“Do you remember lying in bed
With your covers pulled over your head?
Radio playin’ so no one can see.”
“Do You Remember Rock N Roll Radio?” The Ramones
Like Vivian Carter
for Henry Farag, deejay Joe "The Rockin' Bird" Niagara on Philadelphia station WIBG was my
initiation into Rock and Roll. Joe,
later a payola scandal scapegoat, often played two versions of the same song –
such as “The Twist” by Hank Ballard and Chubby Checker - and have folks vote on which they’d like to
hear again; almost always the r and b version won out. A black station – WHAT,
if I’m not mistaken - played rhythm and
blues (that’s where I first heard the wonderful primal scream of Ray Charles)
and broadcast rollicking Sunday church services. From time to time they’d play tunes by
“blue-eyed soul bothers” Frank Sinatra (“The Chairman of the Board”) and Johnny
Otis, a Greek-American who sounded black and discovered such greats as Big Mama
Thornton and Jackie Wilson. Otis’s
biggest hit was “Willie and the Hand Jive.”
Henry Farag wanted
my critique, from one to ten, of Sunday’s Gardner Center performance of “The
Signal: A Rhapsody.” I said if the Aquatorium
show was a 7, this was a 9, as there is always room for improvement. Perfectionist that he is, he gave the first
show a 4 and the second a 6 and demanded I tell him how to make it better. I suggested a medley of songs that hooked
Henry on doo wop, such as “Oh, What a Night,” “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” and
“Since I Don’t Have You.” I also thought
Henry could describe his debut as an Oldies concert promoter – putting on a
show at Greek Hall featuring the Drifters – followed by a Drifters number,
perhaps “This Magic Moment” or “There Goes My Baby.” Henry wants a gig at IU’s School of Music,
one of the best in the country, so I sent him the names and emails of three
professors who might be interested.
Archives volunteer
John Hmurovic’s article on Armanis F. Knotts launching horse racing in
present-day Porter, Indiana, near the South Shore Railroad a century ago will
appear in the next Indiana Magazine of
History issue. I urged him to send it there after Traces showed no interest. I predict it will be the best IMH piece all
year. John has a flair, as seen in his
4-hour film on Gary’s history, based in large part on “City of the Century.”
L.A. Clippers owner
Donald Sterling got himself into big trouble for telling biracial mistress
Viviano Stiviano not to post photos with Earvin “Magic” Johnson or other
African Americans. On a tape he said, “It bothers me a lot that you want to
broadcast that you’re associating with black people.” Magic, in town to raise money for “A Gary
Promise,” which provides student scholarships, called for Sterling to be
stripped of his team ownership. NBA
commissioner Adam Silver did just that plus fined him $2.5 million and banned
him from games. For three decades the
Clippers franchise has been a laughing stock – compiling the worst record of
any major professional franchise - but the team is having its best season
ever. Donald Trump called Sterling’s
utterance “despicable” and labeled
gold-digging Stiviano “the girlfriend
from hell.” A California law
prohibits taping people with out their knowledge.
Good luck to Magic
and “A Gary Promise,” but charter schools have
decimated once
proud Roosevelt and Gary Lew Wallace, the latter rumored to be closing next
year. NWI Times reporter Steve Hanlon interviewed former coaches Ron
Heflin and Benny Dorsey, who rued not only the decline of the schools’ athletic
programs but the quality of teaching and learning. Back where he led the 1991 Panthers to a
state basketball championship, Heflin said, “This
place isn’t what it once was.” The pride
is gone,” Dorsey added.
Ron Heflin (l) and Benny Dorsey; NWI Times photo by Jonathan Miano
An interview Samuel
Love did with opponents of the GEO Group turning the old St. Sava’s Church in
Hobart into a prison for immigrants appeared in the publication “La Raza.” “I’m
stoked,” was his reaction. GEO’s CEO
George C. Zoley took over $22 million of taxpayer money between 2008 and
2012. An ACLU report characterized one
of its facilities in Mississippi as a cesspool, concluding: “Prisoners are underfed and routinely held in cells that are
infested with rats and have no working toilets or lights. Although designated
as a facility to care for prisoners with special needs and serious psychiatric
disabilities, ECMF denies prisoners even the most rudimentary mental health
care services. Many prisoners have attempted to commit suicide; some have
succeeded. One prisoner is now legally blind after EMCF failed to provide his
glaucoma medications and take him to a specialist, and another had part of his
finger amputated after he was stabbed and developed gangrene.”
above photo by Belhu Snanbria
Sam and Brenda are
also demonstrating to halt BP from razing Marktown properties, supposedly in
order to create a green space. Protestors
gathered at East Chicago City Hall. The working-class
neighborhood, where residents parked vehicles on sidewalks and walked in the
streets, dates back 97 years. On
Facebook Thomas Frank wrote: “It is a strange form of
industrial cannibalism - one of the wealthiest industries in human history
wiping out a very rare low-income historic community, when there is plenty of
underutilized industrial land all around BP.”
Robert C. Byrd Center for Legislative Studies director
Ray Smock wished Congress a Happy 225th Birthday despite “its current state of dilapidation and dysfunction” that has caused
its approval rate to sink to six percent.
Led by James Madison, the first Congress in 1789 drew up the Bill of
Rights and submitted the proposed amendments to the Constitution to the states
for ratification. The former House historian wrote: “The
story of Congress is filled with charlatans and frauds and also with noble men
and women who have defended the Constitution, understood the importance of the
legislative branch as the fulcrum of our government, and devoted themselves to
making government work on behalf of the American people.”
Republicans blocked
a Senate bill to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 by threatening a
filibuster. Their profligate use of such
tactics makes it virtually impossible to pass any legislation without 60 votes. This vote, 54-42, fell six votes short. Democrat Michael Bennet of Colorado stated: “Right now, if you work 40 hours a week in
America, in the greatest country in the world, at a federal minimum wage, you
make barely over $15,000 a year. Think
about how crazy that is.”
Jerry Davich reported: “At a recent awards gala, I bumped into a region official who came
across as arrogant, condescending and downright rude to several guests.” Unless
he named names, I feel, he shouldn’t have printed it. Half the commenters thought Davich meant
Speros Batistatos, who unilaterally moved the annual air show from the Lake
Michigan shoreline to a farm downstate.
The Student
Activities Board had a “photo booth” in Moraine that resembled a computer and could
handle only one person at a time. Part of
the fun of the old-fashioned ones was squeezing in with buddies, and I was
hoping to have Scott Fulk or his able assistant Jermel Nelson join me. I managed to use it posing in a variety of
computer-generated hats.
On Facebook Anne
Balay invited students to drop by her office and help themselves to books still
there; she closed by saying, “Thanks for
8 exciting years.” Back at you from
many, many of us. Annie Duley responded: “ I’m so glad I left IUN when I did.
An IUN without you is no IUN at all.
Thank you for teaching me. Thank
you for supporting Connectionz! We were
so lucky to have you.” I wonder if
anyone will be brave enough to be the group’s new adviser.
James Wallace
invited me to a Brother 2 Brother graduation celebration. I sat with graduates Roy Cast, whom I had met
in Steve McShane’s class, and Jesse Johnson, who had asked Anne Balay to come. A 1971 West Side grad, Roy recalled
no-nonsense Principal Quentin Smith and
legendary track coach Marce Gonzalez. Keynote
speaker Dr. Tyrone Bledsoe (above) gave an inspirational talk stressing the importance
of education, interacting with the audience.
He referred to being from the same part of Mississippi as Mary Lee and
having a willful mother like Chancellor Lowe, who chuckled appreciatively. A survey on how African American college
students spend their time outside of class revealed that studying alone in the
library ranked tenth behind such other pursuits as playing video games, working
out in an exercise room, pursuing a love life, vegging out (doing nothing), and
rapping. In contrast, Dejuan Devoe
completed his degree in two and a half years, taking as many as 24 hours of
credit in the summer. Floyd Harper
arrived late due to class obligations.
Jesse Johnson read Langston Hughes’s “Dream Deferred” poem. Roy Cast thanked Anne for making him a more
rigorous student and noted that Marla Gee, also in her early 60s, was headed to
Valpo Law School. Afterwards, Ava Meux,
like Marla a Sixties classmate, asked her about applying to law schools.
Above, Roy Cast; below, Jesse Johnson
This post on
Facebook from Anne: “I attended the Brother 2
Brother graduation today at work, because students asked me to. They talked
frequently, and in one case publicly, about how my believing in them and
challenging them helped them achieve. I managed to get to my car before crying
in sadness and rage. WHY did the men who engineered my tenure denial see no
need whatsoever to witness me teach, or to talk to my students? I know the
answer, of course. But yes, it hurts. I did good work there, and instead of
being honored, I was fired.”
I posted this update on Anne Balay’s tenure case and
offered free copies of the new Shavings
to anyone who desired one. I got
requests from both IUN professors and Facebook friends.
With
Anne Balay’s book “Steel Closets: Voices of Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender
Steelworkers” having been published by University of North Carolina Press to
great acclaim, IU Northwest should be celebrating the 50 year-old English
professor’s achievement. Instead, on the
direction of Bloomington administrators, the university will have no choice but
to terminate her at the end of spring semester unless President Michael
McRobbie has a change in heart.
Though
no open lesbian had ever been awarded tenure and promotion at IU Northwest,
Anne Balay nevertheless had felt confident about her chances upon submitting
her dossier. Her case for excellence in research included numerous scholarly
articles that appeared in the top refereed journals in her field, plus a book
dealing with Northwest Indiana steelworkers that historian John D’Emilio,
co-author of “Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America” termed
“breathtakingly original.” Winner of
several teaching awards, with above average student evaluations, Anne had extremely
positive letters from ten faculty observers, including the senior member of her
department and the assistant vice chancellor for academic affairs.
Balay’s case seemed ironclad, but she had
engaged in activities that a few detractors considered controversial and not in
fitting with the deferential behavior expected of non-tenured faculty:
*Adviser to the LGBT group
Rainbow Connectionz, Anne marched in Gay Pride parades with members; after one
complained that a Health and Human Services instructor docked her a letter
grade because she looked too “butch,” Anne complained.
*Serving as an Office of
Diversity and Equity representative on a Chemistry Department search and screen
committee, Anne spoke up when members were about to reject an applicant for
being too old and again when they ignored Affirmative Action guidelines.
* Anne began researching
gay, lesbian, and transgendered steelworkers despite Chairman George Bodmer’s
recommendation that she stick to writing articles in her field of children
literature.
* She and other junior
faculty opposed Chairman Bodmer’s re-appointment due to a lack of department
meetings or mentoring (beyond the mantra, “Publish, publish, publish”). Their effort failed, but a senior faculty
allegedly warned Anne that she better start looking for another job.
Anne’s
chair, rejecting the unanimous opinion of his department
committee, recommended against granting tenure, claiming her teaching to be
inadequate, based on alleged student complaints, including comments on her
course evaluations that by his own admission represented a small minority of
the total. In the end President McRobbie
chose to side with Anne’s chair even though IU Northwest’s Chancellor and Vice
Chancellor for Academic Affairs recommended her.
In
“Steel Closets” Anne Balay wrote that her shabby treatment at IU Northwest
“made the steelworkers’ hostile work environment uncomfortably personal.” Although the two workplaces share little in
common, both are hostile spaces for un-closeted LGBTs, with newcomers better
off hiding their “queerness” and concentrating on fitting in. At a university that would mean not making
waves, keeping one’s nose to the grindstone, being deferential to superiors,
and accumulating published articles that few people ever read.
At the bowling
banquet former teammate John Bulot made a surprise appearance. Recovering nicely from several forms of
cancer, he works out daily and expects to be back with the Engineers next
season. I asked if his lady friend was
still cooking for him, and he responded with a twinkle in his eye, “Which one?” Until his health problems worsened, he lived
in an apartment where women outnumbered men six to one. Recently he asked one to spend the weekend
with him, and she inquired, “Is the
plumbing still working?” After one
visit his prostate specialist said he had a present for him; it was
Cialis. A printout confirmed that my
average improved 11 pins from the year before, the result of a better delivery. Robbie is heading to Kansas City with a group
called Roads Scholars (formerly Elder Hostel) and will hear from historians and
visit, among other places, a blues club, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, and
the Truman presidential library.
