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.

Jazz

Jazz was always a crowd's type of music. You look at New Orleans, or even go back to the slave traditions, and it wasn't 5 professionals on a heightened stage, and everybody else sat in comfortable chairs, stroking their chin watching.

I was at a concert the other night, and the sax player on stage saw one of his buddies come through the door. This was all during an very good vibes solo, so I was a bit angered when the sax player starts to wave his buddy into a seat right next to the stage. The sax player then started to take pictures of this guy and his girlfriend. But then I realized, jazz has turned into listening to the vibes player solo, and has turned away from having fun with music.

This is in part due to recording. With a recording you can very easily sit in your room and study exactly what the drummer is doing, or what the piano player is doing, and the CD becomes an educational tool for understanding jazz. That is a very necessary part of learning to play jazz, but people have began to take that educational look on all of jazz. It would be very hard to have a party in the middle of the Half Note while Coltrane is playing away, or to not want to study Bird's playing at Minton's playhouse. I respect those venues greatly. But I think jazz also should encourage a revival of the older traditions where everybody (musicians included) can dance and shout and have fun. You don't see that much anymore, at least in the commercial jazz scenes.

I want to see something like this more often. Look at how much fun the crowd is having and how much fun Jimmy is having. Check out the guy at 4:46.

The Supreme Court

I heard something this morning on Bill Bennett's radio show from his guest, who's name I can't remember, and I thought about it a bit more:

A baby can legally be killed (though it's given the witty title of "abortion"). It has done nothing to the outside world. The only problem it has caused is due to it's own conception, which was caused by two other people. So in short that baby dies because two people decided they didn't want they baby they conceived.

A murderer can be legally killed. He has taken an adult (the witty title of "abortion" is no abandon). A rapist cannot be legally killed. The rapist's crime has no sane justification. A man must be mentally unstable to rape a child, in which case he needs to be removed from society. But as Mr. Bennett pointed out, murder is a somewhat defensible crime, in fact the father of a child who was raped may wish to kill the rapist and we could sympathize with that father.

I find it horrible ironic that the Supreme Court does not see this irony. Rape a child, you can't be killed. Kill a man, you can be killed. Be conceived, you can be killed. The most disgusting crime is punished least severely while the other two sympathetic positions are given death.

I do not agree with the death penalty. I think that in the modern era we have the resources to remove a man from society without killing him. The death penalty can be supported as a last means of protecting society, but society is not in dire need of protection with the types of secure prisons we now have. There are all sorts of consequences with life time jailing, most notably cost, but we cannot let money interfier with what is morally correct, namely not taking the role of chosing who dies and who lives into our own hands, away from God's hands.

A New Twist

I was fortunate to talk with Eric Gravat today. He really is an intriguingly man. He worked with McCoy Tyner and Weather Report back in the day, and became a prison guard after his wife died, so he could support his children. I guess he stopped playing with McCoy after there was no ticket for him at the airport. Eric later found out that the ticket was under the name Grazat. He has reentered the jazz scene at 60 some years old and is playing with McCoy again along with his own group, Source Code.

The man is a wealth of jazz information. He talked about standing outside a club listening to the Coltrane quartet live. He also said that someone recommended him to Miles Davis, but that he never got to play with Miles. And apparently after a Weather Report gig Miles was standing by the soda machines Eric was visiting and Miles said (Eric can do Miles' voice perfectly) "you sounded great Eric. The rest of the band was shit". I was shaking hearing him talk about Miles Davis and McCoy Tyner so casually, as if they were his buds, which they are.

What I liked best was a little twist on a popular story in jazz. Miles says to Coltrane "why do you play so long" and Coltrane responds "once I get going I just don't know how to stop" and (the new twist) Miles retorts "pull the fucking horn out of your mouth".

Long Live Jazz!

Bernstein at Harvard

I loved this video. Bernstein is a genius, but I already knew that anyways.

Socialism

I will define socialism to be a system of wealth distribution in which the wealthy willingly or forcibly give money to the poor. In the context of a governmental system we see socialism come about through high taxation of the wealthy, to give to the poor. I do not wish to debate the definition of socialism. I will however point out that "giving" to the poor is an intentionally vague term: giving of programs and giving of money should both be considered. In short, socialism is taking from the rich to give to the poor, without regard for the consent of the rich.

St. Thomas says that humans necessarily possess "things as their own".

"First because every man is more careful to procure what is for himself alone than that which is common to many or to all: since each one would shirk the labor and leave to another that which concerns the community, as happens where there is a great number of servants. Secondly, because human affairs are conducted in more orderly fashion if each man is charged with taking care of some particular thing himself, whereas there would be confusion if everyone had to look after any one thing indeterminately. Thirdly, because a more peaceful state is ensured to man if each one is contented with his own. Hence it is to be observed that quarrels arise more frequently where there is no division of the things possessed."

Further, Basil says about charity, "Why are you rich while another is poor, unless it be that you may have the merit of a good stewardship, and he the reward of patience?" There is no reason to believe that God could not impose socialism. Any musician will know that their livelihood is more or less out of their hands. This is true with every career. The hard working man is not rich solely because he is hard working, but because he has something to work hard on. So then why are some wealthy and others poor? God wishes to allow the wealthy to be charitable, and allow the poor to be patient.

Which is exactly why socialism is wrong, because it deprives the wealthy of the chance to freely exercise charity and the poor the chance to freely exercise patience. Remember that acts which are freely done are more virtuous than acts that are done due to outside pressure.Further more, it deprives the wealthy of the private property that they are rightly possess. Therefor socialism is a form of theft, because the government is taking what is not theres, and what is rightly owned by another.

Socialism can therefore not be defended on moral grounds or on social grounds because as St. Thomas pointed out, civil unrest is immanent when private property is denied.

There are many objections that could arise in the course of this that I omitted for brevities sake, so if you find it unconvincing in any way, please comment and I will respond. I didn't want to bog down the reader with a lengthy article, but the writings of St. Thomas (as always) and others provide convincing refutations of objections that could arise.

I plan on doing a further post on the purpose of government, and the purpose of taxation later. But as for now let it suffice that socialism is not the correct form of either.

Another Quote

On a more trivial note, I love this line in The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton). You have to read it in context. Ponyboy says:

I was still thinking about it [Soc girls] while I was doing my homework that night. I had to read Great Expectations for English, and that kid Pip, he reminded me of us - the way he felt marked lousy because he wasn't a gentleman or anything, and the way that girl kept looking down on him. That happened to me once. One time in biology I had to dissect a worm, and the razor wouldn't cut, so I used my switchblade. The minute I flicked it out - I forgot what I was doing or I would never have done it - this girl right beside me kind of gasped, and said "They are right. You are a hood." That didn't make me feel so hot. There were a lot of Socs in that class - I get put in A classes because I'm supposed to be smart - and most of them thought it was pretty funny. I didn't, though. She was a cute girl. She looked real good in yellow.

I can't yet decide whether I like that line because I'm a teenager or a reader.

It reminds me of the line in some Greek epic or play where they describe Athena (I think) as having beautiful ankles.

And it reminds me of the Blink-182 song "All The Small Things"... I'm somewhat sorry to say.

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Happy Mother's Day. To bad nobody knows that it is (maybe was) a religious holiday.


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I have covered philosophy, teenage angst books and the popular ignorance of religious holidays in one day. Don't expect to much posting until the second week in June.

Frightning

Via Soren Kierkegaard (Fear and Trembling):

If there were no eternal consciousness in a man, if at the foundation of all there lay only a wildly seething power which writhing with obscure passions produced everything that is great and everything that is insignificant, if a bottomless void never satiated lay hidden beneath all–what then would life be but despair? If such were the case, if there were no sacred bond which united mankind, if one generation arose after another like the leafage in the forest, if the one generation replaced the other like the song of birds in the forest, if the human race passed through the world as the ship goes through the sea, like the wind through the desert, a thoughtless and fruitless activity, if an eternal oblivion were always lurking hungrily for its prey and there was no power strong enough to wrest it from its maw–how empty then and comfortless life would be!

On the first read I wasn't sure what he was saying, and marveled at the density of his prose. On the second read I understood enough to know I had to read it a third time. And on the third read I understood the immensity of what he was saying.