make a new plan

 People discussing the election on the New York Times site:

" "    One lesson I take from this election is that it's a really good idea to pick your party's candidate in a competitive process.  

One has to look back on the 2016 Republican primary contest as a remarkably successful exercise in figuring out what voters wanted.  

        Democrats, by contrast, cleared the way for Biden to run for a second term and, when that became impossible, they cleared the way for his vice president to run in his place.  

Maybe next time, they should try asking voters what they want.

" "    Hate makes Trump's story appealing.  

In general, stories that appeal to our people's worst selves play well.  

        But so do stories that appeal to our best selves.  We haven't seen Democrats try to tell that kind of story - a "We can be a great, generous, kind nation" type of story.  

Instead, they traffic in some version of "Things are fine the way they are," when that is just not what most people feel.

" "    I have spent my career covering places with really existential problems like hunger extreme poverty, uncontrolled disease, civil war.  

I think Americans are suffering from problems that are primarily psychological rather than material.  

That does not make them less real.  

If anything, it makes them even more powerful and more resistant to material solutions.

-------------------------------------------------------

        I want to play this song to mark the 2024 presidential election:

Paul Simon - 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover (Official Audio)

uploader / channel:  Paul Simon

(OK baby, hit it!)

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poison elegance

 

I went on You Tube to listen to some videos and see what other people think of Martha, the documentary about Martha Stewart.

One guy was talking about her shows and her style and it sounded like he said "poison elegance" but that was an Enunciation Malfunction:  he was saying "poise and elegance."   

        Why do some people get mad at Martha Stewart?  I can remember sitting at a table for supper during a convention in the late '90s, and the subject of Martha S. came up for some reason - several women just erupted in anger.

LOL - I was a little scared!

"You can't do all that!"

 "Regular people don't have the money or the time to do all that stuff perfectly!"

"She just has servants and employees to do everything and then she talks and poses for pictures!" 

"Rahr rahr rahr!"

"Aaaaauuuuggghhhh!"

        This topic was addressed in the documentary - someone said the impression some people come away with is that Martha Stewart is doing things with her home and yard and lifestyle that theoretically we could all be doing, and then some people get really aggravated, feeling like they should be doing "all those things" as well, and as beautifully, as Martha is doing them, but - they aren't.

        And then they feel "less than."

        And that makes them mad.

Early in the film she talks about her time during the 1960s working as a stockbroker on Wall Street.  She says, "That's where I learned how to behave around billionaires."

        She didn't elaborate, so I was left wondering:  how should one behave around billionaires, and why and in what way is it different from the way one behaves around anyone else...?

But see, that fits in with Martha's philosophy and way of looking at the world:  that there's - "a right way and a wrong way," as the saying goes, and she wants to study that, and interpret it, and discuss it and demonstrate it for her audience.  She says she's "a teacher."

        Even earlier in the documentary, before the stockbroker part, Martha's modeling career is covered - she did that when she was a teenager in high school.  

(The filmmakers put in some music at this point - some kind of bouncy, sassy pop-type-1950s song, it reminded me so much of some of the music used in the Hugh Hefner documentary, American Playboy, on Amazon Prime.)

Another point that reminded me of the Hefner film was when Martha got charged with insider trading and her lawyers advised her to not speak in public about it.  She felt it was not a good strategy because then other people set the narrative about her.

        Hugh Hefner said the same thing about a situation he had in the '70s where one of his employees was charged with transporting illegal drugs.  He said he never spoke out because of advice he received, and he felt afterwards it was a bad decision.

When Martha Kostyra got married to Andy Stewart in 1961, they took a five-month honeymoon in Europe.

(Five months?  That what it says.)

It sounded like the European experience was transformative for Martha.  Absorbing the culture, she said, "This is what I would like to spend my life thinking about."

        This aspect reminded me of Jacqueline Bouvier's Parisian experience - it kind of "re-set her dial" in some kind of way.

Snoop Dogg; Martha Stewart

-30-

a good thing

 

        There's a documentary about Martha Stewart on Netflix.  It's called Martha.  (When I saw the title, I thought it was going to be about Martha Mitchell.)

This film says Martha Stewart was "the original influencer."

It says, "American women needed to be re-directed from opening cans of cream-of-mushroom soup and pouring it on top of broccoli and boiled chicken."

        (What?  That's wrong?  It sounds good, to me.  I'd eat it. ...)

-30-

could it be our boy's done - something rash?

 

Go on You Tube and listen to Bobby Darin's rendition of the song, "Mack The Knife."

That song is such a mood.

It starts out with one level of energy and then builds to another level of energy.

The drama is built into the arrangement.

        "The line forms on the right, babe!"...

video title:

Mack the Knife

uploader / channel:  Bobby Darin

        I love at 2:04 how he goes, "Hup! - Hup!"

-30-

that debonair charm

 I have heard in various videos that people in jail use a lot of "charm" on the guards to try and manipulate them.

In the Casey White - Vicky White jailbreak situation, commenters say he charmed and manipulated her to get her to help him escape, which she did.

Videos on You Tube that explain narcissism say the narcissist will use charm on their targets, to get them "sucked into" their influence.

One psychologist said she actively puts a mental barrier between herself and anyone who gives her a compliment because she figures they are trying to charm her and control her.

        I don't know - I thought that might be a bit much.  Some people are giving a sincere compliment.

People who are charming and have charisma can be a good person, or a bad person.  The problem in our perception is, if they are charming to us we automatically assume too much goodness and positivity - kind of the opposite extreme from that one psychologist's viewpoint....

I read somewhere that when President Kennedy met with Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev (the taking-off-his-shoe-and-hitting-the-table-with-it-at-the-U.N. guy) in Vienna, their conversation didn't go as well as hoped because Khrushchev was oblivious to Kennedy's charm.  

One account said JFK was not accustomed to having his gentle friendliness (or, "charm") rebuffed - or, resisted.

('Da Kroosh be not havin' it'...)

One commenter at the time said Nikita Khrushchev was essentially a peasant, barely civilized. ...

-30-

what was your dream?

 In that "Jailbreak" true story, the ending is not happy for Vicky White.  She never returned from that adventure - Casey White did return; he's in jail.

I don't think he wanted to escape as badly as she did.  Even though she wasn't in jail or any other place one would need to escape from.  But she wanted to escape something.  

        Before they made their break, she got rid of all her stuff - giving away big items to co-workers - and sold her house and moved back in with her parents.  At the age of 56.  See, she never intended to return from this runaway project.

Run-away, with a man who says you're his "queen," and he loves you.

My theory is, she had some type of clinical depression.  Low-key enough so that she was functioning, and it went undetected, undiagnosed, and untreated.

Three things she said got my attention and made me wonder.

They were said during the film, not all at the same time, but at different points.

- In a phone conversation with Mr. White, she said in a mildly sad, defeated tone:  "I hate Christmas."

- In another recorded phone conversation he asked her, What was your dream of what you would like to be, when you were young?  She answered that she "always wanted to be a stripper."  That's what I would have been "if I'd been pretty enough."

- In a conversation with a co-worker about retirement, Vicky said, "I'm gonna go out with a bang."

She had enough money, her own home, a retirement-pension thingamajig, however that works...  "Go out with a bang" - ?  Evidently she was not looking forward to retirement.

        freedom?

        flexibility in your schedule?

        relax, read, write as much as you want to?

        work on political campaigns?

                Retirement.  What's not to like?

But see, now I'm speaking for myself, not her.

There are people who do not have a great enthusiasm for life.

It isn't easy to understand.

        ...Well but then that's where the "depression" theory comes in, I guess....

-30-

you know how much I love you

 The jailbreak thing from 2022 did not have a happy ending.

At the end of the film, the law enforcement guys who had worked with Vicky White said Casey White didn't "love" her, he was just sweet-talking her to get her to help him break out of jail.

        A guy who had been an inmate with Casey said he did love her.  

This man was a good storyteller, he made it sound real intense and - desperate, but in a pleasant way.  You know?  "Drama" that some people want to have.  

        It was as if he was writing his own romance novel.

When a car-wash owner in Indiana called police to let them know a vehicle had been left there that may have belonged to Casey and Vicky, some LE people arrived, observed reporters and cameras, and one detective asks the car-wash guy, "Why is the media here?"

He says, "Ah called 'em."

(LOL)

-30-

Sun Drop

 In that "Jailbreak" documentary, the guy explains that Sun Drop is a soft drink that's "native to north Alabama."

For some reason, that detail added to the story's fascination, for me.

        The way he said, "north Alabama" reminded me of how they say "north Jersey" in The Sopranos.

Also, when former sheriff Blakely said his deputy was "giving chase."

I would just say, "he chased him."

And when he got Casey White into his vehicle and "carried him to the jail."

He means, of course, that he drove Mr. White to the jail.

Saying "carried him" and "giving chase" seem like old-fashioned expressions, to me.  But maybe they're Southern expressions.  Maybe people in Alabama commonly use those phrases.

-30-

"all that mess"

 

Mike Blakely

Netflix documentary, Jailbreak:  Love On The Run

-------------------------------- The town of Florence, Alabama, is in Lauderdale County.  

One county over is Limestone County.

Mike Blakely is a former sheriff of Limestone County.  He speaks in the documentary:

"First time I met Casey, he was in his late teens or early 20s - he off and on had girlfriends, first time he was in my jail it was for shootin' at his girlfriend... Oh my God, I'll never forget that night.  

        Dispatch called, told me we'd had a home invasion - Casey shot at his girlfriend, he then went next door to the neighbors, sticks a gun in his face, tells him he needs his car keys.  Which he politely provided to Casey.

Apparently Casey had pulled in to the rest area, Saturday mornin' to switch cars, a man and his wife were backin' out, and Casey tried to get 'em to stop, they didn't stop, so he shoots through the back window of the car - shot the lady in the shoulder.

At the service station, there was another guy there, Casey stuck a gun in his face, said I need your car.

Victim starts hollerin' at Casey, says Hey, man, leave me my cell phone!  

Well, Casey backs up - gives the guy his cell phone, then goes, gets on the Interstate, one of my deputies spotted him, Casey with a stolen vehicle, and was givin' chase.

Then - he wrecked.  

[subtitles from body-cam]

- Put the gun down.

- I want the sheriff.

- Just put the gun down.

- I want the sheriff.

- The sheriff will be here in a minute, okay?

-Sheriff's here now, man.

Sheriff just pulled up.

[Blakely] - When I got there, he's got two guns, one he's stickin' to each side of his head.  I'm like Casey, put them dang guns down, and he's like, Mike call Mama, tell her I love her!

        And I'm like, Oh Casey, ain't nobody gonna die here tonight.

Finally, he agrees, if I'll get him a Sun Drop he'll put the guns down.

Sun Drop is a soda pop that's native to north Alabama.

So - I gave it to him, he put the guns down.  And then I put him in my vehicle, and I carried him to the jail.

        Ya know, he got a 75 year sentence outta all that mess."

Limestone County Cotton Art Print, by Carole Foret

-30-

bustin' loose

 

Jailbreak:  Love On The Run is a Netflix documentary telling the true story of a real-life jailbreak that occurred in 2022, in Florence, Alabama.

Casey White is a guy who was in jail in Florence.  It's not a prison, it's "a holding facility."

The woman who helped him escape and ran away with him was Vicky White.

(They have the same last name, but are not related.)

She was not a detainee in the jail; she was in charge of the place - second to one other person.  She had a good salary and a lot of responsibilities.

So, to begin with, he needed to escape, but she did not need to escape, she worked there.  However, once she helped him get out, she too became a fugitive.

        The charge against Casey White was capital murder.  As the law viewed it, Vicky White had turned a dangerous criminal "loose on the public."

        By the time Casey White and Vicky White ran, they had been professing love for each other via phone conversations and in-person conversations for almost two years.

Part of the enjoyment of watching this documentary is hearing the Southern accents.

I adore accents; I swim in them.

I love language, and it's infinitely interesting to me, hearing the variety of ways people use the language.

At one point in the film, a speaker said, "We realized Tom was of the essence..."

And I was thinking, Wait, Vicky White, Casey White - who's Tom?  What did I miss?

Later - maybe in a re-watch, I realized he was saying, "time was of the essence."

-30-

wise guys

 

I was contemplating what makes a well told story.  

It made me think of a scenario in The Sopranos where Christopher Moltisanti is trying to write a screenplay.

"Been workin' my ass off on this movie script.  You know how many pages I got?  Nineteen."

Paulie:

That a lot?  Or a little?

Christopher:

Books say a movie's supposed to be about a hundred and twenty pages.

(Paulie does that whistle - "Whew!"  [So many pages, right?])

Christopher:

Got this fuckin' computer, I thought it would do a lot of it...

Paulie:

Dat writah - with the bullfights?  Blew his own fuckin' head off.

Christopher:

I bought a scriptwritin' program and everything...

Paulie suggests that Christopher put away the writing, and the two of them go and visit a house of prostitution (in different wording).

Christopher:

You ever feel like nuttin' good was evah going to happen to You?

Paulie:

Yeah.  And nuttin' did.  So what?  I'm alive.  I'm survivin'...

Christopher:

That's it.  I don't wanna just survive.  Says in these movie-writing books that every character has an arc.  Ya understand?

(Paulie shakes his head "no.")

Christopher:

Like everybody starts out somewheres.  Then they do something - or somethin' gets done to them, changes their life.  That's called their arc.  Where's my arc?

----------------------------------------------------

The conversation goes on....

        Chris's thinking is all over the place, here.  He's trying to write a movie script, in which he thinks there should be "an arc."  Then he's worrying aloud that he himself, in real life, has no arc.

He's ticked that even though he committed a murder for the Mafia, he isn't being promoted fast enough.

        He thought if he bought the computer and the software program, the computer would "do a lot of it" - write the script for him.  

        He is consumed with impatience.  His percolating frustration and anger sort of drives away his sense.

The scene is so evocative of a personality, and the guy's pain - it's alive.

It's tragic and funny at the same time.

For me, that's part of what makes good storytelling.

-30-

eleven days

 There's a documentary on Netflix now called "Jailbreak:  Love On The Run."

It's about a situation that was covered in the news in 2022.

This woman who worked at the jail in Florence, Alabama, helped an inmate escape and they went on the run together.  

They were in love.

They were free for eleven days.

The story is told very well; I'm impressed.

Florence, Alabama, is also the location of the famous Muscle Shoals recording studio.

O'Neal Bridge at Florence, Alabama

-30-

"ball of confusion"? or just a Friday?

 "Ball Of Confusion" is indeed a song.

A hit for The Temptations.

(And Tina Turner covered it:  many comments under her video say they first heard this song when they saw Tina perform it in the early days of MTV in the '80s.)

___________________________________

        I was thinking about those events in the 1960s - the assassinations, and I wrote here a couple days ago that it might be like a "ball of confusion."

Some people might say it was not "confusing" at all - actually, there was a pretty obvious pattern. ...

-30-

"if you try, you will find me"

 South Pacific is on You Tube.  You can watch it for free, if you don't already have the DVD.

(Watch on m.youtube, through Adblock.

There are adblocks on there where they charge money, but click on the free one, it works.)

...Bali Ha'i - may call you

Any night, any day

In your heart, you'll hear it call you

Come away, come away

Bali Ha'i - will whisper - on the wind, of the sea

Here am I, your special island,

Come to me, come to me

Your own special hopes,

Your own special dreams

Loom on the hillside - and shine in the Streams

If you try, you will find me

Where the sky meets the sea...

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Bali Ha'i symbolizes an ideal place, and life, in the imagination.

In The Wizard Of Oz it's "somewhere over the rainbow."

In South Pacific it's Bali Ha'i.

-30-

ball of confusion

You can hear the whole talk by presidential candidate Robert Kennedy in Indianapolis, from 1968 on You Tube:  video titled -

Indianapolis, 1968:  Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King and a historic call for peace

uploader / channel:  Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights

        Last week as I listened to a series of news-videos about Ethel Kennedy, I noticed how time seems to collapse and events kind of run together when they make a video and list the historical highlights.

Like - 'all these things happened.'

        But there were years in between those things.  In real life, you know this, but listening to the video, happenings seem to stack up in chaos and confusion.

"Ball Of Confusion" - I think that's a song...

-30-

"make an effort, as Martin Luther King did..."

April 4, 1968.  Lorraine Motel, Memphis, Tennessee

 If you watch the video,

Ethel 2012 Documentary

on You Tube

(Walter Lawler Archive),

early in it, you hear part of a speech Bobby Kennedy gave in Indianapolis to a mostly-black audience, the night Martin Luther King had been assassinated; Bobby announced the news - you can hear gasps and screams in the crowd.

The police didn't want him to go and make the scheduled appearance.

He went anyway, and said to the people, What we need in America is not division, but love, for one another.

There was rioting in some cities that night, but none in Indianapolis.

Robert Kennedy speaking to people in Indianapolis    Thursday, April 4, 1968

-30-

once upon a time on planet earth

 

Sharon Tate; Jay Sebring

Speaking about critical thinking, this week, we used Hitler as one example of a person "in authority" who should not have been listened to.

        Another example would be Charles Manson.  I was in grade school when I read about the Tate-LaBianca murders in the newspaper.  Our fifth-grade teacher had assigned us to bring news articles to school for discussion.  (They want to teach you to be interested in current events.)

Then here the little kids are bringing in these lurid, horrific accounts of - literally - "bloody murder"!  It was truly awful.  I wonder if our teacher wished she hadn't brought up "news articles" just at that particular time....

And I'm not sure if that string of news stories about "the Manson family" was in our paper right after the murders occurred, or approximately a year later when they were going to court.

I remember how the girls who lived with Mr. Manson and did the murders would be pictured:  long hair, parted in the middle.  Short dresses.

        They called themselves a "family."  Ever notice how when a con man wants to bamboozle people, they say the word "family" - ?

magic words:

        family

        Christian

"I'm a Christian!" - a person who needs to bonk people over the head with such information likely has bad intentions....

If critical thinking had been applied by people who met Charles Manson, they would not have followed his "leadership" or bowed to his "authority."

Skepticism, baby.  Skepticism.

        Quentin Tarantino recently made a fictional film based on the Manson murders, called Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.  I haven't seen it yet.

Abigail Folger

-30-

disorder in the tea room

         That statement made by one of Ethel and Robert Kennedy's children in the documentary was bothering me - that she had a "healthy disregard" for authority in all its forms... it sounds arrogant, and as if she didn't respect anything - and that isn't correct, that isn't the person you see in the film.

The only problem is the word "disregard" - the word he wanted was, instead, "skepticism."

        She had a healthy skepticism for authority, in all its forms.

        That's what he meant.

The story is told, in Rory Kennedy's film, about Ethel getting "demerits" during college.  (Demerits are marks against your name if you broke a rule.)  She got one for something described as "disorder in the tea room."

Oh - - kaay... ... ?

Oh, and if you don't have the streaming service that has the Ethel Kennedy documentary (Max, or Amazon Prime...) - it's on You Tube!  Right there.  So everyone can see it.

title of the video:

Ethel 2012 Documentary.

uploader / channel:  Walter Lawler Archive

-30-

critical thinking

 

        " A healthy disregard for authority in all its forms" is something the late Ethel Kennedy had, according to the documentary about her life.

Some people might think that sounds bad - like, what did she do, go around disobeying the law?  Did she "flout" authority?  That doesn't seem like the way to go...?

        But what the statement refers to is critical thinking.  As in:  a person may, of course, obey the law and not go around doing bad things, but on the other hand, you also think for yourself, and if someone in authority tells you to do something and you think it's wrong, then you make up your own mind and don't do it.

In Hitler's Nazi Germany if more people had employed critical thinking and refused to do stuff he was telling them to do, then six million people would not have been harmed and killed in the Holocaust.

Sometimes a person who has "authority" is a very very bad person, and we should not follow their orders.

-30-

question authority

 

There's a documentary about Ethel Kennedy's life, it's on either Amazon Prime or "Max"...

It said she had "a healthy disregard for authority, in all its forms."

Below is a photograph of Ethel Kennedy and her daughter Rory, who made the documentary film.

Rory was born six months after her father was murdered at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California.

-30-

human rights advocate

 

Famous people dying seems to come in three's.

Recently it was 

John Amos (actor)

Kris Kristofferson (actor, singer, musician, and songwriter)

Ethel Kennedy (activist and widow of Robert Kennedy)

        Amos and Kristofferson were in their 80s; Mrs. Kennedy was 96.

One of the news videos about Mrs. Kennedy said her husband was assassinated at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles in 1969.

        It was 1968.

Another news story told something I did not know  - that she dated the singer Andy Williams in the '70s.

Some of the videos featured members of the Kennedy family doing an "Ice Bucket Challenge" ten years ago.  

        To lobby then-President Obama to give attention to an issue they believed was important, they all stood in a row with buckets of ice and ice-water in front of each person.  One at a time, they lifted the container and poured the contents over their heads - even Ethel!  Splash, splash, splash.

It looked very cold.

News videos also said that Ethel participated in a hunger strike once, for a good cause, and also that she took up farm-workers' issues and marched with Cesar Chavez, in 1970.

Ethel Kennedy; Robert F. Kennedy Sr.

-30-

windshield wipers slapping time

 

John Lennon, songwriter

Soaking up the song "Me And Bobby McGee" made me think about, and wonder about, songwriting.

There are videos on You Tube about writing songs.

        It's mysterious to me. 

        How do people make up lyrics?

        How do people invent melodies?

        It seems impossible.

It must be a talent that a person is born with.

But - how?

comment under a songwriting video:

@illinoisan

It's good to remember why we have meter and rhyme.  They are remnants of our ancient oral tradition.  

Before writing, the only way to pass down culture from one generation to the next was by memorization, so mnemonics were invented to aid the memory, meter and rhyme. 

 When you structure your lyrics following meter and rhyme, you are creating patterns that humans have evolved to seek, recognize and delight in.  

        A technique I use is to not write anything down while I'm composing.  If I can't remember it, it wasn't any good.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  

Taylor Swift, songwriter

-30-

busted flat in Baton Rouge

 

On You Tube, the video titled

Kris Kristofferson ~ Me and Bobby McGee

uploader / channel:  NoRosesForMe

... and play

Busted flat in Baton Rouge,

Headin' for the trains

Feelin' near as faded as my jeans

Bobby thumbed a diesel down,

Just before it rained,

Took us all the way - to New Orleans

I took my harpoon 

Out of my dirty red bandana,

And was blowin' sad while

Bobby sang the blues

With them windshield wipers slappin' time,

And Bobby clappin' hands we finally

Sang up every song that driver knew --

Freedom's just another word for

Nothin' left to lose

Nothin' ain't worth nothin'

But it's free

Feelin' good was easy, Lord, 

When Bobby sang the blues

Feelin' good was good enough for me --

Good enough for me and Bobby McGee

From the coal mines of Kentucky

To the California sun

Bobby shared the secrets of my soul

Standin' right beside me, Lord,

In everything I done

Every night she kept me from the cold

Then somewhere near Salinas, Lord,

I let her slip away

Lookin' for the home I hope she'll find

And I'd trade all my tomorrows

For a single yesterday

Holdin' Bobby's body next to mine

Freedom's just another word for -

Nothin' left to lose

Nothin' left is all she left for me

Feelin' good was easy, Lord, 

When Bobby sang the blues

Buddy that was good enough for me

Good enough for me and Bobby McGee

Na nananananana - nanana-nana -

me and Bobby McGee...  

-30-

yeah, whatevah happened there?

 

        In yesterday's post I identified the actor Bernie Kopell with 1960s situation comedies "That Girl," "Bewitched," and "Get Smart."  I should have included the '70s-'80s TV show, "The Love Boat."  Probably more people remember him from that....

Today I was thinking about the dream sequences in The Sopranos.  They are the only component of that show that I don't "get."  I never understand them, what they are supposed to be revealing, or representing.  What is the character working through, with that dream sequence?

        When there's a dream sequence, I just wait for it to be over so that the show can continue.

If I could, and someone let me, I would remove every dream sequence from The Sopranos.  It's a great show, but dream-sequence removal would make it perfect, in my view.

        Then I go on You Tube, watch some Sopranos clips and read the comments underneath, and there are many people commenting that the dream sequences are terrific, and meaningful.

What am I missing??

        I just don't see it, but you can't understand everything that some other people do  understand.

        And "visa - versa."

-30-