Northwest Indiana Historian James B Lane: Life of Illusion

“Sometimes, I can’t help but feeling that I’m living a life of illusion.” Joe Walsh, “Life of Illusion”

I love starting the weekend listening to WXRT’s “Saturday Morning Flashback,” especially when I can hear such 1981 favorites as “The Voice” by Moody Blues, “Shake It Up” by the Cars, “867-5309 (Jenny)” by Tommy Tutone and surprises such as “Champagne and Reefer” by Muddy Waters and “Life of Illusion” from the album “There Goes the Neighborhood” by guitar great Joe Walsh, whom I saw live in Merrillville with Ringo Starr and His All-Star band. “Life of Illusion” dispenses this advice:

Hey, don't you know it's a waste of your day
Caught up in endless solutions
That have no meaning
Just another hunch, based upon jumping conclusions
Backed up against a wall of confusion

The new Morrissey CD “California Son” contains covers of songs originally recorded by the likes of Bob Dylan, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Joni Mitchell, and Phil Ochs. “Days of Decision” by Ochs strongly resembles “These Are Days” by Natalie Merchant and 10,000 Maniacs. To my surprise one track was the Roy Orbison classic “It’s Over.” When with the Smiths, Morrissey wrote and recorded a different number titled “It’s Over.” Orbison’s lyrics end:

All the rainbows in the sky start to even say goodbye
You won't be seeing rainbows any more
Setting suns before they fall, echo to you that's all that's all
But you'll see lonely sunset after all

Morrissey gives it a good go, but nobody conveys the heartbreak of losing a loved one like the legendary Roy Orbison. At the end of a recent episode of “Big Little Lies” I heard Orbison’s breathtaking version of “It’s Over."

Jerome Allen and son Roman in 2017

Boston Celtics assistant coach Jerome Allen grew up in Philadelphia’s Germantown projects, sharing spece with 18 relatives. He went on to star for the University of Pennsylvania, and after a ten-year pro basketball career mostly abroad, became the Quakers head coach. Allen founded HOOD (Helping Our Own Develop) Enriched, a basketball and tutoring initiative for underprivileged kids. Caught up in the Varsity Blues scandal, Allen, it developed, had accepted $300,000 to gain a multi-millionaire’s son admission to the Wharton business program by claiming falsely that he was a talented recruit. Allen shattered admirers’ illusions as a result of financial problems compounded by fear that he’d soon be fired due to a mediocre 65-104 record in six seasons. The donor promised to be a big Penn supporter and his friends for life. Overly generous to boys in his old neighborhood, he had expensive tastes in cars and clothes and sent his children to elite private schools. Briefly suspended by the Celtics after a plea bargain agreement that left him basically a free man, Allen resumed coaching duties, beloved, Ben Baskin of Sports Illustrated claimed, by players. Celtic forward Marcus Morris called Jerome Allen “the backbone coach of the team.”

The theme of John Updike’s “The Woman Who Got Away,” the inanity of sexual promiscuity, is similar to the novelist’s best-selling “Couples,” which caused a sensation when published three decades earler in 1968, the apex of the so-called sexual revolution. Marty, a liberal arts professor free of illusions, looks back at his days as a philanderer and concludes that the women who remain most vivid are the ones he failed to sleep with. Audrey, a redheaded faculty wife who got away “remained loyal to the long, ironed hair of the flower child era years after the flower children had gone underground or crazy or back to their parents.” Marty last spotted her at a New Hampshire mall on the former site of a dairy farm (“chain stores in postmodern glass skins, and a vast asphalt meadow,” its arcade “a parody of an old-time Main Street”).Divorced, Audrey was holding hands with Winnifred, “wearing trousers and a feathery short white hairdo and a quilted down vest,”another woman who got away.

Artist Robyn Feeley’s vibrant pastels on display at Gardner Center in Miller featured colorful images of living creatures in frames made from recycled ceramics, beach stones, and glass found along the Lake Michigan shoreline. The pieces, including yard ornaments and birdhouses, were quite striking; many had been sold by the time I visited the gallery. Robyn was one of the original owners of Miller Bakery Café.

At Miller Farmers Market I ran into Cullen Ben-Daniel, founder of the Miller Historical Society, who recently converted a 14-room rehabbed house into an airBnB. Even though it’s a good six blocks from the beach, he charges $450 a day and has been booked solid on weekends from May through early October, with only had two bad experiences (a wild party and the inground pool left discolored). Evidently dozens of homes in Miller are listed on airBnB websites. Some communities have attempted to limit, ban or place crippling restrictions on short-term home-rentals, but according to Ben-Daniel, so far groups such as the MCC (Miller Citizens Corporation) have made no such efforts.

Selena Rosas, Dave, Eric Kundich at Rick's Boatyard cafe in Indy

At granddaughter Becca’s seventeenth birthday party I consumed two delicious tacos and generous portions of guacamole, salsa and chips. Stuffed, I took my cake home for later. Home from a teachers conference in Indianapolis, where he ran into former student Selena Rosas, Dave was setting up karaoke downstairs for the high schoolers as we were leaving.

In “Bohemian Rhapsody” the portrayal of Freddie Mercury’s family, Parsi immigrants originally from Gujarat, India and then Zanzibar, Tanzania, was compelling. Born Farrokh Bulsara in 1946, Freddie was derogatorily called a Paki, short Pakistani. Parsi migration to the Indian subcontinent commenced over a thousand years ago during the Muslim conquest of Persia. The Bulsari family still practiced the Zoroastrian religion. Though Freddie was late to win his father’s approval, he had loving parents. A scene where they accept that he has a male lover was especially moving. Freddie promised his mother he’d blow her a kiss at the end of Queen’s 20-minute Live Aid set; and when he did, I teared up. Six years later, he succumbed to AIDS-related pneumonia. Accompanying the credits were family photos; the actors were almost dead ringers for family members and Queen band mates. Freddie was cremated in the Zoroastrian fashion; traditionally, in the old country, corpses are laid out in the sun and consumed by birds of prey.

In “We’ll Always have Casablanca, July’s book club selection,” Noah Isenberg claimed that in 2007 the film was the most frequently played on TV. It was discussed by the characters Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan play in “When Harry Met Sally” (1989), spoofed on “The Simpsons” and twice on “Saturday Night Live,” and referenced in hundreds of other TV shows and movies, from James Bond’s dinner jacket in “Goldfinger” (1964) to the café scene in “Raiders of the Lost Ark” (1981). Isenberg concludes that there is no appetite for a Casablanca sequel, quoting film historian Jeanine Basinger: “Leave them in all that glamorous fog on the Casablanca tarmac, fat brims pulled down low, morals ramped up high, no future necessary.”

Viewing “Casablanca” at Gino’s with book club members and guests prior to the meeting, I was struck by the clever dialogue and comic moments, such as a pickpocket at work and Claude Rains as French Captain Louis Renault. Once instructed by German Major Strasser to close down Rick’s establishment, he says, “I’m shocked to find that gambling is going on here” right before accepting his winnings from the croupier. After witnessing Rick shoot Strasser, he utters the still famous line, “Round up the usual suspects.”

Brian Barnes gave an excellent presentation, confiding to me afterwards that he took my advice and concentrated on one chapter, describing the many emigres in the cast, including refugees from Hitler who played Nazis. In addition, he mentioned problems getting around the censors when it came to matters of sex and the many reference to “Casablanca” in films, including “Star Wars” and Woody Allen’s “Play It Again, Sam.” He revealed that when “Casablanca” won the Academy Award for Best Picture,” studio boss, listed as executive producer, accepted the Oscar as Warner family members blocked Hal Wallis, the producer responsible assembling the cast and bringing it all together, from reaching the stage. Barnes identified the central theme as overcoming disillusionment and choosing commitment to a cause when confronted with evil in the world. He contrasted artistic control of Orson Welles in the making “Citizen Kane” with the movie factory conditions Wallis had to work with. I noted that Roger Ebert called “Citizen Kane” the best movie he ever saw and “Casablanca” the most enjoyable film he ever viewed. Debra Dubovitz noted that when she saw “Casablanca” at an IMAX, the audience clapped at the end. Sometimes in theaters cult followers clap each time the various actors make their first appearance.

"Kramer"

A Jeopardy category was actors who never won EMMYs, including Jackie Gleason, Angela Lansbury, Andy Griffith, George Clooney, and, unbelievably, Jerry Seinfeld. Ditto Jason Alexander, but fellow “Seinfeld” cast members Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Michael Richards as Elaine Benes and Cosmo Kramer won several times. Go figure.

Tamazina Tesanovich in Split; Frank Barich wedding picture

Cindy C. Bean posted photos Croatian relatives originally from the Dalmatian coastal city of Split. Three decades ago, I had the opportunity to participate in a week-long American Studies conference in Dubrovnik sponsored by Indiana University. On our flight from Germany I met a charming ten-year-old traveling to visit her grandmother in Split, a city of 300,000 people. On my first day in Dubrovnik, we took a boat trip on the Adriatic to Split. Walking around near where we docked, I spotted the girl in her grandmother’s backyard. I asked if she wanted to show me around, she got permission, and off we went, ending at a gelato stand. Unimaginable in the U.S. We corresponded for several years, often talking about our favorite bands (we both liked REM).

Ray Smock commented on Trump’s most recent sickening display of demagoguery:

Trump, having been rewarded for his many racist comments and his long assault on the previous president through his “birther” movement, a racist ploy which helped him get elected, publicly uttered to the world through Twitter: “So interesting to see “Progressive” Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all), now loudly......and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run. Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how....it is done. These places need your help badly, you can’t leave fast enough. I’m sure that Nancy Pelosi would be very happy to quickly work out free travel arrangements!”

The President was not finished. When criticized, he always goes on the attack. He has never apologized for anything. Today he followed up his earlier remark by suggesting that the four congresswomen leave the country if they didn’t like it here. This reminded me of the kind of divisive bumper-sticker chant we heard during the protests against the Vietnam War: AMERICA: LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT. Who had the right then, or the right now, to tell any American to leave his or her own country?

The president said today, “These are people that hate our country. They hate our country. They hate it, I think, with a passion.” He cannot understand why anyone would criticize him or his policies. He can’t understand that all Americans have constitutionally guaranteed rights to petition the government for a redress of our grievances. Trump has wrapped himself in the flag and said these four young, bright, talented women hate America. Trump thinks HE is America. But he is only a temporarily elected official. It is as American as apple pie to criticize the President. It has always been so. Trump is blind to this obvious fact. He thinks an attack on him is an attack on America. This is a form of sickness.

I do not know how far the president will go to keep this escalation going. He has already gone far beyond decency. Nancy Pelosi called the president’s remarks “xenophobic” and this is putting it accurately, but mildly.

The president’s incendiary remarks and his own obvious anger puts the lives of these four women in danger. It also divides the nation even more while he empowers racism in others. Trump is so flawed, so caught up with his own power, that others in his own party must step forward and muzzle him when he utters such outrageous things. This is intolerable speech from any American and it is filth beyond all measure when it comes from the President of the United States.

As shocking as is the president’s blatant racism, his misogyny, and his xenophobia, it is matched in shock value by the utter silence of the Republican Party. It is his own party that bears the greatest burden of responsibility for him. It is the Republicans who must act now if they are going to be able to say to the world that they are not as racist and as filled with hatred as is the president. Do Republicans want to embrace racism just to win elections for another generation? At what cost to the nation? If the Republican Party has even a hint of the Soul of Lincoln left in it, it must call for the president’s immediate resignation.

Janet Bayer pointed out that Somalia-born Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar has been a citizen longer than Melania Trump. The three others were born in the United States.

above, Rep. Ilhan Omar; below, Governor Henry Horner

The Summer 2019 Abraham Lincoln Association newsletter For the People reprinted an unpublished, undated typescript historian Benjamin P. Thomas (“Abraham Lincoln: A Biography,” 1986) composed about two-term Illinois governor Henry Horner. Jewish, a bachelor, and a Democrat elected in 1932, Horner was subjected to unfair slurs about his religion, manhood, and perceived lack of compassion (he was a fiscal conservative). Probably written shortly after Horner’s death in 1940, the elegy describes Horner’s periodic nighttime drives when lonely and troubled with a state policeman from Springfield to New Salem 20 miles away, where young Abe Lincoln opened a general store in the prairie village. Thomas wrote: “Lincoln had failed and gone into debt, but had risen from that and other failures to go on to greatness.” Thomas continued: “The governor also remembered that it was in this little prairie village that Lincoln had gained faith in himself and in the people – those twin faiths without which a democratic ruler cannot govern wisely.”