Mid-August Musings

It's been three weeks and now I've returned. School is underway; we're three weeks into our term and the usual same-old: administrative issues that drive me nuts, students that are typical middle achievers (with some stellar and wonderful students) and a school year that looks to be a new boss (same as the old boss). Newsworthy events fly through my morning cereal-and-coffee slam as I rush to work; thank goodness for other sources of news such as NPR or else I would really only know the surface of most issues. I'm terribly saddened to see the civilians of Lebanon treated like God's Israelites, though the irony lays in the fact that most Lebanese are Christians. I still believe Israel has the right to protect itself and wipe out threats but the pulverization of its northern neighbor was more than just an attempt to eradicate Hezbollah, I believe.
Another federal court had to unfortunately remind the president the hard way that all officials in this country still must abide by the Constitution; its ruling that electronic surveillance violates people's Fourth Admendment rights is a slap in the face to Bush. We're noticing a pattern here: Bush assumes power, executes a top-secret policy, the policy gets discovered, the policy is struck down or deemed unconstitutional if not illegal. First, (at least for this discussion) the extradiction of terror suspects for torture in other nations with the complicit help of European nations, Abu Ghraib, phone tapping, Guantanamo and now electronic surveillance. It's bad when the judge states, 'There are no hereditary kings in America and no powers not created by the Constitution". I can feel the sting of that slap myself. How many more failed policies for the Bushies will it take for Americans to finally wake up to the fact that his kleptocratic regime is doing nothing but damaging this nation. Why does George W. Bush hate America and all it stands for?

Enough politics. My History of American Music course seems to be off and running. I'm enjoying it though I know that at my age and whathaveyou that I'm seeing into my subject matter more than most of my students. I guess that's the case with everything I teach but I really want the students to grasp the deeper importances and relevance of what we're studying because it's my lifeblood. Rock and roll music as course material? Am I in Heaven? I think that the lightbulb is beginning to go off for a lot of students but the subject matter is still pretty foreign to them. "Oldies" like 50's rock is not important; it's what they listen to that matters. Maybe I need to create more across-the-board lessons where I connect songs from a particular genre and then stream them with modern songs to make the connection. I still don't know. All I know is that I'm anxiously awaiting a reply from Ben Fong-Torres about coming to lecture to my class about his experiences with Rolling Stone and rock journalism. If he falls through, I guess I'll have to ask Carlos Santana to come.
I think I haven't been picking up too much new music lately though I must say I've been in listening bliss with the recent acquisitions of the latest White Stripes and Raconteurs albums. Wolfmother, on the other hand, is nothing but pure derivitive pap. It's mindless rock and roll keepinthebackgroundofapartytoconfusepeopleastowhetherthey'relisteningtoZeppelinorSabbath stuff. So much for taking my students' words on "great" music. Looking forward to the re-release of Bruce's Seeger Sessions album as he's adding the songs that he's written or introduced since the tour. They're probably the most piercing of the tunes he performed in concert and it'll be for damned sure that I include them in lessons dealing with popular reaction to events such as Katrina or the Iraq War. The cd will also include dvd clips of songs from the L.A. show as well as my Concord show! So, if you have yet to pick up this amazing album or you still need convincing as to why this stuff is needed, home town performances of timeless and (unfortunately) needed and relevant music is the proof. I have been in my summer-Bruce light mode as I overindulge on bootlegs and dvd concerts only to hunker down with cooler weather and a moody and defiant attitude about all that hurts me around October or so.
Last night, the new version of Funk Shui (two lead singers and new bassist) took the stage for the city of Brentwood's Starry Nights concert series. Armed with my new Epiphone Dot and a couple of new riffs I'd been practicing, I was ready for the show. Prepped with an all-new setlist and a little bit of liquid courage, the guys (and lovely Christine) played for two solid hours covers of the music that means so much to us and a lot of others. Funk, blues, soul (God bless Sam Cooke) and lotso rock and roll, Funk Shui (in my honest but not-so-humble opinion) put on a pretty tight performance. Partly because we were told that this would probably be our last performance in this venue (though we had three straight summers, more than any other band) and partly because we played for an audience of over a thousand people, we wanted to put on the show of our lives. Whether we were evenly remotely as good as the bands we covered or even at our best is irrelevant; whether we were happy and those who attended were pleased is all that matters. Maybe I'm jotting this down because it may be a swan song of sorts, maybe for my own fading memory's sake, but I have to say that it was an honor and a privilege to sign autographs (for my students!) and get good coverage from local press. My contribution to my community? I'm not that narcissistic. Something harmless and fun that brings pleasure to people? That I'm cool with. Now I await school's return on Monday where I'll see my students who so graciously showed up to sing and cheer us on last night. In the words of the western philosopher Homer Simpson, it's only rock and roll, BUT I LIKE IT.

What To Think?

I know it's been a while since I last posted but I've been back teaching and things are busy. When the dust settles, I'll get back into a routine. Chris, you need to pick up the five-disc bootleg version of Dylan's Basement Tapes. They're truly incredible. I just need to find the history of them. Classes are large and busy and crazy and maybe just maybe I'll find some relaxing time to reorient myself.

Bought a guitar on e-bay; picked up an Epiphone Dot because I wanted a humbucking guitar that could play jazz and rock and give me a totally different, non-Fender sound than I've had for the last fifteen years.

On a very sad note, I want to post my condolences to the family of Joey Graves, Liberty High School class of 2003, who was killed in an ambush in Iraq last week and who will be laid to rest later this week. He was twenty-one and had been married to his high-school sweetheart for twelve days. We are now just one more statistic, one more number and another loss; when will this end? What does this mean for our nation? What does it mean when young men and women risk their lives for something that most of us have lost faith in? This war is now longer than Korea, longer than the Persian Gulf War, longer than our involvement in World War I and even longer than our involvement in World War II; this war is longer than the War of 1812 and the Mexican-American War. Only three wars in our nation's history are longer: the Revolution, the Civil War and Vietnam. See the pattern?