Saturday, went to the Steinway building downtown for Tom Lambert's concert. Lena Gonzales was the sole vocalist, but the biggest change was that Alto sax player Bill (somethin') left the state and was replaced by Tony James on guitar. Fantastic! Even thought the theme was "Women vocalists in Jazz", Lena took up percussions for Herbie Hancock;s "Cantaloupe Island" and Miles Davis' "Freddie Freeloader". Bridget Sullivan (Tom's other singer) wasn't there. I think she was doing at gig at Mad Myrna's that night. She will be singing "Shadows and the Light" on my next CD. Tony’s gonna be in the Spenard gig on the 22^nd, and I’m takin’ my ax, too. Hope to see you all there.

Sarah Palin's Accomplishments

The following piece I wrote 2 months ago has been read by thousands of people, many of whom wrote and called me to express their gratitude. It was suggested that I post it here as well. Here goes:

"The last 45 of my 66 years I've spent in a commercial fishing town in Alaska. I understand Alaska politics but never understood national politics well until this last year. Here's the breaking point: Neither side of the Palin controversy gets it.It's not about persona, style, rhetoric, it's about doing things. Even Palin supporters never mention the things that I'm about to mention here.

"1- Democrats forget when Palin was the Darling of the Democrats, because as soon as Palin took the Governor's office away from a fellow Republican and tough SOB, Frank Murkowski, she tore into the Republican's "Corrupt Bastards Club" (CBC) and sent them packing. Many of them are now residing in State housing and wearing orange jump suits. The Democrats reacted by skipping around the yard, throwing confetti and
singing "la la la la" (well, you know how they are). Name another governor in this country that has ever done anything similar. But while you're thinking, I'll continue.

"2- Now with the CBC gone, there were fewer Alaskan politicians to protect the huge, giant oil companies here. So, she constructed and enacted a new system of splitting the oil profits called "ACES". Exxon (the biggest corporation in the world) protested and Sarah told them "don't let the door hit you in the stern on your way out." They stayed, and Alaska residents went from being merely wealthy to being filthy rich. Of course the other huge international oil companies meekly fell in line. Again, give me the name of any other governor in the country that has
done anything similar.

"3- The other thing she did when she walked into the governor's office is she got the list of State requests for federal funding for projects, known as "pork". She went through the list, took 85% of them and placed them in the "when-hell-freezes-over" stack. She let locals know that if we need something built, we'll pay for it ourselves. Maybe she figured she could use the money she got from selling the previous governor's jet because it was extravagant. Maybe she could use the money she saved by dismissing the governor's cook (remarking that she could cook for her
own family), giving back the State vehicle issued to her, maintaining that she already had a car, and dismissing her State provided security force (never
mentioning-I imagine-that she's packing heat herself). I'm still waiting to hear the names of those other governors.

"4- Now, even with her much-ridiculed "gosh and golly" mannerism, she also managed to put together a totally new approach to getting a natural gas pipeline built which will be the biggest private construction project in the history of North America. No one else could do it although they tried. If that doesn't impress you, then you're trying too hard to be unimpressed while watching her do things like this while
baking up a batch of brownies with her other hand.

"5- For 30 years, Exxon held a lease to do exploratory drilling at a place called Point Thompson. They made excuses the entire time why they couldn't start drilling. In truth they were holding it like an investment. No governor for 30 years could make them get started. This summer, she told them she was revoking their lease and kicking them out. They protested and threatened court action. She shrugged and reminded them that she knew the way to the court house. Alaska won again.

"6- President Obama wants the nation to be on 25% renewable resources for electricity by 2025. Sarah went to the legislature and submitted her plan for Alaska to be at 50% renewables by 2025. We are already at 25%. I can give you more specifics about things done, as opposed to style and persona . Everybody wants to be cool, sound cool, look cool. But that's just a cover-up. I'm still waiting to hear from liberals the names of other governors who can match what mine has done in two and a half years. I won't be holding my breath.

"By the way, she was content to to return to AK after the national election and go to work, but the haters wouldn't let her. Now these adolescent screechers are obviously not scuba divers. And no one ever told them what happens when you continually jab and pester a barracuda. Without warning, it will spin around and tear your face off. Shoulda known better."

Summary for Anchorage Fire Service Conference 9/26/09

WHO WE ARE
The world is constantly changing. Hemingway died and was replaced by dweebs. Steinbeck is patronized by men of no substance who run their lives by bluster and bluff. Profound thoughts are replaced by trite quips. The old jazz geniuses have been replaced by techno back-ups and their solos are technically perfect but have no soul. The vision is that all problems can be solved by a system or a process. That's an illusion of the collective mind.

Here are the things that never change: The people in you city have placed a trust in you. You defend them by whatever eans you have; whether it's on the streets, the back country, the changers of your city council, or the legislative halls of your capital. This country's fire/rescue service have been doing its thing for 275 years. Our toys have improved, but nobody can improve upon who we are. You know, you can follow mankind's bloody footprints from the caves to the settling dust of the Twin Towers and not find much that speaks well of human nature. Yet you can visit a fire station and note the character of those who will not stoically watch the suffering of others, whill not turn a deaf ear to their needs. And even though the media may electronically inject into our brains the sights of Ground Zero, one can look inside any fire station and see 275 years of a steady, increasing testimony of what's good in man.

If people cannot depend fully on their fire service, then nothing is sacred. Remember, if a tragic event puts your neighbor up against the wall...go get him. That's who you are.

Back to Cordova

Just a couple of brief announcements: October 16th I will be back in Cordova teaching "Leadership" at the fire department there for their Officer's course. Put the beer on ice.... Also, as soon as the "Foreign Xchange" concert is over at the Atwood Concert Hall, Rod Masters and Frank Iarossi (they're playing there, too) and I will get back to work on my new CD. Now I'm starting to worry that it might not be done by Christmas. We'll try....Since the O'Brien's Response Group needed me to re-cert my hazwopper training for my contract with them, I found an online course (resonably priced) that you emergency responders out there might be interested in checking out. I doubt that it is the only one, but it met my needs. It's OSHA compliant and is at Safety Unlimited, Inc.
And if you folks are heading for the Alaska Firefighters and Fire Chiefs conference this year, I'll see you all there (the week of September 21st). Stay safe and keep your wits about you out there. Remember, two California firefighters were just killed.

NEXT APPEARANCE

Because of the massive amount of events in downtown Anchorage for the 4th of July, Eagle River will be conducting it's events on the 3rd. Included in that will be an open-air concert starting at 8:00 pm at the Lion's Park. I will be playing sax with the group which consists of musicians from numerous bands all around the Anchorage area: Eric Baldwin, Sean Braendal, Rachel Finley, Monica Lettner, Bob Parsons, Gary Lamar, Shawn Ruddy, and Lisa Johnstone. Most of us had never played together before and have been reheasing at the Anchorage Academy of Fine Arts theater. We want to thank the fine arts academy for hosting our rehearsals. And, by the way, if you've never been to the Academy's theater in downtown Eagle River (on the Old Glenn Highway), you need to check it out and the upcoming events there.

Russian American Singers

Leonid (Leo) Grinberg is a Russian-American, gritty blues singer that I was honored to accompany on "I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know". He was kind enough to allow me to include it on the CD I'm currently recording and hopefully will be released by late summer. I will be playing that number with him in a concert at the Anchorage Performing Arts Center September 12th. But, a couple of weeks ago, we performed that piece at a fundraiser for the Alaska Theater for Youth. Joining us on electric violin was Lena Lukina, a young Russian classical violinist who tore into the blues number with real soul. I know, they look pretty American to me, too.

Begich and Boggs Missing Plane

Last night (2/10/09) I saw on the History Channel, "Alaska's Bermuda Triangle" full coverage of the '72 disappearance of Congressman Nick Begich and Speaker of the House Hale Boggs on a flight from Anchorage to Juneau. I remember the sonic booms of the U.S. spy plane as it searched and photographed a good portion of Alaska. No trace was ever found. It must have been a year or so later that Alaska State Trooper Ron Cole called me over to his office in Cordova to ask me if my diving partner Don Endicott and I could dive on a spot near Hinchinbrook Island. He told me that a local pilot spotted what looked like a fuel slick coming up out of the water about a mile off the beach of Hinchinbrook Island. It's a place called Johnstone Point and is the site of an unmanned white alice navigation facility. Ron showed me that if a straight line were drawn from Anchorage to the Juneau via the normal flight path, it would cross right over Johnstone Point. The slick coming out of the water fell right on that line he drew. He said since no trace was ever found of the plane, perhaps it went into the water. Then, he assume, after a period of time, perhaps some seal in the fuel system finally eroded and the fuel came out. The chart showed the depth was about 600 feet, so I told him "no", we couldn't do it. I don't know if he had any other ideas about what to do, but I hadn't heard anything more about. In those days, most fathometers and sonars were not scanners as far as I know. Anyway, a few months ago, I ran in to Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich (Nick's son) and told him the story. Sooooo, if any of you out there in cyberland, knows where Ron Cole is now, could you let me know or have him contact at dewey1@mtaonline.net. I'd just like to know if there was any follow-up on that situation....Thanks.

Talked with Bridgett Sullivan

I was at a party at Rod Masters house News Year Day. Tons of other musicians were there; some I knew, some I didn't. Some of them had spent time in the orchestra pit of the Anchorage Performing Arts Center (PAC) playing for Evita and Jesus Christ Superstar and such. Bridgett Sullivan was there (Rod sees her every day because she played Evita and is in the next production as well) and we talked about Henry Mancini's "Dreamsville". I have the CD where she sings Lionel Hampton's "Midnight Sun", and I suggested she listen to Sarah Vaughan's arrangement (which I can give her). After I got home, I thought about the song "Early Autumn" which is true poetry with a haunting melody. Even though I wanted mostly up-tempo pieces on my CD, I'd like to have those two ballads on there as well in addition to my original "Copious Moping".
Also, at the party was another guy with a recording studio who said he will try to work up the percussions I want for some of my tunes. Musician's union president Joe D'Entrone was there and it turns out he has a taste for the same kind of poetry I do. He didn't remember me or that I gigged with him once downtown at a store opening a couple of years ago.

Tom Lambert's Christmas concert

Last Sunday, I went to the Wilda Marston Theater for Tom Lambert’s Christmas concert. Tom Lambert was at the grand piano, Liz Santoro on bass, Bill Barry on sax, I don’t know who the drummer was, blind guitarist Tony James was the guest musician, and vocalists were Bridget Sullivan and Elena Gonzales.

Tony James played a solo piece that just choked me up upon hearing some of the substitute chords he created. His wife said she sometimes does that too. I also asked him if he knew any bass players that can play a slapping electric bass for a new arrangement of a piece I’m going to record (Joe Levey’s “Cool Daddy Joe”). He knew one from years ago but couldn’t remember his name. Later, when I asked Tom, he gave me the name of Carl Wilhelmi.

Bridgett Sullivan’s vocals were crisp, and ringing as Sunday bells. Elena Gonzales’ tone, was deeper and smokey. She maintains surprising control singing at the lower end of her vocal range. When she sang one song in Spanish, she reminded me of Sade. I was chatting with her afterwards but never told her that since seeing her last August, I’d been planning to ask her to sing “Dreamsville” on my CD.

By the way, Tom is probably in Cuba right now. He told me he’d always wanted to go there and he’s been studying their rhythms for several weeks.

THE O'BRIEN'S GROUP

An email from retired Achorage Fire Department's Dan Tucker was sent on behalf of The O'Brien's Group (TOB), headquartered in Houston, Texas. They are in search of disaster managers for mobile overhead teams. They are a contract service that provides teams of emergency managers to respond to major emergencies, provide training and drills related to homeland security, and consulting services for vessel security and many other related services. Dan and I had co-taught firefighting in the past and he was a student in when I instructed some increments of shipboard firefighting for Hildebrand and Noll Associates (haz mat specialists from Port Republic, MD). I called Dan and he put me in touch with Kristina O'Connor who is managing the Alaska office for the O'Brien Group. She and I will be having lunch Dec 4th to talk about what TOB is looking for. I'll let you all know what I find out. I do know that one of the local TOB guys went to Russia last year to test their response capabilities to incidents on their oil pipeline. As an aside, retired fire chief Mike Dolph and I nearly got the contract to go to Russia's Sakalan Island to teach firefighting to crews of their off-shore oil rigs. We were underbid by a couple of Texans. Hmmm? I wonder if there's a connection there?

Last Night's Poetry Reading

Attendance at last night’s Poetry Parley at the “Out North” theatre surpassed coordinator Jon Minton’s expectations. There were no empty seats there. When I first got there (early), as requested, I said “hello” to sound technician Tom Higgins from Rod Masters. Rod played there in the past and found Tom to be talented and helpful. Rod is still resting up from his gig at the Performing Arts Center orchestra pit for “Evita” . During the first part of the program, the readings of Poe, I met and sat with Peter Porco who I learned just retired from the Anchorage Daily News (ADN) and is now teaching at UAA. He recognized my name but couldn’t remember why until I mentioned my fire/rescue career in Cordova. As it turns out, as a reporter for ADN he joined Jill Fredston in traveling to Cordova to report on the mile 5 avalanche and fatality which both Jill and I wrote about in our books. I learned that Peter originates from the Bronx, which got me talking about Joe Levey. Joe was my best friend for 10 years, and really good trumpet player. I told Peter the story about Joe, his heroin addition, prison time for bank robbery, connections with some of the Gambino guys and such. Porco suggested I write more about Joe in my next book. I’d thought about writing more details in my current book but didn’t want to piss off his NYC, or Honolulu connections. Those guys get kinda cranky.

I managed to get through my readings of “The Sailor and The Whore”, “Uncle Russ”, and “Genesis on a Book Shelf”, even though I was hit with a sudden attack of laryngitis. I’d like to urge my firefighter friends and musician friends to start attending those readings. A little culture wouldn’t kill ya.

Oct 15 Reading from "Lazarus"

I'll be reading my poetry on Oct 15th at the Out North theater on DeBarr near Bragaw Street. I'll be reading from "Lazarus on a Spur Line". The Poetry Parley on the works of Poe starts at 7:00 pm. I'll be on after that. By the way, you might want to check out the Tony Award winning HBO Def Poetry Jam Slam Poet Georgia Me ("Queen of Spoken Word") the week before on October 6th. And the following month, on Novemeber 1st, check out Rafael Casal. See their entire schedule, visit the Out North website
Dewey

Fire Service Conference, Juneau, Alaska

After 5 days in Juneau (and nights), I dragged back to Eagle River remembering why I love the fire service. I want to thank all the firefighters and fire officers who attended my classes of disaster response and recovery. The material was taken right out of my book, "Fire and Ice", which many of you purchased. I hope you enjoy the rest of the book and I'm sure I'll see some of you for my classes at the EMS Symposium November 12-15. By the way, everyone is still talking about the speech made by Chief Bobby Halton (ret.) the Editor in Chief of Fire Engineering Magazine.

Rumrunners

Last night (Sunday) I popped in at downtown at 4th and E Street to check out the jam. Tony James was on guitar--the master--, Joe Eunice on bass, and our own (from Matt Hammers band) John Nyman on drums. Incidentally, I learned that John writes articles for a drum magazine. I sat with Mike the German (I can't remember his last name). Then, in walks Texas Jimmy D. Next in came Tony Brown. After that, Steve the flutist (can't can't remember his last name either. Sitting at the table next to me was someone I'd never met; Teddy Butcher, a seventy-ish veteran sax man.

The acoustics were great, the atmosphere was dark, candles on the tables, the whole thing. Tony James played and sang the full range from B.B. King and Ray Charles to jazz pieces like "Caravan" and "On Green Dolphin Street". Learning and memorizing such a wide range of music has to be tough for someone who can see and read music. The task is monumental for a blind guy. He played chords that he should have pattented. His riffs spewed out about mach-5. German Mike got up and played some blues and has really grown in the last year or so. Jimmy D got up for his usual driving texas-swing style like "Route 66". Then some studious-looking young Italian guy got up on guitar. I'd never heard anything like it. His name is Nick and he plays the dinner gig at Sullivan's around the corner. As soon as he's done he walks over to Rumrunners and floors everybody. He hales from Alaska but studied at Berklee music school in Boston. I'm taking my horn next week and so is Teddy Butcher. See you there.

"Emotionally Disturbed"

Did you hear that Stu Schulman's new CD "Emotionally Disturbed" is done and ready for sale? It's $15 bucks (apparantly Stu met someone who actually has 15 bucks) and is available initially through Surreal Studios. Can't wait to hear it. The first time I gigged with Stu, during a lull, he started playing "Over the Rainbow" on peddle steel. I joined in on tenor, and it was haunting. Congratulations, Stu.
Dewey

Alaska State Fair Gig

Last night at the State Fair’s “Sluice Box” the Matt Hammer Band scored a knock-out. We played for 2 hours and rocked the house. On stage was Matt Hammer, Lona, John Nyman (drums), Frank Iarossi (bass), Stu Schulman (pedal steel), Doc Schultz, Ed Christiansen (lead gtr). Not there from the recording sessions of Surreal Sessions were Kurt Rieman (organ), Mike Merrill (tenor sax), Kyle Stersic (alto sax),and Paul Schlomer (harmonica). I noticed Matt’s daughter snapping some photos but I don’t know if they will make it onto his website or not.

Poetry Gig

I'd been searching for poetry readings around Anchorage and couldn't find any, even after contacting Leo Josey aka "Black Verb", a local poetry slam coordinator. Then I found "Out North" on DeBarr road and went there last Wednesday (8/6/08). The "Poetry Parley" featured numerous readings of e.e. cummings' work. Jon Minton put it together. After about 45 minutes of cummings, Faye Sikora got up to finish off the evening. Faye is a prize-winning slam poet and is connected to the local production group "Speak Easy", a spoken arts outfit that--as it turns out--performs Sundays at the House of Rock (used to be Fly-By-Night Club) in Spendard. But here's whats cool, Out North will hoste the Poetry Parley once a month and also the Poetry Slams once a month. For more information email poetryparley@gmail.com or platinumproductionsalaska@yahoo.com for the slam info. Or you can go to this website: mynameiswisdom.com

The Snow Goose Gig

Last night (7/24/08) the banquet room at the Snow Goose was filled with the musicians featured on Matt Hammer's new CD "Surreal Sessions", and a cadre of loyal Hammer fans for the CD release party. First, each number on the CD was performed live on the stage by the musicians who recorded those tracks. Unfortunately, saxophonists Mike Merrill and Kyle Stersic weren't able to attend, but it gave me a chance to play their solos on their pieces as well as my own on "San Diego Serenade". Kurt Rieman was there (owner of Surreal Recording Studio, and organist of the CD), but he only records and never plays live gigs. That was too bad, I'd love to see him play. Also, Paul Schlomer (harmonica) was absent and we hope he's feeling better soon. We all had a great time. The food was good, the cake was great, and the free-form last hour of music was a kick. Oh, if you weren't there, you missed a terrific drum solo by John Nyman. I noticed someone was shooting pictures of us and I imagine they'll eventually be posted on Matt's website (www.heymatt.com)

A real web log.

After writing my books, I had (have) material left over. So, I'll post some of the left-overs here along with a journal and new brain twitches. For insights and reviews of my books, and audio downloads, refer to my website: http://www.deweywhetsell.com and from there to my other 2 blogspots.
Contact me at dewey1@mtaonline.net

The Blue Ball (the one living dot)

Reading Simon Winchester’s A Crack In The Edge Of The World (Harper Perennial), about the ’06 San Francisco earthquake, he quoted Lewis Thomas regarding the view of the earth from the moon with the earth looking alive. Astronauts saw the moon they were standing on as “dry, pounded surface… dry as an old bone. Aloft, floating free beneath the moist gleaming, membrane of bright blue sky, is the rising earth, the only exuberant thing in this part of the cosmos…organized, self-contained look of a live creature.” Winchester himself described the planet as “one entire and immense system….It is a living system four and a half billion years old….meanwhile there is life, almost in global terms a brief irrelevance…the blue and green and white ball that was hanging in the ink black sky.”

In my poem Lazarus on a Spur Line I described the contrast between a deserted railroad train car, a rusting inanimate—lifeless—object, upon which, inexplicably, life begins to grow. The greatest mystery of all. But I’d never thought about that on such a cosmic scale as Thomas or Winchester.

The universe, the cosmos, I wonder which word describes the “out there” with the greatest immensity? Scientists have pondered what lies at the outer edge of the universe? One physicist says it doesn’t end. Can that be? If the universe is nothingness, then I suppose that nothingness doesn’t end, because if it did, it would have to end in something. What something? I mean, is there anything more nothing than space? Is there anything more dead, more silent, more cold, more black, more forlorn, more empty? Well…it’s not empty. There’s planets and stars. But look at the other planets—the ones we’ve been able to see. “Dry pounded surface…dry as an old bone.” Gray as concrete dust floating in the cold, silent, dead-black, black-dead, ghost-gray, dead body gray, mummy-dust they are. Yeah, certainly as far as the eye can see or Hubble can be, and maybe as far as far is, and is is forever. Except…except…what the bloody-hell is that? The one thing in that immenseness that never ends, the one thing that is not a star, yet glows; iridescent, luminescent, bright as first life…a baby’s smile…the blue ball…“…the blue and green and white ball hanging in it’s ink-black sky…one organized entire immense living system…with the self-contained look of a live creature…a gleaming membrane of bright blue sky, this rising earth…the only exuberant thing in this part of the cosmos.” One solitary, tiny ball suspended in eternal and endless nothingness. What are the odds? Join me for a drink, Laz?

Snapshots (of 34 years on the line)

When I began writing my 3^rd book, I started with some exercises based on my memories. I remarked to myself that people remember, not in epochs, but in snapshots. So I jotted down numerous snapshots. Then in the year it took me to write the book "Fire and Ice" I'd forgotten about my list of snapshots and never inserted them in the book. There's not enough to justify another book, but too dear to me to throw away like table scraps. So, I thought I'd put them here. These are some snapshot taken during my 34 years in firefighting, ambulance runs and search and rescue operations in Alaska. I'll lay them out like poetry….

Thirty-four years on the line pounds images
into random flashes of scenes in no order nor logic.
Mostly, we remember, not in epochs but in snapshots.
Sometimes I flip through these snapshots after I turn off the light.

I've seen the ER doc absently brush chunks of vomit off her smock at three a.m.
as the bleary-eyed medics stood like numb statues,
the snow flakes melting on their jackets.

Huddled in the lee of boulders barely big enough
to offer protection against the moaning wind.

I've stood in front of the crowded Saturday night sidewalks
as our medics picked him foul and witless from the pavement.
Sympathetic Joanie; sober and meticulous Vicki; amused Kyle;
backdropped by the jovially bellowing crowd

Joanie always saw the best in everyone,
always had a kind and uplifting comment for the least of us.
And she meant them.
Regarding others, for her the glass was always half full and filling up fast.

Vicki, the captain, would be the last to seek peer approval.
She was straight forward and never bothered seeking homogenized words.
She laughed readily or spit out admonishments whenever needed.

A simple, early-evening house fire.
Gently blowing curtains of gray smoke
wisping through the sidewalk crowd –
silent people with handkerchiefs to their noses.

A rescue operation in the dead of winter
and the fog of exhaled breaths puffing in the moonlight
while everyone else in town slept

The father of a dead child can't absorb the finality of it,
clutches the child's shoe and can't let go

Young people committing suicide….
No – too sterile
Young people killing themselves.

Firefighters at night: Red flashing lights flickering against greasy faces;
streams of rain water running off helmet brims and
Glistening on the black coats under the stark lights of the fire engines.
Looking up at the streaks of rain cutting through the harsh street lights.

The middle-aged transient man who lived his life alone,
found dead in his bed, looking like an over-inflated rubber doll.
He was swollen and dark, completely naked
except for the white glove on his right hand.
We strangers had to move him.
His final humiliation.

The silent and beaten crew at the fire station, drinking beer,
glances at me because I'm supposed to say something,
but I'm too beaten to think.
Our most veteran member says, "God decides who lives and dies. You don't."
and puts an end to it.

Jammin' at Eagle River's "NORTH SLOPE"

Not only is Thursday an odd day for jam sessions, but jammin' with a horn section is really odd nowdays. And if I had a photo of Kyle on alto sax or Steve on flute, I'd post them, too. But as it is, here's what I've got: On the left (bari sax) is Eli who drives all the way in from Girdwood. Mike (center) on tenor...he owns the place. That's why I always make sure his solos are better than mine. That's me on the right...I'm up to bat. Matt Hammer runs the jam (thats him in the sidebar...the back of his nw CD. In total, a dozen or so musicians shake the timbers on jam night. Soooooo, if you're ever in the area (Eagle River, Alaska), stop by for some rock, jazz, blues, and country.

Listening to Rock n Roll reminds me of what PhD Morris Massey said about the ‘60s advertising promotion of the Ford Mustang: “Mustang makes it happen.” Everybody went out and bought Mustangs, then sat around and waited for something to happen. Nothing did. I’ve always liked Rock n Roll but the drive and tone leads people to think that something exciting is about to happen. People bounce around for 3 minutes, getting excited, at the end of the song, they stop and look around. But nothing’s happened. It’s musical accompaniment to inconsequential movement. That’s fine with me, but I think it’s funny.Now, jazz, although early on was based on the tempo and rhythm, later became food for the connoisseur of tones, chords and spontaneous creativity. Phil Gleason said watching a jazz musician improvise is like watching a poet compose a poem right in front of a crowd. Whatever he creates on the spot, he delivers with no chance of revising it. What you hear is what he invented the second you heard it, with no chance to correct mistakes. The entertainment of jazz is in watching the craftsman create and deliver the variations of phrasings.

In the late 60’s it became synonymous with the intellectual – mystical in it’s depth…peeing into the soul. Well over-dramatized. But many art forms, accredited with deep introspection created awe in spectators. Authors from Tennessee Williams to Jack Kaorak donned facial expressions and postures of world-weary wisdom. Well, why not? I feel nostalgic thinking back on those days. Hemingway was an icon, the act of writing was revered, peering into the soul of man now days is clinical and cynical. Miles Davis and John Coltrane were Ayatollahs of a music form that kept people spell-bound. Listeners hung on every note. Two or four bar phrasings were composed like lines of poetry. The tone, texture, volume, and attitude of the musician were like reading the lines aloud. The music itself spawned poetry and painting. Album covers like Mancini’s “Peter Gunn”, or a Getz/Bryd album sported paintings.

The works of composers that have survived for four hundred years, the classical works, have been studied and performed all these centuries are listened to with reverence. But listening to one pianist playing a Beethoven piece, is not much different than listening to another pianist playing the same piece. It has occurred to me that it is the mastery of finger dexterity rather than creativity: Mechanical repetition leading to duplication. On the other hand, the Modern Jazz Quartet, played Bach in an entirely unique way. With a classical orchestra they played it through completely. Then the orchestra backed away while the MJQ improvised spontaneously, meticulously running riffs over the chord changes until it was time for the orchestra to join in again to play it as written again. One jazz pianist was caught playing classical pieces one afternoon in the night club he’d been performing at. He said he did it to practice. I have a CD with jazz flutist Hubert Laws playing Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. Not so rare. Now hearing a classical musician play jazz, well, that would be an oddity.

PAULIE WALNUTS AND THE CAT

Tony “T” Soprano is the head of the New Jersey mafia family. His enforcer is Paulie Walnuts. Paulie’s been around a while and was the enforcer for the previous family boss, Tony’s dad. So now Paulie is in his sixties but tries to keep in shape by lifting weights. Paulie was the toughest member there even when shooting an old colleague and friend “Big Pussy”.
Well, some of the guys from Tony’s crew sort of adopted an orange cat that they found and the cat hangs around the office which is a back room of the strip club, Bada Bing. But in the office the orange cat sits motionless on the table staring at the wall-mounted photo of recently deceased gang member, Christopher.It gives Paulie the creeps who, at one point, was going to chase it away with a broom. The photo was moved, and the cat stood at the new location and stared at it.
Near the end of the episode, Paulie in near panic reveals to ”T” (while they sat at the sidewalk table in the sun) that when he (Paulie) went to meet a guy in the wee hours at the deserted Bada Bing, he swears he saw—for just a second—the Virgin Mary in there. Paulie had previously been humbled having barely survived prostate cancer. He reveals now his ominous feeling of doom when the cat is around. He’s certain that with his murderous past, his afterlife will be really fucked. Anyway, “T” doesn’t get it, and just blows it off. Paulie suspects the cat knows something that no one else knows. The cat follows him around whenever it isn’t staring at the photo of dead Chris.



You’ve been falling apart lately, Paulie Walnuts.
Being the same age, I understand.
But ‘dis takes the fockin’ cake.
Aw, Paulie…Christopher’s cat visits Chris’s distant dimension,
But straddles the space to yours.
And even if nobody else knows who he is,
you do.

But you can’t scat the cat with your broom.
He, in his omnipotence, is not the devil.
You see, the devil is an evil creature;
But this cat’s not that personal.
He is merely death
Indifferent
And patient
And certain
And did I mention patient?

Well, if that ain’t enough to unmake a made guy,
how about seeing the Virgin Mary in a deserted titty bar?
Hell, I’d fall apart, too.

But I know where you’re coming from:
When you look up and see that
there’s more behind you than in front of you, and
see you cannot dictate how the game will end.
Your prostate heralds your fortress crumbling,
You sense worms breeching the walls.
Your pumping iron makes rusty sounds
in your yellowing years.
I can see more scalp through your pompadour.
Cold fear slowly cinches your throat, you start freezing up.
You were immortal in your strength when you shot Big Pussy, you big pussy.

Now humbled and hugless, creaking under the weight of your foreboding,
distant “T” cannot grasp the depth of your dread.
Your Brando eye-flick of fear asked father “T” to
repair your falling fortress with his godfatherliness.
Then you sighed resigned to his inadequacy

Death approaches on cats paws and snuggles…
snuggles the sidewalk sun, patient in his orange eyes.
Perhaps the cat’s like me; of them all, you were my favorite.
Perhaps it’s small comfort to know, Paulie,
we’re all afraid of cats.

I was thinking, maybe the Virgin came to tell you
That God bestows his love even unto pricks.
Scamper back to ‘da Bing
And don’t forget your rosary.
It may not be too late for you
To get unfucked.

DARWINISM

Ben Stein produced a movie "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" lamenting how teachers who teach creationism face termination in high schools and universities. Then he created a blog where folks could comment on the movie's content. I was told about it and read it. Holy shit. These two side really hate one another. Religious fundamentalists are nuts and Darwinists and smug and condescending (and generally not that well informed). So naturally, I had to put my 2 cents worth in. Either people have grown tired of Steins blog and no longer read it, or those that do don't want to comment on my statements, which follows...........

I don’t want to detract from Darwin’s massive achievement for a guy in his twenties. But one has to be realistic. It ain’t an all-or-nothing deal here. Darwin rushed through his Origin of Species to beat other writers to the publishers. He maintained that Origin of Species was in effect meant to be a draft and that any problems with it would be ironed out later. I’m not familiar with his Descent of Man, but I do know that evolutionists took Origin of Species and ran with it.

One of Darwin’s contemporaries, highly-regarded anthropologists Alfred Russell Wallace, wrote an article challenging Darwin’s theory of Natural Selection. When Darwin read it, he just about crapped his pants. But he couldn’t answer Wallace’s biggest question. Darwin’s opinion was that natives of tropical archipelagos were less advanced on the evolutionary scale than European whites. He maintained that they were mentally inferior. Wallace, after studying these natives first hand, asserted their brains were not less developed than European whites. Now, pay attention. Natural Selection has maintained that any living creature or organism will advance, mutate, improve, or evolve only as much as necessary to be able to just survive…not one iota more. The creature or organ is prodded into that change by its surrounding environment. Adjust or die. But Wallace demonstrated that the mentality of these “jungle savages” were developed beyond the needed capacity. They had the mental capacity even though their surroundings did not require such mental capacity for them to survive in warmer, more friendly climates. And that was one of the strongest arguments against Darwin’s theory of Natural Selection. Wallace asked “How then was an organ developed so far beyond the needs of its possessor?” Darwin could not explain. He just stabbed his pen into Wallace’s article and scrawled “NO”. Well, 150 years have passed and Jared Diamond wrote “Guns, Germs, and Steel” and got the ’98 Pultizer Prize for his hugely popular anthropological research book which absolute affirmed what Alfred Wallace maintained.

As an aside, and in line with what Ben Stein maintains, Darwin’s Natural Selection gave Darwin a “favorite son” status among the European governments and their wealthiest citizens. It provided “indisputable scientific evidence” that non-whites of undeveloped regions were sub-human. That justified European dominance over these other countries, It was natural to put a white jacket on a little black man, have him serve you tea and call you “Massa” or “Bwana”, while you called this man “Boy”.

Anyway, back to the topic. Not only was Wallace more astute than Darwin in this one example, and Wallace’s view affirmed a century and a half later by Jared Diamond, there were other scientific contradictions to Darwin’s Natural Selection. However, I’ve searched through my library for the story of the “Sphex Wasp”, but I can’t find it. But I’ll just say that Darwin had many friends and friendly colleagues that brought studies to his attention that were contrary to his theory. His inability to rectify these contradictions bothered him. He was not an arrogant fellow. He was less authoritarian, and less smug about his research than most of his proponents today. Now, if high school and college teachers who insist on teaching Darwinism are not familiar with these issues, then they are not qualified to be teaching this topic.

Since I’m getting tired of writing about this, I won’t go into some really fascinating stuff about--according to paleontologists--how the human head (it’s current size and larger brain capacity) seemed to appear almost over-night.

It’s too bad that our brains operate under this crippling principle of antithesis (If “A” is true, then “non-A” must be false). That’s the same principle that computers operate with and look at how infuriating they are. Actually the ancient Greek philosophers touted it like it was some kind law, where it became known as “Aristotle’s Law of Non-Contradiction.” Too bad he wasn’t forced to drink hemlock, too. But because of these principles, the issue has become “either Darwin is right, or the creationists are….period”. The Fallen Angle vs. The Risen Ape. “Let’s get ready to rumbllllle!”

Ben Stein is right. There is a real danger that accompanies the arrogance found in the scientific community: When science becomes an authoritarian institution with curious puritanical overtones. Don’t get me wrong…if it weren’t for those people with scientific tendencies, you’d be reading this in some cave somewhere while freezing your ass off. As a species, we abhor the inexplainable. As a species, we cannot resist the compulsion to self-examine. But in doing so, we reduce man to a machine, made of lots of little component parts. The next step of course is to tinker. Tinkering is okay. Tinker away cancer the way small pox was tinkered away. Great. But if you come to believe that Man is nothing more than the sum total of the chemical components that make up his body, then you’re missing the point; a really big point about this “upright heaven-facing speaker.”

PROFIILE

From a factory worker in the town of Muncie, Indiana, to R'nB saxophonist, through a stretch in the military and a 30-year career in the fire service, I have been an avid reader of poetry and philosophy. I moved to Alaska in 1965 and am now settled in the Anchorage area. I teach fire service related topics around the state, play with my jazz band, and--of course--write. I have been a lecturer and public speaker for over 20 years, and have been influenced most by poets Dylan Thomas and Thomas Hardy. My favorite philosophical writings come from the pens of Dr. Francis Schaeffer and Loren Eiseley.