The Obsolescence of College Degrees Over Time

What does a college degree represent? Is it merely a ritual of perseverance that one must endure to be worthy of having a decent job?
Or is it an indication of a level of information and knowledge a person has acquired through study? Isn't it supposed to be an indication of expertise to a prospective employer that this person knows the subject area in question? It supposedly represents education, doesn't it?

So then that leads to the next question: how long should a college degree be valid? Should it simply be accepted as useful, current information, forever? Isn't the world constantly changing? Is the curriculum of a degree program immune to that change, and if not, then shouldn't old degrees expire and new ones be needed as the knowledge and industries and disciplines they represent evolve?

If a college degree indicates knowledge, shouldn't it indicate current, useful knowledge?

In my last job, in a regional management position at a large software company, I was sometimes a bit embarrassed about my educational background because most people who worked for me, and the people working for them, all seemed to have better degrees than the bachelor's degree I had. Pretty much every person in the organization that reported to me in all levels had a masters degree of some kind. I had two people with PhD's as well. One person had 6 degrees: 3 bachelor's, 2 masters, and a PhD. I felt I was at a disadvantage in that respect.
But then I looked at experience. I now have 28 years experience. There were many things I knew both experientially and technically that these people with better degrees did not. So the experience actually counts more, I think.
The fact is, I cannot remember the detailed content of the classes I took in 1980 26 years ago. And it is all irrelevant now anyway. We did 370 Assembler and COBOL programming and used punch cards in those days. Programming and systems have evolved a LONG way since then. Desktop computers did not even exist yet at that time. Of course, now everyone uses PCs and laptops and we are all linked through a worldwide internet. Do you suppose that the computer science degree I earned in 1985 is still as useful and valuable and indicative of my knowledge and skills now in 2006 as it was 21 years ago? Or has it perhaps been rendered obsolete by the evolutions in technology and processes in the past two decades?

The technical issues I deal with and am exposed to on a daily basis now were not even possible back then. So, for most intents and purposes, that education has expired, in my view.

So has most of my early experience for that matter. Because, after 28 years I don't remember it in detail, AND because technology and the business world has changed so much rendering my earlier experience to be archaic and useless. The only truly useful parts to me now seem to be what I have done and learned in the past 10-12 years.

I wonder if we, as a society, should consider expiration dates on degrees and on experience? Granted, it would be hard to know ahead of time when the knowledge for a given degree program might become obsolete, so it would be hard to set a date. Also, no one wants to lose the effect of their degree, so it would be hard to get people to enact rules around that, but the facts of expiration of usefulness remain nevertheless.
Also, some people are incorrectly given extra credit because they attended an ivy league school, or they might be discriminated against because they didn't. And these two opposite cases would both exist regardless of a person's actual knowledge or abilities. So the degrees don't actually give a true representation of the actual knowledge a person has on a subject even when the degrees are brand new.

Also, our education system has come under considerable fire in recent years based on studies that show that our college graduates lack the basic skills that much younger students have in other countries. The US has fallen behind virtually all other developed countries in areas of education, despite the fact that we invest more money into education than any other country. We're simply doing it wrong. We are focusing on the wrong things. Our schools are misdirected and there seems to be no way to control it by simply policing the rules already in place. We desperately need a whole new system.

An Alternative:
Not all degrees should expire, because not all fields change and evolve at the same rate. The field of History, for example probably does not change nearly as fast as the computer science field. Psychology might change at a different rate than Avionics. So having an actual expiry date on a degree might not serve the purpose well.

Perhaps instead of focusing on the schools themselves and their internal standards, we should have standard national certification exams of current knowledge every 5 years, for all recognized disciplines from Doctors to engineers to metalworkers to chemists, biologists, and systems programmers. The standard certifications would ensure that our knowledge is current and relevant, regardless of whether it was attained through classes or night school classes or internet classes, or homeschooling, or self study. This would probably be a lot more fair and more useful to employers and people who need to judge knowledge and credentials. It would no longer matter whether a person went to Harvard or University of Oklahoma. As long as they received the education they needed to achieve the scores and qualifications and certifications on the national tests, that is all they need.

In fact, it would eliminate undue prejudice AND undue bias regarding the school a person attended, since that would not necessarily be noted. The school would be merely there to provide knowledge to help the student achieve the right credentials and levels based upon their standardized tests. The school would work to serve the students as their customers. Which is as it should be at the college level. To thrive and be successful, they should answer the students' need for professional instruction and provide facilities where a student can truly learn what they need to know.

With a system such as this, employers would know EXACTLY how knowledgeable a job candidate is, and how current their skills and knowledge is. People reading papers submitted by a so-called expert, would be able to judge the efficacy and authority of the work based on the exact credentials of the author, not merely by a reputation, deserved or undeserved.

I have visions of how things can be improved, by imagining how things might work in the future. In the future I see, I can easily imagine that a persons credentials could be accurate, relevant, current, and easily checked on a national database.
I submit that a system of standardized national test scores and accreditations would be more efficient, more useful, and more fair and impartial, and should replace the antiquated system of college degrees given once and then used unchanged for decades.

We all come from somewhere, and the current system evolved out of an educational system developed to serve an earlier time. It has served our purposes in the past, but I think the time has now come to change.

The Way Forward:
I believe this could be implemented in phases:
Phase I:
Build the National Accreditation Service. Develop the certifications and levels, and the criteria for achieving them.

Phase II
Notify the country that this system is available. Advertise it. Make it well-known. Also make it free - or at least make it cheap enough that anyone can easily afford it. Do not charge more money than it costs to operate the program.

Phase II
Adopt the standards of certification for all government work.

Phase IV
Have all government contracting companies adopt these standards, and any government-facing roles within all companies also comply with the new standards.

Phase V
Encourage all companies to follow the example and benefit from these credentials and standardized certifications.

So there you have it. This is my opinion on one way to fix our education system.

A Different Perspective on Immigration

Look at these babies.
As you gaze in at their innocent, beautiful little faces, start to think in practical terms for a minute.
How much does it cost to get each of these babies through all the years of childhood and education to the point where they are contributing taxpaying members of society?

How much does all the schooling and education cost for 20 years? How much daycare? How much food? How much clothing? How much for shelter? How much for toys? How much for the parks they need, and the museums and educational facilities? How much in medical costs? How much gasoline to shuttle them back and forth to schools, home, piano lessons, flute lessons, girl/boy scouts, camping trips, soccer games, hockey games, and play-dates with friends? How much does it truly cost the parents and society as a whole to raise them to adulthood?

Then after we have made all these investments for hundreds of thousands of dollars each, how many may get cancer once they reach adulthood? or be killed in a car accident? How many will have debilitating illnesses that require medical care for life such that they will never become self-sufficient? How many will not complete their education and stay in the fringe of society as a member of the welfare ranks. How many will be chronically unemployed?

How many will become hopeless drug addicts or alcoholics? How many will have mental or emotional disorders and become useless to themselves and others around them? How many, once they have received all the benefits of an American education and safe infrastructure, will simply leave and take their knowledge and education elsewhere so that we no longer get any benefit from our investment?

How many will not achieve their potential through lack of initiative or laziness? How many will become murderers or rapists or even terrorists?

How many of any given ten innocent little babies will eventually become a career criminal, and spend most of their lives in jail costing us further for the criminal system to take care of them for the rest of their lives? Remember, every career criminal, murderer. or rapist started out as a cute little baby in a young mother’s arms.

Is there a way we could eliminate the ones that do NOT provide a positive enhancement to society, and retain the ones that do?

Yes there is. It’s called immigration.

Not ILLEGAL immigration, mind you - but just normal, proper, legal, controlled immigration. People coming from other countries with the proper paperwork and credentials, etc.

You might not be accustomed to seeing it from this perspective, but try for a minute. Immigration is a way for us to be able to cherry-pick our adult population so that we get only the healthy, well-balanced, well-educated, law-abiding, tax-paying people. And it doesn’t cost us a cent to educate them or raise them from infancy. Someone else has already paid for all that. Someone else paid for all the food and medicine and education, and weeded out the bad apples, and we get to skim the cream of the crop and take them for free into our country where they hit the ground running. They IMMEDIATELY start earning an honest decent living and start paying taxes. They immediately buy a house, a car, and start consuming and literally spending virtually every dollar they earn back into the local economy where they live.

And they are decent law-abiding people, because if they had any sort of criminal record they are not allowed to come here.

Doesn’t it make sense to allow these kinds of people into our country? Having babies to replenish our aging population is risky business – who knows what you’re going to get? We have a baby, then we spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to raise him, educate him, feed him and clothe him, and then just HOPE he turns out to be a hard-working positive honest tax-paying member of society. But there is a certain statistical possibility that he may not. We pays our money and takes our chances - then wait 20 years to see what we get.

Why do we need these immigrants? Well, aside from the assurance that we get what we want and don’t have to take what we don’t want, and the fact that he/she is a proven commodity, there is the actual knowledge, talents, skills, and contributions they bring to the table.

If you have seen the latest studies, (some of which I have cited in previous articles here), then you will know that American schools are no longer competitive with the rest of the developed world. We have fallen far behind most other countries and our schools no longer produce viable, high-quality products. In fact, more than 50% of current 4-year college degree graduates, and over 75% of 2-year college graduates lack the basic literacy skills to understand a credit card application. More than 50% of college degree graduates lack the basic arithmetic skills to calculate whether or not they have enough gas in the tank to make it to the next gas station. This is why foreign students no longer come to the US to be educated as much anymore. Attendance from foreign students is down over 50% year over year for the last several years, and the trend is accelerating. This is becoming not the place to be educated anymore.

So, bringing in people educated in other countries by better school systems is a way to remain competitive in the vast global economy now made possible by the internet. Our products here in the U.S. have to compete with products made in China and Korea, and England, and Japan, and Germany, and all these countries have vastly improved educational systems compared to ours here in the U.S.

The cost and complexity of fixing our education system in this country takes too long and costs too much and it will take us decades to catch up, even if we could turn it around TODAY. And we are far from knowing HOW to fix it, let alone starting to fix it.

We should also realize that part of the immigration system here in the U.S includes a process called "Labor Certification" or "LCA". This is where the prospective employer must advertise a position in newspapers, etc. to give Americans a chance to apply for it first, before offering to an immigrant. Also, the job must pay a similar wage to what other Americans would earn for the same job (this is so that there is not an unfair advantage to hiring immigrants who might be willing to take a lower salary). Once the advertisement generates responses, all the responses and resumes that come from the ads must be analyzed and there must be explanations to show why an American candidate was not selected. If there are Americans qualified to do that job and willing and available at that time, then the employer must hire them instead.

In this way, we assure that the immigrants actually hired are actually needed. They have the skills, education, and experience we need to get the job done.

The best way to remain powerful and important in the world is to import the best talent from the rest of the world and use that! Use THEIR resources to train OUR workers! Use them to make us smarter and more productive. Decrease the cost of maintaining our own less active, less productive element of our population by increasing the numbers of educated, honest, healthy, productive adults in our society.

This is not to say of course that all American babies end up becoming criminals or sick or otherwise unproductive or somehow flawed. And it also does not say that all Americans are stupid and uneducated. This merely acknowledges that a certain percentage of babies born to any population anywhere will not end up as contributing wholly to the common good. And it acknowleges that recent declines and shortcomings in our own education system can be bypassed by importing the products of better education systems elsewhere. At the moment, it seems South Korea offers about the best. But All the European countries, Canada, Australia, etc. also have better systems than ours as well. We can benefit from their efforts and expenditures by importing their best talent once those countries have paid to train them. It's such a good deal for us it almost seems like it should be illegal.

What are the alternatives?

Well, we can continue to allow companies to outsource their jobs to foreign countries. But that has the EXTREMELY negative effects of both funneling huge amounts of cash into foreign economies instead of our own, AND the effect of permanently transferring the skills of the outsourced jobs to those other people.

Remember that immigrants live HERE. They spend their money HERE. How much of your paycheck is left over after paying the bills and buying the food, mortgage, clothes and things you need? Well, it’s the same for them. Almost all the money paid to an immigrant here ends up going right back into the local economy, and what doesn’t goes into the bank HERE, and becomes part of the money supply and money markets that fuel investment HERE.

But when we have legislation and bureaucracy that restricts immigration like we do now, then we restrict the flow of these resources from getting to the companies that need them, so they have no choice but to export the jobs and even entire sections of companies overseas to India and elsewhere where labor is cheaper. Then we have the much more crippling effect down stream of training the foreign workers in the technologies INSTEAD of our own people to the point where now we literally don’t have people with those skills here in the US and they do in China and India. After a few years of outsourcing the work to them, THEY now know how to do it and we don't anymore. They have kept up with the latest advances and we haven't.

For example, most software development seems to be done in places like Bangalore India now rather than the US. And China graduates 3,000,000 engineers per year, India graduates 1,500,000 engineers each year, and the US graduates only 70,000 and half of those are foreign students who leave right after graduating.
This is why Intel is now building their newest chip design and manufacturing centers in Southeast Asia. They have millions of highly trained engineers and we don't have that here in the US anymore. We have been outsourcing those types of jobs for too long.

So these foreign workers that we outsource to in other countries are not just getting the low-end lower-paying jobs anymore, as some proponents would have you believe. Rather, that is where the vast bulk of educated talent IS now. This knowledge-shift has dramatic long-term ill-effects for us here in the US.

Illegal Immigrants
And what about illegal immigrants?
Well, this is an entirely different issue. There are good and bad aspects to this phenomenon. The good news is that they provide a needed supply af very cheap labor to do the jobs Americans would rather not do and that allows us to live in houses that would otherwise be far more expensive, eat at restaurants and hotels and wear clothing, and eat food that would all be much more expensive than it is now.

That pool of cheap labor provides an affordable lifestyle for many Americans that would not be possible if the owners of those farms, restaurants and building companies, etc. had to pay normal American wages for all their workers.

However, it also creates problems. If these workers are illegal, then they have no papers and so do not enjoy all the infrastructure benefits of our society as we do. And this has consequences for all of us. If they become ill, then there is no health care to take care of them or prevent disease from spreading. Tuburculosis is reaching epidemic proportions in impoverished parts of the world, and if those workers bring that here and do not have health care to stem the spread of it, we could have an epidemic of TB here as well.
There are also other areas of risk. If they have no legal driver's licences, then they have no car insurance, and that presents a hazard on the road from a safety AND and a financial risk perspective. If their children cannot attend school, then they cannot build skills to become law-abiding citizens who work for an honest living but rather become forced into gangs and a life of crime to survive.

Speaking practically, as long as there is such a discrepancy between the economies of Mexico and the US, there will always be significant migration of people from Mexico to the US. That is a fact. Legal or illegal, it WILL happen.

So why not reduce the cost and complexity and risks and just make it legal? Why not make it so they do not have to become criminals to come here, but rather make them honest tax-paying members of society? It helps all of us to allow them to legally get healthcare, driver's licences, auto insurance, education, etc.

Some people worry and fret about the Mexican workers sending money back home to their families in Mexico. Well, let's look at how much they make. When I was having some cement work done to extend the driveway on my house a few years ago, the contractor who did the work hired day laborers. For the sake of argument, let's assume they were illegal immigrants from Mexico. He pays them $40 per day for an 8 hour day of slaving away doing hard physical work in 105F Dallas July heat. I can barely cut the grass in that kind of heat, but these men were lifting and carrying heavy bags of cement and doing carpentry and mixing and pouring cement, etc. These men are just day-laborers. They don't have a regular job to go to. They probably don't get work every day. They just show up at a certain place every morning hoping some contractor drives up and needs a few men that day. I bet they'd be lucky if they got 3 solid days of work in any given week. That's about $120/week for each man. How much does it cost to live and support a family? How much do you think of that $120 is left over to send back to extended family in Mexico? That money is well-earned, and they can do whatever they feel they want to with it, as far as I'm concerned. Besides, if we made them legal workers with legal ID, then they could have bank accounts here and keep more of that money here.

These people are going to be here anyway because there is a need for them here. So let's make them legal. Let's let the laws of supply and demand naturally control immigration such that we do not have more than enough to fill the need. Those who can find work here will be law-abiding, tax-paying and their children can attend schools and not be forced into crime and street gangs to survive. And the others who cannot find work for their skills and efforts simply won't have anywhere to work here so there will be no point in coming or staying.

But we also can't have them come here and stay indefinitely if they have no work. With no means of supporting themselves, they would fall to crime to feed themselves, and we would build a much larger criminal element in this society. So they should be let in, but noted and tracked. Possibly a check-in system like we have with parolees, might work.

They could move easily and safely back and forth across the border, and then the expenses and problems of maintaining a Border Patrol to keep them out goes away for the most part. They can just focus on the movement of illegal substances and contraban, and forget the whole illegal worker part of it.

It is very true that you cannot manage what you cannot measure. By keeping millions of people in an illegal status, you keep them invisible to the authorities, and we cannot measure them. We don't know how much of our resources to spend on police or fire services, or even sewers or anything else. We cannot plan for growth or emergencies or anything. We cannot manage our population if we cannot measure a large portion of it.

This low-cost immigrant worker labor pool provides a necessary sector of the economy to maintain the American infrastructure. I suggest we make it legal. Make it reasonable. De-criminalize it. It solves so many other ancillary problems from drugs to crime to poverty, etc. Let's let the simple laws of supply and demand determine immigration of this type.

And as for the other immigration, the educated, skilled professionals, let them come. Bring them in. Encourage them to come here. Bring their skills. Bring their knowledge. Bring their investment dollars and their businesses and the jobs they represent. They can only help us in our quest to be the strongest, best and most competitively sucessful nation in the world.

Those who say that immigrants steal jobs from American workers simply don't understand the whole bigger picture. They need a different perspective.

So, the next time someone says to you that immigrant workers steal American jobs, correct them. Tell them they are the law-abiding, educated, skilled, tax-paying, honest, people who came here at no cost to us to develop or educate, to help America stay competitive in the world. They make us stronger. They make us more productive. They increase our tax base. They produce goods and services we can sell, and they spend their money HERE to buy the goods and services we make already.

We need as many of those types of people as we can get! And remember - every one we turn away goes to the competition to make THEM stronger.

Writing Music - My Albums (10 CDs)

My passion is writing and recording music. I started playing guitar in 1965. I took lessons for a bit, then put it down for a while, then picked it up again more seriously when my closest friend Neil Doherty (who visits here sometimes - hi Neil!) and I got into it together probably around 1969-70. We played and practiced ravenously for several years each learning every song we thought we could handle, and then one would teach the other. After high school and college, we both joined bands and played around professionally for a while. I played as a professional guitar player on the road with various bands for about 3 years.
I came to think of myself as a guitar player first and foremost. And that inner identity never quite left me, even though I went on to start my long career in the computer field.
Throughout the 1980's I had built a small 8 track analog recording studio and started writing and recording my original music. It was a hobby really. Well, perhaps a passion better describes it. The equipment was modest, and limited, but I did the best I could, and a few interesting pieces came out of that period.

Then in 1990, after my daughter was born, I decided to set aside the guitars and even music in general - not even to listen to music to any degree. In fact, even in the car, I listened to talk radio rather than music - so I really missed a lot of music that came out in that decade. I simply took a 10 year break from music. But, strangely, the inner core identity of being a musician never really left me. That seems burned in at a deep level of my soul.

Then in late 1999, a bad doctor's report made me realize that I was not going to last forever, in fact, it seemed at the time that I only had a few short years left. I realized then that working 14 to 16 hours per day 7 days per week was not the way to spend my most valuable and non-renewable resource. My time. I needed to leave some things behind when I went. I wanted to write a book of life's lessons for my daughter, and publish it (which I did - it comes out shortly, I'll write another blog entry here when it is officially released) and I wanted to create more music. I wanted to release a CD. The best work of my life. I wanted to record my thoughts in a book, and I wanted to record my soul in a collection of music.
So, after a 10 year hiatus from music, I began again. I took my old tapes of my music recorded in the 1980's and digitized them and made 3 CD's out of them. Then I bought some more modern recording equipment, a 16 track digital recorder, and a mic and a drum machine, and pulled out my old guitars, and began to write again.

Originally, my intention was to simply re-record my old songs on better equipment to get a cleaner, more accurate digital sound, and use the extra 8 tracks to embellish them a little. But instead, just fooling around learning the equipment, I ended up writing a new tune on the spot called, "The Road Not Taken" about the choises we take in life and wondering what might have happened had we taken the other path. Well, that led to another tune, and to another and another, and pretty soon a year had gone by and I had created another complete album entirely of new music. I called it Moonlight.

Well, I got more excited at how this turned out and I decided to up my equipment to alleviate the storage limitations and track limitations and went to a Pro Tools 32 track system like most pro studios use these days. Slight difference. My Pro Tools runs on the Mac itself, whereas, the high-end version the pro stuios use runs on special cards installed in the mac. That is the TDM version and that allows 196 tracks. But it's also $13,000! The 32 track version will do me fine for now, I think.
Well, I forged ahead and wrote song after song and before long, I had created another album of new music - Inner Light. And I continued on from there.
To date, I have recorded 107 songs, and I have put together 10 albums (some songs appear on more than one album), and I have more in the works. There seems to be no end in sight to the music I can produce, the music ideas just keep coming, so I will continue.
I have thought: Maybe no one will care. Maybe no one will listen. On the other hand, if even just ONE of my songs reaches someone somewhere, and it touches them and comes to mean something to them, then I will feel it has all been worthwhile.

A gift not shared is wasted.

Below is a listing on the 10 CDs and a brief description and listing of what they contain starting with the most recent first and working backward.


Soft Lights
Album 10: February, 2006, 14 songs,
This album is in the works, but almost finished. These days all my albums are themed works. This is in order to give a consistent sound to each album, so that a listener can decide the type of music they would like to listen to, and put on that appropriate album. This album is meant to have a soft, 'beautiful' sound. Something for a wistful, nostalgic, or a romantic mood.

1. Under a Texas Sky, 2. That Professional Touch, 3. We Will Be Alright, 4. You Just Can't Get There From Here, 5. I Can't Make You Love Me 6. The Boy With The Thousand Year Eyes, 7. The Sun Through The Trees, 8. The Visions of Nostradamus, 9. It Seems Like Only Yesterday, 10. The Plains of Nazca, 11. Diamonds In Her Soul, 12. Just Before The Storm, 13. You Make Me Feel Good, 14. Honeymoon Suite

Natural Light
Album 9: Released Apr. 2005, 14 songs
This album consists of mostly acoustic and light tunes written primarily for the Beanstock Acoustical Music Festival for April 3, 4, 2005. This is put on twice per year south of Sherman, Texas, on the Coyote Ridge Ranch near Tom Bean, Tx.. I played at that event, and had to have some material to play, so I ended up writing a whole set of solo acoustic tunes. I'm very glad I had a chance to really dip into this genre. I really enjoyed myself musically with the different tunings, and the textures and moods and intimacy of acoustic pieces. They get in closer to you. I also really enjoyed performing at Beanstock. They are the nicest, friendliest people, in the nicest environment. It was truly a peaceful, casual setting, a beautiful day, and the first of probably many cherished memories there - because I plan to keep going back. This album is a collection of those new pieces written especially for Beanstock, as well as a few others that fit this theme and feel from other albums.

1. Thinking of Home, 2. Redd Coffee, 3. The Torch Song, 4. Dance of the Shakti, 5. Brazil, 6. Fire In The Field, 7. A Moment of Clarity, 8. You Can See So Far From Up Here, 9. To The Rescue, 10. Little Angel, 11. Greensleeves, 12. Moonlight, 13. Yavanna Dreamed, 14. This Old Guitar

Light 'em UP!
Album 8: Released Feb. 2005, 17 songs
This album was specifically written and recorded for the forces fighting in Iraq. Particularly for the 101st Airborne Division. "The Screaming Eagles". This is a rock album in every respect. The idea for this started from a Christmas party held at a member of the Airborne's place in Dover, Tennessee, near the base. Paul and his friends decided they really liked "Touring Baghdad" and so they played it a lot that night. Some got out their guitars to play along, and some were slinging air-guitars. Then they went through a lot of my other songs and liked those too. Hearing how well these guys enjoyed it from Paul's sister, and my friend, Trish Napolitano, I committed to creating this CD especially for them. I thought this was the least I could do for our troops who are putting it on the line in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is not for the timid. This is intended to appeal to powerful, young, strong, brave people. This is a real rockin' album - meant to be played LOUD!!

1. Touring Baghdad, 2. In My Sights, 3. Light 'em UP!, 4. Anthem - Live, 5. Still Smokin' - Live, 6. Heart of an Angel, 7. Thinking of Home, 8. The Arrangement, 9. You Make Me Feel Good, 10. Best Day of Your Life, 11. Billy Goes For A Drive, 12 Gas It Up, 13. The Touch, 14. I'll Do the Best I Can Do, 15. Yavanna Smiled, 16. Walking On The Edge, 17. The Star Spangled Banner

The Light of Sun and Moon The Gifts of Yavanna
Album 7: Released 2004, 12 songs
In the universe created by J. R. R. Tolkien, Yavanna was the goddess of the earth and living things. Her greatest and most famous gifts were the original Two Trees of Valinor. These trees were named Telperion, and Laurelin. Until their creation, all the world was dark but for starlight. But when Yavanna created the two trees, suddenly there was light. One tree shone at a time. When one waxed the other waned. Laurelin gave the golden light of day, and Telperion gave the silver light of night. Every 12 hours one tree would dim as the other tree came into it's own brightness. Thus was born the measure of the days and the beginning of the counting of time. Later, when the trees were destroyed by evil, the Sun and Moon were created to replace them. In this album, there are songs of high energy of the sun, and songs of quiet reflection of the moon, and some of the twilight between. The sun and the moon share the responsibility of bringing light to the world. Each of them has it's own light. Similarly, each song in this collection has it's own light.

1. The Visions of Nostradamus, 2. You Make Me Feel Good, 3. To The Rescue, 4. Waiting For Perfect, 5. Yavanna Dreamed, 6. Dance of the Shakti, 7. The Long Afternoon of Mrs. Brown, 8. A Long Cold Summer, 9. Shiokaze, 10. Beyond Words, 11. Yavanna Smiled, 12. I'm Not Driving Too Fast, I'm Just Flying Too Low.

Inner Light
Album 6: Released 2003, 13 songs
This was the second album of the new century and new technology for me. I switched from the 16 track KORG D16 to a 32 track Pro Tools software based system running on a Mac computer. I found that both the quality of my writing as well as the quality of the recording increased for this album. Also, there is quite a range of styles here. From heavier rock to light jazz, from latin to a Christmas song, it's got a lot of variety

1. Walking On The Edge, 2. Billy Goes For A Drive, 3. The Best I Can Do, 4. Who's That Knocking On Our Door?, 5. Gas It Up, 6. Anthem - Live, 7. Still Smokin' - Live, 8. The Boy With The Thousand Year Eyes, 9. The Memories Come Rushing Back, 10. Just Before The Storm, 11. Brasil, 12. One More Christmas Before You Go, 13. This Old Guitar
Instrument Lights
Album 5: Released 2003, 14 songs
Some people have asked specifically for an album with only the instrumental pieces on it. This was made with tunes from Moonlight and Inner Light albums. But some that were originally written and recorded with vocals have been made into instrumental versions for this album.

1. Anthem - Live, 2. Just Before The Storm, 3. Brasil, 4. Moonlight, 5. The Prisoner Dreams, 6. Dance Like No One Is Watching, 7. Driving With The Top Down, 8. The Hero Tells His Tale, 9. Waking From A Dream, 10. Billy Goes For A Drive, 11. Gas It Up, 12. The Memories Come Rushing Back, 13. Little Angel, 14. Fire In The Field.

Moonlight
Album 4: Released 2002, 12 songs
Moonlight was the first album I wrote and recorded once I returned from a decade away from music during the 1990's. Technology had changed, and everything had gone digital, and everything digital had gone cheaper. I was afraid that after 10 years away from playing, I wouldn't be able to play guitar anymore. I was afraid I wouldn't have any musical ideas, that I wouldn't be able to sing anymore. Well, I found I had lots of unique ideas stored up and only needed to unlock them and let them out. As the French say, appetite increases with eating. I had only intended to make the one album, but I found that once I started to tap into the creative spirit again, it was hard to resist the temptation to keep going. The concept for this album is that you are waking up from a deep dream and then finding out that you had simply passed into another dream, and each successive "waking" was mere passing up through layers of dreams within dreams to the point that you never really know which is "reality" anymore.

1. Waking From A Dream, 2. The Road Not Taken, 3. Driving With The Top Down, 4. Just Like James Bond, 5. The Prisoner Dreams, 6. The Hero Tells His Tale, 7. Moonlight, 8. Dance Like No One Is Watching, 9. Little Angel, 10. Fire In The Field, 11. The Best Time Of The Year, 12. Was That All Just A Dream?

Morning Light
Album 3: Recorded 1990, 15 songs. Not available to the public.
This album is the "best of"' collection from the body of work written and recorded in the 1980's. The title "Morning Light" refers to the fact that it comes early in my recording career. All selections were recorded on analog 8 track equipment. This album is not offered for sale because of the lesser quality of the 8-track analog recordings. It appears here as a matter of record for those who may be interested in the earlier music. The songs themselves are available in full form on the 'Songs' tab of this website.

1. Yellow Moon, 2. You Don't Cheat Your Friends, 3. Never A Raving Beauty, 4. Grace Under Pressure, 5. That Professional Touch, 6. You Can Always Come To Me, 7. Your Should Know By Now, 8. No Excuses, 9. Do It Now, 10. The Plains Of Nasca, 11. The Arrangement, 12. Building Castles, 13. The Art of the Moment, 14. The Giant's Lullabye (Stone and Sea), 15. I'll Say Nothing

Early Light Volume Two
Album 2: Recorded from 1980 to 1990, 16 songs. Not available for sale.
This album is a collection from the body of work written and recorded in the 1980's. Early Light refers to the fact that it comes very early in my recording career. Some of these were my first recordings. All selections were recorded on analog 8 track equipment. This album is not offered for sale because of the lesser quality of the 8-track analog recordings. It appears here as a matter of record for those who may be interested in the earlier music. The songs themselves are available in full form on the 'Songs' tab of this website.

1. Breathless, 2. Back On The Line, 3. Childhood's End, 4. Dance In Slow Motion, 5. Change My Life, 6. Hey Kid, 7. I Find It Amazing, 8. Living On The Edge Of Poverty, 9. On and On Forever, 10. Progressive 11. Boogie, Step Aside, 12. There's Nothing Worth Dying For, 13. White Line Boogie, 14. A Hero In Your Dreams, 15. A Quick Instrumental, 16. Longer Than

Early Light Volume One
Album 1: Recorded from 1980 to 1990, 15 songs. Not available for sale.
This album is a collection from the body of work written and recorded in the 1980's. Early Light refers to the fact that it comes very early in my recording career. Some of these were my first recordings. All selections were recorded on analog 8 track equipment. This album is not offered for sale because of the lesser quality of the 8-track analog recordings. It appears here as a matter of record for those who may be interested in the earlier music. The songs themselves are available in full form on the 'Songs' tab of this website.

1. Just Best Friends, 2. Fire In The Field, 3. I Used To Know You, 4. Little Girl In My Arms, 5. Living In The Past, 6. Quiet Night, Soft Breeze, 7. Echoes, 8. The Arrangement, 9. These Are The Memories, 10. To Know Your Better, 11. Twilight, 12. Two Of A Kind, 13. Without You, 14. Holiday, 15. Down A Fast River

My Little Recording Studio

Most musicians are gear-heads. In fact, there are acronyms for it. GAS is the biggest one. It stands for Gear Acquisition Syndrome.
I used to have it, but actually, I think I'm mostly cured now. I have pretty much what I need. Mind you, it took 19 guitars on the wall and 5 amps and the recording studio setup you see here to get me over my case of GAS - which has lasted over 30 years so far.
I decided to put this post up because I know other musicians are always interested in what other musicians are using. So here it is - for my musician friends!

I record here in this dedicated room in my house. So far, I have 10 albums of original songs. I record alone by layering one track at a time.
Usually I start with a click track and then I add rhythm guitar. Then I add drums and bass, and vocals, and finally lead guitar. Then keyboards, harmony vocals.
Often I do many many takes and go back and redo a track after I've done other tracks. The tricky thing that most people don't realize is that when I am recording each track, I am not playing against the whole band sound - because it isn't there yet. I am playing against a band sound in my head. I have to imagine what it will sound like and keep that vision in my head while I write and play each new part.
Some of my songs have 16 vocal parts. Often, I have 3, 4 or more guitar tracks. Many songs have all 32 tracks being used.
On the last album, Soft Lights, I have had Mike Wynn doing drums. The way we work it is that I write and record the whole song, including a click track and a full drum sound that I make on my drum machine. This drum sound is just a placeholder though until I get Mike's version.
Then, I record a special version for Mike with the drum tracks muted and just having the click track instead of drums. I load both to my website at valserrie.com.
Mike then downloads them, and loads the click version into his Pro Tools system in his home studio. He then writes and plays a drum track to go with the song, and then loads that final drum track on his website in full uncompressed form.
I then download his drum track to my Mac, and import it into my Pro Tools session and synchronize it with the song. and viola! It sounds like he was playing along with the band!
This is tremendous fun.
Wouldn't it be great to make a living this way? Ahh, we all have our fantasies...
To see all my albums and listen to any of my songs, or to buy any of my CD's please visit my website at http://www.valserrie.com

The Toothpaste Lesson

I have a little story to tell about something that happened many years ago when I was married to my first wife.
We were at our annual family get together at her sister Sue’s house. It was a big backyard barbeque with about 20 people in attendance. Sue and Don were talking and mixing with their guests, when suddenly their young son Mike blurted out something decidedly unflattering that Sue and Don had said in private the day before about someone there at the party. It was one of those ones that start, "Oh, well my Mom and Dad said that he....." And out it came in all it's honest unwashed ugliness, and in full volume so that EVERYONE heard it.

It was terribly embarrassing, and Sue and Don were absolutely mortified. They immediately started emphatically apologizing and denying and turned every shade of red a human face could manage without using paint. There was a big upset and their relationship was damaged irreparably that day.

I decided that this was a good opportunity for me to be a good uncle and teach the boy a lesson that might just stay with him for a long time.

So, in the midst of all the fussing and chaos of the moment, I stepped over to Mike and said quietly, “Follow me, Mike. I want to show you something.”
Glad to be taken away from all the mess he had created, he was only too happy to follow me inside the house. I led him through the kitchen, down the hall where the bedrooms were, and into the small bathroom at the end of the hall.
I opened the medicine cabinet and looked through the contents. Then I saw a small sample tube of Colgate toothpaste. The kind they sell for 50 cents or so for traveling.
“Step over to the sink here, Mike” I said. “Here, hold this…”. And I handed him the toothpaste and closed the cabinet door.
“Now, Mike, I’m going to show you something here that I want you to remember for as long as you live, okay? “ “Okay” he shrugged.
I pointed at the tube in his hands. “I want you to squeeze all the toothpaste out of that tube into the sink here.”
Without questioning, and curious to see the trick, he did as I said. He squeezed the toothpaste out into a little white pile in the sink. “Okay. Done.” He said and looked at me as if to say “What Next?”
“Are you sure it’s all out?” I said, “Really squeeze that tube. Flatten it completely and roll it up and make sure you squeeze every last bit of toothpaste out.”
He set to it again. This time he was very diligent. He squeezed and pressed his thumbs down on the sink and rolled it up tight as it would go. Finally, after inspecting closely, he looked up and said, “Okay – that’s it for sure now. Nothing left.“ “You’re sure? Totally empty?” “Yep – totally!”

“Okay then. Here’s what you do next…..” I whispered to him conspiratorily. He looked at me eagerly, waiting for the next step in the 'trick'
So I pointed at the toothpaste, “Now I want you to put the toothpaste BACK in the tube.”

He looked puzzled. As if he didn’t understand me. Then he looked at the flattened little tube, and looked at me again. “Go on” I said. “You got it out, now put it back in…” He tried scooping it back in the open end but of course he couldn’t do it, so he stopped and looked up and said, “It’s impossible. You can’t put it back the way it was.”

“Exactly, Mike.” I said. “That is the lesson. Sometimes we do things that cannot be undone. Sometimes we say things we cannot un-say. Like what you said outside a few minutes ago. That’s why it always pays to think before you act. Whenever you feel you are about to say or do something you cannot undo later, remember back to this day. Remember the toothpaste lesson. Okay?” He nodded.

I hope he did remember.

The Legend of 1900

The Legend of 1900 is a beautiful, artistic movie that will never be famous because there are no gunshots, murders, gratuitous violence, or explicit sexual scenes in the movie. It was made in Italy, not Hollywood. It is wistful, and beautiful and memorable. It is about music, and it is about a very unique sort of man.
This movie is primarily about a man named 1900 (played extremely well by Tim Roth) who, in his entire life has never set foot upon dry land. He was born on a cruise ship called “The Virginian” on the first day of the first month of the new century that he was named for. He was discovered and adopted by Danny, a large, genial black man that worked in the engine room down in the bowels of the ship.
Danny raised him onboard the ship and never took him off it. 1900 was still a young boy of perhaps 6 yrs or so when Danny was accidentally killed by a loose hook on a swinging chain. After that, he became the charge of the rest of the below-decks crew and they continued to raise him. One day, in the middle of the night, 1900 found his way up to the grand ballroom and sat down at the piano. Suddenly, he could play marvelously. He was a child prodigy. He could instinctively play beautiful music. The whole crew and captain were awakened and came to see who it was making this music. They were shocked to see little 1900’s fingers flowing like water over the keyboard, though his feet could not yet even reach the floor.
So 1900 found his place on board the ship. He joined the band as their piano player and was a spectacular talent. The whole story is narrated by the horn player who joined the band and became friends with 1900 at the age of 27. 1900 calls him “Conn” because he blows a Conn trumpet.
There is a wonderful, unforgettable scene, when they first meet. There is a huge storm at sea in the middle of the night, and Conn is throwing up into a planter. 1900 comes along, sees him, and then invites him into the ballroom. He will teach him to enjoy the rolling and pitching of the ship in the high sea. He sits at the piano, and tells Conn to unlock the wheels, and then hop on to the attached piano bench with him. As the boat rolls and rocks and tips in all directions, they are rolled around the ballroom dance floor while 1900 plays beautifully. Along with the music, they swing and swish, and glide, and twirl around like a complex ballet. The music synchronizes perfectly with the ‘dance’ of the piano and it’s two riders. Finally, it crashes through the huge stained-glass wall, rumbles down the hall – with 1900 never stopping the music, and finally crashes into the caption’s own stateroom.
It would be impossible to forget that scene, once you’ve seen it.
1900 becomes the favorite of both the higher-class upper decks and the lower class lower decks. His concern is not about money or class, or status. He exists in the music. The music is all that matters. In this way the heart of the true musician is captured.

The music score of this film is written by the incomparable Ennio Morricone. He has scored over 200 films in his career and is most famous for his series of Clint Eastwood ‘spaghetti westerns’ such as “The Good The Bad, and The Ugly”, “Fistful of Dollars”, etc. Here, he is at the top of his art creating utterly beautiful and expressive pieces that perfectly illustrate the events and moments of the film.
Other memorable scenes are the ‘contest’ between him and ‘Jellyroll Morton’ – the man who invented jazz. Jellyroll had heard of this fantastic piano player, some say the best player ever, but he won’t come off the ship. So Jellyroll comes to him to challenge him to a piano duel. I don’t want to give it away, but watch for the cigarette…
Another favorite scene is when he sees a beautiful woman, played by Melanie Thierry. He is playing for a recording – his first and only – and while he is playing, he is inspired by the sudden appearance of Thierry in the porthole beside him. As she walks around the deck corner she disappears from one portal and appears sunlit in the next as a perfect little cameo. Bright, and angelic. Beautiful. And his music perfectly captures her and the moment.
There are moments of inner turmoil as 1900 considers stepping off the ship. It is very interesting about how he ties his piano playing ability to the fact that he is on the ship. There are limits to a keyboard and the ship. But if he steps off the ship onto land – there are no limits. There is no ‘end’. And his mind cannot deal with infinities and large spaces like that.
Ironically, it is the ‘call of the sea’ which can only be heard from the land, that finally tempts him to step off onto land.
The ending is classic, and romantic in its ultimate conclusion.
This is one of my favorite movies, and I have shown it several times to visitors who want to see my home theater room. It is quite a story, really. Although it is not a sex/violence/comedy/war/ film, and not really a ‘chick flick’ per se, because it doesn’t have a hot and heavy romantic encounter, still there is a stolen kiss, and an unexpressed, not-fully-formed need for the object of his desires. Like real life, this does not conform to a usual Hollywood formula. It exists as a separate and unique film. With unique characters and a unique plot. You cannot help but wonder if it is true.

Groundhog Day

Well today is February 2 – Groundhog Day. Since 1993, it has always been a personal tradition for me to watch the Bill Murray comedy “Groundhog Day” each year on this day. As comedies go, it’s more than passably funny. Bill Murray is one of my very favorite comedic actors, and he does very well in this one. But, more than the simple entertainment, the real appeal for me is the more subliminal message about reincarnation. That’s right, you heard me. Reincarnation.

In the story, Phil Connors(Murray), is a network weatherman from a local TV station in Pittsburg assigned to the once-a-year location shoot at Punxatawney, Pennsylvania where he covers the same story every year: Will Punxatawney Phil, the famous Groundhog come out of his hole on February 2 and see his shadow or will he not? If he does, then the legend has it that Mother Nature will trade that one single sunny day for 6 more weeks of winter. If not, then winter will end early.

Phil is tired of doing this, and wants to move up. He wants to be a news anchor. Maybe go for the top on-air job at the station. Maybe move to a bigger station. He is ambitious and has aspirations, but his career seems stuck in a rut.

Then something weird happens. He and his team (pretty Andie MacDowell and Chris Elliott) do the shoot as normal, spend the morning in the town, but then get caught in a freak snowstorm that prevents them from returning to the city that day. So they prepare to spend the entire day in the town. Phil makes some half-hearted plays for Rita (MacDowell) but shuns everyone else. The day ends, they go to their hotel rooms.

But the next morning, Phil awakens to the radio announcing it is Groundhog day. Again. He spends the day getting used to the concept that the day has repeated itself. When he awakens the next day, it’s groundhog day again. Then it happens again. And again. And keeps happening – seemingly forever.

He tries everything to break the cycle. He even tries to kill himself – in increasingly bizarre ways. Jumping off buildings, driving off a cliff at a strip mine and exploding in flames, etc.

But then, once he realizes that it is out of his control, he begins to relax a bit and decides to use the time to his advantage. He learns to play piano. He learns ways to make a lot of money. He learns more and more about Rita that he finds that he can pretend to be exactly what she is looking for so that she will like him. But then, he finally comes to the realization that it’s really all about improving himself and helping others out. THAT is the ultimate lesson in life. That is when he finally wins over Rita and that’s when he breaks the loop, and life begins anew.

The whole concept of coming back to live the time over and over again until we learn our lessons, and become a better person is what life itself is all about and the underlying lesson of reincarnation. That’s why I like it (other than Bill Murray’s fun portrayal) and that’s why I watch this movie every year on this day.
I don’t force anyone else to watch it with me – it’s just a quiet, little personal tradition, that’s all. But I do it. I enjoy it. I get it.

And tonight, I will do it all over again.