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• 8 - 13 - 2008 •
Of all the musicals to see in Central Park on a moonlit summer night, this was the one. As far as musicals go, HAIR is the generational divide and counter-cultural point of no return. Keeping in mind that forty years ago in certain parts of the country, and for that matter the world, this long days journey into tie-dye would have been banned for language, nudity and flag desicration. With all the attention these days on the use of the N word, Medical Marijuana and U.S. military involvements, Rado and Ragni's book, lyrics and vision resonates without appearing dated or passe.
Back in 1968 a friend of mine had the original Broadway cast album with it's psychedelic cover which caused me to have the same visual reaction as Are You Experienced and Disraeli Gears. The comedic tone of the title song was not lost on this, at the time, 10 year old. Over the years many productions have been attempted, but I'll take this one any day. And the fact that one of my all-time drum heroes Bernard Purdie drives the band doesn't hurt.
The current production at the Delacort Theater is as deftly staged and magical as any musical could be. Except for the bandstand, the only scenery is astroturf. The actors come onto the stage from every direction like their tribal ancestors and invade the audience's space while bringing the 60's energy to a fever pitch. But what really carries the evening are the incredible songs the music of which was composed by Galt MacDermot. The finale included half the audience packed onto the stage like sardines and dancing in an gospel tinged orgy of Let The Sunshine In. Unlike the blue jeans worn by the cast, The Age of Aquarius has not faded.
• 8 - 8 - 2008 •
This night was the end of the longest wait to see a band in my life. In the spring of 1976 I wasn't able to make RTF's concert stop in Phoenix, Arizona where I lived for a short time. Disappointed for many years after that, I always hoped they'd play together again someday. 32 years later, they did. This being the very last stop on their reunion tour, I made sure I was there.
As Stanley Clarke noted during the concert, this was the evening of 8-8-08 and if you turn the number 8 on it's side it makes the sign for infinity which is FOREVER! Chick got a big kick out of that line. Each member of the band addressed the audience during the show. Chick pointing out that legendary drummer Roy Haynes was in the audience. Al Di Meola introduced the guy who had given a cassette tape of his music to Corea that got him invited to join the band. Lenny White explained how he overcame a back condition that left his right arm below par and introduced the therapists who had helped him in his recovery and make the tour.
The sold-out crowd at the United Palace in Harlem loved every minute of the two part show. First being electric, then after a break, the band dove into it's acoustic repertoire. The encore was the very first RTF song I ever heard. Spain! Then I got to go backstage and say hello to the band. You see, always hang on to your dreams. Even if it feels like FOREVER!
• 8 - 5 - 2008 •
For an alternative to many of the mainline media websites, please check out the Drew Carey archive. The comedian and gameshow host (is there a difference?) files video reports on everything from NAFTA to Medical Mary Jane and more. If you value Free Minds and Free Markets, you'll enjoy this site and it's information. Reasonable minds want to know!
• 8 - 1 - 2008 •
Is this the new VW for the 21st Century or is that the old Smart Car? I've seen these modern looking personal transport vehicles in both the golden and empire states. There's no mistaking the innovative design. How many of these would Ford or GM be selling if they'd been more forward thinking? The auto giants could benefit from cloning Steve Jobs and apply his creative mix of technology, innovation and art to their car designs. Detroit's mantra of SUV uber alles has lead them to their current sorry state.
So many friends of mine through the years owned, repaired and even worshiped VWs. Although I never owned one myself, the bugs always held a strange facination from the design to the sound of the engine. The VW ads on TV in the 60s were the coolest! It remains to be seen if the new smart bugs will become the future people's car.
• 7 - 31 - 2008 •
If you haven't had a chance to check out the creative website of author Richard Florida, do yourself a favor and make a bee-line to the link below. His new book entitled who's YOUR city? is the Megatrends of the new economy. I had a chance to listen to Richard on Coast to Coast AM the other night. Highlighted were the challenges and solutions to the current economic problems facing the US in the global economy. Creativity and Free Enterprise is the only hope. More government is quite the other.
• 7 - 25 - 2008 •
I was thinking of how interesting it is that technology is helping to advance something that should be near and dear to all of us. Free Speech! Not just Political Free Speech as some would have you believe, but the freedom to express any idea short of directly in-sighting physical violence against others. The late George Carlin launched his first salvo back in the 1970s with the famous seven dirty words routine. Although he lost in the Supreme Court, he refused to be silenced.
The just approved merger of XM and Sirius Satellite Radio by the FCC will create a monopoly for the subscriber based radio operation. Good! With the freedom from the irrational restraints of the so-called public airwaves, satellite radio personalities express themselves with any words they so choose and don't have to answer to government bureaucrats or the subjective concept of community standards in regards to on-air content. Individuals will choose for themselves and only themselves what is appropriate material to fill their living rooms.
The self-appointed Watch Dogs and PC Thought Police of all political stripes will go the way of the dinosaur as Cable TV, YouTube and now radio via satellite renders them obsolete. The culture of this country has certainly coarsened over the past decades, but not because of freedom. That's an issue of values. George was part of that coarsening, but had some interesting and funny insights.
From the first broadcast of SNL to his last cable special, Carlin never gave an inch and while I could point to many of his ideas to which I would disagree, there's no arguing his talent for using words. Check out the video below. Don't worry, it's "Family Friendly", whatever that means.
• 7 - 19 - 2008 •
After reading an article about the so-called hippy town known as Bolinas, I flashed on Kubrick's 1971 film A Clockwork Orange. The article is one of many bringing to light the alarming rate of homeless attacks across the country by violent youths. Bolinas, which is located in Marin County in Northern California, is not far from ground zero for what was then the Summer of Love.
Kubrick's quote from a 1968 Playboy interview included the words, "However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light." I think of the darkness not of the absence of morality, but of the lack of individual rights within any moral code. We must supply our own morality ( fill the void ) with the recognition of our rights as individuals.
Alex and his droogs are just one example of the gang mentality which has no respect for individual rights in or outside of the group. In the film the other droogs turn on him through violence of course and after his experimental drug treatment renders him incapable of moral choices the priest protests that he is no longer a human being. With so many young people on behavior modifying drugs in recent years could this be an example of life imitating art?
• 7 - 18 - 2008 •
Rand and Paglia. Two women who's intellects I greatly admire, but who's philosophies differ in some key areas. Both have made their respective marks on the world of ideas. Rand through her novels and essays. Paglia through her books on feminism and poetry. The two authors are known as intellectual writers and atheists, but differ on the subjects of Art and Religion. Paglia has said to be baffled by the continued comparison. Vive la Difference! I always enjoy the manner in which Paglia speaks truth to fundamentalist feminism as she admires men of accomplishment. A sentiment she shares with Rand.
Rand's 1969 essay entitled Apollo and Dionysus, in which the author compares the Moon Landing with Woodstock, will give the reader a not so subtle indication as to which of the historic events she believes represents man at his rational best. Paglia's 2005 book on poetry Break, Blow, Burn, includes her thoughts concerning the lyrics of Joni Mitchell's portrait of the cultural highwater mark for the folk singer's generation. Woodstock the song, and for that matter the concert, are for Paglia historically significant. Rand on the other hand viewed the seminal three days of art and music festival as a return of the primative.
[ essay included in Rand's "Return of the Primative" ]
Only a year before had Stanley Kubrick presented his take on man's evolution and expantion of consciousness. Paglia and I both admire Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey. It's hard to believe, but nearly four decades ago I saw the landmark 70mm epic at the Orange Cinedome. The dome no longer exists, but the memory of my mother being aghast at the $4.00 admission price back then has never faded. Just as the director stated that "You are free to speculate, as you wish, about the philosophical and allegorical meaning of 2001," so too are you free to weigh the cultural significances between being on The Moon or Yasgur's Farm. So with those philosophical thoughts in mind, Rand or Paglia? I rather enjoy both.
[ please visit the links at beneath the videos ]
• 7 - 8 - 2008 •
I had the pleasure of meeting Ringo Starr a few years ago, so when I read of his birthday wish for monday to flash the peace sign at noon and say "Peace and Love" to anyone around, I thought, hey why not? It's a good bet that half the people I peacefully flashed thought I was a lunatic, but they'd think that anyway so nothing lost there. I can only hope that when I turn 68 I'll be having as much fun as the kid from Liverpool seems to be enjoying these days. And with that, Peace and Love everybody!
• 7 - 6 - 2008 •
What do radio personality Michael Benner and the film actress / comedien Whoopi Goldberg have in common? Both have stated on radio and television respectively their beliefs about Communism. In the case of Mr. Benner and I quote, "True Communism is a beautiful thing". No... Really? How about True Fascism? ( or any other ism for that matter )
[ see the YouTube video below for Ms. Goldberg's words ]
What is it about Communism that's had us all fooled? I once dated a woman who offered up this same bit of misguided wisdom. I haven't seen her since. Keep in mind that I listened to Mr. Benner's show on LA's KLOS FM for most of the 80's through which I was introduced to many books and ideas. I even got on the air with Michael a couple of times and always enjoyed those sunday nights with the radio. He's like the good buddy who disagrees with you on almost every issue of politics or religion, but somehow your friendship works.
Upon hearing Ms. Goldberg's pronouncement on Politically Incorrect, I was reminded of an interview with Dr. Leonard Peikoff as he posed the question, "Why does the Left love Communism, but hates Nazism?" He went on to explain that, "Both are philosophically the same thing. The variant between the two being that Communism holds the Rich are to be sacrificed to the Poor, whereas with Nazism, the so-called Inferior Race is sacrificed to the so-called Master Race. The first is a form of economic bigotry, with the second a form of racial bigotry." This would explain the left's comfort level with any political system that seeks the redistribution of wealth as opposed to one that upholds the idea of racial supremacy which Liberals rightly abhor.
[ read Ayn Rand's essay on Racism from "Return to the Primative" ]
The subtext of Michael and Whoopi's credo would go down easier with most folks by saying the philosophy of Altruism is a beautiful thing, but they never use that term. This is due in part I think to the notion in their minds that Soviet style Communism is an untrue form and therefore a negative, whereas a commune serving up brown rice and tofu is the real deal. Both preach sacrificing the ego for the common good, albeit the adherence to one being voluntary and the other by force. Never the less, both are forms of Altruism the definition of which is the philosophy of sacrificing oneself or others for a higher cause.
[ read page 85 of "The Ominous Parallels" by Dr. Leonard Peikoff ]
I used to hear Michael say "Words are agreements", and that's precisely the problem with contemporary debate. The definition of Altruism, and many other words for that matter, can't be agreed on. When words and the law cease to have objective meaning, we're in trouble. Benner being a huge fan of John Lennon and his song Imagine with it's sentiment of "no religion too" is an example of the contradiction of holding Altruism as a positive when Altruism is the foundation of all religions. Then we get into the argument of negative versus positive forms of Altruism and back to the same for Communism. Round and round we go!
A proper understanding of Altruism would also help to answer Dennis Prager's question, "If the universities are the most secular institutions, why are they so stupid"? Answer: There's a difference between secular individuals who embrace Altruism and those who do not. The universities are seen as secular institutions, but fully embrace Altruism as a moral philosophy and therefore are not True secular institutions. Mr Prager on the other hand fully embraces western religions as moral philosophies. The variant between the two ( sound familiar? ) is where the secular altruist worships the subjective concepts of community and society. The religious altruist worships the subjective concept of a supreme being. One asks the individual to sacrifice his selfish pursuit of his own happiness for the benefit of others while the other asks the individual to sacrifice his faculty of reason in favor of faith. This implies that a positive position on Altruism is universal. ( not in this kid's book )
Until we can agree upon an objective definition for Altruism, all these nauseating debates on YouTube, Cable TV and Radio between so called conservatives and liberals ( a false dichotomy by the way ) is just a lot hot air for the mind. With the Left bent on legislating attitudes and the Right legislating morality, there's only one philosophy common to both, and it isn't rational self-interest. Altruism, properly defined is the problem. Capitalism, properly defined is the answer. Which is to say, a system of True individual rights and liberties is a beautiful thing!
• 7 - 4 - 2008 •
Being a kid growing up in Orange County, California gave me the opportunity to frequent it's most famous attraction, which is of course Disneyland. Smack dab in the heart of my home town of Anaheim is the park that Walt built. Complete with runway-size parking lots and surrounded back then by kitsch motels. But over in neighboring Buena Park resides another center of family amusement which started out as a fruit stand then growing into the lesser known Knott's Berry Farm. This was back in the mid 60's before the park charged admission fees and as a young Steve Martin was cutting his teeth in show business at the Bird Cage Theatre.
In many ways I preferred the down-to-earth vibe of the farm Walter built over the proverbial "Happiest Place on Earth" by way of mouse ears. Keep in mind this was before the farm was ironically disneyfied with high-tech carnival rides. The one attraction that time could neither touch nor alter was the Knott family's most shinning effort. A brick and mortar reminder of where the country started and what this noble experiment we call The United States is all about. Independence Hall is located, oddly enough, apart from the rest of the park and was sadly the least visited.
On one of my park sojourns I walked east across Beach Blvd to the detailed replica. The interior of the hall took me back to a time of quills and parchment. The Liberty Bell and quaint 18th century architecture was for me more awe inspiring than any corkscrew rollercoaster. Instead of screams and blaring soundtracks I listened to the voices and of those learned men who debated the Decloration that summer from their handmade wooden desks. Then for a moment, silence. It's the kind of quiet you only get when walking into an empty church. That lone visit has stayed with me through the years and reminds this OC son of my simpler days as a kid growing up in the land of orange groves and Mickey Mouse.
• 6 - 28 - 2008 •
At the end of The Hustler a dethroned Jackie Gleason says to George C. Scott, "You've got yourself a pool player". These words came to mind after viewing a New Years Eve 2004 performance of "Teach Me Tonight". A song recorded by Nancy Wilson back in May 1960. Had I been on the bandstand, I would've said to the TV host and pianist Jools Holland, "You've got yourself a jazz singer".
Here it is just three and a half years later and the young british phenom known to the world as Amy Winehouse is the closest thing to a modern-day Keith Richards as anything since. Her odyssey through London's underbelly rock culture leaves you thinking once again if it's all worth it when a young person posesses such a talent, whereas you don't mind so much with her American tabloid burn-out-victim counterpart Britney Spears who never had anything to offer the world in the first place. Both women may be ships without anchors, but their artistic gifts are like comparing whiskey with bubble gum.
Thankfully Ms. Winehouse's voice didn't choose to inhabit some cookie-cutter contestant on American Idol. That would've robbed music fans of the up-from-the-streets image that is part of her macabre charm. As you view this video, you'll notice that the singer is the Amy before she felt the neccessity of reinvention by way of tattoos and a Ronnie Spector beehive without which she may've never become the current cause celeb she is today. Either way, it's a great rendition that reminded me of Nancy. Never a bad thing!
• 6 - 27 - 2008 •
As one who lived in Seattle for most of the 90s, I had frequented the area's east-side via the 520 floating bridge across Lake Washington many times. The lake is lined with some of the most exclusive real estate in the country. On the bridge traveling east-bound and looking off to the right across the water you can't help but notice one of those custom domiciles that belongs to the city's most famous son. It is the home of Bill Gates.
Today is being touted as Gates' last day at work. From 1978 to 2008 the Harvard drop-out has been for three decades the computer world's center of the universe. Despite the success of all his competitors, when you look-up the words computer and geek in the dictionary it's Bill's visage, with glasses or without, that is the lone icon of the "kid and his computer". You have to admire what was accomplished on the Redmond campus and especially through it's glory years, but I must admit my preference for the house that Steve built.
It's true. Apple will never out do Mircosoft in terms of business computing. On the other hand, in what I term Elite Personal Computing, there are the ideas of Bill Gates the perennial computer geek and businessman compared to those of Steve Jobs the computer artist and visionary. You only have to look at the end products from the two companies to see which one has spent most of it's time designing the better band-aid.
The hilarious Apple ads of "Hello, I'm a Mac," "and I'm a PC" have been savaging Microsoft for years with the most recent vignette taking aim at the operating system disaster that is Vista. Despite Microsoft's market share and Bill's multi-billion dollar personal fortune, the Microsoft / Gates story is one of mixed success. The Google and Yahoo stories demonstrate that the next Gates and Allen are always in the wings with new ideas and innovations that wait for no one. In the end, both visions for the internet were to big even for The Redmond Giant to tackle.
If Bill could have envisioned Google before Larry and Sergey did, he certainly would have done so, but It didn't happen that way. Still, the kid with his computer took his ideas and did the best he could and I admire him for that. What comes after Page and Brin one can only imagine, but watching minds of this caliber compete is, and should be, inspiring.
• 6 - 22 - 2008 •
Whether one agrees or disagrees with Christopher Hitchens on almost any issue, it's difficult to argue his erudite debating prowess. Never shy about his views on free-speech, or anything else for that matter, the Vanity Fair colmnist never misses a chance to display his verbal chops in ways that are both deft and effortless. A recent U.S. citizen who's birthday he shares with Thomas Jefferson, Hitchens is for the most part THE genuine independent thinker and man of letters. While maintaining a somewhat genteel manner, his discriptions of those who populate the politicial class have always been as colorful as they are accurate.
I only wish I had his command of the King's English and encyclopedic mind for historic and cultural facts. Check out this YouTube video for an example of what I mean.
• 6 - 6 - 2008 •
I've always enjoyed the books and articles by The Skeptics Society founder Michael Shermer including Why People Believe Weird Things and The Borderlands of Science. This TEDTALKS video includes an example of backward masking from the song Stairway to Heaven. Listen closely!
• 6 - 2 - 2008 •
These are two books I'm presently reading. I listened to the brothers Brafman last saturday night on Coast to Coast AM discuss why people do irrational things. Interesting takes on the effects of fear and loss in regards to decision making. If you haven't subscribed to Streamlink on the Coast to Coast AM website, it's a great way to weed through the shows on Aliens, Bigfoot and Black Helicopters. And now we know who D.B. Cooper was!
As a big fan of world history, the new book by Pat Buchanan lays out the chain of events and blunders by Churchill and others that lead to WWII. Sounds like they should have read the Brafman's book. I disagree with many of Pat's social views, but his reading of history and arguments against spreading democracy to the middle-east by force are well reasoned. Check out Pat's article on Bush foreign policy.
• 5 - 31 - 2008 •
As one who has travelled to Italy several times, and has sampled the gelato on each and every visit, I was pleasently surprised to find on the upper west side GROM gelato come una volta which, as fate would have it, is this company's first location outside il Repubblica Italiana.
What impresses me most about the company is how it presents itself to the public. In effect, it's marketing which is centered around a single word. QUALITY. As you explore GROM's website you'll notice their extraordinary attention to details. Therein lies the secrect of their success as the average line of 20 people deep waiting to sample the many flavors-of-the-month would attest to. And newyorkers, who have every conceivable option when it comes to ice cream, just eat it up. ( I couldn't help notice the Mr Softy truck near by with not a single patron in line for the kind of cold stuff I grew up on. )
In this world microcosm known as Manhattan, I'm struck by the ever growing number of food establishments that use the home country's language for their brand. You'd think that a business with the name Le Pain Quotidien, one that most americans can't even pronouce let alone translate, would be a branding faux pas.
Not so in this muti-cultural age and where price is somewhat irrelevant when the quality of the cuisine and uniqueness of the ambiance is tre bon. In this regard the english only crowd has lost. Europe in the USA is here to stay. And to that I say "Ciao! and C'est excellent!"
• 5 - 27 - 2008 •
I've started using Gary Null's Red Stuff dietary supplement. Take a minute to read up on this optimum health product on Gary's website. Cheers!
• 5 - 26 - 2008 •
Watching the the live feed on CNN of the Mars Phoenix Lander reminded me of the first Moon landing. There have been several missions to Mars before, but this one in particular had so much riding on it after some recent failures. MPL had to land without the aid of airbags on the martian north pole. The technology involved with this kind of enterprise is nothing less than mind boggling. I'm especially interested in the details of the super sonic parachute. Cool!
To see the men and women with JPL / NASA celebrate when they knew they'd made it through the "7 Minutes of Terror" was very gratifying. After 296 days their efforts were rewarded with the successful landing and transmission of MPL's first photos of the red planet's white polar cap up close. I'll be watching the developments of MPL with great interest, but for now a banner that reads "Mission Accomplished" is in order, and with the certainty that these words won't come back to haunt us. Let's hear it for Science!
• 5 - 25 - 2008 •
Upon hearing the news of comedian Dick Martin's passing, I couldn't help think of the changes in pop culture over the last forty years. "Laugh In" debuted in January 1968 the same year the country was tearing itself apart in the streets of Chicago and LA. Hosted by the comedy team of Dan Rowan and the aforementioned Martin who'd been working their act in nightclubs from Las Vegas to Miami in the pre-Beatles age. This curious comic juxtaposition of 1950's tuxedo schtick against a 60's pop art set and sensibilities was my introduction to counter cultures thanks to the tube. The Revolution was being televised.
Even as a nine year old, I recognized my parents generation with appearances by guests such as Frank Sinatra, John Wayne and a then campaigning Richard Nixon. Underscored with the music of a low-budget mix of San Fran psychodelia and Go-Go was all this and quick-cut editing between one-liners and bikini clad dancing girls with body paint. It was my favorite show. If you weren't around back then, you really missed something.
The 60's was the first time that two such divergent pop cultures came in contact and were on full display via network television. On the Dean Martin show of June 1964 with The Rolling Stones having finished Willie Dixon's "I just want to make love to you", the 50's crooner sarcastically summed up the cultural divide saying "Aren't they great?" then rolling (no pun) his eyes upward. That gesture said it all.
• 5 - 22 - 2008 •
Sones de Mexico has a great cover version of Led Zeppelin's 1971 song "Four Sticks". Check it out on their MySpace page.
• 5 - 21 - 2008 •
Wanted to share this photo I'd taken at Columbus Circle. Spring!
• 5 - 21 - 2008 •
Ever wonder what really killed the dinosaurs? Dinosaur Extinction
• 5 - 17 - 2008 •
• 5 - 17 - 2008 •
If Hillary Clinton had gone back to her home state of Illinois to become a senator, there probably wouldn't be a Senator Obama poised to win the one Democratic prize she's eyed since her days at Wellesley. Along with her vote on the Iraq war and the low road strategy of the Clinton 08 campaign, her 2000 victory in New York ironically left one gate open for someone to stroll through. Unfortunately for New York's junior senator, that "someone" from Illinois is now strolling towards what was to be her coronation.
The Clinton and Obama 08 campaigns will be studied for years to come with lessons, for many, learned cheap. For the Clintons, not so.
• 5 - 17 - 2008 •
Please take a look at the new website by writer and awareness enthusiast Victor Zurbel at www.awaredigest.com and enjoy the many words of enlightenment therein.
• 5 - 17 - 2008 •
Listening to Neil Howe on Coast to Coast AM is always interesting if not frightening. The prophesies in Neil's book "The Fourth Turning" will have you thinking about America's future... and your own!
• 5 - 16 - 2008 •
This new YouTube video features Joe Zawinul's composition from my 2006 release, Core Beliefs. Second Sunday in August.
• 5 - 15 - 2008 •
Please check out the new Yellowjackets CD when it's released on May 20th. Jazz guitarist Mike Stern is featured on Lifecycle.
• all blog enteries by: Joe DeRenzo © 2008 •