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One winter morning Peter woke up and looked out the window. Snow had fallen during the night. It covered everything as far as he could see.
 Ezra Jack Keats, The Snowy Day

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      This image is all over the Internet, but I can't find the source.

Ford GT 40 - 1968 

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Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune, Venice 1967

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This man, and his colleagues, are why there were no super hero movies in the 60's.  Neil Armstrong with the X-15. 

Happy Birthday Muhammed Ali

He's 70 years old today, and still one of the most famous people on the planet.  People love him and respect him, but most don't remember when he used to matter.  And he mattered a lot.  This Esquire cover dates from his amazing refusal to serve after being drafted by the US Army during the Vietnam War.  He was stripped of his title, sent to jail and damned by almost everyone.  He was widely hated as a threat to all manner of tradition (i.e. keeping the niggers down).  The system tried to kick the shit out of him.  They lost.

Edit:  They didn't really lose.  He won.  And he won with style.

50 Years in Space

    Yuri Gagarin in the capsule before launch.

On April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the 1st human to orbit the earth.  It was a stunning achievement that took the world by surprise.  As the tides of history flow and our own age is forgotten, they will still remember Yuri Gagarin.  Nobody else can ever be the 1st man in space.

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If you need drugs to be a good writer, you're not a good writer.
Rod Serling

Martin Luther King Day

July 20, 1969

July 20, 1969 was the most magical night of my childhood.  We were staying at a cottage near Goderich on Lake Huron.  The people in the cottage next door had a TV with bunny ears.  They could get CBC and some Detroit stations on a good night. 

My father and went over around 9PM.  It was a double treat because I got to watch the moonwalk and stay up really late.  We were initially disappointed with the quality of the TV signal and had trouble understanding what we were looking at.  That changed when Armstrong appeared coming down the ladder.  Everyone was transfixed.  We all cheered when he stepped off the lander.  It was very exciting.  In addition, the TV coverage let us know that all over the world, things had come to a stop while a billion people watched the moment on TV.  For the first time, I think, a lot of people felt part of a global community.  This was a high point, not just for Americans, but for the entire race of humans.  Everyone felt like it was their achievement.

After a while, the excitement died down a bit.  Their actual tasks were kind of boring to watch, except every 30 seconds, you'd remember that they were on the moon.  Right now.  This second.  And you'd get excited all over again.

Around 11, my father and I walked the few hundred meters back to our cottage.  On that part of Lake Huron, there is a large cliff over the beach.  The path went along the top of this cliff.  You couldn't see the lake along most of the path because of trees.  But at one point, we came to a clearing.  And there, right in front of us was the nearly full moon.  It looked so close you could almost touch it.  I felt that if I looked hard enough, I'd be able to see Armstrong and Aldrin. 

The moon was low in the sky and a golden color.  Because we were high above the lake, the moon reflected in 10,000 golden shimmers in the water below.  I think it was the most beautiful, magical thing I've ever seen.

Faves: Burn On

There's an oil barge winding
Down the Cuyahoga River
Rolling into Cleveland to the lake


Cleveland city of light city of magic
Cleveland city of light you're calling me
Cleveland, even now I can remember
'Cause the Cuyahoga River
Goes smokin' through my dreams


Burn on, big river, burn on
Burn on, big river, burn on
Now the Lord can make you tumble
And the Lord can make you turn
And the Lord can make you overflow
But the Lord can't make you burn

From Randy Newman's Burn On, an ode to Cleveland and the Cuyahoga River, so polluted that it famously caught fire in 1969. It was not the first time. The photo is from a similar eruption in 1952. One of many. The 1969 fire, however, did make a difference. Time magazine said the river: "oozes rather than flows". The publicity led to a realization about the extent of industrial pollution in North America.

Faves: Marylin

       click image for a printable size
It took me a long time to get Warhol.  Robert Hughes helpfully explained that this is not a portrait of Marylin Monroe, its a sign that says Marylin Monroe.  The industrial quality of the image makes sense in this context.  Iconic is the point, and that's what its become. 

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After the mini fiasco with the last Ferrari picture, here is a genuine photo of a '60s Ferrari taken in Italy in the '60s.  This one is a 1968 365 GT Daytona.

Yuri Gagarin

Юрий Гагарин

Apropos of nothing, here are some photos of Yuri Gararin, the first man in space.  Above is Gagarin in the capsule.  Below the front page of Komsomolskya Pravda for April 12, 1961.

 

Below is a photo sometime in the mid-late '60s. He was killed in a freak accident while re-training for fighter re-qualification in 1968. The USSR would never allow him to fly in space again. Had he been killed in a space accident, the blow to Soviet prestige would simply have been too great. Gagarin was just too valuable.

 

Although blameless in the accident that killed him, he suffered a peculiarly 20th century fate. I can't remember who said it, but they noted that Elvis and Gagarin had suffered a peculiar 20th century fate, they were coddled to death. To that list, I'd add JFK junior, John Lennon and Princess Diana.

Faves: Abbey Road, The Double White Christmas Album

Sooner or later I was going to have to deal with the Beatles.  Let's do it now.  Abbey Road and The Beatles are two of my alltime favorite albums.  Abbey Road is the only album I invariably listen to in its entirety.  IMHO, the finest work they did individually and together can be found on The Beatles.

After the Beatles broke up, Abbey Road was long considered their best album, apart from Sgt Pepper which had instantly gone to the top of the pantheon and was no longer discussed in comparison to anything else.  As time went on, through the mid-late 70's, opinon shifted with The Beatles being favoured more highly.  Nowadays, Rubber Soul and Revolver are more highly thought of.

At the time it came out, Abbey Road was a sensation for side 2.  Nobody, as far as I know, has really tried something like it, at least not with any success, until Jesus of Suburbia by Green Day.   Anyway, I like Abbey Road because it is so comfortable, cozy, like your favorite comfy chair.  It really delivers a bit of everything the band did well.  No rough edges, no outraged political statements, no wild experimentation, just a good solid, thorough album from a band that had not actually tried to do this in some time.  Not to impugn their previous efforts, but they did have other things on their minds besides a solid, professional, fast-ball-across-the-plate type album.  As it turned out, this was their last release.  How many other bands have delivered such a great last album?  Not a lot.  Just a note that although Abbey Road came out in 1969 and Let It Be in 1970, Abbey Road was recorded after Let It Be and released before.  She's So Heavy was the last track all four recorded together.

Until sometime in the '80's, I had never heard The Beatles referred to as anything except the double white christmas album, or the white album.  It came out in December 1968 and its length was considered by fans to be a present from the band.  Younger readers may not remember how tumultuous 1968 was.  It started out with the Tet Offensive and went downhill from there. A lot happened.  But the year of epic upheaval ended on an epic high note with the excellent white album and Apollo 8 orbiting the moon.

The funny thing about The Beatles was that they evolved into a backup band, backing up each other.  This arrangement worked pretty well, and never better than on the white album.  Sexy Sadie, Revolution, Back in the USSR, Blackbird, Helter Skelter, Mother Nature's Son, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Long, Long, Long; these are among the best songs the three wrote.  For an album so contentious in its making, there are a lot of magic moments.  Not all of it stands up, particularly John Lennon's material.  But the best stuff is among the best stuff ever by anyone. 

I like both of these albums better than any of the earlier ones, even the deified Sgt Pepper.  The only thing the earlier albums have is a 100% there John Lennon.  His sad life became an object lesson in the danger of drugs. Except for a few very notable exceptions, he went away some time in 1967 and never really came back.  By the time of his death, he was a shadow.  Nothing more than another self-indulgent, coddled junkie in a terminal stupor.  When asked his opinion of Elvis Presley's death in 1974, Lennon replied that Elvis died in 1957 when he went in the Army.  This was cruel, but entirely true.  The ironic thing is that John Lennon didn't die in 1980, he died in 1967 when he became consumed by drugs and Yoko Ono.

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Muhammad Ali vs. Sonny Liston, Lewiston, Maine, May 25, 1965
Photo: Neil Leifer

I believe Mr.Ali, is requesting that notwithstanding his current indisposition, Mr. Liston regain his feet.   He (Mr. Ali) does not feel that they have satisfactorily resolved the evening's business and that should Mr. Liston allow, he (Mr. Ali) would like to knock Mr. Liston out several more times.

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      click image for wallpaper size
Do I have a fetish for 60's Italian sports cars?  Not at all.  Not even when thety are photographed as nicely as this one. 1964 Ferrari 250 GT Lusso.  Steve McQueen owned one of these.  This photo is one of the millions of nice car photos floating around on the net.  As alway, if anyone can provide info, I will happily give credit where it is richly deserved.  Note: I finally figured out what GT means for Italian cars.  Literally, it means Grand Touring.  But really it means you can get in and out standing up.  You're not laying down in the seat.  GTO, on the other hand means twice as expensive as anything else.
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Update:  This is not a Ferrari 250.  Now that I think about it, I have no idea what it is.  A quick look through Wikipedia suggests its not a standard model of Ferrari, Lamborghini or Maserati.  I will stay on it until I figure it out.
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Update 2: Its a Ferrari 1962 250 SWB, but rather than the normal Pininnfarina bodywork, this is a special design by Bertone.  Ferrari delivered a stock 250 chassis to Bertone, who added their own body.  There were probably no more than a few dozen made.  Very rare.  Gorgeous.

Faves: The Stranger Song

Songs of Leonard Cohen - 1967

I've spent my life looking for the card that is so high and wild I'll never need to deal another. Card sharps, artists, opportunists, entrepreneurs, addicts... they're all strangers. This song is kind of the other side of Bob Dylan's "Shelter From The Storm"  You can listen to a snippit here at Amazon.


The Stranger Song - Leonard Cohen, 1967
It's true that all the men you knew were dealers
who said they were through with dealing
Every time you gave them shelter
I know that kind of man
It's hard to hold the hand of anyone
who is reaching for the sky just to surrender,
who is reaching for the sky just to surrender.
And then sweeping up the jokers that he left behind
you find he did not leave you very much
not even laughter
Like any dealer he was watching for the card
that is so high and wild
he'll never need to deal another
He was just some Joseph looking for a manger
He was just some Joseph looking for a manger

And then leaning on your window sill
he'll say one day you caused his will
to weaken with your love and warmth and shelter
And then taking from his wallet
an old schedule of trains, he'll say
I told you when I came I was a stranger
I told you when I came I was a stranger.

But now another stranger seems
to want you to ignore his dreams
as though they were the burden of some other
O you've seen that man before
his golden arm dispatching cards
but now it's rusted from the elbows to the finger
And he wants to trade the game he plays for shelter
Yes he wants to trade the game he knows for shelter.

Ah you hate to see another tired man
lay down his hand
like he was giving up the holy game of poker
And while he talks his dreams to sleep
you notice there's a highway
that is curling up like smoke above his shoulder.
It is curling just like smoke above his shoulder.

You tell him to come in sit down
but something makes you turn around
The door is open you can't close your shelter
You try the handle of the road
It opens do not be afraid
It's you my love, you who are the stranger
It's you my love, you who are the stranger.

Well, I've been waiting, I was sure
we'd meet between the trains we're waiting for
I think it's time to board another
Please understand, I never had a secret chart
to get me to the heart of this
or any other matter
When he talks like this
you don't know what he's after
When he speaks like this,
you don't know what he's after.

Let's meet tomorrow if you choose
upon the shore, beneath the bridge
that they are building on some endless river
Then he leaves the platform
for the sleeping car that's warm
You realize, he's only advertising one more shelter
And it comes to you, he never was a stranger
And you say ok the bridge or someplace later.

And then sweeping up the jokers that he left behind ...

And leaning on your window sill ...

I told you when I came I was a stranger.

Black Power - Mexico City August, 1968

Tommy Smith, John Carlos, medal ceremony men's 200m August 16, 1968

I don't think its possible for anyone who doesn't remember this moment to understand how shocking it was. There was outrage around the world. I can remember, as a 9 year-old, thinking this was a violation. The Olympics were above politics. In a world being torn apart by war and chaos (as it was in 1968), the Olympics was one of the very few institutions that held any hope. 40 years later, I think the Olympics are a racket, and that these men were very brave. The image is no longer scandalous, but heroic.

I'm not surprised to learn now that the two men suffered for their gesture. Even Australian Peter Norman, the silver medalist, was punished for his support. Americans were incensed that these men, sent to represent the best of America, used the occasion to protest. Many felt betrayed. Besides, anger, there was fear. American society had agreed that blacks should have rights, but power was another matter. Carlos and Smith were saying "I do not accept definitions, I will define myself." To a lot of Americans, that sounded like a threat. But in a way, the gesture was aimed not at whites, but at blacks. Don't simply accept the rights you are given, take the freedom you deserve. Carlos and Smith were also announcing that the death of Martin Luther King was not the end of the civil rights movement. To quote Churchill, it was just the end of the beginning. And they were right. In the 1970's Black culture blew out of its niches to become mainstream American culture. Blacks entered swathes of American life on their own terms.

As for the Olympics, how naive we were. This was the first crack in the Olympic facade. We only found out later about the student massacre that proceeded the Olympics. 1972 brought the Munich hostage crisis, and politics was in the Olympics for good. 1976 was staggeringly corrupt. Then came the boycotts of 1980 and 1984. By the time the Bejing Games were announced, it was clear to everyone that the lily-white best-hope of humanity was a commercial racket, and the IOC racketeers. How could one explain such a deal with the devil? Money. The games, the sponsorships and the spectacle are designed to make money for the IOC, the broadcast networks, the games corporate sponsors and those few athletes who succeed in spinning their performances into business opportunities.

After 40 years, this image seems less to me a political statement, as an announcement. Things are going to change. And that change will come on our terms. They were right. Fortunately, they lived long enough to be widely recognized as heroes. There are statues, schools named after them, awards, speaking tours and best sellers. Who says there's no second acts in American life?

More Dylan

Coincidentally with the Dylan quote that went up a few days ago, I watched I'm Not There, the 2007 film about Dylan. It was good but not great. Not quite as good as I had expected. Still pretty interesting for anyone that likes Bob Dylan.

The film made me realize something. For most of his songs, I haven't got a clue what Bob Dylan is talking about. Even for some of the ones I really love and play often. Watching the film and reading some other stuff on the web, I realized that nobody else has much clue either. And Dylan has either forgotten what he meant or isn't saying. Or maybe never had a clear meaning in mind to begin with.

Still, I love some of his stuff in an odd way. I'm not a Dylan fan. I don't own a significant number of his albums. Most of his stuff I've never listened to. But the stuff I do like, I've worn out. Literally. I wore out copies of Highway 61 and the Basement Tapes back in the vinyl days.
I think the thing with Dylan is that people see their own meaning in his lyrics. Kind of like a musical rorsach. But the pictures he conjures aren't completely abstract, like the rorsach pictures. He writes about specific things, like ingratitude, or spurned love, or a thrilling ride, but in such a way that we can project our own experience onto the words he provides.

Apparently Obama likes Dylan. His staffers let it be known he had Dylan and Miles Davis and Yo-Yo Ma among many others on his iPod. Clearly they were highlighting a broad range to polish Obama's image. But they actually said he really likes Maggie's Farm. That he listens to it often. I believe it. Maggie's Farm is about ingratitude. About all the ways you can get screwed on the job and the kind of people who do the screwing. It was Dylan's break with the Folk movement. My guess is that anyone with a career in public service could relate, and add a few verses of their own. Obama's liking that song enough for them to mention it tells me a lot more about him than if they said he really likes Hey Jude or Stairway to Heaven or Papa's Got A Brand New Bag.

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Asked how he chose his career:
Carelessness. I lost my one true love. I started drinking. The first thing I know, I'm in a card game. Then I'm in a crap game. I wake up in a pool hall. Then this big Mexican lady drags me off the table, takes me to Philadelphia. She leaves me alone in her house, and it burns down. I wind up in Phoenix. I get a job as a Chinaman. I start working in a dime store, and move in with a 13-year-old girl. Then this big Mexican lady from Philadelphia comes in and burns the house down. I go down to Dallas. I get a job as a "before" in a Charles Atlas "before and after" ad. I move in with a delivery boy who can cook fantastic chili and hot dogs. Then this 13-year-old girl from Phoenix comes and burns the house down. The delivery boy — he ain't so mild: He gives her the knife, and the next thing I know I'm in Omaha. It's so cold there, by this time I'm robbing my own bicycles and frying my own fish. I stumble onto some luck and get a job as a carburetor out at the hot-rod races every Thursday night. I move in with a high school teacher who also does a little plumbing on the side, who ain't much to look at, but who's built a special kind of refrigerator that can turn newspaper into lettuce. Everything's going good until that delivery boy shows up and tries to knife me. Needless to say, he burned the house down, and I hit the road. The first guy that picked me up asked me if I wanted to be a star. What could I say?
Bob Dylan - Playboy interview, February 1966

From a great article at New York Magazine: The Ten Most Incomprehensible Bob Dylan Interviews of All Time.  This was #1.