Playing for Change: Peace Through Music

Playing for Change: Peace Through Music

Image by Renegade98
www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/10242008/watch3.html

BILL MOYERS: All over our country people are hurting. The statistics of unemployment and foreclosures reveal the magnitude of the distress but not the individual experience of people who lose their paychecks one month and their home the next. For millions of Americans the daily struggle to make ends meet is normal, but these hard times now compound their distress beyond despair.

Last Sunday I stopped at a small Baptist church on the West Side of Manhattan, in the neighborhood known as Hell's Kitchen. For a hundred and fifty years this neighborhood has been cauldron of human life, made famous by waves of immigrants packed in tenements, clutching at scraps of opportunity among the slaughter houses, speakeasies, bordellos, breweries, gambling halls, and street gangs. Hell's Kitchen became notorious for murder and mayhem.

These days, the chic nestles with the tawdry "Diamonds on top of a dung heap," someone wrote: towering condos, rising above designer boutiques… trendy restaurants alongside worn old buildings like Metro Baptist Church on 40th street, right at the exit of the Lincoln Tunnel, where buses roar up from beneath the Hudson River into mid-town Manhattan.

The small congregation here offers after-school programs for neighborhood children, food pantries for the hungry, and on Sundays, a house of worship for people to sing, pray, and share their concerns for friends, kin and neighbors. There they were, all listed in the church bulletin, name after name:

The Alvarez Family, and their 16 year old daughter awaiting kidney transplant from her mother

Jean, brain tumor, surgery this week

Son of Willie, court date later this month

A friend of Katie, lost job at Lehman Brothers

Friend of Paula, marital problems

Wife of Charlie, Alzheimer's disease

Corinne, experienced short remission but cancer has returned

Ty, recently kicked out of home & discerning future

James, serving in Iraq

And on it went, a procession of personal dramas, as the buses rumbled up from the tunnel, the noise and fumes punctuating the service. The traffic made it hard at times to hear my old friend of 50 years, James Dunn, who was there to speak, but his message was lost on no one.

He spoke of "The humility that befits all humanity", "the hurt that afflicts every heart," and, "the hope that comes with community," an old theme in American history.

My friend said, "There is strength in the company of others, from "We, the people" to "We shall overcome." Back outside, on the streets of Hell's Kitchen, those names kept resonating in my head.

During lunch, I overheard people at a nearby table talking about the ugliness of our politics, and while I know this, too, is a recurring theme in American history, I tried to imagine how foreign this campaign must seem to the reality of everyday life for the Alvarez family, Willie, Corinne, James, and the others among that "fellowship of suffering" for whom life right now is a series of sighs and a stream of tears. How foreign and fraudulent the politics of sleaze, the polarizing almost savage pursuit of power that strokes the paranoia in us in order to divide and conquer.

When this election is over, no matter who wins, there will be much to repair, if we have the will for it. So it seems a good moment to introduce you to someone of the next generation who hasn't given up on either our humanity or our future together.

Mark Johnson is the co-director of a remarkable documentary about the simple but transformative power of music: PLAYING FOR CHANGE: PEACE THROUGH MUSIC.

MARK JOHNSON: Well I think music is the one thing that opens the door to bringing people to a place where they are all connected. It is easy to connect to the world through music, you know. Religion, politics, a lot of those things they seem to divide everybody…

BILL MOYERS: The film brings together musicians from around the world - from blues singers in a waterlogged New Orleans, to chamber groups in Moscow and a South African choir - they celebrate songs familiar and new, to touch something common in each of us. Here is one you might recognize:

VARIOUS SINGERS/MUSICIANS:
Oh yeah, my darling, stand by me
No matter how much money you got, all the friends you got,
You're gonna need somebody, to stand by you
When the night has come. And the land is dark
And that moon is the only light we'll see
No I won't be afraid, no I won't shed one tear
Just as long as you people come and stand by me
And darlin', darlin', stand by me, oh stand by me
Oh stand, stand, stand by me
Come on stand by me
When the sky that we look upon
When she tumble and fall
Oh the mountains they should crumble into the sea
I won't cry, I won't cry, no I won't shed a tear
Just as long as you stand, stand by me
So darlin', darlin', stand by me, oh stand by me
Please stand, stand by me, stand by me
Oh baby baby,
Darlin', darlin', stand by me, oh stand by me
So darlin', darlin', stand, oh stand, oh stand, stand by me,
Come on stand by me
Stand, oh won't you stand, oh stand, stand by me, stand by me,
When the night has come, and the land is dark,
And the moon is the only light we'll see,
I won't be afraid, I won't be afraid,
Not as long, not as long as you stand by me

BILL MOYERS: The filmmaker is Mark Johnson. He's a Grammy award-winning producer and engineer and a film director who has worked with some of the most renowned musicians and producers in the field.

Mark, welcome to the JOURNAL.

MARK JOHNSON: Thank you so much. It's an honor to be here.

BILL MOYERS: What in the world prompted you to do this?

MARK JOHNSON: The idea came about ten years ago, here in New York City. I was in a subway station on my way to work. You know, every day in the subway, people are just running around like crazy to get wherever they have to go.

BILL MOYERS: Oh, tell me about it.

MARK JOHNSON: But this particular day, I was in the subway and I heard these two monks playing music. And they were painted head to toe, all in white, wearing robes. And one of them was playing a nylon guitar and the other one was singing in a language that I didn't understand and I imagine most people didn't understand.

BILL MOYERS: Everybody was just standing around. I've done that. Yeah.

MARK JOHNSON: You know, there were about 200 people just stopped. Didn't get on the train and started watching this music. And I looked around and I saw people with tears in their eyes. And I saw jaw dropping. And I just saw this collection. And it occurred to me that here is a group of people that would normally run by each other. And here they are, collectively coming together. And it's the music that brought them together.

So it really inspired me. And it occurred to me that when there's no separation between music and people, when music is just happening and people can walk by and it can affect them, that this is an opportunity for us to really find a way to bring people together.

BILL MOYERS: A hundred musicians took part, right?

MARK JOHNSON: Yes. Yes.

BILL MOYERS: Ten years, it took you.

MARK JOHNSON: Ten years it took me.

BILL MOYERS: Did you ever think of just giving up?

MARK JOHNSON: You know, I remember, as I started this project, it started to build more and more importance. And I remember at some point or another, realizing that we were going to represent the eyes on the faces of the kids on this planet.

And that that was going to be our motivation. So there was no chance we were going to stop. Because the truth is, they need us to inspire each other and to create a better world. I mean, there's so many problems now with the economy and with war and a lot of depression. But at the end of the day, there's also so much hope because I can assure you, all over the world, people are beautiful and they want to unite together.

BILL MOYERS: But there are also some very ugly situations in the world. And you went into the heart of some of them. What took you to those places to try to sprinkle this hope you talk about?

MARK JOHNSON: Well, I think that in order to really unite people, you know, we have to show that in our darkest situations and in the places with the most struggles in the world, that we can find a way of uplifting each other out of it. I remember hearing somebody that said, you know, "The last person who knew why we were fighting died a long time ago."

We all know the world is changing. And we get to decide if it's changing for the better or if it's changing for the worse.

And so with music, it opens up these doors that ordinarily wouldn't be opened.

BILL MOYERS: Why did you choose "Stand by Me"?

MARK JOHNSON: I chose "Stand by Me" - or it chose me as it may have been, because I was walking in the streets in Santa Monica, California where I live. And I heard the singer, Roger Ridley, playing the song on the street. And I was maybe a block away, and I still heard him. And I remember running back over to catch the performance.

ROGER RIDLEY: No matter who you are. No matter where you go in life. You're going to need somebody to stand by you.

MARK JOHNSON: And when the song ended, you know, I was so moved by him, his voice sort of representing everything to me that music is, with soul and perseverance and talent all wrapped into one voice. So I approached Roger and I said, "Hey, you know, if I come back with some recording equipment and some cameras, I would love to take this song around the world and add other musicians to it."

BILL MOYERS: What do you hope comes from this?

MARK JOHNSON: Well, I mean, with Playing for Change, my ultimate thing would be that people understand that in a world with all this division, it's important for us to focus on our connections.

BILL MOYERS: You are starting some schools from this, called Playing for Change, right?

MARK JOHNSON: Many years back, my brother, Greg Johnson, who's been a huge source of inspiration for me, he had given me a Christmas gift which was a photo book called "A Day in the Life of Africa." And in that book was one photograph that he had framed for me.

And the caption was something along the lines of, "One of the more dangerous townships in South Africa finds solace through backyard jazz." And I had this picture on my wall for years. And it served as a symbol for me and for the crew that I was traveling me.

And so, I did some research. And I found out that the band leader was the upright bass player named Pokei Klaas. And he is the upright bass player you see in the "Stand by Me" video with the children in front of him.

BILL MOYERS: Right.

MARK JOHNSON: And so when we traveled down to Cape Town, South Africa, and we were going to eat at a restaurant, and we heard this music down the street. So the crew and I, we walked down there to hear their music. And when the band was over, we asked Joe Peterson, who was the singer in the band, "Have you ever heard of Pokei?"

And he said, "Oh, yeah, Pokei. He's my best friend. I'll take you to see Pokei." So the next day, we all got in a van and we drove out to Guguletu township. Which is passing thousands of shacks and an incredibly humbling experience. And we went out there and we show up and we meet Pokei. I remember there were a number of little homes in the backyard. And a lot of sorrow because there was a lot of HIV in the area. A lot of poverty.

So we decided, okay, we'll put on a little concert in the backyard because the people here need something to celebrate.

And I have never in my life seen something more beautiful when the people came out of their little homes and just started dancing and celebrating this music. And it was almost a form of an exorcism where all the sorrow was gone and they were now filled with all this joy and connection to us and to each other. And so we asked Pokei, as we had all the musicians along the way, you know, "Well, what can we do to give back to your community?

I mean, they let us in their homes. They fed us. They give us their music. They told us their stories in the world. And Pokei said, you know, "The kids here, they really need a music school. They need some hope. They need something that can give them some inspiration." And so just this - a couple months ago we went down there with some shovels and we built the first Playing for Change music school in that exact spot. In the backyard.

And now it's a chance for kids to get together, to have something positive to look forward to. And what we're doing with this foundation is we're going build hundreds of schools around the world. And installing them all with recording equipment and cameras. So that people can log on to the internet and they can watch recitals and concerts in the schools we're building, to kind of break down that whole distance barrier.

BILL MOYERS: Did anybody ever say to you, "Mark, don't be naïve"?

MARK JOHNSON: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. But to me, naïve is thinking that there's any other choice. You know? The only choice we have is to come together. And to inspire each other because that's the way that we'll create a better world for us now and for the kids tomorrow.

And the other truth is, I mean, you know, a lot of people are living in a world of fear. But we don't even know how long we're going to be in this world. So there's really no reason to fear anything. The most important thing is while we're here, let's make a difference together. That's what Playing for Change is trying to represent.

BILL MOYERS: We'll link your Web site to our Web site at PBS.organd people can find out more about Playing for Change. What's next for you?

MARK JOHNSON: Well, to continue to build schools around the world. The beautiful thing about Playing for Change is that it never ends. And so that we're going to continue to connect more and more musicians around the world. Build the family together. And build more schools.

BILL MOYERS: Mark Johnson, we'll close with your favorite song on the DVD, "One Love."

MARK JOHNSON: Thank you, Bill.

VARIOUS SINGERS:
One Love, One Heart
Let's get together and feel all right
Let's get together and feel all right
One Love, One Heart
Let's get together and feel all right
As it was in the beginning
So shall it be in the end
Let's get together and feel all right

Let them all pass off their dirty remarks
One Love
There is one question I'd really like to ask
One Heart

Is there a place for those hopeless sinner
Who has hurt all mankind just to save his own?
Believe me

One Love, One Heart
(Foreign Language)
I see the sun
(Foreign Language)
Let's get together and feel all right
(Foreign language)

BILL MOYERS: That's it for the JOURNAL.

I'm Bill Moyers, we'll see you next week.

www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/10242008/watch3.html

112/365 - Goslings

Image by JoyVanBuhler
4/21/12 - Today has been a busy day and I have gotten a lot of tasks done. When I thought of picture ideas, I thought that I would take a chance that one of my local spots which typically has a lot of geese may have some goslings. I got lucky. There were probably about 20 adult geese and only three babies in the area. These guys were pretty cute (it almost makes me forget that they will grow into ugly, messy adults), so I took lots of pictures.

Don't Cry: Part 2

Image by liveitupwithus
I got a very disturbing text from Johnathan's wife, Meghan, telling me that they are taking custody of Zelda and want me to make a court appearance. I am on thin ice right now. I have a headache, Jake is sick again, the dogs won't shut up, I smell like poo and fat redneck people, I've been ignored by everyone including my own daughter for the past week and half; and now he's trying to take the only thing I live for away from me? My sweet little baby girl. I haven't hugged her in three weeks. When Zelda arrived here at Julia's house, she started packing her things. I was not aware she was doing this until Jake asked me if we were moving out. Then Zelda went up to Jake and cried, telling him how much she'll miss him. She gave him the picture she drew of Jakegoose. She had her little Dora suitcase, along with her lunchbox. She didn't even notice me, until I grabbed her arm and yanked her in my direction. When I asked her where she was going, she said she's going away with her real family. I wanted to ask her why she would leave mommy but I kept crying nothing came out. She gave me a box with another drawing of Jakegoose on it and then said goodbye. Meghan was waiting at the door, and took her by the hand, and took her to the car. She took my child away from me. Mine. I felt like she took half of me away, and the only thing there is left in my life to do is die. I cannot believe she is gone. I do not even know Meghan, who she is, what she is like, and how she treats Zelda. But obviously it's pretty good that Zelda will leave her birthmother for a woman she's spent a week with. I don't even feel like doing anything anymore. Everything I did or tried to do was for the better of my daughter, so she'd have a better place to grow up in than I did. So she wouldn't have to be around what me and Johnathan put her through as a baby. I feel like I failed as a mother. I failed to raise a child, that I'll never be her role model. I'll just be that someone she use to know, who eventually faded out of her life. Like an ugly stain on a beautiful life.

Lundy - Raven's nest and nestlings

Image by Ramones Karaoke
Just got back from Lundy Island - it continues to be the most wonderful place on the planet, despite being just 3 miles long and 1 mile wide.

Here's a raven's nest, complete with HUGE babies - at least a foot, nose to tail - still not fledged. The nest was hard to get to in a very secure cove, about 10 feet from the top of the cliff, and 100-plus feet above the water below. Very secure location, and a few minutes after we saw this we spotted the parent beating up a gull that wandered into their cove. Taken by sticking the camera to the eyepiece of my binoculars, so has ugly chromatic aberrations but shows the birds off well enough.

Of course, Corydora's pictures are way better than mine, but you'll have to wait until she's ready!

Hospitals...ugh

Image by johnmierau
It's day 5 of our stay in McMaster's maternity ward, the twins needing time to put on weight and master that annoying breathing thing, as preemie's are wont to do. It's precaution more than intervention but still spooky.
Living here with my wife and two girls is an exercise in patience, deprivation, boredom and fretting... most of the fretting coming from the fact one of my girls lives down the hall with sensors stuck to her tiny body for the last and likely the next days.

It's also afforded me a temendously different view of health care and the medical system. Here in Canada I hear complaints about how long waits are, how disappointed people are in the quality of service and sometimes I agree. Either that or hear my fellow Canucks cheer how much better and cheaper it is here than for our American neighbors (add a zero and likely multiply by eight or ten to get the US cost of most procedures or hospital stays here).

Here's the good, bad, silly and ugly of life in this ward:

Good:

Quality of care or redundant oversight creates an impressive and thorough environment for identifying healt issues and designing a course of action towards a resolution. When it works.

Bad:

Many teams split up hours of the day and data of the week to cover the same patients, resulting in no consistent eyeballs building a detailed picture of your ailment and of you yourself tho help them gauge what is happening to you. Instead, four doctors give you four different recommendations, dosages, time frames, etc.

Silly:

As I said every individual here has meant well.... But there have been some odd ducks and whacked out nurses, doctors and students (did I mention mcMaster's a teaching hospital?) missing the diagnostic mark by a wide margin only to careen the opposite way by just as wide a berth before the truth is discovered--or disinfected, weighed or otherwise beaten to death!

Our nurses, midwives, doctors, even janitorial staff disparaging every other department's opinions on our little family's next actions in either PC, outrightly derisive ways or with confident old-world anecdotes - mercifully no one's told my to put windex on a booboo or aime such goofyness. But close.

More silly:

Sheer wastage. Plastics are tossed after a single use to convey the impression of a cleanly environment. Food is plentiful (not all bad) for patients-and husbands-and staff- and guests- and a lot of it gets left out uneaten and tossed. I cannot fathom the tens of thousands this ward must toss out every month just to look good to patients and public. Ugh.
The Ugly:

No internet! How do they expect people to heal without access to the group mind! I'm serious, I'm not even ranting here!

...okay, I got that off my chest. I am serious, but laugh if you must. If In didn't have a BlackBerry I'd be in real sensory deprivation here, complete with withdrawal and the shakes and everything. But I'll tell ya, typing an LJ post out on chicklet keys is an act only for the truly desperate.

Other deprivations: the house, the dog, fresh air, variety in food, my own bed, and Nathaniel. Nikki's mom brought him by for a visit today and man was it ever good to lift the little monster up, make him giggle, get a whiff of little-boy hair before visiting hours came to an end.

But there are some experiences I recommend: stumbling half-aware through a sprawling industrial complex in the wee hours of Easter weekend-to feed a baby, scrounge for food for yourself or diapers for your newborn primate is one of them.

And, for all the faults of the modern hospital, it is truly awe-inspiring when viewed from the inside... Especially when one of the views is the reassuring face of a veteran nurse who watches over your breathing challenged hatchling when you're too exhausted or trained to know how to do it yourself.