Roger O Green

In my mind, music linked together

Town Without Pity

Quite often, not to your surprise, music gets linked together in my mind.

American classical composer Aaron Copeland finished Appalachian Spring in 1944, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize. The ballet was written for dancer Martha Graham.

Copland uses Simple Gifts, a “Shaker song written and composed in 1848, generally attributed to Elder Joseph Brackett from Alfred Shaker Village.”

Here is the song Simple Gifts, performed by Yo-Yo Ma and Alison Krauss.

The Aaron Copland version of the Simple Gifts section is isolated here. The part starting at 2:24 was used as the theme for CBS Reports, which may be the first place I heard it.

Simple Gifts was also the template for Lord of the Dance, a hymn written by English songwriter Sydney Carter in 1963. It has been included in at least one hymnal I’ve sung from in the last quarter century.

Come to where the flavor is

As a kid, I thought the theme that accompanied the Marlboro cigarette commercials was magnificent. I later discovered the tune from the movie The Magnificant Seven by Elmer Bernstein, which I have never seen.

Town Without Pity is a song performed by Gene Pitney and written by composer Dimitri Tiomkin and lyricist Ned Washington. I didn’t learn much about Pitney until after his commercial peak from 1961 to 1964. The a cappella group, The Nylons, does an excellent cover version. The intro sounds to my ear very much like the theme to the television program Perry Mason, which I think is one of the finest pieces of pure music in that genre, especially the closing.

Of course, the William Tell Overture from Gioachino Rossini’s last opera is quite familiar. The third movement is often used in many animated features to represent a new day. Then the fourth movement was used as the theme for the television program The Lone Ranger. That final movement speeded up appears in the movie A Clockwork Orange.

Earth Day

Since it’s Earth Day, I thought of picking some appropriate songs for the occasion. Instead, there are links here and here and here. Inevitably, there is some overlap, but other tracks are unique to a list.

Having a green website

Website Carbon Calculator

I received an email this month from Yoast about having a green website. No, we’re NOT talking about my surname. I only vaguely knew that a green website was a thing.

“Did you know the tech industry is responsible for nearly 4% of global CO2 emissions? That’s similar to the travel industry! Shockingly enough, this number is only growing. It’s time to take action and reduce our ecological footprint. Luckily, there are some things you can do to make your website greener!”

The article notes that you can save energy by blocking bad bots. GameSpot, a news site about video games, produced the most significant amount of CO2. Conversely, “the cleanest and greenest: Google. They only produce 5,480 grams per year. Which isn’t surprising when you consider their net-zero target in 2030. Google’s sustainability efforts range from machine learning to help cool data centers to smart thermostats that conserve home energy.”

Whole Grain Digital offers 20 ways to make your website more energy efficient. Among the suggestions are SEO, choosing fonts carefully, and reducing images and videos.

Calculating carbon

Yoast pointed to a Website Carbon Calculator. I nervously put in my URL. “Hurrah! This web page is cleaner than 90% of web pages tested.” I’m not sure exactly what I’m doing correctly other than using YouTube links instead of videos. It’s probably primarily my provider’s doing. DreamHost is #3 on Sustainable Business Toolkit’s best green web hosting.

I checked out some of my blogging colleagues. Sharp Little Pencil from Amy was 88% cleaner. The blog of Chuck Miller was 85% cleaner. Diana De Avila, whose site is quite graphically intense, is 65% cleaner. Dan’s largely abandoned albanyweblog is 63% cleaner. Forgotten Stars, the site of Kelly Sedinger, was 60% cleaner.

Some of the other ones I checked fared less well. My most recent employer’s report: “Uh oh! This web page is dirtier than 69% of web pages tested.” Census.gov is 81% dirtier.

Hmm. I still have my old Blogspot site, which I used for my first five years. “Hurrah! This web page is cleaner than 55% of web pages tested, ” same as Albany Public Library, coincidentally.

Flooding

The website 1440 reported, “South Florida was hit by heavy rainfall [recently], causing widespread flooding and shutting down schools and the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. Fort Lauderdale recorded a once-in-1,000-year rainfall of 20 inches [50.8 cm] within six hours. The city’s 24-hour total of 25.9 inches [65.8 cm] set a record for the rainiest 24 hours in the state’s recorded history.

“The floods come as extreme rainfall events are becoming more common worldwide. Experts say for every 1.8-degree increase in global temperature, the amount of atmospheric moisture increases by 6%-7%, resulting in more intense and frequent precipitation (see more on the Clausius-Clapeyron equation).”

Whatever we can do to stem the tide of global warming is vital.

Cashing in the savings bonds

paying for higher education

I wanted to start cashing in the savings bonds I bought thirty years ago. Late in 1992, I decided to buy $100 US savings bonds through my job’s payroll plan; they cost $50 each.

The first two EE bonds matured recently. The elder, from 1992, was now worth a whopping $207.36. However, the second, from 1993, was valued at $164.12. It’s like me to get on a good thing after it peaked.

I checked my bank’s website, which suggested they would cash them, but I went there and was told, “We haven’t done that in years.” Then I checked my credit union’s online bot, which told me I had to prove they were mine, even though my name was on them. I would need an unsigned copy of FS Form 1522.

After posting my confusion on Facebook, I got advice to try my credit union, my bank but to give them notice, and another bank. Ultimately, I went to my credit union, which was easier than anticipated.

I noticed that my bonds from 1993 through 1995 are getting 4% interest, which will cash out at about $160 each at maturity. But the 1996 and 1997 ones now receive 2.82% interest and will only be worth about $125 eventually.

Taxes

One of my relatives has several matured savings bonds left by a spouse, which they have not yet cashed because they are wary of the tax implications.

From Smart Asset: “You won’t pay state or local income tax on interest earnings, but you may pay state or inheritance taxes if those apply where you live.

“You have one option for avoiding taxes on savings bonds: the education exclusion. You can skip paying taxes on interest earned with Series EE and Series I savings bonds if you’re using the money to pay for qualified higher education costs. That includes expenses you pay for yourself, your spouse, or a qualified dependent. Only certain qualified higher education costs are covered, including:

Tuition
Fees
Some books
Equipment, such as a computer

“You can still use savings bonds to pay for other education expenses, such as room and board or activity fees, but you wouldn’t be able to avoid paying taxes on interest.”

Estates

I’ve known a couple of people dealing with estates involving savings bonds. They involve more legalese than I need to share here.

They may need to provide death certificates they do not possess. I know that, e.g., the city of Albany provides them “upon proof of entitlement under New York State (NYS) Public Health Law.” In Mecklenburg County (Charlotte), NC, you can get one when “seeking information for legal determination of personal property rights.”

Oh, I know I have lost one bond from 1993. I can tell because there is a gap in the dates issued. Since I have a TreasuryDirect account, I can replace it by filling out FS Form 1048. It shouldn’t be signed before being witnessed by a notary.

Is diversity “pandering”?

Kareem re: The Bachelor

I was talking to a White friend of mine recently. During the conversation, they said that all those television advertisements showing diverse people, folks of many colors and sizes, and abilities, are “pandering.” This took me aback.

Maybe it’s because I’ve written about this at least twice. Here’s the second piece, because the comments to the first piece (which I linked to in that second post) were so filled with racist vitriol that it was exhausting.

The less vulgar responses were like what “Bruce” wrote: “My count of Blacks in commercials exceeds 33%… But blacks make up 14% of the population and only 10% of total consumption (commercials, after all, are all about stimulating consumption)…

“So explain that huge discrepancy. I surely don’t mind seeing diversity in TV ads. But they should reflect fairness relative to these respective groups’ overall economic impact. Otherwise, it’s just PC gone haywire.” As I noted, I grew up when there were NO people of color in TV ads and damn few on the programs.

It finally occurred to me that I was stating the premise incorrectly. Advertisements have always been aspirational. I can see myself in that new model T Ford. My new Frigidaire will keep my food fresher.

Frankly, I don’t watch many television ads, as I fast forward a lot through recorded programs. The shows I watch tend to be news programs. But even speeding through them, I can tell many, if not most, of the programs I watch, are for prescription drugs.

Let me be clear that I despise these direct-to-the-consumer Rx ads, which seem to run only in the US and New Zealand. Their goal is to remind Black women they can also have clearer skin. Hispanic men no longer have to suffer the embarrassment of ED.

These ads show diversity, not because they are “woke” or pandering but because they want to sell stuff – sometimes things you don’t need – to as many people as possible.

As author Walter Mosley speaks to CBS News about how much more buzz his new book, Every Man a King, is getting than any of his others, he notes it’s because of capitalism.

The Bachelor

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who incidentally appears in an ad about AFib, though not tied to a particular product, recently wrote about diversity in television. His example was The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, et al. I’ve never watched a single episode.

He asks a “simple question: Do reality shows (or TV shows and movies in general) have a responsibility to be aspirational as well as reflecting ‘reality’? By that, I mean, should a reality franchise with a vast audience and influence on popular culture merely reflect systemic racism, or should it aim higher in creating the kind of diverse world that we aspire toward?

“When you reflect systemic racism by not including a more ethnically diverse cast, then you are perpetuating that racism. For money.” He explains it well.

AAEEO

Another friend noted, “I’ve seen some media coverage of the Oscars. The whole thing seems like a study in overcompensation, as if ‘the academy’ feels guilty and hopes throwing everything at a single film can make up for decades of ‘in-crowd’ awards.”

The reference, of course, is to Everything Everywhere All At Once, a movie I extolled. It may be my favorite film of this century. (My friend hasn’t seen it for what I know to be good reasons unrelated to the ethnicity of the actors.)

My take: EEAAO was a film that would not have been made a few years ago, but it can now be with an Asian co-writer/co-director/co-producer. And that should be celebrated. I’m REALLY happy that I saw it at the cinema.

And it’s not just Asians being honored. Of the four acting winners, Michelle Yeoh is 60, Jamie Lee Curtis is 64, Ke Huy Quan is 51, and Brendan Fraser (The Whale) is 54. The guys had both been lost in the Hollywood wilderness.

I understand that “diversity” is a bugaboo for many people. On a recent episode of the TV drama The Good Doctor, the black female third-year resident didn’t want to be on a video chat talking to would-be doctors that “looked like her.” It was a burden, which I totally got. Mild spoiler: she gave the talk at the end and realized how powerful the experience was.

Race

Another friend asked me in a public setting recently whether we should stop counting race in the US Census since race, as we all know, is a social construct. I said yes, which was disappointing to that person. They were sad that Barack Obama had not checked the White AND Black boxes on the 2010 Census.

I opined at the time that the race question might disappear when the number of people selecting multiple race boxes increased enough to make the numbers meaningless.

In retrospect, I don’t believe it’ll go away until America becomes more willing to discuss the consequences of racism. Since the distinctions will be based on historic racial characteristics, they will remain relevant for… I don’t know how long.

Why Albany? Why not Albany?

Knick Arena

Jeanne Beanne, who I know IRL, asked another question.

Why Albany? Why not Albany?

I’ve written about Albany, NY, periodically, but it warrants revisiting now and then.

Here’s a mixed issue. Ninety-eight acres of downtown Albany were razed in the 1960s to build the Empire State Plaza.

On the one hand, it has created one of the most distinctive skylines in the state. The Egg and, subsequently, the Knickerbocker Arena (currently called the MVP Arena, its third name change) have provided great entertainment venues. There is a pleasant passageway underground between the state capitol and the excellent state museum.

On the other hand, tearing down those neighborhoods have totally changed the character of that part of the city. It propelled flight to the suburbs at least as much as the suburban malls such as Colonie Center and Crossgates.

Too many houses have a red placard with a big white X, indicating “to ‘first responders’-police officers, fire department staff and building department staff, that the building is considered unsafe for emergency personnel.”

I was walking down the first block of Central Avenue, where the comic book store, FantaCo, where I worked, resided from 1978 to 1998. That area looks much more run down than it did five years ago. Some of it, I imagine, is the effect of the pandemic, but still, it made me a bit sad.

Change takes time

In some ways, it’s getting better than the old days. It’s still a one-party rule in the city. There hasn’t been a Republican mayor in over a century. For forty of those years, Erastus Corning 2nd and the Democratic party machine ran entirely undemocratic operations.

For complex reasons – how can you get a city to see a shrink? – it has taken time to break away from the way things were.

Mayor Kathy Sheehan is trying. The city council is far more diverse than it had been for most of its existence.

I noted recently on Facebook how some street lights were out near my house at midday while they did necessary repairs. Folks with flags in an exciting display of teamwork controlled the traffic. In the bad old days, they might have waited until they broke before fixing them. Snow removal is better than it was, not perfect, but at least the side streets are getting occasional care.

I HEART ALB

At the core, I’m happy to be in Albany. The Capital District Transportation Authority buses, at the last major restructuring of their bus schedules about 15 years ago, FINALLY provided more equitable service to the South End of the city.

The area, as noted, has fine cultural offerings. The various colleges and universities in the region bolster this.

In the course of climate change, there’s nowhere else I’d rather be. The Capital District is not prone to drought, hurricanes, tornadoes, or extreme weather. And Albany, specifically, resides in a valley, so it’s less likely to get snow than, say, Averill Park, just 15 miles to the east. Indeed, and probably unfortunately, the winters are much milder and less snowy than they used to be.

Finally, as Albanians acknowledge yet hate to admit, it’s easy to travel to New York, Boston, and even Montreal. So it’s convenient to get to Somewhere Else, which is not the worst thing.