It’s been a blitzkrieg, traveling east to DC and back today in slightly more than 48 hours…and worth every second. It’ll take me a few days to get current…and I must begin filming tomorrow morning. But I’ll make a start. The purpose of my mission: to unite with classmates from college in Munich, ’62-64. These… Continue reading FAMILIAL IRONIES
Category: Popular Culture
HIP HOP
OK, going into the deep end of the pool here. Got into this today with my therapist. I have NEVER had an appreciation for rap, hip-hop, what have you. I recorded a blues album back in ’82 with a producer who’d represented Curtis Blow, one of the early pioneers. Thru the decades I’ve encountered some… Continue reading HIP HOP
GLORY DAYS…
Tonite a classic Yankee victory – 2019 style. We won in the 10th, 12-10. In truth our pitching staff is questionable. EVERYONE! Starters, middle men, closers. Tonite, Yankee starter Domingo German was going for his major league leading 13TH victory! Instead he got lit up for 8 runs, quite early on. He’s not the same… Continue reading GLORY DAYS…
SERVICE
Today I served dinners to some of the 4000 homeless here in Los Angeles. I’m always mindful that many of our homeless are veterans, some from wars past and some of wars present. There are celebrities and politicians aplenty in evidence; many of their nametags superfluous but providing a leveling affect. Fame and power bring… Continue reading SERVICE
THAT’S NOT FUNNY
What constitutes humor today? What is funny? Is Aristophenes still funny? Is Buster Keaton? Milton Berle? Richard Pryor? Is there something intrinsically timeless about comedy…or does it vary with cultural trends and contextual world events? Must a joke ‘travel well’, from culture to culture, to be genuinely comedic? I love to laugh, I think everyone… Continue reading THAT’S NOT FUNNY
SAVANNAH
I was perhaps seven, when I went to visit my father in Georgia. To supplement his income as an English professor at Howard University, Dad taught summer school at Savannah State College and I looked forward to my first visit to the South, spending my summer fishing and reading, and the chance to travel… Continue reading SAVANNAH
GUIDANCE
VAGINA MONOLOGUE I watched the above theater piece this afternoon, taped months ago. It was not at all what I’d anticipated. I discovered (perhaps this should NOT have surprised me, given my sexual past) that many women, if not most, have a somewhat negative relationship and perception of their vagina. So much of male and… Continue reading GUIDANCE
GEGNER’S BARBER SHOP
This arrived today in my mailbox and really struck me as synchronous. I’m not an alumni of Antioch College, I graduated from U of Md…but as a freshman I attended Antioch in the summer of ’61. I’d recently turned 17, they’d offered me a Naval Engineering scholarship for their $3000 tuition and I went for… Continue reading GEGNER’S BARBER SHOP
EVIL
If this were a film plot, I’d immediately dismiss it for being beyond my willingness to suspend my disbelief. “Three HUNDRED religious figures…”and from ONE state? Come on, man! I know the Catholic church has a long dark history of pederasty, over centuries from the Vatican down to the smallest parish. But even so, come… Continue reading EVIL
A KENNEDY MEMORY
I’m in the throes of departure and discovery as I approach Christmas 2004. In two weeks, I will return to Vietnam for the first time in 35 years. I have much on my emotional plate, can you dig it? Tonight I received a phone call from a gathering of old friends in Washington, DC; celebrating… Continue reading A KENNEDY MEMORY