My Heritage (from 23andMe)

• Sweden (53.3%)
• Västra Götaland County
• Stockholm County
• Varmland County
• Halland County
• Skåne County
• Örebro County
• Blekinge County
• Dalarna County
• Gavleborg County
• Östergötland County
• British & Irish (46.7%)
• Glasgow City
• Greater London
• West Midlands
• Greater Manchester
• Highland
• Edinburgh
• Aberdeen City
• Merseyside
• Tyne and Wear
• South Yorkshire

Tim Morrison

Tim and I have been best friends since the Boston days at NEC. He is everything the blurb below says (and a bag of chips), along with being a stand-up guy with his feet on the ground. He asked ChatGPT about himself and this is what it came up with.

Tim Morrison is an internationally recognized trumpeter whose career has spanned classical performance, chamber music, and film scoring at the highest levels. As a longtime member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Pops, Tim established himself as a principal voice in the American orchestral tradition, known for his lyrical phrasing, technical brilliance, and deep musical sensitivity.

A former member of the Empire Brass, Tim helped revolutionize the perception of brass chamber music, performing to acclaim across the globe and recording landmark albums that remain reference points in the genre. His artistry has influenced generations of brass players and brought new audiences to the power and nuance of brass performance.

Tim’s expressive sound caught the ear of legendary film composer John Williams, leading to a series of solo trumpet features in major film scores — perhaps most notably in Born on the Fourth of July, where his haunting solo work earned widespread praise. His studio work in Los Angeles further expanded his reach, contributing to the emotional core of numerous motion pictures in collaboration with Williams and other leading composers.

Whether on the concert stage, in chamber settings, or behind the scenes of a Hollywood recording session, Tim Morrison’s trumpet playing has left an indelible mark on the musical landscape — a voice at once soaring, human, and timeless.

I need to post this wonderful review of my playing by Tim. "Better than Bud"? (the legendary Adolph Herseth of the CSO). I don't think so, but wow!

Dude, I just listened the opening of the Reiner recording of Domestica and you sounded better than Bud, easily😄
I think if anyone were to listen to multiple recordings of the "big boys" playing that call, you'd likely win the challenge. Honestly, I don't think anyone could play it any better than you did. You simply went for it and gobbled it up. When I was listening to it for the first time, it was kind of an omg moment for me, Dougie. Played with such confidence and authority. I was expecting a pretty good moment, but not quite THAT good🤨

Neptune Transits

• 1928-43 Virgo
• 1942-57 Libra
• 10/19/56-11/6/70 Scorpio
• 1970-84 Sag
• 1984-98 Capricorn
• 1998-2012 Aquarius
• 2011-26 Pisces
• 2026-40 Aries
• 2040-54 Taurus

Pluto Transits

• PLUTO IN ARIES
  1578-1607 || 1822-1852 || 2068-2097
• PLUTO IN TAURUS
  1607-1639 || 1852-1884 || 2097-2129
• PLUTO IN GEMINI
  1396-1424 || 1639-1669 || 1884-1914
• PLUTO IN CANCER
  1424-1447 || 1669-1692 || 1914-1938
• PLUTO IN LEO
  1447-1464 || 1692-1710 || 1938-1957
• PLUTO IN VIRGO
  1464-1478 || 1710-1724 || 1957-1971
• PLUTO IN LIBRA
  1478-1490 || 1724-1736 || 1971-1984
• PLUTO IN SCORPIO
  1490-1502 || 1736-1748 || 1984-1995
• PLUTO IN SAGITTARIUS
  1502-1515 || 1748-1762 || 1995-2008
• PLUTO IN CAPRICORN
  1515-1532 || 1762-1788 || 2008-2023
• PLUTO IN AQUARIUS
  1532-1553 || 1778-1797 || 2023-2044
• PLUTO IN PISCES
  1553-1578 || 1797-1822 || 2044-2068

My Timeline (in development)

Parma

Bloomfield Hills

Interlochen

NEC

MBA

Santa Fe / Phoenix

SF

Mikey

East Bay

SRS

ESO

Novato

The Great Conspiracies of History (in development)

The really good conspiracies are like fine wine. They're an acquired taste but once you've sampled the richness, you can't go back to the 'normal' vintages.

QAnon is the worst fast food conspiracy junk imaginable. A good conspiracy must be actually plausible, has to have a basis in reality, has to be doable by humans with all their faults and foibles. Nothing supernatural. And, there's always money and/or power involved.

Santa Claus

My favorite theory as to the origin of the Santa Claus myth is the magic mushroom. The Amanita muscaria is a bright red mushroom with white spots, which resembles Santa's iconic red suit with white trim. Various cultures used this mushroom in their spiritual rituals. The shamans in Siberia, for example, would dress in red and white and go from house to house in a reindeer-pulled sled distributing the mushrooms which were strung to pine tree branches. Doors would often be blocked by snow so they would make their deliveries through the smoke-hole or chimney. The hallucinogenic qualities of the mushrooms would provide a magical, transformative "trip" which were considered gifts and blessings. Sound familiar?

To think that the most wholesome, kid-friendly, "cookies and milk" holiday was based on people tripping out on mushrooms is a mind-expander. For whatever reasons, we Westerners have been very suppressive when it comes to mind-altering experiences. Perhaps it undermines the dominant paradigm!

JFK

RFK

Another casualty of the Vietnam war. Manchurian Candidate Girl in the Polka Dot Dress Bullet count Where RFK was shot Thane Cesar Destruction of evidence, surborning of witnesses

Pearl Harbor

This introduces the concept of LIHOP versus MIHOP (Let It Happen On Purpose versus Made It Happen On Purpose). Most conspiracies involve a MIHOP - where the central players of the conspiracy contrive to make it happen. 9/11 is a perfect example of MIHOP. Pearl Harbor, in my opinion, is a LIHOP. FDR and his administration needed a motivating incident to prod a reluctant US public into World War II. Resistance to involvement in the world's troubles was very stiff, and support for the fascists was surprisingly strong (see Charles Lindberg). FDR was greatly aware that England might not be able to resist Hitler much longer and in the East, the Japanese were taking over one colonial stronghold after another.

The US military had cracked the Japanese communication codes and intercepted a lot of traffic pointing to the Pearl Harbor attack as imminent. In fact, all of the big aircraft carriers normally docked in Pearl Harbor were ordered out to sea, leaving just some destroyers and smaller ships for the Japanese. Of course, the US aircraft carriers were completely decisive in the battles to come. If they had not been told to leave Pearl Harbor, the war might have had a different outcome.

So, I come down on the side of LIHOP. FDR and the military needed an inciting incident which could be fully blamed on Japan. They had been trying to pressure Japan into some kind of action with their oil embargos and other provocative actions. A surprise attack on the US fleet would be the perfect trigger - they likely were quite aware of the possibility and decided to suppress any warnings or obvious defensive preparation. They LIHOP'd it. FDR was more interested in the European front but they couldn't predict Hitler's reaction. He could have held back from declaring war on the US but thoughtlessy and over-confidently, he did just that. The terrible power of hubris. This allowed FDR to completely shift the country into a war footing and the game was on.

9/11

Definitely MIHOP.

Aliens

Christ

Jack the Ripper

Shakespeare

Lincoln

World War I

Hitler in S.A.

The Trump Era

"Like nothing we've ever seen", as he would say. (And, as usual, not true or accurate). The mind reels at the current state of affairs. I was born in the Eisenhower era - was 8 years old for the Kennedy assassination, 12 for RFK and MLK, in high school for Watergate. Thought I'd seen the worse with Nixon, revised my opinion during the George W Bush era (really, the Cheney era) because we'd experienced a major shift in America (and the world). With 9/11 as the trigger (see My Favorite Conspiracies), we transformed from an open, even fun society with a sax-playing, foolin'-around President who was erudite, compassionate, broad-minded, and incredibly successful (balanced budget, prosperity, peace) into a paranoid security state.

Sometimes I think that paranoid period was more impactful than the Trump era in that it turned us inside out. Air travel changed forever and the world became an uptight and inconvenient place. Security is now the major impediment to everything - from travel to doing any kind of business on the web, with banks, with the government. Mistrust is the norm. Did that make us safer? Not that I can tell, although one of the problems with security is that you don't see the bomb that didn't blow up or the terrorist plot that was foiled in the nick of time. But, are we really safer? With the proliferation of insanely powerful guns and the propagation of hate and bitterness via the internet, we are far less safe in our daily lives then ever before, and thanks to Fox News and others, we're at each others' throats. There was also the ugliness of our unneccessary and unsuccessful foreign wars with the consequent damages to our morale, reputation and treasure. Oh, and then the economic collapse brought up by our regulators being asleep at the wheel.

But then came Obama - and my faith in humanity was rewarded - for a minute. The most powerful country in the world exhibited enough confidence in itself that a white majority elected a "person of color". He proved to be of superior ethics, general competence and even grace and nobility. However, the racism that always lurks in the dark started bubbling up and I think the conservatives and reactionaries and latent racists were deeply alarmed by his ascension and maybe more by his success. This proved to them that they weren't a "superior race", even though they couldn't admit it. Ugliness and aggressiveness started to well up from the pits below. A bellicose, mendacious, posturing, egomaniac fabricator and fantasist saw his opportunity and began to tap into the dark side of suspicion, denialism, resentment, shame and racism and started his rise to power with his birther conspiracy. Being soundly slapped down with the facts and humor only strengthened his resolve to get into power and get even.

When he first started his campaign, most of our reactions were - "yeah, right, that guy? What a joke." I know mine was. He's such an obvious phony - from top (his super-weird hair) to bottom (lifts?). His history was checkered to say the least. What responsible finance person would vote for someone who had 11 bankruptcies? What general contractor would vote for someone who didn't pay his contractors? What military person would find him an honorable person to lead the military? What woman would vote for a self-admitted (and eventually convicted) sexual assaulter? What Christrian would vote for an adulterer, cheater, liar and fornicator? What moral, honest, intelligent person would vote for someone who is none of these?

Lots and lots - as it turned out. Enough to put him over the top in 2016 against a vastly more competent, experienced, connected, rational, thoughtful, compassionate but somehow deeply hated woman. The long and scurilous campaign against the Clintons finally paid off. I also think that there was some resistance to the attitude of inevitability of a Hillary victory. Americans like a surprise. Plus, Trump's salemanship managed to put lipstick on a pig and con enough people to make the difference.

OMG! WTF! (Choke) - were my basic reactions on election night. Impossible! This can't have happened! What is going on with the US? What didn't I get?

I, and probably most responsible liberal types, dove deeply into the topic. We read everything we could find about the Red States and their people. In fact, Paula and I went on a several weeks car tour called "The Red States Trip". What we discovered was that things were normal and in fact much improved since I last visited.

We had a great time and met so many lovely people. America is a beautiful and bountiful country (in most places). It has a fascinating history with contrasting archaeological layers of horror and redemption, but we somehow land sunny-side up and continue to evolve socially while institutionalizing liberal progress - in civil rights, workers' rights, the rights of women, etc. However, change takes time to filter down and is often met with organized resistance and backlash. One thing the conservatives have is patience. They work tirelessly for power and are aided by a seeming immunity to shame and charges of hypocrisy.

So, what happened? And what continues to happen in increasingly alarming ways?

There's lots of interesting theories. One of my favorites is the "shame to blame" hypothesis. The idea here is that his supporters carry around shame at themselves and their failures in life. Greed and bad governance has made life harder and harder to afford. Life itself is a challenge and some people aren't well-equipped for it. They don't adapt and become miserable. They know it's their fault, but accepting the blame and responsibility for that is too much to bear. They welcome someone who can shift the blame on to someone else. This is exactly what happened in Nazi Germany where a majority felt demoralized and defeated by World War I. (It didn't help that the Allies were extremely punitive and judgy, either). They couldn't take it and when someone came along with a ready scapegoat and easy explanation, they bought it. It must be the immigrants!

Another aspect of this is the "rebel". Rebels are cool. "Resist the dominant paradigm!" In my day, the rebels were the hippies and college intellectuals who were fighting the good fight against overt racism and a terrible war. They were scorned and marginalized and attacked (until the moral tide shifted. They started to inherit the positions of the establishment they had fought against and America continued to institutionalize their liberal values. I believe the full bloom of that was the Obama era. The dream became the reality.

Well - what goes up must come down. The yin-yang of it all. This period is inevitable. Life MUST balance.

The recently assassinated right-wing activist, Charlie Kirk, really embodied the new rebellion. He's reactionary and illiberal and in my opinion, holds some nasty views and has said some nasty things. "MLK was a bad person", "gun deaths are justified to keep the 2nd Amendment", "wives should submit to your husband" and so on and so forth. In other words, a reactionary and someone almost worse than the establishment our generation fought against.

However, turns out he was considered "cool" by lots of people. He was the new rebel fighting against the dominant paradigm.

Trump is an opportunistic, always has been. He's not a strategist and is no theorist or social engineer. He has a predator's sensitivity to weakness and fear. You can watch his methodology develop in real time. He'd throw stuff at the wall and see what stuck. Build the Wall! Yay! Ban Woke! Yay! Transgenders! Boo! He's like a stand-up comic refining his routine based on audience reaction.

However, the Trump era is not over. More to come..