“For me the cinema is not a slice of life, but a piece of cake.”
Alfred Hitchcock
Lily Tomlin plays Elle, a cranky lesbian feminist poet
in “Grandma,” a film directed by Paul Weitz that I fear will never make it to
Northwest Indiana. Among other things,
Elle embarks on a quest to help a granddaughter get an abortion. Weitz directed Tomlin in “Admission,” where
she played Tina Fey’s horny mother, the type of role increasingly assigned to
old folks that makes me cringe. Wes Craven,
director of such “slasher” movies as “A Nightmare on Elm Street” and “Scream,”
passed away unlamented by me. Weird Brit Alfred Hitchcock knew
how to induce fear without needless violence or blood.
Ten years ago, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina,
Robert Blaszkiewicz wrote a NWI Times
“Slice of Life” column entitled “The heartbreak of New Orleans: Our lost
city.” It begins:
I close my eyes and the sights, sounds and smells
of New Orleans rush back:
warm beignets smothered in powdered sugar and steaming cafe au
lait; the menagerie of street musicians, artists and tarot card readers on
Jackson Square; a streetcar rumbling along St. Charles Avenue, passing its
majestic mansions and soaring live oaks; a tray of boiled crawfish and oysters
on the half shell, washed down with a cold beer.
I open my eyes and see these pictures of a
disaster in some Third World country. The words tell me the location, but I
can't wrap my mind around it. It's no longer the New Orleans I know.
I've traveled to this city pretty much annually
for the past 18 years to visit my wife's family, most recently this past March,
when my son tasted his first French Market snowball and chased pigeons around
Jackson Square.
Saturday evening a
large crowd gathered at Gary’s Genesis Center for a National Civil Rights Hall
of Fame event to celebrate a “New Generation of Leaders” and commemorate the
1972 National Black Political Convention at West Side High School. At the IUN table near me were historian Ron
Cohen and Communication professor Eve Bottando, who plays both polkas and rap
on accordion. Her dad worked at City
Hall under Mayor Hatcher as a sound technician.
Mayor Karen Wilson-Freeman gave us all a hug and later noted from the
podium that she had intended to attend college in Flint, Michigan, but Mayor Richard
Hatcher encouraged her to apply to Harvard and vouched for her. Former athletic director Earl Smith, Jr.,
solicited my help in launching a Gary Sports Hall of Fame. Attending the celebration were students from
Gary schools and Valparaiso Law School, where Hatcher taught for many
years.
Urban League
director Vanessa Allen opened the proceedings by singing “The Star Spangled
Banner” and “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” the “Negro National Anthem.” Reverend John E. Jackson, pastor at Trinity
United Church of Christ and active in Black Lives Matter, gave a spellbinding
invocation during which he characterized Jesus as an African radical. With tickets just $25 we nonetheless
received a full-course dinner (salad, rolls, chicken, stuffing, gravy,
cranberry sauce, vegetables, and cake). The “New Generation” of honorees were
offspring of distinguished leaders such as deputy mayors Jim Holland and
Richard Comer (community activists Dena Holland Neal and Denise Dillard).
above, Rev. John E. Jackson in 2014 with Jeremiah Wright & Charles Dockery; below, Ras Baraka & John Ford
Representative
Charlie Brown, historian Dolly Millender, and Mayor Hatcher recalled their
excitement when 4,000 delegates descended on Gary during the 1972 convention,
including the widows of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, and how inspirational
the workshops were to the delegates, many of whom went on to become elected
officials in towns and cities.
The two keynote speakers were Tuskegee mayor John Ford, who attended the
convention, and Mayor Ras Baraka, whose father Amiri Baraka, was its co-chair. Three
years ago Reverend Jesse Jackson told Michael Puente of WBEZ:
It was important to have [the National Black Political
Convention] in a city where the mayor was the host. We couldn’t have had the same convention if
the climate had been hostile. Mayor
Hatcher was the driving force. He
chaired that convention into reality.
Black nationalist Amiri Baraka,
the former poet Leroi Jones, told Puente:
When we got there, Hatcher had put these red, black and green
flags on all the signposts. It was very
exciting. There were black delegates
from all 50 states, just like it was a convention for the Democratic or
Republican Party. The convention’s main
objective was to establish a black political agenda for the nation, but coming
to a consensus wasn’t easy. There were
heated back-and-forth discussions and some delegates threatened to walk out
when they couldn’t come to terms.
Former City Court judge
Douglas Grimes introduced Johnny Ford, who has served eight nonconsecutive
terms as Tuskegee mayor. When Grimes, a
Republican, said that Ford switched to the Republican Party in 2003 when an
Alabama state representative, some folks booed but then cheered when Grimes
pointed out that he rejoined the Democratic Party. A dynamic speaker at the ripe old age of 73,
Ford credited Hatcher with inspiring him and many others to run for elective
office. Ford first won election as mayor
by a hundred votes after transporting 150 Tuskegee University cheerleaders,
football players, and other students to register. Ford did a bit about black mayors boarding a
Freedom Train; with the addition of each passenger, including New York City’s
David Dinkins and Tom Bradley of Los Angeles, he’d belt out in falsetto the
sound of a locomotive whistle (woo woo).
The crowd appeared to love it. He drew laughs when he quipped that D.C.
mayor Marion Barry got off the train for a smoke but then got back on. He praised Booker T. Washington for founding
Tuskegee Institute and financing court challenges to disfranchisement
laws. He also brought up, to loud
applause, the World War II Tuskegee Airmen and bragged about founding the
National Conference of Black Mayors and the World Conference of Mayors.
On the cover of Rolling Stone are Dr. Dre and Ice Cube,
former members of the gangsta rap group N.W.A. and subjects of the hit movie
“Straight Outta Comption.” Dr. Dre
(Andre Romelle Young) admitted that spending five months in jail following a
1994 high-speed attempt to flee police while drunk was transformative,
affording him time to reflect and plan out his life. Having produced Snoop Dogg, Eminem, 50 Cent, and
Kendrick Lamar, and Aftermath Entertainment.
Dr. Dre has a net worth of over $500 million.
Jeremi Suri’s “The
Global Revolutions of 1968,” required reading for Jonathan Briggs’ seminar
students, emphasizes the present chasm between popular aspirations and
political institutions. He cites two
more optimistic scholars, Paul Berman and Arthur Marwick, who believe that the
utopianism of the late 1960s led to positive political and cultural
consequences, in particular the breakup of the Soviet Union and an expansion of
personal freedom.
Sunday Dave’s family
came over for Chinese food and to celebrate Angie’s dad John’s birthday. The weekend ended with Cub ace Jake Arrieta hurling
a no hitter against the L.A. Dodgers.
The final two batters, the former Phillies double-play combination of Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley, were 2008 World Series heroes and for years my favorite players.
I missed Cracker
Campout 11 at Pappy and Harriet’s but enjoyed reading an interview with David Lowery in
the Desert Sun. Lowery teaches music courses at the
University of Georgia but considers Pioneertown, California, his home
base. He told Bruce Fessier:
It’s where we recorded our biggest albums. It’s where we rehearsed for a long time. Until fairly recently I had a place up
there. Camper [Van Beethoven] and Cracker
are spread all over the world, so if there’s any place we come together anymore
it’s Pioneertown.
Selma Bayer, one of my favorite people, passed
away. She was spunky and politically
active till the very end. At
Thanksgiving she was a hoot playing charades.
Rest in Peace. Granddaughter
Kirsten Petras posted a Sue Fitzmaurice quote: “When I get old, they’re never going to say, ‘What a sweet old lady.’ They’re gonna say, ‘What on EARTH is she up
to now?!’
