George’s Blog

Hi All:

09-12-15

Well, the stuff is now at least organized.  Still all over the place, and I’ll deal with that as I go along, but at least it’s mostly accessible and organized.  The beach is within a five minute drive and Bro and I get down there about once a day to talk to the ocean, rain or shine.  So far there’s been about equal amounts of each, but I hear that’s unusual this time of year.  Luckily it’s warmed up enough that it is rain.

The sound of rain on the roof is a wonderful treat I haven’t heard much of since leaving Davis in 1978.  Comforting and reminiscent of the shelter of a close family when I was young,  I am so thankful for that era, especially when I hear so many others speak of troubled childhoods.  To all you parents out there: remember that that’s the most important job there is.  Providing a comfortable, loving, and safe home for your children to grow up in.  The most important job there is.  Do it well.

My internet connection sucks, so I’m still working on trying to resolve it.  

Merry Christmas to all those who celebrate it.  Happy Holidays to those who have only the holidays.  Work safely and happily to all those who have to work.

09-12-16

This morning I awoke with a political insight into what seems to me to have gone wrong in our democracy.  yesterday I was angered by the Senate’s having caved in on not only the public option but the extension of medicare to younger Americans.  As sometimes happens, overnight it occurred to me what the key problem is: The number isn’t 60.  It’s 40.

When did we get bamboozled into thinking otherwise?  The whole role of the filibuster has been reversed by the switch in emphasis that has, somehow, been allowed to take over the public discourse.  The onus is on the Republicans to get 40, not on the Democrats to get 60.  Thats a world of difference

When there had to be a vote of sixty to even consider the health bill about two weeks ago, I was dumbfounded.  When I was in student government years ago and learning about parliamentary procedure, it took someone who wanted to discuss an idea and  a second willing to hear it.  When did our psyches become adapted to the idea that you had to have a supermajority  approve having a discussion?  You used to need the supermajority to stop a debate, note to start it.  What’s going on here”

In a democracy, the onus for stopping a majority from exercising its will needs to be with the minority.  The pressure mustn’t be on the majority to get and then to retain sixty in order to avoid the minority stopping action. It must be on the minority to muster forty votes to stop the will of the majority from ruling.  That isn’t even right, and said that way makes it clear.  The need of forty votes is supposed to rest with those who wish to keep a debate going.  That vote happens over and over again until the debate is closed.  That’s where you have to hold your forty.  The vote to pass is supposed to take place after a debate, and almost never to be revisited.

The majority is supposed to need 50 % plus one.  The minority is supposed to loose.  That’s the idea of a democracy.  The majority is supposed to rule.

The situation as we now seem to perceive it will  sooner or later, bring this democracy down.  The obstruction of solutions supported by a majority is un-American and the existence of a provision to allow an incensed minority to halt the rule of the majority is there for an exceptional exercise of protection when the minority feels its rights are being trampled.  If it’s something they believe in strongly enough to filibuster about, then let them filibuster and lets see how long their moneyed interests will hold out in the face of a  national philosophy that says, “Wait a minute.  What happened to the rule of the majority?  Whats so wrong with 51%?”

The number isn’t 60. It’s 51, counting the Vice President.  Assuming it’s 60 is a formula for a dysfunctional government.

09-12-19

Forecast today was amusing.  How many different ways can you say, “Oh yeah, rain that day, too.”  (editor alert: how do you punctuate that last sentence?)

09-12-02 (69/88 F 23)

Hi All:

Still awaiting the change in weather in Tahoe; still denying the obvious turn it’s already taken.  Had hoped to make it through Christmas, but the forecast for snow this weekend seems to rule that out. 

This morning on the Wriiter’s Almanac, Garrison read a poem whose theme was that  we’re always on a parallel track through life with our destination.  So it is with me.  

So it is.

George

Hi Everyone:

This is my first entry since moving out of the West Way house.  I’m staying temporarily at Barb’s (my wife’s) house.  It’s a long story, and I, most of all, perhaps, am not qualified to tell it.  Suffice it to say that I won’t be here too long, for the primary impetus to move is my tendency to fall–an M.S. symptom–and the added complications that snow and ice contribute to the problem.  I have to get off the Hill during the winter.  If the prior trips are any indication, I’ll be much better about making entries in this blog while on the road.  I hope so, since I’ve gotten pretty lax lately.

Thanks to the many who came to the going away party almost three weeks ago.  I had a great time.  As expected then, I haven’t left the Hill yet; the plan is to wait until the snow drives me away and, although we’ve had two storms now,  and there’s snow on the ground, the streets melted clear after the first and I need every minute I can use to get all my stuff sorted.  In fact, this has to be a brief entry, because I have to deal with that, so I’ll just update you on how and where to reach me for the time being:  Main phone # 530.577.5818 (talk to the machine and wait a while for me to get to it, for I move slowly these days)  Cell # is 530.314.9548 (get no signal at Barbara’s, but hope to be able to use it much more as soon as I get going, currently expected to be before the next storm.  Mail address = P.O. box 7987, south lake Tahoe, CA 96158 (will be forwarded, so anticipate a long delay before response.

Namaste,

George

Every time I write these journal entries now, it seems it’s been longer since I last wrote. Garrison says “Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.” But he never seems to say what to do if it feels like you’ve already fallen down on even one of those. Keeping in touch ought to be the easiest to rectify, but if it includes admitting to a shortage of the others, even that can be difficult.

These occasional public journal entries hit a wall when I realized that, though I felt quite good about my analysis of the problem posed earlier, that capitalism is a ponzi scheme very like the booze letter I used to see at elementary school teacher’s rooms, I couldn’t suggest any way out of it.

By way of review, the booze letter I refer to was an exponential pyramid scheme that gave you 32 bottles of hard liquor for the investment of one, I think it was. The capitalistic ponzi scheme is one on the environment (see my journal entries of 1/18 and 1/29). Both scams insist on growth to drive them, and the growth that capitalism insists on eats up resources. I’ve encountered a lot of resistance to this observation, either in the fact of it, or the exclusivity of capitalism as carrying the trait. But what’s really stopped me from moving forward in these journals is the fact that I’ve failed utterly to come up with a suggestion as to how we might get out of the spiral. It seems like “not doing good work.”

The criticisms, however have worked to refine my thinking, and I can, at least, elaborate a bit more on the problem itself. I invite participation from the audience here, both via more critique of my points and, even more importantly, in suggesting ways we might get off this juggernaut with as little pain as possible.

Point one: The suggestion that other economic systems have the same flaw as capitalism set me to thinking. That may, in fact, be accurate. At least of all modern ones. Mother used to say “The desire for money is the root of all evil,” in some sort of individualized biblical quote that, since the original text apparently goes straight to money itself, conveyed the interesting aspect of her faith that said the interpretation of scripture was the bailiwick of each believer.

But I’m beginning to think it really is the money itself Read the rest of this entry »

March 27, 2009, written on Svanö (Swan Island) in Northern Sweden

Playing thirty-three gigs in twenty-five days is a personal record for concentrated performances within a short time period. The lifestyle of constant travel, meeting new people every day, and playing one or more concerts per day, all combined, gives me the firsthand experience of the lifestyle of a dedicated touring musician. There are positive and negative aspects to this lifestyle:

On the positive side, my technical musical fluency is as good as it has probably ever been. I don’t really have to warm up to play…I can simply pick up my instrument cold and play rifs that I would normally have to work up to over a period of hours or days of practice. For example, the guitarist, Max, and I have warmed up by playing Charlie Parker’s daunting composition, Donna Lee. I play it on clarinet, whereas I had previously played it only on sax. (Max’s father was a clarinetist, and Max used to play this tune with his father.) We joke about forming our own Charlie Parker “cover band” in our spare time. Otherwise, at sound check, I often play the Bach Solo Partita for Flute as my microphone test. I’m annoyed when I don’t get to finish playing it, Read the rest of this entry »

March 25, 2009

Written in the town of Strömsund, some six hours or so north of Stockholm

Through a referral by my Reno Swedish friend, I was given contact to the director of Stockholm’s famous Karolinska Institute’s medical library for historical texts. The Karolinska Institute is a research center that also houses the meeting that chooses the Nobel prize in medicine each year. Thus, it is one of Sweden’s premiere institutions, that is known for its research in healthcare. For collectors and experts in antiquarian books, its library of old medical texts, the Hagströmer Biblioteket, is recognized as one of the world’s best.

I met Owe (pronounced “uva”—long u) and Irene at a bus stop near Christian’s apartment. Together, we took the bus a short distance to the library. It is located in an unimposing three story building, which also houses the Karolinska faculty’s private social club. We entered the locked building, then went through another locked and alarmed door into the main library, and then finally through another locked door into the inner chamber which houses the most important historical books. It was like entering the inner sanctum of cathedral of sacred texts. Owe informed me that he had recently given a similar private tour to Bill Gates. So I was in good company.

It is impossible to speak of the library’s unique contents without explaining Owe’s incredible work as curator of the collection. The library would not exist in its present highly organized state without Owe’s efforts. The problem is that, even in the relatively generous financial state of Sweden, no one wants to invest in an old library. Most people (and institutions) prefer to invest in creating new, state of the art libraries. And so this historical library lies out of the way in a building set for demolition within the next couple of years. The future location of the library, as well as its eventual fate when Owe retires (he’s in his 70’s) is uncertain. I’ll address this challenge later in this blog.

I’ll give a necessarily brief description of my two-hour viewing of the library’s books. Read the rest of this entry »

Well, I’m not ready to leave the “Capitalism is a Ponzi Scheme on the Environment” theme yet, but the rigamarole around the AIG “bonuses” forces me to preempt that discussion to deal with the current popular obsession.
I’ve got to share my first reaction to this for, even though it has fatal flaws, I’m really tickled by the idea: Obama should “declare war on greed” and imprison the executives who show such excesses as “enemy combatants.” Send them to Guantanamo before it’s too late. Surely it wouldn’t be too bad to apply a little torture where it might at least have some deterrent effect.
But then again, no. That’s too much like the administration we just kicked out. Abuse of power on that order would deserve the kind of disarray amongst the Democratic ranks the AIG fiasco has fostered.
That disarray isn’t justified and it plays into Cheney-Bush-Rove-Limbaugh (CBRL)’s hands. Let me explain.
When I was in college I served on the Student Council at San Jose State College (as it was named then). It was my first experience with real political organization. The student party (there was only one) I joined was SPUR, which was an acronym for something. The surprising thing was how clearly SPUR was a training ground for future politicians. Many of my colleagues went on to major political office. SPUR gave me a novel insight into how the actual political world operates. Read the rest of this entry »

America has spawned many ex-patriots during the last fifty years. Perhaps the most famous among them were African-American musicians who left the US for Europe’s less racist environment. This blog is about an American military ex-patriot friend that I saw again for the first time in 37 years. I met him on my first visit to Sweden in 1970, when he had recently arrived in Stockholm after having gone AWOL (absent without leave) from the US army. During Mynta’s last year’s tour, I had found his name in a Swedish DVD phone directory, which contained all publicly listed phone numbers for the whole country. Such a publication is not so daunting for a country of only nine million people. I had surprised my old friend with my call, but we were unable to meet until this year.

During his basic US Army training in South Carolina and Tennessee, all new recruits had to have a Southern name. I’ll call him Billy Joe, since he prefers that I not use his actual name. However, I have permission to tell his story, which I want to tell, because it illuminates a lingering unresolved national wound from the Vietnam war.

Billy Joe was trained in helicopter maintenance, though he went on to work as a helicopter gunner as well as an infantry squad leader. He didn’t want to talk about the gory details Read the rest of this entry »

Just thought you all should know (courtesy of Pann).

We woke up on this initial day of the tour to a gray sky and snow flurries. But the time we left around ten, a couple of inches had accumulated. We first drove to Christian’s parents’ house to pick up the PA system, mic stands, a small stage for Fazal to sit on, etc. loading everything into the trailer. We were facing a three to four hour drive to the city of Karlstad to the west. Our percussionist, Sebastian took the wheel so that Christian could make phone calls during our journey.

Sebastian is in his thirties, the youngest and newest member of the band. Perhaps his youthful reflexes saved us from injury or worse. As we drove along the four lane highway as snow fell, we were passed by many cars who could drive faster that we could since we were pulling the trailer. One car almost caused an accident due to excessive speed on the snow-covered road. As he passed us, he totally lost control of his car, doing a 270-degree spin Read the rest of this entry »