22 Aug 08

Convict Justice (by Shane)

Shane - After being denied psychiatric medication by ValueOptions, Shane turned to illegal drugs he financed with burglaries. The medication in prison caused him to suffer a period of spontaneous ejaculations.

I was 19 and in a maximum-security prison. It was my second month there. Wanting to remain independent rather than clique up, I made friends with a couple of recognized independents on the yard.

One such independent became my partner. Although quite an intense guy at times, he was a jovial person. He looked like the ’80’s wrestler Ultimate Warrior. Steve was a character.

“Hey, youngster, I got a favor to ask you. I need you to watch my back today going to chow,” Steve asked one day, a serious expression on his usually smiling face.
“What’s up?” I responded.
“I gotta handle this chomo who just drove up, and I don’t want anybody jumpin’ on me.”
Suspecting Steve was testing me, I agreed to watch his back.
Pointing his finger at me, he ended our conversation with, “Just make sure nobody stops me.”

Still a fish on the yard, cautious but wanting to do right by prison politics and morals, my mind justified what was about to happen. A child molester would get a beat down, and that would be that. Convict justice.

Later in the day, we walked to the chow hall together.
“Fall in behind me and stay with me,” Steve whispered as we weaved our way through the throng of prisoners heading for the chow hall.
As we passed beneath the gun tower, a notorious blind spot for the guards, Steve made his move.
In one fluid motion, Steve turned throwing a right hook to the cheek of a large heavyset man walking next to him. The punch landed flush with a loud crack as bone shattered.
The man staggered backwards, instinctively grabbing his fractured right cheek.
Instantly, the crowd parted leaving the three of us exposed.
As I circled Steve and the man, hand extended towards the crowd, I felt awkward but ready to fight.
Stunned, the man didn’t react other than to grab his face, so Steve took advantage and kicked the side of the man’s thick knee. Another bone-breaking crack sounded. Crying out in agony, the man went down.
He was on his side grasping his knee when Steve kicked him twice in the face, the second kick opening a long, deep gash below his left eye. Blood gushed down his face as he slumped forward face down.
Glancing down at the badly beaten man, Steve withdrew a newspaper clipping from his pocket, wadded it up and threw it in the blood pooling around the man’s head. “Don’t come back, chomo, or you’re through,” Steve said to the motionless man as he walked away, blending back into the crowd, which began its movement towards the chow hall again.
We moved on.

Once inside the chow hall, we split up. It didn’t take long for the man to be found. Minutes after we were inside the chow hall, guards locked both doors to contain us, while the man was transported off the yard.
When the doors were unlocked again, a guard was posted at the exit to do “knuckle checks” as we left the chow hall.
What shocked me more than the savage beating was how the guard waived Steve through without a glance as he exited.

After that day, I distanced myself from Steve. Despite having learned that the newspaper clipping described how the man pled guilty to molesting his six-year-old stepdaughter, I felt a miniscule amount of sympathy for the man having being beaten so badly.

Steve died a couple of months after this from a heroin overdose.
The child molester never returned to the yard, but he survived the beating.

Over the years I’ve struggled with sexual predator punishment. Part of me believes they deserve harsh punishment for their sickening crimes. But there’s a part of me that thinks they are human beings and human beings shouldn’t treat others so cruelly. Even if that person does cruel and disgusting things.

We touched on the subject of convict justice in the blog “Rapist on the Yard” by Warrior. Shane seems to have had a more complex reaction to the situation than Warrior. How do you feel about Shane’s “ miniscule amount of sympathy?”

Shane is looking for someone to manage his blog.

Email comments to writeinside@hotmail.com or post them below

Copyright © 2007-2008 Shaun P. Attwood

20 Aug 08

Women in Prison: From Lifer Renee (Letter 3)

As a teenager, Renee received a sixty-year sentence from a judge in Pima County. Fourteen years into her sentence, she is writing from Perryville prison in Goodyear, Arizona.


July 27, 2008

Hi Shaun,

How are you doing? I hope all is well.

I turned 33 two days ago. I had a nice birthday. I am blessed by the people I have met in here. They are truly wonderful and I am thankful they are in my life.

My friend Marta went to Europe a few years ago. I remember telling her to take me. She said she would if she could. I told her to just take the camera with her. I asked her to take pictures of places and things. She did. She sent them to me. Pictures of beautiful castles, where she born. I love those pictures. She wrote on the back everything for me, so I knew what I was looking at. It seemed so beautiful and fairy tale like always.

This last week has been crazy. There are a lot of ladies here who have seizures. Medical doesn’t really respond.
A spider bit this one girl, Tiffany McNeish, on her foot. She told the officers on every shift. They stated they called Medical and for her to put in a Health Needs Request form.
Four days later she was seen by Medical, who stated they were never advised by staff. They prescribed her two antibiotics and IBU’s. Her first dose of medication she had an allergic reaction and was given allergy tablets.
On July 14 she had two grand mal seizures back to back. She was slobbering, slurring her words, appeared childlike. Her left hand was clenched into a tight fist, unable to move it. The response in her eyes was childlike. She was unable to walk by herself without help. She was walking like a 5’ 5” toddler taking her first steps. There was swelling by her temple. Yet Medical did not respond on the 14th.
On July 15th the nurse came down and said, “The reason the doctor will not give you your medication is because you will be getting out in 2 weeks and we are afraid you will not follow up.” Finally, on July 17, 2008, the CO II working the yard and the day shift sergeant were told once again of Tiffany’s seizures. When Tiffany was taken to Medical, Dr. S. assumed she was, “on drugs and had an overdose reaction,” as stated by Tiffany.
She was taken to the hospital.
Tiffany stated she woke up on 7/19/08 and asked where she was.
Hospital staff told her she was in the hospital and asked her if she did drugs or was assaulted.
She said, “No. I was having seizures.”
The hospital did a CAT scan and determined her jaw was dislocated.
The doctor told Tiffany her MRI was “pretty normal.”
The next day she informed she had a white spot on her brain and they needed to do a spinal tap. She was advised after the spinal tap that the fluid in her spine was not clear and it would take a few days for results.
On the 21st she started physical therapy. Her left arm and leg never went back to normal.
On the 22nd she was brought back to the yard and placed in K-23 (a kitchen that was remodelled to a dorm style housing unit).
She was fitted with a brace for her arm.
She was told by a transportation CO II that she didn’t need her brace.
It is now the 27th and Medical still has not gotten her the brace she needs for her leg.

She is due to be released on Tuesday 7/29/08.
She is not in the physical condition she was in when she came to prison. This is due to Medical’s lack of care.
She is 27 years old and I worry about her. I did not know her until this happened. Me, Terri, and a few of our other friends help her. Terri has helped her do a form of physical therapy. She is able to open her hand somewhat and now is able to place shoes on her feet. Walking is still an extended effort for her, but she attempts it because all Tiffany really wants is to be “normal again.”
All of this saddens my heart. She goes home in two days and is certainly not walking out the way she walked in.

I must close for now. I will write more later. I hope to hear from you soon.

Always,

Renee

To read Letter 2 from Renee click here.

What happened to Tiffany is just one example of the lack of medical care prevalent throughout America’s prisons. Hopefully, Tiffany has someone outside of prison who can help her file a lawsuit.

Email comments to writeinside@hotmail.com or post them below

Copyright © 2008 Shaun P. Attwood

Ying String Quartet: Zhou Long and Globalization of the Ineffable

T  he standard three-work structure of most quartet recitals normally limits the performance of contemporary pieces to just one quartet. In our programming of contemporary Chinese-American works, we have decided to include shorter works. This enables our audiences to sample a broader range of living Chinese-American composers in a single concert, in the same way that the style of eating Chinese food called ‘dim sum’ involves a wide variety of bite-sized delicacies.”
  —  Phillip Ying.

The CD, ‘Dim Sum’, released on Telarc by the Ying String Quartet earlier this year is a wonderful collection of new Chinese-American chamber music miniatures.


The disc has twelve tracks:

• Zhou Long: Song of the Ch'in
  
• Chen Yi: Shuo
  
• Bright Sheng: Silent Temple II; Silent Temple IV
  
• Ge Gan-ru: Fu
  
• Vivian Fung: Pizzicato for String Quartet
  
• Lei Liang: Gobi Gloria
  
• Chou Wen-chung: Leggeriezza; Larghetto nostalgico
  
• Tan Dun: Drum and Gong; Cloudiness; Red Sona

Of these, ‘Song of the Ch'in’ is by far my favorite. Song of the Ch'in employs string quartet to emulate the seven-stringed Ch'in. As such, the four voices are immersed in a sort of intimate collectivism, a ‘post-deconstructionist’ realism, rather than conventional quartet-like inter-part dialogues. The effect is not symphonically ‘sectional’ as much as cohesive or unified; expressing ‘interior’ views of a collective voice consisting of the four individual voices that comprise the one collective ‘self’. Through its 8’30’’ length, it’s predominantly contemplative and meditative, but its middle section does have louder dynamics and a more emphatic pulse and deconstructionist parrying among the parts, still with a pervading sense of unity and interiority.


Zhou Long, born in Beijing in 1953, is renowned for pioneering the fusion of idiomatic sounds and techniques of traditional Chinese music to modern Western instruments and ensembles. Dr. Zhou’s compositions span many different genres, from solo instrumental and chamber ensemble pieces, to orchestral works. His orchestrations combine traditional Chinese instruments with western instrumentation. In 2003 he received a lifetime achievement award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. A United States citizen since 1999, Zhou Long is married to composer-violinist Chen Yi. Both are faculty members at the UMKC Conservatory.


The Ch'in (guqin) has naturally quiet dynamics. It has a range of about four octaves, with its lowest pitch two octaves below middle C, the same as the lowest note on the cello’s open C string. Sounds are produced by plucking open strings, stopped strings, and harmonics.


Here’s the opening section:

    [50-sec clip, Ying Quartet, Zhou Long, Song of the Ch'in, 1.4MB MP3]

And another clip here, at the end of the piece:

    [50-sec clip, Ying Quartet, Zhou Long, Song of the Ch'in, 1.4MB MP3]

The gliss, pizzicato and snap pizzicato, tremolando, battuto, and other effects in the Zhou Long piece are beautiful and effective. Glisses on ch'in evoke cello effects in the low register with plenty of harmonics up in to the nether regions of the violin’s range. But here, in the Ying Quartet’s performance, violinistic technic is not some pale emulation of ch'in coloration and textures; the quartet’s execution instead conveys a consistent, unquestionable naturalness. The Yings are entirely at-home and at-ease in the material they are performing. They inhabit the pieces convincingly—they hungrily appropriate them and intently express the ‘interiority’ of the perspective they share in ensemble, from inside the work. This excellent recording must become an icon for how this can be done—an example that others can follow.

The pieces on this CD are innovative in testing the extent to which the string quartet idiom is malleable. With the long history and extensive literature that exists for it, string quartet orchestration does come with more expectations or interpretive ‘baggage’ than most other forms.

But these composers’ pieces all succeed as honest, fresh and forthright expressions, and the Yings perform them without a ‘safety net’. What I mean to say is that it is not so much an embodiment of programming bravery as a thorough-going demonstration of genuine, honest emotion. And an invitation to wonderment—honest wonderment at the world and the beauty that’s in it—this is vividly conveyed, especially in the Zhou piece. Through music, Zhou shows that the world is intelligible—not benevolent or hostile or necessarily value-laden, or conclusory, or deistic; but intelligible and meaning-ful—yet there arises the ineffable, eternal question how this could be so.

G  ifting appropriation is the positive dimension of the event, in which the thing itself always escapes [‘La chose même se dérobe toujours’], leaving in its wake, behind itself (and, hence, around us) a trail of what might constitute our environing world. This fugal movement, the flight of the thing itself, could be interpreted, in the first place, as its flight from itself (‘La chose’ flees from ‘le même’; it subtracts itself from its sameness, self-coincidence, or identity with itself) and, equally, as an instant of the thing’s self-appropriation and self-realization. More interestingly still, when it is most itself in the interior unfolding of its otherness and différance.”
  —  Michael Marder, Derrida and Différance of the Real.

This is just one piece on this beautiful CD, the Zhou Long ch'in piece. It is transcendent and accessible, and in the Yings’ hands it does these amazing, lasting, beautiful things. That’s something that any audience—even an unprepared one—can understand and enjoy and find meaningful.

Like a dim sum meal, I recommend that you savor each piece, with a gap in between. The textures and styles and meanings of these 12 tracks are widely varied, and proceeding through them pell mell would be the wrong thing to do. Any of these would make a congenial element of a chamber music concert program. I hope that more quartets choose to incorporate these into their performance repertoire.

• Ying String Quartet
  
• Zhou Long page at UMKC Conservatory
  
• Zhou Long page at Oxford University Press
  
• Strange P, Strange A. The Contemporary Violin: Extended Performance Techniques. Scarecrow, 2001.
  
• DSM. Trio Con Brio: Individualism-Collectivism in Ensemble. CMT blog, 04-FEB-2008.
  
• North American Ch'in Association
  
• London Ch'in Society
  
• New York Ch'in Society
  
• Ying Quartet. Zhou: Song of the Ch'in. (Telarc, 2008.)
  
• Olkowski D, Morley J, eds Merleau-Ponty: Interiority and Exteriority, Psychic Life and the World. SUNY, 1999.
  
• Beijing Olympics website

19 Aug 08

From Two Tonys (Letter 8)

Two Tonys - A whacker of men and Mafia associate serving multiple life sentences for murders and violent crimes. Left bodies from Tucson to Alaska, but claims all his victims "had it coming."

8-11-08

My English Dog,

That's hip-hop slang for main friend from across the pond.

I received your letter along with the Two Tonys’ blogs and your very excellent first three chapters on the trials and tribulations of Shaun in America. I’m letting others (the smart and well read) read them and in most cases I receive good grades. The rest in my opinion (which are like assholes, everybody has one and entitled to it) are Stephen Kingers, strictly McDonald’s Drive Thru material. Just kidding. I don’t want to appear too Obamaish to your blogger blokes.
Seriously, I enjoyed the chapters a lot. Having been through The Horseshoe myself a few times, it’s a real shocker to a virgin time doer. One which some never fully recover from. It can make them rats or informers, and does a lot of them.
But excellent work, me laddie.

I passed on all kudos as you instructed. All the best send L & R, fuck the rest. I’ve only got so many breaths allocated to me in a day, I’ll not be wasting them on slugs. OK, moving on.

I’m going to write a prison story for my next blog. I’ll start soon. I’ve got to get busy, but I’m not settled on the exact subject yet.

I did get called up to the yard office two days ago and a DOC investigator explained that some Gilbert cops have made inquiries about me. I wonder what’s up. I never whacked no one in Gilbert – not that I can recall. Oh well!

Cheerio

Two Tonys

PS It’s always good to hear from you. I can’t wait to read your book. Remember, I expect an autographed 1st edition copy.

Email comments to writeinside@hotmail.com or post them below

Copyright © 2007-2008 Shaun P. Attwood

Memes of Exile: Composer vs. Performers/Listeners & Strategic Choice of Key

H  ome’ is not just the place where we now live; it’s also the place where we first lived, and it’s the source of everything that our childhood meant to us.”
  —  Janet Schmalfeldt, keynote remarks at the 26th Society of Music Theory Conference, 2003.

Chopin’s piano Etude in G-flat major (6-flats key signature), Op. 10, No. 5 ‘lays so well’ under the hand. All black-keys and visually dense, sure. F-sharp (G-flat) major [D-sharp (E-flat) minor], all black keys, cognitively challenging. But, surprisingly, that Chopin Etude is as biomechanically natural as can be.

But what about timbrally and cadentially ‘natural’? What key signatures present expressive or rhetorical challenges, instead of cognitive or biomechanical ones? How about B minor (2-sharps key signature) for cello or viola? The tonic B puts this key a semitone below the pitch of the open bottom string on these instruments (C2 and C3, respectively). For a composer to sacrifice the gestural option of the low-note sonority on those instruments creates a unique sort of expressive tension or ‘challenge’.

I think a composer does not sacrifice the open low string unless the intent is specifically to deprive the player and the listeners of that sonority; unless the composer’s intent were to create an acoustic homeland where it is impossible to go, and to concomitantly make us aware of the land’s existence and attractiveness.

The ear and mind yearn to go to that note; the destination beckons. The transcultural naturalness of this is nearly universal. The metaphor of the tonic as a natural, cadential resolution is intuitive. Our familiarity with the timbres of each instrument makes us acutely aware of what registers are and are not being traversed; and the harmonies and voice-leading in the composition set up conditions that pull and pull toward the inevitable low. But the homeland stays impossibly beyond our reach. It is a powerful state of (psychic) exile.


    [50-sec clip, Aurora Quartet, Prokofiev String Quartet No. 1, Allegro, 1.4MB MP3]

And in fact Prokofiev’s String Quartet No. 1, Op. 50 (1931) was commissioned by the U.S. Library of Congress, during his period of ‘exile’ in Japan, the U.S., and Europe. The Andante is a tremendously veiled, circumspect thing. It has a ‘pinched’ quality about it, emotionally constrained, un-forthcoming, yet thin-skinned and approachable—we feel immediate empathy for the character embodied by each instrument’s part. The Quartet No. 1 is pensive in a way that is more ‘epic’ than the notes that comprise it.


Compare the pensive, political effect to other B minor pieces for cello or viola:

• Dvorák’s Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104
  
• Casadesus’s Viola Concerto in B minor
  
• Vivaldi’s Concerto in B minor for 4 Violins & Cello No. 10, Op. 3
  
• Rota’s Intermezzo in B minor for Viola and Piano
  
• Paganini’s Caprice No. 16 in B minor for Cello
  
• Piatti’s Caprice No. 10 in B minor for Cello, Op. 25
  
• Zemlinsky’s Quintet for Clarinet and String Quartet B minor, Op. 115.

The gesture of the Prokofiev quartet’s Andante—what strikes me as an ‘exile’ theme/meme—rises only to retrace its steps and return to a ‘form-fruste’ ledge in the lower register—hardly a home, psychologically, and barely a resting-place. More musical representations of exile and longing or ‘striving in vain’ take the form of motions from inner voices towards the main melody. Within the ascending arcs, an inner voice supporting the melody note begins a connecting motion to the next main melodic note. But it continues beyond this to reach into the octave above: the highpoint of the phrase and another tenuous ledge.


    [50-sec clip, Aurora Quartet, Prokofiev String Quartet No. 1, Andante, 1.4MB MP3]

Founding members of the Aurora String Quartet [Sharon Grebanier (violin), Mariko Smiley (violin), Margaret Tait (cello), Don Ehrlich (viola)] recorded a wonderful version of this Quartet in 1995. There are other versions, of course, but this one remains my favorite—for evoking this pensiveness and frustrated longing of diaspora, the boundary between what one wants and what can never ‘be’: the cadential low B of home.

Bard College’s Festival of Music this Fall is on Prokofiev. The Festival volume edited by Simon Morrison is a wonderful compilation of essays on topics that will be addressed at the Festival. Have a look, too, at the new book edited by Paul Allatson and Jo McCormack—for more ideas on the aesthetic theory of exile; David Goodman’s chapter on northwest China and ‘exile as quasi-nationality without a nation’ is especially good.

• Bard Music Festival, Weekend 3, 24-26 October 2008, Prokofiev and His World
  
• Aurora String Quartet. Prokofiev: String Quartets Nos. 1 & 2. (Naxos, 1995.)
  
• Wang Dan, student protester at Tiananmen Square, escaped Beijing on 27-MAY-1989, arrested, spent four years in prison, was re-arrested in MAY-1995 and sentenced to a further 11 years' imprisonment, released in 1998, exiled in the U.S., Harvard PhD in 2008.
  
• Prokofief.org
  
• DSM. Black-key biomechanics. CMT blog, 30-OCT-2006.
  
• DSM. St. Patrick’s Mass Away from Home: Eric Sweeney, Minimalism, and Migrancy. CMT blog, 16-MAR-2008. [diaspora]
  
• DSM. La Catrina Quartet and Àlvarez: Collage Against Nationalism. CMT blog, 20-NOV-2007. [diaspora]
  
• Don Ehrlich page at San Francisco Academy Orchestra
  
• Don Ehrlich page at San Francisco Conservatory of Music
  
• Margaret Tait page at San Francisco Symphony Orchestra
  
• Sharon Grebanier page at San Francisco Symphony Orchestra
  
• Mariko Smiley page at San Francisco Symphony Orchestra
  
• Schmalfeldt J. Coming home. Keynote address, Society of Music Theory Conference, 2003. MTO 2004; 10(1).
  
• Allatson P, McCormack J, eds. Exile Cultures, Misplaced Identities. Rodopi, 2008.
  
• Morrison S, ed. Sergei Prokofiev and His World. Princeton Univ, 2008.
  
• Naficy H. Home, Exile, Homeland: Film, Media, and the Politics of Place. Routledge, 1998.
  
• Simpson J, ed. Oxford Book of Exile. Oxford Univ, 1995.

17 Aug 08

Arizona Sheriff Needs A Stay In Own Jail!

Tue Aug 12, 2008 1:35 PM EDT

Jon's Jail Journal got a brief mention in this recent news story.

As the ACLU's lawsuit against Maricopa County, Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio for his inhumane treatment of prisoners housed in the hell holes he calls jails in and around Phoenix kicks off today, one would think the sheriff would have tried his best to look outright holy in the public's eye. Not so. In fact, quite the opposite is true of the man who declares that he loves being sued, sucking up the television spotlights, and being called upon by Fox Noise as though he were America's Sheriff.
Arpaio appeared yesterday in front of reporters in Phoenix and tried to use documents long debunked by the courts to 'prove' his case for the cameras. This lying, tyrannical, bumbling excuse for a lawman may yet find out that voters in Maricopa County have had enough. He may also yet find himself behind the bars of the very jails he oversees.
It's always hard when one who has been propped up by the media to be a national hero turns out to be little more than a common thug. One who believes the laws of the land are to be obeyed by others, but not himself. But all of that will change very quickly if a group of Arizonans calling themselves Joe's Got To Go have there way. Putting together a web site that details so many instances of wrongdoing and criminal conduct by the ham handed sheriff, that it is almost surprising that Arpaio hasn't arrested himself. Let's see what the law and order types have been up to.
Since January of 2004, Arpaio has had over 3,500 lawsuits launched against him. The accusations range from abuse of prisoners, jail conditions so horrible they'd make Bush and Cheney blanch, wrongful deaths in his jails, destruction of evidence to cover up the true facts of those deaths, and many many other charges. The total bill to the citizens of that particular county has been $42 million dollars since 2004. In one of the wrongful death suits, a blind prisoner who was serving a short stint for shoplifting was in solitary confinement when he was found with a broken neck, broken toes, severe internal injuries, and a ruptured intestine. Arpaio brushed off the death as a 'poor guy who fell out of bed'. When a lawsuit was filed by the man's family, all evidence of what happened to the man 'disappeared', with the court finding that Arpaio's deputies had destroyed evidence. So much for law and order.
The funny thing about these 'Bring 'em on' lawsuits though, is that Arpaio keeps referring to the money being thrown down the well as "my money'. No, Joe, the money belongs to the taxpayers. It's not your personal piggy bank. Using private attorneys paid for with taxpayer dollars to fight these suits instead of the county's lawyers, somehow smacks of criminal conduct, as in misappropriation of taxpayer money. Looked at another way, the cities of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston had a combined total of 61 lawsuits against jail conditions between 2004 and 2008.
One of Joe's many violations of the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution he swore to defend and uphold includes the placing of cameras in the bathroom areas of the women's section of his horror show, and streaming it live on the web for all to tune in and watch. It took a lawsuit to get him to stop. Anyone else would have been charged with all sorts of sexual offenses, and be labeled a sex offender. Let's just assume by his actions that he is one.
In his attempt to make the Maricopa County Jail System the most terrible gulag in the world, surpassing Gitmo and Abu Garib, Arpaio feeds his prisoners only twice a day. One meal almost always consists of contaminated baloney and rotten fruit. Arpaio justifies this by saying he's saving the county money, despite being told by the courts he can not do this. Another practice that is completely outside the bounds of the law, is Arpaio's use of better conditions for confessions. Those who wish to have a trial by jury are left to swelter in tents in the middle of the desert, in 120 degree heat. If you agree to a plea bargain that will end in conviction, you're moved inside.
In today's East Valley Tribune, there is a 'special report' that shows that at least 60 inmates have died between 2004 and 2008 due to a lack of medical treatment. In one of the cases, a woman brought into the jail told deputies that she was a diabetic, gave them the schedule for her insulin shots, and was placed in a cell. When the time came for her shot, staff ignored her, and when she went into insulin shock, other inmates pleaded with deputies to get her medical attention. The pleas went unanswered and the woman died. Her crime? A probation violation for drug paraphernalia.
Joe also has shown a love for bugs. Refusing any sort of pest control at his facilities, the cockroach problem is so bad that inmates are reduced to buying extra tubes of toothpaste to seal up cracks in an attempt to keep the critters out. Former inmate Shaun Attwood, who spent two years in Arpaio's roach hotels writes all about his experiences on his blog. An excert: " On Wednesday, I was moved back to my original floor, into one of the most infested pods in the building. Completely unarmed with AmerFresh, I watched helplessly as the cockroaches sized me up from the myriad cracks in the walls. I knew as soon as the lights went off I was doomed. My cellmate, Mark, and I didn’t get much sleep. We stayed awake watching the legions of cockroaches conquer the room. Slowly gathering into larger numbers around us, they swarmed the floor. The walls. The ceiling. Our commissary bags. And finally, our bunks."
Despite actual street marches in Guadalupe and Mesa against Arpaio, and demands that conditions for inmates be improved, Arpaio laughs the protests off as the actions of malcontents, and declares that he'll run things as he sees fit. Court orders? Ha! He's the sheriff don't you know, and as sheriff HE IS the law! And he proved it when he attacked the local press, in particular, The Phoenix New Times. In violation of who knows how many laws, Arpaio got the County Attorney to issue secret grand jury subpoenas for the records of all of the publication's online subscribers for the past four years. Huh? Why would he do that you ask? Because the New Times revealed the sheriff's questionable real estate transactions, so the good sheriff promptly had the newspaper's leaders arrested on made up charges of revealing a law enforcement officer's address. The paper's investigations into Arpaio and the County Attorney, Andrew Thomas revealed intimidation of political rivals, racial profiling by the Sheriff's Department, shady land deals, and the intimidation of media critics. The entire arrest affair escalated to the point that when Village Voice Media Executive Michael Lacey tried to get some background on the details of the arrest of the New Times personnel, HE was arrested himself!
That was when the public finally had enough of the Chicago mafia tactics of their run amok sheriff and the County Attorney dropped all charges due to the outcry. See, Arpaio doesn't believe that he has to follow the Constitution or the law period. Ten different studies have shown his treatment of prisoners to be inhumane and one of the studies, done by Arpaio himself, says that all of Arpaio's facilities fall far below the Constitutional standards of humane treatment. These are not all hardened criminals we're talking about here. We're talking about people awaiting trial, or even just a preliminary hearing. Not convicts, but citizens who can not afford the monstrously high bails. As citizens, there can be no punishment meted out, but yet, in Arpaio's guilty till proven innocent fun ride, punishment for the sake of punishment is the name of the game. He says so himself. That's called sadism in any other circle of people.
The voters of Maricopa County have a chance to dump this legal terrorist by the side of the road come November 4th. All indications are that they will, as Democrats are pressing hard. Not just because Joe Arpaio is a Republican up for re-election, but because he's a law breaking, stalinistic, dictatorial, neo-con piece of gutter trash, and the side of the road is where trash belongs. Better yet, hopefully after he's voted out of office and the new sheriff decides a house cleaning is due, Joe Arpaio will get to visit the hellish conditions he imposed on fellow Americans. Because despite everyone's desire to have law and order in our country, we do not countenance what amounts to torture, both mental and physical. Someone please make sure there's an extra set of pink underwear saved with Joe's name on them...............
insist09
Say it ain't so Joe.....................! Rupert Murdoch still loves you though..................
#1 - Tue Aug 12, 2008 1:36 PM EDT
Michigander1
Gotta love the guy, he get's things done.
#2 - Tue Aug 12, 2008 2:44 PM EDT
insist09
Maybe. But he does so illegally.
#2.1 - Tue Aug 12, 2008 2:50 PM EDT
xcomunic8ed
he gets things done.....if you are against civil rights.
#2.2 - Tue Aug 12, 2008 6:39 PM EDT
Spikgary
This is one of the most one sided articles I've seen on Newsvine so far. Fact: You said Women's Underwear. Look at the picture? Even my grandma wouldn't wear underwear like that (they are commonly called boxers, BTW).
Fact: You said
the most terrible gulag in the world, surpassing Gitmo and Abu Garib
. You are kidding, right? Do you think the prisons in North Korea are leisure lounges like the Federal Facility at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida? I can cite you literally hundreds of prisons around the world that the inmates would jump at the chance to go to Gitmo or Abu Ghraib or the Sheriff's little camp. How many criminals do you suppose are going to say nice things about it? Criminals would never lie, right? It's meant as a deterent. Would you mind throwing in some figures, like recidivism rate as compared to other jails?
I would go on, but I need to deep breath a couple times. It would be nice if people did a little more real research than skimming the surface and throwing up the expose' titallating facts.
#3 - Tue Aug 12, 2008 3:11 PM EDT
insist09
#1) Fact: Just because the picture shows a pair of men's pink undies doesn't preclude the fact that as punishment, Arpaio forces male detainees to wear women's underwear as he shoves them into solitary for whatever reason.
#2) Fact: The recidivism rate in Maricopa County is 65%
#3) Fact: I skimmed NO surface, but delved all across cyberspace to put this piece together. And only covered about 1/4th of Joe Arpaio's little criminal enterprise.
#4) Fact: Here's some figures to think about. Law and order Joe claims that his methods work so well that he is reducing crime. He claims, in documents the courts have found to be unsubstantiated, that crime in Maricopa County has declined on his watch. Oh? Then explain this:
Jail population in:
2004 - 8,657 2005 - 9,054 2006 - 9,7332007 - 10249
Or this: Arizona has the 8th highest murder rate in the U.S., with Maricopa County leading the way. They also imprison 808 people per every 100,000 .
But, let's push that aside and address the issue of conditions at Joey's Jails. From your fuming outrage, it would seem that you feel that even though the courts have ordered Joe to improve conditions at his jails, and he has thumbed his nose at the courts, that's ok.
The fact that he has been sued 3,500 times since 2004 doesn't bother you either? Or 60 dead prisoners, of whom in at least one instance his department was forced to admit they had destroyed evidence that suggested the inmate was murdered by prison staff?
Your claim that 'criminals would never lie'. Hold on there a second. More than 3/4 of Joe's prisoners are awaiting trial. Innocent until proven guilty. Never had a court date yet, they're just too poor to afford bail. So they sit and rot, eating contaminated food and being punished, as you say, for a crime they have not been convicted of. That's against the Eighth Amendment, one of the ones they forgot to destroy. You can not mete out 'punishment' to detainees that are not convicted yet. They have all the rights of every other citizen. Sometimes law enforcement and right wingers like to leave that part out.
Despite your being able to name hundreds of prisons worse than Arpaio's gulag, I still contend that in the United States of America, or at least MY United States, we don't have gulags, we don't abuse and kill prisoners, we don't deny them medical attention in violation of laws and Supreme Court orders, and we don't force people to live in tents in 120 degree heat, or in bug infested cells, or eat rotten food.
One sided? No. There's thousands of Maricopa victims, relatives of victims and just decent citizens who wish to see the last of Joe Arpaio and his run amok Sheriff's Office. The law means everyone. Not just everyone except...............Arpaio only spouts the law and order line for the cameras. When they're turned off, he runs very shady business transactions, arrests reporters who look into it, and violates court orders and the Constitutional rights of all who get in is way, including political rivals.
That may sound perfectly ok to you, but to myself and many others, it sounds like a sheriff who needs arresting himself.........................
#4 - Tue Aug 12, 2008 3:53 PM EDT
Jason Ford
I am not necessarily disputing any of your facts, but do you have any sources for any of them?
#5 - Tue Aug 12, 2008 4:28 PM EDT
insist09
So many it's not even funny.
First and foremost though, would be the site I named above. These guys have tried to garner as much info into one place that they can. It's at joesgottogo.com
From there you can go to the sites of several Arizona news agencies, such as the East Valley Tribune, Arizona New Times, The Arizonan among a few.
Then poke around the Maricopa County Court's .pdf documents and start looking at all the judgements, settled out of court lawsuits, orders from the court, etc. You'll be astounded at just how much material there actually is that you never see Fox Noise asking Joey about.
I wonder just how he bought that plot of land at such a low interest rate? Ahh, I'll put my tin foil hat back on and let you guys judge for yourselves......................
#5.1 - Tue Aug 12, 2008 4:42 PM EDT
leogodin
I live in Maricopa county and I will never vote for Joe Arpaio. His sheriffs department only does what brings attention to Joe Arpaio. We had a convicted sex offender living across the street from us. He was not registered in his new residence and he had a restraining order against him for molesting his step daughter. When he showed up at the house (his residence that his restraining order prevented him from visiting) we called 911. The response from 911 was to call the Sheriffs office between the hours of 9 and 5 Monday - Friday. This call was either Friday or Saturday night (I don't remember which). We had to call 911 one other time and had a similar runaround. I don't know much about Arpaio but I do know that his Sheriffs department is dysfunctional.
That being said, I applaud his stance on illegal immigration and much of his handling of criminals.
#6 - Tue Aug 12, 2008 4:41 PM EDT
insist09
I found that there have been complaints that since 2004, the Maricopa Sheriff's response time has gone from 4 minutes to about 16 minutes under Arpaio. I also saw testimonies from people who claim it took hours and others who claim no one ever showed up at all.
Maybe if Joey wasn't doling out $42 million taxpayer dollars to settle all these lawsuits, he could afford to hire some more cops.....................
#6.1 - Tue Aug 12, 2008 4:45 PM EDT
Polly-310070
As far as the numbers going up, so is the population, so are illegals. Sherriff Joe is one of the few law Enforcement Officers not to cower to those not abiding by the law. As far as tent city. Do any of you have any idea what the costs are to run a jail? Sherriff Joe has cut costs at the inmates expense instead raiser taxes for the public. Sherriff Joe has a soft spot for animals and has created programs for the betterment of animals and inmates
#7 - Tue Aug 12, 2008 4:59 PM EDT
Spikgary
More information can be found here:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/crime/arpaio.asp"
Google has about 10 pages of pro and con on this man
#8 - Tue Aug 12, 2008 7:28 PM EDT
CO/AZ
Want to get the flavor of how the average taxpayer feels about illegal immigration? Just go to www.arizonacentral.com. You will read the rage that people have about the impact of unenforced illegal immigration. Sure Joe pisses some folks off. He doesn't care. His position is easy to understand. "The law is the law". Sanctuary cities don't smell as sweet as the word sounds.
#9 - Tue Aug 12, 2008 7:57 PM EDT
insist09
I think some have missed the point here. Let me try this another way.
We all know the President, Vice-President, and many of their senior people are guilty of crimes. Does Nancy Pelosi's 'impeachment is off the table' sound like the right solution?
Same thing here. It doesn't matter if you love Joe Arpaio or hate him. When you are ordered by a court to do something, and the highest court in the state agrees with that order, you do it, or you are as guilty of breaking the law as everyone else. There is NO provision in any state law that I know of whereby the sheriff of any county or parish is above the law, and Arpaio clearly believes he is. That makes him a criminal, period.
It's because of people being so willing to allow for the police state mentality of "Oh, Daddy, please protect me, I'll give up my rights, and you can do anything you want" to permeate our society that people like Arpaio, who was probably beaten up as a child in school, and is clearly little more than a law breaking sadist, are in charge of so many things right now, and THAT ladies and gentlemen, has got to end, or we're through as a country.
#10 - Tue Aug 12, 2008 8:35 PM EDT
sevens7777
Joe, remember KARMA, sometimes Karma can be a real @!$%#!!!!
#11 - Tue Aug 12, 2008 9:13 PM EDT
Spikgary
If the highest court of the land or in this case, the state has said that he is breaking the law, then why hasn't he been arrested? Why has the Governor not issued an arrest warrant? The state police work directly for the governor-why hasn't he directed them to go in and seize the Sheriff?
From an intellectual standpoint, your supposition that he was probably beaten as a child is nothing but speculation on your part and has no value, unless you have believable sources you can link.
If you feel (and I stress you) that the President, Vice-President and many other senior people are guilty of crimes, then Pelosi is an accessory after the fact, no? Then she should be arrested also, correct? Have you thought that Pelosi knew, as many others do, that there is no way that they could ever convict any of these people of anything, hence they didn't bother proceeding? And lots of president's, from both sides of the aisle have broken laws big and small and none, that I know of, have ever been convicted.
If you can provide some additional supporting links besides the one website, I might be inclined to give your article more credence-if you showed both sides of the argument-That being said, I don't live in or visit that area of the country, so I don't really have an iron in that fire. If you do live there, good luck.
#12 - Tue Aug 12, 2008 9:18 PM EDT
insist09
SpikGary: Did you actually read the article? In the very first paragraph I noted that the ACLU was taking Arpaio back to court today to force him to obey previous court orders.
For some unknown reason, you're bent on throwing red herring arguments into this that don't exist.
Why has the Governor not issued an arrest warrant? Good question. Why don't you ask him?
Impressing the case as in "If you feel (and I stress you)" is another red herring designed to try to show that I'm one of the very few who feel this way, when we all know that's not the case.
Pelosi is much more than an accessory after the fact. She knew all about the torture memos and what they had planned well before any of it ever took place. But that's for another day.
This being an OPINION piece, I don't wish to show both sides of the argument. Unlike the mainstream media, which feels they have an obligation to air two sides of a story, even when one side is clearly a lie, and it being one of the reasons America is in such trouble now, I don't feel any such compunction. No one knows what the truth is any more. I tell it like I see it, and that means that as far as I'm concerned, Joe Arpaio is nothing more than a thug and a criminal, who once he got a taste of the television cameras, became addicted to the limelight, and decided to do anything it took to remain there, including breaking the law.
Somehow it has escaped any mention by most that Arpaio routinely violates the civil rights of those in his custody, the deaths that have occurred, or the $42 million dollars wasted on lawsuits that Arpaio himself said he welcomes and relishes.
I gave several sources to check out, not just one.
#12.1 - Tue Aug 12, 2008 10:11 PM EDT
Spikgary
Why has the Governor not issued an arrest warrant? Good question. Why don't you ask him?
This is your article, not mine-Seems like people are claiming (as you said before about the prisoners, innocent until proven guilty) that he broke the law, and yet, all of a sudden it comes to a stop? That really doesn't make any sense. He's failing to obey a court order, but the judge has not thrown him in jail for contempt? Why not? It seems there must be more to the story than what your referenced site has.
You referenced the President, Vice President, et al. and that is what I was responding to.
I don't want this to devolve into a personal go round. I'm in a place right now mentally where I don't have much if any sympathy for criminals (my son's house was recently burglarized and burned by an individual who has a history of similar crimes and was immediately let out on $15K bail) and I know it is affecting my personal viewpoint. I did not mean to insult you and if I did, I apologize.
#12.2 - Wed Aug 13, 2008 7:48 AM EDT
leogodin
Are we really shocked that powerful public officials are not held accountable when they break the law? Joe Arpaio is much more powerful than Janet Napolitano ever will be.
#12.3 - Wed Aug 13, 2008 11:41 AM EDT
katrix
His celebrity has gone to his head ... I don't think making prisoners wear pink is undue punishment and I also like his stance on illegal immigrants, but he goes way too far. He's a "reality TV' sheriff in real life. He might have had good intentions to start out with, but it sounds like he's gone way beyond that.
#13 - Tue Aug 12, 2008 9:50 PM EDT
Jason Ford
Tent city isn't a bad idea either. As for the rest of the stuff, I don't know enough about it yet to say.
#13.1 - Tue Aug 12, 2008 9:53 PM EDT
muckingfess
At least he is enforcing our laws, more than I can say for the present administration.
I think I'll write in Sheriff Joe in November!
#15 - Wed Aug 13, 2008 8:01 AM EDT
A Sergeant's Mom
Hmmm.
#15.1 - Wed Aug 13, 2008 11:14 AM EDT
leogodin
Herein lies the problem. He is doing many good things and enforcing laws that the federal government will not. However, should that excuse him for the terrible things he is doing? He could enforce immigration laws without much of the sleazy things he is doing. Also, if he is doing that at the expense of basic police service what's the payoff. When I call 911 on the weekend, I expect to get help right away that is what 911 is for. Under his watch, they tell you to call back during business hours. That is inexcusable!
#15.2 - Wed Aug 13, 2008 11:43 AM EDT
leogodin
Let me also add that I was a huge fan of Arpaio until I moved to Maricopa county AZ and experienced his terrible leadership.
#15.3 - Wed Aug 13, 2008 11:44 AM EDT
A Sergeant's Mom
Insist09:Can you verify that East Valley Tribune report on prisoner deaths, 60 in four years - mentioned in your article, above?
Please let me know. If this can be established as fact, that is a very serious human rights violation accusation, unless, if the deaths can be shown to be directly related to the conditions and treatment of the jail and facilities as it currently stands.
It is critical that facts are established if any group is bringing a suit - facts must weigh in against the allegations.
I tend to agree with the slant your article takes because we lived in Arizona for a while and I remember reading the various news articles where the Maricopa/Phoenix community lauded this man's conduct as heroic. What I read was disturbing.
#16 - Wed Aug 13, 2008 11:13 AM EDT
insist09
Sergeant's Mom: At the web site I mentioned above, http://www.joesgottogo.com/ they have links to all of the pertinent articles about Arpaio, including the East Valley Tribune report.
But here's the link to that particular story: http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/115427
Also, read the brief filed by the ACLU against Arpaio, which is the reason no one can arrest him. He's playing a game. One court tells him to do something, so he runs off and appeals it. The Appellate Court says do it or else, he runs to the Arizona and U.S. Supreme Courts, who both say to do what the lower courts say. Joe says no, and tells human rights groups to sue him. That's what is happening now. Here's the ACLU brief: http://www.aclu.org/images/asset_upload_file885_36384.pdf
Of interest: http://www.commondreams.org/news2008/0812-03.htm
#16.1 - Wed Aug 13, 2008 12:46 PM EDT
A Sergeant's Mom
The fact that taxpayers have spent over $30 million in court and attorneys fees in these cases is outrageous compared to what should have been spent on health care for the inmates. This alone proves the expenditure abuse by the jail/sheriff's department - where many sheriff's department in the U.S. are exceptionally frugal, minding fiscal responsibility. The lack of appropriate health care seems proximate to the overall expense to taxpayers.
From what I read, it appears to be a situation of a pumped up ego fighting criticism by concerned citizens to retain his celebrity rather than conduct his business in a professional manner.
But, the inmates lose. And, in 2008, we have the knowledge and reason of human rights laws. There is no excuse for not knowing human rights laws, as there is no excuse for any citizen to not know local or federal law; law enforcement officials are held to a higher standard for possessing this knowledge.
Arpaio has access to legal information detailing specific civil and human rights laws in the United States.
This sheriff should resign.
#16.2 - Thu Aug 14, 2008 7:27 AM EDT

Link to the article: http://insist09.newsvine.com/_news/2008/08/12/1742359-arizona-sheriff-needs-a-stay-in-own-jail

Email comments to writeinside@hotmail.com or post them below

Copyright © 2007-2008 Shaun P. Attwood

One World, Different Dreams: Olympian Virtuosity and Performance Psychology

T  he [Dürer Melancolia I] engraving is auto-reflective; it presents the creative person confronting the limitations of his/her art.”
  —  Henry Majewski, Brown University.

T  he Melancolia engraving thus seems to articulate a pivotal moment in the cultural history of subjectivity. Where the Middle Ages substantialized inwardness as [evidence of] the deadly sin of acedia [moral sloth], the Renaissance abstracted inwardness as an inherent quality of creative genius and valorized its effects in the originality of the artist, whose works are wholly his own.”
  —  Joseph Leo Koerner, Courtauld Institute of Art.

About 500 years ago, Albrecht Dürer began making pictures of people. The more Dürer studied human beauty, the more he felt stymied by it: ‘Beauty: I cannot know what it is; it is dependent on so many things.’ His work entitled ‘Melancholy’ is ambivalent, not about beauty but about the outcome of human striving for material achievement and perfection.


Or, maybe more accurately, the engraving asserts that striving and mastering and winning are not sufficient to insure a meaningful life and happiness.

The figure has wings, denoting the power to do super-human things. From her belt hang keys and a money bag, symbolizing power and wealth. She is surrounded by measuring instruments, to evaluate performance and plan future designs and accomplishments. She has at her disposal a panel of ‘magic’ numbers (gematria-like or sudoku-like, they add up to 34 in all directions). At her feet are engineering tools that offer mastery over the physical world. And yet the figure is alone, melancholic. This engraving is one of the most enigmatic pieces in art history, with an extensive literature surrounding its interpretation.

This Dürer engraving is not about recovering from defeat or depression—to a restored state of ‘normal’. The piece is about finding the elusive meaning and value that one is striving for, from a position of Olympian mastery and elite-level virtuosity.

There are a variety of ‘psychology of sport’ texts that offer insights on this (see links below) that are as relevant and useful to classical musicians as they are to elite athletes. Roland Carlstedt’s book summarizes a number of intriguing monitoring techniques and results in the sports-medicine cardiac electrophysiology research literature—for example, quantitative short-term heart rate variability and heart rate decrease prior to commencing a difficult passage (see pp. 115ff)—that could be used for selecting and training top musicians, just as they are used for selecting and training top athletes.

T  he Olympics are as much about politics as they are about sport, notwithstanding frequent calls not to ‘politicize’ the Olympics that come from top officials of the International Olympic Committee, the Beijing Games’ hosts and even a U.S. administration that has faced growing criticism for President Bush’s early commitment to attend the opening ceremonies. China’s leaders’ … official narrative also includes a very different, strongly nationalist strand—one that risks, and with the torch relay has produced, friction abroad.”
  —  Jacques deLisle, Owning the Olympics.

In competitive games, one player (or team) seeks to outperform another by undertaking various physical and communicative and psychological moves—not unlike conversations. Games have distinct ‘narrative’ structures, analogous in many cases to the narrative structure of myths. That are enacted by each participant to express the ‘self’ that the participant wishes to be and to project its associated emotions. These plays of the self enable each participant to seek heroic moments. Going beyond the myth-making that may be achieved by individuals, it’s clear that performance has different meanings in different societies, as means of promoting specific ideologies of a society and social ideals. Virtuosic music performance and virtuosic athletic performance are similar in this respect.

B  ecause of the centrality of China and narratives of China in the global and domestic imagination, the stakes in producing and controlling the stories produced through the Beijing Olympics have been great. Through this, the event has become something of a watershed for altering perceptions and engendering change.”
  —  Monroe Price, Owning the Olympics.

Games, unlike other narrative idioms, are unique in providing a context where the emotions associated with winning or losing happen in quick succession—each moment leads to a climax. Each individual player engages others emotionally and cognitively. But, although the engagement temporarily offsets any sense of ‘aloneness’ in the world, the context is still one of continual, relentless loneliness in the striving to be best, striving to be good enough to remain on the team, among the elite.

Each individual athlete/musician performer anticipates the future and faces not only the prospect of sudden reward but also the prospect of sudden disappointment if the events do not turn out well.

Each individual athlete/musician performer also feels the weight of duties that world-class prowess entails—duties that inhere in the lucky endowment of the individual with extraordinary abilities; duties that arise from the investments and sacrifices that others have made toward that individual’s long training, to successfully reach and sustain the elite level of performance.

T  he commonalities in the presentational rhetoric of the Beijing and London [Olympics] bids are striking. The [U.K.] video ‘Full Moon’ (2005), was divided into three parts, the first and the third entitled ‘Inspiration,’ and the middle section comprising Tony Blair’s address to the IOC... The voiceover stressed the nobility and potentially heroic aspiration of the athlete in the familiar tones of Lord of the Rings mega-star Sir Ian McKellan. His voice was framed against an original score that blended the elegiac feel of English classical music with a Vangelis-style sound redolent of the ‘Chariots of Fire’ anthem that has come to embody the theme of heroic human striving... ‘Choose London and inspire young people everywhere to choose Olympic sport!’ There is a marked consistency of the messages transmitted [by Beijing and by London]: youth, aspiration, and the future are at the center of the frame. Prominently absent from both is the actual fact of Olympic finances... If there is a convergence between the aims and values of Olympism and those of contemporary capitalism, then these are at most a subtext in the representational devices and strategies of aspiring Olympic hosts.”
  —  Alan Tomlinson, Owning the Olympics.

Look once more at Dürer’s brooding figure, posed in an attitude of frustration, with a downward gaze. Isn’t each individual Olympic athlete and each individual classical music artist also like Dürer’s melancholic alchemist, searching for the elusive Stone—a seeker after power and wisdom and social acclaim, endowed with extraordinary abilities, but also heavily weighed down by duties? Isn’t this a mood not so much of temporary defeat as of existential pain and duty-boundness? The atmosphere of incomplete personhood and diminished freedom is intensified by the tolling bell and the anorexic, indolent dog. Despite the keys and the magic numbers and the light-giving lamp, and notwithstanding the fact that knowledge and victory do come, full-fledged freedom and fulfillment are nowhere in sight. The weight of the obligations and expectations is enormous. The discipline and asceticism that elite performers exert in order to achieve what they do comes at this terrific price, personally and socially.

W  hat is Below is like that which is Above; and what is Above is like that which is Below, to accomplish the miracles of One Thing.”
  —  The Second Precept of Alchemy, the Emerald Tablet; symbolized by the rolling sphere, hoop, or grindstone in Dürer’s Melancolia I.

Healthy sports psychology for serious athletes and healthy performance psychology for serious musicians are both fundamentally concerned with coping with these chronic, pervasive tensions. For whatever interest they may have for you in your own musicianship and coping, here are a few useful books (links below).

• Beijing Olympics website
  
• St. Lawrence String Quartet
  
• Stanford University Olympics tour to Beijing (St. Lawrence String Quartet, Jon Nakamatsu; 28-JUN-2008 and 05-JUL-2008) [1MB pdf]
  
• Kunsthaus Zürich, Albrecht Dürer exhibit
  
• Wright P. The joy of sadness: Dürer, Grass, Birtwistle. The Guardian, 30-AUG-2003.
  
• Andersen M, ed. Doing Sport Psychology. Human Kinetics, 2000.
  
• Biss R. Olympian feats: Composer John Psathas. New Zealand Listener, 26-JUL-2008. [Psathas's 'Olympic Music', to be performed in Beijing’s Forbidden City Concert Hall on 27-AUG by New Zealand Symphony Orchestra at the Olympic Cultural Festival.]
  
• Carlstedt R. Critical Moments During Competition: A Mind-Body Model of Sport Performance When It Counts the Most. Psychology Press, 2004.
  
• Hagger M, Chatzisarantis N. The Social Psychology of Exercise and Sport. Open Univ, 2005.
  
• Kremer J. Pure Sport: Practical Sport Psychology. Routledge, 2008.
  
• LeUnes A. Sport Psychology. 4e. Psychology Press, 2008.
  
• Moran A. Sport and Exercise Psychology: A Critical Introduction. Routledge, 2004.
  
• Moran A. The Psychology Of Concentration In Sport Performers: A Cognitive Analysis. Psychology Press, 1996.
  
• Moss S. Land of 20 million pianists. The Guardian, 10-MAR-2008. [“China has no chamber orchestras; you will not hear a piano trio or string quartet outside the music conservatories.”]
  
• Nathan A. Medals & Rights. The New Republic, 09-JUL-2008.
  
• Perinbanayagam R. Games and Sport in Everyday Life: Dialogues and Narratives of the Self. Paradigm, 2007.
  
• Price M, Dayan D, eds. Owning the Olympics: Narratives of the New China. Univ Michigan, 2008.
  
• Rountree S. The Athlete's Guide to Yoga: An Integrated Approach to Strength, Flexibility, and Focus. Velo, 2007.
  
• Weinberg R, Gould D. Foundations of Sport And Exercise Psychology. Human Kinetics, 2007.
  
• Wood E. 10 Steps to Take Charge of Your Emotional Life: Overcoming Anxiety, Distress, and Depression Through Whole-Person Healing. HayHouse, 2008.
  
• DSM. Bronfman: Is Virtuosity Necessary? CMT blog, 08-DEC-2007.
  
• DSM. Bronfman and Mt. Everest. CMT blog, 05-DEC-2007.
  
• DSM. Belder: On Fingermusik and Mere Virtuosity. CMT blog, 02-SEP-2007.
  
• DSM. Ehnes: Excellence in Being for the Good. CMT blog, 01-MAR-2008.
  
• DSM. Dubravka Tomšič and Beethoven’s Appassionata. CMT blog, 12-APR-2008.
  
• DSM. Zacharias: Thematic Instability & Virtuosity. CMT blog, 23-FEB-2008.

T  his is modern China. It is not what we imagined it would be when Richard Nixon wrote forty years ago that we should not leave China ‘forever outside the family of nations, there to nurture its fantasies, cherish its hates, and threaten its neighbors,’ and started us down the path of engagement. When we wondered all these years whether China would modernize or not, Westernize or not, become civilized or not, we were asking the wrong questions, making the wrong distinctions. What we got instead is a China that is both proud and resentful; open and closed; like us—yet not at all like us.”
  — Andrew Nathan, Medals & Rights, The New Republic.