The Dale Reeves Life Blog

The Difference Between As explained by Dale

2011-09-16T22:46:00.000-07:00

I have devised this simple cultural test for all aging boomers to help bridge the gap with the "younger" know-it-alls. Those kids who look at us all as horribly old and wrinkled, smelly decrepit, confused faddy duddies.

You would have had to really lived a life to get all of these references and they should give solace to those of us who have a hard time naming that actor or politician on TV.

It ain't age - it's the volume of unnecessary info that we are already storing. Be proud that you actually know so much stuff and watch the young squirm with blank stares as you ask them in 10 seconds to explain the difference between...

Fatty Arbuckle and Minnesota Fats
Angelina Jolie and Al Jolson
Salma Hayak and Selma Diamond
Neal Diamond and Neal Armstrong
Zasu Pitts and Zooey Deschanel
Zooey Glass and Ira Glass
Dr. John and Dr. Drew
Gary Cooper and Anderson Cooper
Strained through a leslie and Leslie Nielsen
Granpa' Jones and Henry Jones
Walter Pigeon and Charlie Byrd
Bob Crane and Bo Derek
Cal Ripkin and Cal Thomas
Deborah Winger and Jerry Springer
Roy Orbison and Van Morrison
Saffron Burrows and Abe Burrows
Gene Simmons and Richard Simmons
Johnny Rivers and Joan Rivers
Zoot Sims and a Sim Card
Charleston SC and Charleston WV
James Dean and Jimmy Dean
Paul Newman and Cardinal Newman
George Clinton and Bill Clinton
Pat O’Brien and Conan O’Brien
George Bush and Kate Bush
Ma Perkins and Tony Perkins
Andy Rooney and Micky Rooney
Harrison Ford and Henry Ford
Chet Baker and Jim Baker
Walt Disney and Walter Lance
Benjamin Button and Red Buttons
Rodney Dangerfield and Rodney Franklin
Rodney King and Alexander King

And those two actresses who look exactly alike
Jessica Harper and Frances O’Conner
They are a generation apart but both are
Amazing and Beautiful.

O.K. You get the picture. Feel free to add your own arcane suggestions. Rest assured, there are facts only you know...and you would probably win on Jeopardy.

Alexander King

2011-04-04T22:26:00.000-07:00

Alexander King was one of my childhood heros. He used to appear with Jack Paar on the Tonight Show and tell stories about being an artist and an addict. He wrote three good books that touched a lot of lives. He also translated Peter Altenberg's "Evocation of Love." All worth your time if you can find copies. I have been on the road observing pieces of America and re-reading King's last book "I should Have Kissed Her More." It is about the people who might show up at his funeral. It is also an essay about preparing for death and how much he loved his life and his young wife. She was the kind of woman who would indulge him and take off her top just to let him enjoy her beauty while she was doing housework. She was beautiful and he was more than 30 years older but they were best friends.

Do you ever wonder if you’re going to last for one more day? I guess that's a meditation reserved only for those few who can actually imagine an end to their own time on the planet. It takes humility and a little humor to stay on that subject for more than a few moments. For most it is too morbid, too negative and maybe too sad. For some it is just simple reality. The thought has always been close to the surface in my life, even as a very young child. It has been part of what has driven me to follow my own path. Having been close to death a few times since childhood I have always felt that I have been given these bonus years as an unexpected gift.

When I am feeling good the old Native American phrase comes to mind: Today is a good day to die. I accept the unfolding wonders of the trip and try to keep my eyes wide open. Some days, when I am feeling lost, alone or abandoned, the awareness of death and the fragility of life hits hard, like a runaway truck loaded with shit bombs.

Even if I ignore the math and assume I will be a lucky one who lives another 20 plus years, I know, with my family history, the odds are not fantastic - at least from an actuarial standpoint. You can't wish the odds away and that is how insurance companies win when betting against your life. Hey, it's just business.

This cold truth can "harsh your buzz" and dampen enthusiasm. Maintaining enthusiasm amidst the slings and arrows of existence seems to be the one secret to a truly joyful life. That and maybe having a young partner. If you live your life according to common expectations about age you are already almost dead. A lot of people my age think old, act old and really feel old. I have a hard time relating to them and they don't seem to like me much either.

On the 23rd of March I had a birthday and as a present to myself I hit the road to do some exploring. I wanted have dinner with a few friends who are spread around the country. Most younger, some older. I also took the opportunity to talk with lots of different people, strangers, street musicians, store clerks, homeless philosophers and kids. Despite the crazy talk that dominates some media, I am most impressed by America's young people. Nice, intelligent and sometimes creative kids who want to do the right thing with their time on the planet. And they really don't buy into all the old divide and conquer social status stuff. Maybe that's why Alexander King wrote his book about dying for his young wife. He was filled with absolute joy having some time to share with her but knew it would be a short beautiful ride. He wanted to leave her with a few words of wisdom about how to move on and express his gratitude for it all. I've always wondered how she fared after he was gone. I hope she did better than expected and found another lover who worshiped her. We all should be so lucky.

Rush Attacks The First Lady. Why - He's Hungry.

2011-02-22T18:12:00.000-08:00

Strange: Rush Attacks M.Obama's healthy food plan and I ask him about it.

http://www.dalereeves.com/private/episode3rushvsmicheleobama.mp3

Put The URL Link In in your browser and enjoy.

Dale Reeves BongoRadio Podcast Links

2011-02-21T17:33:00.000-08:00

I am now posting Podcasts that reveal an Alternate Universe.

BONGORADIO - THE DRUMBEAT OF COMMUNICATION

Radio Fun they wont let me say on the Radio!

The take is political but I hope amusing enough for those who disagree. As long as those on the extreme right try to sell outrage and anger, I think humor from the left can lead us back to the sensible center.

The first link is my take on the possible money source of the T-Party movements. Length: 5:30

Copy this link into your browser and enjoy.

http://www.dalereeves.com/podcast/reevespod2-tpartytruth.mp3

This next link is about the labor protests in Wisconsin and features Ronald Reagan in an all-knowing afterlife epiphany discussing his real feelings about FOX and the distortions offered by the GOP - and a phonecall from a FOX fan. Length 4:15.

Copy this link into your browser and enjoy.

http://www.dalereeves.com/podcast/reaganwisc.mp3

American Reality

2011-02-13T00:12:00.000-08:00

While buying a guacamole cheeseburger at a diner in Greenwich CT, the server indulged my bad Spanish and graciously explained the difference between some common Italian, Spanish and English terms. Nice.

A Guatemalan immigrant, he’s been working the kitchen trade for years. After learning English by watching television, and then working for five years in an Italian restaurant, he went from bi-lingual to tri-lingual. His fluency and depth of knowledge was impressive.

It was late and the joint was deserted so he gave us plenty of conversation and attention. I kept asking questions and he answered them all patiently and sincerely. I do that sometimes – old radio interview habits die hard and I’ve always wanted Studs Terkel’s career.

Studs said: "I want people to talk to one another no matter what their difference of opinion might be...That's what we're missing. We're missing argument. We're missing debate. We're missing colloquy. We're missing all sorts of things. Instead, we're accepting."

I see these situations as an opportunity to set an example for my son who is growing up in a very privileged neighborhood. Kids in his world don’t often get to really talk to Americans who haven’t had all the advantages. Good people who work hard for a living.

My son has asked me about my lower middle class childhood, but it is so far removed from his own reality I don’t know how much of it can be understood. His class trip this year will be a week long vacation in Costa Rica. My only class trip was a bus ride across town to another crappy school.

I was once a kitchen helper. Making minimum wage among the minority kitchen crew was my introduction to the real world at age 16. It was hard, tedious work and the management was cruel, offensive and racist. I was the only white worker and had the least amount of experience. The experienced crew never made me feel unwelcome or anything less than a fellow victim of an angry white kitchen manager who was dumb as a stump.

The people in that kitchen, who had no reason to give me the benefit of the doubt, treated me with unusual kindness. They helped me learn at every turn and even fed me extra food, breaking the boss man’s strict rules, because they knew I might otherwise go hungry. We were all just people making minimum wage and trying to be nice to each other in an oppressive environment.

I learned a lot in that place and when I meet people like our server from Guatemala I delight in going deep to learn about their world. Survival in this economy can’t be easy for anybody and the pressures can be intense.

(While volunteering at a homeless shelter part of my work was helping people find minimum wage jobs. In my limited experience I think it may be harder today than it was when I was a kid.)

So now, I’m watching my son laugh and joke, and speak another language, with a man who made his way from a world of poverty over two thousand miles away, to find a new life in America serving meals in a town that is one of the richest in the world. American Reality.

There are a lot of really wealthy people in that town and I’ll probably never meet any of them. That is not a big deal to me. Few of them will ever meet the man in the kitchen who speaks three languages. Their loss.

Truly Funny Stuff From Netflix

2011-02-11T22:00:00.000-08:00

Kevin Smith: Too Fat for 40

I rented this from NetFlix and was very impressed. If you like listening to funny overweight guys in oversized hockey shirts, buy some snacks and enjoy. He says he doesn't do stand-up but he is a real story teller with a perfect sense of timing. I imagine this is what it was like being there for Mark Twain doing his travel stories to packed opera houses.

Louis C. K. will make you laugh out loud too.

Listening to these guys for the very first time is a joy you know you can never experience again. Like seeing George Carlin or Bill Cosby for the first time when I was a kid while watching Jack Parr or early Carson.

The impact stays with you.

Part of it is the delight of discovery. The WOW thing. It is good to know that new talent always comes along and can still surprise me.

I Had that feeling with "Flight of the Conchords" too.

The Tucson Truth & The Great Shell Game

2011-01-25T08:58:00.000-08:00

The heroes of the Tucson are well known and it is no surprise that so many got involved to stop the carnage and help save lives. That’s what we do, that’s who we are. We will always need to rely on our neighbors to get through the pain. Even when our neighbors disagree with us on how to vote or how to govern, they still deserve our respect and civility.

A lot has been written about the meanness of our politics and many place the blame on the verbal cruelty so popular with the some on the right today. The truth is their language is not going to change as long as two parties exist and liberals get elected.

Would Limbaugh, Beck or the Fox talkers have any power without the drama they must create to keep their base focused on fear and anger? Using strong language has always worked when it comes to getting people ginned up and angry about issues that may not be worth any actual outrage. Winning an election is also no guarantee that the results will ever be respected. Losing becomes an excuse to up the ante of disrespect toward the winner. It is an old shtick, perfected by today’s highly paid professionals.

During the 60’s, we on the angry left used the emotional outrage about the war in Vietnam to say horrible things about Johnson and Nixon. Today, some conservatives use the same tone outside abortion clinics. Even more radical believers choose to picket servicemen’s funerals to make ugly statements about the Gay community.

When Sara Palin put targets on a map she was engaging in swagger and tough talk. Perhaps she was trying to prove she could be as hard-hitting as Hillary Clinton was during her campaign. It’s like Barry Goldwater repeating, “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.” It didn’t work then and it is even more meaningless now. It’s bluster—and it’s why people call politicians windbags.

If Palin felt her crosshair symbols weren’t connected to potential violence, why did she take them down? Her comment, “When we say we need to take up arms” it means “to get out the vote,” was so laughably self serving that you have to admire her chutzpah The aggression expressed in Palin’s words is clear and undeniable. She never imagined anyone would be impolite enough to suggest her intent was less than honorable. She doesn’t seem to realize that Americans respect toughness, but we are suspicious of politicians that use the language of anger. Remember Joe McCarthy?

The real issue is Palin’s lack of consideration after Congresswoman Giffords commented that those targets might have consequences. Palin chose to neither respond nor change the target images, and only removed them after Gabrielle Giffords was actually shot. Why? Is Palin going to use targets again during the next election cycle? Is she going to keep exhorting people to “reload?”

The reality is that gun talk and gun imaging in politics is crude and careless. It is as silly as calling your opponent a socialist, fascist, or a secret foreign-born anti-American Muslim who may be the anti-Christ.

It’s true, we have a population of crazies and criminals among us, and we must be vigilant to protect the innocent from these monsters who sometimes hear voices inside their heads telling them to do monstrous things. Things like buying weapons with large ammo clips that allow them to kill 6 people in less time than it takes to unwrap a candy bar.

It’s also true that some people use the rude and careless talk of media mavens to rationalize their own violence or threats of violence. After all, if a rich and articulate politician or a clever talk show host says things like we need to “take out” an opponent, it is not too hard to imagine a cruder, less articulate and truly violent version from the minions who idolize them.

This abuse of emotion in public dialogue becomes an excuse to ignore the real issues that affect us all. It is much easier to get re-elected when you portray yourself as the heroic last defense against the relentless enemy of the culture you claim as the only moral lifestyle.

Sadly, we continue to elect politicians who know how to confuse us with a shell game. A shell game that allows them to abdicate their responsibility to actually govern, create policy or legislate for the greater good. Their shell game hides the fact that they are primarily interested in ensuring re-election by protecting their power base. Why? Because politicos know that actually dealing with the challenges is dangerous. It might mean telling the truth. It might mean raising some taxes, or controlling some guns, or finding a solution to America’s healthcare crisis. It might mean actually negotiating and compromising.

The majority of Americans want compromise and co-operation, and we are all sick of the game that has dominated the debate. It led us to two wasteful wars and a financial disaster. Thousands are now unemployed and thousands are losing their homes. Exploiting these very real, very pressing problems in order to capitalize on anger at the ballot box or the Neilsen box is blatant manipulation. We deserve better.

Since the Tucson shooting many politicians have hidden from media, because they don’t want to answer any questions about the assault weapons ban that expired in 2004. Even Dick Cheney says that might now need attention. Really? Would the right wing now honor a new referendum on such an issue? If the majority of Americans do want more restrictions on some weapons and more taxes to support our schools, will the current crop of legislators ever respond to them? We know the politicians listen to the lobbyists and power brokers who line pockets and fill their re-election coffers. It is time they started to listen, to really listen, to the American People.

Real Americans - Really Caring

2010-12-07T07:47:00.000-08:00

Real Americans - Really Caring

I haven’t written anything on this blog for a long while because I wanted to get to a point of clarity about what happened to me on August 15th of this year. That was the day I had the most serious accident of my life. I was on my motorcycle when something strange happened that took the wheels out from under me and sent me flying head first into the pavement. The blow was so shocking to my system that for a few minutes I was paralyzed. I could not move and I could not get up. The pain was so severe that I thought I was going to die there on the side of the highway. I remember thinking as I slid across the pavement: “I’m going to die, here.”

As the fog lifted I was determined to start breathing again and decided I had to remove my motorcycle helmet or I would suffocate. This effort seemed impossibly difficult at first but I soon regained my breath. Now the pain was subsiding but when I tried to get up I could only move my arms and every thing below my chest was frozen. I could not get up. No matter how hard I tried my body would not respond. I was scared.

At this point a woman in her 60’s appeared above me pointing her cell phone at me. She asked kindly if I was alright and I told her I couldn’t get up. She said to try to relax and that she had already called for help and an ambulance was on the way. Why this elderly white woman had been the first to stop is a testament to her courage and concern about an individual in need. All she saw was somebody injured on the side of the road. Traffic was whizzing by and she felt moved to help. Because she had been the first to stop others saw her kindness and were moved to stop as well. Soon I was surrounded by a large multi-cultural and multi-racial group of Americans who were all doing the same thing. Showing concern for a stranger in trouble. The more people that stood over me the better I felt. That is the strangest thing about this event. They were all like guardian angels that each added to my regaining the feeling in my legs. There was a young Jamaican man who kept saying: “Don’t get up, wait for de ambulance, try not to move.” The last was an off-duty EMT, a young Hispanic. All strangers who wanted to make sure I was going to get help. It was like a page right out of my grade school civics book. Every color of the American rainbow. This is my opportunity to thank those Americans who cared enough to protect me from more injury and risked their own safety and stayed with me until the police and ambulance professionals showed up. I thanked them and encouraged them to be careful getting back to their cars because I didn’t want to be the reason they would be hurt.

I learned, I had broken some ribs and injured my back but that helmet had definitely saved my life. There was a deep dent in the helmet that meant that without it my head would have been smashed like a cantaloupe tossed from bridge. Think about that the next time you see somebody riding without a helmet. If only they understood how dangerous it is.

It takes a long time for ribs to heal and my back now has a crushed thoracic vertebrae (the t-4) and there is the ugly reality that it will never be as good again. It was compressed by the impact and I lost a third of its size. So I guess I’m shorter too. Almost four months later I am still dealing with the intermittent pain that returns every time I try to use my back in the ways I could in the past. I am gradually accepting the fact that it takes a long time to adjust to this injury and that is my fate. The flip side is how fortunate I am to be alive, living with an annoyance and not a crippling injury that could have caused brain damage or put me in a wheel chair. I am one lucky guy. While I have been healing I have had a lot of time to think.

I have asked myself a million times if there was anything I could have done differently to have avoided the accident and have come to the conclusion that it was just bad luck. Crap actually happens. We are all vulnerable to injury and there are no guarantees that life is going to be easy or pain free.

The wonderful thing about this event is my awareness of how generous and kind most Americans are. I am sure that diverse group of Americans that stopped to help me all had different faiths, creeds, lifestyles and politics. None of that made any difference in that moment. They all stopped to help. They cared. They weren’t afraid of each other or afraid of me.

If we choose to believe that those who are our neighbors are people we should fear we have lost something wonderful about this country. If we could all remember how dependent we are on the kindness of strangers maybe we can convince our politicians to start treating each other as valued friends rather than enemies. Perhaps they can mature and come up with an agenda that serves us all without breeding contempt and resentment. The next time you hear some opportunistic blowhard on the radio or TV talking about any group or political opponent in a negative way try to determine how much of what they are saying is really pandering to fear anger and ignorance. The forces that try to divide us serve only themselves.

When the flood waters rise or the fires are raging we need each other to survive.

It is time our leaders understood that the American people deserve better than divide and conquer politics.

There are good people making a difference in all aspects of our society. Real heros who risk their lives, health and wealth for others because they are called to do the right thing. Some of these people may not look like you and some may not have your beliefs but they are all real Americans and they all deserve real respect.

Peace, Shalom and Namaste.

Mid-Term-Blues

2010-08-10T08:40:00.000-07:00

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. A news anchor reporting that Michelle Obama may be criticized for taking a vacation with her children? His tone offering no sense of the source of this "concern" for appearances during these hard economic times. He was playing dumb to keep this pathetic story on the air long enough to hold viewers through the next commercial break.

How soon we forget. How thankless we have become. How sad for our children and grandchildren.

Sometimes, when I watch the pointless debates on the news channels, I wonder if we can ever create an agenda that properly serves the long term needs of all Americans. I really do believe that this country can fix what is broken, but when I hear the reactionary, inflammatory speech, couched in talking points that do no more than play on fear and ignorance, I am stunned.

When I see the negative advertising some of our politicians use, I wonder if we are beyond governance. If we can't turn away from the abject cynicism and smug profiteering that dominates our discourse we seem unworthy of real leadership.

When the people who are supposed to help us understand complex issues and then craft sustainable solutions are bogged down in arguments over form rather than substance, I wonder why today's media is so afraid to call out liars and manipulators.

Why do those who are trying to make a difference have to fight for a fair hearing of ideas?

There seems to be an agreement to allow crazy talk to go unchallenged so that media gatekeepers can spike emotional reactions rather than inform and educate. What happened?

Is inspiring fear and anger the only way media sources can hold onto an audience long enough to make a buck? If so, then greed has trumped truth and there is no hope.

The reasoning that drove this country to elect new leadership in 2008 was based on the truth that what we have been doing for decades was no longer going to work. We needed a change in attitude and direction. Reforming wall street, increasing health care access, protecting the environment, safeguarding children and creating sustainable energy sources and jobs are all very difficult and complicated challenges. It's hard work and it takes time and effort.

Why do those in opposition avoid debating the facts and offer nothing but a self-serving certitude that the American people will panic soon and then vote us back to the same old policies that failed us before and almost destroyed our economy?

The mid-term is a chance to once again prove them wrong. The American people did it in 2008 and I hope this November they are wise enough to vote again for hope and change over fear and greed.

Mel Gibson's Sacred Rage

2010-07-20T09:25:00.000-07:00

If you have been following the pop-news stories about Mel Gibson's phone tirades you know the ugly details of his recent decline. If you turn on a TV it is almost impossible to avoid hearing his "wounded buffalo" bellowing. First, let me say that I appreciate Mel's significant talent. He has actually had some good moments on screen and to deny that would be fallacious. Although I think the "Passion" film was a gutsy experiment, it was a horrible movie. The possible anti-Semitic posture may have been evident to some but I was more disturbed by the simple blood lust. Or blood worship. The camera is too intimate an instrument to be used so graphically without acknowledging the emotional overload.

Strangely, I actually liked "Apocalypto." I thought it was a much better film with a better message.

The main characters heroic efforts to save his family appealed to me despite the violence and overblown characterizations. The portrayal of one disturbed culture committing genocide reminded me of the Nazi devastation that Mel's dad so conveniently chooses to deny because of some irrational belief that "Jews" have caused all the world's problems. This little gem of crazy talk was revealed earlier when Mel was arrested for drunk driving. The "Sugar-Tits" phrase has also entered the culture and is repeated on cartoon shows as a punch line. Mel quickly apologized to all his Jewish friends and some forgave his drunk talk as just that. Others felt there was something darker lurking and the recent phone tapes using the "N" word now prove that point.

I think what it really proves is Mel's abject alcoholism and his virtual impotence.

A friend of mine recently described his father's explosive anger as a "Sacred Rage." That phrase was apparently the title of a book he had read once and it proved an apt description of his controlling, angry and often abusive father.

Mel has made a nice living as the hero and the lover, and as his age increases he has decided to cash in his very catholic family values for the chance to impregnate a younger woman to validate his sexual power. She may be a gold digger, status seeker and social climber but no amount of self-righteous "Sacred Rage" can absolve him of his actions. If he hit her, he is wrong. If he invokes the racial image of a group of "N's" raping his new girl he is only revealing his pathetic loss of potency.

Most men who indulge in anger end up regretting it and learn that it has a diminishing return. It is not only irrational it is ineffective. Screaming like a spoiled baby has no positive effect and creates the opposite of what you really desire. It works for a while for some (see Hitler, the gay bashing preachers with boy toys) but they all end up crashing and burning.

The "Sacred Rage" Mel wallows in is easier to rationalize when he is also egocentric enough to ignore his substance abuse. Mel needs serious rehab...a much longer rehab than Lindsay Lohan or Chris Brown. Unless he dries out his alcohol pickled brain and tries to find the source of his real fear and hostility he is doomed. And he deserves not much more than our pity.

FACEBOOK OVER AND OUT

2010-06-17T08:40:00.000-07:00

I deactivated my FB account today and I feel so much better. I realized that this tool has only created a ugly dependency for communication through FB. I have very few "friends" in the real world but I do have an address book filled with emails of lots of people who contact me (rarely) for some very specific reason. Those people aren't friends and wouldn't be interested in developing or maintaining a friendship. They are just people I know professionally. If they want something, I hear from them. They know where I am on the internet thing-a-ma-bob. I'm very easy to find. They are sometimes relatives who may want to do a brief email just to see if I am alive, but they would never call. What would they say? We are too far apart to socialize and were never close enough to organise any regular visits. So, they "friend" you on Facebook and you end up communicating indirectly through some kind of community newsletter filled with junk news from other people's friends you don't know. Distance is distance. People choose being alone or actually connecting with a particular individual or group of people for a very important reason. Time. It runs out and you can't buy it back.

I have my immediate family (3 sons) and less than five friends who would know pretty quickly by my non-response that I was gone and unavailable for conversation.

Recently, I tried to contact a former neighbor in NYC and found out he had disappeared. This was a guy I never felt the need to keep in touch with for over twenty years. We were situational friends. He was the guy in the apartment across the hall and we would sometimes socialize, but after I moved out we rarely had any reason to speak and we both chose to move on. I was walking by the old building and I saw that his name was still on the mailbox inside the doorway. I looked up his phone number and called to see if he wanted to grab a coffee and catch up.

We were neighbors for over 4 years so there would be something to talk about, even if it was just how badly we had aged. The phone was disconnected. As I was turning to leave another resident exited the building so I decided to ask if he knew my old neighbor. I explained that I used to live there over twenty years ago. He looked at me funny like I might be a bill collector or process server. He decided after a moment I was OK and then blurted out: "I think he's dead! Oh, yeah, it's weird, nobody has seen him for over six months and the landlord moved all his stuff out and rented the place to somebody else. I was looking for him months ago to see if he wanted to grab a beer. I asked a few friends and nobody knows anything except he was not well for a long while and now he's gone. Just gone. I'm pretty sure he'd dead though, cause nobody just walks away from an apartment full of stuff. Not after living there for over 20 years."

For some reason this information hit me hard. And then I started thinking about all the "friends" who had disconnected from me (some actually just stopped taking my calls) and all the people I have ignored and been too busy to stay in touch with. All the people who might still be my "friends" if simply knowing of my existence were the only criteria. Not really knowing me but just knowing some small bit of information. Some Facebook info.

It got me to thinking of a possible epitaph or a gravestone.

"Here he lies, all alone. No Family, No Friends, No Facebook."

If you want to claim friendship make an effort to personally see someone, email or call. All the other stuff is just nonsense.

You Know This Already...

2010-06-15T20:50:00.000-07:00

YOU ALREADY KNOW EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW

YOU ALREADY HAVE ALL THE INFORMATION YOU NEED

YOU HAVE THE FREEDOM TO BE HAPPY

YOU CAN CHOOSE YOUR WAY

YOU ALREADY KNOW

NOW DO

HOW TO BE HAPPY - I'm Just Sayin'

2010-06-15T19:53:00.000-07:00

How can you enjoy your life, every second, every minute, every day?

Simple. You just have to make the effort to enjoy your life.

You have to choose.

You must appreciate what you have before you focus on what you want.

If you appreciate what you have you can't be frustrated by desire.

We all feel alone and we all feel loss.

You are sailing through a universe of loneliness.

Like all human beings, you are always essentially alone.

Alone is the human condition and no amount of approval, wealth, knowledge, power, popularity,
group hugs or wisdom will ever change anything.

You are always alone and the gift is awareness, acceptance and peace. You soon understand that
everyone must walk this path and there is nothing to fear. We are all the same.

Knowing the truth can only lead to compassion for everyone and for yourself.

The challenge is to get to your best destination without reaching for those things that confuse your
direction, promote falling overboard and result in being lost at sea.

You already have all the answers you need.

You can choose to be free or you can choose to be obligated.

To be free, you must care for yourself first or you will resent all relationships and be crippled by
obligations and self-defeating behaviors.

You can cling to the past or you can embrace the future.

You can't get where you are supposed to be by looking backwards, you have to embrace your
future.

A future filled with unknown stresses, unexpected miracles and real joy.

You can choose to live or to die.

You are alive, so you can choose to be happy or sad.

If you choose to be happy - you will stop being sad.

Don't allow deep sadness to exist. You control it, because you choose it.

You choose to be happy by knowing what you want to do and taking real action toward doing what
you want to do.

You can choose to be active or lazy.

You can choose to be healthy or remain ill.

You can choose to learn or stay ignorant.

You can be aware or you can be oblivious.

You can choose to be solvent or be in debt.

You can be grateful or you can be thankless.

You can choose to let things bother you or you can let things go.

You can choose to be upset or you can remain calm.

You can accept the challenge or you can complain.

You can choose to blame or you can forgive.

You can be generous or you can be selfish.

You can be kind or you can be mean.

You can choose to love or to hate.

If you choose love you may also find joy.

It is always your choice. Yours alone.

Just do what you know you should do.

DO.

Don’t Ask, Don’t Spill

2010-06-07T13:25:00.000-07:00

The BP oil slick has brought us horrible pictures of wildlife covered in oil and now BP will forever stand for “brown pelicans” in my mind. It reminded me of an old pelican I always watched for when I lived in Florida. He had dark dusty feathers and would roost on the pole next to my boat dock, scouting the water for food. Part of the joy of living near nature is you start to connect with the animals around you. That old pelican had a certain sleepy dignity I respected. Water skiers or loud noises did not easily spook him. If he were annoyed he would just take a little hop to another pole and settle down for more contemplation. He conserved his energy for the important business of diving for fish.

While I lived on the Gulf I was often alarmed by the variables of water quality within just a few miles. A lot of the problem was industrial runoff and some may have even been military. The Navy base had lots of important demolition training to do. I also saw recreational and commercial boaters who didn’t follow obvious rules about spilling gas and oil. The tourists often left garbage floating wherever they anchored to fish or swim. Everyone knew the strict rules and the Coast Guard and Marine Patrols did what they could to encourage responsible behavior and environmental safety but they couldn’t be everywhere. A couple of times we were visited by a strange “red tide” or unknown bacterial events that left lots of people with lung infections, flu like symptoms and dead fish floating in alarming quantities.

There were EPA investigators in the area but I never heard any real explanations. I had a dock on a lagoon within a short ride to the open waters. I needed a power lift to keep the boat up and out of the briny corrosive water of the lagoon. It was not water you would ever want to swim in, I was warned by old timers, but plenty of clear water, with happy dolphins was nearby. I was stopped sometimes for safety inspections and fortunately had all the right papers, fire extinguishers and life jackets. The boat cops were looking for evidence of drinking, and sober, responsible boaters were rarely inconvenienced for more than fifteen minutes by the officers. A lot of boaters resented the intrusion and those officers had an impossible task dealing with angry often drunken boaters. Too few officers and too many people with an attitude.

We had a routine trip we liked to take to an unpopulated island that had a pristine white beach and was only accessible by boat. We would anchor off shore and enjoy a private beach for an hour or two. If you had any food on your boat seagulls would follow, hoping for a handout. Kids threw their crackers up in the air to watch the birds dive for crumbs. In waters near the shore a family of dolphins often followed our boat looking for food. Despite big fines levied against tour boat operators allowing tourists to feed cigar minnows to the dolphins, this behavior is still a concern. The dolphins beg for food and when no one is looking people will try to feed them or brazenly jump in the water to swim with them.

We want our relationship with the natural world but we show too little respect for the rules that will sustain a healthy environment. If so many lack the will to follow the simple rules that apply to the daily life of the Gulf, it is no surprise that we would allow unsafe off-shore drilling and then turn away from serious oversight of corporate power mongers who continually ignore their violations. How many fishing boats will be idle and how many families will lose their lifestyle because of this?

We may have reached the point of no return. We want our freedom, less government and demand fewer taxes. We want it all and yet we don’t want to pay the price to provide a responsible future for our grandchildren. How many destroyed family businesses, dead pelicans and poisoned dolphins will we have to see before we start taking these challenges seriously?

The saddest part of this whole story is the political sniping by the extremists who want to dismantle government and de-regulate all industry. Some are even claiming that enviro-radicals blew up the oil platform on purpose. Pathetic. Better oversight requires better government. Better government requires better voters; voters who aren’t acting like petulant children every time we face a difficult task.

The Summer Of Etan Patz

2010-05-27T21:46:00.000-07:00

I haven't written anything for this page for a while. Why? Sometimes nothing seems worthwhile. Sometimes nothing matters. Sometimes all you see is sadness. Sometimes it is better to just wait and listen - because there is a message waiting to be heard; a lesson waiting to be learned.

Two things.

We have all suffered loss but loss involving children is the cruelest. In May of 1979, I was living in New York City. Two days after my son's fifth birthday, a little boy named Etan Patz disappeared from a street not far from mine. He was only six years old and disappeared on his way to the school bus. That summer, everywhere I went, I would see his poster. Every bus, every subway car and all the walls around the construction sites, plastered with his picture. When I saw the picture of his sweet smile it reminded me of my son. I couldn't imagine the pain his family was feeling. How did they feel when they saw the picture? I would see kids on the street that resembled him and I would stare to make sure it wasn't the child on the poster. I never actually saw him, of course, and nobody else did either. I wished and prayed but he was never found. It was a sad summer in New York.

They were talking about it again on the news this week and how he became the first missing kid on the milk cartons. He became a symbol for every abducted, murdered, abused and mistreated child since.

That story reminded me of one that nobody talked about on the news this week. In November of 1987, Lisa Steinberg, age six, was murdered by her "adopted" father Joel while he was in a crack cocaine stupor. He was a lawyer and was paroled and released from prison in 2004. I've never understood how that could happen.

I guess someone had to forgive him and assume he is safe to be out on the street near children again. It takes a leap of faith I have a hard time understanding. But I am not by nature a naturally positive person.

The other news story that hit me hard this week: The woman who was mauled, blinded and maimed by a crazed chimpanzee expressed her regret and sadness at the death of her friend who owned the chimp. That chimpanzee tore off her face and hands and left her blind.

She said she can't stay angry about what happened to her. She doesn't want to live in anger.

She is hoping for new prosthetic hands, so that she can learn to feed herself, and she needs new face construction with lips so that she can eat more easily. She was also planning on going to a relative's college graduation and doesn't want to be hidden away from the crowd. She wants to be among the audience and feel all the happiness and joy around her. She wants life.

Now, I have no idea if she is a naturally positive person. Perhaps she was always optimistic, generous and helpful. Her desire to help her friend control the chimp was what led to her injuries. Her attitude shames me and maybe shames us all. She doesn't want to live in anger. She doesn't want to live in sadness.

She wants life. Life - with all it's difficulties.

A message and a lesson.

Osama Been Nissan's Rolling Times Square May Day Barbecue

2010-05-03T23:05:00.000-07:00

OK, I have been lucky. Very, very lucky. A man once came out of the subway and pulled the trigger on a hand gun as I walked by. He was out of ammunition. I found out later he had just shot someone down on the subway platform. On June 28th, 1983, I drove over the Minus River bridge about 20 minutes before it collapsed and killed three people. A tornado preceding Hurricane Ivan skipped over my house in Florida and killed a man less than two miles away. There have been many other nearby tragic events in my lifetime. I guess if you live long enough you will inevitably find yourself in proximity to a lot of bad bad things.

Saturday night, I was just two blocks away from the infamous Nissan propane bomb car. I didn't hear a thing about it until the show I was attending ended after 8 o'clock. It was a great night in New York City. We had just enjoyed the live broadcast of a "Prairie Home Companion" at Town Hall. A big thrill for me because I have been a fan for 35 years. My friends and I had been so entertained by the show we had seen that we were probably immune to the fear vibe that was building all around us. We had a chance to speak at length to PHC cast members Fred Newman and Sue Scott after the show and we were all still a little buzzed by the contact with such amazing talents. Out on the street, word spread rapidly as we heard rumors of a bomb scare, or a possible car explosion, from members of the crowd blocked off from entering Times Square. I was shrugging it off and making jokes about Jack Bauer and "24" filming a segment. None of it seemed real.

By the time we walked to a nearby restaurant details were filtering through but no one seemed concerned or even alarmed. Outside of our restaurant, I noticed two novice police officers examining a compact car that was left at an odd angle to the curb. Someone had left it unattended and the two nervous cops were looking underneath. I peaked into the car and noticed a yellow Broadway Playbill and a sweater in the back seat. "Looks like a theater goer, there's a playbill in the back seat," I said out loud. The two young cops heard me and said, "What? What did you say?" I repeated my statement and they went back to looking at the car from all angles as I walked away. That was the first inkling I had that something more serious than a phony "bomb scare " was going on. Up to that point, I assumed that someone had called in a bomb scare to one of the other shows, that was supposed to start at eight o'clock, just to create some havoc on a Saturday night. Something about the expression on the faces of those two young officers was alarming. Those cops had obviously been briefed to cover every possible threat. They were scared and didn't want to screw anything up.

By the time we left the restaurant it was obvious by the chatter around us, the blocked streets and the massive police presence that something more ominous had occurred. The thought that this just might be a ruse or a distraction to pull the mass of police officers to Times Square away from another bomb site near Grand Central or Penn Station came to mind. I guess I've seen too many terrorist movies since 9/11.

Riding home on a late night Metro North train I was surrounded by the typical Saturday night party crowd. Laughing, talking, some even drunk. They were all winding down from their night on the town. It was business as usual and no one seemed aware that some of us might have dodged a bullet. Sometimes you get lucky.

Living Outside The Box

2010-04-26T21:34:00.000-07:00

In a recent attempt at frugality I cut my cable TV service to the minimum. Call me, "Mr. Basic Cable." No box, no remote, no DVR. Now it is just the plain old cable coming out of the wall into my set providing a limited number of channels. Even when I had more channels than I could count I found myself only watching a handful. If we could just pick our favorites, and only pay for those, then cable would be providing a more elegant a la carte system. But cable systems don't want that. They'd rather sell the higher profit "packages" they create. Even if they wanted to provide buyer choice, we'd be forced to have some sort of box (or a computer) to select our favorites. A box that would lead to all sorts of up-selling. When I called to cancel my expanded service they instantly offered some services I had paid extra for (DVR) for free. The box is their gateway to higher profits so they don't really like it when you can live without the box.

But (and there is always a really BIG but) human nature being what it is, now that I have returned that box, I am overspending on other items I could live without. As I'm about to walk away from a purchase I hear that little voice saying: "Go ahead, buy it. Look how much you are saving on cable." It is like starving yourself all week long and then pigging out on the weekend. You could eat a lot more wisely every day and be ingesting the same amount of calories for the week.

Ignoring the futility of trying to save money, I am still glad I cut back for other reasons. First of all, I am no longer tethered to the insidious DVR memory vault. Mortgaging my future free time because a pile of TV shows is waiting means I was constantly behind on another chore. Not a positive life choice. How free can you be if you if you have to set aside so much time. I've also noticed that the repetition of less than excellent shows has become increasingly relentless on almost all channels. If low budgets create higher profits then the incentive to offer more low budget material is always going to dominate the schedules.

The more channels and options I had the more I was stuck watching mediocre programming because it was always there waiting for me to choose the least objectionable show. And it was all so easy to record and store. Not having shows stack up in a never ending and never empty que means I now have to watch my favorite show as it airs or hope to catch it later on the Internet. The bonus: Finding shows online running with much shorter commercial breaks. A half hour show is often just 22 minutes and a 60 minute show is sometimes as little as 47 minutes. That is cool.

Having no cable box also means I can't order any Pay Per View movies or special events. Not a significant yearly savings but still no temptation to sit through movies that will eventually be online and cheaper through Netflix. That is another discovery that matters. Netflix is cheap and Hulu is free and both provide easy access to some of my favorites.

Netflix allows unlimited online viewing of many box sets of TV series as well as a wide selection of films. Hooking my laptop up to the TV and using the TV as an external monitor is all I needed to do. No special equipment required. And the quality (downloaded through a minimal wifi connection) is often better than the picture I get on some of my basic cable channels coming out of the wall. Go figure.

Sure, there are fewer options but those things I can't see, I'm learning I can live without.

Tune It Out - Turn It Off - Just Listen...

2010-04-15T22:58:00.000-07:00

Writing for a blog is like sending out a message in a bottle. Unless you look like Sting, are saving the rain forest, sharing crazy stories about celebrity reality or posing nude, chances are few will ever see it. Some friends may actually read it, or attempt to read it, but most of us are too busy to really care about the random thoughts and opinions of other people. I get that, and I am honestly surprised and grateful that someone takes the time to read my ramblings.

Our national lack of focus is like an attention deficit epidemic. Blame jump cut editing and our highly developed channel surfing skills and addiction to multi-tasking. This is why the media is so easily seduced by viral videos and the street corner conspiracy koo koo birds posing as concerned citizens. There is always something else to grab our attention away from the last thing.

Tiger Woods has loser Tantrum! 
Larry King's seventh marriage is over! 
Volcanos Cause Chaos! 
Skeleton found in Home! 
Green Lights in Sky - Is it a Sign?

Some days I just have to turn it all off and listen to the quiet. After a while things seem to improve. You might want to try it.

When I am in the middle of a high speed herd of cars on the turnpike, with people talking, texting and maybe even watching DVD's while they drive, I am amazed that there aren't more accidents. I know when I am listening to a great cut with screaming guitar solos my foot becomes thirty pounds heavier and I am soon another fast lane lunatic.

Last week, after a wonderful Indian dinner with lots of mango chutney, I paid the ransom, rescued my car from the parking garage, and drove home from NYC. I left late at night and my usual habit is to listen to the iPod or the radio for the 90 mile trek. This time I started the car and turned off all the media players. I was left with just the road noise for almost two hours. Have you tried this recently?

Your consciousness, awareness and attention will go to places that may surprise you. You will also hear things from your engine, transmission and tires that make you wonder. The noise from other cars is remarkable too. It is obvious that this is no guarantee of safer driving. People fall asleep at the wheel all the time, maybe that booming radio noise saves lives.

It reminded me of my mother. When I was a little kid I would always ask her to put the radio on and she always refused. The noise of the radio made her nervous, she said. She was such a bad driver I'm glad she figured this out on her own. She was a white knuckle driver who would panic and oversteer if a squirrel just looked like he was going to cross the road. There were no seat belts in cars back then (really kids, it was all in black and white, too) and I was with her for one very scary accident. She totaled another car alone, but managed to survive that crash with minor injuries. A picture of the crash scene, with our old Buick left on the side of the road looking like a murder victim, made it into the local paper. Soon, we had a new car with another radio that was never played.

I'm a music lover and a news junkie, but sometimes I wonder what life on earth would be like if we all agreed on silence for a while.

TAX DAY 2010

2010-04-15T02:20:00.001-07:00

I shared my previous post with my friend in New York and she said, "What do you expect? Getting anything done through government is like trying to move an iceberg."

Wow, she is right, but I will still complain until I die, knowing all the while that not much will be done in my life time, because I know our grandchildren will expect us to stick up for them.

OK, the trip to New York cost more than it should but the two hour seminar about web design was worth it. This is the stuff I wish I had a chance to learn years ago but Al Gore hadn't invented the internet yet.

Better late than never, I suppose, but multi-media ought to be taught to kids in grade school, along with nutrition and life skills that matter. Hey kids, shut up in the movie theater, and stop swearing in public. Of course, when disgruntled congress creeps yell out insults during state of the union speeches the battle may already be lost for civil discourse and polite debate.

OK, the funniest moment of the night was waiting in line for the restroom at the Starbucks on Union Square. It is right next to Mcdonald's that locks up their restroom so you have to ask for a key. The Starbucks may charge more for coffee but they don't require a purchase to pee. We were waiting in line behind three other people when a bearded guy about my age finally exits with a book in his hand . A really thick paperback. So I start sharing what I think he is saying to himself as he walks by us. "Hey what you expect me to do, sit in there with nothin' to read? I'm a student of classic literature and I gotta' get my readin' done. Sure it 's a little funky in there but I got through four chapters and wrote lots of margin commentary, I ain't no dummy, I know all about ya' symbolism and your mythological references. I'm an authentic New York intellectual, with a need to read."

Taking the subway uptown to Grand Central, I was waiting on the platform for the #6 local next to a saxophone player who did a nice double play of "Sweet Georgia Brown" and "Someone to Watch Over Me." He was cool, I dropped in a buck and gave him a little applause and a "That was lovely, Sweet Georgia" comment which made him smile. A sweet smile and a soft thank you that was as nice as I have ever received. This guy was dressed straight out of cartoon land. Strictly Simpsons in design. He was wearing an outfit that would have won an oscar in the right movie. He was all long arms and slightly bowed thin legs. His pants were tight and his cracked red leather belt held them up just below a slight paunch. He was wearing a pumpkin colored version of a Pork Pie Hat with a rolled brim over a trapped fro springing out below. His face was covered with a full fuzzy fly away beard. His pants cuffs were split and tattered and his shoes were worn and his loose brown cloth jacket was hanging on bent shoulders like a wet towel on a radiator. He was beautiful. I kept wishing I had a camera but that made me more aware of all the details I was drinking in. Picasso could paint him, Van Gogh too. But a photograph would only tell part of the story. A black and white picture, like that one of Miles might have worked. Seeing people like this is why I love NY. Listening to the French tourists argue and the Russian kids laughing on the subway made my night. We are all stuck here and this is real life, ain't it amazing?

MassAppeal MassMedia MassTransit MassDestruction

2010-04-15T00:19:00.000-07:00

Written on the train from New Haven To NYC...
I'm a novice when it comes to a lot of the vagaries of the blogosphere but there is one thing I know for sure. Those that control access are going to win in the end. It is not the meek who will inherit the earth, it's the geek. Think about how much damage one misguided imom in Dubai can do to us just through the magic of email and youtube. We, on the other hand, have army specialists in bunkers, somewhere in the US guiding killer drone airplanes thousands of miles away in Pakistan. This is the world we live in and no matter how many lone hero movies we attend the real movers aren't punching out bad guys, they are punching keyboards. Would Obama be president without the internet? I seriously doubt it. That is how I got behind his campaign and how I follow issues like the health care battle. The Tea Party buffoons can call him a commie all day long but the weight of the truth, disseminated through the internet, will win in the long run. Palin accuses Obama of cohabiting with the Russians over nuclear disarmament but the blogosphere forced the main stream media to resurrect the Reagan speeches calling for even more drastic reductions. Reagan a commie, well who knew?

OK, so you get it and I'm preaching common knowledge to the choir. We live in a country that has all the answers right in front of us and yet we continually quibble over public policies and how to assure a future for our grandchildren. It is very easy to assume that reducing all government to a bare minimum is the first step and guys like Ron Paul have the right idea about a lot of the government waste and mis-direction. See: Weapons of mass destruction.

What I see is a government so riddled with gravy-train bureaucrats that we are all held prisoner by avaricious power grabbing "I'll say anything to get re-elected" lunkheads who have no long term vision.

That is how our economy was allowed to collapse and why we are stuck in two wars. The fact is we can't afford not to do our best to educate, employ and protect our citizens. Health care became a pyramid scam that robbed us all of the basic right to coverage at a fair price. The denial of basic human rights to those who are gay ( in or out of the military) or those in the minority will never last.

What are the reactionary idiots I see on TV holding signs with pictures of the president as Hitler hoping to accomplish? In less than 50 years this country will be truly multi-cultural, multi-lingual and multi-racial. No matter how many border walls we build this is the America we live in now and we have to learn how to take care of the children yet to be born.

Back to the point about the obvious answers. We can't wait for the free market profiteers to save us. We have to have a plan that includes the digital reality we live in. I am typing away on a laptop on The Metro North Train to NYC. When I got to the train station I had to park in a lot that will cost almost half as much as the train ride. The train has no wifi service and limited power plugs (I found one to save my battery) and is old and rattles. The restroom smells and the floor is dirty. But the union workers are doing the best they can to serve commuters every day.

Now, imagine, your perfect commuter train with all the amenities and free parking with electric outlets to charge up my imaginary electric car while I am on the train. People would be lining up to use it just for the experience and pleasure of riding. This along with the next generation of power harvesting and inventions like the ipad could create all the jobs we need for the next 500 years. But we are stuck with gas guzzling cars that pollute our air and some guy with an oil well in the mideast is having caviar while our kids schools go without the tools they need.

Have you had a chance to play with an ipad yet? The ipad should be a gift to every student along with free access to electronic textbooks. What is the point of spending hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars on out of date text? The internet and life skills information should be free via wifi everywhere we go - like clean air to breathe - and only government programs could get service to everyone who needs it to build a future for the next generations.

OK, this is all pie in the sky, and we don't have the will and aren't willing to pay the higher taxes to accomplish this. Why not? We have paid through the nose to protect the fat cats and their minions since the income tax was created.

We have all paid in to Social Security and seen it used as a pawn in every election cycle. We have all over paid for inadequate health insurance and hospital care and we still worry about the end of life care and who will help us when we are at our most vulnerable.

All of the important issues should be discussed by our hired politicians in an atmosphere of civility that seeks long term solutions that will protect us from future wall street abuse, housing market collapses and unwise military adventures.

The ruthless are running for office and the experienced are giving up on any kind of civil debate that could get us to the answers we need. The media has largely abdicated its responsibility to report fairly and just wants to promote more school yard bully fights. I'm sick of it all and yet I keep hoping we can find a majority of politicians who will finally stop running and start solving.

Really, this works for you?

2010-04-14T07:53:00.000-07:00

Today, I was looking for a good reason to get out of the house so I could avoid doing the work I wanted to complete. My plan was to drop off one of my broken computers to the repair joint, stop at the Salvation Army store and donate some “Fat Boy” clothes that no longer fit me, and then get right back to my work at home. After the first two stops, I convinced myself that I should do a little grocery shopping and headed toward the store. Walking across the parking lot I saw a variety of Americans who caught my attention with behavior that seemed a little weird. The first was an older man with sallow face driving a 70’s sedan. He was wearing a cap over his long “Norman Rockwell” face and under his chin was an attentive creature standing at attention with his head out the window. He was some sort of Spaniel, Cocker or Springer, I’m not really sure. As the car was whizzing past me it occurred to me that this was not a safe driving choice. The driver did not appear to be wearing a seatbelt and the dog was certainly not. I guess if an accident happened the little dog could possibly serve as a furry airbag. I have seen this behavior many times and it always makes me wonder if it is a ticket-able offense or even animal abuse. The folks who do it really love their pets and are blind to the danger. Years ago, I saw a dog fall out of a window and suffer great pain as the rear wheel of the car rolled over his back. So, dog lovers, get fido off your lap and don’t let him hang out the window. It really isn’t that cute. Ok, so I’m past the car and walking toward the door of the store when I notice a “Smoking Bench” off to the side. This is the place where employees take their smoking breaks. When the wind is right you get that lovely stink that stops you in your tracks and makes you wish there was a distance rule that would keep smokers much further away from the entrance. The younger guy sitting on the bench was not only smoking, from what was probably a 7 or 8 dollar pack of cigarettes, he was also furiously scratching away at lotto scratch-off tickets in an attempt to hit the jackpot and leave all this behind. He had his head cocked to one side so the smoke from the cigarette hanging from his mouth wouldn’t spoil his view of the tickets or overwhelm his nostrils. His pose was very much like that of the cocker spaniel’s except he wasn’t hanging out a window. Here is a guy (with an actual job in our distressed economy) finding joy during his work break by spending his hard earned money on cigarettes and lotto tickets. I wonder why all this seems so strange to me.

Theatre Incredible

2007-05-26T23:34:00.001-07:00

Just saw the last night of "The Unmentionables" at Yale Rep. The performances were perfect. The thoughtful, satiric and truly funny Bruce Norris play speeds along like those great Frank Capra and Preston Sturges films. The head snapping, overlapping dialog filled with perfectly timed laughs never misses a beat. If you like dark comedy and plays like the "The Front Page" you'd get this one too. Anna D. Shapiro's flawless direction gave each actor the room to fly high. No false notes and nothing overwritten or overdone. The energy so fluid that when intermission came I thought it was too soon and couldn't wait for the play to begin again.

Leaving, we were in the elevator with some other old farts and I couldn't contain my enthusiasm and had to ask. Did you enjoy the play? "Not so much, not really, not my type of show, I couldn't follow the talking, the were all talking at the same time." I felt like taking off my shoe and whacking them in the head. I wanted to yell, "GET A HEARING AID!" Again, the audience proves itself unworthy of the art.

30 years ago I met one of Johnny Carson's writers and was a little shocked when he told me that audiences rarely understand what is going on because they have nothing in common with the performer or the writer. He said, "Did you look at the people you were standing in line with to see tonight's show? I said yes and he said: "Do you really think you have anything in common with them? Their idea of great entertainment is wrestling and jiggle shows. As an artist you just have to create for yourself and for those few people who will actually get it because as soon as you try to reach the mouth-breathing hordes you lose."

I thought he was expressing Hollywood elitism and contempt for us common folk who helped pay his salary but now I think he was probably right. Have you ever seen Jerry Springer or Maury Povich where the camera as idiot magnet trumps all. It's truely unconscious satire performed by people coaxed to be moronic for the thrill of being exposed to an audience of people who are acting even stupider than they actually are just to be part of a show. And their dialog overlaps too. I give up.