My Favorites: December 2004 Archives

Lisa Marie Presley has sold Elvis Presley Enterprises, including all trademark rights to the Elvis name, likeness and image, along with all intellectual property and his music publishing catalog. She got $100 million and the house. I can't say that I am much of an Elvis fan. I did enjoy a good number of his movies as a boy with my family at the Harrisburg Drive-In Theater, but I remember him more from the era when critic Peter Graining (quoted from here) wrote:

His hair is dyed, his teeth are capped, his middle is girdled, his voice is a husk, and his eyes film over with glassy impersonality. He is no longer, it seems, used to the air and, because he cannot endure the scorn of strangers, will not go out if his hair isn’t right, if his weight -- which fluctuates wildly -- is not down. He has tantrums onstage and, like some aging politician, is reduced to the ranks of grotesque."

No doubt the man who once disappeared from the stage for several minutes, only to return claiming he had been answering "the call of nature," was a real transformative talent. Unfortunately for all the undiscovered new talent in the world today it's easier, less risky, to repackage his old stuff and all the other old hits, old bands and old movies media companies churn out these days than it is to do anything really new. These repackaged or at best marginally improved re-releases suck up money that could otherwise be spent finding, developing, grooming and promoting new talent.

Me, I won't be buying.

I just got back from lunch. On the radio I heard an ad asking that we boycott Target and visit Wal-Mart instead. The fundamentalist Christian community is up in arms that Target has banned Salvation Army solicitors from their stores. Even some liberals seem to be upset about the ban, but mainly it's the Christians. Myself, I don't much care. I don't really see it as anti-Christian on Target's part (their corporate statement is here) and if I were to take up the cudgel of free speech in the private sphere, it wouldn't likely be on behalf of an evangelical Christian charity.

It surprised me to hear this locally produced issue advocacy ad on our little country radio station. "Star Station" WLRR 100.7 is a one man operation run from a personal computer out of his home by Craig Baker. The station plays "standards" (in monaural!) that seem so old as to all be in the public domain. I talked to Craig last year when I was looking for work and, as an advocate of local independent media, I was impressed with what he put together and enjoyed what he had to say.

He believes the most important part of his programming is his commercials. He has no DJs so they are the only original content he's got. He goes out and records, edits and writes them on his own, on the spot, with the local merchants. Now that's local radio. The ads all have personality, reflecting this time and place like no other media around here. One of my favorites is for Farmers and Merchants Bank, which is touting how it's now technologically up to date because it just added "telephone banking."

I've listened to the station since I've lived here and Craig was right, I listen for the commercials. Lately I've noticed a decidedly Christian turn to the station. Maybe Craig's found a new market and is selling them ads like hotcakes. Maybe he's playing to his Bible-belt audience. Maybe he's a fundamentalist Christian himself (the topic didn't come up in our conversation though I pointedly mentioned my gay partner). I don't know. What I do know is the station's quite popular; Craig knows his market. And Target knows theirs. My friends, who like me travel to Macon to shop at Target, all want one to open up here. I won't hold my breath.

I've been looking all day for a transcript (found it, see the extended entry) from last night's Nightline, which focused on the 2.6 ton Ten Commandments monument that Judge Roy Moore had installed in a Mississippi courtroom. You will likely recall that it was ordered removed. Turns out that it's now on tour. A guy from American Veterans in Domestic Defense (!) got himself a flatbed truck and a driver and is hauling the thing all over the south. The website for the tour, standingforgod.org, has been down since this morning. I went there looking to see if the monument would be coming to my town. People here sure would like it if it did.

I wanted the transcripts so I could quote directly from those interviewed for the show. I wanted to share with you the kind of sentiment I hear expressed in my "Middle Georgia" community. Coming from New York as I do, you'll understand it's not the worldview I'm used to hearing. But here getting the Ten Commandments hung in court houses is the biggest issue since the Georgia Heritage Coalition (why am I surprised they're still in business?) took up the fight to retain the Confederate battle flag as part of the Georgia State Flag. For $4.50 you can get a Ten Commandments sign from Ten Commandments America for your lawn. Many here have them. How many? In New York during the Republican Convention you couldn't walk the street without seeing a "Say no to the Bush agenda" banner (mine was a birthday gift from Howard & Alex). I'd say it's proportionally equivalent. The Ten Commandments signs are to here, as the "Say no to Bush" banners are to there.

Now that doesn't make me real comfortable. The Ten Commandments crowd tends to believe I'm going to hell. But the thing is, I believe we've got to live together, and no matter where we live we'll have people we don't agree with. My experience here has been that everyone is nice as can be to me. Doug plays organ in half the churches in town. All the church folk seem to like us. I've had some try to save me, sway me to their ways. Their religion tells tham that's the godly, the christian thing to do. I'm not sure what the best thing for me to do is. For the moment, I think finding common ground is a good thing. I only wish that's the way they felt.

As best I can remember it was the summer of 1979 that I worked at The Monster in Cherry Grove on Fire Island. I was a waiter. Warren Gluck was the DJ and would let me work the dance floor lights. Sherwood ("I'm Sherwood and I sure-would!") tended bar. My best friend at the time, my first friend in New York City, Michael Stulberg, took me out there and showed me the ropes. We worked together at The Copacabana. When it burned (mysteriously, of course) I got the job at The Monster. Michael went to The Pines and worked at The Pavillion. Calvin Klein's houseboy was a childhood friend, so we spent time in his Pines beachfront home; never got around to a dip in his black swimming pool that was lit at night with red lights.

The summer before we had been to the closing party of The Sandpiper, the small restaurant/disco on the bay in The Pines. We had many great times there, so mourned its passing. But when the Pavillion opened The Sandpiper was quickly forgotten. It seemed to me that The Pavillion would change forever the dynamic between The Pines and The Grove. Prior to The Pavillion the biggest dance venue on the island was The Ice Palace in Cherry Grove. On Saturday night everyone came. I remember Cher hanging out on the deck as the sun came up after a long night of dancing. Now The Pavillion was the venue and there was little reason for Pines people to come visit the funkier Grove.

From the summer of '77 through the summer of '82 I had the time of my life on Fire Island. There was no paradise more beautiful. But when we left on the ferry that last summer (I no longer went out there to work, but I helped Michael move in and out), somehow I knew that time was over. In December Michael died of the newly named AIDS. Nearly everyone I knew then would contract the disease. Fire Island wasn't fun anymore. Provincetown became my summer resort destination of choice.

Last month my boss, the legendary owner of The Monster, Joe Scialo died. Sam, a friend from then who shares the memories, sent me an email telling me last night. Thanks Sam.