Month: May 2019

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No Show: White House concerts & the legacy of great performing artists

The White House most evenings is dark, full of shadows and dim light, eerily silent.  The White House gig, once the highest honor for many American and world performers alike, is no more, the grand ballroom no longer the quintessential American venue celebrating performing arts and artists … and that certain something that makes them great, immortal and beloved.  During Presidents’ past, White House concerts were major celebrity events, sparkling with performances spanning every genre of musical taste.  President Carter and Presidents Bushes were keen on progressive country artists while President Obama was first to include an evening of rap featuring then-controversial Common.  But Presidents Kennedy, Reagan and Clinton opened the White House every few weeks to a variety of performers in fondly remembered concerts.  For decades the tradition of special musical evenings was magical in that they brought together politicians and performers, Republicans and Democrats, for a night of delight.  That’s the way it used to be in America.  Everyone tried to get along.  All agreed music charmed and soothed.

What happened?  Who killed the White House concerts?  PBS used to air
“In Performance at the White House” since 1978, the last show in 2016.  The only one to blame is the current President, a longtime associate of show business but lacking that certain something that springs forth from great entertainers into the living rooms of Americans watching television.

Musicians and show biz folk are for the most part liberal.  They are free-spirited, freedom-loving idealists who are not afraid to speak their minds while artistically musing on the good and bad in life.  Their songs, music, art, novels, movies and shows reflect real life.  And the one thing talented American artists cannot stand is not so much controversy but blatant lies and lying.  Artists are about truth.  Great art, from writers to performers to painters, is about what’s really going on in the world in which we live today.  Truth and lies don’t mix. Lies can’t enter the artistic realm. Honesty is the key. 

Music of the spheres

Artists … musicians … actors … writers … whether great or unknown reside in another dimension.  Talented artistic people are more often than not great at their craft for one reason: empathy.  They are not simply sympathetic toward others in crisis.  Anyone can be sympathetic.  Those with an artistic soul have the ability to place themselves, their wonderful imaginative minds and loving hearts, into the lives and circumstances of other people.  Artistic souls should be revered by society.  But society, not fully comprehending (though usually envying) the cool artistic types, only laud a few, the very few, who capture collective attention through sheer luck and happenstance.  In other words, fame, which is not the ultimate goal of an artist, is usually gained by ‘who one knows’ and ‘being at the right place at the right time.’

A commercially and therefore financially successful artist is not necessarily a great one or even enduring.  There are far more flashes in the pan, born with great talent and drive enough to get famous but maybe get bored and return to private life.  We all know that only a tiny percent of the great ones will endure and even fewer of those achieve immortality to be called an icon.  Yet they all used to perform at the White House: from Willie Nelson to Ray Charles, Barbra Streisand to Aretha Franklin, Pablo Casals to Count Basie.

And isn’t a great leader like a great artist?  They understand each other.  They both empathize with their fellow man and were born with an innate love for humanity.  They know humility, failure, heart ache and depression.  Yet they both are not averse to evolving, growing emotionally and intellectually, changing their views and moving forward.  They’re comfortable with the unknown in life.  They don’t and can’t see life in black and white but only the many shades of gray.  A great leader and a great artist are in sync.  They lead by the power of their words and the integrity of their intentions.         

Perhaps it is best the White House remains quiet as our nation contemplates how and why we’ve become tone deaf—unwilling to stand, let alone consider, another point of view; unable to listen to the same music, enjoy one hour of pleasantness seated among political opponents, allowing our hearts to soften and our humanity to be inspired by awesome God-given talent, to be temporarily swept away by the sound of music.  The White House may be silent for now. But the music of past concerts for the Presidents of the United States—the highest honor of a performer’s life—can be heard by those unafraid to travel to another realm and listen from the heart.

http://museummusic.com/musicofthekennedywhitehouse.aspx

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African folktale accepts the nature of a politician

A Kwanzaa folktale explains our present political attitude.  The tale based in African folklore is about a very charismatic man who has a way about him.  When he is around, everyone seems to forget their troubles.  He gives off a pleasing vibe.  He is the local politician.  He speaks in such a caring and loving manner.  His eyes are warm, his smile sincere.  He is indeed sincere.  His heart is in the right place, and everyone knows it.  He means well and often does good for everyone.

But like every man, every human, he is flawed.  He does things sometimes that make everyone so mad, they swear they’ll never believe a word he says again or vote for him.  And when he realizes he’s been found out, caught with his hand in the cookie jar so to speak, he cries real tears and feels so ashamed of himself.  He can’t blame anyone for never trusting him again.  He sniffs and walks away with head hung low.  He knows he’s done wrong and nobody wants him around anymore.  He banishes himself.

Months later he returns to the people, and if you can believe it, they’ve forgotten all about why they were mad at him in the first place.  Collectively they feel they were a little too hard on him because seeing him after all this time makes them feel … so very happy.  And because they’ve forgotten the rotten thing and things he’s done—in the past—they’ve forgiven him, too.  The politician smiles beautifully, laughs with the children, politely touches the hands of ladies, hugs the men and talks to everyone with love and care.  He does love everybody.  He just does wrong sometimes.  And that is the moral of the story: Politicians lie and do wrong sometimes.  But if they are good politicians, they also make life better, as their focus in life is the greater good.  That’s the way it is with politicians.  People must accept this character trait and flaw about them.  Don’t put so much faith in anyone especially a politician!  Understand their nature.

The old tale from Africa has much to tell us about American politics and why most Americans do not give a flying rat’s behind if President Donald Trump lies and hides past shady financial dealings.  And the majority of Americans do not care to impeach him, no matter what the Muller report revealed and concluded.  When it comes to President Trump, most Americans just don’t care enough to kick him out of office.  They are perfectly content to wait a couple more years to vote him out if they are so inclined at that particular point in time.  We’ve grown accustomed to waiting out all sorts of corrupt politicians for decades.  This cynicism is why most Americans don’t vote at all.

Mom, apple pie, baseball & apathy

Many modern-day voters remember the long, although titillating, President Bill Clinton impeachment hearings, and a declining number of us still can recall even further back in American history to Watergate and the subsequent resignation of President Richard Nixon.  Both acts of Congress took a couple of years—time we’ll never get back in our American lives.  And during these episodes, government was at a standstill. Nothing else was getting done, like fixing centuries-old infrastructure or coming up with innovative ways to best care for our environment and the lives of future Americans.  Priorities got smeared in political excrement.

Given all our nation’s been through with one presidential scandal after another, most Americans simply have lost their moral outrage over anything the current President has done, continues to do, and most certainly will do.  No skin off the nose, long as folks got jobs and live the good ol’ middle-class life.  Folks don’t really wanna be rich no how.  They don’t wanna be poor neither.

This latest game of Congressional chicken is up to the Democrats now.  They can proceed with yet another drawn-out, heated, politically ruinous impeachment process, a yawn-a-thon captured on live TV every day for a couple of years.  Or we can take a lesson from the ancient and wise African folktale about the true nature of a politician.  We need to ask ourselves exactly what is it we expect or want from this type of person.  Perfection?  Why, haven’t we learned by now nobody’s perfect?  That’s even the Republicans’ motto for President Trump: An imperfect man but perfect for the job.  See?  See how half the country thinks? Do we expect our politicians to lead a moral life?  Don’t make me laugh.  There’s no such thing once a person becomes elected.

Politicians are larger-than-life beings not unlike the ancient Greek and Roman gods or 20th century movie stars.  They are their own grand creation and illusion.  We the little people best wise up and accept the dark side of human nature that is celebrated and given a pass for politicians.  It’s how the powerful arise and lead and through misdeeds, misdemeanors and felonies, somehow get things done that improve life for some or many.  It’s called democracy, and it’s a mess.  What’s the alternative?