From Historical Rants

I posted this on my historical rants blog. All weekend I have been angry at the obsession with the new flu strain that they media has had. Drudge started it a few nights ago and the rest of the media followed suit. I know that this is not blues, or even blues related, but I also know that far more people will read this here than at historical rants.

Thanks

Tom

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Fear Mongering

The news all weekend has been the stuff that legends are made of. Flu pandemic sweeps Mexico. Hide the kids! Death stalks at every doorstep!! Don't leave the HOUSE!!!!

I know that the Center For Disease Control (CDC) and World Health Organization(WHO) are doing what they need to do. A new strain of the flu needs to be investigated, but the media is doing no favors by hyping this beyond reason. I first saw this on Drudge and as of Sunday night(April 26) he has several red links(you can find his site yourself, it is not like he needs any help) and over the top headlines about what is going on. Then CNN, Fox, and MSNBC, followed suit. However, no one has taken the time to even look at the facts.

Here are a few things you need to know about the flu. First the flu kills 20-30 thousand people in the US each year! Read that again. 20-30 thousand! Why isn't the media playing that stat up! So far in Mexico the number of people who have died from the new flu is 100. As of 11:30 pm Sunday April 26th no one has died of this new strain in the US.

Of course, 100 people dying in a few weeks is a scary stat. So perhaps those who catch this version of the flu are more likely to die?? At this point no. The death rate for the flu is 8% while the death rate for this new strain at 11:30pm tonight is 7.69% or basically the same as the flu.

So why all the gloom and doom? Why all the panic? It really isn't rational. I suppose part of the fault lies with the CDC, and the WHO who tend to not speak in the most optimistic terms. They don't want to encourage the spread of this, and really a lot of this is to cover their backside. The media is the true blame for this. If they would just look up the stats for the flu they would see that this is not something to cause panic over yet.

The real problem, is that at some point people will stop taking the media seriously. (LIKE ME!) and then if there really is a problem how many people will pay attention. It is the boy who cries wolf syndrome. At some point the villagers quit running out to see what is going on, and when the real wolf shows up no one is there.

I certainly hope that this new bug turns out to be just like any other bug, but the flu is nothing to play with. My mother died from complications of the flu 10 years ago, so I know how dangerous it is. However, the media has a duty to not screw around with our fears just to get higher ratings.

Death Of The Blues AGAIN!

I do believe the blues has nine lives. However, I also think the people in the media just want to kill us off as quickly as possible. After all, it is much more fun to bemoan the death of the blues then to actually do a little research. Ah, but that is the life of the typical reporter. Even reporters in Chicago are not immune to the death of the blues. Serena at the Central Iowa Blues Society has a sharp eye and sends me some great articles from time to time. I am not sure if it is the same one that Karen wrote about on her blog Today's Chicago Blues. However, you can click HERE for the latest tome on the death of the blues from the Encore webpage.

It is the typical blue is dead article, and it follows the same story line. The old blues guys are dying, and no one is replacing them, and the old clubs are closing, and THE BLUES IS DEAD! This is pretty typical of the type of reporting that goes on about the blues these days. I am not saying that times are good, because they are not. The blues audience is getting older, but this has happened before. If you are lucky enough to catch film footage of the South side of Chicago and the blues clubs in the early 70s you would see that things were bad for the blues then. Most young people were listening to soul, funk, and disco. Blues was not even on the radar of anyone under 40 years old in 1970. Bands broke up, musicians quit playing, and record companies went out of business. It was bleak times, and yet the blues are still around. by the early 80s blues was popular again.

So why are things so bad now? First, young people are not into the blues right now. Give it time they always discover the blues. Second, certainly some of our beloved blues performers are gone, but they were not the originators of the music. The blues has been around since reconstruction, and has ebbed and flowed for over 100 years. If we take 1860 as a mythical starting date and consider every 20 years a new generation, then the current generation coming of age is the 6th generation of blues performers. I think it is safe to say that the blues is in pretty good shape. Third, lack of clubs. There are not a lot of places to play right now, but my old friends, Jimmy Pryor, and Rick Lussie, use to tell me what it was like in the 70s when no clubs played the blues. They would find a dive like Vickies Poor House and play for a few bucks. Then Jimmy to make money would play Country music out at the Pines, and slip in blues songs for his all white audience. Fourth, high gas prices. It is tough to make a living when you have to pay twice as much for fuel as you did a year ago. This is the real burden facing blues performers, because club owners are paying less for bands than they did 10 years ago, and gas prices are a lot higher then they were back then. Add up those costs, and the lack of venues and it is a bleak picture.

At this point I think the best solution is to support your local blues performers. Get out to their shows, and buy their cds. STOP STEALING THEIR MUSIC! I heard a first hand story from a local blues artist who was going to sell a CD to a fan, and the friend of the fan stopped them and told them they would burn them a copy!!!! RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE ARTIST!! Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, I don't mind you stealing from a large megalithic corporation, but a freaking small businessman, who needed that extra 10 bucks for gas to go home!!!!! Whats wrong with you people. BTW, all blue performers are SMALL BUSINESS PEOPLE! BB King, Eric Clapton, and a few select others have nice major label deals, but the rest of the blues cats that are alive and kicking record with small independent record companies that put a lot of blood sweet and tears into their music. When you download someones music off the net for free, then you are hurting the blues far more than some dumb reporter writing for some corporate newspaper.

There are a lot of young blues cats out there paying their dues, and their day is approaching fast. Just one or two of them catches the imagination of the college kids, and thing will improve quickly. I am doing my part by teaching college kids the history of the blues, and it has become one of the more popular classes on campus. You can do your part too. Turn on your kids to the blues, or donate your CD collection to the local library. Call up your local radio station and ask them what it will take to get a blues show. If you have a local blues show on radio, then call up the DJ and thank him for keeping the blues alive. If you have a local blues bar. Go down their once a week, and thank the bar owner for keeping the music alive even though it is probably driving him to the poor house, but he keeps on doing it because he loves the music. During bleak times it is up to you to keep the music alive. Don't let some corporate hack of a reporter tell you the blues is dead and accept it as fact. Let them know the blues is alive and well, and still kicking A$$!!!!

The Blues Is Dead Again:-)

Wow! These guys don't stop do they! What is it with the media and its desire to kill the blues. Karen over at Today's Chicago Blues Blog has a link to another article giving the grim prognosis of the future of the blues. I mean certainly some of the older players have left us, and its tragic, but that is life. The blues, which started during reconstruction has gone through generations of players, as this generation passes, there is another ready to pick up the mantle. Perhaps if the media just peruse this website, they would see a ton of great blues acts of all ages. However just like politics it is far easier to parrot the talking point, or the conventional wisdom, then actually do some research. If a reporter called me and wanted to know the state of the blues today, I would say doing alright, could be better, but it is alive and well. Simply compare the blues scene of today, to what is was like in the mid to late 70s. Then the blues really was on life support all over the US. Disco's and DJs almost sucked the life blood out of live music in the 70s, but we all survived, and we will all survive this. The blues is so saturated in the blood of American popular music that it is here to stay. It won't go away, so you reporters just better get use to it. Stop the sob stories, and start doing some work for a change.