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Note: Today is New Year's Eve Eve. So if I don't get a chance to say it tomorrow, Happy New Year! I hope 2020 will be a happy, healthy, safe, and prosperous year for all of us.

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The Newseum In D.C. Is Closing

New York's WCBS Newsradio Eight-Eighty reported that the Newseum, an interactive museum in Washington, D.C. dedicated to the news gathering business, is slated to close its doors on December 31, 2019. The stated cause was financial difficulties which have plagued it over its eleven-year existence.

The museum, states Wikipedia, "promotes free expression and the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, while tracing the evolution of communication" in a space that has seven levels, fifteen theatres, and twelve galleries.

I've never been to the museum. But if it had been located in New York, where I live, instead of Washington, D.C., I would've been a regular attendee since I'm a journalist and an avid reader of the press.

Such an important institution about journalism, an important profession, should not be allowed to disappear forever.

Maybe the Newseum can be saved and relocated to New York, where a lot of media companies are headquartered. Bloomberg, Murdoch, and other media moguls, are you listening?

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Note: Today is the first day of Kwanzaa. Happy Kwanzaa!

Books, Books, And More Books

I am a die-hard lover of the printed word. And one of the joys of walking (or riding mass transit) in New York, especially in Manhattan, is finding reading material unexpectedly.

While walking home after shopping at Trader Joe's on Columbus Avenue, I found lying on the sidewalk the December 9, 2019 issue of People magazine that had Tom Hanks on the cover.

A few days later, on the M5 bus heading uptown on Broadway, I found a copy of The New Yorker (December 16, 2019 issue) that someone had tucked in the corner of a window seat.

Two weeks ago, next to two other books on top of a garbage can, there was a book called Life Doesn't Frighten Me, with artwork by Jean-Michel Basquiat and poetry by Maya Angelou. As I was crossing the street, with the book tucked under an arm, a young policeman (a rookie?) on foot patrol did something out of the ordinary, he said to me "Good Morning."  I responded, " Good Morning." I turned around and said, "A friendly policeman! That's good!" (His partner didn't say a word.) Maybe the young cop was a Basquiat fan and when he saw Basquiat's name on the cover, it brought out his friendly side.

One of my best finds was a box of books, all paperback, also near the garbage area. The building was down the street from where I live. Fortunately, I had some plastic bags with me. I took only the books that interested me such as The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain, Orange Is the New Black by Piper Kerman, The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick, Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin, The Alienist by Caleb Carr, The Piano Lesson by August Wilson, and Best Food Writing 2015, edited by Holly Hughes.

And yesterday, coming from my eye doctor's office in Harlem, I discovered, you guessed it, on top of a garbage can shed in front of an apartment building, a book of essays by Teju Cole that someone no longer wanted or needed. It's called Known and Strange Things, published in 2016.

These books are now permanent residents in my already book-cluttered apartment.

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Netflix Saves An Iconic Manhattan Movie House

The Paris Theatre, the last single-screen movie house in Manhattan, recently closed its doors. For a long time I'd thought about seeing a movie there but never got around to doing it. When the theatre closed, I thought my opportunity to visit was forever gone. Then I read in Time Out New York magazine (December 11-24, 2019, Issue 1177), that Netflix came to the Paris Theatre's rescue by signing a long-term lease.

Netflix, reported Time Out, will use the Paris Theatre "to stage screenings and special events." And since the Academy Awards only allows films that have had a theatrical release to be nominated for an Oscar, Netflix films will have a ready-made venue.

Now if we could just convince Netflix to take over the long-vacant Metro Cinema, located on Broadway and 99th Street, at one time a venue for art-house films. The Upper West Side was once the home to many movie houses. Now there are none. Bringing back the Metro Cinema would be a wonderful thing.

And while we're at it, maybe Netflix can also revive the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, which was located near Lincoln Center. It closed down about two years ago.

Remembering Forgotten Actors And Other Entertainment People

A website I stumbled upon recently is called forgottenactors.blogspot.com. I discovered it when I was looking up info on an actor named Sam Buffington, who I had seen on television in an episode each of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Highway Patrol. Both episodes were filmed in the 1950s. I learned that Buffington, a promising talent, died in 1960 at the age of 28, a victim of suicide. Buffington was a gay man at a time when being gay was not considered a cool thing.

I began thinking that Entertainment Weekly, a publication to which I subscribe, should do a column each issue devoted to forgotten members of all branches of the entertainment industry like Buffington, actor James Edwards (the up-and-coming black actor before Sidney Poitier), et al.

There should also be a "Where Are They Now?" feature in the magazine that brings readers up to date on the whereabouts and doings of people no longer prominent in the entertainment industry.


Note: Today is Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.

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There Are No Smart Phones Or Dumb Phones

Nowadays, we hear a lot about smart phones, smart televisions, smart audio speakers, smart electricity meters, smart refrigerators, smart this, smart that.  You would think these technological wonders were self-created, self-aware, self-perpetuating, self-repairing.

There is no "smart" technology or "dumb" technology. These devices are the brainchildren of humans who have created and programmed them to do whatever it is they're supposed to do. A rotary dial phone, for example, can't take a picture or send and receive text messages or record videos. That doesn't make it dumb. It wasn't designed to do any of those things. Does that make Alexander Graham Bell a "dumb" inventor because he neglected to make his phone "smart"?

Instead of calling these devices "smart," they should be called "enhanced" or "augmented" technology.

Bad Policing In Harlem

The following is a letter-to-the-editor that I sent to The Village Voice. The letter was published in the March 3-9, 2004 issue.

Dear Editor:

Ta-Nehisi Coates's valentine to the NYPD ["Black for Blue: Learning to Love Tha Police," February 18-24, 2004] brought to mind the night, two summers ago, when I needed the police. Unlike in Coates's situation, they did not deliver. After being pushed down a flight of stairs by a young man outside my place of employment, the Mount Morris Baths in Harlem, I called 911 three times. The police never showed up.

Two paramedics arrived about 20 minutes after the unprovoked attack. By then the young man and his buddies were long gone. Fortunately, the only damage was a scraped knee and broken eyeglasses, but it could have been much worse. I thought about writing a letter to the precinct commander, but then I changed my mind, thinking that it would be a waste of time. Maybe the quick response of the police to Coates's partner was because a female was the victim. And maybe because my location was that of a gay men's bathhouse, the police didn't feel it was necessary to exert themselves by making an appearance.

Whatever the reason, it certainly didn't make me think that they cared about me, the victim of a crime.

Charles Michael Smith
Harlem

Ta-Nehisi Coates replies: "Thank you to everyone who took the time to write in. Feedback is a vital part of any attempt at responsible journalism. I'd like to extend my condolences to you, Mr. Smith, for that terrible incident and NYPD's lackluster response. As your case so poignantly demonstrates, there is still work to be done, in terms of police-community relations."

Learning Another Word For Jet Lag

While reading Jeanne Mackin's riveting novel, The Last Collection (Berkley, 2019), about the rivalry between Paris couturiers Elsa Schiaparelli and Coco Chanel, I learned a new word--desynchronosis, the physical ailment one experiences traveling across time zones via airplane. It's better known as jet lag or jet fatigue.

What's Your Choice--An Amusement Park Or A Museum?

I recently discovered a new television network called Dabl (seen in the New York metro area on WCBS, Channel 2.3). It focuses on lifestyles.

The first show I've seen so far is Doctor & the Diva. In their "This or That" segment, they asked this question: Would you prefer to be locked in an amusement park or a museum? Kimberley, one of the show's hosts, said she'd prefer to be locked in an amusement park because she'd be bored in a museum. Her co-host, Steve, said he'd prefer the museum.

Having spent many pleasurable hours in museums, that would be my choice, too. Museums offer so much to see, do, and learn, how could anyone be bored? Especially at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, my favorite, which is so large, with so many exhibits, you could spend the whole day there and not see everything.

People Magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive" Title Is Meaningless

While channel surfing early this morning, I watched The Wendy Williams Show on the Bounce channel long enough to learn that singer John Legend was selected to be People magazine's Sexiest Man Alive.

To me, the title is meaningless since every year a different man is chosen. The Sexiest Man Alive title should be a lifelong honor instead of a temporary one. If John Legend is the Sexiest Man Alive this year, why wasn't he last year? And what happened to the guy who held the title last year and the guy chosen before him?

It's clearly a ploy to sell more copies of People magazine and nothing more.

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Note: November is National Native American (or Indigenous Peoples) Heritage Month.

Legalizing The World's Oldest Profession

Dear Editor: 
The legislators can pass all the laws they want, the clergymen can deliver all the sermons they want, and the editorialists can write all the scathing editorials they want. None of this will ever put an end to prostitution. The best solution is to legalize it. In this way, state and local authorities can minimize the number of prostitutes under 18. It also would minimize customer ripoffs, make periodic physical exams mandatory, and eliminate the often brutal pimp. Here's another plus--it would be a good source of tax revenue.

Note: My letter-to-the-editor was originally published in the Voice of the People column of the New York Daily News on July 9, 1979.

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Note: Don't forget that Daylight Saving Time ends this Sunday and to turn back your clocks one hour.

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Note: Tomorrow is Halloween. Have a safe and happy Halloween! BOO!

Watching Movies Inside A Train Station

Here's an interesting bit of New York cinema history that I recently learned about via an electronic message that appeared on a curbside Link NYC kiosk: In the 1930s, during the Great Depression, there was a movie theatre inside the world-famous Grand Central Terminal.

Numerous questions came to mind upon learning this: who operated the theatre?; where in the terminal was it located?; how many people did it seat?; was it ornate?; did the train noises disturb moviegoers?; were the moviegoers mostly commuters?; etc., etc., etc. I would love to have those questions answered.

No doubt it, like other theatres, was a single-screen venue; no multiplexes back then.

Who knew that Grand Central Terminal was large enough to house a movie theatre?

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Grading Restaurant Customers

Has it ever occurred to restaurant wait staff in New York City to assign letter grades to the customers for cleanliness, courtesy, table manners (no texting while dining, for example), and tip generosity? Or give a "Grade Pending" status to those who are aware of their shortcomings and promise to do better during their next visit?

Note: The above blog post came to me in a dream.

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Note: Enjoy the autumn colors!

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The Community Within The Black Community

There's an old saying, "Dead men tell no tales." How many wonderful and intriguing stories of black gay men and lesbians have been buried with their possessors? Stories that would give us a special perspective on black life and culture overall. Stories that the black press and academia have largely given short shrift to out of prejudice and ignorance.

I have long supported Black Studies. And in the last 20 plus years, I have developed an interest in the gay and lesbian aspect of it, "the community within the [black] community," as Lloyd Williams, a  Harlem civic leader, has described it on "The Gary Byrd Experience," a weekly talk show simulcast on WBLS and WLIB, two New York radio stations.

I hope to continue doing articles, interviews, and essays concerning this community via this blog and the print media.

New Names Added To The Literary Canon

In one of the display windows of the bookstore called Book Culture, located on West 112th Street, near Broadway, in Manhattan, was this printed message situated among eleven books:

"Homer Herodotus Sophocles Plato Aristotle Demosthenes Cicero Virgil

Angelou Anzaldua Chang Hurston Morrison Revalthi Shange Silko

You've seen the new names on Butler Library [on the campus of nearby Columbia University], now check out their books!"

Among the books on display were Love: A Novel by Toni Morrison, Gardens in the Dunes by Leslie Marmon Silko, Mules and Men by Zora Neale Hurston, and Even the Stars Look Lonesome by Maya Angelou.


Note: Today is National Do Something Nice Day.

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Note: On this day in 1955, actor James Dean was killed in a car collision in California. He was 24 years old.

Why I Love New York In 25 Words

WNYE,Channel 25, a public television station in New York, has a short feature it broadcasts between programs called "Why I Love New York in 25 Words" in which celebrities explain their love for the city. It has inspired me to do the same.

Central Park (especially the Conservatory Garden. I overheard a woman tell her male companion, "This is my peaceful garden. My sanctuary.")

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Harlem (Some of the most beautiful architecture in the city can be found there.)

New York Public Library (A cornucopia of information. A book lover's paradise.)

Museum Mile Festival (At this annual event, all the museums along Fifth Avenue, including the Met, are free.)

Book Culture and the Strand (My two favorite independent bookstores. If I was looking for a hard to find book, I would go to these stores to see if one of them had it.)

Noche Mexicana Restaurant (I love their tacos!)

Mass Transit System (Despite its many problems, it operates 24 hours a day and links most areas of the city for $2.75.)



Note: Poets & Writers magazine (September/October 2019) announced that the Publishing Triangle gave its Judy Grahn Award for Lesbian Nonfiction to Imani Perry for her biography of playwright Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965). The book, Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry, was published by Beacon Press. Ms. Perry is a professor at Princeton University.

Last year I attended a conversation she had with Dr. Eddie Glaude, Jr. regarding the biography at Harlem's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

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Harlem Renaissance Redux

What I would like to see is a true second Harlem Renaissance, not the one they say exists today which is really more about real estate and gentrification than anything cultural.

This new movement would rival, maybe surpass, what went on in Harlem in the 1920s and 1930s, out of which came such artistic luminaries as Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Countee Cullen, Claude McKay, et al. It would involve every branch of the arts to the nth degree, making use of existing as well as newly created cultural venues.

In my fantasy world, my apartment, which has a large living room, would be at the center of this activity a la A'Lelia Walker's Dark Tower salon on West 136th Street. (Walker, the daughter of the black cosmetics entrepreneur Madame C.J. Walker, was a supporter of the arts during the Harlem Renaissance.)

As a result, Harlem Week, instead of being a month-long series of events in August as it is now, would be year round.

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Stephen Sondheim On Upper Broadway

In 2018 I attended the "Wall to Wall Leonard Bernstein" program, an eight-hour tribute to the life and work of the conductor/composer/pianist, at Symphony Space, a cultural gem at the corner of 95th Street and Broadway on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

This year Symphony Space honored jazz saxophonist John Coltrane with a "Wall to Wall" program that I also attended. I was able to see and hear bassist Reggie Workman and saxophonist Gary Bartz perform live. Both men are jazz legends.

While browsing the theatre's brochure for the 2019/2020 season, I was delighted to learn that in May there will be a "Wall to Wall Stephen Sondheim" program that, like all the previous "Wall to Wall" events, will run for eight hours (3 pm to 11 pm) and will be free to the public (donations are suggested). The program will celebrate Sondheim's creative genius as well as his 90th birthday.

Sondheim, a co-creator of West Side Story (along with Bernstein, Arthur Laurents, and Jerome Robbins), as well as the composer/lyricist of other Broadway shows, is one of my favorite composers. And next year I'll get the chance to hear for the first time his music live in a theatre. All other times have been via television, film, and sound recordings.

A Long-Forgotten Pre-Stonewall Novel

One of my Facebook friends, Michael Schiavi, the biographer of the late gay film historian Vito Russo, posted a photo of the front cover of a book called The Gay Year by M de F (originally published in 1949) and described on the cover as "The revealing novel of two men and a forbidden passion."

The book is probably out of print but I would love to read it. The Strand bookstore in the Chelsea section of Manhattan might have a copy or two in its miles and miles of books.

It would be interesting to see if homosexuality is depicted as sordid, perverse, wicked, and psychotic. If it does, The Gay Year would reflect the attitudes prevalent back then.

I'm hoping the novel was way ahead of its time by showing a more progressive, enlightened view. We'll see.

Mere Clutter Or A Potential Goldmine?

When people enter my apartment for the first time and see piles of newspapers and magazines (and lots and lots of books) everywhere, their reaction tells me that they regard what they see as clutter and a possible fire hazard.

For me in those piles of printed material are potential literary goldmines--stories that are waiting to be clipped and filed and later turned into novels, short stories, poems, essays, screenplays.

What's one man's clutter is another man's treasure.

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Note: Happy Labor Day weekend!

Note 2: The Black Panther 2 blog post has a spacing problem. To see it, go all the way to the bottom of the page. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Note 3: The spacing problem has been solved somewhat. See below.

The Black Panther Sequel Arrives In 2022

According to the website Deadline.Com, Black Panther 2 will be in theatres on May 6, 2022. So mark your calendars. The first one grossed $1.35 billion at the box office worldwide.

I thoroughly enjoyed Black Panther and I'm looking forward to seeing the sequel.








According to the website Deadline.Com, Black Panther 2 will be in theatres on May 6, 2022. So mark your calendars. The first one grossed $1.35 billion at the box office worldwide.

I thoroughly enjoyed Black Panther and I'm looking forward to seeing the sequel.
















                                                                                                                           
                                     

           
                                                                                   






                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

                                                                                                                                                               

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A Black Heritage T-Shirt

Last week, on the M5 city bus traveling uptown on Amsterdam Avenue, in Manhattan, I saw a very interesting and unusual sight--a portly, middle-aged white man wearing a black heritage-themed T-shirt. As he stood in the aisle talking to the lady seated next to me and her husband who stood next to her, I was able to jot down what was printed on the shirt:

"Dream Like Martin
 Challenge Like Rosa
 Inspire Like Barack
 Write Like Maya
 Build Like Oprah
 Educate Like W.E.B.
 Fight Like Malcolm
 Believe Like Thurgood
 Speak Like Frederick
 Stand Up Like Colin
 Lead Like Harriet
 Champion Like Ali"

Obviously this was a man with respect for black historical figures and was not shy about showing it.

I have a co-worker at the call center who proudly shows his afrocentricity by wearing T-shirts with photos of such icons as Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone, Marvin Gaye, and Malcolm X. But I've never seen him wear a T-shirt like the aforementioned one.

I'm not much for wearing logos, slogans, and photos on clothing. But the T-shirt I saw on the bus is worth owning if only to display it as an alternative and a corrective to the profane and narcissistic ones I've seen people wear on the streets of Harlem and elsewhere.

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Remembering Novelist/Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison

Earlier this week, Toni Morrison died at age 88. My longtime friend, Armando Alleyne, an artist who lives in Brooklyn, sent me a text message regarding her passing:

"A great great sister scholar professor and Pulitzer Prize winner has moved on [.] Toni Morrison I pray that she's in the angel wings in the great great palace [.]"

(Sent @ 04:54 AM, 08/07/2019)

I responded:

"I heard the sad news of Toni Morrison's passing. I have three of her books [Sula, Song of Solomon, and Beloved]. Maybe we should honor her by reading one of her books."

(Sent @ 03:12 PM, 08/07/2019)


R.I.P. Toni Morrison (1931-2019).

Commemorating James Baldwin's Birthday

Yesterday, August 2nd, as I walked near the world-famous Apollo Theatre, its electronic marquee reminded me that it was James Baldwin's birthday. The fiery novelist/essayist, a son of Harlem, would have been 95 years old this year.

If Baldwin were still alive, no doubt his voice and pen would be highly critical of the Trump administration as well as the white supremacist alt-right movement, who are among Trump's avid supporters. And no doubt Trump would be on Twitter criticizing, perhaps ridiculing, Baldwin's comments. But Trump would be no match for Baldwin's eloquence and penetrating intellect.

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A Memorable Slogan

I love this slogan seen on the side of a truck belonging to a porta-potty company that was parked on Saint Nicholas Avenue, near 123rd Street, in Harlem: "We're Number One In Picking Up Number Two." It's a slogan more dog owners should adopt.

An Anti-Racist Song From The 1950s

Carmen McRae recorded a beautiful tune in 1958 called "Georgia Rose" (found on the CD, Carmen McRae's Finest Hour on the Verve label).There's a line in it that goes "Don't be blue, 'cause you're black, Georgia Rose." The tune, written by Jimmy Flynn, Harry Rosenthal, and Alexander Sullivan,  was very bold for its time with its anti-racist, black is beautiful message. I mentioned this song in a blog post in 2012. It would be useful if someone, maybe me, wrote an article or a book about the origin of the song.

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A TV Program About Blacks In Latin America

In the fourth and final episode of historian Henry Louis Gates's PBS program, Black in Latin America, which dealt with the African diaspora in Mexico and Peru, Gates neglected to mention that the Mexican painter Diego Rivera had a black grandmother, per Langston Hughes biographer Arnold Rampersad.

Furthermore, it would be interesting to see if Gates does a  Black in Europe series on PBS. That would be an eye-opening program, revealing how much influence African descended individuals have had in various European countries throughout the centuries up to present times.

Note: Today is National French Fry Day!

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Note: Happy Fourth of July, everyone!

Celebrating World Pride And Stonewall 50 Together

 I went to the World Pride parade in the Chelsea section of Manhattan yesterday. Boy, was it crowded and super long. When the parade ended, it was almost 12:30 in the morning!

A recent sighting: Propped up outside one of the display windows of the Bank Street Bookstore, an Upper West Side of Manhattan establishment that specializes in children's books, was a small black message board with removable letters of the alphabet. On it was this message, with one letter missing: "[I]T'S PRIDE BITCHES. SHAKE YA ASS!" It was placed in front of a display of Pride-themed children's books.

I couldn't resist the urge to put it in my tote bag and take it home where it will be put in a prominent place because it is such a novelty item. I may even take a photo of it and put it in one of my photo albums.

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Note: This Sunday is the Pride Day parade and the commemoration of Stonewall 50! I hope everyone will enjoy themselves.

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Note: Hooray, today is the first day of summer!

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A Warning Against Film Piracy

The most memorable DVD "FBI Anti-Piracy Warning" was the one I saw before the start of the 1945 film And Then There Were None, which was based on an Agatha Christie mystery novel, and starred Barry Fitzgerald. In this warning, a computer-generated image of a man is seen in prison stripes walking forlornly into a prison cell. The cell door slides shut, the scene blacks out briefly. He is next shown sitting on his prison cot, head in his hands. Then the "FBI Warning" message crawls up the screen as a mournful harmonica is heard throughout the segment.

If that doesn't send home the message that film piracy has serious consequences then nothing will.

Happy Pride Month

Today is the first day of Pride Month! I hope everyone will have a happy Pride Month. I'm looking forward to the Stonewall 50 celebrations, which will probably last until the end of the year.

This month also marks the twentieth anniversary of  the publication of Fighting Words: Essays by Black Gay Men, an anthology I edited. It was published in 1999 by Avon Books.

Some Wise Words

In a 1950s Person to Person interview on television, the actress Gertrude Berg (of The Goldbergs TV and radio series), recounted to Edward R. Murrow, the host, a conversation between her character Molly Goldberg and Jake, Molly's husband: "One day, Molly," promised Jake, "we will eat from golden plates." To which Molly replied, "Jake, dear, would the food taste any better?"


Note: I hope everyone had an enjoyable Memorial Day weekend.

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Black Banjo Players, A Rare Sight

The banjo is a beautiful sounding musical instrument. To my ears, anyway. (Writer Joe Queenan, no fan of the banjo, would strongly disagree.)

Despite being of African origin, it's very rarely seen being played by a black person from anywhere on the globe.

Three African-American banjo players, who come to mind, are Fred Guy and Elmer Snowden, members of Duke Ellington's band in the 1920s and Narvin Kimball. (Snowden also played the saxophone.)

A New Nickname For Brooklyn, New York

Brooklyn, New York, has long been called the Borough of Churches because of the large number of houses of worship located there. But a few years ago because there were so many shootings in Brooklyn, an on-air person at New York's WBAI-FM gave the borough a new nickname--Gunsmoke, New York.

To be fair, Chicago deserves a new nickname more than Brooklyn does. In light of all the homicides in that city, Chicago instead of being the Windy City, should be known as Gunsmoke City or better still Tombstone City.

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True Crime On The Radio

I can't recall on which old-time radio show I first heard an episode of the true-crime series, Somebody Knows. It was either Hollywood 360 (nationally syndicated) or The Golden Age of Radio (on New York's WBAI-FM).

Somebody Knows, which ran on CBS, was the forerunner to such shows as Unsolved Mysteries. Per my sketchy notes, the episode I heard concerned a 39-year-old  Boston cab driver named Samuel I. Paris, who was robbed and killed in April 1948.The episode aired on August 10, 1950. "Through narration and dramatizations," reports the CD/DVD website Amoeba.com, "the known facts of unsolved crimes were presented and listeners who provided information leading to the conviction of a criminal" would be given a cash reward.

According to the website, only two of the eight episodes are available on recordings. As an old-time radio fan, especially of detective and mystery shows, I would love to hear not only those two episodes but those of another show Wanted, the rival of Somebody Knows, that ran on NBC. Wanted, according to Amoeba.com, "avoided dramatizations all together [sic]" but instead used the recorded "voices of DAs, newspapermen, police, prison officials, witnesses, etc."

What I would like to know is how many of these cases were ever solved.

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Note: Yesterday was Earth Day. Let's be kind and considerate to the only home we have.

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Record Store Day

Today is Record Store Day. Long live vinyl!

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An Overlooked Christmas Song

During the Christmas season, the same Christmas tunes are heard everywhere over and over: on the radio, over supermarket public address systems, etc. We hear tunes like "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," "White Christmas," "Santa Baby," "Winter Wonderland," to name a few.

One tune missing from that playlist is one that was featured in the 1974 thriller The Odessa File, which starred Jon Voight as a young German journalist. At the beginning of the film, he is seen driving on a German city street with his car radio playing Perry Como singing a song called "Christmas Dream." The song, with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and English lyrics by Tim Rice, is, to my ears, very beautiful and deserves airplay.

The movie, set in 1963 and based on a novel by Frederick Forsyth, is about the search for an escaped Nazi war criminal who ran a concentration camp. Does being on such a movie's soundtrack taint the song? I hope not.

I've read the lyrics and I could find nothing offensive or off-putting about it. The fact that Perry Como sang it should be reason enough to consider putting it on a station's Christmas playlist.

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Summer Events In New York, 2019

I hope everyone is enjoying the spring so far. Summer is not too far away. The Museum Mile Festival on Fifth Avenue, Wall to Wall John Coltrane at the Symphony Space Theatre (an eight-hour event), and the Stonewall 50 celebration are among the summer events I'm looking forward to.

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Spring Has Finally Arrived!

Hooray! Today is the first day of spring, my second favorite season, after summer. Happy days are here again, folks!!

It's a good time to do some house cleaning and decluttering as well as catching up on some reading, especially on rainy, dreary days.

Traveling By Bus On Dark Riverside Drive

A cautionary note: this blog post may be too New York-centric, unless you plan to visit soon and use our mass transit system.

On my way home from grocery shopping at the Target store in East Harlem on January 19, I took the crosstown M116 bus that travels along 116th Street to the West Side, where I live. The bus had a video screen mounted to the roof that faced the passengers and announced all of the stops both visually and by automated voice (female) as well as what buses and subways to transfer to.

I was hoping that the M5 bus, which I take often and that goes up Riverside Drive, would have similar screens installed.Some of these buses had roof-attached screens but they did not display transit and stop information;others didn't have the screens at all.The ones that did only featured info that told riders about bus etiquette such as not putting one's feet on the seats or not talking too loudly on their cell phone.

The thing that concerns me the most is that the street corners on the Riverside Drive route is so dark it's hard to read street signs from inside the bus. And since the drivers frequently fail to announce the stops, the on board message screens would be a big remedy to this problem.

Another remedy would be placing lighted cross street-name signs on Riverside Drive like the ones in the 34th Street/Herald Square area. Maybe the people who live in the buildings along Riverside Drive are too hoity-toity to have such signs on street corners.

Winning The Lottery Is A Blessing And A Curse

Ric Edelman, the personal finance expert, on his Sunday morning show in October 2018 on New York's WCBS News Radio Eight-Eighty spoke about the headaches that come with winning the lottery: greedy relatives, relatives you didn't know you had, resentful co-workers, criminals who will know your identity and location, the need to hire security personnel, etc. And if you decide to give the money to friends and relatives, there is a hefty gift tax you have to pay. So winning the lottery can be both a blessing and a curse.

Inside The Trump White House

I recently finished reading Bob Woodward's Fear: Trump in the White House (Simon & Schuster). I had a hard time putting it down. Woodward's reporting highlighted the turmoil in the White House since Trump's occupancy: the backstabbing and backbiting among members of his administration; Trump's profanity-laced rants; Trump's flip-flopping on issues; the seemingly endless personnel changes, etc. The reader's impression would be that the Trump administration is something out of a movie written and directed by Mel Brooks.

Carol Channing's Secret Racial Heritage

"In her 2002 autobiography, 'Just Lucky I Guess,' Ms. [Carol] Channing," wrote the New York Times,"revealed that when she was 16 her mother told her that her father was part black;she kept her racial heritage a secret, she wrote, for fear that it would be bad for her career."(Carol Channing, who died recently at age 97, was a Broadway musical star. She is best known for her role as Dolly Levi in Hello, Dolly.)

I wonder if  Carol Channing had ever been approached by professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. to appear on his public television series Finding Your Roots to discover more about her father's side of the family.

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Note: March is Women's History Month.

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What Would Happen If A UFO Landed In Times Square?

I wonder what would have happened if on New Year's Eve 2018, a UFO (Unidentified Flying Object) hovered over a crowded Times Square. Would the people have freaked out? Would the New York Police Department sharpshooters have shot at it? Would people have thought it was a terrorist attack? Would President Trump have said that it was a prank staged by the Democratic Party? Hmm.

A Good Idea Is A Good Idea Whether It's From A Liberal Or A Conservative

As soon as a person is identified as a conservative, progressives begin to react negatively as though only people in their political camp have ideas worthy of consideration and implementation.

As a liberal, I'm more open-minded about hearing people out, no matter what their political leanings are. A good idea is a good idea. Liberals or progressives don't have a monopoly on good ideas. The same holds true for people on the right.

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Note: Today is the 92nd birthday of one of my favorite movie actors, Sidney Poitier. Happy birthday, Mr. P. I hope you have many more!

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Amateur Sleuth Jaine Austen Is Perfect For TV And Movies

I've only seen Melissa McCarthy in movie trailers but I'm convinced she would be the perfect actress to play Jaine Austen, Laura Levine's hilarious amateur sleuth/freelance writer. Jaine Austen has appeared in several mystery novels along with her very independent cat, Prozac, and her campy gay next-door neighbor Lance.

Why this mystery series has not been turned into a television series or into feature films is itself a mystery.

I am a longtime fan of Laura Levine's, who was at one time a television comedy writer (Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman ;The Jeffersons, to name two). For a long time I've felt that the reason she is writing books instead of television scripts is because of ageism in Hollywood. But her comedic talent hasn't diminished because her books never fail to make me laugh. And if Jaine Austen came to the big or small screen, I believe she would be an instant hit.

The Writers Who Influenced Poet Assotto Saint

My friend Assotto Saint (1957-1994), the Haitian-born poet, essayist, performance artist, and founder/publisher of Galiens Press, once told me that the three writers who influenced him the most were poets Pablo Neruda (of Chile) and Anne Sexton and playwright Ntozake Shange, who died last year at age 70.

Note: Happy Valentine's Day!

Inspiring Words From FDR

"With your help and your patience and your generous goodwill, we will do what we can to mend the torn fabric of our common life."--President-elect Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Poughkeepsie, New York, November 1932. (Quoted in Eleanor and Hick: The Love Affair That Shaped a First Lady by Susan Quinn (Penguin Press, 2016), page 30.)

Can anyone imagine Donald Trump uttering those inspiring words? I can't.

Eating My Way Up Harlem's Eighth Avenue (Maybe)

I remember reading that Jonathan Gold, the Pulitzer Prize-winning restaurant critic for the Los Angeles Times, who died last year at age 57, ate in every restaurant along Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles and wrote a review of each restaurant. (Pico Boulevard is a very long street.)

I thought about doing something similar as an experiment here in New York, eating at and writing about every restaurant along Eighth Avenue (aka Frederick Douglass Boulevard) in Harlem, from 111th to 145th Streets.

If I decide to do it (and that's a big IF),it would be an enormous gastronomic feat involving details about each restaurant, the quality of the food and service, as well as some historical information about the ethnic and/or regional cuisine.

Not only would this project cause my waistline to take a hit but it would also take a big bite out of my wallet (concerning the latter, I would have to try to talk some publication into agreeing to underwrite my project, an iffy proposition because many newspapers and magazines have become cash-strapped lately.

Speaking of food, today is National Pizza Day. So pizza lovers, celebrate!

Photos Of Harlem's Mount Morris Baths After It Closed

I have color photos of the now-defunct Mount Morris Baths in Harlem that I took about three or four years after it closed in August 2003. There were five men staying there (two co-workers and three customers) in anticipation of the bathhouse reopening, which it never did. Their presence gave me access to the premises.

Unfortunately, I took the pictures with a single-use camera so the number of shots were limited. If I had had a phone camera, I could have taken hundreds of pictures, covering every nook and cranny of the place. But I'm glad I have what I have.

At some point I'd like to use these photos as part of a photo essay in commemoration of the only black gay bathhouse in Harlem. As far as I know, I'm the only person who took pictures of Mount Morris Baths after it went out of business. These pictures, I think, are of historical importance and documents what it looked like sans customers.

J.D. Salinger's Unpublished Work

I heard the following report regarding the unpublished work of the reclusive writer J.D. Salinger, author of the classic novel Catcher in the Rye, on New York's WCBS News Radio Eight-Eighty, that was broadcast on February 3, 2019.

CBS News's Gary Nunn reported that Salinger's son told him that "his father wrote reams of work no one has ever seen. J.D. Salinger, who died nine years ago," continued Nunn, "apparently never stopped writing. Next to every chair the writer had a notebook. According to Matt Salinger, his father teemed with ideas and thoughts, saying that he'd be driving in the car, pull over to jot some ideas ** and at times he would chuckle to himself."

"No indication when the unpublished work will be released, but, "concluded Nunn, "his son says all that his father wrote will be shared."

No doubt that is very good news to Salinger's legion of fans.


**This reminded me of the re-enacted scene in the 13-part public television poetry series, Voices & Visions, that showed William Carlos Williams, a pediatrician, pulling his car over to the side of the road while between house calls, removing a prescription pad from his black bag and, with fountain pen in hand, scribbling a poem.

Carol Channing Entered A Look-Alike Contest

Film critic Jeffrey Lyons, on WCBS News Radio Eight-Eighty in New York, told the story of the time Broadway star Carol Channing, who recently died at age 97, entered a drag queen Carol Channing look-alike contest and won third place.

Black History Month 2019

Today is the beginning of Black History Month. Celebrate it with pride and knowledge.

Smug Fruits And Vegetables In A Supermarket

"Our Fruits & Vegetables Might Look Smug Because They Know They're The Freshest."--Sign in Fairway of Harlem supermarket.

Do they also know that they will be cooked and eaten? Are they happy about that? If I were a peach or a tomato or a head of lettuce I wouldn't be.

The above sounds silly but no sillier than seeing dancing and talking fruits and vegetables in a TV commercial.

The Declaration Of Independence In Words And Music

I'm amazed that conservative radio talk show hosts, who are so ultra-patriotic on the air, have not discovered the Fifth Dimension's The Declaration (Bell Records, 1970) and played it on their shows.

On the recording, the Fifth Dimension, the African American pop vocal group better known for hits such as Up, Up and Away and Wedding Bell Blues, takes the words of the Declaration of Independence and sets them to music, beginning with the words "We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal...."

Maybe these talk show hosts have heard the record and think the Declaration of Independence is too sacred a document to be trivialized by turning it into a song intended for airplay on Top 40 radio stations.

I think it's a wonderful "song" and maybe it, instead of The Star-Spangled Banner, should be sung at public events.

A Bargain Or A Scam?

Someone in the Bronx, New York, placed an ad on Facebook that offered for sale a 1995 Nissan Maxima. The price they wanted was $200. That raised a red flag. Why so cheap? (Other car ads were in the thousands of dollars.) For me such a low price meant that they were trying to get rid of a rattletrap that would probably cost the buyer more in upkeep expenses than the initial price.

As the saying goes, buyer beware.

An Imminent Race War In America?

So much has been written and said in the national news media about Trump's racism;white nationalists in Charlottesville,Virginia; and white supremacy that I'm motivated to read The Coming Race War in America: A Wake-Up Call by the late journalist Carl T. Rowan (1925-2000), published in 1996 by Little, Brown, to see how prophetic it is.

After reading the book, I hope I will be motivated enough to write about it in an essay/review.

Rose Marie McCoy, An Unheralded African American Songwriter

Rose Marie McCoy, an African American songwriter, who wrote 850 songs, is a hidden figure in the music business and deserves to have her life story told in a motion picture. She wrote these songs in a career that spanned seven decades. Her songs were recorded by such musical luminaries as Elvis Presley, Nat "King" Cole, and Sarah Vaughan, to name a few.

I recently learned about her after hearing Leonard Lopate interview Arlene Corsano on his daily show on New York's WBAI. Ms. Corsano  is the author of Thought We Were Writing the Blues, But They Called It Rock 'n' Roll: The Life & Music of Rose Marie McCoy.
                                                               
McCoy died on January 20, 2015 at the age of 92 .
                      
Her music can be heard on YouTube as well as in a short video clip of her playing the guitar and singing.

For more information, go to www.rosemariemccoymusic.com.

                                                   
                        

Stonewall 50 Commemoration At The New York Public Library

The Love & Resistance: Stonewall 50 exhibition is slated for viewing at the New York Public Library's Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street, from February 14 to July 14, 2019. It will be on the third floor, in the Rayner Special Collections Wing & Print Gallery.

"This exhibition," announced the New York Public Library Now magazine (Winter/Spring 2019)," illustrates this history [of gay liberation] through the photographs of Kay Tobin Lahusen and Diana Davies, who captured the pivotal events of this era and changed the ways that LGBTQ people perceived themselves."

Love & Resistance: Stonewall 50 will also, continued Now, the library publication, feature "other items from the Library's vast archival holdings in LGBTQ history, including ephemera, periodicals, and more."

There Is No Disgrace Having A Gay Child

During this summer's celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising in the Greenwich Village section of New York, there should be banners printed with the following quotation:

"I want other parents to see that it is no disgrace having a gay child. The disgrace is when you try to put it [the child's homosexuality] in the closet. Your children are coming out, now it is your turn to come out."--Dorothy Beam, writer/anthology editor Joseph Beam's mother (1924-2018), quoted in The Washington Post, August 1991.

Dorothy Beam, Writer Joe Beam's Mother, Has Died

I just learned via archivist Steven G. Fullwood's Facebook page of the passing of Dorothy Beam on December 26, 2018 at the age of 94. She was the mother of Joseph Beam, the editor of In the Life: A Black Gay Anthology, of which I was a contributor. Joe died in 1988.

A memorial service for Mrs. Beam is set for Wednesday, January 9, 2019, at 11 a.m., at the Vine Memorial Baptist Church, 5600 West Girard Avenue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

R.I.P. Mrs. Beam.

Living Past 100 And Still Working

I recently heard a story on New York's all-news Ten-Ten WINS about a barber in upstate New York who's 107 years old. And he's still cutting hair.

A story about people living beyond one hundred years is still newsworthy because so few people make it that far. Most people if they live to old age are more likely to die in the 85 to 115 age range. (The ones called super centenarians are the ones who die within the 116 to 125 age range.)

With that in mind, I'm looking forward to reading Keep Moving: And Other Tips and Truths About Aging by Dick Van Dyke (Weinstein Books, 2015). Van Dyke, the comic actor, is in his nineties and still working. And I hope he will continue to work when he's past a hundred.