Mike Whitla

I don’t know if it bugs you but TV in public places really annoys me. You are talking with someone and their eyes are constantly being distracted by the warm glow of the ever present TVs. If you have kids you will really know what I mean as they can’t pry their eyes away for a moment.

Enter TV B gone!! An universal remote that can turn off any and all TVs. I got mine here:

http://www.tvbgone.com/cfe_tvbg_main.php

Last night we had dinner at  a nice Vietnamese restaurant that had a few TVs blaring away in front of us. One press of a button later no TV. The staff eventually put it back on but you can just turn it off again.
What a pleasure!

Can’t wait to go to a sports bar!

I’ve been listening to Charlie Parker’s recordings with Dizzy Gillespe over the weekend. Have not done so for a while and it is always great. What was interesting was the effect they had on the kids around our house that were hearing this music for the first time. The music made the kids a bit crazy and definitely increased the conflict in the house. One minute kids are playing together happily crank up the Charlie Parker and they are picking fights with each other. I think there is a certain energy in Bird’s playing that makes the kids (and anyone else) a bit crazy. I’ve noticed the same effect when I play some kinds of heavy metal around the kids like Metallica in particular.  This connection in energy between Bebop and Heavy Metal was one I always have sensed and it seems natural that kids would pick up on this. I know both Jazz and Heavy Metal enthusiasts might have doubts about their musics being connected this way but what I am talking about is mood/emotion in music not the technical aspects.

Other music we have been listening to around  the house lately are the Beatles and Bob Marley. These have produced different reactions from the kids. When I play these less frenetic musics the kids are in more cooperative moods. I would say although there is conflict/anger in these kinds of musics the underlying mood/emotion are ones of cooperation and caring.

Could it be that the listening to certain kind of musics can cause people to be: more or less cooperative, more or less agitated?

If so we won’t be hearing Donna Lee or Master of Puppets in the supermarket soon.