The Pre-Read

Drunk Parking

Brilliant ad campaign from Brazil I believe.

Sometimes we need see things from a different persepctive to understand the true meaning.

 

Much To Young

While I was pretty much raised in Southern California I was actually born in Texas. I've listened, off and on, to country music most of my life. When I was in high school I didn't listen to it much, but thumbing through old yearbook photos I notice that didn't prevent me from wearing a cowboy hat from time to time.

I still have a couple of hats, a couple pair of boots, but don't wear them much these days.

When Country Western music started to crossover with more contemporary sounds in the '90 I noticed I was listening to it almost exclusively. Garth Brooks, Clint Black, Lorrie Morgan, George Strait...well the list goes on.

The music was twangy enough for my likes, but mainstream sounding enough that the public really seemed to embrace it.

I officially learned line dances, learned to two step and turned out to be fairly good at both if I do say so myself. I even taught a few classes here and there.

There was something truly liberating about the music and the dancing. Where couples dancing usually meant standing in front of your partner and moving about; two stepping necessitated embracing your partner. And there was always something very special about that I enjoyed. I remember more than once being asked to dance and almost always obliging.

The years have moved on and so have I. Country Western music is a little more pop sounding to me than I like. I've tried to listen to any number of CW stations, but I inevitably revert back to an oldies CW station, even if oldies now refers not only the the golden age of country music, but even music from the '90s.

Someone asked recently why I don't go dancing any longer. I mentioned, of course, the lack of connection to the music. But that's only part of the reason. The truth is I feel old.

It's not that I'm tired or anything like that. I just feel terribly old. I can't imagine walking into a bar and being the oldest, or at least one of the oldest people there.  Now I'm not really that old, and maybe this is more in my head, but the people in bars now are in the 20s and 30s. I'm not in either any longer.

I was going through You Tube and came across the song below. It's funny because this song, more than most, brings me back to that dancing time that I enjoyed so much.

So here it is. And who knows, maybe one of these days I'll find a Country Western bar that plays the oldies from the 1990s and I'll don my hat and boots and cut a rug.

Enjoy!

 

 

 

Zack Wahls For Office

Not just articulate, but he speaks with authority and resonance. I'm sure we'll be seeing more of him. I hope we'll be seeing more of him in elected office. 

 

Controversial Snow Day

Okay, it's a controversy only on YouTube, but the title sounded interesting.

Recently a video was posted on YouTube that was ... well sweet. Narrated by a guy who belongs on PBS or NPR and a story that was both affirming and inspiring.

Of course now there are detractors. Was the story real? Is this all a set up?

Who knows? I certainly don't. But I will say this. I'm tired of both cynicism and people attempting to elicit a certain emotion by lying. I"m tired of those complaining that everything is a conspiracy and that if it's something really positive, then it must be a set up. I'm also tired of people setting things up to seem real when it's not.

So is there a happy medium? Do we jump from one extreme to the other? Do we protect ourselves from being made fools by being cynical and not believing things we see or hear or read. Or do we lead with our hearts and accept things as they are presented?

For me the answer is simple. Take things with a grain of salt. i would rather believe the good stories I hear and hope they are real. If not, no harm, no foul. But if it is true...well then how much better to be open to it and share in the joy.

I know this all sounds abstract but look at the video below. i choose to believe it's real. And from a guy who was actually OFFERED money by a homeless guy, I have no doubt the story of the $26.00 could be true as well.

LIfe is good and there are good people. Let's hope this video shows that.

 

Princess Boy

It's not always easy to accept people that are different or things that we may not understand.

This little boy and his family have a great outlook on life. And ultimately I think the perfect quote from this story is "why can't you let him be happy?" That's a great quote regardless of how one wants to dress.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

 

Goodbye Rosie The Riveter

Sad news that this holiday season saw the passing of a woman whose image is so iconic even though she was unaware of her participation in it for over 40 years.

Geraldine Hoff (Doyle) (she later married and became Geraldine Doyle) was 17 years old when she graduated from High School and began work at a machine shop in support of the war effort. This was 1942 and men were leaving the workforce and enlisting into the military. For the first time women began applying for, and performing work that was traditionally only available to men.

She actually only worked at the machine shop for about two weeks, but it was during those two weeks that a photographer from United Press Associations (Now United Press International) came to the shop and photographed the new trend of women working in factories as laborers, Doyle was among those he recorded.

Enter Westinghouse Corporation. In an effort to reduce absenteeism and even potential strikes, Westinghouse hired artist J. Howard Miller to create some morale-boosting posters they could hang in their factories.

Miller came across animage of a woman, with a red polka dot bandanna, leaning over a machine press performing her diligent duty. He was taken by the image and used it as the basis for his poster " We Can Do It".

The irony of this story is that for over 40 years Geraldine Doyle had no idea she was the inspiration for the image. After all, she had only worked at the factory for two weeks and later worked in a book store before meeting and marrying her husband who would become a dentist.

Because the poster was used primarily in-house by Westinghouse in their various factoriess, the image is said to have been little noticed until the 1980s. It was around this time that Doyle came across a back issue of Modern Maturity magazine and noticed an article that chronicled the image.

"You're not supposed to have too much pride, but I can't help have some in that poster," Doyle was quoted as saying.

As far as I'm concerned she should be proud. Not just of her image that is now so iconic that it has been used as inspiration for any number of movements and because she was Rosie the Riveter, even if only for two weeks. She did, however, continue to work and did so until she turned 75 as the receptionist at her husband's dental office.

But she didn't work all the time, Geraldine also managed to have a large family that included six children, 18 grandchildren and 25 great grandchildren.

The story of Rosie the Riveter has been told in many different ways in a variety of mediums. But one of my favorites is in the Jonathan Demme movie Swing Shift.

Starring Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell (yes I believe they met through this movie) it has an amazing supporting cast that includes the always terrific Christine Lahti, Fred Ward, Ed Harris and Holly Hunter. Swing Shift chronicles the monumental changes that took place when women were asked to enter the male dominated workforce, and yes, when they were eventually told to go back home and resume their lives as wives and homemakers.

Ms. Doyle, whether she ever realized it or not, epitomozed the changes that took place back in the 1940s. ANd she lived up to that epitomization by not only working until she was 75, but by giving the country and the world a large legacy in family and effort that should not soon be forgotten.

Christmas Eve

I'm sitting in my home office and it's late at night...or early in the morning depending upon how you look at things I guess.

When I first started blogging I did it all from this room. It's quiet, secluded and in the summer I can open the window and look at a big tree in the back yard. But it's 3:00am and the window and curtain are closed. It's quiet, which is the perfect time to blog.

Most of my writing is done between work on the laptop. And for location, it ends up being anywhere I happen to find space to sit and write. But there is something conducive to writing in a room set up just for things like that. The cool thing about having a quiet place to do this is that the world seems so far away.

I think i've written before about being a night owl. I have always felt that being awake when the rest of my world is asleep somehow gives me a leg up on things. I don't know how true that is, but I still feel that way a bit.

It's Christmas Eve. A weird one for me this year because I lost my mom to cancer a year ago tomorrow. Up until her diagnosis I enjoyed blogging a great deal. And while I may not have been as consistent and I would have liked, I really did try to get on often. 

My world was so shaken when I learned my mom was ill that I couldn't blog. Nothing seemed as important as it once did. And I couldn't actually find the ability to write about her illness. It really was as if putting it down would make it somehow more real.

There were (and are) a great many friends who werethere for me. My best Friend Rick (who I don't see often enough and that's totally my fault) astounded me. He had lost his father so had a particular insight into what I was going through. But I was amazed when he rang back a few moments later to tell me he had informed his boss that a family situation had come up and that, should the situation present itself, he would have to leave in a moments notice to be with family.

As it turned out my mom lived over a year and a half after her diagnosis of the inoperable cancer. And of thta time, 99 percent of it was spent in relative good spirits and absolutely no pain or discomfort.

It really was only at the end when things changed so dramatically.

It's Christmas Eve, and I am a little blue, but not as much as I have been. We were able to say our goodbyes for a year. We left nothing unsaid and for that I am grateful.

I've written that Christmastime has never been a particularly enjoyable time for me. I've always been melancholy. And it's odd that now, the first one without mom, I find myself less melancholy and just ...a little numb I guess.

While some friends thought that mom passing away on Christmas day was particularly awful, I saw it differently. As my dear friend Zaada said, "How wonderful that she, as a Christian died on the day of her saviors birth," and I couldn't agree more.

There was never going to be a good time for her to pass on. But I feel some sort of comfort that it was done on such a celebrated day.

To all my Christian friends, Merry Christmas. And to all those of other faiths, or those who practice none, I wish you peace, happiness and good health for you and your families. Have a wonderful weekend.

 

Fruit Cake

I'm not sure if it's me, or what, but I think fruit cake gets a bad wrap.

Now it's true I have had some pretty bad fruit cake. But growing up fruit cake was just a part of the holidays and while I don't remember dad ever making it, he always managed to find really good fruit cake. And that trend continues. Dad orders his stuff online now and the quality is really pretty good.

How can something that has butter, eggs, cherries, dried pineapple, walnuts, almonds, pecans, white raisins, brandy and rum be anything but amazing?

I don't know much about a company called Figis, except to say that they have a variety of fruit cakes, and they're good moist and amazingly flavorful. They even offer a "sample" type cake that has a variety of individually wrapped small slices. this way you can pick and choose what kind you want to try.

Granted, it's not very diet friendly, but this time of year there are so many treats that fall into that category. The cool thing about the sample cake is you can have one small piece and it's rich enough to satisfy you for the day.

Anyway, i know I'm probably in the minority, but I like fruit cake. Check out Figis' site and who knows, you might like it too!

 

Happy Friday

This is a weird month for me. As I've said before, I've never been much of a Christmas holiday mood type of person. I mean, being a Christian I, of course, celebrate and enjoy the meaning and spiritual aspects of the holiday. But i was never one for the music and shopping and all that. To be honest, they always made me somewhat melancholy.

My mom passed away on Christmas day last year so now I actually have a reason to feel the way I do. But to be honest, I'm of mixed emotions. I miss her terribly, but she didn't suffer and she had, as they say a "good death." But still, there are times this month when it's obvious things would be a lot more fun were she around.

So in the midst of my melancholy today, I searched You Tube for some music to lift me. And I came across Louis Armstrong.  Here is a man who was, by all accounts, very much loved. He was generous, he was gregarious, and he had fun in life.  He is sorely missed, but we are lucky to have his music live on.

The wonderful OldOldLady of the Hills (she calls herself that, although I don't think she's really very old at all) posted recently on her blog (Here In The Hills) that art can have an emotional tug or feeling.  She is so right. And that is true of almost any type of art.  There is something it can evoke from your deepest self. SOmetimes it's laughter, or sadness, anger or all of the above.

I feel that way when i watch these clips below. I watch them and a part of me is transformed to the audience watching Armstrong get into the groove. I tap my feet and never want his performance to end. It's almost as if he's transcended the stage, and is now part of the music itself. And those around him, those who are performing with him seem equally changed.

So it's a cloudy day today, I have reason to feel a little sad, but Satchmo also give me good reason to smile and be happy.

Enjoy your weekend, and until it comes, have a Happy Friday!

Roller Derby

I'm not where I found the time amidst all the television shows I used to watch, but I have vivid memories of watching Roller Derby on tv when I was a kid. If memory serves, it would be late at night, presumably after our regular shows had ended, or maybe it was a weekend thing.

I just remember watching and rooting for the LA T-Birds. I seem to remember their main rivalry was with a Chicago group, but I could be wrong. I just remember being so enthralled by both the men and women's competition.

Kind of like wrestling but on skates is probably the best way to describe Roller Derby back in the day. I don't know if I realized how "dramatized" it was, but I do know I had tremendous fun cheering for our team and being outraged whenever an opposing member would pull a dirty trick or send one of our heroes over the rail.

I bring this up because a friend mentioned that Long Beach has a Roller Derby team. While I can't say as I've had the pleasure to check them out, I am assured by my friend that when his girlfriend attended, her and her friends had a blast.

So keep an eye out for Roller Derby in Long Beach, and if it's fun, shoot me a note. Maybe I'll find a new teem to root for.

Check out the link for more info:

Long Beach Roller Derby