Rebel

“You are tearing me apart!  You say one thing, he says another, and everybody changes back again,” James Dean as Jim Stark in “Rebel Without a Cause”

“A Place Beyond the Pines” is the best movie I’ve seen so far this year.  Ryan Gosling as a rebel motorcycle stunt driver turned criminal is great, and it was a shock to see his character exit so soon.  Emory Cohen does a chilling James Dean impression as a troubled high school kid.  Ray Liotta was a perfect choice to play a corrupt cop.  I wouldn’t mind seeing the flick again.

Saturday after watching James bowl I picked up “The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil” by George Saunders, named as one of Time magazine’s most influential people, after finding that his most recent collection of short stories, “Tenth of December,” had been checked out.  The novella looks like something Kurt Vonnegut would have written.  Westchester Library hasn’t received “Vanity Fair” issues since last December, but I leafed through “Esquire” and read about Hugh Hefner, who estimates he’s slept with a thousand women but claimed he was faithful to his three wives while married.  I finished “The Burgess Boys,” which grew on me.  Bob, the klutzy brother, turns out to be the more admirable of the two while the outwardly perfect Jim suffers a bigtime comeuppance.  The ending is quite uplifting.

Dick Hagelberg received an email from Angela wondering why nobody came to Angela’s Pantry the past two weekends.  “What gives?” she asked.  It’s a busy time of the year, and I’m sure nobody is purposely boycotting the place.  At any rate Dick suggested we eat there before bridge.  We were seated at “Eli’s Table,” named for a former Miller character who had lived upstairs and often spend his days sitting on benches along Lake Street or wandering in and out of business establishments.  He’d give half-dollars to passersby on condition that they promised to remember his name and say “Hi, Eli” next time they met.  Next to the plaque was a 50-cent piece.  My meatloaf and mashed potatoes were delicious, and the house salad came with it without extra charge. 

Earlier in the day Dick and Cheryl had attended a Parkinson’s symposium; one speaker was Marty Bohn, whose dunes photos I used in volume 42 on the inside of the back cover..  Marty is professor of pediatrics and director of the neurobiology program at Northwestern University’s Children’s Memorial Research Center.  I emailed Marty that I left a complimentary copy of volume 42 for her at Lake Street Gallery.  She responded that she can’t wait to see it. 

Crowds gathered in Denver and elsewhere to celebrate 4/20 and smoke pot, suddenly legal in Colorado, though supposedly not in public; the date refers to the time of the day when kids are out of school and ready to light up.

Sunday being sunny and warmer, I walked around the neighborhood, spotted robins and a woodpecker, waved to a man mowing his lawn, enjoyed the plentiful daffodils in bloom, and noticed Toni’s sorrel doing well.  After lunch, while Toni attended “Oz: The Great and Powerful” with Dave and the kids, I drove to Porter Beach.  Chicago’s Loop was visible although not as clearly as the day before.  Folks were climbing a nearby dune and walking their dogs; it was very peaceful. I pocketed a few smooth stones, as usual.

The Post-Trib ran a nostalgic piece by Carrol Vertreees about cranking homemade ice cream; I did that as a kid at great-grandmother Frace’s house in Easton.  The NWI Times contained a column by Rich James ridiculing Indiana Senator Dan Coats for voting against a mild compromise gun control measure that would have closed some background check loopholes.  Two decades ago Couts voted to ban assault weapons, but now he is beholden to and scared of the NRA’s Wayne LaPierre.  An editorial called Coats’s position shameful.  I heartily agree.  Coats was a Senator for ten years starting in 1989 and then became Ambassador to Germany before making big bucks as a lobbyist.  He saved Cooper Industries hundreds of millions of dollars by securing a loophole after the company to move its headquarters to Bermuda that allowed it to avoid taxes.  Coats was elected Senator again after Evan Bayh quit the job even though he didn’t even live in Indiana.

Coats is among the group of Republicans complaining that the Obama administration plans to try the surviving Marathon Bomber in civilian court rather than as an enemy combatant in front of a military tribunal.  Senator Diana Feinstein rightly complained that Republicans are trying to politicize the tragedy and delay any immigration bill because of this red herring. 

After watching the Cubs and White Sox squander leads, I checked out an episode of Louis C K’s series, which utilizes several actors who had been in “Curb Your Enthusiasm” but wasn’t nearly as funny.  Most of the supposedly outrageous things in the script – masturbation, insulting a black neighbor, giving a kid an inappropriate present – had been done better by Larry David.

The latest “Game of Thrones,” “And Now His Watch Has Ended,” was bloody good.  The title comes from the death of Commander Mormont, but the best part is when Daenerys Targaryen turns the tables of the slaver Kraznys.  After promising to give him a dragon in return for an 8,000-man army called The Unsullied, she has the dragon set fire to him and liberates all the slaves, who in gratitude follow her.  “Dani” has evolved into a formidable but compassionate rebel leader.

Anne Koehler, Karren Lee, DeeDee Ige, and Mike Olszanski thanked me for volume 42.  Anne promised to mention it on Facebook.  Two former Shavings subscribers paid over five dollars in mailing costs to return it.  They could have paid the $12.50 and simply checked the box to have their names removed from the standing order list.  People are weird; what they did seems hostile.  Maybe they didn’t like the politics or the photo of Lady Gaga on page one.  Fred McColly caught me in the cage right as I was leaving.  In volume 42 there’s mention of his granddaughter being born and a photo of Liliya with mother Sarah.  Now Liliya is 15 months old.

Steve McShane helped me find photos of the Dorie Miller Homes taken on March 12, 1980 in the Post-Trib collection.  I had found some clippings in a 1951 Gary Housing Authority scrapbook documenting construction of the housing project, but we only have negatives going back to 1952.  I sent the jpegs to Yvette Thomas for possible use on reunion t-shirts.

I needed a Notary Public for a contract Ray Boomhower sent me for having written an essay on Vivian Carter for Indiana Historical Society Press’s book “Indiana’s 200: The People Who Shaped the Hoosier State.”  I know Bishop Andrew Grutka is in it but am not sure about Mayor Hatcher.  Let’s hope.  Doug Achertof at the Credit Union helped me out. On the way I passed Reverend Dave and four women dancing in Moraine Student Union as part of “Bitchin’ Fest.”  Later events were to include poetry readings and a talent show.

Today is the forty-third anniversary of Earth Day.  In 1970 cynics viewed the idea as a plot to divert activists away from more revolutionary causes.  Now one would be hard-pressed to come up with a more vital issue than ecology.  Also on April 22, 1889, the Oklahoma Land Rush began at noon as 50,000 lined up to stake claims to land taken from Indian tribes.  Tomorrow is both William Shakespeare’s birth date and the date he died.

Richie Havens, who opened Woodstock singing “Freedom,” died at age 72.  He also performed at Bill Clinton’s 1993 inauguration.  My favorite Havens song is his version of the Beatles’s “Here Comes the Sun.”