goin up

the title comes from a freddie hubbard album. the year was 1960, the engineer, rudy van gelder, the label, blue note. hank mobley's tenor adds considerably to the affair, as it always did. a young mccoy tyner plays incredibly, as do paul chambers and philly joe. a rather unknown record, as they almost all are. but they are no less brilliant for being unrecognized. hank mobley would eventually die penniless in a one room flat in philadelphia. he was a giant of a sax player, his "soul station" one of the very greatest jazz recordings ever. he was an integral participant in the bands of art blakey, max roach, horace silver, and miles davis, and his string of albums on blue note, both as a leader and sideman from the mid 50's to the mid 60's represent a fantastic body of work. he deserves to be known. students should hear of his name, and the names of hundreds of others who contributed so much to our collective musical heritage. for once, maybe we can ignore the britney spears of the world, and properly present the plethora of comparatively unknown musical giants whose music yearns for a hearing. i won't hold my breath for this to occur.
i am reading a book by independent journalist dahr jamail, entitled dispatches from the green zone. his writings speak to the unmitigated war crime that is the u.s. occupation of iraq. it is a hard read. the words make clear the destruction of a people, the bombing of ambulances, the murdering of defenseless masses, a conquest created by cluster bombs. no one is off limits. children are targets, as are the elderly. in case you are wondering, the book was not written in german. this is our country, our weapons, our military, and it always has been. and worst of all, we don't acknowledge it. who reads the memoirs of the vietnamese anne frank? who cries for the koreans, murdered by the millions, bombarded by our bombs of nasty napalm ? every year, i notice all the school children forced to read wiesel's "night" in school. it's a fine book, an important book, but what about hersey's "hiroshima?" is that not too a fine book. of course, its words speak to horrors committed by our government. in case you are wondering, i have not met one student asked to read this book. no one has even heard of it. the same is true for trumbo's "johnny got his gun," a more relevant read than either of those other books. for while the holocaust and hiroshima were awful crimes, they are crimes of the past. meanwhile, war is a horror that is all too present, perhaps explaining why trumbo's book is unknown and untaught.
night is truth, but only a partial truth. it is the truth of the horrors done by others. hence, it is easy for us to condemn. we cry over the crimes of others, but those are easy tears to shed. they ask of us no criticism of our own crimes, no study of the brutalities of our own past and present.
the same with today. we often hear about the terrors taking place in tibet, or the devastation in darfur. clearly, horrendous things happen in these places, and should be condemned. but, where are the rallies for the serbians? who prays for the panamanians punished by our powerful military? who holds a vigil for a central america condemned to violence and poverty by the recent history of their right wing governments, who were brutally supported by the u.s. security state?
do you expect me to take those "free tibet" bumber stickers seriously while we are currently conquering the cradle of civilization? talk about a gutless action of political "progressivism."
hope, where are you? you are small, seemingly the size of a mustard sea.
and you are fading fast.