Article « Vichy Water – Author's Blog

December 1, 2011

LINDA CHORNEY: My Exclusive Afternoon Interview with an Amazing Grammy Nominated Singer from Monmouth County NJ USA Dec 11, 2011 (Interview from October 2011)

Filed under: November 2009 — Tags: Article, by, Dashboard, philosophy, Powered — earthood @ 2:02 pm

Before I share this interview which was done at the very end of October when we knew that Linda Chorney was under “consideration” for Grammy nominations, I’d like to say few words. I met Linda and Scott on my first day as a journalist back in early August when she was singing at Old Freehold Day. I was mesmerized(and I use this word rarely) Her voice and passion gripped. I knew there was something totally uniquely special. A few days later we shared two cups of green tea overlooking a pristine Jersey water view. Such unbridled energy, enthusiasm and zest for life was Linda who spiritually, synchronistically launched my journalism career. We shared blogging experiences and shook hands to link to each other’s blog. Normally excessively verbose, I’m at a loss for words to express my total thrill, excitement and nirvana for Linda at a such a wonderful time. I was asked to get a quote and this is what Linda said and it’s worth repeating:

“I am so honored, and touched by this nomination. And I am still in shock. To be in the same category that has included 2 of my heros, Bob Dylan, and Robert Plant. But what was as touching is waking up this morning to find this letter…”

Linda,

Just wanted to tell you that you are my hero! ! Congratulations!

I am an artist, over 50 and born on March 31!

I met you a while back in Fromagerie , I think, and followed your journey through your newsletter.

Just wanted to tell you that it is empowering to know that it can be done and it truly never is too late to be what you might have been!

Rock on!

I am so excited for you and for the rest of us here along theJerseyshore plugging away at their dream!

So what are you wearing to the awards? haha

LINDA CHORNEY: My Exclusive Afternoon Interview with an Amazing Grammy Nominated Singer from Monmouth County NJ

By Calvin Barry Schwartz

On the cover of her latest double album, “Emotional Jukebox,” which has just been Grammy nominated for Americana Album of Year, Linda Chorney is pictured holding several one-word signs, describing herself as “cocky, feisty, silly, fearless, elated” and “anxious” to name a few. She is all of the above, as discovered on a recent rainy late October 2011 afternoon with bagels and cups of green tea adorning her kitchen table.

Emotional Jukebox album cover

Thoughts and emotions swirl around Linda Chorney; songs alone can’t suffice, so she has a blog. Chorney enthusiastically describes her blog video featuring astrophysicist Dr. Neil Degrasse Tyson, head of the Hayden Planetarium and the “killer” of planet Pluto. “We met at a party and I decided to interview him on a more human level with a different angle,” she recalls. Her blogs, like her music, speak a rugged, unbridled Massachusetts-bred individuality. Fascination with science stems from her MIT- PhD father. “If I wasn’t so into music growing up, I might’ve become a scientist,” she muses, adding that her parents supported her music.

Making “Emotional Jukebox” was unlike any past album she made (she made six). “Recording in a studio is like being in taxi looking at the meter. But for this album, I had the biggest budget I ever had.” Thanks to a chance meeting. Back in 2003 when she was doing a show in Aspen, an eccentric man approached her, asking if he could send something through the mail. “I gave him a PO Box because I didn’t know what was up.” A few weeks later a wireless guitar and vocal mic arrived. Turned out that the man was Dr. Jonathan Schneider, aka “The Rock Doc,” who became a life-long friend, supporter, backer and Chorney’s “long lost goofy brother.” In 2010, Dr. Schneider, who minors in music, told the Jersey Shore song writer: “I want you to make the album you’ve never been able to make before.” She asserts, “He was instrumental in overseeing this passion project and is one of the most generous kindest people I’ve ever met.”

Chorney’s impressive cast on Emotional Jukebox includes Will Lee (Letterman’s CBS orchestra), Shawn Pelton (Saturday Night Live), Leon Pendarvis (Saturday Night Live music director), Jeff Pevar, and Lisa Fischer (back up vocalist with Rolling Stones since 1987) to name a few.

“I’ve done six albums and this was the first time I actually did some cover songs from my heroes — Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Crosby Stills Nash and the Stones.” Her face explodes in animation. “And I had Lisa from the Stones sing on ‘Mothers Little Helper!’ Mick Jagger sang that when he was 25. To have it come from the woman who actually is feeling that drag of getting old (me) brings a whole new perspective.”

Chorney also wanted to showcase favorite Jersey musicians on the album; not only is Lisa Fischer local but also Andy Burton, Hernan Romero, Ralph Notaro, Arlan Feiles, Gladys Bryant, Tony Pallagrosi, Mary McCrink, and Richie Blackwell (of the original E Street Band). Local photographer Danny Sanchez shot the cover.

Linda Chorney is in complete control of every aspect of her music. She did everything for the album — spending a whopping 2000 hours editing with 100 tracks of different instruments; 10 to 20 takes for most tracks of every song, sometimes more. She also fulfilled a long-held dream by writing her first symphony “Mother Nature Symphony” with acclaim from classical Grammy members. “You’re about to ask me what I listen to,” she jumps immediately, “Classic Rock and Classical.” She exaggerates the last syllable.

On “Emotional Jukebox,” her song “Cherries” is a favorite of many. “When you listen, you take a personal journey through your own life,” she offers. “When I see people cry from that song I think it’s cool! It’s better than a record deal when people say my music has changed their lives.” It is “Cherries” that is competing for song of the year. After pensive moments and an empty tea cup, she says, “If you’re not with a major label, you can only get so many Grammy votes and I know it’s a long shot.” She sits up in her chair and talks about how “Indies” support each other: “We have our own ‘Indie’ mob to compete with Nashville, LAand NY.” Linda Chorney wants just one Grammy on her mantle.

Linda Chorney's mosaic art work

During the interview it is hard not to notice yet another unique artistic element surrounding the kitchen. Linda designs and makes her own mosaics for backsplashes and anywhere in the home “by appointment.” Discover the emotional multi-talented jukebox that is Linda Chorney by picking up a copy of her album, getting a mosaic or reading her electrifying blog. Three remaining bagels went home with this interviewer.

Read Linda Chorney blog at: lindachorney.wordpress.com

CONTACT INFORMATION

website: http://vichywater.net/

Facebook: Cal Schwartz

Twitter: Earthood

book trailer. hey its 65 seconds long

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

IMPORTANT LINKS:

If on Facebook check out this NJ Discover site:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000125711074

OR www.njdiscover.com

ARE you in search of another blog that is also outspoken, unique BUT refreshingly, topically unbridled which means uninhibited ???? Meet LINDA CHORNEY:

http://lindachorney.wordpress.com/

Immortality Institute (which represents advocacy and research for unlimited lifespan)

http://www.imminst.org/

LINKS TO VIDEOS

1. ZOMBIE WALK October 22, 2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfFA-y115nc&feature=autoshare

2. VETERANS DAY NJ VIETNAM MEMORIAL

Nov 11, 2011

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYwkaa_xreg&feature=related

3. RANDALL HAYWOOD & JAZZ CONCERT

Nov 19, 2011

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNohzH8AHvM&feature=player_embedded

Comments (4)

November 24, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving. John Dean(The Watergate Guy). An Amazing Asbury Park Jazz Concert. No More Wire Hangars and No More BPA (lining of canned foods) A Bruce Springsteen Book Review. “The Light In Darkness.” Occupy Class Distinction? November 24, 2011

Filed under: November 2009 — Tags: Article, by, Dashboard, idealism, Powered — earthood @ 12:11 am

Before I get a chance to talk about this new Bruce Springsteen book, it’s time for some old fashioned drifting back to the future. Tuesday night before Thanksgiving: 11:23 pm; 42 years ago at this exact moment in time I was having a disagreement with my first wife to be. We were getting married Wednesday, that next night before Thanksgiving (it’s a cheap catering night). I didn’t take her to lunch earlier but hung with a few friends in a lame attempt at a bachelor party. So we disagreed about the principle behind such presumed negligence and then, after a brief stint in the small bathroom off my mother’s kitchen, she ran out of the house crying, slamming every door in her way. I stood frozen and stolid like I am now writing this blog. I would’ve been married 42 years if. That’s a significant number; eight years away from celebrating a 50th anniversary, picking out a place for final resting together and an assisted living home with video games in the day room and an old copy of ‘Peyton Place’ in the library.

laurel and hardy. how they made me laugh all through youth and on thanksgiving mornings

But that first marriage was incredibly statistically accurate; we almost made it to the obligatory first marriage duration of four years which set me up perfectly for the rest of my life. So at pre-Thanksgiving every year since she ran into the small bathroom and then bolted, I especially give thanks to the universe for all my blessings like the fortunate lessons learned from the bolting (she was not meant to be in my life). This is a magical time of year. Back then, my parents were around (living). So was an aunt who once found me in a partially compromised state of being clothed a week before Thanksgiving in a vacant apartment in her apartment house she inherited from my uncle who got tired of life. And I’ve been thinking about that uncle, the reach of genetics, and why people get tired of life. Perhaps that’s why I’ve been championing the cause of living to 150 years; there’s still so much to do and new careers to prepare for; like journalism, TV reporting and programming. I’m deliriously happy.

When I was five years old, I started watching ‘The March of the Wooden Soldiers’ usually on New York’s Channel 11 (WPIX). I do believe, I’ve never missed a Thanksgiving. I see an outline of a fiddler on my neighbor’s roof, yelling at me, “Tradition.” When my son was five, I introduced him to Laurel and Hardy, Toyland and the March. Up to two years ago, I guilt-tripped him into watching with me. But alas it is a wonderful holiday. The more gratitude you throw into the universe, the more you’ll have to be grateful for. The average amount of calories consumed in the complete Thanksgiving meal borders on 4500 calories. For my purposes, that’s five hours on the exercise bike. This just in: Newark Airport, forty minutes from my keyboard, has just been ranked as the second worst airport in America. I’m grateful for the streams of consciousness which flow and ebb just enough every week to keep this blog replete.

newark airport. the 2nd WORST in America

John Dean lecturing at Rutgers on Douglas campus

Last week on Wednesday November 16, I attended the Eagleton Institute of Politics lecture with John Dean, ‘Ethics, Law, and Government; Drawing the Right Lessons from Watergate.’ Here’s what’s rather synchronistic with respect to the first part of this blog. In the waning days of my first marriage, I spent weeks watching one of my heroes, John Dean, testifying at the Watergate hearings. He was a hero for a lot of reasons; doing the right thing despite President Nixon, a loyal and devoted wife Maureen (to whom he is still married to) sitting staunchly, supporting him through the testimony, possession of cerebral facilities to remember minute details and bravely accepting punishment. I was so engrossed with John Dean for all that time that I didn’t spend enough time trying to save a marriage; perhaps the night before my wedding pre-disastered it anyway.

me and John Dean

Randall Haywood and me on NJ Discover TV

me and Ben Bradlee former editor of Washington Post

Another hero emerged from those days; Ben Bradlee, editor of the Washington Post, who bravely dispatched Woodward and Bernstein to unravel one of the greatest political scandals. Now a funny thing; I’ve always thought about meeting both of these men, engaging and relaying their hero status. Mission accomplished last Wednesday with Dean. I met Ben Bradlee a few years ago, delivering one of my famous gentle hugs. I told John Dean that he was responsible for the break-up of my first marriage. He laughed and asked if I re-married. I said, “Happily for the last 34 years.” Then we shook hands and I said, “You’re still a hero.” He’s researching another book on Watergate as the 40th anniversary of the break-in is in June, 2012.

More important than hugs and photo-ops were the words of John Dean, talking to a packed Rutgers audience. Dean thought the kind of investigative journalism which caused Nixon to ultimately resign in August 1974 is lost to our times of economic distress. The ‘Presidential Records Act’ which took possession of Nixon’s papers was diluted by George Bush. Dean said those first days after the break-in at Watergate “cast the dye” in how little Nixon was told. During those days, the White House pondered breaking up the media and now 40 years later, the wish comes true with Fox news heading to the right, etc. On a lighter note, Dean is convinced that Nixon never caused that famous 18 1/2 minute gap in his tape, citing “He wasn’t mechanical enough. He couldn’t even open up medicine bottles.” Finally, as I visualized Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman from the movie, ‘All the President’s Men,’ Dean said it was not great reality theater, that they (Woodward and Bernstein) did not crack the story.

I suppose a bit Thanksgiving theme to realize I’ve now met both of my idols from those bygone days of youth, called Watergate. And why does Forrest Gump come to mind all of a sudden? Why do I feel like running to Arizona now? If only I could’ve met President Kennedy. I was so taken with my first President as a young man nearing voting age; I used to practice imitating him with that distinct Boston accent. Actually I was pretty proficient; even went on stage and delivered my version of his inaugural address. “And Caroline, the uh, rubber duck is mine.”

Changing times and directions: Last Saturday night inAsbury Park, I had the honor of being involved in covering for NJ Discover TV an amazing jazz concert at Chico’s House of Jazz. Talk about giving thanks; I had the opportunity to interview on TV, Randall Haywood (trumpet), Victor Jones (world pre-eminent jazz drummer), Jay Rodriguez (saxaphone), Andy McKee(Bass) and Tom McEvoy (piano). Haywood, who has an uncle who played with Jimi Hendrix, recently played with rapper Ludacris and has been on Letterman and Leno and teaches music in a local school system. We met the previous week for several hours and on camera for nearly a half-hour. I take this quite seriously.

The NJ Discover TV Interview and Concert Highlights: A MUST WATCH

Interview & concert highlights of house of jazz in asbury park

Andy McKee(Bass) Jay Rodriguez(sax) during a fire drill at house of jazz

Randall is nothing short of a musical treasure and success story; pre-ordained destiny took him from Jacksonville to all over the world performing. The concert was mesmerizing. Actually it was so hot we all had to run outside for a fire drill. They mixed old and new that Haywood recently wrote. And Victor Jones on the drums: I told him I’d come to Newark’s Skippers Lounge to continue watching him. Four weeks ago this kind of journalistic activity was more remote than a distant galaxy and now with red forearms from excessive pinching, I find myself doing TV interviewing and exploring worlds of music. It is a wonderful life and instead of Forrest, I do feel like George Bailey. Everything is spinning as if in a centrifuge. There’s some out of body thankfulness that I’m no where near mid-age if I’m living to 150 years, fulfilling more dreams.

Clarence and Bruce courtesy ©theLightinDarkness.com

A month ago I was contacted by Lawrence Kirsch, author and publisher of boutique books, especially about Bruce Springsteen. Would I like to review ‘The Light In Darkness,’ his latest work, about Bruce Springsteen’s 1978 ‘Darkness on the Edge of Town’ album and the tour as vividly articulated by Bruce Springsteen fans? Of course, being one of those fans, I said how fast can I get the book and how high do I jump. My jumping was not high enough; this was a perfect pictorial and word journey that took me soulfully back to 1978-1979. The pictures magically carpeted me into that world of Bruce Springsteen touring, making me feel as if I was slipping through that elusive Freehold rabbit hole through a looking glass.

Cover of 'Light In Darkness' credit ©theLightinDarkness.com

inside front cover 'The Light in Darkness' credit ©theLightinDarkness.com Bruce Springsteen

It was a perfect journey back to the future. Kirsch did amazing work analyzing themes of the album; timing is everything as Springsteen just announced his 2012 tour. I’m not in the habit of tiptoeing through endorsements; however if you’ve got any proclivities and affinities for Bruce and dreams and memories or verbal historic incisions, then you should order this limited edition book which is only available on line at http://www.thelightindarkness.com/home/

And this makes a special holiday gift!! Funny; every day I manage to look at the pictures in the book. And a confession proudly conceived. Just as I always hoped to bump into Ben Bradlee and John Dean; well the same goes for Bruce Springsteen. The book is a taste. Someday over a Freehold, New Jersey rainbow, maybe Springsteen.

Soon I’ll be watching ‘March of the Wooden Soldiers’ and almost simultaneously, the Macy’s parade; it’s called flicking to avoid commercials. My son moved out in June, so no matter what, it’s a solo watch. My little boy all grown up called me the other day, upset about the world and protesting and Occupy and Mayor Bloomberg kicking protestors out of Zuccotti Park near Wall Street. He tripped me back to the sixties, when I knew about protesting everything.

occupy protestors clash

I’ll always regret (maybe one of my top ten life’s regrets) not having marched on Washington with Dr. King on August 28, 1963. Then he tells me almost sheepishly that Occupy is all hot air; that’s it’s a shamble and almost a caste system. He was disillusioned which reminded me of the chimpanzee Lucius from ‘Planet of the Apes’ that Charlton Heston had to give a pep talk to about ‘adults.’ I asked him to explain disdain. “Dad the rich people in Occupy who were camped out had an espresso machine hooked up to a bike. There was no middle class. And they didn’t share with the poor.” And suddenly I was overcome with the futility of explaining human nature, the tower of babble and that nothing has changed about human nature since our cousins, the Cro-Magnons from aNorth Jerseysuburb were fumbling around with something that resembled the first wheel. What we have here is a failure to communicate, I thought. How would I explain the espresso machine deal to my son? Then I said to him, “Mom is calling. We’ll talk later.” And we didn’t. Over my desk is a small picture of an ostrich.

Finally on the health front and living to 150 years; there have been some disturbing studies on BPA (bisphenol A) that shows the urine of people who consume canned soup contain surprisingly high levels of BPA, a hormone-disrupting compound linked to health problems including heart disease, diabetes, and obesity.

soup cans contain BPA. beware!

People who consumed one serving of canned soup a day for five days had a more than 1,000 percent increase in urinary BPA over people who consumed fresh soup for five days. Drinking beverages that have been stored in certain hard plastics can increase the amount of BPA in your body. BPA is used in the linings of metal food and beverage cans as well as in certain plastic bottles and dental sealants. And I wonder how many white doves have to blow in the wind before they take it out of the lining. It’s about money.

Memories of Thanksgivings and gatherings of family and friends is such a powerful force within the neuronal pathways of my composition. There’s a longing to find a waiting worm hole for me to slip through. I want back. I want my mother to send me off to the grocer for an extra apple cider gallon. I want my older sister to hug and thank me for being a good big brother. I took her to a first Broadway play before Thanksgiving. ‘Fiddler on the Roof.’ Tradition. What happens to traditions and sisters? I love Thanksgivings when all the leaves that were green turn to brown and vacate their places of attachment to branches and the sky is steel gray, ominous and cold. I’ll plunge into my journalism journeys in the New Year. There are miles to go before I sleep or weep. I can almost see Ollie and Stannie reassuring Mother Widow Peep who lived in a shoe that everything would be alright. Thanksgiving is magic. I think by next year I’ll have so much more to be thankful for. I think next September I’ll start dreaming about the holiday earlier than ever before. Maybe I’ll cheat and watch the VHS ‘March of the Wooden Soldiers’ a few months early too. Maybe ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ will be back on Broadway.

Tara Jean (co host) and me outside House of Jazz in Asbury

Interviewing Victor Jones for NJ Discover in House of Jazz Asbury Park

CONTACT INFORMATION

website: http://vichywater.net/

Facebook: Cal Schwartz

Twitter: Earthood

book trailer. hey its 65 seconds long

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

IMPORTANT LINKS:

If on Facebook check out this NJ Discover site:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000125711074

OR www.njdiscover.com

ARE you in search of another blog that is also outspoken, unique BUT refreshingly, topically unbridled which means uninhibited ???? Meet LINDA CHORNEY:

http://lindachorney.wordpress.com/

Immortality Institute (which represents advocacy and research for unlimited lifespan)

http://www.imminst.org/

August 2011. Guest on Alicia Cramer Show (podcast) “Thin Healthy Happy” :

http://wausauhypnotherapy.podbean.com/2011/08/02/calvin-barry-schwartz-interview-on-living-life/

LINKS TO VIDEOS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfFA-y115nc&feature=autoshare

1. ZOMBIE WALK October 22, 2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dbtCJifzpQ

2. 9-11 lecture atMonmouthUniversitywith Govenor Tom Kean

Nov 3, 2011

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYwkaa_xreg&feature=related

3. VETERANS DAY NJVIETNAMMEMORIAL

Nov 11, 2011

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNohzH8AHvM&feature=player_embedded

4. RANDALL HAYWOOD & JAZZ CONCERT

Nov 19, 2011

Comments (2)

October 30, 2011

Singularity Frustrations and Seven Layer Cake. A NJ Beach Cleanup (Part Living to 150?). Asbury Park Annual Zombie Walk.(5000 Zombies). Love Marriage Carriage. October 30, 2011

Filed under: November 2009 — Tags: Article, Dashboard, physics, Powered, syracuse — earthood @ 11:40 am

from the video. calvin interviews a zombie on asbury park boardwalk

Before Singularity and reading this fascinating blog, take 3:55 and please watch this YouTube video of your blog writer doing his first television reporting gig(and thanks):

my 1st tv reporter gig on YouTube video an absolute must watch!

INDEED PLEASE WATCH 4 minute video. comments welcomed/needed. I never held a microphone before.

Last week’s blog dealt mainly with the Singularity Summit in NYC; a meeting of 600 global scientists, technologists, business people, some boutique media and me, probably the only journalist from New Jersey covering this annual event that looks at the advancement of artificial intelligence and technology and how it will affect current 2011 denizens in the lurking future.

Jason Silva at Singularity Summit

After several epiphanies and a great talk with Jason Silva from Current TV etc, I found a place for myself in the world of Singularity; a reason to believe; purposeful involvement; communication to bring the message of Singularity to high school and college kids and perhaps a few senior citizens. Getting to know me through my blog, you probably can sense my exuberance to share information that I believe in. I do believe. I do believe in Singularity. I don’t want a smart aleck computer in 15 years to clone itself into a smarter computer that passes us humans by. I certainly don’t want to spend my golden years in a mind matrix of field of dreams or on a self-imposed prune subsistence diet. I want to wait on line at a broccoli and cauliflower buffet and talk to real people about real sex and the NY or Jersey? Jets or Giants. I hate being confused in a world of total recall. Is it live or memorex? Does anyone remember that commercial?

On the day after the Summit, I took my unbridled enthusiasm, got on my horse that I rode through the Lincoln Tunnel on, and galloped into Monmouth County where I met with three honor high school students at a television studio. They were taping a segment on their amazing community service project. When I cornered two of them in a glass window room off camera, I introduced myself, told them I still play beer pong (a bonding commonality technique) and asked enthusiastically, “Did any of you ever hear about Singularity?” Of course the response was negative.

Hyman Roth with Michael Corleone in Havana. nearby is a gold dial telephone

Three nights later, I was on a tennis court, with my regular doubles game. The other three players: a cardiologist, a dentist and an organic chemist who owns a lab( supplied dispersants to BP in the Gulf oil spill and as Hyman Roth said to Michael Corleone, “Your father and me. We made a fortune.”) and graduated with honors from Yale. Jennifer Cavalleri would’ve described him as, “A Yalie.” I’m a hopeless movie romantic as well. In between tennis sets, I asked the triumvirate if they ever heard of Singularity. More negative responses. Undaunted, I stopped strange men and women on the street near where I live and asked the same question. No one ever heard. Hey, I was batting 1000%.

Beach Sweep Registrar

Belmar Fishing Club. members only

Last Saturday I journeyed to Belmar, New Jersey to participate in Beach Sweeps; a New Jersey coastal environmental project, sponsored by Clean Ocean Action, where up to 8000 Jersey citizens gather at 70 sites to rid the beaches of unsightly and harmful debris. Fishes, whales, birds and other animals mistake litter for food. Even cigarette filters mimic fish and have been found in the stomachs of birds and larger fish, blocking and affecting digestion. Plastic litter takes hundreds of years to break down, so it threatens wildlife for decades. So why do I run to the beach to pick up litter? Well, if I’m living to 150 years which as you know, I always blog about (part of Singularity future) then I’m not even close to mid-life and therefore a ‘young’ thing to do. Of course, a significant amount of literary license and Sunday morning light-headedness, but is there relevance and intrinsic mystical quality to doing supposedly young things? Maybe teasing a few neo-cortex neuronal connections. Enough said. I was excited about being part of the sweep and I picked First Avenue Beach in Belmar because it’s a few hundred feet away from my spiritual jetty at the Shark River, where I’ve been communing and meditating since I was 10 years old and first heard the Everly Brothers sing ‘Bye Bye Love.’

YouTube Bye Bye Love: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFoIdxLBm_A

At the registration, Brian, a college student, gave me a white plastic bag for litter, a black bag for recyclables and a reporting form for documenting everything I recovered. “Brian, before I venture on the beach, quick question for you. Did you ever hear of Singularity?” “Excuse me, sir,” he was puzzled. “Never mind.” As I slipped under the boardwalk of the members only ‘Belmar Fishing Club,’ I found my first plastic straw next to a plastic bottle cap. I mattered; this clean up was now relevant. Observations 14 minutes into clean up: There was no one close to my age present. Groups of young kids, ostensibly organized by schools, were there to feel environmentalism. Of course I was heartened; I remember the first Earth Day in May 1970: I’ve never stopped caring and being aware. Slyly, I let the sand formations of a recent tractor incursion lead me to a group of five students from East Brunswick High School.

East Brunswick High School students and me at Beach Sweep

Comrade Kruschchev with shoe at the UN. I asked my mother why he did that

I explained my novelist and journalistic background, gave them a business card, asked for a photo op and finally after thanking them, “Oh one more thing, has anyone ever heard of Singularity?” Heads were in synchronistic lateral movement like precision dance swimmers in the Olympics with of course smiling blank stares in front of perfectly situated teeth; one girl still had braces. “Well let me quickly tell you. It’s your world to inherit. Singularity contemplates a computer birthing another computer that’s finally smarter than us. Think of all the scenarios.” Then I was gone with the cool autumn wind under unrealistic blue sky which even looked adulterated blue. Still batting 1000%. A pair of dark blue men’s socks (no designer logo visible) were tied together, half buried in the sand. A plastic fork got socks into the bag. Could it be, the last time I held a collection bag of any sort, I was asking geographical neighbors (they’re almost never friends), back in Newark while Eisenhower was president “Anything for Halloween?”

Students from Biotech High School at Beach Sweep

Aimlessly I wandered, still finding plastic straws, hoping to meet at least one senior citizen comrade. I remember comrade Nikita Kruschchev banging his shoe at the UN. Another group was near so I drifted to the left and introduced myself; a group from Biotechnology High School in Freehold. Same routine; no one knew Singularity and didn’t seem to worry about working for a computer in 20 years. Still at 1000%. My white bag was filling but no recyclables; maybe the species was learning. Off to the right was another group of kids, also from Biotechnology High, with two teachers. I slid over. Remarks were addressed to the teachers, kids listening. I hoped teachers would know about Singularity. Still 1000%. “It’s your future too. Here’s my card. Friend me on Facebook. A lot of information to share; it’s a brave new world.” Of course no friending or follow up. Still 1000%.

the seven layer cake bakery in belmar site of complicity

Frankly my dear (blog readers) it was time to leave the beach. On the boardwalk, near my car, a group of four Rider University students had just finished Beach Sweep. My son went to Rider. I asked about Singularity; no one knew but laughed when I said, “And I still play beer pong.” Still 1000%. Seven days and seven nights asking people about the future and no one knew. On Main Street Belmar there’s an old fashioned bakery; I thought about the long week past and teaching (promulgating) the Singularity awareness journey ahead. I don’t do windows, bottles of wine or beer, red meat or chemical aids when frustration blows in the wind. But I do voluminous chocolate and especially seven layer cakes. And I finished a substantial helping(which had been protectively sealed) by the last traffic light close to my house.

Rider University students at Beach Sweep in Belmar. ocean backdrop

Much too long to delve into now, but I’ve been drifting into the world of journalism, writing for OUR TOWN newspaper and then through the magic of social networking became involved with a television production company looking into New Jersey programming. Who would’ve ever thought? Hours after my Beach Sweep, I’m back at the Jersey shore, in Asbury Park for the Annual Zombie Walk. Imagine 5000 zombies, incredibly made-up, preparing to walk downtown Asbury in front of 15,000 spectators. Deep inhalation: it was great to be alive (therefore I wore no costume), absorbing, witnessing, immersing myself in pure ecstatic joy at being there; soon the television crews arrived, gave me a microphone and I’d love to say at this juncture, the rest is history. You can judge for yourselves; my first reporting experience (4 fun-filled minutes):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfFA-y115nc

zombie walk.. does he look like johnny depp??

Prediction about Zombie Walk: Maybe 40,000 people next year. Hyped media coverage (including little ole me) will bring many people for the first time. In my own micro-cosmic world, I’ve received enough comments about how most just didn’t know these events went on. And Asbury Park, you keep going and growing, on the merry-go-round of an amazing renaissance. I love this town.

more zombie walk

Love and marriage go together like a horse and carriage. I love this Sinatra song too:

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRDBvKGc1fE

So I think on Monday, Earth’s population will hit exactly seven billion people. A few weeks back, I questioned a scientist on population, food, water, monopoly game boards, and the fact that French schools have banned American Heinz ketchup; Too much sugar, salt, and imports? Perhaps we’ll go to nine billion next time we count, he said and when I grimaced about poor mom earth supporting all that, he patted my shoulder, “Don’t worry. By the time the water tables dwindle, we’ll lose that extra two billion again.” Then I had strange vibes on my mind. “How about social change?” “You mean that in 1950, 33% of the adult population was single and now the figure is 50%.” Marriage today is an option not a necessity and we’ve got economic gender parity.

even more zombie walk. truly fun stuff.

Then I looked at my own pre-disastered first marriage back in 1969. The night before the wedding, fiancé and me had a disagreement(a nicer word); she ran out of my house crying and mother appeared out of a saffron lit dining room; an almost vaporous figure with tears racing down each cheek. “Don’t marry this girl tomorrow. Mother’s know. Call up everybody right now and cancel. Give the gifts back. She’s all wrong for you.”

Psychology Today magazine taught me well. “Mah, my generation is getting divorced all over the place. So I want to get on with my life. It doesn’t make a difference who I marry tomorrow. It won’t last. So let me get the first over with as quickly as possible so I can get on with my life. Now do you understand?” “No, Calvin.”

banned in French schools like books in Boston????

my seven layer cake. was this pix necessary???

The other day I asked my son (about the same age as I was back then), “Did you call that girl from last week?” “No Dad, I’m not looking to get married for a long time, so I didn’t call. No rush. Do you understand?” I thought about my mother back in 1969 and had to say, “No.” But I really do. I really do a lot of things. I love writing this blog and looking to find ways to eliminate the 1000% Singularity shaking of the heads sideways. A few hours ago I talked with amazingly progressive Mayor Jonathan Hornik of Marlboro,N,J. about finding ways to teach the youth of the town and beyond about Singularity and their future world. “Just have to wait until after Election Day,” he said. I was back on the beach running around, glad to be alive, head swimming with ideas. I’m on the way to fulfillment and dreamy stuff. What a purist high to resolve a mission. And it absolutely even did not bother me to seven layer cake thoughts again when the mayor originally said, “What’s Singularity?” And I thought, still 1000% but………………..

Singularity Summit auditorium. I'm 3rd from left.

CONTACT INFORMATION

website: http://vichywater.net/

Facebook: Cal Schwartz

Twitter: Earthood

book trailer. hey its 65 seconds long

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

IMPORTANT LINKS:

If on Facebook check out this NJ Discover site:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000125711074

OR www.njdiscover.com

ARE you in search of another blog that is also outspoken, unique BUT refreshingly, topically unbridled which means uninhibited ???? Meet LINDA CHORNEY:

http://lindachorney.wordpress.com/

Immortality Institute (which represents advocacy and research for unlimited lifespan)

http://www.imminst.org/

August 2011. Guest on Alicia Cramer Show (podcast) “Thin Healthy Happy” :

http://wausauhypnotherapy.podbean.com/2011/08/02/calvin-barry-schwartz-interview-on-living-life/

Comments (0)

October 19, 2011

SINGULARITY SUMMIT NYC Oct 15, 16. Comic Con NYC. Oct 14(Grant Alter Interview). Manhole Covers in NYC. I Met r2d2. ‘Watson’ the Computer. October 19, 2011

Filed under: November 2009 — Tags: Article, by, Dashboard, physics, Powered — earthood @ 5:21 pm

bamberger's newark 1950's

First a few words on Singularity. On Monday night, I met three local high school honor students in a television studio to observe a taping. Give me a captive audience (sound proof room and glass window) and an idea (there were 73 prominent futuristic notions cerebrally floating around from the Singularity Summit). A few times as a little boy, I was in Bamberger’s Department Store in Newark. I loved elevator rides (my equivalent of the Starship Enterprise). As the doors opened and always a man with an oversized cap and uniform slid the metal doors slowly apart, my mother led me inside. I watched the floor indicator slowly move from left to right. Arrival sign on third floor said notions. “Hey mom, what’s a notion?” “Just stuff Calvin.” I still don’t know. Back to the future and the high school kids: Picture me, filled with Singularity concepts and an earlier epiphany that my place in the world, and I espoused to several speakers, is to spread the message to mainstream youth, after all, I’ve come to accept, it’s their world. “Has anybody ever heard of Singularity and Ray Kurzweil?” A perfect expression of synchronistic lateral moving heads; “Just what I thought!” Smiling, they stared quizzically at me. I hate that look; means a lot of work. Sometimes I get these ocular floaters; we all get them; mine usually are of a rocking chair variety and then they float away from fields of visions and dreams.

HAL from 2001

forbidden planet

Delving time: So what would happen if and when greater than human intelligence is created either by building artificial intelligence or doing something expansive to our brains? I remember the movie ‘Forbidden Planet’ in 1956 when a character takes the Krell mind boost. I made my 25 year old son watch that movie a few months ago then coincidentally, a few weeks later, at Hayden Planetarium, Dr. Michio Kaku tells us that ‘Forbidden Planet’ was his favorite movie growing up; a redemption for dad. Today technological advances move forward at an ever increasing rate. What if the intelligence we create could create even greater intelligence; prospects are hugely scary and remind me of ‘2001’ and ‘HAL,” the nasty computer. I never liked its voice; like an old science teacher back in Newark who gave me a ‘C.’ Aw hell, it was ‘D.’ This event was called Singularity by author and computer scientist, Vernor Vinge.

Singularity is Near

Singularity Summit auditorium t minus five

Ray Kurzweil (go Google him, he’s too amazing to even begin to blog about) has pioneered singularity concepts. One of his books, The Singularity Is Near was published in 2005 and is a movie. http://www.singularity.com/themovie/index.php

The Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence is dedicated “to research and rational deliberation on the future of humanity and in particular the promise and perils of advanced artificial intelligence.” Hey, don’t forget IBM’s ‘Watson’ computer beat Ken Jennings on Jeopardy earlier this year. Ken Jennings was the last speaker on Sunday; funny guy; smart too.

watson playing jeopardy

Ray Kurzweil and me. Notice I made this pix bigger.

The Singularity Summit is in its sixth year casting a hopeful but cautious eye on the latest developments in science and technology and what portends for future of intelligence and therefore all of us, the human league family. If you’ve been reading my blog the past 20 months, you’ll remember I’m an environmentalist who doesn’t hold much earthly hope down the road. This year alone, I apologized to my son several times for what we’re environmentally leaving his generation. “Do you mean Dad, out of your guilt that I don’t have to pay my monthly phone bill anymore?” But for the first time in a decade, after spending two days at Singularity Summit, I’m not doom and environmental gloom. Wow, there’s amazing things coming. Maybe living forever, measuring consciousness, doubling earth’s agricultural output and three dimensional computing.(soon) Christof Koch (PhD. Biophysics) talked about measuring our consciousness (phi) with an equation. In the lobby, he said that one day we’ll even be able to see your dreams too; I thought a whole new field of law, “He dreamt, she dreamt.”

One scientist told me global warming will melt the polar ice caps so we’ll have plenty of water. But from a high placed oil company executive, a month ago, he said in confidence to a cousin, there’s plenty of oil but I’d start worrying about water; mixologist messages? Singularity Summit, at the 92nd StreetY, had about 600 attendees from all over the globe, mostly scientists, technologists, business people, press and me, representing OUR TOWN newspaper; I think the only journalist from New Jersey media. A block away from the Y, I crossed the street at Third Avenue and 92nd. A manhole cover prominently displayed ‘Made in India.’ Is this globalization? It must’ve cost a fortune to ship those heavy objects. There were 24 speakers; all major global intellects.

comic con characters

neal adams art work

Now hear this. The day before Singularity Summit, I went to Comic Con, NYC at Javits convention center for a complete roll me away reversal. Comic Con is also a mind expansive journey through the world of imagination and comics such that 100,000 show up, some dressed to kill, to explore their world of characters, gaming, pulp and plots. My son has me going for years and I love it; why not, I got a photo-op with ‘Snow White’ and r2d2 (I had to drop to my knees to meet him eye to eye).

a neat booth at comic con

r2d2 and me

Reflecting back on the past weekend, I wonder how many of the 101,000 visitors to both Singularity Summit and Comic Con mixed the two events as I did. Perhaps it’s one of those volatile mixtures like drinking and driving or tranquilizers. I’d like to think I’m one in 101,000. So I made it to both events last weekend; throw in a really great blues band (Slim Chance and The Gamblers in Aberdeen, NJ) late on Saturday night and I was a tad tired to write yesterday. A friend recently asked why I always run around; perhaps it’s partly posturing myself to feel the rays of the warm sun on my face which means staying alive by throwing as much into the old cortex as I can; perhaps it’s a Ponce De Leon thing; staying young and vital, stretching mind and body; perhaps it’s a cerebral maintenance thing much like an oil change for your car. Anti-aging phenomenon Aubrey de Grey said that over the weekend. I spoke to him briefly at Singularity.

You tube: Aubrey de Grey, “why we age and how we can avoid it.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iYpxRXlboQ

grant alter and derek ruiz

Back to chronological events. Comic Con was eye-opening. I ran around with a camera, jumping next to famous or infamous characters for photo-ops, marveling at Marvel Comic’s booth, observing really far out costumes; imagine one masculine soul having the fortitude/anatomy to run around in just under shorts. I did observe subtle changes in attendee demographics over the years, from hard core comic followers, escaping into its wondrous world of limitless imagination to something akin to mainstream Docker Polo folks just wanting to see ‘What’s it all about Alfie?’ Highlights included my first real interview as a reporter with Grant Alter, an accomplished writer from St. Louis who is adapting Richelle Mead’s ‘Storm Born’ comic; he’s also at Comic Con to promote his book. He’s a big proponent of Facebook for writers to network while artists still need websites. I agree with his Facebook contention. Soon he’ll be on his way to Wizard World in Austin. I invited myself; anything to get back to Texas. When I was in Austin last summer, in the capital building, taking an elevator (no men in hats to open doors) a civilian walks in wearing a holster and a real gun. You could cut my silence. Later I asked a Texas state trooper about the guy in a cowboy hat wearing a real gun, roaming around the capital building. “As long as it’s not concealed,” he said. I wondered if New Jersey would ever get there. You can’t sneeze in Trenton without; I humored myself.

michael shermer(skeptic magazine) and jason silva(imagination foundation)

So much went down at Singularity Summit. You know what, go to the website and check it out. In a week they’ll have podcasts of lectures etc.

http://www.singularitysummit.com/

If I had to capsule some self relevant highlights:

I’m always blogging about living to 150 years. Sonia Arrison, a futurist at the Pacific Research Institute in San Francisco, Calif., said that by engaging end-of-life diseases like cancer, medical advances could nearly double human life expectancy to 150 years; do I ever feel vindicated. I met David Brin (PhD in physics and NY Times best selling author) at the coffee pot. In a passing remark during his question/answer segment, he said he’d like to see someone fund another clock, set up next to the National Debt clock showing what our debt would be if we charged royalties for satellite communications, the internet and pharmaceutical research. We chatted later. I told of my recurring futuristic colorized dream when I’m wearing a white toga, waiting in line for a cup of water and cracker then I’m sitting in a vast cathedral in 2050, thousands of people are all there wearing blue vests with the words, “How can I help you?” We laughed.

Jason Silva positively electrified with unbridled energetic imagination. “We need to give people goose bumps.” And what has to go down as a personal top ten event, Jason Silva asked to interview me. Funny thing as I observed, in addition to our physically seeing eye to eye, we’re ‘together’ on spreading the Singularity word. I had an epiphany just that morning, half-way through the lonely Lincoln Tunnel, that my place in the world of Singularity, as a growing media person, is to imaginatively illuminate youth. “I can do that. I still play beer pong. I relate to them. That’s what I’ll take back from this Summit; spreading the word.”

Check out this 2 minute video with Jason Silva (Imaginary Foundation)

¨http://www.vimeo.com/29938326

(ferrucci and cerruti from ibm)

IBM scientists David Ferrucci and Dan Cerutti told how they watched Ken Jennings win 74 times in a row on Jeopardy and thought how neat to make a computer to beat him; the birth of ‘Watson.’ They envision one of the early uses of ‘Watson’ is in the medical field. Wait until the insurance companies get this machine instead of a doctor (hint). Stephen Badylak told it’s possible to re-grow muscles in humans and better yet, someday treating stroke patients by regenerating pieces of the functioning human brain. Peter Theil, inventor of PayPal, would like us mainstream folks not to distrust or be uneasy with technology; look at Steve Jobs and how he deposited new technology in our laps. And fasten your seat belts; it’s going to be a wild ride. Dimitry Itskov(‘Russia 2045’) has rather bold ‘where no man has gone before’ plans to create a human like avatar entity, transplanting a human brain into a new body in 15 years, and putting consciousness in hologram-like bodies in 35 years. Somewhere over the rainbow, I remember an Arnold Schwarznegger film (‘Total Recall’) and Baron Von Frankenstein yelling in my ear, “It’s alive!” I paid 25 cents back in the day to see that movie at the Park Theatre. A heavy scientific conference usually connotes unapproachable; Alexander Wissner-Gross(PhD Physics Harvard, triple major from MIT where he is a research affiliate in Media Lab) and I sat in an nearly empty press room talking anti-aging and beer keg stand youth-bonding which I explained in my Jersey accent. He turned me on to a recent article on the potential of curing diabetes with a starvation diet.

ray kurzweil at press conference

And I didn’t understand everything. Stephen Wolfram made me feel like an amoeba on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, just off the coast of Asbury Park. He would like to make as much of the world’s knowledge as possible, computable and accessible. I did understand when he said that he’s got data on every keystroke that he’s typed for the last 20 years. “Lions and tigers, oh my,” I thought sitting in the balcony, momentarily checking Facebook messages on my Steve Jobs technology birthday gift for being an advanced senior citizen. But as I thought to myself in silence of the balcony, if I’m living to 150, then I’m not even at mid-life and no where near being a senior citizen. Hey, social security cost of living increase is up around 3% to $39 extra a month. Ken Jennings was bothered by losing to ‘Watson.’ It had to do with sense of self, dehumanization, being threatened but still left him with a sense of wonder. In closing, Ken Jennings said that when he was at IBM and preparing to take on ‘Watson’ for Jeopardy, he thought being there, “was an away game for humanity.” Perhaps.

ken jennings and dileep george

I just lifted glasses off my head. I hear Walter Cronkite saying, “And that’s the way it is.” There was never enough time for him to cover the news each night in the 22 minutes CBS gave him. And not enough time for me to blog about being a kid last weekend on Christmas morning about to open a myriad of presents. I was a kid at Singularity; wanting to shove(open) as much as I could into my growing neo cortex and meet as many scientists and personalities as I could. I did it. I really did it. The day before, I was at Comic Con. I really did that. And I really think I was the only person (and Jersey journalist) left in the world who did both Comic Con and Singularity Summit. What does it all mean? I thought about that sitting on my favorite Jersey Transit train contemplating smoke stacks and small sail boats in Raritan Bay, thinking about next summer dreams and sojourns. What does it all mean? I just thought that again sitting here at keyboard. I am getting younger with a lot of roads to travel and no rocking chairs (even if they’re on sale) in my future. Singularity has given me a mission to share and a jolt to my imagination and yes Virginia, there is a future Santa Claus.

1947 Santa Claus at Bambergers

CONTACT INFORMATION

website:

http://vichywater.net/

Facebook: Cal Schwartz

Twitter: Earthood

book trailer. hey its 65 seconds long

IMPORTANT LINKS:

ARE you in search of another blog that is also outspoken, unique BUT refreshingly, topically unbridled which means uninhibited ???? Meet LINDA CHORNEY:

http://lindachorney.wordpress.com/

If on Facebook check out this NJ Discover site:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000125711074

OR www.njdiscover.com

August 2011. Guest on Alicia Cramer Show (podcast) “Thin Healthy Happy” :

http://wausauhypnotherapy.podbean.com/2011/08/02/calvin-barry-schwartz-interview-on-living-life/

Immortality Institute (which represents advocacy and research for unlimited lifespan)

http://www.imminst.org/

Comments (4)

September 23, 2011

Troy Davis. Caryl Chessman. Diabetes Update(Living to 150). A Freehold,NJ Civil War Encampment. Tennis: Althea Gibson. Train Whistles. Big East College Conference. September 23, 2011

Filed under: November 2009 — Tags: Article, by, idealism, philosophy, Powered — earthood @ 5:54 pm

Troy Davis

Troy Davis. Earlier tonight, I was playing indoor doubles tennis; I hit a blistering passing forehand winner down the middle of the court (if only John McEnroe could’ve seen it). For two seconds, before the next serve, I gloated; it really felt good after the shot; my doubles partner pointed at me; no more high fives (has that gone the way of the vestigial tail?) Thinking back to my formative years, growing up in Newark, no one played tennis; it was football, baseball, basketball and soccer (to accommodate a large European post-war immigration). Curiously, I followed some tennis back in the mid-fifties.

Althea Gibson

Althea Gibson was a hero of mine; overcoming great odds to become the first African-American to be a competitor on the world scene and the first to win a Grand Slam Title in 1956; the year before, my beloved Brooklyn Dodgers won their first World Series with Jackie Robinson; She was sometimes called the ‘Jackie Robinson’ of tennis. I wrote about her hero status in my first novel. Decades go by: I’m married, move to suburbia, have a son and twenty-two years ago, a friend down the block asked me to play tennis to kill time. I’ve been playing obsessively ever since. Seventeen years ago, I even flew to Boca Raton,Florida and enrolled in the Evert/Segusso/Bassett tennis clinic in the middle of the summer; much too hot for normal people to be on a tennis court so there were only two people in the clinic. I had the head instructor all to myself for two days. Part of the clinic was filming my footwork, net play and strokes. On the second day’s end, we viewed the video; the instructor seriously suggested I give-up the game even as I explained the physiology of my tennis; brain patterns doing the wrong thing for years and I can’t change patterns in two days.

Bogart and Dooley Wilson in Rick's Cafe Americain, 'Casablanca'

After winning the first set tonight, I heard a train whistle in the distance; one of the saddest droning sounds you could ever hear. A circus came to town; when dissembled, the clowns, elephants, lions and this mustached man, who swallowed a sword, hopped on a train and disappeared for another lonely year. A woman with long hair tucked neatly under a hat, ran alongside a Pennsylvania Railroad troop train, trying to catch a last glimpse of her husband bound for glory and the war in Europe from which he’d never return; fading blowing whistle finally made her stop running. My mother is near the sound. Humphrey Bogart (Rick Blaine) stood on train steps, hoping Ilsa might still come before he wound up in Casablanca; his raincoat was suddenly dry after pouring rain as the whistle closed the scene and faded to next when earlier he said, “Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.”

Troop Train

YouTube link to a train whistle if you dare:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvanhCQ9jho&feature=related

I missed a few easy balls at the net and I realized why; pre-occupation as the train whistle made me distantly sad and reminded again of last night’s execution of Troy Davis in Georgia. It’s not within the providential confines of this blog to even begin to tackle the myriad of capital punishment issues and history but it’s my blog; my thoughts become molecular energy and escape into the universe, looking like fireflies on a hot August night.

Firefly

Back in the fifties, before learning about environment and the sanctified integrity of life, including insects, we used to collect fireflies in jars, almost like an Olympics event(who can catch the most in five minutes), but we’d release the glowing anomalies back to free nature. If there’s the slightest doubt about innocence, then you don’t take a life. Last week I signed a petition to that effect.

In 1960, I was fifteen, emotional, idealistic, growing like a strange weed from the vacant lot at the end of the block, and fortunately only suffered from acne for six months while held up in an attic with bed, radio and view of Newark Airport. Then our black and white television told us about a convicted rapist in California sentenced to death twice. While on death row for 12 years (gas chamber) Caryl Chessman wrote several books (‘Cell 2455 Death Row’ in 1954) and pleaded for his rehabilitated life. Of course I didn’t understand all the legal jazz, but I remember crying the night they killed him and I’m blogging about it 51 years later, so it impacts me, even now. A few years ago at the University of Michigan, I went to a lecture on equal justice and learned that it’s better to be rich and guilty then poor and innocent in America.

In May 2001, a professional basketball player was convicted of attempted rape (same crime as Chessman) and punishment was a suspended sentence with 15 days house arrest (The NBA suspended him five games) and then he proceeded to sign a $30 million contract. I wonder why there’s amnesia about Chessman. What happened to his unpublished writings? It’s funny/curious how people forget things; back then, there was no Miranda or Fourth Amendment rights against search and seizures. How many white doves will attempt to fly the Atlantic before Troy Davis is forgotten? Why do I get the feeling Chessman was coerced into a confession and when later, he recanted, but it was too late as California hung a capital punishment (gas death) on him based on a now discarded kidnapping statute. And California didn’t want to listen to anything; they just wanted expediency; get him out of the way. Chessman reminded me of Lenny Bruce; both defended themselves and pissed off judge, jury and warden. Chessman did argue he was innocent of the crimes charged and perhaps more proof of that was contained in his last writings which California made disappear. He pissed everybody off; reminds me of the ‘Birdman of Alcatraz’ and once again California’s escutcheon and Georgia’s can’t be far behind. And the Columbia River rolls on and there’s been no capital punishment in California since Chessman. I just opened my office window; humidity, rain and déjà-vu are in the heavy wind swaying the vertical blinds justice.

Me with Union soldiers with Civil War cannon

self explanatory me.

Changing directions: Last Saturday I went to my first Civil War encampment, strangely, ten minutes away from my place of residence and on the grounds of the Monmouth County Historical Society and Museum. For mood effect, it was a perfect cloudy Saturday. Out front, I met a Rhode Island company of Union soldiers guarding a cannon. Out back, with tents, a fire simmering a pot of stew, a few young soldiers with muskets, a man caning a chair; I gravitated to a bearded guitar playing soldier singing a folk song, ‘Nancy Whiskey,’ which I recognized and knew it was written close to 1850; everything around me was timely and accurate.

me and young Union soldiers from New York and my red hat is Rutgers Univ. founded 1766 in keeping with the era.

Union Army folksinger

Suddenly I was back in 1862; the power of several extended blinks. ‘Somewhere in Time’ I felt Civil War emotion, looking around at the encampment, imagining what and where I would’ve been any particular day in September, 1862. I asked this New York regiment’s soldiers about their group and how many were lost as the war dragged on. Losses were heavy (some through desertions). I went back to the singer and drifted to Gettysburg and back to Freehold when I noticed a late model wire fence in the background and found three newly minted pennies in my jeans pocket and I was harshly thrust back to September, 2011. Time for the museum and Civil War exhibits: I found the glue which held and took me back to 1862 again. Fixation with a letter by William Burroughs Ross, a young solider whose life was cut short at 21 years; he wrote this letter to his Mother:

“Dear Mother:

I have been in some high society lately down here. Colonel Hall, Lt. Woodward, Alliston and myself went to Frederick and called on a Miss Cooper, whose father is a General in the Union Army. I took my guitar along. There were several ladies present and we had a glorious time singing, playing and dancing.”

It’s like the letter could’ve been written by my son at summer camp, coincidentally located a few miles from Frederick (Maryland). Of course my son is living in Brooklyn now. Meanwhile 6 million kids’ ages 25 to 34 are back living with their parents again; numbers are up 25% since the economic downturn. But New Jersey still has the second highest per capita income. Back to the museum: perhaps the most revealing and should I say humorous letter, taking a shot at politics with Democrats and Republicans even back in 1862. How things never change. In describing Republican President Abraham Lincoln, after a presidential visit to the troops, this Union soldier wrote, “his unmitigated ugliness is a democratic misrepresentation.”

Letter Re: President Lincoln

Upstairs in the museum I was shown a porcelain collection, some from China, because it was perceived back in the 1860’s that China did it better and cheaper. Again, some things don’t change. I wonder about humans not changing in a few hundred years. I wonder if we’ll ever change when it comes to environmental issues. I remember the biblical Tower of Babel and compare it today’s Tower of Babble(I call it the UN).

If you’ve been reading my blogs, you know I’m a champion of living to 150 years and also avoiding diabetes. All four of my grandparents had diabetes and I’ve been living with a genetic gun to my forehead and pancreas for a long time. I read a lot and come up with notions how not to get the dreaded disease; so far so good after six decades; exercise and more exercise; a fountain of youth. People with diabetes may be twice as likely to develop memory problems and dementia as they age, including Alzheimer’s disease a recent study shows. This risk also appears to be heightened among people with pre-diabetes — people who are on the verge of developing diabetes. Exactly how diabetes and dementia are linked is not fully understood. But the new findings add to growing evidence that what is good for our hearts may also be good for our brains. Finally, researchers have shown they can reverse the aging process for human adult stem cells, which are responsible for helping old or damaged tissues regenerate. The findings could lead to medical treatments that may repair a host of ailments that occur because of tissue damage as people age. So this is good news for living to 150 years.

In my March 11th, April 1st and April 23rd blog, I kind of ‘attacked’ the NCAA and the Big East conference commissioner for allowing, what I perceived, the Rutgers-St. Johns Big East basketball tournament game to be fixed near the end of the game, so that St. Johns could play Syracuse the next day; the match-up was better financially? Events of the last few days brings enormous pressure on the Big East commissioner as Syracuse and Pittsburgh are abandoning the conference, heading to the ACC. My view of the world: a little poetic justice falling in the lap of Mr. Commisioner who, it seemed to me, participated or looked the other way in this tragic stealing a victory away from Rutgers and that Syracuse may’ve now helped pull back the Nerf bow and arrow aimed at this very inept conference commissioner. I want to say there is justice. But there really isn’t. A conference lay in disarray. Oh, I didn’t know this but the Big East rejected admitting Penn State years ago because they were bad in basketball.

Perhaps an innocent man, Troy Davis was executed in the name of expediency. California helped us forget Caryl Chessman. A few hours ago was the last episode of ‘All My Children.’ My first wife made me watch it back in 1970; perhaps that’s why she was a first wife. Strange (foreign) writing has appeared on the bodies of Southwest airlines jets and is especially noticeable when things are heated up; of course I wonder how the writer breached airport security to do that. Movie maker Kevin Smith was kicked off a Southwest Airlines plane in 2010 for being too fat. Kevin may be making a reality TV show based on his comic store in Red Bank, N.J., ‘Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash.’

Mindfully, I’ve been firing away here, trying to lose myself, still feeling sad, empty and confused about the State of Georgia taking a human life when so many were not sure. I suppose, instead of eating a pound of enriched chocolate chip cookies made with dark chocolate, I’d prefer to let streams of consciousness here soulfully sooth. Speaking of Georgia, I just became Facebook friends with a television reporter from Georgia, the Asian country, who’s covering current events for Georgia television in New York City(UN meetings). She asked if I would ever like to talk to her about ‘Americana’ stuff. Suddenly it’s autumn today and I’m thinking about American capital punishment again. Tomorrow is definitely another day; the Big East plays football and I’m ready to talk on camera.

Caryl Chessman and his attorney.

Contact Information:

website: http://vichywater.net

Facebook: Cal Schwartz

Twitter: Earthood

book trailer. hey its 65 seconds long

IMPORTANT LINKS:

Immortality Institute (which represents advocacy and research for unlimited lifespan)

http://www.imminst.org/

August 2011. Guest on Alicia Cramer Show (podcast) “Thin Healthy Happy” :
http://wausauhypnotherapy.podbean.com/2011/08/02/calvin-barry-schwartz-interview-on-living-life/

ARE you in search of another blog that is also outspoken, unique BUT
unbridled which means uninhibited ???? Meet LINDA CHORNEY:
http://lindachorney.wordpress.com/

Comments (3)

Older Posts »

Vichy Water – Author's Blog Just another WordPress weblog

December 1, 2011

LINDA CHORNEY: My Exclusive Afternoon Interview with an Amazing Grammy Nominated Singer from Monmouth County NJ USA Dec 11, 2011 (Interview from October 2011)

November 24, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving. John Dean(The Watergate Guy). An Amazing Asbury Park Jazz Concert. No More Wire Hangars and No More BPA (lining of canned foods) A Bruce Springsteen Book Review. “The Light In Darkness.” Occupy Class Distinction? November 24, 2011

October 30, 2011

Singularity Frustrations and Seven Layer Cake. A NJ Beach Cleanup (Part Living to 150?). Asbury Park Annual Zombie Walk.(5000 Zombies). Love Marriage Carriage. October 30, 2011

October 19, 2011

SINGULARITY SUMMIT NYC Oct 15, 16. Comic Con NYC. Oct 14(Grant Alter Interview). Manhole Covers in NYC. I Met r2d2. ‘Watson’ the Computer. October 19, 2011

September 23, 2011

Troy Davis. Caryl Chessman. Diabetes Update(Living to 150). A Freehold,NJ Civil War Encampment. Tennis: Althea Gibson. Train Whistles. Big East College Conference. September 23, 2011