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MARY PANGBORN Sounds of Music One of the fine arts in our world is music. It encompasses both natural and man-made sounds, set to a more or less rhythmical cadence, for the enjoyment of all types of living creatures. Nature has its own style of music, be it in the sounds of birds, the swishing of pine trees in the wind, or the babbling of a brook. No man-made instrument can equal the sound of the first robin in spring; with its unmistakable “perk, perk” notes, the chickadee’s “dee-dee,” to the red-winged blackbird clinging to a cat tail in the swamp, or to the symphony of a cardinal in a tall maple tree. Tame birds, such as the canary, can fill a room with symphonic-like tunes like a lead soprano in an operatic aria. I once owned a canary, “Pee-wee”, who was fascinated by any music on the radio or television. Even the brief interlude between a newscast or a commercial would set him trilling in high C. A recording of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir or any musical singing group left him practically breathless as he desperately tried to keep pace with whatever the music world dealt at the time. Pee-wee liked all kinds of music, but was really turned on by organ or accordion renditions. Music can be divided into two major categories, vocal and instrumental. A wide range of each is on the market. Vocal music encompasses everything-rock and roll songs, operatic tunes, choir hymns. From the earliest civilizations, music found a place in its culture. It was used for communication, entertainment, and played a large part in religious rites. Instrumental music began when early man used drums as a means of conveying a message. It has advanced through the ages to include several distinct groups-stringed instruments, woodwinds, brass, percussion. It can be rendered by a soloist, a combo, orchestra or band. No one, regardless of his/her musical preferance, can be unmoved by the performance of the Boston Symphony or the U.S. Army band. Religious music, whether vocal or instrumental, plays a large part in liturgical services of all denominations. Who among us is not elated by “Ave Maria” or “Silent Night”? Devices used to transmit music have seen a vast revision in the past. The hand-cranked phonograph has given way to the electric record player, discs, tapes and DVDs. Gone are the days of the cactus-needle apparatuses, along with the day of the diamond-tipped needle. Very often, the record/tape player is encompassed in the cabinet of the “entertainment center,” a combination of all types of “canned music”. The world would be much poorer if it were not for the treats that music renders to our daily lives. There is a type for every individual and every taste. The greats of music, classical, popular, or religion, have made a names for themselves which time can neither erase nor cause to be dimmed. Beethoven, Strauss, Brahms, Bach, Mozart, live on forever. Mary Pangborn, raised on a farm in Laurens, lives on Pioneer Street with sister Sylvia.  DAVID KENT Take Me Out ... To The Library Even though Mother Nature can’t decide whether it’s winter or summer, baseball is clearly in full swing here in Cooperstown. As Hall of Fame weekend slowly approaches, we’re all gritting our teeth as we contemplate the thought of trying to squeeze 60,000 rabid baseball fans into a town of 2,000 people (Doesn’t that violate the laws of physics?). In the meantime, I thought it would be a good time to suggest some worthwhile summer reading on baseball. There are six books I’m recommending. All have been published fairly recently. Two are biographies, three are historical, and one is investigative. If there is a common theme among all the books it is controversy. If nothing else they belie the idea that our national pastime has ever been a “pure” sport, and illustrate the difficulty of baseball ever ridding itself of politics. The hot topic today is clearly steroids. Despite the denials by just about everyone but Jose Canesco, there is ample evidence that baseball has been overrun by performance enhancing drugs. The embarrassing testimonies of Mark McGwire and Rafael Palmiero in front of Congress highlight the pathetic state of baseball today when it comes to steroid use. Then there is Barry Bonds, to many critics the poster boy for all that’s wrong with baseball, closing in on Hank Aaron’s all-time home run record. It’s enough to make you scream! To better understand the steroids phenomenon, there are two books that specifically address that issue. The first is “Juiced,” by Jose Canesco. It literally tears the cover off the steroids issue. Although this autobiography is basically self-serving and actually promotes “proper” steroid use (Canesco apparently later changed his mind about that), it does describe the wide spread use of the performance enhancers in baseball. The other book is “Game of Shadows,” by journalists Mark Fainaru-Wada & Lance Williams. It’s an in-depth look at the whole steroids scandal and Barry Bonds in particular. Combined, these two books provide an understanding of the state of the game today. On a related subject, there is no bigger icon (or villain) playing the game today than Barry Bonds. To understand why he ignites such a passionate response among fans there is an excellent biography, “Love Me, Hate Me,” by Jeff Pearlman. It is a thorough examination of Bonds’ life that attempts to explain how he became the man he is today. It tries to be a fair portrayal, but it’s unlikely any neutral observer will come out of the book thinking Bonds is a great guy. The other three books deal with distinct areas of baseball history. “A Great Day in Cooperstown,” by Jim Reisler, is a fascinating description of how our village became the home to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939. Reisler does an excellent job of intertwining a description of how opening day unfolded with the history behind it. He is especially good at explaining the myth that baseball was invented in Cooperstown. “Opening Day,” by Jonathan Eig, is the story of Jackie Robinson’s first year in the major leagues (1947). It describes the racism he had to overcome on his way to becoming Rookie of the Year. Finally, there is a terrific book, “The Kansas City A’s & The Wrong Half of the Yankees,” by local author Jeff Katz. It describes the shenanigans employed by the Yankees and their enablers in the league office that allowed the A’s to act like the Yankees’ farm team during the 1950s. Baseball is a wonderful game and there is much to love about it. These six books just remind us that it is far from perfect. We can only hope that such literary efforts will help push the sport toward one we can appreciate without reservation. Dave Kent is director of the Village Library of Cooperstown. REFLECTIONS It’s Not Cheap Being Green The environment is making some unexpected bedfellows. No one was surprised that Al Gore was waving the environmental banner. Green living has always been lumped into a stereotype of tree-hugging, granola-eating, left-leaning liberalism. And it just stands to reason that Robert Redford’s Sundance Channel is launching new programming called “The Green.” But now Pat Robertson is taking up the cause. And Rupert Murdoch, the man at the helm of the company that owns the proudly right-leaning Fox News, has declared that his company and all its outfits are going green. And on Tuesday, a collection of Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders published an open letter in Capitol Hill’s Roll Call and Politico newspapers urging legislators to take immediate action to curb climate change as a matter of “moral responsibility.” These are people who can’t agree on evolution v. creation, civil rights, gun control, or what constitutes “moral” or “responsibility” for that matter. And yet they have united on this issue. Are those horsemen I hear approaching? Perhaps my favorite development is that Murdoch has vowed to make environmentalism an intentional part of the message his company sends to its consumers worldwide. One day, you may turn on the TV, and hear Bill O’Reilly warning you about an inconvenient truth. Table for four, please, at the Apocalypse Café. The fact is, regardless of the politics of the camp historically associated with this issue, it has gone beyond politics. As Dan Rather might say, there’s no point fussin’ over paint colors when the barn’s burnin’ down. And yet there is this cynical little corner of my brain that wonders whether money is the root of this unity. Murdoch told Grist, the online magazine devoted to things environmental, that he believes his company’s green campaign will open new channels of revenue. That’s not a bad thing, particularly in light of the fact that industry has traditionally cited prohibitive costs to explain the resistance to going green. But as a person who is trying to make this once-political issue personal and reduce my own carbon footprint, I worry about the commerce that is springing up all over the field of Green. Have you priced decent recycling sorters recently? (Maybe not, considering the state of recycling in our county, but that’s another topic for another column.) I want to support local farmers and food producers. But if I spend $7 on a little jar of jam, I can’t afford the bread to go with it. And while I can appreciate the notion that things like solar panels and other forms of consumer-level alternative energy generators could save enough money over the long haul to pay for themselves, I’m not among the people who can pay for them upfront. It doesn’t have to cost a lot of money to go green, I suppose. Cardboard boxes hold recyclables just as well as a fancy – attractive – sorter. And who wouldn’t want a series of cardboard boxes full of refuse in the kitchen? And I could go hyperlocal with my food, and start growing, raising and processing it all myself. I could go pre-industrial, and slide right off the grid. I’ve got the acreage. I could get a few alpacas, spin my own yarn and knit clothes for the whole family. I mean, I could do those things if I didn’t have a job and if I knew how to spin yarn and if someone would trade me a few alpacas for, say, an iPod. Which brings me back to the notion of moral responsibility. We all share responsibility for doing our share to make our little portions of the world as green as possible. And I don’t think we have to move entirely off the grid to do it. But I do think there’s something – if not immoral, at least a little opportunist about fleecing people who are trying to do the right things for the environment. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to go find some more cardboard boxes. Elizabeth Trever Buchinger wonders if alpacas can be housetrained. She is the managing editor of The Freeman’s Journal, and can be reached at 547-6103 or etbuchinger@thefreemansjournal.com. | Sports Update | Our Columnists | Obituaries | Editorials | | Jan. 04, 2008 | Local Honor Roll | Pages From The Paper | july 6th 2007 | Hall of Fame Friday | Hall of Fame Saturday | Hall of Fame Sunday | Hall of Fame Monday | July282006 Archive | Aug042006 Archive | Aug112006 Archive | Aug182006 Archive | Sept012006 Archive | Sept082006 Archive | Sept152006 Archive | Sept222006 Archive | Sept292006 Archive | Oct062006 Archive | Oct132006 Archive | Oct202006 Archive | Oct272006 Archive | Nov032006 Archive | Nov172006 Archive | Nov242006 Archive | Dec012006 Archive | Dec082006 Archive | Dec152006 Archive | Dec222006 Archive | Dec292006 Archive | Jan052007 Archive | Jan192007 Archive | Jan262007 Archive | February092007 Archive | February162007 Archive | February232007 Archive | March162007 Archive | March232007 Archive | March302007 Archive | March302007 Archive | April132007 News Archive | Chris Gentile | Obituary | April272007 Archive | May112007 Archive | May112007 Archive | May252007 Archive | June 22, 2007 | July 13 2007 | Sept05 2007 | Sept 7th 2007 | Aug 31st 2007 | Local Law Parking | October 26, 2007 | Nov. 2 2007 | Nov. 16, 2007 | Glimmerglass Oct 5,2007 | Nov 16., 2007 | November 30 2007 | Nov. 30, 2007 | Dec. 07, 2007 | Dec. 14, 2007 | Dec. 21, 2007 | Dec. 28, 2007 | Jan. 11, 2008 | Jan. 18, 2008 | Jan. 25, 2008 | Feb 1, 2008 | Feb. 8, 2008 | Feb. 22, 2008 | GlimmerGlass Feb. 15, 2008 | Sports Feb. 15, 2008 | Feb.28, 2008 | March 7, 2008 | March 14, 2008 | GlimmerGlass March 14, 2008 | March 21, 2008 | March 28, 2008 | April 4, 2008 | April 11, 2008 | April 18, 2008 | April 25, 2008 | May 9, 2008 | May 2, 2008 | May 23, 2008 | | Our Services | Contact Us | Great Links | Return Home | Classified Ads | News Archive | Cooperstown Homes | Calendar -Best Bets | Letters to the Editor | |
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