Side Effects

“No action is without its side effects,” Barry Commoner

Al Goin of the Portage Historical Society brought me a program and tickets to the February 24 event where I will be speaking.  His family moved to Portage from Kentucky in 1932 when he was five years old.  During the Depression they lived in a house without a bathroom, just an outhouse out back.  Al became a bricklayer by trade.  His brother Robert was Portage’s second mayor, following Arthur Olson.  Other Archives visitors included Ken Schoon, Ron Cohen, Sam Barnett, and Fred McColly.  Volunteer Maurice Yancy at my suggestion moved an unsightly garbage container located near the third floor elevator that was the first thing people saw on their way to the Archives to a less conspicuous spot. 

In IUN’s student union folks were playing the card game Fluxx, which Beamer Pickert taught me last year.  The name derives from the fact that the rules are constantly changing.

Steven Soderbergh’s “Side Effects” lived up to its billing as a psychological thriller.  Jude Law was superb as a shrink who is victimized by a couple of scheming villains.   The title refers to possible side effects of anti-depressant pills he prescribed for a patient.  Rooney Mara and Catherine Zeta-Jones were in a rather unconvincing lesbian scene together but otherwise shined.  The movie reminded me of Alfred Hitchcock’s work as well as late-1940s film noir classics such as Orson Welles’s “Touch of Evil.”  Best known for “Sex, Lies, and Videotape,” Soderbergh also made a six-hour biopic “Che: A Revolutionary Life” about Ernesto “Che” Guevara.

Saturday after James’s bowling, I expected to bring the grandkids back to the condo, but Dave took them instead to the East Chicago basketball game.  The person scheduled to sing the National Anthem was a no-show, so Becca took the microphone and wowed the crowd.

A monster snowstorm blanketed the East Coast, but screaming teens still turned out for Justin Bieber, who hosted and was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live.  In a tasteless “Valentine” skit Bieber pulls out his pants and appears to take a picture of his penis with a cellphone, then winks and says, “Check your email, Hillary Clinton.”  In another, he jokes about having recently been busted for pot possession.

Michele Obama attended funeral services for 15 year-old Hadiya Pendleton, an innocent victim gunned down by gangbangers allegedly belonging to the Gangster Disciples in a park near where the Obamas have a home.  Two young men were arrested today.  Hadiya participated in the Inaugural parade, and her parents will be Michele’s guests at Barack’s upcoming State of the Union Address.

Ray Smock passed along an article by George Kenney that refers to the 270,000 Americans killed by guns since 9/11.  He adds: “Yet with tens of thousands killed by guns each year, we cannot even pass background check legislation, let alone ban assault weapons. I am ashamed to live in a gun culture this violent, this stupid, and this cowardly.”

Saturday, prior to attending Larry Lapidus’s documentary on Leontyne Price at the Gardner Center, we dined at Angela’s Pantry in Miller with the Hagelbergs, Cohens, and Sam Barnett and Brenda. The greatest soprano (according to Larry) ever to perform at the Met, Price grew up in Laurel, Mississippi, and was inspired to pursue her career after hearing Marian Anderson sing when she was 14.  After she attended Wilberforce College, the great Paul Robeson put together a benefit concert so she could afford to accept a scholarship to the Julliard School in New York City.  The documentary concluded with Price’s final, televised performance of “Aida” at the Met in 1985, after which the audience applauded for 25 minutes.  She is still living in Greenwich Village and last performed at a 2001 memorial concert at Carnegie Hall for victims of the September 11 attack.

At the Gardner Center were desert treat from Angela’s, free wine, and many friends, including Pat Conley and Tom Eaton, just back from his annual trip to Rio.  Before leaving we purchased tickets for Ed Asner’s 90-minute one-man show portraying FDR in March at the newly renovated Marquette Park Pavilion.

The Post-Trib’s Mike Hutton reported that no school swimming pools are in operation in Gary.  In the past several students had been able to get college scholarships, but for the time being at least, that is no longer possible.  It’s one of the tragic side effects of the drastic budget cuts having been imposed by the state.  What inspired the story was an email from Wirt senior Jaelan Collins, who wrote: “I started swimming for Roosevelt high school 2009, my 9th grade year. The year after, Roosevelt’s pool was down (and still is til this day), so I went to Lew Wallace High School to swim my 10th grade year and was the captain. And just like Roosevelt, Lew Wallace pool had also failed and is now down. The year after that (you guessed it!) I went to the ONLY other high school in Gary to swim, West Side High School. My 11th grade year I swam for West Side, but the team failed to exist this year. West Side High was the last of swimming in Gary, leaving plenty of other diligent swimmers & I stranded and hopeless for a future in swimming.”

above, Jaelan Collins; below, Victor Oladipo

After gaming Sunday, Tom, Dave, and I rooted IU on to an exciting road victory against tenth ranked Ohio State.  Victor Oladipo and Cody Zeller were fantastic, leaving us to wonder if they’ll go pro at year’s end.  IU kept its number one ranking despite succumbing to Illinois earlier in the week because Michigan lost to Wisconsin and Florida got beat by Arkansas.

Taylor Swift got the Grammy Awards show off to a rousing start performing “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.”  Big winners were Fun, Gotye, and Mumford and Sons, whose “Babel” was album of the year.  My favorite performances were “Ho Hey” by the Lumineers and a salute to the late Levon Helm, drummer for The Band, featuring Mumford and Sons, Elton John, Mavis Staples, and Brittany Howard of Alabama Shakes.  Sting, Bruno Mars, and Rihanna performed in a tribute to Bob Marley

Pope Benedict is resigning in three weeks, first such action in 600 years.  Not that I care – in fact, I resent all the coverage it is getting.   The media treats the Roman Catholic Church with more respect than it deserves.  In 1415 during the so-called “Great Western Schism,” three different men claimed to be pope until a council of cardinals persuaded two of them, including Gregory XII, to resign.  On Lakeshore Radio a Geriatrics professor claimed that the odds of having dementia double every five years after age 70, from three percent (where I am now) to six between ages 75 to 80, then 12% for ages 80-85, 24% at ages 85-90, and 48% between 90 and 95.

It was so windy large trash containers were blowing around on campus.  Workers were demolishing two apartment buildings on the south side of Thirty-Fifth, and obnoxious soot and small particles were blowing directly east.  At Town and Country the lid to my trunk came down on my noggin as I was loading groceries, leaving a slight bump on the top of my head.  Bummer.