The Jazzonian
February 2019
Jazz is Diversity. Jazz is Democracy.
#Wheelchairistocracy
#GroovicusMaximus
From the demented mind of Rusty Taylor
Jester and Vocalist for jazz band
Southern Standard Time
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If, perchance, you, dear reader, are interested in following my musings, my singing, my puns, my dancing, or simply wish to receive an occasional jolt of cognitive stimulation followed by restorative positive energy, I encourage you to join my facebook group:
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The Jazzonian
February 2019
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Welcome to my world of dreams, a world of imaginative musings catalyzed by botanical influence that importunately encourages the ornate rhetorical delivery of this public electronic epistle. I have, of late, been addressing a more political theme when writing for
The Jazzonian
, which is cool; I guess. It is fun and challenging to think of humorous ways to pen the current governmental malaise, but I started writing this newsletter to encourage you readers—out there in virtual reality—to support live music, especially jazz. Although I don't speak the language (I speak of music in metaphors), I am so moved by its power that I want to spread the news of its salubrious qualities. I simply love jazz, but...
Dad-burn it! Our nation elected an idiot as president. We, somehow, let it happen, and everybody is now trying to figure out what is going to happen next... I just gotta write about that, so here’s what I’m going to do:
The Jazzonian
will return to posting essays mostly about jazz but from the point of view of a hemp-inspired jester who is an aspiring jazz singer. I will also write essays that highlight the lighter side of paralysis. You are currently reading it. (
Yes, I can read your mind
... remember ‘‘Eye in the Sky’’ by Alan Parsons Project? 1982… the year after I graduated, but I digress...)
I now write another more capricious
[1]
newsletter called
QuadTalk.
The main mission of this particular newsletter (or call it what you will) is to chronicle the last few years of my life as a citizen of one of the most wealthy nations in the humbling history of our planet but as a representative of an under-served, nearly insignificant faction of human society who is unable to contribute anything secular to the common good, a series of essays electronically penned by a hapless jester whose terrene contributions are musically and rhetorically arcane and, as such, nonessential to the general populace that contributes to maintain my terrestrial opportunities.
For
QuadTalk
I will also try to write at least one essay that highlights the lighter side of paralysis. Believe it… I have had a really groovy life, and I am very optimistic about the future... even now… when our nation is being violently raped [2] by a domineering psychopath with no empathy and a negligible mental acuity but, through an unmotivated (i.e. non-rushing) nesting doll of surreptitious confederate assistance, DJ ‘Tiny Fingers’ Trump, with affectatious support from his inept administration of ineffective henchmen, also has his brachydactylic ‘tiny,’ gnarled finger on the Nuclear Button taunting him to make a big explosion because that will increase ratings, which is all powered by his childish fascination for despotic dominance detrimental to a nationally demographic declining dearth in decency.
OK. That last sentence is, admittedly, worded very awkwardly, but I kind o’ dig it, so...
QuadTalk
contains my more vitriolic censure of the government from the point of view of a quadriplegic who is exploited by the unconscionable for-profit healthcare system from which an insignificant percentage of the population accrues egregious amounts of speciosity that they covet and hoard.
I now write two completely different newsletters but both in my bombastic style slightly reminiscent of eighteenth century foppishness. Read one or the other... or both... or you can elect to cease the electronic delivery of this newsletter to your email address. I will write regardless, so...
Let's continue with
The Jazzonian
…
I am all too cognizant to the fact that I shamelessly dote on the weekly jazz jam at Eighth and Rail in Opelika as hosted by the Jane Drake Band every Tuesday (sans holidays), and my fawning encomium wreaks with maudlin hyperbole—with the incessant heart-palpitating frenzy of overwhelmingly sugary electricity that buzzes my visceral periphery; however, I am sincerely moved... emotionally... and positively... by the communal unity that I share with my Eighth and Rail jazzonian family: a synergetic symbiosis with positive energy that encourages a nearly cultic allegiance between jazz enthusiasts who are bound by no other restrictions than a love for Jazz and all of its virtual and tangible connotations, a community that allows everyone into its fold regardless of anything else sans a respect for the jazz music, its musicians, and its listeners; although...
I have never been to an international jazz jam or one in Kansas City or New York; I’ve only participated in jazz jams in the deep South in about a hundred mile radius of Columbus, Georgia, The Fountain City, my hometown. Maybe one day I’ll get to Savannah or New Orleans, but the point is, or it should be, that my experience in jazz jams is strictly provencial; besides, the weekly jazz jam at Eighth and Rail is the area jam that is emotionally salubrious for me personally; although, I’ve been to a few area jams, and they are all fun, each possessing different flavors that make them unique within the foundation of jazzonian structure.
The jazz jam.
Sounds terrifying; doesn’t it? And with reason... I guess.
I imagine that many of you fine readers of this jazzonianly inspired newsletter have seen the ‘88 movie ‘‘Bird’’ directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Forest Whitaker. In an early scene, a young Charlie Parker participates in a New York City jazz jam... in Harlem... with some serious musicians... and the results are embarrassing for the young saxophonist... He didn’t respect the music or the other musicians. Tell you the truth, I was similarly as ignorant in my youth. Jazz has a way of humbling most musicians.
Those of us mortals who have participated in jazz jams during the incipience of our respective jazzonian journeys know what it’s like to suddenly realize how unprepared we are to have fun playing with really accomplished musicians. I am so embarrassed to think about the arrogance of my youth... to even declare my intentions to request inclusion into the jazzonian community; we have all embarrassed ourselves just by ever proclaiming aloud the desire to pursue playing jazz simply because it ain’t easy.
The masters of jazz (and we’ve got many in the hundred-mile radius around my hometown of Columbus, Georgia, which includes Atlanta, Montgomery, Macon, Opelika, Tuskegee, and Auburn) know that, deep down, simply pursuing jazz is a reward onto itself. Once one realizes that Jazz is more important than any single individual musician, one better understands humility, and this realization ameliorates the anxiety of possible harmonic failure; pursing jazz then becomes a way of life. Participating in jazz jams is fun whether you’re a musician or an avid listener, and it doesn’t take a lot of dough to experience the joys of jazzonian intrigue. Besides, the jazz musicians I’ve met are very nurturing... provided the aspiring neophyte musician respects the music.
The Columbus Jazz Society is re-erecting its jazz jam, but it’s going through some growing pains.
Venkman’s is a restaurant in Atlanta, and, yes, it is named for Bill Murray’s character in the Ghostbuster’s franchise. As a restaurant, for me, personally, it is speciously branded, which means that, in my opinion, the food is meant to be enjoyed visually more than to stick to your ribs. Admittedly, that is a personal opinion, and, as such, is superfluous. I simply don't go to Venkman’s to eat; I go for the jazz jam that is hosted by Joe Gransden and the house band. And the musicians that this jam draws into its fold are incredibly gifted.
Joe is generally generous and allows me to sing a couple of songs if time permits, but I come to Atlanta from Columbus, and I participated in Joe’s jams in the past when the venue was Twain’s in Decatur... we have a little history. Point is that even though Atlanta has a bunch of incredible musicians, they have been nurturing acolyte musicians for as long as I can remember. They simply are not mean-hearted... provided the musician respects the music.
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Brin’s Wings is a restaurant in Montgomery that hosts a jazz jam every Wednesday with Coleman Wilson II and his house band. I’ve only been to this jam once, so far, but I really want to get back there. They encourage, in my eyes, the grits and collards jazz vibe. Their music comes from the soul of Alabama, a southern-ly welcoming ‘‘y’all come back, you hear?’’ kind of energy that appeals to me. The musicians are simply awesome as well, which makes me as giddy as a child’s first experiencing cotton candy. Pink and flocculent.
Red Light Cafe us a small bar in Atlanta that has a jazz jam every Wednesday. Unfortunately, I have not been to this jam but only because I don’t have transportation, although... it is hosted by Gordon Vernick, and I have heard him play before... he’s a great musician. I can’t help but believe that the jazz jam at the Red Light Cafe is as special as the others with its own idiosyncrasies that make it an enchanting auricular experience.
And, of course, there’s Eighth and Rail.
The Eighth and Rail jams are special; we’re attracting really talented musicians from all over. Recently, we’ve enticed Paulo Sequeira, a jazz saxophonist originally from Brazil but now finds himself at Columbus State University’s jazz studies program, which is under the direction of Dr. Kevin Whalen.
Sam Williams, the legendary saxophonist from Montgomery has also been seen at recent jams in Opelika, along with guitarist Robert Morgan. Also from Montgomery, Raymond Jones has visited us; he’s the Brin’s Wing chronicler, and the Jane Drake Band simply floors me; although, memories of jazz guitarist Taylor Pierce still haunt my tranquility, but the music keeps his spirit alive throughout the venue. Coleman Woodson III, Eric Buchanan, and, of course, Jane Drake are all wonderfully expressive musicians who know 13 million songs in every key, and the musicians who come to jam are diverse and interesting. It really is a family atmosphere that encourages all ages to share its warmth.
The point is, if you haven’t already guessed, that jazz jams are a ton of fun for which you don’t have to shell out a bunch of dough. Of course, listeners are encouraged to drop a few bucks in the hat that may be passed around, but only if they can afford it. The house band doesn’t get paid a lot for playing; they play mostly because they really dig the music... and the other musicians who jam do not get paid at all. Still, jazz jams are a lot of fun... and filled with love. Plus, the musicians do not intimidate other musicians who are just starting out. It is so unlike the film about the innovator of bebop.
Jazz jams are fun.
Peace Through Music
______________________
[1] I describe Quadtalk as capricious because it will only contain one or two essays to be posted whenever my Muse importunes me.
[2] As opposed to the casual rape of Brett Kavanaugh or the suggested non-physical rape of Clarence Thomas. Seems that some of us are allowed to separate rape into categories… some rapes are even venial.
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Eye in the Sky (1982)
Don’t think sorry’s easily said.
Don’t try turning tables instead.
You’ve taken lots of chances before,
But I’m not gonna give anymore.
Don’t ask me. That’s how it goes,
‘Cause part of me knows what you’re thinking.
Don't say words you’re gonna regret.
Don’t let the fire rush to your head.
I’ve heard the accusation before,
And I ain’t gonna take any more,
Believe me.
The sun in your eyes
Made some of the lies worth believing.
Chorus:
I am the eye in the sky
Looking at you;
I can read your mind.
I am the maker of rules,
Dealing with fools;
I can cheat you blind,
And I don’t need to see any more
To know that I can read your mind.
Don’t leave false illusions behind.
Don’t cry cause I ain’t changing my mind,
So find another fool like before
‘Cause I ain’t gonna live anymore believing
Some of the lies while all of the signs are deceiving.
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Jazz Grammy Award Nominees
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The 61st Grammy Awards ceremony will be announced on February 10, and everyone on the planet is wondering who will win the Grammy awards for jazz. Well, at the time of my writing this essay, only God knows, and she ain't talking... yet. Still and all, here are the nominees.
- Best Improvised Jazz Solo
For an instrumental jazz solo performance. Two equal performers on one recording may be eligible as one entry. If the soloist listed appears on a recording billed to another artist, the latter's name is in parenthesis for identification. Singles or Tracks only.
- Regina Carter - on Karrin Allyson's album
- John Daversa - on his big band album
- Fred Hersch - check out his video
- Brad Mehldau - check out his website
- Miguel Zenon - check out his video
For albums containing at least 51% playing time of new vocal jazz recordings.
- Freddy Cole - My Mood is You
- Kurt Elling - The Questions
- Kate McGarry, Keith Ganz, Gary Versace - The Subject Tonight...
- Raul Midon - If You Really Want
- Cecile McLorin Salvant - The Window
- Best Jazz Instrumental Album
For albums containing at least 51% playing time of new instrumental jazz recordings.
- Tia Fuller - Diamond Cut
- Fred Hersch Trio - Live In Europe
- Joshue Redman, Ron Miles, Scott, Brian Blade - Still Dream
- The Wayne Shorter Quartet - Emanon
- Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album
For albums containing at least 51% playing time of new ensemble jazz recordings.
- Count Basie Orchestra - All About That Basie
- John Daversa Big Band - AmericaDreamers...
- Orrin Evans and the Captain Black Big Band - Presence
- John Hollerbeck Large Ensemble - All Can Work
- Jim McNeely/Frankfurt Radio Big Band - Barefoot Dancers
For vocal or instrumental albums containing at least 51% playing time of newly recorded material. The intent of this category is to recognize recordings that represent the blending of jazz with Latin, Iberian-American, Brazilian, and Argentinian tango music.
- Eddie Daniels - Heart of Brazil
- Dafnis Prieto Big Band - Back to the Sunset
- Bobby Sanabria Multiverse Band - West Side Story Reimagined
- Elio Villafranca - Yo Soy La Tradicion
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Superfluous Conservative Rhetoric
An archived essay witten July 5, 2015
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There is an economic divide between the extremely wealthy and the poorest citizens of the disconnected United States of America that has been stimulating thoughts of rebellion that will make the decollated violence of Bastille Day seem like the celebration of a minor Christian feast by octogenarian nuns in a third-world country. Our political manifestation is experiencing the late beginnings of a cultural revolution, the low rumblings of sizable seismic energy ready to extravasate its molten pyroclastic contents onto our nation’s heartland with Vesuvian fury, and this droning defiance against austerity is the focal point of current conservative rhetoric that calls for the destruction or weakening of any governmental agency that might hinder corporate profits while insidiously murdering the middle class and our planet.
Our nation’s exclusive two-party political system is a skein of emotional twine that is as convoluted as advanced Calculus is to me! Some blame Republicans, some Democrats, some the business sector, and some the judicial branch of the government. I think that it’s mainly a conflict between conservatism and progressivism. Let’s face it, the two major political parties have blurred boundaries over which any member from either party can cross with impunity; although, the ubiquitous 24-hour news media has helped stir me to believe that the majority of the GOP is struggling for its very survival now that the subtle racism of the past thirty years has become so overt; the inappropriately misnamed “Tea Party” is ultra-conservative to the point of racial intolerance. With that acknowledged, it is very interesting, to me as a progressive, to watch the GOP as it helplessly recoils into a vortex of self-destruction.
What does one expect from a party that claims that government is the evil of our society then does everything in its power to undermine it by rejecting any legislation, especially legislation for which President Obama may receive positive response? Yet, they run for governmental positions that they vocally oppose. What? To think that any member of the GOP wants to eliminate abortion, Obamacare, Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, et al. is irresponsible. Conservative politicians don’t care about morality. They merely use these themes as diversions to direct public attention away from their true agenda: tax cuts for the very wealthy; elimination of the EPA so that big businesses can pollute the environment with impunity; privatization of Healthcare; the availability of weapons for anyone regardless of mental acuity; and any other potential legislation that will enable them to increase their wealth at the cost of practically everything. This has been the GOP’s rhetoric for the past thirty years, yet Donald Trump and Mike Huckabee have currently put this ilk of rhetoric on steroids, using brash racism instead of subtlety in order to procure votes from their egocentric constituency.
In 2008 after President Obama won his first election, the GOP held a meeting wherein they vowed to do whatever they could to make sure that his presidency was for just a single term, and the racial baiting of our society took on a more collective urgency. This is why Donald Trump, the racist bully with a prepubescent proclivity to revert to puerile diatribe when he feels threatened, is currently the leading GOP candidate for the presidency, and to convince one’s self that the blatant racial undertones of his entire campaigning has no relevance to the more conservative political party is either ignorance or an unrecognized hate and fear within the deepest recesses of one’s hidden, and thereby unrecognized, racist psyche. If you think that Donald Trump isn’t speaking for the GOP, you’ve not been paying attention or you get your news exclusively from Fox News, the preferred news media for the new Confederacy.
Our nation’s corrupt political system is entirely too influenced by sound bites and a montage of incoherent images, which ambiguously hint at superficial conservative values disguised as falsely but morally sanctioned rhetoric that has become a discursive, histrionic skein of hate- and fear-mongering fueled by overt racism. In reality, these mirages of superficial morality, among other effects, exploit war as a ludicrously profitable business venture at the cost of beneficent social programs as well as the deaths of too many troops composed of warriors who do not constitute the daughters and sons of wealth-hording families; images that deny or obfuscate climate-change against overwhelming scientific verification; anti-gun control even for people who are mentally challenged and when 90% of all U.S. citizens approve of regulation for the distribution of weapons forged exclusively for mass bloody human sacrifice (…for what other reason does one need a weapon that shoots hundreds of rounds of bullets per second?); rhetoric that negates the positive attributes of planned parenthood by focusing almost exclusively on abortion, which is less than 10% of its modus operandi; religious freedom advocates claiming sacrosanct motives to justify social discrimination; misconstrued conservative values that laud subjugation of women; caricaturing the poor as a way to facilitate making them the enemy of the state; egregious tax exemptions for the very wealthy; ambiguous values that support war by granting nearly exclusive media airtime to minor retired generals who support military aggression while simultaneously working for manufacturers of weapons of mass destruction; and undeserved freedom from litigation for major industries that destroy planetary resources.
The climax of the simmering, organized resistance of our nation’s current constituted government will be the draconian result of failed Reaganomics, more specifically, the ancient actor-president’s “trickle-down” economic fiasco that has given ridiculous tax breaks to the very wealthy while strongly encouraging the divestment of poverty, making the poor a much larger target for vitriol and facilitating the ever-widening chasm that has separated sybaritism from the most penurious at the destructive cost of the Bourgeois.
Reaganomics has weakened governmental agencies by defunding them to the point of impotence, eliminating the powers of the CDC, FDA, USDA, the U.S. Postal Service, etc., by overseeing the destruction of ecologic regulation as well as the deregulation of banking, housing industries, and big businesses (including privatization of education, health facilities, prisons, Medicare, pharmaceutical companies, and the incessant attempt to privatize social security), which resulted in the major economic crisis of 2008 and is the continued unguent that lubricates any friction circumventing access to profitability by the richest of the rich.
Unions are also vulnerable to the conservative agenda. Unions have been the equalizer between major corporations and the blue-collar worker for more than a century, eliminating child labor and promoting a minimum wage, among other major societal beneficence. By eliminating the strength of our unions, the corporations, which are by definition a group of people combined into or acting as one, have much more political influence than a single voice, especially if that voice comes from a minority: she who selects “other” as her race, the sexually ostracized, women in general, the handicapped, the mentally impaired, people who have been unjustly incarcerated—no wonder conservatives embrace voter suppression and “religious freedom” hypocrisies without which the conservatives would possess an insignificant amount of political power.
Conservatives, by definition, are people who favor traditional views and values, tending to oppose change regardless of the bleakness of the status quo. This is why no progressive act has been initiated by a conservative majority. Keep in mind that I’m not calling out any specific party. The Republican Party during Eisenhower’s administration was much different than the current GOP. The same for the Democratic Party. Both parties have conservative constituents, but all conservatives are stubbornly loyal to the status quo regardless of time or party affiliation. During the American Revolution, conservatives were called Tories… they were totally against signing the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution.
I’m not sure if it’s always been, but current conservatives on both sides have come to embrace war. For the past year-and-a-half to two years, Secretary of State John Kerry has worked with nuclear experts and leaders of six other nations to agree on policies that will stop Iran’s abilities to build nuclear weapons in exchange for revoking economic sanctions. The U.S., Iran, China, Russia, France, Germany, and England are involved with the negotiations and agree that it is an effective plan to not only stop Iran’s nuclear proliferation but to slowly reintroduce Iran back into the world’s economy. Members of the UN will have 24/7 access to Iran’s nuclear facilities and if any transgression is uncovered, the sanctions will be swiftly replaced, yet conservatives in Washington are spewing negative rhetoric against the treaty. I can think of two reasons: 1) to scuttlebutt anything positive for which President Obama may receive credit or 2) conservative politicians want war so the CEOs of the war industry can make millions or billions of dollars in which the obliging politician can share.
Clinging stubbornly to the status quo is disconcerting to folks like me who want to see a political ideology that embraces a more progressive focus: the continued separation of church and state, ecological planetary stewardship, terrestrial peace, universal health care, the pursuit of happiness for everyone even when one’s happiness doesn’t align with that of the majority’s, and equality for all in the eyes of the law.
Current conservative rhetoric is bullying, hate- and fear-mongering vitriol that seems to embrace egoistic superiority, which has recently been overtly manifested by the Confederate flag and its defense as a “traditional” symbol of heritage instead of the racially pejorative epithet it has become after Dixiecrats and the Ku Klux Klan adopted it as its standard for racial supremacy during the social volatility of the 1950s. The southern and mid-western contingency of the conservative network has somehow convinced itself that the Confederate flag is exclusively a symbol for positive Southern heritage instead of the conscious metaphor for white supremacy.
Because of last month’s overtly racist and terroristic murder of nine black members of an AME congregation in South Carolina, one victim the pastor and a state representative, the Confederate flag has been taken down from in front of the capital’s Capitol. This has fanned the flame of ignorance by conservative people who avail the flag as a positive symbol of heritage. To me, the Confederate flag is a metaphor for the word “nigger”; it allows anyone to cowardly communicate the word without saying it aloud, yet there is no obfuscation in its intended malice. Why would anyone want to laud four years of Southern disgrace, such an insignificant amount of time concerning the vast history of the South? Even if one ignorantly claims a positive interpretation of the controversial symbol, it is just mean and bullying to continue its encomiastic exaltation when supernumerary people of melanotic physiology are so negatively affected by it. It’s just a meaningless piece of cloth… and it costs nothing to replace it with a much more positive, inclusive symbol of unifying peace. The South is, after all, a hodgepodge of harmonic social ingredients mixed together into a savory stew of culturally amalgamated nutrition with both physically and emotionally salubrious results.
There are so many other Southern traditions that could be embraced by every Southerner, not just plantation owners: Peach cobbler; sweet iced tea; magnolia blossoms; vividly colored azaleas; Southern belles with dulcet accents; the Southern gentleman; gazebos adorned with honeysuckle; mellifluent, drupaceous wisteria; swinging Dixieland music; bluegrass; jazz; square dancing; river rafting; cat fishing; hunting dogs; old pickup trucks; and moonlight through the pines. Of course, if a southerner wants an insensitive standard to represent a proud militant strength and defiance to a strong national government, may I suggest a confederate son’s mother at the nubile age of twenty-one dressed as a sensuously barefooted, mammary enhanced, Daisy Duke shorts and wet t-shirt wearing mud wrestler having sex with a black Pegasus. Not so “traditional” when your sensibilities are affected, eh? (A similar sentiment can be delineated about the pejorative appellation of the NFL mascot for the District of Columbia, the Redskins, but that’s fuel for another fireside chat.)
I suppose this is what happens when one’s pursuit of happiness involves fervently chasing shiny materialistic speciosity instead of pursuing unadorned enlightenment. Like the holocaust, the Confederate flag should be memorialized in museums where one can somberly reflect how somatically unlike any deity and atavistically violent we humans have been throughout our terrestrial existence… and still are.
Peace Through Music
July 15, 2015
Glossary
- Decollate – transitive verb 1. To behead. 2. To separate the copies of (a multiple-copy computer printout, for instance).
- Extravasate – transitive verb 1. Pathology. To force the flow of (blood or lymph) from a vessel out into surrounding tissue. 2. Geology. To cause (molten lava) to pour forth from a volcanic vent. 3. Pathology. To exude from a vessel into surrounding tissue.
- Sybarite – noun 1. Often sybarite. A person devoted to pleasure and luxury; a voluptuary. 2. A native or inhabitant of Sybaris.
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A Difference Between
Science and Faith
An archived essay written July 5, 2012
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Currently, I am allowed to watch hundreds of channels on my television at any given moment, everything from cartoons, to history, to science, to querulous commentary indifferently disguised as news. The options seem endless and, to a certain extent, endlessly aggravating. I was recently watching a program on television that explained how celestial stars create matter, and what struck me most about this particular episode, besides the youth of the brilliant professor who hosted the show, was his explanation that it takes a star much larger than the one about which our planet orbits, to manifest heavy metals like gold. That's why gold is so rare, even throughout the ever-expanding Universe about which the scientific community is currently aware.
The sun about which the planets of our solar system orbits is approximately 332,950 times the mass of the earth and is also approximately 1,048 times the mass of Jupiter, the largest planet within our solar system, a gas giant with at least 66 moons and a mass one-thousandth that of the Sun yet still two and a half times the combined mass of all the other planets within our solar system. (Jupiter is around 11 times the diameter of the rather insignificant planet that houses humanity, a planet some of my terrestrial citizens believe contains the only forms of sentient life in the Universe.)
The aforementioned facts are based directly on scientific methodology extant for millennia. Admittedly, that doesn't denote veracity. What is does denote is that ideas are initially beliefs that are tested through experimentation and after many different people verify the exact same results by following the same exact procedures, the idea, called hypothesis, becomes a fact. Still and all, this does not denote verity. If a different set of results are manifested after following the same exact procedures of an experiment, then the idea reverts back into a hypothesis until a flaw can be found in either the dissenter or the acknowledged hypothesis. The beauty of scientific methodology is the inherent understanding that strongly held beliefs might actually be wrong. This is dichotomously different than listening to anyone arguing for any belief based on faith alone.
Don't get me wrong, I don't think it should be illegal to quiet anyone who wants to verbally spew faith-based fantasy to anyone, but then I do think it a mean trick to break the imagination of a child who fervently believes with all her heart and soul that her faith alone can keep Santa Claus alive. Faith-based fantasy is fine for children, I guess, but secretly, I don't know—this is fodder for people who have children. When I was a child, I thought as a child, and I had a groovy childhood that, I believe, strongly encouraged imagination. What strikes me as funny is when fundamentalists decry Science as fantasy yet still visit the doctor when they become ill. At what point does it become convenient to deny Science? Like everything else, it seems convenient to deny differing ideologies when one's feelings get hurt.
No wonder politicians can so easily sway popular thinking. It must be egocentrically comforting to be so absolutely resolute about the veracity of one's beliefs, not only about one's personal terrestrial journey but the terrestrial journey of every other sentient organism in the Universe to the infinite power (Universe∞), to wager one's perceived post-terrestrial eternity on a very strong system of beliefs, some bordering on ridiculous premises such as papal human infallibility, mammalian pregnancy without a biological sperm, reincarnation, cannibalism, the drinking of human blood, human ambulation atop a liquid surface, and other superhuman feats... but to also believe with equal irrevocable intensity that everyone who thinks differently is inherently wrong simply because you say so, or, more specifically, because you parrot religious dogma that has existed since before Copernicus defied the pope that planet Earth is not the center of the Universe.
Peace Through Knowledge
Russell (Rusty) Allen Taylor
July 5, 2012
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The Columbus Jazz Society is a (501)(3)(c) non-profit organization who, for over 30 years, have existed solely for the benefit of enjoying the expression of live jazz and to promote the education of this art form to our members and the general public. The Society is about rendering service and promoting, creating and supporting musical events.
The Columbus Jazz Society began in the 80‘s as a few musicians got together monthly to play, sing and enjoy live jazz. As more and more musicians and their friends came together they found the need to locate into a common public area to accommodate everyone. This began at hotel convention rooms, then local restaurants, and a night club (The Loft) that would host them for the joy of the music. They later established a membership fee to cover the costs of paying musicians to insure that a full set of players would be in attendance. Any money over and above our society needs is used for charity.
For a list of area jazz events, click
here
.
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Friday Evening Jazz at The Loft
Monthly Schedule for November 2018
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At this moment, I haven't received info on who is playing at The Loft throughout February; however, I will post the info when I get it to my facebook group Southern Standard Timers; although, the Columbus Jazz Society's webpage is updated regularly, and its 'Events' link generally posts the featured jazz ensemble for its Friday Night Jazz at The Loft's weekly concert series at
CJSWeb.org
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Abel 2, Inc.
Mission Statement: To enhance the Quality of Life of People with Disabilities and the Under-served by Creating Music and Arts opportunities for Employment and Enjoyment!
- Are you a Performing Artist (singer, dancer, musician, actor, comedian, poet, etc.)?
- Do you have a disability?
- Do you know anyone who is?
Abel 2 wants you to promote your talent!
We are in the process of building a database of performing artists with disabilities who reside in the Southeast. Send us the contact name and information on our "Contact Us" page or email us at [email protected]. Be sure to include your talent, level of experience, head shot, and video of one of your performances. Click on banner for more info about Abel 2 or click the photo of Myrna Clayton, artistic/executive director for Abel 2.
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Apothegmatic Axioms of the Month
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Caveat: These aphoristic tweets may seem redundant because I have already posted many to facebook, but in my defense: I write essays throughout the month prior to their posting. The reason I am reprinting them is so you, my dear reader, have time to ruminate their content:
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How can one simply ignore amoral behavior?
—SSTJazzVocalist
I used to wonder what would happen if a petulant, hormonal, acne-riddled, satiric adolescent boy became the most powerful leader of the world, a dictator in charge of the most powerful army on the planet to guarantee that his lust for carnal association with celebrities could be temporarily satisfied? Oh…
—SSTJazzVocalist
Emphatically, I do not believe that Fox Pravda is to blame for our nation’s current anxiety as much as the people who voraciously believe it to be veracious.
—SSTJazzVocalist
Brachydactylic DJ ‘Little Fingers’ Trump the Meretricious Moron espouses nefarious ideology from both Nazism and Fascism. If you still support him, choose your flag. [show photos of Russian and Nazi flags]
—SSTJazzVocalist
Here’s a riddle: What do you get when a hapless buffoon becomes president of the U.S.A.? Oh wait… it’s no joke.
—SSTJazzVocalist
It should be more important to understand why 10,000 angels stand on the point of a needle than how they do it.
—SSTJazzVocalist
The College Football Bowl Season is pure spectacle, and there is so much hype about which team will ultimately win that it slowly morphs into an embarrassing display of prepubescent pageantry when a "celebrity" that few have ever heard of (an alumnus who was the water boy for the team that, twenty years ago, almost made it to the playoffs, the team that had that one player that made it to the pros… as a backup punter in the Canadian football league) descants the importance of catching a pass with one’s hands or about running downhill on what is obviously a two-dimensional rectangular plane with no change in pitch while playing chess or checkers when, obviously, Parcheesie is a more effective metaphor for… what… what was I saying?
Incidentally… my favorite bowl game this year was the Innuendo Bowl that pitted Ball State University against Slippery Rock… a close "second place" consideration was the Apathy Bowl that pitted two opposing teams against each other in that stadium named for some major corporation that grants egregious 7-digit bonuses to its top shareholders while underpaying its employees so badly that they need supplemental income, but I digress…
What strikes me as ridiculous—you mean there’s only
one
—is the pre-game interview with the head coach… team doesn’t matter… every head coach does it, and he (yes, it’s a
he
… exclusively… for now…) the coach inarticulately, and incoherently, rambles some meaningless mumble jumbo that covers every conceivable possibility then ends up saying, "We’ll see what happens." The interview is so unnecessary, yet it is a prerequisite. The game simply cannot start until this meaningless tribute to superfluity concludes.
It’s exactly how I feel about listening to anybody who still supports Donald Trump.
—SSTJazzVocalist
I feel like I’m not using facebook as effectively as I could; although, I really dig not having to check my phone for updates every third second; I have never owned a mobile phone. I literally have to ‘go’ to my phone to make a phone call. Be that as it may, changes have been made to facebook; I am no longer in contact with folks I had formerly been in contact with. Unfortunately, I have no desire to investigate the reasons… I neither know nor care whether it’s because of my perspicacious ignorance or my aggressive apathy. Point is that some folks may falsely think that I want to sever our relationship, but this is not so. I am simply a Luddite. So…
If you want to confabulate with me, use email. It’s that simple. I just don’t dig holding a private conversation on such an overtly public format as facebook. I simply don’t care about what anyone else thinks about our correspondence. I can be reached at [email protected]. Let’s resume our relationship. I am very sure I still love you… even if you still support Trump. (I’ll simply try to ignore it as best I can.)
—SSTJazzVocalist
I was just watching television. Well, I was watching a series of advertisements. One of these commercials portrayed a doctor who was just "OK" at his profession. I don’t recall (or care) what product or service was being solicited.
As the doctor enters the room, he yells to somebody down the hall, "Guess who just got reinstated?"
As he enters the room, and in a hushed whisper, he admits "… not officially!"
He then looks at the patient and asks, "Worried?"
The patient nods as the doctors admits his similar concerns. The doctor then reassures his patient by saying "Don’t worry. We’ll figure it out." He turns to walk out of the room, his final words are, "See you in there."
Obviously, the advertiser is claiming that there are very important times in one’s life when mediocrity is unacceptable. I believe that it would’ve driven the point home more directly had the surgeon been wearing a MAGA hat.
—SSTJazzVocalist
Recently, a family asked Publix to bake a graduation cake for the familial graduate with the
summa cum laude
(“with the greatest honor”). The cake maker, an obvious bon vivant and eclectic epicurean who probably not only voted for Trump but has speciously gilded alter to Mike Pence in his basement, wrote the following: “summa … laude” simply because the word cum is offensive.
—SSTJazzVocalist
“Just because the words came out of your mouth, doesn’t mean you said them.”
—frangela
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Groovy Area Jazz Programs
University of South Alabama
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Make Concert Stages Accessible
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The next time you go see a live musical group, check out the stage. Does it have a wheelchair ramp leading from the audience to the stage or are their steps? Is there a wheelchair ramp backstage? Is there handicapped parking where the performers load and unload? Chances are that the venue doesn’t provide these accommodations. It’s like this: my biggest challenge as a quadriplegic jazz vocalist is finding accessible stages on which to perform. I was once raised up to a five-foot high stage using a forklift and a wooden palette because the stage was not wheelchair accessible. Fortunately, I didn’t die. Point is that there are
few wheelchair accessible stages; otherwise, I’d sing much more often.
It’s easy to see why this isn’t a mainstream problem: there are few “physically challenged” performers, but that’s merely an excuse encouraged by indifference. We handicapped performers exist and are eager to share our dreams with fans who dig what we do. But why are we unconsciously ignored? That’s easy: Being unable to perform even the most rudimentary acts of daily living is a major downer; the wheelchair, quite frankly, is a symbol of lost hope. Let’s face it; it’s a marketing problem, and this is where you come in to save the day.
Physical handicaps are wrapped in lugubrious imagery, but not every moment of life in a wheelchair is steeped in mournful decay. Believe it or not, I laugh every day… some days more than others, but if life were perfect, I, for one, would take a bite of forbidden fruit to find some excitement from the decay of entropy (the hypothetical tendency for all matter and energy in the universe to evolve toward a state of inert uniformity). What I’m trying so desperately to connote here is the fact that having a physical challenge can, at times, be fun and inspirational. What we need is positive imagery, and here’s where I ask for a favor from you, dear reader, and it has to do with social media, more specifically, using the ubiquitous #hashtag: will you help by coming up with a #hashtag meme that has positive connotations for the handicapped and send it to me. This could be fun. Maybe I can come up with prizes for creative contributions. Regardless, this could be the beginning of a social movement that witnesses an outcry of creative energy by talented people who have difficulty overcoming the obstacles that are hidden from people who can hop out of bed running full tilt. By the way, I’ve come up with a possible #hashtag meme that might work: #FantastAbility. What do you think?
The gauntlet has been dropped. Do you accept the challenge? Please reply to this email with as many suggestions as you want, and challenge your friends as well. Let’s see if we can extend this conversation internationally. (Actually, when you send in your suggestions, include the name of your hometown city. We’ll see how far this request goes.) Let’s make the wheelchair a symbol of fun… or grace… or intelligence… or, dare I say it? Let’s make the wheelchair Sexy!
Join our facebook group
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There are few absolutes in life, but this is a definite one: do not stand in front of the bandstand playing air guitar, air trumpet, air bass, or air drums. This activity irritates the musicians. It is disrespectful to both musicians and fellow listeners. It also makes the air player look like... well, there's really no need to spell this one out. Please, save those air moves for the National Air Guitar Championships held annually in Las Vegas.
In today’s society, texting is as ubiquitous as sunshine is to day. Please, do not text while watching live jazz; if you're not into the performance, leave. Along the same line, turn off the cell phone. If you are so important that you cannot miss calls, perhaps you - and everyone else in the audience – would be better served if you did not go to hear live music. If you'd get upset watching somebody else do it then it's wrong for you, too.
Try not to get up and walk out in the middle of a song. It is rude, akin to walking away from someone who is speaking directly to you. Likewise, please refrain from talking during the music. No one came out to hear about your day. More often than not, other audience members came to hear the music.
Most jazz musicians and seasoned listeners will agree that it is acceptable to clap after the solos that each musician takes. However, it is a good idea to keep this applause to an enthusiastic minimum because the next musician usually has already well begun her solo. By the time the claps and cheers fade, the audience has missed a good section of the next solo. Be a good listener. Learn to notice the interaction amongst musicians on stage. An understanding of their communication with each other will help novice listeners, and those not familiar with the song, to learn when the song has ended. Clap, cheer, whistle, or shout, after the last notes of the song are played, not during.
The most important rule of etiquette when it comes to live jazz deals with the type of common sense your grandmother believes you possess: be respectful. Other than that, have fun. Jazz is inclusive and strongly embraces peaceful harmony. It is the type of music that demands active listening to maximize the musical experience to its most positive conclusion. If you have an uncontrollable urge to get aggressively plastered, go listen to a more kitsch musical performance. Hardly anyone there will notice.
Peace Through Music
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Interesting Blogs and Websites by Interesting People
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- A Blog by Dallas Smith
- A Blog by Susan E. Mazer
- Collaborating since 1984, Susan E. Mazer and Dallas Smith create some of the finest contemporary instrumental music available. Our compositions for harp and woodwinds merge the aesthetics of jazz, classical, and world music into an experience that feeds both the intellect and spirit. Extending beyond the boundaries of genre, our unique sound has a richness in melody, rhythm and sonority. Visit their website by clicking here.
- Now available in more than 750 healthcare facilities in the U.S. and Asia, The C.A.R.E. Channel’s stunning nature video and original instrumental music provide a therapeutic tool for use at the patient bedside, waiting areas, and public spaces in acute care hospitals, residential care facilities, hospice/palliative care units, cancer centers, children’s hospitals, and rehabilitation centers.
- The Rude Pundit - Proudly lowering the level of political discourse.
- Randy Hoexter is a jazz pianist, composer and educator living in Atlanta. He is currently the Director of Education at the Atlanta Institute of Music. His recent release, “Fromage” Featuring bassist Jimmy Haslip, Drummer Dave Weckl, and the finest of Atlanta jazz musicians has been receiving rave reviews. His previous recording “Radiant” with Mike Stern, Dave Weckl and more, also received critical acclaim.
- Jimmy Haslip World-renowned bassist
- Sam Skelton Saxophone/woodwind virtuoso and educator
- Trey Wright Gifted guitarist and composer
- Kit Chatham Brilliant percussionist and drummer
- Carl Culpepper Virtuoso guitarist and educator
- Jazz Evangelist Great jazz blog and reviews.
- Wonderful freelance writer Candice Dyer.
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@PatMetheny 's interview and moving acceptance speech as a 2018 NEA Jazz Master.
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DELVISings For Autism Change Foundation presents an inside look at DELVIS live and behind the scenes
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Jazz Association of Macon
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We Promote Jazz in Macon
and Middle Georgia
Our purpose is to:
- Encourage and support creation, presentation, and preservation of jazz music.
- Support the creation of new audiences for jazz music.
- Provide education and information about jazz.
- Encourage young musicians to learn and appreciate jazz.
- Develop a network among local and regional jazz advocates.
- Increase awareness of jazz events and musicians in our community.
To read their blog, click
here
.
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