Category Archives: Americana

Mad Men and the missing Civil Rights Movement

Americana, California, Politics, ,

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Mad Men is about a lot of things in the 1960’s but one thing it is not about is the Civil Rights Movement. That is way off to the side, not apart of the life of any of the main characters. I think that is just brilliant.

It is hard to tell from this close, but I think that the most important, long lasting, earth shattering, thing that came out of the 1960’s was the Civil Rights Movement. When I was a child, the typical black person was Stepen Fetchet or Uncle Ramos, by the time I was twenty five, the typical black person became Bobby Seale or Eldridge Cleaver.

Stepin-fetchit
Bobby Seal Elridge Cleaver

There was no stopping in the middle. Between the 50s and the 70s – that is the 60s – blacks went from being friendly but powerless to scary but powerless. It is hard to overstate how marginalized blacks were. For example, Willie Wood , of USC,  was the Pac 8’s first black quarterback – now this is California, not the south – and he led USC to
a conference championship. In the pros, he could only play defense. Blacks weren’t considered good enough – although nobody said it, but I think they were not considered smart enough to boss around white guys – to play quarterback.

Another example, much closer to home (both figuratively and literally). We had a black – I so much wanted to type in colored – cleaning lady, Carrie, who came in once a week. Behind our home was a one way dirt alley and one day, as Carrie was coming to work, a white kid – driving the wrong way down the alley – hit her. The cops showed up, took one look at black Carrie and then the white kid and gave HER a ticket – now, this is still California. I tried to talk her into fighting the ticket, but, wisely I think now, she said No.

Now, back to Mad Men. What is so brilliant, I am sorry to say, is that Mad Men – by only showing a black maid and elevator operator – shows that the Civil Rights movement was not in most white people’s lives. Oh, sure, we felt superior because the papers all made it look like a southern thing. But, really, it was a white thing. The world was changing and most of us were too busy with our daily lives – just trying to keep one nostril above the water line – to do anything but – slightly – notice the world changing.

 

I’m thrilled to have a photo in the New York Times….well, sort of

Americana, Bay Area Walks, Photography,

Not sort of thrilled, I'm very thrilled; but I only sort of have a photo in the Times. Who really has a photo in the New York Times is René de Guzman, senior curator of art and all around good guy, in an article on the Oakland Museum. But there – just above his head and probably not noticed by anybody but René and Richard Taylor – is a portrait of René's wife that I took. 

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A continuum from Stand Up to being president

Americana, Current Affairs, Politics, Psychological Musings

Last week, two guests on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart were especially illuminating. Tony Blair and Tim Kaine. Jon Stewart started out as a Stand Up comic and, from what I read, he still does Stand Up. In Stand Up, the feedback is instant. If a joke is good, he knows, instantly, if it is bad, ditto.

By doing Stand Up, Stewart knows what is happening in the world. Not so much the facts of what is happening, but people's reaction to those facts. He has a direct feel for what is going on. 

I first saw that when I worked for Shapell Homes in the 1970's. When the market crashed – I guess mini-crash would be more accurate when compared to today – the Sales People knew the first weekend. The Sales Manager who was slightly out of it saw the same facts, but didn't quite believe them; but, after two or three weeks, he got the drift. I was Director of Operations and didn't believe it for another couple of weeks but I still couldn't convince Nathan Shapell who thought it was a blip – or something other than a crash.

Our banker, who only got his information from us, was blissfully happy.

Both Tony Blair and Tim Kaine – the head of the Democratic Party – are not only out of the loop, they are  constantly surrounded by sycophants. Every day, they have people giving them good news. So, when they showed up on the Daily Show, they were shocked by Stewart asking them questions that they should have expected but was, really, out of their world view.

Stewart asked Blair something about Iraq that assumed what we all know – that they war was misguided at best, and, more realistically, an epic disaster – and Blair just didn't even get the question. He answered it as if the war had been a huge success. 

When Stewart asked Kaine how he was doing, Kaine answered Great, I'm having a lot of fun. Stewart was surprised and said something like, Really, the Democrats are getting their asses kicked. Kaine tried to brush it off as if Stewart didn't know the real story.

But, of course, Kaine and Blair don't know the real story. And, I am afraid, Obama is even worse informed. Not to the facts, maybe, but to the tenor of what is happening in the country. People are pissed, but I don't think Obama is in a position to see it. 

It is a thin line between madness and art; between madness and riches

Americana, California, Psychological Musings

We went to see the Green Prix in San Jose over the weekend. Why is sort of a long story. Michael Moore sent me several pictures his brother had taken at Burning Man. One of them was of a  '60 Chevy -  '94 Komatsu1 mutant vehicle called Maria del Camino.

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Mike also sent along a URL that referenced that the mutant vehicle would be in an artist parade in San Jose.

So we were lead to "Build Your Own World,” ZER01 in San Jose. It was billed as an biannual event that in collaboration with dozens of partners,
will present over the course of 4 days, from September 16-19, hundreds
of artworks, performances, events, and artist talks, which not only
imagine the future of the world but begin to build it. Not including participants but including us, I think there were about twenty six people there.

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Many – probably the majority – of the participants were just goofy. Many – probably the minority – required a lot of work and it got me wondering, What is art?

To paraphrase Stalin who once said Quality is important, but quantity has a quality of it own; lots of work is art of it's own. Somehow a goofy project done with sincerity and an investment of work, becomes art. Take Watts Towers

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or many of the parade floats – or whatever – at the Green Prix.

I was reminded by the Green Prix that, to create art, we have to be goofy; I know that, to have any chance of creating art, I have to be willing to risk it. I am reminded that the risk may result in my falling flat on my face but being safe only guarantees that I will be safe. There were not many spectators, but there were quite a few participants willing to be unsafe.

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Interestingly enough, the New York Times – that's The Time to the cognoscente – in an article entitled Just Manic Enough: Seeking Perfect Entrepreneurs,  says almost the same thing about guys trying to raise money for new ventures.  

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Probably it's a comment on life.

Disney is in the teaching English biz in China

Americana, China, Current Affairs

Disney-china

According to the Economist, in an article titled Middle Kingdom meets Magic Kingdom, Disney has ten English schools in Shanghai and five in Beijing. At first, I found that pretty surprising because it is such small small potatoes for Disney.Teaching English is like a classic cottage industry.

But I was reminded that we live in a time when nothing is considered too small if it makes money for the Mother Corporation. Maximizing profit is now considered the highest ideal. Banks charge fees for any service they can; including parking. The avowed goal of any company is to make as much money as possible. In 2007, before everything fell apart, General Electric made one and half times more profit in lending than any other GE division.

My childish fantasy is that – when I was young – General Electric made stuff, banks made loans, and Disney made cartoons and had Disneyland. Sure, they all made money, but that was a byproduct of their raison d'etre which was the service they provided. I think that this same childish fantasy was held by Obama, Geithner, et al when they bailed out the banks.

If they just got the banks – who were in trouble over their greed – some money, they would lend it to needy borrowers to get the economy going again. Of course, that is not what happened. The banks took the money and loaned it back to the government – in the form of safe government bonds – and started making even more money. This new, safe, profit was then used to pay themselves nice big bonuses.