LIFE WINS & WINNERS

    Looking at nature has become my lead antidote when news like that of Brussels rips the fabric of civilization. Heart break and mourning struggles against a sense of anger that fuels a desire for revenge. Isis must be destroyed, but there is little I can do, here. Sages tell us peace starts with our self. If not solace, if not reigning peace, at least a glimpse of that in the abundant resurrection of spring life. It helps. 

 CUBA CHANGES

          I'll be glad to return to Cuba. It will change, now that we are warming our relationship with the Island. Eventually it will be painted, rebuilt, refurbished and brought into the 21st Century. 
      The Cuba of Hemingway was an exotic brew of colonial aftermath and Caribbean passion but it was changed by the money of those who went to party, becoming a storied and sensual playground. After the revolution the Island fell into a prismatic melancholy, tattered and even rejected but still vibrant, alluring and intoxicating. Ghosts of the grand elegance and shadows of revolution curled like opposing shapes, unhappy companions, blown by trade winds down the decaying boulevards past crumbling mansions where squatters claimed grandeur and made their own joy. Music in alleys, dancing on stoops, laundry like flags on balconies, old cars Mad Max like, restaurants in homes, buildings falling into piles, areas of blackouts, festival spirit and poor but happy people. That is the Cuba I will remember and long to see again. But it will morph. 
      Obama's visit is the flipped switch that will now begin to 
return modernity, tourism and business. The forbidden jewel will be accessible again and that special, unique place trapped between diplomatic war and its inherent desire to make merry will begin to disappear. The new Cuba will shine no doubt and perhaps in ways like before the revolution. But that Island stuck between Castro's rise, Hemingway's departure and Obama's arrival will shrink away. That is the Cuba I love.
       Links to previous posts from the Cuba File.

The Cuba File Archive

•        The Old Man and the Sea-Meeting Hemingway's boat Captain
• Cuban File-Street Scenes
• Cuba File-The Shrine of St Lazaro
• Inside Hemingway's Home

THE BUILDER OF INSPIRATION

    Once these older boys were part of a creative factory that changed radio and influenced television, advertising and promotion.

     These fellows are part of Jim's team. From the left, Mike Griffin, Bob Christy, Jim Hilliard, this blogger, George Johns. Hilliard began as a young radio star who ended up a broadcasting mogul and business genius. He had that genius and ability to inspire when he assembled a team in the late 60's that created new forms of modern radio. We had fun and  made it up as we went along. Recently we gathered in Cambria. For some of us it was our first time together in almost 40 years. Wow!  Did the stories and memories flow.

     Here's a link to Bob Christy's blog post on the reunion.

     Here's a link to observations by one of our favorites, Bruce Taylor, who though he was not at the reunion was part of that late 60's group. 

      It would sound like tooting our horn to detail the accomplishment and impact of that Fairbanks Broadcasting team. We just did it and back then kept moving on to the next goal. Now with benefit of hindsight, the record gives us a sense of pride. But more important was the warmth of old friendships and simply being together again. The old National PD, George put it together. He can still format winners and Jim can still lead us over the next hill. Winners, willing to pay the price.

     See you down the trail.

THE WEEKENDER-INTO THE WAY BACK MACHINE

DIALING BACK

       Ever have a word or idea just leap into your head?  Not sure why or where it came from?  That's how Ish Kabibble got here.

Photo Courtesy of Wikipedia

       Kabibble was a radio and movie player in the 40's and 50's, part of Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical Knowledge which my parents listened to.  In chasing down the origin of this odd and invading name, I come back to my mother and a great aunt who used to laugh at Kabibble, or at least the name.

     He started off to be a lawyer, Merwyn Bogue, but his comedic skills landed him in Kay Kyser cast.  Maybe the atmospheric storms raking the California Coast dislodged the funny man from deep in the brain.  BTW Ish Kabibble is said to be from a mock Yiddish expression meaning "I should worry?"  

    Here's a sample of the Kay Kyser comedy from a simpler time in America.

FURTER TIME TRAVELS

   It's the early 60's and this very white kid in middle America is searching the radio dial at night for music that had soul.  Some people in those days called it "race music."   I could dial in a station from Nashville, WLAC that filled the night with R&B, Rhythm and Blues. I heard music there unlike anything else on the airwaves.  

    Somehow, by a fluke of nature which radio engineers have told me was impossible I also heard the strains of something called Ska.  It was from Jamaica and was the progenitor of Reggae and Rock Steady.  

    There was an artist that my middle class, middle American, white friends could never imagine-Justin Hinds and the Dominoes.  This is the first step on the path to Reggae.

       Rock Steady and then Reggae were more up tempo, and a richer form of music that would have immense impact on Rock and jazz.  What may be curious to some is that Ska, like early Reggae was also equal parts politics and religion.

"Better to seek a home in Mount Zion High

Instead of keeping oppression upon an innocent man

But time will tell on you, you old jezebel

As the musical idiom grew and gave birth to Reggae

Justin Hinds and the Dominoes changed too

       So to both of my daughters, true Reggae fans, this has been a little footnote to your dad's history-how on dark midwestern nights a white teen searched the atmosphere for a sound that all of these years later thrills you.

    Ish Kabibble to Reggae?  All on the radio!

    Must be some powerful atmospheric currents bouncing between the Pacific and the mountains eh? What, I should worry?

     Happy listening.  Have a good weekend.

     See you down the trail.

    

THE WEEKENDER:) TAKE FIVE

THE CLASSIC

Dave Brubeck's TAKE FIVE took me out of a rock and

pop world into jazz back in high school.  I found a 

jazz station on the dial and was hooked, though my

buddies barely tolerated it on my car radio. 

I enjoyed being able to punch back and forth between say,

Satisfaction by the Stones and and Sidewinder by Lee Morgan. When they drove it was all Beatles, Stones,
Beach Boys, Dave Clark Five, etc.  That was fine
but jazz held a special allure.
As a school kid I worked in the downtown area of Indianapolis  as a "stringer" and gofer for the Indianapolis Times and as a board operator for a "fine music" FM station headquartered in an old hotel.  Well the jazz station was on the top floor of another hotel that I passed on my commute.  I'd stop by that hotel, buzz at the studio door and be ushered into warren of an album filled rooms. 
"Look around kid, see what you like." 
The DJ's were not like the
pop star jocks at the rock stations.  These guys were older, both black and white, musicians themselves and
somewhat tickled that a white middle class kid
was hooked on jazz.  
It all started when I first heard Brubeck's piano and Paul Desmond's sax.  
So the Weekender :) wants you to dig it.

See you down the trail.