November 2019 - Page 5 of 7 - Ramblin' with Roger

“South” states: Carolina, Dakota

God, guns, and fireworks

Saskatchewan.South Dakota I’ve been to South Carolina a few times because it’s less than 20 miles from Charlotte, NC, where part of my family lives and the SC border. I went there a few times with my late father, perhaps to Rock Hill, when he was buying and selling goods.

He used to note that the geographic relationship between Charlotte and its southern neighbor was like Binghamton, NY and ITS southern neighbor, Pennsylvania. I think the quasi-familiar somehow made him comfortable after the move by him, my mother and sister Marcia in 1974.

Last time I recall being in South Carolina, there were tons of billboards about God, guns, and fireworks, as soon as one crossed the border, in numbers far greater than its northern neighbor.

SC, South Carolina, a state in the southeast US. Capital: Columbia; largest city: Charleston.

The Dakotas

The 1996 Olin International Family Reunion was in Fargo, ND. My future wife went with her parents. Then they traveled down to South Dakota. Naturally, they went to Mount Rushmore.

I have never been to either of the Dakotas. Here’s something I had wondered about: Why Are There Two Dakotas? Mostly because the folks didn’t like each other.

“The northern part of Dakota territory became more closely tied to Minneapolis-St. Paul, via Fargo and Bismarck. In contrast, the southern counties… were more closely tied by trade to Sioux City… Omaha or… Chicago. These diverging economic ties left residents of different parts of the territory less connected to each other…

“On Nov. 2, 1889, President Benjamin Harrison signed the papers to admit North and South Dakota as two separate states… Though North Dakota is generally considered the 39th state to South Dakota’s 40th state, it’s actually unclear which one was admitted first…”

SD, South Dakota, a state in the upper Midwest region. Capital: Pierre, which is pronounced PEER. Largest city: Sioux Falls.

Saskatchewan, in French, is Saskatchewan

I did not know this: “Saskatchewan receives more hours of sunshine than any other Canadian province… The hottest temperature ever recorded anywhere in Canada happened in Saskatchewan. The temperature rose to 45 °C (113 °F) in Midale and Yellow Grass.”

Or this: “In the early 20th century the province became known as a stronghold for Canadian social democracy.”

SK Saskatchewan, a prairie province in western Canada. Capital: Regina. Largest city: Saskatoon. I love saying “Saskatoon”.

Southerly ABC Wednesday

Lynching in America: Targeting Black Veterans

861 – Surgical Technician

Henry Flipper battled prejudice in the military

In the legitimate complaints about veterans coming home and not getting their due, I have come across a particularly ugly reminder from the Equal Justice Initiative, Lynching in America: Targeting Black Veterans

“The end of the Civil War marked a new era of racial terror and violence directed at black people in the United States that has not been adequately acknowledged or addressed in this country… The violent response to freedom for former slaves was followed by decades of racial terror lynchings and targeted violence designed to sustain white supremacy and racial hierarchy.”

The more than 40,000 black soldiers who died in the Civil War fought to protect a Union that rejected them in the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott ruling of 1857.

“No one was more at risk of experiencing violence and targeted racial terror than black veterans who had proven their valor and courage as soldiers during the Civil War, World War I, and World War II. Because of their military service, black veterans were seen as a particular threat to Jim Crow and racial subordination. Thousands of black veterans were assaulted, threatened, abused, or lynched following military service…”

The great equalizer?

“Military service sparked dreams of racial equality for generations of African Americans. But most black veterans were not welcomed home and honored for their service. Instead, during the lynching era, many black veterans were targeted for mistreatment, violence, and murder because of their race and status as veterans. Indeed, black veterans risked violence simply by wearing their uniforms on American soil.”

Particularly egregious was the Red Summer of 1919, right after WWI. “In Pittsburgh for example, the Ku Klux Klan made their goal of using violence clear with notices that read: ‘The war is over, negroes. Stay in your place. If you don’t, we’ll put you there.'”

Dear old dad

I’ve written before about my father’s complicated feelings about the military, I suspect due in part to his knowledge of history. In the European theater at the close of World War II, he was “861 – Surgical Technician”

“Performs various duties to assist medical officers in rendering surgical treatment. Prepares operating room and surgical equipment for use; assists operating personnel; administers hypodermic injections as instructed; cleans operating room and sterilizes equipment; assists in transporting patients from wards to operating room; sterilizes linens and instruments; performs duties during operation that cannot be done by operating personnel; gives first aid treatment; instructs others in simple surgical duties. Should be at least a high school graduate.”

This seems to have been applicable to him: How the GI Bill’s Promise Was Denied to a Million Black WWII Veterans, “The sweeping bill promised prosperity to veterans. So why didn’t black Americans benefit?”

Our current sin

We Deport Veterans: “For decades, we’ve deported military veterans—legal residents of the United States—while dangling citizenship before them. Congressional Hispanic Caucus estimates there are about 3,000 instances of veterans being deported to other countries.

“We also know that tens of thousands of immigrants serve in the U.S. military. According to Department of Defense statistics, about 70,000 non-citizen people born outside of the United States were serving in the military between 1999 and 2008.

“According to a 2017 report from the National Immigration Forum, about 40,000 immigrants currently serve in the armed forces and about 5,000 non-citizens enlist each year. Furthermore, as of 2016, about 511,000 veterans were foreign-born. And more than 20 percent of Medal of Honor recipients are immigrants to the United States.

“Those immigrants who can enlist in the U.S. military are often promised fast-tracked access to a green card. In reality, however, most of these vets neither apply for nor attain citizenship. Many of these enlisted immigrants will tell you they were promised citizenship by recruiters or that their paperwork has at least been initiated. Many even believe they attained citizenship simply by enlisting and swearing to defend the United States.

“So why doesn’t the U.S. military ensure that immigrants are presented with accurate facts on the possibility of their path to citizenship? Where’s the support system developed to ensure they complete each step when it’s available to them?”

Immediate charity: to give, or not

know the face of your benefactor

a-group-of-opened-cans-of-food-containing-fruits-vegetables-and-legumes One of the ongoing challenges some of us have is how to do immediate charity. You know, those moments that the person making the request is right there, and referring them elsewhere feels inadequate. Here are two recent examples.

I was walking near the Subway/Dunkin/Chinese restaurant on Madison Avenue in Albany. A woman makes a practically inaudible request for money for food. I’d rather buy her food, so we entered the establishment. She ordered a foot-long Subway sandwich, which was fine. I sat at a nearby table.

At some point, she turned around and asked the man standing behind her if she could also get a bottle of soda. The guy, who was white and about 20 years younger than I, didn’t know what to say. I stood up, waved at her, and said getting the soda was fine. Hint when you’re getting food from a stranger; know the face of your benefactor.

She was otherwise very strategic, though. She got double meat, quite possibly double everything, because the bill was $14 including the Coke. That went pretty well.

My family was driving out of town when we see a car pulled over on Everett Road, right before the entrance to Interstate 90. My wife pulls over, and I lower the passenger side window. The guy comes out, says he needs money, and starts putting a massive ring, and a variety of gold-colored jewelry on the dashboard in front of me.

I assured him, as I quickly handed the items back, that we didn’t want his stuff. If he wanted, we could go to a nearby gas station and get his gas tank filled up. No, he wanted money. I said, “Sorry,” rolled up the window, and my wife drove off.

As we discussed this, we realized it was his invasion of our space that weirded us out. His hand was INSIDE the car. I might have pulled out my wallet and given a $20, but his hand was INSIDE the car, where my wife and daughter sat.

Someone locally who I know a bit wrote this recently: “Our church puts together bags that contain articles (shampoo, crackers, socks.etc.) to give to the homeless and we carry a couple in our car and give them to people we see who might need them.

“Yesterday, I gave one to a man standing in the Wal-Mart parking lot and a car behind me gave him a sack of food from McDonald’s. Coming back around the parking lot to get onto the exit, I saw the man again and he looked so content and happy eating a hamburger and wearing new socks, sitting in the sun.”

One does what one can when one can.

Mark Evanier uses a coupon.

Spamilton: An American Parody

created, written, and directed by Gerard Alessandrini

My wife, my daughter and I enjoy the musical Hamilton. But we can also appreciate a bit of a takedown of the phenomenon. Spamilton: An American Parody fits the bill. My family saw it on a Saturday night at Proctors Theatre in Schenectady. I was attending a library gala at the time, so I went on the previous Thursday.

The first song made it clear that it was Lin-Manuel Miranda who would be the target of many of the jokes. And, according to the program, a skewering was allowed by Manuel and his co-creators.

The bulk of the ninety minutes were played by five actors. Jared Alexander played Daveed Diggs, who played Lafayette and Jefferson in the original cast. Datus Puryear was Aaron Burr and the actor who played him, Leslie Odom, Jr. Rendell DeBose played various other characters, from Ben Franklin to Annie. Adrian Lopez is a ringer for a younger Lin-Manuel.

Paloma D’Auria played ALL of the leading ladies, sometimes with puppets. She also portrayed many of the divas of Broadway. Brandon Kinley only played King George III and one other role.

Not every setup worked. But the piece, created, written, and directed by Gerard Alessandrini, was so full of ideas that it barely mattered. The energy and talent of the five primary players were astonishing for ninety minutes, with no intermission.

Reviews

The New York Times review calls Spamilton “convulsively funny”. The Huffington Post raves “you don’t have to see Hamilton to have side-splitting fun at Spamilton.” True, but it DOES help to be at least familiar with the Tony-winning musical. Here’s a preview clip. The show will be in Kansas City, MO, and Greenville, SC, in the coming weeks.

Incidentally, my wife and I also attended a lecture on September 29 at Siena College. Hamilton: How the Musical Remixes American History by Richard Bell, a history professor from Maryland was presented by the Albany Institute of History and Art.

Bell is a HUGE fan, yet he noted the shortcomings of Miranda’s work, notably the role that women played. She suggested that Hamilton failed the Bechdel Test in that the women in it who talk to each other, mostly talk about a man, the named character. It may be an overly simplistic metric, but it is a tool.

Singer/guitarist Bonnie Raitt is 70

The Road’s My Middle Name

Because I hitchhiked to New Paltz, I first heard of Bonnie Raitt. I had traveled from Binghamton to visit my girlfriend in May 1971. But when I got there, she had decided to break up with me. I was devastated.

There wasn’t enough daylight to hitch back home. Instead, I went to visit my friend Steve in Poughkeepsie, in the next county over. We had gone to Binghamton Central High School before he moved.

Steve talked at length about this great bluesy singer and guitarist named Bonnie Raitt, who I had never heard of. He predicted great things of her. Her eponymous first album, which came out in November 1971 sold poorly, though it reviewed well. I never bought it.

Bonnie’s second album, Give It Up, I LOVED. It got all the way up to #138 on the US album charts. The subsequent albums improved commercially up to 1977’s Sweet Forgiveness at #25. But her next albums sank, never improving on the charts.

Warner purge

In 1983, the year after I saw her at the No Nukes concert, “There was a corporate sweep at Warner’s… and they needed to trim the fat,’ Raitt recalled in 1990. ‘I just had completed an album called Tongue & Groove… I don’t think they maliciously said, ‘Let’s let her finish her album and get the tour all lined up and print the covers and hire the people to do the video and then drop her.’ You know, ha, ha, ha. But that’s what they did.

“‘It was literally the day after I had finished mastering it… They dropped me and pulled the rug out from under my tour. I thought the way they did it was real crummy. They sent a letter. I think I suffered from not having a relationship with the A&R department there, because I had an independent production deal…’

“The material for Tongue & Groove was shelved until two years later when ‘Warner’s suddenly said they were going to put the record out,’ Raitt recalled… I mean, I was out there touring on my savings to keep my name up, and my ability to draw was less and less. So they agreed to let me go in and recut half of it.’ The result was Nine Lives, which was finally released in 1986” to tepid reviews and worse sales.

Capitol signing

After seeing her perform, Prince “offered Bonnie Raitt a recording contract on his own label, Paisley Park Records. Raitt agreed and traveled to Minneapolis. Before she recorded any material, she suffered a skiing accident and was hospitalized for two months.” The Paisley Park deal fell through.

Then Capitol Records signed her after over a dozen other labels passed on her. She put out the Nick of Time album in 1989, which went to #1 on the US album charts, sold over five million copies and was named Album of the Year by the Grammys.

The followup album in 1991, Luck of the Draw, went to #2 in the US, sold seven million copies and generated a Top 10 single. 1994’s Longing in Their Hearts went to #1, sold two million copies and contained a Top 20 single. Five subsequent albums, all of which I own, have each reached the Top 20 on the album charts.

LISTEN

Sugar Mama (5)
No Way to Treat A Lady (9), a Bryan Adams song
The Road’s My Middle Name (10), a Bonnie Raitt song about how she survived
I Can’t Make You Love Me (11), #18 in 1992

Runaway (6), the Del Shannon hit, #57 in 1977
You (12), #92 in 1994
Angel From Montgomery (4), the John Prine song they’ve done live together

Love Me Like a Man (2); lyrics adapted by Raitt
Love Has No Pride (2)
My, there are a lot of “love” songs on this list!
Love Letter (10), one of two Bonnie Hayes songs on the list

Love Sneakin’ Up On You (12), #19 in 1994
Thing Called Love (10), a John Hiatt song
Something to Talk About (11), #5 in 1991

Too Long at the Fair (2)
Have a Heart (10), the other Bonnie Hayes song, #49 in 1990. It has one of my favorite first lines in any song. “Hey, shut up. Don’t lie to me.”
Dimming of the Day (12), a Richard Thompson song
Give It Up Or Let Me Go (2), a Bonnie Raitt song
The last four are probably my top 4; the last seven are probably my top 7.

(2) Give It Up; (4) Streetlights; (5) Home Plate; (6) Sweet Forgiveness; (9) Nine Lives; (10) Nick of Time; (11) Luck of the Draw; (12) Longing in Their Hearts