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Sunday, March 03, 2013
Saint Patrick's Peace Parade
The Alternative People's Parade for Peace.
Equality, Jobs, Environmental Stewardship, Social & Economic Justice
Sunday, March 17,2013
Assemble Time: 2:00 pm
Start Time: 3:00 pm (Approx.)
Start
Location: Corner of West Broadway & D Street,
Four Blocks East of the - MBTA Redline "Broadway
Station"
Look for Veterans For Peace Flags
End Location: Corner of Dorchester Ave. and Dorchester
St)
"Andrew" MBTA Station
'The
St. Patrick's Peace Day Parade STARTS on West Broadway (easterly), left onto
East Broadway, Right onto "P" Street, Right onto "East 4th"
Street, Left onto "K" Street, Right onto
"East 5th" Street, Left onto "G" Street, Right onto the 'Southerly Arm of Thomas Park', Left onto
"Telegraph" Street, Left onto "Dorchester
Street" and ENDING at "Dorchester Avenue" (Andrew Square).
Out In The 1930s Dustbowl Night- John Steinbeck’s The Grapes Of Wrath
Oddly, I first read John Steinbeck’s classic tale of the 1930’s depression, The Grapes of Wrath, as a result of listening to Woody Guthrie’s also classic Dustbowl Ballads. In that album Woody sings/narrates the trials and tribulations of the Joad family as they get the hell out of drought-stricken Oklahoma and headed for the land of milk and honey in California. After listening to that rendition I wanted to get the full story and Steinbeck did not fail me. His tightly-woven story stands as a very strong exposition of the plight of rural America as they tried to make sense of a vengeful God, unrelenting Nature and the down-side of the American dream. For those who have seem Walker Evans’ and other photographers pictures of the Okies, Arkies, etc. of the period this is the story behind those forlorn, if stoic, faces.
The story line is actually very simple. The land in Oklahoma was played out, the banks nevertheless were pressing for payment or threatening foreclosure and for the Joads, as for others, time had run out. In classic American tradition they pulled up stakes and headed west to get a new start. With great hopes and not a few illusions they set out as a family for the sunny and plentiful California of their dreams. Their struggle along the way is a modern day version of the struggles of the old Westward heading wagon trains-including the causalities. But, that is not the least of it. Apparently they had not read Frederick Jackson Turner’s thesis that the frontier was gone- the land was taken. The bulk of the story centers of what happened when they get to the golden land-and it was not pretty. Day labor, work camps, strike action, murder, and mayhem-you know, California, the real California of the day. Not the Chamber of Commerce version. In short, as Woody sang, no hope if you aint got the do re mi.
The Grapes of Wrath was made into a starkly beautiful film starring a young Henry Fonda as Tom Joad. On a day when you are not depressed it is a film you want to see, if only for the photography. So here is the list. Listen to Woody sing the tale. Watch Henry Fonda to act it out. And by all means read Steinbeck. He had an ear for the 1930’s struggle of the Okies and their ilk as they hit California. What happened to those people later and their influence of California culture and those who didn’t make it are chronicled by others like Howard Fast and Nelson Algren. But for this period your man is Steinbeck.
Out In The1970s Film Night-Robert Altman’ Slice of Americana Nashville
FromThe Pen Of Frank Jackman
The late Robert Altman was the past master of weaving a simple plot line and existential characters in order to form very interesting slices of the life in the American experience, with a wry sense of humor about that experience to boot. Shortly before his death he had produced Prairie Home Companion, essentially a Midwestern version of the presently reviewed film Nashville. He had an ear and an eye for the sometimes absurd characters that are part of the American landscape and those senses do not fail him here, although there is just a touch of datedness in the story line of the film.
Of course, the subject here, given away by the title, is a look at country music, as least how it looked in 1975, intertwined with a indeterminate but assumingly populist presidential campaign by a third party candidate. The mix of politics and music is an interesting choice although whether the electoral campaign could stand in for that of ex-Alabama Governor George Wallace on the right or an insurgent Eugene McCarthy-type campaign on the left is far from clear, probably purposefully so. All the characters one would expect when one’s only sense of the Nashville country music scene is the Grand Old Opry are here; the mainstream male and female country singers modeled on George Jones and Loretta Lynn; the country folk ‘crashers’ trying to cash in on the popularity of genre; the wannabes working the open mikes off the main street in order to get a break; and, the truly talentless all striving to get ahead in the dog eat dog but lucrative world of country music. All looking for the main chance. All driven to be on a stage somewhere in front of some audience even if it is that of an eccentric presidential candidate. The sub-plot, which in the end holds the action together, is the random violence afoot then, as now, that is seemingly an endemic part of the American Way.
There are several outstanding musical performances highlighted by the film’s Loretta Lynn character, Ronee Blaklee. Her rendition of Dues still sounds good after over 30years. Try to find her work. The late Vassar Clements on the fiddle also should receive kudos.
Out In The Jazz Age Night- F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby
One would have to be rather pedantic not recognize that F. Scott Fitzgerald was an important novelistic voice of the Jazz Age in post World War I America. Certainly not the only voice of that age but the voice which best exemplifies the tensions between the mores of ‘old wealth’ and the emerging sources of ‘new wealth’ that were produced by the huge amount of money available, mainly through government contracts as result of the war, or riches gained through the illegal liquor trade. That is the sociological underpinning that drives Fitzgerald’s work. This is no better example of those strivings than the Great Gatsby. If nothing else it is a dramatic enactment of the strivings of the new money to ‘make it’ in the world of high society, one way or another. And what better way to do that than in the age old tradition of buying one’s way into that society through marriage. This is the modern American version of that story.
And the story itself? One Jay Gatsby, the former Jimmy Ganz, freshly reinventing himself after indeterminate service in the American military in World War I and loaded with cash from questionable financial resources, attempts to win, or rather re-win the affections of one Daisy Buchanan his vision of the perfect life companion and exemplar of the‘old money’ crowd that he wishes to crash. One little complication, however, gets in the way. She has found herself married to a brutish but wealthy member of that ‘old money’ crowd. Gatsby’s fumbling but lavish attempts to lure her away from the high society of Long Island, then the summer watering hole of the‘old money’, forms the core of the story. Gatsby’s trial and tribulations on the way as narrated by Nick Carroway (and Gatsby’s somewhat unwitting accomplice in the matter) keeps the story line going until the final deadly ending. The morale- the very rich are indeed very different from you or me. Moreover, someone else will always have to pick up the messes they have made for themselves. They merely move on. This may serve as a cautionary tale for that time and possibly today. Certainly nobody has chronicled the end of the age of American innocence signaled by the Jazz Age better than Fitzgerald.
A word on literary merits. According to the inevitable changes in literary fashion as well as literary politics Fitzgerald, for long a leading figure in the canon of American literature has been somewhat eclipsed by other more post-modernist trends. While I firmly believe that the Western canon is in dire need of expansion to include ‘third world’, woman and minority voices Fitzgerald’s literary merits stand on their own. His tightly- crafted story line, his sense of language and the flat-out fact that that he knew the subject matter that formed the basis of his expositions merit renewed consideration by today’s reader. Simply put, if you want to understand part of what was going on in America in the 1920’s before the Great Crash of 1929 then you simply have to read the man. If nothing else read the last few pages of Gatsby. If there is a better literary expression of the promise of America as seem by the early Dutch settlers of New York as the last best hope of civilization and the failure of that promise at the hands of the ‘robber barons’ and their descendents I have not read it.
Out In The Film Noir Night- Robert Penn Warren’s All The King’s Men
From The Pen Of Frank Jackman
All The King’s Men, Robert Penn Warren, twice adapted for the screen
The question before us, however, is who is the real Willie Stark. Since the story line is fairly simple and familiar from a glance at today’s newspapers or a look at the political landscape it is the believability of the performances in the films that counts here. Broderick Crawford played in the original black and white film version and won an Academy Award for his performance by acting as a initially naïve country bumpkin with a thirst for power to do ‘good’ who is corrupted by power as he goes about the business of governance. Seemingly, all his baser instincts come into play and there is an almost fatalistic sense that he is in for a big fall.
Sean Penn in the more recent version seems to be more world weary about the political process and cynical about what he can do for the ‘people’ and himself when in power. Of the two, Crawford just seems to be more comfortable in his interpretation of the role. Moreover, in the recent version the narrator’s story, that of a troubled alcoholic former news reporter hired by Stark as his smooth-tongued flak, takes top-billing and that diminishes Stark’s role in all the shenanigans. For my money, although Penn’s performance may appeal to today’s more politician-averse audience Crawford wins this duel. View both films and you decide.
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