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A Scriptorium, if it brings you joy

I used to read Russell Baker’s New York Times column religiously, and Growing Up was one of my all-time favorites.

Growing Up.Russell Baker This is a continuation of “I cannot throw out these books,” in response to Jaquandor’s Scriptorium piece. It is a counterpoint to Tidying Up’s Marie Kondo, who has said, “I now keep my collection of books to about thirty volumes at any one time.” That doesn’t mean YOU should have only 30 books, she added, if they bring you joy.

RELIGION

The Heart of Christianity: Rediscovering a Life of Faith – Marcus J. Borg (2003). In many ways, my own story.

The Wolf Shall Dwell with the Lamb: A Spirituality for Leadership in a Multicultural Community – -Eric H.F. Law (1993). In the late 1990s, my wife and were sent to Maryland to get training on multiculturalism by Law himself.

Methodist Hymnal (1851) – an ex-girlfriend gave it to me. It has lyrics but no music because it was ASSUMED that everyone knew the tunes.

The Methodist Hymnal (1935) – it was used by the church I grew up in. Same ex-girlfriend refers to it as the “REAL Methodist Hymnal.” She is correct.

Here and Now: Living in the Spirit – Henri J.M. Nouwen (1994) – In this blog, I have often quoted the birthday section on March 7.

Gandhi, An Autobiography: The story of my experiments with truth – Mohandas K. Gandhi. Written in the late 1920s, published in the US in 1957 and starting to fall apart from overuse.

POP CULTURE

Life Itself -Roger Ebert (2011). Naturally.

The Twilight Zone Companion – Marc Scott Zicree (1982). “The complete show-by-show guide to one of the greatest television shows ever.”

Word Freak – Stefan Fatsis (2001) – a book about Scrabble, which I used to play with my dear great-aunt Deana before she died in the mid-1960s

Uncle Andy’s: a faabbbulous visit with Andy Warhol – James Warhola (2003) – a book about Andy Warhol I got at the Norman Rockwell Museum in the past couple of years

Leonard Maltin’s 2015 movie guide, because it’s the last one

Love Is Hell – Matt Groening (1984). Before there was a single episode of the Simpsons, there was the HELL cartoon book series: Childhood is Hell, School is Hell, Work is Hell, The Road to Hell, all of which I own

MISCELLANEOUS

Roberts Rules of Order – given to me when I was elected Binghamton Central High School student government president in 1970 by the late Pat Wilson/Curry

The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green, An Oxford Freshman – Cuthbert Bede. I’ve never read this 1856 book “with numerous illustrations”, but I don’t need to.

Thinking in Numbers: On Life, Love, Meaning, and Math – Daniel Tammet (2012). I did a talk on this for the Friends of Albany Public Library

The Fate of the Earth- Jonathan Schell (1982). about avoiding nuclear annihilation, a real policy wonk piece. And somewhere in the middle of the book, was some hopeful narrative citing Socrates and Jesus, that was almost poetic in its verbiage, and it made me smile. I even used it at a ceremony once.

Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life – Sissela Bok (1979) – one of the most significant books I’ve ever read

Growing Up – Russell Baker (1982). I used to read his New York Times column religiously, and the book was one of my all-time favorites. I was really sad to note that one of America’s most celebrated writers had died recently at the age of 93

Les and Trudy: Redhead in San Francisco

Many of the wives were talking about the issues of the day: war, politics, and, inevitably, race.

Les and Trudy I don’t think I told this story before. If I have, in the words of an old friend of mine from England would often say, “Toughy buns.”

In the late 1960s, after about six mind-numbing years at IBM and a brief but productive stint at Opportunities for Broome, my father worked for Associated Building Contractors. I’m not quite sure what he did at ABC, but I imagine it had something to do with safety compliance, since that’s what he did at J.A. Jones after he moved to Charlotte, NC in 1974.

One of the perks of the job was the ability to travel. In 1969, give or take a year, mom and dad went out to San Francisco on a business trip of his. While the men did whatever, the “wives” would have lunch.

At one of these events, many of the wives were talking about the issues of the day: war, politics, and, inevitably, race. Some conversation took place on the latter topic, during which Mom listened thoughtfully, but said nothing. One of the wives, wanting to draw Mom into the discussion, said, “Trudy, what do think?”

Mom said, “Well, being a black woman…” Apparently, many jaws hit the table, perhaps one or two literally.

It is true that the red wig that she wore in the 1960s, which was even brighter in color than this one from the 1980s, made her skin appear even lighter. But she never identified as anything but a black woman.

My father tended to be the more visible, the more outgoing in the couple. So when there was a narrative in which SHE was the chief protagonist, mom enjoyed it immensely. She told this story more than once; there were a few anecdotes that she liked to repeat. I never asked him, but I have to think that dad was pleased that mom was out there, gathering information.

Les and Trudy Green were married on March 12, 1950, and were wed for more than 50 years, until my father died in August 2000.

JEOPARDY!: Jackie Fuchs/Jackie Fox

Will we see Jackie Fuchs in the JEOPARDY! Tournament of Champions?

When it comes to the game show JEOPARDY!, which I’ve been viewing since I was in grade school, I try to watch each episode. Thanks to the technologies, first the VCR and now the DVR, I don’t tend to see them in real time.

It was a Wednesday in mid-December when I was watching the Tuesday show. The player in one slot, an attorney and writer from Los Angeles, was asked by host Alex Trebek, “Jackie Fuchs is our champion… and was also a performer in an all-girl rock band?” She noted, “I was the bass player in the ‘70s all-female rock band the Runaways.”

What? So I immediately contacted the biggest Runaways fan I know, SamuraiFrog. As it turned out, he had happened upon the second half of the game on his own. Apparently, the producers of the show knew who she was, though I very much doubt that Trebek was aware of Cherry Bomb.

“Fuchs’ tenure in the Runaways was short — she joined the group that launched Joan Jett when she was 15 years old, under the name Jackie Fox, and left at 17. In 2015, the world found out why: According to Fuchs and several alleged witnesses, Runaways manager Kim Fowley raped her in front of a crowd, including her bandmates, while she was drugged and semi-conscious at age 16. Fowley died before Fuchs made her allegations public.”

She noted: “Once you can talk about that on camera, an audience isn’t going to faze you. It’s kind of like that’s the worst thing that can happen to you, so you know, losing a game show is not fun, but it just pales in comparison.”

Jackie Fuchs or Fox has been on variety of game shows over the years. She was on The Dating Game on the same show – though not the same segment – as Peewee Herman. “‘I was on ‘The Chase’ on the Game Show Network — it’s not on anymore… I did not acquit myself well on that show, but it made me want to get back up and do it again.

“‘So I went on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire (in 2013) — and I still didn’t acquit myself that well, but it was better. I figured I would try one more time, and this time I was ready.’ In both of those earlier cases, she was identified as an ex-Runaway immediately before flaming out, “which is also part of the reason why I didn’t want to lead with that’ on JEOPARDY!'”

Will we see Jackie Fuchs in the Tournament of Champions, which brings back the best players over the past two years? There are 15 slots. Two are for the college champion and the teachers’ tournament champ. When she finished with four wins and $87,089 in winnings, she was in the 12th slot, so it was possible. However, four players since then have exceeded her score, so unless one cannot play, it’s now unlikely.

For ABC Wednesday

Movie review: ROMA (2018, Cuaron)

ROMA: “An incidental thread that serves as an excuse for the director to capture on screen an amalgam of memories and a veritable whirlwind of sensations on the surface.”

roma For my birthday, I got to watch ROMA, the final Best Picture nominee for the Academy Awards, and the winner in the Best Foreign Language category.

I saw it at Proctors in Schenectady. To my surprise, there is an 80-seat cinema on the third floor. Since it was a weekday, there were only about a dozen other folks present.

By the end of the film, I better understood some of the choices that took place earlier, such as the lengthy floor washing that opened the film. But not all of it.

Clearly it was autobiographical, set in 1970/1971 Mexico City. Alfonso Cuarón talks about this in the brief the Meaning of Memory, which explains that ROMA is “organic” and flows with a rhythm of its own.

You know how it is when you first watch a film and it takes a few minutes to acclimate yourself to the characters and story? For me, this movie took about 50 minutes of the 135-minute running time to get there. Payoff, yes, but not quite enough.

I found snippets of three reviewers, who gave ROMA positive reviews that speaks to my dissatisfaction.

“An incidental thread that serves as an excuse for the director to capture on screen an amalgam of memories and a veritable whirlwind of sensations on the surface.”

These things apparently happened the director, but it isn’t always clear why WE should care.

“ROMA is in a league of its own in terms of sheer cinematic ambition and prowess, but as a drama it’s not as deeply moving as some of this year’s very best.”

“Cuaron is a bit too close to the material, and most moviegoers will have to do a lot of research to truly get and appreciate the movie.” (Grace Randolph, Beyond the Trailer)

See, I don’t WANT to do research to GET the movie. I shouldn’t need to understand the context of the domestic troubles in Mexico to understand the significance of a fire or of shooting off guns. I want the movie to explain it.

I must say that I very much loved the youngest boy and his preternatural view of the world, and did care about the core family by the end. But it wasn’t my favorite of the films, and it wouldn’t have even been my foreign film pick, as I preferred Cold War.

Makes me want to dance

In my brief disco-attending era, in the late 1970s, I had the leisure suits to prove it.

disco dance Once more from the 30-day music meme: A song that makes you want to dance.

Lots of music makes me want to make me dance. I am, no doubt, one of the finest chair dancers around. Ask any of my office mates.

Lilies of the Valley – David Byrne. In fact, I was chair-dancing to this just yesterday.

Fantasy- Earth, Wind and Fire. In 1978, I was working at the Schenectady Arts Council as the bookkeeper. A variety of artists went into the community, creating.

The choreographer, Darlene, taught school children dance. But she needed a partner, and I was suckered into that task. This EWF song was one of the pieces to which she arranged motion.

Celebration – Kool and the Gang. EVERY time this woman Cathy and I went to the disco, this played, usually more than once a night.

What’s That You’re Doin’- Paul McCartney with Stevie Wonder. A song I preferred to Ebony and Ivory, from the same Macca album

Rock Lobster – the B-52’s. It wasn’t a rock…

Let’s Go Crazy – Prince. Last time I tried to link to this song, the video was blocked. (Sigh) He was still alive then. One of my favorite guitar solos ever near the end.

Face the Face – Pete Townsend. And 90 seconds in, would also qualify in the LOUD category.

Fashion – David Bowie. Among several Bowie choices, my favorite in the category. In my brief disco-attending era, in the late 1970s, I had the leisure suits to prove it. One was a sad brown, but the other was this hideous lime green. Proof positive that I have no sense of fashion.

There’s Love In Them There Hills – Pointer Sisters. As often as not, though, I would lie on my living room floor and listen to this on headphones and become hypnotized.

Funkytown- Lipps Inc
Good Times – Chic
Jungle Boogie – Kool And The Gang
These are self-evident to my ear.