Tuesday, June 30, 2020

Me and Dad's Brothers

Dad had four brothers and two sisters. He was the oldest. George, Joe, Ed, Jack and Kate were born to their father's first wife Katherine who died shortly after giving birth to Kate. He then had Charlie and Dot with his second wife Clara. Uncle Joe died from a ruptured brain aneurysm in1965 when I was in 8th grade.

This post is about Uncle Ed and Uncle Jack. I was 19 when my father died of a ruptured brain aneurysm in 1970. They both told me I was a man and should take responsibility for the family. I was in the Navy at the time and spoke with a chaplain about getting a hardship discharge to come home and be with the family. Mom was strongly against that and wanted me to complete my service so I could go to college on the GI Bill. She must have told Ed and Jack because they stopped bugging me to come home.

After my discharge in 1973 Ed and Jack continued to try to influence my life which was a good thing and I always appreciated their concern and love for our family but sometimes they were making recommendations based on religion and politics. Uncle Jack was particularly upset that I enrolled at Temple University instead of one of the local Catholic colleges like Villanova, St. Joe's or Lasalle. He knew I had the GI Bill to help with tuition payments but I needed to carefully explain to him that Temple as a state university allowed Vietnam Era vets free tuition and fees. All I had to pay for was my books and that was on top of the federal GI Bill money. Uncle Jack also wanted to know what church I was attending and how often I went to Confession. I really tried to avoid the subject but it went on for years, decades actually.

Later Uncle Ed spent a lot of time and effort trying to convert me to political conservatism. He was always very nice about it and was very low key about it. He also never engaged in an outright argument but rather tried gentle persuasion. We had communicated a lot through the 80's concerning family history research. We exchanged letters but eventually our correspondences were through email. I saved all of those emails from him in a special directory on a hard drive and eventually copied them to a disc. I really should dig them out and read through them sometime.

Uncle Jack has continued to harp on the religion over the years. He was thrilled when I started working at a Jesuit college and assumed I was immersed in the Catholic religion. Up until a couple of years ago he was still trying to get me to talk with him about religion when I called. He liked asking me about purgatory and who I was praying for. I never gave him my reasons for not being a Catholic since I was a teenager. I never talked to him about Tom and our experiences going to Catholic schools. He is a good man and I don't want to hurt him or make him feel bad. I would always be somewhat agreeable concerning his discussions about religion and then try to move the conversation somewhere else.

The picture above is from Uncle Ed's wedding in June 1950. Left to right, my grandfather, Nana, Elmer who was a good friend of my father and his brothers, two women who were probably friends or relatives of Aunt Carol the bride, Uncle Ed, Aunt Carol, Uncle Joe, another unknown woman, Dad, Aunt Carol's parents, and the priest. The little teenager further down the row is Uncle Charlie and across from him is Aunt Kate and Mom. 

Sunday, June 28, 2020

40th Anniversary

Today is our 40th wedding anniversary.















Saturday, June 27, 2020

In The American Grain


The What When Book List 1970 - 2020

In the American Grain by William Carlos Williams, 1925

I read this in the spring of 1978.

I'm not sure what motivated me to read this book. I had just finished with all my college classes and had been looking forward to reading whatever I want but here I was reading essays from the poet William Carlos Williams.  It must have been some interest I had developed from some of the American Studies courses I had taken the previous academic year. So whatever the reason I know I really enjoyed this book. I've always liked to read history and although Williams was not a historian he approached  the idea of what it meant to be an American in a unique historical manner.

It seems that Williams' attempt to define what it means to be an American is very relevant today and perhaps more people should be reading this book at this time.

This book is on a bookshelf upstairs and I should get it down and take a look at it.

Friday, June 26, 2020

Toilet Paper Story

In the early days of the pandemic, when people were first asked to stay home, when governments closed businesses and communities became frightened. There was panic buying and hoarding. 

Stores began experiencing shortages of certain items. One of the most notable of the many empty shelves was the lack of toilet paper. There were films and pictures in the media trying to hoard toilet paper and the images of panicky shoppers with carts piled high with toilet paper fed the frenzy.

There were other things in short supply or nonexistent like cleaning wipes but the run on TP captured everyone's imagination and concern. Some stores soon began restricting the amount of TP that could be purchased at one time. Soon it became a joyful moment to score a roll of toilet paper somewhere. People also began hoarding paper towels and tissue paper as backups. We ran around looking for TP too.

So what happened? There were many other supply issues around the country and in particular for medical equipment and masks which is more understandable but why toilet paper. It turns out that there were two different supply chains and networks for what was essentially two different products for two different markets. Who knew? 

There is a home market that is fed through the regular box stores and supermarkets. These rolls of toilet paper are usually smaller and softer and are used in people's homes. There is also a different industrial/institutional distribution network that supplies toilet paper to schools, colleges, office buildings, industrial plants, etc. These rolls are longer and thinner and come in very large packs. The pandemic disrupted both supply chains but in different ways.

When workplaces and schools closed and people stayed home the two markets reacted differently. The institutional market came to a halt and much of the TP in that supply chain stopped being delivered and stayed in warehouses around the country. It was the home market supplied by stores that quickly sold out. People who would normally be using much of the TP in schools and workplaces were all at home using TP from the home market which were smaller roles and available in smaller quantities. Then the panic shortages began and people began hoarding what they could find.

Eventually things settled down and TP no longer became an issue. However, we still have a large pack stored away in the basement in case another wave of virus recreates the problem.

Thursday, June 25, 2020

El Cid

Matinees & Drive-ins

El Cid, 1961

Another Charlton Heston epic historical movie that I saw on a Saturday matinee at the local theater around the corner probably during the spring or summer of 1962. I loved it.

Knights in shining armor against hordes of Moorish Muslims with curved swords. Great ending with the corpse of Charlton Heston leading the charge.









Wednesday, June 24, 2020

PT 109

Another Saturday matinee movie I first saw at our neighborhood theater in 1963.

We were very excited as kids going to a Catholic school when John F. Kennedy was elected president. It was fun to see the heroic exploits of the president as a young man in war. Certainly a stark contrast to the current president bone spurs.

This was actually the first time a movie had been made about a sitting US president although he would be assassinated in Dallas five months after the film was released.

The day of the Kennedy assassination has certainly made in indelible mark on everyone's memories at that time. I was in 7th grade and I can still see the nun come into our class with tears in her eyes telling us the president was dead followed by the announcement on the loudspeaker by our principal. 

This movie made me want to join the Navy when I grew up...LOL.


The PT 109 movie trailer


Tuesday, June 23, 2020

Cut Out Bin

Found it in the cut out bin.

The picture of trump coming off the plane following his dismal showing at the so called campaign rally in Tulsa where he was out conned by a bunch of teenagers illustrates his entire administration. 

His whole term of office and everything about him will be in the cut out bin of history.

Monday, June 22, 2020

Band A 'Uey - Glass of Beer

Enjoying another beer from my father's day assorted case that was delivered to my house the other day from a local brewery. Thanks Sean and Ashley. This one is a Bang A 'Uey, a hazy juicy IPA from Community Beer Works, Buffalo NY.

Pharma

The Book List: 1970 - 2020

Pharma: Greed, Lies and the Poisoning of America by Gerald Posner, 2020

After reading this well researched book I am appalled and angered that our country may be depending on these price-gouging deceptive companies to find and market a vaccination to end the current pandemic. The book clearly details that their excessive profit motivated promotion of antibiotics and opioids crossed the line into criminal behavior.

There is a chapter towards the end of the book titled "The Next Pandemic" which is a clear warning from pharmaceutical industry scientist that the next pandemic would be unstoppable because these companies put profits over duty to develop drugs for the public good and that there is no question of if there is a pandemic coming but only a question of when. Well we now know how true that statement has proven to be.

Sunday, June 21, 2020

Rally

 


The Teachings of Don Juan

The What When Book List 1970 - 2020

The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge, 1968. I read this in June 1974. It was thing back then. By the end of 1975 I had read the four books of his series. That was it for me but by '77 he was writing more and continued the series into the 80's and 90's.

He wrote the first few books as a college student working on his Anthropology degree at UCLA.









The rock opera...

The Spot


TikToked by Zoomers

Last night Trump was TikToked by Zoomers at his political rally. The Trump Campaign organization were elated and bragging about the hundreds of thousands request for rally tickets they had been receiving. All week talking about 600,000 requests, then 800,000 request, then a million. They crowed about all the data they were collecting about potential donors. They organized an overflow rally for the expected crowds. LOL.

Thousands of young people were using TikTok and other social media to scam Trump by reserving hundreds of tickets each. The rally was a bust.


Saturday, June 20, 2020

Hazy Collaboration - Glass of Beer

Nice sunset beer... Practically Infinite, a hazy collaboration India pale ale from Community Beer Works and Big Ditch Brewing, Buffalo NY. Part of a wonderful beer gift pack from my son and daughter-in-law for Father's Day. It was delicious.

Two of our favorite local breweries.

Great can design too.

And with another one of my favorite reference books on the table.

Bud Powell - Kitchen Listening

The Best of Bud Powell: The Blue Note Years

Bud Powell is another one of my favorite jazz pianist. He was also another victim of systemic racism in America. He was a jazz music genius who suffered from long term mental problems and a drug habit triggered by the racial discrimination he experienced every day in the 40's and 50's America put him in mental institutions. He later moved to Paris to escape the racism but sadly died at the age of 41. A tragic loss for jazz and American music.







Friday, June 19, 2020

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

The Book List 1970 - 2020

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest by Ken Kesey, 1962.
I read first read this book in the summer of 1974 about a year before the movie came out. It was a very powerful book and the first time reading Kesey. I would read Sometimes a Great Notion in 1978.

I read this book again last month. It was just as good the second time. Maybe better.

This story would also be one of my favorite movies. The 1975 film of the novel starring Jack Nicholson. 

There's a lot to be said about that movie...  IMDb


Thursday, June 18, 2020

Merging Blogs

I recently decided to combine my last two blogs into one which I did today. The old G-Sphere Sound Booth was started in 2008 and lasted until 2010. It was mostly used as a repository for mixes I had been making and posting to the Art of the Mix site. The posts were a record of my mixes with listings and also links to Mix Cloud where copies of the combined mp3 file of the mix existed for listening. 

Also somewhere on a portable hard drive I have copies of my earlier blogs and websites. It would be interesting to take a look and mine them for more information but that is way on the back burner for now. Now I'll concentrate on the recent writings and my G-Sphere which BTW was my old Art of the Mix online nickname handle.

When I was turning 60 years old I thought it was a good time to change it up with my blog. I wanted to expand the post beyond just a listing of mixes. So the 60@60 blog began. I started out posting my favorite 60 albums for each year and then went on to post about other things too.

The blog began in 2010 and now it is 2020 and during that time however the blog was still mostly used for listing mixes. Things didn't really change. When I retired at the end of 2016 I began a project of reorganizing and reworking many of my mixes. I was expanding the mixes by combing many of them together into much longer mega mixes which I discussed in other posts here.  2017 and 2018 contained many posts with the listings of those expanded mixes.

There was then a period in 2019 when I didn't post much of anything.

During all the free time of the current stay at home pandemic I had started writing about lots of different things in notebooks. I was also posting a lot on Facebook about albums, books, movies, beer, memories, etc.  I decided to revive the 60@60 blog as a place to keep my writings and to continue my reworking mixes project. I had alway kept most of my FB comments in word documents saved my months and had about three years worth. I reviewed them and began creating back logged posts on the blog to keep them all in one place. I did the same for Instagram where there were many posts about beers and albums... Vinyl Spins. 

Now I was systematically posting lots of old comments and using many of them as starting points for new writings on those subjects. Particularly books and movies.

The latest step was to make backup copies of both blogs and store them on my hard drive and then a program that merged them into the one G-Sphere blog that I re-titled The G-Sphere Sounding Booth which is a play on the music sound booth concept with the sounding off about stuff. I had to do a little editing of the organization of the blog and got rid of a lot of links to other resources that just seemed to add clutter. I also created sub pages to categorize the different types of post for easy access by subject.

Some of the page categories are for mixes, albums, books, politics, memories, movies, travels, beers, gardening, rants, etc.

Wednesday, June 17, 2020

No Wow

Pandemically Speaking

No Wow. We were scheduled to host a weekly Parkside neighborhood Wine on Wednesday this evening but of course it's not happening. This picture is from our WOW last year where over 40 people were in our backyard over the course of the evening. We're going to miss having that kind of fun again tonight. And it's a beautiful night too.

The Parkside Wine on Wednesdays (WOW) are weekly summer gatherings of friends and neighbors that have been happening in backyards for seventeen years. The host provides snacks and each guest brings a bottle of wine and a glass. 

The WOWs have all be cancelled this year so far but hopefully maybe a few will be held later in the summer or early fall... with social distancing of course. We'll host another one next year.

No Wow... the song.


Waterfront Social Distancing

Pandemically Speaking

Today Becky and I went down to the waterfront. It was a beautiful day... except for the other people. We started out at the Erie Basin Marina, walked through the Naval Park, past the Liberty Hound and on to Canalside. Everywhere were went there were people obviously not maintaining adequate social distancing. There were not many people wearing face masks. We had ours but took them off when nobody was around. However, when walking along the paths we were constantly having to dodge people who walked right at us or who came walking up behind us very closely.

We had one incident where we were sitting in the shade under a tree in a couple of Adirondack chairs. A woman came along and dragged a nearby chair to a spot under the tree a few feet behind us. OMG, less than three feet away. We got up and walked away and as we looked back we could see her sitting in the chair I just vacated. Did she do that just to get us to move from our prime spot? What is wrong with people? The Pandemic must be making everybody crazy.

Tuesday, June 16, 2020

55 Days at Peking

Matinees & Drive-ins

55 Days at Peking, 1963

I really liked this movie as a kid. I saw it on a Saturday afternoon matinee at the New Lyric Theater around the corner from our home.

The movie was about the Boxer Rebellion in China which I was fascinated about at the time.

I didn't dislike Charlton Heston back in those days. Actually he seemed to be in almost every movie I liked.








Monday, June 15, 2020

Fear and Loathing

The What When Book List 1970 - 2020

Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72 by Hunter S. Thompson, 1973. Read this in Spring 1984. Replay and throw in a plague too.

I had read some of Thompson's work prior in magazine articles prior to this and was not particularly a big fan of his gonzo style of alternative journalism in the 70's but certainly did want to hear what he had to say.

I read this during the 1984 presidential campaign between Ronald Reagan and Walter Mondale which Reagan in a landslide despite the already growing signs of his Alzheimer's disease which including confusion and forgetful behavior.

Over the next couple of years in the mid 80's I would also read his Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas from 1971 and Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga from 1966.

None of that has prepared me for the Fear and Loathing on the 2020 campaign trail yet to come.


Sunday, June 14, 2020

Happy Obama Day

June 14th
Trump's birthday and all of social media is flooded with pictures of President Obama

The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm

Matinees & Drive-ins

The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm, 1962

Another one of those movies we saw at our neighborhood theater on a Saturday afternoon matinee. I saw this when I was probably 10 or 11 years old. We were going to the movies all the time when I was that age.

I really loved this movie at the time. A few years later I would be paying attention to any movie with the name George Pal on the poster because I learned that he was the guy that made movies with special effects that I liked. This one had a lot of effects.
I saw it in Cinerama a year or two in a large downtown theater.

Other George Pal movies that I liked... War of the Worlds, The Time Machine, Tom Thumb and Atlantis the Lost Continent.


Saturday, June 13, 2020

Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee

The What When Book List 1970 - 2020

Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee by Dee Brown, 1970

I read this book in June 1976 after a long conservation with several Native American activist from the Midwest who were in Philadelphia to take part in demonstrations and protest associated with the ongoing Bicentennial activities throughout the city in the Spring of 1976.

At the time Becky was living around the corner from my house. Across the street from her was a house full of radical students who were hosting the members of A.I.M. (American Indian Movement). Since they were friends with some of the people in Becky's house they asked if a couple of the Native American activist could stay there too which is how I met the group. One of the people there was a cousin of AIM activist leader Dennis Banks.

So after my conversations with members of the AIM group I read this book. The whole experience was a real eye opener. I also wrote a research paper for a class on the media coverage of the American Indian Movement and the Bicentennial celebrations issues the following semester. 

The book was very intense and heartbreaking.  I have always been interested in reading history and the author certainly did his homework gathering the facts which included the systematic slaughter of the native population. 

Haze Charmer - Glass of Beer

A very refreshing hazy pale ale. Haze Charmer from Troegs Brewing, PA.

A New England hazy pale ale. A hoppy citrus IPA. You need to like a hoppy IPA and that new hazy style that seems to be everywhere.

I gave it a 4.25 on Untappd which means I liked it.

Came in that variety 12 pack of cans.

And there again is another of my favorite reference books on the table.

Friday, June 12, 2020

Strangers In Their Own Land

The What When Book List 1970 - 2020

Strangers In Their Own Land by Arlie Russell Hochschild, 2016
I read this in June 2017

I found it fascinating that so many people could hold beliefs so detrimental to their own self interest but overall the book didn't change my opinion of right wing people. It also brought back some bad memories of my early experiences in the Navy where as a 18 year old kid I was thrown into a situation where most of the other white people were extremely racists southern rednecks that wallowed in their ignorance. Kind of like a lot of the people in the book.

But I did enjoy reading this book. It was an important perspective.

Thursday, June 11, 2020

The Tingler

Matinees & Drive-ins

The Tingler, 1959

I saw this movie at a Saturday matinee show at the New Lyric theater sometime in the early 60's. They would have scary movie double features and I remember being really scared at this show. It was really creepy. It was also weird that the film opened with one of the strange gimmick  on screen warnings concerning "the film you are about to see" and "remember, a scream at the right time may save your life"

Maybe the scariest scene was that tingler thing loose in the movie theater.


Wednesday, June 10, 2020

When in Doubt - Glass of Beer

We had a Virtual Beer Club meeting this evening using Google Hangouts with some beer club friends. When In Doubt Helles Lager from Troegs Brewing, PA.  This was one of several very nice beers from a Troegs variety pack.

Had one of my favorite reference books out on the table too.

Tuesday, June 9, 2020

Do It Clean - On Stage

Kitchen listening at dinner... Just had some fun in the kitchen listening to this old CD mix originally posted to AotM in 2004. Part of a series of mixes using live album cuts that were edited together into one MP3 file that blended the crowd sounds to create the illusion of one long concert.

This was the first of the series of live cut mixes I called the On Stage series. It started out with a set of live New Wave hits before segueing into some classic rock including some solo live songs from John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison. The title of the mix comes from an Echo & The Bunnymen song.

I'm thinking of combining the On Stage series into one large mega mix for a long night (or afternoon) of live music.

I have a single MP3 file of this mix which I used the file editing program Audacity to create a mix where all the songs blend together with the crowd sounds. It really does sound like one continuous concert of different bands. I have it on my iPod. I also had it uploaded to MixCloud for a few years but took it down over copyright issues.

Monday, June 8, 2020

Side A / Side B

I've recently become an admin member of a new Facebook group called Side A / Side B that is devoted to the art of making mixes and is made up mostly of former members of the Art of the Mix website mix trading collective and in particular the Splitters offshoot group.

The photo here is from my third floor box of old mixes and is being used as the photo header for the group.

Here is the About section of the group:

"This group is for sharing the love of the mix - via tape, cdr, playlist, thumb drive, or 3-d printed vinyl (do they have that yet?). Please share your mixes here."

"We are also about discussing the joy of making the mix, the process and tools, the motivation, the resources, the sharing of ideas and of course the themes."

"We ask three things: 1: Try to give some context for your mix in the post (mix title, format, intention, history, albums sourced if available). 2: Try not to post a new mix more than once a week (in order to share the air). 3: Try to be kind to each other and be accepting of different points of view. Feel free to invite friends to this group, and we don’t want to get into issues of exclusivity. Perhaps we can build a group with diversity in mind."

"What kinds of mixes to post? Alternating DJ mixes, thematic mixes, whatever suits you.
Spotify mixes are fine, mix length is open, but we’re going for intentional sequencing in the venerable tradition of the mix tape, not data dumps. Also feel free to post mix challenges or collaboration ideas."

Another group was also recently formed Facebook with essentially the same people is now called AOTM Spotify Edition. Apparently some people in the first group didn't want to have anything to do with Spotify so a second group was spun off where folks can post Spotify mixes available to listen by anyone.  However, members of the Side A / Side B are also posting Spotify mixes so I guess it really doesn't matter.

Sunday, June 7, 2020

The Birds

Matinees & Drive-ins

The Birds, 1963

I saw this when it first came out and it scared the hell out of me. I was probably 12 and it was the first Hitchcock movie I saw on my own as it came out. I would see many of his earlier movies later but this was my first real experience of this filmmaker.

I had been seeing his TV show for several years but that was very tame compared to this movie. I had seen many scary monster and ghost movies at the Saturday matinee shows but this was different. It was more visceral. I remember really being scared by the attack of the birds on the school children and also the attack at the diner after the bird lady gave a scientific explanation about bird behavior and then said that if birds as a specie attacked humanity then it would be the end of the world. That was scary for a kid.

Of course Alfred Hitchcock would go on to be one of my favorite directors and I've seen many of his films.


Saturday, June 6, 2020

Blur - Kitchen Listening

Kitchen listening... dinner with this Blur 2 CD set. Yesterday with the best of disc and this evening with the live disc. Awesome Brit pop.

One of my favorite bands of the 1990's alternative rock scene. I picked up this CD in early 2001. It has most of their best songs and contains a second disc of a nice live concert.


The Alamo

Matinees & Drive-ins 

The Alamo, Saturday afternoon matinee movie with John Wayne in 1960 getting all us young boys revved up and ready for when the govt came calling a few years later for 'Nam. A so called American icon.

At this time of my life I thought John Wayne was a great actor and I loved his movies. Later I would realize that he was an anti-communist conservative Republican. When asked by Republicans to run for political office in 1968 he jokingly responded that Americans would never accept an actor in the White House. He was a John Bircher, a supporter of the Hollywood Black List, the Viet Nam War, the House Un-American Activities, Senator McCarthy, and a host of other right wing causes. He was also a bigot. Recently there have been calls to rename the John Wayne Airport in California.


He also starred and produced The Green Berets as a propaganda effort to support the Viet Nam War in 1968.

But I did like The Alamo and during that early 60's period of going to the Saturday matinees every week I did also like him in
Rio Bravo
The Horse Soldiers
How The West Was Won
Hatari
The Longest Day
Donovon's Reef

Probably his best role was in The Quiet Man in 1952.


Friday, June 5, 2020

The Sixties Unplugged

The Sixties Unplugged: A Kaleidoscopic History of a Disorderly Decade by Gerald DeGroot, 2008.
Read this in June 2008.

Not one of the best books on the Sixties I've read but entertaining nonetheless. It seemed to focus more on what didn't happen and what was left undone. A decade of contrasts and bitter truths.

The book is a collection of different essays on a variety of subjects and very hit and miss. The analyses of rock music is bad and the insights on race relations misguided. Overall it is informative and interesting.

Wednesday, June 3, 2020

The Brain

Matinees & Drive-ins

The Brain That Wouldn't Die, 1962

Another scary movie we saw at the Saturday afternoon matinee  in the theater around the corner. A mad doctor horror science fiction movie that was really creepy. Murder, monsters and a talking head.

You can actually watch the whole movie on YouTube but I'm just posting the trailer.







Tuesday, June 2, 2020

Plagues and Peoples

The Book List 

Plagues and Peoples by William McNeill, 1976
Read this in June 1979.

This book scared me. It was very readable, thought-provoking and very well researched. It offered a new and different view on human history and how it was shaped by infectious diseases. It is a classic and pioneering study with a global point of view.

Something to think about right now as our lives are turned upside down but I'm not sure I would want to reread it at this time.




Monday, June 1, 2020

The Nickel Boys

The What When Book List 1970 - 2020

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead, 2020
Read in June 2020

This was the latest and timely book by Whitehead and I gave it 5 stars on Good Reads. It was a heartbreaking and  harrowing experience to read but necessary to help understand the suffering and what has been going on in America. A very important novel about race.

This was the third book of his that I've read now. The other two were The Underground Railroad and Zone One.