A speculative mind

A bit of a change of pace this week. Back when my son was in high school in the school band, I got roped into becoming co-president of the band boosters. Among other things this meant that I would be a chaperone on the trip to the Starlight Parade in Portland. Yay. I was savvy enough to take notes about what happened that day, and I thought I would share them with you, lo these many years later: I arrive bright and early along with Mr. M.   (the band teacher) and the other chaperones. We start organizing things and loading equipment on the equipment van. I begin going over my checklist of things to make sure we brought Band-Aids, scissors, duct tape, etc. I ask Mr. M. about some of the things on my checklist. He says we need extra reeds and goes upstairs to get them. Some students still don’t have permission slips, so we have to watch out for them and grab their parents before they leave. It is now 11:00 (our scheduled departure time) and students “A” and “B” have not yet...

As I may have mentioned before, I do community theater. It is a pastime that mostly keeps me out of trouble. It does take time and work. For me it is fun, but it is also an art form, a craft. Most of those who do it with me take it seriously. We may all be amateurs, but we don’t want to look like amateurs. If we are in a good play (and we do it right), we can affect an audience. We can make them feel something. From an audience perspective, there is really nothing like live theater. It beats movies hands down. So the other day I was in rehearsal for the next show I am going to be in. It is Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I am certain that this production will be unlike any production of MSND that has ever come before. That is mainly because of our director who also adapted the script (meaning she actually rewrote parts of the script) and adapted the music and is also the choreographer, as well as doing the marketing (okay, she is an over achiever). This show is so differ...

We live in an age when everyone thinks art should be free. I guess there is a philosophical point to be made that it should be free . . . along with education, health care, food, and pretty much everything. But in the real world art has a cost to the artist. Whether it is writing, music, painting, dance, sculpture, the artist has to put in time and energy, not to mention training and/or schooling. Part-time artist give up what little free time they have. Full-time artists expect to make a living doing what they do. But people like to listen to music for free on YouTube or other free sites, or download pirated files. It is better than it was during the Napster era when everyone could download whatever they wanted for free. The record companies did not offer a way for people to download music and their response to all this pirating was to sue their audience. Saner heads eventually prevailed and a way for people to pay for downloads was created, ending the controversy. Of co...