Not Many Words of Mine, but some From a Young Anyjazz

Recent goings on in the USA, and actions by the President of same leave me with no words fit to print on a family-style blog. My best wish would be for the President to be removed by some means or other (25th amendment to the Constitution?) It appears that is not likely to happen. Yes, there's an election coming in November, when We The People could remove Donald Trump from office, but as things are going it would not surprise me at all if that election were to be postponed - or cancelled.

Sigh.

I found, among my notes, this piece written long ago by my husband, known online as anyjazz (he's now aged 83). It illustrates his early experience of the wretched racial hatred which, as we have recently sadly seen, lives on still among some groups, in some areas of the USA.

Here's his piece:

Breakfast with Joe Williams

Back in the late [19]fifties, my old friend “Z” [Zee] and I took our girlfriends to see Count Basie. I didn’t own a car but “Z” borrowed his dad’s new Cadillac for the evening and we were in top style. I think we impressed our girlfriends.


It was a dance/concert sort of event. Basie’s big band had a couple of current hits right in the middle of the era of Bill Haley and the comets, Richie Valens, Elvis Presley and Fabian sensations. Basie’s band had charted well with a lovely recording of “April in Paris” which would earn them a Grammy. Joe Williams, Basie’s vocalist at the time, had a hit with “Every Day I Have the Blues.” So, an evening with Count Basie was a big deal. Really. A really memorable three or four hours.


The first number was “All Of Me” designed to make everybody pay attention. Anyone who has heard the Basie arrangement of the number will know what I mean.


When Joe Williams sang his first number he looked uncomfortable. He looked frightened to me. Maybe it was just me. Well it was the first time I had ever been to a concert where there were uniformed police wandering around in the crowd.


After the concert, we stood around on stage chatting with the band members as they packed up. “Z” handed his bottle of W L Weller to trombonist Al Grey for inspection. Al looked at the dregs and then at “Z” for approval. “Z” said “Aw, kill it. It’s not enough to haul home anyway.”


Basie and Freddie Greene had left in a limo and the rest of the band members were loading onto the band bus. Somehow, Al Grey and Joe Newman got left behind and we gave them a ride downtown to the Lassen Hotel in the Caddy.


Later we all crowded into the Lassen Hotel diner for breakfast. It was about two in the morning.

We all found stools at the counter. I sat between Joe Williams and Joe Newman. Now, it might be necessary for a reminder here; this was in Kansas in the late fifties. The diner staff was not too comfortable with serving several black musicians, famous or not.


Joe Williams ordered two eggs over easy. In a few minutes, the waitress came with his plate. The eggs were raw. He looked at the plate and then at the waitress.


“He can’t eat those, they’re raw!” I blurted without thinking. The waitress nodded and took the plate back. (I think she agreed.) She returned with a fresh plate, cooked right. Joe looked at me and said “Thank you.”


It was years later that I figured out what had happened. It was not my first lesson in bigotry but somehow that night I think I learned a bit of just how awful it was. I was sitting there between two fabulous black musicians and I was in star struck. Others in the same room were not impressed, in fact they were disgusted. If my famous black friend had complained, he would simply have been refused service and ejected.


Later that morning, we bid the tired musicians goodnight and safe journeys and we headed for home.

The Week's Leftovers ~ Race, LSD, HSBC.

I mentioned a few days ago, to my husband, that I was thinking of writing a blog post about possible reasons why black individuals, on the whole, surpass most white individuals in certain spheres (a) boxing, some athletics, many sports and (b)certain styles of dancing (especially by males). I had my solution ready, I thought: i.e. genetically, black races have more muscular strength and durability passed down via DNA, and more innate rhythm than white races. Husband surprised me by his response: "Good luck with that, but be ready for accusations of racism."

I'd be complimenting people of the black races (not only African Americans, mind you), not offending them for goodness sake! What is wrong in defining races by their talents? Could I comment that Jewish people, on the whole, seem to surpass in business, science, legal and entertainment spheres - and what talented lot they are, and I often wonder how that came about. Am I being racist? I'm being sincerely curious. White people, in general (which covers a lot of ground and many nationalities) tend to have a modicum of talent in most areas, often defined by their nationality's stereotype.

Dang!

I do not understand the racism thing which causes paranoia in the USA. I get that there are some remaining bigots and horrible throw-backs to darker times. They should be approached with all the contempt they deserve. Surely that doesn't mean we ALL have to tread with fairy feet because of them? The best and only solution to end racism is to consider all ethnicities on the the same level: as human beings, discuss all in similar terms, discuss their differences, their talents, their faults without fear of being accused of racism.

While watching an old film on Turner Movie Channel this week husband spotted a price tag in one scene, marked "3d" -



"What does 3 D mean?"

"Threepence, you know - that little yellow-coloured coin, the 'thruppenny bit' ".

"Huh?"

"Three pence, three pennies."

"D = a penny - why?"

"Ahem...let's see if I can remember! LSD - you know - pounds, shillings and pence, British currency before decimalisation in the 1970s. L=pounds S=shillings D = Pence - danged if I can remember why though!"

Looked it up - ah yes, now I remember it well!
Wikipedia:

£sd (sometimes pronounced, and occasionally written, L.s.d.) is the popular name for the pre-decimal currencies once common throughout Europe, especially in the United Kingdom, which was one of the last to change, as well as some other Commonwealth countries. The abbreviation originates from the Latin currency denominations librae, solidi, and denarii. In the U.K. these are today referred to as pounds, shillings, and pence (pence being the plural of penny).

This system originated in the classical Roman Empire. It was re-introduced in Western Europe by Charlemagne and was the standard for many centuries across the continent. The system was in fact used in much of the British Empire until 1971. Under the British system, there were 12 pence in a shilling and 20 shillings, or 240 pence, in a pound. A penny was subdivided into four farthings until 31 December 1960 (when they ceased to be legal tender) and, until 31 July 1969, two halfpennies.

HSBC UK & me - all done, all gone! A while back I mentioned in comments that I'd had trouble being able to close my UK credit card account with HSBC due to a small outstanding amount which defied clearance for a variety of reasons. After e-mails, phone calls, letters and frustrations to boiling point I eventually received a phone call this week from a very nice lady at HSBC UK, apologising profusely for the absurdity of the situation, and telling me she had marked the outstanding 6 pounds 61 pence still outstanding on my credit card as now cleared. Ahhhhh! There are living, breathing, warm-blooded humans with common sense at the end of some communication channels after all. That was in the morning; when the mail arrived the same afternoon I received three letters from HSBC UK: two more boilerplate warnings about my non-payment of 6 pounds 61 pence, and one letter telling me that my credit limit had been cut in half - this in spite of my three or four, or five communications since October telling them I wished to close all accounts, including that attached to my credit card.

Earlier in the week I was at a loss to understand why a post of mine from June 2010 was getting beaucoup hits, day after day, this one: Lena Horne, Susan Hayward: Astrological Twins I checked around news outlets to see whether there was talk of an upcoming movie involving one of the subjects. No, nothing. It wasn't until I noticed, among a list of keywords involved in visits to the blog, mention of one Susan Agar. I clicked on the name and saw to my surprise, at the top of the Google page about Ms Agar (the daughter of Shirley Temple - her mother died this week) some thumbnail photos supposedly all of Susan Agar. One of the photos was of Susan Hayward, I had used it in my archived post. So, anyone clicking on it under the impression it was Shirley Temple's daughter, or Shirley Temple herself, got a surprise. Hits on the post are still coming too, from countries all over the world.

Shades of Dr Who

I suspect that Peter Capaldi will make a very good Dr. Who. I'm not a dyed-in-the-wool Dr Who fan, haven't followed the series constantly from its first TV appearance in Britain in 1963 - in fact didn't watch the very earliest seasons at all - the show was intended, primarily for children. I dipped into various seasons, haphazard fashion, sticking with the show more regularly after arriving in the USA, oddly enough, and with the coming of David Tennant as Dr Who. I enjoyed his portrayal, and many of the story lines. I exited again after the first couple of Matt Smith's episodes, couldn't warm to him.

All in all I much prefer Torchwood, a Dr Who spin-off, with John Barrowman as Captain Jack as the draw, for me.

There've been a few arguments fermenting around the net as to why Dr Who hasn't yet been cast as a non-white guy or a female - of any colour. I'm not clear whether the debaters on this topic are mainly American, it's hard to tell online unless specifically stated, but I get a US tinge to many of the "why shouldn't the Dr be black?" arguments. It's understandable. Race has been front and centre of so many arguments in the USA for centuries. I'd be quite interested to see a black Dr Who, but the fact that we've had 12 white ones in a row doesn't fill me with liberal angst.

It's a fictional character, more fictional in its abilities than most, in fact. Dr Who was written as an eccentric British white guy; so was Sherlock Holmes, and many other beloved characters. Characters from fiction are not usually prone to change of colour or gender. I cannot imagine a black or female Sherlock Holmes, for instance. Dr Watson's colour or gender could be switched with less problem though. Likewise, if racial equality is going to be a part of Dr Who's message, the casting of a black and/or female assistant, as already happened with his side-kick Martha, is a much better way to go. The Dr's fastastical ability, as a Time Lord, to re-generate does put him in a rather different category from Sherlock Holmes too.

Idris Elba's name was thrown around as a possible new, black, Dr Who. From his photographs he doesn't look nearly lanky, or eccentric, enough. If Dr Who were going to be black he'd have to retain the other personality characteristics as written. Black, lanky, eccentric ......Eddie Murphy? He'd be too expensive. Nick Cannon? Mos Def? (Any more?) They are American, but if colour were to change, why not nationality?

I can't, at the moment, think of a female, of any colour or nationality, who would fit the Dr's characteristics exactly. Lily Tomlin in her younger days would've been a cinch; Emma Thompson perhaps? Tracy Ullman?

By the time Peter Capaldi's run is through, maybe there'll have arisen an obvious choice to take over as his successor - of whatever colour and/or gender.

Divisions

Astrology, in particular Sun Sign astrology, is continually criticised for categorising people as 12 "types". Those who have delved deeper into astrological discipline know that these 12 "types" are not even the tip of the iceberg, they're the shadow on top of the ocean where an iceberg lies beneath.

As in astrology, so in polls and politics. One would think that counting votes would be a simple matter. 1,000 votes for candidate A, 2,000 for candidate B, 3,000 for candidate C. But no, political pollsters and pundits then segregate voters and their mode of voting in various ways. Male/female, blue collar male/"educated" male ( - cheek!! Why are blue collar people considered uneducated?). White males/black males. White "educated"/white blue collar. Black "educated"/ black blue collar. Same for Hispanic male/female, and for all females. Age groups: under 25, over 40, over 50, over 60 - and on...... along with any possible permutation of all of the above factors. Religion also has to be added to these investigation exercises in the USA -Roman Catholic, Baptist, Evangelist, Black Churches, and all the other denominations. They don't bother with atheists and agnostics - I wonder why?

So really, political polling analysis and astrology have a lot in common. Astrologers must juggle with Sun, Moon ascendant sign, all the planets, points, fixed stars, asteroids, centaurs, nodes.....and more, mixing, blending, analysing, weighing strengths, and synthesising. In most cases, I have to say that astrologers come up with better, more accurate results than the pollsters and pundits ever manage to do.

Leading on from that, a thought from the BBC's Washington correspondent Matt Frei (here)

"When it comes to race, religion and even class, America, the great melting pot, is still an archipelago of hundreds of tribes living largely separate lives in their own communities.
Perhaps it is one of the luxuries of space in a vast country. Perhaps it is proof of prejudice. It certainly undermines real efforts to understand each other, to mingle, to melt in the same pot. "

For all the stated wishes of those on high, or those who aspire to be on high, integration ain't happening in much of the country. There are Black Churches, Black beauty contests, Black TV shows, Black Nationalists, Black Panthers, Black Pride. Comparable White categories could be identified for some of those. In a perfect world, which this is never going to be, there would be no such segregation, only integration - always.

I don't see Senator Obama being "the one" to start bringing full integration about, sorry to say. For this onlooker, at this point, it's nothing but the wishful thinking of his fans. Either it's not the right time, or it's not the right person. I believe the latter. Perhaps Barack Obama is a forerunner (as John the Baptist was a forerunner "preparing the way"). Another, true, uniter may appear in coming years. That's my personal hope.