A Night for Music with Family and Friends

A couple of family members and I recently spent a pleasantly-weathered summer evening at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts listening to gifted singer-songwriter Amos Lee and his band, including my talented guitarist cousin, Ryan Hommel. The band was versatile, creative, and utterly tight, and the songs and vocals wandered enthusiastically through the American soundscape of folk, funk, rock, and rural and citified blues. Amos' vocal range and easy-going story-telling was expansive, building the audience into a crescendoing chorus of cheers and enthusiasm.

We were able to wander backstage to meet my cousin and catch up on his and other band members' touring experiences. We also talked with Amos as he chatted warmly about his challenging times of teaching second grade in Philly, and he offered many suggestions for education reform along the way. I shared my memories of last seeing Amos on his first national tour with Bob Dylan. A perfect night of sharing music, warm memories, and education reform with family and new found friends.

It's A Mad, Mad World...And Now For Something Completely Different and Over The Top—An Overlong Tribute To Mad Magazine—You May Want To Stop Reading Now—So Please Be Forewarned—This May Be Injurious To Your State Of Mind.

Every great civilization needs a sense of humor. It cannot take itself too seriously; it needs to be able to withstand self-deprecating humor, parody, and irreverence. For more than sixty-five years (from 1952, to be more exact) we have had Mad Magazine, and “its usual gang of idiots,” and those it influenced or its direct or indirect descendants—Tom Lehrer, Steve Allen, Jean Shepard, Lenny Bruce, Jack Paar, Bob and Ray, Ernie Kovacs, Stan Freberg, The Realist, National Lampoon, Firesign Theatre, SNL, the Simpsons, Monty Python, Dave Letterman, Jon Stewart, Steven Colbert, Mrs Maisel, and so many others.

Mad kept us honest and gave us perspective, and allowed us to be “in on the joke.” But now Mad Magazine, owned ironically by WarnerMedia, as acquired by AT&T, is about to cease print publication and go on re-runs.

Mad Magazine has taught many to read and helped bring up many generations, and taught individuals to see the ironies in daily life, and to deal with them. It taught many how to be skeptical and inquisitive, and to be good doctors, lawyers, and a good every other occupation. It spawned many great illustrators and graphic novelists. It gave hope to those who did not fully "fit in"; it opened eyes and minds to multiple views of the same idea; and invigorated multiple life styles and life choices.

By satirizing the way things are and were, Mad taught many the way things should be, an idealism that persists, and is as American as Mad is. By looking at the worst of what is, or at the underside, somehow you always knew that things can and should get better, and 'What me worry' became yes, maybe you should be concerned, but that even the worrisome could be fun, and that there was hope. The every-person character of the gap-toothed Alfred E. Neuman gave us comfort and hope no matter who we were and how we looked.

Readers of a New York Times article about Mad recently eulogized Mad in the following manner:

“It helped teach me to think critically. It demonstrated how to analyze an issue and learn how to challenge the merits of the issue.”
“As a female, I went over to the neighbor boy's house to read the magazine because it was not for girls so my family thought! Little did my family know how much this magazine shaped my thinking through humor. It taught me well and I still use humor to explain the [sometime] absurdity of American [life].”
“The writers revealed how to see the other side of an issue and question the motives in almost every element of American life: art, politics, culture, film etc....”
“The world is unfair, exploitative and brutal and we’re all going to die and the grown-ups have been secretly having sex the whole time [and enjoying life]. You feel ripped off. You feel lied to. But then there is Mad."
“The truth is always told in jest. Mad Magazine was a volume of truth in a world of spin.”
“It was an alternative way of processing the conventional wisdom of the world at large.”

Efforts at humor such as Mad are a national treasure, and should be preserved and guarded as a national utility. But since humor is purely a state and local matter, I do not expect a Department of United Humor, and Analytical and Critical Thinking (or DUH-ACT) any time soon. But I am an optimist and believe in our American system of checks and balances, free speech, and democracy, and I know that the spirit and lessons of Mad Magazine will live on in some form whether it be in a magazine, a CD, or in the ever streaming mind.

I was not even an avid reader of Mad Magazine (maybe if I was, it would have a brighter future), but friends would often share it, and it was good to know it existed, and I am sad to see it go—for now, at least. But its sense of humor, its contributions to the lives of many, and its hope for the future lives on.

The 50th Commemoration of a Miracle: Blimey its Baseball Take 2

Blimey, it's baseball--Take Two: While it was a banner day for baseball in London Stadium yesterday (and once again today), yesterday was also the day NYC commemorated the 50th anniversary of a true baseball miracle--the Amazing '69 Mets taking on all odds to beat the heavily-favored Orioles.

After a divisive set of events in the rebellious 60's (losing some of our greatest heroes to violent backlash), an unlikely band of rag-tag, unevenly talented, but high-spirited athletes representing a split-riden Gothamtown, swept to a unlikely five-game World Series victory. The "gotta to believe" heroes, aligned with a launch to and walk on the moon rallied a city and much of our country to believe in itself once again.

Maybe, one day we will have a true world series that will rally and unite the world.

It's a big day for America's Pastime:

 London Calling, and the Clash is between the Yankees v. the Red Sox--the Play's the Thing.

And the Jazz Played On

DC gave a jazz party at the waterside Wharf as part of its 15th Annual DC Jazz Festival. The many jazz performances were mostly free, and free-form, and they gently lifted the spirits of a crowd of happy people of all ages, as the nearby waves deftly lapped the shore.

A Lesson for the Ages

Who said “there ain’t no cure for the summertime blues”? Take five very gifted middle and high school students (and their teacher) from the Baltimore School for the Arts who play brass, wind, percussion and stringed musical instruments; stir in a gifted jazz instructor, Dr. J.B. Dyer, who can make the complexities of jazz simple; and toss in, Sean Jones, an off-the-charts trumpet player who trades notes with the greats, yet wanted to give back to teaching music education; and you are part of a joyful and soulful explosion of risk-taking, spontaneity, individuality, collaboration, teamwork, trust, and freedom that exemplify the American spirit and the principles of leadership at its finest. That this demonstration was held on the 75th Anniversary of D-Day made it even more fitting.

In a crowded assembly hall at the U.S. Department of Education (in collaboration with the Herbie Hancock Music Institute), history was made and remade. If you ever doubted that students of all ages can learn, that good teachers can teach even the most difficult of subjects, and that people of all views can get engaged and come out of their comfort zones to collaborate for a greater good, your doubts were put to rest in ninety short and shining minutes. The power of music, the power of teaching and learning, the power of being open to new views and ideas, the power of taking risks and learning from the mistakes that might come, all came together through the sounds and the silence of a diverse team of gifted yet humble student musicians and teachers. This was truly a lesson for the ages.

Sad Day in Radio

It is indeed a sad day or days in radio land. New York's WPLJ, named after a Mothers of Invention song was truly an innovative and inventive radio station.  Virtually, at the same time Q-107 or Mix 107.3, also legendary in DC, formerly WMAL-FM, suddenly became K-Love, and lost its rock identity after a long -run, and its last format change.  

Although both stations went through many format changes in their close to legendary 50-year histories, they always stayed fresh, and with a form of rock, and that was often ahead of their times.  

PLJ, started as WABC-FM, one of the first album-oriented rock stations, with interesting DJ’s such as Zacherle, Alex Bennett (who had a legendary radio career of his own), and Vince Scelsa.  PLJ's last song was John Lennon's “Imagine,” released in 1971, the same year the station went on the air. 

Its DC counterpart included many DC rock radio pioneers, such as Stoney Richards, and Dude Walker ending with veteran morning-man Jack Diamond.  It's so-called flight out song was "Cherish" by the Association.  

Both stations inspired many other stations, DJs, and listeners.  Each format shift on both stations, renewed the energy-level in their areas and their commitment to high-quality radio. It is sad to lose their creative takes on what radio can be.