WITH LIBERTY AND MUSIC FOR ALL

One of our great pleasures is in discovering inventive, unusual or outrageous murals. Such murals are almost always painted on unattractive, unadorned expanses of masonry surfaces which were duller than dishwater and far less clean. They bring colorful relief the grayed out commercial sectors along our path.

This delightful patchwork of bricks in the great wall pictured above was in no need of such relief especially with the deep green carpet of grass before it. We initially thought this a great miscarriage upon the clay, an adventure in visual flatulence if you will. The garish colors fairly belch out from the bricks. Art this ain't, but we began to get the point.

The next to the last character on the wall is, of course, the logo for the University of Georgia and we are in Athens. Every college campus hungers for some force of wrong which they may right by protest. We're well versed in most of the causes celebres, but were unaware that music was being withheld from rightful ears by church, state or dreaded bourgeois parents. We turned on the FM radio and there wasn't much censored. We logged on to the internet and cubic yards of free music came forth.

After much thought and some research we came to understand that both the University and the town of Athens are very strong on the teaching, performing and appreciation of music. "MUSIC 4 EVERY 1" seems more a pledge to expand the opportunities in music to a wider variety of people than has been customary.

Democratisation or Democratization of information seems to be one of the celebrated changes in our social order brought on by the internet. Less often is knowledge the property of the literary, technical or social elite. The imperative statement on the wall seems to ask the same of music's custodians. No longer, they hope, must one swear a blood oath to The Juilliard School or be a descendent of Hector Berlioz or find the hidden key to open the doors to music. Whether one aims to become a virtuoso or simply fiddle around with music, they will have that chance. Certainly talent has not been the sole determinant of success in modern music, so why not give everyone a shot ?