Freddie Reiter and Ska

Ska is a genre of music that came from Jamaica around the 1950s. The style was created when people living in the Caribbean attempted to recreate the R&B from New Orleans that they heard over the radio. The heavy beat which emphasizes the upbeats defines this style, and also defines styles that followed such as rocksteady and Reggae. The history of Ska can be divided into 3 waves: The first being the original creators, the second wave  when the music reached Britian and gained a more Punk flavor, and the 3rd wave where Ska expanded even more.

Ska-Jazz is a variation on this. It's takes the strong beat of Ska and combines it with the melodic themes of Jazz. Something a Ska-Jazz band would do is play a John Coltrane melody with the ska beat. This subgenre came from the 3rd wave of Ska, but lacks the punk flavoring most Ska of the wave had. Also (according to my saxophone teacher) Ska bands have the best names, such as the Squirrel Nut Zippers and Reel Big Fish.

Freddie Reiter is a musician who plays this kind of music with his band the New York Ska-Jazz Ensemble, and previously, The Toasters. Many difficulties come from creating a band that combines musical styles. His band comes more from an origin of Jazz than for Ska, so it's difficult to keep a modern jazz flavor with a classic Ska theme as to not turn away people who like Ska in it's basic form. The balance of keeping all fans happy is very delicate.

Here's an interesting interview on Freddie Reiter if you guys are curious.

The Privilege to Watch Movies

Christmas break in Minnesota was actually a bit interesting. It's nice to visit and see what a small town is like. It seems homey. The people are friendly. There's a bit family vibe, and there's so much you can learn about the people's lives.

One of the days during the trip I went to see a movie called Unstoppable (It's a movie about 2 people stopping a runaway train. It's pretty much as good a movie as you can make about 2 people stopping a runaway train). After seeing the movie, my mom and I were on our way out of the theater. We see a jar on a table, labelled "New Technology Fund". My mom begins conversation with the woman who works there, curious. Shyly, I watched and listened.

"You know not that many movies come out on film anymore. We need to buy a whole new silver screen to replace the one we already got, just because it runs digital movies. That's a big money eater. We also got to buy the new projection equipment. It's a lot more expensive than the old style equipment. Then we got to buy a technician to run the equipment, and that's an entirely new job we gotta pay for. We don't make much money, so this is really difficult for us. It's sending many movie theaters out of business, this new technology. And it's always changing, which means we need to always buy more improvements for it. It ain't easy."

Now let's keep in mind. In Minnesota, they don't have a movie theater every 5 miles, and seeing a movie isn't a regular weekend activity. They only have one theater for at least 20 miles, and that theater only has one screen. If that movie theater closes, people will have to drive a half hour out to Fairmont to see any film. This means that people won't go out to see movies very often. The art of film is simply not readily available to them.

"I took over this movie theater around 8 or 9 years ago. It wasn't in good shape, but me and my husband fixed it up. I just love movies so much, I wanted to be able to give that privilege to others."

I'm not saying this new film technology is bad. I just thought it was interesting how much effort this woman put into her theater so that she could give the joy of movies to as many people as she possibly can. I really admire that, and I think it's a shame that her and so many others have to go through these problems.