The Brilliance of Alfred Hawthorne Hill (1924-1992)...

...(better known by his "stage" name Benny Hill).

I'm not sure why sometimes I'm reluctant to admit this, but I am a huge fan of Benny's work. I guess it's because far too many simply see him as a dirty old man.

I think part of the reason is the culture gap between England and the US. What's acceptable in England (home of Page Three girls) is seen as - at best- crude, here in the Puritanical US.

In just dismissing him as a lecher, they're missing the brilliant, dead-on parodies and the chameleon-like talent he had for assuming all sorts of personas. While many of these were larger-than-life and ridiculous, they were still completely believable. I also think that most people who dismiss him never really watched the show. How could they do so and not admire the razor sharp wit and clever wordplay?

What they also apparently miss is that, even though there may be skimpily clad women in a sketch, it's Benny (and/or Jackie Wright) that are the butt of the joke, not the women. The underlying joke was always that men will make complete fools of themselves when there are attractive women around.

Yeah, I found the dancers to be kind of crass - but remember, here in the States, we had the "Solid Gold" dancers on at around the same time and they were almost as bad - and yeah, some of the racial stereotype portrayals make me cringe a little, but none of it was ever mean-spirited. Insensitive, perhaps, but completely without malice.

I suppose there are those who dismiss his humor as highly derivative of burlesque, but that was deliberate on Benny's part - that's where he cut his chops, evidenced in no small part by him changing his name to honor his idol Jack Benny.

What I think is also cool is that most of the humor translates - across time and culture. My son, at four years old, used to come downstairs on a Saturday morning and shove one of my Benny tapes in the VCR. I can also imagine the ridiculous slapstick humor being understood and appreciated by someone who doesn't speak English. Anyone can watch Benny do a pratfall and get the joke.

I think this world full of malicious and/or just plain stupid humor could use a Benny or two - if only to remind us to remember to laugh at ourselves, once in a while.

Let me tell you about my dad........

The earliest memory I have of my dad was when I was....I dunno - three? I either had had a nightmare or was too troubled to go to sleep. Apparently I'd watched something on TV about Martians or something, because I was gripped with fear about them invading. I said something to my dad about it and he merely shrugged and said "If they wanted to invade, don't you think they'd have been here by now?". Now that may not sound very reassuring, but to me, the logic was unassailable, and whatever my concerns might have been, they vanished like smoke.

When I was four, I tripped and fell and cut my arm on some broken glass. Dad took me to get stitches, and promised me a new squirt gun if I didn't cry. I cried. He bought me a squirt gun anyway.

Nineteen sixty seven brought a new town and a new school. The day before my first day, he walked me the four or five blocks, ostensibly to make sure I knew the way and was ok with it. On the way home, we stopped at the little dairy bar by the school and he bought me a milkshake. That was special - guess it must have been if it still sticks with me forty three years later.

At eight years old, he finally managed to cajole me into riding a two wheeler - something I'd wanted no part of prior to that. He also took me across the street to the ice rink in the winter and taught me to skate. He took me skiing.

That was my dad.

I don't have many early childhood memories about my dad - or much else, for that matter - but he just seemed to always be there, solid and dependable.

As I got older, I remember the occasional fishing trip. We fished for hours and didn't really say much more than "pass the worms", but it seemed like we didn't have to. Drove my mom nuts.

My dad was, indeed a man of few words, but when he spoke, it had weight. Whenever I fucked up, (often...) my mom's tactic was to get physical. That never worked. My dad, on the other hand, would just sit you down and talk to you. By the time he was through, you felt like a piece of shit for whatever transgression you'd committed. I'd rather have had mom take the belt to me. THAT, I knew how to deal with.

Sometimes, he was a man of less than a few words. Once, some of my genius buddies and I got busted for bombing cars with snowballs and my dad had to come to the police station and get me. He didn't say a word, all the way home - that was the longest four block car ride of my life.

I don't even ever remember him raising his voice. As a far better writer than I said: "His gentle means of sculpting souls took me years to understand".

When I was about fourteen or so, my dad and I were at the camp, cutting wood. Off in the distance, I heard my father call me. He'd cut himself with the chainsaw. I led him to the neighbors and we got him to the doctors and patched up, but what struck me and stuck with me, was that that was the first time I'd heard fear in my father's voice. My bulletproof dad?

Every so often, a facet of him would emerge that would surprise me - once, when my mom was away, he grabbed some burgers and stuff and a couple of people from his office and we had a picnic at Lake Delta. This was puzzling to me, because this was something we never did. Was my mom holding him back?

Then there was the time he lost his job - to keep the money coming in, he took a job as a short-order cook. My dad! My desk-bound, suit & tie dad! Funny part was, he found out he loved it. Had there been any money in it, he may have stuck with it.

I gradually grew up and stopped being such a fuck-up...at least I hope he saw it that way.

He taught me to drive. We still went to camp, and fishing occasionally, but I had a social life now. Besides, we had time.

I came home from somewhere one day and one of my buddies told me they'd taken my dad to the hospital. When you're twenty two, life isn't scary, and I assumed he'd accidentally cut himself again. Nope. Heart attack. Too many years of no exercise, high stress, too much weight and too many cigarettes.

The heart attack actually had a bright side - as part of his recovery he began riding one of my bikes, with me. Role reversal, of sorts. Pretty cool.

Unfortunately, they'd found something more ominous than the heart issues: lung cancer. I got to learn what the word "metastasized" meant. The day they confirmed that it had spread, I just remember him telling my mom and I that he loved us, as we sat in some dismal hospital room.

I still had no idea how serious it was. When you're 22, death is something that happens to other people - old people.

He started chemo and radiation - and began gobbling Tylenol, like they were M&Ms. I'd lay awake at night, and listen to him shuffling around the house - unable to sleep - and wonder "Why him?". If anyone deserved it, it was me.

I drove him to his radiation treatments - I don't think he needed me to drive, but he wanted the company...and it was a bit of a bonding time. We made small talk. Nothing serious, but it was kind of like when we went fishing - we didn't need to say anything.

He got weaker and weaker and ended up back in the VA hospital.

I still had no fucking clue.

One night, as I was leaving, he looked up at me and, for the first time in days, his pale, blue eyes weren't clouded by the drugs. He was there, all there. He smiled and waved goodbye weakly. I went home.

The next morning, I got a phone call: He was dead. He was 53, I was 23.

"I wasn't there that morning, that my father passed away".

I went home and got on my bike. It just seemed like the thing to do. It felt as though a weight had been lifted from me. I flew.

The years have rolled inexorably onward, but sometimes, 23 years just melts away and things are as fresh and as raw as 1983 - except made worse by all the things he and I missed out on in the interim.

"I didn't get to tell him, all the things I had to say".


Simple things, like:

"Meet your grandson."
"Let's go have a beer".
"I bought a house."
"See? I didn't turn out half bad..."
"Hey, let's do that backpack trip you always wanted to do..."


"I just wish I could have told him...."

The Death of Civility

Lately, I've been wondering about the rudeness and inconsiderate behavior I see all around me.

My first thought was "Am I just getting old?" Well I am, and I wondered if I am now going through what every generation goes through as things change around them. " "Kids these days....."

To a degree, that may be true, but it's not exclusively in young people that I see it. It seems to span all generations and socioeconomic demographics. There are polite young people and rude older folks and vice-versa.

Now, I'm not advocating a return to the rigid rules of etiquette of the nineteenth century -or any other time where the interaction between people was framed by class distinctions. What I'm bemoaning the apparent death of is what used to be called "common courtesy". Holding a door for someone behind you. Leaving a gap between you and the car ahead of you at the stoplight to allow someone to pull out of a parking lot. Acknowledging the people who wait on you in restaurants or cash you out at the store.

"So what"? "Who cares?" On the face of it, it seems trivial, but what really disturbs me is what it implies. "You don't exist - it's all about ME".

This petty selfishness is spiral in nature - from letting a door go in someone's face it's not that big a step to road rage and worse.

This lack of respect and awareness of the others around you seems to be growing and seems to be related to population density.

When I go up north to camp, I'm always pleasantly surprised by how friendly and polite people are, how unhurried they are. The larger the municipality the more this goes the other way. Walk past someone in New York City, on fire, and they won't even notice.

As melodramatic as it sounds, is there really much hope, when we can't even be civil to our neighbors - much less someone halfway around the world, with a different language and culture?

For a few moments after 9/11, I saw people actually acknowledge each other, and show a little respect.

That didn't last too long.

So maybe there is something to it and I'm not just getting old and crochety.

Now get off my lawn.

Mentors.

"It's not whether or not you fall in the shit - but how you get yourself out of it". I found myself quoting those wise words yesterday - thirty some-odd years after have had them said to me by one of my earliest mentors - the late Jim Higgins.

I was all of about 20, working in a small, local machine shop. Jim kind of took me under his wing and taught me a lot. I liked working with him because whenever I screwed something up (usually on an hourly basis) and I had to "go to confession", he'd just say "Why you goddamn dummy....Ok here's how we're going to fix this..." He was a funny character - tall, skinny, gangly. I have no idea how old he was, but I'm thinking he was at least in his sixties. He had snow white hair and a mustache to match - except where it was stained yellow from his ever-present cigar. He had a crooked, snaggle-toothed grin and an absolute cackle for a laugh. He told me all kinds of funny stories about the people and the things that had happened at that shop. (Jim had been there a long time).

He taught me other things too - things about how to manipulate people. He told me one time that they had a foreman that everyone hated. The guys in the shop got together and chipped in to buy him a very nice cashmere sweater and presented it to him at the Christmas party. They got the owner of the shop nothing. The foreman was gone shortly thereafter. Pretty crafty.

One night Jim, Dick and I (there were only three of us on second shift) were all hanging around Jim's bench where we spent our breaks... except break was long since over. The owner of the shop came in and, before he got beyond the end of Jim's bench, Jim jumped up and started yelling at him about something the day shift guys had done. When all was said and done, he had the shop owner telling Jim that he'd look into it and backing away. As we walked away from our "extended" break, Jim looked at me and said "Did you notice how he didn't notice we were on break when we weren't supposed to be....?" ....and he cackled loud and long.

I miss him.

A few years later, I was working at a steel mill and another veteran took me under his tutelage. Al was his name. He didn't teach me much about being a toolmaker, but boy he taught me the ins and outs of working in a union steel mill. If anyone knew how to work the system, it was Al.

He was an odd duck. If he liked you, he'd give you the shirt off his back, but if he DIDN'T like you, he was merciless. He used to be a heavy, heavy drinker. He'd bring in a quart of vodka a night in his Thermos and it was empty when he left. Fortunately, by the time I met him, he'd mended his ways.

He was the one who explained to me that, if you were in the mill, they could force you to stay (for overtime), but if you were home, they couldn't MAKE you come in. He said "If they try that shit, just tell them you've been drinking, and you'll need a ride in - but then they'll send you home for being in an unfit condition, so they might as well not come and get you". Flawless logic.

Vacations were handled in a rather unfair fashion: no more than two guys were allowed to be on vacation at the same time, and the vacation calendar was filled out by seniority. By the time the calendar got to me, (low man on the totem pole) everything between Memorial Day and Labor Day was long gone. I really wanted to take a certain week off in August, to go to a motorcycle rally, but it didn't look like there was any chance of that at all. If someone "vacated" a week on the calendar, it was supposed to be trickled down through the seniority all over again. Al, of course, had a solution: he told me to take a certain week in December (that he wanted) that was open - and because he had quite a bit of seniority, he'd take the week I wanted. At the last minute, he said "we'll switch - at that point, no one else will want to make plans at the last minute and they'll let it go....." He was right, of course, and I got to go to my motorcycle rally.

One time, we got written up for being on break when we weren't supposed to be, but wise Al, worked the system and made them take back the write-up. He claimed we'd been working on a breakdown and had worked through our break, so we took break late. Since they hadn't seen us sit down....they had to take back the write-up.

Now, some twenty-odd years later, I find myself in a bit of role reversal. We have a young engineer, who comes to me for advice from time to time. He's a good egg and a very sharp cookie. I find myself telling him things like "It's easier to get forgiveness than permission" and "It's not whether or not you fall in the shit...."

Good? He's G-r-r-reat!*

Since I'm always on the lookout for new music, I "subscribe" to the iTunes Free Single Of the Week. Normally, it SUCKS. (I've left more than a few sarcastic, one-star reviews). BUT, once in a while they have something that's mildly interesting. Case in point - a few months ago they had some guy named Matthew Good, with a song called "Born Losers".

"Well", thought I, "for once their Single Of The Week doesn't suck, and it's free, so what the hell - I'll take it". Over time, I gradually found myself liking the song more and more - until I got to the point where I was thinking "Damn! I really, really like this! Time to check out the rest of the album!" Off to Rhapsody I go..... yup, there it is: "Hospital Music".

I was never so disappointed in my life. "How could a guy who writes stuff like Born Losers write stuff like this? This is awful". It was so slow and murky.

Still, I kept it in my playlist and re-visited it a few times, just to see if I was missing something. I didn't think I was, until one night, I had it playing in the background while I was surfing the web. I still don't know why, but for some reason, that night, that album just snapped into focus for me.

Intrigued, I went on the hunt for more info. Now Wikipedia isn't exactly the greatest source for info, but their Matt Good entry shed quite a bit of light on the genesis of Hospital music. It was written after a nasty divorce, a damned near fatal accidental overdose of Ativan and the resulting (voluntary) stay in the psych ward of a hospital, before he was finally diagnosed as being bipolar. (After years of misdiagnosis and incorrect treatment - some of which was actually making his illness WORSE).

...and it's all there on the record. Now it made even more sense.

I don't know why I'm so drawn to dark, moody music, but this album sucked me in and wouldn't let go. I began to explore some of the rest of his catalog. When "Vancouver" was released, I was ALL OVER it. "Silent Army In The Trees" hit me right between the eyes...and the rest of the album gradually pulled me in as well.

When I just happened to be on Matt's website one day and saw the concert listing for Water Street Music Hall in Rochester, there was no question: we were going!

By this time, I think I had Della Rose rolling her eyeballs every time I played Hospital Music or Vancouver. She just didn't "get it". I have to admit to being somewhat apprehensive about how Matt's dark, moody music was going to work in a live setting.

My initial misgivings were quickly cast aside. He opened with "Silent Army..." The show started with just him and an acoustic guitar, playing the slow opening to that song. No bombast, no flashpots. A very, very nontraditional opening to a show. Once the song kicked into gear, they segued into "Black Helicopters", quickly moved into and just kept going for four more songs, before they finally took a break.

It was then that I found out just how personable and funny he can be, as well - giving lie to his reputation for being rather prickly. He commented about the "decor" - an upright piano hung high on the wall, with angel wings and a giant eye in the middle of it.



(Yeah, I didn't understand it either).

The show went on, from one song to the next, with barely a pause to catch your breath...and then it was over.

Unlike most shows we've seen we spent the next week or so analyzing and re analyzing what it was that made the show so damned Good (pun intented), when, by all accounts, it should have been mediocre at best.

So the concert I was somewhat apprehensive about turned out to be one of the best shows I have ever seen. (And that's saying something; the only show I think I've ever seen that was better was Queen, front row, center).

(Oddly enough, probably the best part of the show was simply seeing Matt happy and healthy. And unlike many other artists, now that he's gotten himself straightened around, his music has actually gotten BETTER).

...and lo and behold Della Rose finally "got" Matt Good. (To the point now where she curses me for having Matt's music stuck in her head for two months now....)


*not sure if Tony the Tiger or Matt would be more pissed at me for that...

OK, So Sue Me - I Don't Like Cities

Went to Rochester to see Matt Good the other night (GREAT SHOW, by the way) and was reminded again how much I dislike cities.

There's a restless energy present, and for sure cities offer a cultural diversity unmatched in small towns. I also will be the first to acknowledge the irony in the fact that I had to drive to a city to see an artist I really like - and yet here I am throwing down on cities.

When I arrive in a city, the first thing I realize is that there is so little green. Yeah, I know cities have spectacular parks, but forcing nature into little pigeonholes (pun intended) is just all wrong. I suppose if I were a "glass half full" kinda' guy I would point to things like the resurgence of the Peregrine falcon in many cities as proof of the resiliency of nature and take hope and comfort in that. (Or, as Ian Anderson said in "Jack In The Green" "I saw some grass growing through the pavements today...")

The second thing that always strikes me about cities is that they're so cold and so impersonal. You can live and die in a city and no one will give a damn. You could, if you wanted to, spend your entire life without any meaningful contact with another human being. You could live in a little anonymous little box of an apartment, ride the bus by yourself to your anonymous little cube of an office in another nondescript tower of an office building and come home again. No one will even notice you when one of the myriad of ambulances come to haul you off after a Monday morning heart attack. You're not even a cog in a machine - at least in that case, one might feel like one had a role to play. To be sure, this could happen in a more rural setting, but it's much more difficult to go through life so impersonally when there are so many fewer people around you. Sounds counterintuitive, but when there are so many fewer people, and they're not on the move or as guarded, as they are in cities, it's easier to interact. It's almost inevitable.

The coldness is embodied in the buildings. As I stood looking out the window of our 21st floor hotel room, I reflected on the buildings around us. The inexorable, ruthless pace of change is evident in the physical structures. Older buildings, having outlived their usefulness are either forgotten and decaying, facade-ed over or torn down to be replaced with new concrete boxes. Many of them were built in the 19th century, built by men long since gone. I wondered about those men. What were they like? Did they anticipate the completion of the building as they neared the top? Did they celebrate the laying of the last brick and then pause to bask in the pride of the project they'd just completed? Did they bring their families to see the monument they'd just completed? Their hopes and dreams are there, in the bricks they laid one at a time, in good times and bad. The birth of a child, the death of a loved one, weddings and funerals are all there, in those simple clay blocks,entombed forever. Like a tapestry, the individual threads are lost in the big picture.

One thing that makes me wonder if it isn't getting worse is comparing the older buildings to the new ones. At least the older buildings have details in the brickwork, ornate cornices and flourishes, in places that are impossible to see from the ground. Why? A testament to craftsmanship because someone took pride, because someone cared? Even that level of the personal touch now seems gone - contrast that with the newer buildings: Soulless, cold glass and steel people boxes that look like they were molded somewhere and slapped down on the site, not built with pride.

In the city, it seems as if people are born in boxes, spend their whole lives in drab boxes and die in mundane boxes - be it a gray apartment, a beige office, or the metaphoric invisible box they build around themselves. It seems to me there is so much more color in life that they're missing.

It's sad.

Then again maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm just a stick-in-the-mud hick.

WOW - been a while, huh?

Nothing like sitting here staring at a blank page and realizing that three months have passed with nothing noteworthy to post.

Intimidating and depressing all at once.

On the fitness front: I have none.

I was doing well with my marathon training - New Year's Day, I "celebrated" by running an unofficial half marathon. It actually went pretty well. I was tired but not really sore. even had enough left in the tank to do a short sprint at the end. Shortly after that, the weather went to hell - as I expected it to. No problem, right? I have a treadmill, I have skis, I have a trainer... That really didn't happen too much. I made a half-hearted effort a few times. Mostly I was just trying to tread water until the weather improved. I did get into the strength training a bit. I actually got outside a few times and ran....and suffered like a dog. Five K hurt more than a half marathon? WTH? Could my fitness really have tanked in eight weeks of spotty activity? Apparently. I ran seven last Sunday and almost couldn't walk Monday morning.

Back to square one.

Jobwise, I'm still in limbo. The "big layoff" turned out to be a bit of a farce. I also got a new uber-boss who's even MORE clueless about what we do than my immediate supervisor. Wonderful. We have no work, but they're convinced they really need us. On the one hand, I'm getting a lot of work done for myself, but it can get wearying to have to find stuff to do all the time.

I am on track to become a Kollidge Stewdent next fall, starting an AS degree in Physical Therapy Assistant. I get to be Torquemada! Kewl!

As spring gathers steam, I am determined NOT to get behind the eight ball with the garden again. I have all my seeds ordered and, once I get my plant stand (with grow lights and stuff) finished, I can get my tomatoes, melons, peppers and squash started. Broccoli and spinach went in yesterday, peas will be going in soon - however this means I'll be needing to build trellises. Once I get the plants started, I can start building more raised beds - hopefully having them done by the time the plants need to go in - Memorial Weekend.

I got the brain fart that, since I only turn 50 once, I'm going to throw my own party. Toward that goal, I brewed a batch of Belgian Golden Strong Ale.... but it won't be done in time. I was also planning on having my basement bar at least far along enough to use for the occasion, but I don't think that's going to happen. It'll be close. Not really mandatory, just incentive to keep me motivated.

I have YET to bike commute.

Got up to camp for an overnighter last weekend. WAY more snow up there than expected, it was barely warm enough to stay overnight, but too much snow to do anything. Still, there are a couple of trees down, just waiting for me to get the chainsaw and ATV and play.... BUT, there's also stuff that I need to do, too. The porch needs replacement, the camp itself needs a coat of paint and some improvements to make it more liveable....



Spring feels like there is just so much promise, like there's so much ABOUT to happen, but it also feels like I've got a TON of stuff on my plate.

Mixed blessings, I guess.