The great slump

       Have you ever done a YouTube binge? I'm not sure I qualify as a YouTube binger, I lack the time necessary for hours long binging but I often do go through tangents. A tangent may last weeks while I view and listen to the music of a particular artist or composer. Lately it's been the violinist Hilary Hahn. She's young, beautiful, and plays with unusual power and virtuosity. My favorite video is of her playing Bruch's first violin concerto with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra. I recommend you watch it too if you're into this sort of thing. I love the way she smiles and sways during the orchestral passages when she's not playing herself. When she is playing her expression becomes serious. She throws herself into her playing with tremendous intensity. That's the part that has me smiling ; the part where she's playing. The music fills her as a sail fills with wind, and she, in turn fills the theater with it. When Hillary puts her bow to the strings you know something wonderful is happening. 
      Bruch wrote this piece in 1866. Beethoven was long dead but his influence is still apparent in this concerto. It's still with us. In Bruch's time ,as in Beethoven's, if you wanted to hear the great orchestral work of the period, or of earlier periods, you had to live near a cultural capital such as Frankfurt. If you lived in the hinterlands you were out of luck. The invention of the phonograph in the early 20 th century changed all that. Then came radio, then came television, then came the internet and it's stepchild, YouTube. Put it on the long, long list of things we often enjoy ,that are drop dead wonderful, but which we all typically take for granted. Watching a performance on YouTube may be slightly inferior to having attended the actual concert yourself, but it's not far off. As far as convenience ,YouTube wins hands down. In the past if you enjoyed something the orchestra just played you might be able to convince the players to saw away at it again by clapping, stomping your feet, and shouting " encore". With an internet streaming service you only have to press play. You can have them repeat it as often as you like.
      I wish it were all good news on the cultural front. It's my impression that as fast as improvements occur in the ways we access art in all it's many forms, the faster we become the kind of society that is no longer capable of producing it. We still produce art, it's just not as good as it once was. If you haven't tuned into a top forty, popular music station lately, just try it. If after an hour of that you think you're still up for more punishment, put on a country station. It's no fair if it's a country station that throws in a little Wily or Garth, or Dwight. I mean a country station that just plays  current billboard of hits. If you haven't tried this lately you're in for a shock . Classical music has not been spared. The debasement just happened there much earlier. It's been fifty years since most of us  expected to hear anything listenable in the " contemporary " category. Classical music stations, and performers have long ago turned their attention to playing the oldies.  Audiences are understandably reluctant to hear anything post Bernstein or Barber.
     If history is a guide, slumps like this are not necessarily permanent. There may be a great flowering of creativity ahead of us. Even during a slump ,such as this, there is great music being produced. There are still great performers such as Hilary. What has changed is not entirely a matter of artistic excellence. What has changed is the level of the culture itself. It goes much further than music. I'd include the plays being written, the novels, and movies. I'm always proud when a movie showcased at our own film festival , often first seen here ,goes on to achieve special recognition from the Academy of Motion Pictures. We've had quite a good streak lately scoring top picture in ten of the last eleven years. At the same time I can't help feeling a little let down when this honor goes to films that are not really great but only good. I'd put the last two winners in this category. Both pictures did a great job of highlighting people who live outside the mainstream. Bravo for that, but what else have you got?  No recent winner comes even  close to matching the greatness of past best pictures such as Copalla's  Godfather movies, or Apocalypse Now, or One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by the late Milos Forman. Do I really have to think back forty years to remember when motion pictures were at their best?
     

Wind Warrior

         The wind is blowing. It's been blowing for days. It blows at night too. I'm happy for a well designed tent that sheds the wind and holds it's shape come what may. It's during the riding part of the day that it's a problem. While riding I'm either fighting it or being carried along with a giant smile on my face. I prefer that to fighting it. Its not a fair fight. I can eek out an pyrrhic victory of sorts, but the wind never suffers from our occasional bashes while I'm  left sore ,exhausted, and reeling. 
       Did I mention that I'm on a bicycle tour? I'm riding from Denver to Telluride. I know that shouldn't include parts of Arizona or New Mexico, Utah, or Nevada, but it's spring and it's off season, so it's my time to tour. I'm going to make the most of it. 
        Five months ago I crossed by here on my way to the East Coast. I did a lot of smiling then, as most of the way I had helpful winds to push me along. Now that I'm on the return leg I'm having little  luck. On the first full day of riding I passed from  Evergreen to Kenosha pass. It was uphill and the wind was either straight into my face or worse and picking up strength throughout the day. The worst winds come at you from every direction but behind, Northwest one moment, then Northeast before you can react. It's the blasting wind that is just off center that drives you crazy and wears your body down as you try to keep your little piece of the road and continue moving forward. The wind has other ideas as it tears away at your ability to steer while just turning a full peddle stroke becomes in itself a Herculean task . 
      At the end of the day I was hammered. I managed to squeeze my bike through the gate of a winding forest road on a steep mountainside and set my tent up on the first switch- back that concealed me from the highway below and offered at least a little wind protection. I could barely stand without feeling very week and dizzy. Was I sick, I wondered? Was I coming down with something? Or was I just getting very old, very suddenly? Maybe I'd pushed this thing too far and expected too much from myself? Maybe it's time I hang up my cleated shoes, or what ever it is cyclists hang up once they've reached the end of the road. No, I wasn't falling ill, or becoming suddenly old, I was just too fresh to the ride to be taking on so much. I'd been cycling through hellish conditions. In another week I'd be able to storm any mountain pass or overcome any wind, but not yet. I'd have to be broken in first. I'd have to be burnt and blasted, chilled, and strained. There's no other way to prepare for the harsh conditions of riding than experience the harsh conditions of riding. It doesn't really get better, it just gets easier to take. Let me change that. It always gets better, and someday it will get  better still. Why else would you ever cycle? You have to at least believe it's true. You have to experience the good side now and then too .Once in a while you must be surprised with how good it can get, otherwise you'd trade your wheels in for something easier, in other words, anything else.
        It's day six now and I'm in Walsenburg Colorado. As I said, the wind is still blowing. Today it's from the Southwest at about 20 knots. That's been the prevailing direction and speed since Evergreen. Sitting here in the library writing this column seems preferable to trying to take a bite out of that wind yet again. This morning I had it with me. This afternoon I'm headed into it's path. A wind like this ,with so much strength and personality and duration deserves a name of it's own. I can't keep calling it " the wind". If I'm going to curse it, or bless it, I need to give it a name. The song from Paint Your Wagon called the wind Mariah. Maybe that will work. I'm looking for something less dramatic like Steve or Sally.
     Can you tell I'm stalling for time. Can you see that I'm just saying anything that pops into my head to avoid going out there again and facing Steve in all his awesome power. My weather app says not to expect anything better ever. Steve is with us and he's not going anywhere. I'll just have to live with Steve.