Search for Meaning--A Work in Progress

This may have been straight out of a book that John Updike did not get to write. It had those same privileged guests in it--the suburban couples--glamorous, somewhat cold, and not clear what their jobs or meaning are. They are still at it with some of the same exclusive emotion if that what it is, and the same air of upper class-ness that excludes just about everyone else. They may have lost a step in the process of life and aging, but they are still at it.

The wedding had stabs at religion in it--a rabbi who wore a black robe and a tallit with little observable meaning. She reminded me of Diane Keaton just playing another role that never got really defined. At one point during the ceremony, she passed a tallit onto the couple being married--for just a brief moment, she said a brief blessing without much emotion, and placed the tallit down on the dais--after it served its brief and limited purpose, all alike an artifact, a prop, like the glass to be crushed without the usual meaning. We were just visiting this artifact of history.

And then there were the words of advice or meaning to the couple--the rabbi just spoke the words of the couple on why they said that they loved each other--from the dog to being smart and honest to loving the Redskins to being up when the arrived home late from work. This couple lived together for awhile and knew the surprises of togetherness; so some of the newness of marriage was gone--maybe to be redecorated.

The reception began with the appetizers and bar--dominated by the sushi of a trendy hotel that just made it into the traditional Jewish wedding reception. But at this wedding trendy was in, and was dominant while tradition and ruach or spirit was an artifact of life and just receding in the background. When the hora finally came out or was brought out from the closet, it was late after many meandering speeches and searches for meaning in relationships that were dominated by phone calls and connections that seemed like tall grass unmowed like the weed mentioned by the bride's brother who asked that the couple "don't go married on me."

Even the music played professionally enough by the loud 12 piece band whose vocalists screeched out too many of the words, and drained all energy or subtlety out of many of the new and old songs. Kay Perry and AC/DC in one medleyed into each other and everything else.

The dancing was fun of sorts but it all was just an artifact for another part of the visiting of the wedding ceremony and celebration. I am sure it had a different meaning for the wedding participants.

The father of the groom said that he wanted Yiddishkeit in the events and hired part of a klezmer group the night before for the rehearsal dinner--not the main event, but an attempt to have some meaning for a part of our tradition that seemed like just another piece of the evidence, an artifact to the visiting of the tradition and the spirit. Ruach a receding gene in the tapestry of this beautiful event at a trendy hotel in a part of town that is artificially built on a circle that goes nowhere and overlooks everything.

Lost Childhood

With my mother's recent passing, my period of elongated childhood ended and so did a piece of great luck. For I had a special relationship with my mother that cannot and should not be repeated or duplicated. Now there is no one who will provide that undying love and connection that only my mother provided. It seems almost surreal that I had that special relationship when it is gone--you earned it just by being a son, hopefully a good one in return. A lot of good memories are what stand in its place, it is irreplaceable, as maybe it should be.

Suze and the Duke

It is indeed a sad day in Flatbush, and in certain other parts of my receding childhood.

The Duke of Flatbush passed away at age 84. He was my favorite player as a Brooklyn Dodger fan in the 50s, and even as a Met fan in the 60's. He had a unique kind style and grace, and power and speed that he brought to his batting and fielding, and in his attitude on and off the field (at least during the late 40s, and the 50s). He had a regal air about him as he strode and patrolled the green outfield at Ebbets Field. He often was compared to Mays and Mantle in the 50's in the NYC center field sweepstakes, and tended to be the underdog in that comparison.

Unfortunately, when I met him at a baseball card show many years later in the 80's, he seemed a little too money-driven and unfortunately was on his way to tax difficulties, and some "wrong choices." But I will always have my childhood memories of this wonderful ball player.

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Suze Rotolo, will always be remembered for her romantic relationship with Bob Dylan in the 60s and her inspiration to him. But she will be best remembered, in one of the iconic images of the decades, walking arm-in-arm with the Bobster on the cover of the legendary “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan.” She died recently at the young age of 67.

In the picture she seemed like the romantic muse for the ages for the creative Mr. Dylan. As Dylan wrote in “Chronicles: Volume 1, “Right from the start I couldn’t take my eyes off her.” “She was the most erotic thing I’d ever seen." "Cupid’s arrow had whistled past my ears before, but this time it hit me in the heart and the weight of it dragged me overboard.”

A few months ago, I had the pleasure of reading her book, “A Freewheelin’ Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the 60s”, and I enjoyed her description of Mr. Dylan as among other things, “oddly old-time looking, charming in a scraggly way.” She also accounted for herself as more than just a walking companion.

Her views on social issues, especially her commitment to the civil rights movement seemed to have a deep and early influence on Mr. Dylan’s writing, along with her interests in theater and the visual arts, which may have opened him up beyond his world of folk music and his self-made image as the Guthrie-esque troubadour.

Her ultimate absence from Mr. Dylan's life was supposed to have inspired “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right,” “Boots of Spanish Leather” and “Tomorrow Is a Long Time.” She played a key role in inspiring and shaping one of the great songwriters of our time.

The Best of 2010: Music That Is

I think it was Descartes or another philosopher, who said that "once a rock critic, always a rock critic." Once you review music as a job or avocation, you can never just return back to the safety and security and relaxed attitude of the normal listener. Listening as a critic is a little more disciplined and a little less joyful.

So I will begin this look back to the best of the year with a confession that my selections for top songs and albums of this year involved some unnatural, repeated listening for the sake of this once and always critic's summary; the results are albums and songs that are some new, some borrowed, and even some blue. That may be par for the course for a once and forever rock critic; the boundaries of a year are arbitrary and somewhat flexible, and lists are imperfect and always leave out some great music. The bad things about lists of top music of the year are well covered in the discussion at this web address:

http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/reverb/2010/12/the_top_10_reasons_i_hate_year.php

Even with many shortcomings, here goes my observations about the best music of this arbitrary year period--

The best album of the year for me was "Suburbs" by Arcade Fire--which stood out in its variety of song styles, its effective messages, and its overall theme that made it work as an complete album, at a time when albums are being discarded and disregarded by orderless downloading. There are so many good songs on the album--songs that are well-crafted, well-performed and had enough variety to keep all of the songs fresh and successful, no matter how many times I heard them.

Vampire Weekend had my second favorite album, "Contra," which was a sprightly trip through some world-influenced pop rock. They may be going a little too mainstream and popular, as evidenced by "Holiday" becoming a friendly car company reminder. But even in their concerts, they play very tightly yet still with enough joy and organization to make it work well and produce happy and contagious music.

My next favorite was "Broken Bells" by Broken Bells, which was as close to a super group as we would get this year--and the down-tempo and smooth vocals and interesting arrangements help. "High Ground" was as good a song as anyone could craft this year, and the sound is intricate and fresh each time I hear it.

Beach House came in next with a good sound in "Teen Dream" (as in the song "Zebra"), even though it all sounded like they were still trying to figure out what direction to go in. In person, they were louder, sloppier, less careful, and not nearly as artful, but they continue to have a lot of potential.

My next two groups showed artful promise in 2010, but were not quite ready for a larger stage of success. LA's Warpaint placed in the top 5 with some interesting sounds on the "The Fool," but the sound is a little thin and they lack an ingredient or two to fill out their repetiore and sound.

Avi Buffalo's 'Avi Buffalo' included the simple, catchy, and wonderful "What's In It For?" with a fitting video, but their album and their live show is also a little thin, and uni-dimensional, yet they show some promise.

The rest of the year's favorites are a mixed group that all played well, but lacked a certain level of musical power when compared to those above them.

Gil Scott-Heron, one of original rapper/poets returned to center stage with his sometimes powerful "I'm New Here." "Your Soul and Mine" provided a good explanation of where he is and has been, and where we are and have been too.

Neil Young's "Le Noise" was a punned title that hailed the work of the eternally electronic, never old Mr. Young with veteran producer Daniel Lanois. The results are mixed with the intimate instant classic sounding "Love and War" and "Hitchhiker" alternating with the more noisy and less rhymical sounds of "Walk with Me" and "Angry World."

The rest is the best of the rest:

Belle and Sebastian - "Write About Love"

LCD Soundsystem - "This Is Happening"

Sleigh Bells - "Treats"

Band of Horses - "Infinite Arms"

The National - "High Violet"

Manic Street Preachers - "Postcards from a Young Man"

First Aid Kit - "The Big Black & The Blue"; "Ghost Town" (EP)

Best Coast - "Crazy For You"

Black Keys - "Brothers"

Deerhunter - "Halcyon Digest"

Hey Marsielles - remastered version of 2008's "To Travels and Trunks"

Lost in the Trees - "All Alone in an Empty House"

Yeasayers - "Odd Blood"

Newspeak - "Sweet Light Crude"

MGMT - "Congratulations"

Mumford & Sons - "Sigh No More"

Broken Social Scene - "World Sick"

Kanye West - "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy"

Jens Lekman - "The End of the World is Bigger Than Love"

John Grant - " Queen of Denmark"

Sleigh Bells - " Rill Rill"

The New Pornographers - "Together"

And it was the year of Glee, including Gwyneth Paltrow's performance of "Follow Me" that played proper homage to the great version by Cee Lo Green.

Finally, there is the hope of classical music reviving itself in reaching across boundaries and there is a good indie classical scene evolving as reported in this article and broadcast:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2010/12/31/132415391/the-year-in-music-indie-classical-blossoms-on-small-labels?ft=1&f=100

It was a good year for a varied diet of interesting music, and the music business is spinning and evolving into new business models with the end or landing point nowhere in sight. I wish all a Happy and Healthy New Year.

Looking Back, Looking Ahead

It is almost that time of the year to look back on the year we are leaving behind and to look forward to the year ahead. It was a good year with some recoveries from past economic lapses, and it was a year to do a little blaming and learn from some of the errors we made. The election was partly an effort to blame our current leaders and a time to try a few new ideas, and visions, and people. But voters did not go for the totally new, and kept in some of the old, and more tested and true.

We have a basis for an optimistic look ahead with some victories at the end of the year for compromise and reason at the end of the year for the President and the Congress, and hopefully for all of the people. We hope to build on these victories and work on new compromises and understandings and new ideas and reasons.

For me, it was a time of new and old discoveries, with a monumental trip to Auschwitz, and Krakow, and Berlin, and of course, Detmold, and with a trip to help present the United States' human rights records and to look ahead to help build on the record and make it better and help make the world a better place for all people.

Now as I watch Sunday Morning's summary and tribute to some of the momumental people who died this year, I think of all of those who passed our way this year. Here is short list of those who passed away this year:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/12/24/ap/national/main7181544.shtml?tag=mncol;lst;3

Hopefully, their lives will inspire us for 2011. Let's go for it together and more unified with less disagreements.

Strictly Speaking: Modern Society and the Death of Edwin Newman

Edwin Newman, a clear mellow, kindly, avuncular, and authoritative voice of the news of the 50s, 60s and 70s, passed away in August. His family in Oxford England, waited a month to share and announce the news of his passing--they wanted to mourn his death in private. It was a nice anachronistic touch to handling the news that seemed to fit--in Newman's day or the day of the real news man, news was given more thought, and traveled slower, and it was often saved for another day.

Mr. Newman, with balding head and dark eyebrows, was a striking and prominent voice to three decades of postwar television viewers. He was known for his learned style, his priceless wit and his penchant for punditry. He began his association with NBC in the early TV years of the 1950s and was a frequent NBC correspondent, bureau chief, anchor and critic before retiring in 1984.

He was a news anchor and sometimes foil on the “Today” show in the early 1960s and a presence on the program for many years afterward; Mr. Newman also appeared regularly on “Meet the Press,” where he moderated for forty or so episodes. He won seven New York Emmy Awards for his work in the 1960s and ’70s with NBC’s local affiliate, WNBC-TV, on which he was a drama critic and the host of the interview program “Speaking Freely.”

He was the moderator for two Presidential debates — the first Ford-Carter debate in 1976 and the second Reagan-Mondale debate in 1984. He said he was always in the wrong place at the right time, but he covered many key events of the 20th century from Queen Elizabeth II's coronation to the assassination of President Kennedy, to the Martin Luther King shooting.

He was a newsman who cared about the quality of the news reporting, and in Mr. Newman’s best-known books, he declared what he called “a protective interest in the English language,” which, he warned, was falling prey to windiness, witlessness, ungrammaticality, obfuscation, words that lost their meanings, and other depredations.

Newman was a trusted voice who was a prominent critic of phony language and hypocrisy and spoke up in his books, "Strictly Speaking: Will America Be the Death of English?" (1974), and "A Civil Tongue" (1976), and in his commentary. He could be a little prissy around the edges, but that often added to his charm and authoritativeness. He also showed signs of not taking himself too seriously with his appearance on Saturday Night Live in which in one routine, he corrected the grammar of a caller on a suicide hot line.

Modernity and the lack of attention to careful speaking and thinking was an anathema to Newman, and it must have been harder for Newman to function in the wireless and grammar-less world of today. His sobering visions will still be with us to face modern America, but his stilled voice will be missed.

Life on the Shuffle (if not the Fast Lane)

It was an extraordinary Fourth of July. I left at 9 a.m., and I was heading north from DC to visit my mother. The weather was hot but not oppressive, and I felt free, and playful and unencumbered (it is a day of liberty, after all) as I shot north on I-495 and I-95. I heard the special radio shows of the Fourth, of the Past Americana and Europe (a history of Paris), and the state of past, current and future US politics and philosophy, and culture lept before me, and I was able to feel deeply with my emotions and sensory nerve endings exposed, and able to take it in with a clarity that was unusually sharp and focused and extra-sensory. It was jet propelled, and HDTV all rolled into one, and yet it felt oh so natural at the same time.

It was music that was a custom slice of America and more. It was "on the media" on the present and future status of the book with its promise of public collaboration; it was an American tribute from the Beach Boys and Gershwin, and everything in between. It was Summertime in French and beautiful harmonies that included Coldplay and hip hop hotter play. It was playful yet touching on serious topics as well as the light fantastic.

It was a day and a trip of rediscovery, reaching back into America's past and present and yes future and it was reaching back to see who I was 40 or so years ago--influenced by my family's views internally and in a lot of my public behavior in school and after hours at a job in the hardware business, yet I was feeling my wings growing at the same time and I was protesting what was the recent past and present and striking out for human rights.

I was beginning my love with and respect for all people and I was hoping for a better and more enlightened present and future. I was somewhat grounded by my family ties that gave me security and love and nourishment, yet I was struggling to get my legs powerful enough to jump and run and lerch and move forward. I was somewhat shy while I figured things out and I was decent enough and sufficiently law-abiding and truly caring enough to be a decent person yet a person wanting to experiment and jump to the sky while I was grounded and kept a part of my feet on the pitching rubber. I did not want to balk in the winning run.

As the radio played along, it was jumpin jack flash, and I was Mich Jagger in Spain, and it was for what its worth, buffaloing springfield looking at a song for the 60s and 70s and saying hooray for our times, and the great beyond and it was even downtown by a decent but a confused sounding sinatra. It was truly life on the shuffle--free and liberating--jumping back and forth through past, present, and future, fast forwarding back and forth with a clarity and a fuzziness that enabled me to see for miles and miles and to develop a plan for the all the every days in my life and the more special and serious and to see with clarity what I can do to reorganize my life maybe, and reorganizing the office in a non- conventional and dynamic and interactive and workable way I hope.

It was the Fourth, surging forth with freedom and flying ahead with a speed of sound and beyond. It honored the past in a clear sharp manner, yet it lept forward into the future with a sweep that was beyond the horizons of times.