Roger O Green

L is for Lanes of Traffic

“When there’s no bike lane, you’re supposed to ride on the sidewalk.”

1. In July, traveling north on that stretch of Interstate 90 in New York between the Pennsylvania border and Buffalo, closer to the former, there are four lanes of traffic, two in each direction.

The Wife is driving and is in the right lane. Another car is in the left lane, slowly passing us. Suddenly, a motorcycle darts between us! Another motorcycle is already ahead of the other car.

Then the motorcycles, in turn, proceed to drive between not one, not two, but FOUR pairs of cars, in about three minutes. I was happy no one got hurt.

2. I am riding my bicycle down my street. I am as far right as I can be, given the fact there is a string of parked cars. I can sense that there’s a car that wants to pass me, but there’s oncoming traffic, and this is not an option.

We catch a red light, and we both stop. I can pull to the right because there’s no car that close to the intersection.

The driver says, “There’s no bike lane.”

“OK”

“When there’s no bike lane, you’re supposed to ride on the sidewalk.”

“NO, sir!”

“That’s the law.”

“You are INCORRECT, sir. Check your drivers’ manual. There’s a section on bicycles in there.”

Seriously, I used to carry around the booklet from DMV for such interactions. In my state, it is ILLEGAL for me to ride on the sidewalk, unless I’m under 14. (Note: I’m not.)

Apparently, this is a problem elsewhere.

3. Still, I LOVE riding my bicycle in the city, because I often find change on the ground, where the driver’s side door might be. I’ll stop for even a nickel, but not for a penny. Though if I stop for a mixture of coins – it has happened – I’ll get the pennies as well.

4. August: I was waiting for a bus, when a young man, probably in his twenties, asked me if I could “spare some change” so he could ride the bus. I told him that I could “spare a 50-cent change card” that I happen to have. (The fare is $1.50, and if I put in two $1 bills, I get the change card.)

His eyes narrowed as he said, teeth clenched, “Have a nice day.” I don’t think he was being sincere.
***
Now I Know: Slow and Steady Wins the Lottery

The Calculus of Bad Driving

ABC Wednesday – Round 19

The Lydster: Twisting by the pool

She ~~suckered~~encouraged her mother and me to actually set up the pool

One of my brothers-in-law and his family had an above-ground swimming pool. But because they were scheduled to move, related to his new job, the family gave US the contraption.

And in our backyard, the parts sat. There were, no exaggeration, 80 pieces listed in the manual, none to scale, and I had neither the time nor the inclination to sort it out.

This is a bit ironic since there USED to be an area in the backyard, bricked off, where an above-ground pool once resided.

The Daughter meticulously marked all the parts in some color-coordinated system that I could not decipher. She ascertained that there were at least a half dozen pieces missing, which we subsequently got from my BIL.

Then she ~~suckered~~encouraged her mother and me to actually set up the pool, even though I’m not particularly handy, certainly not as accomplished as she is. And sure enough, the pool pieces all eventually fit together, with her doing the bulk of the work.

We filled up the pool, as it turned out, ONE DAY before an emergency ban in the city of Albany, and neighboring towns, on use of water for that, and several other non-essential purposes such as handwashing one’s car. A sinkhole and a resulting water main break a few blocks away diminished the available water supply.

The Daughter loves being in the pool, even on those evenings that don’t seem that warm, though we have had our patch of hot and humid weather. She is not a particularly proficient swimmer, but she loves doing acrobatic activities in the water.

We haven’t done all the requisite activities. There’s a desalination system (wha? we didn’t use saltwater) but it has been a boon to the Daughter’s fitness, and perhaps more important, her spirit.

Listen to
Twisting by the Pool – Dire Straits

Dad would be 90

Dad always did a spot-on impression of FDR.

Dad was always about 47, give or take a decade. It’s like Willie Mays was always 30 to me. When I see those pictures or that string bean of a young man, that wasn’t my father (and he was not yet my father, for most of that time). And in the early days, I don’t recall that much.

Les Green had a lot of different jobs, including floral arranger, sign painter, and singer/guitarist. But for six years or so, he worked at IBM, driving these electric trucks around, moving material from place to place. It was at night, so we seldom saw Dad, except on weekends. This was the period our mom would take us to W.T. Grant’s almost every Friday night to have the all-you-can-eat fish.

Still, we did see him on weekends, when he’d make spaghetti sauce that would cook on the stove for hours. Or he’d make waffles in a waffle iron with a certain panache, and tell stories about him making breakfast for General Washington, which I believe to be untrue.

But you can never tell. Since his early days were such a mystery – and still are – maybe he WAS a time traveler, There’s a song he used to perform called Passing Through, written by a guy named Dick Blakeslee in the 1940s, and popularized by Pete Seeger.

The lyrics were about the narrator seeing Jesus on the cross, and Adam leaving the garden, Washington shivering at Valley Forge, and this one:
I was with Franklin Roosevelt’s side on the night before he died.
He said, “One world must come out of World War Two”
“Yankee, Russian, white or tan,” he said, “A man is still a man.
We’re all brothers now, and we’re only passing through.”

Dad always did a spot-on impression of FDR when he sang “one world must come”. He started being a ‘singer of folk songs” back in the late 1950s around our hometown of Binghamton and would sing for Leslie’s and my elementary school classes each semester for three or four years, which was a treat, in part because he wrecked his sleep schedule to do this.

I’ve noted that when my father quit IBM in 1968 to work in a federal Office of Economic Opportunities program called Opportunities For Broome (our county), my homeroom teacher, Mr. Joseph told me straight out that my father was “crazy” to leave IBM. And maybe he was.

Or maybe being away from his family, and working at night in a job that did not challenge him intellectually or artistically, was making him crazy. His decision always made sense to me.

My father, sister Leslie, and I singing together started just before he left IBM, but thrived when he got to work in the daytime.

I went away to college at New Paltz in 1971, and he, my mother, and my sister Marcia moved to Charlotte, NC in 1974, and, of course, I’d see him far less frequently. But, for most of his time, he looked the same. He looked like Dad.

His 90th birthday would have been September 26.

Music Throwback Saturday: Grazing in the Grass

Grazing in the Grass was a vocal hit for a Los Angeles group called The Friends of Distinction in 1969

When I was trying to explain to someone what song I was trying to identify – it turned out to be Soulful Strut by Young-Holt Unlimited – more than one person took my description (soulful, horn-driven) and came to the conclusion the song I was thinking of was Grazing in the Grass.

It was a reasonable guess.

As it happens, I COULD easily recall the instrumental track Grazing in the Grass by South African performer Hugh Masekela, which was #1 for two weeks on the pop charts, and #1 for four weeks on the soul charts in 1968. It is one of the few songs for which “more cowbell” is NOT necessary.

Masekela had been briefly (1964-1966) married to his countrywoman Miriam Makeba, who I familiar with from her performing with folksinger Harry Belafonte, including on an LP my father owned. She had an unlikely hit with Pata Pata (#12 pop, #7 soul) in 1967.

Masekela and Makeba performed together on Paul Simon’s 1987 Graceland tour throughout South Africa. Miriam Makeba died in 2008, but Hugh Masekela is still with us.

Grazing in the Grass, written by Philemon Hou, was also a vocal hit for a Los Angeles group called The Friends of Distinction, made up of Harry Elston, Jessica Cleaves, Barbara Jean Love, and the late Floyd Butler (d. 1990) in 1969, #3 pop, #5 soul. I can dig it. (All chart action referenced was from the U.S. Billboard charts.)

Listen to

Pata Pata – Miriam Makeba HERE or HERE

Grazing in the Grass – Hugh Masekela HERE or HERE

Grazing in the Grass – The Friends of Distinction HERE or HERE

The 21st century’s 100 greatest films, part 1

Until I read my own review, I had forgotten how much I liked this film

The BBC surveyed 177 film critics “from every continent except Antarctica. “For the purposes of this poll we have decided that a list” of the 21st century’s 100 greatest films “should include the year 2000” because the year “was a landmark in global cinema.”

Though I started this blog in 2005, and reviewed many of the films I’ve seen over the years, I wasn’t as detailed in the beginning. Still my reviews will be the items that are hyperlinked. A few movies I am not familiar with I’ve designated DK (don’t know)

Yes, there are three films at 100

100. Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade, 2016) – DK
100. Requiem for a Dream (Darren Aronofsky, 2000) – saw this in a not-very-crowded theater; at least half of the audience had seen it before. It was astonishing, druggy psychological drama with Jared Leto and Jennifer Connelly. I thought the star, Ellen Burstyn, should have gotten the Best Actress Oscar instead of Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich. It was in my Top Ten Films of the Aughts
100. Carlos (Olivier Assayas, 2010) – DK
99. The Gleaners and I (Agnès Varda, 2000) – DK
98. Ten (Abbas Kiarostami, 2002) – DK
97. White Material (Claire Denis, 2009) -DK
96. Finding Nemo (Andrew Stanton, 2003) – I enjoyed it quite a bit when I first saw it; classic Disney dead parent film. Still, I can’t help but see this initially through the eyes of The Daughter, when she was about 4 or 5, when she was at a party and was terrified by certain scenes
95. Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson, 2012) – I found it delightful, and the serendipity of seeing it was almost as much a part of the experience
94. Let the Right One In (Tomas Alfredson, 2008) – DK
93. Ratatouille (Brad Bird, 2007) – Once I got over the idea of rats and edible food, I liked it
92. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik, 2007) – thought to see it, but just never did
91. The Secret in Their Eyes (Juan José Campanella, 2009) – DK, though I had heard of the 2015 American remake, which I did not see

90. The Pianist (Roman Polanski, 2002) – I thought to see it, but, based on the previews, I knew I had to steel myself to see a Holocaust movie, and just never got to the theater before the film left
89. The Headless Woman (Lucrecia Martel, 2008) – DK
88. Spotlight (Tom McCarthy, 2015) – even though it won the Oscar for Best Picture, I think it’s somewhat underrated, because most of the performances were understated
87. Amélie (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2001) – I definitely bought into the whimsy of the waitress (Audrey Tautou) who was a change agent in other people’s lives, even as she disconnected inside
86. Far From Heaven (Todd Haynes, 2002) – I found this film about 1950s Connecticut suburban bliss – but not really – quite powerful at the time in dealing with race, gender, sexual identity, and class. Starring Julianne Moore, Dennis Quaid, Dennis Haysbert, and Patricia Clarkson. I feel as though I should see this again to find out if it holds up.
85. A Prophet (Jacques Audiard, 2009) – I saw the previews of a French film about murder and drug dealing, and I just wasn’t interested
84. Her (Spike Jonze, 2013) – at some level, I thought it was not at all implausible, the way we are tethered to our devices.
83. A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Steven Spielberg, 2001) – I had meant to see it, and just didn’t
82. A Serious Man (Joel and Ethan Coen, 2009) – I really wanted to see this. It’s about the struggle with issues of faith. Didn’t
81. Shame (Steve McQueen, 2011) – saw the trailer about sexual addiction with Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan as grown siblings. It looked dark – I mean in many ways, including visually, lots of night scenes. If I had seen more films that year, this might have been one of them

80. The Return (Andrey Zvyagintsev, 2003) – I may have seen the trailer of this Russian film about growing up
79. Almost Famous (Cameron Crowe, 2000) – enjoyed this a lot, actually. A music film is in my emotional wheelhouse.
78. The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese, 2013) – I picked off most of the Best Picture nominees that year, and I had planned to see this one. My parents-in-law HATED it, it’s very long, and ultimately I never saw it
77. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Julian Schnabel, 2007) – until I read my own review, I had forgotten how much I liked this film
76. Dogville (Lars von Trier, 2003) – saw the trailer, but it didn’t capture me
75. Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2014) – saw the trailer several times, and was never sure if I wanted to see it; didn’t, apparently
74. Spring Breakers (Harmony Korine, 2012) – saw the previews, thought it looked TERRIBLE
73. Before Sunset (Richard Linklater, 2004) – I have to see the Before trilogy one of these days
72. Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch, 2013) – DK
71. Tabu (Miguel Gomes, 2012) – DK

70. Stories We Tell (Sarah Polley, 2012) – though a mostly low-key documentary, I liked it a lot
69. Carol (Todd Haynes, 2015) – maybe a little TOO understated, but I enjoyed it
68. The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson, 2001) – I disliked virtually every character in this film, which may have been the point, but I did not enjoy this film. At all.
67. The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow, 2008) – I took this out from Netflix for four months, and never found the two-hour bloc to watch it. I need to watch a video the first time as though I were in the theater, which means in one solid bloc
66. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter…and Spring (Kim Ki-duk, 2003) – DK
65. Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold, 2009) – DK
64. The Great Beauty (Paolo Sorrentino, 2013) -DK
63. The Turin Horse (Béla Tarr and Ágnes Hranitzky, 2011) – DK
62. Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, 2009) – I wasn’t sure I wanted to see another gory Tarantino film, so I didn’t
61. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013) – a horror film with ScarJo; the former turned me off

60. Syndromes and a Century (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2006) – DK
59. A History of Violence (David Cronenberg, 2005) – the Daughter was one y.o. We saw few movies in this period, and I’m not sure if this would have been a contender
58. Moolaadé (Ousmane Sembène, 2004) – DK
57. Zero Dark Thirty (Kathryn Bigelow, 2012) – sometimes the politics of the film gets in my way
56. Werckmeister Harmonies (Béla Tarr, director; Ágnes Hranitzky, co-director, 2000) – DK
55. Ida (Paweł Pawlikowski, 2013) – DK
54. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2011) – DK
53. Moulin Rouge! (Baz Luhrmann, 2001) – I have the soundtrack to this movie, some of which is fine, even spectacular, but other bits are uncomfortably trite, rather like the movie
52. Tropical Malady (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2004) – DK
51. Inception (Christopher Nolan, 2010) – This actually intrigued me, the idea of stealing information by infiltrating the subconscious. Maybe I should rent it

Well, that’s the first half. The next part is where I show that I did not enjoy movies some of you love.