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February 26, 2011

‘Valley of the Dolls.'(the movie) Celery(the vegetable). 1967(the year). Lists(smartest states) February 26, 2011

Filed under: November 2009 — Tags: , , , , — earthood @ 10:14 am

Back in 1967 ‘Valley of the Dolls’ came to neighborhood movie theatres; a few years before (for those that remember) movies had double features, newsreels (what’s that?) and cartoons. Double features disappeared like our vestigial tail after we emerged from the ocean. Reasons for double feature disappearance; people lost interest and didn’t want to sit for so long. Funny thing about evolution, hair spray and Atlantic Blue Fin Tuna; today with commercials, public service announcements, coming attractions and miscellany, we’re back to sitting through an equivalent double feature.

Celery I miss Abbott and Costello, Boris Karloff and Maria Ouspenskaya(she played Maleva, the old woman in 1941 ‘Wolfman’) Can you believe I’m still upset that Larry Talbot(Lon Chaney Jr.) got bitten and smitten; I’ll never buy a cane with a wolf head on it. A decade back I needed a cane for two days after knee surgery and still use it when I leave on a jet plane and need bulkhead seats (which they reserve for the needy) Well I am ‘kneedy’ at 6′ 5″. Ten years ago I pretended to limp around Newark Airport with my cane and at the gate asked for bulkhead. A long airline agent pause, glaring stare; I felt a bit guilty and self-conscious; a tennis racket was in my left hand.

Celery 

So why ‘Valley of the Dolls’ in the title?  Symbolism of the ups and downs of life on earth. The title song by Dionne Warwick reduces me. The YouTube link for song:    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xKkSSKmjbk

Here’s a verse from song:

“Gotta get off, gonna get
Out of this merry-go-round
Gotta get off, gonna get
Need to get on where I’m bound”

Feels like my head is spinning in a red Sedona valley. Maybe it’s 1967. Elvis married Priscilla. Six Day War erupted. Great multi-purpose room at Rutgers Pharmacy School was crowded at lunchtime. Two tuna fish sandwiches in a brown bag were opened next to an oasis of recreation: a ping pong table. A couple of seniors just got back from downtown Newark. I overheard them talking about almost getting (marijuana) high last night. I laughed or was it sulking or fear about another war.  I was still a few years away from my only (true and I’m not ever running for office) pot inhalation attempt. Some kids in school passed dexedrine around before exams; the ‘up doll’ manufacturer used to promote the drug as a diet aid; good for students and truck drivers if you had to stay awake for months.  Did I hear that the writer of ‘A Clockwork Orange’ thought he was dying and wrote the novel while high on amphetamines for six months straight, thinking it’s his last chance to write? 

 In February, 1967, thirteen helicopters were shot down in one day in Vietnam; I was mortified about that. And I’m thinking now about Egypt, Libya, Bahrain and the earthquake in New Zealand. The Beatles released ‘Strawberry Fields.’ And I frequently think about getting to ‘where I’m bound.’ I was petrified and confused about Vietnam as I am now about the Middle East and the quest for freedom/peace. And sure, we all worry about gas going to $5.00 a gallon. Hey, if gas goes up 30 cents a gallon, America has to spend $120 million more a day to drive around. In February 1967, 19 people from Mississippi were indicted for the murder of three civil rights workers, Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner. My mood then was up and down like dolls in the movie. “Gotta get out of this merry-go-round.” Just when I thought about taking a deep breath, I heard about a former judge in Pennsylvania (Mark Ciavarella) convicted last Friday of racketeering in a $2.8 million “kids for cash” plot to send youth offenders to ‘for-profit’ detention centers. Imagine a judge sentencing a young teenager, who was about to get a wrestling scholarship, but committed a minor infraction worthy of a just a lecture. However the judge puts the kid away for 6 months and ruins his life while getting a kickback from the detention center for sending the kid there. The kid killed himself a few years later. And if the judge doesn’t get the full 157 year sentence, then “there’s something really wrong here ” (from movie “And Justice For All” with Al Pacino) Here’s the YouTube video of his mother confronting that judge and NBC coverage.

“Gonna get out of this merry-go-round” In March 1967 President Johnson announced a draft lottery. My head was in the valley of the dolls back then and I feared no evil but I didn’t trust the Texan. Still in the valley:  Fifty million “environmental refugees” will flood into the global north by 2020, fleeing food shortages sparked by climate change, experts warned at a major science conference that ended Monday.

Celery

Speaking of my head; use of a cell phone for as little as 50 minutes at a time appears to affect brain glucose metabolism in the region closest to the phone’s antenna, a new study shows. But the cell phone danger is not a main problem if cell phone’s get knocked out. I just finished listening to Dr. Paul La Violette(an astro-physicist)(while I ingested a  package of broccoli rabe) talk about a ‘superwave’ of radiation, energy and gravity which will hit the earth and mess around with New Jersey, the Jersey shore and Bavaria. This wave could knock out satellites, interrupt radio, TV, and telephone communication, produce electrical surges on power lines causing widespread black outs, and possibly trigger the inadvertent launching of missiles. A gastronomical urge just arose. I need to fight it off. No wine. No smokes. Maybe a dozen obscene chocolate cream filled donuts. Once, a long time ago (Carter was President) I worked in Princeton as a Pharmacist and lived in Brooklyn. My wife asked me to bring home a dozen donuts for company. There was a gas shortage (hint). I waited hours for a gas fill-up. There was traffic and a three hour drive. I did the contingency thing; bought three dozen donuts just in case of a long trip. I arrived in Brooklyn with a half-dozen left and I’m not even diabetic now because I exercise 90 minutes a day. Love long telomeres.

 Its celery time folks! Celery has no protective skin, which makes it almost impossible to wash off the chemicals that are used on conventional crops; a perennial entrant on the Dirty Dozen list; 64 pesticides are detected in residue on this veggie and make celery rank No. 1 as the dirtiest. But we love it dipped in blue cheese dressing along side that animal product.

Celery

List time; the smartest states. A few years ago Jersey was ranked second smartest (percentage of students going to higher education.) But streaming back to September, 1967 again. Jim Morrison appeared on the Ed Sullivan show to sing ‘Light My Fire.’ The network told him not to use ‘higher’.  CBS network censors demanded that Jim Morrison change the lyrics to the song by altering the line, “Girl, we couldn’t get much higher”, before the band performed the song live. The lyric was to have been changed to, “Girl, we couldn’t get much better”. However, Morrison sang the original line, and on live television with no delay, CBS was powerless to stop it. A furious Sullivan refused to shake the band members’ hands and they were never invited back to the show. This smartest state list takes into account percent of residents with advanced degrees and some college) #1 Massachusetts( governor knows value of education) #2 Maryland  #3 Colorado (skiing & hiking) #4 Connecticut (many community colleges) #5 Vermont (home grown everything) #6 New Hampshire(‘live free or die.’ do it yourself culture) #7 Virginia (graduates more than 500,000 students a year) #8 Minnesota(lots of Fortune 500 companies) #9 Washington(more than coffee, air planes & software) #10 NEW JERSEY (the Jersey Shore gang are smart all their way to the bank and 15 of world’s 25 largest pharmaceutical companies are here with me in Jersey. It’s been said you can smell car exhaust and tranquilizers in the air every morning as you calmly drive the Jersey turnpike or parkway)

 It’s my head again; back in the valley. Hours of news programs today were devoted to Charlie Sheen. News programmers; please go back to the Gulf and tell me what’s going on or find a way to sneak a reliable camera into Libya. This amazing picture of an Egyptian holding up a sign (above) offering support to embattled Wisconsin teachers was absolutely real. CNN actually found that brave Egyptian and interviewed him. Academy Awards on Sunday. Stop. Can you tell me who won last year? 1967. ‘In The Heat of the Night’ won best picture. “I’m a police officer.” One of my favorite lines. I really feel valley. And it’s accelerating fast. Up and down every day looking for a reason to believe.  And I’m on this island Earth all by myself. Tim Hardin wrote this folk song, “Reason to Believe” two years before 1967.  Rod Stewart also sang it. A verse to share. And goodnight Mrs. Calabash.

“If I gave you time to change my mind
I’d find a way to leave the past behind
Knowing that you lied straight faced while I cried
Still I look to find a reason to believe
Still I look to find a reason to believe
Still I look to find a reason to believe”

 Please share this blog if you like or don’t like and if there’s a reason to believe.

email: earthood@gmail.com

twitter: earthood

Facebook: Cal Schwartz

February 17, 2011

Remarkable Commonality on 53rd Street. Freedom of speech. ‘Rollerball'(1975) and corporations. Jersey Shore/ Education. February 17, 2011

Filed under: November 2009 — earthood @ 5:06 pm

Now its 4:44 am; my haunting hour. On Feb. 24th, 2004, I was puttering around this very computer when universal energies took me to an old Newark, New Jersey trivia site and I mysteriously stumbled into words from an old friend from 1965. Disbelief, diffidence and incomprehension but I still emailed this friend at 4:44 am and strangely noted the time (4:44) in the first line of the email; of course every email contains the time. A few hours later a reply came from Rolla, Missouri and my life changed (and I love this word) irrevocably. Look for my second novel (in outlining stage right now) to dissect this event as well as football spirals from building roofs, Jersey jetty spirits, Sedona vortex mountains, traces of universal radiation left over from the reuse of parallel worlds (a mouthful, I know), and earth angel curiosities; all of which confusingly mean I just planted the state flag of New Jersey on the dark side of the moon. The flag is drooping; no wind or rain on the plain. And New Jersey’s governor still doesn’t like teachers, pensions and apparently cast members from the ‘Jersey Shore.’ Tug McGraw said, “Ya gotta believe.” So I believe the governor doesn’t like pensions because they might cause New Jersey to declare bankruptcy and wipe the state slate clean. Rep. Patrick McHenry (R., N.C.), chairman of a House Oversight subcommittee, warned about a lack of transparency for public pension plans and said Congress must understand the magnitude of the public pension “problem.” Are we heading down another road of massive government bailouts or states declaring bankruptcy when public pensions come due?

Rollerball

 More beliefs; the NJ governor asked the State of New York(Governor Cuomo) to take back Mike ‘The Situation’ and ‘Snooki’ (two prominent cast members of ‘Jersey Shore’) because they were born in NY and are giving the state of New Jersey a bad image rap. This really happened. I saw Anderson Cooper(CNN) label my governor on his ‘RidicuList’; NJ pride swells my chest in deep inhalation. Headlines abound (Jersey’s local papers) on overhauling New Jersey’s educational system which three years ago (pre-Governor Christie) had NJ education ranked second in America (yes Jersey was the 2nd smartest state in America and the richest) and Rutgers University’s(the State University of NJ) football team ranked FIRST last year in all of America in APR(academic progress rating) beating out Stanford, Navy etc. Alas, the governor should know the ‘Jersey Shore’ is moving to Italy next season for filming there. Advice to the show’s writers, cast members and crew when they hit the Italian shores; say nothing ever about Italian police no matter what they do to you. Right now those cops have a libel suit against the parents of Amanda Knox (who was allegedly beaten and mistreated when she was arrested for murdering her roommate) because the parents spoke out to defend their daughter. It’s not Kansas in Italy. Imagine libel suits in America when someone speaks out against governors or police. “Can’t we all just get along?” Recently Massachusetts’ Senator Scott Brown bravely spoke out (book) about sexual abuse growing up.

Rollerball 

More free speech stuff. Bernard Madoff just spoke out in his first jail interview. He’s convinced big banks and hedge funds knew what was going on but since they were making easy billions, they looked the other way. He called it, “willful blindness.” Of course the banks knew. We know that. He said the banks attitude was, “if you’re doing something wrong, we don’t want to know.” Hey readers, there’s an amazing documentary (2010) narrated by Matt Damon called ‘Inside Job’ which talks about the revered evil banking industry. ‘Inside Job’ provides a comprehensive analysis of the global financial crisis of 2008, which at a cost over $20 trillion, caused millions of people to lose their jobs and homes in the worst recession since the Great Depression and nearly resulted in a global financial collapse. More Madoff. My Rutgers hat’s off to Harry Markopolos, the independent financial fraud investigator who uncovered evidence over a period of nine years that Bernard Madoff’s wealth management business was actually a massive Ponzi scheme(did he notice something was wrong in just 5 minutes?) My hat’s not off to the SEC who didn’t see all those bright red flags all those years. What do you say/do to the SEC; the dimmest living bulbs since Edison messed around at Menlo Park here in Jersey where the light bulb was discovered. See governor. Run Spot. Jump Shot spot. See Jane. I  conveniently forgot the boy’s name.  We are a smart state Mr. Governor. The SEC reminds me what Custer (or the SEC) may’ve said at the Little Big Horn. “I think they’re friendly.”

More speech stuff. A high school English teacher in suburban Philadelphia was suspended for a profanity-laced blog in which she called her young students “disengaged, lazy whiners.” She dared to ask: Why are today’s students unmotivated and what’s wrong with calling them out? As she fights to keep her job at Central Bucks East High School, 30-year-old Natalie Munroe says she had no interest in becoming any sort of educational icon. The blog has been taken down. Freedom of speech? Finally Nir Rosen, a NYU fellow and journalist resigned and apologized yesterday after making brutally disgusting remarks on Twitter about the attack and sexual assault of CBS correspondent Lara Logan in Egypt; Nir’s promising career heading where drano serves. I remember Mama and Jay Leno asking Hugh Grant after an incident with a prostitute, “What were you thinking?” From that moment on, Jay’s ratings surpassed Letterman’s. I remember Al Campanis on Nightline in April, 1987(on youtube) opening his free speech mouth to Ted Koppel and flushing a 21 year LA Dodger career down the drano drain in two minutes. La De Dah. La De Dah.

On Monday I took a NJ transit train into New York City. My head (with ostentatious pilot headphones and ipod 60’s music) rested/dozed on the window. I propped up as the train quietly passed this magnificent steel factory, shiny smoke stacks and small electricity generating station protected by barb-wired fence; state of art looking. The plant was abandoned. The trip purpose: to meet Colin Lively as I’m scheduled to appear on his internet radio show, “Hereforwomen” on Friday Feb 18th, 2011(archived also) Colin and I met on Facebook despite 600 million other folks fishing around. Over a quinoa salad, we tried to figure how we found each other. We couldn’t recollect. He’s dynamic, worldly, eclectic, knowledgeable, exciting and I’m lucky to get a chance to expound with a microphone on extending life. Imagine two ships passing on East 53rd Street, both liking ‘Midnight Cowboy’ and not liking corporations abusing humans, liking human potential, universal spirit, environmental issues and derivative plants in the Apiaceae family (formerly Umbelliferae)(no not Cannabis). How perfect our commonality.

 Rollerball

 Did I say extending life?  Blog segue time. Imagine some day, computers taking over their own development and getting smarter, faster and helping us figure out human aging for one. Wouldn’t it be nice if computers could also figure out the answer to the metastasis of corporations? If we and computers become smarter too, what if corporations got smarter and ‘pac-manned’ into a half dozen globally? When I saw ‘Rollerball‘ back in 1975, the seeds of my discontent and fears were born; a future would be left with a handful of corporations each controlling a societal segment. ‘Walmart’ one day might be the only retailer left; ‘Chase’ the last bank standing; ‘Continental’ the last transportation company(fiction of course). James Caan was ‘Jonathan E,’ my hero to this day as a rugged individualist fighting a corporation head who wanted him to retire. Last blog, I made up a character ‘Roger Jones’ who represents big business and everything anti-humanistic; an NFL team owner, league controller and perhaps a future ‘Rollerball‘ company head who hates people and individualism. An update on the 400 people who did not get their paid seats at the Super Bowl: The NFL upped their $1 million settlement to those poor fans that got screwed to $2 million. The NFL takes in $4 billion a year and they’re nickel and diming. I guess ‘Roger Jones’ under estimated ‘Jonathan E’ and individualism and 2011 values. I still worry about ‘Roger Jones’ in thirty years stifling freedoms. I still worry that 25% of Americans (including my son) get no exercise whatsoever. I worry that the caramel color in soda is made by sugar and ammonia put together at high pressure and leeching out a carcinogenic compound (California has it on their cancer list) called 4MEI. I worry that soda corporations say it’s not carcinogenic. What if it is and all the bad company heads in forty years are gone anyway. Whom do we send to white collar prison?  I worry that we’ll have incredibly smart computers like HAL from 2001 and not enough ‘Jonathan E’ and not enough freedom of speech corporations. I like to worry, think and speak freely. I think it expands neural cerebral connections and extends life.

Please share this blog. Make a bloggist happy. Comments anyone?

February 11, 2011

‘Commerce Shill.’ Teeth Whiteners. ‘Midnight Cowboy.’ More Lists. Me on a Radio Show. February 11, 2011

Filed under: November 2009 — earthood @ 10:07 pm

I’m a couple days late with blog. “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.” Michael Corleone said that in beginning of ‘Godfather III.’ Did you ever watch a movie, hear a line and wonder if it would ever apply to you? In December, I was outlining my second novel when a call came from an Ohio friend of my Texas cousin. Two minutes into the call, I exclaimed, “I’m in.” Back in sales again. Home on the Range. Where the Deer and the Antelope Play. A lot of deer hang out in my central Jersey suburban sprawl town. When I moved here twenty years ago, there was a small farm with barn and horse less than a mile away. Now twenty homes (over a $ million apiece) replaced the grazing of the horse. And the deer scamper through my backyard. A few patches of trees and grass are left around town for the deer to call home on the range. There’s a deer carcass on the road every month or so. No souls, from our teacher hating governor on down, care about deer. Dear me. Intellectually, weren’t their species here before us in Jersey? So were Native-Americans.  So the blog is a little late. Looking at the title of blog, subtle as it is, there’s a theme. Writing this (7:50am) I’m spooning ‘Red Velvet Cake’ Yogurt; the only time I like spoon-feeding; early morning solitude. Greek yogurt is the healthiest; considered a fat fighter because it contains twice the amount of protein and therefore hangs around the stomach longer. A few minutes ago, I just read Dolphins(not Miami) have been declared the world’s second most intelligent creatures after humans, with scientists suggesting they are so bright that they should be treated as “non-human persons.” However we humans may (will) be surpassed (intelligence) by year 2045 by little old computers. Go pick up next week’s Time magazine with 2045 on the cover. I’ve got my intelligent sources. Of course if that happens, Dolphins get knocked down to third place.

Midnight Cowboy 

 Dissection time. The title line. ‘Commerce Shill.’ It could also read ‘commercial.’ However shill means (slang) someone is planted in the crowd to urge others to buy something, like a confidence trickster’s assistant. Commercial? (Hmmm). Leaving a convenience store yesterday, I saw an ad pix for two pretzels laden with copious salt, “one for each hand.” Salt does kill. Movie popcorn is loaded with salt to make you thirsty for an $8 soda. The feds recently, quietly, without much ado on national or New York news coverage or even a marching band, told us to cut back salt even more. Do they know something?  I love all the coverage on Lindsay Lohan(now she’s shoplifting and her white dress just sold out on line) Quite frankly my deer, I’d love to know what’s going on in the Gulf after the spill; how the pelicans and people are faring not Lindsay Lohan; shame on that someone who makes news coverage decisions. Yesterday morning, on television, I saw a commercial for express (2 hours) whitening strips for the teeth. Technology is wonderful; getting strips to work in two hours instead of two weeks. I saw  pix ads for Vuitton, Armani, Dior and Burberry pocketbooks in a magazine, all within a few pages of each other (full page expensive ads too). I thought about Monmouth County deer when I saw the ads. How strange. In almost every print ad(for anything), someone always wears sunglasses (a piece of plastic or metal with a lens that blocks out 100% UV light and if dark enough, allows you look at anyone without their knowing you’re looking at them) And the deer and the antelope play. New Jersey recently had a bear kill, sanctioning a few days when hunters could kill just one and decrease bear surface population. Scrooge liked to do that with people.

Midnight Cowboy

a meaningful cerebral 'commercial'

 Food, munchies and beer for all the Super Bowl parties cost Americans a cool $10 Billion (not counting all the commercials promoting). Did I read it’s the amount needed to put a dent in the world’s impending water crisis? And speaking of the Super Bowl, I was revolted and angered but not surprised that Jerry Jones(owner of Cowboys stadium; who’s only concern was setting a bowl attendance record) and the NFL(commissioner Roger G.) knew a week before hand that seats would not be ready for 400 people(they had years to get ready); so to hell with those people and it’s too bad their poor dreams were shattered and they spent all that money to get to Texas). I loved camera shots of half empty luxury boxes and celebrities feeding each other popcorn. I thought this seat episode was one of the most despicable things I’ve heard in a long time. It’s all about money and power. Funny; the NY Jets’ office calls me all the time to see when I want to buy season tickets. Now it’s never. I’ll stick to Rutgers football and the purity of college sport and keeping my distance from the likes of ‘Roger Jones’ (a new character who doesn’t care about the sanctity of human beings).  

Did a public official recently say there’s too much money in illegal drugs to stop it? Diet Soda commercials are all over the place. Science is now saying that drinking diet soda voluminously (great word?) can cause a 61% increase in the chances of having a vascular accident (a stroke). Strokes are rising dramatically among young and middle-aged Americans while dropping in older people, a sign that the obesity epidemic may be starting to shift the age burden of the disease My son is 25 and I can’t remember the last time he exercised; over a year ago? A bit of a paradox with diet soda and strokes (the Super Bowl was filled with diet soda ads. A few years back a little girl got sucked into a soda bottle). Funny thing happened on the way to the forum. I stopped drinking diet soda all by myself three years ago; switched to seltzer and wait for sale ads for $4 a case.

Midnight Cowboy

diet soda

Maybe there should be more ads and commercials for sleep products and Melatonin supplements. New research from Warwick Medical School published recently in the European Heart Journal shows that prolonged sleep deprivation and disrupted sleep patterns can have long-term, serious health implications. Leading academics from the University have linked lack of sleep to strokes, heart attacks and cardiovascular disorders which often result in early death. Professor Francesco Cappuccio from the University of Warwick Medical School, explained: “If you sleep less than six hours per night and have disturbed sleep you stand a 48 per cent greater chance of developing or dying from heart disease and a 15 per cent greater chance of developing or dying of a stroke.

On a happier note, because I’m basically a happy guy, the world’s happiest countries are as follows. Norway(2nd highest rated country in health care and plenty of oil and gas reserves. 74% say people can be trusted. America has ‘Roger Jones’ and NFL and 400 people without Super Bowl seats) Denmark is in 2nd place (highest standard of living in world. No ‘Roger Jones’ there) Finland is in 3rd place (highest redistribution of wealth and yes, no ‘Roger Jones’ there either) Australia is 4th and they really trust their government. Finally New Zealand is 5th (first in Education. I’m sure they don’t have a governor who hates teachers) By the way the United States is 10th, not bad. Speaking of happy and love, Princeton University has great alumni. 60.3% of them give back to their University. More happy: Did you know that Ecuador’s people, with 75% approving, agreed to bar drilling in huge rainforest, forgoing $7.2 billion in oil $$ revenue. However my happiness at this junction is a bit tempered. Rep. Patrick McHenry (R., N.C.), chairman of a House Oversight subcommittee, warned about a lack of transparency for public pension plans and said Congress must understand the magnitude of the public pension “problem.” Are we heading down another road of massive government bailouts or states declaring bankruptcy when public pensions come due? And the deer and the antelope play.

 More Lists. Somebody out there(Men’s Health) in television land (remember good old Howdy Doody, Buffalo Bob and Donna Reed) compiled a list of the Ten Best and Ten Worst Cities for Men based on 37 criteria(man killers, heart disease, cancer, ratio of single men to women etc). Ready for the whip ride? 1. Madison, Wisconsin(2nd lowest death rate of strokes and a high proportion of doctors. Notice I’ve talked about strokes above) 2. Fargo, N.D. 3.  Plano, Texas(finished 1st in weight training) 4. Burlington, Vermont( a very friendly supportive place; people care?!) 9. Virginia Beach, VA( people live close to farmer’s market; fresh produce) 99th Philadelphia, PA(next to last) 100th. St. Louis, MO(last). Finally, streaming our past, a prehistoric cemetery reveals Man and Fox were pals before dogs were our best friends. Ah, best friends. People who care; ‘Roger Jones’ my new character from the Super Bowl, is certainly no one’s best friend. I think Roger said, “Greed is good.” Or was it Gordon Gekko? “What’s the difference” as Otter said in ‘Animal House.’  I have my own list; where to set up my cabin at the Jersey shore to meditate, write and commune. Belmar would be good but there’s isn’t a vacant foot of land. Love Ladies is expensive and on stilts. Sandy Hook is semi-deserted and reminds me of the movie ‘Shutter Island’. So I’m scared. And the deer and the antelope play.

Midnight Cowboy

 Entertainment talk. Saw ‘South Pacific’ two weeks ago in Newark at PAC; wondrous night, place, venue, music, lyrics and staging. I love Newark. Also love ‘Midnight Cowboy‘ and 1969 movies (last week’s blog) When I couldn’t convince my son to exercise, we bargained and I persuaded him to watch ‘Midnight Cowboy.’ Why a multi-decade fascination with a social commentary movie? Because I identify, feel, sense and worry that I’ll wind up homeless in cold callous Manhattan with no one to care about me because the world really doesn’t care about anything except teeth whitening and setting attendance records at Super Bowls. I am Ratso Rizzo (he didn’t like to be called ‘Ratso’) and once, crossing a street in Manhattan, a car came to close to me, I yelled semi-softly, “I’m walking here.” For Dustin Hoffman’s character, it was a hostile world (for deer and bears in suburban Jersey and Super Bowl ticket holders too) until Joe Buck(Jon Voight) arrives from Texas and each find their first real friend. Nilsson’s song ‘Everybody’s Talkin’ rips gut. Ratso’s dream is unfulfilled and ends in the back of a bus (in the ‘Graduate’ Dustin Hoffman is in back of a bus too) Nobody cared about Ratso. I try. When I’m in the city, there’s always a panhandler without a leg, so I drop a dollar into a cup. And I’ll never buy teeth whitener.

 Housekeeping: Next Friday February 18th from 2 to 3pm, I’m scheduled to appear on the Colin Lively Radio Show via the Internet. If you can’t make it live, check the archives. My gig: extending life.

 http://herewomentalkradio.com/home/show_details/60

 The Colin Lively Show

Live Friday 2:00 – 3:00 pm pm Eastern, 11 am – 12 noon Pacific  

Call (914) 338-1186

Listen-Click Here  

Join Colin Lively, hairdresser to the stars and socialites, and a different beauty expert each week as they take you through makeovers, nip, tuck, injections, permanent makeup, exercise tips and everything you ever wanted to know to look youthful and feel rejuvenated.  Colin, a well-connected and totally cool urbanite in New York City, brings into the studio top health coaches, plastic surgeons, makeup artists, and world-renowned aestheticians to answer all your questions about the latest and greatest in cosmetic procedures.  The lines will be open for Colin and his guests to answer your calls and guide you to looking your best.

February 3, 2011

Woodstock. Ghostbusters. Hair. 1969. The Garden State. Feb 3, 2011

Filed under: November 2009 — earthood @ 10:54 pm

Decades of life lived in the Garden State; always wondered why Jersey is called that. A lot of cement, highways, malls here. Actually Jersey is more densely populated than India. In all the years of living here, I never had a garden or grew my own tomatoes. Maybe it’s living on busy corners with traffic streaming on by and a loss of vegetable growing privacy. Jersey’s ‘Garden State’  origin goes back to a Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876; Jersey was described as being nestled between New York and Philadelphia and like a barrel, had lots of good garden things to eat(before the NJ Turnpike, we had more room to grow things). Maybe Jersey should be called the toll highway state; like toll house cookies. You can’t get anywhere in NJ with out paying a toll; like the character that got stuck for life on Boston’s MTA. I never understood calling chocolate chip cookies toll house. Imagine a tourist (not from Europe) from Arizona, Arkansas or Alabama (no road or bridge tolls) and their first reaction to seeing toll collection structures spanning across the highway. Now with EZ Pass and fast express toll lanes, you have ‘War of the Worlds’ high tech ray gun structures zapping your car tag, knee caps and eye sockets while doing 55 mph driving through. I usually up my dosage of glucosamine after a week of express toll lanes; knees a little shaky and squeaky; perhaps a coincidence. Finally, look around at pop culture of Jersey. Jersey Shore. The ‘Jersey Boys'(on Broadway) The Soprano’s. ‘The Boardwalk Empire.’ I feel like Winston Zeddmore from ‘Ghostbusters’ when he yells at the end, “I love this town (state)”

Woodstock

 More on (Jersey) gardens and vegetables (stream of consciousness again): with the help of the Department of Defense, a biologist at Colorado State University has taught plant proteins how to detect explosives. Horticulture fighting terrorism; one day there will be all kinds of plants at airport gates (this is beyond me but has to do with ‘receptor’ proteins in the plant) More plant talk; avocados(oil) may prevent the bad stuff that kills hair follicles from getting to where it does damage; interesting thought if you like keeping hair on top. I do. More hair tips (blogs should educate): Omega 3(salmon) rich foods help hair. Bran does too; Vitamin B may slow hair loss. Go look at my Facebook pix(Cal Schwartz; you can friend me too); plenty of hair for 6 decades. No red meat (none for me since 1975) as it can lead to DHT production and hair follicle damage. I take Green Tea capsules. Does the caffeine in it slow balding?  When the play ‘Hair’ opened on Broadway in April 1968, I still had short hair; afraid to let it grow; afraid to cross the street without my mother telling me it’s safe to cross; afraid to inhale(which I guess was positive in case I ever ran for political office). Many original cast members of ‘Hair’ (like Shelly Plimpton) were recruited right off the street; a little like American Idol in Austin the other night; a lot of Texans heading to Hollywood and I love Texas and the character ‘Woof’ in ‘Hair;’ a gentle soul who loved plants. Back to hair; mine’s long now; makes me think about ‘Woodstock.'(Stream of consciousness; sometimes I enjoy where it takes me; like a magic cerebral carpet)

Woodstock

 ‘Woodstock‘ is a lesson about my life, looking back; longing with lingering thoughts over lasting decades. On August 15th through August 18th, 1969, the Woodstock Festival took place at Yasgur’s Farm in Bethel, New York. Ten years ago, I was in South Jersey selling eye glasses and on a hot August day, my Beatles tie partly undone, I walked into an ophthalmologist’s office, on a cold call, not paying attention to the name on a white sign over my head. ‘Dr. Yasgur.’ I sat and waited to do a sales pitch and then it hit me. The doctor must be related to Max Yasgur who made Woodstock possible. It was true but quickly dispelled/avoided by the receptionist as was my offering to sell them. I think the doctor was a cousin and my ‘windy’ association did nothing to initiate a sale. On August 15th 1969, I asked my fiancé if I could go to ‘Woodstock;’ to experience life, music and protestation. That notion was quickly dispelled as well but I rejected her negativity and set out to go to Woodstock. A horn from an old black early 60’s Chevy sounded and I ran out the front door (wearing short hair); a voice called out, “Don’t go. I won’t be here when you get back.” I told the guys to go without me. Four years later I was divorced; an obvious lesson to write about now; follow your dreams. Now my hair is long and getting longer. It’s like winning an ‘Oscar’. Bogart said after winning the Oscar for ‘African Queen,’ “The way to survive an Oscar is never try to win another one.” Woodstock would’ve been an Oscar for me. So since I didn’t go, I’m still looking to win one and to go back. I shouldn’t have limited myself by not going or by things I think are too hard. Lewis Carroll once said, (Would I ever love to slip down that Rabbit Hole. I think I will, now that I’m talking about it) “Sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

Woodstock

 My stream of consciousness point of this Jersey dialogue is to comment that in all these years, I’ve never seen so much snow, ice, bleakness and evidences of an impending ice age. “Quite frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.” Sure Rhett Butler said that to Scarlett O’Hara. I love hearing it; makes me watch the movie again just to see him walk away. With weather like this, I’m sure some politicians are saying ‘bah humbug’ and ‘quite frankly’ to theories of global warming and climate change. I saw a glaciologist (studies glaciers) talking about Antarctica and how fast glaciers are disappearing. My son grew up watching ‘Ghostbusters’ almost daily; eventually the long line of commercial products arrived; guns, roses, ambulances and fire houses. There was a line from the movie (I was ‘impressed’ like a reluctant sailor in ‘Mutiny on the Bounty’ to keep watching the movie with my son) which described an impending New York City supernatural event; Ray Stantz(Dan Ackroyd) said ‘biblical proportions.’ Do we have biblical weather events going on right now?  A monstrous storm just covered 2500 miles of America and affected 100 million people. Chicago got its third worst snow ever. At the same time a cyclone, ‘Tasi’ with 180 mph winds was about to hit Australia’s Queensland. At the same time a volcano was erupting in Kyushu, Japan sending a plume 5000 feet up and prompting a level three alert. And did I hear about a sewage treatment plant in the Boston area moving to higher ground just in case the ocean rises in twenty years? And New England roofs now are collapsing due to weight of the snow. Is this the stuff the Ghostbusters and scientists are now talking about (climate change)? Or is my friend the reckless ostrich’s head still stuck in the sand” I do try so hard to extricate.

Woodstock

never ever snow like this in Garden State

 Go to youtube and listen to the song ‘The Weight’ if in the mood to drift back to 1969 (from ‘Easy Rider.’)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLkmbLoaORU

 1969 drifting; innocence, incense and peppermint. I got married in 1969(first time); night before I told my mother it would only last a couple of years; was doing it for experience and the gifts. I sensed things but not what forty years in the future would bring; like an object in my pocket that could access all human knowledge. There are now 2 billion internet users. Did Facebook help the Egyptians organize the protest? Google and Twitter teamed up and launched a ‘speak to tweet’ service which circumvents the ban on the internet in Egypt. By 2015 more than 5.6 billion personal devices will be connected to mobile networks. I stopped eating red meat in 1975. A South Carolina scientist has been working for ten years to grow meat in a lab. The Jets won Super Bowl III in 1969. In 2006, 144 million people watched the Super Bowl. Ten months later 122 million voted in the Presidential election. In 1969 I used Classic Illustrated comic books to write term reports (on Art History). Google has unveiled ‘Art Project,’ an interactive virtual tour of some of the world’s greatest museums. Some ‘how to’ magazines in 1969 espoused hanging out in museums to ‘meet’ people instead of bars; what now? 1969 was a biblical year for me; a coming of age, dreams, fulfillment and disappointment. 2011 can be another biblical year. Climate change. Political change in the Mideast. My hair is getting longer. I’m anxiously waiting for another Woodstock. I’ll go this time and might even take my wife, son and wear a flower in my hair.

 Please share blog with friends, strangers and others.

 Also please check out book trailer on you tube:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj2ko9gcC_M

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