In pure Republican fashion opponents covertly urged judges on the state level to declare the legislation unconstitutional. This is prime example how the Republican party works. This is how George W. Bush won the presidential election in Florida against Al Gore. (It is interesting the insightful and telling HBO movie “Recount” about the event remains cloaked.) Republicans manipulate the system in their favor with a savvy and thorough understand of the law. It doesn’t hurt their party was privy to the inception of some of the legislation. Much like negotiating a successful contract, it helps when you design it. If Democrats would step up to the plate and embrace the intimate relationship with the law in America, they would have a better chance. If you can’t win with the preexisting rules, then change them. This is how winners are made no matter how unscrupulous. The task first is to win back the House.

The rhetoric on television is so spun it is difficult to hear the truth. No one really knows what anyone thinks, and the immediacy of digital news media is to blame. Any sound bite that is “dropped” is exaggerated in pure immediate gratification. It would be best to turn off the television and read a newspaper. Gaming philosophy is not appropriate for news coverage.

An example of healthy television network competition lies in the production of these show.

Arts and Entertainment- Storage Wars, Flip This House

The History Channel- Pawn Stars

The Discovery Channel, The Learning Channel- Orange County Choppers

HGTV- Holmes on Homes

Animal Planter- River Monsters

These shows exemplify American ingenuity and integrity with no spin. It is no mystery they rate high for the Nielsen Corporation. These are reality shows at their finest, and each network has conceptualized a production formula that works for their aesthetic. Somehow in the midst of a plural stage, they are able to integrate a singular viewpoint giving heart to the situation. Telling a story with a formula works, as long as you understand the formula. Jerry Seinfeld might have been the first star of the TV Sit-Com formula. While the vehicle has been around many more decades, Seinfeld openly explored and utilized this small form. What can you do in 22 minutes to present a comedic exposition, develop it, and provide often a sentimental denouement to end? This tried and true formula is not really a formula, or is it? Formulas are crucial, as they represent the very humanity of man. They are time-tested vignettes reinforcing what man has learned over the centuries. They can change as the evolution of jazz has shown. Also they cement the humanistic premises of man. Currently with the instability of America’s political and economic structures, there is nothing to represent these complex and often chaotic existences. Pop music knows this, because the world of commercial music yet has offered an artist with the ability to understand, synthesize, and creatively comment on America. Bob Dillon and Joan Baez had a better go of it. There is no escaping the influences of Islam and Eastern-based musics. As jazz showed with its nurturing of the Avant-garde, America’s pop music will have to open itself to Abstract Expressionist ideals. Traditional tonality must be expanded bursting the commercially built bubble of tertian happiness. American’s fully are capable of experiencing stark, real, meaningful life issues cold turkey of the anodynes of popular television. They are waiting, as we are waiting for oil prices to drop.

Is it Live or Memorex?

After accidentally watching a snippet of the television “news show” Nancy Grace, I was shocked to hear a fabricated phone call intended to be an actual call from a menacing killer. It almost slipped by me. First I wondered how her program could have gained access to a private phone call. Blatantly then I remembered past President George W. Bush’s unconstitutional wiretapping legislation. It expired a few times. After Congress let it slip into oblivion, Bush personally contacted wireless phone companies and demanded their records. Pressured by the ruse of the federal government they obliged. Maybe it wouldn’t be so difficult for Ms. Grace to call Verizon and ask for a recording of a personal voice mail. It wasn’t a voice mail. It was an actual call. Then I realized it must have been a “dramatization.” These are rampant on television today. Drama is a large portion of television’s programming. The bothering thing was that although many people know shows of her type are meant for entertainment, it blurs the boundaries between actual news reporting and television fodder. For a brief moment I was confused. Was this a real news show, or was it a sitcom? Ms. Grace said the call was authentic. She said it was the actual call. Then a bogus voice over repeated the words of the culprit. It was done so poorly no one could believe it was a real crank call. No one could believe it was a stalker. Was it? The issue in my mind could be representative of the entire media debacle unfolding around us today. Where are the boundaries? There seem to be none as the web appears on phones. Text appears on phones. You can pay your bills with a phone. It seems like almost any human need can be met by cross-platforming any wireless device. Is it a video game? Is it the iTunes Music Store? Many gaming companies’ goal ten years ago was effectively to disguise the boundary between real and cyber. Newspeak. Newspeak. Newspeak. Fabricating the news for political gain. Who can we trust? Who can we believe? I can’t even look at the news anymore. It one more rogue African or Egyption nation launches a rebellion or attempted coup, my head will spin. It is not uncommon, but like television it is a vying for top media time. I thought I never would say it, but Rupert Murdoch’s NewCorp actually upped the bar for news reporting. After lobbying fiercely to regulate Internet news reporting or make it a pay service, annotations of source have begun popping up in news articles online. This is a good thing. The Internet is the bubble of American freedom. Slowly we will see its emancipation quashed by corporate America, but amazingly lawmakers still are protecting its anonymity. Still in my mind I tell myself I can’t believe anything. The “spin” factor is in effect, and I have forgotten it. Mr. Obama says there is no easy fix for rising oil prices. There is. All of the corporate deregulation that has occurred over the last four decades could be reversed. The gouging could be stymied. That’s an easy fix. He must have been referring to the continuing stalemate in our federal government. In the last minutes before a government shutdown, the democrats and republicans reached a compromise. Mr. Obama could not have a government shutdown on his watch. Was that real or was it a “dramatization?”

The Current Shite State

The cobwebs in my mind are getting dense. It feels like I am getting dense. The television news is so negative it is difficult to follow. Should I feel guilty for not conceding to the lowest level of human suffering? Today is Maundy Thursday, the day of Jesus’ Last Supper with his Apostles. Certainly His crucifixion is worthy of our utter empathy. We know Easter Sunday is a day of epic celebration of the rising of Jesus Christ from the dead. Toeing the line between mania and depression, between utter sadness and glee, or between death and life is a delicate balancing act. Without the enlightenment of the concept of human loss there can be no real soul. As we attempt to keep our heads above the rising water of what seems to be an impending end of the world, where is the healthy balance between religious conscience, artistry, and humanity? Is it appropriate like some affluent World War ll era families to ignore the bombs reigning down and continue to celebrate life? Is it more appropriate to become sullen, introverted, and laden with guilt at the thought of pursuing human happiness? The death of Jesus in Christianity always was meant to provide its soul. Jesus’ sacrifice by his Father was meant to be the quintessential example of Christian love. Still it seems the bulk of humanity seems not to be cognizant. When Time magazine publishes in issue questioning the integrity of Christianity, America is in trouble. When we abolish scripture from public building and monuments we are in trouble. When we abolish prayer in the classroom, even on a menial level, we are in trouble. America cannot rely upon organized religions to provide her piety. One only has to remember the fall of the Holy Roman Empire. Only has to remember the massive financial settlement of the Catholic Church attempting to cover the dirty penises of their pedophiliac and homosexual priests. It is an atrocity. What also are other American atrocities? The continual preening of an over-extended military deployed thousands of miles away in a country whose political importance is unbeknownst to most Americans. The continual subsidizing of these soldiers in an attempt to cover their war wounds both physical and psychological. The allowance of the oil industry and Wall Street to drive up the price of crude oil to line their own pockets. This is where leadership is called into play. There is a huge hypocrisy brewing in America, and the epithets keep flying. The only way to lance the cyst is to cognitively understand the presence of these unacceptable issues and attempt to find logical solutions. The conversation between current Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and past Secretary of State Henry Kissinger on Charlie Rose’s television program was a start. It seems after several years of floundering without an appropriate public persona, the ghost of Madeleine Albright as risen. Hillary is beginning to recognize and understand her role with the emergence of the Egyptian coup. The centuries old Israeli Palestinian conflict was a bit much to conquer on her first term. Past President Bill Clinton cut his teeth on the Bosnian conflict, so there is a history of success in their genes. No one is more capable of steering corporate America in the right direction than Mr. Obama. Unless he steps up to the plate and deals with the oil industry, it would seem America is on the brink of her own coup. Americans seem unwilling to sacrifice their personal automobiles. It will take a massive effort from somewhere to propose and begin to implement a socioeconomic change downgrading the cash cow of the automobile. Oil companies do not want this. Also the ridiculous Socialist construct of the American Military Complex must be restructured and reduced. B.R.A.C. or Base Realignment and Closure is not working. From first hand experience in Fayetteville, North Carolina our town completely is incapable of handling yet another influx of G.I.’s. The urban sprawl all ready has overtaxed roads. With our federal government's immediate axing of federal highway funds, how will America’s current transportation infrastructure maintain? If villages, towns, and cities continue to build a system with reliance on the automobile, how will American’s ever make the change? The decades long squeeze of the oil industry on our federal government has to be loosened for a change to take place. Otherwise Americans simply will continue to go into debt fueling their cars. Maybe another energy crisis is necessary to provide that soul to the American people. As no one seems to remember, there were automobiles being produced in early l980’s that were capable of achieving 70 miles to the gallon. Where are they? Do any of the new hybrids accomplish this? Obama needs to step up to the plate. The current state of affairs completely is unacceptable.

Pop is Not

If pop music indeed has a “rebound,” the major qualification of swing music, then how does pop differ from jazz? Ask any smooth jazz artist. I never have listened to smooth jazz. Why would I want to? After being reared only on the best jazz/fusion, why would I resort to listening to a derivative product? It is the same question. Smooth jazz arose in the late l990’s as an adult contemporary alternative to the intellectually demanding and sometimes spiritually yearning genre of mainstream jazz. Because the blues are a major component of mainstream jazz, the “blues” feeling often is present in the realization of jazz music. Pop music is different because, although it does “rebound” like swing, it does not possess a similar underlying feeling. Instead pop music attempts to create an artificial euphoric feeling that substitutes for what normally would be a deeper message in the music. Erroneously this superimposed feeling of glee is construed to originate from the instrumental performance. In reality it emanates from the “Pop Artist.” It is the perfect vehicle for their self-indulgence. The instrumental accompaniment intends to be superficial, patronizing, and vain. Therefore pop music is not about the music. It is about the performers and their audience. This insincerity never will place the genre of pop and consequently smooth jazz in the artistic realm. The underlying feeling of pop is the glorification of us. It is a show. It is “Showbiz.” Pop never will be a platform for moving a consensus of spiritual, social, or philosophical ideas. Technically why is pop impotent? In addition to an underlying feeling not being present, there is no rhythmic clave. The pop groove, emanating from the casual strumming of an acoustic guitar, contains no rhythmic pattern of note. When theoretically analyzed this strumming pattern is nothing more than a repetitive serialization of 8^th notes played both ahead and behind the beat. Can two 8^th notes pulled toward one another over the pulse be considered a rhythmic clave? The answer is no. It does create a tension, a stroke and a rebound, but it is not a rhythmic pattern indicative of other more tradition styles of music. Popular dance forms, i.e., a rhythmic pattern that coincides with dance steps, are better examples of “clave.” In Latin music “clave” often is restricted to a definition of a 2/3 or 3/2 rhythmic pattern in salsa music. I use “clave” in a broader sense to define a rhythmic pattern of any origin. The verbal incantation of the dance the Cha Cha, “One, Two, Cha, Cha, Cha,” probably is the most recognizable. There are many. Understandably pop music is not dance music, and that is why it fails in any more demanding venues. For music to stand the test of time and persevere, its content must be substantial enough to move listeners on its on. When the performer is dead, who then will carry the torch?

Barry's Gordy's Motown Groove

If the common garden sprinkler is not swinging with its, “Tch, tch, tch” what does swing? The history and definition of “swing” in music and academic circles always has been hotly contested. Most easily swing should be defined as music with a “rebound.” The “pop” music groove has a rebound of sorts and like Rock ‘n’ Roll both swings and is straight at the same time. This could be the reason it has risen to prominence recently in the commercial world of music. Although fervently I hate playing in the pop style, because it requires a lessening of academic piano technique, I will give credit where credit is due. I enjoy listening to piano players who are adept at this style. Analytically I can realize the music has no inherent groove of its own, but it accomplishes a feel if purveyed by the right musicians. James Taylor would be the prime example of a pop artist. That groove he chooses to play is concrete and tangible in a very elusive way. The touch required to play pop is specific, but it is the antithesis to playing R&B, Hip Hop, and Soul music. The difference is pop music uses a loose, quick, ahead-of-the-beat touch and uses amplification to achieve its groove. R&B, Hip Hop, and Soul use a heavy touch in the center or behind the beat most easily personified by the playing of Motown bassist James Jamerson. Affectionately he was called the “Hook” because, instead of using two or three fingers in quick succession to articulate linear phrases on the strings of the electric bass, he only used one. The spacing of the notes resulting from only repetitive plucks from the same digit created the unique feel of the music. That of itself could be the qualifying definition of a Motown groove. Motown is a pop groove in the sense that it does not use the keyboard concept (a similar single hand repetitive attack) to supply groove. It uses a derivative rhythmic concept from soul and R&B, because each and every note is not essential to the feel of the song. The groove is “stretched” over the top of what would be an authentic soul or R&B groove. The deepening of the groove via accentuation of individual notes and phrasing in a non-repetitive way would create the original grooves from which Motown borrowed. Jamerson, in this somewhat limited but specific rhythmic concept, was able to provide enough soul but not too much to be palatable by white radio listening audiences of Motown. It could be said this groove, pioneered, chosen, and shaped by Barry Gordy, was the magic that made Motown Records successful. I for one never listened to Motown music as a child. As a keyboard player the feel of guitar-based music didn’t communicate to me. I was invited and tried several times to play in Allman Brothers cover type bands, but the music always was lacking to me. Instead my first vinyl record was of the Jeff Lorber Fusion. Here was an iconic jazz/fusion band that satisfied both my musical intellect and my need for keyboard-based groove. How would I know decades later this acquired taste would come back to haunt me as a professional musician?

Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, and Personal Musical Reflection

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

Rumor Has It, There is a Dilemma

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

Let's play some rhythm changes on El Trumpeto!

The Not So Successful Rumors

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

America is Not Swinging

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

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

The New Scarlett Johansson

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

Heart and Soul

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