Kris Kristofferson

Kris Kristofferson passed on September 28, 2024. He was a musician, actor, songwriter. His authenticity and honesty brought a sense of integrity to the varied creative projects he chose. 

I love the lyrics of "Pilgrim's Progress." Here they are, just as Mr. Kristofferson wrote them...

Pilgrim’s Progress by Kris Kristofferson

Am I young enough to believe in revolution
Am I strong enough to get down on my knees and pray
Am I high enough on the chain of evolution
To respect myself, and my brother and my sister
And perfect myself in my own peculiar way

I get lazy, and forget my obligations
I'd go crazy, if I paid attention all the time
And I want justice, but I'll settle for some mercy
On this Holy Road through the Universal Mind

Am I young enough to believe in revolution
Am I strong enough to get down on my knees and pray
Am I high enough on the chain of evolution
To respect myself, and my brother and my sister
And perfect myself in my own peculiar way

I got lucky, I got everything I wanted
I got happy, there wasn't nothing else to do
And I'd be crazy not to wonder if I'm worthy
Of the part I play in this dream that's coming true

Am I young enough to believe in revolution
Am I strong enough to get down on my knees and pray
Am I high enough on the chain of evolution
To respect myself, and my brother and my sister
And perfect myself in my own peculiar way

Thank you for the lyrics, music, and stories, Mr. Kristofferson.

Long may you ride.

...Is This Thing On?

Why, yes. I think the lights are still on, here. "Blogging" has taken some hits due to the advent of social media and the open sharing of ideas on all of the various platforms. But, those platforms are particularly rancid and venomous.  Social media was fun and informative. It's been hijacked by the old devil itself - the REAL devil, human nature. 

Yeah, we're pretty awful. That awfulness is easily exacerbated by sitting in front of an anonymous keyboard and filling one's mind with only opinions that cater to your world view.

"It is what it is," said Kurt Vonnegut.

Anyway, I noticed this very evening, that it had been over a YEAR since I posted anything here. Forgive me, Gentle Reader. I heeded that siren call of social media, of Facebook, Twitter (now know as, "X" for some selfish reasons unbeknownst to me), and YouTube - for me, the 'big three'.  I've done my 'blogging' there, instead of here.  

Forgive me, 'Chicken Scratch'. I never meant to be such a neglectful blogger. The winds of the zeitgeist blew and I was swept away by their velocity.

It is what it is.

Winds change, however. Perhaps they will blow me back one day?

 One never knows.  

Barry Manilow - Hits 2022 Tour, Philadelphia

And so, it came to pass, 8/14/2022… 

My wife and I are both longtime fans of Barry Manilow. We had his LPs growing up – as a matter of fact, the first album I ever bought was a Barry Manilow album, One Voice. A few months back I was able to procure two tickets (section 102, seats 7 & 8) to see Barry in Philadelphia. The day came and we started to balk. We did some hemming and hawing, but we went to see Barry Manilow on 8/14/22 for the Manilow: Hits 2022 tour. The hemming and hawing were not because we don’t love him or his music, no; we were concerned over the ravages of time. We did not want to behold a cherished singer from both our pasts not be able to do what he did so well – sing the truth from his heart. It would have been a stark reminder of the toll the passage takes – of what was and is now diminished or even gone.

Well, that is not living in the moment, is it? No. We are given only so many of them and we must make them count for something while we are here. We went and beheld a 79-year-old Barry Manilow knock us dead. What a GREAT SHOW! There he stood on stage at the Wells Fargo Center in all of his modest glory performing the songs that we know so well, and he was so good. Hearing those songs, sung by Barry, and sung so wonderfully, defied time. His performance declared, we are still here and we have a voice. So use that voice. He celebrated all the moments from the 70’s to now and we celebrated them along with him.

Here is the set list…

1. It’s a Miracle
2. Can’t Smile Without You
3. Looks Like We Made It
4. Brooklyn Blues (w/ Dave Koz – who opened the show)
5. This One’s for You
6. Daybreak
7. Even Now
8. The Old Songs / Ships / Ready to Take a Chance Again
9. Tryin’ to Get the Feeling Again
10. Weekend in New England
11. Let’s Hang On
12. All the Time
13. Could it Be Magic
14. I Made It Through the Rain
15. Mandy / Could It Be Magic
16. I Write the Songs
Encore:
17. Copacabana
18. It’s a Miracle (Reprise)
Encore 2:
19. Old Friends
20. Once Before I Go

I’ve seen a few shows in my time but this one touched me. There were moments that brought tears to my eyes. I’m a softy and the tides of time and of nostalgia rose over their banks. He told a story of his grandfather recognizing that a 4-year-old Barry was musically inclined taking him to Brooklyn every Saturday to record his voice in a sound booth designed to cut records that could be taken home to play. There were pictures and samples from one of the actual recordings. He told of how years later – the first time that he played Carnegie Hall, how his grandfather led the standing ovation when he came on stage and how he kept standing and clapping when everyone else started to sit down. He said, “I think of him every single time I play…” and then he started This One’s for You. There were tears.

With, Could It Be Magic he did a duet with himself from 1974 via archive footage. Yes, it was magical.

Within this bag is glow stick that was handed out to everyone upon entry, one of the streamers that blew out into the audience at the end of the show, and, of course, this write up.

Thank you for defying time and reminding us that we are still here, we must appreciate the moments we have, and that we are – still after all these years able to hear that one voice singing in the darkness.

For a life’s worth of memories, songs, and feelings, thank you, Mr. Manilow. 

Rehumanize Yourself

We are an angry nation.

Why is this so?

One could write several doctoral dissertations on the topic of how humanity coped or did not cope during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Most recently, I am reminded of a tweet that I saw and saved for posterity a few days ago on 8/26. Josh Moon said…

“One thing that about this pandemic that I’ll remember forever is the way many people got irrationally angry at people who were trying to help them. Angry at scientists. Angry at teachers. Angry at doctors. Angry at anyone who told them helpful info they didn’t want to hear.”

He is not wrong. This underlying anger, fueled by fear and hate, serves the darkest angles of our natures. The anger, fear, and hatred are real. These emotions need to be acknowledged. Emotions are a natural, human response; we all have them. It is, however, what we do with them that defines us. Is our reason swept away, robbed from us by serving some mob mentality? Or do we ask ourselves the deceptively simple question, “Why?” We, as thinking, rational human beings must search ourselves and ask the hard questions, why am I angry? Why does what I do not understand frighten me? Why do I hate?

If we can examine ourselves, if we can be honest with ourselves, and if we can reason for ourselves, then we can channel these negative emotional responses into something better – something positive. This takes an act of will, an act of humanity on the part of each of us. Do we join the unthinking mob, or do we join humanity and ask ourselves the hard question of “Why?”

We need a mass re-humanization, sooner rather than later. As human beings, we have the capacity to be so much more than what we are. The capacity to look beyond ourselves, beyond our own needs & desires – to look and see how we can lift others up instead of tearing them down, to help instead of hinder, to do what is right for everyone and not simply for ourselves.

Here, in the United States, our humanity has been compromised by politics. The simple act of wearing a mask and getting a vaccination to help stop a world-wide pandemic that has claimed over 4.5 million lives – 637,280 of them right here in the United States – is questioned by those who have chosen the whims of the mob over betterment of humanity.

Those who cry, “My body, my choice!” I hope you remember that phrase when it doesn’t only apply to your own situation – your own ‘needs’. I’ve seen some ugliness from people who have only been thinking of themselves for the last year and a half – we all have. Today, you could make that choice to rejoin humanity and do what is best for all, instead of acting or not acting out of selfishness due to anger, fear, and hate.  The excuses only go so far - the vast majority of them have no footing in reason.

It is past time to grow up.

It is not a political issue. It is a public health issue.

The Delta variant is filling hospital beds, taking such beds away from others who need them. Vaccinating would ease this pressure. It would be good for you, good for them, good for everyone. The mob destroys, humanity builds.

It is time to build.

Rehumanize Yourself.

"It Belongs in a Museum"

“Archeology is our religion, yet we have fallen from the pure faith. Our methods have not differed as much as you pretend. I am but a shadowy reflection of you. It would take only a nudge to make you like me. To push you out of the light." – Rene Belloq

Belloq said that to Henry “Indiana” Jones Jr. FORTY years ago today. “Raiders of the Lost Ark” is one of my all-time favorite films. The prequel and the sequels are fun (although Crystal Skull has some…issues), but there will never be another, Raiders. I remember begging my family to see it. My dad relented and 40 years ago cinematic history blew me away.

This original movie poster hangs in an undisclosed location – somewhere in the bowels of New Jersey…

Principal photography for Indy 5 started earlier this week in Northumberland, UK. The working theory is this one takes place in the sixties. The fifth installment is being directed by James Mangold and not Steven Spielberg. Mangold directed “Cop Land”, “Walk the Line”, and “Logan” – he is Indy worthy. I’m rooting for this project – Indy deserves an excellent closing act.

Harrison Ford will be 80 years-old when part 5 is released. I hope that they play to the character’s age – Indy’s is supposed to be 37 in Raiders, 39 when he and his father thwart the Nazis in “The Last Crusade”, and 58 in “Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”, which takes place in 1957. Using this as a baseline, Indy is going to be in his sixties in the sixties. Not only do I hope they play to his age, but I also further hope they remember that Dr. Jones must lose an eye (as per, “Young Indiana Jones Chronicles”). Continuity matters.

It turns out that Harrison is, at this moment in time, 78 years old. George Hall, the actor above who played a 90 + year old Indiana Jones, was 74 when he shot his bookend scenes for “Young Indiana Jones Chronicles”.

However, it pans out, “It’s not the years, it’s the mileage.” Raiders is in my top 5 films of all time. It has a bit of everything and proudly wears its Saturday morning cliffhanger cereal roots and fedora at the same time.  I can't wait for opening night.

Happy Birthday, Indy.

 

Fear and Loathing

A member of the GOP recently said...

"Democrats want to use the criminal process against president Trump because they fundamentally fear him running in 2024, obtaining the republican nomination, and reasserting his time in the White House."

I saw one Twitter user, Stonekettle, answer quite appropriately...

"OR Maybe it's because he's a goddamn criminal."

Circa 2015, when asked about what real power was, candidate Trump said... 

“Real power is – I don’t even want to use the word – fear.” 

And that, at the end of the day, is what he inspires his devotees to do, to live unquestioningly by his example and try to spread fear.  He gave them a permit – a license to intimidate. This is why we have seen such an upswing in white supremacy, Nazis, domestic terrorism, intolerance of people of color & LGBTQ+ citizens. 

 People were given the go-ahead to let the darker natures of themselves out to that the darkness could see the light of day and spread like a cancer. Fear? Perhaps. Men do evil things. But there is good, too. “Fear” of what another Trump presidency would do to our citizenry, his cult, domestic terrorism, our sensibilities, our ability to reason for ourselves, reality, our constitution, the rise of an autocracy which replaces our republic, our very union through violence or seduction of those who cannot or will not think for themselves or treacherous souls who wish to scoop up some of that “power”. That is what scares me. 

We should all be terrified of these things. It is a testament to candidate Trump’s words that this manipulation has worked so well and so far. He inspires those who want to make others fear and by doing so elevates himself. This is how he has always been. Some contractors don’t get paid for their work – no problem, I’m too big to touch and those around me will be able to brow beat them down. I have bigger lawyers. I don’t pay my taxes – “I’m smart,” and my brain-dead minions will say out loud, “Trump is sticking it to the government!” I don’t win a legal election for the Presidency of these United States. “The election was stolen and I am going to march down to the Capitol and let them know that – who’s with me!”

- Real fear of being sued out of business because you can’t afford the lawyers that Trump can.

- Fear used as a tool to manipulate people into thinking not paying one’s taxes is the “smart” thing to do and – amazingly – the concept that “Trump is for the little guy!”

- Real fear of our democracy crumbling due to insurrectionists defiling the Capitol & fear as a tool of manipulation to control a mob just waiting to be told what to think – what to do next.

Yes, fear has been used quite effectively by Trump. There are two all too real quotes from two fictional characters that come to mind. Simply because a character is not “real” does not negate that power of their words, the power of myth – the power of story…

“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” – Master Yoda

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over and through me. And when it is past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. When the fear is gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.” – Bene Gesserit teaching, the Litany Against Fear

Fear is a natural emotion and like any emotion it is up to us to determine if we have the emotions or if our emotions have us. Fear easily leads to anger, hate, and suffering. We must be mindful of not only the fear in ourselves but also the fear in others for we do not know where they are on the scale; is their fear passive or active or rather, is the outside world affecting them or are they affecting the outside world? Has anger and hate brought suffering? Were you the recipient of the suffering or the one who caused it? Emotions can lead us to be motivated and manipulated. We must, as the Litany Against Fear states in its mantra-like way, make a foothold against fear so that we are not swept away by it. So that we face it with our minds instead of being obliterated by the emotion itself.

So, back to point. Rule by fear is what tyrants and dictators do. Trump is still - even after losing a legal election - a wannabe tyrant and dictator. Those who do not see this and support him are either easily manipulated or are people who want to be the tormentors or oppressors themselves – to scoop up those little bits of power wherever they can find them. That is the character of today’s Trump supporter – from those in high places to the hundredaires who defend the billionaires with their Trump flags-a-flyin’. Fear brought them to where they are now and power by fear is that little thrill that they need to keep feeding – from the low to the high. 

I don’t buy into what they are selling. Those who pedal in fear are usually very afraid and emotional themselves. They will call you a “snowflake” or accuse you of being, "triggered" whenever you say anything against their regime or their perceived power. They crumble when faced with logic or reason. As an effort to save face they will emotionally exclaim, “fake news!” or “Bengasi!” or “her emails!”, still to this day. As a squid releases ink to escape a predator a Trump supporter will start spewing agitprop when confronted with reality. They do so in fear. They do not like it when the predator becomes the prey.

I wouldn’t mind if their ideals and goals didn’t mean the fall of decency, our republic, and democracy but here we are.

Until such time that critical thinking returns to a populous that chooses to use reason and reality as a base of operations, I will keep the Litany Against Fear close at hand. I will fight against tyranny, fascism, and ignorance of fear with the meager tools at my disposal – my voice and my keyboard. 

I will support the oppressed and not the oppressor. 

I will be part of the future and not a slave to the past. 

I will try to make things better not simply for myself but for my/our children and my/our children’s children.

We need more kindness than we need brutality. This is how you fight fear and tyranny. One must “Be the change that you want to see in the world.” Deeds, not words. I don’t have to change the world, I need to live a life that inspires by example, that builds people, ideas, and concepts up instead of tearing them down, a life that was worthy of being remembered for more of the good and less of the bad. Robert Louis Stevenson said, "Every heart that has beat strongly and cheerfully has left a hopeful impulse behind it in the world and bettered the tradition of mankind." At the end of the day that is my desire.

Fear happens. It is part of being human. It is what we do with that fear that defines us. Who do we want to be? 

I choose the light.

I choose to let the fear pass through me.

We have a serious battle ahead of us in the 2022 mid-term elections.  The GOP must not take control of either the House or the Senate.  They have taken major steps to ensure that their proto-autocracy grows akin to a cancer.  They are doing so through voter suppression laws and through gerrymandering.  They do not wish to live in a representative republic or a democracy - they only crave power and they have stacked the deck in their favor by exploiting voting laws in individual states.  The Supreme Court of the United States has already said that they will not hear any case on gerrymandering, placing the onus on the states themselves to be fair.  This is giving the wolfs the key to the hen house and, rest assured, the republicans will carve up districts that do not represent the people but will only represent their lust for power.  What is happening is disgusting, corrupt, and - literally - un-American.  Our vote is our voice and they want us silenced.  

During the last administration, decency, reason, reality were all sacrificed to the object of their worship or for most of them, a means to an end.  That's what Trump was to the career republicans in the House and Senate.  It did not matter how low everything sank, how close to fascism we came, or even when their very lives were threatened on January 6th during the insurrection of the Capitol - as long as they remain in power they don't care who the next republican demagogue is in the oval office.  Presidents come and go but a gig in the Senate can be lifelong.  

Yes, term limits should be a thing, too.

Fear is healthy.  It is natural.  But it is what we do with that fear that makes or breaks us.  Now, we must prepare to VOTE come 2022 and that means getting people excited about voting in each and every election from schoolboards to sheriffs to fire chiefs, to representatives on a state lever, and to representatives on a federal level.

"Our vote is our voice."  

Use it now for there are those who want to take it away and they are known as republicans.  

One Year Ago, Today

I wrote this on my calendar one year ago today...

My daughter and I happen to work in the same building within the same organization.  We were sent home from work early on March 16th, 2020 for an undetermined length of time. 

I have been keeping a journal since this - the coronavirus started - widespread, here in the United States of America.  This is my entry from, exactly, one year ago today...  

“3/16/20

Disneyworld shut down last night due to the threat of the Corona virus. Today, there were 80 more cases diagnosed in New Jersey. The governor put in place a soft curfew of 8:00 pm for people to be home. The casinos in Atlantic City shut down at that time, too. Restaurants and bars are switching over to take out status and closing earlier. There are several closings—come to think of it tonight, at 8:21 pm, my supervisor texted our group saying that if we were, “non-essential” personnel, that we did not have to report to work tomorrow. So, in other words, my job has been postponed due to COVID-19.  My daughter and I are off until further notice. When we return is anyone’s guess.

This shutdown makes sense. There are those who feel otherwise, but they are wrong. The best way to contain this is to, “flatten the bell curve” and to practice social distancing (limiting one’s own movement and avoiding public spaces). The spread can be slowed but people must be open to making this happen. The universe has given us time off so that we do not contract and/or spread the virus. Who are we to argue with the universe?”

My daughter and I now work from home.  It is the same with my wife.  My wife is looking forward to returning to her routine and her office.  My daughter and I, however, are happy working from home.  But all that is a tale for another day - a different journal entry altogether.  

That journal, by the way, is now over 3,300 pages long.  A lot has happened in a year's time.  I thought that I would document it as best as I could.  You should know, Gentle Reader, that it is not all me and a lot of it is not fit for human consumption.  There are hundreds of pictures and articles - all sited mind you - and, of course, there is commentary and observation from yours truly.  An everyman's view of this time in history.  It has grown long but the work must continue.  It will continue until I feel that we have either placed COVID-19 behind us or we have adapted to a "new normal" where COVID-19 remains with us, but due to vaccines and personal responsibility it will be kept at bay.  Personally, I believe it will be the latter.  There is no magic bullet for the coronavirus.  I believe we will have to adapt.  When we do, I will call the journal complete.  

There are better days ahead.  The light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter.  We will get there.  

Until then, get vaccinated.  Wear a mask.  Wash your hands.  Practice social distancing.  Be good to each other.  Perhaps if most of us can do these simple, unselfish things, I will not have to write another 3,300 pages come this time next year?

Stay safe.