Category: Articles

Alaska Daily

My favorite new show on commercial TV is Alaska Daily airing on Thursday nights at 10PM on ABC. The show’s focus is on the importance of local journalism which has been slowly dying over the years.  Too many people getting their news information online from questionable sources and seeing news reporters as the bad guys.

The show stars Hillary Swank as a hard-ass former New York City reporter who has been pushed out of her job. She moves to Anchorage, Alaska to work for the city’s local newspaper (Daily Alaskan). A running theme throughout each show is Swank, along with an Indigenous reporter, portrayed by Grace Dove, investigating the unsolved death of an Indigenous woman (A continuing problem in real life). Each show also contains a standalone story.

Alaska Daily is both intelligent and entertaining. It is also streaming on HULU.

Doucumentary – Men at Lunch

I recently watched the short documentary (slightly over one hour) called “Men at Lunch.” It relates the story about one of the most iconic photographs ever made. The film explores the origin, the meaning, and the impact the photo has had over its long history.

We see eleven men perched high up on a steel girder taking a lunch break while working on the construction of a building today we know as 30 Rockefeller Center. Who was the photographer? Who are the construction workers? And why is the photograph so relevant all these years later. These are some of the questions asked and much remains unknown. Except for two men, none have been identified, though there have been many claims otherwise, but only two of the men have been verified. That said, the photograph says a lot about the history of New York City, its immigrants who worked the dangerous jobs, and the American dream.

“Men at Lunch” is streaming on KANOPY and is available on YouTube.

Autumn in Florida

We are having our first taste of Autumn in Florida this week. A miraculous cold front came through and after months of 90 degrees plus temperatures with humidity in the upper 70s, the temps plunged to a high of 88 degrees. More importantly, the humidity dropped to a more comfortable level.

We Floridians, like me, who spent most of the summer avoiding any unnecessary outdoor activity are finally able to step outside and take a deep breath of fresh cool air and hope the dreaded long, hot summer is behind us?

In truth, Autumn in Florida is a state of mind and not an actuality. While folks up north bring out their sweaters, scarfs and boots and take long crisp walks in the woods where the leaves have turned reds and oranges and have begun to fall, here the only leaves you will see turn color is when a tree is dead and the leaves have turned an ugly brown. Here, we’re still wearing flip-flops, shorts and short sleeve t-shirts.

Oh sure, we can get our pumpkin spice latte at the local coffee shop, but hey, it’s still 88 degrees outside and humid. The crisp cool mornings we are promised will only last a few days and most likely by the end of the week, we’ll be back to high humidity and temperatures in the 90s.

Autumn, or what passes for Autumn in Florida will not arrive for real for at least for another month if we’re lucky. These couples of “cooler” days have been a treat, but make no mistake about it, there is no Autumn in Florida.

National Vietnam War Veterans Day

Today is National Vietnam War Veterans Day

First Blood is the first and best of the Rambo movies. Each sequel in the series became more simplistic and excessively militaristic. Based on David Morrell’s novel, First Blood has a dark somber tone and subtext completely missing in the other later works. The violence here is not exploitive but allows the viewers to enjoy the film on the surface as nothing more than an action/thriller. Howwever, there is a deeper level with something to say about returning war veterans and their problematic adjustment back to civilian life. The Vietnam veteran had the additional burden of facing a hostile homecoming. Unlike all previous veterans from earlier wars, the Vietnam veterans were not treated as heroes, instead they were met with disdain, spit upon, and even called baby killers.

Like many Vietnam Veteans, John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) has PTSD that went undetected. A former Green Beret, Rambo was the perfect fighting machine in Vietnam, but back home he can’t hold a job. He’s lost and travels aimlessly. In a small town in Washington State, he meets a hostile sheriff (Brian Dennehy). Rambo has a rebellious streak in him and it doesn’t sit well with the lawman and his crew. When cornered, he fights back the only way he can, the way they taught him.

First Blood, in its own crude way, shows why Vietnam Veterans deserve a day of their own. It may be hard to believe today that Veterans were treated with such scorn.

Having a day of their own is the least that we can do all these years later.

Read more about Vietnam Veterans War Day here.

Vaccine Blues

Like many folks who fall into the age categories that are open to receiving the COVID vaccine, I have been trying to get an available appointment. Crashed systems, unavailability, lack of a simple implementation have all added up to a frustrating time for many of us.

Here in Florida, right now you have to be 65 and older to qualify, and yes I’m in that age bracket. Since the vaccines became available, there have been outcries about poor planning; website crashing, being disconnected on the phone after waiting for hours. Appointments filled up fast. Only the other day on the news I heard that in one county here in Florida they had 1,000 vaccines available and all were gone in three minutes.

Where are the vaccines people cry out? The state blames the feds, and the feds blame the states.


Here in Florida, selected Publix Supermarkets are now giving out the vaccine. This past Saturday morning the website opened, enabling folks to register for an appointment beginning at 6 AM. My wife and I were up and on our computer. After a 40 minute wait, my wife managed to schedule an appointment. After she was all set up, they asked if another household member wanted to register and I got an appointment. She was scheduled for Sunday, the next day, and I had my appointment for Tuesday.

We were ecstatic and grateful.

Both appointments went smoothly. They were quick, efficient, and we were in and out in 35 minutes, including the 15 minutes after you receive your shot.

There are many snags with the rollout of the vaccine. One of the key problems is the confusion because of a lack of a federal mandate on how to distribute the vaccine. Everyone knew the vaccines were coming. There was plenty of time for the federal government, the state, and counties to be better prepared.

Here in Florida, each county is doing their own thing from having to register by computer and/or telephone. County websites are all different, requirements are inconsistent including a few counties that are not doing by appointment only, but are on a first-come, first-serve basis until we run out. This situation has resulted in having a senior population standing in long lines or parked in long lines overnight, hoping to get a vaccine. Sadly, there won’t be enough for all and at some point, they will run out of doses and there will be folks who waited in line for eight hours or more and will go home still searching for vaccine relief. 

It’s a frustrating experience, hours are spent online or on the phone attempting to get an appointment only to receive a message that there are no more appointments available at this time or are disconnected. That said, please don’t give up. Keep pushing on and on and there will be that one time when you will scream out YES!    

Stay safe !and keep on pushing!

Thoughts on Movie Going in the Age of Covid-19

Will movie going ever be the same? It’s not like I want to add more doom and gloom to what we have been experiencing, however after reading a few articles recently, I have wondered about its future. Theaters are in crisis. Regal theatres have kept its doors closed up to now. AMC is open with limited capacity and struggling.  Like many, I have not been inside a movie theater since the pandemic hit us early this year, turning our lives inside out. True, I have been watching plenty of movies, thanks to DVD’s, Netflix, Amazon, and other outlets that we fortunately have today, but theater going is still a unique experience. I mean, I don’t care how big your TV screen is, it’s not as big as a theater’s. And though I no longer indulge, I love the smell of movie theatre popcorn, and just having other people around to share the experience. All of which is all gone… at least for now. 

One article I read mentioned how many of the studios have been postponing the release of their major films until next year. Steven Spielberg’s new version of “West Side Story,” scheduled for release this Christmas season now pushed back to a December 2021 debut. Also, there is “Respect,” the bio about Aretha Franklin, starring Jennifer Hudson, that should have been out by now. Instead, it now has a new release date of August 2021. This is all in hopes a vaccine would be out and the pandemic gone, or at least under control by then, and audiences will feel safe enough to come back and sit next to hundreds of other people in an enclosed space. What are the odds?

Despite people, including myself, and businesses wanting to get back to normal, what we are facing is a new normal where life has changed. It won’t be forever, but until COVID-19’s eradicated like Polio, you have to ask yourself how safe is it to go back to the old normal, and what is your tolerance for risk? For me, my risk tolerance of going to a movie theater filled with people who don’t want to wear a simple thing like a mask or don’t believe the science or just don’t care is more than I can deal with in my life.

Be open and willing to adjust to changes in life.  

I hate not going to a movie theater or seeing a live concert or theater performance. I also hate the idea of getting sick from a disease that we still know little about and seems in many people to have long-lasting effects.

But I also think how much worse this all could be if it was 1970 and there were no PC’s or I-Pads, I-Phones, cable TV and streaming services to connect us with the outside world like we have today. Think about it, how fortunate we are in that respect.  

No, I won’t be going back to a movie theater for a while, a long while. I miss it, but I’d also miss too many other things in life if I get sick or die. I’m not living in fear as some may say or think I am. I’m adjusting to a new normal that may be around for a while and making the best of it. I just need to decide what movie I want to watch tomorrow.

Thoughts On Social Media

Social Media is both a curse and a gift. I refuse to argue on Facebook or on any other social media platform. If I disagree with someone’s opinion on any topic, especially if it’s political, I don’t comment.  If I agree, I give it a LIKE and may comment, but once the aggressive, nasty commenters emerge, and they do, I’m out of there. I won’t and don’t respond. It isn’t worth the time and effort. I don’t want to make the world worse than it already is.

Polite conversation, even when you disagree, is possible, at least it used to be, but tolerance seems to be in short supply these days. Many people think the ability to be anonymous in the world of social media gives them a free ticket to insult, condemn, criticize, and spit out nasty name calling without consequence. But there are consequences, maybe not easily apparent, but with so many people feeling free to go down a nasty road they are making the world a less hospitable place than it already is. Maybe they don’t care, but I do, and I sure others care too. Life is too short. I rather use my time doing more constructive and creative endeavors than arguing over every little thing.

What I like about Facebook and other social media is how I have connected with many new online friends and reconnected with older friends and relatives. I think that’s important. It’s important to connect with people, especially in this time of the COVID virus where many of us, including me, can feel isolated. Over the past few weeks, I have connected with a couple of cousins I have not spoken to in years, first through Facebook and soon after with telephone conversations. We live far apart and our lives have taken different paths, but we’re still the same and we are still connected. It pays to be nice in many ways.

COVID-19 Days

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My wife and I are homebodies, but even for folks like us who don’t mind being at home, it gets challenging. We do like to go out shopping, for lunch or dinner at a restaurant, we like to go out and photograph birds, and the landscape and more. We like going to the movies, and we like seeing relatives and friends. These days all that has come to a screeching halt.
As a photographer, it sucks. These days I do a lot of cat photography. We have two cats. As a writer, staying home is what you do. You sit in front of your computer and hopefully put something down that will lead to a new story. At times, it’s been not easy to concentrate on writing. I didn’t think it would be, but as the virus continues to run amok, it’s tougher and tougher.,
One of the things I do on most days is watch a movie. It’s relaxing, and I have always loved movies. If you are a regular reader, you have seen my post on some of the films I’ve watched while we quarantine.
We have a long road ahead of us with this virus, and anyone who thinks otherwise is foolish. A vaccine will help, but it will not end the spread unless it’s 100%, and everyone gets it. We need to try and stay positive and adjust to the life changes the virus has forced on us.

Please stay safe.

My Vietnam Soundtrack

doorsMore than any other war, Vietnam had a soundtrack. It didn’t start with Apocalypse Now or any other Hollywood production. It began with the soldiers who brought the music with them. For the men and women like me (1) who served in Vietnam, music was a link to home. It was part of our hopes and dreams to make it “back to the world” (as we called the United States). The music became inseparable from the war. I still can’t listen to The Doors’ first album without thinking of ‘Nam. The music connected us to hopes of getting us back to “the world.” Some songs even spoke directly to us, like The Animals We Gotta Get Out of This Place, which became every soldier’s personal anthem.  There were others like Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Fortunate Son and Country Joe and the Fish’s I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ to Die Rag. Jimi Hendrix’s People Haze and Hey Joe, The Turtles’ It Ain’t Me Babe, Martha and the Vandellas’ Nowhere to Run, and Nancy Sinatra’s These Boots Are Made for Walkin’. All mainstays and had connections to the war experience. The music and the war united us. I listened to some soul music before the war, but I met many black soldiers in ‘Nam and thru them, I was exposed to many great Soul songs that did not make the top of the pops. For the first time, I also heard Country music. While I never became a fan of Country, it exposed me to artists like Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, and others.

animWhile the Armed Forces Vietnam Network (AFVN) played the Top 40 of the day, the soldiers had cassettes or reel-to-reel tapes, purchased at the PX, to share. It opened up another world. We were separated from the world, but the music united us. It was a way for us to cope and for a few moments an escape from the insanity. There were also small clubs where Filipino bands played the hits all wanted to hear, Ring of Fire, Proud Mary and the inevitable finale of We Gotta Get Out of This Place which by the end of the night every soldier was on his feet singing along with.

Collectively, the music united the Vietnam soldiers who bore the burden of an unpopular war. The music of The Doors, Aretha Franklin, CCR, Johnny Cash, The Temptations, and many others mattered more to the Vietnam soldiers, maybe more than to any generation since. Even after returning home, the music stayed with us.

Footnote:

(1) I was not an infantryman. I spent my time in a base camp as an armorer, small weapons, assigned to the 124th Signal Unit, part of the 4th Infantry Division. The base camp, Camp Enari, in Pleiku, located in the Central Highlands. It was relatively secure compared to being out in the boonies.

 

Basic Training: A Film by Frederick Wiseman

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It’s 1970 in Fort Knox, Kentucky, and filmmaker Frederick Wiseman has been given access to film a new group of Army recruits, draftees and enlisted, as they go through eight weeks of basic training. One thing these young men have in common, they all look haunted by what is ahead… Vietnam.

The eight weeks of training is a dehumanizing experience filled with the young boys taught to act robotically the same for the greater good. Those who do not fit in are harassed or even worse. One young soldier, his name is Hickman, cannot march to the cadence of “Left, Left, left, right, left…” He is continually called out to get in step. Eventually, he is pulled out of the squad and “trained” by a Drill Sgt. The kid still can’t get the rhythm. Later, he tells a Pastor that he just doesn’t fit in with the others, never did. He can’t seem to do anything right and has even been threatened with a “blanket party” by his fellow soldiers. Another trainee, a young black accused of not following orders explains to a superior, “Let’s be frank with each other, now you know this is not my country.” He would rather get a dishonorable discharge than follow orders. The officer explains how a dishonorable discharge will follow him through life. He doesn’t care. Most of the boys fall in line. The gun-ho guys who are ready to fight, others to get through it all and come back home alive.

IMG_09771While it seems filmmaker, Frederick Wiseman was given free access, I tend to doubt it. The Drill Sgt.’s are tough, but they seem a little too nice. With the prospect of Vietnam ahead of them, the trainees are told by the D.I.’s and higher-ups is just do what we teach you and everything will be fine. How comforting.

My skepticism comes from my own experience. I was drafted a year earlier and went through basic training in Fort Jackson, South Carolina. The Drill Sgt.’s were not as kind. Kind was not in their vocabulary. You had to have a good pair of lungs to be a D.I. because they screamed a lot, ridiculed, and trashed you. And as far as the “do what we teach you and everything will be fine,” well, it was more like “boy, your ass is going to ‘Nam, Charlie is waiting and you are going to die, and while you’re there, Jody and me will be making nice with your mama, your sister, and your wife.”

You watch these young soldiers, really boys, going through their training: how to crawl in the mud under barbed wire, hand to hand combat, bayonet training, weapon (M-16) training. You cannot help but wonder how many of these boys never made it back home. The strangest training segment in the film and this is something I did not experience, is a training class on how to correctly brush your teeth! Brush your teeth and win the war. We lost in Vietnam, many boys lost their lives, and many more came home disabled mentally and/or physically.

When I came home, I didn’t talk about Vietnam. Not because of any trauma or horrific experiences from the war, it had more to do with the people back home. There were two camps, those who favored the war and wanted America to bomb all of Southeast Asia out of existence and those who were part of the anti-war movement and saw you as a baby killer. I belonged to neither camp. Like the trainee, Hickman who I mentioned earlier, I just didn’t fit in anywhere, and so I didn’t talk about it. It took many years before I told people I was a Viet Vet and to this day I still don’t know where I belong.