“The subdivisions have no charms to soothe the restless
dreams of youth,” Rush, “Signals”
The only subdivisions I’ve lived in were Beverly Hills,
Michigan, in 1955-56 and Ross Township (now part of Merrillville) in
1970-72. Neither was charming, and in
the latter case, many neighbors had recently moved from Gary and were fearful
of blacks and apprehensive of my beard and long hair. Neighbor kids would ask Phil and Dave if Toni
and me were married.
Jonathyne Briggs posed with someone in a Darth Vader
outfit at Soldier Field. A friend joked
that he had run into half of Daft Punk, whose new CD of electronic music tops
the charts and landed the French duo of Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas
Bangalter on the cover of Rolling Stone. The name stems from a negative review of
their first album, recorded with Phoenix guitarist Laurant Brancowitz, under
the name Darlin’.
Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek died of cancer at age
74. In 1993, 22 years after Jim Morrison
passed away, Eddie Vedder sang lead vocals when the group was inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I heard “Light
My Fire,” featuring Manzarek’s unforgettable solos, on WXRT while on the way to
Jewel. Another pleasant surprise was
saxophonist Cannonball Adderly’s “Mercy Mercy Mercy.” It contains no words, but the sax says it all.
In “The Shackles of Power” John Dos Passos notes that
cantankerous John Randolph of Roanoke contracted mumps in his youth, which left
him with undeveloped testes, a high-pitched voice, and beardless. After one brother died, his fiancé gave birth
to a stillborn baby. Another brother
disposed of the body, was caught, and indicted for murder. Though Thomas Jefferson’s cousin, John
Randolph broke with the president for supposedly abandoning States Rights and
became the leader of the “Old Republicans” or “Quids.” In his will he freed the
slaves who had supported him all his life.
On Memorial Day weekend Michele and Tom Dietz brought
Seattle Joe Robinson up from Indy along with Nicholas and Sophia. Hoosier born and bred, Tom had been to
Indianapolis Motor Speedway earlier in the week for Festival Parade Day and has
attended “The Race” several times. Veteran
Tony Kanaan, one of four drivers bunched together when a caution flag was
lifted with just a few laps to go, rushed ahead of Ryan Hunter-Reay just before
a crash caused another caution flag to keep the cars from passing one another
during the final two laps. It was a lucky
break for Kanaan, finally winning the 500 in his twelfth attempt.
James and Becca stayed the entire weekend, making a total
of nine sleeping at the condo Saturday night.
Dave and Angie brought chicken and mashed potatoes left over from the
E.C. Central prom, and Toni made ribs. The
potatoes came in handy when I pulled breakfast duty and made latkes (I also had
requests for hoecakes). Dave got his hair cut short for the
occasion. (below, Dave with Maria-Isabel Gomez)
In a walk around the block the kids and I encountered
numerous friendly dogs and passed by several men mowing lawns. We passed a basketball around, Nicholas and
Sophia managing the feat while on push scooters. They also got in beach time before the rains
came. Starting home on Monday the
Dietz’s ran into traffic on 80/94 and detoured onto Route 12. At County Line Road they decided to check out
our old place almost three years after we left it. Why hasn’t it been torn down? Lack of funding?
On Tuesday Joe, Toni, and I watched the Liberace biopic
“Behind the Candelabra” starring Michael Douglas and Matt Damon as his young
lover. In this day and age it is hard to
imagine that most of the pianist’s fans didn’t realize that he was gay. While there was no frontal nudity, director
Steven Soderbergh included scenes of Daman mounting Douglas from behind and of
Liberace greeting bedmate Scot in the morning by saying, “You’re up” and then
going down on him. Later they visit a
porn emporium, and Scot pukes upon discovering that Liberace is making use of a
glory hole. As portrayed in the film,
Liberace clearly loved Scot but sought variety and dumped him when another
young protégé caught his eye. That said,
there were plenty of funny moments and the actors were mesmerizing. Joe and I loved it while Toni found it
somewhat disturbing. I only wish there
were more performance scenes.
Joe got into the basketball and hockey playoffs, rooting
for the Pacers against the hated Heat and cheering on the Blacks Hawks as they
overcame being down three games to one to the Red Wings. Watching the 2013 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
induction show, Joe marveled at Rush’s performance and later found a five-CD
box set at best Buy for $19.95. I picked
up Daft Punk’s “Random Access Memories” and the new National CD “The Trouble
Will Find Me,” featuring Matt Berninger’s baritone vocals. On Joe’s last evening, we ordered pizzas from
Sage Restaurant and attended Dave’s rehearsal with Blues Cruise. Joe loved playing with the lively Bush family
dog and particularly enjoyed the band’s rendition of Queen’s “Fat Bottomed
Girls.” Missy and Dave sang several
songs together, including a Cracker tune I hadn’t heard them do before,
“Eurotrash Girl.” Brittany Shearer, bass
guitarist on several numbers, has been playing roller derby on a pro team that
plays their games at Camelot Lanes.
On our ride to Greenwood, just south of Indy, Joe and I
listened to ABBA (a tradition ever since three years ago when we went to French
Lick) and Rush’s 1982 effort “Signals.”
Joe has a terrific ear and picked up most of the lyrics. Greeting us were Nicholas and the Dietz
family dog Chloe. On Science Channel I learned how soy sauce is made, a process
that takes months. After squeezing the
liquid from layers made of soybeans and wheat the leftovers are used as cattle
fodder.
Finding a Smithsonian
magazine I perused Nathaniel Philbrick’s article about the Battle of Bunker
Hill, which took place a year before the signing of the Declaration of
Independence and was the bloodiest clash of the Revolution. Among the 1,500 dead was Dr. Joseph Warren,
who held off the British during their third assault on Breed’s Hill so that
other could escape. In the evening we
rooted for the Pacers and booed when Miami’s goon Chris “Birdman” Andersen
mauled Tyler Hansbrough and was not kicked out of the game. It was close until Lebron James took over in
the third quarter. Andersen was subsequently suspended for game six. Michele and I chatted about family matters.
She lamented that most folks in their subdivision were conservative but has
found congenial companions at a 6 a.m. exercise class. Her family is pushing for them to move to
Florida when their kids are out of high school in seven years, while Tom wants
to stay in Indiana. Hope they remain
Hoosiers.
Driving north in the rain Friday, I listened to a couple
Top 40 stations (rare for me) and recognized Justin Timberlake (“Mirrors”) and
Taylor Swift (“22”). I heard Macklemore
and Lewis (“Can’t Hold Us”) for the first time and a new single by Avril
Lavigne, “Here’s To Never Growing Up.”
I’ll drink to that.
In the Archives for the first time in a week, I opened a
hundred emails, including news that Alissa and Josh had arrived in Amsterdam. He posted a photo of hundreds of bicycles
parked at the central train station.
They are now in the Paris district of Montmartre, known for its
nightclubs and the white-domed Sacred heart Basilica. Josh reported: “That first night
we met up at a bar with hundreds of couch surfers having a trivia night; they
told us many cool places to go and will be helping us around town this
week. Yesterday we went to the top of the Eiffel Tower and just as we
were leaving at sunset it began sprinkling and a rainbow circled the top of the
tower; it was incredible. We also had our first "real" Parisian meal
at a small restaurant with a bottle of wine, a baguette and goose,
duck and smoked salmon.”
Alissa in Amsterdam and with Josh at Montmartre
The latest Traces
contains articles about the Great Flood of 1913 inundating Indianapolis and the
founding that year of the Woman’s Press Club of Indiana. A hundred years ago, women couldn’t join the
all-male Indianapolis Press Club. Charter
member Juliet Strauss wrote a column for the Indianapolis News as well as one entitled “The Ideas of a Plain
Country Woman” for Ladies Home Journal. She advised: “When trouble comes, meet it, get along with it the best you can, and
then let loose of it.” In the “Black
History” section are articles about an unsuccessful Indiana Underground
Railroad escape attempt and the tragedy of Sergeant Thomas Brown, so
traumatized from seeing comrades used as canon fodder by racist commanders during
the Battle of the Crater near Petersburg, Virginia, that he died eight years
later in an insane asylum.
IUN is offering a Public Speaking summer course
online. WTF? Responding to Vice President Applegate’s
latest email, I expressed the hope that he might make it his mission to
facilitate the launching of innovative regional campus pilot programs,
especially in the liberal arts (what distinguishes IU from Purdue and the
former state teachers colleges). I wrote: “The legacy of your distinguished predecessor, John Ryan, was to free
regional campuses from overburdening bureaucratic controls. Yours, I
hope, will be to help make individual campuses laboratories for experiments
that, if successful, could be adapted by others.” Two recent campus initiatives, the Liberal
Studies masters degree program and the Center for Urban and Regional
Excellence, were well intentioned but suffered from inadequate funding. I concluded: “I know money is tight, but perhaps you have the resources or
wherewithal to seek grant money for system-wide pilot programs, including
Threshold Summer.”
On Facebook Jonathyne Briggs wrote: “Ten years ago, I lost my dad. I
miss him every day. Make sure to hug
yours, if you can.” Unfortunately
Vic died of a sudden heart attack at age 50.
Still recall the shock upon hearing the news late at night while a grad student
at Maryland. Jerry Davich noted that
Allegiant Airlines is ending service from Gary Airport after 18 months of twice
a week flights to and from the Orlando area.
Sad. Pittsburgh Dave Lane passed
along the front page of a Minnesota newspaper that he found amusing.
Archives intern Elizabeth LaDuke brought in delicious brownies with
icing on the top. She’s doing a
Sociology paper on the fundamentalist Fairhaven Baptist Church, located just a
couple miles from us, and plans to attend a service on Sunday. She was somewhat apprehensive, but I told her
people will probably be friendly. Each
Sunday Fairhaven buses bring ghetto kids to the church from Gary, supposedly
promising them Big Macs. Elizabeth
discovered on my blog that I liked Arcade Fire and recommended the band
Grizzley Bear.
Lake County Sheriff John Buncich hired Michael Chirich as a security
guard for work-release prisoners. His
crew recently cleaned up at the Gary park where Froebel School once stood. He wears a uniform and carries handcuffs but
no lethal weapon. Having taught 30 years
at Calumet High School, he’s seen everything and mentioned that the prisoners
are well-behaved because if they screw up they’ll be back in a cell rather than
getting outside and living eight to a room in a decent facility.
