Kind: Notes

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I’ve been in Portland, Oregon for the last few days attending the Indieweb Summit. This is the second year in a row I’ve attended this event. There is something inspiring about being in a room full of people who share the same interest as you. It encourages me to want to do more. Not only did I get a chance to help other people with their personal websites, I built something based on feedback given by an attendee and was able to have a basic version to demo by the end of the weekend.

And now, onward and outward.

About a year ago, I was looking to reorganize my music collection. Well, 2017 is here again and I am once again being annoyed about the data associated with my music files. No matter what tool I use, it seems keeping these things under control is a massive effort.

After three days, I have given up on directory by genre and am going solely with artist. Meanwhile, I am still trying to fix the genre settings for music players that use them. Allan Sherman is not genre Christmas. The Beatles are not Data. Someone contributed this data to a service. I’m not sure if they were not messing with me.

I have organized much of the files, but it looks like I’ll have to do an audit of all music I backed up from CD, because the auto-organizing tools seem to have reclassified a lot of material. But, for now, I’m pausing with forty-nine gigabytes worth of MP3s and a lot more tagging. Organization is frustrating.

In thinking about the current election, I was reminded of the words of Julia Sand. Sand was an educated woman who, while bedridden in her family home in New York City, wrote Chester A. Arthur beginning in August of 1881, a month after President Garfield was shot. Arthur took the oath of office on September 20th, after staying in seclusion while Garfield lay critically ill and bedridden. Arthur was a controversial figure, as he’d been involved in several scandals in New York and was thought to be a political lackey of several powerful New York interests.

For reasons unknown as all she knew of him was from the newspapers, Sands believed in Arthur and wrote to him with advice and encouragement many times over the next few years. Some of the letters survive, including the first.

‘Your kindest opponents say ‘Arthur will try to do right’ – adding gloomily – ‘he won’t succeed though making a man President cannot change him.’…But making a man President can change him! Great emergencies awaken generous traits which have lain dormant half a life. If there is a spark of true nobility in you, now is the occasion to let it shine. Faith in your better nature forces me to write to you – but not to beg you to resign. Do what is more difficult & brave. Reform! It is not proof of highest goodness never to have done wrong, but it is proof of it, sometimes in ones career, to pause & ponder, to recognize the evil, to turn resolutely against it.“

She goes on later to write:

“How sad it must be for anyone to look back and feel that the best strength of their manhood has all been wasted on unworthy ends. For your own sake and for the sake of those who love you, do not fill your life with actions which afterwards bring you only regret. Go back to Washington – forget New York, political strife and personal animosity. Remember that you are President of the United States – work only for the good of the country. And bear in mind, that, in a free country, the only bulwark of power worth trusting, is the affection of the people.”

Arthur surprised people. Having been a direct beneficiary of the political spoils system, he nevertheless participated in dismantling it and pushing for civil service reform. Admittedly, there aren’t that many parallels between Donald J Trump and Chester A. Arthur, but the often forgotten legacy of Chester A. Arthur is that a man can be changed by the realities of the Presidency.

Went over to the Bethel Woods museum as part of a drive to see some of the Fall Foliage.

Through December 31st, they have a Special Exhibit on the photos of LIFE Magazine photographer Grey Villet that is worth seeing.  Apparently there is also a book of his photos that might be published. Villet photographed Batista and Castro, Martin Luther King, and more.

Their general exhibit on the history of Woodstock was also worth seeing. Woodstock began as a financial enterprise…..a music festival that had so many attendees show up that the organizers quickly realized they couldn’t possibly take tickets and made the concert free. Tickets cost $18 in advance and 186,000 tickets were sold, but more than double that amount actually showed up. It must have been an amazing sight.

neverforgetI’ve been watching reruns of Quincy M.E. on local TV and tuned in to an episode from 1982 called Stolen Tears, where Martin Balsam plays a Holocaust survivor fighting a Holocaust denier, played by Norman Lloyd. Somewhat ironically, Norman Lloyd(born Norman Perlmutter) is also Jewish. I was a fan of his work on St. Elsewhere.

It put me in mind of the 1991 TV movie, Never Forget, starring the late Leonard Nimoy as Mel Mermelstein, and directed by the late Joseph Sargent. Sargent, also director of the original Taking of Pelham One Two Three(which starred Martin Balsam), died a year ago tomorrow. So I bought a copy of the movie on Amazon’s video streaming service, which I haven’t seen since the 90s, and watched it.

In the movie, based on the actual story, Mel Mermelstein is a Holocaust survivor who has a small exhibit at his place of business, and goes to schools and other groups to talk about his experiences. He attracts attention from a Holocaust denying organization and feels the need to challenge them, despite  the fact that most Jewish organizations tell him to simply ignore it and not give the hate group any further ammunition. There are people who consider Nimoy’s portrayal of Mermelstein to be one of, if not his best dramatic performances.