Hysteria Hype

It may be my age that makes the "tenor" of current events so  e x t r e m e,  so watching television and listening to radio lately has been a bit more scary.  The advertising,  which is no stranger to hype, has become even more edgy,  in your face,  including the teasers for shows to come.   Even NPR & PBS indulge in these extremes now,  and it make me wonder if we have passed through yet another veil into a twilight zone which all but precludes the participation of someone raised in a totally different time (?).  Sitting in a local bar watching cable a few weeks ago took this even further,  a reach I didn't know existed.

Conditioning is undoubtedly important here,  and how much can we go on which says that our basic templates were laid down by the time we were five or six years old?   How much has that changed in the last decades?  Can we really be conditioned and reconditioned, over and over again,  so that we will accept a kind of Orwellian reality where waves and waves of electronically driven "inputs" can make acceptable what is clearly not, nor,  I think, ever was.  

Everything from fast food deserts advertising, to the trailers for cop/doctor/adventure shows describe a recklessness which is close to abandon.  & yet the people who create and participate in the production of these would be hooks and snares  have to get in their cars and go home after work,  just like everyone else (?).  To keep upping the ante seems analogous to the cautions urged by conservationists end environmentalists on the continued desire by breakaway capitalism for growth and more growth.  Some bewildered bumper sticker maker said it some time ago:   "Stop the World, I Want to Get Off." 

Jason Collins, Saxophonist & Composter

Jay Collins is an extraordinary musician who lives in our "neighborhood" with his wife,  Charis,  her Sister Becka and her Husband Chris Newhouse and all their children ...   on Lostview Farm.  Jay also teaches at a middle school in Menomonie,  English and writing.   I have had the honor of a tune composed for me by this man,  "Blues for the Man in the Orange Shirt,"  and I invite you to dial this up by going to the links in my Blog and thus be able to hear it and some other tunes.  It features one of the most exceptional of instruments,  the baritone sax.  Enjoy,  I hope you get to hear this man and his group in person one of these days.