A Centennial Celebration with the Coaches

Composed and posted on March 25, 2016

A little over two weeks ago, I received an urgent email from my high school track coach asking me to give him a call. It is rare to hear from him so as soon as I read the email, I gave him a call.  He informed me that my high school was having a centennial celebration that coming Saturday and that he was planning on going to it.  This was the first I had heard of the celebration and obviously had not planned on attending, but Coach was being his enthusiastic self and urged me to come. I told him that I would indeed attempt to come.

Since my brother, who resides about 50 miles away, is also a graduate of Victor Valley High School, I persuaded him to accompany me on the long (440 mile) drive from the Bay Area to Victorville.  We arrived just in time to partake of the festivities which for me principally meant talking with coaches and remembering events from a long time ago.  Surprisingly, many of the coaches who were most instrumental in my life were present at this centennial.  There was Felix Diaz, the man who taught me how to do the "Western Roll" in the high jump and helped me achieve the one great athletic achievement of my track career.  Felix later became a Councilman for the fair City of Victorville. 

Then there was the coach who sent me the urgent email, Len Miller, my cross country and track coach from 1968-69. Len is the man who believed that I was going to emulate the African runners who made such a splash at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, and become his first American "Kenyan" runner. Len encouraged me to go out for cross country in my first year of high school and had visions of turning me into a world class miler.  But alas, while I had the body of a Kenyan, I did not have the heart, the endurance nor the speed of a Kenyan so I disappointed him in that regard.  Nevertheless, I was able to jump a little bit and surprised us all later when track season rolled around. Somehow, I was able to jump well enough to set the school's Class "C" high jump record that year and to take second place at the League Championships.  A remarkable feat for a stick figure who often got blown around by the wind.  

Sadly, my greatest athletic accomplishment was very early in my track career.  Len Miller left Victor Valley in 1969 and my hopes for some grand athletic career seemed to go with him.   However, Len would go on to first Laguna Beach High School and then to UC Irvine where he did eventually find his world class miler ... a guy by the name of Steve Scott.  One fine July day in 1982, in Oslo, Norway, Steve Scott would run the mile in 3:47.69.  Steve's time would be the American record for the mile for the next twenty-five years.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Scott_(athlete)

And then there was Ollie Butler, the legendary basketball coach who won over 600 games at Victor Valley High School and whose name now is imprinted on the basketball court where the centennial ceremonies were held.  I never had the athletic talent to play basketball for Coach Butler but, in 1969, this white coach, who was born and raised in Tennessee, did something that would change my life for ever.  In gratitude for the accomplishments that his black ball players had made to his coaching career and his life, Coach Butler did something that was unusual for the time and the place.  During the summer of 1969, Coach Butler taught a course on Black History in the very conservative, predominantly white town of Victorville, California, and I just happened to take it.  It was my first formal introduction to the history of African Americans ... and it is ironic that it was taught by a white Southerner.

Seeing these three men together again caused me to reflect on how important certain people are in our lives.  I truly would not have been able to achieve what little I have achieved without the contributions of these men. And when I talk of achievements, it is not sports that I am talking about, it is life.  There are lessons that one learns from such men that one carries with you long after one has walked away from the court or the track. Lessons about dedication, discipline, determination and desire.  Lessons about the pursuit of excellence. Lessons about public service. Lessons about a perpetual optimism in the possibilities of youth.  Lessons about teamwork.  Lessons about brotherhood.  Lessons about gratitude.  Lessons about love.

These men are in their twilight years now, but their legacy continues to shine so brightly in all the lives that they have touched.  And I, for one, am extremely grateful to be one of those who are part of their luminous legacy.

Peace,

Everett "Skip" Jenkins

Class of 1975

P..S. The news article about the centennial can be found at

 http://www.vvdailypress.com/news/20160312/centennial-celebration?rssfeed=true

 

The Leftovers and Emanations

Composed and posted on March 24, 2016

Emeka,

Thank you for referring me to the The Leftovers.  I concluded my first binge watching session of The Leftovers last night with a viewing of the full first season of the show.  The Leftovers is entertaining and interesting and I will be watching the second season sometime next week.  However, I must admit that so far I have not found the "examples of the human compassion" that I crave.  This is a very dark show.  The very title of the showThe Leftovers seems to me to be indicative of the tone for the show.  As art, it succeeds in disturbing one's thoughts, but it does not provide the moral and spiritual enlightenment that I crave. 

I contrast what I have seen while watching the first season of The Leftovers with what I have seen re-watching the first season of Star Trek Voyager.  In that first season, there is an episode entitled "Emanations" that left me pondering the meaning of the afterlife and the meaning of the soul.  The synopsis of the episode is as follows:

Voyager detects the signature of an as-yet undiscovered heavy element within the ring system of a planet and organises an away team to investigate the cavern systems of one of the rocks. In doing so they discover numerous humanoid bodies, covered in a cobweblike substance and conclude that the cavern system is a burial ground. They discover that the burial ground is still in use when a 'subspace vacuole' opens and deposits a dying body shrouded in the webbing. Another vacuole begins to form and the away team is beamed out for safety reasons, but Ensign Kim disappears into the vacuole and is replaced by a female alien body, also wrapped in the webs.

Kim has been transported to a mortuary on the aliens' homeworld, and finds himself in a pod-shaped device, which the aliens open to release him. They identify themselves as the Vhnori, and believe that Kim has come from the "Next Emanation", their name for the afterlife. The pods, when activated, open a vacuole and transport the dead Vhnori body inside to the emanation. While being confined to the mortuary building for the time being, Kim meets a man named Hatil who has been scheduled by his family to go to the Next Emanation. Hatil does not wish to, however, and the confusion surrounding Kim's arrival to the planet re-inforces his doubts about the nature of the afterlife.

Meanwhile on Voyager, the Doctor revives the body of the woman who replaced Kim. She becomes hysterical when she realises that the afterlife is not as she had believed. Eventually she agrees to be transported into a forming vacuole in an attempt to be returned to her homeworld, but the attempt fails and she dies again. The woman's body rematerializes, swathed in the weblike substance, and collapses.

On the homeworld, Kim and Hatil agree to switch places, so that Kim can be transported back through a vacuole using the burial pod and Hatil can escape and live out his life in a rural village. Hatil wraps Kim in his burial shroud, and Kim is rescued by Voyager and revived after being transported through the pod. Later, he thinks about the accidental damage he may have done to the religious aspects of the Vhnori, but Captain Janeway reassures him that their scans picked up emanations of neural energy coming from the bodies of the deceased Vhnori, and a giant energy field made of thousands of these energy patterns is around the asteroid field and an indication to a possible afterlife.

*****

The thrust of the episode is an affirmation of the possibility that an afterlife does indeed exist and that one's journey in this space, time and dimension, is only part of one's journey.

Emeka, such a positive affirmation is what I yearn for these days.  I especially grave such a positive affirmation being expressed in a show that I would not mind viewing with children and teenagers.  The first season of The Leftovers did not provide that positive affirmation.  Maybe I will find a little more of what I am searching for in the second season.

Peace,

Everett "Skip" Jenkins

___________________________________________________________________________________

Hello Skip and all,

 

I would like to highly suggest you consider watching The Leftovers. Now I cannot say that every human encounter in the show will not be reminiscent of what you observed in The Walking Dead, but I am confident you will find many examples of the human compassion (in all its complicated forms) you crave within the show’s two seasons (a third and final season is in the works as we speak).

 

I’ll leave you with a synopsis of the show to wet your appetite:

 

Premise

The Leftovers takes place three years after a global event called the "Sudden Departure", the inexplicable, simultaneous disappearance of 140 million people, 2% of the world's population, on October 14, 2011.^[7] Following that event, mainstream religions declined, and a number of cults emerged, most notably the Guilty Remnant.^[8]

The story focuses primarily on the Garvey family and their acquaintances in the fictional town of Mapleton, New York. Kevin Garvey is the Chief of Police. His wife Laurie has joined the Guilty Remnant. Their son Tommy has left home for college, and their daughter Jill is acting out.^[1] The second season moves the main characters to the fictional town of Jarden, Texas.

Source: Wikipedia

 

Let me know if anyone ends up enjoying the show as much as I did.

 

Much love

Emeka 

 

 

 

 I am a big fan of the zombie apocalypse show, The Walking Dead.  For six seasons now, I have watched this highly unpredictable show not knowing who the "walkers" might get to next.  While it is the most gruesome and violent show on television, for the most part, I found its violence (especially the violence perpetrated by the shows "heroes") to be acceptable within the parameters of what a zombie apocalypse should be.  At least that is the way I felt about the show until the last two episodes.  In the last two episodes, the "heroes" have engaged in acts of cold blooded murder against fellow human beings ostensibly on the premise that those fellow human beings were "bad" people who deserved to die and also because by killing these "bad" people the heroes would have access to more food and supplies and would therefore be better able to survive.  What troubled me, is that the heroes seemed to "cross the line" by conducting a "preemptory strike" against the "bad" people even though those "bad" people had never really done anything to them.  What kind of morality or humanity is being conveyed when the heroes kill people without those people having done them any harm?

 

I suppose that there will be many that "tsk-tsk" this question as pointing out that it is really just a television show.  However, I have begun to wonder if television shows do not mirror the moral tenor of the times.  Indeed, I have also been in my "Man-Cave" spending a great deal of time with Captain Janeway and the crew of Voyager.  Star Trek Voyager left the air some fifteen years ago, but those fifteen years seem to be "light-years" away.  To a man or woman, the crew of Voyager would have preferred to starve before killing another people for food.  There is a moral tone to the show that is uplifting and is filled with the best expressions of humanity.  It seems so sad that within the last fifteen years that the moral tone of our entertainment has gone from that shown in Voyager to that shown in the latest episodes of The Walking Dead.

 

Am I wrong in my perceptions?  Are there shows currently on the air that show the best expression of our humanity? If so, please tell me what they are so that I can attempt to "cleanse" myself from what I have recently seen.

 

Peace,

 

Everett "Skip" Jenkins

_________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Yesterday was International Women's Day, a day for action and reflection. 

 

http://www.internationalwomensday.com/

 

However, aside from reading about the meaning of the day, I must admit that I did not do too much.  You can read about what more notable (and active) others did and said at 

 

http://www2.unwomen.org/en/news/in-focus/international-womens-day

 

As for me, yesterday evening, I confined myself in my evolving "Man-Cave", a space that once was a three car garage and began re-watching one of my favorite television shows ... Star Trek Voyager.  Coming on the heals of my binge watching of the first season of Orange is the New Black, watching Star Trek Voyager with Captain Kathryn Janeway and Chief Engineer B'Elanna Torres, seemed to be a couch potato homage to strong women on International Women's Day. And the fact that Kate Mulgrew is one of the leading actors in both series is perhaps a hint that both series are very, very good.

 

In any event, I hope others may have had a more productive International Women's Day.  If so, please do tell us about it .  But until then, a belated International Women's Day to everyone ... and may we continue to go where no one has gone before.

 

Peace,

 

Everett "Skip" Jenkins

Class of 1975

Reagan's Place in History

Composed and posted on March 24, 2016

Tuffy,

Thank you for sending the information regarding the "dark side" of the Reagan presidency.  I suppose one day an enterprising group of students will confront the powers that be and demand that his name also be removed from buildings and airports.  However, I suspect that for most people they will for many years to come simply look up Ronald Reagan at

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan

where they read

"Since Reagan left office in 1989, substantial debate has occurred among scholars, historians, and the general public surrounding his legacy.^[331] Supporters have pointed to a more efficient and prosperous economy as a result of Reagan's economic policies,^[332] foreign policy triumphs including a peaceful end to the Cold War,^[333] and a restoration of American pride and morale.^[115] Proponents also argue Reagan restored faith in the American Dream with his unabated and passionate love for the United States,^[334] after a decline in American confidence and self-respect under Jimmy Carter's perceived weak leadership, particularly during the Iranian hostage crisis, as well as his gloomy, dreary outlook for the future of the United States during the 1980 election.^[335] Critics contend that Reagan's economic policies resulted in rising budget deficits,^[151] a wider gap in wealth, and an increase in homelessness^[161] and that the Iran-Contra affair lowered American credibility.^[336]

Opinions of Reagan's legacy among the country's leading policy makers and journalists differ as well. Edwin Feulner, president of The Heritage Foundation, said that Reagan "helped create a safer, freer world" and said of his economic policies: "He took an America suffering from 'malaise'… and made its citizens believe again in their destiny."^[337] However, Mark Weisbrot, co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, contended that Reagan's "economic policies were mostly a failure"^[338] while Howard Kurtz of The Washington Post opined that Reagan was "a far more controversial figure in his time than the largely gushing obits on television would suggest."^[339]

Despite the continuing debate surrounding his legacy, many conservative and liberal scholars agree that Reagan has been the most influential president since Franklin D. Roosevelt, leaving his imprint on American politics, diplomacy, culture, and economics through his effective communication, dedicated patriotism and pragmatic compromising.^[340] Since he left office, historians have reached a consensus,^[341] as summarized by British historian M. J. Heale, who finds that scholars now concur that Reagan rehabilitated conservatism, turned the nation to the right, practiced a considerably pragmatic conservatism that balanced ideology and the constraints of politics, revived faith in the presidency and in American exceptionalism, and contributed to victory in the Cold War.^[342]"

Tuffy, if what you say is accurate (and I believe it is) how then do we account for the somewhat universal assessment that Reagan was the most influential president of the second half of the twentieth century?  Even your negative criticisms would seem to suggest such to be so.

Peace,

Everett "Skip" Jenkins

___________________________________________________________________________________

I'm very happy to learn that you and Elis will be spending some happy moments together. The mythology of Reagan is tremendous. But when confronted with the facts his grand image crumbles.  The fact is that early in his presidency he triggered a nose dive recession by disregarding the  advice of Paul Volker who was the Chairman of the Federal reserve at the time. Volker stood up to Regan n refusing to  This led to an unemployment rate of nearly 11% up from 7.5% when he took office. Ten when Reagan followed Volker's advice the unemployment rate dropped down. At that point Republicans began crowing about an amazing Reagan recovery which was a recovery from a debacle that he had created - I was amazed to see how they could get away with such rank duplicity.  Reagan also supported the apartheid government of South Africa. The only thing that led to the freeing of Mandela was the intervention of the Cubans in the side o the MPLA faction of the Angolan resistance just as hey were abou to experience defeat in Luanda. The battle of Cuito Canavale  was the pivotal battle that resulted in the retreat of the South African army and the fear that the Cubas would pursue them into south Africa. At that point Reagan's administration  diplomat Chester Crocker negotiated a truce that saved the South African government and Mandela was freed while the wealthy whites kept control over the means of production in that country. Now they are being joined by a smidgen of greedy blacks in plundering the country and ts people. Reagan also blundered in his management of the intervention in the Lebanese civil war. This blunder based on his change in the mission of the marines from a peace keeping force to taking sides led to the death of 220 marines and 21 American service members. The there was the Iran Contra  scandal that led tothe introduction of crack cocaine into black communities. Reagan sponsored the Contras who inflicted great pain upon the people of El Salvador. This kind of intervention is partly responsible for the chaos in central America today. Reagan had no understanding of the complexity of the world. He went from one blunder to another. He was heartless and unsympathetic to the plight of ordinary people favorng he wealyhy classes. He sent a signal to the American white racist segment that he was there man and the southern strategy accelerated on his watch to replenish he ranks of the Republican party.  In the 40s and 50s he was  a snitch for the FBI secretly turning in members of the screen actors guild (SAG) of which he was the president. The US budget became unwound with the unprecedented Reagan deficits. The there was the savings and loan debacle.  Finally in this sampling of many Reagan failures there was his sponsor ship of the forces that enabled Osama  Ben Laden

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/war_stories/2004/06/reagans_osama_connection.html

This is a story on how he spied on the membership of and actors organization that he led.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/war_stories/2004/06/reagans_osama_connection.html

Reagan was an amoral,  despicable and poorly informed character who did much harm to our nation. Many of todays problems can be rotted in his administration.

Tuffy       

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Tuffy,

I plan on commiserating with my friend Ellis when he comes to the Bay Area on his quest and I hope to accompany him and his lovely Yvette when they venture into the confines of AT&T Park and O.Co.  

As for Reagan, he and Nancy created the Imperial Presidency that brought some luster to the office and gave some pride to the nation.  Also, he will always be remembered for telling Gorbachev to bring down the wall and for laying the groundwork to the dismantling of the Soviet Empire.  For those two reasons, he will arguably always have a positive historical assessment. Also, despite his Cowboy image, Reagan did know how to govern and did show some class and restraint ... unlike some contemporary Republican candidates that we have all come to know.

Peace,

Everett "Skip" Jenkins

__________________________________________________________________________________________

I agree Skip and I extend my condolences over your friend Ellis. An objective look at what  Obama accomplished compels a conclusion of greatness. I also think an objective look at Reagan produces the opposite conclusion. I think what Obama represents is the unraveling of the house that Reagan built.

Peace,

Tuffy   

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Today, Brother Barack took a long stride towards justifying that prize for peace that he was awarded once upon a time that now seems like so long ago. His presidential legacy is solidified.  With the financial recovery of the nation complete, American involvement in the Middle East minimized, Obamacare established, a nuclear treaty with Iran negotiated, and relations with Cuba normalized, one can begin to argue that Obama is in the upper tier of presidents going beyond Clinton and perhaps even Reagan.  He has had an amazing run.  And history may well record that for this generation, and perhaps for this century, he was indeed the "One."

Peace,

Everett "Skip" Jenkins

The White Shadow and Puddn'head Wilson

Composed and posted on March 24, 2016

I note with sadness the passing of Ken Howard, Class of 1966, whose role as the White Shadow was a seminal portrayal of a coach who was able to meld a disparate interracial group of high school basketball players into a unified championship caliber basketball team. In their journey to the championship game, both the players and coach learn certain important lessons about life.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/24/arts/television/ken-howard-71-actor-and-sag-aftra-union-president-dies.html?mabReward=A3&module=WelcomeBackModal&contentCollection=Americas&region=FixedCenter&action=click&src=recg&pgtype=article

I was greatly impressed with the White Shadow but my favorite Ken Howard role was his lead role in the 1984 American Playhouse production ofPuddn'head Wilson.  You can read about Mark Twain's story at

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pudd%27nhead_Wilson

and you can read reviews about the American Playhouse production at 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087954/reviews?ref_=tt_ov_rt

Ken Howard had many other roles and he was esteemed by his fellow actors enough to have been the president of SAG-AFTRA for many years, but in my mind his legacy will always be linked to The White Shadow and Puddn'head Wilson.

Peace,

Everett "Skip" Jenkins

Class of 1975

Obama's Place in History

Composed and posted on March 22, 2016

Today, Brother Barack took a long stride towards justifying that prize for peace that he was awarded once upon a time that now seems like so long ago. His presidential legacy is solidified.  With the financial recovery of the nation complete, American involvement in the Middle East minimized, Obamacare established, a nuclear treaty with Iran negotiated, and relations with Cuba normalized, one can begin to argue that Obama is in the upper tier of presidents going beyond Clinton and perhaps even Reagan.  He has had an amazing run.  And history may well record that for this generation, and perhaps for this century, he was indeed the "One."

Peace,

Everett "Skip" Jenkins

Red Baraat

Composed and posted on March 18, 2016

In December, I sent the post referencing the fusion band Junun that is set forth below.  In response, one of my classmates recommended that I take a listen to a band by the name of Red Baraat.  And yes, after doing so, I found the music and energy that comes from listening to Red Baraat to be both surprising and refreshing. This same Red Baraat plays tonight at the San Francisco Jazz Center and I had intended to go and hear them play.  Unfortunately, I find that my body would much rather go home and sleep than to go to the Jazz Center and dance.  And so, it is homeward to sleep that I go.  However, for those of you who are more energetic than I, I commend you to Red Baraat who will next be in Portland, Seattle, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and New York City over the next ten days. And to all who may be reading this, please also read 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunny_Jain#Red_Baraat

and then listen to what is probably Red Baraat's best tune

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvrRNv7fS2Q

Peace,

Everett "Skip" Jenkins

________________________________________________________________________________________

Being a person of multiple ethnicities and religious traditions, I tend to think that fusions are a good thing.  Here is a recent musical fusion that I found to be intriguing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5tLoceVlZU

The story behind the composer of this piece can be found at

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shye_Ben_Tzur

Sometimes one can be transported to another time and place without ever leaving home.

Peace,

Everett "Skip" Jenkins

The Walking Dead and the "Best" Expression of Humanity

Composed and posted on March 18, 2016

I am a big fan of the zombie apocalypse show, The Walking Dead.  For six seasons now, I have watched this highly unpredictable show not knowing who the "walkers" might get to next.  While it is the most gruesome and violent show on television, for the most part, I found its violence (especially the violence perpetrated by the shows "heroes") to be acceptable within the parameters of what a zombie apocalypse should be.  At least that is the way I felt about the show until the last two episodes.  In the last two episodes, the "heroes" have engaged in acts of cold blooded murder against fellow human beings ostensibly on the premise that those fellow human beings were "bad" people who deserved to die and also because by killing these "bad" people the heroes would have access to more food and supplies and would therefore be better able to survive.  What troubled me, is that the heroes seemed to "cross the line" by conducting a "preemptory strike" against the "bad" people even though those "bad" people had never really done anything to them.  What kind of morality or humanity is being conveyed when the heroes kill people without those people having done them any harm?

I suppose that there will be many that "tsk-tsk" this question as pointing out that it is really just a television show.  However, I have begun to wonder if television shows do not mirror the moral tenor of the times.  Indeed, I have also been in my "Man-Cave" spending a great deal of time with Captain Janeway and the crew of Voyager.  Star Trek Voyager left the air some fifteen years ago, but those fifteen years seem to be "light-years" away.  To a man or woman, the crew of Voyager would have preferred to starve before killing another people for food.  There is a moral tone to the show that is uplifting and is filled with the best expressions of humanity.  It seems so sad that within the last fifteen years that the moral tone of our entertainment has gone from that shown in Voyager to that shown in the latest episodes of The Walking Dead.

Am I wrong in my perceptions?  Are there shows currently on the air that show the best expression of our humanity? If so, please tell me what they are so that I can attempt to "cleanse" myself from what I have recently seen.

Peace,

Everett "Skip" Jenkins

Mankiewicz v. Welles

Composed and posted on March 16, 2016

Editorial note: It should be noted that the film credits list Herman Mankiewicz and Orson Welles as the screenwriters of Citizen Kane, so the correct attribution as to what was created in Victorville would be a "foundational" script but not the final or definitive script.  I do not intend to revive a dispute from long ago  (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_Kane). I am simply taking a moment to fondly reflect on a hometown's brief moment in the sun.

Peace,

Everett "Skip" Jenkins

__________________________________________________________________________________________

In another of those coincidences that occur in this life, it did not take long for Lin Manuel Miranda to enrich us all.  Please see the following segment from the March 15, 2016 PBS NewsHour and be bemused

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/acclaimed-musical-hamilton-visits-the-white-house-and-obama-joins-in/

As for his innovative predecessor, well the 20 year old wunderkind that created the 1936 "Voodoo" Macbeth was none other than Orson Welles and the movie he would direct five years later was the critically acclaimed Citizen Kane, a movie deemed by many to be the greatest movie of all time.  

By the way, in another of those coincidences that I so enjoy, the script for Citizen Kane was written by Herman Mankiewicz and John Houseman (remember Professor Kingsfield in The Paper Chase?) during a three month stint in a dusty desert town that is dear to my heart.  The script was written in the town of Victorville, California, ... a town that I still do call home.

Peace,

Everett "Skip" Jenkins

__________________________________________________________________________________________

It is not lost on many of us, in this year of a seeming lack of diversity in the Oscar nominations, that there is a phenomenon on Broadway that utilizes a very diverse cast to tell history in a very unusual way.  The phenomenon is called "Hamilton" and it has taken Broadway by storm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAiEVjW-GNA

Being currently immersed in the 1930s, the Hamilton story harkened  back to a time some 80 years ago, when a young phenom director put on a new version of Shakespeare's Macbeth.  As Wikipedia describes it, the young phenom

"adapted and directed the production, moved the play's setting from Scotland to a fictional Caribbean island, recruited an entirely African American cast, and earned the nickname for his production from the Haitian vodou that fulfilled the rôle of Scottish witchcraft. A box office sensation, the production is regarded as a landmark theatrical event for several reasons: its innovative interpretation of the play, its success in promoting African-American theatre, and its role in securing the reputation of its 20-year-old director."

I do not know what will become of Lin Manuel Miranda, the creator of the hip-hop Hamilton, but it is notable that the 20 year old director the "Voodoo" Macbeth went on, five years later, to direct what most critics consider to be the greatest movie of all time. May the Theater Gods shine on Lin Manuel Miranda so that he too may one day similarly enrich us all.

Peace,

Everett "Skip" Jenkins

And Yo the Mike Drops

Composed and posted on March 16, 2016

In another of those coincidences that occur in this life, it did not take long for Lin Manuel Miranda to enrich us all.  Please see the following segment from the March 15, 2016 PBS NewsHour and be bemused

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/acclaimed-musical-hamilton-visits-the-white-house-and-obama-joins-in/

As for his innovative predecessor, well the 20 year old wunderkind that created the 1936 "Voodoo" Macbeth was none other than Orson Welles and the movie he would direct five years later was the critically acclaimed Citizen Kane, a movie deemed by many to be the greatest movie of all time.  

By the way, in another of those coincidences that I so enjoy, the script for Citizen Kane was written by Herman Mankiewicz and John Houseman (remember Professor Kingsfield in The Paper Chase?) during a three month stint in a dusty desert town that is dear to my heart.  The script was written in the town of Victorville, California, ... a town that I still do call home.

Peace,

Everett "Skip" Jenkins

________________________________________________________________________________________

It is not lost on many of us, in this year of a seeming lack of diversity in the Oscar nominations, that there is a phenomenon on Broadway that utilizes a very diverse cast to tell history in a very unusual way.  The phenomenon is called "Hamilton" and it has taken Broadway by storm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAiEVjW-GNA

Being currently immersed in the 1930s, the Hamilton story harkened  back to a time some 80 years ago, when a young phenom director put on a new version of Shakespeare's Macbeth.  As Wikipedia describes it, the young phenom

"adapted and directed the production, moved the play's setting from Scotland to a fictional Caribbean island, recruited an entirely African American cast, and earned the nickname for his production from the Haitian vodou that fulfilled the rôle of Scottish witchcraft. A box office sensation, the production is regarded as a landmark theatrical event for several reasons: its innovative interpretation of the play, its success in promoting African-American theatre, and its role in securing the reputation of its 20-year-old director."

I do not know what will become of Lin Manuel Miranda, the creator of the hip-hop Hamilton, but it is notable that the 20 year old director the "Voodoo" Macbeth went on, five years later, to direct what most critics consider to be the greatest movie of all time. May the Theater Gods shine on Lin Manuel Miranda so that he too may one day similarly enrich us all.

Peace,

Everett "Skip" Jenkins

Ruben Rada

Composed and posted on March 11, 2016

I have to run out of here.  But to help you get a running start. here is a little number from one the greatest artists of Uruguay...Ruben Rada.  Enjoy ... and cha cha.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjHnUpSufMo&index=2&list=PLZNTrh0oY0ZrduTwfb5A3LxJq9PxUppFq

Peace,

Everett "Skip" Jenkins