Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Jazz

As a music lover, I thought this was interesting.

Mental illness 'at the root of jazz'
Buddy Bolden (second from left) pioneered jazz improvisation
The mental health problems of one musician could have led to the creation of jazz.
Without his schizophrenia, Charles "Buddy" Bolden - the man credited by some with starting off the jazz movement - might never have started improvisation, psychiatrists have heard.
And without this style change, music might never have evolved from ragtime into the jazz movement we know today.
Professor Dr Sean Spence, of the department of psychiatry at the University of Sheffield, was speaking to representatives at the Royal College of Psychiatrists' annual conference.
He said jazz music arose from the attempts of a cognitively impaired performer to execute novel performances.
If we had not had this improvised music then it would just have continued as ragtime
Dr Sean Spence
He said that Bolden's mental health problems meant his motor functions were impaired.
Bolden could not read music and the only way he was able to play his cornet was by improvising.
Dr Spence said: "It may be that he had to improvise because he could not play tunes in a useful way.
"He could not read music and he had to make up things as he went on.
"If we had not had this improvised music then it would just have continued as ragtime."
Dr Spence said that Bolden was diagnosed as suffering from "dementia praecox", which later became known as schizophrenia.
Ragtime to jazz
Although no recordings of his music survive, Bolden is widely considered to have started the jazz movement, which was officially recognised in 1917.
Bolden was famous for his big bold cornet sound and although his music had a solid blues form it was closer to ragtime than to jazz.
He lived and played at the beginning of the twentieth century, leading a band that was most successful between 1900 and 1906.
Bolden's playing style was extremely popular. At one point he played with eight bands at one time.
But by 1906 Bolden's mental health had started to deteriorate and the next year, after attacking his mother and mother-in-law in the street, he was committed to a mental hospital outside New Orleans.
Bolden remained in the mental hospital until his death 24 years later.
Pete King, the co-founder of the Ronnie Scott's club, said; "Bolden might have had schizophrenia, but that doesn't take away from his incredible talent."

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Another tragedy with a mentally unstable person, Colorado

I just posted the tragedy last week in the mall in Omaha. I hope this does not continue every week. America must change the laws and allow educators and medical professionals to be able to provide more help to mentally unstable students and patients. The current laws stifle the comments and observations of the mentally ill. These laws should be held accountable for the innocent deaths of all people killed at the hands of a non-medicated and non-treated mentally unstable person. All I know for sure is there are too many people dying for no reason. What if it were your brother, sister, son, daughter or loved one who is needlessly killed? Take action America. This young man had been kicked out of school, does anyone know why? Obviously, socially disabled, spent hours everyday in front of the computer. This is a very similar equation to almost all of the other recent shootings. Does anyone know anything about the grandmother who tried to enter Disney World with a gun and a knife? They detained her at the front gate. What was on her mind? Was she also trying to carry out a plan that she "heard from God'?

Gunman Posted Anti-Christian Rants
By JUDITH KOHLER,
AP
Posted: 2007-12-11 08:06:02
Filed Under: Crime News, Nation News
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Dec. 11) - With the identity of the gunman now known, residents of two Colorado towns were left Tuesday with deeper questions: What drove Matthew Murray to a rampage that claimed four lives at a church and missionary training center, and were there warning signs that could have prevented it?Investigators were reportedly looking for answers in several rants Murray is believed to have posted on a Web site for people who have left evangelical religious groups. The most recent post was Sunday morning in the hours between his attacks in Arvada and Colorado Springs, according to KUSA-TV in Denver, which first reported on the writings.

The gunman who killed four people in two shooting sprees at a Colorado megachurch, above, and a missionary training school Sunday was kicked out of the school about three years ago, police said in court documents.
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"You Christians brought this on yourselves," Murray wrote, according to the station, which did not identify the site. "All I want to do is kill and injure as many of you as I can especially Christians who are to blame for most of the problems in the world."The postings spanned several weeks, the station said, and in an earlier one, Murray appeared to reject offers of psychological help."I've already been working with counselors. I have a point to make with all this talk about psychologists and counselors `helping people with their pain,'" he wrote, according to KUSA.The station said Murray's posts were removed from the site after Sunday's killings, and that authorities were aware of them and investigating. Police in Colorado Springs and Arvada would not comment on the writings.Earlier Monday, a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said it appeared Murray "hated Christians."On Monday, officials said revenge was one apparent motive for the attacks. Police said Murray had been kicked out of a training center for missionaries where the first shootings occurred. He had sent hate mail to the Youth With a Mission center in Arvada in the last few weeks after being removed from the program years ago.In a statement, the training center said health problems kept Murray from finishing the program, but elaborated little. Murray did not complete the lecture phase or a field assignment as part of a 12-week program, Youth With a Mission said."The program directors felt that issues with his health made it inappropriate for him to" finish, it said.The program had an office at the site of the second shooting, the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, where Murray was shot by volunteer security guard Jeanne Assam. Investigators said Murray may have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, though police and church leaders credited Assam's bravery with averting a greater tragedy.Assam, 42, said her faith allowed her to remain steady under pressure."It seemed like it was me, the gunman and God," she said, her hands trembling as she recounted the shooting during a news conference.Assam is a former police officer who worked in Minneapolis during the 1990s, Minneapolis police Sgt. Jesse Garcia said. Garcia said Monday night that he didn't know the exact dates of her employment with the force and couldn't comment on why she left.Also Monday, officials finished searching the home where Murray lived along with a brother, Christopher, 21. Murray's father, Ronald S. Murray, is chief executive of the Rocky Mountain Multiple Sclerosis Center in Englewood.In a search warrant affidavit, investigators said Matthew Murray attended a home-based computer school and worked at his computer for three to five hours a day for the past two years.A neighbor, Cody Askeland, 19, said the brothers were home-schooled, describing the whole family as "very, very religious."Christopher Murray studied for a semester at Colorado Christian University before transferring to Oral Roberts, said Ronald Rex, dean of admissions and marketing at Colorado Christian. He said Matthew Murray had been in contact with school officials this summer about attending the school but decided he wasn't interested because he thought the school was too expensive.Police said Murray's only previous brush with the law was a traffic ticket earlier this year.His relatives said they were grief-stricken and baffled."We cannot understand why this has happened. We ask for prayer for the victims and their families during this time of grief," said Phil Abeyta, Murray's uncle, who read a statement from the family.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
2007-12-10 15:27:31

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Omaha Shootings

I was just reading about the young man who shot himself and 8 other people yesterday in Omaha. The article said he suffered from depression, had been thrown out of his parents house, ADD/ADHD, lost his job for stealing money and broke up with his girlfriend.It said they did not know if he had been on medication for a diagnosed mental illness. I hope this is not another one of our young people who got lost in the crowd, slipped through the cracks of the mental illness maze and did not receive proper attention and medical care; similar to the man who killed students at Virginia Tech. I am really very tired of seeing innocent shoppers/students killed, possibly because we are not taking care of our mentally ill as well as we want to. I know the current laws tie the hands of the medical staff and the law officials. I know that we can't take the rights of the mentally ill away from them, but what if one of those killed were your family member? Would you vote for new, more strengent laws to help the mentally ill accept the correct medicine for their safety and the safety of the average person in the mall shopping for Christmas, or just going to class in college?