As Lenny Bruce once said, "A knowledge of venerial disease is not a prescription to go out and get it." (He was saying that a knowledge of human sexuality was a good thing to teach in schools.)

Preferring traditional folk to pop folk does not exclude me from appreciating Bird and Dizzy (and listening to them and so many more)every chance I get.Some of my best friends are S/Ss. Doc Watson played rock and Western Swing every weekend for years before Clarence Ashley got him to play the older traditional things (also in his background)so they could work the new college and festival folk circuit of the 60s. They chose not to tell the folkies about their background in other musics. All I'm saying is that I prefer coffee straight to the watered down kind. I can see through the watered down stuff.

There are very real and very valid reasons for us to draw easily seen lines around aspects of life. If only to preserve privacy rights, we have doors on the rooms of a house. And as Lenny also said, "We have separate bathrooms and bedrooms so nobody will come along and toss crap on us while we're sleeping." I don't think it helps us to build homes without walls.

In the Black Hills-1874, Custer, in collusian with the railroad who wanted to build through the Sioux lands, said he'd found gold. All that was necessary to assure a white stampede westward was to find a bit of the yellow stuff there--and in California. By broadening the definitions, and erasing the lines, many good singers have seen it as being in their economic interest to adopt folk as a means to an end--success. It's just sad for me to watch the glitz and other stuff come pouring through the bedroom unopposed while I'm asleep.

This is just my way of keeping one eye open while I get the needed rest.

Art