FollowSometimes (like now, writing this blog) I feel like a teacher standing in front of a class, wearing a corduroy sport coat with patches sewed on elbow, a funny looking pipe protruding from breast pocket, ‘cue’ ball from billiards in right pocket; symbolic as I try to harness the power/potential of young minds. Teaching is on my dream list; if I came back one day through a worm hole (back to the future) and assume a new career, it would be to teach and form young minds. Perhaps some governors should be taught the value of education and teachers. A rising star governor on the national political scene is right here, home-grown in Jersey. He likes to pick on teachers. Maybe he should pick on local county jail guards who earn up to $186,429 a year. Back to the worm hole; if I did come back one day, I could become a local NJ county jail guard if all I cared about is money and lockups. A few jails are on rolling hills, with weeping willow trees in front of barbed wire. Some governments know how to take care of their people. Saudi Arabia just handed out $37 billion to its citizens to dispel unrest. I wonder how China is taking to all the unrest in the world and how easy it would be to pull the plug on Chinese version of Twitter or Facebook if it was deemed. That’s a great word; deemed. Damn dependable deem means keeping up with the authoritarian Marx/Lenin rules of engagement. I wonder if the Chinese know what Saudi Arabia did. I just realized its March and spring is near and dear; we all know what spring does to the soul. Neuro-imaging researchers at Stanford School of Medicine linked feelings of early stages of a new romantic relationship (intense feelings of euphoria, well-being, and preoccupation with a romantic partner) to activation of reward systems in the human brain. Study results may be relevant to pain management in humans since it is known that pharmacologic (drugs) activation of reward systems can really reduce pain. I am pained right now. So do I apply for a job as a county jail guard (or persuade the governor to outsource guarding jails to the guys I tailgate with) or start sitting on my Belmar jetty, staring across the pond to London where my heart lies?
I like themes to blogs. Today I’m in a wistful, ethereal, introspective, spiritual mood. So let the river flow. I am saddened this morning to hear that Ronald McDonald, that clown we’ve seen on commercials and statues around golden arches for most of our lives is fading into the sunset as the chain opts to push lattes, free Wifi, padded seats and not kids meals. Damn, I’ll miss Ronald; an always upbeat atherosclerotic clown hawking beef and salty fries. Ronald was 48. It is a brave new world. Diane Lane, a wonderful 46 year old actress is going to play Martha Kent in an upcoming Superman re-do (Kevin Costner probably will be Pa Kent) If so, I’ll call Fandango in the morning to reserve a seat. I just sneezed. No one was around to bless me but I’m tired of being blessed. How do we stop silly sneeze blessing? Climate change is already making hay fever worse. Ragweed season is up to a month longer. Back in June 1972, (watch this segue) the musical ‘Grease’ opened and ‘Hair’ closed on Broadway and five men were arrested for breaking into the Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate hotel. I was stressed out about life, Viet Nam, a floundering marriage and wasteland of a career choice (putting pills into plastic vials and showing customers where proprietary cough syrup and rib steaks and lamb chops were). Link below is movie trailer for ‘Key Largo‘
On a Sunday morning in July, 1972, I slid into the contemplative nadir of my existence. Flicking a television, I settled on a 1948 movie just coming on, ‘Key Largo;’ a tech noir classic gangster movie with Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall and Edward G. Robinson. I was held tightly during the Keys hurricane scene; by movie end, I realized ‘life is beautiful.’ I remember Roberto Begnini, Academy Award best actor in ‘Life is Beautiful’ jumping on top of the seats in pure glee when he won. I jumped as I ‘won’ a new perspective, attributing ‘something’ indefinable to the movie ‘Key Largo.’ I resolved a few weeks later as George McGovern was accepting the Democratic Presidential nomination, that one day I’d go to Key Largo and find that very dock where Bogart and Bacall stood and breathe the same air molecules; a strange, silly, seemingly superficial thing to resolve. But there was something about the movie; black and white, from a long time ago, the Keys, a cool understated magical place (Hemingway lived on Key West. I touched the wall at his house, absorbing molecules) and maybe because almost everyone in the movie is gone and that haunts me; therein lies this pulling of my soul to go there. Fifteen years ago, I awoke one morning here in Jersey and decided it was time for Key Largo. I flew into Fort Lauderdale, drove to South Beach, walked by Versace’s house, had a low calorie beer on the beach and drove to Islamorada, a few miles from Key Largo. I did some writing during the days, thinking about Hemingway’s spirit and wondering who I was. Key sunsets are worth the energy expenditure. One night I went to a fancy restaurant on the beach wearing a tee-shirt, shorts, sneaks and was over-dressed; how magically laid back the Keys are. On my last morning, I found the dock where Bogart and Bacall stood; it was behind a bar; a small decaying wood dock. Barefoot, my right toes touched molecular wood and rested for forty-four seconds. I felt something; requited and resolute; a dream of purpose fulfilled; all that energy for forty-four sumptuous seconds. You’ve heard it all before; live, love, fulfill and dream.
Now I’m eating a banana. Thing is; a banana is loaded with Resistant Starch (RS), a healthy carb that fills you up and helps boost metabolism. Slightly under-ripe medium-sized bananas have more of the starch. Too bad there isn’t a practical use for the skin, perhaps dried out on the roof of a Volkswagen mini van; popular with hippies in the sixties and making a resurgence today (the van not the skin). Speaking of hippies and the Vietnam Era, Harvard University is welcoming the ROTC program back to campus this week, 41 years after banishing it amid dissent over the Vietnam War. Speaking of more things; dissent and Freedom of Speech. The Supreme Court just ruled that the First Amendment protects a fringe religious group (Westboro Baptist Church) that protested the funeral of a U.S. Marine killed in Iraq. The court ruled that the soldier’s father could not sue a Church for celebrating his son’s death with a funeral picket that included signs and vulgar messages. When I saw ‘The Godfather’ back in 1972, I was changed philosophically and structurally by coming to appreciate pure artistry of movie making while learning the lessons of omerta, the code of silence. In eighth grade, my mother made me read Dale Carnegie’s ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People.’ Learning the art of extraction (which meant, read the first few pages), I gleaned (and regurgitated back to my mother) the notion, ‘if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t.’ I try to live by that. Segue to good old Charlie Sheen. I won’t say much but it does confound laws of omerta and Carnegie such that as I finish masticating my second banana, I’m having a starchy epiphany, partly based on this Sheen episodic disbelief and my affinity for conspiracy theories. The Charlie Sheen mechanical bull ride is nothing more than a staged event for when he comes back, the show’s ratings will skyrocket to Uranus. The show will pick up new viewers (like me, who hasn’t watched program television since ‘Dallas,’ JR Ewing and CBS told us a past viewing year was a dream) who want to see how close real Charlie is to his character on ‘Two and Half Men.’ Damn. They’ve got me hooked. A few blogs ago I wrote about Al Campanis getting fired from the LA Dodgers for racist remarks and Nir Rosen, a promising journalist who slammed CBS’ Lara Logan on Twitter after a sexual assault in Egypt, and had to resign. And John Galliano fired from Dior for loving Hitler (and saying it to a couple with a video camera in a Paris cafe). What an idiot. Hitler would’ve taken him out first for obvious reasons.
(Roberto Begnini winning Oscar)
In September 1972 terror struck the Munich Olympic games in West Germany, Muhammad Ali defeated Ken Norton in a heavyweight boxing match and M.A.S.H. premiered on CBS ( ‘2 1/2 Men’ channel) and in October 1972 Jackie Robinson died. I changed after that year. Maybe we all did. After 1972 and big snow storms and ides of March, I’ve been making it a point to look for the last patch of snow around. There has to be a morning after and a very last patch of snow. When I find that last patch, I stare (and now take digital pictures for the posterity gig) and wonder why it survived when six foot drifts disappeared.
Last patch of snow in Central Jersey
I wonder who wrote the ‘Book of Love’ and why I don’t have diabetes when all four of my grandparents had it. I think it’s all the exercise, long telomeres and the will not to get it. Frank Bruckles, the last living World War I veteran passed away Sunday on his farm in Charles Town, West Virginia, nearly a month after his 110th birthday. He devoted the last years of his life to campaigning for greater recognition for his former comrades and prodding politicians to support a national memorial in Washington. When you’re marching to ‘Pomp and Circumstance’ does anyone contemplate the bust of Homer and who might be the last patch of snow? So as I come to the close of this blog, I’m saddened by Frank Bruckles passing; the vanishing of my last snow patch; the dying of winter’s dreams; people not remembering that they are masters of the unspoken word. And all of a sudden I realized there are no more bananas on the counter and how much I’d like to go back to Key Largo, before climate change takes away the dock where Bogart, Bacall and I stood.
Please share the blog if you like or don’t like. A favor to the author.
Contact info: Facebook: Cal Schwartz
Twitter: Earthood
Novel website: http://vichywater.net
Email: earthood@gmail.com
A book trailer ( about a minute long):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj2ko9gcC_M