The Library Lets Loose

Thomas Jefferson said that a well educated populous was essential to a functioning democracy. Ben Franklin established the first US lending library in Philadelphia and the first library supported by tax payers was in New Hampshire in 1833.

Recent research has shown what most of us already knew. That a person with a wide knowledge on a variety of subjects, who is well read, is more creative and makes better decisions and has demonstrably better brain functions than someone with only specific knowledge on one subject or a person with more limited experiences. Obviously, reading improves your brain.

I was fortunate to fall in love with public libraries at an early age and have been a supporter of libraries all of my life. I became a regular patron of the Johnson County Library when I moved here in 1974. More recently the Johnson County Library has become a client.

Last Saturday, October 14, was the annual fundraiser for the Johnson County Library Foundation and Friends of the Library - "The Library Lets Loose."

There was great food supplied by area restaurants, music, art, and even a poetry stage. My good friend, Dave Cedillo, was there as a performance artist. My friends "Betse & Clark" played, as did another great band, "My Brothers and Sisters."

I posted a number of photos on my gallery site: JimMathisPhotography.com.

Here is the direct link to the "Library Lets Loose" photos.

Please take a look and support your public library. And more importantly, read every thing you can.

Vinyl LP Records

I have a few thousand LP's. For you younger folks that would be "vinyl." For you older folks, "records." The correct term is LP for Long Playing records. Vinyl LP records came out in the mid 1950's and were replaced with CD's in the mid 1980's. That means that all of the music recorded in the classical era of rock and country was originally released on vinyl records.

The advantage of CD's was that they were cheaper to make and could be sold at a premium price, so the profit was much higher. A side benefit was that the manufacturing process was more consistent, so on the average, the sound quality was better. They were also easier to handle and store than LP's and CD players could be made smaller and shake resistant so they could be installed in automobiles. The down side for us visual artist types was that the cover art of a 5 inch CD was less than a fourth the size of a 12 inch LP.

 

So now I have thousands of vinyl records, all of which I have owned for over 30 years, that I am trying to decide if I should digitize. When people call for a quote to digitize all of their old slides or negatives, I ask them why they want to do that. If it is to preserve them, I usually talk them out of it because they already have a permanent original. If it is for easy access, great. Digital is much easier to share, print, or use in a publication.

It is the same decision I need to make with my old records. The original vinyl records are valuable artifacts, but if I want an easier way to access, share, or listen to music, having the whole collection cataloged on a hard drive would be amazing. Having all that music on a USB drive to play in my car would also be very cool.

Just need a few hundred spare hours to get this completed. Wonder when that will be?

My Birthday

As I celebrate living on this planet another year and life's odometer ticks over another digit, it is good to glance in the rearview mirror to see where I've been and maybe look out the windshield to see what is ahead.

For one thing, I have been blessed to share the road with an amazing woman for 47 years. Together we have seen a lot of places, met a lot of wonderful people, and heard some really cool music. I have read hundreds of books and have written a handful as well. I have also written a few half-way decent songs.

 

I have spent my life making photographs and have tens of thousands of them in my files, which mean several hundred of them are pretty good.

I now realize that I have clothes in my closet older than some of my friends. I remember when gasoline was a quarter a gallon, but two hours of work still would barely get you a hundred miles down the road. But what matters is that I have worked hard and traveled a lot of miles. The people I have met along the way have made life worth living.

For the majority of my life I have been a follower of Jesus. I take His life and teaching seriously - love God, love one another, seek joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control.

I now know that there are more miles in the rearview mirror than through the windshield. The Bible doesn't say anything about retiring, but it does say for the older people to teach the younger. As we get a few miles on us, teaching what we have learned to those behind us becomes our most important job.

The road ahead looks bright. Storms, roadblocks and detours are sure to come, but we press on toward the final destination. I hope to see you there.

 

Khan Academy

Our education normally starts when we are about 3 or 4 years old with our parents reading to us. If they do this regularly, we develop a love of books and a love of learning which gives us a running start for school. Elementary age through high school we develop basic skills in reading, writing, math, science, and an introduction to things like history and geography. A college degree demonstrates that we are willing and able to learn.  

 

The real indicator of success in life is a desire for continued education and life-long learning. The government appreciates this fact to the point that we can take a tax deduction for tuition, get cash back credit for college expenses, and are allowed legitimate business deductions for continued education costs.

 

 Followers of Jesus know that his full-time occupation was as a teacher. He taught in synagogues, small groups, and spoke at large seminars and conferences. Any place there were people willing to hear, he was willing to teach.   

 

Through much of history, education was elusive and a mark of class distinction. Now educational opportunities are available to everyone. Every community of any size has a library and most of the world's knowledge is available at our fingertips. All we need is an internet connection and a device to connect.

 

The internet age has proven that access to knowledge is not enough though, we have to have a conscientious plan, a desire to learn, and wise discernment. 

 

One outstanding resource is Khan Academy. Salmon Khan started tutoring his cousin in math and ended up developing an online college with thousands of classes on a huge variety of subjects available free of charge. I am currently taking a class on World History and have Art History and Macroeconomics coming up. I am really enjoying it.    

 

Proverbs 2:10-12 says, "You will become wise, and your knowledge will give you pleasure. Your insight and understanding will protect you and prevent you from doing the wrong thing." Can't get any plainer than that.

Relics

Keith Richards once commented that you can't play rock and roll with a guitar that looks like your parents just bought it for you for Christmas. That comment fueled the demand for vintage guitars. As prices soared and the supply dried up, people started buying new guitars and beating them with chains and sanding down the finish to make them look old and beat up. Soon the manufacturers got into the game and started selling "Relic" guitars, new guitars that came from the factory already beat up and worn.

This seems right in line with pre-ripped jeans and new scruffy looking jackets. To those of us who throw away our old and ripped jeans and carefully polish our guitars after each gig, this seems kind of bizarre.

Now I am seeing apps that make your photos look like poorly processed film from the sixties. I spent most of my photography career trying to minimize grain, trying to keep highlights from blowing out, and shadows from blocking up. Now that look is in style along with beat up guitars and ripped up jeans.

I have to admit, however, a certain appeal of "Rat Rods." These are cars that look like that were put together from a few old junk yard parts for nothing, when in reality they costs tens of thousands of dollars and thousands of hours to build.

Could the automobile manufacturers start building pre-wrecked cars and home builders start building homes that look like they were already hit by a hurricane? Remember you saw it here first.

However, if you see me out on a photography job, I probably got there in a shiny new car and I will be using a new camera with the latest technology. Just saying.

 

College Education

It is off to college time again for many families. There seems to be a lot of discussion about the value of a college education and what types of things should be taught. Also, what about trade or technical school?

I went to trade school to learn to be a television repairman and then to college to study electrical engineering. It seemed like a logical transition to me. I repaired TV's for a couple of summers and then realized that I didn't care for televisions or engineering, so I transferred to Finance, which was sort of trade school for people who wanted to be bankers or CFO's.

Since I have been self-employed my whole life, I never worked in any of those industries, but I have found that a basic background in both of those things to be somewhat helpful, even though many of the things I learned quickly became obsolete, if they were even true then.

Since my college days I have spent almost all of my leisure time trying to learn the things I should have learned in school: history, art, and literature for example. In other words, I got a Liberal Arts Education on my own after I left college. The important thing I learned in college was how to stop being a kid and start being an adult, something too many people never learn. I also learned how to be a friend and the kind of person that people want to work with. I developed curiosity and a desire to learn new things. That desire for continued education has made all the difference. These are all things I learned from classmates and the environment, not in a classroom.

Is a college degree worth the money? It would certainly be better if it didn't cost so much, and you could certainly learn all the technical stuff just by spending a few days a week at the public library for a few years. College should make you tougher and more open to other people and cultures, not isolate you from the world for four years. Choosing a major based on starting salaries is total folly as is going into massive debt to come out over-degreed and undereducated.

In our society, a college education has become a necessity to be considered for many occupations. One's ability and desire to continue learning and to be adaptable and productive is difficult to measure but so vital to life in today's world. We need to work to make a good education accessible to everyone. 

Woodstock

I’ve been watching the Woodstock movie again. I have watched it several times over the years and every time I see it, or another documentary about the late ‘60s, I ask “What happened?” What happened to the ideology, the naiveté, the good music? Why didn’t this peace and love thing catch on? 

Many people say it was the drugs. I don’t think so. The drug thing was just a side show, a distraction. That is not why so many people turned from the ideals of peace and love and helping one another to materialism and distrust. I believe that most people of the Woodstock generation didn’t really want to change the world; they were just there to party. When the party was over, they started building houses that were three times as big as their parents. The average new house today is more than three times the size of the average house built in the 1950’s and ‘60s. They eventually returned to the materialistic lifestyle they learned from the previous generation.

For some of us, we found the true source, faith in Jesus Christ. Often the traditional church was slow to accept these folks who had little regard for stained glass and 19^th century hymns, so they started their own churches. The Bible lists the whole list of ideals in Galatians 5: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” That is it. That is how you identify a follower of Christ. Except for maybe the self-control part, that pretty much describes the hippies of 50 years ago.

I have often thought about what Jesus would have said and done had he walked on earth during that time. That is the subject of my book, “Jesus of Kansas.” It is available as a free download at JesusOfKansas.com. Check it out.

Texas Flood

It is hard not to be touched by the catastrophic flooding unfolding in southeast Texas. I heard from a friend in Houston who said they were dry but their house is now on an island. That is probably not unusual. When I hear of a disaster like this, I naturally think about what my response would be and what my level of preparedness is for myself and family. At what point do you decide to persevere and when do you make the decision to evacuate? 

This is both a practical and a metaphorical question. Our culture puts a lot of emphasis on perseverance and being steadfast and strong in the face of disaster. There is not a lot of talk about knowing when to flee, close the business, or evacuate the area. One definition of wisdom is to “Know when to hold them, know when to fold them.” The history of business is littered when names of companies who held on to a losing hand too long: Eastman Kodak, Montgomery Ward, Border’s Books. All stood firm as the tides of change arose around them. 

In the face of a storm, do we know of a trigger point where we would say, “I am out of here?” It might be a real storm like a hurricane, tornado, flood, or forest fire, or a metaphorical one like a bad relationship, bad job, or living in an economically depressed area.

The Texas flood gives those of us on higher ground an opportunity to think about our own situation. Is it time to evacuate this job, this business, this product line, or even this town? Knowing when to run is a sign of wisdom. Keep praying for wisdom and safety for our friends in southeast Texas.

A Short History of Stage Monitors

A Short History of Stage Monitors.

For most of civilization there was no need for stage monitors. Musicians just listened to each other and tried to blend in. My first experience with monitors was in a radio station. Bands often played live and there was a speaker hanging on the wall so you could hear the announcer and know when to play. They killed the monitor when the music started to prevent feedback.

By the 1960’s, when I started playing a lot louder, in bigger venues, and often outside, it became very hard to hear the rest of the band. Different bands tried different techniques. One of the most famous was the Grateful Dead’s Wall of Sound. They put all of the speakers behind the band and eliminated feedback with out of phase microphones.

We decided to go with two separate sound systems, one with the speakers facing the audience and another with the speakers facing the band. The goal, as always, was to be able to hear exactly what the audience is hearing. If the band is hearing the same thing as the audience, you can play with dynamics, sing or play louder or softer as appropriate, always aware of what the other band members are doing. This was the setup used at Woodstock. By most accounts, the sound system was the only thing that worked right there.

Most bands started using this system and some started laying the speakers on the floor in front of them. Speaker manufactures picked up on this and started making wedge shaped speakers.

At some point, musicians figured out that they could customize the mix to each speaker and the phrase “more me” was born. Mike Finnigan was always complaining to the sound guy that he couldn’t hear when he was playing to organ. The sound man built a little speaker with its own amp and sat it on the organ and the personal monitor was born.

It was a short step from there to in-ear-monitors - ear buds that each musician can control themselves. It is now possible to totally tune out everything but yourself. You can even listen to the ball game if you wanted. I am sure it has happened. The whole idea seems pretty narcissistic to me and not enough team play.

The idea of needing to hear what the audience is hearing so you can adjust accordingly seems to have gone away. We have given artistic authority to the sound crew which are probably not musicians and usually have no idea what the artist would like to sound like.

There are signs of change. Bose is making a portable sound system that sits behind the band so everyone is hearing the same thing. I hope this idea grows to bigger systems, and we can get back to musicians being in charge of their sound,

Mobility

One of the things that has confused me for some time is how there can be so much economic diversity in a relative small area. For example, one town can have a labor shortage with employers begging for people and a nearby town can have very high unemployment. 

This question was addressed in an article in the Wall Street Journal last week. It seems that American’s mobility is at an all-time low. People are less likely to move to another town than they have ever been before. We are no longer a mobile society and it is hurting the economy in all sorts of ways.

The Journal article interviewed several people to try to understand why this is so. Some of the reasons made sense. People didn’t want to move away from family or friends, or they had strong ties to the local community, church, or businesses. But the surprising thing was that a large number of people are just plain scared of the unknown, or are unwilling to accept or adjust to different cultures.  Some people had gone away to college, but dropped out and returned home within weeks because their comfort and customs had been challenged. They were then mentally doomed to stay in their own town regardless of the economic situation.

My wife and I and many of our friends, grew up in small towns, went away to college and settled in large cities. But for many people, and more all the time, this is just too big of a leap. The culture barrier has become too big. 

The conventional wisdom is that TV and the other media have homogenized the country, but that isn’t the case, it has just made many people more fearful. Fear is a real emotion, but everyone has to decide if they will be paralyzed by it, or motivated to action so that it does not stop all that they can become and achieve.

Doing the Right Thing

In 1962 a trumpet player in Los Angeles wanted to record a song he wrote. He didn’t have much money so he convinced some of the top studio cats to record the song for $15 each. The trumpet player’s name was Herb Alpert and the song was “The Lonely Bull.” The trumpet solo became a top 10 hit in the fall of 1962 and made Alpert an instant millionaire. 

He then went to the musician’s union and paid a fine for recording without a union contract and then paid the musicians their fair share earning him high respect among the musicians and technicians involved. They then recorded the rest of the album and many more over the next several years as “Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass.” In 1964, Alpert formed another band to tour under that name. 

The success of the TJB project allowed him to form A&M Records with Jerry Moss. A&M went on to become the largest independent record label in the United States, signing dozens of top stars with dozens of hit records before they sold the company in 1989. Herb Alpert and his wife of 44 years, Lani Hall, are now major supporters of the arts and environmental issues through the Herb Alpert Foundation.

I like this story because it reminds me that having high integrity and doing the right thing always wins in the end. Always having the highest integrity and doing the right thing by our customers and employees was the goal when we formed Mathis Photo, Inc. in 1973, Homer’s Coffee House in 2001, and Mathis Photography in 2008.

There has always been a wide range of people from scam artists to people with very high integrity in all kinds and sizes of businesses. Always try to do business with the best people. It is not hard to tell which is which if you pay attention.