The rising this time

The stress levels are rising again. 

Where is it written that some of us shan't have a few moments, days, weeks, months of peace? Look, I know that just isn't the way (at least my and probably your) life works. But that doesn't mean that I don't want those moments. There isn't time to photograph and/or write notes to the self about everything good and or bad that one wishes to remember, savor, or encourage to recede into memory and or forgetfulness. Even for the moments I'd like to revisit again someday, where and or when does one really get the chance?

Thanks to computers, we now have the ability to alter and fix up some of our mementos. For instance many years ago now, when I lived in Boston, there were any number of things I photographed. One or two hundred dozen pictures have always been a little better as I prefer to remember them, not as they are. Case in point:

The above picture was taken on the first "Victorian Day" at the Boston Public Garden in May of 1989. Sadly, it was never held again as far as I know. A number of people with an interest in historical couture dressed in restored Victorian era clothing and took a leisurely stroll around an appropriate period setting. It was over in a few minutes. Now, in my mind's eye, the above picture looks a little more like this:

Please understand that I really do prefer the color picture. But the way my mind wants to remember the photo is without the woman in the 1940's blue skirt, and as something I took in a moment when I had become unstuck in time. A few minutes later, I happened to notice a couple dressed all in black, as though they were some kind of Victorian punk rockers. I immediately raised my camera. They paused in their stroll for the briefest moment, just long enough to take one picture.

The problem I have with the photo is the two people on either side whose modern garb quite ruins the perception of an antique hand colored photo of Edgar Allan Poe and the Mrs. It doesn't matter that Poe only lived in his nearby birthplace as an infant, and certainly didn't live there with his child bride cousin (she was 13 when they married) who died of consumption. In our modern world, I can now use fancy computer programs once the province of Hollywood special effect departments to eliminate the folks in the photo who spoil the illusion. Except that the best program to use to accomplish that costs over $180 for the basic version (and that -is- a discounted price) to well over $340.00 for the more complete version. (In my experience, basic versions give you enough of the program to become extremely frustrated at its limitations which force you to buy the full featured version.) And then there are add on packages costing close to $100.00 each. As it happens, there is a "free ware" program which I downloaded which is said to be a near equivalent of the fancy schmancy program. The only problem is finding the time to learn how to use it to see if it is up to the computing task. Until that time, the picture is best observed from my frustrated director's memory, edited to my specifications. Then I can enjoy the moment the way I want.

Sadly, I can't seem to get to a place where I can edit my life to be the picture I want. A quick perusal of the morning news leaves me saddened and a bit depressed. Iran has publicly trumpeted its ability to get some kind of sea going vessel to within 3 miles of the US - perfect for missile launching. It doesn't matter whether or not they are just making gaseous noises. It doesn't matter whether or not someone over there actually said this. What matters is that it has been reported and that it is a threat and that the threat will be used as another notch in the buildup to a potential preemptive military action. Or perhaps that is the anxiety some set of forces in motion from God knows where wants us to have. The Governor of the US State of Maine, a place heretofore thought of as a potential Stevil haven from the masses, has accused his states' governmental workers of corruption, clarified to note only some workers who have been corrupted by union leaders. Considering that this same man had a mural depicting Maine's labor history removed from his state's Department of Labor building, discerning a message there isn't terribly difficult. Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, in addressing the current economic climate. has just urged young people to go into debt and start businesses - by, say, borrowing $20,000 dollars from their parents. My father earned a decent income, and we were, for a number of years, financially comfortable. Until it came time for me to go to college, an endeavor he had implied he would finance. A few months before I was to begin my studies, he asked me where I was going to get the money. Fair enough - my life, my responsibility, changed circumstances, whatever. But if someone solidly in the middle class in 1968 couldn't afford to send his child to college, who can afford to "loan" their offspring twenty thousand these days? I sell food to senior citizens, people solidly middle class, and people on welfare who often can't afford their bill and who have to have items removed from their purchases. Or who note that the money for this week's food was the money saved to fix their car. Or who spend considerable time going through every pocket counting out several dollars in change. This kind of stuff just makes me crazy. Sometimes, it is best to avoid the news. How do I avoid reality?

There are problems at work. There are always problems at work. Two weeks ago (the properly allotted advance notice), I put in specific requests regarding portions of two days for this upcoming week in which I needed to be elsewhere. On Thursday morning, I am to be a guest on a local commercial radio station program to talk about getting our non-profit community station back up and running. I could work the four hour morning shift they often give me, or I could work in the afternoon. On Friday evening, as our Community station will be having an open house, I asked to be done for the day in time to catch the 4:30pm bus into town. The result was to be given those two days off "by request", and have other days in which I will work until 8 and 9pm - when no buses run and I will have a 45 minute walk home (I need a cane to walk) on a highway at night. This sort of thing has happened just about every time I have put in a specific request to not work at a given time due to a doctor's appointment, etc. Considering the regularity with which this happens (and not just to my less than humble self) it is difficult to see it as anything other than punishment for asking for the benefit of a flexible schedule - one of the touted lures used to snare one into employment there. I made comments to other staff about this. Within a couple of hours, I was taken off register for a minute, and told by the bookkeeper that I had rung up a customer's red grapes as green grapes. The red grapes are on sale. The customer complained and the grapes had to be given away for free, plus one dollar as per company policy. I had cost the company $3.40. They have been noticing such errors creeping into my work, and I was being notified about this as a courtesy before the matter was "out of their hands". Was this real? Was it just to induce under the thumb anxiety as payback for an intemperate remark? Has the campaign to remove me from employment there (as the last person in my "part time" category of 20 to 38.5 hours) resumed? Is that campaign real? In my minds eye, the way I perceive it, the poverty level exploited worker is being crushed for having spoken a totally obvious truth.

Yesterday, someone posted a comment to an article on this blog from last September. The comment reads, "Good bye, considerate soul mate :) ". What to make of it? Is it from someone who is pondering an end to life either naturally or by their own hands? I certainly know people who live in great pain who might fit either description. But the two visitors late that night who could have left such a comment were not from Canada where the most likely suspect lives. Who then? Was it someone who managed to log onto my blog without leaving an electronic trail? Was it just someone reading my blog and saying goodnight? And who considers me a "soul mate"? Why don't I know about this? A soul mate? Really? The smiley face lets me live with the note, but the "Good bye" still leaves me with a sense of unease. Why can't life have editing software?

Happiness and Moments of Pleasure

As difficult as it sometimes can be, identifying, noting, and remembering moments of happiness and pleasure in our lives is of great importance. Over the years, I've found that documenting such moments helps. How many sunrises or sunsets have you watched whose beauty astounded you, which filled you with moments of peace and happiness you thought you would always remember? How many do you actually remember? When I had money to afford a decent camera and pursue my photographic interests, I took occasional pictures of sunsets. Finding them 20 some years later (how have so many years passed?) I stare at them blankly for a moment, and wonder why I took that particular picture? Was it the sunset, was I there with someone 'special', was I experimenting with low light photography? Here's an example - I took this at the beach in Provincetown, MA in October of 1989 (really, can it really be so long ago? Did I really take it in September and just didn't get it developed until October?). I should also note that my scanner seems to have a bad case of dust that won't dust off of the glass plate. I suppose I shall have to take it apart and clean the underside.

Text can capture such moments to preserve as well. Thus it is that I must note that yesterday, upon returning to my little hovel after my less than rewarding and almost completely energy debilitating employment of 10am to 6pm, I found that my new coffee maker had arrived. It took a couple of hours before I had a moment to open the package. I had guessed right - its coffee grounds receptacle was a cone, not a basket. I smiled that little happiness smile.

This morning (work today is noon to 8pm) I am happily in the process of cleaning it for its first use. The instruction manual which came with it offers specific instructions for this process. It suggests two full "brews" using just water to clean out the system. The instructions further tell me to "see 'Brewing Instructions' on p. 7." There is no page 7. Actually, there is a page 7 if one continues into the instructions in Spanish and turns the booklet upside down in order to read them. And my gosh, the 'Brewing Instructions" are there as "Instrucciones De Uso". In case you are wondering, the English version of those instructions are right under the "Before You Use Your Coffeemaker" section on the first page of text. By the way, the English instructions note that after brewing the first cup of water, one should turn off the machine and let it cool for 10 minutes. In the Spanish version, it notes that one should let the machine cool for 15 minutes. I guess time is different in Spanish speaking countries. Which could, of course, be a sort of proof for Einstein's theory that time is relative.

Time with the internet is relative, too. I started this post early this morning. I should have started it last night (I was too tired after I got home from work) and wished austanspace a Happy Birthday. While constructing it, I've done a few hours of work on stuff for the radio station, and finally had that first cup of coffee from the new machine. It's good. Not quite as good as the old machine with the built up years of coffee residue in the reusable and washable filter, but it's good. And I smile. Then I notice the time and how late I am to start getting ready for work and I panic...
 
 

Still that kind of day...

When I said that it was just that kind of a day I meant it.

I tried to take a day away from doing things concerned with the radio station and thus spent about 2 and a half hours on it. The zipper on the only pair of pants I have left that are decent enough to wear to work broke. (I've been trying to get to the used store that benefits our local hospice for a month, but the only times I've been able to get there - a Sunday and a Monday - turned out to be days that it is closed.) And, while washing the coffee pot (and telling myself to be careful thinking about the time the last one broke while I was washing it) it broke. I don't like most 4 cup coffee makers - most use a coffee basket, and coffee (to my mind and taste) brews best using a cone shaped filter. I just spent an hour online looking for a cone style - the last two such machines I've had (covering around 30 years) are no longer made. I think I've found one but I won't know for sure until it gets here. Amazon had it, and even though it is "in stock" it takes an extra 3 days to ship. There usually isn't enough in my debit card account to spend $12.00 plus shipping at any given time, so I guess I'm lucky in that regard.

In order not to waste an entire post with more bitching, here's a pic I took a week ago in front of a performance venue here in town known as "The Church" (because that's what it used to be). For many years, it was the home of Omega Optical. Back in 2006, during our first Friday of the month "Gallery Walk",  a lightning bolt struck and damaged the steeple. The 6 foot or so high stone cross at the top wasn't damaged and was  saved: it now sits on the ground in front of the building. The flower in bloom is a very old variety that used to be known as the "poet's daffodil". I can't remember what congregation built The Church, and I couldn't find it online when I just looked. I'm sure I'll remember it an hour or two from now when I'm in he middle of something else.

Earth Day musings and the new normal.

It is one of those days. Move the chair to get closer to the keyboard to type, knock something over. It is Earth Day. The early warmth we had made all the trees on my block leaf out very quickly, and much earlier than normal. Today, though, is cool and gray.

Spring on the Brattleboro Common - about a half a block from my apartment. I took this photo yesterday!

The lilac on the Common (not far from the crab apples in the picture above) as well as one growing in a 2 foot space between two older buildings on the edge of our business district, are both starting to open their blooms a month early. This is the new normal - there isn't any normal. Well, there is, but I find it depressing and try not to let much of it slip into my consciousness. Which is pretty hard to do when it is the major part of one's everyday existence. (And I'm thinking of the "new normal" in politics and economics as well as in the environmental sense.)

How to explain this feeling? Well, let's take Earth Day. Although there were a couple of similar ideas already out there, Earth Day as we know it was founded by US Senator Gaylord Nelson in 1970 as a reaction to the disastrous 1969 oil spill in southern California and the lack of a decent response by the US Government. He based his idea on the anti Vietnam War movement's "teach ins", hoping that education would help raise enough public outcry that something would be done to stem what he saw as an approaching environmental crisis. How have things changed since then? In 2010, this day was celebrated by the sinking to the ocean floor of the drilling platform of the Deepwater Horizon BP Macondo blowout (after an explosion two days previous); an incident otherwise known as the Gulf Oil Spill. Haven't head much about that lately have you? Have you seen or heard of any legislation or regulations passed to protect against shoddy cheap bottom dollar is king construction work to try to help prevent this kind of thing from happening again? Have you heard about the continuing "persistent oil seep" in the Gulf whose chemical analysis identifies it as consistent with the make up of oil from the Macondo 252 well? The phrase in quotes is from an investigative piece published in March 2012. You haven't heard of it because the reporting was done by Al Jazeera. Three days ago, the New York Times reported that BP has, so far, paid out about $ 8 billion to individuals and businesses affected by the spill. (That's out of the $20 billion fund they were forced to set up, which the Times failed to mention.) BP claims to have spent an additional $14 billion in cleanup costs. BP's books show a $37.2 billion charge for their expenses. In case you're curious, the lawyers have so far collected about $600 million. One other thing, aside from the continued deaths of Gulf waters dolphins and whales at twice the normal rate, tar balls still continue to wash up on Gulf shores. According to the National Geographic Society and Ecowatch, the tar balls contain the bacteria Vibrio vulnificus, which can cause fatal blood poisoning and is the causative agent of cholera.

One of these days I'll get around to writing about what I see as the "new normal". In the meantime, I'd explain the phrase by mentioning Monsanto, the giant multinational conglomerate which manufactures rGBH (the bovine growth hormone which leaches into the cows milk and has been identified as an "accelerator" of prostrate, lung and colon cancers), and the toxic weed killer Round Up and much of the genetically modified Round Up resistant seeds (corn, soybeans, etc.) sold in the US. They dealt with the fact that their products are getting the major blame for the destruction of pollinating insects (think bees, among others) by buying the company that does much of the research into bee colony collapse. They made the purchase last September, but the news of it only came to light two days ago. I wonder whatever happened to their anti-trust investigation the US Government started in 2009? I wonder if that was affected by the 2009 appointment of their chief lobbyist ($8.8+ million in 2008) (and a former Deputy Commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration) to the position of senior adviser to the FDA by President Obama? You know, the FDA. As in Monsanto's should be famous comment, "Monsanto should not have to vouch for the safety of biotech food Our interest is in selling as much of it as possible. Assuring its safety is FDA's job." Oh, by the way,  they are also a former employer of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas (who wrote the Court's majority 2001 opinion that genetically modified seeds were patentable). I won't go into their history of manufacturing DDT, Agent Orange or their worldwide toxic dumping and use of child labor. Happy Earth Day, Monsanto.

Earth Day is also the birthday of J. Robert Oppenheimer, one of the great geniuses of the 20th century. His studies of a range of subjects led directly to Nobel prizes for others. He was nominated three times, but was never given the award. In the early 1940's, he was called upon by the United States government to work on a specific task. He completed his mission, and is now known as the father of the Atomic Bomb. Horrified by the death and destruction his work unleashed, he agitated for organizations to oversee atomic development and for the then new United Nations to oversee and control atomic weapons. For that work, various interests in the US pushed him out of the way of the business of atomic money, and used the anti-communist witch hunts of the 1950's to publicly embarrass and destroy him as they revoked his security clearances. It just wasn't any fun starting a profitably expensive arms race with a Communist liberal loving peacenick running around gumming up the works. Oh, by the way, the atomic arms race isn't over you know. But then again, no arms races are ever over, are they?

Shall we now discuss the new figures on poverty in the United States? Let's not. But if you live in this country, have you noticed a large upswing in crimes such as holdups of convenience stores and banks? We're having quite a few here in Brattleboro these days. Cause and effect and all that.

And as for our hopes for the future being based on education engendered by days like Earth Day, here are a few responses from an article on Facebook this morning about a bank robbery in town yesterday:

Person 1 ...can't see it taken very long to find him one dum ass bank robber

Person 2 - Well lets rember they never caut the guy that robbed to banks on a bike ane one day. So will see how long it takes this time

After a report of an arrest in the case:

Person 3 - Wow they did there job this time.

Person 4 - People really should judge the police when your not the ones putting your life on the line everyday in these situations every day


So much for education. And hope. It is one of those days.

Notes in and on passing

There has simply been too much going on in my life the past few weeks. Our beloved Community Radio Station, WVEW-lp rose like the proverbial phoenix from the water logged ashes of downtown Brattleboro's Brooks House, which was nearly destroyed by fire a year ago.

When a radio station goes off the air due to such circumstances, it has exactly one year to return to broadcasting or lose its license. On Tuesday evening, April 10th, at just about 8:10pm, I used a computer at the station's new studio to log into the transmitter and turn it on. I used You Tube to play the Hallelujah Chorus. I had also used the same piece a few days previous on the first broadcast test of the new set up. The choice was corny, but we had just saved the license, with six days to spare so I make no apologies.

As the transmitter was turned on. Left to right, Dan Lefkowitz, Scott Brown (in green), myself (at the computer), Rolf Parker-Houghton, Stephen Frankel, and Lauren Reedy - some of the members of the WVEW-lp Board.

I also threw the switches that originally put the station on the air back in 2006. In those days, I played the Ramones "We Want the Airwaves", which was the song I used when I threw the switches a couple of times for our former community station, radio free brattleboro. All of this is a very long story, which will hopefully be told one day, but today is not that day.

Today, I wanted to note the passing of another icon of my youth. A few days ago, we lost Dick Clark. Forget the "America's Oldest Living Teenager" nickname. Forget the New Year's Eve shows from Times Square (sorry, New Year's Eve will always have Guy Lombardo playing in my mental soundtrack). Forget the cheesy tv specials. Back when I was a kid, there was "Bandstand". It was a show out of nearby Philadelphia, and was on everyday at, oh, was it 3 or 4pm on WFIL, the fledgling ABC network on broadcast channel 6. It was an hour and a half long in those days. You have to understand something here. My first record player, a children's toy, played 78 rpm records. Music when I was old enough to have some idea of what I was listening to was still by and large the music of the big band era. The first movie I can remember seeing, shortly before my fifth birthday, had a song in it which became a huge hit: "Rock Around the Clock". I was a child of the birth of rock and roll. And Bandstand brought rock and roll into my living room. And Dick Clark hosted and produced that show. I never watched it a lot - but I certainly watched the guest stars like Bobby Rydell (a Philadelphia boy!) and to see the teenagers dancing.

Dick Clark interviewing Bobby Rydell (a big star back in the day) on American Bandstand.

 I was especially fond of the summer version, as on Saturdays it would broadcast from the World Famous Steel Pier in Atlantic City, New Jersey. I don't know how a logo for a tv station in St. Louis got in here, but much of this clip is from one of those summer shows:



There were frequent camera shots of the ocean, and the famous diving horse. I can't recall just when the program changed its name to "American Bandstand", but I think it was around the end of the 1950s. In those days, the average wage was $ 5,000 dollars a year. A car cost over $2,000 dollars, and you ordered it with the extras (like a radio) you wanted and then waited for it to be made in Detroit and delivered to your local dealership. A jar of peanut butter cost 29 cents. I lost interest in the show after my early teen years, and besides, the show had moved to Los Angeles and wasn't local anymore. But it, and Dick Clark (bless him) live on in my memory. Thank You, Mr. Clark, for helping usher in an era, and showing it to me.

Levon Helm also passed away this week. He was the drummer and a lead vocalist for The Band. I was a fan. Back when I used to help run the Purple Dragon Coffeehouse in Ocean City, we also had a coffeehouse in Somers Point, across the bay, called The Fish Market - because that's what the building had been. It was next door to a club called Tony Mart's. The Band used to play there under a couple of different names before they became The Band. I've been aware of them for a very long time. I treasure my copy of "Music From Big Pink", one of the graetest rock albums ever released. I saw them live, when they backed Bob Dylan at the Madison Square Garden when Dylan finally returned to live performing years after his motorcycle accident.

Here's Levon Helm's vocal leading off one of my favorite songs from the Big Pink album.



The above clip is from the movie "The Last Waltz", a film of the final performance of the Band. When I was working in the movie business in NYC, my friend John Chiafalo and his brother were rehabbing an old brownstone they had bought in Brooklyn. As they near completion, they held a party to celebrate. I got them a 16mm print of "The Last Waltz" which we showed in one of the larger rooms. Needless to say, it was a popular stop on the house party tour.

Mr. Helm had his ups and downs, and over the last few years had re-emerged into the public eye - and discovered that he had an audience who fondly remembered him. He lost his battle with cancer yesterday. The final number the Band ever performed together seems like a fitting send off. You don't get a chance to see much of Mr. Helm in this clip, and his distinctive voice blends in with and many of his (and The Band's) friends. The Weight has finally been lifted, and Levon Helm has been released. Rest well, sir. Rest well.

Jonathon Frid

I just saw the news on the internet. A part of my youth, one of the last remnants of myself from a different time, has passed away. Jonathon Frid died last Friday, the 13th, at the age of 87.

In 1976, a strange little soap opera debuted on the ABC network. It concerned the odd goings on at the old Collins estate by the sea in Collinsport, Maine. A former movie star, Joan Bennett, played the mistress of Collinwood. For whatever reason, Elizabeth Collins Stoddard had not left her home for 18 years... At first, the soap didn't really develop well or catch on. There were occasional mentions of ghosts being seen around an old, no longer used wing of the sprawling house. Then, one day, close to a year after the show debuted, two lowlifes showed up in Collinsport, intent on blackmailing Mrs. Stoddard for (possibly) killing her husband 17 years earlier. One of the men, Willie Loomis, started poking around the estate's mausoleum looking for valuables allegedly buried with a former family member.
He found Jonathon Frid.

Frid was introduced to the show, called Dark Shadows, as Barnabas Collins, a vampire accidentally set loose by Willie Loomis. Barnabas convinced Mrs. Stoddard that he was a member of the Collins family's English branch, and took up residence in the old house on the estate. And he does bear an uncanny resemblance  to a portrait of the American family's founder, also named Barnabas...

Dark Shadows aired weekday afternoons at 4pm. At first, it was broadcast and taped live. Sets and walls would shake. Stagehands would occasionally wander into view. And it had a vampire as a major character. Needless to say, I loved it, and I was hooked. Before the run ended, there were major plot-lines involving ghosts, spurned lover witches, werewolves, parallel universes, zombies, and time travel.

Frid had been a Shakespearean actor in his native Canada. He took the role of Barnabas when told it wouldn't be a lengthy assignment - he wanted to earn enough money to move to California where he intended to start an acting school. His character ended up making the show hugely popular, and he stayed until the end in 1971. His Barnabas was a sympathetic character - which I think was a first for a vampire role. Certainly, a vampire had never been the hero of a show before. Frid set the precedent - and created a character which was at once both sympathetic and menacing.

Next month, a new Tim Burton movie based on Dark Shadows will open in movie theaters around the world. It stars Johnny Depp as Barnabas. Jonathan Frid appears in a cameo with other former stars of the tv show. The movie, based on the footage seen so far in the film's trailer, appears to be attempting to become a  camp classic. It will be very different than the tv show. Perhaps it is fitting, then, that before the movie opens, the real Barnabas has found peace and rest at last.

Do Me Do Day

Two particular entertainers who have give me great pleasure have birthdays today.

First the Empress of the Blues, Miss Bessie Smith. Born to a part time Baptist minister, by the age of nine she had lost both parents and a brother - she was raised by an older sister. As a child, she helped support her family by singing in front of the White Elephant Saloon in Chattanooga. She married, but she and her husband never divorced - he never got used to her affairs with women, and she left him over one of his affairs. She later shared her life with Lionel Hampton's uncle. Columbia records signed her in 1923; her first recordings were considered "A" list, and she was the initial star attraction of their new "race records" division. She quickly became the most popular (and highest paid) black performer in the world. In 1929, she was the star of an early sound film short, "St. Louis Blues". Recording promoter John Hammond claimed to have found her working in obscurity in 1933 (not true, she was still a headliner just performing less in the Depression) and recorded her last four songs. Hammond also invented a story about her death; she died in an auto accident at the age of 43. Hammond claimed that she was refused entry to a white hospital, a story which has been discredited. Her husband regularly pocketed money raised for her tombstone. Her resting place was finally marked by a memorial paid for by Janis Joplin.




Today is also the birthday of Hans Conried. An occasional Broadway and radio performer, he was a well known character actor in movies, and  a regular voice performer for Disney. He achieved early television fame as Uncle Tanoose on the Danny Thomas show. The excerpt below is from his performance in an odd cult favorite move from 1953, The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. the only movie whose story, script, and song lyrics were written by Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Suess. Conried played an insane music teacher who chained children to their pianos as they learned his method of playing:



Thank You both, and Happy Birthday!

P.S. Today is also the birthday of an old (and I stress the word "old") friend, Miss Magnolia Thunderpussy.
Happy Birthday, Mags! The following is her favorite song, and may have been based on her life:

This Day in History - the Bastids!

Listen my children and you will hear of the internet we hold so dear....

Once upon a time, there was an information superhighway. It was called the internet. Back then, the internet consisted of discussion groups - mostly text messages organized around subjects of interest. You might have posted to a group from your home in Wisconsin asking if anyone had a recipe for lemon butter. The person who posted one might have been from Australia. This was heady stuff back in the day. There were groups based on all kinds of subjects, form food to graphic arts, scientific subjects, and etc. As the early 1990's gave way to the middle of that decade, a new kid on the block showed up. It was called "the World Wide Web". The more technically minded and the more adventurous were going crazy over it.

At the time, I was living in Boston and I subscribed to an internet provider from Cambridge, MA known as Channel One. In the general discussion area, there were daily reports on this "web" thing. Someone had put the text of the Bible online - and it was searchable. Someone had put a site up devoted to a singer - it had a biography, a list of best known songs - and pictures of the artist! And so on. It was an exciting time, full of promise.

It happened without warning on April the 12, 1994. The main international discussion forum and file sharing service was called Usenet. The people who oversaw this internet thing (the National Science Foundation) had decided to end the unofficial ban on using it for commercial purposes. Suddenly, a message appeared in just about every single forum on Usenet. And it didn't just appear once. It was cross posted to many groups at a time - and you would see the message that many times in each group. This broke all the rules of common Usenet form, mores, and civility to only post your message once in each group.

The message was sent by two lawyers in Texa$ (if memory serves). There was to be a United States lottery for "green cards", which allowed folks from other countries to legally live and work in the United States. For a fee, these lawyers would fill out the paperwork for you, their message read. Their names were Laurence Carter and  Martha Siegel. Their internet service provider received so many complaints over the next two days that their mail servers crashed repeatedly, and the lawyers' internet account was terminated.

The lawyers (who were a couple, I think) then started an internet advertising company and wrote a book called "How to Make a Fortune on the Information Superhighway : Everyone's Guerrilla Guide to Marketing on the Internet and Other On-line Services". 

Before one knew what was happening, there were many such messages hitting the discussion groups, so many in fact, that the groups started becoming useless unless they were moderated. In discussing these unwanted messages, someone quoted Monty Python, "but I don't like Spam". The name stuck.

Over the next few years, "spam" infiltrated our email (I get over 300 unwanted messages a day), and commercial sites pushed out the many little web sites individuals had created, and took over the internet. Now, companies like the New York Times, the Encyclopedia Britannica, and even the site of our own small town newspaper, charge subscription fees to read what they consider "their" information whikle they advertise to you. Free sites are also full of advertisements. The blogoshpere became the home to the little, interesting, funky websites by everyday people. The rest of the web now seems to be commercially oriented. Even once great search engines like Google have changed - if you search for a video, Google no longer sees services like "Daily Motion", it only sees "You Tube" - which it owns.

All that was, sadly, inevitable.
And it all got started on this date in 1994 with what became known as the first spam message.
By lawyers, don't'cha know.

Sic Transit Gloria Mundi.

Lost in the rain in Juarez and it's Easter time, too

Although I wasn't quite aware of it at the time, television and I grew up together. As a response to tv, 1950's Hollywood dusted off the idea of widescreen and begat Cinemascope with the release of "The Robe", a biblical epic. It was a huge box office success. Therefore, more widescreen movies followed, and in true Hollywood fashion, when they didn't really know what to do, they made something similar, except bigger and more expensive. It was a whole new era of the cinema spectacular - this time in widescreen, technicolor, and stereophonic multi-channel sound. And I loved it.

I can't swear that the Jesus movies and sundry biblical epics all came out around Easter, but it sure seems that way in memory. Easter back then started with a new suit and shoes. Suits were partially tailored then, they weren't off the rack. In late winter we'd go off to Woodstown for the annual trip to Spinozi's. The elder Mr. Spinozi would always hang his tape measure around his neck, and as he began the yearly renovation process with a shoe measurement, would note that I would be taller if they hadn't tucked so much under. This was his one joke every year. And every year we politely laughed at it. The get up would always make its debut at Easter service at Bethesda Methodist Church. Since I was in the youth choir, it was always covered by a red robe.

Somewhere around the Easter holiday (at least in memory) would be a trip to the movies. It would be off to Camden, or Philadelphia, to one of those huge movie palaces where "first run" films were to be seen. As I was closing in on the entry into my teen years, the picture I remember best was "King of Kings". As I later learned, out in Hollywood it was known as "I Was a Teen Age Jesus" due to the youthful appearance of its leading man, Jeffrey Hunter (yes, he was already immortal years before he became Captain Pike). It was directed by Nicholas Ray, who had directed James Dean's best known film, "Rebel Without a Cause".

When it was released, there was a story (probably apocryphal) that as the Sermon on the Mount was prepared for filming in the Spanish countryside, the thousands of extras were readied; the cameras began to roll, and Jeffrey Hunter entered the scene from over a hilltop. The extras were so shocked to see Jesus Christ in their midst that most fell to their knees and began making the sign of the cross. They had to re-shoot the scene. It's one of my favorite Jesus movies to this day - and it has a great Miklos Roza score!



As I was soon to learn, King of Kings was sort of a remake. The original was a silent movie, directed by Cecil B. DeMille, who made 'de movies for de millions'. Demille's films had been taught and tawdry melodramas which had been heavily criticized for immorality. So DeMille began filming Bible stories - with a lot of sex thrown in, often via a then modern story which illustrated the wages of ignoring Biblical injunctions.
Toward the end of the silent era, DeMille made "King of Kings". Its premiere was the debut film of Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. It was a huge success.

Jesus movies started at the birth of the movies themselves. One of the earliest films exhibited was a series of tableaux which was supposed to be a filming (it wasn't) of the once every ten years presentation of the Obergammergau Passion Play. One of the first feature films was D. W. Griffith's 1914 "Judith of Bethulia", clocking in at 61 minutes. It told the story of a slave girl in old Babylon, had an orgy scene, and a scene in which the heroine beheaded an enemy. Griffith revisited Babylon as one of the four stories told in "Intolerance", his can you top this follow up to "Birth of a Nation". One of the other stories was the story of the Christ. The actor who played Jesus was originally uncredited, not due to religious reticence, but allegedly due to his affair with a 14 year old girl who was an extra in the film.

In the early days of cinema, there was a great deal of concern about portraying the Christ onscreen. One film got around this by only showing His shadow. It was DeMille who came up with the best Jesus cinematic entrance. Here, from my private files, the un-restored scene as I first saw it on television in the early 1960s:



Hey, I was impressed. The silent King of Kings started DeMille on straight out bible story telling. No modern story here - his financing came from a wealthy more conservative religious gentleman. After the initial engagements, the film was cut for general release. DeMille oversaw further work on the picture when it was re-released with the addition of a newfangled soundtrack in 1931. That's the version which was seen by millions. Literally. Missionaries were said to lug 16mm prints and projectors with them into jungles to use the film in converting the heathen. The original version had long been thought lost, but turned up a few years back and was released on DVD in a Criterion edition - which also included a copy of the early sound version. It's quite a giddy experience at times. The first scene, which turned out to be in two strip technicolor, involved wealthy bad girl Mary Magdalene having a hissy fit because her favorite beau, Judas Iscariot was off following a carpenter. A carpenter! She resolved to correct the situation in one of my all time favorite title cards:

DeMille, of course, was happy to illustrate the scene:

After her exit, the film changed to black and white as Mark, writer of a Gospel, is introduced as a lame kid who was healed and who leads the blind girl into the house where Jesus is holding forth. The rest of the film is in black and white - until the Easter morning Resurrection, when color returns to Oz. I mean Jerusalem. It's a great moment, and wowed my 11 (or so) year old self.



I spent years trying to see the DeMille version again. I'd love to see it on a big screen; the earthquake/wrath of God stuff at the crucifixion is pretty spectacular even today. It's a fun movie, and, together with Jeffrey Hunter and a cast of thousands started a long affair between myself and Hollywood epics.

Whether you celebrate Easter, Passover, or just the arrival of Spring, happy whatever. And there is probably a Hollywood Epic waiting out there for you. And these days, who knows what you'll find. Especially now that we have the internet, where the strangest things turn up. Here's one just for Austanspace, who is making me dinner. It's a still from the peeps version of Game of Thrones:

   
Best, everybody.
 
 

A note from the universe

 







Happy Birthday, Lady.
        
                 
                   

What Becomes A Legend Most?

This has been one of those weeks. The grippe has had me in its clutches. (Grippe is a good word, it hasn't been used in a long while, and vividly describes this cold or flu from a place I certainly hope is mythologically based, as I'm certainly headed there based on the precepts of various religions.) There has also been a mad rush of work to help get our local Community Radio Station, WVEW back on the air before we lose our license. More about that next week.

Mentioning religion is appropriate, as this is Easter Week. I've been trying to find time to write about my favorite Big Religious Epic movies. I still hope to do that, by the way. At the moment, all that is being set aside. As it turns out, today is Bette Davis' birthday.

As a kid growing up in a small town in the 1950's and 1960s, you couldn't get me to watch a Bette Davis or Joan Crawford movie. I just wasn't interested in "weepers". But one blessed day, when I was about 18 years old, Betty Black came into my life. She was from a wealthy Philadelphia area family, and was one of the most fun women I knew. We hung out together for awhile when I was living in Ocean City, New Jersey.

One day she found out that I had never seen a Bette Davis movie. She insisted that I correct the situation, and threatened to tie me to a chair if that's what it took to get me to do so. We watched my first Bette Davis movie on tv in the little house off the alley that I used to rent. (A tiny little cottage, I used to say that it looked like a doll's house, noting that every time I slammed the door it was the beginning of modern theatre.) We watched Now, Voyager. Davis morphs from frumpy maiden aunt into a fashionable socialite, and ends up taking care of the child of the man she loves but can't marry. "Let's not ask for the moon - we have the stars!" Good God, what an overwrought, over the top, silly, unrealistic, and absolutely wonderful movie. A few years later, it would be the third 16mm sound feature to enter my film collection.

Ms. Davis as Charlotte Vale, of the Boston Vales (one of the lesser ones), with Paul Henreid in "Now, Voyager".

I remember once I was at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. I don't remember if I was in the city on a visit, or if I had already moved there (which would make it after November 1972). What I do remember is that they were showing a Bette Davis movie that day. The movie was "Dark Victory".

In it, a young heiress goes through the hell of accidentally discovering that she's "Prognosis Negative" - with an unspecified fatal disease.She still marries her doctor beau George Brent, flirts with stable hand Humphrey Bogart ("Are you afraid to burn, Michael? Are You afraid to die?", "What a relief to know that you're no better than I am.") and  moves to the country. At one point she and the hubby prepare to pick up a friend arriving at the local train station in Brattleboro, Vermont. After more exquisite suffering, she goes blind while gardening, packs her husband off to an important conference while pretending that nothing is wrong, lays down on a bed and closes her eyes forever as the angels sing. I'm not kidding. As the audience left the auditorium, I noted that a group of black high school kids had been in attendance. One of the boys made fun of the story. His girlfriend upbraided him on the spot, "Don't you have any feelings?", she asked through tears. Here was a black teenager, 30 years and a world away from the one which created this movie, who had become totally invested in the story. As had her girlfriends. Such is the power of a Bette Davis movie.


Davis had an incredible career, full of famous moments, iconic performances, and fights with the studio system. She co-founded the Hollywood Canteen, a popular club and service organization for the soldiers of WWII. She was the first female president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (whose most public work is in giving out the "Oscars" - which she named, by the way, when she noted that the statuette's backside reminded her of her husband's). She would win the award twice, and be nominated 10 times. Over the years, she changed the way Hollywood worked, went from ingenue to respected box office actress, fell out of favor when movie styles changed, and reemerged in now classic low budget horrors like "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane". She probably had more well known quotable lines that any other performer in the business. And she has provided me with a great deal of entertainment pleasure.

From the opening scene (really!) of "The Letter".

Actress Bette Davis signs autographs at a Vermont War Bond rally.

"What a dump!" from "Beyond the Forest".

A theatre poster featuring her character in "All About Eve".

"Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night."

"Why am I so good at playing bitches? I think it's because I'm not a bitch. Maybe that's why Miss Crawford always plays ladies."

"The best time I ever had with Joan Crawford was when I pushed her down the stairs in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?"

"Today everyone is a star - they're all billed as 'starring' or 'also starring'. In my day, we earned that recognition."

"With the newspaper strike on, I wouldn't consider dying."

 Thank You, and Happy Birthday, Ms. Davis. (And Thank You, Betty Black!)

The Way Things Work

Some years back, there was a wonderful book called "The Way Things Work". I seem to recall that it was very popular. Sadly, it didn't go into the way things really work. My case in point is the sad sad story of the young man in Florida who was shot to death by a a man who has been variously reported as being associated with, being the Captain of, or having no relationship with the local Neighborhood Watch of the gated community in which the event occurred.

Disclaimer: For the last several days I have been besieged by the grippe. Perhaps I'm just cranky from it. Perhaps it's the lack of sleep followed by sudden four hour naps. Whatever. Here's the story.

Late this afternoon, one of the web portals I use featured a news story at the top of its webpage. The headline read, "Public opinion shifts on Treyvon Martin case". It was the top item in a "News for You" section. The website/web portal involved is Yahoo. I read the story, which involved the shift of public opinion away from the idea of arresting the man who shot the kid (the kid obviously up to no good as he was wearing a hoodie and armed with a pack of Skittles). The basis for this news story was a study done by WPA Opinion Research two days after a CNN poll which showed most Americans thought the shooter should be arrested. CNN I had heard of. I decided to look up WPA Opinion Research. It turned out to be Wilson Perkins Allen Opinion Research. They have a website that is a little bit frightening, considering what I found in their own write ups:

"WPA's research is grounded in traditional research techniques but adds the latest behavioral science and communications science discoveries to show our clients how to change opinions and behaviors."

That was from their homepage. On one of their other pages, I found this:

 "Market research from Wilson Perkins Allen Opinion Research provides unmatched information that can make or break a politician, election, organization, lobbyist, or political objective."

Although their home page lists them as having been in business for a decade, it turns out that they've only been around for a year (formed March 2011). Previously, the company was known as Wilson Research Strategies. They used to have an entry on Wikipedia, but it was deleted by a user whose credentials are listed as being a translator of Portuguese to English.

The Wilson part of WPA turns out to be Chris Wilson. He used to be the Executive Director of the Republican Party of Texas back when George W. Bush was governor. According to his Wikipedia entry, he worked for Karl Rove. (Which he seems to have forgotten to list in his WPA company bio.) Interestingly enough, he was also the person who leaked the story of former candidate for the Presidency Herman Cain sexually harassing a female employee of the National Restaurant Association in the late 1990s. It was the beginning of the end of Cain's candidacy. Wilson is elsewhere listed as a supporter of Texas governor Rick Perry. He did the polling for the Super PAC that supported Perry's presidential candidacy.

The Perkins part of WPA is Chris Perkins, who ran the "Independent Expenditure" unit of the Republican National Committee. Before that, he was director of the Americans for a Republican Majority PAC, which was created by and run for the benefit of Former House Speaker Tom Delay. It was fined and shut down by the Federal Elections Commission.  Delay was convicted on charges of money laundering.

Now look, let's be clear. I can't afford lawyers and what not, and since this information was turned up in web searches, I am not saying that WPA is comprised of shady characters, and I am most certainly not saying that because they worked for a couple of the known lairs and thieves of the Republican business trade that they themselves are tainted. Guilt by association is not the kind of pejorative reference that should be used. But these things should be noted, that's all. I'm just sayin'.

Oh, before I forget, if you're wondering about the A in WPA, it's for third partner Bryon Allen, who directed political polling projects for the Republican polling firm Public Opinion Strategies.

Now, I use two other web portals, both based on their various news providers. Neither listed this story nor the poll results from WPA.

I looked at the story again. Aha! It wasn't from a news source at all (even though presented along with the news). It was from a political blog called "The Daily Caller", which has been referred to as the conservative answer to the Huffington Post. It is run by conservative Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson, and Neil Patel, former adviser to former Vice President Dick Cheney.

Now, while I like the idea that political blogs of various viewpoints are included in the telling of a news story, I do not like them being passed off as real news. Especially when there are so many "clues" from a bit of web research which point to manipulated opinion making news stories. Why on earth would Yahoo position this as a featured news story? Might it have something to do with the situation in which Yahoo has found itself? It's revenues and influence declining, its CEO was recently replaced with the guy who used to run Pay Pal. This was done after investors got a bit upset when the former CEO led the company to refuse a very lucrative offer to be bought out by (Oh, excuse me, I meant "merge with") Microsoft. One investment company which has a billion dollars in the Yahoo kitty is hedge fund Third Point. They started buying Yahoo last September. Their owner and CEO, Daniel Loeb (best known for writing publicly published letters critical of various businesses' management) insisted that Third Point get four new seats on the Yahoo Board. One of the seats would have been for Jeff Zucker, NBC-Universal's former CEO, who presided over that company's descent in ratings from first place to fourth. NBC-Universal has been bought by Comcast, who forced Zucker out.  One seat would have gone to a former MTV Networks executive. One of the seats would be for himself. Loeb, by the way, is a supporter of the presidentail candidacy of Mitt Romney.

So what I want to know now is why are these alleged movers and shakers of the Republican Party getting behind stories supporting the poor schmuck who did the shooting in this sad story down in Florida?

Have you heard the news, there's good rockin' tonight

Well.
The news is out, Dick Cheney has had a heart transplant.
My guess is that it won't help.
Considering how few people get heart transplants, out of a waiting list of thousands, I don't think it untoward to ask what part money, power and influence had in getting him a heart.  Especially when
there really isn't anything in that black bag for the rest of us.The rest of us includes anyone without healthcare, anyone struggling to make their bills due to the cost of healthcare, and etcetera.  The Health Care legislation that was the first priority of the Obama presidency, is about to have a hearing before the Supreme Court of the United States to determine if it is legal. The bill requires every citizen to have healthcare insurance, or to pay a penalty if not. It is based on a similar bill passed in the state of Massachusetts when Presidential wanna-be Mitt Romney was governor. The bill does not say how one is to afford the cost of such insurance. The bill does not create a low cost National Insurance policy. It does create business, and lots of it, for the insurance companies, who were big financial backers of Mr. Obama's campaign for the Presidency. And the rich get richer.

Speaking of the elite and reactions against them, the folks behind the "Occupy" movements (at least I think it is them) have called for a national/international strike on May the 1st. Mayday. A term with more than one implication.

Meanwhile, down in Florida, the case of the black teenager who was gunned down dead has stoked a new fire this time of righteous anger, and brought up old resentments. The usual suspects, leaders quick to find the closest network camera, were a little slow on the uptake, but are now busy fanning the flames. Protests are growing. So is an insane and reprehensible response as in this graphic found on Facebook:

Also found were claims that this skinny 17 year old was seen on top of the much heavier shooter as he was beating the shooter with his fists. And that the voice crying out in pain or fear on the tape of the 911 call was actually the shooter, not the dying 17 year old. Which doesn't explain why there is a witness who says that they saw the 17 year old, face down on the ground, with the shooter on top of the kid, knee pressed into the kid's back. The shooter only moved away when he realized there was a witness. The kid was found face down on the ground when the police got there, by the way. People are also pointing out media "bias", not just by using a 'less threatening' picture of the kid at 14, but in using a mugshot of the shooter. And there is a report that a new version of what was represented as the Black Panther party has offered a $10,000.00 reward for the capture and arrest of the shooter, who has gone into hiding.

The Associated Press reported last week that it is becoming commonplace for prospective employers to demand job seeker's passwords to their Facebook accounts so the prospective employer can rummage around in the job seeker's personal life. If denied their request, some prospective employers then ask the job seeker to "friend" the employers' personnel department, which gives access to anything someone might have restricted from mass availability viewing to just their 'friends'..

This past week, a Supreme Court decision found that workers in government jobs (federal or state) can not cite the Family and Medical Leave Act in lawsuits against their public employers. This means that anyone needing medical leave - or pregnancy or childbirth leave - has no recourse if they are then dismissed from their jobs. And, as a case which came up a couple of weeks ago in New Mexico made evident, there doesn't seem to be any protections from teachers publicly humiliating an 8th grade student for being pregnant and kicking her out of school.

How much more can or will people take? Especially when the flames are being fanned by the self righteous? We must understand that there is a war on in the United States. It is most definitely a class war. Over the last several years, we have had an economic restructuring which reduced the size of the middle class while enlarging the size of the poor and underclass. There are now more workers available for desperation wages, and the pool of National Guard soldiers and potential volunteer army recruits is larger for those bigger and better wars to come. I guess that's better than having so many folks forever on the public dole. Speaking of which, in 2011, around 36 states had some form of proposed legislation requiring any person receiving any form of public assistance to undergo drug testing. Better have a prescription for that pill there. If you smoke a little pot (which leaves a little traceable residual chemical something in your body for several months after smoking), no food stamps for you.
Forget assistance you out of work mothers of fatherless children. 

Silly sheeple - drugs, and their use, are for the rich who can afford them. 

On New Year's Eve 2011, at 9pm or so (when there would be little notice taken) , President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act. It authorizes $662 Billion Dollars (I guess they were worried about the deficit) for the defense of the country at home and abroad. This includes the arrest and military detention of any US citizen - without charge or trial - if suspected of terrorist leanings. That part really isn't new, it goes back to the 2001 version if I remember correctly. But I think the part including arrests of citizens on US soil is new. There doesn't seem to be a part where what constitutes proper terror accusations are clearly defined. To a bank, say one of the banks bailed out at taxpayer expense, protesters demanding repayment of the government 'loan', or maybe the jailing of thieving executives, could be terrorism interfering in the country's business. When the President signed the act, he also released a lengthy signing statement disagreeing with provisions in it. But he still signed it. A few days ago, on March the 16th, he also signed the National Defense Resources Preparedness Executive Order of 2012. It's an update of what is allowed in times of National Emergency, which has been around since pre WWII days. Most presidents have updated it. One of the changes is that the responsibility for many of its provisions have changed from FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) to National Security agencies - like the Department of Defense, as well as the Secretaries of the Department of Commerce, of Transportation, of Agriculture, of Energy, and of Health and Human Services. So, what does all this mean? Not much. Unless there is war with Iran. Or North Korea. Or disturbances with civil unrest here at home. I wonder if that includes protests over a dead teenager, Mayday strikes, or demands to treat women as something other than chattel?

This post had been intended to be a reminiscence of the country wide Moratoriums against the Vietnam War in which I participated in the late 1960's, contrasted with the hopeful signs of mass protests and the call for Mayday 2012 strikes.  Like so many things today, things got a little out of hand. I started thinking, and I should have known better. Thinking, say, about all the unused trailers in camps FEMA has sitting in out of the way (i.e.otherwise inhospitable to human life and human habitation?) locations. And how it seems like forces are pushing the country to huge mass protests, which God (whose, one wonders?) knows are needed for various reasons. And how these executive orders are there for use by any president of any party, those currently in power, or those yet to be elected. I shouldn't think about these things, I guess. Because then I begin to wonder how long it will be before a leader of the people, not of the government, gets openly assassinated and turned into a martyr.
Or Poland gets annexed.