Confessions of a Wedding Singer: A Street Guide To Planning Your Wedding Music

Back when I actually was a wedding singer, I dreamed of writing a piece like this and submitting it to one of the national bridal magazines. Writing it up for my COM-345, Media Writing for Communications class had to suffice.






       Before embarking on my operatic career, I spent more than ten years as a cantor and soprano soloist for a large Roman Catholic parish in Washington, D.C. During that time, I sang many wedding liturgies, both at my principal gig and at churches throughout the Greater Washington area. In addition to Catholic ceremonies, I sang for Protestant, Jewish, Filipino, Wiccan, non-denominational, and secular services. I sang for Presidents and Senators, and I sang for regular folks in their family rooms. I witnessed virtually everything that can go wrong – or right – with a wedding, and I lived to tell about it. Now, I pass this store of knowledge on to you, in hopes that it will help you in planning your perfect day.


       My inspiration for this story came from pieces in the Boston Globe involving saving money on the big day, (Cash, 2010) and in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on adding personal touches to one’s wedding (Anonymous, 2010) Both offered a list of unique, workable tips; that is my goal with this article.


       Planning a wedding service begins with the selection of the venue and religious tradition in which it will take place. These choices determine how much music you will need for your wedding, as well as the types of music you may choose and whether you may use recorded music. Most churches still refuse to allow purely secular music during the worship part of a marriage ceremony, though they may permit secular pieces during the prelude and postlude. If you are getting married in a church, synagogue, or other venue with an established music director, consult with him or her regarding your choices.


       If your organist provides you with a list of musical options, I strongly recommend that you choose from among them rather than attempting to offer unusual selections. You may end up handing your musicians something they simply cannot play or do not wish to learn – or they may charge extra for learning the new music. I have seen some brides bring in outside organists or soloists for their wedding ceremonies; be aware that if you are getting married in a church which has an existing music staff, you may be required to pay the resident organist’s fee whether or not he plays.


       If the venue and musicians with whom you are working leave you to your own devices regarding music, there are several sites which I find especially helpful. One site, www.ForeverWed.com , offers a comprehensive list of songs, service pieces and other music, encompassing both the Christian and Jewish faith traditions. Its musical selections include a extensive list of contemporary Christian songs both for the ceremony and for the reception. (Foreverwed.com, n.d.) For a list of more traditional pieces, try www.kendavies.net/wedding/index.html. (Davies, n.d.) Both of these websites provide worthy selections that will make your day extra-beautiful.  


       If your ceremony will take place outdoors or in a venue which is without organ or piano, consider a string quartet, a traditional harpist, a Celtic harpist or an ensemble. Harpists provide beautiful accompaniment to weddings in resonant indoor spaces, like university libraries, town halls, historical sites, and other beautiful secular venues. Foreverwed.com offers an excellent article on engaging Celtic musicians for a wedding accompanied by traditional Celtic airs and such hymns as “Amazing Grace” and “Morning Has Broken.” (Duhl-Emswiler, n.d.)  


       Here’s the fast and dirty on fees: According to the American Guild of Organists (AGO), a bride and groom can expect to pay $100-350 to hire an organist for the ceremony only, with costs going up if he or she must also play for a rehearsal. If the organist plans the wedding and engages outside artists, the costs rise even more. Soloists – singers, trumpeters, violinists, and so on – generally have a similar fee structure, though they may charge slightly less than the organist. String quartets tend to run about $500-600 per service. The AGO is an excellent resource for finding a qualified organist and other musicians; for further information, explore www.agohq.org. (AGO, 2010)


       Several bits of advice to those planning their dream wedding:


       - Be on time! I have seen brides who have shown up 30 minutes late for their ceremonies get half of their music cut by the organist, who had to finish in time to set up for a mass at the church immediately following the wedding. I have seen opening hymns cut to one verse; I have seen trumpeters who had to leave to make their next engagement before the procession had even begun.   


       - If you use a coordinator, be sure she has a musical ear and has listened to every musical selection. I have seen brides held at the back of the church, glowing expectantly, clutching their fathers’ arms, as the big, all-stops out bridal procession music finished and the congregation sat down. Don’t let this happen to you!


       - Keep kitsch to a minimum. I know many brides love the processional from “The Sound of Music.” If your name isn’t Maria, however, please cut the “How Do You Solve a Problem Like…” portion of the piece. Also, leaving the church to the Hallelujah Chorus or to the Star Wars Main Title may say things about your relationship that you don’t want your friends to know.


       - Pay careful attention to the lyrics of the songs you select. I have seen brides choose Celtic songs declaring eternal love for Bonnie Johnny - but the groom’s name was Ted! I have seen brides insist on Puccini’s “O Mio Babbino Caro”, not realizing that the title means “O, my beloved Daddy” and that it is followed by a declaration that if Daddy refuses to allow the singer to buy a certain ring, she’ll throw herself into the Arno River and drown.


       Finally, know that of my many weddings, not one failed to live up to the bride’s dream of a magical, truly special day all her own. Every wedding is beautiful - so relax and savor every minute of it. Congratulations!  


Resources:


AGO (2010) Salary Guide. American Guild of Organists, January 5, 2010. Retrieved from http://www.agohq.org/profession/indexsalary.html on June 28, 2010.


Anonymous (2010). “Vow to add personal touches.”Boston Globe. Boston, Mass.: Jun 3, 2010. pg. G.20 Retrieved from http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=0&did=2048205031&SrchMode=1&sid=2&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1276580934&clientId=74379 on June 14, 2010.


Cash, R. (2010). “Save bucks on the big day” The Atlanta Journal - Constitution. Atlanta, Ga.: Jan 14, 2010. pg. D.1 Retrieved from http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=8&did=1938902801&SrchMode=1&sid=2&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1276580935&clientId=74379 on June 14, 2010.


Duhl-Emswier, B. (n.d.) “Choosing Unusual Music For Your Wedding,” Foreverwed.com. Retrieved from http://www.foreverwed1.com/articles/choosingunusualmusicforyourceremony.htm on June 28, 2010.


Foreverwed.com (n.d.) “Music,” Christian Wedding & Planning Guide. Retrieved from http://www.foreverwed.com/music/ on June 28, 2010.


Davies, K. (n.d.) “Planning Your Wedding Music,” Kendavies.net. Retrieved from http://www.kendavies.net/wedding/index.html on June 28, 2010.

How To Use A U-Shaped Hairpin

This piece was originally an assignment completed for my Technical Writing class, COM-340. It provides additional guidance in the appropriate use of hair implements, for those hungry for greater knowledge after my last post.

      Hairpins come in a great variety of sizes, shapes, and colors. Most women have used a hairpin at some point in their lives, so effective are they as tools for fixing the hair in various desired styles . The focus here will be on the proper use of the U-shaped hairpin, as well as a description of the pin and its properties.  Though some may find these pins daunting to use, with some instruction, the U-shaped pin can open up many new possibilities for effective hair design.

Physical Description

      The U-shaped hairpin, as its name suggests, is formed in the shape the letter “U,” although a rounded letter “V” might be a more accurate description. The pins are generally made of metal, either two or three inches in length, and are approximately a sixteenth of an inch thick. The smaller pins may contain a wavy segment throughout their length; the larger pins are generally smooth, with a wavy segment about an inch wide approximately two inches up each leg of the pin. The hairpins come in a variety of colors, of which black is the most common. They may have a small tip of rubber at the end of each leg in order to avoid injury to the scalp.

Process Description

       U-shaped hairpins have little application to contemporary, shorter styles, so they have fallen into disuse in some areas because many do not understand their application. U-shaped hairpins were primarily intended for use with longer hair and are particularly effective in updos and in half-up, half-down styles. Because the pins lack any opposable tension, they will simply fall out of hair if they are not secured through other means. 

       To secure an updo with U-shaped hairpins, first form the hair into a high ponytail, without the use of an elastic band. Twist the ponytail until it begins to collapse on itself and retract toward the scalp. Allow the circlet of hair to press itself against the scalp. With a U-shaped hairpin, secure the end of the hair to the scalp by tucking the end under the edges of the coil, then inserting the pin through the edges of the coil, pressing through toward the scalp, collecting hair from the scalp above the pin, and finally pressing the pin through to the opposite side of the coil, inserting the pin into the coil at its lowest point, then pushing upward so that the ends of the pin stick out of the coil. Repeat this process with several more pins, placed at various points around the coil, to secure the coil – or chignon – in place. 

       Numerous other styles can be created using the U-shaped hairpin, all of which involve twisting the hair in such a way that the pin has a thick coil or pad of hair to penetrate. To secure any type of hairstyle with a U-shaped hairpin, one must catch hair in the pin both from the coil or pad and from the scalp, sometimes twisting the pin inside the coil of hair or next to the scalp to collect several strands of hair in the pin’s waves. 

       The U-shaped hairpin may be a relic of yesteryear, but it still has applications today, and for those applications, there is no better substitute. Used effectively, the U-shaped hairpin gives upswept styles security and stability impossible with any other hair implement. U-shaped pins are a vital tool for modern hair fashion. 

How To Put A Wig On All By Yourself

Let's just say that the hairdresser/wigmaster in your entourage is nowhere to be found. The following is my description, in layperson's language, of how to wrestle those pesky faux tresses into place. Included is material I previously wrote for Yahoo! Answers (and which the asker chose as the best!).


Divide your hair into little sections and pincurl them to your head (using two bobby pins). Alternately, you can divide your hair into several sections and wrap it around your head (close to the scalp), pinning it securely into place until it is all tightly against your head.


Then take a wig cap (it looks like pantyhose without the legs). Find your hairline just above the center of your forehead and using large U-hairpins (you can get these at a beauty supply store if you can't find them at your local drugstore), stretch open the wig cap and pin the hem of it to your hair at the center point of your hairline, working the pin into the hair that is pinned to your head.


Do this again to the left and right of the center pin, until the front is secure.


Then stretch the wig cap over the rest of your head as far as it will go, covering ALL of your hair. Pin it into place with five or six pins, all throughout the top, back and sides of your hair.


Now do the same with your wig. The wig cap compresses your hair and makes it easier for the wig to fit; plus, it gives you something to stick your wig pins into. Keep sticking pins in until it feels secure.




Resources:


Wilson, J. (2011) "Yahoo Answers: Ways To Fit a Snow White Wig On (Reply)," Yahoo Answers. November 2011. Retrieved from http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AsscOzAyo4p_mxFNYfRwqaIMxgt.;_ylv=3?qid=20111111143240AApR1nO&link=mailto on February 13, 2012.

America's Obesity Epidemic

In this era of DVDs and movie theatre opera telecasts, we opera singers are under greater pressure than ever to be slim and camera-ready. Our lifestyles, however, do not always lend themselves to easy weight loss.  Here is my analysis of America's obesity problem, as well as my suggestions for resolving it:






        Americans spend billions of dollars each year on diet products, health clubs, weight loss books, cosmetic surgery, and other products and services which carry the single-minded goal of bringing us the Hollywood-slim figures that few of us seem to have anymore. In spite of all of our best efforts, however, Americans are heavier than ever before in history. Staggering percentages of our children are clinically or morbidly obese. Americans, once identified abroad by our swagger and our confidence, now find themselves given away by their girth. We are spending vast amounts of money on health care related to our national obesity problem, and yet we seem no closer to a cure for what has become a very real, debilitating disease for many in our society. What are the real causes of this obesity explosion? What can we do to stop it, and to restore our people to good health?


       The statistics are staggering: According to Flegal et al in the Journal of the American Medical Association, as of 2008, 68.8 percent of Americans were either overweight or obese. The prevalence of obesity – defined as a Body Mass Index in excess of 30 – exceeded 30 percent among all ethnicities, age groups, and genders. Nearly one in 13 non-Hispanic Caucasian women and nearly one in 8 non-Hispanic African-American women had BMI readings higher than 40 – an indicator of morbid obesity, at which the individual has far greater risk of obesity-related illness and death than at lower BMIs. These numbers have skyrocketed at a rate of approximately 7 percent per decade since 1977 – a trend which is expected to continue if current patterns hold. (Flegel et al, 2010). Childhood obesity has more than tripled since 1980, with the rate of obese children six to 11 years old skyrocketing from 6.5% in 1980 to a whopping 19.6 percent in 2008. (CDC, 2009)


       The costs of obesity-related illnesses also continue to rise. According to the Centers for Disease Control, the costs of obesity-related hospitalizations, testing, morbidity, and mortality totaled some $92.6 billion dollars. (CDC, 2002) Americans miss work and lose productivity as a result of their weight-related physical restrictions. Medical costs and health insurance premiums continue to rise. Obesity in America is a genuine epidemic – a crisis which seems to have spun out of control in recent years, with no end in sight. How did we, as a nation, reach this point? Most studies point to a combination of sedentary lifestyle and overeating as a cause of overweight – yet Americans seem to be spending billions more on diet books, weight loss programs, health clubs, fitness equipment, health food and weight loss supplements than ever before. Something else has gone awry – something that must be addressed in order for America to finally get a handle on its obesity crisis.


       At one time, Americans were identifiable abroad by their ebullient confidence and Hawaiian shirt-and-shorts sets. Now – as I have experienced first-hand on a number of occasions – we are marked by our fat. I have had the experience in more than one European country of walking into a store or a restaurant and having the sales clerk or waiter look me up and down, then immediately start speaking to me in English. Obesity levels in Europe have not yet reached anything close to the level that they have in the United States, and in fact, I have often heard “fat Americans” used as a Continental pejorative to describe all of us. Clearly, our weight problems are harming our national image abroad.


       I realized during these travels, however, that the Europeans I met had a point. Within weeks of arriving in a country such as France or Spain, I found myself losing approximately 15 lbs (7 kilos), simply by living the way one lives in Europe. Upon my return home to the States, the weight would come piling back on. What is the matter with our culture, that it seems intrinsically structured so as to cause weight gain?


       For one answer, we may look no further than the beloved cars which sit in our driveways when they are not carrying us to the grocery store, to the gym, or to the office. In Europe, I had no car, and all my groceries had to be carried by hand or by grocery trolley several blocks from the supermarket, up several flights of steps, and across my threshold. This simple difference in convenience dictated that in Europe, I had to limit my purchases only to what was completely necessary for me to get through the week, eating the meals that I planned to eat and gaining the nutrition that I needed on a daily basis. There was no room in my little cart for large bags of chips, for example. It was far too heavy to lug 2-liter bottles of soft drinks a quarter mile from the store to my house. According to the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, “…each additional hour spent in a car per day (is) associated with a 6% increase in the likelihood of obesity. Conversely, each additional kilometer walked per day (is) associated with a 4.8% reduction in the likelihood of obesity.” (Frank et al, 2004) The simple necessity of walking to buy groceries or to get to my workplace was an explanation for my sudden European weight losses. 


       However, I soon noticed differences in the dietary habits of Europeans vs. Americans which also accounted for the difference in our national girths. In continental Europe, a decent bottle of French Bordeaux costs approximately the same in many restaurants as a 10-oz bottle of Coca-Cola. Portions in European restaurants are markedly smaller than in the US – and unlike in the US, where most diners feel under pressure to fork over an additional 18-20% tip at the conclusion of the meal, tipping is neither as compulsory nor as generous in Europe as it is in the US, because the wait staff are paid a living wage for their services. Even in American fast food establishments like McDonalds, the portion sizes of soft drinks are significantly smaller than in the US, with a “large” beverage served in the same container that suffices as a “medium” in America.


       America’s inexorable march toward adiposity began more than a century ago, when the physical-labor-intensive agrarian society which occupied much of America’s heartland gave way to industry and office buildings. Americans who had spent years doing back-breaking work in a field or barn now sat in a cubicle all day, only rising from their seats long enough to visit the lunchroom. In the evening, these new corporate workers sat down to dinner with their families, then repaired to the living room for several hours’ worth of television viewing, followed by bed. Children – whose school year was initially planned to coincide with the planting and harvest cycles of the year, so that they would be available for work on their families’ farms – now spent those summers in front of the television, munching junk food. If their parents were especially enterprising, these youngsters might get in a few hours’ worth of soccer practice or other physical activity per week – however, it was a drop in the bucket compared to the long days of physical labor that children and adults alike experienced in agrarian America. While I am not advocating a return to child farm labor, I note that the marked change in physical activity for all Americans as the farm gave way to the office and school has made a difference in our physical fitness.


       However, our European allies don’t spend all day picking peas in a field. They don’t spend all day in the gym. What other factors might there be to account for the differences in fitness? For a possible answer, I return to the questions of portion size and soft drink consumption. According to a study in the journal Obesity, 76 percent of executive chefs believed that they served “average” portions in their restaurants – even though the portions of steak and pasta that they served were actually “2 to 4 times larger than the serving sizes recommended by the US government.” (Condrasky et al, 2007) Even the supposedly “healthy” choices offered by major American restaurant chains have a remarkably high caloric content – Chili’s Southwestern Cobb Salad, which looks so healthy and diet friendly, was found to contain 970 calories, while the seemingly innocuous Lettuce Wraps at California Pizza Kitchen contained 900 calories! (n.a., Wellsphere.com, 2008). Most of the sandwiches offered at fast food outlets contain in excess of 500 calories – not counting additions such as French Fries and soft drinks. Americans are consuming more calories in a meal than they should have in a day, and it is increasingly difficult to avoid a huge caloric intake during restaurant meals.  


       Americans are eating out more often, as well. The Obesity study stated, “The rise in obesity rates over the last three decades has been paralleled by an increase in frequency of eating out and in food portion sizes. The number of meals consumed away from home in the United States has risen from 3.7 meals per week in 1981 to 5 meals per week in 2000. Frequency of eating out has been associated with higher energy and fat intakes and with a higher BMI.” (Condrasky et al, 2007) With Americans eating out more frequently and receiving the enormous portions served at US restaurants, their idea of what constitutes a “normal” meal is undergoing a gradual shift, so that they feel that they must serve their families meals at home which are comparable in size and high-calorie components to what they would receive in a restaurant, lest their family members leave the table unsatisfied. Thus, the cycle perpetuates itself, and Americans take in higher and higher numbers of calories with each meal, even when they think that they are “eating healthily.”


       With those high-calorie meals in many restaurants come liter-sized glasses filled with a soft drink – which are refilled on demand, for free! A liter of Coca-Cola contains some 400 calories. (daily-plate.com, n.d.) Over the course of a large, sodium-rich meal, at which the cheerful waitress may scoop up empty glasses and replace them with filled ones three or four times, we can easily see how we may add more than 1,000 calories per meal simply in the sodas that we drink. Multiply that figure by three meals per day, and the number one arrives at for calories added simply in the form of nutrient-free soft drinks is greater than the recommended caloric intake for an individual in an entire day. If he is consuming, say, in excess of 2,000 calories per day just in soft drinks, in addition to three restaurant meals per day (or the at-home caloric equivalent), it isn’t hard to arrive at a figure of more than 10,000 calories per day consumed by one person! How can anyone, regardless of his activity level, avoid obesity based on that level of caloric consumption? Moreover, that person likely has been lulled into thinking that he eats a “normal” diet, because he is not bingeing or snacking – he is simply eating what is set before him in a typical, restaurant-mandated meal. If he is someone who usually requests the “super-sized” items at fast food restaurants, or if, in fact, he does have a compulsive eating problem, it’s easy to see how he may be on the road to morbid obesity and even death.


       An additional hazard for soft-drink consumers (and consumers of other sweetened products) comes in the form of the sweetener that most drink companies use in modern beverages, namely high-fructose corn syrup. A study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition states:


       “The consumption of HFCS increased > 1000% between 1970 and 1990, far exceeding the changes in intake of any other food or food group. HFCS now represents > 40% of caloric sweeteners added to foods and beverages and is the sole caloric sweetener in soft drinks in the United States… The increased use of HFCS in the United States mirrors the rapid increase in obesity. The digestion, absorption, and metabolism of fructose differ from those of glucose. Hepatic metabolism of fructose favors de novo lipogenesis. In addition, unlike glucose, fructose does not stimulate insulin secretion or enhance leptin production. Because insulin and leptin act as key afferent signals in the regulation of food intake and body weight, this suggests that dietary fructose may contribute to increased energy intake and weight gain. Furthermore, calorically sweetened beverages may enhance caloric overconsumption. Thus, the increase in consumption of HFCS has a temporal relation to the epidemic of obesity, and the overconsumption of HFCS in calorically sweetened beverages may play a role in the epidemic of obesity.” (Bray et al, 2004)


       In other words, high-fructose corn syrup is metabolized differently from glucose, found in cane and beet sugar. It favors the growth of new fat cells, while interacting with the energy-processing and hunger-regulating systems of the body to encourage its consumers to consume even more calories. In a way, it may be like the beer nuts found on bars at taverns, which make the patrons thirstier, so that they buy more drinks. High-fructose corn syrup may help the restaurant and food industries to sell more of their products, but it may well be a major factor in the explosive growth of obesity in recent decades, and it may ultimately be a threat to the public health.


       Finally, the dietary guidelines published by the US government may be faulty. They encourage, among other things, eating four servings of fruit per day and 4 servings of cereals (the popular 4-4-3-2 model, with the “2” representing meats and eggs, and the “3” representing dairy products). Based on this model, the US Recommended Daily Allowance for carbohydrates is 130 g (NAS, 2006) – more than ten times the number of carbohydrates allowed on the Atkins low-carbohydrate diet plan in its weight-loss phase (Atkins, 1972).


        In my consultations with doctors and dieticians alike, I have had tremendous difficulty convincing such experts that it is impossible for me to lose weight on a diet which is high in whole-grain breads and fruit, in spite of recent studies suggesting that the low-fat diets of the past simply do not do the job as well as low-carbohydrate or Mediterranean diet plans. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine demonstrated that while low-fat and Mediterranean diets were better at improving blood chemistry than low-carbohydrate diets, the participants lost more weight on the low-carb plan than on either of the other two diet formats. (Shai et al, 2008). Perhaps the USDA and the Centers for Disease Control need to take a closer look at the levels of these nutrients that they are recommending, and formulate specific recommendations which not only serve as effective nutritional models, but which are also easier for the typical consumer to relate to in terms of portion size.


       Based on both my research and on my personal experiences with weight loss, I offer several suggestions for conquering the obesity crisis in the United States. First, the government must step in and offer guidelines for restaurants in the portion sizes being offered – perhaps providing tax breaks to those restaurants which give consumers more half-portion and low-carbohydrate options. Somehow – through consumer advocacy, governmental intervention, public awareness campaigns, or a combination – Americans must learn about the impact of soft drink consumption on their health. American soft drink companies must be encouraged or required – as they are, for example, in Australia – to switch back from high-fructose corn syrup to sugar as a sweetener for their beverages, ahead of a possible total ban on the sweetener in all food products.


        Organizing neighborhoods in such a way that it is easier to bring in groceries and to do other shopping on foot rather than by automobile would encourage people to exercise while saving energy and lessening environmental pollution – even offering modern, colorful shopping trolleys for sale in more stores might encourage more people to leave their cars at home in favor of fresh air and sunshine.


       New guidelines must emphasize that excessive carbohydrate consumption – even in “healthy” foods like fruit juice and whole-grain bread – is something to avoid. And finally, Americans must lose the notion that the food service and agricultural industries are responsible for regulating their food intake, and must take on a much more active role in making choices regarding their diet and lifestyle. Only through such a combination of public awareness, community action, corporate responsibility, and government intervention can we hope to solve our obesity epidemic.


Resources


Atkins, Robert (1972) Dr. Atkins’ Diet Revolution. New York: Bantam Books.


Bray, George, Nielsen, Samara, and Popkin, Barry (2004). “Consumption of high-fructose corn syrup in beverages may play a role in the epidemic of obesity,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 79, No. 4, 537-543, April 2004. Retrieved from http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/79/4/537 on May 3, 2010.


CDC (2008) “Childhood Obesity,” National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/HealthyYouth/obesity/ on May 3, 2010.


CDC (2009) “Overweight and Obesity: Economic Consequences”. Atlanta: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/causes/economics.html on May 3, 2010.


Condrasky, Marge., Ledikwe, Jenny. et al (2007) “Chefs’ Opinions of Restaurant Portion Sizes,” Obesity. 15:8, pp. 2086-2094. Retrieved from http://www.nature.com/oby/journal/v15/n8/full/oby2007248a.html on May 3, 2010.


Flegal, Katherine, Carroll, Margaret et al. (2008) “Prevalence and Trends in Obesity Among US Adults, 1999-2008,” Journal of the American Medical Association. 2010;303(3):235-241. Published online January 13, 2010. Retrieved from http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/303/3/235?ijkey=ijKHq6YbJn3Oo&keytype=ref&siteid=amajnls on April 29, 2010.


Frank L.D., Andresen M.A., and Schmid T.L. (2004) “Obesity relationships with community design, physical activity, and time spent in cars,” American Journal of Preventive Medicine 2004 Aug; 27(2): pp. 87-96. Retrieved from http://www.ajpmonline.net/article/PIIS074937970400087X/fulltext on May 3, 2010.


NAS (2002) “Dietary Reference Intakes for Energy, Carbohydrates, Fiber, Fat, Fatty Acids, Cholestrol, Protein, and Amino Acids.” National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved from http://iom.edu/en/Global/News%20Announcements/~/media/Files/Activity%20Files/Nutrition/DRIs/DRISummaryListing2.ashx on May 3, 2010.


Shai, Iris, Schwarzfuchs, Dan, et al. (2008) “Weight Loss with a Low-Carbohydrate, Mediterranean, or Low-Fat Diet,” New England Journal of Medicine. 359:3, pp. 229-241, July 17, 2008. Retrieved from http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/359/3/229 on May 3, 2010,


Thedailyplate.com (n.d.) The Coca Cola Company. Retrieved from http://www.thedailyplate.com/nutrition-calories/food/the-coca-cola-company on May 3, 2010.


Wellsphere.com (2008) “High Fat, High Calorie Salad Shocker.” October 16, 2008. Retrieved from http://www.wellsphere.com/healthy-eating-article/high-fat-high-calorie-salad-shocker/423436 on May 3, 2010.

Tech Support Guy On The Bubble

A company employee under a manager’s direct supervision has been performing his work at a substandard level and has been confrontational to his colleagues, who blame him for the hostile work environment which has emerged in the office. It is the supervisor’s responsibility either to improve his performance or to show him the door. Such situations are among a manager’s greatest challenges, and her response to the situation reveals as much about her as about the employee she must confront.

The company seems to be unusually kind-hearted even to allow this employee a last chance.  If an employee is performing poorly, it might be worth it to retrain him, transfer him to another department, or even offer him the option of reduced responsibility in exchange for keeping a paid position. If a capable employee has become hostile, it behooves a manager to find out the cause and remedy the situation, if at all possible. The substandard performance combined with the attitude problem, however, would seem to mandate summary dismissal, especially if the employee has never been very good at his job but has only recently become hostile – perhaps because he was passed over for a promotion on account of his incompetence.

If the manager truly wants to work things out so that the employee can remain in his job, she must do some thinking about the employee and how he reached this point. The assignment scenario states that he works in technical support and has been providing “substandard” service, as evidenced by negative reports from customers and colleagues. What does “substandard” mean, exactly? Does he lack the technical expertise to help customers with their problems? Is he becoming frustrated or giving up too quickly? Is he brusque with callers?  Do his phone manners need work?

Having done my stint in customer service back in the pre-internet Stone Age, I can attest that it is often a stressful, thankless job complicated by the fact that companies usually dump a large notebook (or computer file) of pre-programmed, scripted responses onto the desk of the  support person, which he must use with customers. Callers, meanwhile, are seldom happy when they call a company asking for technical support. They may be angry, frantic, bewildered, frustrated, or downright terrified. They may be ready to throw the equipment out a nearby window – or they may already have done so! Calling a company to receive technical support and being confronted with an artificially cheery voice at the other end spouting scripted responses could be enough to send some such souls right over the edge. They tend to vent their wrath on the first unfortunate representative of the company with whom they come into contact – namely, the intrepid tech support guy. The “substandard” employee may either lack the expertise to solve these customers’ problems, or he may have become frustrated with the treatment he receives from callers - or both.

An employee who hates his job but must keep it in order to go on eating, paying his rent, and supporting his family can quickly reach the point where his unhappiness begins to boil over, as he lashes out at colleagues, superiors – even little old ladies crossing the street. His supervisor’s first responsibility is to call him in for a meeting, designed as much as an opportunity for him to speak about the problems he is having as it is a Reproach. (Cahn and Abigail, 2007, p. 222) Because he is entitled to due process – to face his accusers – the supervisor must gently detail the charges against him, and who made them. She must make him aware that a problem exists, giving him the opportunity to defend himself or to consider his own actions. According to Cahn and Abigail (2007) this commences the Initiation Phase of the conflict resolution process.

Once the employee is talking, the supervisor will know a great deal more about whether the employee can viably remain with the company. If he is angry, he will likely make that anger known, as well as its target or targets; if it is the supervisor herself, he may simply resign rather than even talking with her.  If it emerges that the employee’s substandard performance is a result of insufficient expertise, the supervisor might even offer supplementary training at company expense to enable to employee to do his work better. If he simply hates doing customer service, there may be no point in continuing the discussion, and the supervisor should offer him the opportunity to resign honorably (and with no negative blot on his record) rather than continuing in a job he hates. If the company is large enough, he might be transferred to a position which he finds more congenial. This hashing out of the component elements of the conflict is the all-important Differentiation Phase, as well as the portion of the Repair Ritual which provides a Remedy to the conflict.. (ibid., pp. 159-161, p. 222)

Finally, the supervisor will have the information she needs to move on to the Resolution Phase of the conflict. (ibid., pp. 161-162) She makes the decision regarding whether the employee is still a viable part of the company and its culture. If, for example, his performance and behavior problems are a result of personal issues, she can offer an employee assistance program. If the problem is simply that he hates his job, she can offer the graceful resignation option. If, however, he is desperate to keep the job, she can then detail to him the areas in which he must improve in order to remain with the company. She may offer him educational and personal support, as well as helping him to resolve any intra-office conflicts which may have arisen. She should set a probationary period – three months, perhaps – during which his performance would be evaluated, so that he does not get the idea that if he remains, all of his remaining time with the company will be filled with judgments and recriminations. These steps should ensure that the employee gets a fair opportunity to keep his position, and the company gains a better-performing, better-behaving employee.

Resources:

Cahn, D. and Abigail, R. (2007) Managing Conflict Through Communication. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc.

Culture Matters

Originally written for my English 325 - Intermediate Composition course at Ashford U.

Among the most indelible images surrounding the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall was that of Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich seated alone at the Brandenburg Gate, playing Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1 for an audience of no one and of billions. Music, art, theatre, and dance were once emblems of erudition, education, and civilization for the ruling classes of monarchies; our culture, however, has come in recent years to see the arts as pretentious entertainment for the wealthy, who can afford to pay for their own art. School music and art programs, often a child’s only lifetime exposure to high culture, are slashed mercilessly, in spite of the tremendous growth of interest in these programs on the part of young people as a result of singing and dancing competition reality TV shows and of other entertainment outlets such as the TV show Glee.

Congress has recently voted to de-fund National Public Radio and PBS, again because they are seen as something that only the elite can enjoy, despite their being the only exposure many have to classical music and other educational programs not offered in their own communities. In viewing these entities as frivolities that the country can do without during tough economic times, government decision-makers commit the error of considering the intellectual and expressive needs of the nation to be unimportant, and they run the risk of creating a climate of malaise and cultural decline even as the country attempts to pull itself out of its difficulties.

In previous centuries, classical music and fine art, though funded by the ruling classes, were present in the immediate environment of most, to be enjoyed by all, regardless of class. Walking through a 15^th century church in Florence, one may round a corner to find a wall filled with murals painted by some of the great masters of that day. Average people went to church each Sunday in early 18^th-century Leipzig, Germany, sat down in a pew, and listened to new works by Johann Sebastian Bach, all for the price of a few florins in the collection plate.  While popular folk music has also always been present, the deep divide between what is entertainment for the educated and well-to-do was never as distant from the popular entertainment tastes of the masses as it is now. The quality even of pop culture has been in decline for decades now, which may be at least partly attributable to the lack of information the general populace has about the potential of art, music, theatre and dance.

Some of the antipathy toward state-funded arts and arts education may lie in the history of Western arts patronage. Support among the ruling classes for lower-caste artists dates as far back as ancient Rome, when the patrician Maecenas lent his economic support to the poets Virgil and Horace. (Ranocchi, 2010)  During the Italian Renaissance (1350-1600 AD), rulers and noblemen such as Lorenzo de Medici made sponsorship of art a mark of socio-political prestige and position (ibid.), creating a climate in which painters, sculptors, musicians, and other artists flourished; as a result of this patronage, Western culture received the works da Vinci, Michaelangelo, Botticelli, Titian, Caravaggio, and many other of the great creative talents of their day.  (paradoxplace.com, n.d.) Throughout the era of powerful monarchies and Church hegemony in Western Europe, artistic patronage was a part of the ruling classes’ noblesse oblige, as well as an emblem of power, wealth and sophistication.

The association between Western high culture and the monarchs and religious despots whom our democracy overthrew may cause some to view classical music, fine art, and other high-culture disciplines as mere entertainment for the elite, and therefore somehow intrinsically un-democratic and un-American. In stating that, “It would be unconscionable for any politician to suggest we set aside tax money for even one more mural or one more sculpture until the state budget is back to where the fundamental needs of people are being met,” columnist Ken Schramm (2011) argues that the arts are a luxury that the state cannot afford to support in tough economic times. While he allows that, “By any account, the amount of tax dollars spent on public art is relatively modest,” he presses on to say, “Then again, toss a million here and a million there and pretty soon you're talking about real money.”  (ibid.) To Schramm and those who think as he does, the arts are something extra, something less intrinsically valuable than, for example, social services such as subsidized health care and food programs. To those on the left, those who advocate funding the arts are plucking morsels from the mouths of hungry children in order to finance some rich man’s entertainment.

 Those more to Schramm’s political right might go even farther, believing that not only the arts programs, but also the social services should be cut, in favor of balancing the budget or of giving tax breaks to the citizenry.  In recent weeks, a group of conservative Republican Congressmen has advocated completely defunding the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, as part of the group’s Spending Reduction Plan, which proposes to cut some $2.5 trillion from the US budget, including the NEA/NEH’s $167.5 million. (Trescott, 2011)   Some exponents of conservative philosophy denounce, across the board, any government spending on programs from which they do not personally and directly benefit: public education (for others’ children), social programs for the less fortunate, disabled and elderly, and publically-funded arts among them.  Many corporations contribute significant sums of money to arts organizations, public broadcasting, and other cultural institutions, as do many well-heeled private citizens. While not all Republicans (and wealthy Americans of other political persuasions) are fans of classical music or other high-art forms, some may feel that they already have given significant contributions “at the office” or privately, and that their tax dollars should not also go to support the same institutions. Moreover, they may balk at the notion of supporting art that generates too little interest for the free market to support it, while artistic programming such as film, television, and recorded music generate billions of dollars in revenue and do not ask for hand outs. Still others fear that state funding of art means state control of art, believing that art is only assured its freedom when privately funded or left to its own devices. To a Republican, funding for the arts is not taking food out of babies’ mouths: it is unjustly taking money out of their own pockets.

On both the right and left, then, the arts have acquired the reputation of something profoundly unnecessary, less important than social spending, to the left, or keeping the money for oneself, to the right.  Both assessments are short-sighted and self-contradictory.  Those who believe that funding art is less important than creating jobs seem to believe that artists do their work for free, and that the money simply vanishes into an imaginary whirlpool. On the contrary, artists make their living in their art forms: putting food on their tables, putting their children through college, and putting their earnings back into the economy. 

A typical opera production employs several hundred people, including leading singers, conductors, pianists, stage managers, designers, producers, directors, orchestra players, librarians, prop builders and managers, public relations professionals, artistic administrators, subscription salespeople, fundraisers, and stagehands.  The stagehands’ union, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), is a subsidiary union of the AFL-CIO and has more than 110,000 members. (IATSE, n.d.)   The American Federation of Musicians, the orchestra’s union, has more than 90,000 members (AFM, 2011) Unions representing other performers also have memberships in the tens of thousands. All of these people – with their contributions to both the treasury and the economy – would be out of work if those who wish to eliminate all arts funding got their way.  Would those who want to eliminate funding for arts programs approve drastic cuts in assistance to other industries that support nearly half a million people?

Artists, moreover, have a highly specialized set of skills and may have a hard time finding jobs in the conventional economy, forcing the public which had just eliminated their livelihoods to spend social-service tax dollars on them.  Those on the right who gleefully trumpet their spending cuts might find that their boisterously proclaimed elimination of arts funding added an equivalent amount of expenditure to the unemployment rolls. In addition, the economy would lose these employees’ spending. To paraphrase Mr. Schramm, those employees’ lost expenditures might not amount to much, but when taken as an aggregate, the economy could ultimately lose millions, and the tax coffers corresponding millions in revenue.

What of the art itself, though? Some might ask what the government is doing, paying to keep alive the high culture of past times and foreign countries, which only the moneyed elite in America seem to care about. In fact, corporations and wealthy individuals give many millions each year to high-culture organizations, both for the tax credits and to ensure the survival of art forms which the donors appreciate.  In our modern day, the ultimate reason that government both funds and defunds art is the lack of interest in it among the general public. Government has taken on the role of the royal patron, providing a living for those who create and perform art, and who would have no other source of income.  That art, when produced for the public, attracts only a handful of spectators, most of them elderly and wealthy. Meanwhile, Britney Spears released an album of simple popular ditties that sold 10 million copies and that earned $25 million. Where else but in art (and perhaps farming) have the laws of supply and demand been so utterly defied?

 Western high culture has a great deal to answer for, having brought a good deal of woe upon itself. At the dawn of the 20^th century, high culture ruled the recording industry, the concert halls, and the media. The 78-rpm discs of Italian tenor Enrico Caruso were played on mainstream radio. Paintings represented a view of real life, and were more than apparently random paint splatters on the canvas. No one had the gall to create a work of art simply to shock and inflame, as with photographer Andres Serrano’s 1989 photo of a crucifix placed into human urine.  (USC, n.d.)  At the turn of the 20^th century, high art was beautiful, accessible, and elevating to the spirit.

From 1915 through the late 1920s, artistic movements began which would cause a serious and long-term rift between the world of high culture and the public. In Europe, composers like Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, and others of their school abandoned the gloriously beautiful composition of their early careers in favor of academically exalted but dissonant and inaccessible serial (mathematical) composition techniques. Melodies became something of the unenlightened past, with orchestras, opera companies, and other entities eagerly programming those works, expecting the public to embrace them as symbols of modernity and erudition. Audiences abandoned concert halls in droves, embracing instead the new art forms on the scene: rock ‘n’ roll, popular blockbuster films, and the Pop Art of populist new artists like Andy Warhol.  Just as many of the opera houses, concert halls and museums around America were being built, the new music and art being generated for them by academically and publicly supported creators was increasingly unpalatable to a public genuinely hungry for beautiful music and art. It was also at this moment that the US government created the organizations that funded such art and supported its programming in the United States. Ever since, those government agencies have been under attack – while Britney Spears made her millions.

In recent years, the pendulum in high art has swung back toward the realm of public acceptance. Opera companies have begun to show their productions in movie theatres, and have enhanced production values in order to please a film-savvy, opera-skeptical public; they are rewarded with record-setting audiences and a new generation of dedicated opera-goers. Popular musicians have become composers, while opera singers and classical instrumentalists have made rock albums. Even more tantalizingly, television programs such as American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, and Glee have begun to give adults and youth alike a surrogate musical education, filling in for the elementary and high school music programs that have been eliminated or severely cut.

Thus, the culture has proved it has an interest in and can support art, even spending vast amounts of money on it.  The National Endowment for the Arts provides only a small fraction of the support needed to undertake a top-level, professional artistic production, with the rest coming from private donations and subscription sales. Maintaining the NEA’s leadership is vital, because without a national agency leading the way and showing other organizations that the arts deserve support, those other organizations may decide to invest in some other charitable interest to gain their tax breaks.  The NEA also funds smaller, less-prominent artistic exhibitions and performances, all of which enrich the cultural life of their communities.  It is a critical time in cultural history, a time when the reemergence of a popular high culture which relies less on patronage seems intriguingly near; if funded, the NEA and the NEH can provide crucial leadership, encouraging those who would create new, great works of art that most Americans find appealing.

There can be no arts, of course, without early training for future artists.  Even as far back as 1983, I watched with dismay as my school’s music program received less and less support from our county, which had turned instead toward “hard academics.”  Such cuts in arts education have swept the nation, usually ordered at the school-board level, as cash-strapped school districts find places to slash in their budgets. The assumption, once again, is that the arts are something expendable and unimportant; however, studies have shown that school music and art programs can actually keep students in school. (NEMC, n.d.)

 The artists who create great art do not simply spring, fully-formed, from the ground, but must be educated and nurtured from the time they are very young, in order for them to be accomplished enough by their late teens to pursue careers in their chosen art forms. School music programs which have been cut must be restored. Children must be able to sing in their glee clubs, or to play in their school orchestras, which in turn give them even greater interpretive knowledge, discipline, and desire to pursue ever higher goals in their art. As popular culture and high culture move closer together once again, it is critical that young people have access to the same artistic tools that Haydn and Mozart had in order to create art that stands the test of time. If they do not, the quality of what they create will be diminished, and in turn, so will our national cultural heritage.

If that weren’t enough, the lifetime benefits of arts education are well-known.  According to the National Association for Music Education (MENC), “The arts can provide effective learning opportunities to the general student population, yielding increased academic performance, reduced absenteeism, and better skill-building. An even more compelling advantage is the striking success of arts-based educational programs among disadvantaged populations, especially at-risk and incarcerated youth. For at-risk youth, that segment of society most likely to suffer from limited lifetime productivity, the arts contribute to lower recidivism rates; increased self-esteem; the acquisition of job skills; and the development of much needed creative thinking, problem-solving and communications skills.”(MENC, n.d.)

MENC further supplies the stunning statistic that, “Nearly 100% of past winners in the prestigious Siemens Westinghouse Competition in Math, Science and Technology (for high school students) play one or more musical instruments.”  (ibid.) The organization also states that schools with quality music programs have a higher graduation rates and test scores than those who do not. (Ibid.)  School music programs not only prepare the next generation of musicians to enter the field, they also provide benefits for the entire student bodies of their institutions.

         Another access point to the arts is National Public Radio, which along with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, are often the only exposure the people of a community have to the arts in America.  The Metropolitan Opera broadcasts, now airing in some markets on NPR rather than on commercial classical stations, have arguably exposed more people to opera over the decades than any other media outlet.  The House of Representatives recently passed a bill to eliminate public funding for National Public Radio’s programming, thereby demolishing the “public” element of NPR’s avowed mission. Ironically enough, when the Congressmen were looking for NPR programming to ridicule as part of their dismissal of NPR, they imitated a character from NPR’s program Car Talk – precisely the program for which budget-conscious programmers within the station had threatened to remove classical music programming to make room. (Cornish, 2011)

Since the 1960s, America’s access to high art and culture has depended on public outlets: school music programs, public radio and television broadcasting, and government-assisted cultural organizations such as those funded by the National Endowment for the Arts.  The US gives more in foreign aid and pays more for a single attack aircraft than it provides for the entire budget of these programs, which enlighten and educate, improving the quality of life for all those who tune in.

However, even token public support, as well as the exposure of the great works of high culture to the masses via public broadcasting and government- funded performances, make a strong and clear statement to the masses that our society aspires to the best in art and entertainment, and that in turn the popular culture should use such cultural events as inspiration to elevate all of the culture. Supporting the arts gives millions of people who would not otherwise have access to the richness and beauty of great masterworks the opportunity to experience them.  Without high art as a touchstone, our culture will spiral downward into least-common-denominator oblivion, until we wake up one day and discover that we have become less as a people: less enlightened, less appreciative of beauty, and less able to create at the highest level. Defunding the public’s access to great art ensures that our culture will create none of its own.

Resources

AFM (2011)  “Benefits of Membership,” American Federation of Musicians (website). Retrieved from http://www.afm.org/why-join on March 28, 2011.

Cornish, A. (2011)  “House Votes to Defund NPR,” National Public Radio (website). March 17, 2011. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/2011/03/17/134633209/House-Votes-To-Defund-NPR on March 28, 2011.

IATSE (2011) “Welcome,” IATSE (website). Retrieved from http://www.iatse-intl.org/about/welcome.html on March 28, 2011.

NEMC (n.d.) “The Benefits of the Study of Music,” National Association for Music Education (brochure). Retrieved from http://www.menc.org/documents/temp/benefits_of_music.pdf on March 28, 2011.

paradoxplace.com (n.d.) “Perspectives: Chronologies,” Paradoxplace.com. Retrieved from http://www.paradoxplace.com/Perspectives/Chronologies/Part%202%20%20World%20of%20Middle%20Ages.htm on March 28, 2011.

Ranocchi, M. (2010) “The future of art patronage in an evolving society: From the Roman Empire to the Sheikhdom of Dubai,” Tafter Journal.  September 16, 2010.. Retrieved from http://www.tafterjournal.it/2010/09/16/the-future-of-art-patronage-in-an-evolving-society-from-the-roman-empire-to-the-sheikhdom-of-dubai/ on March 28, 2011.

Schram, K. (2011)  “Time to Eliminate State Arts Funding,” Komonews.com, March 28, 2011. Retrieved from http://bothell.komonews.com/news/arts-culture/schram-time-eliminate-state-arts-funding/631103 on March 28, 2011.

Serrano, A. (1987) Piss Christ (image). Retrieved from http://www.usc.edu/schools/annenberg/asc/projects/comm544/library/images/502.html on March 28, 2011.

Trescott, J. (2011) “Conservative Republicans Pledge to Eliminate Cultural Funding,” The Washington Post. 1/20/11. Retrieved from http://voices.washingtonpost.com/arts-post/2011/01/conservative_republicans_pledg.html on March 28, 2011.