Tioga Herald

In 2005, I went above and beyond the call of duty as a professor in a community college. Not being required to do “publish or perish,” as at the university level, I was not required to be continuously published. In 2004, I took a Sabbatical. There was no requirement for publishing, but I felt I needed to do it. I worked on several publications during that term of the Sabbatical in 2004. One of the publications got published in a peer-reviewed international journal.

Being that I was also working on a graduate degree in music, I also spent the time preparing for a recital on voice I could do. Not required to do it, but my undergraduate degree in Music Education at Crane School of Music, Potsdam College, taught me that educators need to stay in touch with their performing skills. Based on that, I decided I needed to do a recital. I had the plans in place for the recital to be done at Union Congregational UCC, after working with several ladies at the church who liked my singing. In the month before the recital, I came down with a fatal blow to singers: laryngitis. I could not shed myself of this, even though I was following directions of one of my voice teachers which also included taking Musinex. The grouch on the commercials for Musinex won, in my case!

The grouches in my life should be pointed out. Oh, that’s right. I HAVE pointed them out and stupid common folk don’t pay attention!

I still have not completed that recital, but I am not required to do so. It was above the call of duty. Stick that in your hate, you freaking lovers of “right to work” in Florida, including the current governor, asshole Ron DeSantis. Add to that former governors Rick the Prick Scott and Jebbie Bush. The only good governors in Florida, over the past 20-30 some years, have been REPUBLICAN (back when there were good Republicans) Charlie Crist and the late Lawton Chiles. The rest of them have been dildo head bigots with authoritarian manure, proclaiming they have a “mandate” based on winning less than half the votes in Florida. Mandate shamdate.

This peer-reviewed article, as I mentioned (did I say that?), was published in an INTERNATIONAL journal and not published in the USA. I could get none of what I wrote on Sabbatical, including music reference works, in American publications. Oh, well. Se leve, I guess.

I did get to do presentations about what I had published, on my college’s Professional Teaching Learning Center circuit. I also did a presentation about the fake news used by Trump in 2016 and where it was generated from a Putin base in one of the former Soviet states. I collaborated with another person on that project. We uncovered what Tucker Carlson admitted, years later. That there was more money to be made with lies than with the truth. So keep shoveling the manure of lies, right? And there are no waders to help the people work their way through the manure.

To see someone on FB proclaim that the NBC News truck is like a 1940s garbage truck exemplifies what I am saying. The truck which is like a 1940s garbage truck is one run by Australian wealthy bigot, Rupert Murdock, and should have the Fox News logo on it, not NBC.

Perhaps every other news organization can err with a tiny bit of manure. But what comes from Fox is like shoveling chicken shit, with my dad, from the back of a truck, not the occasional piece of cow manure on the farms where I accompanied my dad so he could fix milk coolers when they broke down. In fact, the farmers tried to keep things as clean as possible so visitors did not have to step in any large pile of it. The smell was there, but not the manure.

I collaborated on this with another person and we were working right in Trump’s backyard, just a few miles from Mar-a-Lago.

Music is the universal language. Lang Lang, Yo Yo Ma, of Eastern decent, plus others, can tell you this (I have heard some of them say it). Why is Western culture not producing someone as good as Lang Lang on the piano? Or do we? We think the masses only love the scum which is being produced in America and the west and don’t accept classical music. Again. My experiences tell me that is another lie generated by lousy supply-side Reaganomics in the belief that music is ONLY about money-worship and nothing else. Thus the good stuff is often tossed aside, so as to line the pockets of the money-worshipers. Spotify and other music portals don’t survive the bull manure of money-worshipers. Yet, there are MARKETS OUT THERE for those who don’t like the popular stuff. There are markets out there for many of us who maintain an eclectic interest in music.

One time, I spoke with a choral director in Florida about the music of Karl Jenkins of Wales. His music is played on Classic FM, but never gets exposure in the USA. The two of us could not come up with an answer to that. The conclusion was that Jenkins had an audience, but it was not a massive market which accepts all the stuff, whether music made of manure or not.

Karl Jenkins has composed something similar to the concept of Beethoven. A large-scale music piece in which the message about war and peace are part of the music. Jenkins piece probably concentrates on this more than Beethoven did. Why not? What impact has Beethoven’s music had to get that message across, since about 1816 or so, referencing the manure practices of one called authoritarian dictator, Napoleon.

Jenkins includes Christian, Jewish, and Muslim styles in his music. He embraces a good part of the world in his presentations. He includes videos on a large screen, which demonstrate the ravages of war. Apparently, Americans feel too guilty of that. But wait. Most of those scenes were of Hitler in Europe. Must be too many Americans are Nazis and cannot tolerate the scenes of a bigoted Hitler? Feeling guilty, huh?

Jenkins has also composed music which incorporates African music. I said African, not African-American. Meant to differentiate the two, not to put down African-American music. I am a big fan of jazz, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Roberta Flack, Aretha Franklin, Gloria Gaynor, the Supremes, the Mills Brothers, the Temptations…. on and on. I have an eclectic interest in music.

Oh. I guess I already said that.

But to those not paying attention. I have an eclectic interest in music. As did Dvorak when he composed the New World Symphony and then John Williams used some of that music when he composed music for a movie called Jaws. As did Aaron Copland when he incorporated American and Latin American folk music in his music. And used music for an American hoedown dance, too.

Karl Jenkins incorporating African music into some of his music is awesome. Spoken by a man with an eclectic interest in music. Oh, I said that already, did I not?

So why is the Jenkins music not programed on the stages of America? Where is the Mass for the Armed Man? It is designed in the form of a mass, but incorporates other world religions into the mass.

Leonard Bernstein, gay and Jewish man, wrote a mass based on the format of a Christian mass, too. Why is that no longer being programmed on American stages? Because dildo heads like Roman Catholic Ron DeSantis, wishes to censor because the people involved are gay and often many different religions, including Jewish. They also have many black people involved.

Perhaps Mark Robinson of North Carolina would only allow any event, as long as black non-gay and black non-Jewish ones are involved? Watch out, Sammy Davis, Jr., types! Not because he was gay, but because he was a black Jewish man.

Dildo head Roman Catholic Ron DeSantis tries to invoke an authoritarian dictatorship in Florida. He does so proclaiming a mandate given him by less than 50% of the voters of Florida. I have news for the son of a bitch. He was granted the right to lead, but not a right to have a mandate to do what dildo head Ron DeSantis wishes.

And is Ron DeSantis behind the lainbrained cardinals at the Vatican who wish to install another Benedict? So, he gets money and support from them, when there are people starving and without homes in the USA? There are people like me who wish we could serve in Congress, but we don’t have any possibility for getting money from barbaric corporate PACs or the ones of the Antichrist in the Vatican.

Pope Francis needs to excommunicate DeSatan. After all, his predecessor excommunicated a gay priest in South Florida who wrote a book proclaiming it is all wrong to consider “original sins” and only consider we were born with “original blessings” and “to err is human.” After all, guilt by sin gives ammunition to dildo heads like DeSatan to invoke their authoritarian control over other people. And we cannot get rid of the false idea of sin of gay folk. That way, those people like dildo head DeSatan has no weapon to BLACKMAIL and keep under their thumbs the repressed gay folk like a dildo head Lindsay Graham of South Carolina. Instead they try to bring down an openly gay man like Pete Buttigieg. What sickos to want such a world.

In 2018, I worked for Jeff Gillum to become Florida governor. The race was so very close in the end and dildo head DeSatan won by a super slim margin. DeSatan believes he has a mandate to rid Florida education about the travesties of injustice – TRUE FACTS – from the books. After all, he hates the fact that someone who is descended from those who survived such travesties of justice came so close to beating the white supremacist. Like Japanese culture, bone head, dick head, dildo head DeSatan just measures life by whether you win or lose and tough noogies to those who loose.

A gay priest gets excommunicated by another bone head, dick head, dildo head named Benedict. But Francis would not excommunicate Ron DeSatan dildo head authoritarian? Who on the Cardinals push Francis NOT to do that? Supporters of Benedict, as they throw their money around for only THEIR cause, not the causes of the TRUE JC. Human causes overlapping the cause of the word of God made flesh? That alone is blasphemy. Apparently, it is being done by some of the cardinals in Rome. Hypocrites in Rome. JC spoke against hypocrites in the 1st Century. I speak out against hypocrites today.

So, in 2005, I wrote a peer-reviewed article about music information literacy. This is related to music as the universal language, but sadly I did not say that in my article, as I wrote about the details of music information literacy. I did in later years, as I presented similar information in presentations of the college PTLC. And another was a presentation about how videos were incorporated into music and voila, we got the music video, with the original pioneers of music videos dating back to the days of the Beatles, etc., but really picking up STEAM with Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones with the music video with the voice of Vincent Price in Thriller. Is it true that Quincy Jones studied music composition with the same French woman with whom Aaron Copland and numerous other America composers studied? Have not answered that question conclusively.

STEAM is also related to music information literacy. I learned about information literacy from a former professor in library science at the upstate NY Syracuse University. Music information literacy is different from music literacy. Music literacy means you have mastered the ideas and can practice such ideas, for performing music. Music information literacy is about incorporating information we learn about music (as in my Music Appreciation classes; as in the educational videos produced by Howard Goodall of Britain) into our lives, along with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. STEM without the A to make it STEAM.

Perhaps my article about music information literacy helped boost my ability to push for STEAM to replace STEM? I have no idea. If so, those in power would likely have fear that they went against Rick the Prick and Ron DeSatan, so perhaps I better shut up about that and not receive recognition for what I accomplished? After all, I went against authoritarian assholes like Rick the Prick and Ron DeSatan, so I need to shut up? Yes. I will call them pricks, assholes, dildo heads, dick heads. I make no apologies because that is what they are! I was always on the other side of the table from such pricks who had no idea about what it meant to be human beings and demonstrated it with their authoritarian regimes. I don’t take kindly to authoritarian regimes, as they grab people along with them, thinking by such people with their emotions and not their brains, how detrimental it is to them and their progeny, for going along. I

am blunt, for sure. And I make no apologies for that. If those reading this don’t like it, then I pity them for their closed minds which hurt American society. Likely giving myself accolades for my accomplishments in life hurts me more than helps me. Again. I pity Americans who simply look through rose colored glasses and come up with fantasies about taxes and authoritarian assholes like Rick the Prick and Ron DeSatan.

For I work for THE PEOPLE, not just for myself. I have a broader view of what it takes to be human beings which I learned from the musical Hair, while a teenager. And yes, I applaud my dad for taking me to see that musical and those who don’t like it can simply shut their mouths with their pro-puritanical anti-prurient interests they maintain with an interest to impose authoritarian control over people should people not go along with their puritanical twitty ideas.

The words of various songs are in my heart, as Lawrence Welk always side, “keep a song in your heart.” The ones for human beings and the worldwide human community are “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing in perfect harmony.” Also, Aretha Franklin’s R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Stevie Wonder’s “Love’s in need of Love.” The Beatles, “Love, Love, Love.” John Lennon’s “Imagine.” George Harrison’s “Here Comes the Sun.” Shania Twain’s “From this Moment.” Gershwin’s “Love is Here to Stay.” Carole King’s “You’ve Got a Friend.”

There are songs of satire regarding love, due to people being hurt by love in relationships. Gloria Gaynor, “I will Survive.” Tina Turner, “What’s Love Got to Do with it.” The Song, “What the World Needs Now.”

The one which stands out because it is about the concept of the Greek word, agape, which is the love to describe God and His love for God’s children, is The Hilltop Singers and “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing in Perfect Harmony.”

There are plenty of others. From love songs in musicals and operas (i.e., Pippin- “Love Song”).

This is not my two-cents for the day, but my double-nickel for the day. Like it or lump it. I don’t care. I only hope it does permeate some minds who wish to learn, not just follow. 🖖

P.S. My hand signal in the above emoji does not have the symbol for peace, as projected in America. The two fingers known as the “victory sign, but also used for peace.” On an international basis, I cannot give that two-fingered salute because in some English-speaking nations, the two-fingered salute is the same as the middle finger in America. Thus, my emoji with four fingers comes from Mr. Spock, the Vulcan, on Star Trek and means, “live long and prosper.” That is my wish for all in the human race, no matter who they are or where they are on life’s journey, they are welcomed by me and millions of other people in the world who are evolved past barbarism and who seek a civilized society of coexistence. 🙂 🖖