Commentary & Pubs

The Sweeney Todd orchestra adventure

A Good Reed Review Commentary & Pubs, Promo , , , , ,

By Ande Jacobson

While I have no plans to return to performance myself, I recently had the privilege of attending the first orchestra rehearsal for Sunnyvale Community Players’ (SCP) upcoming production of Sweeney Todd, not as a player, not as the music director, but as a very interested observer. I arrived early as the orchestra members trickled into the lobby of the theater to assemble the ensemble. Once everyone was in place, some of the players were noodling a bit or practicing some of the challenging sections of their parts while others were talking quietly. Eventually, the music director arrived carrying an amp for one of the keyboard players. He set up the amp, handed out a revised cut sheet, and then took his place in front of his orchestra to begin the rehearsal at the top of the score. Music director Val Zvinyatskovsky was the youngest person present at the tender age of 17, and yet he had the attention and command of the room. While it was the first time they had come together in this particular ensemble, everyone was ready to work. Continue reading →

The splooting squirrel

A Good Reed Review Commentary & Pubs ,

By Ande Jacobson

It’s important not to forget about the simple things in life. There’s so much happening every day that takes our attention. Crises seem to never stop, and everything is presented as an emergency. Sometimes we all need a break.

Recently, I was bringing in my garbage and recycle bins after pickup and noticed a squirrel watching me from the nearby fence. It wasn’t on top of the fence though. There are often squirrels running up and down the trees and fences in our development, but this little fellow was splooted vertically, head down, tail up, on the fence. I was intrigued. I’ve seen other squirrels do this on tree trunks from time to time, usually watching and chasing each other, but I hadn’t before seen one do this on a fence all by itself this way. When they are on the fence, they are usually in motion either running up or down or along the top of the fence. They sometimes stop and sit (not sploot) on top in a more stable position for a variety of reasons, especially if they are carrying something and need to adjust their load. Continue reading →

The stories we will tell

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By Ande Jacobson

It started on 30 March 2023 when a former president was indicted on criminal charges for the first time. Now in early August 2023, we’ve seen this happen four times so far this year. Donald J. Trump, the 45th President of the U.S. is now defendant Trump. He tried to conspire to end democracy as we know it and take away our crucial rights as citizens to vote and have our votes counted, defraud the country, steal critical classified documents when he finally, grudgingly left office, and attempt to defraud his business to pay off an accuser. He’s also been shown to be guilty of sexual abuse in a civil trial. What a guy. To hear him tell it, he’s the victim of persecution by his enemies. Of course he defines his enemies as anybody who disagrees with him, stands up to him, or challenges him in any way under any circumstance, so he clearly has a lot of enemies. Continue reading →

Is a single world order possible?

A Good Reed Review Commentary & Pubs , , , ,

By Ande Jacobson

Every so often, particularly when things get very chaotic around me, I think about the world I want to live in. In my recent short story, Humans are Weird, I explored how the Earth, and specifically how humankind might appear to an intelligent extraterrestrial species studying us. Humankind is a single species. Over time, largely because of our tribal nature, we’ve developed multifarious cultures that often put us at odds with one another and more importantly at odds with our continued survival as a species. As Yuval Noah Harari discusses in his book, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, we’ve built our societies based on fictional common myths that we all buy into at some level. These myths allow cooperation on a large scale, but they also form the basis for significant exclusion. I see the moves toward exclusion in the news, on social media, even in conversations among my friends as we collectively think about the world around us. Continue reading →

Sensitive ears? Watch out!

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By Ande Jacobson

Two times of the year are tricky for those of us with sensitive ears, at least in the United States. July 4th and year end pose a particular conundrum. Why? Fireworks abound, and when that happens sudden loud noises are inescapable. While most of my friends and family love fireworks displays, I have tried hard to avoid them throughout my life. I have memories of childhood Fourth of July celebrations where I spent most of my time with my fingers in my ears trying to find a quiet place to avoid the cascading booms from the almost continuous array of firecrackers, “safe and sane” family fireworks, and of course professional fireworks displays. No matter the source, those sudden loud noises caused me pain. In an odd turn of events, our family dog was nonplussed and would often curl up and sleep in the midst of it all despite her keen hearing. She was an odd dog. Continue reading →

The pine cone mystery

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By Ande Jacobson

For over 25 years, a giant pine tree that was rooted at the apartment complex next door loomed over the back half of my townhouse. It also sprawled over a large portion of the common area behind my building. That tree was monstrous. In addition to a constant flow of pine needles and twigs covering my roof year around, it dropped pine cones onto my roof that sometimes startled me out of a sound sleep. Many of those pine cones would eventually either roll off the roof onto the patio or fall there directly from the tree. That tree threatened to drop limbs which could make stormy nights especially daunting. Fortunately when limbs did fall on occasion, they fell into our common area, and our HOA would eventually have them cut up and hauled away. A few months ago, the apartment complex next door brought in a tree service to cut down that tree and turn it into mulch. It had been sick and posed a danger to people at both the apartments and our townhouse development. Continue reading →

My magical, musical journey: Part 9 – For the love of music

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By Ande Jacobson

Music can be all-encompassing whether making music or just listening to it. It can be healing. It can be invigorating. It can also stimulate the brain in ways that nothing else can. Music encourages artistic and emotional connection and expression. And unfortunately in our profit-centered world, it can also be far too expensive. In July of 2019, I wrote a piece exploring some of the differences between those playing to live and those who lived to play for the sheer love of it, though in both cases my essay focused on the performance aspects and the range of compensation musicians received for their services.

I’ve written about the recent demise of two local theater companies. I had worked for both companies in the past, and they each served the community in numerous ways. Between the ongoing risks associated with the prevalence of COVID-19 reducing audiences, escalating facility costs, and legislation in California forcing performing arts organizations to treat any paid person as an employee with all of the overhead costs that entails, it’s become increasingly difficult to keep small theater groups and community music ensembles afloat. It’s also made accessing those that are still functioning far more cost prohibitive for many audience members. Continue reading →

Niceness should matter

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By Ande Jacobson

A few weeks ago, I wrote an essay about needing more cooperation and less competition. I still stand by that as a means to improve society and human quality of life overall. After more thought, I’ve begun to wonder if perhaps humankind is experiencing a negative aspect of evolution and as a result is breeding for greed, aggression, and other negative traits because they achieve more evolutionary success in the short term. Yuval Noah Harari posits in his book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind that to be an evolutionary success, an organism needs to create as many copies of itself as possible. Seeing the changes that society has incurred over the last several decades, it appears that for a variety of reasons, people have gotten meaner toward one another. We need look no further than the ultra-extremism in today’s GOP and its supporters. Their devotion to the morbidly rich, their love affair with guns, and their ongoing efforts to strip away the rights of everyone who isn’t a rich, straight, white Christian male to have any say at all in society has pitted everyone against one another for a smaller and smaller piece of the pie. They want to achieve a complete destruction of democracy through violence and domination. They keep talking of revolution while freely displaying weapons of war. Continue reading →

A day for the history books: a former president has been indicted

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By Ande Jacobson

30 March 2023 was a day that will loom large in our nation’s history. Given all that has transpired, it had to happen eventually, but only after extensive investigation. While we cannot know for sure, it’s likely that we’ll see more such days as the continuing investigations complete. Donald J. Trump, a former president of the United States of America, has been indicted. We don’t yet know the specific charges. Those will be unsealed in due time when he is arraigned.

In the U.S., the last 8 years have yielded many unprecedented events, some of which are undoubtedly criminal activities directed by the former president. His personal criminal past may well go back long before he entered politics, but because the investigations are ongoing, we can’t know the full content of what has been discovered surrounding those activities just yet. Now they are starting to land squarely in the courts with him as the focus of attention in criminal rather than just civil matters. This is a big change. In the case of the former president, this is all of his own making, and now he’s being held accountable, something he likely never believed could ever happen to him. While someone’s misfortune is not a cause for celebration, it’s a little hard not to view the events of 30 March 2023 with a bit of pride that we are still a nation of laws that apply to everyone, even former presidents. Continue reading →

Less competition, more cooperation

A Good Reed Review Commentary & Pubs , ,

By Ande Jacobson

In the U.S., it seems like everything is turned into a competition. Our economic system, capitalism, is based on competition, at least in theory. Schools are usually based on some kind of competition for grades. We’re trained from early childhood to compete. To win. We’re often told by society that if we don’t win, there’s something wrong with us. Rather than striving to improve our skills for the personal satisfaction of doing something well, the goal is instead to be better than somebody else. Sports permeate society reinforcing a mindset of striving to beat the other guy rather than focusing on helping one another hone our skills. Continue reading →