Reading Norman Finkelstein’s book about wokeness and the crooked ways he was disallowed tenure at DePaul in Chicago, called “I’ll Burn That Bridge When I Come to It”. I have listened to many interviews with him and am not surprised currently he in demand with Piers Morgan, Glenn Greenwald, Useful Idiots, Comedy cellar with Cornell West surrounding discussions about Israel and Gaza. Last August, after a riveting exchange between him and Glenn Loury, about Judith Butler, Robin DiAngelo and Ibram X. Kendi, I reached out to ask if I could interview him for the Improvisation Journal. The pressure, the cameras rolling, people excited to hear you fail or succeed yada yada, seemed to me his skills as good as Ornette. He laughed and said forget it. “I am no improviser. I am always very prepared”. I said that does not diminish what I see as your improvisational skills, responding on your feet to unknown queries or attacks, etc. He disagreed a second time and I realized he will soon see me as just a nutty freak. I thanked him for his time. In his book, the importance of allowing the opposite view of one’s beliefs is very important. I especially admire that part of his thinking. I hope I am offering something similar assigning my songwriting students the task to “write a bad song”.