Black Face and Minstrel Shows

This recent black face discussion brought back a strange memory. At some point during my childhood, probably when I was around 5 years old, I attended a minstrel show at the elementary school in Bellaire, MI. I didn't realize what I had witnessed until much later in life. Today, I found this article that discusses how common these events were up until the early 70s. I remember being at this event but can't remember who took me. Maybe, that's for the best. Those of us that grew up in the north tend to have a sense of superiority when it comes to race relations. After all, northerners fought in the war that freed the slaves. But, the north also has a history of minstrel shows and have some of the most segregated cities in the country. I remember Don Miller, our history teacher, telling a story about meeting a lady who emigrated from the deep south to the Detroit area back when he was a teenager during the Civil Rights era. He said to her that she must really be thrilled to be away from the south and all that racism. She told him, not really. She said that in the south she knew where she wasn't welcome. In the north she had to learn where she wasn't allowed. Over thirty years later, I heard the comedian Roy Wood Jr. make the same observation in a stand up routine. The more things change...

Golf and my my New Glasses

Today, I went to the range for the first time since I have started wearing glasses.

First, I tried to hit balls while wearing my progressive lenses. That was a complete failure. On my back swing the ball would move into the reading portion of the lenses and get blurry and then go back into focus as I swung through. That was no good. I was getting decent contact but it was inconsistent and didn't feel right.

Next, I tried it without glasses. I figured I could do that, since that is how I have always played. That was even worse than playing with the progressives. I think my brain has fully adjusted to seeing the world through corrective lenses and I didn't get a single good shot off without my glasses. I was topping the ball a lot. I was getting really frustrated and was stuck for a minute as to what I should do. Then, I remembered that I had a pair of prescription sunglasses in my car.

I didn't consider using the sunglasses initially because I had always had a hard time using sunglasses while playing sports. I have had a tough time with depth perception while wearing sunglasses. I trudged over to my car swearing the whole way about how much I hate golf. When I got back to the practice area and put on the sunglasses, my first shot with driver was straight as an arrow and carried well over 200 yards. I tried a couple of more shots and both were acceptable. I then went through my bag and tried several different clubs. With each one I was able to get off some good golf shots. In fact, my ball striking was about the best I have ever had. I guess being able to see is good for your golf game and it looks like, from now on, I will be using my prescription sunglasses to play golf.

The Conservative Mind

The other day, I was standing in front of the library and ended up talking to one of the Republican party campaigners who was there for early voting. He was started talking about the renovations of the library and how much he liked the new building. He commented that he really liked the new accessibility in the parking lot. In our old building, the handicapped parking required the disabled to walk an extra ten yards to get to the sidewalk ramps. I agreed with him and remarked that the previous building had been constructed before the current laws. As soon as i said, "current laws" he rolled his eyes and harrumphed. Right then, I realized I had seen the hypocrisy of the conservative mind in the wild. He loved the improved access but had knee jerk negative reaction to the laws that guaranteed the improved access. These are the people who think removing the EPA will improve business profitability while believing industry will be a strong steward of our environment at the same time. That's not how the real world works and these are the people currently in charge. Harrumph.

The Firearm Debate

I was a teenager in the 1980s and the current rally cry by the right about assault weapons was something you just didn't hear. No one owned an assault rifle thirty years ago. Now, owning an assault rifle is framed as a necessary right covered by the Second Amendment. So, my question is, were we less free in the 1980s when citizens couldn't purchase what is essentially an M16? I don't recall feeling less free. I was, however, less likely to be massacred in a mass shooting.

Too Stupid Too Discuss

I heard an ad today on NPR, announcing the show On Point was going to have a discussion on The Orange Idiot's desire to expand the death penalty to drug dealers. We are discussing this? Here's how that discussion should go:

Host: My guest today is This Guy.
That Guy: Hi, thanks for having me on.
Host. Thanks for being here. So, Donald Trump has announced his intention to expand the death penalty to drug dealers. Isn't that stupid?
That Guy. Yes, colossally stupid. Why are we even talking about this? How did someone this stupid become president?
Host: Alright, that's all the time we have for this today. I'd like to thank This Guy for joining us.

Long Live the Blog?

Or the personal web page. Is this a blog or a personal web page? Yes.

Nice blog entry by Scalzi on the importance of having a place on the internet that is yours and controlled only by you. Someday Twitter and Facebook will be gone. What will replace it? I'd like to see a system where each individual has their own IP type address and you can subscribe to that feed via some open source software. No one will control it. I wonder how that would work?

Quit Right or Don't Quit

After reading this post by Troy I got to thinking about times I have quit jobs. My job experience isn't all that lengthy, considering I am approaching the 25th year with my current employer, the public library.

My first attempt at a job was picking cherries for a local farmer outside Cedar, MI, when I was 13. My output was so bad, I was asked to not come back. I didn't argue. Later, at 16, I I was hanging out with some friends at a video arcade after baseball practice and I had no quarters for games. I then got a job at Sugar Loaf, a local ski and golf resort. I had that job, except for one summer at a restaurant, my whole time in high school, until I left for boot camp. I remember receiving a nice send off from the manager of my department, she was my supervisor the full three years I worked there.

After my stint in the Marines, I worked as a cashier for a local convenience store chain, making pretty much nothing but it was what I needed after four years in the service. I made enough money to buy beer and the job didn't require any real effort. That was the first of two jobs I walked out on. In the spring of 1992, my step dad died suddenly of a heart attack. I took a few days off from work because I was devastated, naturally. At one point the manager of the store called and asked when I would be back. I don't remember my response. I do remember being furious. Eventually, I agreed to go back and the store manager scheduled me for a twelve-hour day on my first day back. I didn't go in that day, or ever again, and I didn't call. Instead, my friend Jeff and I went to a baseball card show.

Eventually, I ended up at OfficeMax. I was there for about nine months. It was a building full of young and fun coworkers but the job was horrible. Customers and management treated those of us on the floor terribly. I have never felt more disposable and less respected anywhere. At one point a new employee manual was released and we all were given a copy. It was, essentially, a list of 1,001 ways to get fired. In fact, I wrote that in marker on the cover of my copy of this terrible booklet and tacked it to the cork board in the employee break room. The next day was Saturday and my morning tennis class through CPCC. I was scheduled to work after the tennis class but a group that included a woman I had a crush on, invited me to have some drinks. I readily agreed, had a great time and skipped out on work and that was it for OfficeMax. I remember being told that my quitting that way after what I did with the employee manual was admired by other employees at the store. I guess it was pretty good but I still think it wasn't as impressive as the cashier who went to lunch one day and never came back. A week later she was waitressing at the bar next to the OfficeMax store. Within a month, I was working for the library and never looked back.

I guess the moral is, you should quit properly unless you work for a company that treats you like shit.

David and Robert Childers

I love watching people communicate through music. David and Robert Childers have been making music together for a long time. Every since Robert was a child, I assume. He's been drumming for his father for much of his adult life. I sat and watched David play an acoustic show at Brawley's Beverage recently. Robert was , as usual, on drums, and they were accompanied by a wizard on an electrified stand-up bass. David can play a single chord and his son will nod and they'll start a song. They can take songs and extend them, change them and twist them with deceivingly little effort. Every time I witness this connection, I am awed.

The Diet Cheater

We live in a cul de sac at the end of a mile-long road that weaves through our neighborhood. Essentially, we have a driveway that is one mile long. It's an interesting way to live, it does feel like we are tucked away from the rest of the city. That is, until the traffic on W.T. Harris, that runs behind our backyard, is going at full throttle. There is a humorous happening that I see at least once a month on that long driveway. We have a fast food eater who is hiding their shame by tossing a bag of fast food on the side of the road in roughly the same spot each time. Every time I see this bag of shame, I think how naive this person is that they think when they get home their significant other can't smell that Burger King on their breath. They are not fooling anybody.

Bill Walpole

I found out my friend Bill Walpole died today.

What I loved about Bill Walpole is that I could say pretty much anything to him. I spent ten minutes one evening at the Double Door explaining to Bill in a callous and tasteless way why Wendell Black was behaving strangely that night. He said to me, "You ain't right." I took it as the compliment it was.

The photo below was taken at the Double Door in December 2004. It's my favorite photo that I took of him because he wasn't out front much. Bill only had one vocal part during the Federal Bureau of Rock and Roll reunion shows. After the line, "The shit has hit the fan" during the song Lawyers, Guns and Money, Bill would step up to the microphone and holler, "Hell, yeah!" I tried to catch that moment several times and I got it this once.

He was also a great musician. He played an amazing slide guitar. Lenny Federal said he liked playing with Bill because, "Bill listens." Rob Tavaliogne once described Bill's playing by saying that Bill invented chords, meaning that Bill knew how to insert himself into the middle of a song and not distract from but add to it. The word genius gets tossed around easily but it applies to his playing.

I'm trying not to feel too sad because I was lucky to spend the little time I did around him. I think anyone who ever had a private moment with Bill is feeling that right now. He was just fun and he probably enjoyed laughing more than anyone I have ever met. In 1998 when Christopher McComb, Wendell and I traveled to Cleveland to see R.L. Burnisde, I had a chance to talk to Bob Log III, who was touring with Burnside. He said that Burnside had several phrases and jokes that he would say over and over again and they would get funnier the more he said them. Bill was like that. He loved to yell, "Woah! Woah! Woah!" while someone was backing up their car. When they slammed on their brakes in a panic he would laugh and laugh. And it got funnier every time he did it. You waited for it.

Everybody that knew him has a story to tell and if you live on through stories then Bill will have a rich afterlife.

Crack The Sky

I came across this blog post a couple of weeks ago. It's about a band out of Baltimore called Crack the Sky. The post claims that they are a lost great band, a band that should be a classic band from the 70s. I went back and listened to their eponymously titled first album and it's fantastic. I then listened to the album they released in 1980, White Music, which has a more stripped down, pop punk sound. It shows incredible flexibility from the bandleader, John Palumbo. I'm amazed that here in 2017 I am still discovering quality music from the 60s and 70s. There is so much out there.

This Youtube video is a performance of their signature song, Surf City, in front of a hometown crowd in 1980. Lots of energy here from the band and the crowd.

Different Seasons

Two photos from the same bridge. Clam Lake, Michigan, one panorama taken in September 2011 and the next taken December 2016.

Mandate, My Ass

I heard this song as a teenager when it was played WNMC in northern Michigan. It's probably the first overtly political song I ever loved and listened to repeatedly. I happened to be recording the radio when this song came on and I played it over and over. It's still relevant.

A Legend

There are few true sports giants in the world. People who can distract a whole room. People like Willie Mays or Junior Johnson. Arnold Palmer was one. I had an opportunity to watch Palmer play a few holes at the pro am at the Well Fargo tournament in May of 2011. There was a palpable buzz on the course because Arnold Palmer was there. There was a constant stream of love washing over him the whole time. Grown men yelling his name and thanking him for being there. Two things stand out from that day. I watched him scarf down a hotdog in under thirty seconds and he played from the black tees because it would have been beneath him to play from the senior tees. That wasn't a great decision because he was unable to reach the fairway off the tee but he hit 'em straight.

I go to a Trump Rally

Actually, the title is a lie. I didn't go to the rally. I stood out front of the entrance to see what I could see. I had a ticket to see Trump talk but I decided to go home and have dinner instead. This is what I saw.

Protesters chanting. The Black Lives Matter people were smart. They did not engage the Trump supporters who yelled at them. It was curious to see the reaction of Trump supporters toward the BLM protesters. The Trump people got way too angry. I witnessed one woman screaming, "You motherfuckers!" at the protesters. The protesters were doing nothing to warrant the level of anger displayed by the Trump supporters. I even heard one woman ask a friend of hers, "How many of them do you think are paid to be here?" One person yelled at the protesters that they should get a job. They bring their assumptions with them, I suppose.

The attitude of the Trump protesters disappointed me. Here we had young people expressing an opinion. Doing so while under the protection of the same Constitution the Trump people express devotion to. Trump supporters are so devoted to it that I saw several people wearing clothing that expressed an allegiance to the document. Why then, if you are so devoted to the words of the Constitution, would you direct derision and profanities toward people are utilizing the same freedoms you profess to believe in? You would think if you truly believed in the words of that document you would appreciate what these young people were doing. In my opinion, if all you are capable of doing in this situation is shaking your ass at these kids or yelling profanities then any declaration of support for our Constitution on your part is bullshit.


This gentleman walked around with this sign. One woman got really mad at him because he wouldn't talk to her.


This is one of the guys who got way too angry. He was making obscene gestures and shaking his ass at the protesters. It was not as sexy as it sounds.


And then this guy showed up. His hat says, "Deputy." The top he's wearing has lettering on the back that reads, "Constitution Enforcement Special Victims Unit." Honest. Judging by how he was sizing up the BLM protesters he seemed miffed that the Constitution allowed those damn kids to protest.

See, no foolin'


These guys were fun.


This musician was singing songs in support of the BLM protesters. I'm kidding, she was singing a terrible, terrible song about how great Donald Trump is. The BLM protesters were drowning her out and for that we all should have been more thankful.


After about 30 minutes the BLM guys moved across the street.


Hey ladies, he's single! I don't know for sure, I am assuming.


Probably the least offensive souvenir for sale.


Definitely the most offensive souvenir for sale.


This is the woman who was furious that the protesters would not engage her. This gentleman decided to hear her out. After a good twenty minutes of nonstop gobbledygook from her I am sure he regretted deciding she needed to be heard. I imagined him going home and going straight to bed and swearing off politics forever. Nothing is worth what he went through.


Police were everywhere. They were bored.


Trump bros!


On the way back to my car I passed this group of teenagers who were promoting their Bump up the Trump (BUTT) project. I think it may be a music project. Or maybe they were just having fun, I'm not sure. I guess I could have asked. The Twitter handle they were using doesn't exist. They made my day.

Bee Pooping

Today, while shooting slow motion video of bees on the bush in front of my house I caught a bee pooping. Slow motion bee pooping. Someone call science and let them know!

Yesterday I called TimeWarner to cancel my cable/telephone/internet package. I wanted to cancel that bundle and just have internet along with basic cable. I had to call their toll free number because TimeWarner doesn't allow customers to change their service on their web page, that would be way too close to good customer service. I go through their interminable phone tree and choose, "service reduction." The first person to answer the phone seems to be pretty sure that the package I have is "an excellent deal." I agree with her. She tells me she has to put me on hold so she can see what my cost will be when I switch. I am on hold for almost five minutes. She comes back and gives me a price that is $50 more than I am currently paying (she had pretended not to understand which cable package I wanted). Once we straighten out what I really want she then tells me what I currently have is "really good deal." I agree again. I then say, regardless of that, I would still like to reduce my service. She seems shocked that after being informed twice of how good of a deal I have that I would still want to switch. I assure her that I want to continue with the service reduction. She then tells me that she has to transfer me to someone else who can do that. Essentially, when you choose "service reduction" from the phone tree the first person you talk to is there to convince you not to reduce your service. Before she transfers me she quotes me a price of $69 for internet and $20 for basic cable. I am then back on hold while she transfers me. I am on hold again for almost five minutes.

The next person tries also assures me I have a good deal and seems perplexed that I would want to reduce my service. I assure her I would very much like to reduce my service. She then says that before we start she wants to have me answer some survey questions. I tell her immediately that I do not want to answer any questions. She is very surprised at that. She is off script! As we move forward she tells me the price I was quoted was not correct and I can her derision, as if I deserve such service at that price. Finally, I am over this whole call. We are over twenty minutes now. I tell her to forget about the basic cable. I just want internet, nothing else. I think, at this point, she senses that any further stalling will be futile and we finally complete the transaction. I now have 200 mps internet for $90 a month. A fairly large reduction in costs. Total time wasted: 27 minutes. This should have taken no longer than ten minutes. When Google Fiber arrives I will be able to access 1000 mps for $70. I will be joining Google Fiber the day it is available.

This interaction with TimeWarner was educational. I had read about the frustration others have felt doing what I was trying to do. I was prepared for the runaround but it was still frustrating. The operators I was talking to were trying to get me to do one of two things, reconsider my decisions by attempting to convince me I had a great deal or have me end the call out of frustration. I did find it a little sad that this is where we are with some companies. It is a running joke that that the cable company is going to jerk you around on the phone. We expect it. This is their business model. They want to Upsell you and then resort to subterfuge in order to keep you hooked.

It's disappointing that TimeWarner couldn't view me as a longtime customer (which I am) who was disappointed with the services he was receiving for what he was paying (which I also was). If I told the manager of the local Showmars that was no longer going to eat as his store because I thought the food and service weren't worth my patronage he would ask me what they could do to improve my experience. Timewarner when faced with the same situation resorted to tactics that were designed to make me feel like I was the problem. I am not a customer to them, I am a revenue stream that once they receive they treat as theirs. It's not the public's fault the way cable works is ass backwards. It's your business plan, Timewarner, that requires bundling. I'm done paying for TV channels I don't watch. Until you have a menu, like Showmars, then piss off.

Turtles and a Heron

As part of our quest to see turtles a couple of times a year Melanie and I took short drive to McAlpine Creek Park. The park has two ponds. One is the more traditional cement ponds you see at a lot of parks. There is a second pond beyond it that is full of logs and stumps. I knew it had to be full of turtles. It was. Not only was it full of turtles it had tadpoles, fish and a blue heron. Not bad for the middle of a big city.

We saw this guy first. He was lounging on a dead tree on the surface of the front pond

This small turtle just crawled out of the muck to get some sun


The blue heron wading and hunting


Finally, the log with a shitload of turtles. I count 14. This is three photos stitched together. This log floating in the middle of the lake was a turtle resort

Knox Phillips

Another thing I learned while listening to Guralnick's biography of Sam Phillips is that his oldest son, Knox, did some producing in the late 60s and early 70s. He did some work with a local Memphis band called the Jesters. They cut this great tune called Cadillac Man.

Mystery Train

For the last couple of weeks I have been listening to Peter Guralnick's new biography of Sam Phillips. I was familiar with a lot of the recordings Sam Phillips made. I had heard the Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Howlin' Wolf and Jerry Lee Lewis stuff. I was unfamiliar with the large number of blues artists other than Howlin' Wolf that Sam Phillips had recorded. I didn't know that he started his recording service and eventual record label exclusively to record the black musicians in the Memphis area because he thought they were not being given the deserved opportunity to express themselves as artists. He was sure that through recording this beautiful music that the music could break down the barriers between black and white Americans.

I have been pausing my listening to the audio book a lot to listen to music I had not heard before. My Google Music account has come in handy in the last couple of weeks. One track that really stands out is the original version of Mystery Train by Little Junior's Blue Flames, a song recorded by Elvis late in his Sun stint and part of the last Presley single released by Sun. According to Guralnick, Sam Phillips considered Mystery Train to be the best work Elvis recorded at Sun but he asserted that Elvis' version of the song was not as good as the original. Little Junior is Junior Parker. There is so much music out there to discover.

Give Mystery Train by Little Junior's Blue Flames A listen, it is a perfect song. I have been continually impressed over the last couple of weeks while revisiting and discovering the recordings made by Sam Phillips, by just how great these sound. He built his studio with only the assistance of one other person, his assistant Marion Keisker and was barely getting by but recorded songs that will be listened to hundreds of years from now. I think he may have accomplished his goal.