A Rite Of Spring In Russia, A Riot Of Spring In Paris

There was an important anniversary in the world of music this weekend. Most of my musical posts usually concern people. This one is about a composition in the forefront of a revolution in sound at the end of the Edwardian era. On May 29, 1913 the 30 year-old composer, Igor Stravinsky, made music history in Paris. The event was the premiere of the ballet, The Rite of Spring. Like his earlier work for Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, it was experimental and revolutionary. When combined with primitive choreography and a human sacrifice theme some in the audience were dazzled while others were infuriated to the point of riot. 

Photo from 1913 showing original costumes

In the early 1980's the original choreography was meticulously reconstructed after being lost for almost six decades. A few years after its completion it was presented by the Joffre Ballet. There is no better representation of what that 1913 audience both heard and saw. Here is Part 1 - all three available on YouTube - of their performance.

Stravinsky's imaginative compositions went on to have a huge impact on music and the arts. At the forefront stands The Rite of Spring - Stravinsky produced several arrangement throughout his life - as one of the most widely recorded and performed  works in the world. It remains as fresh in 2022 as it was in 1913. In that century its innovative energy in sound and rhythm has been re-patterned by the likes of Aaron Copeland, Leonard Bernstein, John Williams, Philip Glass and many others.

Some say the most productive experiments often make the biggest messes until they are better understood. The genius and madman in Stravinsky would very much agree. 

Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
public domain photo from First Nights: Five Musical Premieres by Thomas F. Kelly. Yale University Press, New Haven, 2000.

Text:
Igor Stravinsky entry, wikipedia.org

Walt Whitman: On The Bridge From Imagination To Unadorned Reality

The American poet and essayist, Walt Whitman, was born on this day in 1819 in West Hills, Long Island, New York. His formal education ended after six years but his insatiable desire to learn immersed him in libraries, museums, lectures, salons, and landscapes in and around New York. His life as a poet, essayist, journalist and humanitarian would take him to New Orleans, Washington, Boston, and Camden, New Jersey, but his associations in New York would make the greater metropolitan area the hub of career.

Whitman in 1887

A free spirit easily recognized as the most extraordinary poet of his time, Whitman bridged the American experience from the early Romantic period in literature to the advent of hard realism as the end of the century approached. I'm not sure what presence he has these days in public school systems across the country but baby boomers - born between 1946 and 1964 - had a full dose of his poetry beginning in elementary school. For more information on Whitman, including an extensive biography, visit the outstanding resources at the Walt Whitman Archive.

For an example of his work here is "One's-Self I Sing," the introductory poem to the third and last section of his collection, Leaves of Grass, as published in 1867.

ONE’S-SELF I sing—a simple, separate Person;

Yet utter the word Democratic, the word En-masse.

Of Physiology from top to toe I sing;

Not physiognomy alone, nor brain alone, is worthy for the muse—I say the

Form complete is worthier far;

The Female equally with the male I sing.

Of Life immense in passion, pulse, and power,

Cheerful—for freest action form’d, under the laws divine,

The Modern Man I sing.

Much of Whitman's poetry has been set to music. Sometimes the blend of music and existing poetryas opposed to lyric has limited success and authors often do not think favorably of such adaptations. I believe Whitman would have approved especially with the music coming from a fellow impressionist, in this case Frederick Delius. This composition has been a personal favorite for forty years. The recording features the superb Welsh baritone, Bryn Terfel, and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Chorus under the baton of Richard Hickox. If you want to follow the text it's available here.

Sources

Photos and Illustrations:

public domain photo, George Collins Cox, restored by Adam Cuerden, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

Text:
whitmanarchive.org
Walt Whitman entry, wikipedia.org
One's Self I Sing, wikipedia.org

Memorial Day 2022

 

This is a day of mixed emotion as we honor men and women who made the supreme sacrifice in service to their country. They gave their lives that we might live out our own in an experiment of community called the United States. Some of us may be on holiday at the beach or mountains while others gather with family and friends for a cookout at home. And there are those who may find themselves alone and not necessarily by choice this year. At some point all of us will take some moments to think of these honored men and women and what they have given us and our families.

Many of us grew up knowing this day as Decoration Day but now it is best known as Memorial Day. Though both its date and scope have changed over time its central meaning remains strong. At virtually every crossroad town from sea to sea, there will be old soldiers, flags, a speech or two, a band, and prayers. These events will take place at memorial walls bearing the names of the honored dead. Invariably, the audiences will be small, but firmly dedicated to the idea that the nation will always remember the cost of freedom.

A common theme in all of those memorial gatherings mentioned earlier will be music. The American composer, Charles Ives, captured much of the historic character of this day in his composition, Holiday Symphony, completed in 1913. Section II of that work, "Decoration Day," has a number of familiar tunes, but you may not recognize them without a guide. Like the holiday itself, Ives gives us rich, complex, and contemplative moments in time and space as we hear his interpretation of his father's holiday from dawn to dusk.

A Soldier's Burial

by General George S. Patton (1943)

Not midst the chanting of the Requiem Hymn,

Nor with the solemn ritual of prayer,

Neath misty shadows from the oriel glass,

And dreamy perfume of the incensed air

Was he interred;

But in the subtle stillness after fight,

And the half light between the night and the day,

We dragged his body all besmeared with mud,

And dropped it, clod-like, back into the clay.

Yet who shall say that he was not content,

Or missed the prayers, or drone of chanting choir,

He who had heard all day the Battle Hymn

Sung on all sides by a thousand throats of fire.

What painted glass can lovelier shadows cast,

Than those the evening sky shall ever shed,

While, mingled with their light, Red Battle's Sun

Completes in magic colors o'er our dead,

The flag for which they died.

Benny Goodman: The Music Master Of Swing

In 1935 Benny Goodman and his band had a regular late-night gig on Saturdays on NBC's radio program, Let's Dance. Broadcast from New York, most of the local teens and twenty-somethings who enjoyed his music were fast asleep. On the other hand, it was perfect timing for young audiences on the West Coast. A labor strike brought the program to a sudden and unexpected end and put Goodman and his band out of work. Together they decided on a coast to coast tour. In the interior states, the tour was a disaster because people didn't care for "upbeat" jazz arranged for orchestra. The band was looking forward to the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles as the last stop and an end to the pain. When they arrived, thousands of young fans who had heard them on the radio were waiting to hear them in person. What was to be a welcome end to a disastrous tour turned into the beginning of the Swing era.

In the shadow of Bebop: Benny Goodman, 1946

Eighteen months later , the now famous Goodman Orchestra was invited to present a jazz review on January 16, 1938 in Carnegie Hall, a venue historically reserved for "high brow" music. Several members of the Duke Ellington and Count Basie orchestras and others joined on stage to perform a concert ranging from traditional to unconventional. No jazz bandleader had ever performed there. The concert was a sensation, reaffirming Goodman as the "King of Swing," and jazz as serious American music. In the eyes of many music critics and historians, this concert remains the single most important event in popular music history in the United States. Superlatives aside, the concert was a study in swing music history and jazz improvisation.

After several curtain calls at the end of the concert, Goodman announced to the screaming fans that an encore would follow. Sing, Sing, Sing was the last song in that set. It already was a popular piece for the band, but this performance lifted it to holy status in the swing jazz genre. Featured players: Gene Kruppa on drums, Babe Russin on saxophone, Harry James on trumpet, Goodman on clarinet, and Jess Stacy in a masterpiece of improvisation on piano.

Today we celebrate the birthday of the clarinetist and bandleader, Benny Goodman (1909 - 1986). You can read about him at his Wikipedia entry here. Mention "Palomar Ballroom" and "Carnegie Hall" in the same breath and any popular music historian will follow with "Benny Goodman." His performances at the two venues took place more than 80 years ago. Today we remember both concerts as course changing landmarks in the history of swing and jazz.

Publicity style photo of Benny Goodman, ca. 1960

Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
1946 photo, Library of Congress, William Gottlieb Collection

1960 photo,public domain, publicity style candid photo of Benny Goodman

 

Text:
bennygoodman.com
Benny Goodman entry, wikipedia.org

Bob Dylan Could Be The 20th Century's Most Well-Known Poet/Songwriter

Earlier this week the legendary songwriter, Bob Dylan, turned 81. As expected, Scott Johnson, the outstanding cultural observer writing at Powerline, treated his readers to a revision of his Dylan tributes. Johnson conveys the message so well I won't begin to add to the story. His first post, Not Dark Yet, discusses the man and his significance in the world of music and beyond. His second post, Not Dark Yet, Cont., is devoted to Dylan the songwriter and features several likely unfamiliar covers of the master's work.

Bob Dylan was only 21 on July 9, 1962 when he walked into the Columbia Recording Studios in New York to record a song to be included on his second album. The song, Blowin' in the Wind, brought him fame and recognition as one of the nation's leading folk poets in the twentieth century. Dylan has this to say about the song in the June 1962 issue of the folk journal, Sing Out:

Too many of these hip people are telling me where the answer is but oh I won’t believe that. I still say it’s in the wind and just like a restless piece of paper it’s got to come down some ...But the only trouble is that no one picks up the answer when it comes down so not too many people get to see and know . . . and then it flies away.

  

The music critic, Andy Gill, said this about the song in his book, Classic Bob Dylan, 1962-1969: My Back Pages:

Blowin' in the Wind marked a huge jump in Dylan's songwriting. Prior to this, efforts like The Ballad of Donald White and The Death of Emmett Till had been fairly simplistic bouts of reportage songwriting. Blowin' in the Wind was different: for the first time, Dylan discovered the effectiveness of moving from the particular to the general. Whereas The Ballad of Donald White would become completely redundant as soon as the eponymous criminal was executed, a song as vague as Blowin' in the Wind could be applied to just about any freedom issue. It remains the song with which Dylan's name is most inextricably linked, and safeguarded his reputation as a civil libertarian through any number of changes in style and attitude.

Undoubtedly the song remains a poem for our time, perhaps all time. And Dylan just keeps rolling as well,






Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
public domain photo, 1964 Yearbook, St. Lawrence University, New York

Text:
Bob Dylan entry, Wikipedia.org
history.com

Remembering Peggy Lee And Her Sophisticated Style

The American entertainer, Peggy Lee (1920-2002), always had a serious independent streak in both her life and career. While many lounge singers chose to go loud Lee knew she couldn't do that and went rich, seductive, and stylish instead. Her method caught the eye and ear of bandleader Benny Goodman in 1941 and for the next five decades she wrapped songs in her personality, warmth, and intimacy for millions of fans.

Lee (r.) with Benny Goodman and his orchestra in 1943

Here is the song that made her famous:

She not only sang songs but also wrote or co-wrote over 270 of them. Here she is singing her biggest hit as a songwriter, Manana; words by Lee and music by Dave Barbour:

Lee had her last big hit in 1969 with Is That All There Is?. The songwriting team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller wrote the song based on a story by Thomas Mann. Its perfect for Lee's treatment.

With that sophisticated style and warm singing, writing lyrics, composing, and acting, it's easy to see why Lee was always introduced to audiences as "Miss Peggy Lee." And it's no wonder that such an "in charge" personality could become the model for one of the most beloved characters in television history. That the character is none other than a Muppet may surprise you. It is a story of caricature, humor, reverence, and unexpected fame. Read about it here in this brief Smithsonian Magazine interview.

My personal favorite from her repertoire as you would expect comes from the Great American Songbook. It's The Folks Who Live On The Hill, composed in 1937 by Jerome Kern with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. Her performance, conducted by Frank Sinatra, was recorded in 1957 for the album, The Man I Love.

Lee was born on May 26, 1920 in Jamestown, North Dakota. Her recordings still sell well  two decades after her death and can be heard regularly on jazz and popular music stations and channels around the world.


That's all there is!









Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
public domain publicity still from the film, Stage Door Canteen

Text:

Peggy Lee, Wikipedia.org

Blade Runner: A Film In The Shadows Of Star Wars

 

On this day in 1977 Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope opened in theaters across the US. It went on to be a blockbuster in science fiction fantasy filled with memorable characters and computer generated worlds of first-rate entertainment. A franchise worth billions grew out of the film but few of the chapters that have followed in the last forty years, in my opinion, have equaled or exceeded the excitement of the original. Earlier today I planned to write a post about Star Wars but a radio comment reminded me that the composer, Vangelis, died last week. That reminded me of his score for the highly influential sci-fi cult classic, Blade Runner, released in 1982.

Blade Runner opened in theaters on June 25 in the midst of some extraordinary competition. It was a dystopic, contemplative film competing with pure entertainment. Unfortunately, it had a mediocre reception at the box office primarily because its release coincided with that of Star Trek - The Wrath of Khan, widely considered the best of the Star Trek films, and E.T. The Extraterrestrial. As a dystopic, complex, contemplative film, it's no wonder it's recognized as a cult classic among sci-fi buffs rather than a deserving blockbuster among a wider audience. It will not answer any questions for audiences but it surely will prompt viewers to ponder what it means to be human.

In the forty years since its release Blade Runner has notable influenced all stages of science fiction and fantasy fiction film productions including those of the Star Wars franchise. It also occupies a comfortable spot on the American Film Institute's all time list of the top ten science fiction films and top five of science fiction soundtracks.

In the following scene the "organic robot." Roy Batty, saves the life of Rick Deckard, the blade runner who comes out of retirement to kill him. Before Roy's programmed life comes to an end, he delivers one of the most notable monologues ever spoken on film.

If you happened to enjoy Star Wars in 1977 reading this post likely brings a smile to your face. It was 121 minutes of pure entertainment. To see a film that created the anti-Star Wars genre that followed, see the darker entertainment of Blade Runner. You will not be disappointed.

Artie Shaw And The Perfect Clarinet

This week we remember the birthday (May 23, 1910) of Arthur Arshawsky, the clarinetist, composer, band leader, and author better known as Artie Shaw. To say that Shaw was complex and difficult would be an understatement. He was married eight times, greatly disliked fame, and resented the conflict between creativity and the music industry so much that he virtually abandoned music in the early 1950s. Perhaps his life illustrated a never ending search for perfection by a man who could have approached it in any number of fields. When he died in December 2004 at the age of 94, he was recognized as one of the century's finest jazz clarinetists and a principal force in the development of the fusion of jazz and classical music that would become known as "Third Stream Music." Technically, I think he was at the top. This 1936 recording of him performing his composition, Interlude in B Flat, provides the evidence:

And here is Shaw with strings and woodwinds performing Alberto Dominguez's composition, Frenesi. It charted at #1  in 1940 and would remain one of Shaw's greatest hits.

He completed an autobiography in 1952 and two years later gave up a full-time commitment to the industry and turned to a vast range of interests from advanced mathematics to literature. He went on two write several novels and short stories as well as an unfinished historical fiction trilogy on the jazz era. For a more thorough examination of even more facets in the life of this restless musical genius, visit this link at Swing Music Net for his obituary and this entry for his Wikipedia biography.

Observing Fireworks At The Edge Of Space

Sprites, Lomonosov Moscow State University

With more and more thunderstorms rumbling across the country it's time to mention that we have entered the season of the sprites. A sprite is a member of a family of upper atmosphere lightning phenomena called transient luminous events or TLE's. Other members of the TLE family include blue jets and elves. They are associated with thunderstorms and although observed earlier were unknown to science a little more than a generation ago. Digital photography and advanced computer technology enabled both their imaging and analysis beginning around 1995.

Centre Nationales D'Etudes Spatiales

I find these atmospheric events fascinating, beautiful, and mysterious but the probability of observing them in real time is practically nil. I have yet to see one in person. For certain I won't be seeing anything from my woodland home in Georgia or the eastern U.S. for that matter. When you find yourself in a thunderstorm-rich location with unlimited visibility beyond the horizon you have found the ideal conditions for LTE observation. In other words, our readers in Oklahoma, Texas, and other wide open spaces need only step out on the porch and into a comfortable chair to enjoy the possibility of seeing a rare and still mysterious show in the distant sky.

Below is an amazing video by the quintessential storm chaser, Pecos Hank, and the world's leading TLE photographer, Bill Smith. It's ten minutes of breathtaking photography and excellent instruction in what could be a complex subject for non-science folks. I can only hope the high standards of science instruction found in this video is in every classroom in the US.

 This video is one of many on Pecos Hank's You Tube channel. If you enjoy weather science and storm chasing combined with high production values Pecos Hank is your destination.

Keep looking up!

Frank Capra Never Followed Trends, He Started Them

 

We don't hear much these days about the film director, Frank Capra. His best work is after all nearly a century old. On the other hand he left a rich legacy in the film industry that in many repsects spilled over into the televison era. Far and away he led the industry in directorial praise during the 1930s. He's also credited with shifting the industry's focus from productiion to direction. As an outstanding storyteller and skilled director he's credited with creating the best film portrayals of the human condition during the Great Depression yeas.

Like many early icons in the American film industry, Capra's story begins in poverty. He was born in Sicily on May 18 in 1897. When he was five his family arrived in this country after a two-week passage in steerage and settled in Los Angeles. He worked his way through college earning a degree in chemical engineering, but also found no work in that field. A series of odd jobs eventually brought him into the film industry where he would become one of the greatest names in 20th century Hollywood. 

Today most of us know him as the director of the perennial Christmas film, It's A Wonderful Life (1946). These's much more of Capra's storytelling to enjoy. Here's a small portion of what he produced in his black and white world:

It Happened One Night (1934)

Mr. Deeds Goes To Town (1936)

Lost Horizon (1937)

You Can't Take It With You (1938)

Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939)

War Department Film Series (1942-45)

It's A Wonderful Life (1946)

Here Comes The Groom (1951)


Each of these films received Academy Award nominations and all but one - It's A Wonderful Life - received Oscars in one or more categories. Here is his obituary (1991) from The Washington Post  And here is a fine 1978 interview he made with the American Film Institute's American Film about his life and film making technique.

Undoubtedly Capra leaves us a rich legacy in 20th century film entertainment. It's a legacy anyone can enjoy. And there's a good chance we'll learn something about ourselves and the human condition we share.









Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
portrait, public domain photo by Columbia Pictures, operarex.highwire.com

Text:
title adapted from quote, acceptance speech, American Film Institute Lifetime Achievement Award, 1982
wikipedia.org

NCAA Men's Lacrosse Tournament Heads To Championship Weekend, May 30

 

From all indications, lacrosse continues to be the fastest growing sport in the United States, even outpacing soccer. Just forty years ago the game was a virtually exclusive sport still heavily anchored in the Ivy League and in the sport's "Golden Triangle" of Maryland, Navy, and Johns Hpkins. Today, there are more than sixty Division I teams found on the East and West Coasts and at flagship universities in the interior. Each year that number grows by one or two teams. Expansion in other college divisions and at the middle and high school levels is much greater. There is a fine future in store for lacrosse.

And speaking of a fine future, over the next two weekends eight teams will play for a chance at the national championship game on Memorial Day. Thanks to ESPN's continued support viewers from coast to coast will have an opportunity to see some outstanding competition. Here is the schedule from the NCAA website; all times ate Easter::

Quarter Finals

all games on ESPNU

Saturday, May 21

Penn vs Rutgers  at noon

Yale vs Princeton at 2:30

Sunday, May 22

Cornell vs Delaware at noon

Maryland vs Virginia at 2:30

Semifinals

all games on ESPN2

Saturday, May 28

game #1 at noon 

game #2 at 2:30

Final

game on ESPN

Monday, May 30

game at 1:00

All of this coming weekend's games will be entertaining but the Maryland-Virginia rivalry will be front and center as the one to watch. Maryland wants to redress their overtime loss to Virginia in the 2021 national champioship game. Earlier this year Maryland handily defeated Virginia, 23-12. Virginia doesn't want a second loss and elimination from a chance at a back-to-back national championship. This match will be just about as sweet as the championship itself.

Hope you enjoy the action.

GO BIG RED!

   

Katherine Anne Porter: Like Ships Passing In The Night

Katherine Anne Porter, an American writer, journalist and activist, was born on this day in 1890 in the west-central Texas town of Indian Creek. She led an often troubled yet exciting and eccentric life. By the age of forty she was an acclaimed and widely read author but it took another thirty years and the publication of her novel, Ship of Fools (1962), before she found financial security in her craft.

She moved to Washington, D.C., in 1959 to finish the novel and while there developed an association with the University of Maryland in nearby College Park. In 1966 her great success with the novel as well as her receipt of the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction for her Collected Stories published in 1965 moved the university to award Porter an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters. At the same time she announced her desire to donate a lifetime of treasured personal possessions and papers to the school to be housed in the Katherine Anne Porter Room, at that time located in McKeldin Library. Porter eventually moved the few miles from her Washington home to College Park where she could be even closer to her collection and the university's resources.

Readers interested in Porter as a writer will enjoy this 1963 Paris Review interview conducted as part of their Art of Fiction series. For a sketch illustrating her literary journeys go here.

On a personal note: Back in 1968 I spent about two weeks doing research in special collections on the top floor of McKeldin Library at Maryland. At the elevator and in the hallways I kept meeting this small, friendly, elderly, white-haired woman with a jovial smile that invited conversation. She seemed far too helpful to be a typical university librarian. Years later I read how much Porter loved the academic setting and interacting with students, learning about them, their studies, and their plans for the future. She was, in fact, a near constant visitor to her room on the library's fifth floor. It wasn't long before the realization hit that my "little old librarian" was none other than Katherine Anne Porter. With the knowledge gained over the last fifty years I'd love to have those two weeks back to explore the few degrees of separation she brought me among Mexican Leftists of the 1920's, film making, fractal theory, systems of creative design, and the study of pandemics. This time I'd ask the questions.

Alas, that will never happen but perhaps I could explore this wide-ranging story in a future blog post. Better yet, it is a story best told over pitchers of craft beer enjoyed with some quiet and distant jazz, overstuffed club chairs, and early evening light. Could pure chance give rise to the opportunity for such an exploration among old friends? Porter would be pleased.






Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
grannyweatherall.wordpress.com

Text:
Title, "Katherine Anne Porter, The Art of Fiction," No. 29, Paris Review
Katherine Anne Porter, wikipedia.org

Fred Astaire: Often Regarded As The Greatest Popular Music-Dancer of All Time

 

It's time for a bit of Hollywood history today focused on the iconic 20th century entertainer, Fred Astaire, who was born on this day in 1899. He was a dancer, actor, and singer who was the definition of "class" in everything he did. To say he set high standards for performance and personal conduct would be an understatement. In fact, the word "perfection" is an appropriate descriptor and it's a word we don't see or hear from Hollywood types these days.

Studio publicity portrait for the film, You'll Never Get Rich (1941)

Although well-known as a dancer and actor, as an extraordinary singer Astaire introduced movie fans to many songs that would form the core of what we know today as the Great American Songbook. Here is a portion of a 1958 NBC, An Evening With Fred Astaire, where he demonstrates that skill.

Younger readers may be prone to ignore a post about some dancer who died a generation ago. Don't be one of them. Astaire's footwork--with and without a partner--will astound you. Here is a link to Astaire's Wikipedia entry for readers would like to learn more. If you simply want to enjoy the man in action rather than read about him, this video on MsMojo's You Tube channel has a fine selection of Astaire dancing at his best.

Sources

Text:

title, Fred Astaire entry, Encyclopedia Britannica 

This Season Brings The Summer Wind

 

North Beach sunrise, Tybee Island, Georgia

With a cool, damp, and sometimes stormy weekend behind us, folks in the Southeast are watching a perfect prelude to hurricane season unfold offshore. For a few days a storm off Cape Hatteras churned winds and waves into the Mid-Atlantic shoreline as far north as New Jersey. Overnight that storm began moving south along a decaying front. That movement brought us beautiful weather and light easterly winds to north Georgia today. By the weekend the storm should be somewhere off southeast Florida and weakening . . . or not. We are after all on the threshold of the trade winds and a new hurricane season.

In coastal Georgia, the trades usually creep in softly around the middle of May. They bring in the high cirrus and horsetails as well as the puffy fair-weather cumulus clouds that race over the beach. The clouds sweep inland twenty miles or so where they meet the uplifts of daily heating enhanced by the incentives of an onshore flow. Often, the result is a brisk and exciting line of thunderstorms sometimes extending from the city-state of Charleston to the Players Club fairways at Ponte Vedra Beach. In Savannah, the 3:00 pm showers are so predictable you can almost set a watch by them. When residents advised me an umbrella was a summer essential they weren't fooling. The city's collapsing thunderstorms produced some of the heaviest perpendicular rainfall I've witnessed.

For eleven years I worked at the mouth of the Savannah River and watched the light show ten miles west over Savannah arcing north and east toward Hilton Head Island. Occasionally land breezes swept in early and pushed the storms over me. Such a magnificent show. After a brief evening calm the steady land breeze resumed only to be replaced in the early morning hours with a quiet wind off the water. That wind embraced the island in salt-saturated humidity and a haze that turned golden with a full sunrise. The Boat-tailed Grackles skirmishing in the oleanders nearby served as a natural alarm clock during the ten years we lived on Tybee Island. I do miss the birds, but not their alarm clock role.

The trade wind days last into September to be replaced by weeks of spectacular warm, dry, cloudless days, cool nights and warm water lingering into November. Of course, the occasional tropical storm can interrupt the coastal idyll that is the norm on the sea islands. It is to be expected and respected by those who share the fragile boundary of life at the ocean's edge. In Atlanta we'll sometimes enjoy the remnant sea breezes that survive the 200 mile journey from the Atlantic. It is a welcome reminder of the joy of coastal living.

Mother's Day 2022

She was the fourth of seven children born to a farm couple whose deep lineage in the western Virginia mountains was lost to history well before 1800. They met in 1931 while my dad was selling tickets at a community dance. They married in the fall of 1933. By that time she had worked in a silk mill and as an etcher and designer in a glass factory. Later, she worked throughout World War II as a quality control specialist in a massive synthetic fabric plant that provided most of the "silk" for American parachutes.

With my arrival in 1946 she became a full time mother and homemaker, but still found time to enjoy her church family, reading, gardening, nature, frequent visits with her large family, many long weekend visits to nearby national parks, and vacations at the summer place on Pattersons Creek about 120 miles west of Washington.

 

Gettysburg National Military Park, 1954

She was taken from our family far too early after a long and difficult illness. And over forty years later there's no question that I miss her. I'm especially sorry she did not live to enjoy her daughter-in-law and three grandchildren. Still, I feel her goodness has been with Nancy and me helping to shape our family long after the kids have gone on to establish their own lives. Wouldn't have it any other way. She was a great mother, full of love, compassion, a wonderful sense of humor, and dedication to family and friends.


Wishing you a happy Mother's Day, Mom!

The Great Film Director Orson Welles Worked His Way Down From The Top

Today marks the 107th anniversary of the birth of Orson Welles. He has been missing from the world stage for over a generation now. The film and stage industries will always owe him immensely for what he brought to them and for the treatment his genius received at the hands of a Hollywood film cartel that resented outsiders.

Welles at 21

There will never be another cinematic alchemist quite like Orson Welles. Interested in experiment and discovery in the performing arts, he was a remarkably talented actor, writer, director, producer, and more. Before he was thirty, he had terrified the nation with his realistic Halloween presentation of H.G. Wells's War of the Worlds (1938) and awed film audiences with Citizen Kane (1941). Welles was already a rather contentious artist when he achieved almost instant fame. His creativity and drive helped label him as a difficult if not reckless personality and he never endeared himself to the Hollywood in-crowd. As a result his film legacy was limited to a number of noteworthy productions and a long list of unfinished projects and pipe dreams. The achievement of early fame and the fast and loose pursuit of art at almost any cost gave him a unique perspective on creativity and the entertainment industry. Although he appreciated his solitude he was never one to shy from the limelight and delighted in interviews and personal appearances where he could deliver and endless stream of anecdotes in his rich, unforgettable baritone voice.

For a taste of Welles as writer, director, and co-star, here is the famous "mirror scene" from The Lady of Shanghai (1948). Film critic David Kehr has called the film "the weirdest great movie ever made."

And here from his 1958 film, Touch of Evil, is the classic "crane shot" that makes an appearance in every college film class.

In later life Welles became known as a great conversationalist. From 1974, here are the highlights from an interview with the British broadcaster, Sir Michael Parkinson. Welles talks about politics, bullfighting, his friendship with Ernest Hemingway, personal heroes (Winston Churchill, Gen. George S, Marshall), the power of criticism, the film industry, the stars (he thought James Cagney was far and away the best), his attitude toward his films, and future projects. It's a quick and entertaining 37 minutes and in my mind reveals much about the man who foreshadowed the independent film movement we know today.

Sources


Photos and Illustrations:
Welles portrait, Library of Congress (Carl Van Vechten, photographer, March 1, 1937)
Kehr Quotation: chicagoreader.com, review of The Lady of Shanghai


Text:
Title derived from quote, Welles, from the film, F For Fake (1973)

Football Legend Johnny Unitas Played The Real Game

When you live in the Appalachian Mountains in a deep valley at the edge of the Allegheny Front and far-removed from television broadcast towers, the straight-line signals simply fly far overhead. Viewers have to rely on reflection in order to get decent reception. Getting a clear and consistent picture is a rare event. That problem was rectified when citizens in our small town organized one of the earliest cable television systems in the United States. My dad subscribed in 1953. It was the same year the Colts reorganized in Baltimore. We watched plenty of football and baseball games over the next three years, but I don't recall watching the Colts, only the Washington Redskins, and the World Series where the Yankees always won.

In 1956. my family moved to Maryland's Eastern Shore, a region anchored to the Chesapeake Bay, Baltimore, and the Colts. A new face, Johnny Unitas, joined the team that year. He was a scrawny kid from Pittsburgh who played quarterback at the University of Louisville. The Steelers selected him as a ninth-round draft pick, but ended up releasing him before the season began. The Colts coach, Weeb Ewbank, saw him as a promising walk-on. When the starting quarterback broke his leg early in the season, Unitas made a disappointing debut that he would soon overcome. In fact, late in the season he threw the first touchdown pass in his 47 game streak, a record that would stand for fifty years. Many of his other records have fallen but keep in mind that teams played fewer games per season in those days. The simple conclusion is that Unitas's passing records will be around for a long, long time.

I'll let you read more about him and his records at the links. I will say that Johnny U and the Colts gave my dad and me, and our friends and family, some exciting entertainment between 1956 and 1973. At first, the old black and white television was small but it turned to color in 1962 and got bigger. The game was always big. Of course, the highlight of those years was the 23-17 National Football League Championship win over the New York Giants in sudden death overtime in 1958. I turned twelve that year and I doubt I'll ever see anything to beat "the greatest game ever played."

Unitas retired from the field in 1974 almost crippled from years of play in the days before adequate protective gear. He remained active in the professional football family and firmly loyal to Baltimore and the fans when the Colt franchise rolled out of town in the middle of the night on its way to Indianapolis in 1984. He lived almost twenty years beyond that sad day quietly enjoying his family, friends and fame.

I don't think the kid from Pittsburgh changed much over all of his years. He became famous, but he did it the hard way, starting out when you needed an off-season job to make ends meet. Things are different these days. Now the players are instant stars often earning mega-millions before they play their first professional game. Johnny U's magic arm helped make it happen for them.

May 7 is his birthday. The year was 1933, the place was Pittsburgh. Gritty origins for a star. It didn't matter to him in the end because he got to play football when it was a game. And what a game it was.




Sources:

Wikipedia, Johnny Unitas
profootballhof.com, Johnny Unitas
johnnyunitas.com, Official Johnny Unitas website

Alan Shepard Was The First American Spaceman

Sixty-one years ago today Alan Shepard became the first American in space. The launch came about three weeks after Russian cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, became the first person to reach that void. Shepard was an Annapolis graduate - Class of 1944 - and one of the original Mercury Seven, those chosen to participate in the nation's first formal manned space flight program.

Alan Shepard in the 1960's

On that day, Shepard reclined 80 feet above ground at the top of a Mercury-Redstone rocket. I'm sure he didn't have time or inclination to worry much about the long string of embarrassing rocket failures that had plagued the launch vehicle program. Thorough testing, including the launch of a chimpanzee earlier that year, contributed to the acceptable risk limits that permitted human flight into space. I recall reading about the astronauts' insistence that a window be retained in the Mercury capsules to dispel the concept of "spam in a can" flying that even a monkey could do.

Here's a documentary video of that historic fourteen minute flight.

A decade later Shepard returned to space commanding the Apollo 14 mission to the moon. This time his launch vehicle - Saturn V - was a bit taller at 363 feet. He also got a chance to hit some golf balls very far into the moonscape. After his career as an astronaut he became a successful businessman and advocate for the commemoration and perpetuation of the exploration of space.

The Mercury Seven program had a defined beginning and end but our ongoing adventure into space is already a century-long story. Much of it occurred under the guidance of NASA's predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics.  If you want to learn more about the story I highly recommend Yeager: An Autobiography (1985), by the irrepressible World War II ace and test pilot, Chuck Yeager. It's a conversational read packed with information and the author's beloved sense of humor. Another fine source is Tom Wolfe's book, The Right Stuff (1979). The film adaption of The Right Stuff (1983) is worth watching as well but don't ignore the book and Wolfe's wonderfully entertaining style.

Cinco De Mayo: A California Festival In 1863 Ends In A National Celebration Of Everything Mexican

 

It's Cinco de Mayo in the USA!  And for the first time in two years most Americans can actually sit in their favorite Mexican restaurant to enjoy the festivities. In fact, Americans are celebrating far more than their neighbors south of the border. Why, you ask? It's simply because Cinco de Mayo isn't what you think it is.

Imagine millions of Mexicans celebrating this historic day from Cabo San Lucas to Cozumel. The dancing . . . the parades . . . the patriotic music . . . the parties and feasts into the night. Doesn't happen. That's right, my friends. Cinco de Mayo in Mexico is a regional celebration of the victory over France at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. Outside the capital city and state of Puebla, today is pretty much just another Thursday. For Mexicans, the big national celebration is Independence Day, celebrated on September 16.

Depiction of the Battle of Puebla         Francisco Miranda, 1872

Cross the border into the United States today and it's a very different story. What originated in 1862 as a local victory celebration by Mexican gold miners in northern California has spread across the United States as a celebration of Mexican heritage and culture. Like many American holidays, official and otherwise, Cinco de Mayo has grown in popularity in recent decades due to heavy commercial promotion. Greeting card, candy, and florist industries may drive Mother's Day. In the case of Cinco de Mayo a significant force driving the festivities is the alcoholic beverage industry. The distilled beverage of choice will be tequila.

Whatever the reason for such popularity, it's a great time to experience and enjoy the rich heritage and culture of the people of Mexico and their contribution to the American experience. For starters here is some traditional music to set the mood for the day.

The blend of Indigenous, Spanish, and African cultures that is Mexico is rich. May you experience a bit of it today as you have a safe and enjoyable Cinco de Mayo.

Ten Seconds At Kent State That Changed A Nation Forever: May 4, 1970

Today is the 52nd anniversary (1970) of the Kent State University massacre in Ohio. On that day four unarmed students were killed and nine others injured by members of the Ohio National Guard. Years of conflict over the nation's role in the Vietnam War had millions of Americans on edge. On April 28 President Richard Nixon announced an expansion of the US ground war into Cambodiaa. In response to a massive wave of student protests Nixon fueled more anger by referring to some campus protesters as "bums." For three days prior to the massacre Kent State had been hit with violent demonstrations threatening both the campus and downtown commercial district. The Ohio National Guard had been on scene by the evening of May 2. From a city firehouse, Governor James Rhodes fueled the conflict by referring to the protesters as "brown shirts...the communist element... night riders... and the vigilantes."

On May 4, 67 shots fired into a crowd of defenseless students marked the beginning of the end not only of an already very unpopular war but also a controversial president well-known as "Tricky Dick."

That fateful day began with university officials attempting to ban a campus protest that had been planned days earlier. The result was a loose gathering of around 2000 persons met by guardsmen armed with tear gas and fixed bayonets. For reasons undetermined shots were fired into the unarmed crowd. The average distance of those killed was 345 feet from the guardsmen. The event incited a strike involving millions of students across the nation, forced the closing of hundreds of universities and colleges, and marked a turning point in national opinion among many who had supported American involvement in Vietnam, a escalating action that began in 1959.

A week after Kent State, police killed a student and a passerby at a demonstration at Jackson State College in Mississippi. An unquestionable sense of rebellion began to grip the nation. The Nixon administration was well aware of the situation and took steps to mitigate the danger and political erosion. One of those steps was the creation of the President's Commission on Campus Unrest- the Scranton Commission - in June 1970. The commission was tasked with reviewing the incident. After three months of work the commission concluded:

Even if the guardsmen faced danger, it was not a danger that called for lethal force. The 61 shots by 28 guardsmen certainly cannot be justified. Apparently, no order to fire was given, and there was inadequate fire control discipline on Blanket Hill. The Kent State tragedy must mark the last time that, as a matter of course, loaded rifles are issued to guardsmen confronting student demonstrators.

Location map, Scranton Commission report

In 2016, Sally Jewell, U.S. Secretary of the Interior, designated the seventeen acre site a National Historic Landmark.

Crosby And Seeger: One Birthday And Two Very Different Worlds

Two iconic American entertainers share May 3 as a birthday but that's where the similarity ends.

Crosby publicity photo from the 1930's

Born in 1903, Bing Crosby used his baritone voice and recording technology to develop a personal singing style that made him the nation's top entertainer for a generation beginning in the mid-1930s. Many jazz and pop singers adopted his style and technique over the next thirty years. Young people probably know little if anything about Crosby. He died in 1977 but I think he sits at the pinnacle of the American entertainment industry in that era - along with Bob Hope - and is well worth exploring if you enjoy popular culture. The Crosby family has authorized a comprehensive site about The Crooner if readers want more information. For a small taste of his talent, here is Crosby singing to Grace Kelly in the 1956 film, High Society:

Our second birthday celebrant is Pete Seeger, an entertainer who has been described as the most successful communist in the United States. I'll let readers discover the politics for themselves and focus instead on Seeger as singer and songwriter.

Entertaining at labor canteen opening, Washington, DC, February 1944

He was born in 1919 into a musical family, took up their leftist politics, and made a name for himself as a "protest singer" in the 1940s. In 1950, he was a member of the folk group, The Weavers, and in the bow wave of a folk music revival in the U.S. It was short-lived, however, as the group was blacklisted in 1953 for suspected political reasons. A decade later Seeger found himself at the forefront of the 1960's folk revival embedded in antiwar activities and the Youth Revolution. He continued singing and pursuing his social, political, and environmental activism around the world almost to the day he died at 94 in 2014. For more information and a host of links, here is his Wikipedia entry.

For a taste of Pete Seeger the performer, here he is singing lead and playing his banjo on the first recording (1949) of If I Had A Hammer, co-written with Lee Hays, also with The Weavers:

Although this video highlights Seeger, it does not do justice to the beautiful harmony The Weavers produced. Readers may want to explore the Internet for more of their recordings. Their 1981 reunion concert at Carnegie Hall is a particularly moving statement on the American music experience.



Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bing_Crosby_1930s.jpg
loc.gov/pictures/resource/fsa.8d41983/

Midnight In The Garden Of Savannah

 

May 2 is a significant date in Savannah's modern history. On that day in 1981 Jim Williams shot and killed Danny Hansford. It was a tragic end to a gay love story and the catalyst for an enormously successful non-fiction novel and the economic and social transformation of a city. In 1977 I was employed near Savannah and seduced by the city's charm and opportunities. I had been living in the historic district only a few months before realizing it was a most unusual urban tapestry inhabited by a full range of entertaining and eccentric characters. There could have been a book in my future but I was too busy adjusting to a new job as well as being the general contractor managing the restoration of my "livable" townhouse.

The man who would write the book was John Berendt. He visited the city a few times before 1982 and noticed its interesting if not compelling characteristics. Three years later he moved to Savannah in search of broadening his writing career. The project that emerged was a travelogue built around the Williams-Hansford story. It was unlike any proposal the publishing industry had ever seen.

The book was a sensation, a best seller, and tourism exploded, also enhanced by the highly successful Savannah College of Art and Design and its historic preservation initiative. For comparison, there were 5 million tourists who spent $600 million in 1993. The numbers jumped to 12.5 million and $2.2 billion in 2013. Yes, Savannah experience change quickly. There were more restaurants to enjoy. The night life flourished. Tour options abounded, from ghost, to pirate, to transsexual. The pace changed: faster, broader, deeper, never ending, and more expensive. The historic district became a fishbowl. Soon, the preservation pioneers paid $6,000, $8,000, then $10,000 or more in city/county taxes to live in the homes they had lovingly restored. Many of them left. Had I stayed, I too would have been displaced. My wife and I could no longer have afforded to live in the home I restored. 

Today, the people go about their daily lives shadowed by those magnificent, moss draped live oaks. The wonderfully restored facades look down on them daily. The ships glide in on the incoming tides. And Bonaventure's ancient gate welcomes the living and the dead into what I believe is by far the nation's most beautiful cemetery. So much has changed in Savannah, but in the quiet hours, in the intimate gardens, and in the music of the squares as well as that of a piano a few door away, you can find the city I knew forty years ago. One thing you can't find is my book. You'll have to look to another author for the story.

John Berendt's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil was published in 1994. It was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in non-fiction in 1995. More than 3 million copies have been sold. The book remains the  longest running title - 216 weeks - on the New York Times Best Seller list. Trust me. It's a good read.

Sources

Photos and Illustrations:

front cover art, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Random House, New York, 1994, fair use

Text:

Wikipedia.org

interview, Booknotes, interview with Brian Lamb, C-SPAN, August, 12, 1997