Down with genres!

Sorry for the bad YouTube video. I hate them as much as you do.

Of late I've been really into this sort of trance like chant music. Check it out here (and here). When I first sang this type of music I thought it was a lot like some of the later vamping experiments in jazz that have so much soul in them. When I brought a chart like this to a rehersal I quickly learned that my fellow jazz musicians didn't see the same similarity, but it's not the first time I've gone out on a limb.

I was listening the Shostakovitch String Quartets lately. It surprised me how applicable to jazz some of his lines were. Of course jazzers have studied Bach forever, but Shostie has got some really outside stuff going on. If you think that Bird was listening to Stravinsky just to be cultured, or know what was going on around him, or because he genuinly liked it, think again. Bird wanted to use that stuff in his own music.

Among other things I'll never forget about Eric Gravatt, I'll always remember when he told us he used to skip school to listen to Stravinsky because he heard Bird listened to him. But then his mom caught him and he couldn't play the drums for a year. Now think about that: here is a drummer, of all instrumentalists, who is so interested in playing the drums (actually, music) that he's skipping school to listen to Stravinsky. And then his punishment is getting those drums taken away. Any other kid would be grounded, but Eric wouldn't have cared. That'd just force him to be around his drums, which would be a blessing. Truly inspirational.

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And with 121 days left of school, I am overjoyed that for another 121 days I will attend a school that teaches Latin, even though I don't take the language.

Purpose of Goverment

I start with the premise that government should protect it's citizen's rights and help those who cannot help themselves. If we accept that we get:

• Furnish an army for the protection of the country
  
• Establish laws that protect it's citizens and enforce those laws
  
• By way of protecting it's citizens, allow that citizen's rights not be violated
  
• Assist the mentally retarded or ill, the severely handicapped and any other citizens who are unable to provide for themselves by working
• Provide necessary services that the private sector cannot supply. What these services are is subject to debate, but education, public transit and other infrastructure requirements would be likely candidates.
• Artificially alter the free market only when the private sector fails, and this failure precipitates the failure of the society.
  

And should not get (which are all wrong because the government exploits it's two abilities):

• Establishing laws that take away from the citizen's freedoms or that endanger the welfare of the society
  
• Elevate matters of courtesy or respect to the level of right
  
• Impose restrictions on one citizen's rights in the effort of giving a right to another citizen
  
• Assisting those that can assist themselves, such as those who make poor choices, those who are lazy, and those who are unjust.
  
• Provide services that the private sector can provide or provide services are unnecessary for the functioning of a well received society.
• Artificially alter the free market when the private sector has not failed in order to help the less fortunate, to harm the most fortunate or to in any way favor or harm a select group.
• Artificially alter the free market when the private sector has failed, but this failure does not pose the threat of failure to the society.
  

Maybe my logic is flawed, but if you accept the first premise as both true and complete, the first and second conclusion seems inevitable. I'm not sure how you would alter the premise, or more likely add to it but I would love to hear how others would, because the conclusions admittedly espouse a conservative approach to government.

On God's Existance

There are plenty of proofs for God out there. With lots of lamentably bad ones. In fact I'm going to posit, for this at least, that you can't prove that God exists. For now, no syllogisms can prove one God who created the world and cares about it's inhabitants.

Now a few things you have to just buy:

The Catholic Church (the original Christian Church, remember. It is a flawed human body, but I think any human has realized that human bodies are flawed. Who has a perfect marriage, or has no complaints about their boss or coworkers) teaches that grace is a supernatural gift of sorts that gives man help from God. For instance, I am really mad and I say "God help me not to throttle my friend" and God will give me strength (beyond my own ability, or maybe it just makes the choice easier, even though I could have done it without God's Grace) to not throttle my friend. But if I don't ask for it, God isn't going to give it to me. It's out there and plenty of ridiculous cartoon bubbles come to mind. But buy that there is this thing called Grace, that it helps man do (virtuous) things and that you have to ask to receive it.

Now it is impossible to prove that God doesn't exist. I'm not saying you can prove his does exist, because remember for this article that you cannot prove he does. But you cannot prove that he doesn't exist. So the odds that the "God Exists" camp have it right are infinitely better than the odds that the "God Doesn't Exist" camp have it right. It's dividing a 1 and 1 million chance by a 0 and 1 million chance. With the odds stacked against you and the knowledge that if you asked God for help he will help you why wouldn't you give it a whirl? The promises are pretty immense if it's true. In fact they are infinite!

And when you do give it a whirl (as I did), you would say something like "God, if you exist, help me to understand how you exist. Give me some sign of your existence" and while your at it you could even spill all and say "God, I was really a jerk to the check out lady at Cub today. Help me to be a better person" and maybe even end with the Hail Mary or the manly St. Michael The Arch Angel prayer. And I guarantee you that if it is all done with sincerity of heart God will answer your prayers.

This is a very selfish way of coming to God, because it puts your pleasure (good promises) as the prime reason for seeking God. So realize that I don't condone this type of religion as a continuing practice, because (and I'm no where close) we should love God because he's God. It's a mystery, I agree. But it's not easy to fall off your horse and see God. Figure out that God exists, and then learn about God, and pray that you might seek him unselfishly and your well on your way.

It's not convincing proof, but remember that we said no convincing proof exists on the matter. But your odds are certainly better.

Insanity

I have to admit that I first heard this song on Michael Savage's radio show. He (at least as part of his shtick) plays doo-wop music when politics start repeating themselves in a depressing loop. I have kind of fallen into the same state of late. There is something about a mundane life that gets really depressing at a point, and every year about this time I reach that point. This year doo-wop music is getting me through it. Go figure... I wish they dispensed with the disgusting tenor/bari solos though. I have 3 completely irrational ideas in life: 1) that getting a hair cut is lazy, 2) the sounds of people chewing (with mouth closed and all that etiquette stuff) is spine chillingly annoying and 3) the stereotypical bari sound (that thankfully some escape) is absolutely repulsive. Makes me feel good about my playing though.

I was recently talking about insanity with one of my teachers. My mom is studying to be a nurse, and in her mind one brain cell goes bad and your crazy, and medication can be used to treat you. I'm not too sure why I disagree with her, maybe it is because reason is a facility of the soul, not the brain. I don't think you can really treat insanity with medication, and I tend to think anybody can become insane. My teacher voiced it better than my cloudy thoughts did: he said that insanity comes from being stuck in a self-made loop that you can't escape. I'm not exactly sure how that all works yet but it seems to make sense.

Maybe I'll open my "Basic Psychology" text one of these days and figure all this out. Though I suppose it will revolve around the kind of teaching my mom has gotten.

You know your in an odd state of mind when your really interested in reading about insanity.

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I will miss attending a school where students (and teachers) takes a stand for the worst atrocity of our generation.

I've long been looking for an accurate, unbiased number of abortions that have taken place in the last 40 years, and I wouldn't completely trust this website and it's 50 million number. But I wouldn't completely ignore data that say 1/3 of babies are aborted either, even if the number is biased. I doubt the out and out lie, and you can only effect bias so much. Even if the number was 1/6 there are very serious social consequences (disregarding any moral consequences). Among other problems, think if John Coltrane or Miles Davis were aborted. Or more importantly, what if Winston Churchill was aborted, or George Washington. The number of great men that history is indebted to that aren't being born frightens me.

And I don't buy the idea that the government can do many things better than I can (I don't buy that whole "give to the poor" idea of governing, for many reasons), and I therefor don't support many of the laws that come about in this day and age that protect us from ourselves. I know many that think that abortion is horrible, that that it's not the government's place to outlaw it, but I think it's a matter of national security. I know I'm throwing out buzz words that immediately evoke opinions, but think about it: how many kids are aborted in Pakistan? How many working women aren't ready for a child yet in China? We have the best army in the world, but at a certain point if you don't have any soldiers your in trouble.

I will also miss attending a school where the math teacher makes a better band director than the band director. Actually I can think of a handful of teachers that know more about music than she does... more proof that a degree means almost nothing.

To You

I happened upon this while writing an essay about the Aeneid. I was listening to clips of all those 50's feel good groups back when harmony was still a part of popular music (though Britney's new hit, while terrificly horrible has a surprisingly atonal melody).


Thad Jone's great ballad "To You" by The Four Freshman and Manhattan Transfer.




You could be a compelling jazz musician if you only studied the Jones family. Revolutionary drummer, incredible piano player and a multi-faceted writter/leader/trumpet player.

Would the real G please stand up

It's not a tough decision...

Musician 1:




Musician 2:





I tried to display Mr. Gorlick in the best of lights. This is one of the things that really scares me about being a jazz musician. Somebody like Kenny Garret can be playing original hip stuff and doesn't make half as much money as Kenny Gorlick who plays a melody for 3/4 of a song. Keep in mind I'm only saying Garret is better than Gorlick, not that Gorlick is trash.

Maria's Music here by takes the stand that the economic bailout is socialism at it's most deceptive. Why aren't more people talking about this in the blog world? With all due respect, somebody like Andrew Durkin should be hailing this as a great success. It worries me that I have nobody to disagree with on this front.

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I'll miss attending a school where it is a real shock when the football team wins a game, much less by over 50 points.

I'll miss attending a school that gives you more homework than you can do during the week, regardless of effort. Your weekends become 4 hour days of catch up. Though I hear college is the same way...

I'll miss attending a school where the director of the upper school compliments students on their modest dance attire.

Atonality Day

Happy Anniversary Atonality! Alex Ross has proclaimed September 27 as the official day. A while back I got a shirt that has a tombstone with Tonality's name on it and some dates (of apparently no significance) on the back, and then "Keep Music Evil" on the front. I proudly wore it today... under my shirt. Which brings me to today's "Things I'll Miss":

I'll miss attending a school where your religion teacher's wife teaches classical flute lessons out of her home. I didn't have the guts to stick my nose to the establishment while playing classical flute... even though it seems to be an atonally friendly household. At


Returning once again to my thought that American's have lost the ability to appreciate/understand more sophisticated forms of music. What I so enjoy about Mahler, Ornette Coleman, Shostakovich and Happy Apple are that there is so much emotion in their music. In "The Abolition of Man" CS Lewis asserts that the youth of his day (1943) were emotionally ignorant, using the impressive analogy, "The youth are not rain forests to be cut down but deserts to be irrigated." The youth haven't been taught to like Beethoven because we don't teach them to have noble feelings. This may sound sentimental but I'll defer the proper explanation of this point to Lewis himself. He'll do a much better job than I can.

Senior Quote

Like every long term commitment there is an initial energy that sadly seems to always fade. While that initial energy is there I suppose I'll capitalize on it:

With 143 days left at PA I have realized that I will miss a school where every senior can publish a quote in the year book. I have chosen (with great difficulty) the following (featured in the 4th movement of Mahler's 2nd symphony):

Eternal Light

O red rosebud!
Man lies in deepest need!
Man lies in deepest pain!
Oh how I would rather be in heaven.
There, I came upon a broad path;
There, came a little angel and wanted to send me away.
Ah no! I would not let myself be sent away!
I am from God and will return to God!
The loving God will give me a little light,
Which will light me into that eternal blissful life!

From “Des Knaben Wunderhorn”


Also seriously considered:

"It was when I learned that I could make mistakes that I knew I was on to something" - Ornette Coleman. This idea will be fleshed out in a further "Things I Will Miss". But for now know that I deeply appreciate the complete idiotic immaturity that was my 9th grade year at PA. More than any book I've read or lecture I've listened to I learned to think by making a bunch of really stupid mistakes. And Ornette has been a bit of a role model for me of late. He's the kind of role model that you know is deeply flawed which makes him all the more appealing as a person. But this is all for another post.

"I'd go stupid counting all my money" - Thelonious Sphere Monk

And the lyrics to "Call It Clear".

All four seemed to perfectly describe the most profound ideas I gained at PA, but ultimately, with 100 words as a limit, I thought the idea of complete worthlessness in the reflection of God was most profound. And, inconsequently, one that I think most men need to continually remind themselves of. This may be for another post also. The energy is just building up to have a prolific blog once again.

I'm Back

I took a long hiatus. And now, just when I am most busy, I'll try to start posting a bit again. I started posting on dooHICKEY (Abecedarius Rex was gracious enough to bring me in on his new creation) with a opening post about the new MacDonald's commercial.

I'd like to add that Micky D's is only endorsing this kind of ignorance. If America knew a little bit about jazz, knew French, or at the very least the location of Paraguay on a map I think it would be a better place. All of which are completely unrelated to coffee consumption by the way. Maybe even more insulting though is that all of this is lumped together with reality TV shows and gossip magazines. At first it seems like a harmless commercial but with the culture being as foolish as it is, and the government being as socialist as it is, it's tough to be really optimistic.

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Go pick up Martin Dosh's new CD "Wolves And Wishes"! He is part of what makes the Minneapolis music scene so incredible.

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And a new (hopefully reoccuring... The Halloween Alaska lyric bit will make a triumphant comeback one day, I promise) segment: I will pubilish one fact about my highschool that I will miss when I leave it in 143 days. Hopefully this will give the reader who has no clue where I attend school a little glimps into the best thing that has ever happened to me, and hopefully it will serve as a supreme thanks to my parents and everybody at my school. Here goes:


With 143 days left in my days at PA I realized that I will miss the great history teacher Dr. C's loud music. It ranges from Bach to Mahler to French popular music of the 1940's. But whatever genre he draws from it is always played at top volume. It is too loud to be able to effectively converse in it's midst, and loud enough to hear through out the halls. And he always waits for the song to end before he begins class. I will miss having teachers like that.