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.
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Sunday, April 8, 2012
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.
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.
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Thursday, April 5, 2012
What Becomes A Legend Most?
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.
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| 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.
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| From the opening scene (really!) of "The Letter". |
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| Actress Bette Davis signs autographs at a Vermont War Bond rally. |
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| "What a dump!" from "Beyond the Forest". |
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| A theatre poster featuring her character in "All About Eve". |
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| "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!)
Saturday, March 31, 2012
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?
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?
Sunday, March 25, 2012
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.
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.
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:
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. Forget assistance you out of work mothers of fatherless children.
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?
Or Poland gets annexed.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Being Alive
It was May of 1970. At the time, I was living in Ocean City, New Jersey, and was in New York City for a day trip. I went to see a Broadway musical whose New York Times review had persuaded me that seeing it was a matter of great importance. It had only a semblance of a story, being told in vignettes surrounding a bachelor's birthday party. The revolutionary set used elevators and moving platforms to constantly remake itself into various New York City apartments and suggest their buildings. The leading man had been replaced just after the show opened. There was feeling it might not last.
The show, called "Company", concerned itself with alienation, with one man's loneliness in life, with the nature of friendships, with disillusion and disappointment. It was not your everyday musical comedy. There was one moment in particular, late in the second act, in which one character drunkenly savages her world and realizes that she is herself one of the "Ladies Who Lunch". It was devastating. That was the day I became a fan of Stephen Sondheim, the man who conceived the idea of, and wrote the music and lyrics for that show.
I was still living in Ocean City when a full page black and white ad appeared one Sunday in the New York Times' Arts and Leisure section. In those days, newspapers did not yet print color - it was only used for the Sunday funnies. The ad was relatively simple, yet complex, and made me think of Sondheim. There was something of a modern psychedelic feel about it. I taped it to my living room wall.
I knew immediately that whatever it was, I would be going to New York to see it. It tuned out to be an ad for Stephen Sondheim's new show, a nostalgic anti-nostalgia musical, which only reinforced my desire to go. Seeing it was one of the great experiences of my life. I ended up going to see that show three times. When I first tried to describe the multi-song finale (which consisted of spectacular "follies" styled numbers taking place in the leading character's minds) to friends, I said it was as if Federico Fellini had directed a Broadway musical. I was enormously gratified some years later to read a history of the show in which its producer/director (Hal Prince) described the concept for the staging of the finale in the same words.
Two more shows followed, both brilliant (A Little Night Music, and Pacific Overtures), both of which I was gratified to attend. Then came word that Sondheim's next show would be a bit of Grand Guignol based on an old melodrama.
One afternoon in 1979, my best friend Jerry Campbell and I were hanging out in his apartment in the East 90's. He had just purchased the newly released cast album for that show, which I hadn't seen yet, and insisted that I hear one particular number, "A Little Priest". I made him play it again. And again. It ends the show's first act, and, while composed in a standard musical comedy form, completely subverted the genre. I soon talked my good friend and former roommate, musicologist Keith Lacey into going to see it with me. It was another of the great experiences of my life. I saw it twice, once with the original cast, and once with the replacement cast. Here's the Little Priest number from the First National Tour, which was the Broadway production, with the original Mrs. Lovett (Angela Lansbury) and the 2nd Sweeny Todd (George Hearn). Mr. Todd, a barber seeking vengeance for a horrible wrong, has just slit the throat of someone who has recognized him. His landlady, Mrs. Lovett, who has a business making and selling meat pies, helps him think the situation through:
As the years after Sweeny ticked by, I ended up moving to Boston. One of the things which helped me decide to do so was a song from Sondheim's Pulitzer Prize Winning show Sunday in the Park With George. Before I left, an excerpt played on my answering machine.
I returned to New York City for what turned out to be the last time with the express purpose of seeing Sondheim's Into the Woods as my birthday present to myself. Eventually, I moved here to Brattleboro. I soon found myself working three jobs to get by. One was at the Brattleboro Food Coop. I remember one shift, having just come out of the walk-in freezer, spying one of the meat department's two young female employees standing behind the counter a few feet away. She was having difficulty with a customer. After the customer left, I looked at her, and said something on the order of "Haven't you got poet or something like that?" She replied "The trouble with poet is how do you know it's deceased?" We've been friends ever since. It was Laura, now the proprietress of the blog "Austanspace". Although I'm not sure I've ever said this to her, she's been my best friend for the last decade at least. She's also the person who nicknamed me "Stevil".
At any rate, I wanted to take a moment here to briefly note how much I adore the work of Stephen Sondheim, which has greatly influenced and enriched my life.
Today is his birthday, and I can't believe that he is supposed to be 82 years old.
He's not, it's that simple.
Theater Gods do not age.
The show, called "Company", concerned itself with alienation, with one man's loneliness in life, with the nature of friendships, with disillusion and disappointment. It was not your everyday musical comedy. There was one moment in particular, late in the second act, in which one character drunkenly savages her world and realizes that she is herself one of the "Ladies Who Lunch". It was devastating. That was the day I became a fan of Stephen Sondheim, the man who conceived the idea of, and wrote the music and lyrics for that show.
I was still living in Ocean City when a full page black and white ad appeared one Sunday in the New York Times' Arts and Leisure section. In those days, newspapers did not yet print color - it was only used for the Sunday funnies. The ad was relatively simple, yet complex, and made me think of Sondheim. There was something of a modern psychedelic feel about it. I taped it to my living room wall.
Two more shows followed, both brilliant (A Little Night Music, and Pacific Overtures), both of which I was gratified to attend. Then came word that Sondheim's next show would be a bit of Grand Guignol based on an old melodrama.
One afternoon in 1979, my best friend Jerry Campbell and I were hanging out in his apartment in the East 90's. He had just purchased the newly released cast album for that show, which I hadn't seen yet, and insisted that I hear one particular number, "A Little Priest". I made him play it again. And again. It ends the show's first act, and, while composed in a standard musical comedy form, completely subverted the genre. I soon talked my good friend and former roommate, musicologist Keith Lacey into going to see it with me. It was another of the great experiences of my life. I saw it twice, once with the original cast, and once with the replacement cast. Here's the Little Priest number from the First National Tour, which was the Broadway production, with the original Mrs. Lovett (Angela Lansbury) and the 2nd Sweeny Todd (George Hearn). Mr. Todd, a barber seeking vengeance for a horrible wrong, has just slit the throat of someone who has recognized him. His landlady, Mrs. Lovett, who has a business making and selling meat pies, helps him think the situation through:
As the years after Sweeny ticked by, I ended up moving to Boston. One of the things which helped me decide to do so was a song from Sondheim's Pulitzer Prize Winning show Sunday in the Park With George. Before I left, an excerpt played on my answering machine.
I returned to New York City for what turned out to be the last time with the express purpose of seeing Sondheim's Into the Woods as my birthday present to myself. Eventually, I moved here to Brattleboro. I soon found myself working three jobs to get by. One was at the Brattleboro Food Coop. I remember one shift, having just come out of the walk-in freezer, spying one of the meat department's two young female employees standing behind the counter a few feet away. She was having difficulty with a customer. After the customer left, I looked at her, and said something on the order of "Haven't you got poet or something like that?" She replied "The trouble with poet is how do you know it's deceased?" We've been friends ever since. It was Laura, now the proprietress of the blog "Austanspace". Although I'm not sure I've ever said this to her, she's been my best friend for the last decade at least. She's also the person who nicknamed me "Stevil".
At any rate, I wanted to take a moment here to briefly note how much I adore the work of Stephen Sondheim, which has greatly influenced and enriched my life.
Today is his birthday, and I can't believe that he is supposed to be 82 years old.
He's not, it's that simple.
Theater Gods do not age.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
When good people do nothing
Now it's happening in Idaho. A bill has just passed that state's Senate which would force a woman seeking an abortion to undergo and view an ultrasound before proceeding with the operation. Idaho is one of ten states actively working on such legislation. Eight states have already passed such laws. (Click here for a link to the Guttmacher list of states and their requirements) In Virginia, a new law soon to take effect originally called for a "transvaginal" insertion of a 10 inch sonogram device. Doonesbury creator Gary Trudeau dubbed it the "Shaming Wand". Alabama and Pennsylvania are currently considering this practice as part of their proposed legislation.
In the United States, abortion has been legal since 1972's Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision. Since that day, there has been a growing and dangerous attempt to divide this country along politically religious lines. Unable to overturn the law, the religious have resorted to everything from outright murder of abortion providers (rather ironic for a group which refers to itself as "pro-life"), bombings of abortion clinics, to insane, belittling and costly laws such as these. The people behind these laws bemoan what they see as government intrusion into their lives (again missing the irony of their advocacy). They are the conservative right. They are Tea Party members. They are candidates for the Presidency of the United States. And they insist on having their way. It does not, and will not, stop at abortion. Their arguments justify laws against gay people, people of other faiths, immigrants, and basically anyone who doesn't believe as they do. They are the mentality that makes up the Taliban.
If that seems like an outrageous statement, let me note a couple of things. Lets take a quick look at Iraq. Remember Iraq? The country we invaded because the no longer loyal to US dictator had allegedly acquired weapons of mass destruction and had some tenuous connection to the events of Sept 11th, 2001? After the US invaded, Iraq saw the rise of extremely conservative religious movements. In the last few weeks, according to news stories which lasted in the public eye for oh, about 15 minutes, it was reported that in Baghdad's conservative Sadr City district, teenagers and young adults who adopted what is labelled the "emo" lifestyle (a form of rebellion which includes having longish hair and wearing black clothes) are being killed at an alarming rate. About 60 dead in the last six weeks. Read that again - 60 - sixty - dead in six weeks. That's just the ones we know about, in one area of one city. There are pictures, but they are too disturbing to publish here. With one exception, the dead "emo" loving youth were perceived as being gay men. Lists appear as warning to the named targeted individuals to change their ways. Here's a typical message:
"We warn in the strongest terms to every male and female debauchee," the Shiite militia hit list says. "If you do not stop this dirty act within four days, then the punishment of God will fall on you at the hands of Mujahideen."
When found, the victim's heads are smashed in with cinder blocks. After they are tortured. Ever so much more effective than a shaming wand. Oh, by the way, seven of the dead were simply shot. No arrests have been made.
The best known modern Mujahideen came into being in Afghanistan in the late 1970's, as guerrilla fighters against the Soviet Occupation. Financed and trained by, among others, the United States, Osama Bin Laden, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, China, and various Europeans. Ronald Reagan called them "freedom fighters". As the various mujahideen groups fought each other in Afghanistan's civil war, a Pakistani backed mujahideen group headed by mullah Mohammed Omar seized control of that country. They became known as the Taliban.
Of course, you say, such extreme actions and government can't happen here. In that case, you might want to know about the problem of teenage suicides in now withdrawn Presidential contender Congresswoman Michelle Bachman's home state. Nine kids have killed themselves in one school district in two years. Bachman's conservative evangelical supporters passed laws which restricted any discussion of gay issues. The dead teens were gay, or bullied because they were perceived to be gay. There was not one adult at their schools they could turn to. A supportive teacher could, after all, be fired. There is no law protecting them. In these schools, gay-straight alliances were labelled "sex clubs". I'm not making this up. Click here for an article in Mother Jones, and click here for an article in the February 2012 issue of Rolling Stone.
I could go on and on, but I won't. How do these people keep getting elected and getting their laws passed? They are not the majority. They have taken over because no one else wants to get involved in the day to day business of government under the media glare and conditions which have been prevalent for quite some time now. No one seems willing to stand up to them - especially when one considers that their demands are often crazily out of kilter with the way Americans live their lives in the here and now. And so they win, because every day good people do nothing.
Meanwhile, in the insanity haven known as Broward County, Florida (home of the last stand of the hanging chad which helped give you George W. Bush president) 14 members of a law firm were fired Friday for wearing orange shirts. They wanted to be identified as a group at their after work happy hour held at a local cocktail lounge. The law firm said that there was a rumor they were protesting something (unspecified at this point). The employees have no legal protection, Florida is a "right to work" state.
It was also in Florida that a black teenager, on the way home from a store where he bought his younger brother a package of candy, was shot and killed in his gated community by an Hispanic wanna-be cop vigilante who had been told by police to cease pursuing the young man whom he found "suspicious". In his cell phone call, the shooter is heard to refer to "fucking coons". This man has been claiming that he shot the teenager (armed with a pack of Skittles) in self-defense. No arrests have been made. (I've heard that phrase before.) In just a few minutes, the Justice Department is scheduled to announce that they are stepping into the more than 3 week old case.
Rick Santorum, religous conservative candidate for US President, recently announced that he was "sickened" by John F. Kennedy's assertion that as President, he would put his Catholic faith aside when governing. At the time, Kennedy had been accused of potentially taking orders from the Pope. He clarified that he would be the President of all the people, not just Catholics. Rick Santorum may have been sickened at the time, but it would have been because he was two years old and probably choking on his own bile. Yesterday, Santorum noted that unemployment and the economy were not his issues for this campaign. His issue, along with stamping out pornography, is "freedom". The quote: “We need a candidate who's going to be a fighter for freedom." Freedom fighters. I've heard that term before, too.
In the United States, abortion has been legal since 1972's Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision. Since that day, there has been a growing and dangerous attempt to divide this country along politically religious lines. Unable to overturn the law, the religious have resorted to everything from outright murder of abortion providers (rather ironic for a group which refers to itself as "pro-life"), bombings of abortion clinics, to insane, belittling and costly laws such as these. The people behind these laws bemoan what they see as government intrusion into their lives (again missing the irony of their advocacy). They are the conservative right. They are Tea Party members. They are candidates for the Presidency of the United States. And they insist on having their way. It does not, and will not, stop at abortion. Their arguments justify laws against gay people, people of other faiths, immigrants, and basically anyone who doesn't believe as they do. They are the mentality that makes up the Taliban.
If that seems like an outrageous statement, let me note a couple of things. Lets take a quick look at Iraq. Remember Iraq? The country we invaded because the no longer loyal to US dictator had allegedly acquired weapons of mass destruction and had some tenuous connection to the events of Sept 11th, 2001? After the US invaded, Iraq saw the rise of extremely conservative religious movements. In the last few weeks, according to news stories which lasted in the public eye for oh, about 15 minutes, it was reported that in Baghdad's conservative Sadr City district, teenagers and young adults who adopted what is labelled the "emo" lifestyle (a form of rebellion which includes having longish hair and wearing black clothes) are being killed at an alarming rate. About 60 dead in the last six weeks. Read that again - 60 - sixty - dead in six weeks. That's just the ones we know about, in one area of one city. There are pictures, but they are too disturbing to publish here. With one exception, the dead "emo" loving youth were perceived as being gay men. Lists appear as warning to the named targeted individuals to change their ways. Here's a typical message:
"We warn in the strongest terms to every male and female debauchee," the Shiite militia hit list says. "If you do not stop this dirty act within four days, then the punishment of God will fall on you at the hands of Mujahideen."
When found, the victim's heads are smashed in with cinder blocks. After they are tortured. Ever so much more effective than a shaming wand. Oh, by the way, seven of the dead were simply shot. No arrests have been made.
The best known modern Mujahideen came into being in Afghanistan in the late 1970's, as guerrilla fighters against the Soviet Occupation. Financed and trained by, among others, the United States, Osama Bin Laden, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, China, and various Europeans. Ronald Reagan called them "freedom fighters". As the various mujahideen groups fought each other in Afghanistan's civil war, a Pakistani backed mujahideen group headed by mullah Mohammed Omar seized control of that country. They became known as the Taliban.
Of course, you say, such extreme actions and government can't happen here. In that case, you might want to know about the problem of teenage suicides in now withdrawn Presidential contender Congresswoman Michelle Bachman's home state. Nine kids have killed themselves in one school district in two years. Bachman's conservative evangelical supporters passed laws which restricted any discussion of gay issues. The dead teens were gay, or bullied because they were perceived to be gay. There was not one adult at their schools they could turn to. A supportive teacher could, after all, be fired. There is no law protecting them. In these schools, gay-straight alliances were labelled "sex clubs". I'm not making this up. Click here for an article in Mother Jones, and click here for an article in the February 2012 issue of Rolling Stone.
I could go on and on, but I won't. How do these people keep getting elected and getting their laws passed? They are not the majority. They have taken over because no one else wants to get involved in the day to day business of government under the media glare and conditions which have been prevalent for quite some time now. No one seems willing to stand up to them - especially when one considers that their demands are often crazily out of kilter with the way Americans live their lives in the here and now. And so they win, because every day good people do nothing.
Meanwhile, in the insanity haven known as Broward County, Florida (home of the last stand of the hanging chad which helped give you George W. Bush president) 14 members of a law firm were fired Friday for wearing orange shirts. They wanted to be identified as a group at their after work happy hour held at a local cocktail lounge. The law firm said that there was a rumor they were protesting something (unspecified at this point). The employees have no legal protection, Florida is a "right to work" state.
It was also in Florida that a black teenager, on the way home from a store where he bought his younger brother a package of candy, was shot and killed in his gated community by an Hispanic wanna-be cop vigilante who had been told by police to cease pursuing the young man whom he found "suspicious". In his cell phone call, the shooter is heard to refer to "fucking coons". This man has been claiming that he shot the teenager (armed with a pack of Skittles) in self-defense. No arrests have been made. (I've heard that phrase before.) In just a few minutes, the Justice Department is scheduled to announce that they are stepping into the more than 3 week old case.
Rick Santorum, religous conservative candidate for US President, recently announced that he was "sickened" by John F. Kennedy's assertion that as President, he would put his Catholic faith aside when governing. At the time, Kennedy had been accused of potentially taking orders from the Pope. He clarified that he would be the President of all the people, not just Catholics. Rick Santorum may have been sickened at the time, but it would have been because he was two years old and probably choking on his own bile. Yesterday, Santorum noted that unemployment and the economy were not his issues for this campaign. His issue, along with stamping out pornography, is "freedom". The quote: “We need a candidate who's going to be a fighter for freedom." Freedom fighters. I've heard that term before, too.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Hymn for a Sunday morning
It's safe to say that I'm
sick of daylight saving time.
Especially as we near the Spring,
to have Darkness back to do its thing
As I trudge to work in early mourn
once again feeling so forlorn
to wend through darkness I must pass
and blow this savings time out my ass.
And, it was on this day in 1927 that the Roxy Theatre opened. It wasn't just a movie theater. It was THE movie theater. It's advertising called it "The Cathedral of the Motion Picture". Depending on the source you read, it had anywhere from 5,920 to 6,200+ seats. And it regularly filled them all. That's about half the population of Brattleboro at one go. It was just up from Times Square, between 6th and 7th Avenues at 50th Street, its marquee and entrance attached to the Hotel Taft.
It was conceived by early silent movie producer Herbert Lubin. The enormous popularity of the movies had encouraged exhibitors to build lavish theatres which would be as much an attraction as the movies themselves. In New York City, that meant hiring Samuel Rothafel, who created and managed most of the great "movie palaces" in the Times Square area. Lubin hired him for a large salary, stock options, a percentage of the gross, and promised to name the theatre after him. Roxy was Rathafel's nickname.
sick of daylight saving time.
Especially as we near the Spring,
to have Darkness back to do its thing
As I trudge to work in early mourn
once again feeling so forlorn
to wend through darkness I must pass
and blow this savings time out my ass.
This morning does have a saving grace or two. It's my day off. And it's the birthday of Douglas Adams, who left us all to soon. I still rue the day I sold my hardcover first editions of the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" trilogy (I had all five books) to do something so mundane as keep the electricity on and pay the rent. I first discovered the series when I was living in New York City and episode one debuted on our local public broadcasting radio station. I was heartbroken when the series ended (also far too soon), and was replaced with a "Prairie Home Companion", which is the main reason I never much cared for that program. Adams' works have a particular effect on me: they make me giggle. I become a veritable puddle of giggle. I start giggling just thinking about Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect, or Zaphod Beeblebrox. It is a quote from Adams which gets me through the semiannual injection of daylight savings: "Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so".
And, it was on this day in 1927 that the Roxy Theatre opened. It wasn't just a movie theater. It was THE movie theater. It's advertising called it "The Cathedral of the Motion Picture". Depending on the source you read, it had anywhere from 5,920 to 6,200+ seats. And it regularly filled them all. That's about half the population of Brattleboro at one go. It was just up from Times Square, between 6th and 7th Avenues at 50th Street, its marquee and entrance attached to the Hotel Taft.
It was conceived by early silent movie producer Herbert Lubin. The enormous popularity of the movies had encouraged exhibitors to build lavish theatres which would be as much an attraction as the movies themselves. In New York City, that meant hiring Samuel Rothafel, who created and managed most of the great "movie palaces" in the Times Square area. Lubin hired him for a large salary, stock options, a percentage of the gross, and promised to name the theatre after him. Roxy was Rathafel's nickname.
The Roxy had an orchestra pit that seated 110 musicians and rose on hydraulic lifts to stage level. It had the largest theatre organ ever built, a Kimball pipe organ which had three consoles (also on hydraulic lifts) which could be played simultaneously. There was a separate organ in the main lobby. There were stage shows before the movie. These included a ballet troupe, a precision dancing group of chorus girls named the Roxyettes, vaudeville and radio stars, and a male chorus, all in a program usually tied to the theme of the movie. The show changed every week when the movie changed. In order to produce it, the theater had the largest music library in the world (with three curators to run it), two stories of private dressing rooms, three stories of chorus dressing rooms, rehearsal halls, a private screening room of 100 seats, a private infirmary with staff, a costume department, a barber shop, hairdressers, cafeteria, a gym, showers & etc. The etcetera, by the way, included a menagerie for animal acts.
There were uniformed ushers, trained by an ex Marine officer, so famous in their own right that they were mentioned in Cole Porter's song, "You're the Top". The ushers would show you to your seat, and hand you the weekly program.
You entered under the huge marquee at 50th and 7th, bought your ticket at one of the booths, and made your way through the entrance foyer, then into a rotunda with the world's largest oval rug, and to the brass doors leading into the auditorium. The auditorium itself was a plush dream in red velvet and gold. The projection booth, in a move completely different from any other theater, was built into the front of the first balcony. The Roxy did not have to boast - it projected the best quality image in town.
Oh, did I mention that there was a weekly radio program hosted by Roxy and broadcast live from the theater's own studio?
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| The rotunda in 1927. One of the theater's pipe organs can be seen n the balcony. |
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| Roxy contemplates the main organ console |
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| Pre-construction architect's rendering of the auditorium
By the time the time the theatre opened with a Gloria Swanson picture ("The Love of Sunya"), the Roxy was $2.5 million over budget, and cost over $12 million 1927 dollars, which today would be about $153 million. Lubin sold his controlling interest to movie mogul and theater owner William Fox for $5 million dollars. Plans for a circuit of Roxy theatres were scrapped; the only one built, the Roxy Midway on the Upper West Side, was sold to Warner Bros. It opened in 1929 as The Beacon. Rothaphel moved on to a new project, Radio City Music Hall. The Roxyettes went with him and were renamed the Rockettes.
The Roxy remained one of the premier movie theatres in the world. In the 1950's, new management reconstructed parts of the theatre for new widescreen processes. They rebuilt the stage to accommodate an ice rink for use in their stage shows. Eventually, it simply cost too much in a changing world, and the Roxy closed on March the 29th, 1960 with a Dirk Bogarde picture, "The Wind Cannot Read". The wreaking crews moved in. Where the outer lobby and entrance to the grand rotunda once stood, there is now a TGIFridays. On the site of the theatre itself, there is a nondescript office building. On October the 14th, 1960, photographer Eliot Elisofon photographed Gloria Swanson in the rubble of what was thought to be the grand rotunda. Published in Life magazine, it inspired a musical about chorus girls reuniting in a theatre about to be town down, Follies by Stephen Sondheim. The show helped start a movement to save New York City's theaters. In 1979, the Radio City Music Hall was saved and is still in use today as a performance venue, as is The Beacon.
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