04/22/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 112)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 112

Date: 04/22/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

Location: Large practice room at South Whidbey High School.  Langley, WA (Whidbey Island)

Notes:

This improvisation is a response to violence.  Earlier today in my neighborhood, a man and women were arguing and accosting each other outside their house.  My wife and I have heard these two arguing before, screaming at one another in their yard or in the road.  But today the women was in the street with a baby stroller in her hands, screaming at her man as he screamed back at her.  They carried their rage around the block as they tried to get away from one another.  The women would shove or punch the man and he would wait until she had walked some distance away and charge at her, all the while their baby watched from the stroller.  The scene ended with police troopers in the neighborhood.  

Today marks one week since the Boston Marathon bombings, and I have yet to address the event during this project.  It’s difficult for me to understand why, but until today the tragedy felt very distant from me.  I’ve listened, read and talked about the bombing, the heroic stories and devastating loses, but I’ve experienced it peripherally.  Until I witnessed the rage of the two people in my neighborhood this morning, I could not experience the human tragedy of the bombing.  These two people have a child that will grow up in a world defined by their hateful parents.  I don’t believe that rage is born into people, I believe it developed within them.  My heart weeps for the people in Boston, those living in fear around the world, and those living with so much rage inside them.

-Neil

The “Untitled” painting by Franz Kline (1957)