Tag: Ask Roger Anything

Art, science, Bible, baseball

You have this +1 sodium just hanging out when it hooks up with the -1 chloride.

josephhenry
More from New York Erratic:

Who is your favorite visual artist? Favorite director?

I tend to be rather catholic about these things. Here’s the best way to recognize the artist of paintings, BTW.

My church has Tiffany windows, which I like; the one above is one of them. Gordon Parks is a favorite photographer. Always though Frank Lloyd Wright’s buildings were interesting, if not always practical. Van Gogh I enjoy, but there are so many more; I love going to the house in the Hyde Collection in Glens Falls, NY because it’s so eclectic. Did one of those Facebook things where you should live, and it came up with French Polynesia, which reminded me that I like Gauguin too.

But I guess my favorite visual artist is Rodin, whose work I find sensual as all get out, even if it isn’t all his work.

I took this list of a list of the 50 greatest directors of all time. Of all the directors whose films I’ve seen more that three Continue reading “Art, science, Bible, baseball”

Growing up gay (as it were)

I have only smidgen of understanding what it must have been like to be gay in the 1960s and 1970s.

HRCFrom New York Erratic:

How do you think growing up gay today is different than growing up gay in the past?

Well, since I never grew up gay, it’s kind of tricky to say. But I’ll try.

In my collective of high school cohorts, the politically involved, left-of-center, antiwar demonstrating, civil rights supporting folks, we formed a club called the Community Action Forum. But outside of school, we were friends called Holiday Unlimited, and our motto was “a splendid time is guaranteed for all, stolen from the Sgt. Pepper album.

In our group of maybe a dozen and a half people, at least three of them were gay, but I only knew about one of them, Vito Mastrogiovanni, at the time, and mostly because my sister had such a crush on him that he, or someone, let her know. She was sad because she thought he was so beautiful, and he was. He died of AIDS in May 1991, and you can find his square on the AIDS quilt.

The others who were gay, though, I had no idea. I felt a tad sad that they didn’t feel comfortable telling me, yet I understood.

I go to college, and my next room neighbor, who was gay, was openly hostile to me. I think it was a preemptive strike. Blacks were considered threatening to gay males in 1971, or so I was told. But I had a couple of lesbian friends; in fact, one, Alice, with whom I was once arrested at an antiwar demonstration, was roommates with the Okie for a time before the Okie and I got married.

Alice and I hitchhiked across New York State, trying to get to some friends who had been injured in a fatal car accident. One guy picked us up west of Binghamton, then gave us a lecture about the sins of race-mixing, assuming us to be a couple. I could only imagine what he might have said if he had known of her sexual orientation.

I dropped out of college in 1975 and lived in Binghamton for several months. The Civic Theater was doing a production of Boys in the Band, a 1968 play, but radical for upstate New York. The cast hung out together, and I discovered there was a gay bar in Binghamton; I had no idea. We got to be a tight-knit group for that period.

The review of the production made it sound as though the whole cast was gay, which frankly didn’t bother me, but it upset one of my high school friends, who said to another, “Too bad about Roger!” “What about Roger?” “He’s gay!” “He’s not gay!”

So I have only a smidgen of understanding what it must have been like to be gay in the 1960s and 1970s.

Because gays weren’t invented until 1969, or so you were supposed to believe. And it was only a handful of “them” so it was somehow OK to discriminate against gays, threaten them, use terms about them as barbs even against people who were not gay. And AIDS was “God’s scourge” against gays, though there were plenty of straight people getting the disease too.

So how we went from having a whole lot of closeted gay folks, for understandable reasons, to legal marriage for gay people in about a dozen and a half states in the last decade or two is remarkable. I was in a discussion with a blogger who is gay (not Arthur) back in 2006 or 2007, and he didn’t think the issue of marriage equality was that big a deal, quite probably because he had had a bad breakup. But marriage IS a big deal. It’s a fundamental ceremony of society. The POPE is considering the acceptance of civil unions, for crying out loud. Oh, here’s a joke about marriage equality that I actually found to be clever.

Rewatched the Oprah Winfrey Show episode recently in which Ellen Degeneres talked about coming out in 1997, and I was reminded how it was a BFD. Now she’s a popular talk show host, Oscars host, Twitter breaker, and dancing fool.

I think this article about Fred Phelps is true. When the hatemonger first started his picketing, few opposed his poison. But over time, the crowds against the Westboro Baptist Church grew and grew, people standing up and saying we’re not all like that. This is why I say, all the time because I’m a boring guy, that gays need straight allies in the struggle for equality, just as blacks need whites, etc. The “gay agenda” I keep reading about, a lot, is the very freedom everyone wants.

So while there is still plenty of things to overcome – check out the Human Right Campaign, e.g. – today’s LGBT teens must have it a sea change easier than gay kids in decades past.

PS: Boycott Mississippi.
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Those HoneyMaid ads.

Amy’s How to “Recruit” Straight People: A Guide

Movies, music, romance

I once got a standing ovation playing a comb, seriously.

play combMDS of Pantheon Songs wonders:

What are some movies that are generally considered to be classics that you found to be just terrible/boring/ridiculous?

I fell asleep watching Citizen Kane on video; in general, I prefer seeing a film first on the big screen. But that lapse was probably because I was tired. The only film during which I ever fell asleep at a movie theater, excluding drive-in double features, was Empire of the Sun (1987), and again, maybe I was just fatigued.

I didn’t love either The Royal Tennenbaums or Lost in Translation, but this may be a function of seeing them after hearing too much hype. Or I was in a bad mood. Or tired.

Nothing, I guess, fits the bill.
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Tom the Mayor asks:

Are you worried about Lydia when she gets to the age of Dating?

I was watching a performance of The Lion King that Lydia was in on March 2. There’s a scene where Nala, played by the pastors’ daughter, was being sized up by the evil king Scar. And the male pastor, who was fairly near me, got rather physically tense until Nala slapped Scar and got away.

So sure, I suppose it’s an issue. Don’t know what she’ll face, and kids seem to have more ways to be mean.

Also don’t know what dating will mean to a mixed-race kid these days, though you assume the world is better than this being a problem.
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This must mean it’s New York Erratic time again:

What skill has gotten you the most girls? (Thinking clean, like music and singing and whatnot).

My guess is that I can be a very good listener. I was often friends with women I ended up going out with. Someone long ago told me that steering the conversation to be about the other person tends to make them feel good, and not just in romantic settings.

Though I know I did wow someone with my air guitar of Smoke On The Water.

What musical instruments do you play? Which do you wish you played?

I don’t play any instruments. That’s technically not true; I’ve played the comb. In public, including several times as part of the Green Family Singers. I once got a standing ovation playing the blues on a comb in Manlius, NY c 1970, seriously.

I wish I could play piano; I took a year of it when I was about 12, but I just didn’t have the chops. Or guitar; my father played and taught my sister Leslie in about a month, but I couldn’t get it.

What subject in school did you find the most difficult?

College freshman calculus. No idea what I was doing. And I did so well in high school math, with a 97 in algebra, 86 in geometry, and 98 in trigonometry; I would have done better in geometry, except memorizing proofs I thought was dumb.

First calc test I get a 73, the second 56, the third 37. I needed a passing grade on the final. I crammed for two days, sleeping maybe a total of four hours. Got a C on the final, a C in the course. Two weeks later, I looked at my textbook and did not understand a thing.

Which places on Earth you do NOT want to go to?

There are so many. Places that are too hot and sticky, and/or have too many insects; e.g. the Amazon. Places that are too cold, I mean below freezing even in summer; e.g., Antarctica. Places that are too remote because I like people; e.g., some cabin in the remote Rockies. Places that are too crowded because I don’t like people THAT much; e.g. Calcutta.

There is still time to Ask Roger Anything.

Joy, America, food, Muppets

Not sure if it’s anti-intellectualism, xenophobia, some warped religiosity, the fear of the Red menace that makes anything “socialist” automatically suspect or what.

AmericasdebtMore from New York Erratic:

What was the greatest joy in the last year?

It had to be Thanksgiving. My wife and daughter and I spent it at my second cousin’s house, just outside NYC, with her and her family, her sister, my eldest niece and her husband, a couple of my mother’s first cousins (the hostess’s uncles), and more. The next day, my family did Manhattan with the niece, her husband, and her friends.

What do you think is really causing the deficit?

I just don’t know. It seemed that Bill Clinton had a real handle on reducing the deficit, but then, kablooey, it got all out of control. It’s totally mysterious.

Jaquandor chimes in:

I’m noticing more and more that other countries have good ideas as to how to deal with problems, be it health care (other countries do it better AND much cheaper), credit card security, mass transport, urban design…and yet, new ideas have SUCH a hard time gaining traction in this country. Why is that?

I blame de Tocqueville. He came over here from France early in our national development, gave us the big thumbs up, and we felt free to continue that manifest destiny westward expansion thing, because of American exceptionalism. (I jest, but only slightly.)

And there was a point where, because of this being a big melting pot of a country, that this was a destination for immigrants in the 19th and 20th centuries. And great things WERE done.

Except now, we are often exceptionally bad at education and health care compared with other industrialized countries, even though we spend more. It’s our way or the (miles, not kilometers) highway. This graphic covers it.

Not sure if it’s anti-intellectualism, xenophobia, some warped religiosity, the fear of the Red menace that makes anything “socialist” automatically suspect, the power of the American oligarchy, or what. Maybe it’s the belief, totally in the face of evidence of facts to the contrary, that “the good old days” is what we need to strive for. It is probably the same forces that reject climate change, believe people rode on dinosaurs, and think the opinions on FOX News are facts.

Raising a child now, what do you make of current children’s media (books, movies, teevee) versus what you know from your own upbringing or that of others?

Re: TV, there’s just a whole lot more of it, geared to different ages, whereas I grew up with Saturday morning cartoons, Captain Kangaroo, Romper Room, and the local cartoon show. Now, you have whole networks for kids. Disney has tons of sitcoms, most of which are not great, but it’s keeping writers working.

Books and movies are a whole lot more “grown-up.” Someone suggested that my 10-y.o. would be ready for Hunger Games or something along those lines; not a chance. Too violent, too intense. But she does read a lot; she’s MOSTLY over the fairy phase.

Interestingly, even movies she sees that have scary parts on first viewing she’ll watch again to inure herself.

Favorite cheese(s)?

Colby, Gouda, sharp cheddar, Monterrey jack, Gruyere. Sandwiches usually with provolone, Swiss, cheddar.

But the one I use the most often is cottage. CC with apples and mayo. CC with fruit cocktail or apple sauce. CC with eggs.

Seguing to SamuraiFrog, who has a food question as well:

What foods did you love as a kid that you don’t like now?

We had a lot of canned vegetables, including canned spinach. Had some in the last 12 months, and it was AWFUL, inedible. Used to eat white bread, Sunbeam by name; not something I’d want now.

What is your favorite non-music-related sound?

See, I don’t think there are many non-musical sounds. When Lydia was in the MRI for an hour, I’d hear songs that sounded like those particular dronings. Elevators, garbage pick-up trucks, vacuum cleaners, sirens all have pitches I try to pick out. That said, it would have to be running water, the more the better. It’s partly why I like waterfalls so much.

What smells do you find comforting?

Baking bread. Also, the perfume that certain women wear.

If you could paint a picture of one thing, what would it be?

If I could only paint! A night scene with lots of stars and a crescent moon.

And the most important question: Who is your favorite Muppet?

Did I mention that I just bought The Muppets Character Encyclopedia? I didn’t know so many characters had actual names! OK, Kermit sings my theme song, was originally voiced by Jim Henson, and is green, so he’s #1; you’ve written about Kermit yourself recently. Number #2 is Ernie, who sings a song about a duck – you HAVE seen my blog logo – and was originally voiced by Jim Henson. But #3 has to be Rowlf, who I used to watch on the Jimmy Dean Show, long before I knew the term Muppet.

Why I NEED you to Ask Roger Anything

YOU can Ask Roger Anything, one question or several.

 

I just don’t think you understand.

It’s actually fairly easy for me to write about holidays or people’s birthdays or movies I’ve seen or the like. What is NOT so easy is coming up with content for all those days in between. That’s where YOU come in.

If you have been around here long enough, you know the drill. YOU, in the spirit of faux democracy, can Ask Roger Anything, one question or several. (Arthur and Jaquandor KNOW I can ASK several when they post similar requests.) Then I will ANSWER said questions, more or less honestly, depending on the nature of the query.

Oftentimes, y’all will ask stuff that I might be perfectly willing to write about, but it had not occurred to me. Other times, you’ll ask something that might be more uncomfortable, so it’s fun to try to obfuscate while still holding on to the truth of the matter.

I will likely respond within the next 30 days, as I have always done in the past. Now if you manage to inundate me with SO many questions that I can’t respond in a month – it’s never happened before – then I’ll take longer. Bury me with questions. Think of it as your belated birthday present to me. (I LOVE presents.)

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