Stephen King's Dark Tower Series

I just finished reading the final (seventh) volume of Stephen King’s much-drawn-out epic series The Dark Tower. And I’m not sure how to write this article: should I just go all out and spill the entire can of beans on it, revealing what happens and ruining it for those who haven’t yet read it? Or should I instead tread on a tight wire, revealing just enough to make some points while concealing the series’ outcome? I’ll try the latter, for better or for worse.

Stephen King is easily my favorite author, and if you have been reading this blog regularly (or are in my family), you would already know that. I have read most of his works, long and short. But until last December, I had steered clear of the seven-part Dark Tower series. Well, almost clear. Because, in some of his stories, King alludes to the Dark Tower. Especially in his early 90s-novel Insomnia and the short story The Little Sisters of Eluria. Finally, my curiosity was stimulated to the point where I could stand it no longer and began reading the series with Volume One, The Gunslinger. Originally written in 1970, King had revised it recently, and it was this version I read. One thing I admire about Stephen King is that he openly reveals his sources of inspiration. And The Dark Tower is directly inspired by a poem he read by Robert Browning, while its main protagonist, a quiet, somber gunslinger named Roland Deschain, derives much of his personality from Clint Eastwood’s “man with no name” character from old spaghetti westerns like A Fistful of Dollars and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. King acknowledges that he had been an avid fan of Tolkien and Lord of the Rings, and wanted to write his own epic series. But King’s output over the years of successive installments to the series was extremely erratic, and many fans gave up on him ever completing it. Finally, a near-fatal accident in 1999, when King was hit by a minivan while taking a walk down a Maine country road near his house, prompted him to renew his efforts. And in a torrent of writing, he produced the final three volumes.

As in Lord of the Rings, a long quest and a fellowship of diverse characters are central to the Dark Tower. Instead of trying to dispose of a pesky ring in a fiery volcano, though, Roland’s ka-tet (i.e. fellowship) tries to reach the mysterious Dark Tower and save existence from the nefarious Crimson King (a character eerily reminiscent of Tolkien’s Sauron). Departing from Tolkien, though, King uses time travel and travel-between-worlds to advance the plot, and this tactic gets our contemporary popular culture involved in this very exotic story. He also ties together many of his earlier works and creates a “Stephen King Universe” of interrelated stories. And, of course, he can’t help but stick himself and his beloved state of Maine into the proceedings as well! King also weaves into his story his writing philosophy: he feels as if he is channeling his characters and story from another source, not of himself!

Does Roland save existence and reach the Dark Tower? Far be it for me to tell you. But I will repeat the message that the good author gives at the end. It is the journey of reading through the series that gives it such an appeal. The ending, which King acknowledges that he received a lot of flack for, is something that you can take or leave.

The Dignity of Any Job

One of the ads for freecreditreport.com shows a young man working at a small seafood restaurant singing a song of woe; it seems that he hadn’t been keeping up with his credit report and someone had successfully stolen his identity, thus ruining his credit and putting him in such a bad situation that he was now lowered to having to work in this demeaning job. And the whole commercial makes clear the point that greeting customers in a low-paying service industry job is indeed “demeaning”, if not outright humiliating. The attitude of all working there (apparently, they all had been neglecting their credit reports) was that of being far below their station in life. As a former low-wage earner in a restaurant, I find this commercial to be degrading and insulting.

The great, late Martin Luther King Jr. once exhorted people to treat any job they had seriously and with respect: to do the best they could do, no matter how insignificant others may regard it to be. And he was right. The dignity that one lives by depends on how much respect he/she shows others and by how much pride is derived from doing excellent work, without regard to what kind of work it is or how much pay comes from it.

Throughout my work life, I have encountered co-workers who have put me down for working hard at my job. The idea is apparently that if the powers-that-be aren’t paying you enough (in your own personal estimation, of course), then you need to cut back on your efforts to meet your conception of your work’s worth. That, to me, is a very unethical and self-defeating philosophy to live by. And (to risk a very bad pun), to their “discredit”, freecreditreport.com is guilty of promoting this elitist and (to me) antisocial mentality. Shame on them!

Martin Sheen's AARP Comment

On the cover of the July/August issue of the AARP magazine is a photo of actor Martin Sheen, along with a quote from him that reads, “Nothing ever gets done unless it’s done by a fanatic.” I wasn’t in a position to read the article within the magazine, but the comment by itself piqued my interest and gave me pause for some reflection. And this is what I came up with: Sheen’s statement needs analysis in two steps: one, what is the meaning of “getting things done” and, two, how true is the statement?

As functioning social human beings living a day-to-day existence, we (if responsible) habitually take care of our own business and that of our obligations to society. By habit, I again stress. I don’t think this is what Sheen was referring to by “nothing gets done”, though. It is when people need to step out of the box and come up with innovations to solve problems, as well as exercising the will the implement these solutions, that getting things done takes on the renown actor’s intended meaning. But stepping away from habits and doing things differently is not natural to anyone. Only someone who is already fanatically obsessed with the area that needs change will be there to do the needed work. And yes, I believe that this is true!

The late prolific author Isaac Asimov, regardless of his wealth and fame, adhered to a brutal regimen with his writing that he termed “candy store hours”, after the very long hours that his immigrant father put in for many years with the family candy store business. Fellow prolific writing superstar Stephen King has claimed that anyone who truly expects any real success in writing needs to set aside AT LEAST four hours per day to read and four more hours to write. Assuming that one already is working an eight hour per day job to begin with, the only conclusion is that King also believes that fanaticism is a prerequisite for success (at least in his field). Perhaps the supreme example of fanaticism leading to progress is that of Thomas Edison, the famous American inventor who would work continuously in his lab around the clock, only occasionally cat-napping in his zealous pursuit of technological innovation. And anyone who has been in the armed forces can recognize the imposed fanaticism of discipline, particularly during basic training, that can seemingly instantly transform raw civilian recruits into very disciplined, purposeful, and useful soldiers. And look at the activists of today, global warming activist Al Gore being a shining example: Gore eats, drinks, and breathes his cause. It is clearly the BIG THING to him and little else comes close. This is fanaticism, all right!

As I ponder this topic, I reflect on my own life and how I am so spread out with my interests. Does this mean that I have little hope of achieving any meaningful progress in any of them, since I am by no means a fanatic? Or does it matter? I once remember seeing a Twilight Zone episode titled A Game of Pool starring Jack Klugman and Jonathan Winters. Klugman’s character was a fanatical pool player whose only reason for living was to become the greatest player ever. He gets a chance to play against the all-time best-ever, played by Winters. Only Winters’ character was dead, and the pool match was a life-or-death match for Klugman (only in the Twilight Zone). As the match was drawing down, Winters gently persuaded Klugman that there was more to life than just pool, and that, though he himself had enjoyed some success in the sport, he had also enjoyed life in general and many of its joys as well. The moral of this episode was clear: balance trumps fanaticism. But is that a moral for chumps, and should everybody have at least one BIG THING that he/she is fanatical about? H-m-m-m!

Favorite Songs of 1969

During 1969, I wasn’t very interested in popular music. What radio I did listen to was largely either to follow sports broadcasts or to engage in my then-hobby of DX-ing (trying to pick up distant radio stations). It was through the latter that I ended up listening to some of my favorite songs of the year. Still, compared to the years that followed, there weren’t that many to report on in ‘69. And many songs of that year that I later grew to like a lot weren’t among my favorites (as I lived through it).

There were several “hard” rock songs that were popular in 1969, my favorite of them being Hot Smoke and Sassafras by Bubble Puppy. Oldtimers Sammy Davis Jr. and Peggy Lee each had big hits with the inspiring I Gotta Be Me and the deflating Is That All There Is, respectively. The Youngbloods gave the year a hippie, feel-good flavor with Get Together. Gitarzan, by Ray Stevens, was hilarious no matter how often I heard it. The Cowsills had Hair, another side splitter. Mary Hopkin had Goodbye, a sweet (if I’m not mistaken) Paul McCartney composition. The fabricated band the Archies had the year’s big monster hit: the simultaneously bubble-gum and suggestive Sugar Sugar. In the midst of trouble with the law, the Doors had their biggest single: the uncharacteristic-sounding Touch Me, complete with a horn section. Thunderclap Newman’s falsetto Something in the Air portended a revolution of sorts that never materialized. My #3 song of 1969, the ballad The Boxer by Simon and Garfunkel, was only bested by their earlier tune America. The Beatles came to my attention with O-Bla-Di O-Bla-Da and my #2 song of the year: Get Back (with a style and tempo they should have stuck with). I also enjoyed the Sergio Mendes & Brazil 66 version of Blackbird. Tops of ‘69: the upbeat-but-mysterious Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In, the crowning achievement of the Fifth Dimension.

Commercial TV on the Web

I am heartened by the proliferation of archived old television series being shown on the Internet. Although I’m not interested in most of them, some of them, like the original Star Trek, Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart, The Pretender, and The Twilight Zone are among my favorite series. AOL also plays old Man From U.N.C.L.E. episodes (although its collection is grossly incomplete). Although I have bought DVD collections of different old TV series, this is not really economically feasible for me on a large scale (not to mention the resulting generation of clutter). What seems to be working on the Internet is what previously worked so well on commercial television through the years: show commercials with the “free” shows! I have no problem at all with advertisements, and like many people, actually prefer to have a little intermission between segments of an episode. I see no reason why ALL old episodes of ANY old series shouldn’t eventually be available on the web (with commercial breaks). I’ll go one step further: when watching movies on my TV, I don’t have to see them commercial-free either. Why can’t we see any movie we want on our computers, as long as advertisers are willing to sponsor their showing? For those who still want to avoid commercials, there will always be premium channels, pay-for-view, and video rental companies like Blockbuster and NetFlix (who rent out now over the Internet). If this sort of thing can be done on a small scale, as it is today, and make money for those showing the episodes via the web, then it should be even more lucrative on a grand scale. I’m looking forward to the future of “free” TV (with commercials) on my computer! Now if those making the movies and TV series will only come out with new shows I actually want to watch! No problem, though, for I have a backlog of earlier material (such as all five Star Trek series) that I would like to view. Even if nothing new of consequence came out, I’d be thoroughly occupied with the old stuff for a very long time!

Of course, all of this hinges on the Internet provider companies refraining from limiting the amount of usage, or by charging money based on usage (which some of them have recently threatened to do).

Political Shibboleths

I have noticed that those in the media or the government can often give away their political inclinations by the use of certain words or phrases. Part of this is due to the deliberate process of “framing” that both the left and right engage in. For example, the existing “estate tax” is called the “death tax” by its opponents. Can you guess which side uses the term “illegal aliens” and which uses “undocumented immigrants”? And regarding global warming, the Democratic left is almost unanimous in accepting it as scientific fact, but the Republican right is divided on the issue. Hence Republicans, in the interest of not ruffling feathers among its own, tend to use the more bland term “climate change”. And what about opponents of gay marriage who try to conceal their underlying antagonism toward homosexuals by referring to their goal as “preserving the sanctity of marriage”? Supporters of gay marriage, on the other hand, will often try to soften the sound of the words by using the term “same-sex marriage”. It’s all in the connotation one wants to impart on the subject, and whatever is used reveals the speaker’s (or writer’s) opinion even before it is expressed.

That is all very well and fine with me. It’s a shame, though, that people are so insecure in their beliefs that they feel the need to develop separate vocabularies in order to discuss them with others. The hook in this is to get whomever you are discussing a particular issue with to use your vocabulary. If successfully done, the argument is already halfway won, regardless from which side of the political spectrum you are arguing, for the other is now speaking using YOUR connotative terminology.

This posturing gets a little more serious when discussing war and peace issues. For example, an occupying army in another country will often refer to the insurgents fighting them guerilla-style as “terrorists”, evoking images in the public’s eye back home of 9/11 and the like. Meanwhile, those supporting the insurgents often call them “freedom fighters” and “patriots”. When the Soviet Union sent their army into Afghanistan in 1979 (at that government’s request) to fight forces trying to topple that nation’s secular, left-leaning regime, the U.S. vehemently praised the insurgents there and supported them (e.g. see the movie Charlie Wilson’s War). After 9/11, the U.S. (in my opinion justified) didn’t wait for an Afghan government request before attacking those believed to be responsible and complicit in the attack. But now that we occupy that land, any action committed by Afghani insurgents is termed “terrorist”. It’s all in which side of the fence you’re standing on as to how you frame the issue.

Lately, I have become quite irritated at how extreme right-wing self-proclaimed political pundits almost universally refer to the Democratic Party as the “Democrat” Party. For some reason, this is supposed to be a slur against them. Sure, it is proper to use “Democrat” as a noun, (e.g. I am a Democrat). But as an adjective, -ic should be added. This arrogant misusage does help to quickly identify the political leanings and integrity of whomever I am listening to (or reading). So I suppose that they are unwittingly doing me a service (saving me from wasting my time expecting a reasonable discussion of the issues from them).

Monday Newsbreak: 6/15

--Now that the Internet has grown as much as it has, with all of the businesses and consumers depending so heavily on it, some of the biggest service providers (including Time Warner) are threatening to begin metering usage and charge heavy users for going over their imposed "limits". How utterly stupid of these providers. All this will do is ruin the growth of the Internet and its merging with television and telecommunications! This is not the time to play a "zero-sum" game. Investment in growth is called for instead. I feel, with this breaking story, that many businesses, such as Netflix and Blockbuster Video, are feeling as if a rug is being jerked out from under them.

--Several University of Florida professors from across the academic spectrum are packing up and leaving in pursuit of positions with institutions that believe in investing in the future instead of planned decline. It's not just about those who are leaving, either: in a university dedicated to new ideas, it is of paramount importance to continually bring in new talent. But with hiring freezes and cutbacks, how is this going to happen?

--The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that those imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay (euphemistically called "detainees") have legal recourse in American courts to legally challenge their confinement. For those who disagree with this ruling, I would like to ask how they would like for a foreign country to come over here, arrest their children, and confine them in isolation on some remote island somewhere without any criminal charges levied against them and any way for them to challenge their arrests and detention. The shoe fits differently when it's on YOUR foot.

--I am still wondering when I am ever going to be able to sit down and watch a WNBA game on television. Hopefully, with this dreadful NBA final series between the Celtics and the Lakers approaching its completion, there will be more attention paid to the WNBA. But maybe not.

Flying Cars and Chairs

Many years ago, on Art Bell’s late night radio show, I heard a story about a man living in the Los Angeles area who wanted to fly. Only he wasn’t a pilot and had no plans to be an airplane or helicopter passenger, either! No, instead he got a lawn chair and a bb gun. Then he tied several helium balloons to the chair and strapped himself into it with a belt. This individual then released his contraption with him in it. And it rose. And rose. And rose. And rose. Before too long, he was several thousand feet up in the air, drifting downwind for miles! I’m not sure how long this odyssey lasted, but this man finally began to use his bb gun to gradually bring the chair down by carefully shooting one balloon at a time. And from what I heard, he did successfully land! Have any of you heard of this incident? Or is it just an urban legend?

I don’t see why one would necessarily have to sit in a chair to perform this feat. It seems to me that one could rig up an apparatus on their back and attach the balloons to it, instead. Then, the experience would be more like parachute riding in reverse!

Sometimes I wonder why we aren’t living in that futuristic society predicted in the not-so-distant past, where, instead of being bound to the ground, people would be driving airborne cars instead. But then I look around me and see how people drive “on the ground” and am instantly shaken back into reality. The only way I see this “flying cars” system happening in the future is if the second-to-second control of the car is handled through computers, with the passengers more-or-less just sitting back and enjoying the ride. And I understand this technology is already available on the ground!

Tightwad in the Mid-Eighties

The years 1984 and 1985 mark the period in my life when I was at my absolute cheapest. I actually owned two cars, both needing repairs, but didn’t want to spend the required money. I resolved this situation by getting rid of both cars and instead riding around on a cheap, used bicycle. In April 1984, I began penny-pinching as well as (literally) penny-counting. In my little studio apartment, I refused to run my air-conditioner wall unit, even in the middle of a severe heat wave (nighttime lows in the mid-80’s (Fahrenheit)). In the winter, I didn’t run the heat. I would take pains to buy shelf-food in order to be able to keep my refrigerator turned off. I never used hot water when washing (even when showering during the coldest of winter) and cut my own hair. Although I would regularly visit coffee/doughnut shops to sit and study in, coffee was relatively cheap back then. Still, I kept a record of every expenditure, again down to the penny.

Now I know that this may sound rather extreme, but keep in mind that I was single and had a relatively low-paying job at the time. Still, I managed to save thousands of dollars and incur zero debt, simply by being very careful with my money. Since then, with marriage and my family (two children), my life has become considerably more complex (and I wouldn’t have had it any other way), and with that naturally arose the need to invest money into the lives of the dearly beloved members of my family. I could have successfully pulled this off financially by still being austere with myself while demonstrating a discerning generosity for my wife and children. And I could have continued tracking our money very closely as well. But I’m afraid that I let the change in my relationships change my attitude toward my personal finances. Still, I know what I am capable of, and it is much more than most other people (and myself in recent years). So, with some reasonable modifications (such as attending to car repairs), I am resolving to return to the spirit I had in the mid 1980s when I made a priority of caring for my finances. Good luck to me!

Soreness, Injury, and Balance

One of the difficulties that people face when trying to change something in their lives is the resistance that both their mind and body put up to thwart that change. We all have an embedded inertia within ourselves that stands in the way of habit-changes, both for the good and the bad. When we decide to train ourselves athletically, our muscles become sore, and we are faced with the question of whether we just need to train through that soreness or look at the possibility of having suffered an injury that would require abstaining from training. Similarly, in non-athletic areas of our lives, a change is likely to cause an unsettling of emotions as well as an increased state of mental fatigue. I believe that this is part of our natural resistance to change and must be combated in order to change our habits in a more positive direction.

Lately, I have been experiencing a greater amount of sleepiness, which seems to go around the clock. I’ve examined my lifestyle, and I have concluded that I have taken on quite a few projects that require some serious habit-changing. And the fatigue is a natural reaction to this. So what should I do about this? If you have read this blog, you’ll notice that I have a feature titled “The Eights”, in which every eight weeks I report on my progress (or lack thereof) in a particular area of personal self-improvement. And there are an awful lot of areas in this regard that I am trying (with dubious success) to juggle around! So, in order to facilitate effective habit-changing and reduce the associated fatigue, I am going to (temporarily) suspend some of them and concentrate on the very few that are the most important at this stage.

It is important to listen to your body when your life is becoming more stressful. Sometimes there are legitimate health concerns that need addressing. But usually, it is a sign that you are really changing (for the better), and your stubborn self is fighting it tooth and nail! It’s important to be able to discern the difference between the two and strike a healthy balance. And that’s something that I am now currently struggling with.

Favorite Songs of 1970

1970 was still another year containing a multitude of good, memorable songs. It was the last year that the Beatles were together, and their final album, Let It Be, was released. Although the title track became the big singles hit, my favorites were the "deep tracks" The Two of Us and For You Blue. I also loved The Long and Winding Road. Phil Spector, much to Paul McCartney's chagrin, had enhanced this song by adding orchestration and a chorus, greatly improving it in the process (in my humble opinion). Another famous act, Simon and Garfunkel, ended as well in 1970 with the release of singles from their Bridge Over Troubled Waters album (including the title track as well). But my favorite song of that album was the wildly syncopated Cecilia (my #5 song of '70 as I lived through it). Question, by the Moody Blues, was my #4 favorite song of this year. It would be more than two decades before I discovered the treasure trove of material that this talented and inspired band produced in a flurry during the late sixties/early seventies. During the summertime of 1970, I listened to local radio station 940-WINZ, which in that era would play songs that were only marginally popular nationwide. One of those songs, Oliver's I Can Remember, captured my heart and made me wonder why it wasn't a monster hit. It was also my #3 favorite song of that year. In the fall of '70, British blues/rock singer Joe Cocker, already famous for his covers of Beatles tunes She Came in Through the Bathroom Window, I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends, and the Box Tops' The Letter, outdid himself by raucously covering the old slow, sensual Julie London song Cry Me a River in a concert setting. This fast-paced version, with Cocker crying and screaming and friend Leon Russell going all-out on the piano, helped turn my musical tastes more toward both soul and hard rock (and was my #2 song of the year). But my #1 top favorite song of 1970 (back then) turned out to be an aberration of sorts. For reasons I'm still unaware of, I became thoroughly obsessed in the spring of '70 with the George Baker Selection song Little Green Bag. It was only a minor hit, and one day in late spring I discovered that my local stations were no longer playing it. This deprivation started me on a long period of Little Green Bag withdrawal (since it hadn't been popular enough to be recycled as a "golden oldie"). Later on, I bought that single and now scratch my head wondering what I saw in that song! Still, I like it. But nowhere near the fanatical degree of adulation I felt for it back in 1970! Go figure. Anyway, here are some other great tunes from back then that I liked:

Venus (Shocking Blue)
Arizona (Mark Lindsay)
Rainy Night in Georgia (Brook Benton)
Won't Find Better Than Me (New Hope)
Ma Belle Amie (Tee Set)
Didn't I (Delfonics)
Hey Mr. Sun (Bobby Sherman)
Come and Get It (Badfinger)
Love Or Let Me Be Lonely (Friends of Distinction)
Tennessee Birdwalk (Jack Blanchard & Misty Morgan)
Try a Little Kindness (Glen Campbell)
Everything is Beautiful (Ray Stevens)
Reflections of My Life (Marmalade)
Daughter of Darkness (Tom Jones)
Hitchin' a Ride (Vanity Fair)
The Love You Save (Jackson Five)
Yellow River (Christie)
O-o-o Child (Five Stairsteps)
We Gotta Get You a Woman (Todd Rundgren)
Overture From Tommy (Assembled Multitude)
Lay Down (Candles in the Rain) (Melanie)
The Pollution Song (Tom Lehrer)
Spirit in the Sky (Norman Greenbaum)
Ball of Confusion (Temptations)
Stoned Love (Supremes)
Up the Ladder to the Roof (Supremes)
Out in the Country (Three Dog Night)
One Man Band (Three Dog Night)
Instant Karma (John Lennon)
Your Song (Elton John)
No Sugar Tonight/Mother Nature's Son (Guess Who)
Hand Me Down World (Guess Who)
Our House (Crosby, Stills, Nash &Young)
Make Me Smile (Chicago)
Cracklin' Rosie (Neil Diamond)
Thank You Fallettime Be Mice Elf Agin (Sly & the Family Stone)
Jennifer Tomkins (Street People)
Everybody's Out of Town (BJ Thomas)
Mississippi (John Phillips)
A Song of Joy (Miguel de los Rios)
Long Long Time (Linda Ronstadt)
No Matter What (Badfinger)

The Great Florida Desert

In the past few years, hurricanes notwithstanding, I have seen my part of northern Florida turn from an almost swampy, wet area into a near desert. Recently, while watching my daughter play a game of flag football in her league, I noticed that anytime anyone ran or fell on the ground, a large cloud of dust would kick up around them. It reminded me of that terrible Dust Bowl period back in the thirties in the southwestern United States. And it also made me wonder how dry we are going to get here in northern Florida. When I moved into my house in 1989, the ground on which it stood was very wet, and often, during the then-common rainy periods, became very mushy and swamp-like. Starting around the late nineties, though, I have rarely seen the ground get very saturated with water. In 1998, northern Florida was inundated, not with flood waters, but rather with widespread forest fires. And since then, each year has seen dire warnings go up about fire dangers. This year is no different. I am not what you would call a lawn and garden enthusiast, and I pretty much let nature take its course with my lawn. And other than keeping it mowed, there has always been the same concentration of grass in it. Until this year. The last time I mowed my lawn, I experienced the same flying dust I saw at my daughter’s football game. We are drying up here. And the storms that we used to be so accustomed to getting on a daily basis are simply not materializing. In most other parts of the world, the latitude I live on (about 30 degrees North) is either ocean or desert. And the way things are shaping up, either ocean or desert may be the future for my beloved state of Florida!

But, as if to prove me wrong, yesterday afternoon we were hit by a severe thunderstorm, suddenly knocking the temperature down from 96 to 66! Yippee! Maybe tomorrow will be a repeat performance (I hope it's minus the lightning and tornado threats, though).

Blog Line Spacing Glitch

It’s been a good fourteen months for me and this blog, thanks in large part to Google and their Blogger feature. To be able to project my opinions and experiences to the world this way is truly something straight out of a visionary’s imagination for the future! It must be a monumental task for them to be able to manage the millions of blogs out there under their “umbrella”, but they have done so with a minimum of inconvenience and disruptions.

I do have a question, though, about something that suddenly happened to my blog recently, without me doing anything that I know of to cause it. The line spacing on my blog one day abruptly became more compressed than it originally was, and although I prefer the new spacing, the change is quite unsettling. This unsolicited change in line spacing retroactively covered my entire blog and its archives, all the way back to its beginning entries of April, 2007. I don’t need to remedy this, but I only hope that in the future Blogger can furnish me the choice of how I want to space out my blog without thrusting unrequested changes on me. Who knows, maybe it’s my own computer that is responsible for this glitch and it has nothing to do with Blogger. But I’m not an expert in this field, and I just want my blog to be safe from future unexpected deviations, some of which I may not approve. Once again, I must say that I appreciate Google/Blogger for having bestowed this opportunity for me to express myself as I have!

Monday Newsbreak: 6/9

--Rock n' roll pioneer Bo Diddley passed away this past week. He was a commonly seen figure in and around Gainesville, being very active in volunteer community work, especially in the area of keeping kids on the straight and narrow (and away from drugs and violence). I met him once at Sam's Wholesale (he was buying some tires and I was getting one of mine repaired). Bo was one of those special celebrities who was thoroughly unpretentious as well as being naturally friendly and likable. At the memorial held for him in Gainesville, Eric Burdon of Animals fame came and performed in tribute to this legendary musician.

--So Hillary Clinton has finally conceded the race for the Democratic nominations to Barack Obama and publicly endorsed him. But not before she projected an image of him being weak among white working-class voters by persisting in the race long after it had become clear that he would win the nomination. And what's with many of her supporters saying that they would vote for McCain rather than Obama?! As far as I can tell, the only "bad" thing Barack ever did to Hillary was to defeat her in the campaign. He has been an incredible example of grace and restraint in the face of vicious personal attacks coming at him from all directions. Still, I recognize that Clinton would be a good vice-presidential running mate choice and hope that this possibility is realized.

--It looks as if tin-pot dictator and all-around bad guy Robert Mugabe is going to try to intimidate and bully his way to "win" the runoff for Zimbabwe's presidency. Can't Saudi Arabia or some other despotic nation offer to give this jerk sanctuary and thus liberate this formerly prosperous southern African country from his clutches (it worked with getting Idi Amin out of Uganda)?

--The price of oil rose one day this week by eleven dollars per barrel in just one day. Economists say that the marketplace and supply and demand cannot account for this rise, and many claim that unregulated oil speculation is mainly responsible for the recent sharp price hikes.

--Thoroughbred horse Big Brown failed in his bid to be the first horse to win the fabled Triple Crown since 1978 when he couldn't keep up with the leaders in the long and hot (92 degrees) Belmont Stakes this past Saturday. His jockey, seeing victory slip away in the race, slowed him down in the interest of protecting him from injury. But Big Brown had already sustained a hoof injury and would never have been run in this race had greed not been such a major factor.

NBA Finals

It’s interesting to me how almost everyone in the sports media is so excited about this year’s National Basketball Association finals, featuring the Boston Celtics (with Kevin Garnett) and the Los Angeles Lakers (and league MVP Kobe Bryant). Interesting because they are the LAST two teams I wanted to see playing for the title! Originally, I was pulling for the Phoenix Suns with their stars Andre Stoudemaire, Shaquille O’Neal, and two-time MVP Steve Nash. But they were quickly knocked out of the playoffs in round one by their nemesis, the San Antonio Spurs, even losing their coach after elimination to the New York Knicks. In the East, I pulled for Cleveland, Atlanta, and Detroit. But although they all had impressive games against the Celtics, none of them could get it together enough to pull out victories in the series’ final games. In the West, after Los Angeles beat a scrappy Utah jazz team and the Spurs came back from two games down to lead the Chris Paul-led New Orleans Hornets, I actually rooted for my old “enemy” San Antonio against the Lakers (something that I never thought I would do). But they disappointed me, blowing huge leads in two of their games in losing that series. And Detroit should have beaten Boston, but also fell short of their potential. Which leads me to a question: Phoenix loses in the first round and their coach, Mike D'Antoni, gets “promoted” by being given a higher paying job in New York. Detroit’s coach, Flip Saunders, takes his team to the conference finals for three straight years and gets fired. So, where’s the justice here?

Anyway, I don’t know why everyone is so caught up with a Celtics-Lakers matchup. Sure, in decades past, a big rivalry had developed between these two franchises. But recently, it has been the Pistons and the Spurs who tended to dominate in the playoffs. I would have been more excited to see them head-to-head than what I have now.

Free-Flow Journaling

In early 1973, I tried a kind of writing that worked for the first few months of that year. And for some reason, I never kept up with it. At the end of each month, I would sit down with a journal and just write out phrases of things that I identified with that month and the goings-on in my life. There was no concerted effort to write a coherent piece: no, it was just a chain of disjointed phrases and short sentences which, nevertheless, when read presented a tapestry of that month in my life. So why not try this on this blog from time to time as well? Of course, if you, who most likely don't know me, read it, you probably won't "get" much of what I write about, but it may be fun to try to figure it out anyway! But this would serve as a good "time marker" for me to be able to go back to in order to reference things that were happening in my past. So, without any regard to when I'll be doing this, I'll simply state that there will be future entries of this type that I'll just call "Free-Flow Journaling". And just let it be at that! Here's a little taste of this style:

--this past sunday afternoon/evening some heavy rain, starbucks/tioga jammed full but found a seat--getting sick of taste of starbucks coffee--need to plan bahamas trip and get passports--went to jax c~w 5/17 @dave & busters for ~w's honors get-together in banquet room--~w drove whole way, incl. interstate for 1st time--arcade setup there like expanded chuck e cheese--stopped off afterwards at jax beach to look @ ocean and take a walk--sunday night saw good show on supermassive black holes on science channel--i need to clean up kitchen and go on to bed--beetles proliferating everywhere outside--

This should be a lot of fun, at least for me, the writer!

All Will Be Forgiven, WHHZ

This is an open call to my formerly favorite Gainesville-area radio station, 100.5-WHHZ "The Buzz", to forsake its recent deviation into a shameless imitation of its crosstown rival 103.7-WRUF "Rock 104". I have nothing against listening to occasional songs by groups like Linkin Park, Metallica, Disturbed, and Slipknot. In fact, one of my top favorite songs from last year was Linkin Park's Bleed It Out. But WHHZ, although it has a weaker signal than WRUF, used to have what economists call a comparative advantage by playing a special genre of music (independent/alternative) that no other station was playing. And that, quite simply, is (to me) far and away my favorite type of popular music. I loved hearing acts played on "The Buzz" like Beck, the Shins, Louis XIV, Tegan and Sara, the Vines, the Hives, the Strokes, Silversun Pickups, Spoon, Franz Ferdinand, Kasabian, Snow Patrol, Dresden Dolls, Modest Mouse, the Yeh Yeh Yehs, Bloc Party, and the Decembrists. Now none of this music is available on the radio (in Gainesville), thanks to WHHZ's decision a few months ago to abruptly switch its music programming. It's not that I object to including some heavier pieces on WHHZ's playlist: I just would like to hear my songs as well when I tune in. And it's been months since I have tuned in to 100.5 without immediately switching to another station! I believe "The Buzz" must have changed management, with the new leadership turning its programming down a dead end road. WHHZ, you cannot compete head-on with WRUF-FM and win! The only way you can survive in this type of market is to carve out a niche for yourself by playing a distinctive genre (which you had been doing before quite well) and then publicizing it better (which you hadn't).

I happen to know that independent/alternative music is really the people's music. There is nothing in the human condition that isn't expressed through this music, and yet the artists within its domain adhere to high artistic and aesthetic standards. It's no accident that, time and time again, I would hear (and grow to like) one of these songs (that WHHZ used to play) and then hear it later on nationwide television advertisements. That's because the astute folks on Madison Avenue know what the not-so-astute folks at WHHZ apparently don't: independent/alternative music truly resonates with the people.

So, WHHZ, I'm still planning to tune in from time to time to see how you're doing. I'm grateful for those great bygone years in which you showed great musical taste (and in which you actually referred to the music you now constantly play as "dogsh#%"). But if you don't come back into the fold, I predict you will eventually either (a) go off the air completely, (b) go country & western, (c) go oldies, or (d) turn into just another reactionary right-wing talk station (like we need another one of those). But if you just return to what you did best, all will be forgiven, my poor, wayward, prodigal station!

Favorite Songs of 1971

Although the Beatles had disbanded the previous year, I was still an ardent fan. The great closing medley of 1969's Abbey Road album Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End was one song that I couldn't get enough of in 1971. Also, each Beatle had solo projects out as well. Ringo Starr had his first single It Don't Come Easy. George Harrison had three songs I liked a lot: What Is Life (my #5 song of the year), Apple Scruffs, and Bangladesh. Paul McCartney's second solo album Ram spawned a few good ones as well, including Too Many People, Ram On, Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey, Smile Away, and Eat At Home. John Lennon's Imagine was breathtaking to hear, but I had mixed feelings about some of its lyrics. Marvin Gaye released a string of great singles about social consciousness (What's Going On, Mercy Mercy Me, Inner City Blues). James Taylor had his first song that I liked in the sweet Carolina in My Mind. I got a taste of reggae (without knowing it): Double Barrel ("I am W-O-O-O") by the English duo Dave and Ansell Collins. It was also my #4 favorite song from 1971. Isaac Hayes had his exciting Theme from Shaft, complete with its long instrumental buildup. Sly and the Family Stone had two good hits: Family Affair and (my favorite of theirs), the not-so-well-known Running Away. Van Morrison's Wild Night was also "minor" back then, although you wouldn't know that now by how often it's played. My #3 song of 1971, Chicago's Questions 67 & 68, may be their second-best "glory days" song (behind Dialogue) for its grand horn section and wild guitar riffs. The Supremes, minus Diana Ross, continued their singles success with the fast-paced Nathan Jones. Bread's Let Your Love Go was also fast-paced and loud, very atypical of this group's works. L.A. Woman, the final album of the Doors, came out in 1971. And with it, I heard the songs Riders on the Storm, L.A. Woman, and (my #2 song of that year) Love Her Madly. It's was too bad that Jim Morrison died then at the way-too-young age of 27. Besides being sad about a loss of life, I also believe that his (and his band's) best works lay ahead of them. Finally, at the very close of 1971, a distinctive-sounding band dominated by keyboards and a high-pitched singer (Jon Anderson) made their presence known to the world: the group Yes, although already having put out two earlier albums, released their third (The Yes Album) and with it the infectious, two-part I've Seen All Good People. And that was my top favorite tune of 1971 (as I lived through it). Here are some other good songs I listened to back then:

Temptation Eyes (Grass Roots)
Won't Get Fooled Again (The Who)
Me and You and a Dog Named Boo (Lobo)
Hot Love (T Rex)
Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep (Mac and Katie Kissoon)
Oye Como Va (Santana)
I Don't Know How to Love Him (Helen Reddy)
Timothy (Buoys)
Draggin' the Line (Tommy James)
Don't Knock My Love (Wilson Pickett)
Mozart's 40th (Waldo de los Rios)
That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be (Carly Simon)
Ain't No Sunshine (Bill Withers)
I Just Want to Celebrate (Rare Earth)
Have You Seen Her (Chi-Lites)
Desiderata (Les Crane)
Brand New Key (Melanie)
American Pie (Don McLean)
Joy to the World (Three Dog Night)
Rain Dance (Guess Who)
I Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die Rag (Country Joe McDonald & the Fish)
Hot Pants Part 2 (James Brown)
Never Ending Song of Love (Delaney and Bonnie and Friends)

King of the Beasties

One of my favorite cartoon series is Disney's Winnie the Pooh. Not the series with the marionettes (Book of Pooh) or the latest, computer-animated series. Just the good old-fashioned cartoons that we've all become accustomed to watching (why did they have to go and change it?). I love the different, distinct characters: Winnie, the phlegmatic, jolly, absent-minded bear; Piglet, the worrisome, self-conscious little pig: Eeyore, the gloomy-but-wise donkey; Rabbit, fastidious and proud; and Tigger, the happy-go-lucky, bouncing tiger. They all live in a fantasy world of little boy Christopher Robin called the Hundred Acre Wood.

In one episode, aptly titled King of the Beasties, Tigger decides that, being a big cat, he deserves the title of "King of the Beasties", and as such, merits the adoration and servitude of all those living around him. When nobody wants to go along with this "great" idea, Tigger concocts the scheme of being the "great rescuer", delivering everyone from the clutches of the evil Jagula (supposedly a jaguar). And this he repeatedly does, thus winning the title (and power) that he had been coveting. Only those who are adoring the new king are unaware that the Jagula that King Tigger has been beating up is just an assemblage of assorted items that Tigger had pilfered from others (chiefly Rabbit). When this is finally discovered, Tigger's "kingdom" goes down like a house of cards!

This episode has stuck with me more than the others since 9/11, for it seems to me that our current President has exploited this terrible attack and tragedy to augment his own power. After 9/11, the country experienced a roller-coaster ride of color-coded terror alerts and exhortations to "keep your eyes open, but go on being Americans" (whatever that was supposed to mean). The upshot was that Dubya, King of the Beasties, was protecting us little people from the dreaded terrorists (Jagula). And from time to time, the specter of these dastardly folks (Bin-Laden and his ilk) would be brought out to bring the wayward out there back into the "king's court".

In this election year, we are continually being reminded that George Bush has protected us from any more home-soil terrorist attacks from Bin-Laden since 9/11. With the implied message that a Democrat wouldn't (or couldn't) accomplish this feat. But note that Bin-Laden is still out there somewhere, the elusive but convenient enemy, always ready to be thrust out in the public eye, just as Tigger did with his Jagula, in order to keep a certain someone (and his party) in power. Only I think those performing this cynical manipulation in the real world are playing with fire: Bin-Laden and his terror organization are real, not the product of some little boy's imagination!

Individuals, Businesses, and the Police

I would like for someone out there in the cyberworld to tell me why it is that, if I were to walk out of a store with a fifty cent candy bar without paying, then I could be criminally prosecuted, with policemen leading me off to jail in handcuffs. But if the same store were to shortchange me, even by a much greater amount, then the only legal recourse I would have would be to challenge them in a civil court! Although, in an economic sense, the consumer and business are theoretically equal in that money from one side is freely exchanged for the value-equivalence in terms of goods or services, in a legal sense the consumer is at an overwhelming disadvantage. In my opinion, this doesn't seem very fair! When was the last time that you heard, in a dispute between a customer and a business, the police coming and arresting the responsible party of the business? No, (and the businesses know it), the police ALWAYS answer calls regarding such disputes with the eye of protecting the businesses, right or wrong, and prosecuting the customer. If you disagree with this assertion, then I invite you to show me a contradictory example.

When I go to a place like Starbucks to drink coffee, possibly eat a dessert, and sit "a spell", I am paying this company for all of these items, and expect this to be an "even trade". But when I have to share my experience with on-duty policemen who only go there because they get free coffee, then this diminishes my experience. Especially when I look up and one of them is eyeballing me! Especially when I've seen them checking out the cars (of paying customers) in the parking lot before entering. The tendency of the police to regard people in the general public suspiciously, or as outsiders, creates (to me) an atmosphere of discomfort and fear wherever they go. Perhaps they feel the need to engender respect for their important role as upholders of the law. They certainly have earned my respect over the years, with all of the stories I've heard and read of valor and sacrificed lives on the part of many of them for the sake of protecting us from real criminals. But I resent the swagger and latent aggression that they project as well. I can guarantee you that, should I ever find myself in the unlikely situtation of having a serious dispute with a Starbucks that I go to, any policemen present would only take the side of the store and regard me as a disturbance at best. And I think this applies to retail stores, towing companies, or any other business that people often have conflicts with. And I think most people would agree with me that, in any dispute between an individual and a business, it would be almost solely the business who would feel inclined to call the police, while an individual would have to resort to the civil courts for legal satisfaction. In any dispute between someone-at-large and a business, our taxpayer-funded police force is always at the beck and call of the business! Prove me wrong!

Monday Newsbreak: 6/2

--The Discovery space shuttle "successfully" took off Saturday to deliver an important Japanese section to the International Space Station, as well as parts to facilitate repairs to its faulty toilet. However, once again, some debris from the shuttle was lost not long after launch, although authorities claimed that this shouldn't be cause for concern. But how would you like to be on a jet plane that just took off, only to find that a little part of it came off on takeoff? Transfer that concern to the shuttle, with the enormous heat involved in its reentry through Earth's atmosphere, and you may understand why the application of the word "successful" to describe its launch can only be accurately applied once it has safely returned!

--The Florida and Michigan primary disputes were settled, with the Democratic National Committee halving each delegation's votes as a punishment for their violation of party rules. Which is what they should have done earlier, as the Republicans did with little fallout. Leaders of Hillary Clinton's campaign, which had counted on a windfall of Michigan delegates by seeking to retroactively change the decision to not count the votes in that state (on whose ballot Barack Obama's name was not even entered), were furious when her opponent was awarded 29 1/2 votes, based on different estimates of his support then in Michigan. But I credit Obama's willingness to leave Clinton with advantages in both states as a generous concession that he did not have to make. If the rules had been overturned as Clinton had wanted, no one would ever have been able to trust the Democratic National Committee in the future. Why do I get the feeling that, if Clinton and Obama's roles were reversed, that Obama would not be behaving in such an unseemly, vindictive way? Hillary most definitely feels entitled to the nomination by dint of her having been married to President Bill, even though she has held but one elected post in her lifetime. Why can't her supporters see that? Why couldn't we have had instead a more experienced and dignified woman candidate such as California Senator Dianne Feinstein?

--Steve Newman's Earthweek feature picked up an article in Nature magazine featuring UC Riverside's Martin Kennedy's piece warning of impending, greatly accelerated global warning should the vast amounts of methane currently trapped in polar ice be released into the atmosphere (through the ice's melting). The resulting warming could dwarf even the most dire scenarios depicted by activist Al Gore in his movie An Inconvenient Truth.

--Hurricane season has begun in the Atlantic and already the first tropical storm, Alberto, has formed and gone inland around Belize. After erroneous projections for the last fews years, all bets are off as to how severe this year's batch of storms will be (or where they will strike, for that matter).

--I'm disappointed to report my inability to be able to watch any WNBA games so far this year. Most of them that have been televised were shown on a channel that comes in poorly on my TV. Hopeful, after the NBA playoffs end, ESPN and ESPN2 will show more of them on their channels. As for the NBA, I am thoroughly dejected at the failures of the San Antonio Spurs and Detroit Pistons to play up to their potentials as they lost to the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics, respectively. Well, for all the good it's going to do, I'm picking the Lakers to knock off the Celtics in the final series!

Prescience and Coincidence

I had three peculiar events happen to me in the span of twelve hours. A couple of nights ago at work, around eleven, I was pondering on the concept of prescience, or being able to divine the future. I imagined myself conversing with a coworker on this topic, and I contributed the idea that a certain worker on the next shift would walk in wearing a black shirt, blue jeans, and black boots. I had no sooner thought this when the very same fellow walked by, for the first time that night, dressed exactly as I had pictured! Coincidence, right? Later, that night, I lined up some music videos off You Tube to watch. As the first video was ending and the second one was about to start, my son come up from the back and asked me whether I had heard (and these are his words) a big bang outside. To which I replied no, but I was listening to my music and might not have heard. He stuck his head outside, looked around, and seeing nothing, went on back to his room. As he closed his door, my next video came on: Stone Temple Pilot's Big Bang Baby! And now we come to the next morning, around 11 AM. I am driving to my nearby Publix grocery store and am fiddling around with the car radio, trying to find a decent song to hear. And I hit upon the song Psycho by Puddle of Mudd, and muse upon the fact that, although this band seems to closely imitate the sound of Nirvana, they have endured and thus have earned my respect. Then I thought of other grunge-era singers like Eddie Vedder and Chris Cornell and thought, yes, these guys had it together, they didn't self-destruct: they're all right. And then Psycho ended and the radio station immediately began playing Hunger Strike by Temple of the Dog, a temporary tribute band headed by--you guessed it--Eddie Vedder and Chris Cornell. I tend to believe in coincidences and shy away from paranormal interpretations, but to be perfectly honest, these three occurrences kind of creep me out! The fact that I am immersed in Stephen King's Dark Tower series, which is supersaturated with this type of phenomena, doesn't help either! I can, however, see, by this string of events, how some people can get themselves caught up into believing in the paranormal (although I'm not sold on it yet).

Political Cherry-Picking in Florida

It looks as if Hillary Clinton's last-gasp attempt to wrest the Democratic nomination from Barack Obama will hinge on her efforts to get the party to seat delegations from Michigan and Florida, states punished for scheduling their primaries too early. In accordance with the party's punitive decision, the candidates all agreed to avoid campaigning in these states, and Obama and Edwards even went as far as leaving their names off the Michigan ballot. So the results of these two primaries are very suspect and, to any reasonable person, illegitimate. But now, since they both "went for" Clinton, she is now cherry-picking them as her "final hurrah" and even has the gall to include votes received from them as part of her claim to have won the popular vote over Obama. But this isn't the first time that my unfortunate state of Florida has been subjected to attempts to retroactively change the rules in order to favor one candidate over another.

In 2000, in the morning following the extremely close Bush-Gore election (both nationwide and in Florida), it was disclosed that, due to a "butterfly" ballot design flaw in Palm Beach county, independent candidate Pat Buchanan appeared to inadvertently receive thousands of votes that were intended for Al Gore. And many disgruntled voters there quickly affirmed this. There was a call to hold the election in Palm Beach again, in order to rectify this error. Of course, everyone knew that the almost certain result would be to tip the statewide total over to Gore, since not only would the accidental Buchanan votes mostly have gone to the Democratic candidate, but also most of those voting for Green Party candidate Ralph Nader would have switched to Gore as well. So this idea, which fortunately didn't take off, was the first ominous sign of what was to come. The Democratic Party then made the both political and strategic mistake in pushing for manual recounts in only the three south Florida counties (Palm Beach, Broward, and Dade) that Gore had carried, in the hope of adding previously rejected ballots to the statewide total (and thus throwing the total count to Gore). That rejected ballots in pro-Bush counties weren't to be considered showed this tactic to be a highly unfair example of political cherry-picking. Finally, by the time the election dispute had gone to the courts and a statewide manual recount (which should have been the first proposal) was ordered, state-imposed time deadlines had been reached and the U.S. Supreme Court essentially handed the election to Bush, an act that could also be described as a cynical act of cherry-picking (this time on the part of Bush's side). To me, it's too bad we weren't allowed to have our statewide manual recount in order to at least give some semblance of legitimacy to the process.

After the 2000 Election debacle, one might have thought that lessons would have been learned and actions taken to avoid a repeat. But in 2002, immediately following the statewide vote to see which Democrat would run in the general election for governor against incumbent Jeb Bush (Tampa-based Bill McBride vs. Miami-based Janet Reno). Reno's forces began to insist on south Florida-only recounts in that very close race. McBride could only look on helplessly as his opponent's forces cherry-picked counties loyal to her to try and add an advantage to her and give her the nomination. But it still wasn't enough, and McBride proceeded to run (and get creamed) as the Democratic candidate against Governor Bush.

In a close race, both sides can usually point to different factors that may have unfairly tipped the vote total to the opposing side. But this recurring cherry-picking of regions known to be supportive of one particular candidate over another in order to tip the balance is so obviously contrived that it makes me question the integrity of any candidate who seeks this type of a solution in such a close race.

Gay Marriage

One issue that I am certain is going to come back up during this presidential election year is that of gay marriage, with all kinds of ballot initiatives appearing, designed to "protect the sanctity of marriage", especially in key states that Republicans are depending on to win the presidency. This cynical ploy seemed to work well in 2004, when droves of people felt spurred to vote, not because of the crucial presidential contest that year, but rather because they somehow felt threatened by same-sex marriages becoming legal. So what is the big deal about gay marriage anyway?

For those believers of faiths whose scriptures disapprove of homosexuality, anything that would tend to bestow legitimacy on that lifestyle is going to be seen as a kind of abomination. And as far I am concerned, they are welcome to entertain their own beliefs on this subject. But it is quite another matter altogether to make the claim that gay marriage is a threat to the institution of marriage, especially when half of all marriages (heterosexual) end in divorce! It would seem to me that if those who wanted to protect the sanctity of marriage were serious about their principles, then they would first concentrate on making divorce much more difficult. But that would then be making restrictions on heterosexuals, wouldn't it? And after all, it's those "other people" who need restraint, right?! Plus, I have trouble picturing any divorce proceeding in which one or both of the parties claims that the marriage was ruined because some gays elsewhere were allowed to marry! And yet, this is the sort of reasoning (if you want to call it that) that seems to resonate with many people.

Another reason some are opposed to gay marriage is that they are afraid and repulsed by gay and lesbian couples being able to display the fact of their relationships with each other legitimately in public the way heterosexual couples currently do. One argument is that openly gay behavior would attract others to somehow become gay. This is the "recruitment" argument, implying that gay people are a kind of "army" that deliberately recruits new members. Well, I am in my fifties, and I can only say that, in my personal experience, I have known a few gay people, none of whom ever even remotely attempted to sway me toward their lifestyle. And if someone did, then so what? Don't I have the freedom and authority to politely and respectfully say "no"?!

So, I guess you may have already discerned that I don't see how allowing committed same-sex couples to commit their lives to each other in a solemn marriage ceremony and be recognized within the general society as a married couple is a bad thing. I'm sure that religious folk can point to this passage or that in their scriptures to "prove" what a bad idea that is. But I would also point out that scripture has been commonly used in the past to justify discrimination (and even enslavement) against other demographic groups. The widespread anti-Semitism in Europe that culminated in six million deaths of Jews under Hitler this past century was founded in centuries of church-sanctioned doctrine blaming the Jews for killing Jesus. In America during the years of slavery, black slaves were not permitted to marry. And then were judged to be living in sin because of this! More recently, in the early 1980's, when the emerging AIDS epidemic became public knowledge, homosexuals were often openly portrayed in the media as being ravenously promiscuous. The fact that many heterosexuals are ravenously promiscuous didn't seem to be relevant to the discussion, for some reason.

I think that much of the opposition to gay marriage is a backhanded pride issue. By that, I mean that many opponents see gays as "them", not "us", and aren't we so proud of ourselves that we aren't "them"! I think each of us has enough to worry about the "planks" in our own eyes without worrying about the "specks" in others'!

Favorite Songs of 1972

To fully understand where I stand on music in the year 1972, you need to take into account that, at that time, I was in the midst of my teenage years. As such, I tended to bond more with the prevailing popular music then than at other times of my life. So as a result, since I was 15-16 years old this year, 1972 naturally contains probably the longest list of "great" songs that I could amass. So, once again, I'll just comment on a few of my favorites and list the rest.

I listened in 1972 to a variety of radio stations (in south Florida) for my music. The pop/rock mainstays on AM, 560-WQAM, 790-WFUN, and 1580-WSRF, played most of my favorites. But 940-WINZ would also play songs that weren't necessarily top-40 but still were awfully good. Examples of this were Georgio's Son of My Father, Bob Dylan's George Jackson, and Apollo 100's Joy. On the FM side of the radio dial, a wide variety of stations had proliferated as well, giving me plenty of opportunities to surf around for good music. Bread had two sad, sweet love songs in Everything I Own and Diary. The Moody Blues, with the release of their Seventh Sojourn album, had two excellent tracks (often played end-to-end as a unit) For My Lady (later to become one of my top ten all-time favorites) and Isn't Life Strange. The group Yes hit the big time with their keyboard-frenzied Roundabout. Three Dog Night's Family of Man lightened my spirits in a personally-depressing spring of '72. Another spirit-lifter was Candyman by the inimitable Sammy Davis Jr., whose career was also enhanced this year by kissing Archie Bunker and diminished by hugging Richard Nixon. Commander Cody made me laugh with their resurrection of Hot Rod Lincoln. Looking Glass had their one big hit (and my #5 favorite of the year): Brandy. The Carpenters went a little heavy on the electric guitar with the sad, forlorn (and my #4 favorite of '72) Goodbye To Love. At the close of 1972, emerging superstar singer Carly Simon had her greatest song ever (to me): her hilarious tongue-in-cheek tribute to jet-setter friend Mick Jagger (and my #3 song of the year): You're So Vain. Elton John in 1972 came out with several hits, among them Rocket Man and Honky Cat. But my favorites of his that year were songs that I only heard played on one radio station (1580-WSRF): Levon and Tiny Dancer (my #2 song of 1972). Since these two are the ones now being played a lot on the radio, I feel sweetly vindicated! The greatest song to me of the great musical year of 1972? None other than the passionate, soulful plea of love by Eric Clapton, expressed through his group Derek and the Dominoes: Layla, a song which, moreover, really won me over for its long instrumental ending that wove together the keyboard and the guitar into a masterpiece of sound. And here are the other songs from 1972 that I liked a lot:

Footstompin' Music (Grand Funk Railroad)
I Wanna Be Where You Are (Michael Jackson)
Outa-Space (Billy Preston)
Doctor My Eyes (Jackson Browne)
Lean On Me (Bill Withers)
I Saw the Light (Todd Rundgren)
Too Late to Turn Back Now (Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose)
Coconut (Nilsson)
Conquistador (Procol Harum)
Where Is the Love (Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway)
Take It Easy (Eagles)
Go All the Way (Raspberries)
Garden Party (Rick Nelson)
Popcorn (Hot Butter)
Tight Rope (Leon Russell)
Freddie's Dead (Curtis Mayfield)
I Can See Clearly Now (Johnny Nash)
Papa Was a Rolling Stone (Temptations)
Me and Mrs. Jones (Billy Paul)
I'm Stone in Love With You (Stylistics)
Sitting (Cat Stevens)
Crab Dance (Cat Stevens)
Saturday in the Park (Chicago)
Duncan (Paul Simon)
Heart of Gold (Neil Young)
Summer Breeze (Seals and Crofts)
Living in the Past (Jethro Tull)

The entire Beatles White Album (which I heard in its entirety for the first time in 1972) dominated much of my listening later in the year, even though this work was released back in 1968. I was able to borrow the album from a dear friend and later bought it myself. In particular, I enjoyed listening through "Side Four", which included the ominous and sinister Revolution 9 and the tearjerking finale, Goodnight. The mood of much of this great work of the Beatles strongly resonated with how I was generally feeling at the time, and I'll always fondly identify it with 1972.

Rank Amateur Gaming

One of my son's friends, Jeff, delivered a speech recently at their high school graduation ceremony in which he described his experiences as a player on his school's basketball team during his senior year. Including the fact that he had never played basketball before going out for the team! He described his ability in basketball as "awful", but also stated that his experience on the team was the highlight of his school career. I identify with the outlook presented by this thoughtful young man, for there are areas that I would like to explore in my life for which I would equally qualify as a "rank amateur". One of these areas is the vast field of video gaming.

Although I'm sure that there are folks my age who are adept at video games, I think that being a part of the video gaming culture is basically a matter of which generation one is a part of. It wasn't until I was 20 that I actually played my first video game, the very simple Pong. And I never got much further than that. I remember playing, about twenty years ago, an Atari game called Qix, that my brother-in-law had on his old Atari system. And I got pretty adept at it, I'm proud to say. But when my son, and later, daughter, began their forays into the world of video games, I could not keep up with them, not even remotely! I'm not even sure which video game systems they are using now. I do remember, though, attempting (with mixed success) to get through the various stages in Sonic II (then on Genesis) during the mid-nineties. And later, I had some fun with the spin-off game Doctor Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine. But that aside, I have gone absolutely nowhere with video games. Until now. I have been inspired by Jeff's speech to join the ranks of other rank amateurs in their fields and have purchased a 99-cent used video game, Project Gotham Racing, which I will attempt to "get good at". I am sincerely hoping that my daughter will help to mentor me through the video gaming process and will not laugh at my pathetic failures too much! There may be a danger to me doing this, though: I've seen that playing video games can become highly addictive for some!

Duality

In the Oscar-winning movie A Beautiful Mind, directed by Ron Howard and starring Russell Crowe, mathematician John Nash hits upon an idea for his graduate thesis, an idea that would eventually garner him the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1994: the optimum economic result is achieved when each party works both for its own interests as well as for the group as a whole. This duality of purpose may, at times, seem to raise conflicts, but I believe that it has wider applications than Nash's economic masterpiece. Here are some examples:

--Within the context of a particular religion, a believer may believe that his/her faith is not only the exclusively true religion, but also that nonbelievers are doomed to eternal suffering after death as well as that those nonbelievers may be so evil that they do not even deserve to live. And yet, as functioning social human beings on earth, people of faith must necessarily get along with others who do not share that faith with them. So there must be a kind of division, or duality, that allows them to both believe in their own religion while being respectful of others. This is for the good of society as a whole.

--There is the duality of authority and guidance that all persons in positions of authority need to exercise, be they parents, employers, supervisors, teachers, etc. At times, there will be a strict command structure in which subordinates (children, students, employees, etc.) will need to "just follow orders". Other times, it will be necessary for there to be an open atmosphere of honest interaction. There needs to be both elements of this duality in a state of balance in order for the authority/subordinate relationship to have optimum effectiveness.

--Watching sports I as often do on television, I am also struck by how I see the best, most respected athletes portrayed. In the context of their sport, they display very aggressive behavior, but must instantly know when to quickly abandon that aggression for the sake of avoiding trouble with officials and competing athletes. This duality of sportsmanship and aggressive competitiveness is something that I've noticed has to be learned, for when I was in school, the competitive kids around me cheated, hogged the ball, and yelled at others whenever they "screwed up"!

--Every elected politician, in order to be an effective leader, has two sometimes conflicting constituents to satisfy: the first are those people who voted them into office and expect the politician to subscribe to a particular ideological canon that meets with their approval. The second are the people as a whole whom the politician was elected to represent, and this naturally also includes those politically opposed to him/her. So the effective politician will optimally work for the constituents as a whole while at the same time satisfying the most important concerns of those who elected him/her. Not an easy task, from what I've been able to gather over the years!

I could probably go on and on with examples of how people need to behave with a sort of duality in the real world. This doesn't mean that people need to be two-faced or hypocritical: as John Nash laid out in his paper on economics, duality itself is a principle that, when adhered to properly, creates the best result, ultimately strengthening each of its facets.

Monday Newsbreak: 5/26

--Today is Memorial Day in the United States. We express our appreciation for those many brave Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice to preserve our freedoms and way of life here in America as soldiers during times of war.

--Hillary Clinton has been lambasted for making a comment about Robert F. Kennedy's assassination in June of 1968 as part of her justification for remaining in the campaign against Barack Obama. Many have taken this as a statement meaning that Obama might be suddenly (and possibly tragically) "taken out" of the presidential race, leaving her in a position to assume the Democratic mantle. But I think that Hillary was only trying to refresh people's memories (or educate them for the first time) that in the past, campaigns for nominations often went on strong into the month of June. Her slip-up, as I see it, was to utter the word "assassination", although it was obviously (to me) only intended to point out the month (June) and not to imply anything potentially calamitous about the present campaign.

--Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy has been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor with a poor prognosis. Although his personal life has been pockmarked with scandal at various times over the years, I have grown to respect Kennedy for his advocacy for the poor and the middle class, workers' rights, the environment, and his talent for reaching across the senate aisle and working with his Republican counterparts on legislation. His absence will be heavily felt. On a side note, after long-time (more than four decades) senate colleague Robert Byrd cried on the senate floor regarding Kennedy's terminal diagnosis, acerbic political radio host Michael Savage cruelly derided the West Virginia senator. And yet millions of American listen to Savage and subscribe to this obviously disturbed man's worldview! Scary!

--An unmanned NASA craft landed in the polar region of Mars yesterday with one of its main tasks being to extract some water in hopes of possibly determining conditions for (or existence of) life there. Unlike the recent landing of a probe using air bags to cushion the landing, this craft, called the Phoenix Mars Lander, used rocket thrusters and parachutes to make a soft landing. There had been concern due to previous Mars landing failures using this system, but the craft made it safely to the red planet's surface. Of course, there are many other things that need to "go right" in the next few days as well.

--In the "thanks but no thanks" department, Steve Newman's Earthweek feature reported that an Australian professor, Tim Flannery (field unspecified) who is a climate change activist, advocated gradually injecting sulfur into the atmosphere (through jet emissions) in order to deflect the sun's heat back into space. This would purportedly counter the carbon dioxide-induced increasing greenhouse effect causing our global warming (as well as turn the sky a yellow color). Flannery stated that he was unaware of how any negative effects could arise from doing this. To which I say, "Are you crazy, dude?!" Just look over to the next planet, Venus, and its sulfuric acid-enriched atmosphere to get a taste of what the future holds for us if loony ideas like this hold sway.

The WNBA

I discovered recently that the WNBA, the women's counterpart of the National Basketball Association, began its season of play this past week. I think that playing a spring/summer schedule is a great way to publicize this high caliber of basketball without interfering with the men's season. It also gives us basketball couch potatoes something to tune in to during the summer! Although the WNBA has been going on for a while (since 1997), this will be the first year that I will be paying attention to it. I'm going to watch a few games and then decide which teams I want to root for the most (I'm not geographically tied down to an area). The only thing that I want to make sure before I get in too deep following it is that the WNBA is on sound enough financial footing to allow it to endure long enough to establish traditions, rivalries, and memorable experiences. The fact that it has been around for over a decade, is under the NBA's protective umbrella, and has a TV contract bodes well for its future. Plus, girl's basketball is growing in popularity on a grass roots level across the nation. I saw some bits of the women's NCAA tournament and was impressed by the athletes' play. I felt, while watching the games, a sense that their manner of play resonated more with how I would play the game should I be on a team. When watching the men, I often get swept away by the almost superhuman level of athleticism displayed. There seems to be a slower, strategy-based flavor to the women's games. It should make for some good basketball! Of course, right now I am totally immersed with the men's NBA playoffs.

Later this summer, the Summer Olympics in China should also be interesting regarding both men's and women's basketball (assuming the television coverage actually allows me to watch games without hopping and skipping around too much to other events and features). Who knows, I may recognize the WNBA stars on the US women's team (temporarily pretending to be amateurs).

Factors in Liking Songs

If you've been reading this blog, you may have noticed that I review, on a weekly basis, my favorite songs of a specific year. And you also may have noticed that these songs tend to vary quite a bit as far as genre is concerned. So what makes a song memorable and appealing?

As I have lived through the years, contemporary popular music has traced a path parallel to my personal life. So, at any particular time, there were songs that were current then. As a result, I have come to associate certain tunes with certain periods of my life. And sometimes, it gets very specific with a tune evoking one vivid memory. For example, I remember, during my high school track practice in April 1973, someone had their radio on and the Stealer's Wheel hit Stuck In the Middle With You was playing. Now whenever I hear it, I go back to that time and "relive" it. Other times, I would just be running some cross-country practice on my own and I would begin to play a tune in my head. Now those tunes also automatically bring up my running experiences (Don't Pass Me By by The Beatles, Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy by Bette Midler, Loves Me Like a Rock by Paul Simon, and Changes by David Bowie). Since I've usually been permitted the use of a radio at my workplaces, I'll often instantly visualize an old work location upon hearing an old tune. The earliest example of this phenomenon of associating songs with personal events that I can remember was when I, as a seven-year old (in 1964), was playing out in my front yard by the driveway while someone had on the radio, which was playing a song titled White On White. When the oldies station plays Georgie Fame's Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde, I'm suddenly in the same spot four years later in 1968, but it's evening and I'm out star-gazing. Hearing other songs will give me instant associations with people such as my friends and family, when those have reacted either positively or negatively to the songs in question. So hearing old songs can serve as a tremendous memory aid, tying my life's span together into a tapestry of sorts and keeping memories afloat that otherwise would have faded into oblivion.

But there are simply songs that stand out on their own merit and don't necessarily bring out memories. To this category belongs music that resonates with the various emotions and moods that I tend to go through on a regular basis. And sometimes, strange as it may sound, it takes a song full of misery to lift my spirits when I'm feeling down myself (songs like Novocaine For the Soul by the Eels and Led Zeppelin's Dazed and Confused and No Quarter).

Some songs impress me for the virtuosity of the singers and instrument players (Minnie Ripperton's Loving You and The White Stripes' Icky Thump). Others have interesting stories to tell (Suzanne Vega's Luka and Tracy Chapman's Fast Car). Sometimes all it takes for a song to take hold on me is for it to contain a couple of witty or significant lines of lyric (for example, just about anything by John Lennon). I'm also partial to songs of a long, "epic" nature that take their time developing to rewarding climaxes (songs like Close to the Edge by Yes and Stranglehold by Ted Nugent).

There is a special category of songs that I am fond of: songs of inspiration and determination. These can reinforce positive attitudes and habits, and I like to listen to these repeatedly (songs like Tom Petty's I Won't Back Down, Pearl Jam's I Am Mine, and Steve Winwood's Back in the High Life Again).

So you can see, there are many different factors determining whether or not I like a song that I hear. And sometimes, I'll like one for no discernible reason as well!

Reading on the Eights: 5/23

Over the past eight weeks, it looks as if I didn't read with the same intensity as in previous periods. Why this was so, I don't know. I did reread J.K. Rawling's fitting conclusion to the Harry Potter saga: The Deathly Hallows (my daughter had recently read it and I was embarrassed to have already forgotten many of its details). I continued reading some old science fiction, although not at the pace I had envisioned. I read two short stories from 1931: P. Schuyler Miller's Tetrahedra Of Space and Clifford Simak's World of the Red Sun. Miller's story contained the unintended paradox of humans attempting to bridge the chasm of differences between species of entirely different forms while holding on tenaciously to commonly-held (in 1931) prejudices about people "of color". Simak's story was the better by far, with a time travel angle and a classic, unexpected ending. I remember this excellent sci-fi writer from childhood when I read his story The Big Front Yard, evoking imagery that has stayed with me to this day.

And, of course, I continued my Stephen King readings, concentrating on his Dark Tower series. I read through the fourth book, titled The Wizard and Glass, and must say that it was the best of the series so far. But the fifth book, Wolves of the Calla, of which I am in the middle of reading, is also quite engrossing.

I guess that I've let myself be distracted by some other things recently, often putting my reading on the "back burner". And to be brutally frank, the very old science fiction short stories (from the early 1930s) weren't anywhere near as good as the ones that began to come out just ten years later. I think I'll switch out my short story books and read something more recent. And as I get deeper into Stephen King's Dark Tower series, I'm predicting the pace of reading to quicken! Although, being in the midst of trying to figure out what is going on with this series, I have hesitated to try to analyze it, it looks as if King may have unconsciously borrowed one of Rawling's devices: the pensieve, which enabled the observer to "travel" back in time to experience events from the point of view of the person who "left" the memory behind. King doesn't use a bowl, and there are some differences, but the effect seems (to me) to be similar. Of course, she may have taken it from him or they both took the idea from another source. Or maybe it's all just a big coincidence!

Favorite Songs of 1973

As full of great songs as 1974 was, 1973 was even better! As such, I am once again resorting to listing many of them while commenting on a few of the (to me) best.

Hurricane Smith kicked off 1973 with an offbeat (and his only) big hit Oh Babe What Would You Say. Stealer's Wheel, featuring the talented Gerry Rafferty, spun out an intriguing record with a different beat (copied by Sheryl Crow on her All I Wanna Do): Stuck in the Middle With You. The great guitar-jamming, whistling, and (yes) yodeling hit Hocus Pocus (by Focus) came out in '73. My favorite Arlo Guthrie song, a cover of his father Woodie's hit Gypsy Davey, came out in late spring. Lynn Anderson's version of the Carpenters-penned Top of the World was, to me, vastly superior to the original version. The Allman Brothers jammed it up the way only they could with their Ramblin' Man. Stevie Wonder's epic story of race and injustice, Living for the City, grew in stature with me over the years until it is now one of my all-time favorite songs. Harry Chapin had a minor hit with W-O-L-D, a compelling, sad tale about an aging disc jockey. America put out two songs that resonated well with me (although they weren't their biggest hits): Don't Cross the River and Only In Your Heart. The Spinners had a beautiful tearjerker with Ghetto Child. Johnny Mathis likewise put out an emotional tune: I'm Coming Home. Nights in White Satin, originally released in 1968 by the Moody Blues, later became a singles hit in 1972 and a favorite of mine in early 1973 (the full-length version). Elton John and John Denver, both enjoying success with singles releases this year, had better songs hidden on their albums with Blues For Baby and Me and Farewell Andromeda, respectively. Chicago's innovative anti-war, pro-social activism song Dialogue has also grown to become one of my all-time favorites. My #3 favorite song from 1973 (as I lived through it) was Al Green's incredible Love and Happiness (which he belted out perfectly during the Atlanta Olympic Games' closing ceremonies in 1996). Although Led Zeppelin's classic Stairway to Heaven had been out for more than a year, it wasn't until late in 1973 that I noticed it. And then I became enraptured by this haunting and mysterious piece, making it my #2 song of the year. Speaking of mysterious, the duo Seals and Crofts produced my top favorite song of 1973 with their Hummingbird, which, although I never could ferret out the precise meaning of its lyrics, still somehow served to be very inspiring! And now, here are some other great tunes I liked back then in '73:

Dueling Banjos (Eric Weissberg & Steve Mandel)
Killing Me Softly With His Song (Roberta Flack)
Dancing in the Moonlight (King Harvest)
Also Sprach Zarathustra (Deodato)
Give It Up (J. Geils Band)
Peaceful Easy Feeling (Eagles)
Peaceful (Helen Reddy)
Cisco Kid (War)
Drift Away (Dobie Gray)
Wildflower (Skylark)
Pillow Talk (Sylvia)
I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little More (Barry White)
Oklahoma Crude Theme (Henry Mancini)
The Morning After (Maureen McGovern)
As Time Goes By (Nilsson)
Midnight Train to Georgia (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
Smoke on the Water (Deep Purple)
Paper Roses (Marie Osmond)
Out of the Question (Gilbert O'Sullivan)
No More Mr. Nice Guy (Alice Cooper)
Little Willy (The Sweet)
Uneasy Rider (Charlie Daniels Band)
Take a Walk on the Wild Side (Lou Reed)
Will It Go Around in Circles (Billy Preston)
Soul Makossa (Manu Dibango)
Send a Little Love My Way (Ann Murray)
Hello It's Me (Todd Rundgren)
Knockin' On Heaven's Door (Bob Dylan)
Kodachrome (Paul Simon)
Loves Me Like a Rock (Paul Simon)
All I Know (Art Garfunkel)
Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy (Bette Midler)
Whatever Gets You Through the Night (John Lennon)
Give Me Love (George Harrison)
Photograph (Ringo Starr)
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (Elton John)
Daniel (Elton John)
Rocky Mountain High (John Denver)
I Got a Name (Jim Croce)
You Are the Sunshine of My Life (Stevie Wonder)
Space Oddity (Davie Bowie) (re-released)
Do It Again (Steely Dan)
Reelin' in the Years (Steely Dan)
Aubrey (Bread)
Clouds (David Gates)