It was transcendent to partake such inspired jazz in the most intimate of settings (where else can you sit so close to the piano you could play a duet with the keyboardist if you reached forward? It was as if he were entertaining in your living room for a few friends.) I was overwhelmed by intense emotional waves and the sense that it doesn’t get any better than being a grandfather and being part of that musical experience. To hell with politics, as long as there is jazz and generations, I’m ecstatic.

It has not escaped my notice that we’ve been governed by the same two political cliques since 1988. A good reason (smile) for a ‘Anybody but Bush AND Clinton’ movement for ‘08.

The emotional burden and personal affect masquerades as many other things, but it’s there, in her and us.

You’ve repeated this before without providing the least shred of evidence that it has any affect whatsoever on womens’ opportunities and chances for promotion and political power.

Not in places like South America and South Asia. It’s interesting that that’s who the US seems to be taking after these days. And anyone who doubts we are adopting an “imperial presidency” should consider what this will look like in the history books: Bush I, Clinton I, Bush II, Clinton II . . .

The emotional burden and personal affect masquerades as many other things, but it’s there, in her and us.

I’ll add my own .02 cents – late as it is. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. The woman arouses no passion in me, for or against. She’s just a politician.

That said – and while it’s early days – it feels like she’s going to be the Democrat nominee. Which might not be the best thing for the Democratic party. She’s a term and half senator with no prior experience in office, except as the wife of the governor of Arkansas and as the wife of the President. This might indeed give her experience in politics but it’s a darned odd path to power.

Have there been any men elected to the office of President whose only political experience has been a term in the Senate?

Roy is one of my all time favorites. I was at his 80th birthday party at Sculler’s in 2005 (there seems to be some controversy as to his age but he said he was born in 1925) and he didn’t look a day over 60. I once had the good fortune to sit in with him and Scott Hamilton at Gilmore’s Western Front in Cambridge, right in your neighborhood if I’m not mistaken. We played Ornithology – the study of Bird. I’ll be at Sculler’s this Thursday night for the John Stetch trio, 1st show 8 PM as they likely cancelled the 2nd show due to poor ticket sales.

sidewalker wrote: jazzman, what will be the first jazz album you’ll introduce her to? As a grandfather, A Love Supreme?

That would be an excellent choice, and I’m sure I will present it in due time, however I think for her 1st it would be Miles’ classic rendition of Wayne Shorter’s Nefertiti as she is my little Queen although she is mostly of Greek heritage and not Egyptian.

Again to ALL the congratulators regarding my granddaughter, my heartfelt thanks.

Peace,

Jazzman and Jazzgirl

I just want to expand on this. I just LOVE the Daily Show and the Colbert Report. I don’t actually watch TV – I see these on videos over the internet that I get for free from (mumble . . mumble . . . ). But if I ever get a TV it will be for those two shows.

And here’s the thing that some people don’t get: when most of us laugh at their George Bush or Hillary Clinton, etc, jokes and sendups, we are not just laughing at George and Hillary. We are taking pleasure at the discomfort of their SUPPORTERS. When Stephen Colbert make his infamous remarks last year at the White House Press Corps dinner what made it so funny and cringe-worthy and controversial was that he said all these things in front of a roomful of George Bush supporters, including his wife!

Hillary Clinton has a titanium hide and these comments bounce right off. George Bush doesn’t even GET the jokes. So they don’t feel any pain. But their supporters get the jokes and it pisses them off and THAT’s why the jokes work.

I already answered that question. They are ‘different’ because of YOU. Well, you and Allison and Potter, etc. In other words Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, et al, go after whatever will get a reaction. They figure out where it hurts and then they poke at that spot some more. They can COUNT on Hillary Clinton’s supporters to go apoplectic on certain things so they go after that. Anything having to do with race, sex, or religion works really well. Don’t forget that jokes about Hillary’s husband, involving both verbs and anatomical nouns represented a virtual “Political Humorist Full Employment Act” during the latter years of BC’s administration. Really, you should go to a performance of the Capitol Steps I saw them a few months ago and they were STILL doing Bill Clinton jokes!!

You SAY that, but you haven’t demonstrated that it’s true. You’ve already told us that you work outside the corporate ratrace. But I have worked WITHIN big corporations for about 30 years, so I think I know what I’m talking about.

“Maleness” has nothing to do with why corporations are the way they are. Pressure from customers is where it’s at. I already made that point. Male AND female customers want novelty, improved products, the latest styles, “coolness” and low prices. If we don’t provide those things the customers will buy from our competitors and we’ll be out of business.

Women have been demanding child care, health care, work hours and maternity leave, equal pay etc within that world and it’s been a long very hard battle.
But actually “women” have not demanded those things, only a few women on the political left have. Women as a group have not shown a great deal of political organization or voting activity to achieve those things. If health care/insurance was such an intrinsically women’s issue then why did it take a conservative, Republican male governor here in Massachusetts to finally push through something resembling universal health insurance?

pln: I’ve noticed that no one here has provided a single shed of evidence to contest my points that women if they wanted to could participate more fully in the power structure. The educated, professionally trained women who are graduating from our elite colleges are choosing lives that do not have the pressures and stresses required to rise to the top

The choice is to play in a man’s world or to create an alternative ( Allison is an example). This is not so easy.

Also that the nature of the power structure – its pressures and demands and competition – are the result of modern life and demands of consumers and voters – half of whom are women – and not because someone’s been secretly spraying testosterone around Washington and in corporate meeting rooms.

Largely..very largely male dominated, male created with women largely operating within it. Women have been demanding child care, health care, work hours and maternity leave, equal pay etc within that world and it’s been a long very hard battle.

Muskie btw was shamed for crying— a feminine quality. Women are allowed to cry, they are perceived weaker after all. Men are not supposed to cry. Emotions= sign of weakness. That has change somewhat, not entirely.

Compare apples and apples-it’s not the fact that people in public life are the butt of jokes. What is the nature of the jokes?

You could say ( and have said if I am not mistaken) people always have “free choice” if you discount what works against that in terms of the price of a particular choice over another.

Regarding your number two: I can’t speak for Allison but I think she was saying that “the prevailing culture of hard work, long hours, intense pressure, travel, etc” and so much else btw- has a lot ( if not everything) to do with maleness. The set-up is male. The business world is masculine or male dominated (emphasizing competition above cooperation, environmental destruction/over-consumption/ waste and moves leading to fast profit above nurturing/conserving ). After thousands of years, women have learned to exist inside of a male world, cooperating with it, often threatened and subdued ( physically, emotionally) by it, sometimes acting courageously in defiance. Sometimes they are able to exert a little feminine pressure, here and a little there, to soften things. We have no idea what a female dominated world would be like. It’s preposterous to say that absolutely everything has been tried.

Congratulations Grandjazzpa and grandma!

Like people DON’T do this for other politicians? Hillary’s treatment by political humor wags WRT to sex doesn’t come CLOSE to the jokes leveled at her husband, for example.

Political humorists go after whatever will get a reaction and the sensitivity of Hillary Clinton’s supporters on this issue (as we can see illustrated her by you and Allison) is WHY Jon Stewart makes those jokes! I can’t believe you don’t grasp this basic fact of American political humor!

Politics in America is hardball. Whether it’s Swift Boat Veterans, or questioning whether the CiC can actually read a book, or attacks on Edmund Muskie’s wife that caused the famous crying incident which ended his campaign, politics takes no prisoners. Hillary Clinton knew that when she became a politician.

I’ve noticed that no one here has provided a single shed of evidence to contest my points that women if they wanted to could participate more fully in the power structure. The educated, professionally trained women who are graduating from our elite colleges are choosing lives that do not have the pressures and stresses required to rise to the top. Also that the nature of the power structure – its pressures and demands and competition – are the result of modern life and demands of consumers and voters – half of whom are women – and not because someone’s been secretly spraying testosterone around Washington and in corporate meeting rooms.

Thanks Jazzman. Sorry I fumbled your request, real world duties called. I see you left your comment on the thread…all’s well…

Congratulations!

btw, Roy Haynes is in town tomorrow night! I think you said you used to see him at Wally’s.

The man (a legend) has played with everyone, including Bird.