to Bread and Circuses Saturday, February 4, 2012 @ 7:30PM
Courtesy of Abigail G. Richon
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Bread and Circuses Bistro
27 E. Chesapeake Avenue
Towson, MD 21286
410-337-5282
http://bandcbistro.com/
(For Ray's complete schedule, see http://www.rayjozwiak.com)
Now You Can Get RAY JOZWIAK-GONZO PIANO Ringtones for your Cell Phone Absolutely Free at: HYPERLINK "http://www.myxer.com/artist/14413289/" http://www.myxer.com/artist/14413289/
. . . or did EVERYBODY think that since insider trading is ILLEGAL, that members of Congress were NOT supposed to participate and should be, been and always be under particular scrutiny to guard against such a thing happening?????
A ban on insider trading by members of Congress cleared a key
procedural hurdle Monday in the Senate, moving toward final passage and a
House vote on similar legislation later next month. A bipartisan
group of senators voted 93 to 2 in favor of ending debate on the STOCK
Act, a piece of legislation meant to prohibit members of Congress, their
families and staff from using any information gleaned while working on
the Hill to execute stock transactions. The legislation 60 votes
to attain "cloture," or limit debate and move toward final passage. The
bill will be debated and amendments will be attached over the next week.
It's unclear when the final vote will occur.
The House version
will expand certain restrictions on insider trading to White House staff
and is also expected to create clear restrictions on members of
Congress making land deals using insider information. The House is
looking to move on that legislation within a month. "Leader Cantor plans to move an expanded version of the STOCK Act
through the House in February to make it clear that those in Congress
are subject to the same laws as everyone else," Laena Fallon, a
spokeswoman for Cantor's office told NBC. Fervor over insider
trading on Capitol Hill reached a peak last fall following the airing of
a "60 Minutes" segment questioning whether lawmakers including House
Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) made
investments based on their knowledge of legislative activity to which
they would be privy.
What do YOU think?
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Listening to the World Cafe radio program on NPR of pre-recorded interviews with George Martin, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr and playing Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
People frequently refer to artists, musical and otherwise as 'brilliant' or by some other such superlative; and that's fine, except that they and their listeners must remember that the 'brilliance' to which they refer is merely subjective.
George Martin, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr (also the late John Lennon and George Harrison) may be referred to by some as brilliant, and that's fine, but it is a superlative and it is subjective.
All these people are extremely gifted, talented and creative individuals who happened to exist at a specific period in time during which there existed one particular and specific music industry complete with technological and structural elements that were unique to that time and which all working together and interacting as a business and cultural influence produced and distributed the product that resulted from the interaction of all the aforementioned factors in one particular time and space.
It cannot be duplicated or replicated ever again.
It was indeed CREATIVE. But was it brilliant? Maybe. Maybe not. But it happened. And we have a record of the fruits of the labors of these unique creative individuals for our personal and professional gratification.
Do we still have brilliance, creativity, gifts, talents and creativity? Will we continue to recognize, appreciate and reward it? I can only hope so.
What do YOU think?
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. . . THE HELP . . . and thought about a lot of things. . . including
MINGUS!!!
(from http://www.jazzwax.com/2009/05/charles-mingus-fables-of-faubus.html)
Up until May 1959, no jazz composition recorded by Charles Mingus had
been ascontroversial or as
politically charged asFables
of Faubus. The song, first recorded 50 years ago this month on Mingus
Ah Um, was meant to be a condemnation of Arkansas governor Orval
Faubus. In 1957 Faubus had ordered the state's National Guard to prevent
the integration of Little Rock Central High School by nine
African-American teenagers. With the reissue of Mingus Ah Um
by Sony Legacy yesterday (along with Mingus Dynasty), I am
struck yet again by the boldness of Fables of Faubus' breathy,
lumbering indignation. [Photo of Charles Mingus in 1959 by Lee
Friedlander]
Along with Sonny Rollins' Freedom Suite in
1958, Mingus' composition courageously raised the ante among jazz
artists, insisting they become creative agitators for change rather than
just concerned bystanders. Interestingly, Louis Armstrong played a
role. I spoke to Nat Hentoff and Sue Mingus yesterday about the
significance of Fables of Faubus and the Civil Rights Movement.
More from them in a moment.
Contrary to most fans' impressions,
Mingus wasn't a political protester, per se. He was first and foremost a
composer who was vocal from the bandstand about all things unfair and
unjust—from noisy ice in glasses to Jim Crow. As Mingus told Brian
Priestley in Mingus: A Critical Biography:
"I just write tunes and
put political titles on them. Fables of Faubus was different,
though—I wrote that because I wanted to."
More than a year after Mingus
Ah Um, Mingus recorded the Original Fables of
Faubus onCharles Mingus
Presents Charles Mingus (Candid Records), this time with a brazen
set of lyrics. The words were talk-sung by Mingus and shouted by drummer
Dannie Richmond and other band members, who function as a Greek chorus
ferociously condemning racism and racists.
Why the song's lyrics
weren't recorded the first time around on Mingus Ah Um isn't
clear. Most likely the omission came at the behest of Columbia
executives, who at the time didn't want to overly inflame the label's
Southern markets. Writes Gene Santoro in Myself When I Am Real: The
Life and Music of Charles Mingus:
"[The group recorded] Fables of Faubus,
but Columbia, Mingus said, wouldn't let them record the lyrics."
When
Mingus wrote the song in late 1957, the Little Rock standoff had been
the most shocking and dramatic episode to take place in the Civil
Rights Movement. The event marked the first time that Southern racism
was exposed on network television, and the news story unfolded slowly in
September 1957. The sight of armed National Guard soldiers preventing
nine students from attending a public school and the federal
government's slow reaction was harrowing. The month-long televised drama
deeply affected jazz musicians and people throughout the country who
had heard about unjust conditions in the South but had never seen them
in action.
Ultimately, the Justice Department sought and was
granted an injunction against Faubus' order, and the governor had to withdraw National
Guard troops. But the move offered little protection for the students or
assurance that the community wouldn't riot or bar them from the school.
So on September 24th—20 days after the incident's start—President
Eisenhower finally federalized the Arkansas National Guard and sent the
army's 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock enforce integration and
safeguard the African-American students.
To gain insight into
Mingus' strident recording of Original Fables of Faubus in
1960, I spoke briefly yesterday with Nat Hentoff, who produced the
Candid session:
"The
Little Rock standoff in 1957 had been extraordinary. The Supreme Court's
decision three years earlier [Brown v. Board of Education] had made
integration possible. The decision was unanimous and had been signed
individually by each justice. Never before had that happened. Little
Rock was an attempt to put the decision to test.
"During the Little Rock
standoff, President Eisenhower dragged his feet, which angered Louis
Armstrong. Louis made uncharacteristically heated comments about
Eisenhower during a newspaper interview that belied his cheery
disposition. I'm sure his unrestrained public statement partly motivated
Mingus to write Fables of Faubus. Louis simply said what many
in the jazz community were thinking and feeling at the time.
"I remember the recording
session. I think I sent out for sandwiches and that's about it [laughs].
You didn't have to manage a Mingus session. The lyrics? They didn't
seem controversial to me. They were as natural as sunlight.
"The
one thing about [Candid owner] Archie Bleyer is I never knew what he
thought about any of the recordings we made. He never interfered and he
stood by his word. I had total freedom, and I approached the Mingus date
with that frame of mind.". . . .
What do YOU think?
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(from John Shelby Spong.com)
"We reference Jesus because he is the life in which this God
experience has come to us. It is only institutional religion that
interprets this experience as a solitary one. Jesus is the way to God
for me, but I will never say that he is the only way to God. That would
be to claim more than I am competent to claim. I cannot force the Holy
God to live within the boundaries of my limited understanding of the
holy. That would be to claim that I can embrace all that is God inside
the finite limits of my human(ity).
A great debate has gone on in Christian history for centuries as
to whether Jesus is different from you or me in substance or in degree.
The majority opinion in “orthodox” Christian circles maintains that he
is different in substance and creeds and doctrinal statements make that
assumption. There has, however, always been a minority opinion, an
undercurrent flowing in Christian history that asserts that this
difference is only in degree. I can locate that in the 14th
century writing of Meister Eckhart, who succeeded Thomas Aquinas in his
theological chair. I find it present in my great mentor, John A. T.
Robinson, particularly in his book, The Human Face of God. I
find that position persuasive for if God is one, and if God is real,
then the God experienced in Jesus has to be the same as the God
experienced in everyone else, and if the humanity of Jesus is real, then
it has to be the same humanity that you and I possess. Jesus becomes,
thus, the defining life, that is, Jesus is the life through which God
has been met and engaged in a full and special way. That is a difference
in degree not in kind.
I do meet God in the lives of those you mention and in many
others, but I recognize that God because that is the same God I believe I
meet in Jesus of Nazareth."
What do YOU think?
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Have you seen the sunrise
Over the ocean
Out of the sea
Marvel at the notion
How can it be
Many are your bad times
That's what you tell me
That's how you feel
Seems they might as well be
But tell me
How do you know they're real
It's not a perfect world
This one that we're all living in
There's so much pain
And so much suffering here for you
It's not a perfect world
This one that we're all living in
That's just your pessimistic
Point of view
Can you feel the power
Of trees in the forest
Birds on the wing
Moving hour by hour
Mysterious thing
Gaze upon the mountains
Rising above us
Touching the sky
Can this power love us
You have your doubts
But you don't know why
It's not a perfect world
This one that we're all living in
There's so much pain
And so much suffering here for you
It's not a perfect world
This one that we're all living in
That's just your pessimistic
Point of view
How did you ever become so jaded
Now you can only see what you created
You're so blind
The more that you look the less that you find
It's your mind
You refuse to put faith into something sublime
On your time
Your convenience means everything
See this thing is bigger
It's bigger than we are
You have to admit
Think you've got it figured
You know where it fits
It's not scientific
You can't replicate it
It just can't be done
No one's ever faked it
Just have some hope
You're not the only one
It's not a perfect world
This one that we're all living in
There's so much pain
And so much suffering here for you
It's not a perfect world
This one that we're all living in
That's just your pessimistic
Point of view
Somebody's recent survey of voters concluded that 56% are ready to vote every member of Congress out if there were a place on the ballot to do so. And each political spectrum surveyed agrees with liberals at 55%, moderates 55% and conservatives 58%. Furthermore, the freshmen Republicans who took control of the House of Representatives in January on the premise of bringing CHANGE have even disappointed their supporters.
What do YOU think?
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