Month: May 2006

The Silver Lining

Figurative storm clouds broke overhead when last night a Google Alert linked me to web site where I found posted a copy of the Pasadena Star News article about John. Regular DevraDoWrite readers know that I was disturbed by the errors in this piece (if you didn’t know, read this), so you can imagine that I was none too happy about seeing it proliferate on the Internet. I sent off an email that began with “Much as we enjoy getting press coverage, the article by Ivy Dai, written for The Pasadena Star News/U-Entertainment, contains numerous factual errors and John and I would appreciate it if you would remove it from your web site.” [By the way, in the interest of acuracy, the piece was written for the Celebrations section, not U-Entertainment as cited by the post in question.] Within a couple of hours I received a reply thanking me for making him aware and apologizing for any unintended harm. As I had suspected, this was someone who had wanted only to assist by spreading news that he felt should get more attention, and for that I am very appreciative.

As I told our helpful blogger in a later email:

Sadly, today, The Media does not invest the care it should. Where once we might have been safe in assuming the veracity of items in a newspaper, that is no longer the case. Ivy was not only careless with the facts, she had no understanding of the story and instead tried to paint a personal portrait, one that became increasingly distorted because John would not participate, telling her repeatedly that this or that detail about his personal life was not relevant. She was determined to continue that line of questioning, so John started saying “I don’t remember.” You might think that at 94 John would be forgetful, but with the exception of a few names and dates, John is still very sharp (and he knows very well who gave him his Aires pendant).

As a nonfiction writer, this is one of my pet peeves. I feel rather like an old fogey (I’m 50, not 39) when I blame it, in part, on the youth of today’s workforce; there are fewer older/experienced workers, and those that are there and willing to mentor are marginalized, if not actually disrespected. I guess this is true in all fields.

If this had not happened, I might not have discovered TheJazzCat a/k/a LeRoy Downs online — jazz radio afficiando’s know LeRoy’s on-air work — and that is the silver lining. I spent some time this morning perusing LeRoy’s blog archives, and his enthusiasm and love of the music is palpable. For an example check out his post about his trip to NYC for IAJE — he loved Maria Schneider’s band and took lots of photos, posting one of Maria, Sonny Rollins and Ravi Coltrane. If you want to know about LeRoy the man, check out his web site. LeRoy is out there supporting music that I love and will be checking out his blog regularly.

PS: If you want to re-read my piece about Maria’s Disney Hall concert this past February, go here . My pieces about IAJE are 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.

Today’s Discoveries

No doubt you’ve noticed that bloggers like to post the occasional quotations – given Internet access there is no shortage of pithy sayings that we can share with you. I will admit that, to some degree, the act of trolling for quotes is sometimes a combination of laziness and procrastination, but there is also a delight in finding an admirable turn of phrase, encountering a new metaphor, or discovering that a thought was put forth by someone you would not have imagined. Also fun, of course, is the juxtaposition of two or more quotes, be they compatible or antithetical. But what I like best about quotations and the power of the Internet is that I come across people heretofore unknown to me, and within a few keystrokes I can find out who they are or were, what they do or have done, and serendipitously broaden my horizons. Take these quotes for example:

“He who sings, scares away his woes” – Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

“Music is the medicine of the mind” – John A. Logan

Why waste money on psychotherapy when you can listen to the B Minor Mass? – Michael Torke

I had jotted down these quotes some time ago. I knew who Cervantes was (the Spanish author), but until I did a little research I did not know that the quotation in question comes from chapter 22 of Don Quixote of la Mancha (translated by John Ormsby). I also found that the wording is sometimes given as “He who sings frightens away his ills.”

As for the other two men quoted, I had no idea at all who they were. Turns out that Logan was a politician who lived in the 1800s. He was a congressman, a brigadier general during the Civil War, later a senator, and Memorial Day was presumably his idea. (To read the congressional bio blurb go here.) Who would expect a switch-hitting politician (first a Democrat, later a Republican) and a lawyer to boot, to say that about music?

The third quote turns out to be from a music man, a composer. BrainyEnclopedia says he writes “accessible music influenced by jazz and minimalism” and that he is “sometimes described as a post-minimalist.” Not knowing what that means, I went to his website to listen to some clips. I don’t consider myself qualified to review or critique symphonic music, but I can tell you that it was pleasing to my ears. A cursory look at the critical acclaim he has received from those in the know supports my appreciation, but part of my enjoyment might also be due to the sound being a welcome change of pace from the music that I have been listening lately – not better or worse, just different. The only symphonic music to reach my ears in recent months is Luther Henderson’s Classic Ellington, recorded in England with Sir Simon Rattle conducting The City of Birmingham Symphony. The orchestrations are wonderful, but the experience of listening to orchestrations of songs with which I am very familiar is vastly different than listening to an original work for the first time, the latter allowing for a mental release that is not possible when the mind is filled with specific expectations. I never thought about this before today, and therein lies yet another benefit of cruising the Internet and letting one’s mind wander a bit. It seems that generating new ideas first requires letting go.

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ps – for those of you who know there to be a psychotherapist in my family, let me go on record saying that while music may soothe today, it is no match for the long-term benefits of analysis.

Compatible Quotes: Call To Action

Charles de Gaulle, War Memoirs, 1960:

“Deliberation is a function of the many; action is the function of one.”

Attributed to Will Rogers:

“Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”

And there is always:

“Don’t just sit there, do something.”

This last one is such a common admonition that I can’t find out who coined it. Any thoughts?

Now What?

Thanks, everyone, for all the celebratory greetings and well-wishes on my first anniversary as a blogess/blogette, and special thanks to Mr. Rifftides for doing so publically on his blog — if you are a new visitor sent via Rifftides, welcome. I hope you’ll become a frequent visitor. And if you are one of my regulars and have never been to Rifftides, shame on you and go there now. Today Mr. Rifftides has taken on the not-so-Jazz Fest.

Well April, which was Jazz Appreciation Month (JAM), is over, but never over is our love for jazz. My love of jazz, however, has its limits, or rather some definition. I do not include in my embrace anything that smacks of smooth jazz or programs that purport to be jazz while pandering to the lowest common denominator

Sadly, Ramsey Lewis’ television series on PBS falls into both of these categories. According to one of the show’s musical guests, Ben Ratliff’s April 4th review in The New York Times “nailed it.” Ratliff describes the interview questions as “doggedly polite, basic and weirdly resistant to subtlety and insight,” reminds us, parenthetically, that “(Jazz is so cerebral, you know. It scares people.)”, and concludes with this:

In all its mainstreaming and common-denominator sense, the show seems to want to deny that jazz issomething people care deeply about. But jazz is deep. It is about sound and resonance and great passion. There is a reason people become nearly religious about it. You’d hardly know from watching this.

One of the more unusual JAM activities that caught my attention last month was news of a Tavis Smiley radio special to be taped before a live audience at Smithsonian Institution in DC on April 7th. Tavis said he was going to “lead a discussion with jazz artists, scholars and historians about the birth, evolution, support and survival of jazz in America and around the globe.” I haven’t heard it broadcast yet nor have I found mention of it on his web site. If I hear more about it I will let you know.

On April 12th I barely caught the end of a piece on PBS’ NewsHour program and it had something to do with jazz — I think it was an interview with someone from the Smithsonian; …ah, Jazz Appreciation Month, I thought. Unfortunately, the online archives for NewsHour yield no mention, so I can tell you no more and only hope that it wasn’t a figment of my imagination.

I’ll leave you today wih something you can hear for yourself. Over at the ITConversations website you can listen to (or download a podcast) titled The Future of Jazz. It’s a talk by Marty Ashby who, having produced numerous concerts and GRAMMY®-winning albums, as well as being an accomplished musician himself, has a lifetime of experience to share. He sits down to reflect on his past and to offer some insight on the future of jazz, both as a business model and as a vital art form.

May Day or Mayday II

I launched DevraDoWrite one year ago today, so happy anniversay to me.

On that day I learned a little about the derrivation of “mayday” as a cry for help as well as the history of May Day. May 1, 1886, American workers gathered to demand a more reasonable eight-hour workday, and today, 120 years later, immigrant workers are gathering and marching for what they perceive to be their rights. I say “perceive” because there is much disagreement even among “supporters.” Even I disagree with myself on some parts of this. I believe that if you want to live here and work here then you should learn the language and obey the laws. I do not believe that my money should be spent on creating a bi-lingual alternative to everything from classrooms to voting instructions. I think immigrants should enter the country legally and pay taxes like everyone else.

Of course, here the issues get murky and I suspect that it’s American business greed and politics that is at the root. First of all, it is admittedly hard to keep a straight face while writing “pay taxes like everyone else” when I well know that the rich get richer by leaping through those great big tax loopoholes designed just for them. Second, and perhaps more important, there must be a reason why immigrants risk life and limb to get here illegally; if the legal alternative was feasible don’t you think they’d prefer it? Why would someone stow away or dodge bullets while hopping a fence? Desparation implies no alternatives. And why is it so hard to get in legally? I can only surmise that it suits the employers to have leverage over their illegal workers, forcing them to work for less and without benefits.

Here’s an excerpt from “Illegal workers: good for U.S. economy,” an article on CNNMoney.com

A crackdown in illegal immigration in 2004 caused a shortage of workers needed to bring in the lettuce crop in the Western United States, said Powell, which he said caused a $1 billion loss for the industry as many growers had to leave their fields unharvested.

“To hire Americans to do it, they would have had to raise wages so far, it wouldn’t have been worth it for them,” said Powell at the Independent Institute. “It caused less of a loss to leave the crop to rot.”

As for complaints that many critics of immigration cite – demand for social and government services by immigrants – most economists believe that is outweighed by the increased economic activity, even if some specific school districts or public hospitals struggle with the costs associated serving the immigrant community.

So today the immigrants cry out for help as they celebrate May Day with their own demands. If they want to do as we do here, in English, them we must do unto them as we would have others do unto us.