Baseball Stadiums I Have Visited, Part 6

First things first: I have heard from my frequent baseball-stadium-visiting-companion Jeff, and he informs me that my memory is faulty on a couple points related to previous posts in this series. The main thing that he told me is that we actually did not take in a game at Comiskey Park on our three city swing through the midwest. I was certain that we had, but after our conversation, I've come to realize that my first visit to Comiskey was actually a side-trip during a visit to my sister Sally who was in graduate school at Northern Illinois University. It was around that same time (1986), but not in the company of Jeff. So, I stand corrected. The other point he made, and one that I can't believe I forgot, is that the home run hit in Tiger Stadium that landed in the glove of the little kid sitting beside us was hit by Don Baylor of the Red Sox (I said Lance Parrish of the Tigers). I knew better too, but it turns out that when I checked the rosters to refresh my memory, I accidentally looked at the 1985 teams, and therefore my memory wasn't jogged by seeing Baylor listed. So I guess what this means is that, while I remember being at these places, I don't always have a firm grasp on all the details. So feel free to take the rest of the series with a grain of salt (though I swear I was in the places mentioned!).

12. Camden Yards (Baltimore Orioles)

When I was in graduate school researching my dissertation (so this was probably 1994 0r 95), I drove down to the University of Maryland to visit the archive they had on Broadcasting History. At the end of my first day in the library, I decided to drive up to Baltimore to catch a game. This was when the stadium was still pretty new (it may have opened a couple of years earlier), and it was a peach. Camden Yards was the first of the "throwback" stadiums that became very popular in the late 80s and early 90s, as an antidote to the cookie-cutter, all-the-same designs of the 60s and 70s. The idea was to make it unique, incorporating little quirks that made it different from every other park. The big old warehouse in right field was one fo the distinctive features, as was the asymmetrical design of the outfield. It really was a beautiful place to watch a game. Another highlight: in the walkway just beyond the right field bleachers, there's a long row of specialty vendors serving up favorite local fare. I'm not big on seafood, which is featured, but I did get a kick out of seeing Boog Powell (former slugging first baseman for the Orioles) who ran a barbecue place out there. He was just hanging out in the crowd, shaking hands and inviting people into his place for some ribs. One small warning: traffic from DC (the University is just on the edge of the capital) to Baltimore on a Friday afternoon is killer bad, so leave early if your coming from that direction.

13. Fenway Park (Boston Red Sox)

If Camden Yards (and its imitators) try to recreate the old-style parks, well then Fenway is one of their models. I believe this is the stadium that has been in use the longest, and you can tell that it dates back to the early part of the twentieth century. It is cramped on the promenade, in the aisles, and especially in the seats. It's kind of dingy, and there were moments when I was there that I marveled parts of it hadn't fallen down yet. But it is also quite cool to look out at the Green Monster in right field and to feel the closeness of the crowd, all leaning in towards the action on the field. I saw two games here in 1996 with my friend John Delaney, who I got to know in grad school at the University of Buffalo. By this point, he was teaching down in Pennsylvania, and we met in Providence at the house of a friend from John's undergraduate days at Boston College, then drove up the next day to see the games. The Red Sox were playing the Mariners. I don't rememebr much about the first game, except we were sitting in seats with pretty much the view you see in the picture above. But the next day, when we were sitting out in the right-center bleachers, there were a couple of interesting details that stuck with me. First, Roger Clemons was pitching for the Sox, and due to an injury, their designated hitter had to play the field, thus forcing Clemons to hit for himself (we later found out it was the only time he batted in a Red Sox uniform during the regular season). He hit a slow roller down the third base line and beat it out for a hit. Then a little later, Ken Griffey Jr. hit a monstrous home run out towards us, and it was caught by a kid sitting right next to John only two seata away from me (shades of the Lanc.. I mean Don Baylor homer in Detroit)! Good company, and thrills like that make it easy to put up with the cramped seats, which is why I guess the Red Sox sell out most of their games.

Four more fields to cover (so far)... look for the next installment in a couple of days.

Friday Family Blogging Quiz

Most of you will recognize brother Nick. The question is, what is the name of the body of water he is wading in? Put your guesses/answers in the comments.

Last week's quiz asked you to identify where the picture of Tom was taken. I only received two guesses (thanks for playing Liz & Richard), and the first one-- what else is new?-- by Liz was correct (American side of Niagara Falls).

However, I did manage to stump everyone on the previous week's quiz, asking where the hat worn by Marenka was at the moment I posted the message. There were a lot of good guesses, but no one picked the obvious: hanging on the hat-rack in my apartment kitchen (well, I thought it would be obvious).

Also, in the bonus geography quiz, once again Lil Sis came the closest (maybe I should make her ineligible for the next couple quizzes, just to give someone else a chance to win ;-). The lake in the picture is outside Fort Scott, Kansas, a little ways south of Kansas City. Thanks to all for playing!

Even More Family Blogging

I don't get enough pictures of Raechelle up here, so let's try to make up for that a bit. Here she is with cousins Natalie and Ben. I'm thinking I wouldn't want to play cards with Ben if he can maintain that kind of a poker face-- very inscrutable.

More Family Blogging

It seems like just yesterday that Marenka picked up the clarinet, and before we knew it, she turned into a virtuoso on a number of instruments. You can also hear her spin some tunes on the Pacific Lutheran University radio station Friday afternoons (you may need to download Realplayer to receive the streaming audio). I'm hoping Lil Sis can remind us of exactly when Marenka's on in the comments.

Friday Family Blogging

Here's a nice shot of Sara, Maria and Thomas-- Joseph was not yet on the scene. I wonder if the kids remember their swingset (which was taken down a few years ago) and all the endless demands for yet another push? It seemed like they could swing for hours...

Friday's Quote for the Day

While I'll never match his prodigious output (nor his prodigious facial hair), I'm proud to say I toil in the same profession as the eminent historian George Bancroft (1800-1891), who authored the following words of wisdom:

"The exact measure of the progress of civilization
is the degree in which the intelligence of the common
mind has prevailed over wealth and brute force;
in other words, the measure of the progress of
civilization is the progress of the people."

The Essence of Comic Timing

Jack Benny, as far as I know, never told a joke. He didn't have to, because he was the greatest straight-man in the world, merely playing to his character and setting up his co-stars. It was an incredible gift that he shared for a really long time on the vaudeville stage, on radio, and later on TV. Here he is with one of his regular castmates, Mel Blanc (perhaps most famous as the voice of the great Warner Brothers cartoon characters like Porky Pig and Bugs Bunny). Try not to laugh.

Remembering Spain

In the Spring of 1988 (yikes! more than twenty years ago now), my sister Catie and I traveled to Spain to visit our brother Nick, who was then stationed at the Torrejon Air Base outside Madrid. We were there about a week, and got to travel around quite a bit. In my ongoing project of digitizing old photos, I'm now processing the images from that trip and thought I would share a few. First up is a picture of the Crystal Palace in Retiro Park in Madrid (right behind the Prado art museum).

We spent some time strolling through the park after checking out the Prado and the adjacent gallery devoted to the classic Picasso painting Guernica (a prime candidate for a future "Favorite Paintings" post). I recall that there were a lot of street performers, musicians and so forth, and that I purchased a small marionette from a vendor, which is currently hanging in my music room at home. As I recall, this was our last day in Spain, and it was a great way to finish up a wonderful trip.

The next picture was taken in the courtyard of the Alcazar in Toledo, where we went for a day trip near the beginning of our visit.

I don't recall who the statue depicts (maybe El Cid? The Toledo Alcazar served as a military college, I believe), but I was more struck by the youngster sitting there all alone with no one else in sight (maybe his parents were behind me snapping their own picture). Other memories of Toledo: the amazing cathedral, with its "hidden" tableaus in the arches overhead visible only from weird angles down below; the Museum of Torture, right across the street from the cathedral (handy for the inquisators, since it was originally a dungeon); the fantastic hot, fresh pistachios I bought from a street vendor whose wagon was piled high with nuts; the narrow, winding streets that made it pretty easy to circumnavigate the entirety of the city in a single afternoon (maybe Catie or Nick can add to the list in comments?).

Last, for now, here's a view of the ancient town of Segovia (home to some incredible remains of a Roman aqueduct), with the Cathedral dominating the skyline:

This was taken from one of the parapets of the castle (or Alcazar) on the outskirts of the town. Touring that medieval structure really conjured up images of kings and knights and really cold and drafty nights (one really appreciates the value of drapes and tapestries in such a setting-- they're mostly to stifle the wind blowing through). I have another shot which I will post later of the view looking out into the valley outside the town, and it's pretty cool too. As is usually the case, looking again at these photos makes me want to hop a plane and head back for another visit. I hope I get the chance.

A Favorite Painting 13

Jan Vermeer, Young Woman with a Water Pitcher, c1664

As should be obvious from virtually all of the other paintings featured in this series, my tastes generally run to more modern works. I think part of that is that in post-Enlightenment paintings, the visual cues pointing to social, political and, I guess, psychological elements are more apparent to me, and therefore lend those works to more thoughtful consideration and interpretation. I don't mean to suggest that such cues are lacking in earlier works, only that my ability to discern them is limited. But in Vermeer's masterpiece (which I saw in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York back in the early 80s), such considerations are somewhat beside the point. Although clearly in a realistic vein, it's the impression created by the play of light on the woman's face, on the pitcher, even on the wall behind her that engages my attention and calls to mind the serene contemplation of existential questions that I associate with a state of almost child-like wonder at the mysteries of life, prompted by the crisp perception of a speck of dust gently falling through a sunbeam. After a certain age, we seem to lose the capacity to feel such basic, viscerally charged epiphanies, but Vermeer's painting sparks, for me at least, a recollection of just such a reverie. The shock of that memory is matched in another great work of art, Wim Wenders film Wings of Desire, in a scene where an angel eavesdrops on the thoughts of a group of train passengers, some of which match closely with the type described ("Why am I me and not you?"). I should not have been surprised (in hindsight) when, in reading an interview with Wenders after seeing his movie, I found out that he considered Vermeer a major influence on his work. I guess this speaks to the universal nature of great art, and suggests similar discoveries in store as I continue to explore pre-modern masterpieces.

Thursday Thought for the Day

Courtesy of the English man of letters, Walter Horatio Pater (1839-1894), who advocated the pursuit of beauty as a satisfying end in itself. Fans of the classic television show Northern Exposure may recognize the ethos oft expressed by Chris in the Morning in these words:

"Not the fruit of experience, but experience itself is
the end. A counted number of pulses only is given
to us of a variegated, dramatic life. How shall we
pass most swiftly from point to point, and be present
always at the focus where the greatest number of
vital forces unite in their purest energy? To burn
always with this hard, gemlike flame, to maintain
this ecstasy, is success in life."

Great Scene from To Have and Have Not

It just doesn't get any better than Bogart and Bacall. This clip is from their first film together, Howard Hawks' To Have and Have Not (1944). Check out the expression on Bogart's face at the end of this scene. You can certainly tell he's smitten. The whole film is definitely worth seeing, so consider this a recommendation for the next time you're looking for something good to rent.

Picture of Lake Superior

Yesterday I posted a picture of a sunset and asked you to guess where it was taken. Theresa guessed it might be from Lake Superior, which wasn't right, but reminded me that I had nice shots from that trip as well. Above is one that may explain her guess about the previous picture-- they actually do look like they could be from the same general place. Anyway, if you haven't taken a guess on the previous picture, please feel free to go back and do so.

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom

It was inevitable that we'd eventually get around to Plato, noted disciple of Socrates, in our little series. Here's here's his answer to a question that some continue to ask today (and his response is still pertinent):

"But if you ask what is the good of education
in general, the answer is easy; that education
makes good men, and that good men act nobly."

Random Mid-Week Quiz

As I continue to digitize old photos, I often come across images that, I think, turned out particularly nice. Above is an example, a pretty sunset over a lake where I was camping on one of my cross-country trips. Let's see if I can't prompt some comments by turning this into a little test: where do you think this shot was taken? The only hint I'll give is that I have visited all of the contiguous 48 states at one time or another, and this isn't from Montana. Let's see if anyone can get this!

Baseball Stadiums I Have Visited, Part 5

From here on in with this series, there are no more multi-stadium trips. When the opportunity presented itself, I make sure to check out another field, but they happen more or less at random, and often with long stretches in between.

10. Riverfront Stadium (Cincinnati Reds)

For several years, my sister Sally lived down in Kentucky, and I went down to visit several times. On one of those trips, my friend Curtis and I backtracked a bit to take in a game at Riverfront Stadium. I'm thinking this was in June of 1986 to see the Reds play the Braves (I probably have scorecards from all these places and games in a box somewhere-- you'd think my memory would be better about some of the details). Mostly I remember a very non-descript facility, one of the cookie-cutter, all-purpose stadiums that were being built in the late 60s-early 70s before anyone had the notion to make them more fan friendly (as opposed to mostly maintenance free- they all had artificial turf). Actually my clearest memory of this stadium had nothing to do with baseball. One time a year or two later, I went to Covington, KY with my dad to deliver a machine he had built to a company there. Covington is right across the Ohio River from Cincinnati. Having arrived on a Sunday afternoon and unable to make our delivery until the next day, we watched a little of the Bengals-49ers game on TV, then, with the Bengals holding a seemingly solid lead late in the game, decided to take a walk. We crossed one of the bridges into Cincinnati, and walked by the stadium just as the crowd was streaming out. We couldn't figure out why they were so sedate after such a big win (later that night we discovered Joe Montana had orchestrated an incredible comeback for the 49ers, winning on a last second score). Anyway, as we walked into the adjacent down-town area, we came across a big Oktoberfest street festival. We had some good food and heard some music before heading back to the hotel. It was a nice afternoon, and much more memorable than the ballgame I'd seen there previously.

11. The Kingdome (Seattle Mariners)

On a visit to Seattle in the late 80s, I made my first trip to the Kingdome (I think I ended up seeing games there 2 or 3 more times, before the team moved to the much nicer SafeCo Field). The first trip was with my cousin Shawn and his boys Matt and Chris. The Mariners were not a good team, and I have to say, the Kingdome may have been the worst place I ever watched a major league game. Baseball is meant to be played outdoors, in the sunshine, not in a concrete bunker. But we had a good time, nonetheless. Shawn is as big a baseball fan as I am (a Red Sox fan since he grew up in Boston), so we had a lot to talk about regardless of how the local team did on the field. Considering that I generally get back to Seattle at least once every summer, I'm glad the team has moved to newer, superior digs, as this has become my most regular opportunity to catch major league baseball in recent years.

Next time, I'll talk about my visits to Baltimore and Boston.

A Thought for Tuesday

This was written in 1931 by John Maynard Keynes, whose name has popped up recently in debates about the current financial crisis.

"When the accumulation of wealth is no longer of high
social importance, there will be great changes in the
code of morals. We shall be able to rid ourselves of many
of the pseudo-moral principles which have hag-ridden
us for two hundred years, by which we have exalted
some of the most distasteful of human qualities
into the position of highest virtues."

More Seeger

Back in the mid-1960s, when Pete Seeger was being blacklisted from network television, PBS gave him a slot for which he produced a show entitled Rainbow Quest. It reflected his missionary zeal for exposing the public to a variety of music and musicians and was, according to the documentary I mentioned in the previous post, completely paid for by Pete himself. Here he is sharing a song with one of his guests, Tom Paxton:

Channel Surfing

Over the weekend I had some time with nothing pressing to do, so I sat down to see what was on the tube. While scrolling through the stations, my attention was diverted a couple of times by shows that could not have presented a more stark dichotomy of world-views, and giving me something to think about, and now to post.

The first was on C-Span, which broadcast Rush Limbaugh's address to the CPAC Conference. I'm no fan of Limbaugh, and nothing he said made me view him any more favorably. To me, he demonstrates nearly everything that is wrong with political discourse in America: he is mean, dishonest, and imputes motives to those who don't share his views based on his own self-serving biases and twisted perversions of the truth. Despite all his professed love for the principles upon which this country ws founded, he betrays a profound ignorance of what the Constitution actually says. Whatever he says that may have some value is so couched in demagoguery and phony victimhood that there's little reason for anyone (except his devotedly unthinking "dittoheads") to see him as anything but a loudmouthed obstacle to real constructive solutions to the nation's problems.

Surfing on, I came across a documentary on PBS devoted to the life and career of Pete Seeger. Seeger is the anti-Limbaugh, a man of modesty, compassion, and tolerance who has devoted his life to helping people see past their differences to the common humanity they share. Although associated with the opposite side of the political spectrum, Seeger, unlike Limbaugh, never threw up any barriers between himself and his counterparts on the other side. Despite their efforts to blacklist him, and on one occasion (in Peekskill) to do him bodily harm, Seeger kept hammering away with his music, bringing forth a message of harmony that eventually won over even some of his biggest critics.

In the end, Seeger's efforts have done much to make the world a better place: teaching youngsters and adults the unifying effects of music; inspiring support for the Civil Rights movement and other forms of grass roots political activism; bringing together a massive coalition of interested parties to clean up the Hudson River; and in many other ways. What is Limbaugh's legacy? All I can see is a potentially fatal dose of misdirected, unrequited anger that does more to distract than engage with the issues of the day. All things considered, I'd rather follow Seeger's path.

Monday Pearls of Wisdom

Today we hear from the eminent British philosopher Francis Bacon (1561-1626), helping to set the stage for the Enlightenment of the next century:

"The pleasure and delight of knowledge and learning,
it far surpasseth all other in nature....
We see in all other pleasures there is satiety,
and after they are used there verdure departeth;
which showeth well they be but the deceits of pleasure,
and not pleasure: and that it was the novelty
that pleasured, not the quality."

Classic Tom Rush

Tom Rush just released his first studio album in over thirty years. I find it hard to believe that it's been so long, since his stuff up to that point was so great, though its gratifying to know he could make a living in the interim as a live performer. Here's an example of a fairly recent performance of his classic song "No Regrets." I've now heard several different versions of this song by Rush, and it always sounds great. I'm looking forward to hearing the new album, as it appears he's lost little of his ability to sing a song (even if his voice is a bit more weathered than in his prime). I hope you like this.

A Favorite Painting 12

Marcel DuChamp, L.H.O.O.Q, c1919

Technically, this isn't a painting (rather, it's a defaced poster), and there are actually multiple versions of it created by DuChamp over the years. But I like it (because it makes me laugh), so I thought I'd share it with my readers. Duchamp was something of the court jester of the art world in the first half of the twentieth century, especially once he'd hit on his idea of the readymades (of which this work is an example). He took ordinary objects he found, gave them a little spin, and mounted them in museums and galleries to see what outrage they might spark. Aside from L.H.O.O.Q., his most famous readymade was probably the urinal he placed on its back, signed it "R. Mutt" and gave it the title Fountain. But the piece above is his real masterpeice of that period, calling into question all the traditional ideas of art and beauty that dominated Western Culture at the time of the first world war. In some ways, it serves as a prelude for understanding Horkheimer and Adorno's Dialectic of the Enlightenment, which twenty odd years later diagnosed the rise of fascism as an unfortunate, but probably inevitable, outcome of all the noble ideas that launched the American and French Revolutions (you know, "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" and "liberte, egalite, fraternite"). It's easy to read DuChamp's work as a response to the horrors of World War I, perpetrated by the so-called civilized nations of Europe who celebrated the productions of DaVinci and Rembrandt and Goethe and so many others as evidence of their advanced state, even as they ripped each other to shreds in the trenches. Maybe I should revise what I said above-- this piece makes me laugh, but it also makes me think about the circumstances that made such a laugh necessary, and in the end, that's kind of sad.

Sunday's Thought for the Day

Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965), the Alsatian physician, doesn't seem to get anywhere near the attention he did when I was a kid (though he was still alive, or recently deceased, then). Here's my slight effort to redress that situation:

"A man is truly ethical only when he obeys the
compulsion to help all life which he is able to assist,
and shrinks from injuring anything that lives."

Baseball Stadiums I Have Visited, Part 4

As you may recall from my last post on this topic, we were in the middle of a road trip undertaken by my friend Jeff and I to visit a bunch of midwestern ballparks back in the 1980s. After checking out the two Chicago teams (or maybe it was in between; my memory is sketchy on that point), we headed north to Milwaukee to see the Brewers.

8. County Stadium (Milwaukee Brewers)

What I remember most about County Stadium is that it was an incredibly relaxed atmosphere, and the fans were really into the game, but not in the rabid sense that's often associated with places like Fenway Park or Yankee Stadium (though I have to say, that was never my experience in the latter). We saw a good game on a beautiful day, and though the stadium itself was kind of old, and not very elaborate, it was totally comfortable and conveyed a sense of history and tradition (maybe this was partly because I knew the Braves played there prior to moving to Atlanta). Also, I had the best food I've ever had at a sporting event at County Stadium, their famous bratwursts in red sauce. I think I must have had about three, and the memory of those brats would draw me back to Country Stadium at least twice more in later years, once with my dad and another time with my then future brother-in-law Tom. On the occasion I went with Dad, we were in Chicago for the big annual plastics show, and we drove up for a day game. Dad liked the brats, too. I remember afterward driving back just ahead of a torrential rainstorm and listening to traffic reports of how intersections we had passed moments before were now flooded and impassable. The next time, Tom and I drove up from Oregon, Illinois (where my sister was working) for what we thought was an evening game. When we arrived, the parking lot was virtually empty, and one of the stragglers let us know we'd missed a pretty good day game. What hurt the most was realizing we would not be dining on brats in red sauce that day.

9. Tiger Stadium (Detroit Tigers)

The last stop on our itinerary involved a couple of games at old Tiger Stadium. The Tigers were Jeff's team, so he was really excited about visiting their park. I remember before the game driving around and just by chance spotting the original home of Motown Records, with a big sign out front "Hitsville, USA." For the first game, we had seats in the first row of the left field bleachers, with a sidewalk separating us from the fence. In a big back and forth game, Lance Parrish (I believe-- Jeff if you're reading, please confirm) hit a home run that just cleared the left field fence right in fornt of us, bounced once on teh concrete sidewalk, and, as virtually all of us fans in the vicinity lunged for the ball, landed squarely in the mitt of the youngster sitting right beside Jeff. Needless to say, he was quite excited (though we later figured his dad probably snatched the ball and set it in his glove, but that's not so good a story). The next night we were sitting in the right field bleachers, and all I recall is that we had an obstructed view behind a pillar which severely interfered with my enjoyment of the game. This was one of the real old-time parks (hence the obstruction), with a lot of character, and though it was kind of past its prime, it had a lot of funky features, like the way the right field bleachers actually extended out over the field. I also remember be fascinated by the press box sitting atop the roof along behind home plate because, frankly, it looked like it was likely to crack through its flooring at any moment. I'd get back to Tiger Stadium one more time with Jeff before they replaced it with their new field, and often when I'm back east over the summer Jeff and I at least talk about making another visit to see if the new place is as cool as the old one.

Our Daily Philosophical Quote

Can you believe that this sentiment was expressed by the Scythian philosopher Anacharsis more than 2600 years ago? Well, according to Plutarch, it was.

"Written laws are like spiders' webs, and will like them
only entangle and hold the poor and weak, while the
rich and powerful easily break through them."

A Sad Passing

The fate of newspapers in this country, and possibly the practice of real journalism itself, seems in a precarious state these days, even more so after the closing of the Rocky Mountain News in Denver yesterday. There are almost certainly other big city dailies about to crash, and efforts to remain viable have meant severe cutbacks in things like arts coverage, independent bureaus, editorial cartoons and columnists, etc. over the past few years. Certainly there will remain places where one can get the news, but the newer forms of delivering such content will never match either the intellectual breadth nor the tactile sensation of opening up a good print newspaper.

For a more expansive and elegiac treatment of this topic, let me recommend this piece by Hal Crowther, to my mind one of the most astute essayists offering cultural commentary in the country today. He comes at this topic as a former journalist (I first read him as a TV critic way back in the early '70s for the Buffalo News), and clearly grasps what is at stake.

Last Week's Top Five List

You'll recall that last Sunday was Oscar night, so I wanted to have a little fun in the Top Five list with a movie topic. You'll definitely enjoy this more if you are a Seinfeld fan; but even if not, maybe it'll elicit a little chuckle (always our aim):

Historical/Philosophical Comment (Inspired by Poetry)

Last Thursday I went to a poetry reading at the University of Montana Western (where I teach), to hear the work of one of my colleagues, Roger Dunsmore and also the Poet Laureate of Montana, Greg Pape. It was a pleasant affair, with a nice turnout of colleagues and students and community members. In introducing one of his poems, Greg Pape talked of how so much of our lives are shaped by memories, but that there is often at best a blurry line between those memories and our imagination. It was an interesting comment, and one that speaks directly to the creative process related to poetry (and much of the rest of the arts too, I suppose). But in thinking about it as I walked home, it occurred to me that this tricky relationship also plays a part in shaping historical understanding, in ways that can be both positive and negative.

I'd like to think it goes without saying that the study of history is driven primarily by a desire to learn from the past. Most of the questions we have about the past have their origins in current situations and issues. For example much of the current discussion of the ongoing economic crisis leads naturally to consideration of the last similar catastrophe, the Great Depression of the 1930s; by the same token, a lot of the debate over events in Iraq over the past few years was framed by tacit or explicit references to the Vietnam conflict. This is natural, to make those kinds of connections, especially for those who have direct memories of the earlier period and recognize similarities. But of course, not all the participants in the debate do, and that creates the opportunity for imagination (or, just as profoundly, lack of imagination) to play a role in shaping how we put the past to work in the present.

As a professional historian, I know that in examining the past I'm subject to all kinds of limitations related to the availability or accessibility of records, and also my own tendencies to engage those sources from a unique, and in all likelihood somewhat biased, perspective. If I'm intellectually honest about it, I acknowledge the possible flaws in interpretations drawn from my less-than-comprehensive sources, and how my own experiences shape my reading of them. I suspect though that for many not steeped in the discipline that there may be a tendency to avoid such qualification, and promote an interpretation that serves their vested interest without coming clean about what those interests are. I'm certainly not suggesting that this needs to stop-- it's inevitable. But it does mean that as consumers of information and opinion we recognize the potential impact of imagination to color-- intentionally or not-- the way we view the past, and employ at least some modest skepticism as we follow the coverage or public debates. In poetry, that kind of mental collaboration should be prized, but in history, well, it's a more complicated proposition.

Friday Family Blogging Quiz

Okay, it's been awhile since Tom was featured, but here he is again. The question is, where was the photo taken (be as specific as possible). The only clue I can provide is that it is also apparently from 1999, and in fact the only way that I could tell where it was taken was by the other pictures in the same batch. But maybe some of you have sharper eyes and can find additional clues in the photo. As always, put your guesses in the comments section and the winner (if there is one) will be announced next week.

Finally, last week I managed to stump you all (about the whereabouts of the hat worn by Marenka). I think I'll keep that one open for a while longer to see if anyone wants to take another shot.

More Friday Family Blogging

The artist at work. You can kind of tell where I'm at in digitizing my old pictures. I'm sure Lil Sis remembers when this was (must've been a short time after the two previous pictures I posted), and a little while before their new garage ceased being empty enough to use as a studio (though, since most of her work is done on a more modest scale, the upstairs extra bedroom would prove to be sufficient).

Friday Family Blogging 2

Four lovely ladies from 1999 (this time I'm sure since I clearly forgot to turn off the date stamp in the camera). Not the formal quiz (because the date should be a dead giveaway), but does anyone know the event where this was taken?

Friday Family Blogging

I believe this is from Thanksgiving time in 1999, but then I've been wrong on guessing dates before (maybe Catie can say for sure). Gee, Maria doesn't look all that different today, does she? Just kidding. I suspect she's long outgrown sitting in box lids.

Friday Philosophy

There's always a debate over whether the media should be more respectful of elected officials, and it's easy to identify cases where they go too far in the other direction. But generally speaking, I think Charles Evans Hughes (1862-1948), former Supreme Court Justice, had the right idea:

"Where there is muck to be raked, it must be raked,
and the public must know of it, that it may mete out
justice.... Publicity is a great purifier because it sets
in action the forces public opinion, and in this country
public opinion controls the course of the nation."

Jammin' The Blues (1944)

I'm an inveterate rock and roll fan, but there is nothing as preternaturally cool as classic jazz iconography, certainly nothing you're ever likely to see on MTV and its ilk. For a great example of what I mean, check out this opening sequence from the short film "Jammin' the Blues." That's Lester Young sporting the pork-pie and sax in the opening shot. And remember, this was made 65 years ago.

A Favorite Painting 11

Reginald Marsh, Twenty Cent Movie 1936

Marsh was a contemporary of Edward Hopper's, and at least superficially seemed drawn to similar subjects (namely, the modern urban landscape). But unlike Hopper, Marsh clearly emphasized the vitality, the vibrancy of his scenes, and populated them with the teeming masses (whereas Hopper could always identify the loneliest person in a crowd, or a secluded part of the city to focus on). This particular painting (which I saw at the Whitney Museum of Art) appeals to me for several reasons. One, as a movie fan I really like the depiction of a Depression era movie theater with the great posters hinting at all kinds of provocative wonders on the screen. I also like the jaunty demeanor of the guy in the tilted derby out front-- he seems completely in control of the situation, which is remarkable given that he's black amongst an otherwise all-white cast of characters. It speaks to a kind of self-confidence that was only possible in a place like New York at that time, and offers something of an antidote to the more common stories of oppression and segregation associated with that era. It also speaks to the persistence of the nation's ability to find some solace in the midst of hard times, if only for the evening out at a show. I tend to see paintings as artifacts of the time in which they were created, and though there are a lot of fine artists from that period, Marsh is the one whose work seems most emblematic of that decade to me.

A Thought for Thursday

Today, we have a quote from Robert Maynard Hutchins (1899-1977), a noted American educational philosopher and one-time president of the University of Chicago.

"The principal enemy of freedom is illusion... the illusion
of the importance of the size or quantity... the illusion
of our technical superiority. There is the illusion that
we don't dare to think. And there is the illusion which
is related to all these illusions-- the illusion of progress."

Bonus Wednesday Family Blogging

I can't really think of anything to write about today (no time to continue the Baseball Stadium series), so I thought I'd bide my time with a picture of Natalie. If anyone can guess the connection between this picture to some other regular element of the blog, I'd be really impressed ;-)

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom

Not mine of course... but rather from Immanuel Kant writing about 18th century Germany, but in terms that are still applicable today:

"Our age is the age of criticism, to which everything
must be subjected. The sacredness of religion, and the
authority of legislation, are by many regraded as grounds
for exemption from the examination of this tribunal.
But, if they are exempted, they become the subjects of
just suspicion, and cannot lay claim to sincere respect,
which reason accords only to that which has stood the
test of a free and public examination."

One of the Greatest Movie Theme Songs Ever

Back in 1983, when I first saw Bill Forsyth's masterpiece Local Hero, I was totally knocked out by the music that swelled up over the closing credits (actually, I was knocked out by almost everything in the movie-- if you haven't seen it, check it out). I ended up buying the soundtrack, which I never do, just for that song. Anyway, here's a live version of the theme performed by its composer, Mark Knopfler.

Tuesday Philosophy

Josiah Warren (1798-1874) was an American anarchist, in the good sense. Here's a quote from his book Equitable Commerce from 1855.

"To require conformity in the appreciation of sentiments
or the interpretation of language, or uniformity of
thought, feeling, or action, is a fundamental error
in human legislation-- a madness which would be
only equaled by requiring all to possess the same
countenance, the same voice, or the same nature."

Baseball Stadiums I Have Visited, Part 3

Continuing my series on MLB ballparks I have visited...

Back in the mid 1980s, my friend Jeff and I took a road trip to Chicago, Milwaukee and Detroit for the express purpose of catching some baseball and, only slightly less important, looking for rare records (I especially remember finding a pristine copy of Phil Ochs' Rehearsals for Retirement in a used record store in the Windy City, the one with the songs inspired by the Democratic Convention of '68). We drove all night to get to our first stop and wound up arriving long before we could check into our motel. So we found a shopping plaza with some benches and napped in the morning sun. That evening we made our first stop.

6. Comiskey Park (Chicago White Sox)

What I remember most about Comiskey was that it was really old and showed it. Rusty girders and beams dominated the area below the stands (our seats were out in right field), and that the concession food was pretty blah. I think I was also still tired from the marathon drive to Chicago and as a consequence have no memory of the game. I do recall that parking was not as difficult as I expected it to be, but that there was a little uneasiness walking back to the car, as the stadium was located in a pretty rundown neighborhood. Jeff, if you're reading this, can you fill in any other details?

7. Wrigley Field (Chicago Cubs)

Obviously, Wrigley is one of the great palces to watch a ballgame. I can't recall now if we were there the day after watching the White Sox at Comiskey, or drove up to Milwaukee in between. But much like what I wrote about Yankee Stadium earlier, it was exciting just to walk up the ramp and see the green field and ivy covered walls spreading out before us. One feels really close to the action at Wrigley, and the fans are really into the game. And back then, the Cubs were still palying all their home games during the day (I think the lights went in a year or two later). Again, I'm sketchy on what transpired in the game (don't even recall who the Cubs played) but I remember just relishing the experience, and keeping track of things on the big old-fashioned scoreboard in center field.

Next time, I'll describe the other two parks we visited on that trip.

A Couple Post-Oscar Comments

Well two of my favorites won, the two actor awards to Penn and Ledger. I think the general tendency in post-Oscar comments is to be a bit snarky about clothes worn by the stars or the length of the program, but frankly I don't care about any of those things. Personally, I just wish they would do away with the big production numbers, and provide longer clips of the films. The Oscars are the only awards show I watch, more out of habit than because I expect anything interesting or exciting to occur. I think the only big surprise to me last night was that Manny Farber, the widely respected (but I suspect largely unread) critic was included in the memorial reel of those who passed in the last year. One point I've seen raised elsewhere is that they might use more presenters from the ranks of past greats (like, for example, Robert Duvall, Gene Hackman, Peter O'Toole, Julie Christie, Warren Beatty, etc.). It seems like all the presenters are from the past twenty-five years or so, and they're missing out on some great tradition (though it was nice to see Shirley MacLaine & Sophia Loren last night).

Monday Morning Philosophizing

Today's selection comes from the Spanish-born Lucius Annaeus Seneca (the Younger), noted Roman statesman and philosopher.

"To be feared is to fear: no one has been
able to strike terror into others and at
the same time enjoy peace of mind himself."

A Favorite Painting 10

Edward Hopper, New York Movie 1939

In keeping with the theme for the day here at Dr. John's Journal, I offer one of my favorite Hopper paintings which I get to see at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC. It is yet another of his depictions of loneliness, made all the more poignant by the proximity of a crowd presumably enjoying the show. The lone usherette (how long since anyone has seen one of those in a theater?) seems lost in reverie under the exit light, dramatically removed from the more ornate setting of the theater proper. A lot of Hopper paintings have this motif of loneliness or serene stillness; this one is somewhat unique in locating its sense of ennui in such a usually festive place. And what do the steps symbolize? Opportunity? Stardom, maybe? Or just the way to the bathrooms?

p.s.- I partly selected this image because I've been writing a lot about movies today; but it also was suggested by the post about Zippy the Pinhead from earlier in the week. Check it out if you missed it.

Today's Philosophical Quote

I'm kind of in movie mode, given that I saw a couple yesterday, and am looking forward to the Oscars tonight. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a good quote about film specifically, but I think that this notion from British mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead applies to all the various forms that art may take including the flickers.

"Art heightens the sense of humanity.
It gives an elation to feeling which is supernatural.
A million sunsets will not spur on men towards
civilization. It requires Art to evoke into
consciousness the finite perfections which lie
ready for human achievement"

What I'd Like to See at the Oscars

I don't have any idea what motion pictures and performers will be honored tonight, but, now that I've caught up with the last couple of contenders in major categories (see the last two posts), I thought I'd share what I hope the winners will be.

Best Picture: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
There seems to be a real split of critical opinion on this picture, but it's definitely the movie I most enjoyed this past year, on both an emotional and intellectual level.

Best Director: David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
I can't think of any way that the best film wouldn't, almost automatically, imply the best direction. By the way, in both of these first two categories, I wouldn't be surprised or offended if Slumdog Millionaire directed by Danny Boyle took the prize, as it was awfully good too.

Best Actor: Sean Penn, Milk
looking back, I don't see how this movie would exist (or be so highly praised) without a dynamic performance at its center, and Penn definitely delivers. Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler is in virtually every scene of that movie and is equally strong, but I think that Penn's performance represented more of a challenge and represented the incredible versatility he has displayed throughout his career.

Best Actress: Melissa Leo, Frozen River
I haven't actually seen this film, but of those I have seen (I also missed Anne Hathaway in Rachel Getting Wedding) there were no great stand-outs (though I liked Meryl Streep in Doubt). Melissa Leo was always so good in the old TV show Homicide, that I'm pulling for her to win here.

Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
Much as I said about Penn, this film is inconceivable without this performance (or anyway, it would have been considerably less entertaining, or even watchable).

Best Supporting Actress: Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler
When Tomei won this category years ago for My Cousin Vinny, a lot of people thought it was a joke, merely because she had demonstrated how to do comedy. But she's always been good in a wide variety of roles, and this would be nice validation of her true talents. I might be inclined to see Viola Davis as also deserving, if her role amounted to more than a single scene in Doubt (though it is truly a dynamite scene).

Cinematography: Claudio Miranda, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Easily the best-looking film I saw all year (even critics who didn't like the picture seemed to acknowledge that).

Writing (Adapted Screenplay): Eric Roth, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Obviously, I really like this movie.

Writing (Original Screenplay): Mike Leigh, Happy-Go-Lucky
I haven't seen this yet, but I really want to (if it ever comes to Montana-- sometimes good movies don't), but Leigh has been so uniformly good for such a long time, that I want to see him rewarded. I wouldn't mind too much if Martin MacDonagh won for In Bruges either, as that was one of the most entertaining films I saw all year.

Those are the biggies. If you read this before the ceremony, give us your picks in the comments; if after, feel free to second-guess my picks. Enjoy the show!

The Last Movie I Saw

The Reader, directed by Stephen Daldry and starring Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes and David Kross (the latter two play the same character at different points in his life), was, to me, a well-done but ulitmately disappointing movie. As the poster above suggests, it turns on the idea of keeping secrets, and the unintended consequences of doing so. It's an interesting idea, and the story, as it unfolds, is never less than compelling. But at the same time, the narrative creates what seemed to me a kind of phony duality, or mirroring, between the two protagonists (Winslet and Kross/Fiennes) that suggests some kind of moral equivalency for acts that are considerably different in scale and impact. To achieve this equivalence, the story necessarily reduces the two secrets down, to view their primary effect on the individuals whose story we are told, and in so doing generates a degree of sympathy that is, if not wholly misplaced, than certainly slanted by the attractiveness of the leads in portraying these particular characters.

Since this film has garnered a number of Academy Awards nominations, you probably already know that its story turns on the Winslet character's involvement in the death camps of the Holocaust. That character's ultimate culpibility in what happened there is open to question, and key evidence that could partly exonerate her becomes a shared secret for reasons that I found a bit murky. The effect of maintaining that secret is devastating in different ways to the parties involved, and as suggested above, although these consequences are apparently meant to mirror one another, it's difficult to see how those lasting penalties are, or even should be, equal.

I know that some have criticized the film for making a death camp guard essentially a sympathetic figure, and I see their point. But I can't think of any reason provided in the story to feel sympathy for that character except in that she's played by a star of Kate Winslet's magnitude. Her behavior throughout often betrays a selfishness and even meanness that could be read as the results of her own harrowing moral compromises; but in fact we are given little reason to belief that it is anything but her nature. And if that is the case, the guilt felt by the Kross/Fiennes character-- the only victim that we actually see being victimized by that selfishness and meanness-- at her fate is understandable but hardly sympathetic.

Unlike the more modest The Wrestler, which I wrote about in my previous post, The Reader seems like a self-important movie, tackling big issues, but in a manner that balances the moral scales unfairly. Despite its obvious positive qualities in terms of production values and acting, it left me felling that it's reach wasn't quite sufficient to its grasp.

The Second Last Movie I Saw

In Dashiell Hammett's famous detective novel The Maltese Falcon, the main character, Sam Spade tells a story about a case he once worked on involving a man named Flitcraft. It is, among other things, essentially a parable about how we are who we are, pretty much no matter what.

Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler is a similar kind of story, about a character who, like the proverbial leopard, cannot change his spots. It's a fairly rich character study, and as the story proceeds, each element lends itself inexorably to the ultimate tragedy of the straitjacket identity the main protagonist has constructed for himself. At the same time, it becomes clear that such a a conclusion can only come from the outside looking in, because it is also apparent that this manufactured identity is the source of whatever pride and joy the protagonist extracts from his mostly down-and-out life. Mickey Rourke has rightly been recognized for giving a stunning performance as the central character, Randy "The Ram" Robinson, a slightly over-the-hill professional wrestler. Even his name-- or pseudonym-- speaks to that idea of a manufactured identity. The character's real name is Robin Radinsky; "The Ram" is almost literally Robin's son, and it's clear that he has lavished more attention on that alter-ego than on his actual daughter, from whom he is estranged. I don't mean to imply that The Ram is an unlikeable figure, just the opposite. What makes the story so compelling is that he is at heart a decent guy, who early on attached himself so completely to an illusion (after all, everyone knows professional wrestling is fake), that his ability to function in-- as prospective girlfriend Cassidy (Marisa Tomei ) puts it-- "the real world," is severely handicapped. As an observer, you want to believe he can break out of the cycle of destructive behaviors, even as it becomes more and more evident that his stake in preserving that identity is all that he has. Tomei's character offers an interesting counterpoint-- a stripper who Ram courts, who desperately wants to dispel the fantasy into which she believes Randy has inserted her, and make him recognize the line between make-believe and true adult responsibility.

Hardly a great or important movie, but a good one extremely well-done, with fine acting and direction. Each scene adds to the overall theme (like Ram buying his daughter a gawdy jacket, or the pre-match rituals, including choreographical discussions, among the wrestlers) without the audience being hammered over the head with their significance through heightened melodrama or heavy-handed music. If you remember Rourke from his breakthrough performance as Boogie in Barry Levinson's Diner (which is my primary memory of his early career), you'll be gratified to see that he hasn't lost that ability to construct a well-rounded, complicated character in the service of a solid story, though it has been a long time since most of us have seen him do it. Marisa Tomei, who in my view is almost always better than the material she's stuck with (most recently in War, Inc.) shows that she's more than equal to the good stuff too.

More Friday Family Blogging

A nice photo from the archives of a portion of the Banning clan. Let me call your attention especially to the expression on Maria's face (she's in the stroller). Click on the image to enlarge for a better look.

Friday Filosophy (sic)

Some sound advice, for the upcoming weekend perhaps, from the German poet and philosopher Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe.

"One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song,
read a good poem, see a fine picture, and,
if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words."

Friday Family Blogging Quiz

Alright, I can't seem to stump you folks at all (results of last week's quiz are below). So I'm going to be a real stinker this time. The question is, where is the hat Marenka is wearing in this photo right now (11:40 am MST, Friday, February 20, 2009). Be as precise as possible; first correct answer wins the designation of top ESP'er of the family. Leave your answers, as always, in the comments section.

In last week's formal quiz, you were asked to identify where the photo of Ben & Natalie was taken. As almost always happens, I couldn't fool the children's mother (Sally) who correctly identified the site as a house in Greenfield Village outside Detroit.

In the informal quiz, I asked you to speculate on what Dad was working on, and I think I have to declare a three-way tie between Lil Sis, Mom & Cate-- all had good guesses, and no one of them stood out from the others. Here's hoping this weeks quiz generates some additional players...

On a Roll

Some of you may know that I'm a big fan of the art and history of the comic strip, and have collected a bunch of books on the subject. As the years go by, however, I find myself less and less interested in the current crop of strips, though there are a handful of favorites that I still check out virtually every day. One of these is Bill Griffith's "Zippy the Pinhead," and I have to say, that strip over the past few weeks has been outstanding. Griffith is one of the few (maybe the only) strip artist who insists on packing his panels with great visual detail, regardless of how much it may be reduced in publication. In the past, he sometimes lapsed into long stretches where he seemed to fixate on a particular verbal or pictorial tic almost ad infinitum, but he always bounces back. Right now, he's on a particularly hot streak, with mostly stand-alone strips that are bright and funny. The jokes especially have been consistently stellar of late, and though they can be a little esoteric, if you get the references they are sure to bring a chuckle (see the above example). If you want to follow along daily, you can find "Zippy" here. Enjoy.

Friday Family Blogging

As everyone knows, it is a time-honored tradition when kids have a camera pointed at them to try and slip the "horns" over some unsuspecting sibling. Here we see Marenka demonstrating how its done. I have to say (and please don't take this personally, anybody), but Gerik's eyebrows in this picture certainly add to the intended effect .

Philosophical Phunnies

What's the point of considering the big questions if you can't occasionally have a little fun with it. So, today we have a riposte from Ambrose Bierce (American, 1842-c1914) to one of the most famous philosophical truisms, originally posited by Rene DesCartes:

"I think that I think; therefore, I think that I am.
Cogito cogito, ergo cogito sum."