"Rivers Of My Fathers."
Another
"Lady Day And John Coltrane."

I am sorry if I overstepped with the underclass question; I can't figure if you are being rhetorical.

Television shows prior to the Regean repeal of the Broadcast Standards Act were better because they were limited by law to no more than a small amount of commercial airtime per hour. Thats why in re-runs or on DVD the older shows last longer and have a more complete story line than everything that came after Regean. Now it's all commercials and they can't get a narrative flow going; thats why all the new major network shows suck.

We both make attempts to find the new and good in art so where the heck is it?

I can write a very long essay about what was better or different about the years from 1965-1980. I'll spare that but I do believe there was a more coherent culture that assesed value and worth that we don't see today.

A friend who graduated from City College back when it was considered a great school says this:

"When I sat in the graduation commencement ceremony back then there were five Summa Cum Laude awards. I attended a ceremony there recently; same number of students, 30 or more Summa's. What the hell are these people doing, it can't be that everyone got much smarter."