As of this writing, North Korea's mad boy king has yet to launch the missiles he has aimed at neighboring Japan and South Korea, but that could change at any moment. When Kim Jong Un succeeded his father Kim Jong Il as Supreme Leader of North Korea in Late December of last year, some were hopeful that his youth and western education would give him the a more measured approach to global relations. Alas, that seems not to be the case. The latest speculation is that to mark the April 15th birthday of his granddad, Kim Il Sung, in lieu of (or in addition to) ice cream & cake, Kim Jong Un may celebrate by launching his missiles. If there's any good to come from all this posturing on the part of North Korea, it could be that the US and China will find common ground, if even temporarily, in wanting to avoid all out war, and that a unified coalition may be able to get North Korea to rethink its aggressive behavior before it's too late. Let's hope.
August '69: Flying high in Chicago
""Let's play two!" -Hall-of-Famer Ernie Banks
"I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth." -John F. Kennedy 'Special Message to the Congress on Urgent National Needs' speech May 25, 1961
With those famous words, JFK issued a direct challenge to America's technical ingenuity and competitive spirit. At the time, many older folks in the crowd remembered an era when the idea of manned flight, let alone traveling to outer space was considered the stuff of science fiction. Yet on July 20th 1969, a full six months under the deadline imposed by JFK, all of America and much of the world were fixated on live TV images of astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin beamed back from the lunar surface. The seemingly impossible had been achieved.
The second part of the goal, bringing the Apollo 11 crew back safely to earth was no mean feat either, and once that was accomplished, they returned to an historic hero's welcome. Nearly a month later, on August 13th, Chicago prepared it's own ceremony for the moon walking superstars which included a huge ticker tape parade ending at the Loop's Civic Center (later renamed Daley Plaza) beneath the then two-year-old Picasso sculpture. My mom and I arrived early to snag a good view along the LaSalle Street parade route. This was the second such parade in the same day for the jet-setting astronauts. In a prophetic foreshadowing, New York City was first.
But as exciting as all of this was, it wasn't the ONLY reason for this young Chicago area boy's euphoric state throughout much of that summer of '69. While Neil and Buzz were hopping along the Sea of Tranquility and in the days that followed their return, the Chicago Cubs baseball team was building up an apparently insurmountable lead in the National League East and were well on their way to fulfilling the long-awaited promise of bring a pennant to Chicago's north side.
Jack-Brickhouse_1
With a roster of unstoppable All-Stars including Ernie Banks, Ron Santo, Don Kessinger, Glen Beckert, Billy Williams, and Fergie Jenkins, they were 75-44 on August 16, up by a season high nine games over the second place New York Mets and bound for glory. I'd attended my first game the year before, and was a diehard fan by the time the '69 season began, faithfully tuning into the games announced by Jack Brickhouse (HEY HEY!) on WGN.
original-woodstock-poster-1969-742x1024
Meanwhile, just 90 miles away from where the Apollo 11 astronauts were hightailing it out of Manhattan bound for Chicago, a music festival billed as "An Aquarian Exposition" and more commonly known as Woodstock was just about to get under way in the tiny hamlet of White Lake. What began as a paid event ended up being free as the number of attendees grew to more than half a million. Despite some cases of drug overdose and heat stroke, the event was a largely peaceful gathering and quickly turned into a cultural phenomenon. August 17th marked the final day of the festival, and to match the "high" of the festival goers, the Cubs hit their peak two days later with a no-hitter thrown by Ken Holzman against the Atlanta Braves at Wrigley Field. The Cubs, now 8 games ahead of the second place Mets, were on top of the world. But like many hallucinogenic highs, this one ended up in a terrifying "bad trip", namely to the Mets' Shea Stadium for two games in early September. By that time their lead over the surging Mets was down to 2 games and on Sept. 9th and 10th, in the midst of a disastrous losing streak, and following a bizarre incident in which a black cat crossed behind Ron Santo standing in the on-deck circle, the Cubs dropped both games to the Mets and, despite a 1/2 game lead at that point, the writing was on the wall. The Cubs finished up the season a full 8 games out of first place and the "Miracle Mets" went on to win the 1969 World Series. In the years since then, there have been other heartbreaks and near-great teams, but the totality of the '69 Cubs collapse still goes down in the record books as their most famous downfall. Yet, as we approach the opening of the 2013 baseball season, Cub fans will once again dream the impossible dream of bringing a World Series to the North side. Hey, if we can put a man on the moon, why not?
Little Drama Boy: Unsettling Christmas Music
Now that we're in the midst of the holiday season, just as sure as you'll hear the ringing of the Salvation Army's red kettle Santas, you'll also be bombarded with Christmas tunes and, correspondingly, the complaints of those who despise them. As for myself, I generally love Christmas music. Just as most of us have a special fondness for the music we listened to in high school and college, holiday music for me conjures up fond memories of childhood holidays. The dilemma seems to be that as media consumers, we are always seeking out something new, but we still crave the familiarity of the music we grew up with. So, as a compromise, we settle for yet another rehash of White Christmas, even though nothing beats ol' Bing's version. Even so, as a kid, there were a few Christmas songs that I found a bit unsettling for one reason or another:
Topping my list would be the following:
1. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus No mystery why this would be disturbing to young believers: Here you have a child eavesdropping on their own mother carrying out an illicit relationship with the icon of all that is good in this world, unbeknownst to the child's father. Is the implicit twist to the song that Santa is in fact the father in disguise? If so, for whose benefit is he going incognito when the child is supposed to be in bed. And is the mother in on the ruse, if that's what it is, or is she fooling around behind dad's back? Meanwhile, the child speculates on "how funny" it will be when father discovers the affair. Funny?? More like very confusing and potentially a Shakespearian tragedy in the making.
2. Blue Christmas This belongs to a sub genre of depressing holiday songs. Others in the category include Miles Davis' REALLY depressing Blue Xmas and the Pogues REALLY REALLY depressing and hilarious Fairytale of New York. Compared to those, Blue Christmas is a fairly mild lament about being separated from a loved one during the holidays. What made this one especially unsettling to me as a child was the dirge-like, minor key background vocals coursing through the song like a ghostly, mournful wind.
3. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer It should come as no surprise that this shallow morality tale ostensibly dealing with bullying started as a commercial enterprise. Montgomery Ward came up with the character and story as part of a Christmas promotion in 1939. It was adapted into the popular song and recorded by Gene Autry a decade later in 1949. Rudolph, one of Santa's reindeer, is subjected to merciless teasing and ostracism because of his physical abnormality, a glowing red nose. In what's supposed to be the redemptive final act, the other reindeer exhibit a fickle and implausible turnaround once Rudolph proves his worth to their master. Is this what true friendship is all about?
4. Nuttin' for Christmas My parents had a couple of 45 records that we nearly wore the grooves off of during the holidays. One was the first and most iconic version of All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth by Spike Jones and his City Slickers recorded in 1947. The other was another novelty record by voiceover actor and comic Stan Freberg called Nuttin' for Christmas in which a bratty voiced kid recites a list of his transgressions as a reason why Santa won't be paying him a visit that year. The most unsettling part of the song comes near the end, when the boy hears what he thinks to be Santa Claus entering his home. Instead the intruder turns out to be a burglar intent on robbing the owners of their silverware and jewelry. Though the kid doesn't seem all that upset and may even be in cahoots, the idea of someone violating the sanctity of house and home was a bit troubling to my younger self.
5. Misunderstood lyrics These are the songs that include archaic phrases or odd line breaks that led to misinterpretation. One of these was Winter Wonderland, namely the line "In the meadow we can build a snowman, and pretend that he is Parson Brown". As a young Catholic boy, I was unfamiliar with the term "parson" so naturally assumed that "parson brown" was some sort of tawny shade which I thought to be a very unusual color for a snowman. Another misunderstanding occurs in the first line of the plodding We Three Kings, "We Three Kings of Orient are." Due to the awkward line break, I believed they were from the land of "Orentar", which I imagined to be a sub-region of the far East.
Have a joyful holiday season and may the peace and good will of the season continue long after the radio stations and malls have resumed their regular programming.
Abe Lincoln's back!
Lately, Abe Lincoln seems to be getting the kind of front page periodical coverage once reserved for pop stars and celebrities. Besides being featured recently on the covers of Newsweek and Time , he soon-to-be-released biopic "Lincoln" will examine his final year as President. And of course, who can forget his heroic deeds as fearless vampire hunter? Besides the fact that this year marks the 147th anniversary of Lincoln's assassination, our own troubled times seem to have sparked a renewed interest in a time of even greater divisiveness and strife, when the future of the U.S. was truly in doubt. At no time since the civil war has there been such a sharp ideological division in the U.S. And we all know what Lincoln said about a house divided. Make your voice heard in tomorrow's election if you haven't already voted. And though it's a tall order, let's hope the outcome is decisive, fair, and undisputed.
GO VOTE!
African Drums: the Djembe
“Where I come from we say that rhythm is the soul of life, because the whole universe revolves around rhythm, and when we get out of rhythm, that’s when we get into trouble.”— Babatunde Olatunji
I've always been attracted to and influenced by traditional African art, with it's bold patterns and stylized imagery. That same boldness is also part of traditional African music. And of course the first instrument that comes to mind when considering African music, is the drum.
The goblet-shaped drum, called the djembe, is played with bare hands and produces a wide variety of sounds. It's traditionally been used in the western part of Africa by men (women djembe players are extremely rare) for centuries.
While some African drums were used as a sophisticated means of long distance communication, the djembe's primarily use was in ceremonies and celebrations, in short, to get people moving and to stir their souls.
Here's a clip of the late Babatunde Olatunji, a great Nigerian drummer famous for bringing the traditional style of African percussion to a worldwide audience: