[Dixielandjazz] Re: Elevator music - Jazz?

[rahberry at comcast.net]

I'm out here, Larry, and I hear you.  I agree with every point you made.
I read two newspapers every morning and miss having an afternoon paper.  I always listen to NPR in the car.  I really listen when I go hear jazz, which is usually several times a week.
A few years ago I watched the movie "Aladdin" with a friend's small children and was appalled by the speed of the action.  Just when one was trying to focus on the details of the artists' ideas the scene would change.  I wondered at the time what all that speed was doing to childrens' ability to focus and attend.

I'm a news junkie and I get frustrated by the speed and lack of depth of cable news.  I don't understand how people who don't read newspapers and books know anything at all about the world.

Thanks for the opportunity to get this off my chest...

-- Rae Ann


 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: "Larry Walton Entertainment - St. Louis" <larrys.bands at charter.net>
> Bob you hit on two points that I found interesting.   Right now we are doing 
> a strolling gig in a strip mall and people will come up and ask what is that 
> thing I'm playing.  I guess this is OK because soprano saxes aren't that 
> much in the public view.  Sorry Kenny G.  But the second thing about people 
> not listening is so true.  Actually my mother had to have a radio going all 
> the time and she didn't listen to it so we aren't talking about just young 
> kids here.  Listening to anything is an acquired skill.
> 
> I have a problem with music in that I really listen to it.  I am drawn to it 
> and I want it at a sufficient volume that I can hear everything going on or 
> I don't want to listen at all. That includes distraction like conversation. 
> I get irritated at music that I can't listen to or is stopped and started 
> for some reason like some dim wit DJ yakking or over the telephone and your 
> party picks up.  It's like an unresolved chord.
> 
> Sorry to say but it's the attention span of most people.  We are a nation 
> with ADHD.  Political parties are made or broken on thirty second sound 
> bites.  If it can't be explained in thirty seconds no one cares.  Beethoven, 
> Mozart and OKOM demand actual listening.  You can't do it in thirty seconds.
> 
> Since this took longer than thirty seconds to read --- is there anyone out 
> there?
> Larry
> St. Louis
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Bob Loomis" <miltloomis at yahoo.com>
> To: <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
> Sent: Friday, August 11, 2006 8:42 AM
> Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Re: Elevator music - Jazz?
> 
> 
> > Japanese essayist wrote:
> >
> >   "On the other hand, especially with the advent
> > of music videos, the American ears are getting
> > lazier and lazier. Not so long ago in Western
> > history, most people knew how to play a musical
> > instrument or two. Now the vast majority couldn't
> > tell the difference between a saxophone and a
> > trumpet. The American
> > culture is so visually dominant that given a
> > piece of music without anything visual associated
> > with it, most people's eyes wander around
> > nervously, just like the way a nervous speaker
> > doesn't know what to do with his hands."
> >
> >   IMHO this is true in areas other than jazz. I
> > had a friend over recently and explained that we
> > would be listening to an installment of Prairie
> > Home Companion, one I really wanted to listen to.
> > He just couldn't keep still, kept talking
> > through everything and I finally gave up and
> > listened to the rebroadcast the next morning.
> >   I've also noticed that younger folks have no
> > concept of just listening to the radio, they have
> > to have something more going on and they do not
> > listen closely. I suspect this and the fact that
> > very few people (as a percentage of population)
> > carefully read newspapers anymore account
> > partially for the current political trend in our
> > nation. If anyone were listening closely and
> > comparing what's said with what's reality, all
> > the rascals would have been thrown out long ago
> > ... then again, maybe not ...
> >
> > Bob Loomis
> > Concord CA
> >
> >
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> 
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