A Musical Feast

If it takes extraordinary intelligence to be a comedian, then to create musical comedy also requires extraordinary musical skill and knowledge. Since the era of recorded music (and probably before it), America has been blessed with some amazing musical comedians. They have enriched our lives, at least those that understand the humor. For those unfamiliar and even those who have heard them, the following is a brief list of great musical funny "maestros," mentioning at least one of their works to help you get properly introduced.

Old movie fans should be familiar with Spike Jones and the City Slickers, a wacky group of musicians who used anything but the original instruments to present their version of classical works, including cow bells and whistles. Their version of the opera Carmen has both opened and closed the world of opera to me.  After listening to it, besides crying from laughing, I was curious to hear the real version but unfortunately found it far less entertaining the Spike Jones version.  Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UG087P1JTIQ.

From a similar time, Harpo Marx played the harp at least once on each Marx Brother movie.  Actually, he never really learned how to play properly until after he retired but who knew that besides professional harpists? His humor is expressed not so much in the music but in his interaction with the harp and his surroundings.  It has to be seen to be appreciated: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=569Gy8BE5P4.

Victor Borge is a bridge to the modern era.  A virtuoso pianist, he didn't take himself too serious, preferring to "ham it up" in front of audiences. This lack of seriousness, I believe, opened up the world of classical music to millions in addition to getting them to laugh, always a good deed. If you have any doubt about his talent, get together with another pianist and try doing this at home: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jgESE9oJRE.

The 1960's turned all values upside down, not always for the better, including musical ones. One Las Vegas performer was Liberace.  Like Victor Borge, he preferred not be a boring classical musician.  His style was much more flamboyant but as Marilyn Monroe, would say, some like it hot. He plays the music straight but his taste in clothes, or lack thereof, make it impossible to take him serious, exactly as he intended.  See for yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WC1OsdX2LM.

Nobody took on the music establishment more than Prof. Schickele, the infamous musicology that brought us P.D.Q. Bach, the lost son of the famous Bach. He applied "tongue in cheek" professional musicology, creating a hilarious synergy of classic and modern.  My two favorites are his baseball commentary to Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, which actually makes some good points, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzXoVo16pTg), and, in a different vein, his modern version of a round: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkjR3cdXSS8.

The Canadian Brass Ensemble is an amazing group of fine musicians that entertain their audience with both well played music and comedy. They respect the genre but add humor, often through actions, a bit like Harpo Marx.  My favorite is their tribute to ballet music, whose humor is based on the fact they supposedly have never seen a ballet since their back is always to the stage.  Enjoy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjRLQeNUjfk.

Finally, growing up in the sixties and seventies, Tom Lehrer was a part of my life.  His ringing political commentary is still sadly relevant today.  Listen to Who's Next and National Brotherhood Week and try to find something that has changed besides the names (for your convenience: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRLON3ddZIw and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgASBVMyVFI). However, he was also a tremendous musician in his own right.  His versions of Clementine and a tango will change your view of these classics.  Listen and appreciate:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1b3coO_6MwY and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TytGOeiW0aE.  They have stood the test of time since they still make me laugh.

Serious music and comedy are not mutually exclusive but require genius of a special kind. These comic musicians, regardless of their or your age, cannot help bring a smile.

P.S. I have excluded rock musicians that were less than serious, such as Tom Waits I rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy, because I am not familiar with them.  I will leave that group for someone else. As they say in boring theses: "Further research should examine the use of humor in modern rock music in the period 1970-2017."

Degrees of discomfort – Tests of tolerance

I define myself as a liberal, tolerant person and a secular Jew.  I did not grow up in a religious family or in Israel. Yet, having lived in Israel for more than 26 years, I have become acquainted with many religious people, especially my wife's family, who accept me completely. Living in the Galilee, I teach as well as work and interact with many local Arabs, both Christian and Muslim, and have visited many Druze houses.  So, the terms "religious Jew" and "Arab" represent real people to me.

Recently, I experienced two "challenging" situation in terms of my self-definition as a liberal. Several weeks ago, on the train from Ben Gurion Airport to Acco after a long flight from California, a group of five Arab college students entered the train, filled with enthusiasm and energy. After 20 plus hours, my wife and I wanted some peace and quiet but did not get any. The students talked loudly, told jokes and made comments about a series of videos on their phones, all in Arabic.  We could not conveniently go to another carriage as our luggage was on the rack there. To clarify, they were not behaving badly but instead boisterously. After being asked to lower the volume a bit, they tried but were simply unable.

During the hour we shared that carriage, I considered the reasons for my annoyance. Was it the level of noise on my already frayed nerves? Was it the sheer energy level when I wanted serenity?  Was it the fact that they were loudly speaking Arabic? In other words, if a similar group of Hebrew speaking students had entered, would I have been equally disturbed? After careful thought, I had to admit that the third issue was also a factor. It somehow bothered that they were so loud in a foreign language and Arabic at that.  I then considered the issue and realized that, while it may annoy me at this moment, the Arabic language was a matter of their cultural identification and, moreover, national pride for Israel, which allows its minorities to feel sufficiently comfortable to express themselves openly in their own language, even in public.

Last week, I visited a religious family in mourning.  The deceased having left behind many siblings and children as well as a husband, the apartment was packed with people with almost everybody wearing a kippa or head covering. I did my best to blend in and looked for a conversation to participate in or at least listen with interest. In fact, everybody, young and old, was talking about the manner of the upcoming Yom Kippur prayers in all their aspects. More strikingly, they were discussing such matters with great joy and interest.  This attitude ignited the question that generally pops up in my mind when seeing religious conversations: why do you waste so much time and energy on such irrelevant matters? Of course, the question presupposes that my secular way of thinking is correct as compared to the "brainwashing" religious people get. In all probability, they considered my lack of interest in Torah equally errant. In such cases, I remind myself that the world is made of many faiths, no matter how ridiculous I may consider them.

The cultural gap between me as a Jewish atheist and them is as least as great as I felt on the train. The latter is easier to bridge as I consciously recognize the legitimacy of cultural self-expression.  On the other hand, my inability to grasp the faith base of religious people makes it harder to maintain my tolerance. Marx wrote that religion is the opium of the people.  Accepting the right of people to take opium creates much discomfort.

Democratic uncertainty

Jean-François Revel in his book The Totalitarian Temptation (1977) wrote in regards to democracy (and love) that there is no accepted definition but instead clear symptoms.  In other words, the proof that a country is a true democracy is whether it is a free press, safe environment for opposition, protection of minorities and exchange of leaders, to name a few. Of course, there are intermediate states between ultimate democracy and absolute dictatorship but an analysis of all the political conditions quickly demonstrates which citizens actually have rights.

Pseudo democracies have always existed.  The Soviet Union, Mexico and India had regular elections while Hitler was an elected leader, albeit only once. Such countries generally have constitutions and legal codes that formally but not in practice allow protest and opposition.  Modern examples of fake democracies include Turkey and Russia. In these countries, the same leader has ruled for more than a decade, as president or prime minister, with any effective opposition leader being arrested or, as Putin has done, assassinated. The press is effectively government run.  Of course, the established leaders are quite popular. In fact, one sure sign of a non-democracy is when the ruling party received more than 80% of the vote.

Worldwide, today's democratic politics are quite volatile. Many countries conduct elections in an environment of non-tolerance or even hate between the competing parties.  While the tone of the discussions in these countries can be disconcerting, especially in terms of racism, the mere existence of a public debate on key issues and its presence on all forms of media without fear of a legal or extralegal penalty provides hope for the future. The United States and Europe will emerge stronger as the candidates and the public discuss and determine their place in the world and the role of immigrants in their societies. In Israel, the call for increased control of the press by the ruling party is worrying but the court system and major parties still promote freedom of speech. India and Mexico, formerly fiefdoms of their ruling parties, frequently replace ineffective governments to the benefit of their countries. Brazil even impeached its president, an unlikely event a few decades ago.

According to Heisenberg's theory of uncertainty, an observer can have total knowledge of location or direction or partial knowledge of both but not complete knowledge of both. In other words, the closer you look at the trees, the harder it is judge the forest and vise versa. As a foreign observer watching the political processes occurring worldwide, I appreciate democracy and relish the viewing of them even if the actual content of the public debate is disturbing or insulting. In such societies, controversial issues are resolved for the public good, not for the benefit of a specific party or leader. As Revel said, in practice, with all of its imperfections, democracy is much better for people than totalitarianism.

Triangular imbalance

The players in higher education include three groups: students, administration and teachers. The power held by each group is based on tradition but is also dynamic. In Israel and, I suspect, other countries as well, a major shift has occurred in these power politics. Specifically, Israeli college students, through the student unions, have begun to actively apply their financial and numerical power to change academics.

In traditional universities worldwide, the professors once ruled the roost. Students had little if no say in their own education. It is said that the disturbances of 1968 in France were said to have ignited by the simple gaul, pun intended, of a Sorbonne student, who dared to pose a question to a professor. I experienced this attitude more recently, in 2002, when I innocently challenged the grade given by the learned professors at Leicester University on my MBA thesis.  They did not apparently recognize my right to have a grade justified.  Of course, the administration has almost always supported the staff in any dispute, viewing the teachers as the foundation stone of the institute's reputation.

However, the nature of academics as well as society has radically changed. More and more institutitions of higher education have opened in all countries, whatever their denomination, to meet the growing demand for degrees if not actual education. At the same time, public funding of higher education has failed to keep up or even declined. Thus, most colleges find themselves seeking funds.  The voiceless students have now become the client, the actual term applied by the administration. In other words, without proper student enrollment, the learned professors will have no position. Thus, in Israel today, students have an ever increasing vote in curriculum matters.

An example of this trend is the current controversy regarding the teaching of English in Israeli universities.  Hebrew being a limited in its international use, English is universally understood as the key for success.  However, the question of who is going to pay for the English courses has always been a sticky issue. It has been standard practice to require students to pay extra for lower level English courses since they are supposedly remedial and only for those freshmen whose English is not up to par. The sheer number of students taking such remedial courses suggests a serious gap between the required level and actual level.  Enter politics, in the person of a populist Minister of Education. One way to gain favor is to make life easier and less expensive for young voters. Six months ago, he arranged a way that the students could take a free and unaudited English course on line but would have to take the English test for that course level at the university where they study.  This option clearly helps saves the students money and time.  However, based on the results of the tests at Israeli institutes of higher learning, after the first such semester, it doesn't seem very effective in teaching English, even if the goal is strictly limited to reading comprehension.  Nationwide, around 50% of the Israeli students that took the online course failed their college English tests. Tension between students and staff has increased, needless to say.

Clearly, a balanced relationship is needed. Students have rights, including the right to 

education that opens horizons and serves them in their lives. They also have the right to be taught by lecturers that know to teach and to be graded fairly.  On the other hand, lecturers are not mere servants that satisfy basic students' immediate desires, those being high grades with minimum work. They have attained some perspective on longer term needs.  As a current lecturer and a former student, I believe in balance and mutual respect in student-teacher relations. My experience is that most students and lecturers are reasonable people and share a vision. To mangle Lincoln's phrase from the Gettysburg Address, education so divided cannot long survive.

Horsing around

Horses were once had a vital role in human life, used as a primary means of transportation and the main source of power in agriculture.  Although they have lost those roles, their legacy remains in the English language.

We still refer to the purpose of many parts of the horse and its equipment. If a person is champing at the bit, s/he is eager to get started or involved, the bit being the part in the horse's mouth. For that matter, unbridled enthusiasm is not tempered by caution since a bridle limits a horse's movement.  In that case, someone has to rein in, i.e. pull back or restrict the freedom of movement.  Sometimes, the opposite is necessary, meaning you to have to spur someone on, referring to the sharp point at the end of a cowboy boot used to get the horse to run faster.  To help focus, horses and athletes need blinders to avoid being distracted.  Of course, it is hard to be calm if you are saddled with worries or debts. Many people almost succeed but it has no meaning since almost doesn't count unless in horseshoes and hand grenades, the former being a game in which you try to throw a horse as close as possible to a stick, a bit like les boules in France. If you have to hoof it, you got to walk, which has nothing to do with hoof in mouth disease, not thinking before speaking and making embarrassing comments.

Even in general, the horse maintains its presence in language. Engines are measured by horsepower, technically 550 foot-pounds per second. If someone tells you to hold your horses, you need to stop immediately, with an image of an out-of-control four horse carriage popping up.  Before an eagerly awaited date, many guys are hot to trot, all sexually excited.  Of course, an employee can be a workhorse, strong and dependable, or even a thoroughbred, carrying all the right genes to be a top manger.  Still, they may need a hand up, some help, derived from assistance to getting up on a horse.  In the end, all employees are put out to pasture and retired, which is not always a bad thing. After all, you shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth, meaning you don't ask questions about gifts.   That assumes that you have any horse sense, which is basic wisdom so common in horses and rare in humans.

To end on a proper note, to quote Cuthbert Soup, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him participate in synchronized diving.” 

How do you think?

The sign of life in human beings, aside from breathing of course, is expressing an opinion.  From the moment of birth to the last breath, people have something to say, generally with words.  Semantically, the choice of words reflects the basis and strength of our positions.

Some judgments are more intuition or belief- based.  If someone senses or feels that another person is lying, the choice of verbs hints a lack of certainty and a hard-to-prove gut feeling.   If people believe that abortion is wrong, it infers a sense of values, based on deep ingrained values not subject to discussion. By contrast, if an individual considers you a fool, it may be possible to change his/her mind despite that belief.

Other statements are primary derived from logic. If you perceive that improvement is possible, you have seen something to persuade you so. Likewise, a person realizes that his/her behavior has to change on the basis of the consequences of not doing so. To understand that you are wrong requires some analysis.  On a less formal basis, many people reckon that it is time to leave based on the behavior of others and group expectations.  To recognize that screaming at a child is not generally useful requires is logical but unemotional but to admit that it only makes  the situation worse requires backtracking, verbal and emotional.  A person that confesses that s/he made an error admits a wrong judgment.

Some opinions are quite strong on whatever basis. If people are convinced that Hillary should be elected or jailed, they are not likely to change their minds. Even more so, if I know that Trump hasn't paid taxes (despite not having seen his tax returns), I won't vote for him. If a fan is confident that the Bengals (or Cowboys) are going to win the Super Bowl this year, nothing anybody else can say is persuasive, at least in the pre-season.  Vegetarians that insist that eating meat is wrong will not have a hamburger for lunch, regardless of the quality of the meat. Finally, angry teenagers that swear that they will never talk to their parents again really mean it at that moment.

 So, if you have an opinion and write what you think, try using a stronger word than think. I believe and even insist that you will sound more persuasive.

Timely advice

There is a major difference between subjective and objective time.  The former is a sense created by cultural norms and personal sensations. The time to go to bed or leave the party is not set in stone. The latter is generally imposed by outside forces. We are told when the movie begins, the plane flies, and TV program starts. Communication issues arise when the two types of time are not in synch. In such a case, if you want people to arrive wedding by the objective deadline, you have to take into account their subjective clock.  This manipulation is a very common throughout the world.

The hosts of social events make certain assumptions about their guests and play with the time. For example, in Israel, if they want to all the guests to arrive by 8:30, they will write on the invitation that the hupa (wedding ceremony) is at 7:00. If they wrote the actual time, many of the guests would arrive at 9:30.  In South Africa, for example, the suggested and actual time would be identical if not very close. Another example is dinner time.  In some South American countries, the meal at a dinner party is very late, almost 11:00, because guests leave quite soon after the meal.  If the host wants a long party, it is necessary to delay the meal. The timing involved in dating is quite complicated. It is advisable to arrive little early to a first date but only for the purpose of checking out the "merchandise."  So, even there, the formal time is not the actual time of arrival.

Family life also has its chronological challenges.  Children have almost no sense of actual time.  Parents spending a day at the park with their children often say that they are leaving in five minutes when they actually mean 15 minutes. If they told the truth, it would take 30 minutes, if not longer.  Children understand the subjective meaning, i.e. quite soon as compared to in a little while, much better than the formal meaning.  A common translation issue between couples is the phrase I am ready before leaving the house.  Most men express this when they are standing by the door with keys in hand, that is ready right now.  Most women say this when they are personally ready and about to start closing the house, that is in a least five minutes.  Time and language have a complicated relation.

There are situations where circumstances require people to be on time, which is quite a challenge even for some adults.  Airlines strongly recommend that you arrive early so as to avoid unpleasant scene.  Tour bus drivers, knowing their customers, take extreme measures to guarantee punctuality.  One driver in Las Vegas informed the passengers of the exact cost of a taxi from Hoover Dam to Los Vegas.  He let everybody know when he was leaving the bus stop at the former.  The amount was so prohibitive that nobody was late.  As a final example, I had a friend in Portland, OR, Bob, who had zero sense of time but a good sense of humor. On one occasion, we needed him to show up on time.  Since he lived rather close, we told him to drop whatever he was doing some twenty minutes before the agreed time and driver over immediately.  He actually showed up on time but with a towel over his midsection and said "I was taking a shower."  We got to the event on time.

The purpose of communication is to be understood. A statement is a lie or exaggeration only if the receiver takes it literally.  Such is the case with time.  As long as everybody understands each other, all is fair in setting the time.