Duchess--Story of A Forgiving Shelter Dog

This is the face of a dog who suffered terrible abuse, before The Buddy Foundation took her in.  When I first saw Duchess nearly two weeks ago, she showed deep white scars on all of her legs where she had been tied up. Her tail ended abruptly, the tip having been cut off with a dull blade, reportedly a butter knife. Her underbelly was slack; she might have had a litter of pups recently.

To imagine what goes on inside the mind of a dog like this requires more courage than I can give myself credit for having.

It is difficult to look into the eyes of this dog, eyes that are resigned to accept  abuse, eyes that silently beg for a gentle touch, and not wonder if she thinks that I will hurt her too, not marvel at her willingness to forget all that she has suffered at the hands of thoughtless, uncaring people.

Last week my friend David, a fellow shelter-caregiver, and I spent extra time with this unfortunate dog.  When I approached her cage, duchess was wearing a Victorian Collar (or, Cone of Shame for those who saw "Up".)  She had a minor surgery to stich her tail, and was biting the stitches, and so needed this annoying device to be worn around her head for a while.

Duchess never backed up, or appeared threatened by my approach.  She was extremely gentle when I reached to put her walk-collar on, and attach a leash. In fact, she welcomed the attention of someone who moved slowly, talked quietly, and showed no fear or aggression.  I stroked her head and rubbed her chest, and she looked at me with something like enormous gratitude.

When Duchess and David and I reached the grassy yard across from the building, we loosened our grip a little, but she did not want to strain, or chase anything or wander. Instead, she moved closer to us, hoping she would be scratched or petted. 

It is even scarier to consider the mind of a human being who inflicts such suffering on an animal who so clearly has much joy to give anyone who gives her the smallest chance.  The spirit of Maggie was nearby....

As I stroked the dog's warm black fur, scratched her neck under the cone (which made her kick with relief), and hugged her with all of the warmth and comfort I could muster, she pushed the cone against my face and licked my cheek.

There are not adequate words to describe the feeling of love and gratitude I had for this dog, who singled me out for companionship, seeming to thank me for such simple gestures of regard and affection. I will update everyone here on her progress, and what I hope will be a very quick adoption to a loving home. 

Kent State, and How Popular Culture Covered Vietnam--A Wednesday Journal

"Four dead in O-hi-o..."

To Americans of a certain age, Vietnam is a war, not just a country; "Hair" is a tribal-love-rock musical (and that which young men of attitude wore long); and Kent State is a place where protest led to violent death.


In the two years leading up to May 4, 1970, Americans had already witnessed the 1968 Chicago Convention; the Chicago Seven trial; the killings of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy; the Tet offensive; the televised images of battle in Vietnam, fueled by the Draft; student protest and unrest; sit-ins and riots from Berkely to Columbia; Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon; "Easy Rider"; Earth Day; "One small step for man...";  Woodstock; Stonewall, and then, the expansion of the war to neighboring Cambodia, which caused a groundswell of reaction, much of it outraged and violent.


On the campus of Kent State University in Ohio that day, an organized protest against the Cambodian escalation grew ugly, The National Guard was called in, students became unruly, and armed soldiers fired, killing four young people (two were innocent bystanders on their way to class.)


The country was, on the whole, naive and divided, horrified and impotent against a wave of change it could not understand and a growing violence it could not do anything about.


Popular culture exploded with change at that time.  Movies especially broke taboos, growing more permissive in depictions of sexuality and violence.  Music was becoming increasingly influenced by a drug culture that was both a product of and a protest against our involvement in Southeast Asia.  Strangely, though, very little of popular culture, especially theatrical movies, depicted the war in Vietnam directly. Audiences were primed for some depiction to help them to understand and react emotionally to a troubling collective anxiety.


One embarrassing exception was John Wayne's hymn to the war, "The Green Berets", which also gave us the most popular song of 1968.  Wayne's film played to a "silent majority" of older and more conservative Americans who supported the war without taking to the streets in organized demonstrations.


It is ironic that 10 years later, Wayne would present the Best Picture Oscar to one of Hollywood's first and still most powerful and iconic films about Vietnam, one that upended the hawkish jingoism of "The Gren Berets":  that film was "The Deer Hunter".


During 1970, the closest Hollywood could come to dealing with the subject of the war was indirectly through movies about student protest.   "The Strawberry Statement", starring "True Grit"s Kim Darby and Bruce Davison, was a glamorized version of a diary written by a self-proclaimed revolutionary.  In it, college students are brutalized by police during a protest rally scored to Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance". It sounds like more fun than it is; in fact it sabotages its message by straining credibility.


"R.P.M", (Revolutions per Minute) is a cute-clever play on the rotations on a turntable of the vinyl albums played by radio DJ's.  Message-monger Stanley Kramer (whose films I generally enjoy) directs Anthony Quinn as a liberal, well-liked college professor-turned college president who must weigh his ideals against protecting his school from anarchy.


"Getting Straight" is a comic drama starring then-hip Elliot Gould is a Vietnam vet who returns to college for a Masters Degree in English.  He, too, must reconcile the dangerous inflexibility of the status quo with an equally dangerous youth protest, whose motivation seems to be as much about finding sex as it is about making a political statement.  And Antonioni's "Zabriskie Point", reviled at the time but gaining new respect today, used a campus riot as a springboard for a surreal, psychedelic tableaux in Death Valley.


Gould starred in what can perhaps be considered the ultimate Vietnam film of 1970, "M*A*S*H". While ostensibly about the insanity of the Korean War, and the antics of a group of Mobile Army Surgical Hospital surgeons and nurses, the attitudes, language, humor, and lampooning of everything from sex to religion places it firmly in the Vietnam mindset of the day.  Audiences in the know accepted this, and had a raucous good time while enduring unprecedented scenes of surgical bloodshed.


Not until eight years later would Hollywood deal head-on with Vietnam in "Coming Home", "Apocalypse Now", and the already-mentioned "Deer Hunter", culminating in the 1986 Oliver Stone battle polemic, "Platoon" (a film which has not aged well.) 


One song at that time decried the Kent State massacre.  Neil Young distilled and concentrated the rage and questioning of the entire era in his lyrics about the Kent State killings.  "Ohio" was released by Crosby, Stills Nash and Young soon after the massacre (with "Find the Cost of Freedom on the flipside).  Eloquent and angry, Young's lyrics are supported by such forceful guitar work as to sound almost distorted, and passionate, even tearful vocalizations, in a piece that hits so hard you are dumbstruck for minutes after the brief recording has ended.  The song brings it all back.....Listen here.

Will we find our voices again?  Can we speak out with the same fervor, or sing with as much passion, to sound off against today's quagmires, outrages? 

From Ugly Duckling to Lovely Inspiration...Lynn Redgrave

Few actresses re-invented themselves so delightfully as Lynn Redgrave, in a career that took her from the sensational ugly-duckling seeking love and motherhood in the 1966 mega-hit "Georgy Girl", to the grateful and mature interviewee who shared her coming to terms with her lesbianism in 2003's "Kinsey".

Lynn Redgrave was not as prolific a film actor as her sister Vanessa Redgrave.  Instead, she was content to create  few but memorable characters, and affect us in quiet and powerful ways.  Her characters struggled with the challenges of life, and embodied change in ways that surprised and inspired us.  While Vanessa was the glamorous, artistic and controversial sister, Lynn became the dowdy girl next door who blossomed into the good neighbor, everyone's friend and confidante, easy to take for granted.

Her passing, at age 67 of breast cancer, ended a life of personal struggle and reinvention.  As is usually the case with those comfortable and unheralded presences in our lives, who are not always right in front of us, she will be missed like an old friend, who we have not seen in a long time, but who we remember with warmth and fondness. 

Others who knew her personally will have more insightful things to say about Lynn Redgrave's personal life.  Me? I was simply a fan, one who loved seeing her in the movies.  Her role in "Georgy Girl" was a benchmark in my 
development of empathy.  Years later, during the final scene of "Kinsey" in which Redgrave had one brief but memorable scene,  I was so transfixed by the character on screen, and so connected to her amazing monolog, that I was not consciously aware who the actress was until the scene ended.

As a tribute, I would like to share a little bit of these two iconic moments from Lynn Redgrave's career.  The first clip is an unusual pairing of the opening credit sequence with the closing credits from "Georgy Girl". The bouncy, catchy theme song ,which was a big hit in the '60's, plays behind each sequence; the breezy hopefulness at the beginning gives way to a strange, almost cruel irony at the end.   So, a spoiler alert to those who have yet to see the film. This movie fixed the public's image of Redgrave for most of her career, and lent the actress an aura of good will, one of an underdog we loved to root for.

The second clip is the terrific scene at the finale of Kinsey, in which Redgrave delivers a monolog of quiet power, an iconic and classic "coming out" story that thousands of viewers identified with. 

It's a pleasure to me to make these scenes a part of this journal.  I hope you enjoy them, and keep the freshness and relevance of Lynn Redgrave's characters alive.

Kinsey - You Saved My Life Sir | Movies & TV | SPIKE.com

May-Day Images--A Saturday Mood Piece

A writing exercise, a recording of impressions on a spring day... Consider this a page from a writers notebook, raw material for an eventual suburban short story:

I stood on the front steps of my soon-to-be new home.  Mark has lived in this little ranch house in Mt. Prospect for 14 years.


The bright dandelions were boldly beaming, to my ingrained suburban embarassment.  The sturdy pine and delicate birch trees framed the distant images of a sporting ritual like a painting in a lost gallery.


Across the street is the soccer and football field belonging to the local High School that sits in the distance down the end of the Avenue.

The overcast sky softened the still air, and I watched a team of soccer players run back and forth, defending their goal from the advances of a second, more aggressive team of boys, all in their early teens.  They seethed with sweat, shouts, heavy breathing and careless physicality.


Parents, distracted siblings, and dogs gathered near small bleachers or lawn chairs.  Cars were parked with apparent immunity in front of signs that clearly warned No Soccer Parking.


I took a break from housecleaning  and looked on with my phone camera, snapping tranqil photos of a scene that regularly occurs on this street on summer Saturday afternoons.


In the suburbs, peripheral objects are amusingly glorified: trees, lawns, a yellow fire hydrant, groups of generic parents in the iconic wardrobe of jeans and sweatshirts, tennis shoes and baseball caps, yearning for membership in the world of their own children.  The boys, active drivers of the days' activities, were oblivious to their own power, as they were concentrating, running, calling out, embracing, and attracting attention.

An ice cream truck, playing over and again a caliope recording 
of Scott Joplin's theme from "The Sting" 
appeared like a suburban emblem, establishing this as truly the realm of children.  Yes, the suburbs exist primarily for children.


I knew I belonged here once, assumed it like my own name, or my reflected image.  Now, I simply enjoyed a wistful calm, snapped my pictures, and retreated back into the house, to an oasis of my own making, a cabin in the woods, a summer beach house, a winter cabin, where Mark and I have created the best library, cinema, music hall, and poster gallery; a place where languages and music, and the company of original and thoughtful adults is welcome; where culinary striving is encouraged and McDonalds is banned; and where two guys can express their affection like any other couple in any park on Main Street.


A place, I might hope, that those students across the street would be proud to create as their own some day.

Can Entertainment and Sports Save Illinois Schools? A Friday Journal

I want to offer a solution to a state crisis. I have an idea that might equitably save Illinois schools and put teachers back to work. 

This is a post of regional interest.  Of course, Illinois, and Chicago in particular, have been in the spotlight quite often in the last couple of years: for example, President Obama; the failed Olympic bid; Tony Rezko; ever-increasing violent crime; and a clownish legislature laboring under the shadow of a recurring nightmare of a former Governor.  So, maybe non-residents will find some interest here too. 

Briefly, Illinois' economy is in dire trouble, and no one can agree on an new source of adequate funding to keep Illinois education solvent, relevant, and competitive.  Governor Pat Quinn has advocated for raising the state income tax from 3 to 4 percent to raise money for Illinois schools.  Property taxes are already stretched to their breaking point, and the contribution of the Illinois Lottery, while supposedly funding K-12 through losing ticket revenue, is highly overstated.

Quinn has proved to be a lot more respectable than his disgraced predecessor, Rod Blagojevich (lately a contestant on Donald Trump's show "The Apprentice").  Many of us in Illinois wish Blagojevich and his haircut would just go away.  But the investigation into charges of  corruption, which prompted his impeachment while in office, is threatening to extend its sorry reach all the way to the White House.  Stay tuned.

Yet Quinn has yet to make a convincing case to voters and lawmakers.  The state budget deficit is so bad, with so few state payments being made, that some colleges have been in danger of closing their doors; teachers have been laid off, leaving qualified educators in an ever-increasing pool of unemployed teachers, and preventing talented new teachers from finding jobs in Illinois; class sizes are increasing to unmanageable levels; and extracurricular programs like athletics and music are losing funding.

It is not surprising that the income tax increase not politically popular.  Even Quinn is demurring, putting forth a possible cigarette tax, and threatening to force the legislature to remain in session until they create a satisfactory budget.

I have a simple solution:

Add $1 (or a percentage of a dollar) to every sporting event, movie  play, opera, or concert ticket, and contribute this revenue to education funding.

Even in a bad economy, entertainment venues continue to thrive, for the most part.  And most of us use them, whereas a relatively small portion of the population smokes cigarettes.  Arts and entertainment and sports can be  educational experiences in themselves, or they can be distractions in the pursuit of education.  However they are perceived, a tax on this form of activity makes sense, and is an appropriate source of revenue to a worthy cause.

Wrigley Field fills its seats consistently during the baseball season.  With about 40,000 seats, one game would fund one teacher's salary for a full year.

Movie ticket sales provide even more volume, all year long.  Just take one film--"Avatar"--which grossed $746, 600, 000 at the very least (assuming, for the sake of simplicity, that this was all generated in the US).  At $10 per ticket, which is conservative because of the 3-D markup, that's roughly 74 million tickets sold. To simplify, divide that by 50 (states); Illinois' equal share would raise over a million dollars in education revenue, from just one movie.

Multiply that by all of the movies, Bulls and Bears games, Concerts at Ravinia, or the Lyric Opera, or the Chicago Theater or Allstate Arena, and all the many, many others.. Considering how ticket prices for all sorts of entertainment venues increase with no notice, without adversely affecting ticket sales, how many people would even miss the extra dollar? And few, I believe, would protest the use of this money to help fix Illinois education.