Coexistence—Odds Appear to be Slim

Media consolidation has its ups and downs; big businesses purchase and sell small companies easily, so economically it allows for savings, which benefits the consumer and investor in us all. Nonetheless, media consolidation in television limit’s the diversity of programs, so what we consume through television channels (broadcast and cable) are controlled and selected by fewer and fewer people, which we know fewer and fewer about. Apparently, then we are in the midst of losing localism thus losing the promotion of diversity to the masses, at large.

Moreover, according to an article titled “Consolidation, Budget Cuts Mean Party Must Learn How to Play by New Rules” by Flavia Colgan, a MSNBC-TV Contributor, published November 18, 2005, “Investigative reporting is expensive, but talk is cheap. Very little investigative journalism is done by television news anymore. When is the last time you heard of Fox News Channel breaking a story, for example?” Colgan added, this problem is not isolated to television news; “competition [overall] in the news business has increased dramatically and this has led to a decrease in the ability of news organizations to take risks.” This competition is fueled by appearing the most appealing.

Ted Turner, CNN founder and Turner Enterprises chairman, stated in article, “My Beef with Big Media,” that “the media giants now own not only broadcast networks and local stations; they also own the cable companies that pipe in the signals of their competitors and the studios that produce most of the programming.” Turner shows how consolidated the television industry has become throughout the past fifteen years by mentioning, “In 1990, the major broadcast networks—ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox—fully or partially owned just 12.5 percent of the new series they aired. By 2000, it was 56.3 percent. Just two years later, it had surged to 77.5 percent.”

So one can grasp consolidating the television industry, the most consumed media in the United States, is restricting the variety of programs. A poll conducted by Project for Excellence in Journalism found through surveying journalists, editors, and news executives that editors say their staff size has declined over the last three years by forty-three percent. Of national journalists forty-four percent write or produce four stories a week, if not more; only thirty-five percent say they compose three or less. Colgan also states, “When asked if the ‘bottom line’ was hurting news coverage or just changing the way organizations do things, 74 percent of journalists said it was hurting coverage, as did 69 percent of editors.”

Furthermore, in an interview with Newspaper & Technology in June of 2001, Joseph Basara, chief executive officer of WRH (Walter Reist Holding) marketing, discussed the company’s U.S. plans for Ferag. Basara replied to the question about the effects of newspaper consolidation on the manner he carries out business by saying, “Yes, there is some consolidation and fewer individual ownership entities that are in the market.… What we also need to acknowledge is that while newspaper consolidation has occurred in terms of ownership, this has not necessarily translated to operations. While it has some national components to it, the newspaper is still a local product.”

Andrew Carnegie, 19th Century steel industrial giant, believed the reason for a single company to own the whole production process of a particular commodity or product was to protect the customer--from start to finish the sole company has control over the item in return regulating the quality of the product firsthand. So, with Carnegie’s concept of consolidation, it is a good idea, yet we, as consumers, cannot rely fully on a single enterprise to care about our billfolds more than their bottom-line, e.g Enron. However, media consolidation has its ups and downs; nevertheless, I full hearty support diversity (the ability to have a variety of minds and beliefs represented and distributed to the masses) in a single market.

Concluding, consolidation is good, when it does not interfere with the quality and diversity of a particular media outlet, yet the odds appear to be slim that both can successfully coexist.


Media consolidation raises the fear of the Orwell's 1984 Big Brother society, which could be across the horizon--if we, as members of a free society, unlearn the precious able to question, even our authorities. That is, we leave ourselves open for a Jerry Cantrell-like "Degradation Trip."

Balancing the Public Airways

Why allow the public airways to promote filthy, immoral, and perverted versions of the one person’s warped, twisted world? Following the thinking of no-holds-bar public radio is quite absurd. Yes, one can consciously change the channel; however, if one is not of a particular mental state, can one true gauge the artist value? According to Dan Hollis, a Journalism professor at Marshall University, our nation is concerned about protecting children; furthermore, who is going to argue not to protect them? Children, as we elders view them, really are not the rational creatures that it takes to decide the political, artistic, literary, and scientific worth of information and entertainment.

Of course, who is to say what is degrading, impure, and harmful material? I, being twenty-one-years-old, might enjoy and appreciate several things, which I would not want my little three-year-old sister or five-year-old nephew to see or hear because of the content of the material. Specially, due to the fact, I do not believe he or she processes the abilities to wager the circumstances surrounding situation or situations and the motives of the individual or individuals promoting these words or images.

My father, once when I was younger, told my grandfather in a conversation, which I--looking up at both of them--recall vividly, said, “The way I view it I shouldn’t be anywhere I can’t take my kids.” Somewhat, I agree. However, there are times children may not view the material in the satirical way it was intended.

As of now our nation is a free country--meaning an adult can view any thing they might desire: hard-core or soft-core pornography and graphic violence or listen to offensive lyrics and crude humor, if one chooses to do so. We, as a nation, believe the older one is the more conscious one is. That is debatable. However, in the name of child protection anything accessible via the public airways should be, in my opinion, regulated (watered-down, if one will).

Here is an assignment my Journalism professor posed the class: "Should there be regulations on public airways--broadcast television, radio." I hope this drives your thoughts on the touchy balance between protection of children and free practices of consenting adults.

The Awakening of a Still Dream

A young man from Greece--working his way across the Atlantic, as a ship-hand in the early decades of last century--was given a dime to purchase a nickel cola by one of the passengers, as the vessel coasted into the New England harbour. The young man ran down the painted wooden plank, peeling from the saltwater air, to the nearest diner. Once there, he asked for two colas and paid with the dime. Back aboard the ship, he sold the second cola, first, to another passenger for a dime itself. Then, he gave the first cola to the original passenger who sent him for it, and the passenger said, “Keep the change for yourself, sonny.”

The young man stood on the dock, after the crowd dispersed, looking toward the city with dime in hand and said to himself, “That’s the American Dream.”

Would you say this story is true?

Would you say you believe in the American Dream?

First, what is the American Dream? Let us make this clear. Coming from a meager existence to soar up the ladder of success that may take others a lifetime climb. Maybe. Or bettering oneself passed that of one’s parents’ success. Possibly, maybe not really. The American Dream is simply in one word: opportunity--given, taken, or made.

Everywhere in our society--either through a rock or pop song on the radio or an actor on the big screen or the small, or even in a C.E.O. meeting on the 19th story of a New York office building or a heartfelt speech delivered on the Senate floor--we are surrounded by the American Dream.

Everyday when we step out of our houses or dorm rooms, we are in the presence of Americans and non-Americans alike striving for their own level of satisfaction (wherever or whatever that may be), and that itself is witness to the American Dream. We, as members of the human species, are a myriad of backgrounds, races, creeds, languages, ideologies, and financial statuses, and we coexist in time and space.

The soul of America is opportunity--the ability to move through the social and economic platforms to settle where one chooses. This opportunity is sometimes given (by someone’s largesse or reluctance) or taken (by someone’s emotional blindness or mental ignorance); however, it is predominately made (by one’s ever-longing personality and never-dying fortitude).

Of course, opportunity in our nation is not as equal as it would be in the Utopian fantasy; nonetheless, the American reality is as close as any other society thus far.

I used to believe that we were running out of American heroes—the American Dream awoke to a reality of nightmares. But I was sadly mistaken. Last year a random thought sparked hours of conversions between myself and my family and friends.

Nevertheless, my grandfather, 72, shared a tale about a man he knew, while working as a state trooper in Hardy County, W.Va., called Nick “the Greek.” The tale he told was the opening story of this article; so yes, that story was true. Mr. Nick went from entering this country with a few dollars to becoming a rather wealthy individual before his passing.

Finally, I conclude: we are America--dreams do not die here, they are realized here. We are not running out of heroes, super or mild-mannered. We are trapped in the incalculable glory of a multitude of heroes. The American Dream is opportunity and the American Dream is still here today.


Yep, this is the second column for the campus paper, The Parthenon. I like it (not the paper, particularly, but the connection); I like feeling in touch with other students (and people in general). Coming out of class last Friday two girl stopped me and asked me if I was “that guy.” One of the girls was so generous with her compliments, and she was so sincere in her emotions. I felt like I touched someone and that is one of the greatest feelings in the world.

It Makes Her Feel Sexy

I have had the unbelievable chance of giving my hopelessly pathetic heart—meaning I truly gave all of myself by baring even my minutest weakness—to two amazingly incredible women. I remember once asking one of them, “What is your favorite part of being a woman?” Taking a few innocent moments to phrase her words carefully, she said, “Being able to feel sexy; knowing every guy in the room is looking at just me.” Then, like she always did, she posed the same question back, “What is your favorite part of being a man?” Taking no time to formulate my reply, I said, “Being able to make you feel sexy; knowing that you know that my blue eyes are on you and you alone.”

That said: men are swine. We, as men, cause useless, immature, and intolerable degrees of pain for our partners. We, being somewhat blind to the mental attraction and emotional understanding of women, cause this pain, based in selfish endeavors, to a level, which is unneeded, unwanted, and majority of the time unjust. Why do we do this?

Of course, women are not the frail angelic creatures conjured up in the mind of an overly romanticized society. However, women do not need to be heartbroken and ill-treated because of our primal need to protect face, when felt threaten. Most men in our culture are told to be confident but are taught only how to be cocky. Why do we do this?

Walking with your chin up, with your back straight, with knowledge in your speech, and with strength in your eyes; that is confidence, not yelling out adolescent lines, which you got from some teen movie that borders on sexual harassment in the real world, from a campus bench with your buddies cheering you on and laughing, when the girl passes by without paying attention. Remember, most women need someone to tell them that they have worth, and those cheesy middle school phrases hold no ground and substance, when the door closes at night and all that both of you have is each other.

From my experiences women possess a deep longing for a gentle touch and a soft whisper, more times than not; it shows that we, as men, consider their bodies and minds as a cherished temple at which we offer up our egos, sacrifice our social stereotypes, shed our so-called rough manly exteriors. These moments of baring it all occur from time to time and they are gone like the sun that fades behind a cloud and that cloud seems to stretch forth out of sight of thy naked eye, yet you yearn for more and more seems to never arrive, but you yearn still.

Each man should let the woman that he holds know of her individual worth and also that he yearns for her more. That should be our primary duty as men at the beginning of everyday.

Do not be a cocky fool with a juvenile mentality; that is, be a confident man with steadfast integrity. Be respectful, honest, and communicative—treat a woman right. Moreover, keep your eyes only on your girl; it makes her feel sexy.


This is my first column for the campus paper (The Parthenon). I’m sitting here looking over it and thinking I could clean it up a little more, but the paper has this copy, so this is the copy being published. My journalism professor has been after me to get one submitted. So here it is. I hope to be allowed to do more in the future.

Ode to ?

Where can I begin in my description of the fresh, heavenly creature that accompanied me to the cinema the other night? I have met a young girl, whose angelic face has phantasmagorically been at the forefront of my thoughts, and that girl has left me verbally speechless and emotionally vulnerable. I find myself in fear of coming off as a cocky fool or a shy coward, which neither I am. Furthermore, I am petrified that she will see through the manly exterior, which I try relentlessly to uphold, into the actual, non-socially accepted me--the one that is not funny nor cool nor hip nor any of those other happening terms of our present day youth culture. She is a West Virginia girl of strong character and immaculate beauty one that I am doubtful of impressing, even to the slightest of degrees. There is a sense about her that radiates elation and compassion, honesty and integrity to all whom crosses her delighted path. I have never been so concerned about how one individual may view my random, unexplanatory actions or my off-the-wall, confusing tangencies, until I encounter this humanly perfection. Since I was raised in the understanding that strength comes after the baring of one’s weaknesses, I am torn beneath my fearfulness and my hopefulness.


If you read the above piece, it is, then, obvious that I met a girl. Well, “met” is the right word in this case, since it is past tense. This girl, here on the Marshall campus, is extremely friendly, tremendously hysterical, and civilly spoken, but nothing transpired between her heart and mine. Do not get me wrong: we talk--when we randomly cross paths; we wave--when we spot the other person in the distance; we eat together--when we are both alone in the cafeteria. However, nothing has happened and I am okay with it: she is happy and I as well.

Social Learning Theory: In an Nutshell

The explanation of the social learning theory is divided into three sub-theories itself. The main theory and backbone that runs through the social learning theory is, according to the text, “the brainchild of Edwin Sutherland (1939), deviant behavior is learned through one’s interaction with others.” In 1939 Sutherland laid the foundation for the social learning theory by introducing his theory of differential association. Almost twenty years later, in 1956 Daniel Glaser brought to the table his theory of differential identification, which was to amend the problem--“mechanistic image”--he felt Sutherland overlooked. In 1966 Robert Burgess and Ronald Akers added their own take to the ever evolving and expanding social learning theory with the theory of differential reinforcement.

Sutherland presented his theory of differential association in 1939, and the text explains the heart of his theory, “If an individual associates with people who hold deviant (or criminal) ideas more than people who embrace conventional ideas, the individual is likely to become deviant.” This theory has two aspects to it: first, the individual with the deviant ideas does not necessarily have to be deviant themselves. Just allowing a loophole for justification of a deviant behavior, an individual can affect another impressionable individual. “Therefore, if people are given more ideas of committing deviant acts than ideas of performing conventional acts, they are likely to engage in deviance.” Second, this theory does not specify “only one type of association, that is, deviant association or exposure to deviant ideas.” Hence, this theory refrains from the idea--if an individual has numerous interactions with deviant ideas or actions, that individual will become deviant themselves. The text uses the example of lawyers pointing out that lawyers are in the company of deviant clients daily, but nothing proves that they (lawyers) will commit deviant behavior. Summary of this theory: Differential association equals deviant behavior.

Glaser built off Sutherland’s theory with his introduction of differential identification, which sought to correct the plot holes that Sutherland left open. Glaser believed that the differential association suggested a “mechanistic image” of deviance. He believed associations with deviants were “harmless” unless the individual could identify with those actions and behaviors. The text states that “Glaser’s theory may be taken to suggest that it is all right for us to associate with deviants in real life or in books and movies, as long as we do not take them so seriously that we identify with them, treating them as our heroes. If we do identify with them, we are likely to become deviants ourselves.” Summary of this theory: Differential association plus differential identification equals deviant behavior.

Burgess and Akers also asserted that “Sutherland failed… to specify what that learning process entails.” Burgess and Akers look to psychology for alternates to improve and revise Sutherland’s theory--they arrived at their own theory: differential reinforcement. The theory conveys that an individual behaves conventionally if rewarded (positive reinforcement) for his or her actions, whereas an individual behaves deviant if punishment is not reinforced. “Reinforcement theory says,” according to the text, “that people will continue to engage in deviant activities if they have been rewarded for doing so.” The Law of Differential Reinforcement states that “given a number of available operant, all of which produce the same reinforcer, that operant which produces the reinforcer in the greatest amount, frequency and probability will have the higher probability of occurrence.” Akers (1998, 1985) described deviant behavior under the Law of Differential Reinforcement by stating, “Deviant behavior can be expected to the extent that [1] it has been differentially reinforced over alternative behavior and [2] is defined as desirable or justified when the individual is in a situation discriminative for the behavior.” Summary of this theory: Differential association plus differential reinforcement equals deviant behavior.

Sutherland’s theory of differential association has some faults, or at least difficulty, in a real-world scenario to be defined accurately enough. The text explains, “As Sutherland and Cressey (1979) admit, people often cannot identify the persons from whom they have learned deviant and antideviant ideas.” Several sociologists have claimed that they have research to back up Sutherland, but their research has no empirical ground upon which to stand; these sociologists have only their interpretation of the meaning of Sutherland’s theory.

Glaser’s theory differing from Sutherland’s is that there is “some support from empirical data.” For instance, Victor Matthews (1968) observed “that high school boys who identified with delinquent friends were likely to become delinquent themselves.” The problems at arise are that there is no conclusive evidence that backs this theory and it is feasible that an individual may only identify with a deviant after, instead of before, they commit deviance for themselves.

Burgess-Akers’s theory can only explain why an individual continues to be deviant, not what initially drove him or her to commit the first deviant behavior. “The reason, according to differential reinforcement theory, is that they have in the past been rewarded more than punished for their deviance, whereas others do not repeat a deviant act because they been punished more than rewarded for the act .”

The one thing that is constantly strung throughout these three sub-theories is the theory of differential association. So, it is assumed that before one crosses the line between deviance and conventionality one must first become associated with deviance either by the influence of another’s actions and/or ideas or by an innocent mistake. After the line separating deviances and conventionalities has been breached the punishment has to be greater than the sensation or reward that one receive from the deviant act, but if too extreme it only leads to rebellion--despise of the conventional and the “I’m-goin’-show-you” ideology. Lastly, the more one identifies with deviance the more it is the norm, not the violation; one can only identify if one has been associated with the deviant behavior.


This is my first Sociology 311 (Deviance and Social Control) essay. It is pretty self-explanatory. The only reason for it being posted is because it is the only thing I have somewhat ready. If it is too long for one sitting, I suggest breaking it up into smaller readings.

I Love You

Today, I stood in my grandmother’s kitchen and I--with closed eyes--said aloud, “I love you.” I was shocked by the very words I whispered. I heard myself say that tried old phase without even being conscious of the thought of those words. Yet, saying these words to an empty room in the midst of late night hours, I still knew deep inside of my being she heard it as well as I, if not more fully. Miles between and years after--distance and time never truly weakens a connection of the souls, which process love; it only prolongs the anticipation of those two souls, for strengthening their resolve to reunify.

I stood there for a while longer (bewildered by the inter-workings of my subconscious). I questioned what I said and why I would feel an overwhelming and spontaneous urge to say what I said. The answer is not transparent, but at the same time, very apparent to itself. She and I were once lovers--lovers of life, lovers of each other, and lovers of love. Time stood still because our love demanded it. Time stood still because the only thing that mattered was not something based in and of this world or explained in and of logical reasoning, yet it was something deeply rooted in predestined, primal mysticism.


Some writings take time before they grow on you, and this is one of those writings. It has been laying around for two or three months, and today I stumbled across it, read over it, and liked it enough to post it. I was needing something for a post anyway, so it worked out. In the quiet hours of the night, we find ourselves often alone with our deepest feelings; this is a experience that most hide from whilst a few long for those quiet hours.

Intro of Self

I come closer and closer each day to being the spitting image of my grandfather (I was raised by my grandparents after my parents divorced when I was four.) He is a natural storyteller, and he can find in his assortment of homespun tales and common sense parables the one that suits any situation imaginable. “There is something to learn with each challenge,” he would say to me when I felt that the pressure was too much and I could not withstand the strain. Alongside advice of this nature, he would and still does state that “A wise man learns not only from his own mistakes but from the mistakes of others.” He uses long pauses to build the dramatics and the solemnity, while adding side notes (tiny stories within the main story) to assist in the complete understanding of the idea that he is conveying through the tale. As a kid I hated his long, arid stories and his twisted, confusing parables; I--for most of the time--could not find the correlation between the present issue at hand and the wordy parable that he would choose to explain and express his view of it. However, age and responsibility have brought with them the full circle of understanding to my inferior, adolescent thoughts of the world at large.

His wisdom, which he tried relentlessly to instill in me, is coming to the surface little by little with the passing of each hazy day that flies on past me. I, being raised to revaluate the things I readily believed and being confident in myself to ask if I did not fully grasp the content presented to me, find the search for knowledge to be a rewarding quest. Richard P. Feynman, a mathematician and physicist, said that people are entertained when they learn even the smallest amount of information about something they did not know previously.

In my high school years in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia, I first began my love for the English language. Coach Bill Arnold, my 9th grade English teacher, was the first teacher to push me and open me up to the world of literature. He taught me how to diagram sentences, and thanks to him, I had a prom date that very year. Joe Vincell, my 12th grade Literature teacher, moved me from the timeless classics of the common man like Jack London and Ernest Hemingway to the true mastery of craftsmen like John Milton and William Shakespeare. He supported my writings and was willing assist me by sitting down with me to discuss any grammatical or stylistic problems that would arise. Mrs. Taylor, my English 101 teacher, was a pain. I do not mean she did not know the rules of the English language or was not friendly, but she knew exactly what students commonly missed on her first of four four page essays; however, she would not let the class know until she handed the essay back--all but two of the students failed it. The idea of setting up one’s students for absolute failure is repugnant in my view.

Blogging is something I just got into about six months ago, and I would use my site as a site to post my essays on any topic that my little heart dared. Within the several months that I have been blogging, I have researched any papers ranging from religion and the Constitution to racism and the Rebel flag to Jazz great Thelonious Monk and inventor Johann Gutenberg. I love reading; it can be tiresome but always enjoyable. I read two books at a time--one fiction, one non-fiction. Breaking them up gives me a weekly variety.

I am an English major with emphasis on writing; my aspirations are to fully round my grammatical and mechanical skills and improve my literary abilities. I am also double minoring in sociology and journalism; I have plans to go into print journalism for my master’s.


This is the first essay I had to turn in here at Marshall. I got it back today, and I got a 100% on it. It is a nice way to kick off my Marshall career. I think I should thank Mr. Joe Vincell and Coach Bill Arnold for their largesse--that is, for honoring me by sharing their time, patience, and knowledge--of the English language--to a young dull-witted student; however, my disapproval of Mrs. Taylor’s plebeian teaching methods still need some due gratitude. Knowing this is just my first Marshall grade, it may seem that I am overly excited, but I assure you I am not, it is only that I am pleased with the grade--I do not feel this is my best writing, but that is how life is.

All That Jazz

Jazz musicians hear harmonies and rhythms differently than the average commonplace man. They mentality can hear the complexities and locate the strange usage of pitches or the rhythmical entanglements of each inter-beat. It is like the beauty of an amber field in the early morning hours of late summer or the deepest blue sky after the first fallen snow on the Appalachian mountains near our West Virginia childhood homes. Jazz--with all its ins and outs and little minutiae coloristic detail--paints a world of beauty, that is a world unfamiliar to those who are not likeminded as those who never experienced an Appalachian snow or the sight a flowing field of amber wheat for themsleves. Jazz is an art for the artist. Jazz is the poem for the poet. Jazz is the complexity for the complex. Jazz is the spirit for the spiritual. Jazz is the love for the lovers. Jazz is the lonely for the lonesome. Jazz is the life for the living.


A friend posted on his blog his distaste for Thelonious Monk, a Jazz Musician (read previous post.) I am not after him for this blemish, which now I associated with his character. (That was a joke.) So, I left a comment on that post and here is what I left. I hope my point is understandable, if not I will explain it with this: Jazz can only be appreciated like the snow on the West Virginia mountains or the wheat field that the wind surfs out on the western prairies, and that appreciation can only be because of self witnessing.

“Before one can love or hate, one must first understand.” -- Leonardo da Vinci, if my memory serves me right.

Thelonious

A young boy, sitting at a piano placed to the side of a stage in some smoke-filled barroom, was thought a beginner as he commenced to playing. He was criticized for his use of harmonic dissonance, sloppy rhythms, and the open embracement of silence. Thelonious Monk, now hailed as one the architects of Bebop, was the kid at the piano in that New York bar in the late 1930’s. It is, now, almost incomprehensible to have ever considered Monk to be a beginner. His creativeness is now understood as genius, yet still not understood in its entire.

Thelonious Monk was born October 17, 1917, in North Carolina’s Rocky Mount to Barbara Batts and Thelonious Monk, Sr. He only spent four years of his life in Rocky Mount until his mother and two siblings, Marion and Thomas, relocated to New York City; however, unlike the rest of the southern black migrants, who were heading straight to Harlem, Barbara and her children settled in Manhattan on West 63rd Street (near the Hudson River). Monk’s father arrived in Manhattan sometime around Monk’s third year there. Monk’s father played harmonica (“mouth” harp) and piano constantly; nevertheless, his father’s consistent health problems finally forced his father to return to his native South.

Monk had a brief stint on the trumpet before settling squarely on the piano as his musical voice and intellectual outlet. The piano allowed for tonal extensions thus lush chords and experimental harmonies. At the time his sister, Marion, was already enrolled in piano lessons, and her instructor agreed to take on another pupil--the nine-year-old Monk began his piano exploration and musical endeavors. Somewhere in his early teens, according to Robin D. G. Kelley Ph.D., a Professor of Anthropology, African American Studies, and Jazz Studies at Columbia University, Monk commenced to “playing rent parties, sitting in on organ and piano at a local Baptist church, and was reputed to have won several ‘amateur hour’ competitions at the Apollo Theater.”

Monk, being a very able student, was admitted to Peter Stuyvesant--one of New York City’s best high schools--but drop out to chase his musical aspirations by the end of his sophomore year. He joined a band that backed an evangelist and faith healer; they journeyed around from town to town spreading “the Word” and joyous tunes to many. After two years of relentless traveling, monk returned to New York City and founded a quartet. They played local blues bars and jazz halls up to the spring of 1941, when Monk became the pianist for the house band at Minton’s Playhouse in Harlem.

Kelley describes the setting, “Minton’s, legend has it, was where the ‘bebop revolution’ began. The after-hours jam sessions at Minton’s, along with similar musical gatherings at Monroe’s Uptown House, Dan Wall’s Chili Shack, among others, attracted a new generation of musicians brimming with fresh ideas about harmony and rhythm--notably Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Mary Lou Williams, Kenny Clarke, Oscar Pettiford, Max Roach, Tadd Dameron, and Monk’s close friend and fellow pianist, Bud Powell. Monk’s harmonic innovations proved fundamental to the development of modern jazz in this period.” Kelley also adds that Monk was “[a]nointed by some critics as the ‘High Priest of Bebop,’” for “several of his compositions (‘52nd Street Theme,’ ‘Round Midnight,’ ‘Epistrophy’ [co-written with Kenny Clarke and originally titled ‘Fly Right’ and then ‘Iambic Pentameter’], ‘I Mean You’) were favorites among his contemporaries.”

Monk’s playing style was one that differentiated him from his contemporaries--in the sense that he viewed music through not only the eyes of a player but the eyes of a composer. Yet, his perpetual and bewildering complexities never were enough to hold him back from the rawness of a lyrical blues line; he believed taste was more valuable in a piece than virtuosity. “In 1947 Monk made his first recordings as a leader for Blue Note. These albums are some of the earliest documents of his unique compositional and improvisational style, both of which employed unusual repetition of phrases, an offbeat use of space, and joyfully dissonant sounds,” excerpt from Monk’s biography on Monk Institute. Kelley continues with Monk "combined an active right hand with an equally active left hand, fusing stride and angular rhythms that utilized the entire keyboard. And in an era when fast, dense, virtuosic solos were the order of the day, Monk was famous for his use of space and silence.”

Monk remained moderately marginal throughout the 1940’s and the early 1950’s in comparison to his fellow jazz musicians. Although he played with some of the biggest names of the time like well-known drummer Art Blakey, legendary trumpeter and bandleader Miles Davis, and star saxophonists like Charlie Parker and Sonny Rollins, and he also headed a record of all-stars (trumpeter Kenny Dorham, alto saxophonist Lou Donaldson, tenor saxophonist “Lucky” Thompson, bassist Nelson Boyd, and drummer Max Roach) for his 1952 album, which was moreover his last for Blue Note, he just could not rise above. “In the end although all of Monk’s Blue Note sides are hailed today as some of his greatest recordings, at the time of their release in the late 1940s and early 1950s, they proved to be a commercial failure,” according to Kelley.

Working where he could after marrying his long-time love, Nellie Smith, in 1947 and having their first child, Thelonious, Jr., in 1949, the pressure mounted and thanks to many brutal, insensitive, and ill-informed critics it did not lessen. Monk found work--as scarce as it was--at local bars as much as possible. To make things worse, he took responsibility for narcotics possession intended to protect his fellow musician and friend, Bud Powell. By doing that though he lost his cabaret card--a license for musicians issued by the police department, for without it jazz musicians were prohibited from performing within New York clubs.

When 1955 rolled around, Monk began recording numerous albums with his new label, Riverside. These albums include Thelonious Monk Plays Duke Ellington, The Unique Thelonious Monk, Brilliant Corners, Monk’s Music, and Thelonious Monk Alone (second completely solo record). This time around the critics praised him and the public was now on the verge of understanding and appreciation.

“In 1957 with the help of his friend and sometime patron, the Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter, he had finally gotten his cabaret card restored and enjoyed a very long and successful engagement at the Five Spot Café with John Coltrane on tenor saxophone, Wilbur Ware and then Ahmed Abdul-Malik on bass, and Shadow Wilson on drums. From that point on, his career began to soar; his collaborations with Johnny Griffin, Sonny Rollins, Art Blakey, Clark Terry, Gerry Mulligan, and arranger Hall Overton, among others, were lauded by critics and studied by conservatory students. Monk even led a successful big band at Town Hall in 1959. It was as if jazz audiences had finally caught up to Monk’s music,” Kelley wrote in a biographical essay.

By 1961 Monk had the core of his quartet tenor saxophonist Charlie Rouse, bassist John Ore, and drummer Frankie Dunlop (later Ore was replaced by Butch Warren and then Larry Gales and Dunlop was replaced by Ben Riley). In 1964 Monk’s face graced the cover of the Time Magazine--only the third jazz musician in history to do so. From 1971 through 1972, Monk traveled with the “Giants of Jazz,” which had greats like Dizzy Gillespie, Kai Winding, Sonny Stitt, Al McKibbon, and Art Blakey.

Due to physical illness Monk “discontinued touring and recording and appeared only on rare occasions at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and the Newport Jazz Festival,” stated on the Monk Institute's page.

Monk’s final public performance was in July of 1976. In his last days, he just gave up on writing music and playing the piano. On February 5, 1982, Monk suffered a stroke. He never fully regained cognitive thought; he hung on for another twelve days before passing away on February 17th.

Monk grained a great deal of respect by the time of his death, but posthumously he is now one of the most honored musicians in all forms of music. Monk was quoted saying, “I don’t consider myself a musician who has achieved perfection and can’t develop any further. But I compose my pieces with a formula that I created myself. Take a musician like John Coltrane. He is a perfect musician, who can give expression to all the possibilities of his instrument. But he seems to have difficulty expressing original ideas on it. That is why he keeps looking for ideas in exotic places. At least I don’t have that problem, because, like I say, I find my inspiration in myself.”


Here is my term paper for Music 142 (that I just finished). I contemplated several topics for this assignment. After thinking about doing a paper on Eric Clapton (a person whom I know about very much), I decided that he would not be acquit enough to be compared to Mozart or Copland; however, I felt that Mozart and Copland would have been to commonplace. I chose Thelonious Monk, the first jazz artist into which I really got, because he in my opinion is highly over shadowed by far less creative players. If anyone wants to check him out, but cannot find an album, I will be glad to loan one of my numerous records of him just to spread the word of his musical importance.

Day of Judgment

The railways of our country pushed the infant boundaries back past the known frontier to the terrain beyond the wildest imagined. The American Joe Miller’s Jest Book sums the States up finely, “The boundaries of our country, sir? Why sir, on the north we are bounded by the Aurora Borealis, on the east we are bounded by rising sun, on the south we are bounded by the procession of the Equinoxes, and on the west by the Day of Judgment.” The “Day of Judgment” laid west with dreams of a unified nation from the last, early morning star over the Chesapeake Bay to quiet setting of the yellowish-roseate sun off the California coastline. America became a quilt of lives and cultures of the old world stitched together by rivets of iron and steel to forge the soon-to-be new world.

The Internet was the fitting end to the most productive century in record history. It capped off a century of flight, space exploration, and millions of other inventions that somehow worked its way into the American society and the world’s as well. With the assistance of the World Wide Web, billions of people communicate, study, research, buy or sell, and just surf the digital waves of information with freedom. In 1991 no one knew of the internet accept a few dozen scientist placed sparsely throughout the global, but by the century close billions were committed to the internet for the long haul.

Railroads open the tallgrass prairies and mountainous regions of the West to the cityward movement of the remaining decades of the 19th Century. The iron horses, which the Native Americans named the trains, thundered across the continent delivering food to the newly established Mid-Western and Western townies, along with raw materials and markets to sell to and trade with. In the textbook, The American Pageant, Volume 2: 1965 to Present, it mentions that “Time, itself, was bent to the railroads.” Time zones were based solely on the railways to bring order to the train schedules as well as to eliminate, if not only reproduced, the number collisions.

Alan Kay, Vice President of Research & Development and Disney Fellow Walt Disney Imagineering, said, “The commercial computer is now about 50 years old and is still imitating the paper culture that came before it, just as the printing press did with the manuscript culture it gradually replaced. No media revolution can say to have happened without a general establishment of ‘literacy:’ fluent ‘reading’ and ‘writing’ at the highest level of ideas that the medium can represent.”

The Internet, and even the computer, is still in its infancy as was the railroads in the 1800’s. It took time for the railways to efficiently adapt to its new undertaking of a new nation. The Internet has been adapting to the changes before it as well; some may say we have been adapting to it, but it was the same for the railroad. Any new invention or concept takes time for humans to become accustom to.


I apologize for getting behind on my posts, but I have been busy in the last several weeks. Here is paper I wrote for a history class. I hope you enjoy.

Innocence Again Today was Lost

I awoke to the news this morning--hearing of tragic attacks in London. Again, these terrorists struck precisely at another vein in our beloved Western Civilization. It is not only England that faces these violent actions organized to stall the economy and paralyze the spirit but the rest of the world as well. They stood beside us on the 11th of September four years ago, and so now it is our turn to affirm our stance with our ally. Yes, we have differed in our beliefs and personal doctrines, but what friends do not? These despicable and appalling displays of cultural genocide fail in comparison to the attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, yet lives were lost all the same to this religious fundamentalism, which is spreading throughout the globe.

A man on the news today asked, “How should the U.S. respond to the London attacks?” I feel it is simple just the same as they did for us--with open arms. And together we will declare in one loud voice, as Prime Minster Tony Blair stated, “We are united in our resolve to confront and defeat this terrorism. We will not allow violence to change our societies or our values.” And as President George W. Bush added, “We will not yield to terrorists. We will find them and bring them to justice.”


I know I am running behind. I was planning on posting a piece on my 4th of July; however, the situation that occurred in London today made it seem improper. I might post it later, but this time I send my love and whatever else I can give to the families of the victims.

The Weakness in Me

For the mainstream public, racism is an ideology of their grandparents’ time and something that was buried with them years and years ago. Yet the truth is furthermost from that train of thought, which millions of Americans calmly go to bed with each night before the sweet, tender slumber sets in.

Due to the attack on America at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, an injustice was looming on the horizon. The United States in fear of cohesion shuttled some 110,000 Japanese-Americans into internment camps, mainly isolated to the Pacific Coast. Mostly, two-thirds of the Japanese-Americans were actually U.S. citizens by birth, and the majority of the Japanese-American detainees were to be left there under constant surveillance through the duration of the war. Many of the Japanese-Americans, who were forced from their homes into these internment camps, lost personal property ranging in the hundreds of millions—collectively.

Keeping in mind this is the same Supreme Court that found segregation of blacks and others races prior to this time constitutional, upheld its belief that this support of inequality and degradation of civil liberties were constitutional. And it was not until 1988 that the United States government officially apologized to the Japanese-Americans that were held on grounds of ignorance and speculation. The remaining survivors of these actions—that is, these actions which still haunt the American subconscious—were given $20,000 for cooperation of this tragic failure in American history.

September 11, 2001 scattered any and all beliefs of personal safety, national security, as well as national innocence from shoreline to shoreline. In the name of Allah, many died, without reason and/or understanding, in a matter of hours, if not minutes. The hijackers (using the faith of Islam and text of the Qur’an and the words of the Prophet, Muhammad) attempted to justify acts of nothing more than terroristic against un-expecting by-standers.

Joseph P. Gudel wrote in his article, “A Post 9/11 Look at Islam,” that “within a few days after the terrorist attacks, President Bush went to the Islamic Center of Washington, D.C., and strongly affirmed America’s support for American Muslims, as well as for Muslims worldwide.” The President and many other politicians made it clear—in the days after the attacks through and beyond the declared war against terrorism—that the “War on Terror” was not a war on Islam, because as the President stated about the pugnacious assaults of 9/11, “These acts of violence violate the fundamental tenets of the Islamic faith… The face of terror is not the true face of Islam. That’s not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace.”

Some might argue that Islam is not all peace. For example, Kenneth Woodward in a cover article for Newsweek titled “The Bible and the Qur’an” wrote on one apparent difference between Islam, Judaism, and Christianity: “Israeli commandos do not cite the Hebrew prophet Joshua as they go into battle, but Muslim insurgents can readily invoke the example of their Prophet, Muhammad, who was a military commander himself. And while the Crusaders may have fought with the cross on their shields, they did not—could not—cite words from Jesus to justify their slaughters.”

Following days after the attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) had received claims of personal attacks against Arab-American nationwide numbering somewhere slightly above the 350 mark. These attacks arranged from verbal to physical. But by the end of the month, the reports escalated to some 785 attacks. Many other Muslims found safety and compassion in the arms of their family, friends, and colleagues.

Although these up-surd actions of personal attacks have taken place, the U.S. government has not place Muslims into internment camps throughout the countryside; the President has denounced these attacks of ignorance and hatred. The U.S. government—having learnt from their mistakes throughout history—has not taken people by the masses from their homes placing them in detention camps for the duration of this “War on Terror,” which the President has said would last awhile. Thank God, or Allah (if you will), that we stand strong against these irrational contrivances, which tore our nation in two only half-of-a-century ago. America is still young and hardheaded, but we have proven that we can still learn.


What happened to the Japanese-Americans saddens me deeply—to believe my nation that I love so much would with nothing than speculations forsake the liberties of its citizens. However, it delights me to see that we can learn from our past mistakes, made out of fear, to move beyond ourselves and deal with our fears. I only hope we continue to learn, instead of becoming lackluster. We must improve our economical situation, our educational system, our healthcare administration, our racial inequality, our energy crisis, and mostly our understanding of the world of interdependence and how we are to maintain the edge, which other countries are rapidly moving towards.

Thin Dream

I read once a quote by William James, a 19th Century psychologist and philosopher, that went “when you have a choice and don’t make it, that in itself is a choice.” Some choices in our day-to-day lives are not truly important, such as McDonalds or Taco Bell for lunch or what movie to watch this weekend—if many. Other choices bear more gravity like financial stability, moral integrity, and sound judgment. One of the most significant and debate choices a citizen of a free democracy has is the privilege to decide the leaders and protectors of his or her life and his or her family’s lives.

We, as Americans, have come to believe the things given to us and the things we are accustom to expecting are rights, while privileges are things we only take from those who commit crimes. On the contrary for us to be able to give and receive is a privilege most do not have around the globe. In reality everything can be taken within an instant, except hope, faith, love, and truth. Many will forfeit all hope and any faith and harden themselves to love, no matter the truth.

A classmate last semester told me, “We’re not free.” The only thought I could think was how could she truly believe this with all that Americans have? I wrote in the assignment prior this one, “The appreciation of the little things in life is true freedom.” So, after pondering what she had said, about not being free, it hit me she really is not free—by being in that mindset.

Freedom is a dream. It is a dream of men who have been in bondage, who have been beaten and chained down their whole lives for just being born. It is a dream of people persecuted for their beliefs and a dream of others who are oppressed by tyranny and fear of repercussions for standing-up. Freedom does not mean you receive things for free; it is the possibility of being able to receive. Freedom’s cost is the highest price one can pay, and the ones who pay for it with their lives are the ones who gave it honestly and freely. Freedom is a dream that beats inside every last one of us, yet some need the trepidation of it being taken before they can feel it pounding in their chest.

In book 1 of Plato’s masterpiece, Republic, Socrates says, “Now, the greatest punishment, if one isn’t willing to rule, is to be ruled by someone worse than oneself. And I think that it’s fear of this that makes decent people rule when they do. They approach ruling not as something good or something to be enjoyed, but as something necessary, since it can’t be entrusted to anyone better than—or even as good as—themselves.”

Voting is a privilege. It is a freedom, like others, that many brave men and women gave by bloodshed and many just want to abolish. The men and women we vote for to lead and govern our nation are the men and women who decide the cost of the little things we appreciate.


I felt it was time to add another post. I know that there is no big election soon or anything. But voting is very important to me, because it is the root of our political process—my way of changing the world. Garth Brooks had a song in the mid 90’s on his Fresh Horses album, The Change. In the song there are a few lines that I hold onto, as my driving compass. “It’s not the world that I am changing. I do this so this world will know that it will not change me.”

On the Front Lines: Librarians

Some of you will find what I am about to say either quite thought-provoking or somewhat dull, yet I assure you everyone will agree and, undoubtedly, believe that it is plain old sucking-up.

Librarians are “On the Front Lines” of an educational downfall. They stand on centuries of tradition, while holding the reins to tomorrow. The greatest achievement mankind has ever accomplished is that of the written word.

But before I continue on, let us start with the history of the written word. A&E, the Art of Entrainment channel, did a poll several years back of the most influential people of all times, and can anyone tell me who was number one?

Gutenberg. Johann Gutenberg: The man who invented the printing press.

In 1452 Gutenberg conceives the very idea that will transform the world, as man once knew it to what we now know by the fabrication of movable type. In his workshop he combines the technologies of the day: paper (which came to Italy from China in the 12th Century), oil-based ink (which came into existences during the 10th Century), and the wine-press (which, in one form or another, has been around before Christ). With these three invention commonly used in the 1400’s, the printing press was born.

No more did men copy word after word on to a scroll, then knowing that that scroll would be obsolete and in need of recopying within just a score of years. Man knew even at that time the word was everything, for without it communication would cease and without communication man would never survive. Tom Brown, a tracker who was taught by Native Americans the ways of the old during his childhood went on to train the Delta Forces and other military branches in his twenties’ and thirties’, said once in an interview that “you hear the old saying, ‘survival of the fittest.’ That’s very true, except when it comes to humans. For humans fittest also means knowledge.”

Knowledge is passed through language. From my mouth into your ears you learn what I know, as I will when you speak. From my pen in through your eyes you learn what I know, as I will when you write.

Throughout record history countless writers have told countless stories upon countless pages weaving countless words bounded within countless books to be read by countless readers for countless hours. The pleasures, the pains, the joys, the sorrows, the intrigues, the disappointments, the challenges, the withdrawals, the loves, the losses, the facts, the lies, and the truths captivate people, for people have written these tales for a reason and that reason is to be, at the day’s close, people themselves.

Going back to my original thesis: Librarians are “On the Front Lines” of an educational downfall.

Neil Gaiman, the novelist of the bestsellers American Gods and Neverwhere and the comic book writer of DC comic series, The Sandman, writes, “You know, I love librarians. I really love librarians. I love librarians when they crusade not to be stereotyped as librarians. I love librarians when they're just doing those magic things that librarians do. I love librarians when they're the only person in a ghost town looking after thousands of books.”

Librarians guard the words of those who came before, those who are present, and those who are soon to arrive. A librarian’s post is one worse than that of the Russian Front (World War II, for those who do not remember) and in some ways more important. If librarians lose the lust for their obligations and lay down their defenses, we have lost our history, our art, our knowledge, quintessentially, our edge, and, mostly, our communication.

Columnist for the New York Times--Wednesday and Friday editions--and author of the bestselling nonfiction books, The Lexus and the Olive Tree and The World is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century, Thomas L. Friedman, wrote for his Wednesday, May the 6th column, “C.E.O.’s M.I.A.,” that “America faces a huge set of challenges if it is going to retain its competitive edge. As a nation we have a mounting education deficit, energy deficit, budget deficit, health care deficit, and ambition deficit.”

You say with puzzled look creeping across your face and a question in your voice, “Ambition deficit?” And I will say to you, “Damn right! And rightly so!” People speak of ambition, but ambition caught a breeze like an autumn leaf that never yet touched the ground.

Somewhere along the way getting this point in our nation’s history, we forgot the importance of respect for those who hold, essentially, our society within the confines of their shelves. Books birth dreams and kindle passions and push imaginations to a realm of absolute possibilities, and we, as Americans, cannot allow for this process of birthing, kindling, and pushing to lessen the pace, as an anchor would a ship coasting aimlessly within the narrow borders of a fjord.

Education is fueled by ambition and ambition by the birthing of dreams and kindling of passions and the pushing of the imagination. While books are the beacon to which ambition is drawn unto, librarians lay out the course of its navigation. No matter how much and often ignorance grapples with our way of life librarians just knuckle down and stands their ground. Librarians are “On the Front Lines” of an educational downfall.


This is a speech I wrote about two weeks ago, because I had to give one for my Fundamental of Speech course. For years now I have believed that librarians have been mistreated--stereotyped in a light unfavorable to their true cause. All I hope for is that you can obtain a newfound respect for librarians. They are the gatekeepers of our reads and, more importantly, our culture.

A MESSAGE TO THE CITIZENS OF MOOREFIELD

As your mayor I would strive to represent the town as a whole and to forge working relationships with developers, industries, businesses, and other government agencies. Growth is inevitable and all parties participating should understand, accept, and move to make it a manageable growth, instead of ill-planned and irrational growth. Any one party, be it local businesses, national industries, and/or town government, working independently could only lead to the degeneration and degradation of the town’s—in some ways still infant—infrastructure. There will be differences (some obvious and some not so), but these differences must be openly discussed and overcome before workable solutions can be reached. Due to the large number of persons employed within the town and the immediate areas, what occurs here affects this county as well as surrounding counties, municipalities, and lives of their citizens.

As mayor I would work with your elected council for the benefit of everyone involved. Your support and your vote will be appreciated.

Gary Stalnaker
Candidate for Mayor


My grandfather, 72, ran for mayor of our little Appalachian town about mid of last month. He came to me and asked if I would write up an address to be published in the local newspaper, so the citizens would be informed on his stance of businesses and industries. My grandfather won 195 to 40.