NOTHING IS AS IT USED TO BE NOR WILL IT BE

Before Google, I used to buy every reference book that printed things of interest to me;  quotes, scrabble words, colloquial sayings, rhyming words, do-it-yourself books, encyclopedias and more than remain, some outdated, on my book shelves.  Many have been tossed as obsolete, making room for the many manuals collected though they are far more compact than in the 90s.. Since Nature abhors a vacuum, no shelf is left empty as new 'stuff' rushes in like water to fill a hole in itself.

With regard to reference books, I came across an article that I'd like to share with anyone who has not yet read it.

There are many free services (paid to the service provider by advertising or paid programs with more advantages, often referred to as the PRO version). Tutorials abound on YouTube.

It seems that people are always looking for an either/or choice.  Nonsense.  one must use whatever does the job or provides the information wanted.  I used to buy books to identify flowers, wild and cultivated, including house plants.  I have at least a six foot shelf of them, almost useless since not one had everything and it was more time consuming than to go on Google and search. Google seems to find the answers for me and leaves my shelf space clean..If Google fails me on rare occasions, I turn to the written word and pictures.  If publishers go out of business because people aren't buying enough copies, I will have to deal with that crisis when it comes.

THEN AND LATER

Tonight a delightful presentation of before and afters of Jazz forced me out of my cocoon at home to a neighboring town library. In 1977 Peter Appleyard introduced a, then, 26 year old trumpet player from Canada (with a full head of hair) to an American audience. He played a very melodic When It's Sleepy Time Down South. In 2001, a second introduction at a Bern Festival shows him with his hair nought but a fringe around the lower edge of his scalp up and barely over his ears. Later, in 2005 you can hear him swinging with John Allred, the trombonist on Limehouse Blues. It's like time lapse photography!

We were later treated to Stephane Grappelli and Django Rinehart, who with three more musicians started the Hot Club of France. Since Django returned to his beloved France (because he was not happy in the USA) he may not be as familiar to Americans as Grappelli later became. Django died in France in1953.

We were also treated to Dave Brubeck, an example from 1961 playing what was an indescribable jazz form in 5/4 time can be heard here.. Having been classically trained as a student of the French Composer Darius Milhaud, he brought a wonderful new window to Jazz as New Orleans and Dixie merged with some of these new expressive musicians. Dave composed Take Five and played with the wonderful Alto Saxophonist, Paul Desmond, who died all too early at age 53 in 1977. Brubeck is now in his 80s is still playing beautifully. Here in 2005, on YouTube he plays Rondo a la Turk.

There is little out there in the cold, wide world to drag me out of the warm and fuzzy space in front of my computer on a cold night, but Jazz at Lincoln Library did it. To be with about 25 jazz lovers, near my age and older, who can listen to music that is melodic, rhythmic without the drums overpowering everything else, and not listen to music generated out of stoned heads, at decibels that permanently wipe out ear drums, is Heaven on Earth to me. I am learning to appreciate YouTube more than ever as I consider how much of my own interests of the past do I want to spend precious time in my life archiving.

For a treat, listen to Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald doing Summertime. An encore of the same tune demonstrates what a real voice, controlled and not wandering all around the tune as it was written, can be sung to move an audience. This was in Berlin in 1968 in concert.

LEARNING FULL STORIES IS DIFFICULT

The media has become more than ridiculous. The real journalists are gone, only to show up for brief moments, almost as afterthoughts as Tom Brokaw came on after the New Hampshire primaries. There are few entertainer/journalists left whom I can watch and respect. Keith Olbermann is one of the few to speak up to the administration as well as to entertainer/journalists. Do people forget that almost everything, including committed crimes, is frequently on videotape.

YouTube is one of the best things to happen to dampen people's penchant for rewriting history. Fox News, changing a transcript for history is laughable. If anyone doubts that Big Brother of 1984 is really here, stop doubting. It is laughable that it is claimed that evidence was lost because the FBI didn't pay its bills, or failed to pay them on time while breaking the law by taping private conversations.

Mistakes can happen. After all, all humans are fallible, even those who think they have a direct pipeline to God. It would be more comforting to believe that much of the media is making simple mistakes, but intelligent people, given all the evidence otherwise, would be making an error of their own to believe that. It is very interesting that Bill Kristol, Weekly Standard Editor, knew so definitely that Senator Clinton was faking tears in New Hampshire. What does that say about his own readiness to do whatever, say whatever, it takes to prove his point.

Too many people I know think their own lives of denial are more important than informing themselves as fully as our media and news sources permits. I suggest that, even as adults, we still have lots of daily homework to do.