Learning to program manageable concerts

Last spring, I planned an organ recital that I thought would be really fantastic.  The problem was that I had gotten in over my head and, for a number of reasons, some of which were related to burnout, found myself unprepared as the recital neared and having to cancel it.

I have not failed to reflect on this, and I have come up with a program for this Fall (date to be announced later) which should be much more manageable, and dare I say enjoyable, to prepare for.  This lineup is based on an All Saints/All Souls theme:  I suppose you could call it the elitist’s version of the all-too-common “Halloween concert.”

Henry Walford-Davies:  Solemn Melody

J.S. Bach:  Prelude and Fugue in A minor, BWV 543

Bach:  Alle menschen muessen sterben (from the Neumeister Choraele)

improvisation on the Dies Irae

Olivier Messiaen:  Le Banquet Celeste

Messiaen:  Transports de joie

Hymn:  O Quanta Qualia (assuming there are enough people there to make the singing of it thrilling)

Calvin Hampton:  In Paradisum

Marcel Dupre:  Cortege et Litanie

Defending ketchup

“Political Views: anti-war, anti-State, pro-ketchup,” says my facebook profile.

“Why ketchup and not mayonnaise?” someone asked.

Well, the truth is that this statement has nothing to do with ketchup’s relative standing with mayonnaise, but rather its relationship with war and the State. Here’s the gist of my idiosyncratic phrase:

The State exists through usurpation. It finances its operations through the coercive confiscation of the private property of its citizens. It also looks out for its own interests by violently looting other societies; this is otherwise known as war. At times the State even usurps the vocations (and often the very lives) of its male citizens through conscription. In summary, the State is a parasite; it sucks the blood out of every lively and wonderful thing it can get its hands on.

Contrast this with whomever it was that made ketchup. (Shall I now attempt a “ketchup hoax” in tribute of Mencken’s bathtub hoax? Actually, I haven’t the time.) Somewhere out there, somebody discovered this wonderful condiment and began offering it for sale to those who wanted it. This situation was mutually beneficial: the ketchup makers made money, and the ketchup buyers obtained a product which is probably the closest that many people get to eating actual vegetables.

One’s relationship with the State is more one-sided. Sure, you may receive “benefits” from the State in return for the blood it sucks out of you, but it is always on the State’s coercive terms. You have little choice in how much it takes or how much it gives. But when you buy ketchup, you can buy as much as you want, and spend no more than you’d like.

The bottom line here is that nothing is as wonderful as the mutually beneficial free market which makes ketchup available, and nothing ruins the free market and personal liberty like the parasitical, coercive State. It doesn’t matter what the product is; ketchup just came to mind first.

So, go ahead and be pro-mayonnaise. Just don’t be pro-State or pro-War.

2012: The Year the Internet Ends?

Thanks to a Facebook friend, I found this story on the supposed planned “end of the internet,” as it were, at which time only commercial websites within subscription packages will be accessible. Sounds to me like a good way to control the dissemination of information. It made me think of the inestimable Noam Chomsky, who, even if he is a socialist, is also an anarchist, and that makes him cool in my book. He once said this:

“The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum – even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there’s free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate.”