And before I get to that answer, I’d like to jump up on my soap box… even if just for a minute or so.

I enjoy music; all kinds of music. Rock, Jazz, Blues, “long-hair”… I won’t discuss what it is that I don’t like (rap) or music that I despise (rap) or music that should not be allowed to be performed unless you’re willing to do the time in jail (gangsta rap).

This morning I was listening to a CD that I had just bought. This CD was a repress of an old album that I was introduced to back in the sixties. That’s 1960… I’m not that old.

The CD was remastered. It is a recording of a live performance of The Boston Pops Orchestra directed by Arthur Fiedler and the guest star was Allan Sherman. The name of the CD is “Peter & The Commissar“ which includes selections on variations of the tune “How Dry I Am” and “The End of a Symphony”. As I sat in traffic and listened to the CD, I laughed, applauded and got a little misty eyed.

The End of the Symphony – Allan Sherman and the Boston Pops

It was also a sad moment. All of this talent, this amazing ability to change music, rewrite what had been written before, create new and unheard music and blend tones and instruments into something moving, inspiring and thrilling… will not come from today’s generation of children. Music / Art, either as an appreciation or learned function, is no longer being taught in our schools.

Most music is publicly broadcast and is the musical equivalent of a limerick. Popular music is relatively short with repetitive rhythms, melodies, and harmonies that are easy to listen to. Its main purpose is to entertain and sell. Conversely, it takes effort and some musical knowledge to comprehend a piece of artistic music. Artistic music requires concentration and memory to decode and reconstruct various bits of musical information. Look, everyone can enjoy a Beethoven symphony; however, it is appreciated on a different level by someone with an understanding of the form, the delicate timing and sequences, and the history of the symphony. A painting may be a masterpiece to an art critic and yet it would be a childish gibberish or nonsense to someone with no background in serious art.

Today’s schools are no longer teaching the arts. We are losing a gift. And it’s a gift that today is being supplanted by video games, budget constraints, parental indifference and governmental ignorance.

As a people we are losing our artistic heritage.

Oh sure, there are kids who have picked up a guitar and played three chord garage band tunes with a couple of friends from down the street, but it’s not really good listening music. Is it something that one can appreciate? Maybe, if you’re a parent who really gives a damn about what your child does with his artistic mind. But it is far from being an art. The percentage of young adults who are taking up music, painting or poetry as a purely artistic function is roughly one-half of one percent of all of those who came out of school with artistic aspirations just forty years ago.

Does the town you live in have a symphony orchestra? Mine does… but it may not be doing concerts for much longer. The lack of upcoming talent (as well as budgetary restrictions) may spell the death knell for arts in my town. Even “Community Theater” is taking a hit because the talent pool of people who can sing and dance is so small that casting calls produce little to no trained talent (despite what you see on some stupid talent T.V. show… or maybe because of it).

Actually, it’s a shame. A large portion of our physical make-up is an appreciation of the arts, be it music, painting, wood working, sculpting, architecture or poetry. Schools can no longer teach it. Parents no longer can influence a child’s artistic mind when the mind is set on sitting in front of a T.V. or computer. The future of the Arts is bleak and as of right now, it looks like the loss will not be felt immediately by today’s people. But future generations will most likely suffer.

Is there a fix? Can I suggest some way to correct this death spiral of artistic indifference? Not really. Much like our dwindling resources, that history has already been written. Today we can appreciate the art and flair of those folks, some of them long since dead, who created the symphonies, paintings and sculptures. But I am beginning to doubt there is a modern-age Beethoven or Picasso in today’s school system.

And that is really a shame… Not for those of us living today, but for those who will live in what I foresee as a very bleak future.

So, what is the “mammoth channel”?

It’s an ancient gold-bearing river channel that is situated under the ridge that the town of Paradise, CA sits on.

Until next time…

Was it a: (1) Pontiac GTO  (2) Ford Gran Torino  (3)  Dodge Charger  (4)  Chevy Camaro

When did paying attention become an afterthought on today’s highways?

Is it the way we are taught in today’s society?  Is it that our electronic devices or our outward appearance or the printed document are so much more important that being attentive while we maneuver our 3,000 pound unguided missile down the street is relegated to fourth, fifth or sixth in our thought list?

My God!  Are we so full of ourselves that we can text on a cell phone, adjust the volume on the radio, insert another CD-Rom in the player stack, reread the paragraph in an article that captured our attention at morning coffee and stuff the last remnants of a sweet roll in our maw all the while making damn sure that nothing got on our clothes in the process, and doing all of this while trying NOT to kill someone?

Is our small and petty personal life problems more important than the guy trying to turn left into a parking lot that we DO NOT see?

I am astounded each and everyday by every type of person imaginable and how they perceive the amount of attention they think is required to drive four wheels at 65 MPH…   and these idiots are doing it RIGHT NEXT TO ME!

That’s it…  I am making sure I have a ton of life insurance, updating my last will and testament, contacting the Neptune Society and booking an open slot at my local church, because if I have to drive one more day with the brainless idiots I happen to share the freeway with, I may not make it.  No wonder folks are moving to the country!  But even there you have moron’s who can’t figure out which side of a four lane highway they should meander down the road on.

I am damn serious.  It’s become an epidemic, and, as of right now, there is no cure.

The U. S. Department of Transportation has made a projection that by the year 2012, less than a year away, over 68% of the non-fatal accidents that occur on the nations highways will have occurred because of driver distraction (which is a real nice way of saying that the dimwit who caused the accident was texting, talking on a cell phone, eating a Big Mac AND drinking a cola while driving with his/her knees or fiddling with the radio in one form or another).  The list of driver related distractions could number in the thousands!

These are non-fatal accidents.  Would you like to guess what the percentage of accidents that occur due to inattention which result in a fatality is?  How about all of them!

To hell with that…   let’s look at all this one other way.  The USDOT has also stated that the possibility of you being involved in an inattentive driver’s accident over the next five years is…   wait for it…   92%.  The USDOT does not make a distinction if the driver who is responsible for the inattentive accident is you or someone else.  I wonder why?

So…   I guess I am going to get into an ID (Inattentive Driver) accident.  I may loose my life because of this ID accident.  There is nothing I can do about this ID accident, is there?  And law enforcement is going to issue $25 tickets for talking on a cell phone and look the other way when Mr. Business Suit eats his bowl of Cheerios and drives with his…  uh…  knees?  At least I hope he’s driving with his knees.

As epidemics go, this one is curable.  It won’t take much to implement the cure and the cure can have an effect immediately.  The cure is harsh, but it is fair.  It’s also something that you may not agree with me on, but it has to be done.  While painful in it’s dosage, it will preclude it from ever happening again.  All it takes is one elected official who has the intestinal fortitude to stand up for the rights of the living and he/she has to realize that his/her family may be saved by just such a cure.

You ready???

Here it is…  a new law for the rule books!

“In the event it is proven, either by observance by an officer of the law, or by contraindications of an accident, that a driver responsible for the unsafe operation of a motor vehicle who was not paying full attention while driving, shall loose his/her rights to drive for a period of five (5) years and regardless of who is the registered or legal owner, will forfeit, along with any perceived value to the DOT/DMV in the states jurisdiction, the vehicle involved in the violation.  Anyone convicted of this violation will be fined no less than $12,000 per infraction and/or serve one year in jail.”

I am slowly leaning towards a zero tolerance for inattentive driving and/or driving under the influence.  About the only way I can see to remove the possibility of someone who wants to take my life with his/her vehicle due to their irresponsible behaviour is to remove the vehicle from the equation because it’s painfully obvious that prevention system in place right now, isn’t keeping the epidemic at bay.

Besides, Starky and Hutch’s Ford Gran Torino being forfeit to the State because the current owner was doing her nails on I-10 just might help out in this fiscal crisis, doncha think?  And those who said that all I ever do is bitch about the problem and yet I never offer an alternative or a solution…   CAN GO POUND SAND!

Until next time…

“Here is a little song I wrote
You might want to sing it note for note
Don’t worry be happy
In every life we have some trouble
When you worry you make it double
Don’t worry, be happy……”

Don’t Worry Be Happy

by Bobby McFerrin

The “instruments” in the a cappella song are entirely overdubbed voice parts and other sounds made by Mr. McFerrin, using no instruments at all.

I really think NASCAR should allow the F1M Superbikes to race alongside, doncha think?

How about having a goalie at or around the basket in a basketball game…

Sudden death play-off in World Cup Soccer matches…

Golf with real hazards like Alligators, flaming tar pits or busy intersections…

No holds barred Hockey (who needs ref’s anyway)…

Rollerball!!!!!   Yeah…

Just a few simple musings…

And I guess the only reason I am waxing philosophic about sports is due to the constant irritating rant from sports nuts and sport news casters that sports referees are making bad calls.  A perfect game in baseball was negated by a first base line umpire.  A U.S. goal in World Cup Soccer was denied by a ref who obviously has a grudge against the good ol’ U.S. of A. In the NBA play-offs, the refs blew their whistles non-stop in the first half of one game and then swallowed those same whistles in the second half.

Where is parity?  Where is fair?  Why don’t we throw those idiot refs and umpires out and revert to computerized systems to make it all fair?  We can use replay systems that make sure things get called right.  Electronic overseer’s that focus on what every player is doing, not just the person with the ball / puck / bat / stick. etc., right?  After all, computerized systems hold no grudges, can’t be influenced and could care less who is playing who.  You can correct me if I am wrong, but aren’t instant replay devices are about as impartial as you can get, right?

So we are really talking about removing the human factor from the sports we love.  For as long as I can remember, there have always been normal guys and gals calling the fouls / penalty / errors in games.  These folks are human, right alongside the players.  If we are asking them to impartially judge some part or portion of a game or contest, then we should abide by the decisions they make, good or bad.

It’s a part of the sport…  it always has been.  Until we get the computerized system to call an impartial game or contest, then we must use and accept the human factor in any sporting event.  And this means we can be mad at the lousy calls, boo the ref or curse “Blue”.  It’s a big part of every game and it’s something you have to live with. It has been and should always be a love / hate relationship with those that should be impartial.

However, the day we take the human factor out of a game or contest is the day I refuse to watch, participate or be a fan of that particular sport. Pretty soon we will be watching a version of football that closely resembles the way The Jetson’s watched football…  two mechanical teams “duke” it out on the gridiron.

For me it would be like going to a baseball or basketball game and not being able to have a hot dog, peanuts or a beer.  Kinda like putting a guitar, drums and congas in a simple little song like “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”.  It just wouldn’t be the same…

Until next time…