Posted 8:14 AM by Gene

Today another young stupid boarded the train to listen to his [C]RAP through his earphones and loud enough to annoy me, and I thought, in most schools the kids are probably totally plugged in during classes, [C]RAP on their stereos, [C]RAP on their cell phones, constantly dialing and redialing one another, playing video games, and the teachers and principals don't care because if they did NEWS HACKS might write a J'ACCUSE. This is societally (and BIGMEDIA BIZ) sanctioned WASTING AWAY OF MINDS.

And then I thought to myself, why couldn't some good teacher -- they must exist, don't they? -- maybe hand out some homemade CDs with a few Satchmo tunes? Surely the kids wouldn't like them (somebody like Lady Day would be IMPOSSIBLE), but then maybe one or two would, and maybe one or two more who don't might see that spark strike later in life, much as opera recordings struck a spark with Satch. (I could abide by such piracy because most of Louis is public-domain now.) Have the GREEDMEISTERS in the MUSICAL ORGANIZED-CRIME TRADE ever thought of cut-rate licenses for educational burning? Or is music education yet another cause for unmusical lip service?