Jazz Festival marred by ‘loud mouths’
It was impossible not to notice that during the painstaking and brilliant jazz performances occurring Saturday afternoon on the main stage of the Northampton Jazz Festival, a constant din of beer-induced mouth-noise loomed over the mood. Alcohol-lubricated patrons, as they are wont to do, treated the luminous mastery emanating from the stage as just another backdrop to their increasingly voluminous and asinine banter. Jazz is comprised of many delicate lulls and subtle pauses between spaces, but whenever such a lull emerged it was immediately beheaded by the surf-roar of tone-deaf wankers engaged in inebriated small-talk. Not only did this suck for the audience who was hanging on to every nuance of these transformational performances, but it was beyond insulting to the musicians themselves who had chosen to grace our community because of our reputation as discerning jazz-enthusiasts and not a platoon of loud-mouths who, given the right dosage of beverages, would probably have run their mouths if Charlie Parker or Charles Mingus had miraculously taken the stage. I have no problem with bars, but to place one in beer-shot of the stage on which disciplined virtuosos are sharing their lifes’ works is not merely ill-advised, it is downright criminal. And now a plea to the Northampton Jazz Festival designers: Move the beer tent further away from the stage!
Pipeline, politicians, and recall elections
Groups of people, individuals who are frustrated about politicians not doing their jobs have an important tool, which they are not keenly aware of, in order to be able to take direct action to fix a problem. This direct action is a recall petition, which can be obtained from any town hall, city hall or secretary of state’s office. For example, 25 percent of registered voters signing it sets in motion a time frame for a special election to be held. This recall petition also creates publicity for the problem at hand. I do not know of any politician who wants to lose their job. A recall election has to take place. Many problems: sewer projects, extra taxation, school shootings, drug addiction, problem teacher retirement policies, road projects. The Kinder-Morgan pipeline can be stopped cold by having a recall election. The selectmen and state representatives have to stand for this purpose or the recall. It will wake up those politicians.
Bad Bible
There’s a reason why we have separation of church and state. We didn’t for a time in Salem and hundreds of innocent people were fingered by clergy and executed by the state. We have spent generations overcoming what is taught in the Bible. We had to fight a war to end slavery. The Bible also teaches bigamy, polygamy, cruelty to animals, women as property and without rights as well as the anti-gay edicts. It teaches that we should kill children who talk back to their parents, anyone who works on Sunday, people who mix fabrics in their clothing, people who plant different crops in the same field, a wife who is not a virgin, etc. There’s a lot not to like in the Bible. We don’t want to live by Biblical law any more than we want to live by Sharia law.
It is customary to not read or follow outrageous and immoral parts of the Bible in a pick and choose fashion. Kim Davis — the Rowan County clerk who recently spent some time in jail after repeatedly refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples — with four husbands and two out-of-wedlock births has done her share of picking and choosing. On exiting jail, Davis was “giving God the glory.” Just where is the glory in discrimination? Kim Davis has freedom of religion, but she cannot mix it with her official duties for the state. If she cannot make the separation then she needs a different job. The anti-gay verbiage is the last major issue in the Bible to overcome and we have finally done it. Hurray for secular morality and the Golden Rule.
