Movin' On and Groovin' On.

 

 

 

Hi Carolyn, 

 

 

Running just a tad and a skooch behind this week. Summer seems to have only grown more frenetic since I hung up the pedagogical spurs, I swear.  

 

 

 

This is a bit of a cathartic or leaving the nest type moment in my reader/writer relationship with Harlan Ellison. I’ve read a couple of interviews he did this year and also had a boo at the documentary about him  in 2008. Harlan Ellison hasn’t changed and while he hasn’t really evolved into a caricature of his former self, I guess I’ve changed in my appreciation of him.

 This  may just be the same kind of thing that happened with Tolkien a few months back except that in this case I’ve not grown into a fuller appreciation of his works ( The Hobbit especially ) but have grown out of my former sense of all-encompassing and forgiving adulation for Mr. Ellison. It's not because of his literary activities but more because of the sense or feeling about him as a public figure.


 He's become another of a fairly long line of litigious bullies with deep enough pockets to make it work. He's certainly not lonely in that sort of endeavour. Chuck Berry, Liberace,  The Church of Scientology, and The Apple Corporation have the same M.O.


He’s also another one of those types I’ve referred to like McCartney and Shatner, - they are the very best at what they do, but looking at them outside of their art ( which this world where celebrity frequently trumps accomplishment, makes it so easy for us to do ) is a whole other thing. Like those other two chaps, I find I would not like to be in the presence of Harlan Ellison for very long. He seems to have an absolute pathological need to stir things up and be confrontational. He’s simply not a very likeable human specimen. In David' Pringles Ultimate Encyclopedia of Science Fiction ( a very handy and enjoyable reference item, BTW ) Ellison's career is referred to at one point as " Sinatra-like " and I now see just how absolutely apt that simile is.


What I certainly enjoyed supremely in the Dreams with Sharp Teeth documentary was Ellison  verbally riffing with Robin Williams - one of the few people who can match him in sheer  mental agility and improvisational prowess. It's almost beyond words enjoyable.


That mysterious humming down Windsor way is really intriguing.
At one time it could have come from the thriving auto manufacturing complexes that  hummed and thrummed right across the river in Detroit. Recent events in and around The Motor City certainly point up poignantly just how that scene has changed.


  As for that long low hum stuff as a possible factor in my love affair with music, I will admit that I always turn the bass right up and simply won’t buy any kind of sound system that doesn’t include a brawny subwoofer. So you just may be on to something Dr. Varvel! I sometimes wonder which I would miss more if I lost it, my sight or my hearing - and my hearing comes out on top more often than not, simply because I would be robbed of my music.


　
　
　
　
Riddle time!


My last one was "Trust" - more specifically, mutual trust. I guess in many ways that's not unlike confidence.


I’m guessing lightning for yours, this time.


Try this one on.

Copper and indigo

On a canvas of cotton

Mr. Dean and Mr. Springsteen helped

immortalize the image.

Don








 All images sourced from Google Images

Fig. 1 - popsugar.com
Fig. 2 - imdb.com
Fig. 3 - dvdverdict.com
Fig. 4 - ninjanoveltysigns.com
Fig. 5 - musicpsychology.co.uk