Roger O Green

5000 Questions, Part 2

World Almanac. And a porta-potty.

26. Who has done something today to show they care about you?

Co-workers, folks on the bus, family.

27. Do you have a lot to learn?

Oh yeah. And then there’s the relearning of stuff I should have known.

28. If you could learn how to do three things just by wishing and not by working what would they be?

A How to speak many languages

B How to fly a plane

C How to play the piano

29. Which do you remember the longest: what other people say, what other people do or how other people make you feel?

Feel.

30. What are the key ingredients to having a good relationship?

Honesty, intentionality, communications, sensitivity.

31. What 3 things do you want to do before you die?

A Meet a US President

B Go to all 50 of the United States – 20 to go

C Go to a World Series game or the Super Bowl

32. What three things would you want to die to avoid doing?

Causing others extreme pain – stuff like that.

33. Is there a cause you believe in more than any other cause?

Justice.

34. What does each decade make you think of:

The 19…

20s: Illegal booze, Teapot Dome

30s: Depression, New Deal, the rise of Hitler

40s: WWII, A-bombs, desegregation of US military

50s: Montgomery bus boycott, Korean war, Brown v. Board of Education, red scare, Sputnik

60s: Beatles, Motown, Aretha, Beach Boys, JFK & MLK & RFK assassinations, Twilight Zone, some great Supreme Court rulings such as Loving v. Virginia

70s: College, bicentennial, punk rock

80s: Hair bands, Reagan, “Born in the USA”, “Thriller”

90s: Library school, the trips to Detroit, Cleveland, DC, Barbados, JEOPARDY!

2000s: Homeownership, the daughter

2010s (so far): Blogging

35. Which decade do you feel the most special connection to and why?

The 1960s…that time period, especially 1968, really began to define me as a person.

36. What is your favorite oldie/classic rock song?
Impossible question. Pick one at random from what I recently listened to: Since You’ve Been Gone (Sweet Sweet Baby) by Aretha

37. What country do you live in and who is the leader of that country?

US, Obama

If you could say any sentence to the current leader of your country what would it be?

Overpromising and underdelivering is a tough strategy to accept.

38. What’s your favorite TV channel to watch in the middle of the night?

Though I’d probably just watch DVRed stuff, sometimes I wind up watching various permutations of Law & Order or ESPN Sportcenter, neither of which do I watch otherwise.

39. What Disney villain are you the most like and why?

Gaston from Beauty and the Beast. A bit of ego.

40. Have you ever been a girl scout/boy scout?

I was in Cub Scouts, but it didn’t hold my interest. And I wasn’t very good at it.

41. If you were traveling to another continent would you rather fly or take a boat?

I’d rather travel by boat, depending on available time.

42. Why is the sky blue during the day and black at night?

Sunlight.

43. What does your name mean?

It’s a color. Oh, the OTHER name – Spear bearer.

44. Would you rather explore the deeps of the ocean or outer space?

Outer space.

45. Word association

What is the first word that comes to mind when you see the word:

Air: Breathe

Meat: Puppets

Different: Strokes

Pink: Floyd

Deserve: Star

White: Stripes

Elvis: Costello

Magic: Johnson

Heart: Damn Yankees

Clash: Strummer

Pulp: Trees

46. If you could meet any person in the world who is dead who would you want it to be?

This week, Jackie Robinson.

47. What if you could meet anyone who is alive?

US Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

48. Is there a movie that you love so much you could watch it every day?

I doubt there is such a movie.

49. You are going to be stuck alone in an elevator for a week. What do you bring to do?

World Almanac. And a porta-potty.

50. Have you ever saved someone’s life or had your life saved?

Yes, and possibly.

The new Mother’s Day reality

The running joke when I’d call or send a card is that I’d say or write that it was from her favorite son.

Someone sent me this picture some months ago. I thought it was rather funny. Specifically, it reminded me of the Paul Simon song Mother and Child Reunion, which is based on a chicken and egg dish that Simon had at a Chinese restaurant.

Then my mom died, and it’s my first Mother’s Day without her. The visual is still funny but in a more melancholy way. Melancholy humor.

I’ve discovered that Mother’s Day ads REALLY irritate me lately, more than Father’s Day ads did 10 years ago. Maybe it was because it was longer between when my father died until the next holiday (August to June) than it is for my mom (February to May). But probably it’s because I get more e-mail solicitations than I did a decade ago, and they are more difficult to ignore.

The picture above is of my mother with her favorite son many years ago in front of 5 Gaines Street, Binghamton, NY USA; the house and the trim, BTW, were green. The running joke when I’d call or send a card is that I’d say or write that it was from her favorite son. She was generally polite enough not to mention that I was her ONLY son.

Last Sunday, there was a Mass for Mom at the Mission San Diego Basilica de Alcala in San Diego. As my sister Leslie reported, it was “beautiful. It was the regular Noon Mass, but it was announced at the beginning that this Mass was for Trudy Green, mother of Leslie Green, who is a member of the Mission Choir.” I will be getting a copy of the event. “It was a packed house on a beautiful day.”

The bottom picture is of my daughter with her favorite mother. Carol is, among other things, a good mom.

Happy Mother’s Day to all of you mothers, and all of you who have or had mothers.

Robert Johnson QUESTION

Eric Clapton, formerly of the aforementioned Cream, recorded a whole 2004 album of Robert Johnson songs.

I recently noticed that tomorrow would have been the 100th birthday of Robert Johnson. Don’t think you know him? I suspect that, if you listen to music, you probably do. He’s the guy who over a reasonably short period wrote and recorded a number of songs that became staples of rock and blues artists.

Probably the first Johnson song I heard was Crossroads by Cream a song a/k/a Crossroads Blues.

There’s also The Rolling Stones’ Love in Vain and Travelling Riverside Blues by Led Zeppelin. One standard is Sweet Home Chicago, here performed by Robert Lockwood Jr. Here’s a list of Johnson songs. My favorite may be Walkin’ Blues by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band; unfortunately, I can’t find a direct link, though if you follow this link, you can join some website for free for a week, which will let you hear it.

Eric Clapton, formerly of the aforementioned Cream, recorded a whole 2004 album of Robert Johnson songs called Me and Mr. Johnson. A version of a song from that album, They’re Red Hot.

This week’s cover story edition on Coverville features the songs of Robert Johnson, including a couple I’ve mentioned.

What are your favorite Robert Johnson recordings or covers?

Happy birthday, Willie Mays!

She got to meet a bunch of the players mentioned in the song at a media event, including Willie, Mickey and the Duke, but the true significance of these gentlemen’s accomplishments was lost on her because she knew baseball not at all.

My favorite baseball player as a kid was Willie Mays. I thought, and I still think that he was the greatest person who played in my lifetime. He could hit for average (.302 lifetime). He could hit for power; he was fifth all-time in extra-base hits, behind only Hank Aaron, Mays’ godson Barry Bonds, Stan Musial, and Babe Ruth, and 4th in home runs after Bonds, Aaron, and Ruth. He was a great fielder, with 12 Golden Gloves in a row (1957-1968).

Willie came up with the New York Giants in 1951, but his 1952 season was truncated and his ’53 season obliterated because of military service. In 1954, the Giants faced the powerful Cleveland team, a roster that won a record 111 out of 154 regular-season games, in the World Series. The Giants swept the Series in four games, in no small part due to Mays.

So when the Giants moved to San Francisco in 1958, the Bay City was expecting more pennants. But they lost the Series to the Yankees in 1962. I didn’t realize until I read this article that those Giants’ losses in the playoffs and the Series, even after Mays retired, pained him. So the Series win for the 2010 San Francisco Giants was a win for the Say Hey Kid, so dubbed because he was lousy with names.

There is a song by a guy named Terry Cashman called Talkin’ Baseball, which mentions “Willie, Mickey and the Duke” in the chorus, they being the three now Hall of Fame centerfielders who played in New York City in the 1950s: Mays, Mickey Mantle of the Yankees and Duke Snider of the Brooklyn Dodgers. It namechecks a bunch of other players as well and has been updated occasionally. Listen to it HERE or HERE or HERE.

I have a colleague who knew Terry Cashman because she was friends with Terry’s daughter. As a result, she got to meet a bunch of the players mentioned in the song at a media event, including Willie, Mickey, and the Duke, but the true significance of these gentlemen’s accomplishments was lost on her because she knew baseball not at all. She also met Rusty Staub, who she knew from his restaurants, not his ball playing. I am jealous.

Mickey died in 1995, and Duke Snider passed away in February of 2011, leaving only Willie from that triumvirate.

Happy 80th birthday, Willie! Listen to The Treniers singing Say Hey (The Willie Mays Song).
***
The 2010 World Series trophy was in Troy, NY yesterday, for a good historic reason.

This week, and next

I should note, first of all: Today is Cinco de Mayo—or the fifth of May, which “commemorates the Mexican army’s 1862 victory over France at the Battle of Puebla during the French-Mexican War. It is not Mexico’s independence day, as is commonly believed.” [Emphasis mine.] “In the United States, Cinco de Mayo has evolved into a celebration of Mexican culture and heritage, particularly in areas with large Mexican-American populations.”

This means, unfortunately, yet another opportunity for some people to consume alcohol stupidly, even in areas without a large Mexican-American population. Guess I’ll put out a good thought to the cosmos for some sort of personal restraint. Sorry to sound so cranky about this, but past behavior on these seemingly designated drinking days (see also: St. Patrick’s Day) warrants it.

Yesterday, I went to the dentist, then donated blood (time #142) in downtown Albany. Even on a cold, rainy day, I miss downtown.

Saturday is a VERY busy day. Our household has a couple of chores to tend to. Yet I want to go to both the Tulip Festival AND Free Comic Book Day. This is the tenth year for FCBD and I always end up buying SOMETHING, which, of course, is the point. I need to get something that will fit in my backpack, because, weather permitting, I’ll probably ride the bike. I suppose that leaves out getting one of those long white comic boxes, even though I could actually use one.

Sunday, of course, is Mother’s Day, which, as usual, I spend with my mother-in-law and her family. More on that holiday on Sunday itself.

As people who work in my office know, I tend to play a lot of music of artists around their respective birthdays. For the seven day-period from May 8 through 14, there is the greatest number of artists for which I have a lot of their albums:
May 9 – Billy Joel (quite a few)
May 10 – Donovan (a couple)
May 10 – Bono (a lot of U2)
May 11 – Eric Burdon (a couple Animals’ albums)
May 11 – Butch Trucks (at least one solo)
May 12 – Steve Winwood (quite a few, mostly with Traffic)
May 13 – Stevie Wonder (a LOT)
May 14 – Bobby Darin (one)
May 14 – David Byrne (quite a few, both solo and with Talking Heads)

Oh, and Burdon’s turning 70. I always had affection for We Gotta Get Out Of This Place, It’s My Life, and Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood. I used to quote the latter: “Oh Lord, please don’t let me be misunderstood.”

Know who would have been 70 on May 13? Ritchie Valens, of La Bamba fame. Of course, he died in that plane crash on 3 February 1959 with the Big Bopper and Buddy Holly, thus remaining forever young in our minds.

I won’t be playing much music at work next week because I’ll be out of the office 2.5 days at a workshop learning more about, among other things, American Factfinder 2 on the Census page, necessary because I’m giving a podcast about it in mid-June. Yikes.