Music Notes – Liz Story

Now and then, little will do to calm me but good, emotive piano playing. Typically this means Mr. Jarrett, particularly the improvised concerts. Sometimes that means listening to George Winston (and some of the knock offs of his style). But a pianist I seem to return to over and over is Liz Story.
Story does not seem, to my admittedly untrained ear, to be as creative as Jarrett (but who is, really?), and I am pretty sure she is not as popular as Mr. Winston. But I think she is better than he is. One can hear the influence of the great Bill Evans here, especially in the subtle, but never sleepy touch that lets all empty space become part of the music, stroking the melodies with just enough color to make them stand out, but not so much as to scream for attention.

Ms. Story does play some beautiful original compositions. “Wedding Rain” and “Pacheco Pass” are favorites for many listeners (including myself). Her more introspective pieces remind me of another musician that doesn’t get enough attention: Richard Souther. But I am intrigued by her readings of such classic pieces as “How Insensitive,” “All the Things You Are,” and “My One and Only Love.” I consider anyone tries Evans’ “Peace Piece” to be quite bold, but I have to say I really like her rendition.
Liz Story’s playing is soft in a good sense. It is relaxing and beautiful, but don’t let that fool you. While her work doesn’t dive and dip like Keith Jarrett’s, and it might not be as poetically rounded as Bill Evans, it is very enjoyable. Often just what I need.

Bookmarks – The Cradle Place

Thomas Lux is not your roses is red poet of pretty little lines. He isn’t Shakespeare. There is a great deal that Lux isn’t. And even if his strange verses are a little hard for the overly expectant reader to take, they are darn good.
Lux has been described by many critics as “surrealistic.” Poems in  The Cradle Place employ some odd images which seem to come from dreams, and what you expect to be horrifying sometimes ends up beautiful, at least in my psyche. And perhaps that is Lux’s strength: not so much to get us to embrace the nightmares we imagine, but to be honest about the nightmares we live around unknowingly. Maybe we also learn to see, as only in dreams, the possible that we would deny if we looked at it face to face.
These poems contain a great deal of humor, though you might find it missing when you look for it. It is like riding in the car with the wise, but weird uncle: you know he’s going to say something funny and he’s going to make some sort acute observation, but if you try to force anything, he’ll sit mute. As soon as you turn on the radio to drown out his silence, something comes out touching wonder. It is best to read without presumption and let whatever happens happens.
While I did say that Lux is like no other poet, I do think he has his kindred spirits. A number of the poems in this collection owe their power to observations about the minute and discarded, a la A. R. Ammons. But where Ammons opens the world of science to metaphor that few have since Donne, Lux’s muse has bite (and sharp teeth!). Bits of information and daring questions lodge in the brain like a feather, sometimes tickling, sometimes scratching, always screaming for attention. What is done with that attention is left to the reader. But the reader is not going to be the same…unless she or he expects nothing else.

Music Notes: Voodoo Blue at the Harbor

Took in a wonderful set on Thursday night by the Stevie Ray Vaughan tribute band Voodoo Blue.
Even if you have never heard of Stevie Ray Vaughan (and if so, I feel very sorry for you), and have somehow missed his tunes on the radio, I dare anyone to sit and listen to this band play and not be impressed with how good they sound or how fun they are to watch. (I say that at the same time I was flabbergasted by all the people mulling around during the show like they were just cruising the mall.)
Those who did sit still (or dance) were treated to some mighty good renditions of Vaughan classics, like “Little Wing,” “Pride and Joy,” “Crossfire,” “The House is Rockin’,” and my personal favorite: “Cold Shot.”


Voodoo Blue also provided the crowd with a few of the lesser known tunes from the SRV canon (meaning the stuff you don’t get on the classic rock radio stations) like “Willie The Wimp.” At the end, they played the National Anthem a la Hendrix and “Voodoo Child (Slight Return).” At this point nearly everyone was on their feet. Local groups don’t generally generate this kind of excitement, especially cover bands. But Voodoo Blue deserve it.
If you are going to do the music of a guitar legend, you better have some one better than good on the six string. Voodoo Blue does in Casey James. This guy is an exciting performer, even looking like Stevie Ray. From the opening number, he had us all electrified. But the whole band was good here. I loved the keys when I could here them and the singer was a punch of good blues.
There is nothing like the original. But this is pretty darn good stuff. If you are in the DFW Metroplex and need good fix of SRV that radio or your old cassettes and give you, this is the band to see.

Dear Senator Barton:

Thank you for taking the time to apologize on my behalf to a very bad man working for a very bad company in an industry so evil that America is drowning under its influence. After all, as a grown man myself, I still have trouble appreciating a person who represents decades of abuse and oppression.
You have confirmed for me that you are a consummate politician,  a word that I understand comes from an ancient language meaning asshole, probably due to what comes out of it. And up until this time, I just figured you and your kind were only one notch above child molesters and divorce lawyers.
Once again, you did what politicians do: you seized the moment for yourself, drawing attention to YOURSELF, in one quick jibe dismissing the out right EVIL that BP and other oil companies have perpetrated on this country. You have left those who are hurting (REAL PAIN SENATOR, NOT A LITTLE OUWIE) behind so you can push an agenda that is nothing more than the same old “take the other side no matter how stupid it is and let us all spread the hate” position that goobers on both sides of the arena have been doing for a very very long time.
You have no real concern for the people whose livelihoods are gone forever. You do not care about the families who have lost loved ones. You have no love for those who serve to BETTER this country. YOU LOVE YOU. That’s all.
For me the BP thing is not about politics. In fact, it is politics that has helped to get us into and have exacerbated this mess. I have grown to distrust all politicians, left and right because of people like you Senator Barton. You had a chance to prove right and wrong are not about left and right and to get people on the side of DOING SOMETHING instead of saying nothing. But I guess it was more important to earn the praise of the Rush Limbaughs of this world. Silly me; I just don’t get it.
I read that you have apologized for your apology. But why? Because you were forced to by people in your own party. See, it is not about doing the right thing. It is about saving face. TAhat is the first side of every political coin: Save Face. The second half reads: Get Elected.
In the wake of the all the rhetoric, you have done  divided families and killed real freedom. Now politics is a religion, and all we hear is given litany from the priests at Fox and MSNBC. Some say, “you have to be involved in politics to change politics.” Horse shit. I might as well deal with child molesting priests by apologizing to the Pope for all the people who have asked him to be accountable for the church he leads. Then I suppose I should help him shuffle off more bad minister to work with kids and make sure all the good priests get held up for ridicule.
You see, this is what you and other politicians have done. You basically have told the abuser, the molester, the killer, “We are so sorry you are getting punished. We are so sorry there has been pressure on you to do the RIGHT THING since we know in a free world you should never have to do the right thing.”
Politicians on all sides talk and talk and talk about personal responsibility. And yet when someone is actually expected to TAKE RESPONSIBILITY, you ALL decry it. You don’t want people to take responsibility. You only want to take credit.
So here are two things you can take credit for: 1) further disillusioning me from the idea the politicians can do any good for this country and 2) giving the smug bastard his life back.

Music Notes – Tribute (Keith Jarrett Trio)

Keith Jarrett just has to do things differently. And so when he and his band mates (bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Jack DeJohnette) make a tribute album, it just can't be for one person or even a composer. Here they pay tribute to the great performances of several people doing other people's great tunes. Now I am not familiar enough with the original recordings, so I can only focus on the music itself, which, as usual, is fine.
I can say these standards sound much more like the kind of thing people go to when they want to hear fresh versions of the Great American Songbook, and there are not so many of the usual "extensions" Keith Jarrett Trio is known for. But if you love piano jazz, you won't get this recording confused with any other trio. You may have heard many renditions of "Lover Man," "Solar," "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" and “All The Things You Are.” But a few notes into the melody, and you know you are listening to Jarrett, Peacock, and DeJohnette.
A couple original tunes can also be found on Tribute, each of which close the respective discs on the project: "Sun Prayer" on the first disc and "U Dance" and side two. I'm not sure why they are here, but I didn't find their inclusion jarring in the least. They are also two of the catchier and perhaps most accessible pieces in the project.

Music Notes -- The Mars Hill Band at the Harbor

When I see the words “Party Band” used to describe an act, I don’t have very high expectations that I am going to enjoy the music. Usually I end up listening to plodding and lethargic versions of songs I don’t really like, even by the original artists. Maybe I’m getting old, because that isn’t my idea of a party.

But the Mars Hill Band surprised me in their set at the Harbor in Rockwall on Thursday night. The group played a spirited set mixing tunes from a variety of decades and genres. Even some songs that don’t do much for me personally (like “She Country” and Michael Jackson's “Rock With You”) came off well and seemed to be pretty well received by the crowd gathered by Lake Ray Hubbard. Shoot, they even did a version of “Welcome to the Jungle” with some darn hot horns.
There were a few glitches here and there, like a guitar that didn’t always want to be heard on my side of the stage, but mostly this was a surprisingly fun show. The group handles, as noted before, several different songs and made them work together. The even got called for an encore, and did a raucous rendition of Living Colour's “Cult of Personality.” (By the way, I really did like this song, but I’d been so taken with the horns—a trombonist and a flugelhorn player – that I was a little disappointed I didn’t get to experience the tune with them.)
This was a party band, and though I didn’t dance, I’m glad I came.

TV notes – The Nine Test High School Education

I get more and more soured on sports, especially the so-called “student athlete.” There are some really fine athletes who do take their education seriously. I know this because many have graced my classes, working very hard both on the field, and and treating every morsel of knowledge like gold, happy for the privilege to learn. But the truth is that most athletes in college are like a group I have run into in my own job: spoiled children who are genuinely surprised when a teacher has the audacity to fail them in courses they did no work in and rarely, if ever attended. (I once had a baseball player who came so infrequently to his class, I did not know what he looked like.  He only turned in one assignment, which he failed, and asked me how to get an A just before the final exam, which he actually took expecting to pass the course.)
There are some who would blame a culture of entitlement, an attitude seemingly ramped up with athletes (usually male, by the way – most female athletes I’ve encountered take a more realistic approach to college) as if on steroids. Others will blame bad parenting. Others blame the professionals for providing role models only in terms of selfishness and aggrandizement.
I’m sure each of these has some influence on the never was a scholar athlete. But I believe the real culprit is that sports has been made a god and its male participants have become little deities commanding worship. I used to see it in the pros. Then I became a college instructor and realized that it has always been there too. When I became a parent who took his kids to soccer and basketball practices, I saw that many of these little gods had been formed (and their educations dropped like a new convert runs from the devil) long before they hit high school.
Let us take the case of one Tony Mitchell and young man who missed over a hundred days of class and yet managed to rise from being a freshman to a senior in less than two days. Here is Brett Shipp’s first report on the case, reported on WFAA in Dallas on June 1.



Now take a look at Shipp's follow up report on the investigation:

Today I caught the following commentary from anchor John McCaa:


Where have we gotten to as a society when people attach a man for reporting the misdeeds? What are we to say of ourselves when the potential of a gifted athlete, not for what he can use his talents to provide for himself (remember the word “education”?), but what he can bring to a college program, namely fame and money, is all that people are concerned about? We haven’t gotten to any place. We are in the same place we always were: worshipping the sport and the athlete so much, that we become blind to the abuse done not only to education, but also to this young man and those like him and, dare I say, to real values of sports. A handful of us will applaud what Mr. Shipp has done in reporting this story and what Mr. McCaa has said in support of that story. But what does it say about the world we live in when this small minority of us are looked as if we  are the religious zealots, not those who see a misguided and poorly led 17 year old as a savior.

Music Notes – Thieves and Poets

Some have compared this project from guitar master John McLaughlin to Miles Davis’ Sketches Of Spain. It is not really as great as all that, but saying so isn’t really fair to McLaughlin. After all Sketches is one of the best albums by one of the greatest artists in music history. It has also has had longer to garner listeners and acclaim. But there are a number of similarities between the two projects that make the comparison worthy of attention.

Thieves and Poets can be divided into two sections. The first is the three part title suite composed by McLaughlin. The second consists of four jazz standards played with McLaughlin's usual adroitness: “My Foolish Heart,” “The Dolphin,” “Stella by Starlight,” and “My Romance.” Parts II and III of the suite and the standards feature The Aighetta Quartet.  The orchestra on this recording is I Pommeriggi Musicali di Milano. Both ensembles provide the lush and beautiful backdrop for McLaughlin's composition and the understated classics. So, like Sketches of Spain, this project straddles the worlds of jazz and classical music.  I think the result is something is likely to satisfy people in both camps. But only to a degree.

Where Sketches is a fully realized, coherent collaboration between Miles Davis and Gil Evans, Thieves and Poets is really a disc with two distinct, and not uniform, halves. The suite wants to be like the majestic “Concerto de Aranjuez,” and as a classical piece, it almost is. But Davis’ genius was that he could use the orchestra as he did his band, and so his version of the Rodrigo composition almost seems to be his own, yet without losing the essentials of the original. So what Davis did was both classical and jazz. But McLaughlin has a powerful work for the orchestra, and nothing more. Ironically, “Concerto De Aranjuez” is a work for guitar and orchestra.

That suite is very much worth listening to, but with the other four tunes, the record as a whole is jarring. The standards are rendered beautifully here, if not that special in terms of improvisation, and come off as little afterthoughts. Pretty, but afterthoughts nonetheless. One might get the impression after a few listens that McLaughlin didn’t have enough of either and so he just stuck them together.

I would rather have had either two separate projects or a double disc opus with the classical material on one and the jazz classics on the other. Far be it from me to say the two genres don’t belong together. But here it doesn’t work quite so well as music lovers know is possible.

Music Notes – Rock Instrumental Classics: The Seventies

Before I ever got into jazz (sort of), I was a rock and roller (sort of), a child of the 70s. And while some of the tunes on this disc I never actually heard during that decade, those that did come through my tiny radio speakers had me thinking there was more to music than folk tunes, disco, and the advent of heavy metal. So when I found this disc for cheap at a Half Price Bookstore, I had to have it.
A couple things do bother me about this little collection of 18 songs. Probably the most noticeable problem is the truncated version of Edgar Winter’s “Frankenstein.” Second, while I know that jazz and rock are not the same thing, if a compilation can include “Joy” by Apollo and “The Hustle,” of “rock” music, then surely they could have found room for tunes by Herb Alpert, Chuck Mangione, Spyro Gyra, or crossover sensation George Benson. The seventies were a time when a lot of jazz and rock crossed over, and these artist had some pretty good tunes. I guess, however, that might have taken two discs (so would that be Volume 3b?). To make room, on the other hand, I might suggest cutting “Apricot Brandy” by Rhinoceros, since it was actually released in 1968 and was not a big hit.
But that doesn’t diminish what one has here. The disc is rather uneven, with some real rock songs mixed with some disco and pop novelties, like the aforementioned songs, Walter Murphy’s “A Fifth of Beethoven,” and the quirky “Popcorn” (by, of course, Hot Butter). But we also have classics (dare I say standards?) like Average White Band’s “Pick Up The Pieces,” Deodato’s version of “Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001),” and mega groovy “Outa-Space”by the late Billy Preston (God rest his sweet jammin’ soul!).

There are also some nuggets (at least for me) in some songs, as noted before,  I never heard before putting this in my player. Notable are ELO’s “Daybreaker” and a hearty version of Led Zepplin’s “Whole Lotta Love” played by King Curtis & The Kingpins. The disc also contains some interesting liner notes (something that those who did not grow up in the seventies or before may not remember as part of the listening experience).
Okay, so my misgivings notwithstanding, this is a fun little record, one that should give a good picture of one significant part of one of the richest decades in music history.

[Note: I noticed that this series contains music from the 50s and 60s, but nothing past the seventies. I wonder what statement that makes for music past that time. Just saying…]

Music Notes: Forecast: Tomorrow

 If you like Weather Report, this is good stuff. If you love Weather Report, you probably have already heard (and own) most of it. Still, it is a nice collection (the only box set) of the one of greatest of the jazz fusion groups.
I enjoyed it mostly, but it is marred in that it is missing two of my favorite WR tunes: "A Remark You Made" and "Boogie Woogie Waltz."  (The former is found on the DVD, but missing the latter is, unconscionable.)

Still, the collection, as whole, shines nicely. There are some tunes I had not heard before, at least not in live versions. And I liked the solos, particularly Wayne Shorter’s. I was also intrigued by Joe Zawinul’s tasty playing on the mellower tunes.
The DJ Logic remix of “125th Street Congress” was irritating at first (probably due to my aversion to rap), but a couple listens and I was hooked. The biggest WR hit, “Birdland,” comes off a bit flat. However, I’ve now heard that song so many times, and there are so many good live versions of it, that I may be a bit harsh.
What may be the biggest draw of the set are the older tunes, those originally on the first three Weather Report albums. The band had not really hit its stride, and these more developed and energetic versions are really enjoyable.
As a whole, Forecast: Tomorrow is a fine listening experience, particularly for the fan who has appreciated Weather Report from afar and not really given themselves a chance to get into them. Whether that person is willing to shell out this kind of money for the set remains to be seen.

Bookmarks – A Painted House

I had put off reading this novel because I found out a Hallmark movie was made from it. But I decided I needed to give it a try anyway, since I usually like Grisham's books, including the mainstream (non-thriller) ones.  I am glad I did. This was an enjoyable tale of about a young boy living on a farm in Arkansas with his parents and grandparents, and how much he grows up during one season of picking cotton.
The book isn't perfect. There is a little too much repetition of some facts and I have my doubts about this being the story of a seven year old boy, especially considering the many secrets he is expected to keep. But these problems are pretty easy to overlook.
The tale is inviting, with enough sub-plots to keep the reader interested. It gives a fine picture of 1952 farm life, and doesn't make even its most sympathetic characters too perfect (a la Hallmark). As the theme of the novel is secrecy, there is plenty of intrigue. But there is also a good deal of humor as well. The tone is engaging and smooth throughout.
Subtly, Grisham seems to be making statements about race and class distinctions. The novel's protagonist does come to all the right conclusions, even when his own motives are not so pure. The family must deal with two sets of workers: Mexicans and Hill People (whites who come from other parts of Arkansas to pick cotton). The differences are dealt with more in a matter-of-fact manner, particularly since the main character is more interested in baseball than the rights and concerns of people outside his family. So Grisham avoids hitting his reader over the head with moralizing.
I do recommend "A Painted House," but I won't likely see the movie anytime soon. I have my own prejudices getting in the way of that.

Bookmarks – Flannery: A Life of Flannery O'Connor

Brad Gooch has done a great deal of research on O'Connor (in my mind one of America's most important writers), and has produced a biography that should satisfy the scholar and the vaguely curious. The book reads sometimes like a novel and sometimes like the gossip page of a small town newspaper. It does shed a great of light on the writer's work and habits, and certainly the ideas behind her art.
O'Connor's life was beautiful and sad, a study in  itself of suffering and faith, even without her powerful prose. This book gives insight into her childhood, including the relationship with her father, whose death profoundly affected her. We also get snapshots of her life as a college student and cartoonist, as well as her brief time away from Andulsia (the family farm she spent almost all of her adulthood). Only a tiny bit of this information has been available before, and only to a handful of scholars.
Seen here also is the strained and difficult relationship between O'Connor and her mother. Gooch does not pull any punches concerning Regina O'Connor, but is also more sympathetic than one might expect. Readers also get interesting information about Betty Hester, known for years as “A,” a woman whose correspondence with O'Connor tells us much about not only the writer, but the Christian.
Anyone interested in O'Connor would do well to read this book. But this story is also for those who want to read about one America's most under-recognized and often misunderstood thinkers. It will certainly become required reading for any O'Connor scholar, but it is a darn good story for the rest of us plain folk too.

Publication Notes – June 2010

Since the summer has begun, I have, in greater earnest been sending material out, including some book length manuscripts. Have even collected a few rejections already. Wow! The Internet is speedy! However, a couple pieces have found homes.
“The Dog Barked” has been published at sillymess. No payment,  but I’m glad to have my work out there. It is a flash fiction piece I think I wrote sometime last year.
My poem “The Insomnia War” also is soon to be  published. It is expected to be in the July issue of Flutter, another online zine. Also, I recently heard from the editor of Trapeze Magazine and she will be publishing a twitter haiku on June 26.
These are kind of experimental, at least as far as the type of writing I usually do. Yet I’m proud to have written them and hope they generate some attention.
Other than that, I’m still working a little at a time at the novel, now with a new idea for the second half of the story, and on a non-fiction book of rants and meditations. As I am teaching online, I hope to contribute some time to an e-book I have wanted to write for school. At least I’ll think about it. Those are the plans. What will happen only God knows.

Bookmarks – Financial Peace Revisited

I have read Dave Ramsey’s book as part of a class I have been taking at my church, and though I do have some problems with the book, I do think Ramsey’s basics formula and principles are sound, very likely to work. I think I need to say upfront that for what he is trying to accomplish, he is on the right track. I don’t know this for a fact as of this writing, because it takes years to apply all of what he suggests. (That I know this ahead of time is one reason I do respect what is happening. Ramsey isn’t giving me a get rich quick scheme or assuring me I’ll be free of debt in ten easy steps.)

But I feel I must address much of my remarks to the Dave Ramsey disciples, those who have bought into his winning smile and engaging stories and “common sense” so much that they fail to see what I would not call flaws in his system, but problems in delivery.

First, Ramsey uses a great deal of shaming language. Now when a person is foolish or stupid and just plain wrong, shame isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But Ramsey writes as if each poor decision is evidence of moral decay.

I was very disappointed with the chapter on work and careers. Ramsey’s basic idea here is that if you aren’t making enough money in your present job, you just aren’t working hard enough or need to leave no matter how otherwise satisfying your occupation may be. That alone ought to have every teacher in America ticked off. One could help meet financial goals sooner by getting a second job. He doesn’t, of course, mention that despite his emphasis on “family,” that such a course of action might take one away from family and/or bring about health concerns later that will cost more than money. But back to the point on not working hard enough. Ramsey implies that the man who works hard (this means extra hours or being creative so that your bosses will be compelled to give you a raise), will make more money. That is a gross generalization I find downright insulting. (Thankfully, he is more reasonable in his video lesson on the subject.)

One problem, something that isn’t really major but stuck in my craw anyway, was the addition at the end of each chapter of “Thoughts from Sharon” (Mr. Ramsey’s wife). On the surface the presence of these little asides or addendums seem to make sense. They show the perhaps “softer” side of the Ramsey family and accentuate one of Ramsey’s most significant points (at least to me): that working together to achieve financial goals goes a long way to improving marriage. But most of these are poorly written, don’t add much to the information in the chapters, are sometimes overly perky (“If anybody loves a bargain, it is Dave and I. Fun, fun, fun.”). These sections are not really so much flaws in the book, but they just rubbed me the wrong way.

Mr. Ramsey’s principles of financial management are, from what I can tell, sound.As noted above, Ramsey does not promise that one is going to get rich quick or that there is some sort of magic in his ideas. In fact, probably the biggest draw to his method is that it can be done by any person, at least in theory. One does not have to have special talents, abilities, or resources.

Get past the problem of how he treats some in his audience, and I suspect the reader will benefit in a big way. But, for example, telling people there are certain types of people, that we are just born with certain personalities, and then making fun of those who are not like him, is not good. I am going to have to have more than discipline (something he preaches and which I very much agree with) to get past this. And such treatment is not something to “just get over.”

Mr. Ramsey uses the phrase “common sense” a great deal in his book, in his teaching, and on his program. But he uses the phrase incorrectly. There is a very big difference between common sense and something that makes sense, once it is explained adequately. Most of what Ramsey tells us makes sense after he has explained it, but it is not necessary a matter of common sense. Otherwise, we would not need him or his books.

Music Notes -- Changeless

The Keith Jarrett Trio’s Changeless is a fine, reflective, album, one that finds Jarrett's trio is really good form. Unlike some of the free jazz that seems to go all over the place, each piece, though improvised completely, reads like a group meditation. This is one of those recordings that almost make me understand what jazz musicians mean by the spiritual element of the music. (I have no idea if this is the intent of these three.)

In addition to Jarrett's magnificent playing, a highlight here is the drum work of Jack DeJohnette. He is a rare breed who seems to be sometimes playing melodies, and not just keeping time. Bassist Gary Peacock is great as well. However, DeJohnette's work here continues to amaze and mystify me.

The four gorgeous pieces total 49 minutes of wonder for me. My favorite track is the second, "Endless," a fifteen minute stream of river, calming and exciting at once. The other three are really fine, but this is the track that brings me back to the album time and time again.

Reading Response – Of Facebook, Advertising, and Lies

Almost every day, I read the following: “Thanks for your feedback. Over time, this information helps us deliver more relevant ads to you.” If you have been on Facebook any length of time, you have read it too. But I have come to the conclusion this statement is a lie.
I do not make this accusation lightly or in jest. I think Facebook is lying, telling an untruth, being deceitful, speaking falsely. I have become convinced that like the political groups who are paying to promote their ideas there, Facebook has no intention to fulfill their promise to “deliver more relevant ads” to me or anyone.
Okay, here’s what happens. Near any Facebook the ads, you will see a little X. You can click on the X to get rid of the ad. But before the ad goes away, you are given a little menu of choices for why you don’t want to see this again, now or ever. The choices are: Uninteresting, Misleading, Offensive, Repetitive, and Other. If you choose “Other,” then you get a small box to type in a specific reason for disliking the ad. After you are done, you are given the message above.
Now what am I to think when I tell Facebook that I find a certain ad offensive? I think most, given the statement above, would assume Facebook, in the interest of not pissing off potential customers, would keep that ad from ever showing up on that person’s page. What would you expect to happen if many similar items, perhaps generated by the same group of people, are “reported” to Facebook? Would you not expect Facebook, who can learn about the preferences of his members, to figure out, “Hey this guy isn’t going to pay attention to stuff from this group. Let’s give him something else”?
But they don’t. I see the same ads over and over though Facebook keeps telling me that “over time” they will bring “relevant” promotions to my page. THE SAME ADVERTISEMENTS SHOW UP NEARLY EVERY DAY. Does “over time” mean to these guys, “some day in the future you will be so darn old you will have forgotten what you do and do not like”?
I understand why there are advertisements, and I don’t have a problem with them doing it. Facebook is the biggest social networking site in the world, and I believe they have a right to earn revenue selling promotion space. I believe the people who purchase that space, even those I don’t like or agree with (even those who I know are using that space to mislead) have a right to try to sell their ideas in this forum.
However, I know the technology exists for them to “learn” from my preferences, and I know that Facebook is using that technology. Otherwise, why would I be getting little messages for jazz groups and books on spiritual matters? I didn’t fill out a survey that said, “Please tell me more about this such and such topics.” Facebook figured it out based on what I post, the groups I join, and other activities I participate in.
I am not well versed in the subtleties of technology. But I do know Facebook can learn what I don’t like as easily as it can learn what I enjoy. They can figure out what bothers me, and yet they choose to cram the same political advertisements onto nearly every page I access, despite the fact that I almost never write about politics (except the occasional comment to someone’s post). How can they, after MONTHS AND MONTHS, not see that I mean it when I say that certain ads are offensive to me?
How can they? Because like most politicians, they have no interest in the truth. They know most people will ignore what they dislike or finally get so curious they find themselves clicking on the ad no matter what they think. It is a law of advertising, if you cannot find target consumers, make them by sheer weight of repetition. After all, anyone who doesn’t like it, can just “change the channel,” right?

Music Notes – Soul of Things

I'm guessing that Tomasz Stanko is not well known in America. I'm sure few of my friends have heard of him. But he is a giant in European jazz circles. On Soul of Things, the massively blessed trumpeter is 60, playing a wonderful suite, sounding as youthful as when Miles Davis recorded Kind Of Blue
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Speaking of which, if you enjoy the mellower side of Miles without the irritation of smooth jazz gimmicks, then this is the disc for you. Each section is a gorgeous accompaniment to whatever you are doing, yet is also worthy of closer listening (something I don't have the vocabulary for). This comes under Stanko's name, but it is also a real quartet recording, each musician getting room to make the whole more beautiful. But it is probably Stanko's understanding of space, where notes go and where they don't, that makes this a gem. 

I think this is the rare album that can be enjoyed by serious jazz fans and non-fans alike. I know I have come back to it often since I first heard it.

Music Notes -- Changes

The three songs on this disc can be found on a really fine boxed set called Setting Standards: New York Sessions. The other two discs contain Jarrett's trio in their first forays interpreting standards from the Great American Songbook. This part, however, is all improvisation. Jarrett had already made quite a name for himself doing this as a solo act, and a couple listens through this disc will show why these three almost seemed destined to play together for going on 30 years.

In fact, the music is so good, and the playing so accomplished, one might get the impression that these tracks were composed and arranged ahead of time and that the musicians had been working together a long time before recording.

Starting slow, and building to a gorgeous crescendo, “Flying, Part 1” sails through the speakers.  Each section of the tune glides easily from one moment to the next. Jarrett’s piano, of course, is the highlight, but his band mates (Gary Peacock on bass and Jack DeJohnette on drums) aren’t just following him around on the tune. They are easily part of the making of the music.

“Flying, Part 2” sounds like a cross between an old fashioned jam session and a rousing medley of well worn classics. I keep thinking that Jarrett, with his humming and stomping, is having a church service in his head. Because there seem to be more solos, this song doesn’t cohere as smoothly as the first part, but the result is pretty satisfying nonetheless.

The disc closes with the meditative “Prism.” Even when the tempo picks up and DeJohnette and Peacock’s presence in the tune becomes more pronounced, both musicians and listeners seem transfixed. I didn’t want it to end.

Like a good book, Changes is a disc that is likely to seem too short and almost demand repeated hearings. It seems new and more beautiful with each play.

Bookmarks – Stranger in Paradise

I had read a couple other books in the late Robert B. Parker’s Jesse Stone series, but I clearly have missed a few things, such as Stone’s little affair with Sunny Randall (a character from another series). Some other events mentioned in Stranger in Paradise were news to me. In his Spenser stories, Parker does a pretty good job of giving the reader just enough information so one can keep up, but not so much as to drag down the narrative. I didn’t feel lost here, but since the character is what I am interested in, these little jolts did make me feel as if I’d been out of town too long. Perhaps I have.

Stranger in Paradise includes a character from one of the books I had read before, a killer named Crow. He has returned to Paradise to retrieve the teenage daughter of a Florida gangster. But when Crow refuses to kill the mother (he has a particular fondness for women that is never explained), a series of events unfolds that includes a gang of thugs the teen girl has taken up with, and a self-righteous woman bent on keeping a group of underprivileged children from coming into Paradise for an education.

There is Parker’s trademark dialogue, right out of the Raymond Chandler handbook, and Stone’s goofy and complicated relationship with Jenn (which is much like the relationship between Spenser and Susan). The story is what Parker fans have come to expect. Nothing seems new here, but it nevertheless enjoyable. Stranger in Paradise is a well-paced escape.

We do have an unbelievable climax that involves a shootout with two groups of bad guys providing Stone and Crow what they want (mostly). This and the rather neatly tied ending may seem far-fetched, but if you get that far in the story, you probably won’t mind.

NOTE: Much to my shame for not knowing earlier, I found out as I was finishing this review that Mr. Parker died of a heart attack in January. A nice obituary which also discusses similarities between Parker and his best known creation can be found here.

Reading Response – Of Bullies and School Administrators

Have been following the story of several teenagers who have been charged in connection with the suicide of Phoebe Prince since running across this New York Times article. I find it troubling that any children in a country that presumes to value tolerance would be able to destroy their consciences enough to allow themselves to do the sort of things that were clearly done to this young girl. I am almost as appalled that there are parents who justify the cruelty of their children and school teachers and administrators who pick and choose who they are going to protect.
Laws and programs about bullying can give schools the opportunity to be democratic when they have never really been. In the past, teachers and principals turned a blind eye when a kid was being picked on if that young person was not popular, seemed “weird,” or didn’t fit in. They didn’t do much about verbal harassment, unless the one talking used profanity. With an emphasis now on paying attention to different forms of harassment and better training of teachers, the opportunity is there to stop abuse and give just punishments to offenders.
But what really happens is often the same old thing, only now it is clothed with programs and posters and sweet sounding reassurances that every child is safe, and any perpetrator will be severely dealt with, no matter how well connected. What really happens is that if your child is the sort of person that seems an easy target  for bullies, “no tolerance” means the bullied kid will get punished if they do anything wrong, even if defending him or herself.
I have seen it with my own kids. One of my children spent much of a year being tortured with pushing, hitting, name calling and threats by a little boy while their teacher only seemed to notice my daughter complaining. I had to threaten the school with the unwanted publicity of a lawsuit and the child’s family with an assault charge to get the teacher and principal to even separate the two. They continued to maintain the boy was an innocent victim. Strange that a couple years later, at her middle school, the same boy tried to bully my daughter  one time and the teacher then was able to take action right away that has thus far halted the problem.
My son was once picked on every single day by several people, and yet when I went to pick him up from school, I had to go through a gauntlet of teachers who had to tell me about how he wouldn’t do any work and how he wouldn’t try to get along with his classmates. HELLO? Did you get the idea that a kid who withdraws like that and blows up at people calling him names isn’t just “sensitive”? It got so bad, we had to remove him from school. He’s back now, but was sent home from a class trip when he was picked on by one of his former tormentors (oddly, no chaperones were available) and lashed out with “bad language.” No punishment for the kid who used foul language to hurt my kid. No reprimand for the chaperones who couldn’t be bothered to stay in the cabin with the boys. No investigation into the incident. Just me having to listen to a teacher tell me that my son was ruining the trip for everyone else.
Now I look at the case of Phoebe Prince and I am again flabbergasted that school administrators claim they knew nothing about what was happening to her. I just don’t buy it. I know that it is difficult for teachers to see everything. But how can dozens of students witness incidents in a hallway or assembly and not one teacher or one administrator see it? This is part of what they are supposed to be looking for. I have a hard time believing that one student couldn’t say something in confidence to an adult. Doing so might well have saved this girl’s life. Someone knew something and could have done something. Most of the members of this community should be hanging their heads in shame.
A parent of another girl who had been a target by at least one of those charged stated that his daughter endured bullying for THREE YEARS and could get nothing done. Eventually an apology came after the fact. What kind of school are they running here? It seems to be one like so many in America, one that sends the message “Our job is not to protect your child. Our job is to make sure they come often enough to be drilled through standardized testing so we can get our funding. Those who are mean and cruel are rewarded. The unique and the different deserve the pain they get.”
I fear that after all the media frenzy about this case dies down, many will forget that there are still bullies and abusers in every school and that they come in many different packages with many different weapons. I am afraid schools will start new “anti-bullying” programs that will do no more to educate and empower students, teachers, and administrators than before, but only dress the same ignored messages in nice, comfortable language. I worry that we will continue to take the playground bully and the classroom abuser and raise him or her up to be the next Bernie Madoff or Ted Bundy.
But, you bullies out there, I am not afraid of you. I have some hope. My kids have some good people in their lives: family, friends, teachers, principals, coaches, scout leaders, ministers and others whose love can help to overcome the evil of willful ignorance.

Reading Response – Of Parents in Books

This evening read an interesting article from the New York Times by Julie Just called, “The Parent Problem in Young Adult Lit.” Reminded me of something I wrote years ago about the dearth of positive parent figures, particularly fathers, in television and movies. Just’s article seems to focus mostly on mothers, and I found her look interesting. She doesn’t appear to have as big a problem as I do with so many books having parents who are crazy, absent, abusive, or self-absorbed. But she doesn’t applaud this either. I do wish she’d mentioned the excellent novels by Madeleine L’Engle, where the parents are flawed but still in authority (without having to be overbearing or dictatorial) and still worthy of respect.
There are a great many aspects of life that we, as a society, seem impelled to take an either/or approach to, and how to draw parental figures is one of them. Why we cannot, in all forms of art, have more mothers and fathers who are real, and who do the best they can despite the whining and selfishness of so many television fed teens, is beyond the scope of my understanding.
Don’t tell me it isn’t possible, that it won’t sell if the parents are too real and if they are right most of the time. I’ve seen it work over and over.

Reading Response – Of Team Building

I honestly could not, at first, believe what I was reading. I’d been following a story about football players at Texas A&M Commerce getting busted for possession of marijuana (and other things), when the story took an odd twist. Many of the members of the football team were implicated in stealing copies of school paper, The East Texan, in which the arrest was reported. Then head football coach Guy Morriss (thank Jesus, no relation!) called the thefts “The best team building exercise we have ever done.”
I shook my head. I read again. It was still there. I should have known. This mindset has always been there. I guess I just didn’t expect anyone to openly defend it.
College sports, and football in particular, is filled with people who have decided they live by a different set of rules, rules that make them lords of the universe and anyone who gets in their way or questions them be damned.
Team building? I know that Coach Morriss has since apologized for his statement. But I cannot help be think that he still thinks he and his players are above the law. Essentially a bunch of spoiled athletes did not like that teammates were not only caught in the act of a couple of felonies, but that a newspaper had the audacity to report it. So to “build” the team, they commit another crime (one for which the university has yet to take appropriate action). Sounds like the reasoning of a Mafioso.
Coach Morriss, if that is what you think is good for your team and the school you represent, then you can fucking have it!
I love sports, absolutely love it. But crap like this has all but ruined the joy once took I take in watching and reading about my favorite teams. This once included A&M Commerce.
This is one more example that in our culture athletes are a privileged class of people. We barely speak about the supposed “student athlete” who has no interest in education and who openly flaunts his disrespect of anyone in authority (except their coaches, of course), particularly their instructors. Most in our culture, in fact, regard teachers more often as obstacles to success, and many college athletes ramp up that attitude as if the idea itself is on steroids.
A member of the school’s Student Government Association even called the matter “over” after Morriss apologized in a statement. (For those of you not familiar with some of these fancy terms, “statement” refers to a weak-assed apology, probably not written by the coach himself, that is supposed to be a public witness of the contrite feelings he doesn’t really have about the actions that have embarrassed his employer, who has no intention of taking the kind of action against his employee that would be taken against the rest of us if we found ourselves in the same position.) So now even elected voices of the student body have helped us rest easy by sweeping more bullshit under the rug.
The president of the university has called the Morriss’ statement about “team building” “a misguided attempt at humor.” Really? That’s what you call it? The president seems to have forgotten that the coach told police he knew nothing about the thefts, and said about The East Texan “I don’t read that crap.”
I just want to get a few things straight: Lying to the police is okay. Theft is “team building.” People who write things you don’t like to hear are publishers of “crap.”  And President Dan Jones is okay with this. Morriss’ has pretended to be sorry, and he and his players have been “disciplined.” I’ll believe that when I see it.
In the meantime, I am not going to be surprised when another spoiled prince of an athlete has his way with us, or when some jerk of a coach or athletic director defends his actions.

Grow up, Huntington

Watched the first two installments of Jaime Oliver’s Food Revolution tonight and I was struck by one serious problem. The adults here, most of them anyway, were not willing to even try. The bitchy little frown factory in the kitchen made me want to scream. She actually enjoyed when things went wrong, and actually believed that everything is just fine. That arse on the radio needs an attitude adjustment.  Hope his bravado and fake John Wayne will be strong enough to carry his stupid ass to the cemetery when it is time for him or someone he loves to die.
I am living proof of what diabetes can do, and that is just one of the problems Oliver tries to warn this town about. I am sore all the time. I do not have the energy I need, and I get sick much easier. I cannot enjoy some of the simple physical tasks, like sitting on the couch, an arm around one of my kids, and often doing my job, something I love,  is very difficult because of the pain. But while genetics plays a small part of my troubles, I did most of this to myself. Though I’m trying to eat better and do the things I need to do to get rid of the weight, I still live with the fear that I might still have a stroke or a heart attack.
This is a reality show, and I generally don’t like reality shows. I won’t get into why here. But I will be watching this a least a little longer, hoping that something changes. Right now, I see a lot of adults who act more childish than their kids.
Huntington, if you really think everything is okay, then be brave enough to look your kids in the eyes and tell them they don’t deserve to grow up with parents, because Mom and Dad thought everything was just fine. Sit them down and explain, thoroughly, why the habits you are teaching them about eating, though they may shave decades from their lives, are really you just being a “good parent.” While you are at it,  write a letter to the fast food companies and their marketing and advertising geniuses. Thank them for being so good at their jobs, for making money so much more important than the health of their consumers, that even after a demonstration on how chicken nuggets are made, children still want them more than chicken prepared with health (AND TASTE) in mind.
This isn’t about snooty restaurants or eating “nuthin’ but lettuce all the time.” This is about fixing what so many of you think isn’t wrong. Often we parents have a child who isn’t willing to try something new, complaining that they don’t like it. And we say, “How do you know you don’t like it if you haven’t tried it?” Well the reactions of many of those children and adults tell us that they are ingrained with the idea that processed food is the only food and that mix with water and microwaving is the only way to prepare food. Well try something new for a change.
You know, one way we know children are growing up is that they don’t use such goofy logic as saying they hate what they haven’t given a fair chance to. So grow up, Huntington.

Tulips

I took these pictures because my wife likes tulips, and these looked particularly bright today. Flowers, for me, are nice, but just decoration. Usually. Maybe the nice weather made me unusually romantic.

This first photo was taken in the morning on my way to the division office. I walk by here often, but was suddenly struck by the vibrancy of the colors. I don’t know why I never paid attention before.

The second picture was taken later in the day, early afternoon. Sorry about the finger. I don’t know if it shows, but the flowers seemed open and leaning to the sun which was at my back. It was like children smiling toward a priest offering communion.

I wish I could write a poem about the two pictures, but it would just come out cliché and silly. I also wish I could have sat down at the table a few feet away and just enjoyed the sun as I imagined these did or as the students who were already there chatting affably probably were. But I won’t lament the call to work. I saw something beautiful and new today. That’s plenty of joy.

Music Notes -- Orchestrion

It doesn’t matter that Pat Metheny, on his new solo project, has redefined “solo,” or that he has created (with the help of some very talent craftsmen and inventors) something unique in the way of creating music, or if he is making yet another protest against established methods of recording and performing. None of that matters if the music itself isn’t good. Thankfully, it is very good.

Orchestrion contains five terrific songs. In fact, my main beef with this project is that it is too short at 51 or so minutes. I wanted more. Much more.

The title track opens the set with Metheny’s trademark runs and textures like some kind of furious painter, here accompanied by one of the percussion instruments, there by a piano, all controlled at the guitar. It reminded me in some places of the most moving sections of The Way Up. But this is one guy, not a whole band. And this song stands well on its own.

“Entry Point” is the second tune, one reminiscent of Metheny’s softer, more introspective pieces like “The Bat.” With the exception of some piano tinkling here and there, it is very much a trio piece, with the bass guitar and percussion doing more than filling in the space around the melody and solos.

The middle song on Orchestrion is “Expansion.” Here I am reminded of some of the group projects recorded during the 90s. Again the texture built with the other instruments makes Metheny’s lightening solos shine even brighter. Like the other songs on this album, I was amazed by the composition around which the improvisations fly. The song ran to a fantastic climax as well as my favorite songs from Speaking Of Now, “Proof” and “The Gathering Sky.”

“Soul Search” is an interesting suite of a tune. The first four minutes are a gorgeous ballad, but then we are treated some bluesy chords and runs that are likely to have feet tapping. At the six and a half minute mark, the song returns to its theme, resolving nicely like the last sip of your favorite drink.

The project closes with the beautiful and stirring “Spirit of the Air.” This song is my favorite. (That is, until I start the disc over and hear the other four). I’m not a fan of the cymbal play about four minutes in, but the solo there is sweet and lively, and when Metheny returns to the head of the song I find myself grinning so wide each time I hear it, my face hurts. But that’s mighty fine pain!

At first, I was a little put off that each song on Orchestrion reminded me of other tunes in Metheny’s extensive canon. But these are not knock off pieces now getting space. Metheny is a consummate bandleader, and though this is a solo album, he is still leading a real band, not just playing an interesting array of instruments. One might even argue that for his first foray into this territory, he is wise to avoid too much experimentation in sound. One might also argue that the new instruments are enough experimentation to satisfy most adventurous listeners. And as a composer, Pat Metheny ranks among the best of our time. I can easily see (or hear) these tracks being covered by any number of artists, in small groups, solo, or big bands. The more I listen to Orchestrion, the more I remember that the music is the thing. Here, it is a rather wondrous thing.

Bookmarks -- Learning to Kill

I found this book in a sale at a library and what a bargain I got! Learning to Kill is a collection of short stories by Ed McBain written during a kind of apprenticeship he had as he worked for the Scott Meredith Literary Agency in the 1950s. The stories are not arranged in chronological order, but grouped into categories, like "Private Eyes," "Cops and Robbers," and "Innocent Bystanders" so as to show the different kinds of crime tales he wrote during this pivotal time in his career.

For a crime buff like me, these stories are very enjoyable. I have come to enjoy the story that does not rely on technology to pull together the plot,and as these were composed during the time McBain was literarlly learning how to piece together and shape good, sellable fiction, these tales are gold. At first, I was put off that they did were not arranged chronologically, but now I think this strategy works, since each group represents a different kind of crime sub-genre. There is even a group called "Gangs," which seems appropriate considering this is also the man who wrote The Blackboard Jungle (published under the name Evan Hunter).

Learning to Kill is certainly going to appeal to those who prefer McBain's 87th Precinct novels. But on their own, the stories here are well worth reading and I suspect many will stand up over time. What I found most valuable besides the stories are the insights the writer provides into the their composition and into the publishing world at that time. Most of the stories in the collection were originally published in Manhunt, and they provide a nice idea of what was read in one of best markets for crime fiction at the time. They also provide good clues as to why McBain's work would continue to sell.