A collection of brief thoughts about various issues.

All subject to relocation, updating, or deletion at any time.

What's so important about folk music?
Folk music is where all music came from. It is music made by folks for the sake of making music instead of selling products. At its best it draws in the audience and uses their imagination to paint pictures on the insides of their eyeballs, touches their emotions to awaken feelings in their hearts and encourages the relaxation needed for real thought to take place.  (top 5/16/10) 


A time of broken compasses and deaf souls.
I fear we are in for a real moral storm the next few years. The people running our businesses and government at present seem to have found their way to the top in spite of broken moral compasses and souls too deaf to hear the quiet voices of their own consciences. Enough of the metaphors, my point is that while recent events have got a lot of us thinking about our collective moral state, it's going to be a long time before anything changes. This is because morals are something which are best learned at an early age. I guess the change I'd like to see is for it to be more difficult for someone to cheat their way to success.   (top 1/1/10)


Keeping the money at home:
I guess I ought to explain a little better why I spend so much time and energy touting local business. Local business keeps money in the community. The corporate monsters take money out. This taking away of money shows up as empty storefronts and decaying infrastructure along with increased requests for local taxes to fix it. I must admit I do occasionally shop at one of these mega retailers, but it is not a pleasant experience, due to nagging conscience and the just plain unpleasantness of these places. It's gotten to where I only shop for those things I can't find at a local merchant anymore because the corporate monsters have swallowed them up. Please think before you shop. (top 2/10/07)

Computers are tools or maybe "tools".
Regular readers have probably noticed that my weekly updates have gotten more than a little tardy. Like the heading says, my computer has been more of a "tool" than a tool the last two weeks. I've used personal computers almost since they were invented and have never had so much trouble with one as this. It seems as if pc manufacturers, internet service providers and software writers have come up with the perfect way to abuse the computing public by each having separate "support" departments which mainly seem to point their finger at the "other" guy or just the user himself. When I first got into computers it was for the promise of their versatility and ability to be programmed for any task the user might desire or conceive. As the power increased enough to actually come close to honoring that promise the systems have become so clumsy and complicated that they seem best at making us all comform to doing things only their way. (new 1/21/07)

They won't come after me if I don't do anything, or famous last words.
In the present political climate, I hear many folks say that I should not say anything about the abuses of the people by the corporocracy because there is nothing I can do about it anyway. They seem to be saying that the present regime is only going far outside the Bill of Rights to go after "undesirables" such as terrorists and those who support them. How long will it be before they decide that "undesirables" includes protestors, "liberals", gays, lesbians, environmentalists, the homeless, etc.. I'm sorry, when I learned about the Constitution in Civics class, I learned that ALL people are entitled to due process under law. Those who are guilty of crimes can and should be prosecuted and the Constitution provides adequate means for this within the process of law. An administration which places itself above the law really scares the hell out of me. (top 11/19/06)

First Amendment 101.
Saw an article in the newspaper the other day which gave the results of a study of how much US citizens know about the first amendment to the U. S. constitution. The results were truly heartbreaking. More people know the characters on the Simpsons TV show than know the 5 points of the first amendment. A quick .101 in my own words: Freedom of speech - Say what you want without fear of official reprisals Freedom of the press - publish what you want instead of what the authorities tell you to publish. Freedom of religion - No goverment interference in the practice of your faith (sadly mis-interpreted by some who believe their faith gives them the right to impose their beliefs on those of other faiths) Freedom to assemble - have your meeting without interference from the goverment. Freedom to petition for redress of grievances. you can petition the government over anything which grieves you, results not guaranteed. There it is, go look up the actual words if you want. Please remember what you don't use, you will lose. (top 9/10/06)

Promotion is a partnership:
As I get to play more different venues, I'm noticing a wild variation in how places promote their music. I work hard to promote my shows, but I can't do it all by myself. Obviously a venue expects to have customers come in because someone is playing there but some of them seem to expect that the performer is solely responsible for increasing business. The business a venue really needs is their local customers. I feel the venue operator is better suited to know how to reach their local potential customer to let them know that I am there. If I take the time and expense to make up hard-copy flyers, table-toppers, etc., the least an operator can due is to see that they get placed or handed out. This is even more important as I perform farther from home at today's gas prices. I really can't afford to make special trips in advance of the show to place posters. The bottom line is, we need to work together to promote live music. (top 8/27/06)

Freedom is:
Freedom is messy, tyranny is orderly. Freedom has room for people to disagree, tyranny accepts only one point of view. Freedom is risky, tyranny is safe as long as you hold the accepted ideology of the day. Freedom is inefficient, tyranny is efficient. All of that being said, the following hold for both freedom and tyranny: Some people will be rich, some will be poor. The difference, in my opinion is that in a free society people have a better chance of escaping poverty through their own efforts. (top 8/20/06)

Namaste:
 I thank the Kennedys, Pete and Maura for teaching me this. I hope I am helping with their ministry of being the "Johnny Appleseeds" of Namaste by adding this rant. The gesture is an acknowledgment of the soul in one by the soul in another. The gesture Namaste represents the belief that there is a Divine spark within each of us. By performing Namaste we are recognizing the existence of this Divine spark in each and every one of us, regardless of anyone's specific ideology or belief system. If we recognize this Divine spark in each person we meet and they ours, it makes a good first step toward peacefully working out any disagreements we may have. To perform Namaste, we place the hands together in front of the heart, close the eyes, and bow the head. Namaste is pronounced "nah, mah, stay". (top 8/13/06)

If I live to be 110.
If I live to be 110, I'll never understand: (1) How people can get sucked into fighting wars which generally only benefit their rulers who always seem to stay as far away as possible from the actual fighting. (2) How people who have the right to vote (sadly not in every country) can vote against their own best interest because some wannabe dictator gets them all stirred up about some emotional issue which carries little weight in the real world. (3) How people can let fear rule their lives to point that they will allow a dictator to steal their freedom in the guise of "protecting" them.

It's their planet too.
It seems that every couple days I run into some really disturbing animal stories. On a lot of levels these bug me worse than man's inhumanity to man because the animals cannot speak for themselves. Animals are living creatures who feel pain and have precious little defense against our weapons and implements. It is just beyond me how anyone can do these terrible things to them for greed or worse yet just to be doing it.

Don't Buy the Lie!!
When some venue says "do it for the exposure", they are exploiting you while they are making money off your performance. Please, please do not play for free other than at family gatherings, benefits and open mics. We have worked hard to be good at this. Think about it this way, if a venue has to hire some other service, like a plumber or an electrician, they pay them (and deduct the price from their profits to reduce their taxes). Imagine how much service they would get if they told the plumber or electrician "you have to come in here and use your tools and talent to fix my problem, but I won't pay you because I provide you such a nice working environment".

Collateral damage.
A song I heard today got me thinking about the collateral damge in the corporate "race to the bottom" which rages on worldwide. It's bad enough that people are being expected to work ever longer hours in ever worse conditions in order to produce the goods for the "new royalty" of the deveoping world, but when the children are considered it becomes absolutely criminal. I have nothing against a person or their business making a profit, but I feel it must be done in a just and compassionate manner. It is just plain wrong that a few people should live like emperors at the expense of the rest. These are children, not "collateral damage".
 

Freedom is, Part II:
In the first part of this I said that a free society is vital to the ability of people to escape poverty. The other side of this is that in a society where corporations are given carte blanche to set the rules to their own benefit, people in general will suffer as those trying to rise in the structures of these corporations seek ever more efficient and cost effective operation. The easiest way to increase profits is to reduce the workforce or better yet keep them on doing more work for less compensation. I find this to be just plain immoral if at the same time the executives are raising their own compensation or worse yet operating the company in a "slash and burn" style. This type of business operation has nothing to do with freedom and is in fact just another form of slavery.

Support your local artist (Shameless begging).
Folks, I hate to sound like I'm begging, but I am. If you want to have local acts to hear, you have to come out and support them once in a while. I'd like to think you would come and support me, but please get out and support somebody. The places you go to hear them won't keep doing music if they don't see at least a little $upport for it. I happen to think it would be a really boring world if there were no local acts. The national acts are great and I go to see them too, but locals often offer more bang for the buck.

It's about the songs:
When I select which songs to cover, I tend to do it with a songwriter's sensibility. Hits come from either a strong performance or strong writing or ideally both. I try to select songs which are well written enough to withstand whatever abuse I may subject them too. Some of the biggest hits have been less than stellar pieces of writing, saved by the virtuosity of their original performer and this gets proven when they come back around and don't stand a second go. Other songs like "Ain't Misbehavin'" can be and are recorded and performed over and over and always seem to work. My goal in writing is to write this kind of song.

But I'm not doing it for the money.
If you read "Don't buy the lie" above and still insist on playing for free, please consider this. There are a number of professional players around who depend for some or all of their income on being paid to play. Venues will only pay for what they can't get for free. Please consider this and again only play for free on the street corner or for family and friends. I wish you all the success in the world, if you are good enough to attract a crowd you are good enough to expect a professional venue to pay you for your services. Why play for free when you can get paid to do something you love?

Globalization:
There is a lot of wrong done in the world. Globalization is a fact and we'd all better get used to it and make the best of it. That said, I'm deeply afraid that we're not going about it in the best way. Present practice has been mostly corporate colonialization with multi-national corporations driving the "race to the bottom" in terms of human rights and environmental issues. I'm all for open and free markets provided that all players abide by the same rules to protect human rights and the environment. One the few bright spots in the present state of globalization is the internet. The internet is a great resource for bringing the world together. It works best where it can operate freely.

The coffee house experience, revisited.
When I originally wrote the rant about the coffee house experience I was thinking in terms of my writing. There is more to it than that, just as there is more to a real coffee house than just coffee. The corporate giants have entered the coffee business and are passing off a poor substitute. Yes, these places have coffee and they may even have lower prices but they do not offer any intellectual or spiritual stimulation. By this I mean they are almost universally not the kind of a place where you would want to sit and talk or play a game or read a book. They a designed this way on purpose because they want you buy their product and leave so they can make more money off the next visitor. Real coffee houses provide stimulation for the mind and soul as well as for the body. Support your local coffee house. FEED YOUR MIND!

Doing the right thing (hopefully not another wrong):
There is a lot of wrong done in the world. The hopeful side of me wants to believe it is because of simple ignorance or lack of mindfullness. Maybe this will help. If you go to do something, consider first if it will cause any harm. If harm has been done consider your response so as to best rectify the situation instead of making it worse. I realize that what I've said here is just another way of wording the the golden rule ("Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"). But maybe this version will be more accessible to one or more folks out there who haven't yet gotten the fact that we are all in this together.

Acceptance.
We get caught up in the pursuit of things when perhaps all we really need is the acceptance of one and other. Just think about so much of advertising. They seem to be saying "You must have this product to be accepted; buy this thing and everyone will accept you". Powerful way to make themselves rich and the rest us miserable. The more miserable they can make us, the more we are likely to buy. I am not against somebody trying to market a product or service, I'm just upset with some of the current marketing techniques.

Feeding more than my body:
 Struggling artists, struggling venues. We are all in this together. It is our choice to patronize local venues which offer something different from the mass-produced product marketed by the corporate giants. I'm not saying they are bad, I go to them when I'm in a hurry and just need fed. If I have time though, I try to patronize places that feed my soul as well as my body. If these places lack our support, we will have nobody but ourselves to blame when there is nowhere to go other than the corporates.

Real Radio:
George and Julius were on the radio show I engineer the other day and they reminded me why Tom, Jim and I give up our time and money to put the show on the air. We are playing artists who don't fit the corporate ideology. As media becomes more consolidated through the efforts of the corporocrats, public radio becomes ever more important as it is one of the few ways to hear anything other than what the corporations want us to hear. You're not going to hear people like George and Julius or Jim Hightower on regular radio because they are more interested in the world and the beings in it than in selling product.

The coffee house experience.
When I go to the coffee house to hear someone, it sets up a situation where I am comfortable and stimulated to write. I think the atmosphere helps release thoughts I'd been storing up in my subconscious. This happens to some degree at the open mics where I get to perform too, but it seems to happen even more at professional shows by others. I've heard that I'm not alone in this experience. I guess the point I'm trying to make here is that we should try to support those coffee houses which provide this experience by providing and supporting quality live music.

Will you act out of love or let fear rule your life.
Here I am on the edge our our country's birthday and I can't help but be sad that I see so many people acting out of fear instead of real love for this country. Yes, terrorism is wrong, abhorent and abominable but when you allow our Bill of Rights to be destroyed in the guise of protecting us, then fear has won and so have the terrorists. It is high time that we started to demand that freedom be preserved before it becomes illegal to make such a demand. To those folks who say "I'm not doing anything wrong, so it's ok to end due process under law" I would say be very careful of what you ask for. How long before somebody decides to accuse you of doing something and what will you do then when you have no rights. Please, don't just read this as a rant and go on your merry way. Do something. Post a comment, sign a petition, write your congressman. If this erosion of our rights is allowed to continue it will take real bloodshed to get them back if we even can.