This space is dedicated to the proposition that we need to know the history of the struggles on the left and of earlier progressive movements here and world-wide. If we can learn from the mistakes made in the past (as well as what went right) we can move forward in the future to create a more just and equitable society. We will be reviewing books, CDs, and movies we believe everyone needs to read, hear and look at as well as making commentary from time to time. Greg Green, site manager
Click on the headline to link to
more information about the class-war prisoner honored in this entry.
Make June Class-War Prisoners
Freedom Month
Markin comment (reposted from 2010)
In “surfing” the National Jericho
Movement website recently in order to find out more, if possible, about
class- war prisoner and 1960s radical, Marilyn Buck [now deceased], whom I had
read about in a The Rag Blog post I linked to the Jericho list of class
war prisoners. I found Marilyn Buck listed there but also others, some of whose
cases, like that of the “voice of the voiceless” Pennsylvania [former] death
row prisoner, Mumia Abu-Jamal, are well-known and others who seemingly have
languished in obscurity. All of the cases, at least from the information that I
could glean from the site, seemed compelling. And all seemed worthy of far more
publicity and of a more public fight for their freedom.
That last notion set me to the task
at hand. Readers of this space know that I am a long -time supporter of the
Partisan Defense Committee, a class struggle, non-sectarian legal and social
defense organization which supports class- war prisoners as part of the process
of advancing the international working class’ struggle for socialism. In that
spirit I am honoring the class war prisoners on the National Jericho Movement
list this June as the start of what I hope will be an on-going attempt by all
serious leftist militants to do their duty- fighting for freedom for these
brothers and sisters. We will fight out our political differences and
disagreements as a separate matter. What matters here and now is the old
Wobblie (IWW) slogan - An injury to one is an injury to all.
Note: This list, right now, is composed of class-war
prisoners held in American detention. If others are likewise incarcerated that
are not listed here feel free to leave information on their cases here.
Likewise any cases, internationally that may come to your attention. I am sure
there are many, many such cases out there. Make this June, and every June, a
Class-War Prisoners Freedom Month- Free All Class-War Prisoners Now!
Click on the headline to link to
more information about the class-war prisoner honored in this entry.
Make June Class-War Prisoners
Freedom Month
Markin comment (reposted from 2010)
In “surfing” the National Jericho
Movement website recently in order to find out more, if possible, about
class- war prisoner and 1960s radical, Marilyn Buck [now deceased], whom I had
read about in a The Rag Blog post I linked to the Jericho list of class
war prisoners. I found Marilyn Buck listed there but also others, some of whose
cases, like that of the “voice of the voiceless” Pennsylvania [former] death
row prisoner, Mumia Abu-Jamal, are well-known and others who seemingly have
languished in obscurity. All of the cases, at least from the information that I
could glean from the site, seemed compelling. And all seemed worthy of far more
publicity and of a more public fight for their freedom.
That last notion set me to the task
at hand. Readers of this space know that I am a long -time supporter of the
Partisan Defense Committee, a class struggle, non-sectarian legal and social
defense organization which supports class- war prisoners as part of the process
of advancing the international working class’ struggle for socialism. In that
spirit I am honoring the class war prisoners on the National Jericho Movement
list this June as the start of what I hope will be an on-going attempt by all
serious leftist militants to do their duty- fighting for freedom for these
brothers and sisters. We will fight out our political differences and
disagreements as a separate matter. What matters here and now is the old
Wobblie (IWW) slogan - An injury to one is an injury to all.
Note: This list, right now, is composed of class-war
prisoners held in American detention. If others are likewise incarcerated that
are not listed here feel free to leave information on their cases here.
Likewise any cases, internationally that may come to your attention. I am sure
there are many, many such cases out there. Make this June, and every June, a
Class-War Prisoners Freedom Month- Free All Class-War Prisoners Now!
Click on the headline to link to
more information about the class-war prisoner honored in this entry.
Make June Class-War Prisoners
Freedom Month
Markin comment (reposted from 2010)
In “surfing” the National Jericho
Movement website recently in order to find out more, if possible, about
class- war prisoner and 1960s radical, Marilyn Buck [now deceased], whom I had
read about in a The Rag Blog post I linked to the Jericho list of class
war prisoners. I found Marilyn Buck listed there but also others, some of whose
cases, like that of the “voice of the voiceless” Pennsylvania [former] death
row prisoner, Mumia Abu-Jamal, are well-known and others who seemingly have
languished in obscurity. All of the cases, at least from the information that I
could glean from the site, seemed compelling. And all seemed worthy of far more
publicity and of a more public fight for their freedom.
That last notion set me to the task
at hand. Readers of this space know that I am a long -time supporter of the
Partisan Defense Committee, a class struggle, non-sectarian legal and social
defense organization which supports class- war prisoners as part of the process
of advancing the international working class’ struggle for socialism. In that
spirit I am honoring the class war prisoners on the National Jericho Movement
list this June as the start of what I hope will be an on-going attempt by all
serious leftist militants to do their duty- fighting for freedom for these
brothers and sisters. We will fight out our political differences and
disagreements as a separate matter. What matters here and now is the old
Wobblie (IWW) slogan - An injury to one is an injury to all.
Note: This list, right now, is composed of class-war
prisoners held in American detention. If others are likewise incarcerated that
are not listed here feel free to leave information on their cases here.
Likewise any cases, internationally that may come to your attention. I am sure
there are many, many such cases out there. Make this June, and every June, a
Class-War Prisoners Freedom Month- Free All Class-War Prisoners Now!
Click on the headline to link to
more information about the class-war prisoner honored in this entry.
Make June Class-War Prisoners
Freedom Month
Markin comment (reposted from 2010)
In “surfing” the National Jericho
Movement website recently in order to find out more, if possible, about
class- war prisoner and 1960s radical, Marilyn Buck [now deceased], whom I had
read about in a The Rag Blog post I linked to the Jericho list of class
war prisoners. I found Marilyn Buck listed there but also others, some of whose
cases, like that of the “voice of the voiceless” Pennsylvania [former] death
row prisoner, Mumia Abu-Jamal, are well-known and others who seemingly have
languished in obscurity. All of the cases, at least from the information that I
could glean from the site, seemed compelling. And all seemed worthy of far more
publicity and of a more public fight for their freedom.
That last notion set me to the task
at hand. Readers of this space know that I am a long -time supporter of the
Partisan Defense Committee, a class struggle, non-sectarian legal and social
defense organization which supports class- war prisoners as part of the process
of advancing the international working class’ struggle for socialism. In that
spirit I am honoring the class war prisoners on the National Jericho Movement
list this June as the start of what I hope will be an on-going attempt by all
serious leftist militants to do their duty- fighting for freedom for these
brothers and sisters. We will fight out our political differences and
disagreements as a separate matter. What matters here and now is the old
Wobblie (IWW) slogan - An injury to one is an injury to all.
Note: This list, right now, is composed of class-war
prisoners held in American detention. If others are likewise incarcerated that
are not listed here feel free to leave information on their cases here.
Likewise any cases, internationally that may come to your attention. I am sure
there are many, many such cases out there. Make this June, and every June, a
Class-War Prisoners Freedom Month- Free All Class-War Prisoners Now!
Click on the headline to link to
more information about the class-war prisoner honored in this entry.
Make June Class-War Prisoners
Freedom Month
Markin comment (reposted from 2010)
In “surfing” the National Jericho
Movement website recently in order to find out more, if possible, about
class- war prisoner and 1960s radical, Marilyn Buck [now deceased], whom I had
read about in a The Rag Blog post I linked to the Jericho list of class
war prisoners. I found Marilyn Buck listed there but also others, some of whose
cases, like that of the “voice of the voiceless” Pennsylvania [former] death
row prisoner, Mumia Abu-Jamal, are well-known and others who seemingly have
languished in obscurity. All of the cases, at least from the information that I
could glean from the site, seemed compelling. And all seemed worthy of far more
publicity and of a more public fight for their freedom.
That last notion set me to the task
at hand. Readers of this space know that I am a long -time supporter of the
Partisan Defense Committee, a class struggle, non-sectarian legal and social
defense organization which supports class- war prisoners as part of the process
of advancing the international working class’ struggle for socialism. In that
spirit I am honoring the class war prisoners on the National Jericho Movement
list this June as the start of what I hope will be an on-going attempt by all
serious leftist militants to do their duty- fighting for freedom for these
brothers and sisters. We will fight out our political differences and
disagreements as a separate matter. What matters here and now is the old
Wobblie (IWW) slogan - An injury to one is an injury to all.
Note: This list, right now, is composed of class-war
prisoners held in American detention. If others are likewise incarcerated that
are not listed here feel free to leave information on their cases here.
Likewise any cases, internationally that may come to your attention. I am sure
there are many, many such cases out there. Make this June, and every June, a
Class-War Prisoners Freedom Month- Free All Class-War Prisoners Now!
Click on the headline to link to
more information about the class-war prisoner honored in this entry.
Make June Class-War Prisoners
Freedom Month
Markin comment (reposted from 2010)
In “surfing” the National Jericho
Movement website recently in order to find out more, if possible, about
class- war prisoner and 1960s radical, Marilyn Buck [now deceased], whom I had
read about in a The Rag Blog post I linked to the Jericho list of class
war prisoners. I found Marilyn Buck listed there but also others, some of whose
cases, like that of the “voice of the voiceless” Pennsylvania [former] death
row prisoner, Mumia Abu-Jamal, are well-known and others who seemingly have
languished in obscurity. All of the cases, at least from the information that I
could glean from the site, seemed compelling. And all seemed worthy of far more
publicity and of a more public fight for their freedom.
That last notion set me to the task
at hand. Readers of this space know that I am a long -time supporter of the
Partisan Defense Committee, a class struggle, non-sectarian legal and social
defense organization which supports class- war prisoners as part of the process
of advancing the international working class’ struggle for socialism. In that
spirit I am honoring the class war prisoners on the National Jericho Movement
list this June as the start of what I hope will be an on-going attempt by all
serious leftist militants to do their duty- fighting for freedom for these
brothers and sisters. We will fight out our political differences and
disagreements as a separate matter. What matters here and now is the old
Wobblie (IWW) slogan - An injury to one is an injury to all.
Note: This list, right now, is composed of class-war
prisoners held in American detention. If others are likewise incarcerated that
are not listed here feel free to leave information on their cases here.
Likewise any cases, internationally that may come to your attention. I am sure
there are many, many such cases out there. Make this June, and every June, a
Class-War Prisoners Freedom Month- Free All Class-War Prisoners Now!
Click on the headline to link to
more information about the class-war prisoner honored in this entry.
Make June Class-War Prisoners
Freedom Month
Markin comment (reposted from 2010)
In “surfing” the National Jericho
Movement website recently in order to find out more, if possible, about
class- war prisoner and 1960s radical, Marilyn Buck [now deceased], whom I had
read about in a The Rag Blog post I linked to the Jericho list of class
war prisoners. I found Marilyn Buck listed there but also others, some of whose
cases, like that of the “voice of the voiceless” Pennsylvania [former] death
row prisoner, Mumia Abu-Jamal, are well-known and others who seemingly have
languished in obscurity. All of the cases, at least from the information that I
could glean from the site, seemed compelling. And all seemed worthy of far more
publicity and of a more public fight for their freedom.
That last notion set me to the task
at hand. Readers of this space know that I am a long -time supporter of the
Partisan Defense Committee, a class struggle, non-sectarian legal and social
defense organization which supports class- war prisoners as part of the process
of advancing the international working class’ struggle for socialism. In that
spirit I am honoring the class war prisoners on the National Jericho Movement
list this June as the start of what I hope will be an on-going attempt by all
serious leftist militants to do their duty- fighting for freedom for these
brothers and sisters. We will fight out our political differences and
disagreements as a separate matter. What matters here and now is the old
Wobblie (IWW) slogan - An injury to one is an injury to all.
Note: This list, right now, is composed of class-war
prisoners held in American detention. If others are likewise incarcerated that
are not listed here feel free to leave information on their cases here.
Likewise any cases, internationally that may come to your attention. I am sure
there are many, many such cases out there. Make this June, and every June, a
Class-War Prisoners Freedom Month- Free All Class-War Prisoners Now!
Click on the headline to link to
more information about the class-war prisoner honored in this entry.
Make June Class-War Prisoners
Freedom Month
Markin comment (reposted from 2010)
In “surfing” the National Jericho
Movement website recently in order to find out more, if possible, about
class- war prisoner and 1960s radical, Marilyn Buck [now deceased], whom I had
read about in a The Rag Blog post I linked to the Jericho list of class
war prisoners. I found Marilyn Buck listed there but also others, some of whose
cases, like that of the “voice of the voiceless” Pennsylvania [former] death
row prisoner, Mumia Abu-Jamal, are well-known and others who seemingly have
languished in obscurity. All of the cases, at least from the information that I
could glean from the site, seemed compelling. And all seemed worthy of far more
publicity and of a more public fight for their freedom.
That last notion set me to the task
at hand. Readers of this space know that I am a long -time supporter of the
Partisan Defense Committee, a class struggle, non-sectarian legal and social
defense organization which supports class- war prisoners as part of the process
of advancing the international working class’ struggle for socialism. In that
spirit I am honoring the class war prisoners on the National Jericho Movement
list this June as the start of what I hope will be an on-going attempt by all
serious leftist militants to do their duty- fighting for freedom for these
brothers and sisters. We will fight out our political differences and
disagreements as a separate matter. What matters here and now is the old
Wobblie (IWW) slogan - An injury to one is an injury to all.
Note: This list, right now, is composed of class-war
prisoners held in American detention. If others are likewise incarcerated that
are not listed here feel free to leave information on their cases here.
Likewise any cases, internationally that may come to your attention. I am sure
there are many, many such cases out there. Make this June, and every June, a
Class-War Prisoners Freedom Month- Free All Class-War Prisoners Now!
Click on the headline to link to
more information about the class-war prisoner honored in this entry.
Make June Class-War Prisoners
Freedom Month
Markin comment (reposted from 2010)
In “surfing” the National Jericho
Movement website recently in order to find out more, if possible, about
class- war prisoner and 1960s radical, Marilyn Buck [now deceased], whom I had
read about in a The Rag Blog post I linked to the Jericho list of class
war prisoners. I found Marilyn Buck listed there but also others, some of whose
cases, like that of the “voice of the voiceless” Pennsylvania [former] death
row prisoner, Mumia Abu-Jamal, are well-known and others who seemingly have
languished in obscurity. All of the cases, at least from the information that I
could glean from the site, seemed compelling. And all seemed worthy of far more
publicity and of a more public fight for their freedom.
That last notion set me to the task
at hand. Readers of this space know that I am a long -time supporter of the
Partisan Defense Committee, a class struggle, non-sectarian legal and social
defense organization which supports class- war prisoners as part of the process
of advancing the international working class’ struggle for socialism. In that
spirit I am honoring the class war prisoners on the National Jericho Movement
list this June as the start of what I hope will be an on-going attempt by all
serious leftist militants to do their duty- fighting for freedom for these
brothers and sisters. We will fight out our political differences and
disagreements as a separate matter. What matters here and now is the old
Wobblie (IWW) slogan - An injury to one is an injury to all.
Note: This list, right now, is composed of class-war
prisoners held in American detention. If others are likewise incarcerated that
are not listed here feel free to leave information on their cases here.
Likewise any cases, internationally that may come to your attention. I am sure
there are many, many such cases out there. Make this June, and every June, a
Class-War Prisoners Freedom Month- Free All Class-War Prisoners Now!
Click on the headline to link to
more information about the class-war prisoner honored in this entry.
Make June Class-War Prisoners
Freedom Month
Markin comment (reposted from 2010)
In “surfing” the National Jericho
Movement website recently in order to find out more, if possible, about
class- war prisoner and 1960s radical, Marilyn Buck [now deceased], whom I had
read about in a The Rag Blog post I linked to the Jericho list of class
war prisoners. I found Marilyn Buck listed there but also others, some of whose
cases, like that of the “voice of the voiceless” Pennsylvania [former] death
row prisoner, Mumia Abu-Jamal, are well-known and others who seemingly have
languished in obscurity. All of the cases, at least from the information that I
could glean from the site, seemed compelling. And all seemed worthy of far more
publicity and of a more public fight for their freedom.
That last notion set me to the task
at hand. Readers of this space know that I am a long -time supporter of the
Partisan Defense Committee, a class struggle, non-sectarian legal and social
defense organization which supports class- war prisoners as part of the process
of advancing the international working class’ struggle for socialism. In that
spirit I am honoring the class war prisoners on the National Jericho Movement
list this June as the start of what I hope will be an on-going attempt by all
serious leftist militants to do their duty- fighting for freedom for these
brothers and sisters. We will fight out our political differences and
disagreements as a separate matter. What matters here and now is the old
Wobblie (IWW) slogan - An injury to one is an injury to all.
Note: This list, right now, is composed of class-war
prisoners held in American detention. If others are likewise incarcerated that
are not listed here feel free to leave information on their cases here.
Likewise any cases, internationally that may come to your attention. I am sure
there are many, many such cases out there. Make this June, and every June, a
Class-War Prisoners Freedom Month- Free All Class-War Prisoners Now!
***Out In The 1950s Film Noir Night-Compulsion
From The Pen Of Frank Jackman
DVD Review
Compulsion, starring Bradford Dillman, Dean Stockwell, Orson Welles, directed by Richard Fleischer, 1959
The Jazz Age, the time, the decade or so, right after the war, World War I one if anybody is asking, was a weird time in America in some respects. That was the careless, crime-ridden “war on alcohol” age made famous by the like of Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, especially the latter for his take on American upward mobility with his unforgettable character Jay Ganz trying to climb up the social anyway he could, no matter the body count, in The Great Gatsby. Of course that was fiction, fiction though that cut to the core, cut to the core like the film under review, Compulsion, was fiction although based on the infamous actions of Leopold and Loeb in Chicago in the 1920s.
Apparently our fictionalized lead characters here, Artie and Judd, two young men, boys really, from wealthy Chicago circumstances had spent too much of their spare time reading too many German philosophers, too much Nietzsche, too seriously, especially those interested in creating a society led by “supermen,” the elite guided by no other criterion except pure rationality. No emotional attachments need apply. And to prove that thesis, to try it out in practice, the pair crudely bludgeon some kid in park and depose of him in culvert after kidnapping him. They assume after such heroics that they have passed beyond the pale of mere mortals and have proven their superiority point. Except for the little problem of those damn glasses that Judd somehow left behind at the crime scene and that did them in posthaste. So from supermen they turned into, well, low- life cellmates in a trial for their lives.
While the drama here is driven for a while by trying to corral the pair, trying to dissect their weird motivations, the real claim to fame of this film should be as a rather powerful argument against the death penalty. Certainly the heinous crime they committed was in another age death-penalty worthy but as powerfully articulated by Jonathan Wilk (Orson Welles), as their attorney, that barbaric form of punishment did nothing to deter the mad, the crazy and the socially isolated and offended against our evolving standard of civility. And so powerful was Mister Wilk’s presentation that the judge actually gave both men life sentences. Life sentences to stew in their own juices over their views of the word and maybe change their perspectives around mere mortals. And those hardened inmates at Joliet will see to that.
***Out In The 1940s Crime Noir Night-The Stuff Of Dreams- Harry’s Dreams-Richard Widmark's “Night And The City"
DVD Review
Night And The City , Richard Widmark, Gene Tierney, Herbert Lom, directed by George Dassin, Paramount Studios, 1946
No question I am a film noir, especially a crime film noir, aficionado. Recently I have been on a tear reviewing various crime noir efforts and drawing comparisons between the ones that “speak” to me and those that, perhaps, should have been better left on the cutting room floor. The classics are easy: films like Out Of the Past, Gilda, The Lady From Shang-hai, and The Big Sleep need no additional comment from me as their plot lines stand on their own merits. Others, because they have a fetching, or wicked, for that matter, femme fatale to muddy the waters also get a pass, or as in Gilda a double nod for the plot and for the femme fatale. (Be still my heart, at the thought of Rita Hayworth, ah, dancing and singing, okay lip- synching, and looking, well, fetching while doing those difficult tasks.) Some, like the film reviewed here,Night and the City, while not strong on plot line or femme fatale-ness (ouch) get a nod for other reasons. Little reasons like having a young Harry Fabian, oops, Richard Widmark, practically scream out his grifter’s dreams with his expressive face. And have that face, the faces of other characters in the film, and places beautifully directed and captured on film. Not bad for a B-rated movie.
But now to the characterizations that make this such an interesting and well-acted (by Richard Widmark anyway) film. You know, know deep in your bones, if you were brought up in a working-class or poor neighborhood, and maybe in other neighborhoods too, the grifter, drifter, midnight sifter Harry Fabian played here by Widmark, The guy, and it was almost always a guy back in the days, who was smart, well smart enough, friendly, well almost too friendly, always willing to accept a little dough, a little touch dough for his endeavors, always with a little larceny in his heart, always looking for easy street, always looking for the short cut to glory, and never quite getting there.
Cheap street dreams, penny ante stuff, an odd midnight heist around the neighborhood here (never in the Mayfair swells’ backyard always nearby nothingness), a flim-flam mark rope-in there (some were beauties, basically working off the Ponzi scheme but you had to know how to pull out fast before the house of cards fell and get the hell out of that town too, fast) Guys I knew were a little less refined they specialized in a little jack-rolling, you know, get some poor schmo down some dark alley, or maybe he is there already drunk or in some other tough condition and pop him for his dough, his paycheck for the wife and five kids minus the ten bucks he spent at the Dublin Grille. That was not Harry’s line but he was never that desperate or big enough to pull such lowbrow capers off. But he too knew guys like that, was around the edges of guys like that. Guys who would chain-whip you like I saw Red Riley do one time just because some corner boy was not his right corner but in Red’s. And, Harry or Red, always, always, having to be fast of foot, and fast of sneak away to stay just the south side of the law when that surefire scheme also goes south. That’s our Harry, no question.
And Harry was the guy that your mother warned you about from early on to not be like or you would "wind up just like him." And that was the magic mantra that held you in check, for a while anyway until you got your own Harry thoughts. And if I had to visualize my neighborhood Harrys then one Richard Widmark, a young Widmark would not be a bad way to do so. No question jut-jawed, slightly hazy wide-eyed, made for no heavy-lifting, light of foot and made to slip into small dark places Widmark would make the top of any crime noir aficionados idea of guy that fits the bill in this genre.
And grifter Harry had a dream which is central to the plot. The dream like those of a million other grifters, drifters and midnight sifters, hell just every poor guy looking to get out from under, to get out from under, and to, as Harry constantly put it, “be somebody.” Yes, that's the ticket, and that idea drives the story line (and Harry’s angst). See Harry’s dreams, Harry's immediate post- World War II London-set dreams are not earth- shattering to say the least, at least on the face of it. Just to corner the wrestling racket market and become an important impresario to the plebeian masses that throng to such events. Problem is, as is always the grifter’s fate, the market’ s already cornered, already sewed up and already underworld muscle-protected.
So Harry tried an end-around using the head wrestling mobster’s (Herbert Lom) father to promote real wrestling, that is Greco-Roman wrestling which is said head mobster’s father’s specialty. Yes, I know already you can see Harry’s problem a mile away, even if he cannot. Other than about twelve hard-core Olympic Games aficionados nobody cares, wants to care, or will ever care about Greco-Roman wrestling. Certainly not against the masked marvel, bad boys, “real” wrestling that is (now) driven by teenage boys (and teenage girls, a little). But that was Harry’s opening and he was bound to take it, working his “magic” on the father who was some kind of Greco-Roman aficionado maniac himself. The clash is on, including a stellar defense of Greco-Roman wrestling in the flesh by the old man.
Of course like all old men who try to do a young man’s work he overexerted himself and died after the heat of battle. Such things happen, but for Harry this is the kiss of death because as it turns out the head mobster was fond of his father, very fond. Harry’s number is therefore up. And watching the scenes and gritty faces of the actors in the process of that number being up drives the last portion of the film and makes this a true noir classic.
Note: No femme fatales here, obviously, but there are women who enter Harry’s life. One, an unhappy wife of a mid-level grafter, wants to use Harry to get out from under her own heavy burden of marriage to said grafter. More importantly, and a little incongruously, Harry has a straight girlfriend, straight with the law, of sorts, played by Gene Tierney, who loves/protects him through thick and thin. And who Harry doesn’t have enough sense to stick by, except when he is in trouble- needing quick dough mainly. It was painful from my own knowledge of such things, having grabbed a few mother’s purse dollars myself, to see Harry rummaging through her pocketbook looking for dough to make some awry deal right, to allow him to “be somebody” for another five minutes. Whoa.
***From Out In The Be-Bop Blues Night- Sippie Wallace's Women Be Wise
A film clip of Sippie Wallace performing her classic, Women Be Wise (also covered by Bonnie Raitt and Maria Muldaur among others).
From The Pen Of Frank Jackman
A while back, oh, maybe a couple of months ago, when I was on one of my periodic barrelhouse women’s blues moments, a moment when I desperately needed to hear that crystal clear “folk” wisdom many of those hard-living, hard-drinking, hard-working, hard beat down man times women put forth in their songs (many of the lyrics written, written maybe in blood, by the based on those same hard experiences). One song, Women Be Wise, done originally by Sippie Wallace way back in the late 1920s when she was one of the queens of the barrelhouse blues, caught my attention and stayed in my mind for a while. At that time I decided to let Sippie’s words speak for themselves and posted the song on the Blues In The Night blog that I make comments on occasionally with this: “Well I will just let Sippie tell it like it is for once. Speak some unfathomed truth. Without further comment by me since anything added would be some much bad air. Okay. ” And that was a right decision at the time. Then last month out of the blue one of my young co-workers told me a story, told it to looking for a little sympathy since I knew the guy involved, about her wayward girlfriend and her, well, two-timing straying man. After hearing her out I sensed there was some kind of cautionary tale to be told so I will repeat what she said to me as best I remember it. If the story sounds familiar, sadly familiar to your own life experiences, then just skip to the bottom for my take on the thing:
Brenda Swain had gone to the Rhode Island School of Design and studied the graphic arts, worked in Providence for a while after school at a small firm before moving to Boston, really Hullsville a few miles south the city to be closer to her new work location at IAM Associates, the place where I work as well. She shared a condo with another young woman roommate, also an artist of sorts. Brenda had moved to Boston to have more opportunity to grow in her chosen field. And she turned out to be crackerjack graphic artist in every way providing us with high quality work and many worthwhile suggestions for layouts in our various campaigns. Although we did not work directly together, she was not part of my staff, our joint projects brought us together enough that we could chat, chat personal stuff from time to time without embarrassment, and without the hassles associated with talking to peers, work peers or generational peers.
Early on Brenda had told me that beyond expanding her career horizons she had moved to Boston to have better shot at grabbing a man (she didn’t put it that way, it was not her style, her way of speaking, but that is the gist of her idea, okay). She said the male market in Providence was “the pits. (and that was her expression)” Since she had not had a serious relationship for a few years because she had decided to concentrate on her career she was beginning to worry that she was old hat, that she was going to wind up living alone with a cat, or some such thing. When she told me this I thought that she was probably going to be in for some disappointments in that arena since the Boston area was overloaded with talented and very eligible women looking for a relatively small cadre of “do-right”guys. At least that was what my daughters and others had told me. And so for a time, maybe six months Brenda would come into my office, usually on Monday, and relate her latest “bummer” to me. Usually this was about some desperation “one night stand” or running into some weirdo who wouldn’t take no for an answer. Then Tim, Tim Larkin, came on her horizon.
Above I mentioned that one of the reasons Brenda told me her latest sad tale that I am relating to you was that I knew the guy. See Tim was a young go-getter self-starter who worked for the firm that does our final phase layout work, who actually does the bulk of the layout work himself, and does it well. He had been out of town on some big assignment for a while but when he came back we needed his help on the Cassidy account, the big department store chain based over in Clintondale. And Brenda was the chief graphic artist on that account. So they met, met and worked together for a few weeks while I was working on other projects. Then one day, maybe a month later. Brenda came in and told me that they were, and this is the way she put it, “an item.”She then went on to describe his virtues, his personal virtues since I already knew his work virtues. She even hinted that he might be “Mr. Right” although she said that a little tentatively, a little like she wasn’t sure when the other shoe would drop like had happened with some of her other recent explorations.
And this Tim did seem like one of that very small pool of “do-right” guys that are a vanishing breed at least in Boston. He came out of the Dorchester working-class section of Boston, put himself through Boston College and was making himself indispensable at his job. A bright future, no question. He also had been unlucky at love, having been engaged at one point and then the young woman got cold feet. Brenda also told me, or started to tell, me his qualities as a kind and thoughtful lover before I cut her off on that subject. I am neither priest nor sex-crazed and so reserve the right to not have to graphically hear about the mating habits of the young (besides my temperature might rise a bit too much so consider the health factor too). So Tim Larkin seemed like some angel and good for Brenda.
Except Tim, along with his stellar virtues, was also a man and that is where Brenda made her fatal mistake. It seems that she not only confided her Tim thoughts to me but would regale her roommate, Minnie Shaw, with Tim’s virtues, including his wonderful ways under the sheets. Now this Minnie, also was sans a male friend, also was looking for a “do-right” guy although Brenda assumed that she would go out into the “meat market” bar scene to find such a male. Wrong. We had to send Brenda on assignment for a week to San Francisco to do some work for an important client and somehow, the details were sketchy here, during that time Minnie, using her Brenda knowledge of him, of his likes and dislikes, snagged one Tim Larkin, snagged him right in their shared condo. And here is the strange part, strange to my older ears anyway, Brenda finished up her sad tale by saying she hoped, pretty please hoped, that somehow the three of them could work something out. Jesus.
As Brenda was relating her story the words to Sippie’s song kept beating through my head and this thought too- while Brenda and Sippie were separated by two or three generations Miss Sippie long ago had the right advice, the right advice indeed-“yah, don’t advertise your man”- and guys think carefully about this wisdom too.
******
Sippie Wallace
Women Be Wise
Women be wise, keep your mouth shut
Don't advertise your man
Don't sit around gossiping
Explaining what he really can do
Some women now days
Lord they ain't no good
They will laugh in your face
They'll try to steal your man from you
Women be wise, keep your mouth shut
Don't advertise your man
Your best girlfriend
Oh she might be a highbrow
Changes clothes three time a day
But what do you think she's doing now
While you're so far away?
You know she's lovin your man
In your own damn bed...
You better call for the doctor
Try to investigate your head
Women be wise, keep your mouth shut
Don't advertise your man
Women be wise, keep your mouth shut
Don't advertise your man
Now don't sit around girls
Telling all your secrets
Telling all those good things he really can do
Cause if you talk about your baby
Yeah you tell me he's so fine
Honey I might just sneak up
And try to make him mine
Women be wise, keep your mouth shut
Don't advertise your man --
Don't be no fool!
Don't advertise your man
Baby don't do it!
********
Beulah "Sippie" Thomas grew up in Houston, Texas where she sang and played the piano in her father's church. While still in her early teens she and her younger brother Hersal and older brother George began playing and singing the Blues in tent shows that travelled throughout Texas. In 1915 she moved to New Orleans and lived with her older brother George and got married to Matt Wallace in 1917. During her stay there she met many of the great Jazz musicians like King Oliver and Louis Armstrong who were friends of her brother George. During the early 1920s she toured the TOBA vaudeville circuit where she was billed as "The Texas Nightingale". In 1923 she followed her brothers to Chicago and began performing in the cafes and cabarets around town. In 1923 she recorded her first records for Okeh and went on to record over forty songs for them between 1923 and 1929. Her brother Hersal died of food poisoning in 1926 at age sixteen. Wallace was unique among the Classic Blues singers in that she wrote a great deal of her own material, often with her brothers supplying the music. The sidemen who played on her recording sessions were always excellent and included the cream of New Orleans Jazz musicians, like King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Clarence Williams, Sidney Bechet and Johnny Dodds among others. Sippie moved to Detroit in 1929 and left show business in the early 1930s as the Blues craze ran its course. In 1935 and 1936 her aunt Lillie, her husband Matt and her brother George (who was hit by a streetcar) all died . She found solace in religion and during the next forty years she was a singer and organ player at the Leland Baptist Church in Detroit. She occasionally performed over the years, but did little in the Blues until she launched a comeback in 1966 after her longtime friend and fellow Texan, Victoria Spivey called "Sippie Wallace and Victoria Spivey". Wallace's next album was called "Sippie Wallace Sings the Blues" for the Storyville label in 1966. Wallace suffered a stroke in 1970 but managed to keep recording and performing. With the help of Bonnie Raitt she landed a recording deal with Atlantic Records and recorded the album, "Sippie", which featured Raitt, was nominated for a Grammy in 1983 and won a W.C. Handy Award for best blues album in 1984. Sippie Wallace was the aunt of Hociel Thomas and Hersal Thomas.
Click on the headline to link to
more information about the class-war prisoner honored in this entry.
Make June Class-War Prisoners
Freedom Month
Markin comment (reposted from 2010)
In “surfing” the National Jericho
Movement website recently in order to find out more, if possible, about
class- war prisoner and 1960s radical, Marilyn Buck [now deceased], whom I had
read about in a The Rag Blog post I linked to the Jericho list of class
war prisoners. I found Marilyn Buck listed there but also others, some of whose
cases, like that of the “voice of the voiceless” Pennsylvania [former] death
row prisoner, Mumia Abu-Jamal, are well-known and others who seemingly have
languished in obscurity. All of the cases, at least from the information that I
could glean from the site, seemed compelling. And all seemed worthy of far more
publicity and of a more public fight for their freedom.
That last notion set me to the task
at hand. Readers of this space know that I am a long -time supporter of the
Partisan Defense Committee, a class struggle, non-sectarian legal and social
defense organization which supports class- war prisoners as part of the process
of advancing the international working class’ struggle for socialism. In that
spirit I am honoring the class war prisoners on the National Jericho Movement
list this June as the start of what I hope will be an on-going attempt by all
serious leftist militants to do their duty- fighting for freedom for these
brothers and sisters. We will fight out our political differences and
disagreements as a separate matter. What matters here and now is the old
Wobblie (IWW) slogan - An injury to one is an injury to all.
Note: This list, right now, is composed of class-war
prisoners held in American detention. If others are likewise incarcerated that
are not listed here feel free to leave information on their cases here.
Likewise any cases, internationally that may come to your attention. I am sure
there are many, many such cases out there. Make this June, and every June, a
Class-War Prisoners Freedom Month- Free All Class-War Prisoners Now!
Click on the headline to link to
more information about the class-war prisoner honored in this entry.
Make June Class-War Prisoners
Freedom Month
Markin comment (reposted from 2010)
In “surfing” the National Jericho
Movement website recently in order to find out more, if possible, about
class- war prisoner and 1960s radical, Marilyn Buck [now deceased], whom I had
read about in a The Rag Blog post I linked to the Jericho list of class
war prisoners. I found Marilyn Buck listed there but also others, some of whose
cases, like that of the “voice of the voiceless” Pennsylvania [former] death
row prisoner, Mumia Abu-Jamal, are well-known and others who seemingly have
languished in obscurity. All of the cases, at least from the information that I
could glean from the site, seemed compelling. And all seemed worthy of far more
publicity and of a more public fight for their freedom.
That last notion set me to the task
at hand. Readers of this space know that I am a long -time supporter of the
Partisan Defense Committee, a class struggle, non-sectarian legal and social
defense organization which supports class- war prisoners as part of the process
of advancing the international working class’ struggle for socialism. In that
spirit I am honoring the class war prisoners on the National Jericho Movement
list this June as the start of what I hope will be an on-going attempt by all
serious leftist militants to do their duty- fighting for freedom for these
brothers and sisters. We will fight out our political differences and
disagreements as a separate matter. What matters here and now is the old
Wobblie (IWW) slogan - An injury to one is an injury to all.
Note: This list, right now, is composed of class-war
prisoners held in American detention. If others are likewise incarcerated that
are not listed here feel free to leave information on their cases here.
Likewise any cases, internationally that may come to your attention. I am sure
there are many, many such cases out there. Make this June, and every June, a
Class-War Prisoners Freedom Month- Free All Class-War Prisoners Now!
Click on the headline to link to
more information about the class-war prisoner honored in this entry.
Make June Class-War Prisoners
Freedom Month
Markin comment (reposted from 2010)
In “surfing” the National Jericho
Movement website recently in order to find out more, if possible, about
class- war prisoner and 1960s radical, Marilyn Buck [now deceased], whom I had
read about in a The Rag Blog post I linked to the Jericho list of class
war prisoners. I found Marilyn Buck listed there but also others, some of whose
cases, like that of the “voice of the voiceless” Pennsylvania [former] death
row prisoner, Mumia Abu-Jamal, are well-known and others who seemingly have
languished in obscurity. All of the cases, at least from the information that I
could glean from the site, seemed compelling. And all seemed worthy of far more
publicity and of a more public fight for their freedom.
That last notion set me to the task
at hand. Readers of this space know that I am a long -time supporter of the
Partisan Defense Committee, a class struggle, non-sectarian legal and social
defense organization which supports class- war prisoners as part of the process
of advancing the international working class’ struggle for socialism. In that
spirit I am honoring the class war prisoners on the National Jericho Movement
list this June as the start of what I hope will be an on-going attempt by all
serious leftist militants to do their duty- fighting for freedom for these
brothers and sisters. We will fight out our political differences and
disagreements as a separate matter. What matters here and now is the old
Wobblie (IWW) slogan - An injury to one is an injury to all.
Note: This list, right now, is composed of class-war
prisoners held in American detention. If others are likewise incarcerated that
are not listed here feel free to leave information on their cases here.
Likewise any cases, internationally that may come to your attention. I am sure
there are many, many such cases out there. Make this June, and every June, a
Class-War Prisoners Freedom Month- Free All Class-War Prisoners Now!
Click on the headline to link to
more information about the class-war prisoner honored in this entry.
Make June Class-War Prisoners
Freedom Month
Markin comment (reposted from 2010)
In “surfing” the National Jericho
Movement website recently in order to find out more, if possible, about
class- war prisoner and 1960s radical, Marilyn Buck [now deceased], whom I had
read about in a The Rag Blog post I linked to the Jericho list of class
war prisoners. I found Marilyn Buck listed there but also others, some of whose
cases, like that of the “voice of the voiceless” Pennsylvania [former] death
row prisoner, Mumia Abu-Jamal, are well-known and others who seemingly have
languished in obscurity. All of the cases, at least from the information that I
could glean from the site, seemed compelling. And all seemed worthy of far more
publicity and of a more public fight for their freedom.
That last notion set me to the task
at hand. Readers of this space know that I am a long -time supporter of the
Partisan Defense Committee, a class struggle, non-sectarian legal and social
defense organization which supports class- war prisoners as part of the process
of advancing the international working class’ struggle for socialism. In that
spirit I am honoring the class war prisoners on the National Jericho Movement
list this June as the start of what I hope will be an on-going attempt by all
serious leftist militants to do their duty- fighting for freedom for these
brothers and sisters. We will fight out our political differences and
disagreements as a separate matter. What matters here and now is the old
Wobblie (IWW) slogan - An injury to one is an injury to all.
Note: This list, right now, is composed of class-war
prisoners held in American detention. If others are likewise incarcerated that
are not listed here feel free to leave information on their cases here.
Likewise any cases, internationally that may come to your attention. I am sure
there are many, many such cases out there. Make this June, and every June, a
Class-War Prisoners Freedom Month- Free All Class-War Prisoners Now!
Beulah "Sippie" Thomas grew up in Houston, Texas where she sang and played the piano in her father's church. While still in her early teens she and her younger brother Hersal and older brother George began playing and singing the Blues in tent shows that travelled throughout Texas. In 1915 she moved to New Orleans and lived with her older brother George and got married to Matt Wallace in 1917. During her stay there she met many of the great Jazz musicians like