Goodnight Sweetheart, Goodnight

“Goodnight, sweetheart
Well, it's time to go
I hate to leave you, but I really must say
Goodnight, sweetheart, goodnight.”
Spaniels

I’ve been working on Henry Farag to be a speaker when Vivian Carter is honored by the Legends committee for starting the first black-owned record company. Right off the bat, Vee-Jay records had a hit with the Spaniels’ “Goodnight Sweetheart.” Henry’s lifetime love affair with doo-wop music came from listening to Vivian’s radio show. Pookie Hudson, who wrote the song and performed it for Vivian in a nursing home shortly before her death, died three years ago, but original member Willie C. Jackson is still going strong, leading the revamped Spaniels into Oldies concerts.

I helped Toni put up the artificial Christmas tree in the condo recreation room. Some young’ns complained when we stopped buying real trees, but I never had enjoyed the holiday ritual of going to Jansen’s Nursery on a quest for a flawless tree and hated cleaning up the pine needles, not to mention being stabbed in the hand or foot with them months later. Toni is threatening to go with a small table model. We do have a large variety of ornaments with sentimental value, so I expect we’ll stick with what we have for some years to come since we bothered to lug the one we bought after the holidays ten years ago at a 90 percent discount from Maple Place.

Post-Trib Quickly readers have been complaining of blow-up balloons making lousy yard decorations. It’s rather funny to see them lying on their side or in a heap, deflated. There are much worse eyesores. One Quickly labeled Republicans two-faced for claiming to be concerned about the deficit while insisting on tax cuts for millionaires. Jeff Manes wrote about food pantry volunteer Marilyn Bennett. During the blizzard of 1967 her family lived and took in many motorists stranded on Highway 41, including a priest, two Brink’s drivers (who took turns guarding the truck), and a van full of college students. Some sent Christmas cards to her parents for many years.

Spotted the headline, “City Hall Gadfly arrested for yelling expletive.” Culprit Jim Nowicki talked to me at Lake Street Gallery about the disappearance of art pieces from Gary schools. At a City Hall meeting he started yelling when ruled out of order during the public comment period. Kicked out of the building, he supposedly started cursing out Mayor Rudy Clay. Reporter Jon Seidel wrote, “Nowicki routinely criticizes city officials during public meetings. He was arrested for disorderly conduct in 2009 for trying to carry a bag of trash in Gary’s Board of Public Works and Safety meeting in protest of the city’s garbage collection contract. After a jury trial, a city judge dismissed the charge.” I admire his gumption.

Re-watched the “Curb Your Enthusiasm” episode where Larry and Cheryl renew wedding vows. Larry was fine with being faithful till death but balked at vowing to pledge fidelity through all eternity. Shelley Berman plays Larry’s father, and I just love how he mumbles things under his breath. Each time I watch the episode I catch more of what he says. When his friend Solly spills something on Larry’s suit, Larry’s mother-in-law yells, “Somebody get a sponge.” Larry wonders why she doesn’t move since she’s the closest to the kitchen. Berman’s stand-up routines a half-century ago featured him smoking a cigarette and pretending to talk on the phone.

David Yaros wants me to get involved in the Northwest Indiana Steel Heritage Project whose main goal is to establish a museum. Archivist Steve McShane has been active with the group. I’ll lend it any support I can but no meetings. On his Gary website (GDYNets.WebNG.com/gary.htm) Yaros, a Milwaukee resident, laments the decline of his hometown (from City of the Century to Murder Capital is the way he puts it) and reprints articles about crime and alleged corruption within the Clay administration. Taking the Post-Trib to task for underreporting such things, he writes: “The residents of Gary deserve an advocate. Jim Nowicki cannot do it alone.” Although I don’t share his negative views about Gary, I told Yaros that I would mention the Heritage Project on my blog and sent him Gary’s First Hundred Years. His uncle, police officer, George Yaros, was gunned down in Glen Park 39 years ago while responding to an armed robbery. One of the killers, Rufus Averhart, had recently been released from jail after several community leaders, including Post-Trib reporter Ernie Hernandez, vouched for him. It seemed to them that he had been rehabilitated. An excellent artist, he had received his GED and been accepted at Purdue. Averhart received the death sentence. His appeal process went on for 26 years until he accepted a plea bargain arrangement setting his sentence at 74 years. A law firm representing Rufus, who changed his name to Zolo Agona Azania. asked if I would be a witness attesting to racism in Northwest Indiana and in the selection of judges. I demurred. Although he still maintains his innocence, in my opinion Rufus had his chance to go straight and blew it, unable to disassociate himself from lawbreakers.

Leafed through Gore Vidal’s novel “Myra Breckinridge,” about a transgendered, self-proclaimed liberated woman. It seemed contrived, dated, scatological, and frankly boring, despite a graphic chapter detailing an orgy Myra attended (writing in the first person, she notes: “My own participation was limited. I watched, and only occasionally helped out: a tickle here, a pull there, a lick, a bite, no more except for a sudden intrusion from the rear which I did not see coming”). In our present age of hardcore pornography, it’s hard to imagine what all the fuss was about when it appeared in 1968. Even if symbolic or simply satirical, I found nothing hilarious about Myra raping young stud Rusty with a dildo, thereby turning him queer. The bisexual Vidal could be insufferable in his criticisms of the country’s cult of masculinity. In “Myra” one character claims that “in every American there is a Boston Strangler longing to break a neck during orgasm.” Poppycock.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, on the cover of Time, was arrested in England on charges of rape. The American government claims the whistle blower has threatened national security and jeopardized the way diplomacy is conducted. All the furor over what he did seems like a gross exaggeration. Rather than reveal wrongdoing and deceit, like the Pentagon Papers did 40 years ago, the revelations tend to show that American officials are doing their job skillfully. Will Assange be Time’s person-of-the-year? I’d vote for the Chilean miners but fear it will be Palin even though her coattails weren’t that significant, even in Alaska.

LeeLee Devenney sent a copy of husband Bob’s interesting memoir about coming to America from Scotland. In a Glasgow tenement his family shared a toilet with two others and had to put a coin in a box to receive gas or electricity. Emailed LeeLee that Toni and I have friends in Glasgow, Linda and Charley. We met in a hot tub at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee on the thirtieth anniversary of Elvis’ death. Phil Arnold had talked me into going there for some Elvis-related concerts. We had two extra tickets and offered them to Linda and Charley. They were so grateful (Charley being a huge Elvis fan) that they bought us champagne and have been in contact with us ever since. We hope to visit them in Scotland some time soon. LeeLee and Bob met in Afghanistan when she was in the Peace Corps. They’ve visited Bob’s childhood haunts several times. She seems eager to stay in touch even though she put the kibosh on continuing the tiara story.

On Facebook Missy Brush wrote: “Omg I totally got my hair to look like anime hair!!!! Epic win!!!!!!!!” Angie gave a thumbs up to her new photo with “anime hair.” In her Ides of March 2003 journal Jonna Clazton wrote that she was a big fan of anime and into Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon.

The Wall of legends induction ceremony for Vee-Jay Records founder Vivian Carter and John Maniotes (a computer pioneer) at the Lake County Tourist Bureau Welcome Center went well even though no black people talked on Vivian’s behalf. Henry Farag reminisced movingly about tuning in WWCA at age ten on his crystal radio set and hearing Vivian playing the Dells’ “Oh What a Night.” Following Henry to read the inscription, which mentioned her breaking racial and gender barriers and producing revolutionary music, Steve told the audience he wished he had a voice like Henry’s. Al Evans provided comic relief, inadvertently touching the keyboard and changing what was on the big screen. At one point instead of an image of Vivian previous Legends inductee Tony Zale’s picture appeared. Master of ceremonies John Davies was dynamic and dramatic, pausing, raising his voice for emphasis and passionate about his mission. For my work with the committee John gave me a plaque similar to the one on the Wall honoring Vivian that I plan to donate to her alma mater, Roosevelt School.

Chancellor Howard Cohen, whom I met when Dave was honored as teacher of the year, spoke on behalf of inductee John Maniotes, who taught at Purdue Calumet for 38 years. In the audience was Gordon Keith, who formed Steeltown Records in 1966 and put out two Jackson 5 singles before the group was signed by Motown. Also in attendance was retired Purdue Cal History professor Lance Trusty, who wrote an epilogue to Powell Moore’s “The Calumet Region: Indiana’s Last Frontier” and was a contributor to several Shavings issues. Lance, Steve, George Roberts and I did a session together at an Indiana Association of Historians conference in Terre Haute. Toni agreed to come with Alissa if we stayed at a motel with a pool and hot tub. When we arrived, we learned they were out of order, but I was able to switch to a different motel that had both.

A photo of a mature-looking, pensive John Lennon, shot dead thirty years this week, is on the cover of Rolling Stone. Arcade Fire’s Suburbs CD made the top albums of the year list, coming in at number four. Ahead of them were Kanye West, The Black Keys and the Elton John/ Leon Russell collaboration. LCD Soundsystem was number 10. “We Used To Wait” was named the fifth best single (right behind Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream”) as well as one of the top videos.

Enjoyed “The Tourist” starring Johnny Depp (great as always) and Angela Jolie (exotic-looking with the fullest lips imaginable). The villains were realistic, and the movie had a nice twist at the end. In contrast to “Burlesque” last week, there was a large audience.

Just when I was ready to settle down to watch Bulls-Lakers, Dave and Tom announced they were coming over for gaming. I had a decent night, winning two of six.