I have a number of half-finished posts that were intended to be in contention for the comeback post now that I’m slowly getting a handle on this whole parenting thing. However, earlier today I saw something a little too ridiculous to ignore. It’s not worth spending too much time on, but here are my $0.02. Initially I offered a snarky tweet, then quickly deleted it because it’s my firm belief that with social media less is certainly more. But since I’m writing a blog post, I’ll resurrect that first volley here:

“And the ‘New Music community’ officially joins the ranks of the humorless, terminally offended & victimized PC class. Blech.”

On a recent Tonight Show, host Jimmy Fallon delivered a bit (by his team of writers) about books to avoid, one of them being The Other Flute by Robert Dick. Seems harmless enough, but to read this NewMusicBox article and a series of follow-up tweets (including the hashtag campaign of #InviteRobertDick), you’d think that a real crisis was at hand. If outsiders weren’t convinced of classical musicians being in a bubble, this would make a good final nail in that coffin. I bet a lot of musicians are sleeping deeply tonight having burned so many calories on being so outraged.

That’s not to say that Dick himself doesn’t have a right to be offended. That’s a different story, as it’s about him personally. It’s quite unfortunate that his (likely) introduction to mainstream pop culture was a joke at his expense about his life’s work. That truly sucks. But what puzzles me is why other flautists are so taken aback. Were they also being insulted in such a personal way?

Being offended is big business these days. That’s not to say that bullying, etc. isn’t a problem. But we’re gradually moving away from the right to free expression to the right to not read or hear something disagreeable. And it strikes me as odd that a group of artists – those who supposedly are the biggest proponents of free expression – would themselves get so bent out of shape by a few jokes (Dick himself excluded).

But who am I to talk? I play the saxophone (and a little flute), so I’ve got nothing to complain about. (It’s not like there’s a Sexy Sax Man  or Kenny G to weigh down the instrument’s image or anything.) I’m simply a hegemon – my instrument is part of the dominant paradigm, present in myriad popular styles. I mean, Branford Marsalis was even The Tonight Show’s bandleader for a time. Although, most of my classical music-oriented colleagues don’t or won’t give much of my improvised music the time of day, so perhaps I should start my own aggrieved campaign. (The same goes for this blog being rejected from The Big List of Classical Music Blogs multiple times.)

I do think that it’d be great to have Robert Dick himself appear on the show as a follow-up to the bit, but not so Jimmy Fallon can simply offer a public apology to the music community like some sort of hostage video victim. I think that, with humor, it could offer genuine insight into something that does at first seem funny or odd to the average listener. (After all, extended techniques don’t often travel well when out of context.) Perhaps relate a technique such as simultaneously singing and playing with Ian Anderson’s playing (for pop context) and then go from there. In short: definitely have him on the show, but also have the community take a collective chill pill.

Having said all that, here’s Robert Dick doing his thing, and masterfully so, in his Sliding Life Blues: