Daily Blues & Views

The film, "99 Homes"  has been out for awhile.  My guess is that it's audience dwindles when people find out that the subject matter is the recent real estate bust that accompanied the economic turn down of 2008.  Like the Academy Award winning "The Big Short," this is a film about the winners and losers.   But, with a twist.  A hard working single parent living with his son and his mother falls on hard times when construction work get cuts back and ultimately gets foreclosed upon.  The twist comes when he ends up going to work for the very real estate agent that gives him the bad news. What follows is a subtle portray and even more subtle discussion of the value conflict in this culture over property, the American Dream of owning a home, and ultimately playing the game fairly.  Our hero makes some bad decisions in his haste to regain his home.  In fact the definition of the difference between a house and a home lies in the balance. Similarly...

I've always wondered why some people are so intrigued with and ultimately seduced by groups that turn out to be nothing more than cults.  These organizations have authoritarian power structures and seem to be most appealing to people with a certain set of circumstances in their past. I've lost a few friends over the years to the likes of Scientology, EST and a few other lesser known organizations.  Many of those groups have fallen by the wayside, but some stubbornly go on luring new generations of privileged, disaffected, vulnerable folks. I was thinking the other day about specific instances in my past when I came into contact with these groups or their adherants. Back in 1970, in the Bay Area, just walking around in San Francisco or Berkeley would initiate all manner of inquiries from "recruiters."  Scientology used to give out a lengthy questionnaire inviting people to take home this handout and then come to a meeting later in the week.  There were gurus and me...

The great American playwright, Arthur Miller, made immortality one of his constant themes.  In fact he once said that trying to achieve it, or at least be remembered is like "carving your initials on a cake of ice on a hot July day."  Social media is a good example of latter day attempts at immortality.  But what happens to all these attempts?  even some of the most famous are soon forgotten.  Perhaps if we write a classic song or piece of literature or if we make a painting on the scale of the Mona Lisa that cake of ice will remain frozen just a little longer.  Perhaps.  In his incisive oral histories, Studs Terkel has captured many of the ways people try to leave their mark.  I was always fond of the steel worker he interviewed who always tried to leave a little blemish on his work just so people would not forget that a human being was involved in this work.  That probably goes on in many factories to this day.  But immortality is, as ...

In my neighborhood is a new store called Therapy.  Lot's of folks go in this boutique like establishment that carries everything from greeting cards to furniture.  Lots of "Made in Oregon" type objects and a selection of books, art, and clothing that reflects Northwest tastes.  Many people like to say they are "in therapy." The other day I noticed a new item.  It was one of those old school type photo booths.  On closer inspection, it looked like one of the originals with the small strips of sample photos proudly displayed on the sides of the machine.  But in talking with the sales person a bit, I found out this is a modern version of one of the originals.  The cost is $5.00 for a strip of 4 small photographs and the machine has the ability to post one or more on Facebook instantly as well.  Of course. Not exactly the 25 cent version of my childhood.  But enough to get me thinking on the photo booth that my neighborhood posse and I used ...

First World Problems     are minor inconveniences. My password is temporarily blocked,    and I haven't been able to find that brand                        of crackers I like. Why do some food items appear, endear,  and then disappear                  forever? The yellow plastic cap on the bathroom     cleanser popped off and went down the toilet... course I flushed it down but worried that I might block the          pipes...It's probably at the sewage treatment plant by now. How many days must I wait until I know                 for sure that my picture wasn't taken by the "Your Speed Is...." contraption on Hawthorne Blvd? I wasn't able to get the elliptical machine at the gym that I usually use.  It's getting crowded in there on the days I go most often....

So there we were, the young student teacher and me, the veteran mentor, meeting to discuss his teaching unit on World War II.  It could have been the all business type of review where I approve what he's planned, or I suggest a few resources, or even encourage him to develop his own curriculum instead of depending on what his Cooperating Teacher (placement) had to offer.  All typical agendas for such meetings.  But this one felt differently. At the outset, I could tell he was eager to ask me questions, eager to listen to my responses.  What started out as wanting to carefully explain that he needed to focus in on just a few topics became unnecessary because he began by noting just that.  We easily agreed on two or three components from a list of 10 possible topics he has written. He asked for strategies and when I gave him a diagram of a Problem Analysis, he immediately liked the idea and saw exactly how he might enhance some of his ideas by including that ...

Frank Zappa once said, "Politics is the entertainment branch of industry."  He seems to have foreseen the current political scene.  If politics has become entertainment, so too has entertainment become politics.  In fact , a large majority of folks get their news and political perspective from entertainers these days.As a horrified portion of our country is coming to realize that Donald Trump is not going away and that buttressed by the non-sensical monologues of Sarah Palin, he's got a bit more traction than they'd like to admit, we recoil.  Isn't this how Nazi Germany began.  The diatribes and ranting of people who dare to say repugnant and outrageous things to an angry mob all too willing to buy the simplistic version of political reality are a natural consequence if you look at the bigger picture.  What I'm saying here is that the rise of candidates like Trump isn't so mysterious given the course of history and this country's role in current affair...