Manifested Dreams

“Given a chance I’m gonna be somebody,” Kings of Leon

As WXRT’s Saturday morning show reminded me, it’s been 30 years since Harold Washington was elected mayor of Chicago.  I stayed up most of the night to watch the returns and Washington’s victory speech.   Like now with Obama and in 1968 with Richard Hatcher, some whites just couldn’t accept a black person running City Hall, and what ensued in “The Windy City” became known as the Council Wars. Topping the radio station’s 1983 album listener poll was “Speaking in Tongues” by the Talking Heads, which opened with “Burning Down the House.”  It was a big year for Michael Jackson, with “Billie Jean” and “Beat It” demonstrating that the Gary native was at the top of his game.  Both Van Halen and the Pointer Sisters put out hits entitled “Jump.”

Becca and James participated in “Singing the Manifested Dreams,” a three-hour tribute to East Chicago Central musical director Leon C. Kendrick, who is retiring after 36 years.  Both grandkids were in the chorus and amazingly knew all the words to the songs, including one partly in Swahili and with a verse in sign language.  James was swaying to the gospel numbers with a broad smile on his face.  Becca was in several dance routines, including a scene where she was wearing a choir robe.  It was so hot in the auditorium, and especially on stage, that her glasses flew off.  She quickly retrieved them before they were stepped on and continued with hardly missing a beat.  She also brought down the house singing “A Better World” in a routine with two of Kendick’s young grandsons.  They received a standing ovation.  The entire show was done professionally and very moving, at times resembling a rousing church service.  Two male dancers were remarkably talented and sexy.  Speaking of which, an alumnus did a scorching Tina Turner impression to the strains of “Proud Mary” in a medley that included “Tutti Fruity” and “Just My Imagination.”  The crowd especially responded to Kendrick’s composition “Stand Up and Cheer East Chicago” and the Gospel Legends classic “Don’t Let the Devil Ride.” 

Dave was the announcer but joined me for part of the first act.  Next to me were Patti and John Teague (Angie’s dad); she looks remarkably fit but is bedeviled by a bad back.  A kid in front of me mostly played video games on a hand-held device; behind me was a beautiful woman with an infectious smile who reminded me of a young Diana Ross.  I said hello to Richard Spencer, listed in the program as Sign Language Choreographer, and to his mom, who reported that son Tony, an army dentist and high school friend of Dave, was being sent to Japan.  During intermission I ran into soccer coach Castulo Perez and thanked Dr. Kendrick for including James and Becca in previous productions and for being such a good mentor to them and so many others.  Three daughters dedicated “Love’s Anatomy” to him and their mother Yvette, nicknamed Precious, his wife of 34 years.

Sunday morning I stopped by Dave and Angie’s to congratulate the kids and see the new Camry Dave leased after the transmission failed on their old one.  James reported that he ate seven bananas between rehearsal and the show since the only other available food was a single piece of pizza.  Angie thought the kimono Becca wore in the “Multicultural Garden of Love” scene was something I brought back from Hong Kong 20 years ago.  Maybe so, I can’t recall.  Still in Grand Rapids for Alissa’s birthday and an event Josh coordinated called “Build a Better Block,” Toni saw the new “Star Trek” with Phil and Delia.

Sunday’s NWI Times contained an article by Diana Poulton about Garrett Cope.  Wife Barbara said that fellow teacher Anne Thompson introduced them when she needed help with the set for the play “Hansel and Gretel.  “In one afternoon, I had a forest, an oven, a house for Hansel and Gretel, and trees, all made from butcher paper and poster paint,” Barbara said. “He was so talented and could do so much with so little.”  Describing his talents directing musical numbers, Barbara said, “He didn’t plot it out on paper; he did it as he was watching it onstage.  He never screamed or hollered. Everyone just loved Garrett because he never got angry.”

FBI seizes files, June 2012, Times photo by Kristen Smith; Scott King and George Van Til, photo by John J. Watkins

Lake County surveyor George Van Til was indicted for allegedly having employees engage in campaign work.  One person on the payroll just one month complained of being asked to pick up a tuxedo from the cleaners that Van Til subsequently wore to a political event.  George is a good man and ably represented by former Gary mayor Scott King.  If the government indicted every elected official whose employees engaged in political work, there’d hardly be any left.

The 2013 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony opened with John Fogarty, Tom Petty, Jackson Browne, and Don Henley joining in a tribute to Randy Newman, who was in good voice himself.  Sadly Albert King and Donna Summers didn’t live to enjoy their induction, but Rush and Heart (neither among my favorite bands) rocked out impressively. At the Billboard Awards Taylor Swift was a big winner, but what made the news was Miguel landing on a woman’s head during a number and a crotch shot of Jennifer Lopez lying on her back in a revealing outfit with her legs wide open.

 “Room 237,” is a documentary about weird theories of hidden meanings in Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining.”  One claims Kubrick was admitting complicity if faking the Apollo 11 moon landing.  Some believe it is about the extermination of Native Americans.  In one scene is a canister of Calumet baking powder.  Since “calumet” means peace pipe, the suggestion is that it calls attention to broken peace treaties.  Since the Overlook Hotel was built on Indiana burial ground, that might explain young Danny’s visions of rivers of blood spilling from the elevators into the room.

A stiff neck caused me to sleep in a different position and I scratched the left side of my face as a result.  Hate when I do that.  Driving along 80/94 listening to “Unbelievers” by Vampire Weekend on WXRT, I spotted two women kneeling by an access road.  One was consoling the other, as if a loved one had died in an accident nearby.  State cops, including one on a motorcycle, had pulled over several vehicles in the speed trap between Central and Broadway.  On Broadway near the Little Calumet bridge two people were trying to nudge a big snapping turtle off the road. 

Nephew Aaron “Beamer” Pickert is visiting in early June on his way back from a business trip to Fairbanks, Alaska.  It will coincide with Game Weekend at Wades and a Blues Cruise gig at the Portage marina.  Beamer is a gamer and the whole family can’t wait to see him.

Anne Balay posted photos of her father’s wedding.  I am going to audit Anne’s Summer II Women’s Studies class to see if there is any legitimacy to alleged student complaints about her classroom comportment.  Recently a colleague following my coverage of Anne’s “p and t saga” on my blog questioned the assertion that her detractors were on the wrong side of history.  It was her understanding that the cause of the unfavorable tenure decision was that she “ran into problems in dealing with students.”  In other words, her superiors supposedly had no problem with her personally, they were simply reacting to numerous student complaints.  The question remains: were these complaints valid or did they come from detractors who couldn’t handle a “queer” teacher and thus were on the wrong side of history?  I responded to my colleague in this manner: “So what were the ‘problems [Anne] ran into’ with students?  While it appears that she was too rigorous a grader in the eyes of a few disgruntled grad students, most complaints appear to have had to do with students feeling intimidated by her being an open lesbian feminist or finding fault with readings where LGBTs were treated sympathetically and homophobes unsympathetically.  It is these detractors that I feel are on the wrong side of history.  How sad that administrators gave their "problems" with her more weight than the unanimous recommendation of the English Department promotion and tenure committee, which included such distinguished members as Mary Russell, Ana Osan, and William Buckley, while neglecting the excellent work Anne has done with so many other students, many of whom have presented scholarly papers at conferences here and in Bloomington.”  I also mentioned that when I was History Department chair, I frequently received student complaints about professors.  Ironically, most were leveled against our two best teachers, one for using the "F bomb" and other profanities, the other for rude and insulting comments about those who arrived late or left his class early.  While respecting academic freedom, when I received valid complaints, I responded to them and tried to have the problem remedied.

Despite Summer I having begun a week ago, IUN’s campus has seemed deserted.  At the History and Philosophy office I noticed on the schedule that most offerings were Internet courses.  I suppose there are some advantages to students and faculty, but isn’t something lost in the way of social and intellectual exchange if there is no classroom.  I guess those in charge believe it is cost effective in the short run, but the department lost $30,000 in summer faculty salaries.  Diana Chen-lin is teaching two courses for the price of one because neither had 15 students and otherwise would have been cancelled.  The administration raised the number of slots in Chris Young’s Internet course from 30 to 40 and as a result only 13 students enrolled in his second section, costing Chris an estimated $6,000.  The secretary called 57 students to tell them the bad news that their classes were cancelled.  Many were not happy and will be less likely to sign up for classes on campus in the future.  One wonders, will more and more Internet classes also be the trend in the Fall and Spring?  When January comes around, how many students will opt for an Internet course rather than get dressed, drive through snow, and come to Gary?  Are precautions in place to assure quality control and prevent fraud and cheating?  The long-range implications of this trend seem disturbing.  When I think back on college, I recall dynamic professors and a vibrant campus atmosphere.  What will the memories of the next generation be?   How soon before trustees and legislators decide campus buildings are superfluous?  Will Indiana University morph into a glorified University of Phoenix?  Are you and other officials studying the implications of this rapid expansion of “long-distance learning” on the traditional university?

Due to Tea Party influence, Virginia’s Republican Party selected extremist Ken Cuccinelli to be their candidate for governor and Reverend E.W. Jackson as his running mate.  The black minister has compared Planned Parenthood to the KKK, claimed Obama had Muslim sensibilities, and asserted that homosexuals have perverted minds and condone pedophilia in their advocacy of complete sexual freedom.  What a sickie Jackson must be, and what a travesty that he has been able to win non-profit status for his organization STAND (Staying True To America’s National Destiny).  Commenting on the Internal Revenue Service being under fire for holding up requests for tax exempt status for Tea Party groups, Ray Smock wrote: “There is no question that the IRS needs improvement and that tax laws are often unjust.  But it is not because the bureaucrats screwed up while trying to figure out how to handle the flood of requests by tea party organizations for tax exemption, it is because corporate America and super rich America are not paying their fair share of taxes because they can afford lawyers and lobbyists to write loopholes into tax code.”

I attribute the growing tolerance towards same-sex relationships in part to the sexual revolution.  Where once oral and anal sex were seen as homosexual perversions, many heterosexual couples now engage in these practices.  Ten years ago by a vote of 6 to 3 (with William Rehnquist, Clarence Thomas, and Antonin Scalia dissenting, the Supreme Court in Lawrence v. Texas struck down sodomy laws in 14 states and declared that consenting adults had a right to sexual privacy.