Musical story: Let’s role back the clock to 1967. Ures truly is in high school and on weekends being the transmitter engineer at R&B station KYAC in Kirkland, WA.
There, on Sunday mornings, it was my pleasure to engineer for Sonny Buxton’s Jazz Unlimited show. And it was there I developed a taste for Jazz.
Among my favorites was a composer – Oliver Nelson – whose band had some amazing works. One in particular – Jazz and the Abstract Truth has been a favorite for coming up on 50-years now. You can find it on YouTube – provided you even know where to look.
I’ll save you the trouble; click here for the YT piece.
If you’re new to great jazz, you might want to stick with something a lot more “commercial” sounding. Nelson’s “Stolen Moments” is great – very easy listening with only limited solo and ad lib work. Another one, on his tribute to fallen U.S. President John Kennedy that gave Nelson a chance to explore his more cinematic side was “A Genuine Peace” that begins with a Kennedy speech excerpt.
No, this morning’s column is not a piece about “jazz appreciation.” It’s actually about the choice of title for Nelson’s Jazz and Abstract Truth.
If you listen to the song 50-years – off and on – you discover the “music in your head” can be a set of hangars for your thinking.
While the jazz part has tons of solos, that at times may not even seem to make sense, by the end, it’s all pulled together to a satisfying finish. Not all songs do this (that is, start, get a theme, and then wander off in all directions, only to all show up and play nicely together at the end) but it’s a fine metaphor for many things – including how to run successful companies and more.
There is – within music – much to be discovered about how we are as individual humans. Perhaps because music has the unique ability to synchronize the two halves of the brain so that they can go off doing their own things, and yet, at the conclusion of a great thought process, all wander back in with a wonderful conclusion.
But it’s not always so bright because with a nicely crafted jazz metaphor, we can also occasionally make out how the external worlds, the ones beyond our control, actually work.
My offering for your consideration this morning, is that there are probably a half dozen “great situations” playing out in America right now. Situations where we have briefly touched on purpose, but as in some of Nelson’s work, we’ve wandered off to abstract solo parts.
I get tons of emails from readers – and I read every comment submitted to this site before approving it for public consumption.
One of these dealt with the Texas Biker Shoot-out and it speaks to the “abstract truth” that seems very odd in proximity as it is to Jade Helm:
“…don’t think it was HOURS after the gang shootout that I turned on tv and found out about it. But as soon as I saw the news about it, and saw a lot of bikers sitting quietly on a curb like kindergardeners,(no handcuffs on them, etc) I had the same kind of feeling that I had the day I turned on tv and there was the news about the towers in New Yawk…..I had a calm “what is this?” feeling, and I didn’t think it was “real.” I saw that it was indeed real, yet still had a “what the heck is this?” feeling about the former .
I’m not trying to make somethin’ out of nothin’……I just think the gang thing is not what it is proclaimed to be. When I was outside of Houston, about 2 wks ago, and about 30 minutes away from Bastrop, I saw about 4-6 bikers going down the street, and thought it was odd to see them there. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen any in person before. Wonder if this could really be some part of sicko game that is part of the exercise supposed to take place soon in Tx. It just seems too odd to me to be unrelated to anything else. It SAID on tv and in print, that a number of them had been killed (9?)and something like 200 arrested, and yet all I saw was the kindergardner group lined up nicely and without cuffs,sitting on a curb. News said it was a “bloody” or “gory” scene, yet I saw no pictures like that. I don’t know……….. M
And this person was not alone…here’s another reasonable comment:
“These Texas gangs dont look like Chicago/Peoria counterparts at all! Their “colors” are way too new and clean, as are their bikes. I’d better not say what I’m really thinking.”
So here is the the “Oliver Nelson” framed problem: We see, as in 9/11 a really nice “chorus” but we also have the beginnings of the sound of some solos. Does it all pull together into a marvelous finish?
Perhaps. But I do have to agree with the observation that the rider’s “colors” (“rockers” if you’re a HA/MC member) looked just too damn neat and clean..but that’s just me. Maybe things have changed since I sold my shaft-drive long ago.
Also, from a combat perspective, it doesn’t make much sense, either. ONLY bad guys shot? With that much in the way of small arms fire, the odds don’t seem to pencil…or have I watched too much television?
But is that just a solo we don’t understand?
According to this report, of the 9 deaths, four were from police gunfire. And while speculation builds that the “turf war” will expand, perhaps into other parts of Texas, the larger problem is this:
It comes uncomfortably close to the start of Jade Helm.
Sure – coincidences happen all the time, but the arrival of a huge group of federal forces due in a couple of weeks for Jade Helm (with many forces already in the state) it’s almost unbearably coincidental.
And it leads to his little bit of the Abstract Truth (which to me is an “Oliver Nelson” [framed] problem) summed up by a reader who has had enough with the way American runs now:
“Got a call today about how I be voting in the next elections.
I said after 40 years of voting I was thinking about not vote again. The nation I vote in stopping being here some time ago.
Why wasted my time vote for world that is only Big Business and Stealing Banks. Who are robbing the accounts of those who had work all their lives to see this happen. I can not stop them. But I can not believe in this fairytale any more.
And that little piece of abstract truth seems to be growing.
Power doesn’t seem to do very well, when it’s balanced on a single monarch, a duality like the Cold War. It’s the threes that make it work. The tripartite arrangement of US government in the congressional, president, courts balance, for example.
Or you see it in international affairs, where the Big super power club has just three members: The US, China, and Russia.
Or, you see it in other places, too. Three clubs get the mention in the biker deal this week.
Slipping on the foil skullcap this morning, we begin to ponder this predominance of “threes” and wonder if this unique ability of three points to define a plane (from geometry) might have an analog in government?
For years, we have postulated a hypothetical Directorate 153 because we’ve always suspect that there was a third element – a rogue force – that could step on the scales to push events one way, or the other, and thus maintain a kind of “balance” imperceptible to mere mortals; not those on Olympus or the other Hill.
A reader post that sounds conspiratorial at its core, suddenly begins to make sense:
“Actually, the usa has two militaries. One run out of the pentagon, and the other a mercenary army run out of Langley. ISIS and Ukraine are examples of Langley operations. In addition to black budgets, Langley mercenaries are financed by drug money. They probably also got the gold from Iraq, Libya, and the Ukraine. It is inevitable that eventually the two armies are going to clash. For example, remember the reports of usa military aircraft dropping supplies to ISIS? Well, the Langley folks cooked the coordinates given to the pentagon and got a few free supplies for their folks. The USA Special Operations folks have always been working for Langley, even in Vietnam. It’s why special ops command is in Florida, not the pentagon. Think about this, and the USA military situation will make a lot more sense. For every pentagon soldier that goes into battle, it takes from six to ten support people. Using mercenaries, this expense can be bypassed, and locals can be hired to provide this basic support. Whenever there is USA training of foreign forces, that is Langley. Real fighters form a bond with spec ops people, they see the regular usa military as a bunch of pompous asses.
So all that lays before us reduces to the conclusion of the “Oliver Nelson Problem” – How will all the disparate actor, like their musician counterparts, all be pulled back in to a marvelous and satisfying finish?
Because unless it happens soon, the music will break down in Anasazi fashion, and people will wander away from the music.
In fact – if you listen closely – you can see that process beginning, even now.
Complexity of music seems related to complexity and fineness of thought.
Sounds of “End Times”
No, it doesn’t sound like the angelic trumpets, but The Sound has caught the attention of some emailing friends:
“All right, now this is strange – be sure to watch the video montage of incidents occurring all over the world in a wide variety of settings, some quite rural. This video seems like nothing so much as the opening of some cheesy made-for-TV science fiction movie on the Science Fiction Channel. But the reports are real. The sound the people hear everywhere seems like some large heavy metal object rubbing against another large heavy metal object, but the sounds often occur in places where there are no such large heavy metal objects to be found, And the witnesses report that the sound seems to be coming from the sky rather than from a particular direction. Exceedingly odd.
And here is an even more balanced but still skeptical view from the renowned Snopes.com site:
http://www.snopes.com/photos/supernatural/strangesounds.aspOn the other hand, here is a perfectly sound, rational, skeptical explanation that rings pretty true:
This has been named a bunch of different things, not the least of which is the Taos Hum, the Detroit Hum, and so on. But these are more noises.
Speculation has been that it’s large boring machines, but who knows? We’ll keep our ears out for any new developments.
Our Directorate 153 guidance would be to get ready for Project Blue Beam. Gotta do something with all that drug money…
Website Caching Issues
Yes, we are still publishing every day. It’s just that we seem to disappear every now and then because of, well, see the above.
If UrbanSurvival doesn’t come up on schedule some morning, the problem is unlikely at this end. Rather, truth, justice, and the few tattered remnants of the American Way/Camelot is not a popular thing to remember.
More than a President died in Dallas, you see. It’s just the other stuff that died has taken a very long time to extinguish, though time runs out.
Peoplenomics™ tomorrow – next full-length column Thursday…so do come back and bring reinforcements.
Write when you break-even.
George george@ure.net
The first thing I noticed in the pictures of the Waco biker bash was that the motorcycles that were shown all appeared to be Harley road bikes right off the dealers showroom floor. Didn’t see a single “chopper”, which is what I thought biker gangs preferred. Maybe times have changed.
I listened to one of the sound videos somewhere else yesterday. The one I heard was like metal grinding on metal or concrete. It sounds like normal train noises to me, that I hear every day. In our (Illinois) case, a train guy told me that the fee to park trains in Chicago has gotten so high, that it’s more cost effective to just run them all night long. So I’d expect more train traffic, train switching noises, and the like.
George, I stopped voting because like Groucho Marx said:
“I don’t want to belong to any club that would accept me as one of its members.” Enjoy…..Mark
George,
Have you ever heard a train going by with a brake stuck? I used to live near the train tracks in Maple Valley, WA. There was a train coming with a stuck wheel. We could hear it coming for miles, it sounded just like a couple of those audios.
Thanks for the jazz “turn on”!
I had not heard of Mr Nelson……
In a world of crap music, crap economy and crappy liars it is still possible to escape into some good jazz riffs
Blues and the Abstract Truth.
; )
…the reader who implied that the Bandido/Cossack Texas biker gangs are “posers”in bright, new colors knows not of what he speaks! -once more, slowly: they have been in Texas for a very long time, and are exactly what the biker gang stereotype implies- very big and very bad… like all vicious dogs, they can be calm and submissive when they are overwhelmed by a show of MORE bigness and badness (police/ swat teams): they know when to sit down and shut up, which is a lesson learned while being incarcerated..these people have seen jail and prison walls before!!
Yep. In fairness to the riders, I know a lot of people (happens we you get old as me) who look at a 10 x 12 cell and become amazingly precise, clean and strack. A good number of them retain those lessons of personal grooming and presentation on the outside, too… Things today are different from Hollister…learned that from an old rider who was there back in the day.
Urban back up at 2 pm thanks George
Regarding the ‘Hum’, has anyone read the book called “THE CELESTINE PROPHECY”
if not, then go READ IT. It will explain the hum and the book was published many, many years ago.
(George deleted links, as the book is still available on amazon and is not out of copyright.)
For over 10 years, I have been around ‘bikers’….all manner of them….for over 10 years going to the ROT biker rally outside of Austin, Texas….hanging on 6th street, riding all OVER the country. NEVER EVER seen one problem, and NEVER a Gun EVER!!!
It will come out the police killed at least 5 of them…maybe more…one guy fell by his motorcycle that was turned over because he was shot trying to leave…he was the body by the blue bike.
There is no evidence the ones killed in the parking lot by police were even shooting…maybe they were trying to get the heck out of the restaurant! I will be VERY surprised IF the police ever tell the truth about those killings….as all the bullet holes in the cars outside could have been put there by the police.
I hate all the hype…tonight on CNN, Anderson Cooper, the police spokesperson was backing down from all his hype of the weekend stating that these gangs were coming from all over to fight the police, etc…all that BS which turned out to be a lie.
As for someone else’s comments about them all sitting like kindergarteners on the lawn and parking lot…that was the police setting everyone down….many of those people were NOT arrested and let go….NOT everyone was arrested and the majority of them were not even doing anything wrong.
I would guess many of them never did anything wrong except be at the wrong place at the wrong time, just like the innocent patrons of the restaurant.
Twin Peaks offered bike night all over the nation, they have cancelled that. Think of it. MILLIONS of law abiding motorcycle enthusiasts can now no longer participate in usually a dealership sponsored bike night at Twin Peaks. Twin Peaks’ business model ATTRACTS bikers with those scantily clad ‘girls’. They are making a big mistake as all those ‘motorcycle enthusiasts that are NOT GANG MEMBERS’ will take their business elsewhere.
AND YES, some of those vests colors did look brand spanking new….one hardly EVER sees those NEW vests and colors, rockers, etc., on seasoned riders…it doesn’t make sense.
And yes, all Motorcycle clubs KNOW that the bandidos regulate who puts rockers on their vests and when a new club is created….IN Texas.
Doesn’t stop most of us, we do what we want, add our names as we please and never have had a problem with any of those gangs mentioned on Sunday and since.
Most of us do not care and we do what we like. We do not cowtow to any ‘gang’.
But there are HUNDREDS of motorcycle clubs, which you all would call ‘gangs’ which are NOT gangs. Like Southern Cruisers, Bikers Against Child Abuse, church groups, etc., and many many more.. ..all types of motorcycle riders: crotch rockets, BMW bikers, Harley’s, Indian’s, etc. To demonize bikers does a BIG disservice to the good that normal people who ride do.
Talk about over reaction. Calling it a WAR!!! Really? A war? We have an invasion happening on our southern border…every day an illegal kills a citizen, DWI collisions, murders, rapes or assaults them…that is the war….crimes against citizens. And the citizen is being forced to pay for them, each and every single one of them….that is the war…invasion and economics.
About the noises I remember many years ago reading about Archuleta, Dulce base in New Mexico and all the technology hiding there base 51??? Or something like that where they claim to have experiments even estraterrestrial and mutant beings, also connected to it railroads all over the USA underground with really speedy trains could that noise be that???? These ones made by a big machine that melt the rocks in seconds, also lots of tunels, anyway theory number 2…… Could these noises be CERN LHC messing up the electromagnetic field of the planet?