October 1st, 2020, Thoughts

So, here we are, 2020, October 1st. Let me start that by saying it's a blessing all of us reading this are even alive today. As of this writing over 200,000 Americans have died due to COVID and it's expected that at least 400,000 will die by the end of the year, and those are considered "good numbers". Grim to say the least. Tonight I will jot down some ideas on life, politics, work, music, reading, writing, a little bit of everything to show some appreciation for the fist day of October. Happy Halloween folks!

The reaction on the internet today is mostly praise or disavowal of the Presidential Debate last night. Most of my Facebook feed was disavowal but you can imagine that some of my right-wing friends were praising the President. It easy to see that Trump would never condemn white supremacist groups, in fact, I believe he's only condemned white supremacy once as President, and he only did so when he was asked three times, and said it with no conviction. 

So we know that Trump is a white supremacist. We know that he likes the fact that these right-wing militia groups support him. He will use them as force if necessary to quell violence between right-wing racist groups and leftist protesters who get a little too aggressive, maybe Antifa or BLM. He would be cool with using the Proud Boys as an intimidation tactic in black and brown communities to get people to steer clear from their voting stations, so they can't vote, so they can't vote for Biden, and so they [Proud Boys] can undermine American democracy. Yes, we know all that. 

So it seems fair to say that we don't need to spend much air time on national TV news talking about how much of a racist he is and how he won't condemn right-wing white supremacy groups. Another thing we know is that most Americans are middle of the road. They aren't entirely overly left-wing or right-wing, they're mostly moderates in middle class or lower middle class. The one thing I don't get is how upset and/or surprised white people are over the, "stand back and stand by," which is a military language. 

Dear white people: 

Stop being surprised by Donald Trump. We all know what the man is about, what he stands for, and how he's corrupted every aspect of American government and organizations. That's why his cronies are trying right now to jump off the sinking ship. Former Trump supporters and government officials are trying to get Biden elected. That's very telling. We, collectively, as a nation, as a body politic need to stop being surprised by what Trump does and come together as a country to elect a real leader, in this case, Biden/Harris. 

The more airtime that Trump gets on TV and/or online news for being a "race-baiting, xenophobic bigot," the more we see that he's a disgusting monster. The problem is that's all old news. If people keep thinking like that, they'll say, "this is why I hate politics, I'll stay clear of all that shit, I don't need to vote," and that's how he will get lots of more votes because he will make good people think that politics and voting isn't for them. Obviously those people are intimidated and will be fearful about taking action by voting against him. I know lots of people like this in my friendship groups. It is what it is. 

But we have to stay vigilant. It's much harder being a good man than an evil man. Nobody ever said having a democracy would be easy. That's why we're here. 

In other news I had a great jam session with my friend Jason, who plays the alto saxophone. I'm beginning to get a better feel for jazz guitar. I realized in a simple jam that if I play a lot of simple triad [chords that are only three notes] but use a lot of inversions, that I can get that real authentic jazz guitar sound from the 50s. Instead of relying on big chords all the time I need to play more triads to play smoother and faster chord inversions. Chord inversions are the sounds of the same chords but the notes are re-arranged. On piano it's a little more tricky to play but on guitar there's a physicality to it, a formula form, if you will. It's all shapes, chord shapes that every guitarist knows, but maybe haven't played extensively before. 

Also, I've learned to tighten up my solos more. I start with a slow melody, expand upon it, get some speed in there, and end it with some more melodies. I'm beginning to tell a story with my solos, a beginning, middle, and end. Things make a lot more sense that way rather than playing everything fast. Heck, I think jazz guitar solos sound better when they're slower anyways because its more bluesy, and I think it meshes more with the saxophone if I don't shred that much, if at all. A more moderate, medium tempo for the licks gives it much more form, in my humble opinion. 

In other news, I'm about 100 pages away from finishing Tolstoy's War and Peace. This novel took so much out of me on an emotional level and a philosophical level. I thought a lot about love, misery, despair, existentialism, war, brotherhood, wife-hood, and much more. What made War and Peace so difficult for me was not the fact that its 1200 pages long; rather it was the fact that every sentence is somewhat thought provoking, every line-paragraph-page-chapter-book kept making me think a lot, more and more, even when I wasn't reading the novel. It's a powerful force. I will definitely read the book Tolstoy considers his first real novel too at some point: Anna Karenina. But War and Peace is unforgettable. Most of the readers I run into at work say that they've never managed to read it, either out of intimidation of the challenge of such a long emotive work, or possibly they think the 1200 pages much too long. The book is worth the time and effort to read it and it reveals much. I'll be sure to write my last post about it tomorrow or sometime thereafter. 

Work has been much slower this year due to COVID. In most of my years working this current job, I was working over 40 hours a week due to being the go-to guy who helps out and covers other peoples' shifts. But due to COVID the store has cut down most employees' hours so much that most of the emergency staff hired from the beginning of the pandemic have already left or quit, most of them did so after only a month or two of work. It's crazy that the company is cutting hours so much even though my store is a million dollar store [its like LAX, you'll run into everybody and anybody there] and they're doing very well there, they decided it was the time to cut hours and not give workers more pay. As for me, I can still pick up extra hours here and there but it seems like for now my hours will stay pretty low but steady. I've realized that most people are hurting from COVID, they're unemployed and relying on unemployment. Lots of them are going to food banks to get food to feed their families. The hard thing for me to do has been to find a way to live with less money and spending less money. But the more difficult problem for so many Americans is how do you find a way to live during COVID without a job? Or also, how do you find a way to live during COVID if you're working from home, stuck with your family and kids all day? There's a whole discourse to be talked about on the subject for sure.  

Lastly, its October 1st and it was 100 degrees today. Let's hear it for California! October is a great month because its right after my birthday and I've always loved Fall and Fall weather. Halloween is always a fun holiday, as it's really the beginning of the regular holidays after the high Jewish holidays. 

I end with a jest. Lucifer [Milton's Lucifer] gave rock and roll to you down at the crossroads. Happy Halloween!