Tag Archives: opinion

I Don’t Man-Up for the Super Bowl

31 Thursday Jan 2013

Posted by in Confessional, Men

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

Football from the outside in

Football from the outside in. By Julie Seyler.

BY BOB SMITH

I failed as a baseball pitcher because of a bad attitude. I didn’t have the athletic skills for basketball or soccer. And I lacked both the skills and raw physical aggression needed for football. As a result, I was never particularly interested in watching other people play those games.

I don’t regularly watch any sport, for that matter. But I make an exception for the Super Bowl, because it’s a championship game where the best teams are playing really hard, there are cool commercials, and an interesting halftime show. And best of all – greasy snacks. But otherwise, because I was never very good at sports myself, I’m pretty much a non-watcher of televised sports.

It started when I played Little League baseball as a boy. They made me pitch, because as a left-hander, it was natural for me to sling the ball across my body from left to right. The pitch started high, looking like a strike, but then it slid down low and inside against right-handed batters – really hard to hit.

But if the ball was hit back to me, whether in the air or on the ground, I couldn’t catch it worth a lick. And at the plate, I struck out almost every time. Worse yet, I was a perfectionist – I thought that unless I struck out every batter, I was a failure. So as soon as anyone got a hit I got angry and threw harder, losing all control. I issued walk after walk, loading the bases.

Wise guys supporting the other team would start to chant: “Pitcher’s crackin’ uh-up! Pitcher’s crackin’ uh-up!,” and I’d get madder, throwing even more erratically, proving them right. The coach would yank me, and I’d sit in the dugout pissed off for the rest of the game.

Continue reading →

It’s Ancient History: What’s New is Old

29 Tuesday Jan 2013

Posted by in Art, Opinion

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

Left hand of Maitreya, Buddha of the Future ca 550 AD

Left hand of Maitreya, Buddha of the Future ca 550 AD

BY JULIE SEYLER

The Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW), is a resource center for scholars devoted to documenting and recording a time that existed thousands of years before Facebook. But they also put on exhibits for the curious, like me. If I tell people I am heading off to see a show called “Pagans, Jews, and Christians at Roman Dura-Europos”, of course eyeballs are rolled. But I am endlessly fascinated in the continuities from then to now: that we have always made art; that gold has always been prized; and that grapes have always been fermented into wine. 

Our tradition of adorning ourselves and getting drunk is so old it can never be new. So it is always a pleasure to see an old, old treasure like the pure gold fragment of a plaque embedded with pieces of turquoise that represents a snow leopard from Kazakhstan made about 2800 years ago. A cat of the ancient world that would blend in perfectly at Tiffany’s today.

Photo of a recreated cave from Xiangtangshan, China

Photo of a recreated cave from Xiangtangshan, China

One Saturday afternoon before hip surgery I needed an art pick-me-up, so I dropped by to see ISAW’s latest exhibit called, ” Echoes of the Past: The Buddhist Cave Temple of Xiangtangshan,” which just closed on January 6.  The focus of the show was these earth-carved caves located in northern China near the city of Xiangtangshan. The caves, decorated with beautiful lotus flowers, once housed 20-foot Buddhas, grand bodhisattvas and imaginary monsters sculpted from limestone by unknown artisans sometime between 550 AD, and 577 AD. The monumental Buddhas, with their half-opened eyes and plush lips scream, “benign contentment”.

Staring up at these tranquil giants made me think that the desire to seek a more noble world is timeless. It also made me think that in every culture, in every era man/woman has needed to create art. And sometimes that art has reflected the continuous search for spirituality.

An Off-the-Hip Collage of Passion

24 Thursday Jan 2013

Posted by in Art, Opinion

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , , ,

without passion, by Julie Seyler, May 2012

BY JULIE SEYLER

Can we live without passion?  I don’t think that question ever arose in my 20s, 30s, or 40s. It was a fait accompli based on youth, pheromones and hormones. But during the first half of 2012, at the riper age of 57, when I was dealing with a relentless pain in my left hip, I must admit I started wondering.

I had seen seven doctors, three physical therapists, and two acupuncturists – all of whom had various theories and proposed remedies for my distorted walk and constant ache, but no solutions. My hobbling gait just got worse and worse. I was definitely experiencing the passion of pain, but felt little passion for anything else.

About this time I saw a still of Joel McCrea and Dolores del Rio from the 1932 movie, “Bird of Paradise.” The way they gaze into each other’s eyes screams ardent lust.

And so I had to have some passionate fun making a collage about what it feels like when the only passion you have is feeling the passion of pain.

Blackouts Less Severe for Middle Age “Electroholics”

23 Wednesday Jan 2013

Posted by in Men, Opinion

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

BY FRANK TERRANELLA

NY Times article

Click to read.

While many continue to suffer, Hurricane Sandy is just a memory for most of us now. But the one effect that just about everyone experienced was a loss of electricity. For some, it was just a day or two. For others, it was weeks. In my case, my house was without power for 54 hours. The signs of electronics withdrawal manifested themselves almost immediately.

Back in 1976, I wrote a piece for The New York Times about what I saw at the time as an addiction to electronic devices. This was before cell phones, MP3 players and even VCRs. The first commercially available personal computer, the Apple II, would not be introduced until the next year. So the electronic items I was writing about in 1976 were basics like televisions, radios and lights. The more exotic electrical uses were electric can openers, electric vacuum cleaners, electric ovens and electric toothbrushes. In my 1976 article, I labeled people who are addicted to electricity as “electroholics.”

Today, the loss of electricity is a very different matter. No electricity means no Internet, no DVD player, and no home phone service (since the phones now run on house current). We had a battery-operated radio during our Sandy blackout, so we could get news. But that was about it for electronic entertainment. Fortunately, today, we now have battery-operated telephones and iPads. But since the charge in these devices is quickly depleted, and there is no way to recharge them without electricity, we used them sparingly. I used the iPad to access e-mail, and the cell phone to talk with relatives.

Continue reading →

When Print was the Touchstone of Journalism

08 Tuesday Jan 2013

Posted by in Men, Opinion

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , , ,

BY FRANK TERRANELLA

Frank-Journal News Pix

Frank, at the Journal News, working the slot on the news desk.

I am part of an ever-growing fraternity – former newspaper journalists. It has been sad to see the industry implode over the last three decades. Like most people who have worked in newspapers, I wish I was still doing it. But the combination of poor pay, anti-social working hours, and an industry that has been slowly going out of business for a generation, has produced a diaspora of journalists. My journey from newspaperman to lawyer/blogger is typical.

In my junior year of college, I started writing for the college newspaper. I loved it so much that I arranged an internship with the Telegram & Gazette in Worcester, Massachusetts for my senior year. Over the summer before my senior year, I worked on a local weekly in my hometown. This was back in the days when newspapers were printed using linotype machines. These now-extinct machines consisted of a keyboard that created lines of type (similar to the striking keys on a typewriter) out of molten lead. As might be expected by the last two words of the previous sentence, this machine threw off a lot of heat – hence the term “hot type.”

Continue reading →

No Trouble With the Curves

02 Wednesday Jan 2013

Posted by in Men, Opinion

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

, , , ,

Photo of a photo of a A. Jaffe from 1951

Photo of a photo of a curvy A. Jaffe from 1951

BY FRANK TERRANELLA

As an over-50 male, I am sorry to say that the women that Hollywood is putting up on the screen these days as the new models of feminine beauty often leave me cold. When I see people like Keira Knightley, Sienna Miller or Olivia Wilde, all I want to do is feed them. Have a chocolate shake. Gain 20 pounds. Grow some curves!

I think that men who grew up in the 1950s and 1960s may have a different idea of the perfect female figure than young men today. We over-50 men first noticed women at a time when the feminine ideal was Marilyn Monroe, Sophia Loren and Jayne Mansfield. Oh sure, there was also Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly, but these were women admired more for their faces than their bodies. If you asked any teenage boy in the 1960s which movie star had the best figure, he was more likely to say Elizabeth Taylor or Raquel Welch than Doris Day or Jane Fonda.  Even on television, the most popular mouseketeer among boys was not Karen or Sherry or Darlene. It was the full-figured Annette.

Our fathers and grandfathers shared this admiration for a female figure that was, in their words, “healthy-looking.”  The ideal then was the voluptuous Gibson Girl look of the early 1900s. That was continued into the 1930s with chorus girls in Busby Berkeley musicals showing a lot of meat on their bones -especially around their thighs. I don’t know whether those women would be considered beautiful today, but I do know that in the 1960s, women who by today’s standards would be considered fat, were held up as the feminine ideal.
Continue reading →

The N.R.A Creeps Along, and Slithers Away, from Gun Reform

21 Friday Dec 2012

Posted by in Opinion

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

, , , , ,

P1120514

BY JULIE SEYLER

In the wake of the horror of Newtown, there have been reports that the pro-gun lobby is open to reform.  A front page headline in The New York Times on Tuesday December 18, 2012 proclaimed “Pro-Gun Democrats Signaling Openness to Limits”.   What about pro-gun Republicans?   We can’t unite on the idea that the death of innocents because of way-too-loose gun laws is unacceptable?

The front page also had a story on the first of the two Newtown funerals – two little boys.  It has all been said and said and repeated, but in the solitude of my living room, the tears streamed down my face. Again.

Buried within the paper was the headline “Silent Since Shootings, N.R.A, Could Face Challenge to Political Power.”  That sounded promising, until you get behind the facts of the N.R.A.  The article summarized the status of the N.R.A., including its game-plan strategy when the country is confronted by gun killings.  Rather than promoting legislation that might actually make it impossible for these situations to occur, the N.R.A. passionately besieges Congress to defeat laws that would require background checks before a gun may be purchased, and relentlessly pushes for legislation that would permit unfettered access to buying, owning and carrying guns.  P1120516What sane person would not find this utterly abominable, especially in light of what we have experienced as a nation over the past 13 years?

Continue reading →

He Rocks. She Rocks. Everyone Rocks Together. Except Me.

14 Friday Dec 2012

Posted by in Opinion

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , ,

IMG_3056

BY JULIE SEYLER

No matter how I slice it, dice it, or splice it, I have never cottoned to rock ‘n roll music.  I have tried on many occasions, because I think I am missing something important.  So of course, Wednesday night’s 12-12-12 concert in Madison Square Garden to aid the victims of Hurricane Sandy, which brought together a lot of the superstars of rock ‘n roll, was a perfect opportunity to again revisit the music. I would donate, watch and listen.

I know it seems like heresy to not love rock ‘n roll, especially since I grew up in the ’70s –  the heyday of Pink Floyd, The Who, Emerson Lake & Palmer, The Rolling Stones, and The Beatles.  Bruce Springsteen was just coming on the scene at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, and while I lived in the next town over, I never made it there to see him.  I assume that every one of my high school classmates can recount endless nights spent at the Pony.  Hey guys – chime in here with the stories, because when the reminiscing begins, I must remain silent. Rather than rocking out to Cream and Led Zeppelin, I was busy immersing myself in Billie Holiday, which later developed into a tunnel devotion for all things jazz from Charlie Parker to Dinah Washington to Sarah Vaughan, etc. etc. etc.

Continue reading →

Want to Make a Gun? It’s a Piece of Cake

12 Wednesday Dec 2012

Posted by in Opinion

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , , ,

Drawing by Julie Seyler.

BY JULIE SEYLER

On October 7, 2012, The New York Times ran an article discussing how 3-D printer technology is allowing us to make guns at home.  This flipped me out, because really, regardless of where one stands on the Second Amendment (the right of the people to keep and bear arms), and gun ownership laws, it does seem somewhat crazy that we are moving into an era where guns, like cakes, can be whipped up at home with a little push of the button. Talk about the Wild Wild West!

So I brought the article up with a couple of my colleagues at work – neither of whom were particularly bothered.  One guy said, “If a person is intent on killing, it is very difficult to stop them.  They will find a means to do so with whatever technology is available at the time.” And another guy said that you still need to understand how to assemble the gun, so we need not worry about our ten year olds readily printing a gun for a fun game of cops and robbers.

Well, great!

But what does it say about where we are going as a society?  The simple fact that homemade guns are coming to your local neighborhood – it just blew my mind.  I wrote the above, did a fast drawing that reflected how I saw the situation, and figured one day we’d post my thoughts on the blog.  But last Friday I was talking to a different colleague, and he said, “Do you know what one of the most watched YouTube videos is?” I wouldn’t know since I forget YouTube exists. He said there is a video online that directs you how to make a paper gun – a usable, workable device to kill someone, and it is one of the most popular, watchable, and shareable videos within the small domain of YouTube entertainment.

He shook his head in utter disgust and resignation, and then asked me if I had heard of the University of Colorado dormitory that is specially designated for college students. You know – 18-21 year olds. That own guns. (Hate to be there on a night of too much drinking.)

Wherever you look, the liberalization of gun laws, coupled with the constant progression of technology, is not making us safer. It is just making our society scarier. I grew up knowing a gun was a company-manufactured device sold through regulated retail outlets. There were laws that governed accessibility. I may not have been any “safer” than I am today, but it sure felt that way.

So how does this relate to being on the right side of 50?  Only that I have more years behind me to feel sad about the years ahead.

Is Cremation the Way to Go?

06 Thursday Dec 2012

Posted by in Confessional, Opinion

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , ,

Cemetary

19th Century Cemetery on W. 21st Street in Manhattan.
Photo by Julie Seyler

BY LOIS DESOCIO

My brother, Gerry, died this week last year. And since his life for decades was in Florida, but his family lives in New Jersey, the decision was made to cremate him, so we could bring him home, and have him home with us, forever. In the year since his death, two old friends have died, as well as a few parents of friends, and some relatives. The bulk of them have been cremated. As a result of all this, I have become obsessed with thoughts of cremation. Thinking of my brother (and six years ago, my father), going from whole to embers is unsettling. But is lying six feet under and turning skeletal any more pleasant?

My mother, on the other hand, who is a healthy 79 years old, says she doesn’t want to be cremated. Or buried. She wants a mausoleum. For the whole family.

Which brings me to this – I can’t decide, and if I drop dead tomorrow, it’s out of my hands, because, while I have a will, I left that part blank. I’ve always had visions, since my age was in the single digits, about what it must be like to be dead. Currently, my mental pictures have me with makeup on, dressed in my skinny jeans, and dangly, sparkly earrings, lying in a box in the ground, looking exactly the same, except I’m dead. Dead, but intact. But now I have to take it all seriously – I’m on the right side of 50. And it’s not that I’m feeling doomed – just more responsible.

Continue reading →