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By Neel Thakkar and Natesh Sood
J Camp Live! Staff Writers
Desmond Bedlow plays his music on the street, but is in every way a professional. He has his own website and MySpace page; he has released three CDs; and he makes a living off his craft.
Bedlow, 51, has played the steel drum on the Santa Monica Pier regularly for the past three years, the latest step in a career spanning 30 years. He shares the pier with a few other musicians, though he remains the only steel drummer.
He learned to play the instrument from his father and uncle growing up in Trinidad and Tobago, in the southern Caribbean, where the steel drum is extremely popular.
“Here people play the sax or the keyboard,” Bedlow said. “There they play the drum.”
Bedlow, who arrived in the United States in 1986, found steady work playing at corporate events and other functions while the Silicon Valley region boomed. He transitioned to street music after 9/11 and the subsequent economic downturn which brought down corporate spending.
On the pier, Bedlow plays his brand of island music, with reggae and jazz influences. He keeps a table stocked with two of his CDs – titled “Desmond Bedlow” and “Caribbean Breeze” – which sell steadily at $8 each.
“We thought it was great,” said Charlene, one of many visitors to Bedlow’s stand. Since she is an avid admirer of Caribbean-style music, she bought a CD. Her contribution was added to a jar already about half-full with tips and CD proceeds.
The money is enough for Bedlow, who lives alone, to make a living.
“If I had a family, it might have been tight,” he admitted.
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The Origins of Herbal Medicine For most of their existence human beings have had various but limited resources for treating injuries and diseases. For thousands of years, sickness was blamed on supernatural forces, and treatments included the use of magic, music, prayer and the incantations, as well as crude operations, physical therapy such as diet, fresh air and exercise, and internal and external remedies based on plants. in about 500 B.C.E. this supernatural view of disease was displaced by a belief in health as a balance of forces within the body, and disease as a disturbance of that balance. This view did not change the role of herbs in medicine, and plant remedies continued to be used therapeutically. They became an important means of treating illness, as they were seen as a way of restoring balance and harmony to the body. Throughout the world there developed many different healing systems based on this idea of balancing natural forces, and relying on the medicinal use of plants. These include the Indian system of Ayurveda, the ancient Chinese and the Native American systems, as well as the system of folk medicine which developed in Europe. Each country or culture developed its own tradition and pharmacy from locally growing plants. China and India have the oldest written traditions. dating from about 1000 B.C.E. Whereas the Indian and Chinese systems still survive today, in Europe the idea of balanced forces within the body gradually disappeared. From the 16th century onward, European cultures expanded into the New World, and imperialism made Western medicine the dominant ideal throughout the world, although not necessarily the dominant practice. Many indigenous systems have been deeply affected by this. Although some countries, such as China, tradition has always been honoured and traditional herbal and modern Western medicine are practiced side by side, in other countries “bush folk medicine was despised, ignored, or even outlawed as politically dangerous. Local healers and wise women many of whom held valuable information were vilified and persecuted. CHINA The oldest medical text in China is The Yellow Emperor’s Book of Internal Medicine, which is about 3,000 years old and still consulted today. Traditional Chinese medicine is based on the five elements of wood, water, fire, earth, and metal. These elements differ from the European medieval model in that these are not discrete like the four humors but linked energetically, constantly interacting and feeding, hindering, or flowing through one another. Each element is linked to one or more organs, an emotion, a taste, and a season. Specific herbs of the right taste will strengthen the element, For example, the element of earth is related to the stomach and spleen, the emotion is worry, the season is summer and the taste sweet. A tonic for this element would he the sweet root of liquorice, warming and nourishing. READ MORE HERE
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