Well, today's the big day.  Today a few of the authors from "The Ice-Cream Stand" are presenting a panel discussion at the Concord Festival of Authors! http://www.concordfestivalofauthors.com/2012/events/  
I'm pretty nervous, but am certain that it will be a friendly crowd and my co-presenters are all great women.
It's been a long time since my last post as I've been without a computer.  Recently I was the lucky recipient of a new lap top and am etremely grateful - thankyou!

Space between

Jane’s throat was tight, raw and tired; the feeling was distant from the conscious moment.  This moment, sunshine, clear and to the west, no pain or sadness could encroach.

The car, her mechanical alter ego, functional and fast, great pick-up, hands firmly at ten and two on the cool leather wheel, that little needle hitting ninety. Freedom, but for the foot on the gas pedal, giving little resistance, the gear snugly rested off to the far lower right, sun ahead, rocketing down the clear open highway.

Carnegie hall; the weavers reunion on cd, her voice bellowing as one would never dare in church or even at home where children’s’ eyes were in continual states of rolling, rather like the old packers bobble head her dad kept in his workshop when she was a kid.  Surprised this release of familiar melody was possible with the other woman sitting in the passenger seat.

Maybe a cord of youth’s comfort remained, from back when this was her family and the woman knew her inside and out.  Car singing as they piled into the old metallic rust dodge, sitting behind her mother and sister sitting behind their dad, who always did the driving. They sang and harmonized while crisscrossing the nation.  Seeking a new home or journeying to a home that was never really her home, but held the pull of a known place we thought fit us merely because the parents were children there.

Today; euphoric harmonizing, knowing every song. Songs from the mother’s youth and from the middling daughter’s life, which she had also sung to her children.  Maybe her children will one day allow unrestrained song to escape their souls.

Singing through state after state as the sun dropped beyond the western horizon. The previously rich, fresh aroma of coffee congealed to a cold and bitter fluid. Troubles, food and coffee forgotten; the older woman and her middle aged daughter fully in that moment, everything of the place they left and the place to which they were headed was forgotten. Just two women, friends, in a metal rocket island singing their way across the country.

Release of love and fear, home and the unknown; singing until sheer exhaustion forced them to stop.

The Black Pirate with sound by Alloy Orchestra

Friday night the Bedford Center for the Arts hosted Alloy Orchestra in their presentation of "The Black Knight," a 1926 silent film era pirate movie. It was an enjoyable experience - silent film with live sound track created by Alloy Orchestra...so many interesting sounds to correspond with the screen action. They draw on percussive materials ranging far beyond the common drum and cymbal.

It was also interesting to see a film made in 1926, when the actors (Douglas Fairbanks stared as the "Black Pirate") did most of their own stunts. Special effects were not as sophisticated, but very impressively dreampt up. Today, I believe that there is more sophistication around special effects. This does not necessarily mean that they are "better," just different. The early special effects have a certain appealing draw.

Unfortunately not surprising was the stereotypical depiction of minorities. If I had thought of it at all I would probably have assumed that today's men would be presented as more accepting of racial variation than we would see in a 1926 era film. I still think this may be the case. In this film all male characters, but one, appeared to be white so there was little to no opportunity to observe male interaction within a range of racial/ethnic identification. The one exception being that of a "Chinese" explosives expert (probably played by a Caucasian man) who was horribly portrayed, drawing on every archaic stereotype one can remember and some which are still prevalent.

I also wondered about how the depiction of female gender roles may have changed over the past 84 years. Well, yes, the princess was beautiful, wearing impractical clothes and she spent a lot of time swooning while in near constant need of rescue, protection and care from her elderly servant. And in the end, she was thrilled to discover that her rescuer was not really "just" a pirate, but actually a Duke, and thus marriageable. The film ended with a proper introduction and proposal of marriage, which she gladly accepted. All goals of good and "right" society had been achieved.

The presentation of masculinity, however, surprised me. Good Guy heroes in action films, in my immediate memory, still exhibit a sort of hyper masculinity, tough, cool, lone ranger type personae. My impression of the hero as trope for masculinity, used to perpetuate our adherence to norms of masculinity was that of individualist with access to emotions of anger and aggression and a constant desire for the acquisition of power.

Gender roles are the result of our socialization, so had I given it serious thought, I would have considered that there might be differences in the presentation of a hero 84 years ago as opposed to today, but I didn't give this much thought. Sticking mostly to my assumptions about pirate films, drawn from the few pirate films I've seen and stories I've read, I anticipated a homogeneous "pirate," something along the lines of what I had experienced, but without sound.

Contrary to my assumption Douglas Fairbanks, as the "black knight," expressed a range of emotions beyond blanket hate, anger and revenge peppered with the ubiquitous use of casual violence. He was tender toward his father. Gently embracing, hugging, and cradling his dying father with a level of intimacy which I can not remember seeing from a male hero role in contemporary films. The men appear to stand closer, touch more, share tender eye contact and their dress and genuine mannerisms seemed less aggressively "masculine" by todays expectations.

Toward the end of the film, when the soldiers come to rescue the captured ship and its hostage princess, they swim to the boat. This is not a random, free for all sharply aggressive tackling of the water, churning and splashing as they prowled their way to the boat. No, the swimming scene is reminiscent of a water ballet. The soldiers are in short shorts, criss crossed black straps and sheathed swords. They swim in an under water breast stroke in grid formation as they descend upon the ship. A great deal of time was given to this water scene, conveying its weight and beauty while providing the viewer with plenty of time to appreciate it's graceful beauty. The choreography, like an underwater dance was elegant. This imagery countered my memory of how rescuers are portrayed in modern film.

While there were and are many problems associated with our expectations of masculinity and in the course of the past several decades we have seen much welcome changes in these notions. I wonder if men have lost some aspects of their gendered role which may have been healthy expressions of being human. More specifically I'm thinking of the acceptance of men being tender toward one another and comfortable showing intimacy and care.

These are, of course, my impressions which are based on no actual research into masculine presentation in film and our changing notions of masculinity. All in all I enjoyed the experience and would both see the film again and attend another Alloy presentation.

http://www.bedfordtowntaxi.com/?p=66

http://www.alloyorchestra.com/tour.schedule.html

Reminisence triggered by all the talk about a public option. (written 09.05.09)

Just picked Sam up from the train station, mind wandering while driving and realized that I have a lot to be thankful for; two wonderful kids, a nice secure home and a positive outlook for my future.
Why do I have all of this? I've been lucky, that's why. I was lucky to be born in an era which was reaping the benefits of the New Deal and when the dominant view for government was to create the Great Society.

My dad received a wonderful education, including his Bachelors degree and two Master's degrees; thank you to the G.I. Bill and the United States Air Force. Think for a minute of all of those who use the G.I. bill for help buying their first home. This is our government helping these working class kids to realize the American Dream. And even now, thank you for allowing me to write off mortgage expenses for my home, a huge government program of monetary redistribution.

In addition to this everyone in my family, my parents, my sister and myself, my ex husband and my children received good sound secondary educations. Thank you to my government for making quality education available to me and my children. In addition to this I received my bachelor’s degree from a public college. Again, thank you to my government for subsidizing my higher education. When I had to come up with college tuition for three family members, who did I turn to for help? My state government, thank you Massachusetts for the MEFA program so that my children and I were all able to attend college.

While driving to get Sam I thought, how wonderful that my teenage daughter who does not own her own car is able to have the freedom and independence of mobility, so that she can visit her friends at their colleges. Again, thank you to my government for providing a good system of public transportation. This led me to think of all the times in my life that I’ve taken public transportation. As a young mom so that I could get my son to appointments at Children’s hospital, even though I didn’t own a car, as a graduate student and as a college student myself; today my son would not be able to get to work if not for his access to public transportation. Again, thank you.

Thinking about public transportation of course led me to appreciate that I was driving to the train station on a perfectly smooth, newly paved high way. Thanks to the government for creating and maintaining the roads so that when the train is not an option, I have a simple, rational system to facilitate my travels. This summer I was able to take my mom to our family reunion, half way across the country, by accessing this publicly funded program.

Now, sitting here, procrastinating on starting my “weekly” house cleaning I’m remembering when my dad was sick. How thankful we were that as retired military he had some of the best health insurance you can get. In fact, all military people enjoy this option. Doctors, when they heard of it were thrilled because they knew that this insurance would assure the best possible treatment and timely pay. In addition to this health insurance he enjoyed Medicare, another form of public health insurance for our elderly.

As the future primary care giver for my mom I have a small degree of peace of mind knowing that she, too, holds both of these health care options. Then I remember when my two year old son needed major surgery and less than one week before his surgery and after our private insurance company approved the surgery, they canceled our insurance. We didn’t find out until after he had the surgery and we had no money to pay out of pocket. Thank you to our public hospital for covering the hospital expenses, only leaving the doctors fees to us (which still took many years to fully pay off).

I also realize that this is really just the tip of the iceberg for the many ways that my government has fulfilled its role by protecting me, one of its citizens. Think about all those things we take for granted, that if we have a crises the Fire Fighters and EMT’s will come to rescue us, we have Police officers assuring our safety and maintenance people maintain our water, buildings and roads. Our libraries assure that all people have access to information. Stop for a minute and think of how often and in how many ways our government has helped you and remember to be thankful that we have a government that remembers its role.

So yes, while I’ve worked hard and certainly earned much of what I have to be thankful for, I did not do it on my own. Without all of these programs my life would not be as wonderful as it is.