Archives

You are currently viewing archive for March 2009
Category: American Culture
Posted by: an okie gardener
James Tonkawich has an essay that makes the same point I did in an earlier post--that a welfare-state undermines the character of citizens.

He also makes another point, that welfare-states are bad for the health of churches. I don't agree completely with his reasoning, and may address the issue at greater length later. Historically, secularization in Europe preceeded both the decline in church attendance and the creation of the modern European welfare-state. The correlation between weak churches and strong governmets may not be direct, but both may be the product of secularization.
Category: American Culture
Posted by: an okie gardener
Last week for my birthday the older son and daughter-in-law took my wife and I to a concert by the Duke Ellington Orchestra performing at his university.

Wow. The Sound Continues. The Duke is dead, but the band continues, like a living organism replacing members as they die or move on.

It is a tribute band, playing tunes written by Duke, or perfomed by his band. But it also is a living jazz band, blessed with wonderful, inventive soloists who express their own creativity within the charts.

For an introduction to the music of Duke, here is the official band site, with music.

If you need an introduction to Edward Kennedy Ellington, the Duke, then go here, or here.

When Ellington died in May, 1974, a radio station in another town announced they would devote the entire evening to his music. I got in the car and drove until I could pick up the station, then pulled into a field driveway to sit and listen. Royalty deserves respect.

In late winter I did a funeral for a Texas woman who had been in a nursing home for several years. Her husband preceded her in death. Both of them went into assisted living together when they could still dress themselves and walk to the cafeteria. Together they had operated a small-town grocery for a time; and he had also been a housepainter (after the store, I think). When they were first making plans to leave their house, the accountant suggested they give up their assets to their children so that Medicaid, and perhaps other government programs, would pay for the cost of care. The man refused. He believed that people should take care of themselves, and not go on charity unless absolutely necessary. His children agreed. So the couple paid their way.

In a few years this story will seem a fairy-tale.

We want to help people. But, an unintended consequence of helping can be to destroy self-reliance.

When I went to seminary my wife and I had a small savings account. The seminary--the best endowed in the world--could afford generous financial aid. Tuition cost was factored on the ability to pay. The first year, because of the savings account, I had a small tuition cost. After depleting our savings, the next two years I paid no tuition. It did not take a genius to figure out that if we had spent the money rather than saved, I would have paid no tuition the first year. We could have had some fun with the money, and then been taken care of.

We want to help people. But, an unintended consequence of helping can be to destroy a sense of responsibility.

The evil of a welfare-state is that it nurtures dependency rather than independency, perpetual childhood rather than maturity, sloth rather than prudence.
Category: American Culture
Posted by: an okie gardener
Jazz musicians have been adapt at taking inspiration from various sources, and turning it into jazz. One of the best at expanding horizons was Don Ellis, trumpeter, composer, and bandleader. He was one of the first to bring electronic music, and rock music, and world music, and classical music, and avant-guarde modern music, into the transformative embrace of jazz.

If you've not heard of him, you obviously are not alone. Youtube has little on him. If I had the proper skills, I might try to post some of my old albums online.

Here are the charts that are on there:

Bulgarian Bulge live from 1969.

New Horizons

That's all I can find of Don Ellis playing his own stuff. But the Wurzburg Jazz Orchestra in 2007 had the courage to do an Ellis tribute and play several of his charts.

Final Analysis For those of you trying to count along, the basic meter is 4/4 with just enough 5/4 thrown in to keep you on your toes.

Of course, there are other sources online. Here's Last.FM with some Ellis.

Here's a fan site.