Back Into Focus

OK, I'm back. It's been a week since I made a new entry, which isn't all that bad. It gave the "Summit on Racism" prolonged exposure and led to some extra comments that might not have been made if I'd just buried the post under a bunch of others day after day.

This past Wednesday I participated in a radio focus group exercise, which earned my $75 and a gift card to the local cineplex. I felt a bit fraudulent though, since the musical genre we were surveying was Country. I am not "against" Country music by any means but I'm really not the kind of person they were probably looking for since I don't listen to those stations very often. However, I was called on three different occasions by the research company. Each time the interviewer was obviously fishing around when asking what stations I listen to, hoping to hear me drop the right call letters. Finally, after the third call, I relented a bit, telling him a few of the commercial stations that would most likely be interested in interviewing a representative from my demographic (45 year old white suburban male.) Bingo. I dropped the station and got myself set up for the session.

Being that I'm a "majorly into music" kind of guy, I figured I could fake my way through the process well enough, and I did. But the survey format was different from what I expected. The last time I did this, for a classic rock station, a subject on which I can claim serious expertise, we used this little dial gizmo that allowed us to register our emotional response to the song on a fluid 1 through 10 scale. For this session, we had to fill in circles on a form using the proverbial #2 pencils. The responses were based more on familiarity with the song than just "did I like the hook" or not. We listened to 600 short samples, no more than a few seconds of country songs old and new.

A = I've never heard the song before
B = I never liked that song to begin with
C = I used to like the song but now I'm tired of it
D = I have no opinion on this song
E = I like this song
F = This is a big time, crank up the volume and holler out loud favorite of mine

I answered a lot of A's but not nearly enough to be honest. I probably recognized about one out of five clips. Maybe I would have recognized more if I'd heard more of the song, but the snippets were mostly just little slogans or lyrical bits that didn't register as quickly with me as they would have if they were rock or pop songs.

It's an interesting experience just listening to the soundtrack and quickly processing the kind of images and emotions the hooks are trying to create in the listener. As you could imagine, this rather skewed mutation of a mix-tape put one through the full range of country music sentiments. From rowdy honky-tonk to "tear in my beer" heartache, from militaristic patriotic anthems to flirtatious party-girl/party-boy come ons, from pious sermonettes on God and family to down home tales of cowboys, gamblers and fiddlers who outplayed the devil... all that juxtaposed and compressed in a seemingly chaotic but I'm sure shrewdly calculated jumble of audio bites that yielded a precious data-mine of insight into the West Michigan morning and evening commuter mentality. While I do admit that I spent a couple of days before the survey listening to local country stations just to get some idea of what I was going to be quizzed on in the focus group, the experiment didn't last too long after that. The next morning I went back to driving around while listening to my iPod.

Summit on Racism 2007

Yesterday I went to an event in downtown Grand Rapids, the ninth annual "Summit on Racism." This is the second Summit that I've attended, both times sponsored by my employer. It was a fairly short meeting compared to the day-long event I participated in several years ago when Juan Williams (once an NPR host, now a commentator on Fox News) was the featured speaker. Yesterday, we just met for a couple hours and Grand Rapids Mayor George Heartwell was the most famous speaker, but he only did an intro for Bob Woodrick, a retired executive who did a lot to get anti-racism efforts started in Grand Rapids and this side of the state.

The emphasis wasn't so much on speeches though. Besides a few modest exercises in getting groups of strangers talking at our tables about what we are doing and can do more of to deal with racism, the main event was the debut of a new logo, website and "movement": the Project for a Racism-Free Community. That's the logo you see here, and you can link to their website to learn more about this effort. I had a pleasant morning, enjoyed meeting a few new people, and I'm interested to see where this PRFC initiative goes toward meeting its objectives.

Politicians of Hope

As part of my on-going contemplation of just how involved I might eventually get with the Barack Obama campaign, I figured it would be good for me to look at not just the other candidates in the current race, but what other political leaders of the past have said and done in order to generate momentum and enthusiasm for their cause. I happened to pick up a copy of Robert F. Kennedy's "To Seek A Newer World" at a library clearance table several weeks ago. It's an interesting book - a first edition from 1967, published just a few months before he announced his candidacy in early 1968, after Lyndon Johnson bowed out of a re-election bid and the field opened up considerably for Democratic aspirants to the White House.

I've been skimming the book, mostly, because a lot of what Kennedy says is detailed policy analysis and advocacy for issues from forty years ago. But I find his first chapter, on "Youth," and his final section, on "Vietnam," to be worth a closer look. (He also wrote a section on "Race and the City" which I may delve into eventually.) I won't take the time to transcribe any lengthy quotes but it does intrigue me to see the parallels in tone between RFK and Obama. It's obvious that just about any person running for president desires to create his (and now her) own form of uplift and inspiration, connecting with like-minded readers who might be open to becoming loyal followers. Bobby and Barack both make a bold outreach that seeks to secure a strong alliance with younger voters (as well as older voters who remain rooted in a vision of progressive idealism.) They emerged as attractive, photogenic and appealing personalities running outside of their party establishments (though RFK can be said to have a more accomplished track record of public service and was of course the brother of a former president - Obama is much more of a political outsider at this point in his career.) And they both spoke clearly and unswervingly in opposition to current U.S. policy in its conduct of a destructive, unpopular and unwinnable war.

I'm not the first to notice the similarities. I just Googled "Obama Robert Kennedy" and found a couple of articles, this one and this one. And here is some chatter about the two. And here, Newsweek's Jonathan Alter links Obama with Bobby's brother John.

Anyway, that's what I've been reading and thinking about tonight.

Spring Time Starts Now.

This post isn't really about spring but I couldn't think of any other title so that will have to do. It is the first day of the new season though so it fits. This morning, our training department hosted a conference on Sex Offender Typologies and our featured speaker had a great opening line... "It's the first day of spring today, so what do we want to talk about today? What else... SEX!" :o) That got a pretty good chuckle out of me and most everyone else.

Even though the sky was grey and rainy and we even had some thunder and blustery winds for awhile this morning.

The day got better as it went on though, and we have some 60 degree weather coming soon, which is completely "so what" to most of the USA but significant at this latitude.

As it turned out, I only went to one of the Iraq War commemorative events this weekend, though I had four to choose from. The Saturday event that I attended was probably the most eventful - the crowd gathered at the corner directly across the street from Calvin College, which brought back a lot of memories of Bush's appearance at the commencement speech on that campus back in 2005. This group was a lot smaller, but the event had its share of action. The first big thing that happened was that we were led to the home of Congressman Vern Ehlers, who is a former Calvin professor and lives just down the street from where he used to teach. I did not know that this was part of the plan, but the organizers apparently had it in mind. They staged an action where a few people ran on to his lawn and taped a large poster near his front door. When that happened, a plain clothes police officer stepped out of the crowd and warned everyone to get off of his property. The people pretty quickly followed his directions, but a few signs and placards were planted in his lawn expressing opposition to the war. Some drummers drummed and chanters chanted. Later, I found out that Ehlers was in his house at the time but chose to stay away from the door. Neighbors were outside wondering what was going on and perhaps a bit concerned about what might happen, but after several minutes, the large crowd (a couple hundred people maybe?) moved back down the street, returning to the corner where everything started and seemed to be based.

To get there, we had to cross Burton St., a main road with lots of traffic, and the crowd was too big to cross in the span of one "walk/don't walk" signal. Police cars were tailing the group so for the most part, people followed the pedestrian laws, and those of us who crossed over waited for the tail-enders to rejoin us. I thought things had proceeded fairly uneventfully and made my way back to the corner, but then I saw some of the protesters running back the other way down Burton, and I figured that something adverse and confrontational must be going on.

When I got back to where the crowd had gathered, I saw police officers shoving bodies into their back seat and a lot of angry young people yelling and giving the cops the finger. A few people had been arrested - at the time I did not know what for, but it seemed to me at the time not so surprising that this had happened. The people who organized this particular rally have taken a more militant and provocative stance on the war and other political issues and give me the impression that they are getting impatient with the slow crawl of the political process and what they regard as the ineffectual efforts of non-violent resistance, vigiling and other "pacifistic" approaches to opposing the war. In short, some of them at least are looking to more seriously disrupt the status quo in order to perhaps stir up something resembling a revolutionary ferment in our local community.

It wasn't until Sunday morning when I read the Grand Rapids Press coverage that I got a better sense of what had gone down. There was a picture of a university professor sprawled out in the gutter getting hand-cuffed - a middle aged guy not all that different from me in terms of age, experience and perhaps temperament. He was not your typical 22-year-old with a bandana facemask, punk rock attire and a pocketful of anarchist literature. What I have heard is that he was shoved out into the street and arrested largely as a result of police over-reacting to some of the flak they generated when they arrested one of the march organizers for "misusing his bullhorn." So I will be interested to see how Grand Valley State (my daughter's school, coincidentally) reacts to the publicity that he inadvertently generated...

Anyway, there is a great deal of consternation in the local activist community about this and you can read some of their views here if you want to explore the controversy further. I guess my role at Saturday's rally was as an observer. As I said in my previous post, I've been to all of the other anniversary events, I figured I should keep the string alive. But I didn't make it to either of the more sedate and traditional anti-war vigils that were held at the same spot on Monday and Tuesday nights. Monday's event was sponsored by MoveOn.org, and Tuesday's was the one I really should have been at, since IGE sponsored it and I had more of my friends there than at either of the other two events. But I got home from work yesterday and it just didn't fit into my schedule, sorry to say. That's a weak excuse, but it's how it is.

I had lunch with my friend Mark who told me about what I missed and it sounded like it was a good time for those who were there. I'm encouraged by the fact that the Grand Rapids area could host four different vigils opposing the war over the course of one weekend (the first one was from Thursday night to Friday morning, very near to my house but I couldn't get to that one either.) I find some encouragement in that, but the truth is, there is still a long way to go and a lot of suffering that people will have to endure before this war is over. I predict that we'll be having a fifth anniversary protest around this time next year as well, though I would like to be proven wrong.

One reason I haven't been blogging lately is that a lot of what I would say has to do with the dismal state of affairs in our government and society at large. I think of just how accustomed we've become to being misled, deceived and fed partial truths by the people at the highest levels of our government. Don't even get me started on the whole Alberto Gonzales thing. The White House operation looks more and more like a mob syndicate ring with each passing day, and I'm honestly getting sick of listening to the administration apologists who come on to claim their equal time on the various news programs and podcasts that I listen to in order to stay informed on events. It's just so tiresome sitting there listening to their lies, spins and odious fabrications as they continually shirk responsibility and minimize the continual flood of deceit and hypocrisy that flows from their offices. I have in mind to write a letter to Vern Ehlers asking how he can continue to defend this administration. He likes to present himself as a conscientious, thoughtful Christian guy with a strong ethical component in his decision making, but I have a hard time taking him seriously these days. Maybe he would like to say more about this but feels locked in, fearful of the repercussions if he speaks out too candidly. But at some point, the house of cards is going to fall down and I would like to think he's able to recognize that Bush and his cronies have lost their moral credibility and legitimacy (that's been the case for a long time, actually, but the evidence just keeps piling up, doesn't it?)

OK, that's just a sampling of what I have to say about the world at large these days. Nothing particularly pleasant or entertaining about it, I admit. So I won't go on too much longer.

Our family buried my grandmother on Monday. It was a brief but very meaningful time as we laid her to rest next to her husband's grave. We visited that site pretty consistently as an annual routine over the past dozen or more Memorial Days, and now we took Grandma right back to where she ultimately wanted to be. It brought a bit of closure to us but it still seems strange and sad to realize we're just not going to see her any more. My dad has her cell phone and her voice is still on the answering message when I get voice mail. It's kind of startling and emotional when I hear her speak her name.

War Protest Weekend

Yes, it's St. Patrick's Day throughout all of Greater Ireland, and I will be heading out to have a pint and a fine Irish dinner later tonight with my family, but this weekend also marks the fourth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq and a lot of folks are going to be involved in events marking this occasion, mourning the many losses that our nation has suffered as a result of the decision to go to war.

I'll be going to a march later this afternoon, and then there are going to be vigils on Monday and Tuesday night that I may participate in, depending on how busy I am with other things. I encourage any readers to get involved in local events near you - even if it's a "support the troops" rally or whatever. The Iraq War is a big issue, one that needs to be resolved soon, and hopefully in a way that helps us learn and prepare for future challenges from our government, the punditocracy and other big-money interest groups that try to hook us into similar schemes - may our citizens not allow ourselves to be manipulated like that again. That may be an unrealistic hope, I suppose, but I am looking for something positive to come out of this debacle.

Here's an article that describes the change in thinking that many Christians are going through re: the war. That's what gives me some sense that maybe for a decade or two, at least, we'll ask our leaders tougher questions and expect more from them before we give our consent. And maybe we'll do a better job of electing trustworthy people to make those decisions in the first place...

Diversity Skit

Yesterday I got to do a bit of acting in a skit that was part of our agency's annual "Diversity Awards" event, where we honor a few people from the local community who work on behalf of promoting cultural diversity and inclusiveness. Last year, I wrote the skits but was unable to perform in them due to a scheduling conflict. This year, I missed the skit writing due to a scheduling conflict, but was available to act, so they gave me a role.

My part was to be an uncouth and prejudiced white guy. The scenario was that another woman and I were passengers getting off an airplane, looking for someplace to eat during a layover. She was an Israeli woman on her first trip to the USA, and I was a self-styled "real American" who was more than willing to tell her about this great country of mine.

We went through a few restaurants of varying ethnic fare and I proceeded to spout off the most blatant set of stereotypes and ignorant caricatures that came to mind. After filling her ear with all sorts of bigoted blather, she asked me what I thought about people like her. Just then, we entered the airport security line. I breezed on through with a "howdy-do" and a hi-five to the guard (another white guy, of course) while she got manhandled and roughed up a bit. I hollered over my shoulder "Welcome to America!" as the skit concluded.

I was dressed in a "First of America" sweatshirt (that's a bank that I don't think is in business anymore, come to think of it) and a "stars and stripes" baseball cap. My crudeness and bumpkin-like behavior got the crowd laughing quite a bit, but also stirred up some conversation afterward when one of our award recipients told us that she could have sworn that I was at the Atlanta airport this past weekend, when she was there and happened to overhear comments all too similar to what I thought was my over-the-top exaggeration!

Honestly, when I first read the skit, I thought that it seemed kind of excessive - aren't people generally at least more skilled in keeping their mouth shut and not speaking such thoughts out loud? Probably in many cases, that's how it works, but I was saddened to hear from this woman that such loutishness is still observed in public as frequently as it is.

I hope that our skits generate more reflection and insight, not just the awkward, nervous laughter that we heard yesterday... and I'm glad that my co-workers know me well enough to not be suspicious as to how I made the part sound so natural and convincing!

Oughtta be a no-brainer...

I am pleased to read that a group called "Evangelicals for Human Rights" has released a clear statement condemning the use of torture and affirming the "centrality of human rights as an unshakeable biblical foundation" of Christian moral and social thought. The document specifically repudiates the "weakening of these commitments by the United States" - which can only be seen as a stronge critique of the Bush Administration from a constituency that once seemed to be almost synonymous with the Republican Party. It's obviously not "the United States" as a whole that is crossing the line between tough interrogation and abuse of prisoners - rather, it's a set of beliefs and practices that have been granted legal protection that has made this document necessary in the first place. Prior to 2001, I think it's fair to say that no Christian group would find it necessary to apologize on behalf of torturers, nor would the relevance of a formal document like the EHR drew up be very apparent to a lot of us. But things have changed a lot over the past six years, to the point where what once seemed extreme and unthinkable has now become commonplace and routine.

Such is the case that a group of pastors and scholars (including names like Jim Wallis, Brian McLaren, Ron Sider, Rich Cizik, Nicholas Wolterstorff and Miroslav Volf) have to draw up a seven-point statement reminding us that not only is torture bad, it's contrary to God's will and beneath our calling as followers of Jesus, who himself was a victim of torture. It's amazing and pathetic that this isn't immediately obvious to us all. Indeed though, that's the case, and it's more than likely that this document, if it generates much traction in the media, will probably be quickly denounced by Dobson, Falwell and that bunch as "inconsistent" with the values that they claim are held by most Christians in this country.

God help us if that's really the case.

Blown Away

This morning, I was in a company car driving up to an appointment at a local school where I'll be leading a training next week. The car radio was set to the local AM station, which I seldom listen to, but I heard the morning news-talk personalities discussing an incident that happened in Grand Rapids yesterday, where a 17 year old young man, Darryl Weaver, was killed in a drive-by shooting. Since I work with "at-risk" youth, I'm interested in these stories and I understand that this area is having an upswing in gang-related violence over the past few months, maybe longer. So I listened to the debate between the hosts and a few indignant callers before I arrived at my destination and took care of the business at hand.

Later in the afternoon, I found out that one of my co-workers, Arlan, was quite closely involved with the deceased teenager. His connection to this young man's life was as a neighborhood mentor and club leader - he's known the boy since he was about seven or eight years old and is very familiar with his family situation and some of the trouble that he's been in over the past few years. It turns out that my friend was leading a club meeting in his inner-city neighborhood yesterday afternoon, and Darryl had called him asking for a ride. Arlan told him that he simply couldn't pick him up because he had to prepare for the meeting. It was a nice day, Darryl was only four blocks away and could easily walk himself there. Darryl said he didn't want to do that because if he did, he'd get "booked" (that is, arrested.) Still, Arlan told him he couldn't provide the ride.

The meeting got started, and Darryl's younger brother was present. Midway through their meeting, the brother got a call informing him that Darryl had been shot. Of course, he left immediately to find out what was going on. Darryl was shot in the head and died shortly after arriving at the hospital. I don't have a lot of the details straight as to what happened after that, but needless to say, it was a very sad and difficult day for Arlan, Darryl's mom and brothers, and many others in this community.

Arlan is an ordained pastor and our agency's Diversity Coordinator, so his role in Darryl's life, family and the neighborhood he lived in is more than just a benevolent-minded concerned citizen. The wastefulness and futility of a shooting like this is impossible to comprehend. Arlan told me some additional details about Darryl's situation and some of the circumstances that may have led to this tragedy that I won't spell out here. My heart is heavy thinking about the ordeal that so many people are going through, all because of some reckless, foolish choices made by hard-hearted young people who felt some kind of score needed to be settled. It's not even clear that Darryl was the intended target. Apparently he was in a group of people sitting on a porch when the fatal shots were fired from across the street. A newspaper report of the incident can be accessed here. And here is the local TV news coverage. Arlan is quoted in that article.

It's just a shame and a pity, that's the bottom line of this terrible event, I have to say.

"Long Time" Gone

Russ wrote up a nice tribute to the lead singer of Boston, Brad Delp, who died from still-unknown causes this weekend. I was never a "huge" Boston fan, but their first album was absolutely ubiquitous in 1976 and it stood out as a pretty innovative piece of work- especially the sound of the guitars - but Delp's vocals made an impression as well - he hit good, clear, high notes, his articulation was smooth and he could get loud without blustering or bellowing. He was a rock vocalist who appealed to the chicks with actual good singing rather than overly tight jeans, exposed chest and caveman-on-the-prowl innuendos.

I remember talking to my best friend's sister's boyfriend, a few years older than me, back when Boston first emerged onthe national scene. He ripped on the band for being a "studio act." He and the rest of us were unconvinced that they could get that same sleek, sonic sheen to come out of the amps on stage, but I got to see them live, outdoors at the L.A. Coliseum a few years later, and they sounded pretty much like we expected them to, so give 'em credit. They weren't a heavyweight band, but they created a new sound that melded heavy-like crunch with a broadly acceptable and enjoyable good-time vibe that was pretty fine for the purposes it served. Of course, it also paved the way for abominable acts like Bon Jovi and the pop-metal hair bands of the 80's, but let's not dwell there. The other thing that Boston did was make it safe for big-time commercial acts to take three years or more between releasing new albums, a practice that is so typical today as to not even attract notice. Back in the 70's, serious bands were expected to not only release a new album every year, but to make them "classics" or risk losing their fan base pretty rapidly. Boston kept everyone waiting, and waiting, and waiting... without the kind of payoff that, at the time at least, seemed to justify the wait. I'm not sure I feel all that much gratitude for that particular innovation - seems to me that bands have gotten a little more complacent, self-satisfied, and the music itself has become that much less memorable once it became fashionable to take a year or two off between records.

NCAA Prediction

The NCAA Brackets are out and I have a title to defend. Lest any readers forget (or didn't know in the first place), I won the pool last year at my workplace (too bad it was only for fun, not for money) by correctly picking Florida to beat UCLA in the final game. That was quite the pick, a lightning strike that I don't expect to happen again. Especially since I really don't care all that much for college hoops (or pro, for that matter) - I never watch the games all the way through and barely know anything about the teams other than who's leading in the rankings. The main exception is that I pay a little closer attention to Michigan State because one of their star players, Drew Neitzel, went to my kids' high school, graduating in the class between my daughter and my twin sons. This year, I'm going with Kansas to win over Ohio State. I'm choosing Kansas for two reasons - one, in tribute to my recently deceased grandmother who was from that state and always rooted for any Kansas-based team; and two, because the Jayhawks somehow managed to come back from waaaay behind in the first half against Texas to win the game in OT. So there, I've put my call on the line. Let's see how it turns out for me. You're invited to make your picks in the comment section.

Dawn's Late Light

I think this Daylight Savings experiment is kind of goofy and pointless. My neighbors and I still have huge icebergs lurking at the end of our driveways (though they are melting!) I don't expect that it's really going to save energy. People are still up early in the morning, turning their lights on and keeping them on that much longer. Anyway, I guess we can indulge the politicians in their fancy that this is one non-controversial way to increase their sense of being less dependent on foreign energy sources. But I miss the sense of truly "springing forward" that accompanies the move to DST when we really are at a warmer, springier time of year.

Fantasy Baseball Draft #1

As was the case last year, I'm playing in two different fantasy baseball leagues this year. I had my first draft of the spring yesterday, with a group of guys including my brother-in-law, who invited me to pick up a vacated franchise last year. I did "pretty well" last year - not enough to finish in the top ranks, but for a new guy, I held my own. I aim to do better this year, but I have to admit, I wasn't as prepared or as focused as I would have liked. This is the league where I'm not the commissioner - the less time-consuming one, also the one I have the least sentimental attachment to (but also the greatest financial stake in - it costs fifty bucks to play.)

It's a fun league when it comes to picking the players because we use an auction format, whereas my work-based group just does a straight draft. My lineup is made of a bunch of mid-level talent - I didn't spend big chunks of money on the elite level superstars, though I drove the bidding up on a few of them. Here's my team, make of it what you will:

C Ramon Hernandez
1B Derrek Lee
2B Josh Barfield
SS Miguel Tejada
3B Chipper Jones
OF Grady Sizemore
OF Craig Monroe
OF Nick Swisher
OF Brad Hawpe
UT Jimmy Rollins
UT Eric Chavez
SP Brandon Webb
SP Matt Cain
SP Kevin Millwood
SP Felix Hernandez
SP Bronson Arroyo
RP Mariano Rivera
RP Huston Street
P Akinori Otsuka
P Josh Beckett

I think that's a pretty solid team. Of course, this was just the easy part.

Last year, my team was named "Knuckle Draggers" just because that was the thought that came to mind at the moment that I had to choose a name on the Yahoo website. This year, I changed it to "Yo La Tengo" which is what Spanish-speaking outfielders yell out when they call to catch a fly ball (it means "I got it.") It's also the name of an indie rock band from New Jersey. I'll be drawing from their album and song titles, as well as other lyrics, for some of my on-line "smack talk," text message taunts that we toss at our rivals from day to day and week to week. My opening one-liner is from YLT's newest release, aimed at my first week opponent "BIG Pimpin'" (whose owner is a huge Yankees fan and who pretty much bought up every Yankee batter that he could for his starting lineup - so I'm hoping for a lot of rain wherever the Bronx Bombers are playing the first week of April!):

"I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass."

Iraq War Audio Stream

I want to bring to your attention that you can hear me and a few friends talking about the Iraq War as we near the fourth anniversary of the invasion. This link connects you to the audio track of our latest IGE Talks program. My voice is the second one you'll hear, after our host Laura does her introduction. It's a long file, so don't expect to hear much for awhile if you are dialing into the internet. At some point, I hope that we can get these videos on the web, but we have to work out some technical issues first. Please let me know if 1) you listen to it, 2) how it sounds (it's a bit soft and static-y on my system, and 3) if you have any comments on the content. Thanks.

High School Musical: "Cats"

As high school musicals go, "Cats" is a pretty ambitious production. No disputing that. The costumes, the dancing, the indelible images stamped in so many people's minds about how the play should look, sound and feel... the pressures of having to perform an Andrew Lloyd Weber production. I admire the gumption that the directors and producers possess that led them to take this one on!

So we went last night, all six of my family members, quite a remarkable event these days, so used to someone or other being elsewhere just about all of the time, along with one girlfriend-of-a-son and my mom, to see this spectacle, this extravaganza. Wyoming Park High School is, if not the first, one of the earliest schools in Michigan and perhaps the country, to get permission to put on this show, from what I've heard. The theater was packed, the second of four shows that I have to figure will all be sold out if they aren't already. It was an exciting atmosphere and the crowd knew we were in for something a cut above from what we'd seen on this same stage in all the years previous.

And to some extent, none of us were disappointed. The costumes were amazing, the choreography was impressive, the set was a fascinating junkpile of sofas, tires, refrigerators, industrial parts cast-offs and nicely concealed hiding places out of which "cats" of all shapes, colors and sizes popped out throughout the program. It was all quite remarkable in terms of production values.

The thing was, though, I just really don't get or care all that much for the basic premise of the show. I almost hate to type this because I admire the work that went into it and I like the people behind the project, and in no way do I want to convey disrespect or a lack of appreciation for their efforts.

Let me just start by acknowledging that in my opinion, Andrew Lloyd Weber's greatest achievement was the first one he's generally known for, "Jesus Christ Superstar." I love that soundtrack (the original "stage production" featuring Ian Gillan who went from being Jesus to being the lead singer for Deep Purple, though the movie version featuring Ted Neeley in the title role is pretty good too.) "JCS" was, of course, a "rock opera" featuring sizzling 60's psychedelic guitars and legions of strutting, gyrating hippies - what's not to like about that? After Weber secured his fame, fortune and creative license through that smash hit, he went sharply into much more grandiose and m.o.r. territory with musicals that catered to more genteel musical tastes, and so we got smash hits like "Phantom of the Opera," "Evita" and of course "Cats." OK, I gotta give it to the guy - he's had a phenomenal career!

But since I have never allowed myself to get swept up in the apparent air of whimsy, intrigue and rhapsodic fantasy that "Cats" intends to evoke, I found myself as bewildered as I was beguiled by the production. So take my comments for what they are worth, as a non-aficionado of big-time stage musicals.

I remember seeing video clips of various "Cats" numbers in the early 80's and thinking to myself that it looked pretty lame (but that's just where I was at back then.) I guess I was never quite able to get past that poor first impression and just let myself go with it. The story didn't really make much sense to me, there wasn't much continuity or "plot development" of course (I wasn't expecting there to be any going into it.) What I figured it would be, a costume- and dance-driven extravaganza, was pretty much what I saw. It was kind of odd to see a bunch of high-school kids that I normally know as fully-dressed, normal folks now writhing and prancing across the stage in very tight leotards, but you know what they say....

"THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT!"

The Aliens Have Landed

I'm the father of a published children's book illustrator! Here's a picture of the cover, image courtesy of Amazon.com, where the book can be purchased for a mere $4.99. Lys and I will be leaving shortly this morning to go pick up 10 complimentary copies from the printer. This is pretty cool. We'll be having a publication party at my sister's house in the near future, a literary soiree of sorts. Wine and cheese will be served, no doubt, though Lys won't have any. After months of waiting, it'll be nice to get the book in our hands. I only wish that Grandma could have lived long enough to see it herself. She was really looking forward to showing it to her friends... it was one of the last things that she and I talked about.

Update: You can see some more of Lys' artwork and read a bit of the story too at this website: http://www.heroesa2z.com/
Follow the link you find there to send Lys some fan mail!

Obama Organizing

On Saturday night, I acted on my interest/impulse to check out more closely what is happening on the local level to support Barack Obama's run for the U.S. presidency. Since I'd previously registered at Obama's MySpace-like website, I was alerted to the first meeting in Grand Rapids of local supporters and took up the invitation to participate. I blogged about it there, but if you don't feel like clicking over, let me just say here that I've pretty much made up my mind - I'm an Obama fan and I'm going to get involved to help him win or do well in the Michigan Democratic primary next February. I have a lot to learn in order to be effective in this process, but that's what will make it fun. I've listened to him speak, considered the merits of the other candidates (both Republican and Democratic) and have a clear sense that there's nobody else that I would rather see as Bush's successor. And I feel strongly enough about it that I'm going to try and make it happen. That's something pretty new for me - to get this serious about supporting a politician. But he has something unique to say and offer the country, and it's my aim to connect with other people who think likewise. I will have more to say about this campaign here in the weeks/months ahead, but if you really want to follow the ins-and-outs of my involvement, bookmark my "ObamaBlog" to get the insider's perspective!

Grandma's Funeral

This is probably the longest break I've taken from blogging in quite a few months, but it was good for me to reel things in a bit here (and on the email front as well.) It wasn't like I was not engaged with society or anything - I actually had a very productive week at work (posting two grant requests, teaching several classes, getting a lot of stuff taken care of) and I even made a TV show about the Iraq War on Thursday night (part of our "IGE Talks" series.) I just didn't chronicle it here.

Yesterday we held our memorial service for Grandma Blakeslee, my dad's mom, my last surviving grandparent. It was a simple affair, as she had requested. We met at her church, St. Mary Magdalene, a Catholic congregation that she attended faithfully for years after settling into her last home, an apartment nearby. Since none of the family members surviving her are Catholic, we didn't do the full mass (we can't take communion there.) But the church was very kind to us - they supplied a choir who not only sang well, they also knew all the correct responses in the liturgy, which I'm sure was of great reassurance to the priest, who would have otherwise been thrown off his rhythm waiting for us to say "and also with you", "praise to the Lord Jesus Christ" and the other phrases that punctuated his reading.

I liked his message - he gave us the sense that he really knew Grandma, had spent time with her, listened to her stories and understood what she was about. To her, our family was the great thing that occupied her these last years of her life. She was very devoted, generous, loving and kind to all of us, even when we took those things for granted or thought we had other important things to do than go over and get doted on by Grandma B. She appears to have told a lot of her friends quite a few details of our life-stories (me, my wife and kids, my sister, my dad... it's a small family, but one that meant a lot to her!) judging from some of the informed feedback we got at the reception from people who seemed to know more about us than we knew about them!

I had spent time earlier in the week writing Grandma's obituary and also making a tribute video that I will post to YouTube later this weekend and figure out how to link directly to this blog as well. I understand that it's not too hard, I just haven't done it yet. That was quite a process for me... What I did was take a bunch of photo scans, drop them on a timeline in Windows Movie Maker, dub in some appropriate soundtrack music, and voila, out came a movie that I burned to
DVD and showed at the reception. I've done this a few times now, but this one packed a punch because of all the memories and emotions that the pictures stirred up in me. I think the sensitivity and I'll even say "weepiness" of my emotions during my non-work downtime last week also played a big part in me not feeling like writing. I don't mind being an emotional sap at times, but I don't necessarily want to publish sentiments written in that state of mind for all the world to see.

After the service, we had a Catholic-Friday-in-Lent lunch, which meant no meat products. We had a choice of egg salad or tuna salad sandwiches, and vegetarian vegetable soup, plus the usual chips and dessert accompaniment. It was a very snowy day - I mean, big drifts and blustery winds, which have continued all through the night, burying us pretty deep and making it a good weekend to just hunker down (though I have plans to go out tonight.)

It was a day full of hugs and remembrance. We will bury Grandma's remains on Monday, in a grave site next to her husband Earle's final resting place. It'll just be us, family, there on that occasion. I'm glad that we have raised up a family that Grandma could be proud of - I know she'd love us no matter what we had going on, but we've done all right, and she hasn't had to stretch things too much in order to brag about us. I know that meant a lot to her, and her memory inspires me to stay close to my kids even as they grow up and get independent, and make the most of our times together.