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Jackson, MS (est. 1821, pop. 165,000)
Trumpet Records
• in 1949 Lillian McMurry (1921-1999) & her husband Willard (both white) decided to open a furniture store in Jackson Mississippi's largest African American neighborhood • they chose this building to house it • while cleaning out the interior, Lillian found a pile of 78 rpm R&B "race records" left behind by the previous tenant • one of them, she later recalled, was "All She Wants to do is Rock" (2:32) by Wynonie Harris • Lillian played the records & fell in love:
"It was the most unusual, sincere and solid sound I'd ever heard. I'd never heard anything with such rhythm and freedom." —Lillian McMurry
• sometime later she decided to build a record counter to sell recordings by black artists • it eventually took over the entire store, which she renamed The Record Mart
• in 1950, Lillian established Trumpet Records, the first Mississippi record label to gain national exposure through distribution & radio airplay • she scouted talent at the nearby Alamo Theatre, her shop’s listening booths, where customers often sang along, & through word-of-mouth • produced hits like Elmore James' "Dust My Broom" (2:55), which made the April, '52 Billboard rhythm & blues charts • discovered Big Joe Williams [listen] & Willie Love [listen]
• after hearing about harmonica player Sonny Boy Williamson II, she tracked him down • Sonny recorded a number of songs for Trumpet from 1951 to 1955, including Eyesight to the Blind (3:03) • according to Marc Ryan, in his book Diamonds on Farish Street, Sonny Boy had such respect for Lillian that he obeyed her requests to leave all weapons outside the recording studio & avoid foul language on the Trumpet premises
• in 1953, McMurry installed recording equipment in the store, which operated as Diamond Recording Studio • Trumpet ceased operations in 1955 —Jackson Free Press
The Farish Street Historic District
“but out of the bitterness we wrought an ancient past here in this separate place and made our village here.” —African Village by Margaret Walker (1915-1998)
• during the Reconstruction era that followed the American Civil War, white Southerners struggled to reclaim their lives as millions of black Southerners sought new ones • with the stroke of a pen, the Emancipation Proclamation had transformed African slaves into African Americans & released them into a hostile, vengeful & well-armed white community amid the ruins of a once flourishing society
• the antebellum South had been home to over 262,000 rights-restricted "free blacks" • post-emancipation, its free black population soared to 4.1 million • given that the South had sacrificed 20% of it's white males to the war, blacks now comprised well over half the total population of many southern states • uneducated & penniless, most of the new black Americans depended on the Freedman's Bureau for food & clothing
• the social & political implications of the sudden shift in demographics fueled a violence-laced strain of conventional American racism • in this toxic environment, de facto racial segregation was a given, ordained as Mississippi law in 1890 • with Yankees (the U.S. Army) patrolling the city & Maine-born Republican Adelbert Ames installed in the Governor's Mansion, the Farish Street neighborhood was safe haven for freedmen
• as homeless African American refugees poured into Jackson from all reaches of the devastated state, a black economy flickered to life in the form of a few Farish Street mom-and-pops • unwelcome at white churches, the former slaves built their own, together with an entire neighborhood's worth of buildings, most erected between 1890 & 1930
• by 1908 1/3 of the district was black-owned, & half of the black families were homeowners • the 1913-1914 business directory listed 11 African American attorneys, 4 doctors, 3 dentists, 2 jewelers, 2 loan companies & a bank, all in the Farish St. neighborhood • the community also had 2 hospitals & numerous retail & service stores —City Data
• by mid-20th c. Farish Street, the state's largest economically independent African American community, had become the cultural, political & business hub for central Mississippi's black citizens [photos] • on Saturdays, countryfolk would come to town on special busses to sell produce & enjoy BBQ while they listened to live street music • vendors sold catfish fried in large black kettles over open fires • hot tamales, a Mississippi staple, were also a popular street food —The Farish District, Its Architecture and Cultural Heritage
“I’ve seen pictures. You couldn’t even get up the street. It was a two-way street back then, and it was wall-to-wall folks. It was just jam-packed: people shopping, people going to clubs, people eating, people dancing.” — Geno Lee, owner of the Big Apple Inn
• as Jackson's black economy grew, Farish Street entertainment venues prospered, drawing crowds with live & juke blues music • the musicians found or first recorded in the Neighborhood include Robert Johnson, Sonny Boy Williamson II & Elmore James
• Farish Street was also home to talent scouts & record labels like H.C. Speir, & Trumpet Records, Ace Records • both Speir & Trumpet founder Lillian McMurry were white Farish St. business owners whose furniture stores also housed recording studios • both discovered & promoted local Blues musicians —The Mississippi Encyclopedia
• Richard Henry Beadle (1884-1971), a prominent Jackson photographer, had a studio at 199-1/2 N. Farish • he was the son of Samuel Alfred Beadle (1857-1932), African-American poet & attorney • born the son of a slave, he was the author of 3 published books of poetry & stories
• The Alamo Theatre was mainly a movie theater but periodically presented musical acts such as Nat King Cole, Elmore James & Otis Spann • Wednesday was talent show night • 12 year old Jackson native Dorothy Moore entered the contest, won & went on to a successful recording career, highlighted by her 1976 no. 1 R&B hit, "Misty Blue" [listen] (3:34)
• in their heyday, Farish Street venues featured African American star performers such as Bessie Smith & the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Duke Ellington & Dinah Washington played Farish Street venues —Farish Street Records
• on 28 May, 1963, John Salter, a mixed race (white/Am. Indian) professor at historically black Tougaloo College, staged a sit-in with 3 African American students at the "Whites Only" Woolworth's lunch counter in downtown Jackson • they were refused service • an estimated 300 white onlookers & reporters filled the store
• police officers arrived but did not intercede as, in the words of student Anne Moody, "all hell broke loose" while she and the other black students at the counter prayed • "A man rushed forward, threw [student] Memphis from his seat and slapped my face. Then another man who worked in the store threw me against an adjoining counter." • this act of civil disobedience is remembered as the the signature event of Jackson's protest movement —L.A. Times
"This was the most violently attacked sit-in during the 1960s and is the most publicized. A huge mob gathered, with open police support while the three of us sat there for three hours. I was attacked with fists, brass knuckles and the broken portions of glass sugar containers, and was burned with cigarettes. I'm covered with blood and we were all covered by salt, sugar, mustard, and various other things." —John Salter
• the Woolworth Sit-in was one of many non-violent protests by blacks against racial segregation in the South • in 1969 integration of Jackson's public schools began • this new era in Jackson history also marked the beginning of Farish Street's decline —The Farish Street Project
"Integration was a great thing for black people, but it was not a great thing for black business... Before integration, Farish Street was the black mecca of Mississippi.” — Geno Lee, Big Apple Inn
• for African Americans, integration offered the possibility to shop outside of the neighborhood at white owned stores • as increasing numbers of black shoppers did so, Farish Street traffic declined, businesses closed & the vacated buildings fell into disrepair
• in 1983, a Farish St. redevelopment plan was presented
• in 1995 the street was designated an endangered historic place by the National Trust for Historic Preservation
• in the 1990s, having redeveloped Memphis' Beale Street, Performa Entertainment Real Estate, was selected to redevelop Farish St
• in 2008, The Farish Street Group took over the project with plans for a B.B. King's Blues Club to anchor the entertainment district
• in 2012, having spent $21 million, the redevelopment — limited to repaving of the street, stabilizating some abandoned buildings & demolishing many of the rest — was stuck in limbo —Michael Minn
• 2017 update:
"Six mayors and 20 years after the City of Jackson became involved in efforts to develop the Farish Street Historic District, in hopes of bringing it back to the bustling state of its heyday, the project sits at a standstill. Recent Mayor Tony Yarber has referred to the district as “an albatross.” In September of 2014, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development sanctioned the City of Jackson, the Jackson Redevelopment Authority, and developers for misspending federal funds directed toward the development of the Farish Street Historic District. Work is at a halt and "not scheduled to resume until December 2018, when the City of Jackson repays HUD $1.5 million." —Mississippi Dept. of Archives & History
• Farish Street Neighborhood Historic District, National Register # 80002245, 1980
"But even so, amid the tornadoed Atlantic of my being, do I myself still for ever centrally disport in mute calm; and while ponderous planets of unwaning woe revolve round me, deep down and deep inland there I still bathe me in eternal mildness of joy."
— Herman Melville (Moby Dick)
* Pentax K20D + Pentax 18-55mm Lens - Single Shot
Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble
Daughters of a Nation: A Black Suffragette Historical Romance Anthology *ahem* Amazon GoodReads SmartBitchesTrashyBooks Washington Post Pick of the Month
Happy Sliders Sunday!
I've been listening to Ken Burns' documentary Jazz and revisiting Pandora Internet Radio, listening to the Coleman Hawkins station. Life is good!
S Jersey Grrl WordPress
"All women are bitches," I said. She smiled at me. Her eyes were deep and black. "All women are cheats and liars and bitches," I told her.
"I'm not," she said. "I'm a whore."
"You're different," I said. "I mean real women."
" CRISS-CROSS " By DON TRACY
N.Y.: Vanguard Press, 1934
London: Constable, 1935
N.Y.: Triangle Books 1948
Toronto: Harlequin Books #67, August 1950
N.Y.: Lion Books, 1951 & 1956 as "The Cheat'
" He'd been smarter than me.
All along I'd thought he was dumb and that I was giving him the big cross and now I was finding out that he knew all along and was just waiting to throw it into me.
I was the dumb one.
And I was paying for being dumb. "
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" CRISS-CROSS " By DON TRACY
*ALL* Editions
www.abebooks.co.uk/search/sortby/3/an/Don+Tracy+/tn/+Cris...
AND
www.biblio.com/books/95613936.html
FIRST EDITION (1934)
www.saratogabooks.com/shop/saratoga/014832.html
www.goodreads.com/book/show/6192947-criss-cross
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Don Tracy (20 August 1905 - 1976) @ openlibrary.org
>>ALL Book titles *Hyperlinked*
"...Don Tracy, was born in New Britain, Connecticut. He worked as a reporter for local newspapers in New Brittain from 1926-1928, then as editor of Radio News in New York from 1928-1934. In 1934, his first novel, All Sold!, and his second novel, Flash, were published. After World War II, he also taught summer courses at Syracuse University from 1955-1960, and become fairly well known for his historical novels, without abandoning the crime novel. Toward the end of his life, he met the president of the New Life Foundation, an anti-alcohol league. Under the pseudonym "Roger Fuller", he wrote novelizations of the films The Sign Of The Pagan (1954) and the television series The Defenders (1964, 1965), The Fugitive and Peyton Place. He died in Florida after a battle with cancer in 1976..."
openlibrary.org/authors/OL1768610A/Don_Tracy
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REVIEW: Criss-Cross -- Don Tracy
By Bill Crider
billcrider.blogspot.com/2007/12/criss-cross-don-tracy.html
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REVIEW: Criss-Cross -- Don Tracy
BY AUGUST WEST @ Vintage Hardboiled Reads
Well written and sharp. I really enjoyed the novel and it's atmosphere of the struggling times of 1930s Baltimore. If you read it, you'll enjoy the numerous boxing references in the story-the author uses them to help define the character of Johnny Thompson. And the novel contains one of the great lines that I read recently:
A big girl in a white evening dress came out and sang "For All We Know" in a voice like a dentist's drill.
vinpulp.blogspot.com/2008/08/criss-cross-by-don-tracy.html
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Friday's Forgotten Book: Don Tracy's Criss-Cross
pulpetti.blogspot.com/2010/01/fridays-forgotten-book-don-...
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Tracy, Don (pulp fiction writer)
(1905-1976)
Also wrote as: Roger Fuller, Barnaby Ross
" A neglected figure (at least in his own country; his crime fiction has a cult following in France), Tracy was an amazingly fertile talent whose broad interests and experiences animated both hack assignments and more personal works through nearly 50 years of professional writing. Born in New Britain, Connecticut, he worked as a journalist as a young man, first at the New Britain Herald, then at the Baltimore Post in Maryland. The move south would prove significant, as much of Tracy's subsequent creative output would find inspiration in the people and places, the history, and current social mores of the South's eastern shore, from Maryland to Florida..."
www.the-crankshaft.info/2010/10/tracy-don-pulp-fiction-wr...
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BOOKS by DON TRACY
www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&...
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FILM NOIR
' Criss Cross " (1949) directed by Robert Siodmak from a novel by Don Tracy.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criss_Cross_(film)
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IMDb
www.imdb.com/title/tt0041268/combined
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PHOTO GALLERY - Trailer;
www.ciakhollywood.com/hp/doppiogioco/
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OVERVIEW >> Turner Classic Movies
www.tcm.com/thismonth/article.jsp?cid=24088&mainArtic...
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DVD Review
Gary George @ Film Noir of the Week
www.noiroftheweek.com/2006/05/criss-cross-1949.html
AND
www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/movies/2010/06/criss-cross...
AND
filmjournal.net/clydefro/2007/04/17/criss-cross/
AND
filmsnoir.net/film_noir/criss-cross-1949.html
AND
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DVD Review @ dvdbeaver.com
DETAILED -- COMPREHENSIVE: ALL REGIONS & EDITIONS
www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDReview3/crisscross.htm
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Criss Cross (1949) - Film Locations
ROBBY CRESS@ Dear Old Hollywood
EXCELLENT Resource: Many Past/Present photos
"...There are some great Los Angeles locations used in the film.
Most notable are locations in what used to be the Bunker Hill neighborhood of downtown Los Angeles and Union Station. Here are a few of those locations:..."
dearoldhollywood.blogspot.com/2010/10/criss-cross-1949-fi...
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Burt Lancaster: The Brute Artisan
TRIBUTE >> GOOD ONE: Pics, clips, links
www.vintageculture.net/burt-lancaster/
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DOWNLOAD >>
"CRISS-CROSS"
www.moviedir.com/download/criss-cross-movie-11057.html
AND
www.findhotfile.com/showthread.php?1781-Criss-Cross-(1949...
AND
www.freshwap.net/forums/movies/1011621-criss-cross-1949-b...
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BUY >> " Criss Cross " DVD
www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=6739624
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What is 'Noir'?
Excerpt from the book 'Film Noir' by Alain Silver and James Ursini
How did a cycle of the American cinema become one of the most influential movements in film history? During its classic period, which lasted from 1941 to 1958, noir films were derided by critics of the time...
...The publication of several essays in English on noir, most importantly Raymond Durgnat`s ‘Paint It Black: The Family Tree of Film Noir` (Cinema 6/7, August 1970) and Paul Schrader`s ‘Notes on Film Noir` (Film Comment 8, Spring 1972), followed in the early 1970s. Still, when the first comprehensive survey of film noir in English, Film Noir, An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style, first appeared in 1979, the term ‘film noir` was still mostly unknown outside of film school circles. Finally, with the added impact of a burgeoning neo-noir movement in the 1980s, the mainstream press took up the term. By the time the Terminator blasted through a nightclub called Tech Noir in 1984, the debate over what constitutes film noir was in full swing.
Cont...On Film Noir...Page Three
The Film Noir Directory...
www.lefilmsdarkdelivresetdemusique.net/apps/blog/show/178...
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" CRISS-CROSS " (1948) on FACEBOOK
Kachinas are spirit beings in western Pueblo religious beliefs, often represented through masks and dolls, as shown here. This snapshot is from a wonderful book by Barton Wright entitled ‘Kachinas: A Hopi Artist's Documentary’, which Adam got for me in a recent trip to New Mexico. I devoured it from cover to cover — and it’s given me a vision for my next art project: an interactive Kachina World with animatronics dolls. Each of the kachinas depicted in these pictures could be characters in that interactive play, dancing to the music and giving you inspiration about the spirits they represent. It was so nice of Adam to give me this marvelous book — he immediately thought of me and thought I should have it. :)
Learn more about Kachinas:
Learn more about the Kachinas book:
www.goodreads.com/book/show/1966616.Kachinas
View photos of our related Wonderbots experiment:
Created for Marcus Ranum Challenge #127
Model with thanks to Marcus Ranum
I've been working my way through Philippa Gregory's Cousin's War
www.goodreads.com/series/55424-the-cousins-war
series after watching 'The White Queen'
Joan of Arc figures highly in the first two books of the series so I had her story rolling around in my subconscious while was making this
Conserving Asia's Wildlife Treasure: The Pheasants
Now available
Amazon.com
Flipkart.com (for readers in India) www.flipkart.com/the-pheasants/p/itmdv7yhzzvndwzy?pid=978... www.goodreads.com/book/show/21914608-conserving-asia-s-wi...
Fiction Week! Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho If you like MPoC, you’re probably going to like this novel. I consider it to be the second-best book of 2015. Why is that? Well, this is what happens when you take characters who are relentlessly marginalized in Alternate History genre novels and make them the center of the story, the Hinges of History, the Fate of the Universe resting in their hands, and a partridge in a pear tree. It’s A M A Z I N G. This book could have gone off the rails very easily at a few important plot points. Instead, it steers itself back to where it needs to be by introducing several painfully uncomfortable emotional questions and faces necessary moral quandaries, as well as showing how there really isn’t a difference to speak of between the two. Zacharias Wythe is the titular Sorcerer Royal, new-minted head of the Royal Society of Unnatural Philosophers, and inheritor of a very confounding problem. You see, there just isn’t as much magic around as there used to be, and it’s in the Society’s best interests if this problem is somehow fixed without anyone else ever finding out about it. Everyone around him is waiting for him to fail because he is Black and they are old, white racists with too much power. If he doesn’t ruin everything on his own, well, they’re ready, able and willing to ensure his failure by any means at their disposal. Zacharias is also in the very unfortunate position of having been named successor immediately after his benefactor/adopted “father”‘s death….death being not quite as final as most of us have been led to believe. Prunella Gentleman, meanwhile, is the mixed race and illegitimate daughter of a… well, a gentleman, and has grown up in a school of sorcery for women-in which the main objective is to make absolutely sure that none of the young ladies who graduate ever show the slightest hint of magical ability. Chafing under the restrictions she’s been living under and facing the reality of her own unprecedented magical abilities, she must uncover the secrets of her parentage and her inheritance before she can move forward to save her country, the world, and also fix racism and sexism while she’s at it. I’ve seen a lot of people comparing this book to Austen, Fforde, and Heyer because they’re fans of that type of work. I personally am not a fan of that type of work; I’m much more into Epic or Medieval Fantasy but let me tell you, I Loved. This. Story. If the whole Regency England Hoity Toity Drama of Manners thing puts you off, trust me, you still are going to want to read this. I don’t think it really comes off as that type of work at all, but I can still see how fans of that genre would find it very appealing. If you want that book that’s not too long or too short, not too wordy or too shallow, not overly ‘delightful’ and not too much of a downer; in short, if you want that novel that will be 100% just right, this is The One. Amazon | Goodreads | Barnes and Noble If you want to get into the content a little more, here are some other reviews: Magic, Murder, and Microaggressions in Zen Cho’s Sorcerer to the Crown by Alex Brown Sorcerer to the Crown Review at The Book Smugglers: thebooksmugglers.com/2015/09/book-review-sorcerer-to-the-...
I'm sooo close to being done with Camp NaNoWriMo. I have about 900 words left.
I learned a lot about my characters, and I enjoy my new method for writing.
I was inspired by George R R Martin, I read this quote
www.goodreads.com/quotes/749309-i-think-there-are-two-typ...
And I have always thought I was the architect, but turns out I'm more gardener than I thought.
Kachinas are spirit beings in western Pueblo religious beliefs, often represented through masks and dolls, as shown here. This snapshot is from a wonderful book by Barton Wright entitled ‘Kachinas: A Hopi Artist's Documentary’, which Adam got for me in a recent trip to New Mexico. I devoured it from cover to cover — and it’s given me a vision for my next art project: an interactive Kachina World with animatronics dolls. Each of the kachinas depicted in these pictures could be characters in that interactive play, dancing to the music and giving you inspiration about the spirits they represent. It was so nice of Adam to give me this marvelous book — he immediately thought of me and thought I should have it. :)
Learn more about Kachinas:
Learn more about the Kachinas book:
www.goodreads.com/book/show/1966616.Kachinas
View photos of our related Wonderbots experiment:
Manhattan, NY (settled 1624, pop. 1.6MM) • East Village
• Grace Episcopal Church • French Gothic Revival design by 25 yr. old James Renwick, Jr. (1818-1895), his first major commission • cornerstone laid, 1843 • church consecrated, 1846 • church history
• built of “Sing Sing marble,” actually Tuckahoe Marble quarried from the Sing Sing Quarry [photo] by Sing Sing Correctional Facility prisoners
• spire, 226’ high, was among the tallest points on the early NYC skyline • originally wood, was replaced by a marble spire, 1883
• situated in one of the most visible locations in Manhattan, the corner of East 10th St. where Broadway bends S/SE, aligning w/ the city’s avenues [c. 1900 photo]
• for much of the mid/late 19th C., considered NYC’s most fashionable church & most prestigious site for marriage or burial • like many other churches, charged “pew rents,” an annual fee for the use of its seats • initial pew rents were $3/wk. (= $114 today), thus the congregation in the early years consisted largely of wealthy New Yorkers [1918 video]
“In his 1882 New York by Gaslight, author James, D. McCabe, Jr. would point out, “At the morning service a greater display of wealth and fashion is presented here than at any other city church. Grace Church has been the scene of more fashionable weddings and funerals than any other place of worship.” —Daytonian in Manhattan
• on 10 Feb, 1863, the American Civil War was raging, demonstrations, protesting the country’s first military draft were on the verge of becoming full-blown draft riots, and a widely anticipated event took place in Grace Church; Charles Sherwood Stratton (1838-1883) — a wealthy, international celebrity better known as General Tom Thumb — and Mercy Lavinia Warren (1841-1919) exchanged wedding vows • both were proportionate dwarfs in the employ of P.T. Barnum, performers at his American Museum
• Stratton was a gifted entertainer who sang, danced & performed physical comedy, stage name taken from “The History of Tom Thumbe,” a story first published in 1621, attributed to London romance writer Richard Johnson (1573–c.1659) • Lavinia began her career performing on a river boat, signed w/Barnum, age 21
“The church was comfortably filled by a highly select audience of ladies and gentlemen, none being admitted except those having cards of invitation. Among them were governors of several of the States, to whom I had sent cards, and such of those as could not be present in person were represented by friends, to whom they had given their cards. Members of Congress were present, also generals of the army, and many other prominent public men. Numerous applications were made from wealthy and distinguished persons, for tickets to witness the ceremony, and as high as sixty dollars [= $1,400 today] was offered for a single admission. But not a ticket was sold; and Tom Thumb and Lavinia Warren were pronounced ‘man and wife’ before witnesses.” —P.T. Barnum, “Struggles and Triumphs”
• the Brooklyn Eagle editorialized, “We are surprised that the clergy, or representatives of so respectable a body as the Episcopal Church should, for a moment, allow themselves to be used by this Yankee showman to advertise his business”
• amid widespread criticism of the church for it’s complicity in what was widely viewed as another Barnum publicity stunt, Stratton responded, “It is true we are little but we are as God made us, perfect in our littleness. We are simply man and woman of like passions and infirmities with you and other mortals. The arrangements for our marriage are controlled by no showman.”
“The more than 2,000 invited wedding guests [photo] appeared to be a who’s who of American nobility, including a number of congressmen and high-ranking generals, in addition to the thousands of average New Yorkers who showed up hoping to catch a glimpse of the famous tiny couple.” —A General, a Queen and the President
“The wedding party’s arrival outside the church at half past noon touched off a stampede among combatants fighting for a close-up view. The police restrained them only with extreme exertion. Inside, ‘an instantaneous uprising ensued,’ The New York Times reported the following day. ‘All looked, few saw. Many stood upon the seats, others stood upon stools placed on the seats. By many, good breeding was forgotten. By very many the sanctity of the occasion and the sacredness of the ceremonies were entirely ignored. As the little party toddled up the aisle, a sense of the ludicrous seemed to hit many a bump of fun, and irrepressible and unpleasantly audible giggles ran through the church.’” —Boundary Stones
• the couple received wedding presents from wealthy Americans, including a miniature horse-drawn carriage fashioned by Tiffany & Co. • the ceremony, officiated by Stratton’s hometown minister, Junius Willey, was followed by a reception at the Metropolitan Hotel, attended by guests who had purchased tickets from Barnum
• the newlyweds [illustration] then traveled to Washington where Charles’s brother was stationed w/ the Union Army • checked in to Willard’s Hotel
• on 13 Feb, 1863, a well-publicized reception for the couple was held in the East Room of the Lincoln White House, hosted by First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln & America’s tallest president [illustration] —Andrew Martin
Livinia Warren: “[The] President took our hands and led us to the sofa, lifting the General up and placed him at his left hand, while Mrs. Lincoln did the same serve for me, placing me at her right… Tad, the favorite son, stood beside his mother and gazing at me… whispered to his mother, ‘Mother if you were a little woman like Mrs. Stratton you would look just like her.'”
“The marriage of Gen. Tom Thumb cannot be treated as an affair of no moment -- in some respects it is most momentous. Next to LOUIS NAPOLEON, there is no one person better known by reputation to high and low, rich and poor, than he…
“Those who did and those who did not attend the wedding of Gen. Thomas Thumb and Queen composed the population of this great Metropolis yesterday, and thenceforth religious and civil parties sink into comparative insignificance before this one arbitrating query of fate -- Did you or did you not see Tom Thumb married?” —NYT 22 Feb, 1863
• Stratton retired wealthy • couple lived in a Bridgeport, CT mansion, owned a yacht, a summer home in Massachusetts [photo] and a custom-built cottage on Cut in Two Island East in Connecticut’s Thimble Islands • in 1855, when bad investments forced Barnum to file for bankruptcy, Stratton provided financial assistance d& became Barnum’s business partner
• 28 yrs. later, Charles died of a stroke • the couple’s lavish lifestyle had reduced their wealth but enough remained to support Lavinia’s retirement • chose instead to return to the stage, used the stage name “Mrs. Tom Thumb” & assembled a troupe of touring “Liliputians”
• married Italian proportionate dwarf Count primo Magri (1849-1920), who, with his brother, joined the troupe • Count & Countess [photo] lived in Middleborough, MA, • summers, operated a roadside general store for auto tourists called Primo’s Pastime, where they posed for photos w/customers —Atlas Obscura
• the Mrs. Tom Thumb company toured the country [photo], garnering favorable reviews, e.g., “The entertainment given by the Mrs. Tom Thumb Company Saturday was really a fine thing. The little people cannot help being interesting and the tricks of magic were also good, as were the music and trained birds, but the suspension in mid- air of the little countess and change of character was the best thing of the kind ever seen here,” —Newburyport (MA) Herald following a 2 July, 1889 performance at the Exeter (NH) Opera House
• shortly after Stratton’s death, theaters began staging re-enactments of the couple's nuptials • “Tom Thumb weddings,” aka "miniature weddings, became a fad in the 1890s-1900s and continued to be staged by churches, community organizations and charities well into the late 20th C., mainly as fundraisers [photo]
• Grace Church is a National Historic Landmark designated for its architectural significance and place within the history of New York City, and the entire complex is a New York City landmark • one of seven New York City buildings designated by the Municipal Art Society as being of national importance, to be preserved at all costs
designations:
NY Landmarks Preservation Commission:
• church & rectory landmarked, 1966
• Fourth Avenue church houses landmarked, 1977
National Register of Historic Places:
• church & dependencies, # 74001270, 1974
• national historic landmark, 1977
The world is visited by aliens, who turn out to be a race of amazonian sized women dressed like intergalactic cheerleaders, controlled by a Weird Sisters-style cabal of old crones. Their motives seem ambiguous and Madame President seeks appeasement, but the men of the Lone Star state take matters into their own hands, infiltrating the invaders and saving the planet, but more importantly freeing all men from the shame of emasculation in the process!
So it's essentially cowboys vs. amazons, with all the chauvinism, ridiculousness and fun that implies. A terribly dated but amusing piece of hokum, tongue-in-cheek enough to forgive the appalling gender politics. [From a review at Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/book/show/3234353-the-girls-from-planet...
www.jackie alpers.com
The recipe is available on my blog Jackie's Happy Plate.
jackieshappyplate.com/2013/08/10/breakfast-popsicles-a-go...
I met up with Michael Williams and Richard Cahan, co-authors of 'Vivian Maier: Out of the Shadows' this weekend and had my copy of their fantastic book signed.
They were also cool enough to sign two more of their books for me...
'The Lost Panoramas' and 'Who We Were: A Snapshot History of America.'
I dig every one of these books and I really like how these guys think...
how they tell a story and how they put together a book.
Michael and Richard own CityFiles Press and they specialize in the publishing of art and photography books.
They've collaborated on seven books together so far I think.
Mostly I really like how they tell the stories that they publish.
Vivian Maier's work has always spoken for itself and few words are necessary to interpret it.
In fact... it's easy for the words to get in the way.
But they tell the story in a way that I can really relate to in 'Vivian Maier: Out of the Shadows.'
They don't just look at her work and search for meaning within it...
they look at the timeline of the work and the way that her shots relate to her other shots in a linear way.
It's a fascinating way to look at Vivian Maier that any photographer will relate to instantly.
It's not about one shot or another...
they've written about Vivian's 'journeys' and looked at her work as such.
I save all the photographs I make... even the bad ones... the one's that don't come out... the ones no one will ever see.
Something happens when I look at them as a 'whole.'
They become an 'animation' of sorts and there in front of me I relive the day I took them...
I relive the journey down that particular street or in that place.
That's how these guys tell Vivian's story in words and pictures and it's a masterful piece of story telling indeed.
'The Lost Panoramas' is the story of a treasure trove of more than twenty thousand glass negatives found in storage detailing the construction and the changes brought about by the reversing of the Chicago River and the canals that had to be built to do it.
It's a captivating read.
These guys rock and I really enjoyed spending a few minutes talking to them on Sunday.
If you get a chance you gotta check these books out.
You'll dig their story tellin' too!
another Peter Cave biker book... lock up your sons (especially if they play the Sitar)
Review up on goodreads
"In the sunset of dissolution, everything is illuminated by the aura of nostalgia, even the guillotine."
— Milan Kundera (The Unbearable Lightness of Being)
Kapiti Views Series #4
* Pentax K20D + Pentax 18-55mm Lens - Single Shot
Selected images are available high res and unframed at RedBubble
Follow me on Twitter, Tumblr, Blogger, 500px or Facebook
I did intend to use just 5 items, but well, you know how it goes. ;)
loved the title latbaskets used on this LO
www.flickr.com/photos/8810568@N08/5409458916/in/faves-cra...
I even use goodreads but never thought of that title!
I find that I take a lot of pics of my guys reading. For one, they're finally sitting still- a captive audience. But secondly, I just love to watch them read and to see what they choose. I just love libraries,too
I intend to have a companion page to this that highlights all the books I read in 2011.
No American president has been closer to the working life of the West than Theodore Roosevelt. From 1884 to 1886 he built up his ranch on the Little Missouri in Dakota Territory, accepting the inevitable toil and hardships. He met the unique characters of the Bad Lands—mountain men, degenerate buffalo hunters, Indians, and cowboys—and observed their changes as the West became more populated. "Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail" describes Roosevelt's routine labor and extraordinary adventures, including a stint as a deputy sheriff pursuing three horse thieves through the cold of winter. Whether recounting stories of cowboy fights or describing his hunting of elk, antelope, and bear, the book expresses his lifelong delight in physical hardihood and tests of nerve. [Source: Goodreads website at www.goodreads.com/book/show/1737273.Ranch_Life_and_the_Hu...]
Charleston est. 1670, pop. 127,999 (2013) • historic Broad Street
• bronze sculpture of poet Henry Timrod (1829-1867), Charleston native of German descent • aka "Poet Laureate of the Confederacy" • taught & tutored children at a SC plantation • poems published in literary magazines & a single volume, "The Poems of Henry Timrod" (1873)
• bust sculpted by Richmond, VA sculptor Edward Virginius Valentine (1838-1930) • Edward V. Valentine Sculpture Studio among only four 19th c. American sculptors' studios open to public
3 Inscriptions on sculpture base:
• This memorial has been erected with the proceeds of the/ recent sale of very large editions of the author's poems by/ the Timrod Memorial Association of South Carolina./ "Genius, like Egypt's monarch, timely wise,/ Erects its own memorial ere it dies."
• Through clouds and through sunshine, in peace and in war,/ amid the stress of poverty and the storms of civil strife, his/ soul never faltered and his purpose never failed. To his/ poetic mission he was faithful to the end. In life and in/ death he was "not disobedient unto the Heavenly vision."
• Timrod's "Memorial Ode," composed Spring, 1867, sung at Charleston's Magnolia Cemetery in May on occasion of Confederate grave decoration
Sleep sweetly in your humble graves,
Sleep, martyrs of a fallen cause;
Though yet no marble column craves
The pilgrim here to pause.
In seeds of laurel in the earth
The blossom of your flame is blown,
And somewhere, waiting for its birth,
The shaft is in the stone!
Meanwhile, behalf the tardy years
Which keep in trust your storied tombs,
Behold! Your sisters bring their tears,
And these memorial blooms.
• in 2006 Albuquerque DJ Scott Warmuth noticed a similarity between Timrod's poetry & some of Bob Dylan's lyrics in his new album, Modern Times, triggering a debate in the national media over plagiarism & Dylan as artist • "Did Timrod Influence Dylan?" -PBS • "The Ballad of Henry Timrod" -NY Times • "Bob Dylan: Henry Timrod Revisited" -Robert Polito, Poetry Foundation • Who's This Guy Dylan Who's Borrowing Lines From Henry Timrod? -NY Times
• Washington Square -Wikipedia • A Stroll Through Washington Park -Charleston Past • Charleston Historic District, National Register # 66000964, 1969 • declared National Historic Landmark District, 1973
Miami est. 1896, pop. 2.6MM • Upper East Side (UES)
• pre-motel-age Art Deco building aka Camelot Inn, now Hotel MiMo • originally twenty-two units • 50s post card caption: “Located on Biscayne Boulevard in Exclusive Northeast Section... 10 minutes to Beach, Modern and Homelike... Catering to a Restricted Clientele” • Apartments Discriminated -Belle Isle Blog • Group journeys back to ‘a painful time’ in Miami’s history -Miami Herald
• Carl Fisher (1874-1979), one of the original developers of Miami Beach, didn't want area "…to ever become a Jewish outfit — it would not only ruin the hotels but ruin the property.” Fisher included restrictions in all land deeds: “No lot shall be sold, conveyed, leased to anyone not a member of the Caucasian race, nor to anyone having more than one quarter Hebrew or Syrian blood.” -Jews of South Florida, Andrea Greenbaum • Gulf Hotel 1946 ad: "Always a View, Never a Jew" -Jewish Telegraphic Agcy.
• Nathan Stone, a Jew said to have been denied rooms at Miami Beach's Roney Plaza Hotel, built the Blackstone Hotel (1929), largest on South Beach at time • first to host an African American convention • also hosted George Gershwin, who composed music for Broadway hit Porgy & Bess while staying at Blackstone • Nathan Stone's grandson Richard (b. 1928), was FL's US Senator, 1975-1980 • No dogs, no blacks, no Jews -St. Petersburg Times
• Biscayne Blvd (1926) Miami's principal north/south artery • developed by Tennesseans Hugh M. Anderson (1881-1941) & Roy C. Wright (1886-1948) • Anderson referred to project as "Grand Boulevard" • objective was to create highway free of traffic lights connecting Miami's signature Royal Palm Hotel to US 1 • path for roadway cleared, 85 buildings demolished at great expense, e.g., $250K for Temple Israel synagogue demolition
• post WWII prosperity brought explosive increase in car travel • before the opening of I-95, tourists entered Miami via Biscayne Blvd • array of attention-grabbing MiMo/Miami Modern motels built along Boulevard to take advantage of visitor traffic
• mimoboulevard.org • Upper East Side Net • Development Booms on Biscayne Boulevard -Ocean Drive
• Miami Modern/Biscayne Boulevard (MiMo on BiBo) designated City of Miami Historic District, 2006
Jackson, MS (est. 1821, pop. 165,000)
• Home Dining Room, owned by Mrs. Robinson • relocated here from across the street post-1954 • catered to churchgoing people & gospel quartets — Church Street: The Sugar Hill of Jackson, Mississippi
The Farish Street Historic District
“but out of the bitterness we wrought an ancient past here in this separate place and made our village here.” —African Village by Margaret Walker (1915-1998)
• during the Reconstruction era that followed the American Civil War, white Southerners struggled to reclaim their lives as millions of black Southerners sought new ones • with the stroke of a pen, the Emancipation Proclamation had transformed African slaves into African Americans & released them into a hostile, vengeful & well-armed white community amid the ruins of a once flourishing society
• the antebellum South had been home to over 262,000 rights-restricted "free blacks" • post-emancipation, its free black population soared to 4.1 million • given that the South had sacrificed 20% of it's white males to the war, blacks now comprised well over half the total population of many southern states • uneducated & penniless, most of the new black Americans depended on the Freedman's Bureau for food & clothing
• the social & political implications of the sudden shift in demographics fueled a violence-laced strain of conventional American racism • in this toxic environment, de facto racial segregation was a given, ordained as Mississippi law in 1890 • with Yankees (the U.S. Army) patrolling the city & Maine-born Republican Adelbert Ames installed in the Governor's Mansion, the Farish Street neighborhood was safe haven for freedmen
• as homeless African American refugees poured into Jackson from all reaches of the devastated state, a black economy flickered to life in the form of a few Farish Street mom-and-pops • unwelcome at white churches, the former slaves built their own, together with an entire neighborhood's worth of buildings, most erected between 1890 & 1930
• by 1908 1/3 of the district was black-owned, & half of the black families were homeowners • the 1913-1914 business directory listed 11 African American attorneys, 4 doctors, 3 dentists, 2 jewelers, 2 loan companies & a bank, all in the Farish St. neighborhood • the community also had 2 hospitals & numerous retail & service stores —City Data
• by mid-20th c. Farish Street, the state's largest economically independent African American community, had become the cultural, political & business hub for central Mississippi's black citizens [photos] • on Saturdays, countryfolk would come to town on special busses to sell produce & enjoy BBQ while they listened to live street music • vendors sold catfish fried in large black kettles over open fires • hot tamales, a Mississippi staple, were also a popular street food —The Farish District, Its Architecture and Cultural Heritage
“I’ve seen pictures. You couldn’t even get up the street. It was a two-way street back then, and it was wall-to-wall folks. It was just jam-packed: people shopping, people going to clubs, people eating, people dancing.” — Geno Lee, owner of the Big Apple Inn
• as Jackson's black economy grew, Farish Street entertainment venues prospered, drawing crowds with live & juke blues music • the musicians found or first recorded in the Neighborhood include Robert Johnson, Sonny Boy Williamson II & Elmore James
• Farish Street was also home to talent scouts & record labels like H.C. Speir, & Trumpet Records, Ace Records • both Speir & Trumpet founder Lillian McMurry were white Farish St. business owners whose furniture stores also housed recording studios • both discovered & promoted local Blues musicians —The Mississippi Encyclopedia
• Richard Henry Beadle (1884-1971), a prominent Jackson photographer, had a studio at 199-1/2 N. Farish • he was the son of Samuel Alfred Beadle (1857-1932), African-American poet & attorney • born the son of a slave, he was the author of 3 published books of poetry & stories
• The Alamo Theatre was mainly a movie theater but periodically presented musical acts such as Nat King Cole, Elmore James & Otis Spann • Wednesday was talent show night • 12 year old Jackson native Dorothy Moore entered the contest, won & went on to a successful recording career, highlighted by her 1976 no. 1 R&B hit, "Misty Blue" [listen] (3:34)
• in their heyday, Farish Street venues featured African American star performers such as Bessie Smith & the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Duke Ellington & Dinah Washington played Farish Street venues —Farish Street Records
• on 28 May, 1963, John Salter, a mixed race (white/Am. Indian) professor at historically black Tougaloo College, staged a sit-in with 3 African American students at the "Whites Only" Woolworth's lunch counter in downtown Jackson • they were refused service • an estimated 300 white onlookers & reporters filled the store
• police officers arrived but did not intercede as, in the words of student Anne Moody, "all hell broke loose" while she and the other black students at the counter prayed • "A man rushed forward, threw [student] Memphis from his seat and slapped my face. Then another man who worked in the store threw me against an adjoining counter." • this act of civil disobedience is remembered as the the signature event of Jackson's protest movement —L.A. Times
"This was the most violently attacked sit-in during the 1960s and is the most publicized. A huge mob gathered, with open police support while the three of us sat there for three hours. I was attacked with fists, brass knuckles and the broken portions of glass sugar containers, and was burned with cigarettes. I'm covered with blood and we were all covered by salt, sugar, mustard, and various other things." —John Salter
• the Woolworth Sit-in was one of many non-violent protests by blacks against racial segregation in the South • in 1969 integration of Jackson's public schools began • this new era in Jackson history also marked the beginning of Farish Street's decline —The Farish Street Project
"Integration was a great thing for black people, but it was not a great thing for black business... Before integration, Farish Street was the black mecca of Mississippi.” — Geno Lee, Big Apple Inn
• for African Americans, integration offered the possibility to shop outside of the neighborhood at white owned stores • as increasing numbers of black shoppers did so, Farish Street traffic declined, businesses closed & the vacated buildings fell into disrepair
• in 1983, a Farish St. redevelopment plan was presented
• in 1995 the street was designated an endangered historic place by the National Trust for Historic Preservation
• in the 1990s, having redeveloped Memphis' Beale Street, Performa Entertainment Real Estate, was selected to redevelop Farish St
• in 2008, The Farish Street Group took over the project with plans for a B.B. King's Blues Club to anchor the entertainment district
• in 2012, having spent $21 million, the redevelopment — limited to repaving of the street, stabilizating some abandoned buildings & demolishing many of the rest — was stuck in limbo —Michael Minn
• 2017 update:
"Six mayors and 20 years after the City of Jackson became involved in efforts to develop the Farish Street Historic District, in hopes of bringing it back to the bustling state of its heyday, the project sits at a standstill. Recent Mayor Tony Yarber has referred to the district as “an albatross.” In September of 2014, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development sanctioned the City of Jackson, the Jackson Redevelopment Authority, and developers for misspending federal funds directed toward the development of the Farish Street Historic District. Work is at a halt and "not scheduled to resume until December 2018, when the City of Jackson repays HUD $1.5 million." —Mississippi Dept. of Archives & History
• Farish Street Neighborhood Historic District, National Register # 80002245, 1980
Taken a couple years ago. Got his eyes shut too! so cute.
Uncovering Ancient Australia by Billy Griffiths.
See an excellent TED Talk here on Deep Listening..
See Goodreads and buy it!
www.goodreads.com/book/show/36986450
Remember your dreams Blog..
planetbotch.blogspot.com/2014/06/how-long-do-you-remember...
Text: I want to tell a story about an invisible elephant.
Once upon a time, when I was in graduate school at UCSB, the department of religious studies held a symposium on diasporic religious communities in the United States. Our working definition for the religious diaspora that day was, “religious groups from elsewhere now residing as large, cohesive communities in the US.” It was a round table symposium, so any current scholar at the UC who wanted to speak could have a seat at the table. A hunch based on hundreds of years of solid evidence compelled me to show up, in my Badass Academic Indigenous Warrior Auntie finery.
There were around 15-20 scholars at the table, and the audience was maybe fifty people. There was one Black scholar at the table, and two Latinx scholars, one of whom was one of my dissertation advisors. The other was a visiting scholar from Florida, who spoke about the diasporic Santería community in Miami. But everyone else at the table were white scholars, all progressively liberal in their politics, many of whom were my friends. Since there was no pre-written agenda, I listened until everyone else had presented. I learned a tremendous amount about the Jewish diaspora in the US, and about the Yoruba/Orisha/Voudou, Tibetan Buddhist, Muslim, and Hindu communities, and even about a small enclave of Zoroastrians.
As they went on, I realized my hunch had been correct, and I listened to them ignore the elephant, invisible and silent, at that table.
So I decided to help her speak the hell up. “Hello, my name is Julie Cordero. I’m working on my PhD in Ethnobotany, Native American Religious Traditions, and the history of global medical traditions. I’d like to talk about the European Catholic and Protestant Christian religious diaspora in the United States, as these are the traditions that have had by far the greatest impact on both the converted and non-converted indigenous inhabitants of this land.”
Total silence. And then several “hot damns” from students and colleagues in the audience. I looked around the table at all the confused white faces. My Latinx advisor slapped his hand on the table and said, “Right!!?? Let’s talk about that, colleagues.”
The Black scholar, who was sitting next to me, started softly laughing. As I went on, detailing the myriad denominations of this European Christian Diaspora, including the Catholic diocese in which I’d been raised and educated, and the brutal and genocidal Catholic and Protestant boarding schools that had horribly traumatized generations of First Nations children, and especially as I touched on how Christians had twisted the message of Christ to try and force people stolen from Africa to accept that their biblically-ordained role was to serve the White Race, her laughs grew more and more bitter.
The Religious Studies department chair, who’d given a brilliant talk on the interplay between Jewish and Muslim communities in Michigan, stopped me at one point, and said, “Julie, I see the point you are so eloquently making, but you’re discussing American religions, not religious diasporic communities.” I referred to the definition of the diaspora we had discussed at the start of the discussion and then said, “No, Clark. If I were here to discuss religions that were not from elsewhere, I’d be discussing the Choctaw Green Corn ceremony, the Karuk Brush Dance, the Big Head ceremonial complex in Northern California, the Lakota Sun Dance, or the Chumash and Tongva Chingichnich ritual complex.”
It got a bit heated for a few moments, as several scholars-without-a-damn-clue tried to argue that we were here to discuss CURRENT religious traditions, not ancient.
Well. I’ll let you use your imagination as to the response from the POC present, which was vigorously backed by the three young First Nations students who were present in the audience (all of whom practice their CURRENT ceremonial traditions). It got the kind of ugly that only happens with people whose self-perception is that they, as liberal scholars of world cultures with lots of POC friends and colleagues, couldn’t possibly be racist.
Our Black colleague stood and left without a word. I very nearly did. But I stayed because of my Auntie role to the Native students in the audience.
I looked around at that circle of hostile faces, and waited for one single white scholar to see how unbelievably racist was this discursive erasure of entire peoples - including my people, on whose homeland UCSB is situated.
Finally, a friend spoke up. “If we are going to adhere to the definition of diaspora outlined here, she is technically correct.”
And then my dear friend, a white scholar of Buddhism: “In the Buddhist tradition, the Second Form of Ignorance is the superimposition of that which is false over that which is true. In this case, all of us white scholars are assuming that every people but white Americans are ‘other,’ and that we have no culture when the underlying fact is that our culture is so dominant that we’ve deluded ourselves into thinking it’s the neutral state of human culture against which all others are foreign. Even the Black people our ancestors abducted and enslaved we treat as somehow more foreign than ourselves. And, most absurdly, the peoples who are indigenous to this land are told that we belong here more than they do.”
People stared at their hands and doodled. The audience was dead quiet.
And you know what happened then? The elephant was no longer invisible, and my colleagues and I were able to have a conversation based on the truths about colonialism and diaspora. We were THEN able to name and discuss the distinctions between colonial settlements and immigrant settlements, and how colonial religious projects have sought to overtake, control, and own land, people, and resources, while immigrant and especially refugee diasporic communities simply seek a home free from persecution.
As we continue this national discussion, it is absolutely key to never, ever let that elephant be invisible or silent. You are on Native Land. Black descendants of human beings abducted from their African homelands are not immigrants. European cultures are just human cultures, among many. And the assignation of moral, cultural, racial superiority of European world views overall non-Euro human cultures is a profound delusion, one that continues to threaten and exterminate all people who oppose it, and even nature itself.
I hope that this story has comforted the afflicted and afflicted the comfortable.
From a Facebook post
Kachinas are spirit beings in western Pueblo religious beliefs, often represented through masks and dolls, as shown here. This snapshot is from a wonderful book by Barton Wright entitled ‘Kachinas: A Hopi Artist's Documentary’, which Adam got for me in a recent trip to New Mexico. I devoured it from cover to cover — and it’s given me a vision for my next art project: an interactive Kachina World with animatronics dolls. Each of the kachinas depicted in these pictures could be characters in that interactive play, dancing to the music and giving you inspiration about the spirits they represent. It was so nice of Adam to give me this marvelous book — he immediately thought of me and thought I should have it. :)
Learn more about Kachinas:
Learn more about the Kachinas book:
www.goodreads.com/book/show/1966616.Kachinas
View photos of our related Wonderbots experiment:
Wealthy industrialist P. L. Storrs has never approved of lady detectives, and he normally would not have made an exception of Theodolina "Dol" Bonner. But faced with a very delicate problem and surprisingly impressed, he hires her instantly. It seems that Storrs’ bird-witted wife has fallen under the spell of a smooth-talking religious charlatan, and now Storrs wants Dol to get the goods on him. But when the gorgeous gumshoe arrives at Storrs’ picturesque country estate, Birchhaven, to meet the scoundrel, she finds more than she bargained for – namely, the corpse of her client and a garden party teeming with suspects! [Source: www.goodreads.com/book/show/148960.The_Hand_in_the_Glove]
...hearts started to shine, soul felt so fine, oh what a freeing time it was.”
- Aberjhani, Christmas When Music Almost Killed the World -
"They talk about the failure of socialism but where is the success of capitalism in Africa, Asia and Latin America?"
"Condemn me, it does not matter: history will absolve me."
"Men do not shape destiny. Destiny produces the man for the hour."
"I feel my belief in sacrifice and struggle getting stronger. I despise the kind of existence that clings to the miserly trifles of comfort and self-interest."
"Warfare is a means and not an end. Warfare is a tool of revolutionaries. The important thing is the revolution! The important thing is the revolutionary cause, revolutionary ideas, revolutionary objectives, revolutionary sentiments, revolutionary virtues!"
"We have a theoretical concept of the Revolution which is a dictatorship of the exploited against the exploiters."
“...quality of life lies in knowledge, in culture. Values are what constitute true quality of life, the supreme quality of life, even above food, shelter and clothing.”
"With what moral authority can they speak of human rights — the rulers of a nation in which the millionaire and beggar coexist; the Indian is exterminated; the black man is discriminated against; the woman is prostituted; and the great masses of Chicanos, Puerto Ricans, and Latin Americans are scorned, exploited, and humiliated? How can they do this — the bosses of an empire where the mafia, gambling, and child prostitution are imposed; where the CIA organizes plans of global subversion and espionage, and the Pentagon creates neutron bombs capable of preserving material assets and wiping out human beings; an empire that supports reaction and counter-revolution all over the world; that protects and promotes the exploitation by monopolies of the wealth and the human resources of whole continents, unequal exchange, a protectionist policy, an incredible waste of natural resources, and a system of hunger for the world?"
"Las ideas no necesitan ni de las armas, en la medida en que sean capaces de conquistar a las grandes masas. (Ideas do not need weapons, to the extent that they can convince the great masses.)"
"Fellow workers and peasants, this is the socialist and democratic revolution of the working people, with the working people, and for the working people. And for this revolution of the working people, by the working people, and for the working people we are prepared to give our lives."
"Weapons for what? (¿Armas, para qué?) To fight against whom? Against the revolutionary government, that has the support of the whole people? … Weapons for what? Hiding weapons for what? To blackmail the President of the Republic? To threaten to break the peace here? To create organizations of gangsters? Is it that we are going to return to gangsterism? Is it that we will return to daily shootouts in the capital? Weapons for what?"
“Es que, cuando los hombres llevan en la mente un mismo ideal, nada puede incomunicarlos, ni las paredes de una cárcel, ni la tierra de los cementerios, porque un mismo recuerdo, una misma alma, una misma idea, una misma conciencia y dignidad los alienta a todos.”
“The solutions put forth by imperialism are the quintessence of simplicity...When they speak of the problems of population and birth, they are in no way moved by concepts related to the interests of the family or of society...Just when science and technology are making incredible advances in all fields, they resort to technology to suppress revolutions and ask the help of science to prevent population growth. In short, the peoples are not to make revolutions, and women are not to give birth. This sums up the philosophy of imperialism.”
"As I have said before, the ever more sophisticated weapons piling up in the arsenals of the wealthiest and the mightiest can kill the illiterate, the ill, the poor and the hungry but they cannot kill ignorance, illnesses, poverty or hunger."
"The revolution has no time for elections. There is no more democratic government in Latin America than the revolutionary government. ... If Mr. Kennedy does not like Socialism, we do not like imperialism. We do not like capitalism"
"There is often talk of human rights, but it is also necessary to talk of the rights of humanity. Why should some people walk barefoot, so that others can travel in luxurious cars? Why should some live for thirty-five years, so that others can live for seventy years? Why should some be miserably poor, so that others can be hugely rich? I speak on behalf of the children in the world who do not have a piece of bread. I speak on the behalf of the sick who have no medicine, of those whose rights to life and human dignity have been denied."
“I will not speak of him as if he were absent, he has not been and he will never be. These are not mere words of consolation. Only those of us who feel it truly and permanently in the depths of our souls can comprehend this. Physical life is ephemeral, it passes inexorably... This truth should be taught to every human being -- that the immortal values of the spirit are above physical life. What sense does life have without these values? What then is it to live? Those who understand this and generously sacrifice their physical life for the sake of good and justice -- how can they die? God is the supreme idea of goodness and justice.”
"We do not have a smidgen of capitalism or neo-liberalism. We are facing a world completely ruled by neo-liberalism and capitalism. This does not mean that we are going to surrender. It means that we have to adopt to the reality of that world. That is what we are doing, with great equanimity, without giving up our ideals, our goals. I ask you to have trust in what the government and party are doing. They are defending, to the last atom, socialist ideas, principles and goals."
"Marxism taught me what society was. I was like a blindfolded man in a forest, who doesn't even know where north or south is. If you don't eventually come to truly understand the history of the class struggle, or at least have a clear idea that society is divided between the rich and the poor, and that some people subjugate and exploit other people, you're lost in a forest, not knowing anything."
"I would honestly love to revolutionize this country from one end to the other! I am sure this would bring happiness to the Cuban people. I would not be stopped by the hatred and ill will of a few thousand people, including some of my relatives, half the people I know, two-thirds of my fellow professionals, and four-fifths of my ex-schoolmates."
"I joined the people; I grabbed a rifle in a police station that collapsed when it was rushed by a crowd. I witnessed the spectacle of a totally spontaneous revolution... [T]hat experience led me to identify myself even more with the cause of the people. My still incipient Marxist ideas had nothing to do with our conduct – it was a spontaneous reaction on our part, as young people with Martí-an, anti-imperialist, anti-colonialist and pro-democratic ideas."
"In a few hours you will be victorious or defeated, but regardless of the outcome – listen well, friends – this Movement will triumph. If you win tomorrow, the aspirations of Martí will be fulfilled sooner. If we fail, our action will nevertheless set an example for the Cuban people, and from the people will arise fresh new men willing to die for Cuba. They will pick up our banner and move forward... The people will back us in Oriente and in the whole island. As in '68 and '92, here in Oriente we will give the first cry of Liberty or Death!"
"The story of our beards is very simple: it arose out of the difficult conditions we were living and fighting under as guerrillas. We didn't have any razor blades... everybody just let their beards and hair grow, and that turned into a kind of badge of identity. For the campesinos and everybody else, for the press, for the reporters we were "los barbudos" - the bearded ones. It had its positive side: in order for a spy to infiltrate us, he had to start preparing months ahead of time - he'd have had to have six-months' growth of beard, you see... Later, with the triumph of the Revolution, we kept our beards to preserve the symbolism."
"When I saw the [U.S. supplied] rockets being fired at Mario's house, I swore to myself that the Americans would pay dearly for what they are doing. When this war is over a much wider and bigger war will begin for me: the war that I am going to wage against them. I know that this is my real destiny."
"When I was a young boy, my father taught me that to be a good Catholic, I had to confess at church if I ever had impure thoughts about a girl. That very evening, I had to rush to confess my sin. And the next night, and the next. After a week, I decided religion wasn't for me."
"I propose the immediate launching of a nuclear strike on the United States. The Cuban people are prepared to sacrifice themselves for the cause of the destruction of imperialism and the victory of world revolution."
"We are not executing innocent people or political opponents. We are executing murderers and they deserve it." [Castro's response to his critics regarding the mass executions, 1959.]
"Until Castro, the U.S. was so overwhelmingly influential in Cuba that the American ambassador was the second most important man, sometimes even more important than the Cuban president." [Earl T. Smith, former American Ambassador to Cuba, during 1960 testimony to the U.S. Senate]
"The Alliance for Progress is an alliance between one millionaire and many beggars."
"This country … abounds in that Cuba is a heaven in the spiritual sense of the word, and we prefer to die in heaven than serve in hell."
•• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fidel_Castro
•• www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/castro/
•• en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fidel_Castro
•• www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/66099.Fidel_Castro
•• www.cuba.cu/gobierno/discursos/1961/esp/f020161e.html
•• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_for_Progress#Controversies
•• lanic.utexas.edu/la/cb/cuba/castro.html
•• www.counterpunch.org/2007/04/07/where-have-all-the-bees-g...
Chota Khoti, Ruth Bryan Owen House (1911), 3504 Royal Palm Ave, Miami, FL, USA
Miami est. 1896, pop. 2.6MM
• significantly altered & largely forgotten, this was the 1920s-30s home of notable Miamian Ruth Bryan Owen (1885-1954) [photo], daughter of 3-time Democratic Presidential candidate, William Jennings Bryan, a Populist Democrat known as "The Great Commoner" • she was the Old South’s 1st U.S. congresswoman, 1st woman to serve on the House Foreign Affairs Committee & as Minister to Denmark, 1st head of a U.S. diplomatic mission [photo], appointed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt • the journey that led her to this distinguished career began in Coconut Grove
"Ruth had been overseas in the war, sent to Egypt as a nurse with the British. There she had met a retired major, Reginald Owen, who had some kind of service-induced malady called Bright’s Disease and was told to live in a warm climate. The two of them got married and came back to Coconut Grove and bought a big house called Chota-Khoti — which in Burmese means 'little house.' The little house behind it was called Burra-Khoti, which means 'big house.' Reginald's family had had tea plantations in Burma." —Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Voice of the River
"The house is a two-story white stucco building with two wings connected by a semi-open-air living room enclosing a patio. It is a combination of Mexican and Spanish styles, set well back from the street and bordered with shrubbery." — Guide to Miami & Environs, 1941
"The great living room is filled with furniture which has seen service in many quarters of the globe, and carries its own mellow charm with it. The grand piano is open and often in use." —Arkansas Gazette, December 6, 1928
"The neighbourhood spends happy evenings at Chota Khoti, curled up on cushions, in the white paneled drawing room with Chinese cabinets of red. The Major and his pipe sit in the chimney corner. Ruth Bryan ruffles her auburn hair, leans against the piano and sings: "I am not fair, but that he thought me so." —The Whole World and Company, 1936, by Gretchen Green, whose La Cabana Tea Room occupied a small cabin next door to Chota Khoti • the Owens hosted many events, e.g., parties, recitals, cultural activities, meetings & various YWCA & Miami Woman’s Club affairs [photo]
• the Royal Palm Ave. address notwithstanding, Chota Khoti's location was usually described as "on the Ingraham Highway" (later Main Highway) where the property had an entrance at the corner of Hibiscus St. [photo] • this entrance shortened the 10 min. walk to Marymont mansion, home of Ruth's parents
• photos: family portrait at Chota Khoti • 1924 photo of daughter Helen Rudd Owen (1920-2015), a Democrat who ran for Congress in California as Rudd Brown, losing in 1958 and 1960 • Ruth Bryan Owen pruning shrubs c. 1931
• Ruth Bryan Owen ("Big Ruth" to her grandchildren) was born in Jacksonville, IL • she loved fast cars • competed in the high jump & was a champion distance runner at the U. Of Nebraska • excellent polo player • spoke 3 languages • praised for her singing (mezzo-soprano) • championed feminist causes, • sponsored the designation of the Florida Everglades as a national park [photo] • vice chairman of the University of Miami board of regents • president of the Miami Woman's Club
• never one to be intimidated by predominantly male domains, Ruth was attracted to the movie industry, c. 1920 • considered it as a possible career & thought about studying professional direction
• she envisioned Miami as a major motion picture production center & in fact, a few movie companies had already sprung up, including Brush Photoplay Co., with 2 stages at 966 S.W. 8th St. • Field Feature Film Co. on S. Miami Ave. at 25th St. (Rd.) • Miami Studios w/ a lab & 4 stages at W. 9th St. & 2nd Ave. in Hialeah [photo] • Biograph Studios veteran Wray Physioc at 151 N.E. 5th St. — he had directed The Gulf Between (1917), world's 1st Technicolor movie • Dudley Read at 330 Ft. Dallas Park, arrived in Miami c. New Year, 1921, soon became known as the "Miami Cameraman"
• Mrs. Owen decided to finance, produce, write, direct & perform in Once Upon a Time, a motion picture she based on One Thousand and One Nights • she hired Dudley Read as cameramaman, an actor & a costume designer from NY & a cast of local amateur actors, members of the Community Players of Cocoanut Grove • she approached the project believing that if a movie looks good, it is good, i.e., poetic imagery sans any of the usual hackneyed storylines could & would engage an audience
"You know the movies have always had a lure and just the atmoSpehre [sic] spoiled them for me. Well it struck me this winter that I might plunge in [and] direct movies of my own, with no objectionable atmoSpehre. I wrote scenario, raised finance for the photography, hired a camera, organized over two-hundred amateurs, played a five-reel film, direct[ed] all five hundred pictures [shots] myself, designed costumes, trained the actors."
— letter from close friend Carrie Dunlap, June 13,1921, quoted in Women Film Pioneers Project, Columbia University
• following multiple rejections, she secured a distribution deal • the film (now lost) was released in 1922 • at least one review approved of a few of the visuals but beyond that found little to like: "amateurish attempt; society folk act out serious Arabian night drama with little regard to screen technique; story: told mainly through long Biblical titles, presents Sunday school ethics; direction: some fair effects, but as a whole very uneven; star: not the type for the role, often photographed to disadvantage; support: actors have a good time playing in pictures, but can't keep their eyes off the camera; exteriors: some pretty effects" —Film Daily, Jan-Jun 1922
• in spite of several unfavorable reviews and, apparently, disappointing revenues, Ruth was already thinking about her next project • with her father's decision to write screenplays, she planned to provide the "picturing" (produce) • when nothing came of this, she decided to go into the "family business"
"The community as well as the home needs a woman's viewpoint and it would be a good thing if Uncle Sam had a wife to help him with the national economy and national housekeeping." —Ruth Bryan Owen
"I've never asked a woman to vote for me because I was a woman, but I always ask men not to vote against me because I am a woman." —Ruth Bryan Owen
• Mrs. Owen lost her 1st election in Florida's 4th Congressional District, then won on her 2nd try after logging ~8,000 mi. at the wheel of her campaign car — a flivver she christened The Spirit of Florida • during the tour, she delivered about 500 stump speeches, a tactic her father invented for his presidential campaigns • like her “silver-tongued” dad, she was a gifted speaker who, represented by the Coit-Alber Lyceum Bureau or the Redpath Bureau, periodically incremented her wealth & fame by touring the Chautauqua Circuit, her appearances promoted with material such as this 1920s brochure that called her "one of the world's few great women"
• although Chota Khoti remained Congresswoman Owen's Miami residence well into the 1930s, in 1927 & '28 — the year of her 1st her successful campaign for Congress — she listed the address of this Coral Gables house on Avenue Altara as her residence, & received guests there • the house is said to have been built for her, possibly facilitated by her father who was a stellar salesman for the developers of Coral Gables until his death in 1925, annually earning $50,000 in cash and $50,000 in property, equivalent to about $1.36 million in 2016 dollars • Mrs. Owen built another of her houses, Golden Clouds, on 6 oceanfront acres at Oracabessa, Jamaica • there, as at her other residences, she entertained celebrity friends such as Clark Gable, Carole Lombard, Noel Coward Ian Fleming & Charlie Chaplin
• Chota Khoti was eventually purchased by native Miamians who continued to refer to it by its given name, as did local tour guides in the 1970s-80s • over the years, rooms were enlarged & its facade altered • by the beginning of the 21st c., immigration had transformed the city around it from a racially segregated tourist Mecca to a dynamic Latin American metropolis which still happens to be located in the U.S. • with the passage of time, the location of Ruth Bryan Owen's Chota Khoti has nearly vanished from memory