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Songs about war and peace

“The latest things in clothes will be black.”

I made a series of mixed CDs from my CD collection in the first decade of the 21st century. (The whys I’ll write about next week.) They are songs about war and peace in honor of the Veterans Day weekend.

A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall – Bob Dylan. This is the Rolling Thunder Revue version from 1975.

Shades of Grey – Billy Joel. I was surprised I went with this song instead of his Goodnight Saigon.

The Ostrich – Steppenwolf. I’ve loved this song and the eponymous album it comes from for a long time.

The Call Up – the Clash. Here’s what the song from the triple album collection Sandinista! is about.

One More Parade – They Might Be Giants—the great Phil Ochs song.

The big fool says to push on.

Waist Deep In The Big Muddy – Dick Gaughan. This is from Where Have All The Flowers Gone: The Songs of Pete Seeger, a compilation double CD that I bought at the Old Songs Festival near Albany in the early aughts. For a time, Seeger was banned from singing it on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.

War – the Temptations. Recorded first by the Tempts, Berry Gordy thought the song might be too controversial for one of Motown’s premiere artists. But Norman Whitfield was allowed to get Edwin Starr, a second-tier in the Motor City hierarchy, to release it as a single, which went to #1 pop for three weeks.

Wooden Ships – Jefferson Airplane. The song is credited to David Crosby, Stephen Stills, and the Airplane’s Paul Kantner. But on my CSN LP, it lists only Crosby and Stills.

If I Had A Rocket Launcher– Bruce Cockburn. I have a LOT of Cockburn on vinyl. Grammarly wants me to change the first word to Suppose.

The Unknown Soldier – the Doors. From the Waiting for the Sun album, the first Doors album I owned.

The War Is Over – Phil Ochs. I didn’t have my first Ochs album until after he died in 1976.

Talkin’ ‘Bout a Revolution – Living Colour, live at The Ritz. The great Tracy Chapman song. I have this on some compilation CD.

Business Goes On As Usual – Roberta Flack. It’s a great song on her Chapter Two album, written by Fred Hellerman of the Weavers and Fran Minkoff. It was recorded by The Chad Mitchell Trio; John Denver, David Boise & Michael Johnson; and others.

Give Peace A Chance – Louis Armstrong. And why not? (I didn’t pick Mitch Miller, thank your lucky stars.)

25 years since JEOPARDY!

WTEN-TV

25 years since JEOPARDY! Two and a half decades since the first of my two appearances on a syndicated game show. It is one of those things that people most identify with me.

I’m not going to rehash what happened. I wrote about that way back in 2005 and subsequently. Indeed, telling about it was one of the two reasons I started the blog in the first place. But I do want to reflect on why people keep bringing it up.

In June 2023, I was at the retirement party of some teachers, including a college friend of my wife. We were at a table of people I mostly did not know. Yet someone mentioned that they heard I was on the show. Then another person asked me about it, and a third gently chastised me for not bringing it up.

People in my area have won more games than I did. A woman from my town was on a show a month before my episodes did. But I had some unique advantages.

My shows were recorded in Boston, not in southern California. This meant that WTEN, Channel 10, the Albany affiliate station showed up at the tapings, much to my surprise. And TV folks from the Binghamton area (my hometown) and, inexplicably, Plattsburgh, way in upstate NY, interviewed me before the shows aired. The reporters covering the contestants got to play some mock games, which made the stations plug MY appearances more than a player who had gone to L.A.

Someone, usually people I didn’t know, mentioned to me being on the show for 270 days straight. Then not for a few days, followed by another streak of several weeks. It was weird and nice in about equal measure.

McGuire, not McGwire

Mark McGuire was the new person who covered the local television scene for the Albany Times Union in November 1998. When I won, he mentioned Linda Zusman, a foreign language teacher from Albany, NY, who had won $12,000 on the show that aired on October 6. After Sarah Gold took home $15,001 in a show from June 14, 1999, he mentioned Linda and me. And so on.

When Mark had tired of Ken Jennings after he won about 20 games, he called or emailed me for a pull quote.

This is true: I’m SO happy I played then rather than now. The picayune scrutiny players endure from social media is exhausting, everything from apparel to missing an “easy” Final JEOPARDY!

Second chance

A friend of mine asked me whether I had been invited to the Champions Wildcard that’s been taking place on JEOPARDY recently. No, all contestants are “winners who nabbed one, two, or three wins in Season 37 or Season 38.” I’m not jealous, but I do think it diminishes the game somewhat.

Yet I’m fine with those folks who never won being in the Second Chance tournament. They may have come up against a Mattea Roach, winner of 23 straight games, or 16-game winner Ryan Long.

Representative Roeder

One person I must thank publicly during my time on the show is Amy Roeder. She was the other challenger in my win. She played such a competitive game that I had to make a huge wager in FJ.

More importantly, she took my call the day before our episode aired. I was freaking out after having kept the results of the show secret for about seven weeks, and I needed to talk to someone. Because she was so personable, I got her number from directory assistance. She was very accommodating.

And now Amy is doing great things. She is “serving her second term in the Maine House of Representatives. She is the House chair of the Labor and Housing Committee.

“Rep. Roeder has worked in the arts for her entire adult life, both as an artist and administrator. She currently serves as an adjunct theater professor at the University of Maine. Additionally, she is a freelance business trainer and has worked with multiple local and national companies to address critical issues around communication, problem-solving, and organizational change management.

“Rep. Roeder is a strong advocate in Augusta for fair wages, safe working conditions, and expanded opportunities for all workers. She is particularly passionate about supporting small businesses and working to help Maine’s downtowns and Main Streets thrive.”

Oh, and she pointed out this intro to our episode.

Movie review: The Persian Version

plates spinning

The movie The Persian Version has much to commend it. Writer/director Maryam Keshavarz has created a storyline based mainly on her own life as the youngest child and the only girl in a sizeable Iranian-American family.

Early on, Leila found that she didn’t fit in. She was too Iranian when she was in the United States and too American when in Iran. She forged her own path, conflicting with her mother, Shireen. Leila blames her mother for her breakup with Elena.

She has a peculiar relationship with the actor Maxmillian, who appears in the play Hedwig and the Angry Inch; she and her eight brothers have fun at Max’s expense. Her constant refuge is her grandmother Mamanjoon, who catalyzes a significant story arc.

As Leila’s father/Shireen’s husband Ali Reza becomes very ill, with medical bills piling up, Shireen becomes focused on remaking herself to take care of the family financially. The film has a suitable ending.

Good flick

The Persian Version has a lot to commend it. The family dynamics, with Shireen disappointed that her daughter is a basketball player and one of her sons a cheerleader, is believable. It takes on the redlining of immigrant families and businesses. The perceived role of women, past and present, is important throughout.

Critic Kate Walsh writes: “Keshavarz spins a lot of plates in ‘The Persian Version,’ and we can see the effort, but she keeps them all in the air.” Whether she pulls this off is the real issue. The Rotten Tomatoes critics, 18% of whom think she didn’t quite it off, are like Jeff Mitchell, who wrote, “Too many shifts in times, tones, and ideas crowd the earnest intentions.”

My wife is in the Walsh camp, whereas I see Mitchell’s point. That said, I think it’s an important film, and despite its flaws, it is very much worthwhile. I loved the use of dance. We saw the movie on Saturday, November 4, as usual, at the Spectrum Theatre in Albany.

People born in November 1953

Hof linebacker for the NYG

I’m listing some people born in November 1953 because I was born in 1953. But I’m MUCH older.

Kate Capshaw (3rd) is a painter. I found this quote on Instagram: “As a painter, #Outwin2019 artist Kate Capshaw is deeply committed to revealing the crisis of homelessness as it affects young people. The alla prima painting sessions were in collaboration with the subjects, who were welcomed as guests to participate in this cycle of the series.”

Oh, yeah, she was an actor, appearing in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. She had been married to marketing manager Robert Capshaw (1976-1980); her given surname was Nail. She married the Temple of Doom director Steven Spielberg in 1991.

Kevin Nealon (18th) was a mainstay on Saturday Night Live from 1986 to 1995, anchoring Weekend Update for three years. Dana Carvey and Nealon would “Pump… you up” as Hans and Franz.

Alan Moore (18th): I probably read his work before remembering because I was picking up some Marvelman/Miracleman. The Encyclopedia Britannica describes a “British writer whose works included some of the most influential books in comics history.” It claims, probably correctly, how Watchman defined the term “graphic novel” for many readers. Still, I’m a sucker for the Moore/Steve Bissette/John Totleben Saga of the Swamp Thing, which I have in a box set.

Tina Brown (23rd): I read several publications when she was editing them, including Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and The Daily Beast.

Someone I once knew

Darlanne Fluegel (25th): In 2010, Kelly wrote about Battle Beyond the Stars, a 1980 movie I’ve never seen, and he noted how cute Darlanne was. Months later, I posted a page from a Binghamton Central High School yearbook. I didn’t know her well, as I was more friends with her sister. Still, I was very sad to hear she suffered from early-onset Alzheimer’s at 56. She died from the disease in 2017 at the age of 64

. Harry Carson (26th) was a linebacker for my favorite team, the New York Giants. “Later in his career, when he was joined by outside linebackers Lawrence Taylor and Carl Banks, there was no better linebacker trio in the NFL.” He was selected for 9 Pro Bowls in 13 seasons. Carson was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2006.

Steve Bannon (27th): His poison resonates far too often. The Washington Post noted in mid-October 2023 that conservative media stars like Bannon helped fuel the GOP Speaker chaos. Here’s a 2022 BBC story about his downfall.

Lyle Mays (27th): He was a great jazz pianist who often played with jazz guitar great Pat Metheny. I associate both with Joni Mitchell’s live Shadows and Light album from 1980. He died in February 2020 from a recurring illness.

Michael Chertoff (28th) was the second Secretary of Homeland Security under George W. Bush. He was a co-author of the dreadful USA PATRIOT Act. Still, “In a July 2020 op-ed in The New York Times, Chertoff claimed” djt’s administration “was hijacking the DHS for political purposes.”

Shuggie Otis (30th) is the son of Johnny Otis, a legendary musician I wrote about in 2008. One of Shuggie’s albums features his composition Strawberry Letter #23, successfully covered by the Brothers Johnson.

Good times, bad times

The bast team to go from 100+ losses to winning the World Series two years later was the 1969 Mets

While there are a lot of pretty average days, pretty standard, some are noteworthy. Per the song, “Good times, bad times, you know I had my share.”

Wed, Nov 1: We had a dearth of trick-or-treaters the night before. Remarkably, I ate no candy.

I received a call from the younger of my two sisters. Then, my daughter rang me up, asking my opinion about something, which admittedly pleases me no end.

I have this project to work on, which I need to complete for monetary reasons. But it required a larger block of time than I had left, so I called a good friend from church instead.

Then, I took the bus downtown to the all-day reading of William Kennedy’s Albany-based novel Ironweed. It is the 40th anniversary of the book, which was made into a 1987 film starring Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep. True confession: I’ve never read the book, although I tried about 35 years ago. Nor have I seen the film, made in Albany.

Regardless

Yet I signed up to read one of the five-minute segments and promoted the event at a book review. I have long thought that it takes a while to become an Albanian, maybe 30 years. Perhaps I was trying to read it too soon. Also, I signed up for a 3:55 slot, so I showed up to the Albany Distilling Co. Bar and Bottle Shop, maker of Ironweed whiskey, at 75 Livingston Ave. at 3:15.

The event was running late, so I got to hear over an hour of the book before I read, including a couple of people I know. Each reader was to sign their segment of the reading text. Two people, one an organizer, told me, that I read particularly well, which was nice to hear.

Then, at 7 pm, the event moved from the pub around the corner to the Capital Rep theater, where the last of the celebrity readers completed the book, the last of whom was the 95-year-old William Kennedy. It was an extraordinary Albany event.

I took the bus home and watched Game 5 of the World Series. While both the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Texas Rangers were only two years from 100-loss seasons, I was rooting for the Rangers, who won, because they’ve never won the Series, going back to when they were the second Washington Senators; the first Senators had moved to Minnesota.

BTW, I watched it recorded on the DVR. Baseball and football are way better, and faster when one can fast-forward through instant replay, manager/coach challenges, and commercials. This was a glorious day.

Lost day

Thurs, Nov 2: I had an allergist appointment, but I couldn’t find my wallet. I’d looked in all of the usual places. My wife took me to the doctor’s office in Corporate (frickin’) Woods. I learned my doctor is retiring, which made me sad because it takes a while to break in a medical professional.

With no bus returning downtown for a few hours, I took an Uber home. I called CDTA to see if my bus had retrieved my wallet; no. Then, I called two of my credit card companies to put a freeze on my account.

Earlier, my website provider, DreamHost had their site go down, but it was back online. Yet my site was still not available. I wanted to contact their support, but I was not able to. I COULD have requested a callback, but that would have cost $9.95. This ticked me off.

Instead, I went to CDTA and got a new bus pass. On the way home, I stopped for a sandwich. I got a notification from my Jetpack software that my site was up after six hours offline.

After trying to catch up with my email, eating dinner, and taking out the garbage, I went to church for the dress rehearsal of Lux Aeterna. This was the first time the two participating choirs and the orchestra, some 90 people, had practiced together. From my previous experience, this can be rough musically, and this was no exception, though it got better as the evening progressed.

This was a pretty sucky day and emotionally exhausting, though the woman at CDTA was quite nice.

Finally

Fri, Nov 3: I canceled my debit card and then did various chores. After the University Chamber Singers performed the first half of the First Friday program, it was time for the Lux Aeterna, which was an intense experience. It seemed to go well, from the audience’s reaction. And it was a pretty full house.

After my wife and I went home, I decided to scour the bedroom floor one more time. No wallet on the carpet, but I found it in a cylindrical item in which I had never put my wallet before.

Crisis over. This was a day of relief.

PS: There were several photos of folks at the Were You Seen segment of the Times Union for the October 21 Albany Public Library Centennial Celebration, presented by The Friends and Foundation of the Albany Public Library. It went live two days later.

But just to show that some people read the print version of the paper, a few of the pictures, including one of Dr. Leonard Slade and me, appeared in the November 5 paper. Several people saw it before I did,