Tis the Season. Merry Happy Ramadan Christmas Vodun Kwanzaa Hanukaa Festivus!!! :)

Holidays are upon us.

That we, reading this, have the luxury of celebration and remembrance and family, is a blessing. Many do not.

 

And we are stuck in the middle.

Time keeps on rolling… rolling… rolling… into the future.

 

Sorry bits of archaic, near forgotten song lyrics, stuck in my head. 🙂

 

Glad for so much here at the end of this cycle of days.

Here at the end of days, glad for so much.

But also aware of so much… that I should have made better.

 

We are almost a hundred years removed from the wonders and horrors of 1920, and almost a hundred removed from the wonders and horrors of 2120.

Here is hoping that in 2020, that our wonders transcend our horrors. That the places where we aspire, transcend the places where we tear down.

Speculative.

All speculative. All we have of any real import, is our pressure on the moment.

Is our will… applied.

Do we make a better world or a worse one.

Depends on you.

It ripples outward.

Intent.

Will.

No guarantees, but we fall down going forward… it matters. The intent transcends the fall.

Rambling.

Slightly.

All this to say… embrace… better. ‘Deliberate cruelty is not forgivable.’, Blanche DuBois said in A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE. We are all at times cruel, and petty, but I try to always remember that line, and not be.. cruel, or petty.

Because Tennessee Williams was right, right in his 1947 Pulitzer prize winning play, and right in the Elia Kazan, nearly x-rated for the time, 1951 Academy Award Winning movie… deliberate cruelty is not forgivable.

But it is avoidable and it is correctable.

Here at the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020, with change like the stuff of science fiction upon us, we must hold to that one true thing… to aspire to better. To be better. And to spend less energy trying to make things (our phones, our tablets, our tv, our refrigerator, our voice operated Alexa assistants, our drones)… human, and more time making humans… humane.

God, whatever God or Gods you bend your knee to, bless you and yours, and give you the wisdom here at the figurative ending of days and at the beginning of a new cycle of days, to judge your wrongs… right.

Be well.

 

 

 

If you enjoyed this rambling, but heartfelt, post, then like and subscribe to this blog, and click the link below and peruse some great gift ideas (ideas for 2020, it is too late to make it for the 2019 holidays). Your purchases keep the proverbial doors open, and are greatly appreciated. And you get great stuff. (ie Everyone should have an emergency bag , one in their car, and one in their house. It’s good karma to be… prepared. )

Today’s Deals of the Day.

MUST LISTEN Audio Books for BLACK HISTORY Month and every other month! :) Part 2 of 2

The 2nd must listen audio book for Black History Month or any month is the mind breaking MUMBO JUMBO by the great Ishmael Reed.

Ishmael Reed, who was honored with the MacArthur “genius” award, is a Pulitzer Prize finalist and two-time nominee for the National Book Award. Mumbo Jumbo, a literary masterpiece, is an ironic and unconventional detectivestory infused with African-American cultural heritage. A strange psychic epidemic called “Jes Grew” is spreading through the country, affecting millions. PaPa LaBas, a HooDoo detective, is trying to find the origins of the JesGrew – not because he wants to cure it, but because he’s ready for a new kind of society.

mumbojumbo

Composed of the memorable personalities and the little remembered tragedies and triumphs of the roaring 20s, MUMBO JUMBO weaves these truths into an overarching fictional narrative that goes from the beginning of civilization to the fall of man.

But the fiction is so peppered with essential truths, like the best of all fiction, that it will change fundamentally how you look at everything, from museums to curse words to bull fights. If MIDDLE PASSAGE is my favorite audio book, MUMBO JUMBO  I think , in opposition to its name, is the most enlightening and powerful audio book I’ve ever listened to, for the  way it opened up my mind to… broader definitions of history and broader definitions of ourselves. Magnificent.

Version:

Unabridged
Author: Ishmael Reed
Narrator: J. D. Jackson
Genres: Fiction & Literature
Publisher: Recorded Books
Published In: July 2005
# of Units: 8 CDs
Length: 8 hours, 30 minutes

Get your copy here:

 

Mumbo Jumbo

Greatest Radio Program/OTR ever! Archibald MacLeish’s FALL OF THE CITY

“Small wonder they feel fear…
presentiments that let the living on their bed sleep on
woke dead men out of death… and gave them voices!”

What does it mean to be the best?

To be the best of an entire medium? What does it mean?

And heavy the head, that must make that call.

What is the single best television show of all time? Difficult question.

Single best movie? even more difficult question.

Single best song? Impossible decision to make, right.

So why is it, if you ask me the single greatest OTR (Old Time Radio)/radio program ever produced… I have no trouble, what so ever, coming up with a name.

FALL OF THE CITY.

I’ve listened to both of the ‘original’ audio versions of this great Archibald MacLeish teleplay, FALL OF THE CITY. The 1937 one with Orson Welles as the announcer, and the 1939 with Burgess Meredith as the announcer.

I haven’t listened to ALL audio drama, being a relative young’un, probably not as much as a few of you reading this, though that said I am quite compulsive, and a bit single minded, so I tend to power listen through whole libraries of shows, so I’ve listened to a lot of shows, thousands upon thousands of shows easily, a nice cross section. More than most of you reading this.

So what I say next, I say taking all those thousands of shows into consideration…

Of all those shows, from Shadow to Columbia Workshop to Mercury Theater to Inner Sanctum to Escape to Suspense to Holmes to Dimension X to Lights Out, etc, etc….

Of all those shows, If you were to tell me I could only save one show, just one example of OTR to pass on to a future generation, a horrible thing to tell anyone, but if that’s my choice…. my cross to bear so to speak 🙂

I would choose the 1937 Orson Welles announcer/narrated FALL OF THE CITY (blows away the 1939 Meredith announcer one).

That’s how important and powerful a bit of work it has always struck me as…

It is ever a cautionary tale, that is ever timely, ever… relevant.

Ever irreplaceable.

Listen for yourself… and decide. 🙂

1937 FALL OF THE CITY (It’s an OGG file, better than MP3, and playable by better programs everywhere.VLC media player for one, will play it with no problem)

THE VOICE OF THE ANNOUNCER:
The sun is yellow with smoke. . . . the town’s burning. . . .
The war’s at the broken bridge.
THE VOICE OF THE GENERAL: (Shouting)
You! Are you free? Will you fight?
There are still inches for fighting!
There is still a niche in the streets!
You can stand on the stairs and meet him!
You can hold in the dark of a hall!
You can die!
. . . or your children will crawl for it!
THE VOICE OF THE ANNOUNCER: (Over the tumult)
They won’t listen. They’re shouting and screaming and circling.
The square is full of deserters with more coming.
Every street from the bridge is full of deserters.
They’re rolling in with the smoke blowing behind them.
The plaza’s choked with the smoke and the struggling of stragglers.
They’re climbing the platform: driving the ministers: shouting . . .
One speaks and another . . .