« January 2007 | Main | March 2007 »
February 27, 2007
Bow Tie Seventeen
“IS BARACK OBAMA GREAT?”
A few months before his 92nd birthday, Chico died. And in my ongoing reflections to consider the life he had lived and the impact of that same life on me, I struggled to capture what “angle” would best sum up that impact. In surprisingly short order, I settled on one word…Great! Yep, Chico was great. It occurred to me then as it does now that the word has been much too narrowly defined. The world has been selfish enough to focus on the exploits of a single person – making a present or historic big deal on what monumental task(s) she or he did. Big things by a big person. Big deal! But for me, greatness has to do with the impact of a person’s life on the lives of other people who would not have acted (i.e., lived) or thought or who would have been different were it not for that other (great) person.
O.K. So I can readily say that I have heard people I know –relatives, colleagues, friends and others -- make statements, reveal personal certainties and doubts about a panoply of subjects simply and directly because the name of Barack Obama has been introduced into the conversation. Folks “get off” on Obama. And, from my perspective, that is precisely what is fitting. What is the magic? Why does this happen? It is simply that the person has the quality of greatness. They possess the unique quality of causing others to reflect, introspect and project and often without their even knowing why. Barack Obama has demonstrated the capacity to do precisely that.
It has been less than a month since he announced his candidacy; and the floodgates have come flying open. Personally, even at this early stage I have heard or read the full range of praise and castigation…some of it surprising and uplifting, some of it equally surprising but most disappointing considering the presumed intelligence of the source. I still wince in unbelief when seeing any reference to the b word (as in black enough). And then there are the national and international political pundits who have fully formed ideas about American domestic and international policy. Those ideas cannot be readily dismissed simply because there is merit in them in part or in toto. Part of my disappointment is that I have neither the interest nor the need to be the recipient of such insight. If the idea is one which the author feels Obama is overlooking or if it is one about which he needs to be enlightened, so be it. Those views should be sent to him. There is nothing I can do with them except be a fairly open minded listener…up to the point at which I get bored or tired. I am positive that Obama has a most enlightened “thinking tank” that would be more than grateful to get valuable input. But I am drifting. The fact is that hitherto silent and politically naïve or indifferent people are speaking up and speaking out in support of Obama or are otherwise trashing or dismissing him. To my way of thinking, greatness is independent of drumming up a cadre of yes men and women. Conversely, it is not tied to having legions of “haters” either. Prompting that kind or variety of across-the-board response is indeed a mark of greatness. What Obama either has done or is doing “pushes” or at least prompts others to move into or toward their own moment or time of greatness. And, oddly, for some folks their moment of shining glory is when they are most negative. At the very least, they are being honest; and that’s a good thing.
Everyone can’t reach that level of impact try as they might. Yet, the quality is much more widespread than we might think. It has more to do with reaching inside the minds and hearts and very psyches of people who, in turn, take “it” and run, or walk or remain in place but do whatever they do at a more vibrant level. And…that is truly a good thing. Those so affected, are better, wiser, more assured or perhaps even more adamant. Whatever the outcome and however we explain or don’t explain the effect, we are different. And that’s a better thing!
~
And then on Tuesday, February 20th, Obama came to the city of (hope they are also registered voters) angels. Of course, I know it all(!) and I told some people that he would be at the Dorsey High School football stadium. I could think of no place else where what I knew would be a big crowd could be accommodated. Of course, as so very seldom happens (!), I was wrong. The gathering was in the “Dorsey area” but in a spot away from my locale of Bob Bowen’s geographic wisdom. Hum bug. Having found a convenient parking spot in the Ralph’s market parking lot, I trekked across Rodeo Road to the field. There were long lines but no rumors of lines. Los Angeles was there in all its nutty diversity. Meaning old folks (not me, of course), young folks, toddlers, pre-walking babies; and then this more different to find – despite L.A.’s rich complexity – people of the many “races” and ethnicities…that phenomenon which I talk about in class but which somehow is all too rare and elusive. To find that wonderful mix in (watch out, here it come) South Los Angeles just ain’t a regular thing! Why? What made the difference. Yup. ‘Twas Obama.
~
So, let me just offer a small sample of the kinds of folks barack Obama was able to drag away from their Tuesday afternoon routine. And, we will let it go at that.
Posted by mbowen at 03:58 PM | Comments (0)
February 21, 2007
Bow Tie Sixteen
“STAN - THE MAN AND HIS MOUTH”
So here, dear readers, is one of those rare and long-awaited pieces on something that really happened to me. In other words, what is written here comes from a real life experience. Last night Tuesday, February 20th I headed for the Central Library in DTLA (downtown Los Angeles). The plan was to hear a presentation by Stanley Crouch. I have known Stanley since to wild and wooly 1960s. Along with some other dudes, we spent time at Alfred Ligon’s Aquarian Center and Bookstore on Santa Barbara Avenue (now Martin Luther King Blvd.) And over the years since, he settled in New York, I’ve read his pieces in the Village Voice and elsewhere. And not long ago, I purchased his collection of writings on jazz, Considering Genius. My occasional misgivings for some parts of this book – like fawning over louis Armstrong -- he is certainly knowledgeable of the topic. (I may use it as a primary text for the jazz course I want to do in the Summer – before cutting Antioch loose.) Furthermore, Crouch did “earn” the envious title of MacArthur Fellow, no small accomplishment to be sure.
After scrambling around the library with much frustration, I learned that the event was actually being held at another site about 10 minutes away. The downtown lights and force were evidently with me and I got to The California Endowment building on Alameda in less than 10 minutes. Parking was FREE (this couldn’t be Los Angeles, I thought) and the program had been on only a few minutes when I finally seated myself in the auditorium. Right to the point: Crouch needs to diet; but that’s an observation, not a complaint. What was a “downer” for me were two items which (again, for me) had negative implications…decidedly so. To make a number of points, he repeatedly used the infamous n word. And guess what? He could readily have substituted “n word” just like I’m doing here. He didn’t say it “automatically” but in his direct quoting of rap “artists” and some young men he encounters in the not quite so Big Apple. Secondly, his subject was the downward spiral of Black culture with its bent toward thugdom or thughood. Those terms are mine but Crouch wanted to make it clear that the pattern of mimicking thugs was (and is) having a negative impact on Black culture and the Black community.
The second point that bugged me was that he was pitching his message to an overwhelmingly White audience. I couldn’t help but ask myself what it was that he expected them to do about the issues he ranted about. In addition, what I found to be surprising and amusing was his terrible delivery. Stan the Man kept looking at the podium as one would when reviewing notes or to make sure a key quote was not misquoted. But he looked only to say something totally off the cuff. It was like he looked down, studied intensely (so far, O.K.) only to note what he had for lunch. It made for an uncomfortable disconnect between himself and an obviously focused audience. And then there was the rude habit of not answering the handful of questions that came from that same audience. Stanley is a good writer; but just wasn’t cool (meaning measuring up to what could well have been an outstanding evening). But…I ain’t mad at him. He did what he did and that’s the way it was. Geared up to keep the evening from being a bust – and it was far from that – I stayed around for the fantastic reception which was held in a most attractive courtyard. A professionally catered spread! Meatballs, mushrooms, cheeses, fruit, beverages….all attractively presented and plain and simple good eatin’! I spoke briefly with Stanley, referenced the Aquarian Bookstore (and he remembered Quincy Troupe being there during those years) asked that he sign the jazz book. He did. I also gave him an Antioch business card then let him slide bad into his mini-speech making with other guests. I drifted over to the beverage line and got a glass of (chilled) Kendall-Jackson chardonnay. [Everything was FREE.]
While in line, I saw a dude roughly as tall and skinny as me and, because he had an non-Los Angeles accent, asked him where he was from He said Africa prompting me to shrug my shoulders while easily pushing out a follow-up, “What part?” He gave me an unexpected 3 continent answer: 1) born in Sierra Leone, 2) educated in London and 3) living in Los Angeles. Don Ferguson went on to share that he teaches photography at Otis Art Institute. So then we really talked. Before leaving, I (non-protocol dude that I sometimes prove to be) went up to the person who had earlier said he was the Endowment’s CEO. His name is Dr. Robert Ross. We talked briefly with his informing me that the building is used almost exclusively for day time health-related programs and activities. Of course, I made my last card a Bob Bowen gift to him – and he didn’t even have to ask! Sometimes my generosity shocks even me! On my way out I walked slow enough to marvel at the building’s interior. A spacious lounge and a wall full of paintings – not exactly what I would have expected for a building in the semi-industrial part of this (even more spacious) city. A full scale cafeteria/kitchen and, a sign directing folks to a library. I’ll check that out when I come back.
So, building an early evening around Stan the Mouth was informative albeit more than a tad disappointing, but an overall solid and worthwhile investment of time. I came, I saw and heard, I ate, sipped, talked and learned of a new site and gained something new and thus grew a few notches. So, what’s to complain or be upset about? Absolutely Nuthin’!
~
Those Dog Gone Dogs..Again
Evidently, there is something almost magnetic about Mt. Hood in the winter. A hearty group of eight doing their high altitude number and three of them making an unplanned 500 foot slide. Not having brought common sense with them, they were most fortunate enough to have brought what looks like a mangy mutt. The rest is now popular knowledge: During a bitter cold evening, the dog laid across each of them (I guess they now call it canine rotation) and provided enough heat – transferred from the mutt’s body to the cold and weary stilled climbers to keep them alive. Another story about a breakdown of sense and a triumph of “dumb” loyalty. #
Posted by mbowen at 04:00 PM | Comments (0)
February 14, 2007
Bow Tie Fifteen
“LEAVE OBAMA ALONE – PART 2”
My sincerest apologies to readers of The Bow Tie for my veering off (way off) from what I had originally intended as the publication’s purpose. I had every good intention to keep it light and, to some extent, even amusing. But of late the fan is being hit so very much by that stuff that I just gotta unload somewhere; and I’ve decided this is as viable a “venue” as any – at least considering what’s available to me. Your respected choice, of course, is not to read it. So be it. But I promise to get back to the lighter side before long. In fact, as soon as today’s closing piece
Some years ago, I had a conversation with a woman. The exchange had more meaning for me as a “process” than for the usual ways one remembers a conversation. Usually when we think about was if the conversation was congenial (and all of them certainly are not). If it was we smile memorably. Even if the conversational substance was contentious, we may well have learned some from it; so once again, the experience is not chalked up as negative. If nothing else, it was instructive. But I recall this particular one not specifically because of the overall content but for what I label “process” referring here to how she processed – or maybe failed to process – what she said. At one point she exclaimed that she could say anything that came to her mind. If she thought it, in other words, she could say it. Of course, the legal beagles can readily make the tired case about constitutionally protected “free speech.” Then there is the equally tired retort about shouting “Fire!” in a pubic gathering where (surprise!) there is none. But that’s not what I’m talking about here. I am going directly to the heart of her statement: “I can say whatever I think.”
All of which has what to do with Barack Obama? For me, just this: I am overwhelmed in my dismay for the still posed question, “Is he Black enough?” Why is this stupid question being surfaced? By whom and for what reason? What, pray tell, does “Black enough” mean? How is it measured? And (again) by whom? Someone had a totally stupid thought that was stupidly spoken or (here comes a loaded word) articulated. But now that the ridiculous has surfaced, I cannot help but wonder if those so devoted to fairness and/or deep probing scrutiny will now query: “Is Hillary Clinton White enough?” And if it’s O.K. to ask that, the following up is the same as for the goodly other senator, “White enough for whom?” Or, is she “woman” enough? For Bill? For the women who will hold off voting for her until she passes the woman test? – whatever that might mean. Or, completing the Circle of the Absurd, “Is Hillary Clinton White woman enough for a multi-everything America?” Puke, puke and more puke. Backing up a bit, did the question ever surface as to whether George W. Bush or his papa were White enough to assume the presidential post? Or Bill Clinton southern enough or White enough? Those questions would have been immediately pounced upon as being totally irrelevant, inappropriate or (a term I will get around to in one of these Bow Ties) racist. Yet, somehow, in some way the color thang question seems all right in the case of one Barack Obama.
Well, maybe my earlier day conversationalist was, in reality, on to something well beyond my imagination. Maybe she knew the impact or effect of voicing the weird, the odd, the crazy, the inappropriate, the…stupid. She spoke her mind; in one swoop she externalized the baseless and the tasteless. And in some deep recess of that same mind she may well have anticipated that years later, her utter foolishness would be resurrected by the likes of…me. Hmmm. If I happen to see her again, I’ll not recreate the conversation. I’ll simply ask, “Are you supporting Barack Obama?” and leave it at that.
“Skin and Bones”
One of the handfuls of downtown Los Angeles spots I keep heading back to is the city’s Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA). I remember when the building was going up and I marveled at the design. In fact, I bought a book which captured the details of the construction and discussed at length the Japanese architect’s philosophy and intent. So it was only natural that I became a charter member. I usually head there on Sundays after church. The present FANTASTIC exhibit is “Skin and Bones.” Having been a distinctly and embarrassingly skinny child, I see the title as a personal latter day tribute to me! Now, how’s that for stretching a point?
The show highlights the intersection or complementary nature of fashion and architecture. And the parallels are surprising, stunning and quite natural. I have been to see it three times that I can remember. The last time was last Sunday when I asked myself what was the reason why I was drawn to it? First, it “looks good.” Whoever the curator was, took lots of time placing the pieces in a pattern that is easy to follow and appreciate. One casually meanders through the museum space as though strolling through a familiar neighborhood. But despite that sense of familiarity, what one sees or experiences is both new and easy to accommodate. There is a comfortable mix of static presentations (traditional manikins, wood and plastic models of buildings from around the world and large and small screen videos. Sights and scenes personified…presented with style. And, I gotta admit, I do like style. Clarification: I am not nor will I ever been or strive to be “stylist,” but I am intrigued by the concept all the same. And, parenthetically, certain men have class; certain women have class…and style.
The exhibit seamlessly brings together the two disciplines. The pattern of what one sees is not unlike the intersection of disparate elements – like streets, which at first glance are not only geographically remote but very much unalike in every expected aspect. Like Webster Street and Whitney Avenue in Los Angeles. Or 125th Street and Wall Street in New York City, or Rodeo Road and Rodeo (pronounced “row-day-oh) Drive in Los Angeles/Beverly Hills. The coming together of different vibes or, if you will, distant planets! But when it happens, on a surprisingly and subtle level, one learns that “It all fits.” Personally I really dig those possibilities; and my return is to remind me that it can and does indeed happen. I’m tempted to draw the familiar “ebony and ivory” parallel, but with “Skin and Bones” it is less a matter of juxtaposing opposites as it is artistically cohering the different. And it works...very well. #
Posted by mbowen at 01:07 PM | Comments (0)