Hallelujah

“I’ve heard there was a secret chord

That David played, and it pleased the Lord

But you don’t really care for music, do you?”

    “Hallelujah,” Leonard Cohen

Saturday after scrambling up eggs to go with bacon, portabella mushrooms, and raisin toast, I went to Chesterton Library.  POn the free books rack was Robert D. Putnam’s “Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community.”  Putnam discussed the decline of social organizations, including bowling leagues.  While he admits that most people don’t literally bowl by themselves – it is, after all, a social sport – he cites the decline of league bowling as an example of Americans becoming increasingly disconnected.  I was tempted to take the ten year-old book for Chuck Gallmeier but figured he already had it.  I’ll be interested to see if it is still there in two weeks when I return the novel I checked out, Michael Chabon’s “Telegraph Avenue.”  It was finally in – hallelujah!  Early in “Telegraph Ave” is a scene when two black guys are in an Oldsmobile Toronado and arguing about the meaning of the made-up word Toronado.  Vonnegut would have loved it.

Vanity Fair contained an article about Truman Capote’s unfinished novel “Answered Prayers,” which dealt unflatteringly with New York socialites that Capote hobnobbed with.  When Esquire published an excerpt called “La Cote Basque 1965” many of his former friends, including William and Babe Paley, never forgave him.  He began to drink heavily and became at times suicidal.  His nemesis Gore Vidal characterized his death in 1984 as a good career move.

Among the people who dropped by the IU Alumni Association “Authors Signing” at Lake Street Gallery were 1970s student Jackie Lott and Gina Shropshire.  Marianita Porterfield’s daughter, Gina babysat Phil and Dave when we lived on Jay Street in Miller.  I pointed out that her dad, Jackie Shropshire, was in “Gary’s First Hundred Years,” while Sheriff Dominguez said he was an impressive role model when he started practicing law.  Roy offered “Valor” for just 20 dollars, less than his author’s discount.  He suggested we do another book together about Region police officers who died in the line of duty.  I sold about ten copies of “Gary’s First Hundred Years,” and Ken Schoon, Ron Cohen, Gary Wilk, and Steve McShane were also busy signing copies. 

Next to me, Jennifer Greenberg’s pile of “Rockabillies” got smaller and smaller, but she gave most of them away.  She inscribed one for me, “To my buddy Jimbo.”  I really like her.  She came dressed somewhat in character with bright red lipstick.  After she wiped it off, I expressed disappointment, so she re-applied it.  Her latest project, “Revising History,” takes traditional snapshots of family life and replaces the subject with herself.  In one she’s bowling; in another she’s holding a baby.  She has a show coming up in Philadelphia over the holidays.

One of Jennifer’s best photography students, Walter “Pappy” White, a veteran both of Vietnam and the Gulf War, was in my Vietnam War course.  In my Vietnam Veterans from the Calumet Region” Shavings is his account of returning from Desert Storm.  In Bangor, Maine, hundreds of people, including a high school band, greeted his unit and gave them yellow ribbons.  Those who had served in Vietnam received a second ribbon reading, “Thank You and Welcome Home.”  Local VFW and American Legion chapters organized the event.  White wrote: “The second ribbons were passed out at the insistence of Vietnam veterans in these groups to belatedly honor those who didn’t get a proper welcome home 20 years earlier.”

Sunday we attended the Winter Concert of the Hobart Area Concert Band (previously Rusty Pipes).  Our friend Dick Hagelberg had a couple solos.  My favorite number was Czech composer Antonin Dvorak’s “Slavonic Dance No. 8,” which Dick said they had been practicing for an entire year.  In the trumpet section of the band was our attorney Don Evans (also the narrator) and friend Pat Heckler, whose sister Marianne Brush gave us a big hello.  All of us liked Rusty Pipes better than the new name, but it implied that members were old folks and they have recently added numerous young people.  Cheryl thought Not So Rusty Pipes might be a good compromise.  Afterwards there was free cake, punch, and raw veggies.

While I missed (mercifully) the end of the Bears loss to Minnesota, I was pleased to learn that the Redskins pulled out an overtime victory against Baltimore despite being eight points behind with seconds to go in regulation.  Even though I picked both those games correctly, Buffalo ruined my chances of winning the pool by succumbing to St. Louis.  After the Ravens loss Coach John Harbaugh fired offensive coordinator Cam Cameron, who had been his boss when both were at IU 15 years ago.  Harbaugh called it the hardest thing he’s ever had to do as a coach.

In the news: “Gangnam Style” rapper Psy is attempting to disavow some very uncomplimentary things he said a decade ago about the United States being an imperialist aggressor that have suddenly surfaced.  Mexican-American diva Jenni Rivera perished in a plane crash in northern Mexico.  She sold over 15 million records and starred in several reality stars.  Jenni’s tribute album to slain singer Selena helped make the three-time Grammy nominee a star.  The big story of the day involved two Australian DJs fired after placing a prank call to the hospital where Kate Middleton was staying after coming down with morning sickness.  They pretended to be Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles asking about the Duchess of Cambridge’s condition.  Nurse Jacinta Saldanha, who unknowingly answered their questions, subsequently committed suicide. 

Michigan Republicans are ramming through right-to-work legislation bypassing the committee process and not allowing amendments or enabling voters to nullify it by referendum.  Under the caption “Proud of our Legislator,” Alissa posted on Facebook a viseo of Representative Brandon Dillon characterizing the effect of the proposed law as going from freedom top freeloading, adding that the procedure being used in the lame duck session makes a mockery of democracy.  Right on!

On the first day that marijuana became legal to possess in small amounts the Seattle police department stated that “it believes that, under state law, you may responsibly get baked, order some pizzas and enjoy a ‘Lord of the Rings’ marathon in the privacy of your home, if you want to.”  Even Indiana’s head of the state police has come out for decriminalization, and a Post-Trib editorial headline read, “Marijuana law reform has merit.”

On “Morning Joe” music critic Alan Light was discussing his book “The Holy or the Broken” about how Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” almost didn’t see the light of day.  Cohen, who lived as a Buddhist monk, struggled with the lyrics for years.  He finally recorded it for the 1984 album “Various Positions,” and CBS Records initially refused to release it.  After it languished for many years, Jeff Buckley discovered it and interpreted it as a song about broken love rather than as a hymn.  Rufus Wainwright’s version is on the soundtrack of “Shrek.” Everyone from Bob Dylan, Justin Timberlake, and Bono to Bon Jovi, Willie Nelson, and Susan Boyle have put out versions.  One of the best renditions of “Hallelujah” was by fellow Canadian k.d. lang at the 2007 Juno Awards in Winnipeg (available on YouTube).  She also sang it later that year at an Elton John AIDS Foundation benefit, making it sound like a funeral dirge about broken faith and disillusionment.

I picked up four packages of Oplatki wafers at Nativity Church in Portage.  Two are for the Okomskis in Florida for their traditional Christmas Eve Wigilia meal.  I guess the churches in Punta Gorda don’t have many Polish parishioners.  In the checkout line at Town and Country afterwards, I picked up snatches of gossip about a guy who got his wife pregnant every time she threatened to leave him. A bald fellow announced that he had long hair until it turned grey when his five year-old son died and he cut it all off.  Heavy.

Riding in the Car Car

“Click clack, open the door, girls

Click clack, open the door boys

Front door, back door, Clickety clack.

Take you riding in my car.”

    “Riding in My Car,” Woody Guthrie

Ron Cohen’s chapter on the folk music scene in 1953-1954 mentions an album Odetta recorded with banjo player Larry Mohr from performances at the Tin Angel in San Francisco.  Mohr was a Jewish kid from Detroit who learned to play the instrument from studying Pete Seeger’s banjo instruction booklet.  Most of the selections were African-American standards, such as “Rock Island Line” and “I’ve Been Buked and I’ve been Scorned,” but they also did Woodie Guthrie”s nonpolitical “Car Car” song.  What a wild ride it would have been to hang with the Wood-man back in the day – a Bob Dylan wet dream, for sure.  Three years ago Audi released a Dutch commercial featuring “Riding in My Car” to promote their SUVs.

I was supposed to pick up Cheryl Hagelberg on the way to the Star Plaza, where Dick would be performing in the Northwest Indiana Symphony Chorus for their holiday show, but we cancelled at the last minute due to Toni’s bad cough.  We both got colds nine days ago; fortunately mine has about run its course.

Katie Turk sent me a PDF of a paper that will be published in the Law and History Review entitled “Militancy is in Our Openness: Gay Employment Rights Activism in California and the Question of Sexual Orientation in Sex Equality Law.”  It mainly has to do with protests in San Francisco during the 1970s but takes the story up to the present.  Turk writes: “The Supreme Court has interpreted Title VII to protect masculine women, but the rights of effeminate men remain unclear.  Many gay employees experience explicit or implicit pressure to closet or downplay their sexual identities.  A 2008 survey revealed that while ninety percent of sexual minorities were out to friends and family, only twenty-five percent were out to all of their coworkers.”  I passed the article on to Anne Balay.  I also discovered that Katie wrote the cover story for the September 2010 issue of the Journal of American History, entitled “Out of the Revolution, into the Mainstream: Employment Activism in the NOW Sears Campaign and the growing Pains of Liberal Feminism.”

Sculptor Neil Goodman, a big fan of Steel Shavings over the years, congratulated me on my Hoosier Historian Award, writing: “You have stayed true to your values and ideals throughout your career.  This is a wonderful recognition for a social historian that has created a unique and valuable body of work.”  Nice.  Kay Fetters sent a photo of Indiana Historical Society Trustee Bill Bartelt presenting me with the Riker award.  Like with Roy Dominguez and Edward Escabar on the jackets of “Valor” and “Forging a Community,” I always seem to be paired with tall guys in these photos.

Joseph Gomeztagle, whom I met at the History Book Club, sent an article Donna George wrote about him that includes a passport photo of him at age nine with his mother and siblings when they first left Mexico City in 1959 for America.  A Vietnam War vet, he became a naturalized citizen in 1977 and is presently a judge for the national “We the People” competition.  He told Donna George that mediocrity is the result of apathy, cynicism, and complicity and that civic education is necessary to combat it.  In 2002 Gomeztagle participated in a walk from Gary to Indianapolis to protest the state’s property tax laws.  Coincidentally some high school “We the People” participants were visiting the campus today.

I had lunch with two faculty up for tenure and promotion.  One is sailing through the process, while two Neanderthals have created obstacles for the other.  Ironically, they are carping about her service and teaching even though she has received awards in both categories.  It’s really a case of academic freedom.

I went to order a book through interlibrary loan and discovered I couldn’t simply fill out the old form but instead had to go on line and first sign up for the service.  After grumbling and grousing to various librarians, Scott Hudnall patiently walked me through the steps.  I also got a young man from IT Support Center to fix the audio on my computer, which hasn’t worked properly since they replaced the hard drive.  While he was testing it, he put on a clip from the DVD “Roy Orbison and Friend: A Black and White Night.”  Life is good.

I went to see “Playing for Keeps,” about a former soccer star trying to reconnect with his ex-wife and son.  The most interesting about it were the three soccer moms, played by actresses Uma Thurman, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Judy Greer, who tried to seduce him.  In two of the three cases they succeeded, but in the end he wins back wife Stacie (Jessica Biel).  Before and after the show I tried to glimpse scenes in “Life of Pi” where the Indian boy is at sea with a tiger but first I was too late and then too early.