Memories of Watergate (1973)-- my favorite year

The year 1973 was a big one for me. I moved from New York to this little-known city of Austin, Texas. Willie Nelson helped set the positive tone for the city on his mission to bring Cowboys and Hippies together in a spirit of peace and friendship.

The term for cowboys was actually Rednecks. As for hippies, I'm sure we had our share of insults from more traditional Texans but we found our place in Austin, a town know for liberalism and open mindedness. The University of Texas brought intellectual fervor and the State Capitol was the other big game in town. Jobs were scarce and salaries were low. But you could live in central Austin on a waiter's wages.

Before I became a waiter I worked briefly as a carpenter's helper on a construction site called Timbercreek Apartments. The project still exists on South 1st Street across from the Texas School for the Deaf.

Several notable details about the spring of 1973. We actually had a fair number of white guys working on the job--  hippie carpenters and assorted locals. Home building now dominated by Hispanic guys-- was more integrated in those days. At lunch break we would listen to the radio for Watergate reports and eat homemade sandwiches with bean sprouts and whole wheat bread. No cellphones, no GrubHub.

Watergate caused some consternation but hysteria levels were not at the fever pitch of today's battles between Left and Right. I don't even recall the political opinions being expressed during lunch break. Being a New York liberal made me slightly wary of expressing radical viewpoints except with my close friends.

Austin, Texas had a laid back friendliness that holds more memories any opinions being expressed. Democrats actually held elective office in the state. The Hispanic influence on Texas added a feeling of diversity. Border crossing happened relatively easily. The laissez-faire and relative ease for going back and forth to Mexico impressed me. "How cool to border another country," I thought.

At day's end the hippie carpenters descended on nearby Armadillo World Headquarters. Jim Franklin created the Armadillo concept, the well-armored little beasts were a symbol of the counter culture. I marveled at Texas carpenters' talent for working hard and then consuming massive amounts of beer along with marijuana-- in quantities unrivaled on the East Coast.

Texas was a new world. After stepping on some nails and busting some knuckles and fingernails I quickly surmised my lack of talent for carpentry.

Watergate discussions on MSNBC reminded me of that very important year.

America 2.0: Immigration Conundrum for USA

A little over 14 million immigrants lived in the U.S. in 1980; by 2014, the number had grown to more than 42 million. There is simply no precedent in istory for the sheer number of human being who recently come, legally and illegally, into America. As a percentage of the entire population, immigrants are now very close to the peak of 14.8 percent set in 1890.

by: Andrew Sullivan

New York magazine (Jan 23-Feb 5, 2017)

Andrew Sullivan, the journalist for New York magazine,  emigrated to the United States from Britain. He seems more honest than most writers about the United States' extraordinary ability to absorb the 42 million immigrants, many from Mexico, Latin America, and Asia, and he credits our country with the flexible approach to the demographic and racial shift that has occurred. Pressure seems to be building though, and the rise of President Trump is a clear indicator of the tensions that arise when a population experiences so much change. Trump speaks about wanting people who "love our country" and share our values but it seems like a thinly veiled (no pun intended) reference to racial, cultural and ethnic pressures. The racial composition of the USA is changing in fundamental ways. That's a big deal.

Ironically, the immigrants seem to have made the United States a better place to live. Trump talks about "Make America Great Again" but from my vantage point, living in a prosperous city (Austin, Texas), America seems pretty great already. I remember New York City in the 1960s being a dirty, lousy, dangerous place. Remember Taxi Driver (1976), Martin Scorsese cinematic depiction of the mean streets of New York? New York now seems revived and safer and I credit the immigrants as a big part of that improved environment. In fact, back in the 1970s most American cities seemed like dreary, abandoned, economically depressed places with the white middle class having moved to the suburbs. American cities have been revived by a combination of hardworking, law-abiding immigrants and a return of the white intelligentsia back to the urban centers.

Everything works pretty well in America. We have always had great infrastructure-- clean drinking water and highly efficient electrical and utility services. Now we have even more luxury. The land is blanketed with an amazing electronic computer network and almost every citizen has a computer (called a cellphone) in their pocket that would have been the envy of the NASA scientists who put a man on the moon. 

I understand that rural America does not feel it is enjoying the economic benefits of the present day. The jobs have left their communities. The wonderful cars we drive are often built by Japanese or Korean companies. Even in the great Apple iPhone is manufactured in China. If you walk past a construction site the crew of workers usually speaks Spanish. The quality of the work is impeccable on new home construction and in the home improvement projects done by Hispanic workers, legal and illegal. Everything in Austin is humming along-- from great restaurants to clean streets.

None of this solves the problem. Many Americans feel treated and under siege by the vast numbers of people who do not look like the original white European settlers and citizens. The Europeans and African-American population brought here forcibly and enslaved dominated the North American continent from 1600-1950-- a 350 year run of dynamic change and prosperity, though clearly not for everyone. Now we seem to be on America 2.0. And the upgrade, just like computer upgrades, seems to have advantages and flaws. 

The question remains-- does President Trump have any insights into how to work out the bugs and problems that plague and drag down America 2.0?

TV Guide 2/6/60-- Globalism Begins

Richard Boone, star of Have Gun, Will Travel, appears on the cover of the February 6, 1960 issue of TV Guide but the words on the cover implore readers to "Name Your Favorite Stars and Shows." The cover also directs reader to page 5 of the pint-sized magazine-- for accessing the TV Guide Awards Nominating Ballot. Turn to page 5, and there are 7 categories--

1) Favorite half-hour series
2) Favorite one-hour-or-longer series
3) Best single dramatic program
4) Best single musical or variety program
5) Best news or information program
6) Most popular male personality
7) Most popular female personality

Readers are asked to cut along the dotted line and mail their choices to a TV Guide post office box in Philadelphia.

And so began the electronic age where the audience participates in a very active way in the creative process. Today things are easier; we can text our votes for winners on American Idol.

Read Marshall McLuhan, the media philosopher, to sate any curiosity about the notion of electronic media as participatory. And watch yourself studying the contents of your cellphone and pressing the buttons for confirmation of McLuhan's insights.

The magazine's first article, "Lions Can't Lose and They Hate Lucy," appears just after the nominations ballot and highlights the international flavor of television. Saudi Arabia had a major problem with I Love Lucy as the strong-willed Lucille Ball was perceived by the Saudis, perhaps correctly, as dominating husband Desi Arnaz. I Love Lucy was forbidden in Saudi Arabia.

The article mentions several other nations. The Japanese were comfortable with post-WW II shows like Air Power, Navy Log depicting the Japanese defeat in World War II but a Japanese sponsor didn't like nature shows showing a lion being shot, reason being the Japanese sponsor "Dr. Lion's Tooth Paste" preferred not to see the lion defeated in any form or fashion. Fulgencio Batista, the Cuban dictator rejected Gunsmoke for the Cuban audience, as the dictator feared the show's gun play might encourage a revolution. And American television companies rejected Spain's currency, the peseta, as payment for television product. They wanted dollars.  The more things change...

Richard Boone had praise for directors of series Westerns, including a guy named Gene Rodenberry, though cowboy shows were considered inferior to the high art dramatic shows of the time, including Playhouse 90. Here's Boone's comment:

"There's a kind of snobbery," says Boone, "in live TV that carries with it the implication of pure art. Why? I don't know. All I know is that as far as I'm concerned Have Gun is better produced, better written and better directed than-- that thing."

Seems to me, Boone won that argument. Live TV dramas leave something to be desired and have largely fallen by the wayside.

Jack Paar's show was going strong every evening at 11:00 PM airtime in Austin, Texas. Jack's guests that week included Phyllis Dyller, Charley Weaver, and "singer Florence Henderson of the Today  show." Steve Allen had a program on the schedule for Monday night, 9:00 PM, showing the Tonight Show host had already shifted from Steve Allen to Jack Paar.

And ABC's Friday night Boxing featured Emile Griffith in a welterweight bout against Gaspar Ortega from Tijuana, Mexico. "This is the TV debut of Griffith, 1958 National Golden Gloves champion." A little more than a year later Emile Griffith fought and killed Benny "Kid" Paret in a controversial match that led to the cancellation of the ABC's boxing program.

Boxing popularity on television has fallen off since those early days of the medium, mainly become a niche sport, and McLuhan explained that a hot war, like Vietnam, does not work well with a cool medium like television. We participate, interact intimately with the TV flow of electrons. Such intimacy makes war, and possibly a boxing match, too hot for handling by our central nervous system.