The Point

The Brew House or more commonly known as The Point was a bar in Germantown that we frequented when we lived there in the 70's. It was one of the few bars in the neighborhood that we would hang out in. I would go there a lot when I was visiting the neighborhood while home on leave from the Navy. It was a place where I was sure I'd run into people. Then in 1974 when I was living on Seymour Street it was easy to stop by and hang out.

The Point was a lot of fun. There was a glass cabinet full of six packs of beer for sale right in the front as you walked in. Then there was the long bar that looped around on both sides of the room. There were some booths on the side as you went in and then a jukebox which was always playing music. Then at the back on the entrance side was a shuffle bowl game which we played all the time. Beyond that was a pool table and then more booths along the other side of the bar. The restrooms were just beyond that. I remember every foot of that place and can visualize it completely.

We played a lot of shuffle bowl there. 

The picture here shows the location and the building now. It hasn't been a bar for many years.

All Hopped Up

 

The Book List

All Hopped Up and Ready to Go: Music from the Streets of New York 1927-77 by Tony Flectcher, 2009

Read in December 2019

I loved this book.  A history of New York's music scene over five decades and a fascinating look at how the local art, theater, literature and political movements came together to create the unique music environment and made vast contributions to American culture. The author tours the various neighborhoods of New York as he explores the distinctive sounds from the streets that created bebop, pop, doowop, the Latin music scene, the folk revival, glam, metal, punk, disco, New Wave, No Wave, and hip-hop. 

I explored a lot of this music from my own collection and on Spotify as I read through this book. It was mostly the Latin music I needed help with streaming and most of the hip-hop.

Stenciled Clothes

Everything I personally owned in the Navy was stenciled with my name and service number on it. This was especially true for any clothing or towels. One of the very first things we were issued in boot camp was your stencil. Your seabag, carryon bag, hats, underwear, uniforms, everything had your name and service number stenciled on it. We would use the stencil with large black crayons which we would rub our names and numbers on to our clothes or other possessions. It was all very efficient. The photo here is off my stenciled seabag.

That certainly made sense when you lived in a very tight environment like a warship with other people in very close quarters. In boot camp we learned to take care of our uniforms and keep them clean. We were issued little sewing kits for mending problems. Polishing our shoes and boots was always very important. We learned to wash our clothes by hand the proper Navy way. Later while in A school training we did our laundry personally in a laundromat type facility on the base.

On a ship things were very different. There was a small laundry and some guys were there everyday as their job on the ship. They were part of the ship's service team. We had mesh net bags that we would put all of our laundry in for cleaning. Each crew member had a bag with their name on it and all of there clothes would be laundered in that bag and come back cleaned and dry.

I carried that stencil around with me for four years.

Jack Nicholson and the 70's

I loved going to see Jack Nicholson movies in the 1970's. He was in many classics. I had only been out of the Navy a month or so when I saw The Last Detail at a theater in downtown Philly. It was a very funny, interesting and tragic story of a particular aspect of Navy life. A liberty adventure. Buddhist chanting "damnedest thing I ever heard".

I had read the Daryll Ponicsan novel a couple of years earlier and had been looking forward to the release of the film. Seeing him in his earlier 60's films did really prepare me for how good he was going to be during the next decade although 1969's Easy Rider certainly was a big hint.

I really liked Five Easy Pieces especially with Karen Black in it. She was also one of my favorite actors of the 1970's and starred with Nicholson in Easy Rider and Drive, He Said too.

Speaking of Drive, He Said. I thought that was a very fascinating movie about a college basketball player and the draft during the Vietnam War which was also the first film directed by Jack Nicholson. Two other great movies of his from that time was Chinatown and One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. Both are worth seeing repeatedly. 

I read the novel One Flew Over The Cuckoo's by Ken Kesey in July 1974 which was about a year and a half before the film was released.

Some of my favorites of that time:

• Five Easy Pieces, 1970
• Carnal Knowledge, 1971
• Drive, He Said, 1971
• The King of Marvin Gardens, 1972
• The Last Detail, 1973
• Chinatown, 1974
• The Passenger, 1975
• One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, 1975
• The Missouri Breaks, 1976

Pastime Lounge

The Pastime Lounge was located on Grant Street at Forest Ave down the street from Buffalo State College. I worked there as a DJ spinning records on Saturday nights from 1981 through 1986. I was also involved in bringing in local bands to play on the stage in the back of the bar.

The poster here is from November 1983. We had 10,000 Maniacs for shows many times.

The only time we had a touring band was The Replacements in 1985.

I enjoyed spinning records at that bar. I had tried a few other places but their was something about this bar. I really could play whatever I wanted. I learned to read the crowd. Sometimes people wanted to dance but most of the time people just wanted to hear some good music. It evolved into a artist hangout dive bar down the street from the state college. It certainly still have the local flavor of Grant Street but Bob the owner didn't tolerate the bullshit that was seen at other bars up and down Grant. There were a lot of locals banned from his place.

Other bands

• The Stains/Elements
• 10.000 Maniacs
• Pauline & The Perils
• The Jetsons
• Davy & The Crockets
• Ani Difranco
• Splatcats
• Extra Cheese
• Electroman
• The Cobras
• The Pine Dogs
• The Fems
• The Vores
• Attendance
• Extra Width
• 
  

Shipboard Memories - Locker Space

I'm using the towel as an example of our tight quarters and lack of personal space onboard a Navy ship in the early 1970's. I doubt things have changed since then but I'm only speaking to my experience.

All of your belongings were stored under your bunk. That included all your uniforms, underwear, towels, toiletries and personal belongings. Your towels were a good example of the sacrifices made for space. Our towels were very small and closer to the size of a hand towel. They certainly were not the size of a bath towel. They taught us in boot camp to use your hands to remove water drops from your body before using a towel because you didn't have much of a towel. I still do that today with my hands to shake off most of the water before using my towel.

A major change to our use of personal storage space in 1971 when Admiral Zumwalt, the Chief of Naval Operations, announced that Navy personal would be allowed to have civilian clothes onboard their ships to be used on liberty when in port. This was a big deal. Nobody had civilian clothes on a ship before this order was given to the fleet. Of course that meant you needed to give up something in your locker space because everyone always had used their lockers to capacity. Now suddenly you could have shirts, pants, jackets and shoes that were not part of your uniform but you still needed to have the same amount of uniforms you had before the order. The space available did not change.

Having the option to wear civilian clothes on liberty while away from the ship was a game changer although we still looked like a group of American sailors wandering around a foreign city looking for a bar. Before the change we would all be wearing our uniforms in foreign ports.

There used to be businesses located outside of Navy bases that had lockers for rent where you could store civilian clothes. You would leave the ship, walk down to the locker place and change into your civvies before going out on the town.  You then had to go back there and change into your uniform to get back onboard the ship. Suddenly all that changed and those places went out of business.

Laundry was regularly done on the ship including your civvies. We had these mesh laundry bags that kept all your stuff together in the laundry. You never lost anything because it was all washed and dried in the mesh bag. Towels, uniforms, underwear, civilian clothes all went into the bag.

Wibbage

WIBG was my go to radio station as a teenager growing up in Philadelphia throughout the 1960's. The nickname of the radio station was Wibbage. It began playing rock and roll in the late 50's and was the main source of contemporary teen music until WFIL began playing rock and roll in 1966. There were also two R&B and soul stations that I would sometimes play... WDAS and WHAT.

Wibbage was where we all heard the music of the Beatles back in the day. I carried a little transistor radio with me everywhere I went and WIBG was on the dial. Here is more about that old little radio.

I played WFIL a little in the later 60's but I would always turn back to 99 on the dial to Wibbage. I really liked the DJs there too and bought a lot of their oldies collection LPs. I would stick with Wibbage until the FM underground radio stations appeared around 1969. Then it was an all new thing. For me that only lasted a little while and then I was off to the Navy for four years. When I returned the FM stations had evolved into the WMMR stations that we would listen to throughout the 70's along with the two university stations WRTI for jazz and WXPN for almost anything.

WIBG was originally founded as a religious station in the suburbs. The call letters stood for I Believe in God but that didn't last very long. The Philadelphia station went off the air in 1977 but was later revived as an FM oldies station out of South Jersey.

Chances Are

The Book List

Chances Are by Richard Russo, 2019.
Read in December 2019.

Richard Russo is another one of my favorite authors and I always try to read his latest book. This was a fascinating novel about friendship and a suspenseful mystery about a long ago disappearance and a little different from his usual stories. Russo never disappoints. 

There was also a scene in the book that brought be back to my youth. The main characters are sitting around a table during the 1969 draft lottery waiting for their birthday to be called and the future decided. I remember that night 50 years ago very well. My draft number was 10 and I enlisted in the Navy right away. 

Trattoria Aroma - Birthday Dinner

We had dinner last night at Trattoria Aroma for my birthday with Sean and Ashley.  Sean and I enjoyed some nice grappa. The food was wonderful and the service was very good. We have actually seen a very nice improvement with everything including the dinner prices since the last time we had been here. We've been coming here at least once a year for a very long time and going back further when it was the Just Pasta restaurant back in the 1980's.

The owner recently sold off his other two restaurants to concentrate his efforts on this Bryant Street tradition. We could see, feel and taste the difference. He plans to renovate too. Looking forward to coming here again.

St. Francis of Assissi School

My old school… 1957-1965. St. Francis of Assisi, Philadelphia. Carved up wooden desks with ink wells, nuns with rulers, venial sins, warm soft pretzels at recess and a half block walk from home.

Sometimes we had to hide under our desks from the Russians but we were never worried about us all getting shot to death.

The building had a candy room, a pretzel room, a Boy Scout room and a very nice auditorium in the basement where we had student assemblies and shows. We had a lot of fun playing in that schoolyard at recess and before classes. Then the bell rang and we lined up.

There was no cafeteria in the building. Students all went home for lunch except for a handful of kids from Nicetown who ate in a classroom every day.

The main staircase was extraordinary and very beautiful. I loved walking up the stairs adjacent to those front widows. The building was torn down a year or so after I graduated because it was perceived as a firetrap. The replacement building was very mundane and nothing at all like our school.

We lived a half a block from the school and we could see those two towers from our backyard overlooking the neighborhood. The church next door had a large bell tower that rang the angelus every day and let us know when it was time to run home for dinner.

Every year there was a carnival in the early summer that would set up in the schoolyard for a week with rides that included a big ferris wheel. It was one of the highlights of the year.

In the aerial picture our house and backyard are in the very lower left corner.

Parent Conversation

50 years ago this week I sat down at the kitchen table with my mother and father and explained to them my intent to enlist in the Navy right after my upcoming 18th birthday. There was a nasty war going on and they were worried but they gave me their fearful blessing with the promise that I would go back and finish college on the GI Bill when I completed my four year service. I did.

There were a lot of similar conversations at kitchen tables all over America during that month of December in 1969. It was the first draft lottery on December 1st and suddenly young men knew more about their chances of getting drafted into the Army to fight the war in Viet Nam. There were many draft parties on college campuses that night where guys sat around and listened for their birth date to be read with the knowledge that there futures and possibly their lives were in the balance. A low number meant you were likely to get drafted and a high number meant you were safe.

My number was 10. I joked that it was the first time I was in the top ten of anything. I enlisted in the Navy a few days later following that conversation at the kitchen table with my parents. 

Following my four years in the Navy I did go to college for four years and I was fortunate that the state of Pennsylvania had a financial program for resident veterans where if you attended a state college or university then you had free tuition from the state. I went to Temple University and it did not cost me any tuition. On top of that I got the federal money from the GI Bill which I could that monthly check to pay for books, fees and living expenses. 

This turned out to be a blessing because a few months after I enlisted my father passed away suddenly from a ruptured brain aneurysm. My family would never have been able to pay for my college tuition after that and the veterans benefits got me my college education.

Fifty years later I still vividly remember that conversation at the kitchen table with my parents. It was actually probably the last time I had a serious talk with my father before he died.

Faded Love

Faded Love Mix - I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry

This is an example of the CD mixes I made and shared with members of the Art of the Mix online group. This was from 2004.

I had made a series of mixes that included songs about love and loss. This was one that exemplified the genre. Later I would rename the series Heartache and would describe it as mostly quiet songs of heartache and loss. Love songs. Break-up songs. Songs from different time periods and genres. There would be about 10 CD mixes in this original format.

After I retired in 2016 I began reworking my mixes and was no longer using CDs. I just stopped burning mixes on CD. I was using my iPod in the car to play new mixes.  I felt liberated to no longer be restricted by the physical time constraints of the CD format and I began making mixes that were an hour and a half which was actually closer to my original mix time of the 90 minute cassettes I used in the early 1980's.

So then I had the revised Love and Heartache series of approximately 90 minute mixes. I had about 20 of those mixes.

Well, that didn't last very long and by 2019 I started making the 8 hour mega mixes and the songs used in the Love and Heartache series were incorporated into those new long mixes. But that is another story.

Here is a slightly expanded version of the original Faded Love mix on Spotify.

 

Hotel Henry - It's a Castle!

Katie and Todd were in town along with Henry and Clara. We decided to all go out to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants... 100 Acres at Hotel Henry. Todd's parents Dick and Iris also joined us for dinner. We didn't sit in our usual area of the restaurant and instead sat in the front room near the hotel halls. It was still very nice and the food was wonderful as usual.

However, the highlight of the evening was when we parked in the lot in front of the hotel and walked over to the main entrance. Henry looked up at the building and loudly and excitedly exclaimed... "It's a castle". Indeed, the old Buffalo Psychological Center that had been recently converted into the hotel and conference center really does look like a castle.

Watching TV in the 70's

I did not have the usual American TV experience in the 1970's. Of course I spent four years in the Navy from 1970 through 1973 and watched practically no television during that time when I was mostly on a ship overseas. It would be many years before I ever saw some of the big hits of the time on a rerun somewhere sometime.

From 1974 through 1978 I was attending Temple University while living in the house on Seymour Street in Germantown with some guys and later with Becky.  We had a small crappy black and white TV set sitting in a little used room. I was always too busy with school and work to be watching television except for occasional sports games. When I was wasn't working or studying I was socializing with friends either out in bars or hanging out in our music room. No TV. 

There were a few exceptions. We did try to watch Saturday Night Live and Monty Python. We also did watch the Roots miniseries in 1977.

I never saw an episode of All in the Family, M.A.S.H., The Brady Bunch, The Odd Couple, Sanford and Son, The Waltons, Kojak, Happy Days, Little House on the Prairie, The Jeffersons, Barney Miller, Three's Company, Laverne and Shirley, Welcome Back Kotter, Fantasy Island, Taxi, WKRP in Cincinnati, etc., during their initial run. Lots of others too. Familiar names but I didn't watch them at the time when they were first fun. I saw a few here and there on cable in later years like WKRP.

But I did watch a few episodes of Battlestar Galactica.

It was weird hearing about a show like All In The Family on the news all the time about being controversial and never seeing it. I've seen clips but to this day I don't think I ever watched a complete episode.

Clara @ 1

Clara is one year old today. Katie calls her our wonderful, happy ray of sunshine. We certainly all agree and look forward to seeing her grow and blossom. I'm glad we could celebrate her birthday here in our home.

Aneurysms and the Red Emerys

The first time the family became aware of an aneurysm problem was the sudden death of Uncle Joe in 1965. Aneurysm would become a significant medical issue for our family but at that time it was a surprise.

His death was in May. I remember it very well. I was in eight grade and the day of his funeral was the day of the annual school picnic at Willow Grove Amusement Park. I was sad and disappointed to miss that fun day but was shocked at the death of our uncle and what it meant for our cousins.

Uncle Joe had seven children. We always referred to this group of cousins as the Red Emerys because they all had red hair. The oldest, Peter, was my age. We were close at the time. Later I heard that Uncle Joe lived for a day or so in the hospital as the doctors tried to treat his ruptured aneurysm. He was able to speak a little bit and had told Peter he would be the man of the house. That brief conversation affected Peter very much as his father lay there dying.

Over the next several years many of those seven children struggled with their lives. Aunt Joan tried hard with those kids.

Many years later my cousin Madeline would also die suddenly of a ruptured aneurysm while Christmas shopping with her daughter. The sad thing was she was a nurse but had never been tested for aneurysms like so many of her cousins. For some reason they all refused to be tested. Fortunately Madeline's daughter Maureen has been tested. We've been in contact several times and she has kept me updated on her scans. She also fully intends to have her children scanned when they are older. She knows better because she saw her mother collapse from her ruptured aneurysm.

There are 34 Emery cousins and probably only half have been scanned for aneurysms. In my family we all have been tested and scanned numerous times of the six siblings four tested positive.

Our cousin Joanie, another one of Uncle Joe's kids, died a few years ago. She had lots of problems with drugs and she had a stroke. As far as I know it was not determined for sure if she had an aneurysm but it was suspected as at least a contributing factor.

Beer Club - Belgiums

Beer Club November 13, 2019  at Mr. Goodbar on Elmwood Ave.

A selection of Belgium beers. You can see by the ratings here that I really like Belgium beers and in particular their strong ales. 10 delicious beers.

Chimay Grande Réserve (Blue)
Bières de Chimay
Belgian Strong Dark Ale
4.25

Chimay Cinq Cents (White)
Bieres de Chimay 

Belgium Tripel 
4.25

Trois Pistoles
Unibroue
Belgian Strong Dark Ale
4.25

Delirium Tremens

Huyghe Brewery 

Belgium Strong Golden Ale
4.25

Delirium Red

Huyghe Brewery 
Fruit Beer
4

Maudite
Unibroue

Belgium Dubbel 

4

Chimay Rouge (Red)
Belgium Dubbel
Bieres de Chimay
4

À Tout Le Monde
Unibroue
Farmhouse Ale - Saison

3.75

Chimay Doree (Gold)
Patersbier
Bieres de Chimay
3.75 

Blanche de Chambly
Unibroue
Wheat Beer - Witbier

3.75

Nothing Goes Away - Reflections Decade 6

Nothing Goes Away is another reworking of several indie pop mixes from my Reflections series into an 8 hour plus mega mix. Mostly quiet indie pop, folk and Americana music from the 6th decade of rock (approximately 2006-2016). All personally selected as usual and works well in shuffle mode too.

There is a link to the Spotify version of this mix at the bottom of the page.

1	Nothing Goes Away	Isbells	2015
2	So Now What	The Shins	2017
3	Falling Apart	Emile Haynie, Andrew Wyatt & Brian Wilson	2015
4	Taking Chances	Sharon Van Etten	2014
5	Ride On / Right On	Phosphorescent	2013
6	Love Out Of Lust	Lykke Li	2011
7	Nerve	Half Moon Run	2013
8	Let's Be Still	The Head and the Heart	2013
9	Easy Come, Easy Go	Sierra Hull	2011
10	Northern Lights	Bowerbirds	2009
11	Say Please	Monsters Of Folk	2009
12	The Flicker of a Little Girl	Tindersticks	2008
13	Blood Bank	Bon Iver	2009
14	Houses	Vetiver	2008
15	King of Spain	The Tallest Man On Earth	2010
16	Things Go 'Round	Fistful Of Mercy	2010
17	Birmingham	Shovels & Rope	2012
18	Boeing 737	The Low Anthem	2011
19	Lovestrong	Jonathan Wilson	2013
20	Fumes	Lily & Madeleine	2014
21	Lightning	David Byrne & St. Vincent	2012
22	Somebody To Break Your Heart	Robyn Hitchcock	2014
23	Red Earth & Pouring Rain	Bear's Den	2016
24	Until We Get There	Lucius	2014
25	Meet Me in the Woods	Lord Huron	2015
26	Indian Summer	Stereophonics	2013
27	Cool People	Nicole Atkins	2014
28	Saint of Impossible Causes	Joseph Arthur	2013
29	Black Tin Box	Miike Snow & Lykke Li	2012
30	Dancing Ghosts	Azure Ray	2010
31	Futile Devices	Sufjan Stevens	2010
32	Responsibility	The Acorn	2008
33	Lake Bed	Brown Bird	2009
34	Day Too Soon	Sia	2008
35	Why Can't It Be Mine	Basia Bulat	2007
36	Riot On An Empty Street	Kings Of Convenience	2009
37	Time On Your Side	Emily Jane White	2008
38	Back To You	Revolver	2010
39	Anyway You Like	Sera Cahoone	2012
40	My Diamond Is Too Rough	Ryan Bingham	2015
41	Give It Up	Angel Olsen	2016
42	High Tiding	Nick Waterhouse	2014
43	Brighter!	Cass McCombs	2013
44	The Gospel of John Hurt	Alt-J	2014
45	Star Dream Girl	David Lynch	2013
46	This Is The Girl	Patti Smith	2012
47	Crown The Pines	S. Carey	2014
48	Where You Stand	Travis	2013
49	When I Was Young	Nada Surf	2012
50	Changes	Sarah McLachlan	2010
51	White Flag	Madeline	2009
52	Time For Yourself	Earlimart	2008
53	Let's Call It Off	Peter Bjorn & John	2006
54	Why So Blue	Paul McCartney	2007
55	You Remind Me	Andy Shauf	2009
56	We Feel Alone	William Fitzsimmons	2008
57	You Can't Fail Me Now	Joe Henry	2007
58	Please Don't Call It Love	Fiction Family	2009
59	Shelter	Birdy	2011
60	With Nothing To Show For it	Clem Snide	2010
61	Nobody	Emmylou Harris	2011
62	Take All The Time	The Last Bison	2013
63	Heart Is A Drum	Beck	2014
64	Julep	Punch Brothers	2015
65	The Night Josh Tillman Came To Our Apt.	Father John Misty	2015
66	Minimum	Charlie Cunningham	2017
67	No Woman	Whitney	2016
68	You Are Your Mother's Child	Conor Oberst	2014
69	September	The Shins	2012
70	The Way You Laugh	Dawes	2011
71	Quiet Houses	Fleet Foxes	2008
72	Ahead of the Curve	Monsters Of Folk	2009
73	Sheets	Damien Jurado	2008
74	Look Into The Night	Mark Olson	2007
75	Poison Cup	M. Ward	2006
76	Writer's Minor Holiday	Calexico	2008
77	Daydreaming	Middle Brother	2011
78	Call Me In The Afternoon	Half Moon Run	2013
79	Until the Night Turns	Lord Huron	2015
80	Dearly Departed	Shakey Graves & Esme Patterson	2014
81	Easy Come Easy Go	Great Lake Swimmers	2012
82	Troubles Will Be Gone	The Tallest Man On Earth	2010
83	Sweet Moment	Bowerbirds	2012
84	Down to the Sea	Elephant Revival	2013
85	Where I'm Going	The Wild Reeds	2014
86	I Never Learn	Lykke Li	2014
87	All We Ever Knew	The Head and the Heart	2016
88	Long Goodbye	Basia Bulat	2016
89	Lover Killer	My Brightest Diamond	2014
90	Control Me	Plants and Animals	2012
91	Into Black	Blouse	2011
92	Heartbeat	Islands	2009
93	Daydreaming	Dark Dark Dark	2010
94	I Just Needed a Friend	First Aid Kit	2012
95	Lady In White	Lost In The Trees	2013
96	Long Way Down	Alela Diane	2011
97	No Tomorrows	The Cave Singers	2013
98	Give It Away	Andrew Bird	2012
99	Minnesota, WI	Bon Iver	2011
100	Nightflight	Kate Miller-Heidke	2012
101	Peace Signs	Sharon Van Etten	2010
102	Plains	Wye Oak	2011
103	Breezeblocks	alt-J	2012
104	It Don't Rain in Beverly Hills (Original Mix)	Dean & Britta	2010
105	Pretend You Don't See Me	L'Avventura	2009
106	Walk At Night	Cults	2011
107	Seven Horses	Jonathan Rado	2013
108	Home	Lisa Hannigan	2011
109	The End Of The World Is Bigger Than Love	Jens Lekman	2012
110	Love Everyone	Lee Harvey Osmond	2013
111	Feels Like Fire	Ryan Adams	2014
112	Someone Else's Girl	The Olms	2013
113	Somewhere Along The Way	Dawes	2015
114	Sucker	Water Liars	2013
115	Nothing & The Famous One	Hollis Brown	2013
116	Misfits and Lovers	The Wallflowers	2012
117	Harlequin Dream	Boy & Bear	2013
118	Watcher	2:54	2012
119	Eyes On You	Greg Laswell	2012
120	Something Came Over Me	Wild Flag	2011
121	Settle Down	The 1975	2013
122	I Think She's Alright	Outrageous Cherry	2014
123	Run Baby Run	Toro Y Moi	2015
124	We Hit a Wall	Chelsea Wolfe	2013
125	The Changing Lights	Broken Bells	2014
126	Bunkerpop	Lonelady	2015
127	Can't Do Without You	Caribou	2014
128	Mama's Gonna Give You Love	Emily Wells	2012