Thoughts On What Could Have Been, and What Was
"James Dean died today," opens The James Dean Story, the first James Dean film I ever saw.
Today is September 30, 2021 and he died 66 years ago today. I saw The James Dean Story before I saw any of his three films. It's dated and melodramatic but it also genuinely captured something. I'm going to watch it again right now. (Free on YouTube.)
From the intro: "Youth mourned itself in the passing of James Dean. Because he died young and belonged to no one, every girl could feel that he belonged to her alone. Because he died violently, every boy could use him as a warning to his parents, ‘If you don’t start understanding me, I could go the same way.’ A hero made of their loneliness. A legend woven from their restlessness, their energy, their despair. What is the hero to do with James Dean? What is the legend to do with his life? To those who made the hero, to those who wove the legend, this picture is dedicated with affection and with hope."
September 30, 2021
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I stopped for the night, halfway home from Fairmount, reflecting on my time there. I've never come back from the trip without having made new friends, and too often I've left, not realizing that I've been with an old friend for the last time. I'm listening to Susan Cain's book, Bittersweet, in which she reminds us of the mythologist Joseph Campbell's advice to "participate joyfully in the sorrows of the world." That captures the mood here in this Microtel Inn in Triadelphia, West Virginia.
September 30, 2024
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How do you play baseball? You play baseball like Pete Rose played baseball.
How do you do anything? Whatever it is, you do it like Pete Rose played baseball.
Yes, Pete Rose had problems, but his grit and passion were unmatched.
September 30, 2024
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Relaxing day at the beach today, running around in the surf laughing, cold and windy, drinking coffee and grape soda, watching sea foam tumble across the sand disintegrating into nothing, worrying about riptides, giant squid, and great whites, reading Truman Capote's Handmaid Coffins.
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A tagged 16 ft, 3500lb great white shark made the news about 7 years ago when it surfaced near Delaware beaches. Let's say that only 1 in 10,000 16-ft great white sharks are tagged, that means we can assume for every ping, there are 9,999 around that didn't ping. There's been about 2,500 days since then, so if 1 in 10,000 are tagged, each day there are 4 of them nearby. If one in a million are tagged, each day there are 400 nearby.
You can use math to scare the shit out of yourself, so thank goodness about 1500 years ago Aryabhata invented (or discovered?) the concept of zero, which is how many shark attack fatalities there have been on Delaware shores in the last 100 years.
That's great, but still...
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In Truman Capote's Handmade Coffins, Marylee refers to death as being "called home." I love euphemisms from death.
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Trump's debate performance was emblematic of his worldview. He seems to have one guiding principle- "You're not going to hold me to the rules that I've already agreed to." It maps onto his business relationships, his banking relationships, his marriages, his coronavirus guidelines, his oath to the Constitution, etc. ad infinitum.
September 30, 2020
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There's good news for Trump if he loses. He'll get to complain for the next four years about how he was a victim, which will be more enjoyable for him than doing the work of being president.
Actually, as president he doesn't seem to ever do much more than complain about being a victim anyway. I guess either scenario will be equally enjoyable for Trump, so either way he can rejoice in his victimhood.
September 30, 2020
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In the preface to Dan Rather's book, What Unites Us, he quotes Alexis de Tocqueville- "The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults."
I have a deep need to be one of many who join together and prove to him once again that this is true. What we saw last night was a fault that needs to be repaired.
September 30, 2020
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Now we know what happens when a moderator tries to moderate a moderate and one incapable of moderation.
Joe Jones- You Talk To Much
https://youtu.be/OGC4JnXzn1o
September 30, 2020
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I've hired a few hundred people over the years and have been able to analyze their interviews vs their performances. I'm often forced to hire people with a red flag, sometimes several! There's one red flag though that's become a deal-breaker, screaming Do Not Hire- when they can't stop talking. They don't even hear the questions, and talk over any chance of clarification. They are the worst and they never work out. Many times I've found out that they talk so much because they're trying to hide something.
September 30, 2020
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Weird Al's Take on the first 2020 Presidential Debate.
https://youtu.be/un9x-DjTMT0
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Does it seem odd that a self-proclaimed "law and order" president is running for reelection on anarchy and chaos?
September 30, 2020
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I was thinking the same exact thing! I hope ISIS isn't paying to close attention, they could just move to an island to stay out of our grasp forever.
Chris Murphy- It's worth asking why if we spend $600 billion dollars on the military every year why we can't get 500 troops and 50 helicopters to Puerto Rico.
September 30, 2017
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James Dean died 60 years ago...still the best cake slicer in the history of cinema.
https://youtu.be/eUftn1R0MrA
September 29, 2015
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Saw a garbage man toss a trash bag 30 feet into the back of the truck and for a split second I thought, "Wow, what a glamorous job."
September 30, 2011
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I'm reflecting on the fact that Dennis Hopper is still alive.
September 30, 2009
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On this day in 1139, a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the Caucasus mountains in the Seljuk Empire, killed up to 300,000 people. Now THAT'S a natural disaster.
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Jack the Ripper killed his third and fourth victims, Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes, on this day in 1888.
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On this day in 1938, the League of Nations unanimously outlawed "intentional bombings of civilian populations". Quite an improvement over our criminal history as a species. Maybe one day it could even include unintentional bombings of civilian populations.
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Controversial drawings of Muhammad appeared in a Danish newspaper on this day in 2005.
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The Persian mystic and poet, Rumi, was born on this day in 1207.
"Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself."
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Truman Capote was born on this day in 1924. Some autobiographical details that he thought were noteworthy, from his short story, Nocturnal Turnings, or How Siamese Twins Have Sex:
-His motto was, "I aspire." He said he liked the ambiguity of it, does he aspire upward or downward?
-He said he could hit a tossed can with a .38 revolver.
-He said that he couldn't recite the alphabet, the fact that interested some psychologists.
-Once he was in an old New England graveyard, and among the tombstones with high-minded etched inscriptions, one simply said, "NO COMMENT."
-One time he was signing autographs in a bar, and some deviant whipped out is penis and said, "perhaps you can autograph this." He responded, I don't know if I can autograph it, but perhaps I can initial it."
-Occasionally when he was out and about, somebody would ask him if he's Truman Capote and he would say he is. His friend would then shake him and say, "For Christ's sake, George, when are you going to stop this? Someday you're going to get into serious trouble!"
-When he was two or three, he went to the zoo with his caretaker and there was big commotion. Two lions had escaped their enclosure. His caretaker ran, leaving him by himself!
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We lost James Dean on this day, 67 years ago. This poem is in the book he's reading, written a half century prior, by fellow Hoosier, James Whitcomb Riley. (A bit treacly for my tastes, but it does capture the simplicity of a time and place.)
Away
I cannot say, and I will not say
That he is dead- . He is just away!
With a cheery smile, and a wave of the hand
He has wandered into an unknown land,
And left us dreaming how very fair
It needs must be, since he lingers there.
And you- O you, who the wildest yearn
For the old-time step and the glad return- ,
Think of him faring on, as dear
In the love of There as the love of Here;
And loyal still, as he gave the blows
Of his warrior-strength to his country’s foes- .
Mild and gentle, as he was brave- ,
When the sweetest love of his life he gave
To simple things- : Where the violets grew
Blue as the eyes they were likened to,
The touches of his hands have strayed
As reverently as his lips have prayed:
When the little brown thrush that harshly chirred
Was dear to him as the mocking-bird;
And he pitied as much as a man in pain
A writhing honey-bee wet with rain- .
Think of him still as the same, I say:
He is not dead- he is just away!
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The great Phillies pitcher, Robin Roberts, was born on this day in 1926.
"I never slept when I lost. I'd see the sun come up without ever having closed my eyes. I'd see those base hits over and over and they would drive me crazy."
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Activist and author, Elie Wiesel, was born on this day in 1928.
"There is divine beauty in learning... To learn means to accept the postulate that life did not begin at my birth. Others have been here before me, and I walk in their footsteps. The books I have read were composed by generations of fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, teachers and disciples. I am the sum total of their experiences, their quests. And so are you."
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Singer-songwriter and guitarist, Marty Stuart, was born on this day in 1958. He is the living embodiment of the history of country music.
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Monica Bellucci was born on this day in 1964. When David Lynch has you play yourself inside his own character's dream, you must have really done something. As a reminder, she says:
"We are like the dreamer who dreams and then lives inside the dream. But who is the dreamer?"
Wow, did she just connect us to his film, within his film?
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Marion Cotillard was born on this day in 1975. After she won the Oscar she said:
“I’m totally overwhelmed with joy and sparkles and fireworks and everything that goes like ‘boom boom boom.'"
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Another notable birthday- Angie Dickinson (1931)
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Kansas City Royals' sidearm pitcher, Dan Quisenberry, left us us this day in 1998.
"The future is much like the present, only longer."
So many baseball players die of brain cancer, which they think might have something to do with the astroturf.
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Adele- Someone Like You
What? You're above it? Not only one of the best songs ever, that will certainly be remembered hundreds of years in the future, provided we still exist, but this is one of the best short films in the history of film. There's a word for it, I can't remember what it is, but it's some fluctuation in notes that makes you want to cry. The Kermit the frog song, rainbow connection, is a clear example. People think Adele uses the same technique, but it's not as apparent.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLQl3WQQoQ0
September 30, 2011
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I love that the Marty Robbins' song El Paso figured so prominently the final episode of Breaking Bad. It seems to have been written for it. "Back in El Paso, my life would be worthless. Everything's gone in life; nothing is left. It's been so long since I've seen the young maiden; My love is stronger than my fear of death. … Something is dreadfully wrong for I feel a deep burning pain in my side. Though I am trying to stay in the saddle, I'm getting weary, unable to ride."
The young maiden, is not a young maiden at all though. Walt's young maiden is power, not love.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIHRgisdbeY
September 30, 2013
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MSNBC- Feds Demand Facebook Share Information on Anti-Trump Protesters
Maybe next they'll go after the people who share this article. These guys are trouble.
http://on.msnbc.com/2yemneO
September 30, 2017
Postscript: It's a miracle if I made it through the Trump years without making it to some list. A badge of honor, if I did.
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The Atlantic- From Donald Trump, a New Low by James Fallows
The Emperor's clothes are more transparent by the day, along with his unfitness. It's like he's welcoming and spurring on his own Katrina. But don't take my word for it, just read what he's tweeted as he leaves for a golf vacation. From the article:
"But his Twitter outburst this morning — as he has left Washington on another trip to one of his golf courses, as millions of U.S. citizens are without water or electricity after the historic devastation of Hurricane Maria. It is a significant step downward for him, and perhaps the first thing he has done in office that, in its coarseness, has actually surprised me. Temperamentally, intellectually, and in terms of civic and moral imagination, he is not fit for the duties he is now supposed to bear."
https://www.theatlantic.com/notes/2017/09/from-donald-trump-a-new-low/541647
September 30, 2017
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Adam Driver's oil baron on SNL, perhaps a perfect skit.
https://vult.re/2NRFJ1q
September 30, 2018
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Alternet- Noam Chomsky: Trump is a ‘sociopathic maniac’ capable of provoking ‘civil war’ if he doesn’t win
Feel free to take this seriously:
"There's a high level independent commission of leading figures in the Republican and Democratic parties and other independent analysts that's been running 'war games,' asking what's likely to happen in the coming election if Trump refuses to leave office. Unless Trump wins the Electoral College, every scenario they run leads to civil war if Trump and the Republicans just refuse to accept it. There are a lot of options they could pursue to try and undermine it. It's like the actions of a dictator in a neo-colony somewhere — a small country that has a military coup every couple of years. There is no historical precedent for this in a functioning democratic society. That's deterioration of democracy at a level we've never seen before and being taken very seriously in the most respectable places…. We have a sociopathic maniac in the White House."
https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/author-noam-chomsky-trump-is-a-sociopathic-maniac-capable-of-provoking-a-civil-war-if-he-doesnt-win-the-electoral-college-in-november/
September 30, 2020
Postscript: Noamstradamus
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Confucius- "In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of."
That is quite a bit of insight from someone who lived several hundred years BC.
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Bukowski- “Everything looked better at night because you couldn’t see it as well.”
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Capote again- “Young men think old men are fools; but old men know young men are fools.”
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Blistering piece by Dan Rather, from this day in 2017. Every sentence is highlight-worthy.
Excuse me, Mr. President but your tantrum tweet storm this morning attacking the mayor of San Juan, a fellow American citizen dealing with a real-time life and death struggle for hundreds of thousands of her constituents on an island of millions in crisis, is not only far below the dignity of the office you hold. It fails even the most basic test of humanity.
Did she have harsh words for your Administration's response to the aftermath of Hurricane Maria? Yes. It's called a reality check, and one that conforms to every firsthand account coming out of Puerto Rico no matter how much you try to deflect with your "Fake News" epithets. To take this personally is to put ego before country. And you also blame the Puerto Ricans themselves? That they want "everything done for them"? No. They just expect to be treated as any other American would.
I have seen more than my share of wretched desperation over the course of my career. I have reported from crisis zones where matters of life and death hang moment to moment in the balance between action and inaction, where communication is limited, and the sense of panic is building. I have seen the most steadfast of leaders feel the crushing weight of responsibility as they survey a landscape of almost incomprehensible need.
It does not take a saintly amount of compassion or empathy to feel for those who are struggling to stay alive, who are worried for the fate of family and friends, and who have seen so much that they have known and loved blown and washed away. You swore to "faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States" and that means a responsibility to look out for all Americans, even if they live on an island in the ocean, or look different or even speak a different language than what you think is America.
I worry that whoever has your ear has not adequately impressed upon you the gravity of this situation, or even the political price you are likely to pay (although that can be no where near the top concern at the moment). Or perhaps you have been told and haven't listened.
Regardless, what Puerto Rico needs now is not rhetoric but help, not a bumbling response, but the precision and competence we expect of our government. I do not believe "blame the victim" is what Americans expect of their president.
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Michel de Montaigne- "Ignorance is the softest pillow on which a man can rest his head."
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Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft- "So okay― there you are in your room with the shade down and the door shut and the plug pulled out of the base of the telephone. You've blown up your TV and committed yourself to a thousand words a day, come hell or high water. Now comes the big question: What are you going to write about? And the equally big answer: Anything you damn well want."
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Unknown (posted on a Married... with Children page)- "Marriage is like a deck of cards. In the beginning, all you need is two hearts and a diamond. By the end, you're looking for a club and a spade."
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Sigmund Freud, The Future of an Illusion- "Religion is a system of wishful illusions together with a disavowal of reality, such as we find nowhere else but in a state of blissful hallucinatory confusion. Religion's eleventh commandment is "Thou shalt not question.""
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Shel Silverstein, Every Thing on It:
If you're sloppy, that's just fine.
If you're moody, I won't mind.
If you're fat, that's fine with me.
If you're skinny, let it be.
If you're bossy, that's all right.
if you're nasty, I won't fight.
If you're rough, well that's just you.
If you're mean, that's all right too.
Whatever you are is all okay.
I don't like you anyway.
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George Santayana- "Everything in nature is lyrical in its ideal essence, tragic in its fate, and comic in its existence."
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Miguel de Cervantes- "Be slow of tongue and quick of eye."
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Miguel de Unamuno- "Life is doubt, and faith without doubt is nothing but death."
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Charles Addams- "Look at her -- I would die for her. I would kill for her. Either way -- what bliss."
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Insult from a Capote short story:
"Fact is, you never had no mother. You was born out of a dog's ass."
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One of the last pictures of James Dean, taken a few hours before he died.
Addendum
Wikipedia's list of deatg euphemisms:
Go west (Pr) [UK]
Kicked the bucket
Passed away / Passed on / Moved on
Pop one's clogs (Pr) [UK]
Pushing up daises (Pr)
Sleeping with the fishes
Croaked
Six feet under
Joined the church triumphant
Taken a dirt nap
Gone to heaven / Went to heaven
Gone home / Went home
Expired
Breathed their last [breath]
Succumbed
Left us / Left this world / Left this mortal coil
Lost
Met their maker
Wasted
Checked out
various forms of Eternal rest / Everlasting peace
Was a goner
Came to an end
Bit the dust / Returned to dust
Annihilated
Liquidated
Terminated
Gave up the ghost
Snuffed out
Went to a new life
In the Great Beyond
No longer with us
Made the Change
On the other side
God took them
Departed
Transcended
Bought the farm
With the angels / Carried away by the angels
Feeling no pain
Lost the race
Time was up
Crashed in
Crossed over Jordan
Was done in
In glory
Withered away
Gave it up
The long sleep
Heavenly shores
Found whatever is next
Out of their misery
Ended it all
Resting in piece
Changed form
Dropped the body
Rode into the sunset
That was all they wrote
Withdrew to more favorable frontiers
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