I am beginning to wonder if anything is funny anymore. What used to be funny isn’t anymore, or it is just not allowed.  This is really a lousy time in our history to be a comedian.  Nothing is funny when everything is censored by PC codes which are put forth and monitored by…whom…?  Nothing is funny when everyone has a thin skin.  Nobody can take a joke anymore.  Not only is everything nauseatingly serious, but everything is also recorded and filmed. Why?  So the situation or material can be used in a lawsuit where the deck is stacked toward PC standards…formulated by whom…?  The slightest misstep is instantly available globally to an unforgiving media which is duplicitous at best and biased at the least.

This would all be funny, even hysterical if we were looking at it from afar in distance or in time.  But not when everything is deathly serious; when every word you use, every joke you tell, whether story or anecdote, demeaning or uplifting could have contained in it a time bomb or a flash bang. At this point it can be difficult to convey humorous content.  Could any of the older, great comedians work now under these conditions?  Benny, Burns, Berle, Barbutti; Caesar, Cosby, Corey, Carlin; Dangerfield, Diller, Foxx, Pryor, Rickles, etc…?  If they were tied up and artistically strangled as in our day, could they even perform, let alone figure out how to be funny, or even determine what exactly is funny. Can you really be “on” night after night when you feel as if you are walking through a minefield?  Thinking: Watch where you step!  Will this one blow up?  Is this the end of my career?

And think for a moment about satire.  Comedy used to be free to criticize, put down, draw similes to, make fun of, and point out the deficiencies and foibles of anyone famous or just anyone:  politicians, actors, musicians, everyday workers and the average and below average personality without fear of instant retribution.  This backlash is the reason books like “Gulliver’s Travels” and “Lord of the Flies,” etc., were written.  They wore a thin disguise to save face (or life and limb) to get their point across.  There was a time when nothing was so sacred that it couldn’t draw a laugh.  I can’t put my finger on it, but I’m sure that it happened.  More recently time wise we had “icebreakers” like Lenny Bruce, Eddie Murphy, and Richard Pryor that paved the way for “all out,” “no holds barred” comedy. The ice got broken, but it again froze over and the door slammed shut again.

Now we have new personalities like Amy Schumer, Sarah Silverman and Roseanne Barr that again push the envelope.  They also are quickly shunned or dropped if they cross the line.  But…where is the line?  No one knows unless someone pushes the envelope again or breaks the ice again until PC’s unknown entity says through the complicit media that “you crossed the line.”  So besides getting shut down, the line comes closer and then its cohort, the net, gets even tighter so that the only thing that is left is…SAFE!  And now what is safe?  Mr. Rogers was safe.  Pinky Lee was safe.  Pee Wee Herman was safe (and then he wasn’t safe anymore).

So what are we left with?  Potty humor and toilet jokes, and all of the safe items in the PC agenda.  Is multiculturalism funny?  Is the transference of the sexes (either way) funny?  Is anything at all in the news funny?  Were you content with the Teletubbies or Barney?  Is the last action of satire and comedy “South Park?”  Is this show just hanging on until the hammer falls?  I’m waiting…waiting…!  We are in the midst of a battle for free speech and thought again.  In other words freedom from a life-sucking censorship.

And what is the answer?  Is there a solution?  Usually my answer has something to do with music.  This time I am not so sure.  The glut of music which we experience daily everywhere and in every conceivable style has been dumbed down to be used as wallpaper or background just to sell products that for the most part we don’t need.  But the music is supposed to put us in a malleable mood so that we might just consider the product.  Any product.  And this music has been sanitized to appeal to the absolute lowest mentality.  Thankfully in our daily lives there are a few exceptions.

A large percentage of film music is honest, because it is married to a story or a situation.  There are small pockets of music in almost every style that show craft and artistry in the composing and production.  They are not easy to find; you have to dig for them, but the effort is well worth it.  Even so, will this help the present situation?  In my opinion yes, because music can be a sort of “bellwether” or even a kind of thermometer or barometer held to our society to measure somewhat our truthfulness and our honesty.  And, if there is to be a solution, this could very well be it.  For if music is overcome by the same evil forces that plague comedy, then we are done as a free society.  But if it holds its stance, then comedy again will have a chance to be truthful and honest. And if that happens then all of our intellects will be able to survive the impending dark age.  We will again have something to genuinely laugh about.  Just remember again that freedom isn’t free.  We all have to constantly work for it.  While laughing and listening to music…!

I have been doing a lot of thinking about the present direction of our society.  Not just in this country but throughout our entire world.  Our priorities have changed drastically.  The ways in which we satisfy our needs and interact with others also have changed drastically.  Our day to day living is blurred.  Our balance is off.  Some examples:  right/wrong, mine/yours, old/young, rich/poor, light/dark, etc.  The way we now view these or choose to ignore them is significantly different from a decade or two ago.  The preceding examples used to be distinguishable, now they are blurred.  We have lost touch with our societal roots.  Our balance is teetering daily due to over communication and over-exposure to the news of the world which is spooned out to us by a self-censored media. All of this affects our balance, our mind-set and even our integrity.

With all of our voluminous daily flood of input from texting and social sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, we now have a loneliness epidemic.  A What!!?  A loneness epidemic.  Why?  We are bloated with information.  We are over-exposed to almost everything from our phones, TV, and the endless commercials that constantly break up our train of thought into small segments and make continuity a fading memory of the past.  So, not only are we lonely, but we are segmented.  There are so many distractions in our lives that we are forgetting how to interact with living humans.  There are those who talk to their pets more because they don’t talk back.  They just acknowledge your presence and moods without judgment.

What happened to free, unfettered thinking?  Is it possible or just blurred by our present culture?  Is innovative thinking becoming less frequent and discouraged by our present circumstances.  Are our cultural norms, habits, rules and guidelines now a help or a hindrance to our thought processes?  Maybe we can answer some of these questions and maybe not.  Maybe we are just too close to them, immersed in such a way that our lack of balance makes creative thought anywhere from just difficult to impossible.

Along with all of the above thoughts about balance and blurred thinking are the basic ideals we have so enjoyed in the past which have also faded.   We have either lost or are rapidly losing our respect, honor and civility to each other.  Is this due to the loneliness epidemic or just advances in technology in general?  We are not as nice as a society anymore.  Instead there is a spirit of meanness.  This is harmful and in some cases even shameful.  All too common are hurtful actions such as: men to women, women to men, insensitivity to authority which we as a nation have set up, and ignoring the aged and the downtrodden.  None of this is helping us to advance as a civilization.  We shout and pray for peace, but ignore it at every level of our society.  Our loneliness and removal from social interaction allows us to objectify which also allows us to be mean and hurtful with impunity.

How do we heal and repair our blurred outlook and our precarious lack of balance?  In a word – music.  Real music, not the mass of mediocrity dictated by a business that only cares about numbers and sales and image and merchandise.  This type of music can’t heal any of our ills.  It only exacerbates them.  It is intended to keep us off balance and blur our thinking and promote antagonism to authority.  It is a good part of the problems we are now facing.

Music that can heal and repair contains form and balance and continuity.  It makes possible coherent thought by its inherent creativity.  I wonder if this kind of valuable music ended in the early 20th century.  There has been very little innovation in music since then that stimulates thinking instead of trying to control your thinking.  And it is not style or acoustic or digital or vocal or instrumental that makes the difference.  It is substance.  So how do any of us recognize what is substance and what is not?  It takes education in music which is now missing from all levels of our school systems.  Exposure to music which is based on creativity and innovation is vital.  We need to find it and learn from it.  It is in concerts by symphonies and chamber orchestras and ensembles of all kinds that we can awaken to true art and innovation and creativity. And it is then available on iTunes or YouTube or Amazon, etc, to purchase or download or stream.  If enough people start this process then maybe, just maybe we can reboot and re-adjust our society and regain our balance and re-calibrate our moral compass as a society and a civilization.  Maybe…

All religions have teachings that say, in essence, “Love thy neighbor.” All of us have lived with this phrase practically from birth. It is part of our thinking, but usually buried quite deeply in our psyche.  We acknowledge its importance, but don’t necessarily follow its meaning.  Why is this so common? The answer is that it is so very difficult to abide consistently by such a simple idea as “Love thy neighbor.”

Sunday is fairly easy because of the worship services that we attend or at least realize that someone is attending somewhere.  And we at least make an attempt to be pleasant to anyone even in the parking lot, though this can be very difficult at times.  Patience seems to be directly proportional to “love” in a parking lot, i.e. as patience thins and wanes, so does our love of neighbor.  Even with this exception, Sunday is still a relatively happy day to get along with those that we meet. But what about the other six days of the week?

It is much more difficult to love your neighbor through the week with all of its stresses and variables when we come in contact with people in general, all of whom seem to be mentally disturbed and off balance. Driving a car on any street or freeway will bear this out.  Dealing with people on the phone or in stores or a workplace or an office, especially a government office will begin to try the patience of even the most sedate personality after only a few minutes.  Watching any news program on TV or listening to news on a radio can cause us to take sides on any issue immediately and develop animosity toward the opposite side.  Sometimes it is almost easier to switch sides and despise our own side just for some momentary relief.

So what can help us to reset our moral compass, reboot our minds and restore balance to our spiritual side so that it is possible to love our neighbor?  There are those that will try anything that they can smoke, drink, or swallow, but the relief is only temporary and sometimes the after effect is worse than the cure.  There are those who try Zen or Yoga or exercising to the extreme, but even with these the mind still returns to our original premise that people are the cause of any problem, so “why should I love them or even like them?”

There is only one solution that goes deep enough into our minds and has an effect that is lasting enough to provide relief, balance, and an outlook towards our neighbor that includes love… music!  We have music in our cars, music in our homes and workplaces and music in our headphones and earbuds when we walk or exercise.  We have music when we shop in stores or eat in restaurants or fast food marts and even “live” music in church.  This ubiquitous use of music tends to keep us sane.

Music gives us the impression that other people are also sane and not just annoying.  It makes it possible for us to truly “Love our neighbor.” So we need to regularly equalize our feelings and psyche by partaking of the soothing vibrations that can heal.  And be sure to make them good, good, good, “Good Vibrations.”

When I think back over past decades, the memories that stand out are the ones that are very special, but in very different ways.  After graduating from college, I played trombone in night clubs over a period of time that was mostly routine. But there are a few instances that I remember that became magical.  There is something that happens that lifts the musical experience to another level, another dimension.  These moments don’t happen very often, so when they do, it is best to enjoy them to the fullest because it may be a while before another one happens.

Most of my playing days were in the sixties.  I was young, callow and malleable.  Everything was new.  Even the old acts like Nelson Eddy, famous for his operatic style and parts in movies where he played the singing Canadian Mountie.  His voice was still great, but his sight was terrible, and he would not go on stage with his thick glasses.  So he always had his singing partner, Gail Sherwood, a soprano, point him to the microphone, tell him about how far to walk, and then give him a gentle shove during the play-on music.  After that the magic began.

Vaughan Monroe was distinctive because of his voice and his personality.  My music stand onstage was on the end and near a dinner table. One night in the middle of the week someone at that table reached up and took the top chart from my stand, “Racing With the Moon” which was his theme song.  He became very upset with me because it was difficult to replace a handwritten copy in those days, before computer generated parts.  Now you can just email another part and print it out.  Since I had the part memorized by then he calmed down. Both memorable and historical.

While playing a concert with James Brown, the “Godfather of Soul,” I turned to another trombone player and remarked how fantastic this music was. He looked at me and said, “I hate this crap.” I was shocked and confused because he was African American, but I wisely said nothing further.  James went way beyond magical into another dimension.  After each concert the conductor would say, “Grab your music and your horn and get out quickly, the fans will be rushing the stage.” And they did…

The first time I played the Kim Sisters, three Korean girls, I knew that they would be very special.  The stage was covered with instruments that they all played in their act. Brass and stringed instruments, guitars, kotos, and many more, besides their vocals.  It was the first time I heard  the song “Try To Remember,” and I have loved it ever since.  Every show they did was enchanting.  I couldn’t wait for the next one, and was very sorry to see them leave at the end of the week.

Other memorable gigs were:  A four hour job at the Dayton Country Club playing lead trombone with the Woody Herman Band.  The other player had left the band suddenly, so I got a call to fill in.  Absolutely magical.  Also at the Dayton Country Club I was playing with the Warren Covington (trombone player) Band.  The guests had been golfing all day and were ready for drinks and fun.  The highlight of the evening was  singing by Jimmy Durante and Ray Bolger.  After singing some standards, they started ad libbing.  Songs and schtick from their old vaudeville acts.  Both just messing around and having fun with themselves and the audience.  And the band following along seamlessly, not knowing what would be coming next.  Truly magical & historical & mind-blowing, all at the same time.

Riverfront stadium in Cincinnati, playing Gladys Knight and the Pips was another memorable evening.  Part of the memory is of the echo in the stadium, especially of the drums.  It took heavy concentration to consistently distinguish the original beats from the echoes.  And, lastly, playing Sonny and Cher in Cincinnati Gardens with David Paich conducting.  It was one of the concerts with Cher wearing the large Indian feather bonnet, (and not much else).  I had to be very careful because trombone players are very easily distracted by the unusual.  And these are just a few of the many acts that I played.

It is worth repeating that you must first realize that these are truly magical moments when they are happening, and then enjoy them to the fullest because they are so very rare.  So, until the next one happens to any of us, take the time to listen to the great Burt Bacharach/Hal David song “Magic Moments” for inspiration.  Then maybe some magic memories will “bubble up” into your consciousness and you will be able to savor those moments. Make it happen…!

February is the month of Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, the last hurrah before Ash Wednesday and then Lent.  It is a time to dress up in the wild and bizarre. It is a time of parades with bizarre floats. A time to eat without restraint and drink with abandon.  All of this is packaging of sorts. Wrapping the mundane with the fantastic.  Dress up or dress down, but the result must be unusual.

We all do the same thing in our daily lives.  We cover our real selves, and we experience this constantly in everything our brain acknowledges.  All of the commercials that we see on television are gift wrapping a product, making it desirable to have because of the packaging and the presentation.  Cars, trucks, vans and RV’s are sold because of their looks and “bells and whistles,” not because of the inside, the motor.  Our persons are masked in many ways.  Make-up can change your whole look and sometimes a part of your personality.  Clothes determine where you will fit in, who you will fit with and how you will feel in relationships. Hair styles help us to be accepted by a specific group and even our speech patterns can hide our real thoughts by being superficial.

Sales of anything depends on packaging and the salesperson is necessarily a master of deception.  Their personalities morph to fit the customer, they relate to anything that will connect with you and help to make you pliable and amenable to the pitch.  Real estate sales depend on the outward and inward look of the house.  But what about about the plumbing and the electricity?

Actors depend on their packaging to become a character.  They assimilate all of the above to promote belief in their character and the situation in which they find themselves.  They are very charismatic.  And charisma is another form of packaging which is all too prevalent.  It is the ultimate personality packaging.  It hides the person’s real intentions.  Serial killers depend on this to mask their real intentions as do people who just want something from you now or later.  Beware the party personality.  All of the billboards and electronic ads we see are there to implant feelings and needs.  We are inundated with this all of our waking hours.

So how do we sort out what is real beneath the packaging?  How do we guard against the unreal or even dangerous?  How do we even stay sane?

Our instincts our usually reliable if we are aware and listen to them.  They can help us to guard against what is beneath the packaging.  These have been fed all of our lives with basic rules to live by and basic ways to survive and exist in a world of seductions.  Our instincts are triggered by those imbedded guidelines to living and surviving.  They usually “kick in” when something seems to be not quite right, but we don’t know exactly why.  Ignoring our instincts during this split second of “heads up” can be embarrassing or inconvenient or even dangerous.  Listening to this little voice can give you that instant in time that saves you from whatever consequence that might be waiting.  We must be constantly aware.  Not paranoid, but aware.

And there are very few things more seductive than music.  It permeates our consciousness, sometimes to the point of annoyance by its insistent presence.  It is the stuff of sales, and it can be overt or subliminal.  It can be soothing or abrasive or cerebral or superficial. Even its very vibrations can be seductive especially when combined with anything that dulls our consciousness.  It is a packaging for many and varied motives.  Another reason to be aware and beware.  Listen to all kinds of music, but keep in touch with your instincts.  They are sometimes the only thing that can save you and keep you sane.  “Make your own kind of music!”

Our relationships are rarely open and truthful. We hide most of our inner thoughts and opinions from even our closest friends.  We filter our thoughts to meet each person that we contact.  What we say is shaped or filtered to distance the personalities that we encounter.  This is a part of our societal survival.  We do not want to offend anyone (comedians excepted).

Just what is filtered?  Practically everything that comes out of our mouths.  Why?  The penalties can be harsh and long-lasting.  People that overstep are shunned or ignored or distanced from the one or ones who become offended.  So how do we dialogue with anyone?  By filters.  We verbally dance around until neutral territory is established. Then we can relax with appropriate thoughts flowing freely.  What do we commonly filter?  Politics, religion, the news in general, relationships, sex, almost everything but the weather.  Where does this happen?  Everywhere that there is dialogue: conversation, email, social media, texting, casual conversations in passing, etc.

The above is filtering what goes out.  The next part is filtering what comes in to us.  We hear what we want to hear and discard the rest.  Someone discussing any of the categories above who is not filtering what goes out becomes filtered by the listener.  We tune the person out.  We retain only the subject and basic thoughts and discard the rest.  This is survival of our own ego and mindset as it is at a certain moment.  This happens with friends, listening to the news, watching a movie, listening to a popular song, in the workplace or a classroom at any level.  We learn this early in life by getting verbally beaten down, shunned or just ignored. So we disguise our deepest feelings and important thoughts, our meanness and our mendacity and strive to become just like everyone else.  Neutral.

The result of this is a them versus us attitude; friend vs. enemy, up vs. down (class distinction).  It is difficult to be close to anyone when our guard is always up. We begin to live an insular existence with our hand always up in the “stop” position.  We need to stop thinking of everyone else as the opposing team and remember that we are all traveling the same road of existence together.  We are actually all on the same team.  We need to drop the filters.  Both ways.  And we can only do this when we eliminate censorship.  Both ways.  Of ourselves and others.  This is where true happiness will take root and begin to grow.

And what is the impetus for this growth?  Music.  We tend to let our guards down when listening and also performing music.  And since music is a global habit, we actually have a chance eventually for…you know what…! (only candidates for Miss America and people carrying signs say this).  Michael Jackson and a host of other musicians said this perfectly some years ago:  “We are the World.”  So let us all sing & play & act like it is possible.  And drop your……..filters…!