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Another UN Rebuke

Time and time again, the United Nations releases a report on the state of human rights in the United States. These reports usually go under reported and cause little reaction from the American public. This is just one more example of how America fails to live up to the image that it wishes to portray to the rest of the world.

U.N. Panel Says U.S. Should Shut Prison in Cuba

Posted by The Webtoad at 12:06 PM | Comments (1)

Miles

I spent a recent afternoon spicing up my "myspace" page a bit and what better theme than Miles. Those who know me are familiar with my passion for Jazz. Miles is the center of that Passion. Everything radiates out from him; forward, back and laterally. The first Jazz album that I bought was "Kind of Blue" back when I was in college. I describe that experience as I imagine one's first heroine high to be like. One is always trying to get that high again. Chasin' the train I believe it is referred to as. I have spent these past 15 years looking for that experience of hearing Miles et al for the first time. On occassion I've approached that feeling again with such artists as Terrence Blanchard and Nicholas Payton. Branford Marsalis could fit that description as well.

No matter what though, I always come back to Miles. Electric or acoustic, it doesn't matter (I must admit that I do have trouble with his stuff in the eighties). Only Coltrane comes close to co-existing on the same plain as Miles. A friend at works believes that one is a disciple of either Miles or Trane but not both. I agree and I am firmly in the Miles camp.

One must be careful in heaping praise upon Miles however. He was a very complicated individual. He was angry. He didn't treat the women in his life well. There were few white people whose company he tolerated. His blackness was a comsuming aspect of his being. I believe that his demons are what made him such a creative musician.

Miles died in 1991 just as Jazz was beginning to enter my life. I remember that Rolling Stone magazine put him on their cover just after his death. He died relatively young (just 65) but he lived very fast. I don't believe that any other musician has influenced modern music as Miles has. Many have changed their own genre or style of music but Miles impacted multiple fields most notably both Jazz and Rock.

I don't think I would have wanted to know Miles Davis but I sure am glad that he lived and gave us the music that he did.

Posted by The Webtoad at 02:59 AM | Comments (0)

Dirty Pretty Things

Dirty Pretty Things is a film about immigration. However it is not what we have been viewing on the tele as of late. Immigration is an international issue that will dominate ours and and many other national discussions for years to come. As long as we choose to erect arbitrary boundaries and restrict the movement of people, we will burden ourselves with the problems of people moving from poorer to richer countries.

Posted by The Webtoad at 12:55 AM | Comments (0)