Historical events

Angel; Massive Attack

I am enchanted by the notion that we remember the circumstances under which we hear the news of catastrophic, or otherwise historical, moments. It probably doesn’t require an awful lot of effort on our part to mentally register a moment of significance. As a matter of fact, I believe that we can actually do no other than to apply that figurative highlighter pen to our personal mental timelines with a subconscious intent to remember where we were, where our family was, what we were wearing, what we were doing – even what we were eating.

Mr. B., my typing teacher in my freshman year of high school, announced during our class, after receiving a notice delivered to all teachers, that President Reagan had been shot.

Before going to Orchestration Class, at SDSU, my classmates and I usually met downstairs in the “pit”, or the student lounge and locker area, and then descended upon Mr. R. and Orchestration Class en masses. One day, before heading up to class, somebody asked D.O. what had happened on “The Young And The Restless” that day. He replied in disgust that TYATR had been pre-empted because of a plane crash. “Oh? Where was the plane crash?” “You know, down in Florida.” “Miami? Orlando? Where?” “At the, ah … ah … oh, come on, you guys. You know, … at Cape Canaveral.” “THE SPACE SHUTTLE?!?” “Yeah. So my show wasn’t on.” Dad told me, at some point, that he had seen the whole thing happen in front of his eyes on TV.

I had bought my new DVD player in August of 2001 and considered that a party was just the occasion under which to Christen it. So, after asking friends when they could come over to watch a movie, I found that the earliest we could convene was on September 10. While trying to decide what kind of food to serve at the party, Mom suggested that I make her hamburger stew. Many of my friends didn’t eat red meat, so I opted to use ground turkey instead of ground beef. The party was a hit and we watched “Dr. Strangelove”.

The next morning, Mom called to see how the party had gone and how the stew had turned out. As we talked, I happened to turn the TV on. Apparently I had watched PBS some time the day before because Barney was splashing purple all over the screen. I quickly switched channels and saw a stationary view of the World Trade Center in New York with smoke coming out one of the top floors. Must be a trailer for a movie, I thought. So I switched channels. There it was again. Mom, are you watching TV? “No.” I think you probably better turn it on. I’ll call you in a little while.

I love the show “The West Wing”. At the end of the “Commencement” episode, shortly before concluding Season Four, President Bartlett’s daughter, Zoey, is abducted. The show ends with chief-of-staff Leo McGarry running from the Oval Office to the residence in the White House to tell the President. It wasn’t uncommon for the producers to underscore one of the show's stories by including a snippet of a pop tune like Don Henley’s “New York Minute”, Right Said Fred’s “I’m Too Sexy” and Jeff Buckley’s version of “Hallelujah”.

Several portions of the final minutes of this episode were shown in succession with the dialogue muted. For an underscore, they chose the beginning of the song “Angel” by the group Massive Attack from their 1998 album “Mezzanine”. It’s more of a techno pop tune with long portions of percussion sequences in the beginning and at the end. The song provided a suitable backdrop for the chaos during the closing minute or two of the episode.

Isn’t that something? I love this show so much that I noted the music during a moment of fictional significance. I don’t like the rest of the song, by the way. And I don't like the cover. But I bought it for a dollar on iTunes, so there it sits. On my iPod.

I accompany the Heritage Harbour Chorus at the Heritage Harbour retirement community on the outskirts of Annapolis, Maryland. On December 7, 2007, Ollie Zinsmeister, conductor emeritus of the Heritage Harbour Chorus, at the age of ninety-six, approached the chorus before a dress rehearsal for a Christmas concert and proclaimed that “Sixty-six years ago today, I and my fellow US Marine Band Members were at the White House to play an early afternoon concert, but we before we could play a single note, we were sent back to the barracks because Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor.” Though the youngest person in the room (at the age of forty-two), I was not the only one who gasped. Men and women in their seventies and eighties grasped instantly that we were in the presence of one who had had a direct encounter with White House activities on “a day that will live in infamy.”

That short little statement made such an impact that now, whenever someone mentions Pearl Harbor, I will recall the memory of someone else who remembered, sixty-six years later, a moment of historical significance.

Credits: To Ollie Zinsmeister, an outstanding Marine Bandsman and a life long lover of music. Bravo, Maestro.