a little worried

 

The poster for the 1967 movie The Graduate said, "This is Benjamin.  He's a little worried about his future."

It's an invitation to wonder how "Benjamin" will work this out. ...

-30-

are you here for an affair, sir?

 In The Graduate, when Benjamin Braddock takes Mrs. Robinson up on her offer to see him if he wants to call her, they meet at the Taft Hotel in Los Angeles.

        The clerk behind the counter asks Benjamin, "Are you here for an affair, sir?"

Benjamin (astounded) - What??!

        Of course, the clerk meant "affair" as in an event, like a wedding reception or whatever.

----------------------------- Benjamin is very nervous and shy and awkward and out of his element - (his "element" being school and his parents' house....)

As he and Mrs. Robinson sit at a table in the bar, he tries to order her a drink when a waiter walks by - putting up his hand with two fingers extended, to catch the waiter's attention, but he doesn't say anything and the waiter doesn't see his signal, and keeps walking.

Benjamin (apologetically, to Mrs. R.) - "He didn't see me."

Mrs. Robinson (calmly, firmly commanding) - "Waiter." (waiter turns around and comes over, attending to her) - "I will have a martini."

Yes.  Yes, indeed she will.  And there will be no two ways about it.  (lol)

-30-

days of August

 

4 things that happened and live murkily in my memory - two of them during the month of August:

December, 1967 -- the feature film, The Graduate appeared in theaters.

August 26 - 29, 1968 -- the Democratic National Convention was held in Chicago, accompanied by massive anti-war protests.

August 15 - 18, 1969 -- Woodstock, 3 Days of Peace and Music in upstate New York.

September 24, 1969 -- the trial of the Chicago 7 began.

-30-

police riot

 

Jerry Rubin

Abbie Hoffman

Tom Hayden

Bobby Seale

Judge Julius Hoffman

        The Trial Of The Chicago 7 is on Netflix.

        Recommended.

                It could be good to watch this back-to-back with Best Of Enemies - that debate documentary with Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley, also on Netflix.

-30-

"a little secret, just the Robinsons' affair"

 

Simon and Garfunkel wrote - and sang - all the songs for the movie, The Graduate.

On You Tube, a video titled:

Mrs. Robinson - Simon & Garfunkel- Lyrics

channel / uploader:  @Tina05vs1

The song plays with scenes from the movie.

Enjoy.

-30-

reason will always fall short

 
Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft in The Graduate

When the movie The Graduate came out, I was nine or 10 years old, and I remember seeing an advertisement in the newspaper for it.

        When I was seventeen or eighteen years old, the History teacher in high school told our class about The Graduate.

        I think he kind of went through the whole movie, and was very enthusiastic and exuberant about the ending scene.  He was laughing and smiling and was just so into it. ...

        And - my memory is uncertain, but I believe he mentioned to us that the music in the movie was written and performed by Simon & Garfunkel.

A few years later, while I was living in Boston, I went to see The Graduate at a second-run movie theater.

Then several decades went by wherein I didn't watch The Graduate.  And now, in recent years, I see it every time it comes onto Amazon Prime Video.

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

On You Tube, there are a bunch of videos analyzing The Graduate. 

A viewer comment under one of them says:

----------------- Reason will always fall short when grappling with the level of beauty and mystery emanating from sublime works of art.  "The Graduate" is no exception.  It remains, and always will remain elusive.  In the finest sense of the word. -----------------------------------

The film's director, Mike Nichols, said "It's the great American danger we're all in.  That we'll bargain away the experience of being alive for the appearance of it."

_________________________________________

-  "Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me.

    Aren't you?"

-30-

unexpected, ongoing noise

 I was listening to (and part-time watching) a 1970s situation-comedy on You Tube, and there was a scene where the husband-and-wife main characters had a disagreement in the kitchen and they start throwing dishes on the floor real hard, so that they break.

It's played for laughs, of course, but it caused me to remember a sort of incident that happened many years ago, which I did not find funny, but rather, puzzling and dismaying.

        I was a student at Boston University, and part of my financial aid was my being in the Work-Study program, where you work for a professor.  I typed a lot of stuff for this guy, who was originally from Poland and came to America after World War II.

 

He invited me to rent an apartment in his basement in the Brookline home where he and his wife lived.  He said, Get a roommate, because there are two bedrooms.  He wanted two rent checks, not just one.

        I found a roommate, and we moved in.  It was very nice, for students who aren't making a living yet.  An apartment in the "basement" doesn't sound too fancy - but it was good.  The windows were partially above ground, so we had sunlight, and although there wasn't any air conditioning, our space was plenty cool in the hot, humid Boston summertimes, just naturally, from being partly underground.

It was fine.

        Then one night when I was home alone - my roommate spent some nights at her boyfriend's apartment (they got married later so it's ok) - suddenly I heard all this noise of crashing, banging, breaking dishes coming from upstairs on the main floor.

I was like, 'What the - - - ?!...?'

        I exited my small bedroom, and went out into the living room - dining room area where my stereo and record albums were, along with sofa, dining room table, and art prints on the walls...

I looked up at the ceiling - as if I'm going to be able to see what's going on,..lol 

The crashing and banging and smashing continued... the wife was yelling at the husband, in an exasperated, distressed, desperate tone, and I heard him say calmly, "I don't ever hear you talk to your friends this way...."

        I was a little scared, and intimidated, and kind of embarrassed.

I lived there for two and a half years, and that was the only time that occurred, at least when I was home to hear it.

I found it weird.

I didn't grow up in a home where people threw things or broke dishes.

I didn't know what to make of it.

        I didn't really "know" either the husband or the wife.  I worked for the husband, at school, and felt comfortable to be in his office in the School of Public Communications (SPC).  It felt just normal, and OK.

When I met his wife, I did find her vibe to be a little scary.  She seemed tense with a lot of anger, and spoke like Katharine Hepburn.  (This is not a knock on Hepburn, I'm just saying, that - certain - accent....I never knew if it was real, or put on.)

-30-

time out of mind

 ---------------------------- [excerpt from Chronicles, by Bob Dylan.  Simon & Schuster, 2004.] ------------------------

I didn't know what age of history we were in nor what the truth of it was.  Nobody bothered with that.  If you told the truth, that was all well and good and if you told the un-truth, well, that's still well and good.  

Folk songs had taught me that.  

As for what time it was, it was always just beginning to be daylight and I knew a little bit about history, too - the history of a few nations and states - and it was always the same pattern.  

        Some early archaic period where society grows and develops and thrives, then some classical period where the society reaches its maturation point and then a slacking off period where decadence makes things fall apart.  

I had no idea which one of these stages America was in.  

There was nobody to check with.  

A certain rude rhythm was making it all sway, though.  

It was pointless to think about it.  

Whatever you were thinking could be dead wrong.

-30-

"this conversation is getting a little strange"

 

The Graduate is back on Amazon Prime.

A Commenter on You Tube wrote:

--------------------- This movie was released at the height of the Beatles' popularity.  

The Vietnam War was going badly and was being protested in the streets.  

The hippie culture was rampant.  

People were questioning authority, social convention, sex and inter-personal relations.  

This movie catches lightning in a bottle.  

It is simply a gloriously brilliant critique and statement of the times.  

What a radiant burst of human genius!

-30-

2nd Man

 

That writer I met in the Black Hills is listed in the IMDb movie catalog as "2nd Man."  The guy standing next to him in front of the restaurant is "Man."  (I guess it goes left to right as we look at it - "Man" is the guy on the left who asks "Havin' some trouble, lady?")

My friend's line is spoken off-screen - the camera stays on Jessica Walter and Clint Eastwood - "Yeah, let's split.  Looks like he's got enough trouble already."

        I wonder if they had to get their SAG cards for such brief parts....

2nd Man's voice is still familiar to me - he had a way of speaking kind of matter-of-fact and yet intense, at the same time.

I received a note from him in Boston, in 1978 or '79 wherein he informed  me that he had finished writing and editing the novel; he said it took a lot of work and added, "I'll never smile again."

        I had the impression that "I'll never smile again" was maybe an expression common in his generation.

I learned later it was the name of a song by Tommy Dorsey.

-30-

"...but the point is probably moot"

 

At a wedding dance, all kinds of songs were being played (streamed through AI) - it was so good, and then there were a lot of songs that I didn't know but the young people (teens to 26 years old, approx.) were singing every word along with the recordings.

        Then the guy played "Jessie's Girl" and the kids were singing that one, too, and my brain did a double-take:  wait, that song came out in 1981, how do these people know this song...?

I thought "Jessie's GIrl" must have been used in a movie that they all saw, or something like that.

Had to go home and Google:  it said "twenty-two-year-olds know Rick Springfield's 1981 hit "Jessie's Girl" primarily through pop culture osmosis...."

        It said the song was in a film called Boogie Nights, and was covered on the TV show Glee.

It also says, "The song is a default karaoke standard, frequently plays at sporting events, and is heavily featured in coming-of-age comedies, embedding it in the cultural zeitgeist."

-30-

unanticipated acquaintance

 

        When some other kids and I went to meet the writer - actor - restaurateur in the summer of '77, it occurred to me that he kind of didn't mind some company because - it was probably one of those times when - a person who leads a busy life in Carmel, California, with social events and atmospheres and all, and he's writing a novel but hasn't got it finished, says to himself, "I'm going to take a break, stay in our family's cabin in the Black Hills for a little bit, and finish writing my book.  I can concentrate there; I'll be alone there; no distractions."

So he goes; he types; he smokes cigarettes.

At some point, however, he starts to feel like:  "All this alone-time.  I miss socializing."

Right?

We want something.  Then we have it.  Then pretty soon we want the thing we had before.  Some conversation; some dancing; blah-blah-blah.

-30-

Maxwell Perkins and Huey Long

 He gave me a copy of his as yet unfinished novel - it was in manuscript form - double-spaced, front only of each page.

I read it, and liked it, and got it back to him, with comments / observations.

We exchanged a few letters the first couple of years I was in Boston, going to school.

(All these memories came back to me, as I remembered other parts of it - some things I had not thought of in quite a while.)

        There was a new book out, a biography of Maxwell Perkins, who was editor of Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Thomas Wolfe, and other major authors from the early part of the 20th Century.  I remember I recommended it to him, and maybe I even sent him my copy of it when I was finished reading it - I'm not sure....

And I sent him a paper I had written for American History class - would have been my sophomore year, I think.  The paper was about Huey Long, governor of Louisiana from 1928 - 1932, and U.S. Senator from 1932 until his assassination in 1935.

        He wrote back to me - the paper had a "B" grade on it, and he took a firm stand, saying it was "an 'A' paper."  He was a little ticked at the professor!  LOL.

I didn't send it to him to get his judgment on what the grade should have been - I only wanted to share it because I had fun writing it, and I guess I was proud of it, and just wanted him to see it.

Did not expect him to take umbrage about the grade!

It was funny.

Next time I wrote to him, I said I was glad he thought it was an A paper, but not to be concerned, because I wasn't worried about getting a "B."

357 Beacon Street, apartment building where I lived, sophomore year at B.U.

-30-

trouble already

 Yeah, let's split.  He's got enough trouble already.

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

I only heard him say that in the movie many years later.

At the time, you couldn't stream it or watch it on DVD or on a VCR tape.

If you didn't see it in the theater, or on television if they showed it, then - you missed it.

        You couldn't get it.

It was a crazy world when you didn't have movies at your fingertips.

But we didn't know it was crazy.

It was just - Wednesday. ...

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

        That summer, in 1977, the writer asked me to take a copy of his manuscript so far and read it, and put comments in the margins, & - I did.

I was very honored to be asked to do that.

        Remembering it now makes me smile.  Again.

-30-

enough trouble

 The scene in Play Misty For Me where the guy I knew is in it, is at 31:00 into the movie.  This woman has grabbed his car keys out of the ignition and got out of the car.

He's saying, "Come on, gimme the keys."  And she kind of starts running away from him, laughing like a maniac.

At 31:10, there he is, up at the top of the stairs.

Then another guy comes out.

Clint Eastwood and Jessica Walter are struggling over the keys.  

"Damn it, give me the keys!"

The top-of-the-stairs guy on the left says, "Havin' some trouble, lady?"

"Get lost!" Clint advises him.

The crazy lady:  "Yeah!  Get lost, asshole!"

Her voice is really, really angry, and scary.

Clint looks at her, surprised.

And top-of-the-stairs guy on the right, the Writer, says, "Yeah, let's split, he's got enough trouble already."

other guy:  "Yeah, excuse me."

-30-

Carmel-by-the-sea

 

        It turned out this writer I met during the summer of '77 was originally from South Dakota, but he lived in Carmel, California most of the time, and was part-owner of a restaurant there, with Clint Eastwood.

        I didn't have a lot of knowledge about Clint Eastwood back then - I knew he was in a movie called Dirty Harry.

        He had majored in English literature in college (the writer, not Mr. Eastwood) and worked as sportswriter for the San Francisco Examiner.

        He told  me stories about an apartment building he lived in, in San Fran - the interesting and eccentric people who lived there, and I think he wrote a story about it - can't remember for sure...

We hung out and talked, several times that summer - lunch one day, pizza one night, and I can't even recall most of what we talked about, now, but it was nice.  Hassle-free; controversy-free, no "drama," and never boring.

I guess he was a good story-teller.

        I talked, too, but I didn't know much, at that age, compared to him!

When I told him something about experiences I had and the impressions they left, he responded by giving his perspective on it compared to other ways the events could have gone, and his point was always positive - encouraging.

He was a serious person, and also simply a joy to be around.

Oh, and he was in a movie that Clint Eastwood directed and starred in, called Play Misty For Me (made in 1971, same year as Dirty Harry).

        Writer-friend was in it for only a few seconds, small part - he and another guy are in front of a restaurant, and nearby on the sidewalk Clint Eastwood and actress Jessica Walter are having kind of an altercation.  The two men observing them assume for a moment that the woman needs saving from Eastwood, but it's the opposite, she's tormenting him.

-30-

pink dress

 After we met the writer (and rather interrupted his writing, I guess) - we went back to the resort where we worked and lived.

Later that week, the writer called me and asked if I would like to go out to dinner - on, like, Saturday night, or Friday night, or something.

        I had this pink dress I had bought for some reason - I had a job, I had some money, and I got it because it fit and I liked it.

I said yes to dinner, and wore that dress.

I had never really had a real date, before.

And this man was handsome, interesting, and 27 years older than me.

        45, and I was 18.

I didn't hesitate to say yes when he called me, but then later I thought about it - am I "allowed" to go out with a man who is that much older than me?

        I decided I was allowed.  I was allowing myself.

Lovely evening.  Conversation was fun and easy.  He was not a negative person.  He didn't complain, or scoff, or try to manipulate me.

        And after dinner we went to a nightclub in Keystone and danced!

He told me the music they were playing was "disco," & that it was going to be the next big trend.

        (He was right - a month and a half later when I got to B.U., it was a close guess which music was coming out of the most dorm rooms - Fleetwood Mac's Rumours album, or the songs from Saturday Night Fever....

Well you can tell by the way I use my walk,

I'm a woman's man, no time to talk...)

-30-

1977

 

        In the summer of 1977, between high school graduation and starting college on the East Coast in the fall, I had a summer job as a waitress in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

I met a man there who was a writer.  He lived in California full time, but was temporarily in the Black Hills, staying in a cabin on family property near Hill City, and  writing a novel.

        I was introduced to him in the cabin's kitchen where he was seated at a table, turning out pages on a classic manual typewriter, and smoking cigarettes.

He put out his current cigarette and talked with my friends and me.

Playing those Neil Diamond songs recently made me think of him, because one time he was driving me back to where I lived and he turned on some music in the car, and it was Neil Diamond.

He said something like, "I enjoy music like this, it inspires you and gives you energy."

        We were on one of those roads in the hills that curves this way and then that way, you're looping back and forth, getting where you're going, but not in a straight line.

The sun was shining; the sky was blue - which song was it?

"Cracklin' Rosie"?

"Cherry, Cherry"? - - She got the way to move me... we got things we gotta catch up on... you, you you know what I'm sayin'...

His car was a sort of light gold color.

-30-

"play it now! play it now!"

 you tube video titled:

Neil Diamond - Cracklin' Rosie (Audio)

uploader /channel - Neil Diamond

Play and Listen, and here are some audience comments:

*  One of the most uplifting songs ever

*  I don't remember my dad singing out loud in the car but while on a vacation road-trip in the 70s it's the only song I ever recall him singing.  That memory is there forever.

*  ...The way he melds the words together is like honey. ...

*  Ese recuerdo es inolvidable!

*  DAT is MUZIEK !!!  Wordt je vrolijk

*  I never will forget the day the country was shut due to Covid and Neil came on Facebook playing songs to cheer us up.  So kind of him.  I have always loved his music, now I love him too for that.

*  this man knew how to write a great song

Neil Diamond; Bob Dylan

-30-

"Sex Machine is the choir director at his church"

 
Jim Belushi in Song Sung Blue, currently on Netflix

        Later on in the movie "Song Sung Blue," the Neil Diamond tribute band "Lightning and Thunder" gets an offer to headline a show - and the character Mike (played by Hugh Jackman) says, "We're gonna need a choir."

And the guy who is his manager / dentist comes up with - "Sex Machine is the choir director at his church!"

"Sex Machine" is the nickname of a guy who does an impersonation of the funk music superstar  James Brown.

Uh - yes -- -- "Sex Machine" can take care of that.

The reason the guy's nickname is 'Sex Machine' is that Sex Machine is the name of a hit song by James Brown.

        I brought up the song on You Tube and listened, and watched the performance:  it's really not about sex, it's about focus and power and belief.

It's interesting.

the real James Brown - nicknamed "the hardest working man in show business"

-30-

"we got things we gotta catch up on"

 

        When I mentioned the movie "Song Sung Blue" a couple of posts ago, I was mainly being made happy by all the Neil Diamond music in the film - so many great songs, so familiar, so memorable, just like an integral part of our lives... I thought maybe I didn't give enough attention, or credit, to the movie itself - it's a great movie, actually.

It's on Netflix - it was in theaters, I think - last year...  having played it several more times (while doing things at home - that's the new way of "watching" movies, in my current busy lifestyle - movies are "on" while I'm doing necessary things that have to get done...), yes, I see now it's an excellent movie, very well-told story.

        Looks like it has attracted award recognition, and on You Tube under a video of the film's preview ("trailer") people's comments are very warm, and enthusiastic.

I respect those opinions, and agree.

The actor Michael Imperioli (Christopher Moltisanti in The Sopranos) appears in Song Sung Blue, as a Buddy Holly impersonator - the black-rimmed glasses - he's terrific in this, as is Jim Belushi.

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

song to listen to -

on You Tube

video titled:

Neil Diamond - Cherry, Cherry (Audio)

uploader / channel:  Neil Diamond

Enjoy

-30-

a nation of immigrants

 

Neil Diamond, whose music we've been listening to, here, was born in Brooklyn, New York.  All four of his grandparents were Jewish immigrants:  his father's side came from Poland, while his mother's family members were from Kyiv, Ukraine.

        I got to thinking about people coming from other countries to live in America, since I was talking about Neil Diamond - and also, Maurice Tempelsman - born in Belgium, his parents moved the family to America when the Nazis invaded, during World War II.

        I started wondering - there's a quote, "America is a nation of immigrants."  

Who said that? - 

        so I Googled, turns out, it was President Kennedy.

-30-

small restaurants on the Upper East Side ...

 Continuing on yesterday's subject matter - after the death of Aristotle Onassis in 1975, his widow Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis began her work in book-publishing, which she enjoyed very much.  

And there was one more personal relationship in her life - Maurice Tempelsman was her companion from the early 1980s until her passing, in the spring of 1994, at the age of 64.

(Mr. Tempelsman lived a long life:  he just died last year at the age of 94.)

------------------------ [excerpt from the New York Times Tempelsman obituary] ------------------------- ...Those who knew Mrs. Onassis and Mr. Tempelsman said he had many qualities that appealed to her.

        His style was much the same as hers.  Urbane and reserved, Mr. Tempelsman believed that discretion was among the higher virtues.  He had a sharp wit, a gentle and unassuming manner, a respect for scholarship and learning, an abiding interest in the arts, and a deep knowledge of Africa.  They were also the same age.

        In New York, they entertained friends for dinner and liked to go to small restaurants on the Upper East Side.  

They enjoyed speaking French together during their walks in Central Park. ... ------------------------------ [end / excerpt]

_____________________________

_______________________________

and for today, another fabulously dramatic song by Neil Diamond - from the 1969 album Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show -

(You Tube video titled) --

Neil Diamond - Sweet Caroline (Audio)

uploader / channel:  Neil Diamond

... and PLAY!

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

Maurice Tempelsman; Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

-30-

Neil Diamond on our minds

 

I was going to discuss briefly the marriage of Jackie Kennedy and Aristotle Onassis, and the controversy; also, am being overtaken by a Neil Diamond mood, so there's another song down at the bottom of this post, for you to enjoy.

Famous people are idolized by some people and criticized by others ... one would think that getting married would be a person's own business, but there was a lot in the papers and other media, at the time, about people disapproving of Jackie's second marriage.

        I remember that information leaking into my mind somehow - I didn't really read the paper except for comics, sometimes - I was in fourth grade.  But news and controversy kind of envelope you and you soak it in.  It's in the air.

        Like Cardinal Cushing, I thought she should probably marry whomever she wanted to.

After JFK's younger brother Bobby was assassinated in the spring of 1968, Jackie said - "They're killing Kennedys; for my children's sake I want to get out of this country."

Onassis had been courting her for a while.

She saw him as someone who could provide reliable security for her children.  He already employed security people:  he was very wealthy.  And they could go far away, to the Greek island of Skorpios.

        That was theory; in practice, John and Jackie Kennedy's children, Caroline and John Jr., went to boarding schools in New York and Massachusetts.  (John Jr. was at Brown University in Rhode Island at the same time I was at Boston University - for a couple of years our time overlapped.  I somehow knew that, even though I wasn't seeking info about him.  Another case of news stories seeping into your consciousness uninvited.)

Jackie kept her Fifth Avenue apartment in New York City, and went back and forth between there, and Greece, or Paris - wherever her husband was - or wasn't ... he could be unpleasant sometimes, so she would periodically spend time apart from him.

        Mrs. Kennedy and Mr. Onassis married in October, 1968; in March of 1975 he died, so Jackie was widowed for a second time, after six years and five months of marriage.

        Six months after Onassis's passing, in September 1975, Mrs. Onassis began working as a consulting editor at Viking Press in New York City.

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

On You Tube, video titled

Neil Diamond - Soolaimon (Audio)

uploader / channel:  Neil Diamond

...and have a listen.

(See what I mean, how his songs are like hymns? - the drama, and passion....fasten your seatbelt!)

-30-

pack up the babies and grab the old ladies

 

        ...And, speaking of Cardinal Cushing - let's - have some Neil Diamond music! -

on You Tube, video title:

Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show | Neil Diamond | Lyrics

uploader / channel:  Megan Smith

(good sound on this video)

Hot August night, and the leaves hangin' down and the grass on the ground smellin' - sweet -

Move - up the road, to the outside of town and the sound of that good gospel beat

Sits a ragged tent

Where there ain't no trees,

And that gospel group - telling you and me it's - 

Love, brother love, say brother love's Traveling Salvation Show...! - ...

In this, and many of his songs, there's this build-up of tension and drama and intensity until you just want to cheer, and dance!  These songs are kind of like hymns.

-30-

bad things happen

 A person might wonder, "Why would Jackie Kennedy's wedding to Aristotle Onassis be one of the main things that people might remember about the year 1968?"

        Her getting remarried was a big problem for a lot of people.  She was the widow of our slain president.  What we were left with was Jackie, and the two children, and many people kind of projected onto them intense emotions and feelings of loyalty and grief.

One headline said, Jackie, How Could You?

Some commentators got downright bitchy about it.

Cardinal Cushing finally came out in support of Jackie:  "Why can't she marry whomever she wants to marry?  Why should she be condemned?"

        Then that caused controversy:  Catholic church officials and some of the public were mad at him.

(Aristotle Onassis was divorced - that was the church's problem with the marriage.  People in general who disapproved just - saw it as some kind of insult to President Kennedy, I guess.

        Jackie wed Onassis in 1968.  Pres. Kennedy was killed in 1963, so it had been five years.)

In the decades that followed, each time there was an accident, a scandal, or a tragedy involving a member of the Kennedy family, some people and media headlines would refer to "the Kennedy curse."

        Many of us don't believe in curses - bad things happen sometimes, and we just hope they don't, or deal with them if they do.  It's part of life.

I thought about this when I watched a 2025 film called Song Sung Blue on Netflix.  A string of bad things happen to these people in the movie - and it's based on a true story.

The main characters are a Neil Diamond tribute band.  The Neil Diamond songs are my favorite part of the movie.

He's a powerful songwriter.

-30-

Mayor Daley

 Typing in yesterday's blog post, it came to mind at the end, that Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy had other connections with people involved in the conventions of 1968.

Gore Vidal, as a commentator - happened to be related to Jackie by marriage.  His mother was married at some point to Hugh D. Auchincloss.  Later, Auchincloss was married to Jackie and Lee Bouvier's mother, Janet.

        What does that make Jackie and Gore Vidal? - step-cousins...?

Then - let's focus on Mayor Daley - during the Democratic National Convention of 1976, held at Madison Square Garden in New York City, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, by then an editor at a publishing house, tracked down Mayor Daley and spoke to him about possibly doing a book detailing his life and career.

        He was happy to see her, and wanted to be very cordial, but all he said in reply was, "I'll look into it."

Was any other word or effort ever spoken or made, by Mayor Daley, toward a book about his life, published by Jackie, or by anyone else...?

Oh - nooooooooooo.

lol.

He wasn't gonna take the lid off of that can of worms....

"I'll look into it." ...   ...

JFK; Gore Vidal; Jackie

-30-

"we've got some difficult days ahead"

 

1968

I was trying to think what I could remember from the year 1968, as far as Things That Happened.

I came up with six:

-  in the month of March - President Johnson announces that he will not run for a second term

-  April 4 - Martin Luther King, Jr. assassinated

-  April 23 - student protesters "took over" Columbia University in New York City 

- June 5 - Bobby Kennedy assassinated

- in August, huge anti-war protests rocked the city of Chicago, during the Democrats' National Convention to nominate a candidate for President

- in October, on the Greek island of Skorpios, Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy married shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis

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        Internet synopsis of the Chicago protests in August 1968:

----------------------------- The 1968 Democratic National Convention was held from August 26 to August 29 at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago, Illinois.  It remains one of the most volatile and defining moments in modern American political history, exposing fierce internal party splits over the Vietnam War, and marked by massive civil unrest in the streets.

The Political Backdrop

The convention took place during a year of unprecedented national trauma and political upheaval:

)  LBJ Steps Down:  Incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson announced in March that he would not seek re-election, largely due to growing unpopularity over his Vietnam War policies.

)  Assassinations:  The country was reeling from the assassinations of Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in April and anti-war presidential candidate Senator Robert F. Kennedy in June.

)  The Insiders vs. The Primaries:  Anti-war candidates like Senator Eugene McCarthy had won significant support in state primaries.  However, the party establishment backed Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who had not competed in a single primary.

Chaos Inside the Convention Hall

The deep ideological fractures within the Democratic Party triggered open hostility on the convention floor:

)  The Vietnam Plank Battle:  Delegates engaged in furious debates over the party's stance on the war.  The pro-war establishment faction defeats a proposed peace plank, outraging anti-war delegates.

)  Floor Violence:  Tensions escalated into physical altercations.  Security guards aggressively handled delegates and members of the media; CBS News correspondent Dan Rather was famously knocked to the floor on live television.

)  The Nomination:  Despite the party's deep fractures, the establishment successfully steered the nomination to Hubert Humphrey.

The "Police Riot" in the Streets

Outside the convention, an estimated 7,000 to 10,000 anti-war demonstrators, including groups like the Yippies, and Students for a Democratic Society, converged on Chicago parks.

)  The Crackdown:  Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley took a hardline stance, mobilizing nearly 12,000 police officers, the Illinois National Guard, and federal troops.

)  The Confrontation:  On August 28, the situation boiled over in front of the Conrad Hilton Hotel.  Police advanced on crowds with billy clubs and tear gas, indiscriminately beating protesters, bystanders, and journalists.

)  "The Whole World is Watching":  Network television cameras broadcast the bloodied streets live into millions of American living rooms while protesters chanted the iconic slogan.

)  Official Finding:  A subsequent federal investigation famously characterized the violent police response as a "police riot".

Aftermath and Legacy

The convention dealt a severe blow to the Democratic Party and fundamentally reshaped the U.S. political landscape:

)  Nixon's Victory:  The televised chaos convinced many voters that the Democrats could not maintain order.  Republican nominee Richard Nixon seized on this sentiment, running on a platform of "law and order" to win the 1968 presidential election.

)  McGovern-Fraser Reforms:  To heal the internal rift, the Democratic Party overhauled its nominating process.  The resulting McGovern-Fraser Commission shifted power away from backroom party bosses and elites toward the state primary system, a model that defines modern presidential campaigns today. --------------------------------- [end, Internet excerpt]

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        [Side note:  McGovern of the McGovern-Fraser Commission was George McGovern, U.S. Senator from South Dakota.  The Democrats' candidate for President in 1968, Hubert Humphrey, was also originally from South Dakota, (although he built his political career in the neighboring state of Minnesota.)]

Mayor Daley; Walter Cronkite

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