My Generation

I have been unemployed for a few weeks now. Not a big deal we are getting by, but I do get a little frugal when the income gets cut down to one breadwinner. It is not difficult to do other than my addiction... that is, the buying of new music. It is hard to control myself when the iTunes store is so easy to use; it is really difficult to stop. Luckily, I discovered that the library in the town next to ours, Essex, has an incredible collection of CDs. Occasionally, I pack up my laptop and attached CD player and do some ripping of some decent music .... everything from The Clash, Buzzcocks and Television to Adele and Molly Tuttle. This really helps with my addiction, like a nicotine patch. One of the best finds so far is a three-disc compilation of The Who. I have always loved the song, My Generation, but it just started hitting how truly great a song this is. Now that I am in my 60's, it is like I am hearing a different song than what I heard in my teens. This is proof of its genius. 

They are so youthful and full of energy in this 1967 appearance on the Smothers Brothers:

It has really gotten me thinking about the idea of generations. 

Thinking takes me to strange places. Isaac Asmimov's Foundation trilogy takes place in the distant future when there is so much documented history that historians (called psycho-historians) can predict the future using sophisticated mathematical models. We are not there yet, but once I had heard Strauss and Howe's generational theory, it made me think that we are getting a lot closer to Asimov's world than ever. 

Every 80 years or so, America goes through a revolution, a major upheaval that changes everything. Something occurs that changes the basic way to do things in this country. 

Here are the upheavals:

• 1780's: the American Revolution
• 1860's: the American Civil War
• 1940's: World War II and the Great Depression
• 2020's: Trump's bullshit (someday we'll have an official name, until then I am sticking with this)

Smaller upheavals happen as well, I am not forgetting them, like the Civil Rights Movement, the stock market crash of 1890 or the 911 terrorist attacks, but the big ones seem to come every 80 years. Yes, what is happening now in the 2020's, could very well be as big as the other three.

Strauss and Howe generational theory says it is more specifically 85 to 88 years. Generations are defined as groups of people, of similar age, who have a shared experience based on what is going in their society. Within these 80-year periods we have four generational cycles. They label them "adaptive," "idealist," "reactive," and "civic" generations, in order. Major events change our lives, and perception differs based on how old we are when they happen. The 911 attacks shaped the lives of millennials in a way I will never understand as a Gen Xer. 

William Strauss and Neil Howe describe these archetypes that we still use today. If you were born from 1901 to 1924, you are often called the GI generation or the Greatest Generation. This is the civic generation from the previous cycle. Born in 1925 to 1942, the lesser-known Silent Generation, is the adaptive generation. The Baby Boomers, born from 1943 to 60, are the idealists. This group produced the civil rights movement and hippies. Gen Xers, born from 60 to 83, ("I'm talking about my generation") is the reactive generation with the Millennials, from 82 to 2000, being the civic generation. Hence, the Gen Zs are the new civic generation as the cycle continues. No doubt, you could rip some holes in these generalizations, but it is fascinating, nonetheless. 

My generation, Gen X, was originally called the 13's, because we were the 13th American generation. That name didn't catch on. The label Generation X has several origin stories but the coolest one comes from Billy Idol's first punk band by the same name. We are the last generation that has a collective social pop culture memory. What I mean by this, is that we all watched the same television shows at the same time because on-demand media didn't exist and we only had three television stations, mostly. We listened to the same music because there was rarely one or two radio station available to us. VCRs came out in my teens, DVDs in my 20's, DVRs in my 30's and on-line streaming in my 40's and 50's. GenXers had to watch what was on when it was on. Every American Gen Xers can recite the Preamble to the American Constitution. Why? Because we all watched Saturday morning cartoons and School House Rock came on several times on many commercial breaks. 

We had to watch the commercials too. There was no fast forward or skip ad functionalities on our remote controls, if we had a remote. You had to watch what was on or go outside. For a while, I was my family's remote control: "Mark, change it to channel 5. Bonanza is on." "Mark, adjust the antennae." etc.

Regardless of how it sounds, I like being old. If only I had the energy of my youth and the mindfulness that I have now, in my youthful body. That'd be ideal. Truly, whoever said that "Youth was wasted on the young" was onto something. Somethings, though, we should leave to the young. When I see an 81-year old Roger Daltrey singing, "I hope I die before I get old," I really wonder: Why does he still play this song?  

Pete Townshend, the song's writer, said in a 1989 interview with Good Morning America that the line "I hope I die before I get old," was talking about the rich. "Old" is more of a state of mind, representing the establishment. I buy it, I guess. He was in his 40's at the time said this. He was 19 or 20 when he wrote the song. He had to say something to justify singing a song about youth, but he was also very rich at the time, so I am not sure his answer holds up. Like all generations, his, mine and yours, will all, eventually, "fff...fade away!" Everything becomes old and passe. 

I am old man. Please excuse me, my mind wanders. 

 

Courier Journal - Spring 2024

It is amazing what a different city Burlington is when the warm weather comes. I attribute this to three factors:

• Once the colleges let out, about half the city's population leaves. So driving around the University and Champlain College is a lot easier. The busyness shifts to other parts of the city once they leave. This is a great relief for someone like me that always fears driving among the texting youth that seem oblivious of their surroundings. For about a week, moving vans clutter the streets. Then peace ensues, but other treachery awaits.
• Burlington is a beautiful city, vibrant and exciting. It sits on Lake Champlain with the Adirondacks to the west and the Greens to the east. Every weekend it seems we have a new festival.  Jazz Fest last weekend. Food fests, Reggae fests, Brewfests, etc. This means we have a ton of tourists, particularly from Boston, New York and Montreal. These aren't cities known for their good drivers. This brings a whole new dynamic to driving. 
• Because we are a cold weather climate, most of our road construction takes place in the few warm weather months. This makes Burlington a nightmare to drive in. It seems like there is construction every other street.  For these months, Vermont's state flag should be changed to have an orange cone on it.

I have always been frustrated with people. To put it bluntly I am not a "people person." Driving in the city during tourist season has not interacted positively with this part of my nature. Here is a short list of how people annoy me: 

• Don't park in loading zones. I've confronted several people parked in loading zones. The response I get is that "it is okay, I'm just going in the bank" etc. No, it is not okay. Loading zones are for commercial vehicles, loading and unloading. I don't think Vermonters know this. They think it is someplace to put your car if you have something quick to do.
• The stop line is where you stop at a stop light. At every light, there is a line on the ground that tells you where you are supposed to stop. Some of them are far back. An expert has studied this intersection and has determined where you should stop. If you stop after the stop line, there is a possibility that a bus may come along and not be able to turn because you are in the way. Just follow the rules and traffic will flow just fine.
• Red arrows mean you can't turn. I don't know why, but people just don't seem to know this. If a green arrow means you can turn, what do you think a red arrow means? 
• If you are going to hang out as a pedestrian and just look at your phone, don't do so at a crosswalk or an intersection. You may be oblivious to this but drivers think you are going to cross and react to you. Stand back and away from the curb.
• Try, if you are close, to use a crosswalk. Some cars actually do stop if you wait in the crosswalk. Chaos is good for no one. 

Traffic flowing helps everyone. 

We recently watched all three seasons on Ted Lasso. If you haven't seen it, you should check it out. If you don't have Apple TV, sign up for a free trial, watch Ted Lasso and then unsubscribe. You'll get all three seasons in before the month is out, I promise. The reason I bring this up, the main character Ted has a philosophy that has stuck with me, that he got from my favorite poet Walt Whitman, "Be curious, not judgemental." I have been trying to get into this mind set when I drive and for the most part it has been working. 

So far I've had these experiences:

• I was at an intersection (North St. and Willard), the light turned green, I was about to go straight (east on North) when I noticed coming down Willard a bicyclist that I knew wasn't going to stop at the light. So I waited or I would have hit him. Not only did he blow off the light but he wasn't even looking at traffic; he was looking at his cell phone. Be curious, not judgemental. Must have been doing something very very important happening on that phone. This philosophy is challenging. 
• At the corner of Main and Winooski, a woman decided driving through the intersection out of her lane through a red light, all the while with her hand on the horn honking. About ten cars were at the intersection and we all stopped to let her go. They probably were as stunned as I was. Be curious: must have been a real emergency, perhaps she was going to hospital (which is in the other direction).
• While driving on College Street, heading toward Winooski and downtown, in front of the library, I had to stop for a group of homeless people (or is it houseless now?). About seven or eight of them were yelling at each other, I had no idea what was going on. I waited until most of them crossed but one woman remained in the street and decided to dance in front of my truck. I lightly beeped but she seemed oblivious. I drove around her by driving with one tire on the sidewalk. Luckily there were no other cars or pedestrians coming. The traffic behind did the same. If this were to happen again, I might get out of my truck with blinkers on and tried to escort her out of traffic. Be curious: I wonder what she was on.
• This philosophy is difficult at times, but it seems to be working. I was driving up College Street one day and I noticed a car driving erratically in my rearview mirror. He seemed to be yelling at me. He decided to pass me on a city street. I yelled, "What the hell?" or something a bit more vulgar. I noticed his Quebec plate and judgement ensued, but I stopped it with curiosity winning over. He pulled in front of me and stopped. He got out of the car and approached my truck. "Holy shit!" I unrolled the window. In a very polite French Canadienne accent, he said "Your back door is open." My freight was exposed. The guy that I was about to yell at just put a lot of energy into saving my butt. The weather stripping on my cargo door was preventing a good closure on the door. I had to do a quick repair. Ted Lasso and Walt Whitman rule. Merci beaucoup! 

The quote does sound Whitmanesque, but I didn't recognize it. I know my Walt. I was curious, of course. Snopes says it isn't Whitman, I have to believe this is true. To me, it just makes Ted Lasso a more realistic character. He is wrong on a little thing but overall, he is very much correct. 

Most of the Spring was spent delivering in Burlington and occasionally South Burlington. The only exception was the day of the total eclipse. Because of the chaos downtown, most businesses were closed so my boss didn't need me in Burlington. So he sent me up to the islands which is a really beautiful spot in Vermont. The most Northwestern part of Vermont are a group of islands in Lake Champlain that border Canada and New York state. It was a gorgeous day and I finished working in time to get back home to watch the eclipse with my family.

Game of Thrones: Book to Film (S1E1)

With the exception of Tolkien, I've never been a big fan of fantasy fiction. I've tried. I've read many others, but none of them have been very appealing. Even when one of my favorite writers delve into fantasy, like Ursula K. Leguin or Kazuo Ishiguro, I just can't get into it. Tolkien, on the other hand, is enthralling. I've read the The Hobbit several times and the complete Lord of the Rings trilogy twice. Everything about his writing is amazing, character development, dialogue, plot line, social relevance, world building. He's got it all.  I haven't liked another fantasy writer at all until now. 

In my pursuit to read every book on my shelves at home, I finally picked up Game of Thrones: Book One of a Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin and started it. I've seen the HBO series a few times so it is impossible to get the actors out of my head when I read of the characters. I decided not to try. My first impression is how incredibly close the series is to the book.  The big difference is the age of the characters. Let's started with my four favorite characters: Tyrion Lannister, Daenerys Targaryen, Jon Snow and Arya Stark.

Tyrion, the imp, portrayed by the amazing Peter Dinklage is 32 years old at the start of the series. He is only 24 in the book. This is a complete mystery to me why they changed this. Perhaps it is because they wanted Dinklage for the part and he doesn't look 24 at all. Changing the age of the younger characters makes a lot of sense, but this one does. He looks at least 40 in the show. 

Having children actors, in any series, is problematic for a lot of reasons so I can see why they changed their ages. Children grow, when a series is seven seasons long, this could cause problems with the storyline depending on how much time passes in the story line. The aging process of adult's isn't as obvious and easily changed with lighting and makeup. Also, due to the sexual nature of some of the scenes, HBO could get into some trouble with under age actor. Using older actors, not only makes sense, it prevents a lot of legal and ethical problems. 

The character, Daenerys Targaryen, is 13 years old at the beginning of the book when she weds Drogo, but in the series she is 16 (Season One, Episode One: S1E1). The actress that portrays her, Emilia Clarke, is 25 at the time. I never thought she looked that 16. Perhaps having the difficult life of a transient has made her look older beyond her years. 

Jon Snow, the bastard, and his half brother, Robb Stark, are both supposed to be 14 years old. In the series, they are supposed to be 17. The actor, Kit Harington, that portrays Snow is actually 25 in Season One but he could pass for 17. 

Robb Stark is also 17 at the start of the series as well. The actor Richard Madden is 25 as well.  I don't know how they get these actors to look so young, but seven years seems to be a typical difference for actors. I recently heard an interview with Ron Howard where he said that he had a hard time finding acting gig when he was a teenager because people in their twenties could play teenagers. So it seems this has been going for a while. 

The younger Stark children Sansa, Arya, Bran and Rickon are 11, 9, 7 and 3, respectively, in the beginning of the book. They are 13, 11, 10 and 6 in Season One of the series. We aren't ever told how old Rickon is in the series, until his death is season three. He is 11. He is the only Stark child that isn't a major character. 

Arya actually looks 11. The actress, Maisie Williams, is 14 in Season One. When the book was originally published in 1996, she wasn't even born. 

The only character that is younger in series than in the book that I could find is Theon Greyjoy. He's 18 in the book but 16 in the series. I found this in google not the book. He's a very minor character early on in the story. 

Other than ages of the characters, the only difference from the book I could find in S1E1 is in the very last scene when Bran gets thrown off the tower. He overhears a conversation about political intrigue while the queen and her twin brother are having sex (this book has everything.) In the series, he only hears, and then, witnesses the sex. He doesn't hear the conversation. I can't imagine why they changed this. Length, I am sure, is always a good enough reason for an 800 page novel adaption.

Time to rewatch Episode Two. 

A Widow for One Year

When I pick up a John Irving novel, I expect a certain level of wittiness, maybe a small dose of silliness, some odd characters and maybe a dancing bear or two. I get none of that in A Widow for One Year, his ninth novel. My expectations aside, I should be able to enjoy one of his books that doesn't rely on these hooks. I understand a writer wanting to something new. If I had to characterize this book in his canon of work, I'd put in the category of experiment that failed, like his A Son of the Circus, which was published a novel before this one. 

One of the themes of the book is grief and how different people deal with it. Two of the main characters, Ted and Marion are the parents of two teenage boys whom they see die in a brutal car accident. Ted reacts to the grief by womanizing. Marion does so by bottling it up and eventually running away. She also seduces Ted's teenage writing assistant, Eddie. Ted and Marion also have another child Ruth who is four when Marion leaves the family in 1958. The rest of the book, takes place in the 1990's with middle-aged Ruth and Eddie still dealing with how Ted and Marion's destructive behavior affected their life. Ted and Marion's grief had infected another generation. Marion explains that "grief is contagious." 

Another theme of the book is whether a writer needs to experience what they write about or is their imagination all they need to rely upon. Every major character in this book is a writer (Ted, Marion, Eddie and Ruth) which gets tiresome. In one of Ruth's books she refers to one of her characters as "a widow for one year" and an angry reader complains that one is a widow for the rest of your life implying that Ruth is an imposter and doesn't know what she is writing about. 

I find this part of the book interesting because there is always a lot of Irving's life in his books. He wrestled at Phillips-Exeter as a kid and this appears in his novels a lot. They often are based in New England (he was born in New Hampshire and is now a Vermonter) or in Canada, partially, in which he also lives. The only Irving book I can recall that did not have a lot of his life in it, was A Son of the Circus, which was a crime novel set in Dubai and it was a disaster of a book. Perhaps A Widow for One Year was written in response to the criticism of that book. 

My attraction to Irving novels is usually the characters. I love Garp, Owen Meaney, Homer Wells and the kids growing up at The Hotel New Hampshire. This is a 500+ page book that mostly documents the sex life of a small group of self-obsessed individuals. When you have the ability to create a character like Garp and his mom, why create these tiresome people? Two thirds of the way into the book, the character Ruth takes a trip to Europe. I don't know why these 100 pages are even in this book. The end could have been rewritten without these pages entirely. When I got to this point, I wanted the book to end. If I didn't have a commitment to finish a book after I started one, I wouldn't have gotten through this one.  

My Fragile Faith in Humanity / The Plague

I live with a fragile faith in humanity. I waiver, sometimes within moments, between being an all out humanist believing in humanity's unadulterated ability to overcome all to an occasional belief that humanity is a virus upon this planet. It is not an easy way to live, but I have growth to be accustomed to this dichotomy. I have adapted and it has become the norm for me. 

I go about my life like anyone else. I drive along picturesque, pastoral rural Vermont. I look upon the windmills on Georgia mountain and their awesome turning. I think of progress. I think to myself, "How wonderful we are leaning to live in harmony with our environment!" and then drive on and come across someone with a chorus of plastic blowup Walmart crap cluttering their lawn. It could be Christmas, there could be blinking lights with Santa, elves and reindeers. It is at this point when I change over to my other self. We are fucking doomed. I am in constant battle with myself. 

I just finished rereading Albert Camus' The Plague. It is a perfect book to read coming out of the pandemic. It is bubonic plague in the book but symbolically it is a different plague he is writing about. It is a plague of bad ideas. It is written shortly after World War II and it take place in his native Algiers in a small city called Oran in 1947. The world was fighting a plague of isms in mid-20th century: communism, socialism, capitalism and fascism. 

This is a philosophical novel so the journey is a personal one, one of thought and self reflection. Like most books of this nature it's soul, it's place where it sets the reader straight, it's denouement, if you will occurs towards the end of the book when the character Tarrou finally tells the main character Dr. Rieux what is on his mind. 

"... this epidemic has taught me nothing new, except that I must fight it at your side. I know positively ---- yes, Rieux, I can say I know the world inside out, as you may see --- that each of us has the plague within him; no one , no one on earth is free from it."

Life is a battle of internal dialogue in a search what is right and what is wrong. For me, the wind mills are right and a sign of progress, but the plastic blinking Santa on some idiot's lawn ... that is clearly wrong. All I can think is "What the fuck?!"  Plastic comes from oil. Roughly13.9 million acres, globally, are being used for oil production on this planet. All that habitat being destroyed so that blinking Santa can exist. Why is anyone buying this shit? If you bought it used or a long time ago, you don't have to use. You don't have to waste the electricity using it! I have to control myself not to pull the car over, in the dark, sneak their lawn and destroy this shit. I think of this each time I see one of these. My faith is fragile, but calmer minds do prevail in the end. 

The character Tarrou smiles a lot. He doesn't show his internal struggles. This is not true for me. My internal struggles are obvious. I bitch a lot, sometimes loudly. Here I go again, our plagues here in the early 21st century are different. We have global warming and the destruction of bio-diversity and it is capitalism that is bringing it on. The other isms are mostly gone but capitalism is alive and well and eating our planet, much like Galactus in Marvel Comics. Each time you buy some plastic crap, something you really don't need, you taking a bite, your bite, out of her. Capitalism is our plague. 

Camus' narrator says this early in the novel:

"In this respect our townsfolk were like everybody else, wrapped up in themselves, in other words they were humanists; they disbelieved in pestilences. A pestilence isn't a thing made to man's measure, therefore we tell ourselves that pestilence is a mere bogy of the mind, a bad dream that will pass away. But it doesn't always pass away and, from one bad dream to another, it is men who pass away, and the humanist first of all, because they haven't taken their precautions. Our townsfolk were not more to blame than others; they forgot to be modest, that was all, and through that everything still was possible for them which presupposed that pestilences were impossible. They went on doing business, arranged for journeys, and formed views. How should they have given a thought to anything like plague, which rules out any future, cancels journeys, silences the exchange of views. They fancied themselves free, and no one will ever be free so long as there are pestilences.

Camus is considered an existentialist, which is perfect for humanity's current predicament. We fight for our literal existence. But he didn't care for this term. He considered himself an absurdist, our search for meaning leads us into conflict with the world. This is me. Recently, I was having breakfast with some acquaintances and a young mother mentioned that she wanted to have five more children. I was screaming inside. I don't know why, but the pestilence of the plague is not obvious to everyone, even smart people. Denial is a lot easier than confronting reality. 

Let us not forget to be modest. 

 

I Speak for the Trees

I've had this discussion many time:

Friend: "You're an Atheist, you don't understand what 'sacred' means."

Me: "But I do, every tree I see is sacred."

Like the Lorax, I speak for the trees. Sacredness is readily available, not in an old and tired symbol from the Bronze Age, but right here in front of us. Life giving, carbon sucking trees. I don't hug trees, not at least until I get to know them. Even then, only after I have their permission.

But seriously, I am not the only person of this ilk. The idea of trees being sacred goes way back to Egyptian, Asyrian and Norse Mythology as well as Celtic, Germanic and Hungarian folklore predating many of our major religions. But I don't get my inspiration from these sources. Mine comes from personal experience. I grew up in a miserable town where they hated trees. Trees were hard to find and were talked about as if they were a nuisance. 

Dramatization from my youth:

Neighbor 1: Whatcha doing his weekend?

Neighbor 2: Removing that darn tree in my yard. I'm sick of it cracking the pavement and having to pick up those damn leaves?

Neighbor 1: You smell that? The stink in this city is getting worse all the time 

Neighbor 2: And hot as hell as well.

It didn't occurs to them that their hatred of trees, the stink and outrageous heat in the city were related. Luckily, I spent most of my summers of my youth in southern Rhode Island on the bank of a river not too far from the Atlantic. I got to know plenty of trees. I climbed a tiny oak to get away onto the roof of our family cabin to be alone, another two older oaks held my hammock where I escaped into books or several moored my boat as I adventured onto land. Trees were great hiding places, behind or among the branches. I can't imagine a childhood without them. If I believed in magic, it manifest itself as a tree. 

I look to literature for the spiritual. For the scientific minded, spiritual is just a word we use to describe the flush of emotions (aka chemicals reacting) that happen when something spectacular happens, when a connection is made. In this particular case, in a book. Trees as a symbol are all over literature. You can start with the Old Testament, Adam and Eve chomping at the Tree of Knowledge. I think more of contemporary references like Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree, Herman Hesse's Trees and Siddhartha, W.B. Yeats or the marvelous ents in Tolkien' trilogy The Lord of the Rings whose slow and persistent power help usher in the age of humanity ... and of course, Dr. Seuss. 

Usually, a tree is a symbol of growth but not always. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee has the two children, Scout and Jem, use a tree as a conduit for communication with Boo Radley, the local recluse and scapegoat. They put mutual gifts in a knothole, but when the hole is cemented shut it quickly becomes a symbol of intolerance and injustice which is the greater theme of this masterpiece. 

I just finished reading Betty Smith's classic A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. The tree in the title is called a tree of heaven, really, that is actually the species name. It is an invasive species originally from China which is apropos for immigrant laden Brooklyn. Anyone that grew up in the Northeast US would recognize it. Check out this factsheet: Tree of Heaven. Nothing kills this thing which it why it grows so well in cities. Not only is it a symbol of growth but it is one of resilience and strength. It is probably the only symbol in the book. It grows through cement. The narrator is third person omniscient so we get to hear, Francie Nolan, the main character's thoughts on the tree. It "likes" the poor which describes her family and everyone she knows. Something is radical about this tree. Its leaves make "fugitive patterns" on her white pillow case. Francie says this about the tree after someone calls it a "homely thing:" 

"If there was only one tree like that in the world, you would think it was beautiful, but because there are so many, you just can't see how beautiful it really is."

This is a coming of age novel but it is unlike the many that come before it that it is often compared to. Little Women and Anne of Green Gables. It takes place in the gritty world of Brooklyn in the 1910's. This is a world of spousal abuse, alcohol overdoses, pedophile doctors, foot-fetish dentists and animal abuse. This is a not a pretty world Smith is painting. To make it even worse, their neighbors are mean. Poverty means you are cold and hungry and sometimes you have to do things you regrets to survive. Like the tree, you adapt. 

Chapter Ten is the last mention of the tree until the very end of the book, 46 chapters and over 300 pages later.  Spoiler: on the last page of the book she tells us that the tree was cut down because it was causing problems with the clothes lines, but a new tree is growing. Another generation gives us hope. They survive however stupid our priorities are. 

Before I end this, let me introduce you some trees in my yard. First off, we have the Big Ass Sugar Maple. I took a picture of this tree everyday for a year and made a movie out of it:

These two were transplanted from my backyard to the front where I am trying to create a forest to replace my lawn. As you can see, the one in the front is not doing so well and may not make it. But the other one was like this for at least a couple of years before it finally caught on so I am waiting for this baby to shine. 

One of these from the backyard is next to be transplanted:

And here is what the yard looks like in the winter:

Just lovely. I love these trees. 

Romania

The world described in I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys reminds me of Orwell's 1984, but unlike that book, it is not a fictional world that she describes but Romania in 1989. I find historical fiction like this particularly fascinating because is not distant history she describes, but an era that I lived through from a safe distance. I remember hearing about Ceaușescu, their communist leader, on the news, but I knew little about them. While I was attending keg parties and cramming for college, Romanians my age were fighting and dying for their  basic human rights. I know I am not alone and many Americans know even less than I do about this part of the world. Few of us know more than that it is where Transylvania is, home of an infamous vampire created by an Irish writer of fiction. Many don't even don't even realize Transylvania is a real place, but think it a fictional land like Oz or Middle Earth. The reality is that Dracula's Romania was probably a better world to live in than communist Romania.

After World War II, Romania became friends with USSR. Due to Soviet influence, communism took hold and they forced their King, Michael, to abdicate and live in exile. Nicolae Ceaușescu took power in 1960 and stayed in power until he was overthrown in 1989, the last among their neighbors to overthrow the yoke of communistic rule. During his rule, Ceaușescu pulled a fast one on the West when he convinced the rulers of the free world that he was a benevolent ruler when the exact opposite was true. Of the leaders behind the iron curtain, he was perhaps the most monstrous, but because he stood up to the Soviet Union, American presidents (Carter, Ford, Nixon) and British royalty held photo opts with him and hosted state dinners in his honor. Many of us got pissed when Trump did so with Kim Jong-un. This is similar, except the world knows of the human rights abuses in North Korea. The world knew nothing of what was going on in Romania at the time of Ceaușescu. The free world knew little about life in the Soviet Union at time, but we knew even less of Romania. 

Romania's economy did well in the post war period which continued into the 1970's but by the 1980's, their debts came due and extreme rationing measures were instituted. Electricity was turned off periodically, similar to what is happening in Lebanon now. Ceaușescu government's had no problem producing power, but they sold it to the Soviet Union to cover their debts rather than supplying it to their citizens. Sepetys's book cites stories of babies dying in hospitals because they lost electricity during the birth. This affected everyday lives as well. Just imagine your dinner being interrupted by the loss of power, you'd be stuck with a half cooked meal or perhaps eating in the dark.  It gets very cold in Romania. They would heat up bricks to keep their feet warm at night. 

Inflation was so bad that no one used the Romanian currency. Cigarettes like Kents and BTs were used as currency. Service workers, like doctors and plumbers, would have stockpiles of cigarettes and other contrabands. They could make deals with the black market for security and actually make a decent living while those around them starved. The state run stores had long lines. You could wait hours, after a long day of work, and get nothing because they were out of stock before your turn came. Most of their life was spent working or in line. She describes people being very tired.

We hear a lot about Nazi Germany's Gestapo and East Germany's Stasi. Romania's Securitate is just as notorious. An estimated one-in-ten Romanian citizens were informers, called "Reporters," for the Securitate. They were a brutal police force that detained thousands and subjected them to torture, starvation and death. In a regime of total control, you could be reported for having contraband like an American dollar or any product that was not sold in Romanian. Ceaușescu was trying to increase the birth rate so he'd use the Securitate to monitor women. Population growth was badly needed to produce more workers. If you were childless, you were taxed. Women were periodically checked for pregnancy at their place of employment.  

When you live in such a world, rumors can make things worse. Perception is reality. Any injustice you can think of  is believable. When you believe that all the phones are bugged and that everyone you know could be an informer, whenever true or not, can be very stressful.  They whispered in their own homes so that they couldn't be heard. 

I recently reminded my son that he hit the lottery just by being born in the free world. No doubt he doesn't get it, just like I didn't. I don't think I ever will completely understand, but this book put it in better perspective. 

Contact: Book versus Movie

A few decades ago, I read The Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. I love Dickens and I have been seeing television versions of it since I was a child, probably at least two dozens. Heck, even the Six Million Dollar Man did a version of it. I was curious as to how accurate they were to the book. I discovered that reading it wasn't as enjoyable as I'd expected. Really. It was beautifully written of course, but because I knew the story so well, there were no surprises, same characters, nothing new.  Most of these film and play productions of the Christmas classic, it ends up, are actually quite accurate. I was expecting my reading of Carl Sagan's Contact to be like this because I had seen the movie so many times. It was not, at all.

Contact, the 1997 Robert Zemeckis film, is one of my favorites. Jodie Foster in a thought-provoking hard science fiction (a real sci-fi story, not like Star Wars) with ethical and theological paradoxes ... what could be better? Not much actually. I have seen this film many times. Much is different in the book, which makes it an enjoyable read, but unfortunately, it might be one of those few books where the movie is better than the book. 

**Fair warning: I tell you now, if you have not read the book or seen the movie, there are spoilers coming. You have been warned.  You may want to stop and watch the movie now. You won't regret it.  

The first thing you should realize is that it was originally conceived of as a movie, not a book, in 1977. Sagan and Ann Druyan (whom he later married) wrote the story. It bounced around Hollywood for a few years taking on many different forms, in the meantime, Sagan decided to write the novel which was eventually published by Simon and Schuster in 1985. It reached #7 on the New York Times Best Seller list. It returned to the list in 1997, briefly, when the movie came out. 

In the book, we get a lot more of Ellie Arroway's (Jodie Foster) back story. She was based on Jill Tarter, an astronomer for SETI.  Her name comes from Eleanor Roosevelt and Francois-Marie Arouet (aka Voltaire).  We do get the scene of her with her father conversing about the stars and he dies while she is still young, but the book also shows her mom remarrying a very pious man whom Ellie does not get along with and there are some surprises to their relationship as well. In the movie, her mother dies while giving birth to Ellie and is a non-entity in her life. She calls her mother throughout the book. We also read about Ellie going to college with her sexual exploits and the continued sexism she gets exposed to her in her field. Many characters are in the book that don't make it into the movie. Her lover is Presidential Science Adviser Ken der Heer. He isn't even in the movie. The movie has Ellie in a relationship with Palmer Joss (Matthew McConaughey) which is only hinted at in the book. She seems to be attracted to him but is more interested in their intellectual sparring than anything physical. 

Some characters from the movie are not in the book at all, like the guys in the lab. They are there, but they aren't named. Remember the blind guy, Kent (portrayed by William Fichtner). Not in the book. One of the most memorable scenes in the movie is when Kent actually hears the message from space in the static, he hears structure while others cannot. I could imagine this scene was added to create drama to the moment of discovery. This character is based on a real guy, a scientist that worked at SETI, Kent Cullers.  Rob Lowe's Richard Rank is a parody of Ralph Reed and is not in the book. The book does have Billy Jo Rankin but he is less extreme and less cartoonish. I can understand this change since the book came out in the 80's and much had changed with religion in American, a la the Christian Coalition, by the late 90's when the film came out. It needed an upgrade. James Wood owns the character of Kitz. Kitz who is in the book and is still quite obnoxious but Wood pushes him into the realm of belligerence which makes him much more interesting. He is a character you love to hate.  

One big change is that the US President, in the book, has a big role and the president is a woman. The movie only shows the President once and it is Bill Clinton. Zemeckis very creatively uses news footage from 1996 of Clinton talking about a Mars rock, but the clips are so vague it appears that he is talking about the message from Vega. Zemeckis received a complaint letter from the White House because they never granted permission for the footage. The original plan was for Sydney Poitier to play the president but he turned the role down. So the president wasn't a woman in the film but was supposed to be black, both of which were quite progressive for their time. 

There is more science in the book which is a good thing. Carl Sagan is one of the best science educators of the 20th century and it makes sense that even in his only book of fiction, he continues to educate. As I read I learned about the star Vega and Polaris, about the moons of our solar system, about message decoding, radio and television waves, and about the general nature of the universe. A number of compelling conversations/arguments take place between scientists and religious folks throughout the book. These are fascinating, as they are in the movie, but the book has more of them.  

Of course, the movie is filled with stuff  not in the book that must have been added because it works. Another memorable scene is Ellie laying on her Thunderbird's hood with headphones listening to the "cosmic static." Not in the book, but it is a fine scene. Her relationship with Dumlin (Tom Skerritt's character) is strained, but it is a much bigger part of the movie than it is in the book. He was her faculty adviser and was disappointed in her career choice of searching for E.T.

The message is prime numbers (mathematics is the language of science) and is being broadcast from distance aliens with hidden instructions to build a machine. They don't know what the machine is, a Trojan Horse perhaps. It takes about a decade to build in the book, but it doesn't seem that long in the movie. The world builds two in the movie, but three in the book because the USSR had to build one as well. Written in 1985 after all, the Cold War is still raging in Sagan's future. The book's machine has five seats while the movie's only has one for Ellie. In the book, her trip across the galaxy takes place on New Year's Eve 1999; there is no mention of the Y2K bug. The trip takes 20 minutes Earth time while the movie has it taking just a few seconds. 

The oddest thing about the book is the terrorist attack. This is a big moment in the movie. Ellie recognizes a religious fanatic at a testing of the machine and he has a bomb on him. It goes off and destroys it. It is quite a spectacle. While reading this in the book, I was reminded that Sagan is not a novelist, but a scientist. It only took place in one paragraph that ended the chapter. I wasn't even sure it had happened so I reread it. It was there, but very vague. The next chapter started with Drumlin's funeral so it was there. I don't think I would have known what happened if I hadn't seen the movie. 

I am a non-believer. I call myself an Atheist but at times, I found this to be extreme. Atheism seems to be fundamentalist approach to science. If I had to come up with a name for what I am, in regards to the whole God question, I would have to call myself an Agnostic leaning strongly towards Atheism.  I have always wondered what I would need to convince me that there is a God, any god. I've never been able to come with anything. What I love about the end of Contact, is that it answers this question. The movie didn't come near this. When Ellie talks to the alien (in the guise of her father), they talk about the number π (aka pi). They talk about how it goes on and on, never repeating, but somewhere in there, the alien says, is a string of ones and zeroes. In this string of binary digits is a message. The book ends Ellie spending her time looking for this message. A message being discovered in pi would do it for me. It is interesting that a book by a great scientist, helped me figure out what I'd need to believe in God. 

Notes on Reading For Whom the Bell Tolls

I am at the point in my life that I have a bathroom book. Since I have committed myself to reading one classic of literature every year for the rest of my llife, these are perfect bathroom books. It means that I may take months to read some of these tomes, two or three pages at each "sitting." Think of me as a contemporary Leopold Bloom with a blog. 

Andy Warhol has a short experimental film called Haircut that I can't help think of when I read Hemmingway. The film is just of a haircut, other than the haircut nothing really happens, and it is quite boring. At some point towards the end of the film, someone sneezes. That simple sneeze seems momentous only because your sense of time and action has been altered by the film. It slows your brain down. This is what it is like reading Hemmingway. 

If you ask someone what For Whom The Bell Tolls is about, they generally say it is about a mission to blow up a bridge during the Spanish Civil War. I take issue with this description. It is really more of a book about a bunch of characters talking about a mission to blow up a bridge. They mention blowing it up on the first page, one hundred pages into the six hundred page novel they are still talking about blowing up the bridge ... page 350 they are still talking about the dam bridge. Nothing much happens, a lot of dialogue, but when the action happens, it just seems momentous, like Warhol's sneeze. The last chapter, the bridge is blown. 

I knew this going in. Slowing your brain down is particularly difficult in the internet age, my brain seems to be hardwired to expect stimulus every few seconds. When I was younger I read The Old Man and the Sea, an entire short novel about a guy trying to catch a fish. I also read the very short story, "A Clean Well Lighted Place," about an old guy in a bar being talked about by waiters. Reading something with so little plot may not have been a problem decades ago, before the rewiring, but it is now. Maintaining my attention span is a task which I have to put work into. I can only read it in spurts, a few pages at a time hence the bathroom reading. My mind wanders too easily for Hemingway. I started reading For Whom The Bell Tolls in late November 2020, I started blogging about it, this post, in December. I expected that I would not be finished until March. I write this sentence today and it is April 2021, I am on page 350. I finally finished the book in early June. 

I don't want to give the impression that I am not enjoying it. I am. Partially. I am saved by the beauty of the writing, here is the opening paragraph of Chapter 9:

They stood in the mouth of the cave and watched them. The bombers were high now in fast, ugly arrow-heads beating the sky apart with the noise of their motors. They are shaped like sharks, Robert Jordan thought, the wide-finned, sharp-nosed sharks of the Gulf Stream. But these, wide-finned in silver, roaring, the light mist of  their propellers in the sun, these do not move like sharks. They move like no thing there has ever been. They move like mechanized doom. 

Regardless of how well it is written, it is as boring as hell. It is a chore reading it, not an enjoyment. I have a completion complex. Once I start a book, particularly a classic, I have a thing about finishing it, so finish it I did. When I read a classic like this I always wonder what a modern editor would do to it. I've always thought that the middle third of Moby Dick would be removed completely if it were published now. If I were editing For Whom the Bell Tolls, much of the flashbacks seem unnecessary. The bullfighting would be yanked from this book. Some love the bravado of it all, but I am bored stiff with it. I'd move the last chapter to the beginning, parts of it, and make a flashback of the time in the cave. 

This is a book about death, not about a mission to bomb a bridge. The mission plot is mere background. It chronicles the four days before the mission, the characters are stuck in a cave about half the time. They know their death is near. Death lingers among them almost as if it were a character in their midst. 

This is a book with a lot of sex and a lot of violence, but it is written conservatively, not salacious or gory. Here is an example of how sexuality is handled, the opening paragraph of Chapter 33:

It was two o'clock in the morning when Pilar waked him. As her hand touched him he thought, at first, it was Maria and he rolled toward her and said, "Rabbit." Then the woman's big hand shook his shoulder and he was suddenly, completely and absolutely awake and his hand was around the butt of the pistol that lay alongside of his bare right leg and all of him was cocked as the pistol with its safety catch, slipped off. 

Sometimes artists can used the limitations imposed upon them and make great beauty with it, as if the limitation are just another color in their pallet. Hemmingway does this with self-censorship. 

Because there is not a lot of action, the dialogue drives the plot forward and it is a challenge. It was written in English but the characters are supposed to be speaking peasant Spanish. This presents a challenge to a writer because Spanish, like French, has a polite form while English has no such thing.  Hemmingway resolves this by using "thou" and "thee" in dialogue. Here is an example of this from Chapter 25:

       "He should learn to control them," Pilar said. "Thou will die soon enough with us. There is no need to seek that with strangers. As for thy imagination. The gypsy has enough for all. What a novel he told me."

        "If thou hadst seen it thou wouldst not call it a novel," Primitivo said. 

All the dialogue reads like this. It makes for odd reading until you realize why it is written this way. 

Also, the characters are very foul mouthed, but not explicitly. Hemmingway censored himself, because he knew the book would not have been read or published otherwise. Instead of swearing he used words like "expletive" or "unprintable," or used words that rhymed with the real word, like "muck" instead of "fuck." 

Here is a line from Chapter 35, this is the protagonist Robert Jordan talking to himself: 

You're mucked, he told himself. You're mucked for good and higher than a kite.

It is odd at first but you get used to it.  

Robert Jordan, our protagonist, is a stoic, tough and honorable character fighting Franco's fascists on the side of an underdog. He is constantly in a state of self-questioning and doubt. In chapter 39, he refers to another character, Pablo, as being "on the road to Tarsus."  I am familiar with the "road to Damascus" but I really had to think about and research "the road to Tarsus." The "road to Damascus" is a reference to Paul conversion while he walked to Damascus. He changed his name from Saul to Paul and became a disciple of Jesus. Paul's hometown was Tarsus. The "road to Tarsus," is returning to where you came from, a pulling back from your conversion. Jordan may be referring to Pablo, but he is also referring to himself. He wonders what he got himself into. He is in love with Maria, a woman he just met and knows they will not have a life together because their mission is doomed. His challenge is one we all have, do we go with our convictions or do we play it safe? In those four days, they live in the moment and things get tense between the characters. 

Jordan is full of shame. He is ashamed of his father for killing himself. He believes he is "flying above" his father when he joins the cause of the war, which America has no stake in. He is an American Spanish language professor and a munitions expert. Somehow he is pulled into this conflict. It is a losing cause and ultimately, him being there is a suicidal act but his cause is just, unlike his father's.  

I would not recommend this book to everyone, but it is hard to see what American literature would be without it, or American film as well. I see Robert Jordan in Casablanca's Rick and even in Rocky. The film version just arrived in the mail, from my Netflix queue, and I am looking forward to seeing it. With Gary Cooper as Jordan and Ingrid Bergman as Maria, I am expecting to hate it. 

The Watchmen: Season 1 Episode 1 and the Tulsa Race Riot

The world of The Watchmen is different from ours.  Not just because they have superheroes, that is obvious, but the story line exists in an alternative universe.  I am talking about the HBO Series based on the graphic novel/comic not the comic or the movie based on it. I've read the first ground breaking graphic novel and loved it. For some, when Game of Thrones went off the air, it was time to unsubscribe to HBO. For me, I could give or take GoT.  The Watchmen is more my taste. When the greatest television network, ever, makes a show about one of your favorite comics, starring one of your favorite actresses (Regina King) and Trent Reznor does the music .... you take notice.

The graphic novel came out in 1987 and was created by the British creative team consisting of writer Alan Moore, artist David Gibbons and colorist John Higgins. Alan Moore is considered by many to be greatest comic creator in the English language. Among his achievements are V is for Vendetta, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Batman: The Killing Joke, all of which received critical acclaim. The original graphic novel,The Watchmen, is on many media organizations' lists of top 100 greatest novels of all-time. It made Time Magazine's list and is along side The Great Gatsby and To Kill A Mockingbird; it is that good.

The most interesting thing about The Watchmen, as a comic, is that it is much more realistic and less mellow-dramatic than most comics. It is about a group of superheroes but it is questionable whether they are the good guys or not. The good guy/bad guy dichotomy doesn't exist in this world. The characters exist in a gray area. Some people in their world fear them, some think they are menaces and part of the problem, and they are celebrities. Some of the characters are borderline evil, like Rorschach. He could be seen as extremely right-wing or a character out of an Ayn Rand novel. He is unstable and a bad ass. Some might consider him a hero. Others think he's a fascist. Lets face it, if super heroes did exist, this is how it would be. Right? They would be aligned along political lines. The white supremacy group in the show, the Seventh Kavalry, are inspired by his writings and wear his mask (like how Klansman would wear a hood). The comic is thought provoking as is the show.

The HBO show takes place 30 years after the comic book story ended. The story has no connection the film that came out in 2009. Its setting is a bit terrifying. Richard Nixon served five terms, he is on Mt. Rushmore, Vietnam is a US state and Robert Redford is president. Please note, Robert Redford is not playing the president. In this world, the actor, Robert Redford, has become president and his biggest achievement is reparations for slavery. Redford never gave them permission to use his image (thank you public domain). Reparations are so controversial, they are referred to as Redfordations (much like the ACA is referred to as Obamacare in our universe). The police in this universe have to wear masks (yellow masks, the color of the iconic smiley face), because violence against cops is so high, they have to hide who they are. White supremacists are making a resurgence, coming out from hiding, which is another parallel to our world (thanks to Trump). It also rains squid in this universe which is a reference to an event in the comics. That storyline ended with a giant squid attack.

When watching a show like this, it is difficult to tell what is an actual reference to our world and what is fiction. The first episode opens with some incredible violence in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It appears like fiction, because it is outrageous, graphic and I never heard of this event. Unfortunately, this is real and not something from Moore's imagination. The Tulsa Race Riot (also called the Black Wall Street Massacre or the Greenwood Massacre) took place in the Greenwood section of Tulsa in 1921. Greenwood, at the time was called Black Wall Street. It was a thriving middle-class African American neighborhood with black owned businesses, doctors, dentists and tradespeople. It was thriving. The violence exploded on Memorial Day Weekend when a 19 year old black man was accused of raping a 17 year old white girl. Thousands of whites marched in this black neighborhood in what is known as the worst race riot in American history. 36 black people were killed, 10,000 were left homeless and over a $1 million (in 1921 dollars) in real estate destroyed. The rioters actually used planes (at least a dozen) to shoot rifles and firebomb businesses, homes and fleeing families. When you hear about events like this, you understand the call for reparations. Not a single white rioter was prosecuted following the riot.

The rest of the show takes place 98 years later, still in Tulsa. As of right now, I don't know if the riot has any connection to any of the characters or if it was just an introduction to Tulsa and its history.  We'll see. I am looking forward to episode two this evening. What should I watch? The World Series is also on.

Hindsight 2020 - April Edition

With the Mueller Reporting coming out this week and it being a big disappointment, it is time to reflect on the 2016 election. We must go forward with the assumption that the only way to get rid of our corrupt and disgusting President, is by voting against him. We have a lot of things going for us: (1) he is perhaps the worst president ever, except for the army of morons that approve of him regardless of what he does, there are a lot of votes that are up for grabs, (2) we have a great field of candidates and (3) we have a lot of time with another 19 months until the election. In 2016, the Democrats had a problematic candidate who was so intensely disliked by so many people that they would vote for a reality TV star/corruption businessman/man-child over someone with 30 years of public service. It does boggle the mind that there are so many Americans out there that thought Trump would be a good president. Now, it is downright scary that some of them still support him, even though he has done nothing but screw them over since he's been in office.This is our challenge.We have an imperfect political system, we have a fascistic President with the backing of state television (aka Fox News) and we have an electorate that is perfectly satisfied with voting against their self interests. We also have a recovering economy, not because of Trump, but despite him. We are up for the challenge.

The people running the DNC (Democratic National Committee) seem to have learned their lesson from 2016; for the most part, they are not picking favorites in the 2020 race. They announced in March that they were rejecting Fox News for the debates. I understand why they did this but I can't say I agree with their decision.While, yes, Fox News seems to become a state TV network for Trump, much like RT (Russia Today) is for Putin. It is more of a propaganda network than it is a news network, but it is still the most popular "news" network in the country. Some people who watch that network may still be reachable. Having one debate in hostile territory may be a good idea. It might even be the only debate worth watching since the rest of them are so useless, unwatchable and not even debates. They are political pageantry without intrigue and seem scripted. Regardless of how bad they are, I will not only drop everything to watch them but I will be twittering away the evening with pithy comments ... how proud I am with my own wit.

Before I talk about the Democrats, lets spend some time talking about Bill Weld. He is running in the Republican primaries against Donald Trump. Since the goal is to remove Trump from office, a Weld candidacy is a good thing. He is a moderate Republican which is a rare breed these days. He also ran for VP on the Libertarian ticket in 2016. I lived in Massachusetts when he was governor. I liked him for some things and really hated him for others. He is a fiscal hawk and he was pro-gay marriage long before most people even knew it was a thing. He is smart politician who recognized how conservative the gay population of Boston was and capitalized on it. One of my worst memories of his Governorship was seeing him talking about how he reduced tuition to state colleges. Which he had done, but only by shifting the cost of education from tuition to fees. State colleges still costed the same. Under Weld tuition went down but fees went up. This sucked for someone like me that was getting tuition reimbursement from my employer. My employer didn't cover fees, only tuition. This is where Weld's policies fell into the category of your typical Republican bullshit. But lets face it, he is still much better than Trump by about a million degrees. Vermont has an open primary so I might just vote in the Republican primary. Ousting Trump before the general election would be a great thing, but I wouldn't count on it. Maybe, just maybe, Weld can damage Trump enough to hurt him in the general election ... like Kennedy did to Carter.

Joe Biden is hugging inappropriately. The media is talking about this is like it is important while our president grabs women "by the pussy," admits to it and justifies it by saying that he can get away with it because he is rich. Yet, somehow, Biden, who isn't even running for anything officially, is being talked about like he is a sexual predator. This is the era we live in. Please be smart enough to realize that this is a distraction.

Entering the race this month:
Ex-Congressman Beto O'Rourke: Those of you who are unfamiliar with Beto, check out his speeches during his recent run for Senate. He is magnetic! He reminds me a lot of Obama when he was an unknown. Beto recently ran against Ted Cruz for Senate in Texas and lost. Some may ask why we should support a loser, but he came very close in a state that is heavily Republican. Closest is recent years. His popularity outside of Texas has been is a lot higher than inside, hence the presidential run. He is an exciting candidate. His real first name is Robert. He was given the nickname Beto when he was very young to distinguish him from his grandfather who was also Robert. He is from El Paso, a border town. His mother owned a furniture store while his father was a local politician. Beto is fluent is Spanish.

Colorado Governor, John Hickenlooper: He is from Pennsylvania and was brought up by a single mom after his father passed away at an early age. He moved to Colorado to work as a geologist for an oil company. When he was laid off, he stayed in Colorado and opened a brewpub which is still in business. His records as Denver's Mayor and Governor of CO are both quite impressive.

Mayor of Miramar, Florida, Wayne Messam: I write this sentence on March 29th. Wayne announced his candidacy yesterday on the 28th. He is one of the few people running that I have never heard of before he announced. I've never even heard of the city of which he is the mayor. It is in South Florida on the Atlantic side and has a population of 122,000 which is still bigger than South Bend, Indiana. He is a first generation American with both his parents being from Jamaica.I am looking forward to learning more about him.

Congressman from Ohio, Tim Ryan: Ryan is most famous for challenging Nancy Pelosi, unsuccessfully, to be the new leader of the Democratic Party in 2016. I don't know a lot about him yet. He announced this week, the first week of April and today, the 6th, as I write this, he is having his first Presidential rally. He may do well in NH because he got his Doctorate from Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord and may know the state better than outsiders.

Alaskan Senator, Mike Gravel: Mike is from Springfield, MA and he is from French Canadian background (hey, like me). He is my people!  He moved to pre-state Alaska in 1956. He is a Unitarian and has Libertarian leanings. He ran for president as a Libertarian in 2008.

Not running:
Michael Bloomberg
Sharrod Brown

With Bloomberg out, the moderate lane is widening making it even more likely that Biden will enter the race.It would work just fine for me if the old guard of Biden and Sanders, just stepped out of this race. It is time for new younger blood. Sure, Biden might wipe the floor with Trump but I am willing to bet that Booker Warren and Harris and most of these other candidates would as well.

Our field:
Elizabeth Warren: She has really been impressing me.She has proposed a wealth tax that would be used to fund universal childcare. She has proposed a plan to break up big tech firms like Google, Amazon and Facebook much like we did in the 80's with the Bell Systems. She has also presented a plan to eliminate the electoral college. She is definitely the policy candidate.

Bernie Sanders: The spark that Bernie ignited in 2016 is not so bright in 2020 with 17 other, mostly great, candidates.  Now that he is sharing a stage with some other lefties that are younger and have basically, a lot of the same ideas as him, his popularity isn't quite so high. He's not the Johnny-Come-Lately anymore, but old news. I love Bernie, I will vote for him if he is the candidate, but I just don't think he will be. He is too old and too damaged.

His volunteers need to stop bothering me:

Zephyr, Christina and Rafeena need to chill.

Cory Booker: Booker has always been a fighter for the less privileged. His most recent proposal is baby bonds. Basically, each newborn gets a $1,000.00 bond at birth. They can't touch it until they turn 18, after it has been accumulating interest. The hope would be that they could pay for college, or at least assist them in the transition to adulthood. Somehow, I think we are looking at a boom in keg parties starting in 2038.

Kamala Harris: She wrote an opp ed in the Washington Post about teacher's salary. If you are, know and/or love a teacher, this might really hit a vein with you. Teacher's require the same level of education that doctors and lawyers do, yet are compensated at a much lower rate mostly because we fund their salaries with our property taxes. Harris proposes that the federal government get more involved in raising the bar a bit. When a state increases a teacher's pay by one dollar, the federal government will contribute three. This might put some fire under some people. There are a lot of teachers in this country and all of them are underpaid. As long as this isn't another one of those Federal mandates that aren't funded, I am all for it.

Jay Inslee: He is hitting me hard with email mostly asking for money. I understand, but delete you I must Mr. Inslee. I don't have a lot of money, so until I can see he can beat Trump, he isn't getting any of my money. He is getting a chilly response from New Hampshire Democrats mostly because of his poor support of Molly Kelly when he was the chairman of the Democratic Governors Association.

Pete Buttigieg: He continues to impress me. Maybe we need a millennial as our next president. He's very smart and extremely likable. Check out this interview he did on Pod Save America. He's on message and engaging for the entire hour. The fact that he is gay, is open and quite comfortable about it, does make him a stand-out. Every interview I have heard with him is like this one. He'd be a great president.

Julian Castro: He has released an immigration policy proposal that would give 11 million illegal immigrates a path to citizenship. He's also on Real Time with Bill Maher this week which should give him some exposure.

John Delaney: He released a plan to revitalize rural American called the "Heartland Fair Deal" which concentrated on assisting local businesses completing with large companies and fighting climate change. The rural vote is something that the Democrat Party has really failed with the past few decades. It is nice to see someone giving them attention.

Amy Klobuchar: She is the first candidate that I have seen give infrastructure a priority. She has release a plan to revamp our transportation infrastructure. I bitch about the roads a lot, so here it is, a candidate that should go to the top of my list. She is also focusing on "heartland economics" and is reported a really difficult person to work with. If she is elected, expect high turn-over ... ahem ... but nothing close to what we have now with Agent Orange in the White House.

Andrew Yang: This guy is still very intriguing. He has no chance to win but hearing him talk about the Universal Basic Income (UBI) is fascinating. Jobs are being lost now to automation, not to illegals, foreigners or trade deals. Artificial Intelligence is getting so good now that even skilled labor is being replaced. With self driving cars becoming viable, we may not need truckers within the next five or ten years. So what do you do when jobs just don't exist. UBI is basically a stipend, of $1k a month, to every American whether you have a job or not. Wild idea. If you are interested, check out Yang's appearance on the Joe Rogan podcast. I don't expect this to go anywhere, but it is certainly a great though experiment.

Tulsi Gabbard: She has visited NH, IA, CA and PA in March, but hasn't released any major policy proposals. One has to wonder if she is just running for VP.  If a man gets the nomination for President, you would think that she would be in the running for VP.

We have 18 candidates running for the Democratic nomination with two running for the  Republican. If I had to rank the Democrats in order of my personal preference, I would do so in the following manner:
Warren
Harris
Booker
Buttigieg
O'Rourke
Sanders
Hickenlooper
Inslee
Klobuchar
Delaney
Castro
Gabbard
Messam
Gravel
Ryan
Yang
Gillibrand
Williamson

But this will change. I am not ready to open my pocket book yet.

We have some great candidates here. I hope they continue to do what they are doing ... stick to the issues. The big issues are healthcare and the environment. Hopefully they do not over-commit. If they are elected and cannot deliver, we will be back to another worthless Republican president in four years. 

On Gatsby

It has been a while since I've read The Great Gatsby. I've read it three times. Each time I am reminded why I love America ... the freedom, the opportunity, the ability to reinvent oneself. Each time I read it, I am reminded why I hate America ... the greed, the inequality, the lavish wastefulness. I should read it again, I could use a dose of American love, but the hate, that's what I am afraid of. I've had enough of that lately.

The next best thing is seeing the film. Yesterday I watched Baz Lurhmann's 2013 version of the classic and I was surprised. I was prepared to hate it. I usually hate the film versions of books that I love. HBO's Fahrenheit 451 was an abomination. I've already complained in this blog about Peter Jackson's The Hobbit. Lurhmann's Gatsby is pretty good, enjoyable even and the visuals were stunning. The visual contrast between wealthy Long Island and Valley of Ashes, the strip of land between Long Island and Manhattan, is stunning. The parties at Gatby's Long Island Shangri-La-like home are lush while the Valley is destitute,looks almost war-torn. I was impressed. Even the Jay Z rap music seemed to work. Anachronistic, yes, but it just seemed to work. Like I said, I was surprised.

But like most adaptions, I had problems with some of the changes they made. They botched the ending for one thing. The mystery of Gatsby's demise is powerful in the book. It leaves you thinking. The mystery is no more in this film. Lurhmann doesn't leave it to your interpretation or imagination. Why? Hollywood films like to wrap things up and not leave anything hanging. I like it hanging. They also did too much back story. We are not supposed to know that much about Gatsby. He is supposed remain a mystery. Once you take the mystery away, he is less interesting. Leaving some things up to the audience can make a story more dense. The reader's/watcher's imagination fills in the empty spots making for lush landscapes.

Casting of a classic is always difficult. I can't think of an actor alive that would make a good Gatsby. My wife and I pondered this and the only actor we could agree on is long dead, Clark Gable. Casting Leonardo DiCaprio as Gatsby ... eh ... I guess is as good as any other. For one of the greatest characters in American literature maybe an unknown actor would have been a better choice. I couldn't help but think of Gilbert Grape Gatsby. That is where my mind went a few times. He was certainly better than Robert Redford. The 1974 Jack Clayton film was my intro to the book. Having the image of Robert Redford as Gatsby didn't ruin the book for my young mind, but it was an obstacle. Neither of these actors seems to possess the darkness and depth that Gatsby requires. He is America, after all, we are full of contradictions.

One of the things that grad school did for me is lighten me up. I stopped seeing works of literature as monuments of civilization and more as living texts. Before I had that experience, I may not have been able to enjoy a Gatsby film with rap music in it. One of my cohorts did a reception study of The Great Gatsby and one of things she discovered was that the origin transcript is sometimes incomprehensible. Fitzgerald was a drunk, he wrote feverishly while intoxicated with an awful hand writing. Some people think his editor, Maxwell Perkins, should be considered a co-writer because Fitzgerald was often hard to reach, due to his binges, so entire passages were reshaped to how Perkins thought they were supposed to read. It is this image, of there being a very different version of Gatsby hidden in the scribbles of the original manuscript, that makes me see this text as truly alive, breathing, awaiting editing, awaiting interpretation, awaiting new civilizations to rip it apart and reinvent it, like Gatsby himself. Kinda like ... "boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."

Picks of the Year: 2017

2017 won't go down as a great year, but compared to 2016, it was fantastic. In reviewing, I noticed that I saw a lot less live shows than I usually do. This is probably due to my accident on July 4th when I tripped on some cobblestones in Portugal and dislocated my ankle. I spent the rest of the summer on crutches or at least walking very carefully. I remember attending the Elvis Costello concert and trying to maneuver a concert crowd at an outdoor (grass) venue. We usually attend many shows at this venue during the summer, but I was less motivated to attend when I'm hobbling. Also, standing for a few hours wasn't ever appealing as well.

Last years was full of death and mayhem, we had a little of that but no more than could be expected. I lost one of my favorite aunts. My father had ten siblings and now they are all gone. An entire generation of my family is gone from this planet forever which makes me more sad each time I think about it.

We had our roof fixed this year. This is a good thing. It was a pain for about a week. Compared to last year's loss of the furnace, being without electricity for a week and without water for six weeks, the new roof was a blessing.

I also started volunteering this year, something I used to do a lot of when I was younger. Every Saturday I drive into Burlington and assist in teaching a group of Bhutan refugees American civics in preparation for their citizenship test. I have been really enjoying this. For Christmas, they got together and bought me a new business suit.

MEDIA:
Best book I read in 2017:
I joined a book club this year so this means I have less control over the books I am reading but I am having better reads and getting more perspective. This has mostly been a good thing because I'm meeting a lot really great people. As a telecommuter, I really need more outlets to makes friends in my area. My favorite book of the year was The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown. I was surprised about how much I ended up caring about the rowing team in the 1936 Olympics. It read like good fictional novel. Other books I've read this year include: The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, High Fidelity by Nick Hornby, The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Juno Diaz, Var the Stick by Piers Anthony, Just Kids by Patti Smith, 11/22/63 by Stephen King and Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Wolff (which I didn't finish). With exception of the last one, I enjoyed them with varying degrees. I also read two graphic novels, Saga #6 and #7.

Favorite new movie: 
Because of my injury, I went to the movies more often than usual this year.  Here are all of them that I can think of: Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Thor: Ragnorak, Bladerunner 2049, The Big Sick, The Guardians of the Galaxy II, Logan, Lion, La La Land, Hidden Figures and Get Out.  I enjoyed all of them, but if I had to pick a favorite, it had to be Get Out. I can't say I have seen anything like it before, both scary and hysterical.  I'm guessing that both Get Out and The Big Sick are going to be ignored by the Oscars because they are comedies.

I only went to see La La Land because my wife dragged to it. I have to admit it was better than I expected. I finally got to see Moonlight on Blueray and I am glad that the better movie did win, because Moonlight was amazing.

Favorite new TV show: 

I discovered a lot of new shows this year. Among them are; The Crown, Gypsy, Dark, The Punisher, Alias Grace, The Handmaid's Tale, Westworld, Big Little Lies, Divorce, Crashing, The Deuce, Insecure, Mindhunter, The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, 13 Reasons Why, Iron Fist, Ozark, The Defenders, The OA, Runaways, The Orville, Preacher, Legion, Atlanta and Travelers.  I guess I watch a lot of TV.

There are some standouts. The Crown, The Handmaid's Tale, Big Little Lies and Atlanta are the best on the list. They are just superior television that you wouldn't be able to see on television years ago. We have some very creative people really stretching the form. They have creative story telling, social relevance and depth on many levels. The biggest disappointment was Westworld. I heard almost universal praise and it just wasn't that good. The biggest surprise was 13 Reasons Why. I didn't expect to be captivated by a drama about teen suicide.  

Favorite quote:
"Despite the constant negative press covfefe" by our toddler in chief. Need I say more!

Favorite new podcast : 
I discovered a lot of new podcasts this year, among them are: Radio Atlantic, The Daily, Slowburn, The Deeper Dig, Freak Out and Carry On, Civics 101 and The Hilarious World of Depression. My favorite is the New York Times' The Daily. It really should change its name to The Week Daily because it only comes out five days a week. It goes into depth about a story that is being covered in the New York Times that day. I listen every morning as I begin work.

MUSIC:
Best concert I attended:
I only saw four live shows this year: Robert Cray, Elvis Costello, Kung Fu and Joe Pug. I have say that I enjoyed Joe Pug the most. It had to be because of the venue. He is a fantastic song writer and we saw him at an intimate setting, The Higher Ground in Burlington. This is much more my speed these days.

Best album:  
I bought some great new albums this year, in MP3 format of course. I bought "Lotta Sea Lice" by Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile, "Mental Illness" by Aimee Mann, "Together At Last" by Jeff Tweedy, "A Deeper Understanding" by The War on Drugs, "The Navigator" by Hurray for the Riff Raff, "In Between" by the Feelies and "More Fast Songs about the Apocalypse" by Moby. The Moby album was a free download which I am grateful because it is awful.

The Aimee Mann album is my favorite with her deeply personal song writing. As usual, she is spectacular tackling her own experiences with mental illness. Here is some of the lines from "Philly Sinks":

Philly thinks, and when he thinks he can't feel anymore
Philly drinks, and when he drinks, all the drunks hit the floor
Philly sinks, and when he sinks you go down
And when you do, you both drown

The entire Jeff Tweedy album is a bunch of acoustic remakes from some of his other bands. If these were all new songs, I'd be picking this album because like Mann, he is one of America's greatest living song writers. Here are a few of great lines from some of his songs: "All my lies are always wishes," "His goal in life was to be an echo" and "you are right about the stars, each one is a setting sun."

Favorite new songs: 
I have 234 mp3 files of songs from 2017. I spend the month of December listening to only a playlist of these songs. I payed for most of them. In addition to getting the awful Moby album for free, I did download the NPR 100 which is their picks for the best 100 songs at the South by Southwest music festival. As usual, I end up disliking most of these tracks, but I do find some gems from the bunch which I am grateful, because they are free.

Here are some of my favorites:

"Benjamin Franklin's Song" by the Decemberists
"Sheep" by Mt. Joy
"Fight to Survive" by Thievery Corporation
"The Last Ten Years" by Mark Eitzel
"When the Wall Comes Down" by Hiss Golden Messenger
"Sign of the Times" by Harry Styles
"Total Entertainment Forever" by Father John Misty
"Hard Living" by Chris Stapleton
"One of These Days" by Bedouine
"Goose Snow Cone" by Aimee Mann
"Philly Sinks" by Aimee Mann
"Stuck in the Past" by Aimee Mann
"Muddy Waters" by the Deslondes
"Continental Breakfast" by Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile
"Rosey" by Bermuda Triangle
"Faded Days" by Actual Wolf
"Passing Time" by Almighty American
"Destitute" by Christopher Paul Stelling
 "I'll Quit Tomorrow" by Dawg Yawp
"Sports" by Fufanu
"Forgot Myself" by Jen Cloher
"Going Mad As Street Bins" by L.A. Salami
"Carin at the Liquor Store" by The National
"Television" by Planes on Paper
"Darling" by Real Estate
"He's Fine" by the Secret Sisters
"Holding On" by The War On Drugs
"Thinking of a Place" by The War On Drugs
"Sea of Clouds" by Deer Tick
"Hungry Ghost" by Horray for the Riff Raff

Since I have to pick a favorite, I pick "Benjamin Franklin's Song" by the Decemberists. Franklin is one of my favorite personalities from American history so the fact someone wrote a great rock song documenting his achievements is very pleasing to me ... and it rocks.

BEST TRIP:

The best trip of the year was our trip to Portugal.

We flew into Lisbon, met up with our friend Paul, enjoyed Lisbon (particularly the sangria on the beach) and then went to Porto. It was stunning. It might be the most beautiful city I've seen in Europe. The restaurants and bars line the Duoro River and row boats deliver the port wine from the vineyards up river. This was truly the peak of our trip and as we crossed the river into their sister city Vila Nova de Gaia, the highpoint quickly became the nadir. Maybe a half hour after we crossed the river, on July 4th with my Captain America shirt on, I tripped on the cobblestone and dislocated my ankle. For about a minute, my foot was perpendicular with my leg. As a group of strangers carried me off the street, I was screaming, it slowly snapped into place. I spent the next five hours in an ambulance and emergency room and the rest of the trip on crutches. I still haven't gotten a bill from the hospital. Gotta to love socialized medicine.

We went to Philadelphia for Memorial Day and met up with our niece and stayed with friends.  We went to see the Cubs in Cincinnati which is an amazing city.  We went to Arkansas for a week. The highlight of that trip is that we can now tell people we've been to Arkansas. I've been to 40 plus US states and I have to say, Arkansas is the least interesting and I have no plans to ever go back again.