Tripping

It is funny to me when I hear the phrase "I'm trippin'" and the people aren't trippin' at all , in fact they are really straight guys using drug codes . It is amazing to me how so much drug and jail vernacular has infiltrated the every day language of the straight folks , the hard workin' Christian folks , as if the rest of the world is just sitting on their thumbs . The politicians have played this phrase so often so, bitterly often , almost like the phrase "The silent majority" which represented the people supposedly backing the Viet Nam War ,or whatever the the Nixon administration was pushing . we have gotten so used to spin that we , as a people , can't see what anything means anymore . But " I'm Trippin' " . Yea right !

I looked around Facebook and didn't see any music from the musicians so I deleted my posts , my links , my music . It is nice that I feel rich enough to give away my efforts but , gee, if I am a sore thumb , why stick out ? No, I am withdrawing . I remember having a friend . My friend said, "Don't betray yourself ." He also told me not to apologise for being human and exposing my tears as well as my joy . He was the one who said , "Don't be let down by the lack of response on the Internet ,most people just don't have anything to say ." I know that some people hunt and peck but , then again , I know that some people have no problem typing , they just really don't have anything to say . It is a mystery to me when I look in the mirror as I am driving and there is a car five feet behind me with a driver who is rapt in conversation on the cell phone . I have to wonder , "Is this one of the people with something to say ?" "Why does he have to be so close behind me ?" It is like Moby Dick driving behind me and beckoning in a way from my mirror at sixty miles an hour . With all the tools , the Internet , the cell phone , and the familiar vernacular from jail and drugs , I am fooled into thinking that there are other people who understand something about anything other than the party line and I forget that I am in Washington DC , another version of Hollywood . Is there anything real here at all ?

Last week I remembered a joy of singing , of playing , of being alive . My expression of the recognition fell on the pavement like an executive in the crash of 1929 . Maybe the garage bands still have some semblance of joy , maybe not . A lot of the bands really were just copying what was already done , performing in public the material of other bands . A lot of the bands just did the same show night after night even though the show was original . I mean playing the same tune over and over again and all it became was money , a job . Some people think this was adulthood . How many times have I heard the phrase , "Well, I used to play but , you know , I have a family ..." Was this an excuse or and explanation for the lack of commitment or the lack of joy , or the lack of actual ability ? I don't know . I do know that when I send a message and get no response to the message , it reminds me of my friends warning and the "Adult" nature of what became of the musicians , the pseudo artist who went into work , hammering away , with all the tools and no soul . I don't mean soul in the sense of "Soul music" or the vernacular where now only black people can use the word , another jailhouse , drug phrase that is watered down , I mean " Where is the beef?" Where is the essence of the craft of Bach , of Stravinsky , of Charlie Parker , Dizzy Gillespie , and the call that brought the modern musicians into playing in the first place ?

We are faced with irony . Wynton Marsalis is Mr. Jazz and the guy doesn't even swing . He is the darling trumpet player in the same tradition of Chet Baker , Miles Davis , and Freddy Hubbard , used by Columbia and eventually set aside for another darling . Marsalis can spout lies and bigotry and be respected in the world of spin . After all he is Black , that makes it all OK , right ? He does play classical trumpet too, doesn't he ? Wait a minute ! The guy doesn't swing ! The emperor has no clothes ! Marsalis is just the tip of the iceberg. It is like blaming the entire economic crisis on "AIG" . "AIG" is only part of the whole . We , as a people have sanctioned the entire climate that brought about a decline . We have accepted "Spin" ,lies as a way of life.

I saw a comment on "Youtube" yesterday as I visited an old video of Frank Sinatra singing . The comment below the video included "Sinatra was the most over-rated singer ...." . This smug remark might be an opinion or it might be someone trying to be accepted in a climate where it has become fashionable to criticize ,Ala MTV ,and not recognise.Seeing this remark reminded me of Sinatra with the Tommy Dorsey band traveling the country in one night stands , a way of life that wasn't easy. Musicians used to make a living in this country . We moved from town to town and not just the big acts . It occurred to me that while Sinatra's singing might have changed , especially at the end of his life , he still was a character that was interesting to a generation because he was among those who were subjected to public scrutiny ,living his life in the camera , revealing his talents and flaws . Still it seemed easier to criticize Sinatra than Marsalis . Marsalis has defenders who spout the party line like a Jehovah's Witness at the door , like ditto heads for Limbaugh . Where is the beef? What happened to the essence of American music ? Where is the soul ?

We have accepted music as a contest on television , a contest that has commercials , a corrupt contest that smugly says "This poetry is not as good as that poetry because it doesn't sell soap as well ." So the sacred cow of capitalism is now running the entire show . A singer can't be a singer and sing the melody written by the composer , the singer must add the current appoggiatura , sometimes entire phrases that are not the melody . The current Southern Baptist Church cliches were fun when Ray Charles introduced them into popular music 1956 but now they are monsters , evil monsters , embellishments added and endorsed by capitalism and not art . Art was never a contest like football . A contest with all the people singing loud ,emotional high notes doesn't show a culture that is aware of the the variations necessary to create art . Music is soft and loud , joy and sadness as is life . It can be a painting , a depiction of the experience of the artist . It isn't going through the motions , showing up for work , using the current appoggiatura, or what the sponsor directs . Art exist because it has to exist not because it is told to exist or because an audience is directed to recognise that it exist . The sacred cow is naked . Capitalism has brought us to the current lack of charm , the current economic crisis , and the illusion of popular art . Greed wasn't the catalyst of the troubadours yet the troubadour brought changes in society like the idea of choosing ones own mate or marrying for love . This concept wasn't a universal quest . The poetry brought forth the question of the possibility to an entire world . The church may have supported organist and composers but it never supported questions . The current church of Capitalism also doesn't support questions in fact what it endorses and supports is conformity and acceptance in favor of the product .

The Emperor is naked ! Doesn't he know? He might be busy on the cell or texting a message even though he really doesn't have anything to say . Maybe he's just "Trippin" .