Issue 33: What’s New

Published August 24, 2014

 This issue is dedicated to the memory of George and Shirley Evans

It’s been a helluva few weeks.  Watching the news from Ferguson, Missouri the racist, over-the-top military style response to the protests of the police homicide of Michael Brown, recalled shades of fire hoses, dogs and billy clubs in Birmingham and so many other struggles from Kent State to Cairo.  Hands held in the air in non-violent surrender as the unarmed African-American teenager was seen just before being gunned down in broad daylight has become the new international symbol of protest in demonstrations of support throughout the world. (Click here for more)

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And then we heard the tragic news of Robin Williams’ death.  The other night we watched Dead Poets Society with friends in an ad hoc tribute and remembrance of just one side of his extremely gifted and talented personality.  What a powerful piece and ironic prognostication of his own tortured future.  (Click here for more)

 

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Even though it’s not completed I decided to continue to publish another chapter from Happy Smith Goes to Brooklyn.  In Chapter One (Lightning Strikes, published in Issue 31), perennial bench riding rookie Happy Smith of the Brooklyn Superbas (before they changed their name to the Dodgers) is shocked to find himself inserted into a critical Major League game situation against the league leading Chicago Cubs.  He finishes his warm up swings and nervously strolls to the plate.  In this next chapter, Eastward Ho, Happy begins to recall the events leading up to his current situation. (Click here for more)

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Photo by Robert Altman

Next is a review of Paul Simon and Sting’s concert tour – a piece I wrote quite some time ago (the concert was back in March) but never quite managed to hit the “publish” button. Paul Simon has always been a favorite – still constant after all these years (fifty, but who’s counting?). The love of his music has been rekindled for me with each of the incredible number of times he has reinvented his musical self, bringing new influences, merging styles and genres, promoting world music and proving himself a truly world-class musician. (Click here for more)

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Finally, more recently we watched a Sting concert on PBS Great Performances in which he sang the tunes from his first musical “The Last Ship” scheduled to open on Broadway this fall. Sting demonstrates a natural talent for setting stories into motion through his songs and was able to evoke much of the feeling inherent in the tale of his working class home town… a town where he grew up literally in the shadows of huge iron ships being built just down the street; a town where virtually everyone was connected in some way to the industry that sustained  it.  (Click here for more)

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Happy trails ’til next time…

pdk