-Malcolm Kogut.
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Yikes, me at the age of 13 - with hair.
-Malcolm Kogut.
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
SPEEDING TICKETS
Any driver who is stopped for a routine traffic violation, the driver is
technically under arrest because they are not free to leave until the
officer has written a ticket. The officer is the witness to your crime
and the ticket is your summons to court where you will be tried, judged
and fined. Although this kind of arrest does not appear on background
checks, it will however show up on your driving record and your
insurance company will be notified unless you take certain action.
What should you do if you get a speeding ticket? If you don't get a lot of them, there is much. You can plead guilty, pay the fine and get points on your license. Of course you can pay hundreds of dollars to a lawyer who may be able to get it “taken care of” if he knows someone. Chances are though he will work out some kind of plea deal on your behalf where you may have to take a class or get the charges reduced to a minor infraction but, you may still have to pay the original fine. Why not cut out the barrister middle man and do all the work yourself?
Plead “Not Guilty” on the ticket and mail it in. You will then receive a hearing date to answer to the arrest. In many traffic courts, they will ask you how you plead and again you state “not guilty.” They will then send you to the back of the room to meet with an officer or a representative from the DA's office. They will peruse the facts of the ticket, your driving record, ask you a few questions, then offer you a plea deal. They will reduce the speeding ticket to something like a parking ticket or some other non moving violation. The obvious benefit for doing this is so you do not get a mark on your license, lose your license if you have other points against it or for your insurance company to be notified. You don't want them raising your rates.
If this whole scenario scares you, find out when traffic court is and attend it a few times so that you can see how the whole process works.
I attended court once where the judge openly outlined the whole procedure and admonished everyone to plead not guilty. He told the criminal throng in the courtroom that he didn't want to make life miserable for everyone by giving them marks on their driving record, giving them higher insurance rates and the possibility for future loss of license. One woman clearly didn't understand what he
was inferring and plead guilty to her ticket. The judge said,
“Is this what you want to do?”
She hesitantly said,
“Yes . . . ?”
The bailiff was violently shaking his head “NO.”
The judge said,
“Do you wish to plead ‘Not guilty?’”
The bailiff shook his head “Yes.”
She said,
“Yes . . . ?”
The judge sent her to the back of the room to make a plea deal with an officer. She came back and the judge outlined that she was pleading to a lesser offense and asked her if she agreed. She did and received a parking ticket but still had to pay the full speeding ticket fine and huge court costs. Tickets are a cash cow for many municipalities.
You should keep in mind that if you plead not guilty, the arresting officer must be present to testify to the charges against you because he is the witness to your crime. In Podunk towns, this could be to your benefit. They expect many people to plead guilty or take a plea so, the arresting officer is usually not present.
I received a ticket for not coming to a complete stop at three a.m. during a freezing rain storm. I approached an uphill intersection and was afraid if I came to a complete stop I would not be able to regain traction. I slowed to the point of shifting into first gear, looked both ways and continued. There was not another car on the road. It took the officer two miles to catch up to me because of the icy conditions. I plead not guilty and didn't take the offer to plea it down. I was going to fight this. They dropped the ticket because the arresting officer was not present and he was not available to come in. That doesn't happen in larger courts where they would just reschedule the case and make sure that the officer who wrote the ticket was there (and earning overtime). Because not taking a plea escalates it to being a trial, there is little chance of getting a plea bargain deal at that point so I don't advise taking the risk unless you know you can win.
I once got a speeding ticket in a town where the purpose for the lower speed limit of 30 miles per hour in an open stretch of a four lane highway was so that the police can pick off drivers when they need to make their quota (as I was told). The limit dropped from 55 to 30 with no notice. In that town, the clerk in the traffic court happened to be the husband of one of my choir members. He personally made a deal with the judge that if I attend traffic school they would drop the charges. When he signed the papers affirming that I attended the three hour course, the ticket was dropped.
Besides keeping the roads safe, tickets are a lucrative “tax” against drivers. Some judges don't want to see your record impugned nor cause further fiscal hardship by having your insurance rates go up. Speed limits are set for safety reasons we may not be aware of and, to save lives. The few minutes you gain from speeding are actually insignificant. So if you have multiple infractions it may be best to have an attorney present to do the dirty work. Otherwise, go ahead and play the game but better yet, don't speed in the first place.
-Malcolm Kogut
What should you do if you get a speeding ticket? If you don't get a lot of them, there is much. You can plead guilty, pay the fine and get points on your license. Of course you can pay hundreds of dollars to a lawyer who may be able to get it “taken care of” if he knows someone. Chances are though he will work out some kind of plea deal on your behalf where you may have to take a class or get the charges reduced to a minor infraction but, you may still have to pay the original fine. Why not cut out the barrister middle man and do all the work yourself?
Plead “Not Guilty” on the ticket and mail it in. You will then receive a hearing date to answer to the arrest. In many traffic courts, they will ask you how you plead and again you state “not guilty.” They will then send you to the back of the room to meet with an officer or a representative from the DA's office. They will peruse the facts of the ticket, your driving record, ask you a few questions, then offer you a plea deal. They will reduce the speeding ticket to something like a parking ticket or some other non moving violation. The obvious benefit for doing this is so you do not get a mark on your license, lose your license if you have other points against it or for your insurance company to be notified. You don't want them raising your rates.
If this whole scenario scares you, find out when traffic court is and attend it a few times so that you can see how the whole process works.
I attended court once where the judge openly outlined the whole procedure and admonished everyone to plead not guilty. He told the criminal throng in the courtroom that he didn't want to make life miserable for everyone by giving them marks on their driving record, giving them higher insurance rates and the possibility for future loss of license. One woman clearly didn't understand what he
was inferring and plead guilty to her ticket. The judge said,
“Is this what you want to do?”
She hesitantly said,
“Yes . . . ?”
The bailiff was violently shaking his head “NO.”
The judge said,
“Do you wish to plead ‘Not guilty?’”
The bailiff shook his head “Yes.”
She said,
“Yes . . . ?”
The judge sent her to the back of the room to make a plea deal with an officer. She came back and the judge outlined that she was pleading to a lesser offense and asked her if she agreed. She did and received a parking ticket but still had to pay the full speeding ticket fine and huge court costs. Tickets are a cash cow for many municipalities.
You should keep in mind that if you plead not guilty, the arresting officer must be present to testify to the charges against you because he is the witness to your crime. In Podunk towns, this could be to your benefit. They expect many people to plead guilty or take a plea so, the arresting officer is usually not present.
I received a ticket for not coming to a complete stop at three a.m. during a freezing rain storm. I approached an uphill intersection and was afraid if I came to a complete stop I would not be able to regain traction. I slowed to the point of shifting into first gear, looked both ways and continued. There was not another car on the road. It took the officer two miles to catch up to me because of the icy conditions. I plead not guilty and didn't take the offer to plea it down. I was going to fight this. They dropped the ticket because the arresting officer was not present and he was not available to come in. That doesn't happen in larger courts where they would just reschedule the case and make sure that the officer who wrote the ticket was there (and earning overtime). Because not taking a plea escalates it to being a trial, there is little chance of getting a plea bargain deal at that point so I don't advise taking the risk unless you know you can win.
I once got a speeding ticket in a town where the purpose for the lower speed limit of 30 miles per hour in an open stretch of a four lane highway was so that the police can pick off drivers when they need to make their quota (as I was told). The limit dropped from 55 to 30 with no notice. In that town, the clerk in the traffic court happened to be the husband of one of my choir members. He personally made a deal with the judge that if I attend traffic school they would drop the charges. When he signed the papers affirming that I attended the three hour course, the ticket was dropped.
Besides keeping the roads safe, tickets are a lucrative “tax” against drivers. Some judges don't want to see your record impugned nor cause further fiscal hardship by having your insurance rates go up. Speed limits are set for safety reasons we may not be aware of and, to save lives. The few minutes you gain from speeding are actually insignificant. So if you have multiple infractions it may be best to have an attorney present to do the dirty work. Otherwise, go ahead and play the game but better yet, don't speed in the first place.
-Malcolm Kogut
Monday, February 4, 2013
Ski trip To UTAH
Video One: http://youtu.be/l5c9BmP8ZoY
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Spirit of the Living God
by Malcolm Kogut / Daniel Iverson
Arranger : Malcolm Kogut
This 1935 charismatic hymn to the Holy Spirit is given a positively captivating treatment here. While the SATB scoring is mostly what one would expect, it is dressed in a piano accompaniment that can be characterized as nothing short of lovely.
Sheet music:
http://www.giamusic.com/search_details.cfm?title_id=505
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Heal Thyself: Part Three
In Part One I touched briefly upon disorders, treatments and an
admonition to find another way to heal oneself other than traditional
treatment. In part two I talked a bit about movement of the wrists
(dorsiflexion, ulnar deviation, radial deviation, etcetera) and the body
in whole. Here I'd like to talk briefly about why some people will
never heal.
If an injury is the result of improper movement or from extensive stretching of the tendons, to the point that they have micro tears and consequent layers of scar tissue, the only way to heal is to cease creating micro tears and break up the existing scar tissue. Imagine if you cut a three inch circular hole in your favorite sweater then without replacing the missing swatch, simply sew up the hole. The knot that ensues and the stretching and pulling of the fabric is sort of what happens to your muscles when they are hog-tied by scar tissue.
In order to cease creating micro tears one needs to stop moving and bending incorrectly and stop stretching the tendons to the point where the body needs to create scar tissue. Coaches and physical therapists prescribe stretching to warm up muscles when really, all they are doing is creating micro tears in the muscles and tendons. The body's response to this minor damage is to rush blood to the damaged site which makes the body feel warm. The body is not technically warming up, it is rushing blood to the site to immobilize the tissue: Nature's cast. If coaches really want to warm up the body of their athletes they would make them sit in a sauna and give them a massage. Just ask Olympic trainers.
In order to break up the scar tissue created by over stretching, you need to, well, stretch. The solution to this conundrum is actually very easy; allow the body to move naturally in its mid-range of motion. That is why I am a strong opponent to the use of braces because they inhibit the body from moving in its mid range of motion and also forces the wearer to overcompensate by using other unnatural movements on areas of the body which will only strain new joints and new tissue. This new misuse and overuse will facilitate a downward spiral of repetitive motion disorders. I have heard many stories where the inital pain started as a twang in the forearm, then a sharp pain, then numbness of the hand, followed by constant pain in the wrist, then elbow and shoulder pain, back pain follows then it become bilateral. Revisit that old song, "The hip bone's connected to the knee bone."
Most injuries occur because the athlete (or musician) had something not in proper alignment in the first place and over or under compensated with another part of the body which wasn't intended to move that way. Proper movement promotes healing, plain and simple. Once the body is trained to move properly, scar tissue will begin to break up, inflammation will go down and symptoms will disappear. The body will begin to work as efficiently as it was designed while it is slowly freed from the tether of scar and pain.
Have you ever been buried in snow or sand to the point where you couldn't move? Brute force will not free you from the mass piled upon you. However, if you gently move up and down, left and right, forward and backward, you will create little air pockets. As the pockets increase in all directions, not just one, you will eventually obtain enough space where you can use more and employ larger muscles to displace greater mass and eventually break free (unless you are in a ten foot deep avalanche). The person with over and misused tendons must start out the same way; free to move effortlessly in every direction and expand from there. After meeting with my practitioner for the first time, during the following week I experienced painless snapping sensations in my forearms. That was the scar tissue breaking and releasing my tendons as they began to move as nature intended. I was no longer overstretching but moving just enough to entice the scar to release its hold on my muscles. Much like the Chinese finger torture we all experimented with as kids. The harder you try, the harder it is to get free.
Unfortunately, when there is a glimmer of hope, that is where many people give up on their training and begin moving "normally" again. At that point, the ailment comes back with a vengeance because they are no longer creating micro tears but tearing the whole mass of scar tissue. Those are the type of people who never heal, much like a yo-yo dieter. Many people won't even get that far. Musicians are the worse. I had one student who dutifully practiced the exercises that I prescribed to him then he practiced other music he was interested in but, without employing the new movements I was unconditionally demanding of him. He was using his motor memory which was flawed and ingrained in his muscles and brain from the first day he touched a piano, causing his problems of today. He was in a downward going from one step forward to two steps back. There was no hope for him to heal and I dropped him as a student after three lessons. Another woman wanted to heal NOW! I told her it would be six months of moving ONLY as I instructed her but that prospect was too difficult. She opted for the quick fix of surgery. Two years later, her carpal tunnel syndrome reasserted itself and she had a second surgical procedure. This time following her surgery her fingers no longer responded the same and she no longer plays the organ in church and still has pain. A third student with the discipline much like I had did nothing but the exercises I prescribed to him and after a few weeks he was pain free. He continued working with me and very soon he was playing much better than he did before his injury. His symptoms were gone and he was able to transpose his new found discipline to other parts of his body where he told me his walking, driving, hiking and skiing drastically improved.
A friend of mine complained most of his life of knee pain. His physical therapists dutifully treated his knee pain symptoms. After over twenty years of icing, exercising and resting his knees he saw a new doctor who told him that his knee problems was in his hips. Because he had a hip problem he unnaturally over compensated each step which put unnatural and misaligned strain on his knees. With very simple sleuthing, the doctor discovered that his hip problem was caused by an old shoulder injury. The shoulders and hips work together when we walk. His right shoulder was frozen in tandem with his right hip which caused stress problems in both knees. The bulk of the damage was in the hip so he had a hip replacement and the knee pain practically disappeared.
The difficulty in trying to help someone to help themselves is that they need to give 100% of their effort and dedication toward the healing process. Anything less is unacceptable and doomed for failure. There can be no deviation from the course. With the insidious disorder of tendonitis, in the words of Yoda, "There is no try, only do." There is no option for cheating, no break from dedicated effort, no shortcuts and no going back. The only way to heal is the hard way - by making movement easy and effortless as the body was designed. It is really simple. But, we flawed humans want it now.
Buddha said "Before enlightenment there is chopping wood and carrying water. After enlightenment, there is chopping wood and carrying water. The differences are tremendous but not visible."
-Malcolm Kogut.
If an injury is the result of improper movement or from extensive stretching of the tendons, to the point that they have micro tears and consequent layers of scar tissue, the only way to heal is to cease creating micro tears and break up the existing scar tissue. Imagine if you cut a three inch circular hole in your favorite sweater then without replacing the missing swatch, simply sew up the hole. The knot that ensues and the stretching and pulling of the fabric is sort of what happens to your muscles when they are hog-tied by scar tissue.
In order to cease creating micro tears one needs to stop moving and bending incorrectly and stop stretching the tendons to the point where the body needs to create scar tissue. Coaches and physical therapists prescribe stretching to warm up muscles when really, all they are doing is creating micro tears in the muscles and tendons. The body's response to this minor damage is to rush blood to the damaged site which makes the body feel warm. The body is not technically warming up, it is rushing blood to the site to immobilize the tissue: Nature's cast. If coaches really want to warm up the body of their athletes they would make them sit in a sauna and give them a massage. Just ask Olympic trainers.
In order to break up the scar tissue created by over stretching, you need to, well, stretch. The solution to this conundrum is actually very easy; allow the body to move naturally in its mid-range of motion. That is why I am a strong opponent to the use of braces because they inhibit the body from moving in its mid range of motion and also forces the wearer to overcompensate by using other unnatural movements on areas of the body which will only strain new joints and new tissue. This new misuse and overuse will facilitate a downward spiral of repetitive motion disorders. I have heard many stories where the inital pain started as a twang in the forearm, then a sharp pain, then numbness of the hand, followed by constant pain in the wrist, then elbow and shoulder pain, back pain follows then it become bilateral. Revisit that old song, "The hip bone's connected to the knee bone."
Most injuries occur because the athlete (or musician) had something not in proper alignment in the first place and over or under compensated with another part of the body which wasn't intended to move that way. Proper movement promotes healing, plain and simple. Once the body is trained to move properly, scar tissue will begin to break up, inflammation will go down and symptoms will disappear. The body will begin to work as efficiently as it was designed while it is slowly freed from the tether of scar and pain.
Have you ever been buried in snow or sand to the point where you couldn't move? Brute force will not free you from the mass piled upon you. However, if you gently move up and down, left and right, forward and backward, you will create little air pockets. As the pockets increase in all directions, not just one, you will eventually obtain enough space where you can use more and employ larger muscles to displace greater mass and eventually break free (unless you are in a ten foot deep avalanche). The person with over and misused tendons must start out the same way; free to move effortlessly in every direction and expand from there. After meeting with my practitioner for the first time, during the following week I experienced painless snapping sensations in my forearms. That was the scar tissue breaking and releasing my tendons as they began to move as nature intended. I was no longer overstretching but moving just enough to entice the scar to release its hold on my muscles. Much like the Chinese finger torture we all experimented with as kids. The harder you try, the harder it is to get free.
Unfortunately, when there is a glimmer of hope, that is where many people give up on their training and begin moving "normally" again. At that point, the ailment comes back with a vengeance because they are no longer creating micro tears but tearing the whole mass of scar tissue. Those are the type of people who never heal, much like a yo-yo dieter. Many people won't even get that far. Musicians are the worse. I had one student who dutifully practiced the exercises that I prescribed to him then he practiced other music he was interested in but, without employing the new movements I was unconditionally demanding of him. He was using his motor memory which was flawed and ingrained in his muscles and brain from the first day he touched a piano, causing his problems of today. He was in a downward going from one step forward to two steps back. There was no hope for him to heal and I dropped him as a student after three lessons. Another woman wanted to heal NOW! I told her it would be six months of moving ONLY as I instructed her but that prospect was too difficult. She opted for the quick fix of surgery. Two years later, her carpal tunnel syndrome reasserted itself and she had a second surgical procedure. This time following her surgery her fingers no longer responded the same and she no longer plays the organ in church and still has pain. A third student with the discipline much like I had did nothing but the exercises I prescribed to him and after a few weeks he was pain free. He continued working with me and very soon he was playing much better than he did before his injury. His symptoms were gone and he was able to transpose his new found discipline to other parts of his body where he told me his walking, driving, hiking and skiing drastically improved.
A friend of mine complained most of his life of knee pain. His physical therapists dutifully treated his knee pain symptoms. After over twenty years of icing, exercising and resting his knees he saw a new doctor who told him that his knee problems was in his hips. Because he had a hip problem he unnaturally over compensated each step which put unnatural and misaligned strain on his knees. With very simple sleuthing, the doctor discovered that his hip problem was caused by an old shoulder injury. The shoulders and hips work together when we walk. His right shoulder was frozen in tandem with his right hip which caused stress problems in both knees. The bulk of the damage was in the hip so he had a hip replacement and the knee pain practically disappeared.
The difficulty in trying to help someone to help themselves is that they need to give 100% of their effort and dedication toward the healing process. Anything less is unacceptable and doomed for failure. There can be no deviation from the course. With the insidious disorder of tendonitis, in the words of Yoda, "There is no try, only do." There is no option for cheating, no break from dedicated effort, no shortcuts and no going back. The only way to heal is the hard way - by making movement easy and effortless as the body was designed. It is really simple. But, we flawed humans want it now.
Buddha said "Before enlightenment there is chopping wood and carrying water. After enlightenment, there is chopping wood and carrying water. The differences are tremendous but not visible."
-Malcolm Kogut.
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Monday, January 28, 2013
Musical Introductions Game
I recently decided to digitize all my CD's and save them to a couple of hard drives since the cloud is not longer safe. In the process I had listened to the introduction to hundreds of songs and was surprised how many of them resonated with me. I was equally surprised how many introductions started with just the drums, a single chord, or a banal progression of chords with little or nothing to do with the tune. Sometimes I was able to recognize a song with a single chord based on its volume, timbre, patch, instrument or attack.
I can remember (in the old days) surfing channels on the radio while driving in my car and when I would recognize the opening bar of a song that I liked I would instantly turn up the volume. It took only a few notes for me to recognize my favorites. The same is true at concerts. Sometimes the artist needs only to pluck a single note and the audience goes wild because they instinctively know what that song is. There is something Pavlovian about this.
There is a scene in a movie (Perks of Being a Wallflower) where two teens are at a dance and they hear the opening phrase of a song that starts with a solo violin. The band is Dexys Midnight Runners performing "Come on Eileen." The two kids look at each other and in unison say "They're playing good music." Then they shout "THE LIVING ROOM ROUTINE!" and they burrow their way to the middle of the dance floor to dance like no one is looking.
I compiled some mp3 files containing only song introductions to use them as ice breakers for an upcoming retreat. I will be giving points for the name of the song and triple if they can name the group. I've created six of these videos. We will either work in teams or individuals.
Not everybody has as eclectic a taste in music as I do but I am using music from between the fifties and nineties. Good luck!
-Malcolm Kogut.
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