Jazz: Faces of International Pride amidst Domestic Pain

A recent article in the Christian Science Monitor does an excellent job describing a very unique situation in United States' history related to domestic equal rights and our international image. Read for yourself and see if this dichotomy is, for you, as striking and thought-provoking as it was for me.

The following rhetorical questions are emblematic of the article's general tone which describes the State Department's employment of African-American jazz musicians for government sponsored tours across what was then the Soviet Union and various African and Middle Eastern regions:

What was it like for these black musicians to headline celebratory concerts for newly decolonized African nations on the one hand, but still not be able to stay in hotels south of the Mason-Dixon line back home? What was it like to travel under the auspices of a country known abroad for, as saxophonist Paul Jeffrey was told in Italy, white men being the boss of black men?
(By Carla Murphy Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor
from the July 10, 2009 edition)

So, just as these musicians where escorted around the world to serve as an egalitarian, collective and creative face for the nation at large, the same talented and renowned citizens, because of their heritage and complexion, would have been discriminated against without a second thought in their own home country. Even with a fundamentally sound mission, the State Dept. tours were, at heart, hypocritical public relations campaigns designed to globally promote an American ideal that had hardly begun to gain momentum at home, regardless of the known fact that equality and inalienable rights had been and still are our constitutional guarantees.

Find out more about the traveling exhibition of photographs, called Jam Session: America's Jazz Ambassadors Embrace the World, that documents this fascinating international tour by some of the greatest jazz musicians of all time.

Ghanian Prints

Everyone always remarks upon spotting a brightly colored, finely woven garment: women of Indian descent in their flowing saris, Afghanistan's strictly sheathed mothers and daughters in their vibrant, pale blue, crocheted finery, and the eye-popping central African fabrics fashioned into dresses, skirts, and head scarves.

At Afropop Worldwide's page regarding President Obama's visit to Ghana, I learned that the colors found in that country's traditional fabrics each have special significance.

"Each color in the fabric has meaning, so we recommend some gold for royalty, green for a good harvest, pink and purple for a feminine touch, and blue for peace."

(by Danny Silva and Kwaku Boafo for www.afropop.org )

Below is a fine example of Ewe kente cloth:

Read up on the history of kente and even design your own over at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art: africa.si.edu

Call it what it is!

It's to change the name around here yet again. This last title -- esse quam videri -- was a somewhat psychological attempt to get myself writing with better direction and some passion.

Now that things are orientated properly, I'd like to change the name this time to -- per volar su nata -- which is the Latin (or maybe Italian) for "to fly upwards" or "born to soar". Again, it's a way for me to keep momentum every time I visit the blog and to keep an eye on the main goal which is to improve the content herein with every post.

I hope you're enjoying this space and if you are, let me know by posting a comment. I'd love to hear what your thinking about what you see and read here, so thanks in advance.

To Shed Light...

In my opinion, a good idea deserves to be spread around.

A group of three designers, jointly know as the Civil Twilight Collective , has recently been recognized on NPR.org as the winner of Metropolis Magazine’s Next Generation Design Competition for an innovative adaptation to conventional streetlighting. The lunar-resonant streetlight intelligently adjusts brightness in correspondence with the phases of the moon and in doing so would stand to save significant amounts of energy, energy that currently dissipates into the night illuminating very little that the moon (in its brighter phases) is not already.

The inspiration for such a creative approach to outdoor, public lighting is little more than common sense, but by the same token, if it's such an obvious idea, then why had no one thought of it previously? The point may be that by adopting an ecologically "smart" system such as lunar-resonant streetlights , no corporation, no entities besides the manufacturer and
the designers stand to gain anything from its implementation.




This is where the currently snowballing shift from antiquated, greed-driven, profit-making ventures to sustainable, earth and human-friendly, social business models amasses some serious speed. With no material "wants" to calculate on behalf of its creators, lunar-resonant streetlights (like most socially beneficial inventions) simply cover the needs of their beneficiaries which is to brighten the night while conserving energy resources and also perceptibly reducing light pollution in urban centers.


Other intriguing projects by the Civil Twilight Collective:

Origami Kayak
Mycofarmhouse

A National Face

I absolutely love it when journalists, talking heads, public commentators and like decide to generalize on the so-called "core values" of a particular nation. These blanket statements almost always come across as sweeping stereotypes yielding only the tiniest indication of the nation or its citizens' identities. A beneficial practice for the youth of any country might be to make an acquaintance, better yet a friend, from a country other than one's own so as to instill, from an early age, a sense that even though a group may gather under a common, national umbrella, those in its shadow rarely possess more than just a few similar traits.


The best of these generalizations are quite detailed and as such have already narrowed their scope; the resulting idea is conveyed successfully. For example, in the Christian Science Monitor today (29.06.2009) the author James Miller states, "One of the core principles of traditional Chinese culture is that of harmony between humans and nature." If delivered by a news anchor or commentator, surely this statement would be reduced for shorter attention spans and might come out as something like, "The Chinese people believe in harmony between humans and nature." The latter comment is far less truthful than the former and this is the tendency of most media voices today; the goal is to get the point across while including the fewest details necessary.


This makes for a portrayal of the world, its people and its dynamics, that is two-dimensional at best and at worst, a gross misrepresentation of reality. As it is, the world is a full of tonalities of truth, varying from the purest of positive events and actions to the most heinous of malicious occurrences. To dissect our lives and our environment with such a cleaver, one that slices only black and white hunks of generalization, is the great disservice that corner-cutters on the boob tube provide us.


It's true; one could rightfully question: "What do you expect? It's free." However, the dangerous cost of this type of distilled dissemination of facts is our narrowed perspective which inevitably leads to misunderstanding and intolerance of others.

Most often, I balk at the notion that, "Americans are..." something or some way across the board. These stereotypes hardly apply to me or anyone I know. And this is not to say that I'm so unique that nobody can pin me to a category. I'm plenty normal, but the deeper fact is that no nation's face, even of the most ethnically homogeneous culture, can be sufficiently described by the use of just a few adjectives or the bandying about of blindly adopted stereotypes.

Green Sky Above

If green roofs are good enough for rural Norwegians and Dubai's business men, then why not us?

Green Roofs Australia reports that New York City is the fastest growing area for incorporating green roofs into new and existing structures, most of which are on commercial buildings. The potential for positive environmental impact with these relatively simple green roofing/walling systems is, at this stage, beyond measurement. For these eco-friendly, and human-friendly, steps to take hold, the effort must be a concerted one, though, or the true benefits might only extend to those within view of the new verdant rooftops.

At left is the William McDonough-designed visitor center at the Bernheim Arboretum & Research Forest outside Louisville, KY with its green roof of native species  -- a lucky pitstop this summer on a trip back down South!


If a public relations campaign can garner enough interest and support from both the corporate and government side, soon enough those antiquated folks with shingles, tar paper, cedar shake and tin above their heads will begin to feel significantly out-of-style. Perhaps keeping up with the Jones's will be the key to making skylines greener nationwide with the beneficial results trickling down to us all, after the sedum(s) on the roof get their drink, of course.

That's the idea and the effect is gorgeous, in many ways, depending on the sophistication of the design. The commercial applications seem long overdue.

Spontaneous Self-Portrait

The double image was incidental, but it turned out. I was just loving the condition of this classic woody and the sky was perfectly overcast, so inspiration struck. Too bad it's only 5.0 megapixel resolution--better than nothing, though.

Tallulah...so intense!

This shot is from Summer 2008 after a good, long stay on Power Island in Northern Michigan. I think she looks pretty concerned that she would have to re-enter civil society after the free, wild time she'd spent on the island. She doesn't mind the boat, but I know at that moment she'd rather have been swimming for a tennis ball, for sure!

Dizzy & Charlie

Why? Just because. This clip is a cut called "Hot House" -- Enjoy!




Compared to a lot of older jazz clips from YouTube, this one has some fairly dynamic camera work going on and I liked that. Also, to see the faint outline of the orignal projector's lightbulb right in the center of the image is pretty classic.

The reel goes...chk, chk, chk, chk, chk, chk, chk...and on and on into slumber.

The Art of David Hale

The talented young artist who created this poster, David Hale, used to be my neighbor in Athens, Georgia. His main sources of inspiration, it seems, are based in nature and graffiti, but skate culture and tattoo design fall in at a close second and third. He told me years ago that birds are his favorite to paint and his catalogue of larger works reflects that ongoing interest. The hummingbird, enchanting and flitting, seems to always lead the migration onto his canvases. His series painted on skateboard decks are also excellent and can be seen in full at: DavidHale.org

Before we knew we were next door neighbors, I saw him painting a canvas live, on stage while his friends in the reggae fusion group Dubconscious skanked along in the summer sun during Athfest 2006.

GoodGuide.com ~ Consider the Impact of Consumer Behavior

I heard about this informational site on the P.R.I. syndicated radio program Tech Nation.

Did you ever wonder how toxic that floor cleaner really is for you or your family?
Is a Cheez-It that bad for your health? How about the health of the planet? What was its carbon-footprint before it ended up munched? Which is the most environmentally friendly water bottle, so we can avoid a lifetime of trashed plastic bottles?

Find out all you wanted to know about the environmental, biological, and social impacts of the products we use at GoodGuide.com. It's a powerful resource that's getting better and more comprehensive all the time. Use it to get the economy rolling again, in an environmentally conscious way.

An Inherited Taste

I love pepper because of my mom. I love salt because of my dad. She always used to say that pepper makes it better and "You just have to add pepper!" He always added the salt silently, practically sneaking it underneath her nose so as to avoid confrontation, another trait I've inherited, incidentally. He did too many shakes until the plate looked snowed upon at times. Still, the taste popped then and I'm always seeking that effect to this day. She had Mrs. Dash, but that was a relatively poor substitute for the Earth's most abundant flavor enhancer, not to mention, as my dad was fond of pointing out, salt is a necessay mineral for the functioning of the human system. The spicy justifications abound!

Accounting for taste is near impossible, however some of mine do seem to have distinct origins. I'm very fond of the calming wave following a good bout of chile-induced fervor. Somehow the endorphin release after a deep burn is something I've grown accustomed to and something I crave, even in the wrong culinary contexts. No, there's no habanero dice going on the lemon-merengue pie, although the peaceful resolution tailing after the heat would still be welcome.

More to the point, this need for fire surely originated in the very vivid childhood memories I have of my Grandpa Tank downing entire jalapeno peppers in one gulp at the table of a favorite Tex-Mex restaurant. He seemed to be wholly unaffected, essentially immune to the capsacin in the pepper, that chemical that yields the pseudo-pain and subsequent endorphin response in the brain. The trick had to be in the method of swallowing the peppers whole; without chewing them up, the tongue never actually came in contact with characteristically volatile checmical compound in the wonder fruit itself. All in all, it was a dandy of a stunt that stuck with me along with my love of hot peppers!

I wonder if this would be condsidered a MEEM? Is this the right context for such inheritance of culturally and socially influenced traits? Maybe an expert will weigh in and help out here.

The New Name ...Same Game

After a recent thawing of this individual forum, I've decided to throw in another new title for the blog. Representing the temporal-emotional landscape has been my trend with these Latin phrases and so I continue that pattern with this next installation:

'esse quam videri' - to be, rather than to seem

Writing these blog posts before seemed a cathartic process for venting and observing and I assume that direction will remain. However, I'm going to commit to writing from a perspective of a writer, not simply a thinker or observer, so as to grow in some way. Too long I've discounted my own unique talents as inconsequential in my self-deprecating attempts to convey my thoughts.

Into the future, I'll endeavor to express myself more freely, to disregard the nagging doubt inside, and to ignore the self-judgement that comes so naturally. The results, at least, will be a true representation of my thinking rather than a watered-down, softened version of what are sometimes my more revealing, impassioned cogitations on this life.

Unthawing with a Rant!

It seems there's hardly a better way to break the silence here than with a true tirade on the state of the state, be it justified or not. Today, my main beef is with those folks who insist on pulling onto the road without considering those behind them who they might be forcing into evasive maneuvers.

The worst of this kind of irresponsible piloting has to be the four lane divided highway. The unobservant fools in question seem oblivious to traffic upstream and simply wheel a multi-ton vehicle out into the masses with little or no regard for how that action might affect the traffic flow at large. Driving along in the right lane, I and other drivers are forced, sometimes rather abruptly, to adjust our routes to these absent-minded people. Often times, when no egress is available due to heavy volume, a driver must decrease speed severely to accomodate this oblivious behavior of pulling out into traffic without regard to surroundings.

I don't mind slowing down a little, but the worst instances are when the driver depends on the attentiveness of approaching vehicles and expects those drivers to react appropriately. The whole "Drive Defensively" campaign was meant to increase awareness and eradicate this kind of assumptive positioning, the type of taking for granted that gets people killed.

To aggravate responsible travelers further, these people who bank on the good judgement of others many times neglect to sense the urgency of the action they've just commited. If the person is driving a Mercedes SUV or a BMW or every a decent American made sedan, the logical expectation is that the driver would want to show the world how much power is under the hood by accelerating in a way that is proportionate to the traffic situation.

SPEED UP! And do it fast or you will be rear-ended!

Maybe that would be the best thing for these people, to help dislodge whatever it is that is stuck so far up their asses that they can't even concentrate on the road, which is really the only task at hand or so it should be. What is it up in there? Is it a cell phone? Maybe it's a greasy french fry? Are they mid-text and thinking of which abbreviation to punch in thumb-wise? LOL + FU!


"I pity the fools." - Mr. T