Thoughts At Week's End
Friday, April 28, 2006 at 11:57AM
I’ll break from my usual ponderous polemic format and rattle off a few different thoughts today.
FIRST, I’d like to say thanks to Flea for this recent post. Flea bravely broke ranks with the chronically whining doctors guild and publicly admitted that being a physician is a pretty good gig. I have to agree. Something in the makeup of doctors makes them complainers. I know that throughout my medical career I have tended not to keep company with doctors because I get tired of hearing about how awful it is to practice medicine.
Certainly medicine is a tough line of work. But it pays pretty well, and it has definite benefits. It is about as independent a line of work as you can find, which is what I like about it. Although many people try to suggest what you should do, no one tells you what to do. M.D. really does stand for my decision. I wish more docs would come out and say, “You know, I really am better off than most people.” It takes character to be thankful for things as they are, and not to be always, vainly, wishing for better.
SECOND, I am peeved at the recent recommendation by the Congressional committee that FEMA be disbanded. This strikes me as public posturing more than constructive reasoning. Replace FEMA with what? Apparently, another FEMA! This new organization would still be under the Department of Homeland Security. This was the problem in the first place: Homeland Security was sucking the life out of FEMA, diverting its funding to antiterrorism projects at the expense of disaster preparedness. If the new office remained under Homeland Security, why wouldn’t this happen again?
Further, what is the point in firing all the FEMA personnel? Disaster management does not sound to me like a common field of expertise. Chances are the government would be stuck with rehiring most of its old people to staff the new office, since there would be no one else around with similar experience and knowledge. As a victim of Hurricane Katrina, I can say that I would not look forward to a newly organized FEMA in which all the hires were made by the Bush administration. The saving grace of FEMA now is that there are still some holdovers from FEMA’s better days that could serve as a core for a more efficient organization. FEMA needs to be an independent organization, outside of the monstrous waste of money we call Homeland Security, and it needs to be staffed with career emergency management professionals, and not with political appointments.
THIRD, this weekend is the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, one of America’s truly great music festivals. I will be there on Sunday. The festival grounds consists of 10 different stages, each devoted to a different style of music. I usually wander from one to another, spending most of my time in the jazz tent, the Fais Do-Do stage (Cajun music), the New Orleans Jazz tent (Dixieland jazz), and the Gospel tent.
The Gospel tent may be the greatest place on earth. For hours and hours, traditional gospel choirs from all around the country, but especially from Louisiana and Mississippi, take turns delivering their best foot stomping stuff. In the Gospel tent, the crowd is part of the show. People stand on their chairs, dance down the aisles, join in singing the hymns and spirituals they know, and bring that old time religion with all its passionate feeling storming back. That place rocks.
Even if you can’t make it, if you go to the website for WWOZ, you can listen to live streamed broadcasts of the Festival all this weekend and next. It is great, great music.
Two recommendations: on Sunday, April 30, at 5 pm, the Meters will stage a reunion. The Meters are one of New Orleans’s all time greatest acts, and one of the best funk bands ever. This is one of their rare reappearances in New Orleans since they broke up in the 1977.
On Sunday, May 5, again at 5 pm, Fats Domino will close out the Festival. Fats is a legendary performer, and I know many, many people who have said that his Jazz Fest appearances are the best live performances they have ever seen. Fats Domino lived in the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans and lost everything he had in the flood. This is his first major appearance since the hurricane, so everyone is expecting something extra special.
FINALLY, I would like to announce a new member of my family. When I got home yesterday, the FedEx man brought me my long-awaited Gibson Les Paul. Solid body mahogany, inlaid rosewood fretboard, Burstbucker nickel-plated pickups. It is a little heavy, but the action is a dream. This is the easiest guitar to play that I have ever laid fingers on.
I lost my beloved Gibson Challenger in Hurricane Katrina, and have been looking to replace it ever since. I agonized for a long time between getting the Gibson or going for a Fender Stratocaster. The Stat is the prototypical blues guitar (it is Eric Clapton’s signature instrument), and since I am in Mississippi now, it seemed like an appealing option. But I went for Gibson because of its reputation for clean, jazzy sound, which is how I like my music.
I am still waiting for my Epiphone 30 watt amp to show up, and can’t wait to get the two together. Just spending an hour or two playing the Les Paul without an amp, I can already tell that it has an exceptionally clean, fat, and sweet sound.
All in all, yesterday was a very good day.
View Printer Friendly Version
Email Article to Friend
Reader Comments (7)
Doctors really should start acknowledging the truth in that statement.
Not only do you play the guitar ... you got yourself a Gibson!!! Okay ... from impressed, I'm moving a bit closer to downright jealous! ;o)
I have a few no-name guitars - an accoustic and an instrumental. The instrumental is truly an antique (I've had it for over 35 years) ... and is really my favorite. I haven't had a lot of time for playing in the last several years.
You'll have to put some of your music up - with a link - so we can hear it!
best,
Flea
Maybe I am overly harsh on my peers. But I do have to say that it was bad during residency and medical school. I don't think I saw so much self pity in my life.
Things get better over time. There is no meaner animal on earth than a surgical resident, but that seems to fade with private practice. Maybe I just haven't been out long enough.