Stumbling Towards the Light

smallship1 has expressed irritation with me on Facebook for complaining about yesterday's historic statement by President Barack Obama that his views on same-gender marriage have finally finished "evolving" and he supports marriage equality for all. For those not on FB, here's the text of my posting and his reply:

Me: "I have only one thing to say: IT'S ABOUT GODDAMNED TIME!!! And at that, he had to be pushed into finally coming down on the right side by Biden and Duncan."

Him: "It's amazing how even a really major step forward can be parlayed into "gosh, he's lucky we're still willing to give him the time of day". Doesn't matter who pushed him. Doesn't matter why. Doesn't even matter if the people who want this are happy about it, or complaining because they wanted a blue one with polka dots. He said it. That is what matters. May it mean more to the people who are undecided than it obviously does to us."
( Long ranty political post follows. Look back of the cut at your own peril. )

Over the past couple of months, reporters from our local fish-wrapper major daily newspaper of record have been calling me periodically to solicit my views on issues surrounding unemployment in the metro Atlanta area and Georgia in general, a subject with which Your Humble has had far too much experience over the eight years he has lived in the Peach State. No idea how either of the two reporters who have called got my name, unless they're searching Facebook or LinkedIn for likely subjects, or read letters to the editor I've had printed in the past.

So far, none of these conversations has resulted in any attributed quotes actually seeing print...until now. Today, in fact. Right on the front page, above the fold. The web version is here.

While the story as printed actually conflates two sentences of mine into one (the actual statement was "They should not be balancing the budget on the backs of the unemployed in Georgia. And I would be saying that even if I didn't happen to be one of them"), and my own case would not be affected due to a grandfather clause (only new applicants would see a reduction in benefits), the general sentiment is still one I stand by. God and the Republican leaders of our state Lege know there are plenty of other ways to raise funds to repay the federal loan for UI benefits without doing this to those who can least afford it—including people who can afford it far less than YHC, who at least has a working roommate/fianceé to share expenses.

This and the recent spate of legislation in this and other statehouses around the country affecting matters of reproduction and sexual orientation have two main purposes, to my view: 1) to burnish the conservative credentials of GOP legislators who must face the voters this fall (and avoid a primary challenge from their state party's right), and 2) to bring more conservatives to the polls who support such measures to not only re-elect them, but also to crush President Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats in Congress who also seek to stay in their jobs, as well as Democrat challengers to GOP incumbents.

One can only hope that these bills have the unintended consequence of galvanizing Democrat/liberal voters to likewise throng the voting booths and counteract any such rightist surge. I plan to help, if I can.

More sad news out of the world of entertainment, following yesterday's announcement of the suicide of Don Cornelius: Veteran actor of stage, screen and television Ben Gazzara has died of pancreatic cancer at 81 at New York's Bellevue Hospital. An obituary for him in The New York Times can be found here.

Mr. Gazzara made an early impression on Your Humble when he appeared in ABC's first "Novel for Television," the precursor of what we know today as the perennially mislabeled "mini-series." It was a 1974 adaptation of the late Leon Uris' best-selling novel QB VII, in which Mr. Gazzara played Abraham Cady, a reporter and one of the two protagonists, more than holding his own opposite a not-yet-knighted Sir Anthony Hopkins as a former Nazi concentration-camp doctor who sues Cady for libel. It was a powerful performance in a lavishly-executed 6.5 hours of television, which established the template for all the similar "major television events" that would follow on ABC and other networks.

Of course, this was hardly the only distinguished entry in a resumé that spans an entire half-century; he also won the Emmy Award and was several times nominated for the Golden Globe Awards; he attended the famous Actors' Studio and studied under the legendary Lee Strasberg; and worked with five decades' worth of some of the biggest names in filmmaking, from John Cassavetes to Spike Lee. He also co-starred in the first made-for-TV movie dealing with the HIV/AIDS crisis, NBC's 1985 film An Early Frost, at a time when doing such a film was still a bit of a risk for any actor's career and reputation. And he was no less adept at comedy, from If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium to The Big Lebowski.

Heartfelt sympathies to his three wives and the rest of his family, friends, colleagues and fans. And thanks to the man himself for many years of extraordinary, gutsy thespianship.

Shocking news coming out of Los Angeles, CA today: Rhythm & blues/soul music impresario Don Cornelius, 75, was found mortally injured by an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head in his Sherman Oaks home by LA police around 4 AM Pacific time (7 AM Eastern). He was rushed to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he died shortly after arrival. Wikipedia has more information and background on his amazing career here.

It is impossible to say as yet why Mr. Cornelius would have decided to take his own life, though there is some speculation that Alzheimer's-related dementia may have played a role. It is also impossible to overstate the tremendous impact he had not only on African-American culture, but on the broader American culture and society as a whole by being creator, executive producer and first host of this ground-breaking program. In an era when (as documented in, among other places, John Waters' film Hairspray) black kids and artists rarely if ever got on mainstream shows like ABC's American Bandstand, Cornelius gave them their own version. He also founded Soul Train Records and the annual Soul Train Music Awards, which are still given out every November despite the fact that the Soul Train show itself finally ceased production in 2006 after nearly four decades. James Brown, Aretha Franklin and all the Jacksons owe at least part of their success to him, as do the black-owned companies whose wares he sold ad time for on the show (chief among them Johnson Products, makers of the Ultra Sheen hair-care line). Generations of artists both Caucasian and not, in music and other fields, were influenced by the show and the music it featured.

For a skinny white kid growing up in a lower-middle-class environment in southwest Louisiana, Soul Train was a window into a whole other world. At first its appearance every Saturday afternoon at lunchtime was merely a disappointing sign that cartoons were over for the day. As I grew older and watched more, however, it exposed me as it did many others to music and artists and dance moves that I might never, or much later, have encountered otherwise. It also exposed me to African-American people not all that different from the ones I saw on Bandstand, and thus did much to counteract the surrounding racism in which most of the Deep South is steeped. I began to look forward to hearing that famous deep voice, as sonorous and sensual as Barry White's, welcome us aboard "another exciting ride on the Soul Train."

My heart, thoughts and prayers go out to his ex-wife, children, grandchildren and other family, friends, colleagues and fans as they cope with this surely traumatic and sorrowful event. As for Mr. C. himself, I hope his soul, wherever it may now reside, has finally found some peace from a troubled life...and I also hope that he realized before he died what a difference he made in the world.

For those who don't know, the last entry's catalogue of dire events has increased. Last weekend the Songbird and I were to have attended the fourteenth annual GAFilk convention. I had been looking forward to this for months, and especially to hearing the Guests of Honor, vixyish and tfabris, perform.

Well, guess what? ( The universe, naturally, had other plans for us... )

Exactly one week from today, GAFilk XIV will take place at the Crowne Plaza Airport Atlanta Hotel. Longtime readers will recall this is the convention that honored Your Humble Correspondent by naming him Toastmaster last year (which was a metric buttload of fun—at least until the snowstorm hit—and the pictures are online to prove it!).

Who's planning to be there besides moi and the Songbird? We could sure as Goddamned hell use some friendly faces, singing and hugs and conviviality after the hellish last month or so we've had. (If you haven't been keeping up with our Facebook posts and don't know what I mean, let me know and I'll post the Reader's Digest condensed version here.)

ANYONE, PLEASE, BUT ROMNEY!
Music: "Windy" by Ruthann Friedman ©1967, as recorded by The Association
Parody Lyrics: TCC


'Cause Romney has flip-flop eyes;
[Mitt Romney:]
Ranting, it's true, I never do go there,
You ran once before in vain;
We're gonna make Barack a one-termer,

Parody lyrics ©2011 and beyond by Matt G. Leger. Any use for profit requires prior written consent from all copyright holders; all other uses of lyrics alone permitted so long as this credit is retained unaltered. No infringement on existing copyrights is intended or should be inferred.

It is with a heavy heart that I must report the passing of stage, film and TV actor Harry Morgan. He died today at the impressive age of 96 of pneumonia complications at his home in the tony Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, CA. The Associated Press has an obit here.

I was going to write an entry about how damn much I admired this man and his work...but my old pal filkertom beat me to the punch by saying it all and then some on his own LJ page. He even has a couple of YouTube links to some of Mr. Morgan's peerless perfs as Col. Sherman T. Potter, MD on the now-legendary CBS situation comedy M*A*S*H, by way of showing just why he was revered and loved as an actor.

I also fondly remember his appearance as the judge in the original film adaptation of one of my all-time favorite plays, Inherit the Wind, with the equally great Spencer Tracy and Frederic March as the protagonists and a young, pre-Bewitched Dick York as the luckless schoolteacher jailed for teaching his students the bald-faced truth—which, as Lazarus Long noted, is a capital offense in any society. It's one of the best films you'll ever clap eyes on...and if you haven't, go thou and rent the DVD at once. (By an interesting coincidence, Morgan almost became a real-life lawyer instead of acting; see the AP article. One is hard-pressed to decide whether this would have been society's loss or even greater gain.) I even remember seeing him a few times as LAPD Sgt. Joe Friday's equally phlegmatic sidekick, Det. Bill Gannon, on the TV version of Dragnet. The old gent invariably classed up anything he ever appeared in.

The hearts, thoughts and prayers of millions, including Your Humble, are with his daughter-in-law, three sons, eight grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren; his castmates and friends; and all the rest who mourn the loss of a good man and a tremendous talent. Rest well, sir, and thank you from the bottom of an old lefty drama-club geek's heart.

My heart is sick and sad. Tor Books reports on its website that Anne McCaffrey, author and winner of multiple awards including the Hugo and Nebula, has passed away of a stroke in her home in Ireland at 85. The full obituary is here.

Nobody reading this will likely need a catalog of her literary achievements, so I'll leave that to Wikipedia and others. But I was among those blessed to have met her in person as well as enjoyed her work, thanks to two dear friends, Harry and Marilyn Alm of my former home city of New Orleans, LA. She was a great and gentle lady, full of good humor and stout spirit, not to mention an imagination beggaring belief.

Her Dragonriders of Pern series, far and away her main literary calling card, still hold pride of place in my library despite many moves and resulting purges of excess bookage. I can still remember first encountering it via the third volume of the Harper Hall trilogy, Dragondrums, in a supermarket checkout carousel in Lafayette, LA where I was born and (mostly) raised...and then seeking out the other two, then the first three and more.

At least that work will continue, now firmly in the able hands of her son Todd, who has several Dragonrider books under his belt now both with and without his mother. Heartfelt sympathies to him and Anne's other family members, friends and fans the world over. And I am almost glad she doesn't actually have a dragon or fire lizards of her own to mourn her, else they would go between forever with her from the pain of loss. Thank you, dear lady, from the bottom of a bookish, skinny young geek-boy's heart, for many years of wonder and joy.

My local paper ran this syndicated cartoon today from Investors' Business Daily by conservative editorial cartoonist Michael Ramirez. I hold no brief for the Occupy Wall Street/Oakland/You-name-it movement (though I do sympathize with some of their views); but this piece of dishonest, vicious tripe makes me so angry I can't even think straight:
Tea Party Members vs. Occupiers in a Right-Winger's Eyes: "Which is closer to 99 percent of America?"

As the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY) famously said, "Everyone is entitled to their own opinion...but NOT to their own facts." Mr. Ramirez, where is your proof, sir? Have you any evidence at all of any member of any Occupy group having been accused, tried or convicted of "rapes, murders and suicides"? I seriously doubt it. (He also falsely accuses them of wanting to destroy capitalism (see sign) and notes his fictional Occupier "lives in his parents' basement" and "lives with Mom," which are the same thing and also untrue in most protesters' cases...but these are small beer compared to the above libelous caption.)

We should be used to the lies of the right by now, but this is one more instance of how they have kicked it up several notches lately. Disagreement with ideas and policy on the merits (or lack thereof) is one thing; false charges of rape and/or murder to demonize and discredit your opponent is quite another, and the Supreme Court has long ruled the latter outside the First Amendment's protections on speech. At the least—at the very least—IBD needs to be bombarded with phone calls, letters, faxes, e-mails and telegrams of complaint from anyone who has even a modicum of concern for truth and fairness, whether or not you agree with the Occupiers' views or tactics. And were I among the Occupy organizers (such as there may be), I would definitely be considering litigation against them and every other print publication or website that displays this defamation of character.

It should be noted that the home base of OWS was rousted out of Zucotti Park in the wee hours of yesterday by New York Police Dept. officers on orders from the mayor; maybe this is also indicative of how scared certain quarters are getting.

"Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?"—Joseph Nye Welch, US Army head counsel, to Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-WI) at the Army-McCarthy hearings, 1954

It's been rumored among liberal activists, hinted at by Democratic leaders and even said outright on snarky blogs. But until now, no one had any actual, concrete, documented proof. Now we have it, courtesy of MSNBC's Chris Jansing and Rep. Loretta Sanchez, the five-term Democrat representing California's 46th and 47th districts.

On Jansing's weekday-morning news/commentary show, Jansing & Co., in this interview reposted to YouTube, Sanchez revealed earlier this week that she has personally heard fellow members from the other side of the aisle, behind closed doors in the House, admitting in her presence that they not only want to keep the economy in the toilet and millions of unemployed out of work in hopes of making President Barack Obama look bad and winning back the White House (and possibly the Senate as well) next year, but are actively working to make sure that happens.

Naturally, she refuses to name names when prompted, as she still has to (try to) work with these ass-clowns. This will admittedly make her claim harder to trust...but if true, it's the first confirmation of what many of us on the left end of the political spectrum have long suspected. It explains the mule-headed behavior regarding the debt ceiling, the American Jobs Bill and so much else about these despicable "leaders" and how they really regard those who voted them in—as tools to win an election, and nothing more.

Being among those millions of un- and under-employed mentioned above, I probably ought to be spitting mad about this. But I'm actually finding hope in this news...because between this revelation, the GOP Presidential nomination candidates' various implosions in the debates and news coverage, and last week's unequivocal national repudiation (err, "refudiation"—sorry, Ms. Palin) of their party's extremist agenda and their damn-the-economy, destroy-Obama-at-any-cost strategy, they're handing my party the elections of 2012 on the proverbial silver platter. One year hence, the American people will know which party is really interested in helping them get back to work and the economy get back on track..and which party is only interested in helping themselves to power and money.

Horrible news from the other side of the pond this day: UK filk music fan/composer/performer Chris Croughton was involved in a three-car traffic accident in Buckinghamshire two days ago and was pronounced dead at the scene of injuries sustained in the crash. He was 55 years of age, according to this report on the incident from the BBC (thanks to rdmaughan for posting the link on filkertom's page) and two others survived.

Being that he was a British subject, I never got to see him in person terribly often myself. But the times he did show up in the States for GAFilk or other conventions, and his postings online as keristor here and elsewhere, gave me the impression of a very warm and kind human being and a genuine talent. My heart, thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends...and to all of the larger filk family here and in Europe of which he was a part.

It is with a very heavy heart that I must report another cartooning icon of my childhood has left us. The creator of the long-running newspaper comic strip The Family Circus, Bil Keane, has died of congestive heart failure at 89 in his Arizona home; the full obit is here.

Although his son Jeff has actually been drawing the strip the past few years so his dad could enjoy a well-earned retirement, Keane pére still kept a close eye on the never-aging family of six (plus dog, cat and occasional smaller pet) he has chronicled since that first strip appeared on Leap Day, February 29 in 1960. Many could and did ridicule and parody his single-panel, circle-bound strip for its lack of social relevance or uproarious humor, but Keane said those were never his goal: "I don't just try to be funny...Many of my cartoons are not a belly laugh. I go for nostalgia, the lump in the throat, the tear in the eye, the tug in the heart."

Like its neighbor Peanuts, TFC was comfort-food reading, one of those features you could always count on to grace your daily funny pages, the one you could turn to for a chuckle of recognition, a trigger for memories and an occasional "awww" of sentiment. Its gentle humor speaks to the things that happen in every family with young children, the ones you laugh about when they are grown but drive you absolutely up the wall when they happen. Bil's sharp artist's pen and uncanny knack for capturing the child's-eye view of things (even long after his own children reached adulthood) was what kept his strip in front of the readers of over 1,500 papers around the world for half a century...and unlike Peanuts, TFC will continue in Jeff's able hands.

Prayers and deepest sympathies go out to his children, grandchildren and one great-grandchild, his Aussie wife Thel having pre-deceased him by three years.Goodbye and thank you, sir, for generations of fun for readers and inspiration for other artists...including Your Humble Correspondent.

Only weeks after finally retiring his long-running "A Few Minutes With..." segment on CBS-TV's Sunday night mainstay 60 Minutes, commentator Andy Rooney has died at 92 of complications from surgery for an undisclosed ailment. The full story is here.

Rooney redefined the word "curmudgeon" for two or three generations of viewers. His style and cranky attitude may have lent themselves to parody (and often did), but his observations about life, society and the issues of the day were always anything but boring. Even before becoming "America's favorite grump" on 60 Minutes, his reporting and producing work helped give CBS News its sterling reputation.

Thoughts and prayers go out to his surviving children, his wife having predeceased him by eight years. The world of journalism—and the world in general—are the poorer for his loss.

This shouldn't be such a shock to me or anyone else; after all, just weeks ago Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs resigned as the company's Chief Executive Officer due to his rapidly failing health. But it is, nonetheless. We all knew it was likely coming...just not this soon. Jobs passed away today, at the exact same age my own mother did—56—and of another form of the very same illness, but no details of where or at what time death came are available as yet. CNN's website has the full story here.

It is by no means an exaggeration to say that Jobs achieved his own oft-stated goal of not just being successful at business or making cool products, but changing the world. Even if you've never touched an Apple product, chances are the company he founded with Steve Wozniak in that California garage decades ago and its products have had a profound effect on how you work, do business, play and live. Microsoft Corp. and others have been all too often forced to re-tailor their products, their strategies and even their business models in the wake of some new category-busting product or service out of the 1 Infinite Loop campus in Cupertino. Whole industries and companies only exist today because of him and Apple (Adobe Systems Inc. chief among them). Millions work and get news and entertainment on systems run by or containing his company's products. And that's not even talking about his work as head of Pixar Animation Studios, which he bought from fellow titan George Lucas back in 1986, or as a board member of its now corporate parent, The Walt Disney Co.

From the Apple II to the Macintosh, from the iPhone to the iPad, from iTunes to the new iCloud service debuting next week, Apple has impacted the worlds of business, technology, telecommunications and entertainment—not to mention the world in general—far out of proportion to its comparatively miniscule market share. And whatever you may say about Jobs' flaws, his missteps (his stubborn opposition to Mac OS clone computers, for one) or his outright failures (such as the one detailed in this story, for which shelleybear is to be thanked for hipping me), he did bring radical improvements to the way I make my living, graphics geek that I am...as well as the way I enjoy books, music, video, games and even songwriting. And even as Apple sometimes fell short of its own lofty standards for corporate citizenship, it blazed a trail for new, better business practices and techniques which other firms emulate still today.

My heart goes out to Mr. Jobs' family, his friends, his colleagues and the entire Apple staff in this exceedingly difficult hour. And to Mr. Jobs' questing spirit, wherever it may now reside: thank you, sir, and rest well. You have earned a place alongside Andy Moore, Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard in the pantheon of computing industry pioneers.