When are we going to get there? When are we as a species going to make the great awakening and realize that we are all in this world and life together? When are we going to realize that everyone has a purpose, that everyone is of worth and that worth should be allowed and expressed? When are we going to awaken from the fictions we create for ourselves and unselfishly do away with them? Is it to much to ask that everyone get a clue so we can move on? I want the utopian world of tomorrow that Robert Heinlein wrote about. I want it today.

In Robert’s world there is no starvation. In Robert’s world everyone has a worth and everyone is supported in any endeavor they wish to embark upon. In Robert’s world an artist is not starving nor ridiculed because his art is not comprehensible to others. In Robert’s world you can do anything you want or desire and it is all okay and encouraged.

Want to sit on a log all day and contemplate the nature of navel fuzz? OK, just don’t hurt anyone else while doing it, but sure, go for it. Want to create a mega-corporation and be master of universal widgets, great, and good luck, and we’ll raise a glass to you for trying. Now try something else. It’s a great big universe, try anything you want, just don’t hurt others doing it.

In a world like we have today where everyone can be fed easily if only the politics were not an issue, we should be able to all live without worrying about starvation. In a world like we have today, money is a fiction that needs to be looked at again. We know it is a fiction because at anytime a government can declare it has no debt, so what is the point of worrying about insubstantial cash? The world will run just fine in deficit as it will in surplus. After all, the basics are just that, the basics and must be provided for, money or no money. In a world like we have today everyone can live without having to substantially contributing to the society, and still not worry about heath care, housing and starvation. In a world like we have today, we can all pursue whatever path we want without having to worry about the necessities. It can all be provided, freely and without malice. Will there be rules? Sure, but just enough to define a civil society, rules that we can all understand and accept.

Why do I want this you ask, not that I have to have a good reason? Simple, I want to be one of those artistic people who wish to express my art without worry. I want to be able to do as I please without being questioned about it. I want to live and contribute to the world in a way that is not your standard work 8 hours a day to pay rent being left with no will to be creative at all, nor the means to afford my creativity. I want an alternative to the lives we are offered today. Since I am not independently wealthy, I can not live the bohemian lifestyle I want.

But I could in Robert’s world.

For the first time in a long time I am having the urge to go back to my serious writing. I do not know why this is the case, but I think I made some internal realizations that will now allow me to go back to the stories I was working on.

I will finish editing “Truth, Inc.” by the end of this weekend and will pick up on “Levi’s New Genes” since I now know that I have to take the character of Levi in a direction I did not want to go. Personally, I do not like to deal with the subject of madness, it always seems to strike too deep within me. But it seems this is exactly where I must go with Levi, I have unfortunately written him into a corner and I see no need to rewrite what I already have, it’s correct. So into the halls of madness I must go, where it will lead I do not know, but it will be interesting.

Other ideas have been percolating in my head as well. Storylines for “Have Another Puffer” and “Sands of Time” are making appearances in my creative corners. Looks like I will be starting new stories soon.

Also, I am having the desire to start working on a painting I want to do. I have had this idea for a huge project for years and of late it too is gelling in my mind. The images are firmer of late than they have ever been, the panels more solid, the composition more precise and the theme more firmly grounded.

I wish I knew where this shot of creative juice has come from, though it I think of it, maybe it been coming from the shot I have been taking.

You all know I have for months been getting my health back in order, the prescriptions are abundant and at times a bother, but I have been getting better. My triglycerides are down from a dangerous 1012, to about 220, and my HBAC has dropped from a staggering 10.5 to 7. I guess all the drugs are working. The other element for me was facing the fact that at 41 I was going through andropause. Call it menopause for men, but much more insipid. Where as women get symptoms, men just start declining in health. Andropause is usually signaled by a low testosterone level, which I have mentioned in the past is one issue I am dealing with. Well, about a month ago I started on depo-testosterone, basically a testosterone injection. Could creativity be associated with testosterone or hormone levels? Maybe, I am going to have to do some research.

In any case, my creative juices are flowing, time to get to work.

Just one more of my weird selections of music, I found a composer named Raymond Scott while trying to figure out if the music from the Looney Tunes was original or pulled from somewhere else. Turns out Mr. Scott was a very prolific and rather important figure in the music industry.

Ray Scott is often referred to as “The guy who made the Looney Tunes swing”, and on “The Music of Raymond Scott, Reckless Nights and Turkish Twilights” , a retrospective of his early jazz, you will hear most of the music that spiced up the Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies. Muted trumpet and sax over clarinet, much like Glen Miller, sums up the sounds here. At the time this style was all the rage as Glen Miller’s influence could be felt across the whole instrumental industry. But unlike Glen Miller, Ray Scott brings a more playful feel to his pieces, making them memorable and catchy. More than one song from this CD has ear wormed me, not bad for music seventy years old. Aside from the whimsy of the tunes, this is a tight recording, every note placed just so. Great care and artistry is apparent on every track.

From the opening track (Powerhouse), which if you have watched any cartoons at all you will recognize, to the last track (Peter Tambourine), you will hearken back to the likes of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Ren and Stimpy, The Simpsons and even Animaniacs. As a jazz album it is pretty good too if you like your jazz very tight, a great contrast to the blues of the time.

Maybe just as fun as the music are the titles of some of the pieces. “Dinner for a Pack of Hungry Cannibals”, “The Girl as the Typewriter”, “At an Arabian House Party” and “War Dance for Wooden Indians” (with a conga feel) are a few examples. In most of these Mr. Scott is trying to recall a specific flavor or atmosphere, and in many cases it works. I can’t help to wonder how well this “visual” music would have worked seventy years ago. I say this because the people of seventy years ago had different references than we do today. I can see them relating to many of these pieces much more readily than I can because popular entertainment of the time would have shaded their interpretation of the music and made it that much more enjoyable. For example, “In an 18th Century Drawing Room” brings back the idea of mild civility and the relaxed pace of an upper class in days past. We still relate to this piece because we know it from the cartoons we watched growing up, but you have the sense that it was even better to people seventy years ago, waking stronger and more elaborate images than we experience today. Ray Scott knew how to wake memes within us and these were especially potent for the time.

So, if you are glancing through the Jazz (or Big Band, or possibly Novelty) section of you local music store, take a look. It is also available through Amazon, and at $9.98 it was a no brainer add-on. Take a listen, it’s cool.