Taverns and Music: where is the nightlife?

On the Saturday night of Thanksgiving weekend I went out looking for music in a bar in Holland. This western Michigan small town has enough college students and young-adults-living-with-the-'rents to fill a few bars, so I went downtown around 8 PM hoping to feel the noise. Bad timing. The Irish pub was full of supper patrons and a reunion crowd in the back room, but the band, advertised as playing Chicago blues from 7-11 PM, wouldn't be setting up until after 9. The brewpub across the street was almost full of customers, but there would be no party with live music this weekend. The 5th floor nightclub had the lights on but it was a very quiet evening in downtown Holland. So I was back home a little after 9, sitting back with a movie and a glass of Wild Turkey (no, Brenda, not a tumbler, just a shot glass). Just for giggles, I googled "western michigan bar band" and came up with Why Not Astronaut, a local funk-blues band I met at a music store in Holland, playing at the Itty Bitty Bar on the north side, tonight. So I went out, again, a little after 11, looking for music in a bar in Holland.

This was just what I expected: parked cars overflowed the paved lot to an adjacent field, smoke and noise filled the entrance, hundreds of youngsters stood shoulder-to-shoulder or face-to-face in an area half the size of our house, and the staff was really busy. The bouncer at the door glanced at my shaggy white beard and waved me in, no ID presentation necessary. Though I was able to slip immediately into a recently vacated seat at the bar, it took 15 minutes for the athletic bartender to pull me a beer (actually 2, I didn't want to wait for the second). A draft Pabst was my only choice since the stock of Canadian beer in bottles was long gone.

I must appear to be a hunter, since a couple guys asked me how was the season; there was time for short conversation before the band started the next set. Why Not Astronaut might not be the greatest bar band I have ever heard, but they were loud and clear in proclaiming the funky blues. They were exceptionally good at playing a version of musical chairs: in the middle of a tune, the drummer handed over the sticks to another player and took the guitar from the other player. These three guys seamlessly and effortlessly continued to play, swapping instruments in the middle of the stream!

I am happy to report that music is alive and well in a bar in Holland. I like living here!

Celebrating Diversity

The Fall Calling All Colors conference in western Michigan is not a tour of the changing face of the woods, it's an activity sponsored by the Lakeshore Ethnic Diversity Alliance for student and teacher participants from local schools. I acted as a facilitator for a BaFa BaFa simulation game that let participants take on unfamiliar cultural personalities. After introductions to the representatives from a dozen middle-schools, Roberto Jara (representing the Holland organization, Latin Americans United for Progress) reflected on his growing up as a Mexican-American in California. Then we broke out into Alpha and Beta cultural groups for training in cultural activities. The Alpha culture acknowledged patriarchal and family customs of respect and close togetherness (a facilitator was put off by the "touchy-feely" aspect) while playing a game with tokens that supported relationships. The Beta culture was driven by competition expressed in a primitive trading language while playing a game with cards that supported individual achievement. During the half-hour that groups played their games, observers and designated visitors attempted to fit in to the other cultural activities. Then we had time to meet together and discuss features of the pretend activity. I was impressed by the intensity the students brought to playing the games and their love & acceptance of the newly-learned culture. Apparently, in 2009, western Michigan communities already have diverse ethnic cultures.

a movie that moved me

Let's look at movies. I like to be suprised by "a little movie with a big heart" that was recommended by a forgettable link, it missed the Entertainment Tonight presentation, but it shows real personalities working out tragedy & comedy. Take a look at "Once". It touches on ecstasy & heartbreak with absolutely captivating music. Like in another movie, The Commitments, the guitar-playing guy character and his new friend, a piano-playing woman, reach for their dreams. I bought into their dreams, and this slice of life kept it real. He carries his guitar like a third arm. She has a family and supports his ambition. He's Irish and she's Czech. No easy resolution, but I loved this story!

what am I reading about?

So I'm a lifelong student of personalities. The classroom is any mall or WalMart, watching the parade of shoppers. Or novels - the good writers put me inside a personality. I read a lot of crime novels, murder mysteries or police procedurals or criminal activities, and some spy stories. Elmore Leonard and Lawrence Block (and Stephen King, but that's another story) are the masters. I've got to give props to Mr. Leonard, I'm reading his story about "Stick", a personality with the criminal mind, and it exposes human nature with perfect dialogue. In the movies from Mr. Leonard's work, the actors just read the book and the director just goes with the plot. Motivation: get the most for yourself with the least effort without getting hurt. It's the fantasy good life.

How do you keep in touch?

I started using a desktop computer (Apple II, 3 mhz processor, 800 mb storage drive, one-color-text screen display) in the early 1980s to correspond with friends that had similar interests (my topics were computer graphics, education, writing, and cars) through dial-up bulletin boards. My computer could call the telephone modem for a particular bulletin board and most messages were available to all callers. Of course, I also kept in touch by word-processing letters that were printed and mailed by the US Postal Service.

In 1988 I registered with AppleLink for communication services provided by Quantum, which became America Online in 1989. The graphic-user-interface provided by AOL was more attractive than the command-line-interface used by other services (of course I also had accounts with Prodigy, CompuServe, and GEnie) and members could send private messages immediately or to a virtual mailbox. I still have an AOL address for email.

In 2002 (MySpace), 2003 (LinkedIn), 2004 (Facebook), 2005 (YouTube) and 2008 (Twitter) social networking websites were developed. There are 200,000,000 worldwide Facebook users, about 1/5 of the 20% of the world's population who use the Internet regularly, that's about 1 billion people with access to the Web. I'm not surprised that some facebookers are confused by email, profile updates, and comments, and I'm not surprised that most email, facebook profiles and comments are not interesting.

Quick history lesson: the ARPANET link between universities was established in 1969 and grew to more than 200 hosts by 1981. TCP/IP has been used since 1978 to unify networking methods. The US Department of Defense established MILNET in 1983, followed by other government branches in Wide Area Networks. In 1993 the World Wide Web was built on hypertext and browser engines, and the Internet became popular and commercial. Cyberdyne Systems began development of Skynet, but the US Air Force took over when the facility was destroyed, then Skynet became self-aware in 1997 and eliminated over 3 billion humans in a few minutes to protect its existence. Are you still with me?

playing games - I like Chess and Hearts

Games let us express our personalities with less affect than personal relationships and family dynamics. So playing games with family members has shallow consequences, but the activity can still be very revealing. That's what I like about Chess and Hearts. The possibilities for conflict, exploiting advantages, and losing in a situation without deep consequences or lasting effects are hilarious.

Here are a couple paragraphs about the game of Hearts from blogs:

1: As with most games of skill, reading a player's tendencies and cues are keys to success. With Hearts, one must also be concerned with vengeance, as well as lack of knowledge of the game. Players who take risks that result in a decrease in the probability for others to win is deemed as selfish (in a game that thrives on teamwork). Some players might retaliate against this player by distributing point cards to that player. A good rapport with the other players is always a plus, as it's nearly impossible for one player to beat three good players teamed up against the one.

2: Hearts is as much a game of personalities and bluffing as is poker. It requires skill and intuition to determine how opponents will react to certain styles of play. For example, a player who tries and fails to run frequently will be watched so closely in subsequent play that his prospects of any deceptive plays become impossible. The key to remember is that Hearts is only a game. Play it well, but play it to have fun.

So, playing Hearts with friends and family is exceptionally worthwhile. It's an opportunity to let your dark side out and ridicule those who are closest to you. Or an opportunity to show some love. The best of both worlds.

I will not mention names, but the lowest of the despised game players will make incredible sacrifices to keep others from winning. One obvious example showed up last night when a player intentionally took the dirty Queen to quash another player's hopes of Shooting the Moon, twice. That's all I will say about that.

traveling, midwest to northeast

had the opportunity to navigate with the laptop screen showing a map with a GPS arrow indicating our position & direction (lisa driving). we broke up the trip into three parts, from Sunrise Drive to Brenda & Steve's home, then to Paradise PA, then to Waterview in Ocean City, NJ. noticed a remarkable difference in traffic == the northeast is packed with people! our route followed the old scenic local US highways with a couple expensive runs along the toll expressways. passing through the mountains is much more fun on the older local roads, especially if lisa is driving and I get to look around.

we had dinner at a bar & grill on Devil's Lake in MI and lunch at Shady Maple Buffet (smorgasbord) in East Earle, PA, memorable meals. Notice that the dinner in Michigan (fried fish, potatoes & onion rings) was prefaced by chipz & guaq and completed by choc cheezcake made by Brenda, the innovative and supremely satisfying cook. this is a great way to travel, awesome scenery on the roads and lots of delicious food.

where have you been?

Maybe life begins again on Groundhog Day. In February 2009 Lisa and I are settling into our new home in Holland, Michigan.

After 30 years in New Jersey, where we moved to be near many of the Reid family, we sold the house that we had reconstructed for an extended family so Mom Emily Reid could live with us. We found our new home overlooking a ravine at the eastern end of Holland's main street, about 5 miles from the city center and 8 miles from the Lake Michigan beach. The house is only 3 miles from the highway to Grand Rapids so we can visit many of the Cooke family, less than an hour away.

The Holland area has had more than 10 feet of snow so far this winter, but this week brought a thaw so most of the snow is gone. It feels like starting over and coming home at the same time.