Roger O Green

The Lydster: Middle school transition

Her father dropped off her gym clothes, once.

We’ve been very lucky in getting the Daughter to school. In kindergarten, she went where the Wife worked. And for grades 1-6. the Daughter attended a school that was built only a couple of years before she entered, located less than a block from our home.

Inevitably, though, we had to deal with what I called junior high but what is now generally referred to as middle school. Among other things, this means taking the bus at a specific time.

By the schedule, that means at 7:32 a.m. a block away. However, the vehicle is occasionally early, she learned to her frustration. Or late.

Still, the dedicated service, provided by the local transit entity CDTA is a whole lot more reliable than the contracted yellow bus company that still provides rides to kids going home late after extracurricular activities such as sports and theater. In fact, the Daughter has found the yellow buses SO undependable that she has mastered taking the CDTA home, even though it involves two buses.

The trick about middle school is having eleven different classes in the eight periods and keeping track of which days are gym days, for instance. Her father dropped off her gym clothes, once.

She also has to deal with homework. Her mother is always suggesting that she put it away the night before, but The Daughter finds this suboptimal. She ends up checking her bag in the morning again to see if the homework is in there.

The result of this is not unlike this Luann comic strip from September 4, 2016. Substitute house key for car key and her ID for her charger and it’s about right. Frankly, this whirling dervish was exhausting. And her father dropped off her homework that she couldn’t find, but he did, once.

But an interesting thing: by Thanksgiving, she started hanging her ID on the front door, putting her homework in her folder, usually, and in general, taking more responsibility.

The Wife was wowed by my patience during the process, but it was my opinion that you can’t tell her what to do, but that she has to, like Dorothy in OZ, learn it herself.

Music, February 1971: Tapestry

Producer Lou Adler wanted the listeners to visualize Carole King sitting at the piano just for them.

More random music recollections based on the book Never A Dull Moment.

Carole King was in the music business for a lot of years. As a kid who used to read the liner notes, I discovered she was the King in (Gerry) Goffin-King songwriting duo. But in 1971, she invented the album business. Tapestry was recorded in January of that year. A&M house photographer Jim McCrary had tried various pictures around the house before adding the cat Telemachus into the shot.

Tapestry was released on February 10, 1971, the day after her 29th birthday. This is the first ad, from Billboard Magazine. I know that I didn’t purchase it until the summer; I bought the Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers the same day. Some years later, I got it again, because I had worn out the grooves. Finally, I acquired it on CD.

Producer Lou Adler wanted to make an album with that demo quality. “He wanted the listeners to visualize Carole King sitting at the piano just for them.” It spent an astonishing 15 weeks at #1 on the US album charts, long after the singles had faded. “By the end of the year, it was still selling 150,000 copies a week in the United States alone.” It was the first “evergreen” album that wasn’t a movie soundtrack or the like.

Two other albums recorded in the same studio the same month were Joni Mitchell’s Blue, one of my favorite albums of all time, and the only Carpenters album I owned, their third. Liking Carpenters’ music was REALLY uncool in the day.

Jesus Christ Superstar was #1 for three weeks during this time. It was a hugely significant source of my understanding/debate about theology and religion, particularly with my friend Pat. It seemed she and I would debate its merits for hours. I knew this album like my daughter knows Hamilton. I always wanted to play Peter.

Pearl, the posthumous album by Janis Joplin, spent nine weeks at #1. I recall working at a factory in 1972 and singing Mercedes Benz, one of the few songs written by Janis. Someone asked me if it were a song by the Temptations; I found that extraordinarily amusing at the time.

Listen to:
Coverville 1159: The Carole King Cover Story II
Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow – Carole King with the Mitchell-Taylor Boy-and-Girl Choir
You’ve Got a Friend – James Taylor
Little Green – Joni Mitchell
Rainy Days and Mondays – Carpenters
Mercedes Benz – Janis Joplin
Just My Imagination – the Temptations
What’s the Buzz/Strange Thing Mystifying – Jesus Christ Superstar

Oscar-nominated animated shorts 2017

Tthe pic pairs gravelly voiceover with luridly colored frames recalling some indie comic books.

Every year I try to see both the Oscar-nominated animated shorts and their live-action counterparts. The documentaries, alas, don’t seem to make it into this neck of the woods.

This year’s roster:

Borrowed Time -a weathered Sheriff in the Old West returns to the remains of a terrible accident. It was done by a couple Pixar folks, so it is of high quality. I had seen this before online, and while it’s evocative of a mood, it didn’t quite satisfy.

Pearl – a father/daughter relationship from the point of view of the family car, and especially the music played therein. It is my wife’s favorite piece, and we saw it in a conventional theater. Watch it here or here or here.

Blind Vaysha – based, i think, on an old folk tale about a girl with cursed eyesight. One eye sees visions of the past, while the other peers into the future. It’s done in the style of German expressionist woodcuts. This was possibly my favorite. If you’re in Canada, you can see it here.

Piper – this is the Pixar piece, which I saw before Finding Dory. It had a photorealistic look of a newborn bird trying to find food on his own. I actually liked it more in the rewatching. See it here.

Then there was the warning about the final piece that contains sex and violence and language and that you might want to get the kiddies out of the room. I saw a movie a couple years back like that; it was quite terrible.

But before that, a few of the also-rans:

Asteria – wo astronauts make an unexpected discovery on a barren planet. A silly, yet quite pointed observation about the human condition.

The Head Vanishes – a woman is determined to make her annual train trip to the seaside when she quite literally loses her head. this about dementia, of course, which my late mother experienced in her later years. This too you may be able to see in Canada.

Once Upon a Line – a dialogue-free film using a clever pen-and-ink style continual illustrations in which a humdrum guy’s life gets upended by romance. It should have been in the final five in lieu of Borrowed Time.

Pear Cider and Cigarettes – “the aforementioned naughty film, which at 35 minutes is also four times the length of any other nominee. Apparently drawn directly from writer/director Robert Valley’s life, it tells of his friendship with a hard-living character named Techno, who winds up stuck in a Chinese hospital awaiting a liver transplant. Covering decades of up-and-down friendship in a hard-boiled but persuasive style, the pic pairs gravelly voiceover with luridly colored frames recalling some indie comic books. Though very tied to the specifics of Valley’s larger-than-life subject, the bittersweet featurette depicts a sort of character many older viewers will recognize: the kid who could be in charge and out of control simultaneously, who did what others feared until life caught up with him.” My wife and I really related to thie Techno character; we’ve both known that guy with a lot of potential who frittered it away.

It occurred to me that most of these films are about memory, in one form or another. All the nominated films, plus, of course, The Head Vanishes, fit into the category. A worthwhile visit to the Spectrum Theatre.

Mandated Workplace Violence training

For the next two days, it was all we talked about; if that were the intent, it worked.

All of us SUNY Central employees were required to register for, and attend, a 90-minute Workplace Violence training session back in August.

“In accordance with NYS Law, SUNY System Administration has implemented required/mandatory Workplace Violence training to help ensure a safe working environment. This training extends to all employees who work within our System Administration locations, inclusive of our Research Foundation and Construction Fund colleagues.

“Even in the absence of any identified risk, employees should be knowledgeable about measures they can take to protect themselves in the workplace. Learn how to:

• Identify Risk Factors
• Prevent Workplace Violence Incidents
• Enhance Personal Safety
• Increase Survivability in Critical Incidents

“Be a part of our pro-active preventative approach to keeping the SUNY community safe!”

I had the idea that the workshop would spend more time diffusing a potentially volatile workplace situation. There was lip service about recognizing someone in a workplace situation who might be “ready to blow.” But it wasn’t the primary focus.

Instead, it was a lot about how you might live if an active shooter situation. There was a lot about flight or fight – flee if can, fight if getting away or hiding is not an option.

The speaker managed to namecheck all sorts of mass shootings, from the school kids and educators in Newtown, CT, to the assassination attempt on Gabby Giffords in an Arizona strip mall that left six dead and the Congresswoman gravely wounded to the shooting in Binghamton, NY that killed 13. But there were a whole lot that you never heard about.

The takeaway, my colleagues all agreed, is where the heck would you hide, or run to, if you had to? Those folks with doors were subsequently issued door stops, but those with partial glass walls were less than comforted by this.

As someone with no office door, where I would run would to would depend on what direction the disturbance was coming from. The offices are in one big circle, and I am near the diameter.

For the next two days, it was all we talked about; if that were the intent, it worked. But it mostly made me depressed as hell.

How do you solve a problem like the Donald?

If each of us writes even a single postcard and we put them all in the mail on the same day, March 15th, well: you do the math. No alternative fact or Russian translation will explain away our record-breaking, officially-verifiable, warehouse-filling flood of fury.

There’s been a LOT of advice out there about what to do, and NOT to do, in response to the current American regime.

As someone who’s gone to more than a few demonstrations, and written some letters, in his time, some observations:

We all have different gifts; it’s Biblical. So it is unrealistic to suggest that we ALL should act on a list of ALL things ALL the time. Among other things, that will create burnout, which is the enemy of change.

Find the thing or things you can do. Be aware, though, that it may be something you’ve never done before. There was a guy on NBC Nightly News this month, who looked to be over 35, who had NEVER been to a protest march before 2017. Now he is getting guidance from the Indivisible guide every day. Or you could sign up for ACLU ACTION TEXTS. e.g.

Keep repeating the narratives, especially the ones you don’t think are getting adequate coverage, on social media. I was reading a piece in fivethirtyeight about what makes a story stick. Sometimes it’s just timing. “Persistence matters.”

One story I’d personally like y’all to beat to death is that the family’s elaborate lifestyle is a ‘logistical nightmare’ — at taxpayer expense. Some fiscal conservatives might be appalled to discover that we’re paying for the Secret Service for his two eldest sons to do business deals in Dubai, lining not only their own pockets but their father’s. And at this rate, it’ll cost more to protect 45’s family for six months than it cost to protect 44’s family for eight years. If you want to mention how 45 ironically complained about 44’s Hawaii trips, feel free.

Get your Senators and Representatives to pledge to oppose his agenda. Whether flooding Congressional phone lines is the best use of your time, I can’t say. I DO love the fact that after accusing protesters of being ‘paid,’ Utah rep is getting invoices from protesters.

Demonstrations are good, and I think the energy of the already-planned women’s marches of January 21 has become a stimulus for more activity. The reactions at airports against the Muslim travel ban, I think, were fueled by it. The “day without immigrants” on February 16, which closed businesses, had a visible impact that showed up on the national news. The April 15 march to demand Trump report his taxes may not succeed, but it would make a lie of the notion that “nobody” cares.

Personally, I like actions when they are specific, such as when ICE agents threaten folks in the community. It’s important to make bug your local officials to make, or keep your places sanctuaries. Push progressive causes at your state and local levels, and encourage people you know to run for office.

Not only boycott all Trump products, real estate, hotels, resorts, obviously but consider tying up their phone lines for 10 minutes pretending to make a reservation; grab him by the wallet.

Write letters to the editor of your newspaper and op-eds. Contribute to the opposition, whether that be Planned Parenthood or reliable news feeds.

And this is what you ought not to do: we mustn’t chastise our allies for our priorities if you are all working to stop the retrograde flow. We have different interests. Don’t say not to bother with new Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, because EPA head, and former EPA opponent, Scott Pruitt is worse. They’re BOTH terrible.

I saw this when the former Breitbart “news” head Steve Bannon was getting on the National Security Council, and some people thought that all energy had to be directed there. But a writer, I recall not who, correctly noted: “Would the well-meaning and overzealous please stop talking about the Muslim Ban as a ‘smokescreen’ and STOP referring to what’s ‘really happening’ or forwarding articles that lead with ‘while you were protesting…’ and other such disturbing language?… There’s no smoke, friends. It’s all on fire.”

Someone else wrote: “Not only do those posts downplay something real and serious affecting people’s lives in devastating ways, but they also often imply somehow that protesting a really bad thing is less important than being the smartest one who has figured out ‘the real worst thing.'”

I must admit I am rather fond of the Ides of Trump, because it plays on his reality-show roots:

“Just as the Romans did for Julius Caesar, you and I will now do for Donald J. Trump — only with postcards …

“Each of us — every protester from every march, each Congress-calling citizen, every boycotter, volunteer, donor, and petition signer — if each of us writes even a single postcard and we put them all in the mail on the same day, March 15th, well: you do the math.

“No alternative fact or Russian translation will explain away our record-breaking, officially-verifiable, warehouse-filling flood of fury. So sharpen your wit, unsheathe your writing implements …

“Write one postcard. Write a dozen! Take a picture and post it on social media tagged with #TheIdesOfTrump ! Spread the word! Everyone on Earth should let Donnie know how he’s doing. They can’t build a wall high enough to stop the mail. Then, on March 15th, mail your messages…”

And the reason I like it is that it’s fun, even silly. Robert Reich wrote about the 4 dangerous syndromes of coping with him. “We need you in the peaceful resistance.”

Applaud articles that give hope: American institutions are pushing back: the bureaucracy, the press, the judiciary, and the public.

Watch and read things that make you happy, whether it’s John Oliver, Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, a newly energized Trevor Noah on the Daily Show or Melissa McCarthy’s spoof of Spicer on Saturday Night Live. Try a binding spell.

But don’t spent time with articles claiming that these things make him crazy. Or that he IS crazy or narcissistic or whatever; he may well be, but I’m not qualified to diagnose, and probably neither are you.

Don’t pass along stories that are false; there are plenty of accurate stories that need sunlight. Admittedly, it can be difficult to avoid the Milo trolling playbook, but we must stop playing right into it. And, in the sign of the times, label the articles from The Onion and the Borowitz Report in the New Yorker as satire, because – and this has happened to me – otherwise you may be labeled as a purveyor of fake news.

Try not to get too discouraged. I was watching Samantha Bee, and she had a segment about people who were at the August 1963 March on Washington, which was a vacation compared with trying to get black people registered to vote in the South, where they might get one person a month. The Montgomery bus boycott took over a year. Cesar Chavez’s lettuce boycott took much longer. Not everything will succeed, but it’s a long struggle, not a sprint.

I believe in peaceful resistance as a matter of course. Whether you end up choosing to break the law – which I expect will become easier to do over time in this iteration of America – is a very personal decision. Know that:

“Those who sheltered Jews in hidden rooms, attics and basements during the Holocaust were breaking the law. Those who smuggled 7,000 Jews out of Denmark were breaking the law. Schindler was breaking the law. The Underground Railroad broke the law. Harriet Tubman broke the law. MLK broke the law. Hell, the effing Boston Tea Party broke the law.

If saving friends, family, and innocent people are breaking the law, break the law. If standing up for truth and justice is breaking the law, break the law.

The law is unjust. The law is morally wrong. Break the law.” — A.J. Tierney

And as Shane Claiborne, co-author of Jesus for President, noted on Presidents Day, resistance is Biblical:

“Every time the early Christians proclaimed, ‘Jesus is Lord’, they were also saying ‘Caesar is not.’ It was deeply and subversively political… It was an invitation to a new political imagination centered around the person, teaching, and peculiar politics of Christ. That’s why the early Christians were seen as a threat to power, enemies of the state, and accused of treason and insurrection.

“The norms of the Kingdom of God are the inversion of the world. It’s been called ‘the upside-down empire’ – where the poor are blessed, the last come first, the hungry are filled, and the mighty are cast down from their thrones. It means aligning ourselves with the prophets who speak of beating our weapons into farm tools, rather than conforming to the patterns of violence and the business of war. Our King does not rule with an iron fist, but with a towel, humbly washing feet.

“Jesus spun the whole political system on its head… He challenged the chosen and included the excluded. He said to the religious elites, ‘The tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the Kingdom ahead of you.’ He was in constant trouble with authority, taken to jail as a political prisoner, accused of insurrection for claiming to be King. As he rides into his trial and execution, he enters Jerusalem on the back of an ass. It was wonderful street theater, and the fulfillment of prophecy (donkeys weren’t icons of power … it would have been like a President riding a unicycle into Inauguration).”
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The Environmental Protection Agency shall terminate on December 31, 2018. That’s H. R. 861. Not the title of H. R. 861, it’s the whole bill.