Author Archives: Iowa Life

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About Iowa Life

Experiencing life in Iowa.

Scrooge

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Charles Dickens wrote a story that Hollywood and the theater loves. And audiences too I would say. I think I have a copy of the book, I’ll have to read it again. Your viewpoint changes a wee bit in 30 or 40 years. Dickens only lived to be 58. I want to go back and see what his intention was, not how his work was interpreted. Hollywood does not have a good relationship with Jesus, I want to see what his was. Because that is the nagging problem I have with the tale, that these fellows having received a visit from a series of ghosts, then work their way to heaven in the succeeding days by giving to the poor, is how they portray it on film and in the theater.

Just last night I saw a wonderful version by Richard Williams that won the Oscar in 1972 for Best Animated Short. Incredibly the shortfall was the voice of Ebenezer played by Alastair Sims, who had done a simply wonderful film version 20 years earlier. But for anyone who appreciates nice drawings, I highly encourage you to watch it on YouTube. I wish I could see it on my TV’s large screen. The artwork compared to today’s claptrap is not to be believed. In just one scene the Spirit takes Scrooge around the English countryside and even out to sea so that he can see how Christmas is celebrated from the rich and famous to the lowly and humble.

Different versions differ on how much ‘bible’ they throw in. In the 1951 version (or was it the 1938 version with Reginald Owen?) there is a surprising amount of bible reading and the singing of ‘God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen’ (“… Christ the Lord our Savior was born on Christmas day!“). In the 1984 version with George C. Scott I remember very little. Same with the 1979 adaptation starring Henry Winkler. This one is actually An American Christmas Carol and is one of my favorites. Dave Trumbore may not cover them all here, but he does rank 20 of them from worst to best. A must see list as no one could have seen all of these!

English literature I’ve noticed over the years has a common theme of a monetary windfall coming from a change of heart or an old wealthy relative kicking off at an opportune time. Americans of course come at it from a different perspective in that we dramatize the hero’s hard work or ingenuity in inventing a better mouse trap. Whatever the case it makes for a fine story. In a lot of ways corporate America hasn’t moved the compassion ball an inch and are still well entrenched in vulture capitalism.

Perhaps my favorite of all is the story change Henry Winkler’s version took with the orphanage. In this case ‘Benedict Slade’ returns at the end to the orphanage he grew up in, to find a boy who now needs his help. As a practical and literary device it is superb. Henry lets a little of the ‘Fonz’ show as he deals in a compassionate manner with the tough youth.

[As far as Dickens’ theology at least in the first few pages seems quite evident. He refers to the fireplace in Scrooges room built long ago by a Dutch tradesman. He describes the tiles as depicting biblical scenes from both new and old testament. Later when Marley is berating Ebenezer he refers to his lack of “Christian spirit”. There is an interesting video here from the British Library on the motivation for writing A Christmas Carol. Dickens was aghast at the working conditions very young children and women were being forced to work in.]

Denny’s Automotive

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Every business you deal with is free to screw up, but you have to pay. I always chose an independent auto shop based on the theory of they had the most to lose if they weren’t honest and good at their job. I spent $700 plus getting the air conditioner running on a minivan. What they didn’t do was replace about five $5 dollar connectors that took the cold back to the back. So for the price of five connectors, I put $700 down a rat hole. Thank you Denny’s.

The same shop couldn’t find the cause of the overheating. When they finally checked the thermostat and found it bad, “Oh I thought we had checked that!” Everybody is allowed to screw up, but you pay. I had Ben Franklin plumbing out to fix a drainpipe leak. Did they start to tear into the wall at the point of the water? No! They went to the point furthest from the leak on the theory “it was draining there”. A couple of hundred extra dollars to the $609 bill because they’re idiots.

A different auto shop. They put in $1,500 in suspension and steering, take it to the outside shop for alignment, and they find the bad ball joint (the ball joint being the most critical component to actually keeping the wheel on the car). And screwups always take me back to the government. I read a financial analyst the other day who thinks we’ll spend the latter part of the 2020s going through a “global bankruptcy”. That makes sense from the 2024 or 2026 timeframe when Medicare cashflow goes negative and national debt will be pushing $30 trillion. The government creates this financial Armaggedon, but guess who will pay? You.

The train keeps steaming full speed ahead. Everybody knows the tracks are out, but they just keep the hand on the throttle. 

 

42 years

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They had a heartwarming story on Breitbart of a dying patient who got his wish for an advanced screening of the latest Star Wars flick ‘The Rise of Skywalker‘. Poor kid. But whenever I see something about the Star Wars franchise only 1 thought comes to mind, Hollywood had 1 original idea in 42 years and promptly beat it to death. Star Wars beget Star Trek movies. Which beget a number of space series on TV. Battle Star Galactica, Buck Rogers, Star Trek the Next Generation, Deep Space Nine… and no doubt a host of shows I can’t remember. I think a lot of things were better in 1977. Be it fashion, cars, music or any number of things.

If you read any interviews with directors and such they always think the film making art was advanced by various inventions, like the -Steadicam in 1976 or Computer Generated Graphics in the 90s. Good grief. The Golden Age of Hollywood truly was 1935 – 1965. Before that they had some great silent films, though most of the really good ones were made overseas. I remember one interview in particular with George Lucas at the start of the release of the fourth film. He was all excited about the computer technology that just wasn’t available in 1976 when he was shooting the first movie. Ha.

Good film has absolutely nothing to do with technological advancement. One of the best examples of that is the chariot race scene in the original Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ in 1925. Metropolis was a good one. The ones that tend to blow me away are the silent films of France, Germany and Italy. Later India had a very strong film industry. The Russian Jews that founded Hollywood seemed better at monopoly and forcing out competition than they were at good filmmaking, but even that was better than today’s claptrap. Hollywood puts too much faith in silicone, whether it be chips or breasts.


Metropolis (1927)

[A movie on TCM this morning is a prime example; ‘Scaramouche‘ (1923). How Hollywood made it is beyond me, it seems really good. Very good. Clowns, gowns, wonderful cinematography. Not overacted in that “silent picture” kind of way. And this is way before CGI and Steadicams.]

The Runaways

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The Runaways in 1976 – Joan Jett, Cherie Currie, Lita Ford, Sandy West, Jackie Fox,

1976, what a time to be alive eh? I was listening to Guess Who, BTO, Grand Funk and the Beach Boys. My musical tastes were soooooo bad…. oh well. A couple of years ago I “discovered” Joan Jett & the Blackhearts. That’s when I found out about her earlier group the Runaways. I saw a real cool picture of them from 1976 and looked up more. Look at those 5 women, people were skinnier back then. Hotter I would say. And those high-waisted bell bottoms, wow.

As one writer put it, “I doubt if the guys lining up around the block to see Cherie Currie in her undies were influenced by the nuances of the feminine mystique.” What’s interesting about that was Currie had an identical twin sister named Marie. Lightening struck twice so to speak. Hooey. Unbeknownst to the public back then I’m sure was the specifics on the same-sex attractions within the band. It never would have occurred to me back then. They were packing heat.

It ain’t real complicated

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This isn’t real tough. All freedom hinges on the 2nd Amendment. Lose that and you lose everything. You have to have the pro 2nd Amendment Representative in the Iowa House. You have to have the lobbying group like Iowa Firearms Coalition. You have to have the shooting clubs like Boone Sportsmen’s Club, Ike’s and others. You have to have the gun owners for votes and $10. I read the other day when Iowa went from a ‘may issue’ to a ‘shall issue’ State, carry permit holders went from something like 33,000 to 287,000. A huge increase.

But then you get into these prickly questions. How many gunowners In Iowa are NRA members? How many gunowners have given $10 to IFC? How many gunowners have given $10 to their Iowa House member? With a population a little over 3 million, I hazard to guess there are a minimum of 1.5 million gunowners in Iowa. Everyone likes to benefit from the fruits of the efforts of IFC and the Iowa Legislature, but how many are contributing? Everybody wants to eat the bread, but how many helped plant the wheat? 

If everyone of those 1.5 million gunowners gave $10 to IFC that’s $15 million dollars. If everyone of those 1.5 million gunowners gave $10 to their Iowa House race, that’s $15 million dollars to elect progun people that isn’t normally there ($15 million over 100 House races is $150,000 per race). $15 million would have an effect on a US House race, imagine what it would do in a State House race? But even this moderate intensity fight for rights wouldn’t have to go beyond 7 years. Get that Constitutional Amendment for carry, and you’re largely done.

[11/26/19 update: The State of Virginia is a prime example. Many circumstances can be blamed for why Virginia was lost to the Democrats. Do a search on “China+Virginia+election” and you’ll come up with some interesting results. But the bottom line is as it always is, less than half of eligible voters voted. Media always like to couch it as, “67% of registered voters turned out…”. What that really means is that 33% of registered voters didn’t turnout, and half of the people aren’t registered!”]

 

Iowa Secretary of State blows it

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I just found out Iowa was this close to voting on an amendment for Constitutional Carry in 2020. Secretary of State Paul Pate didn’t file the paperwork. Not kidding. Public notice has to be given a certain number of months on a Constitutional Amendment, and Pate didn’t file it. Unbelievable. The implications of this are staggering. If it had passed it would not only have strengthened Iowa’s gun rights, but those of the entire nation by making Iowa the 15th State to enshrine it in a Constitution. That much harder for any future Legislature to tamper with it.

And Pate chucked all that out the window. The Iowa House had 6 seats flip to Democrats in 2018, God knows what will happen in 2020. The soonest we could vote on it now is 2022. If control of the Iowa House changes by then, we may never see that chance again (Seals and Crofts reference). My theory still holds, even more so. All sweat and money needs to be devoted to the Iowa House races. And there is one new caveat. Iowa gun owners need to donate to IFC and their Iowa House race. The national level gun groups and national level politicians are irrelevant to me. These state organizations are the ones getting it done:

Iowa Firearms Coalition  
P.O. Box 994
Cedar Falls, IA 50613

 

 

Paul Davis & Todd Rundgren

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I even lived back then and I didn’t have a clue who they were. It was only sometime in 2019 I discovered who they were. We didn’t have the internet in the 70’s. No YouTube. No Wikipedia. Just record shops, album covers and FM radio. So I suppose its not all that weird I’d never heard of 2 major recording artists. Okay it kind of is. Todd Rundgren and Paul Davis moved in and out of group acts but I would guess they were best remembered as solo artists. They were both born in 1948. Todd in Philadelphia and Paul in Mississippi. Todd was associated with a group I’d also never heard of called Utopia, and worked with a really good British group called Badfinger. Paul had a #1 country hit with about my favorite female artist Tanya Tucker.

They both had a string of hits. Todd blew me away when I heard this one for the first time in a gazillion years, I Saw the Light. My favorite of Paul’s is Cool Night. Both are very nice easy listening songs. I Saw the Light being the deeper of the two. The video version at the link I provided looks to have been done by a Larry Hinze. He did a great job of catching the meaning of the song (the light in her eyes) with a series of pictures of beautiful women with stunning eyes. I’m glad I discovered them now at least, 40 some years late.

Paul Davis & Todd Rundgren

 

Daniel Ruettiger

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[From Wikipedia:] “Rudy is a 1993 American  film directed by David Anspaugh. It is an account of the life of Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger, who harbored dreams of playing football at the University of Notre Dame despite significant obstacles. It was the first film that the Notre Dame administration allowed to be shot on campus since Knute Rockne, All American in 1940.”

I happened to catch the climatic end to the ultimate underdog story this morning. You can’t help but get a lump in your throat when the first teamers walk into Coach Devine’s office to give up their jersey so Rudy can dress for Saturday’s game. Rudy makes the call to his friend when he finds out he going to “dress” for the game, “I’ve never asked anything of you, but I want you to be there Saturday!” His parents and brother show up to the stadium, his best friend, the embittered groundskeeper.

The game clock is winding down and there is little time left for Rudy to get in the game (so that his name will show up in the record books). The slow chant builds up and soon the entire stadium is chanting, “Rudy! Rudy!” The quarterback goes against the coach’s orders and calls a trick play so the offense can score and defensive Rudy can be put on the field. Rudy runs down the field on the ensuing kickoff, his name forever sealed now in Notre Dame records. He yells to the sidelines, “What do I do? What do I do?” The defensive coordinator tells him to stay in for the last play, when he sacks the Georgia Tech quarterback on the last play!

The final gun sounds and the crowd goes crazy! The final credits say no player has ever been carried off the hallowed Notre Dame field since that great moment in 1975. What a film. The photo I used is of the real Rudy. I contemplated using a glossy Hollywood eye catcher from the film, when I realized that would miss the whole point. Sean Astin who played Rudy looks to be a great guy. But as the son of celebrities Patty Duke and John Astin, he was born on 3rd base. The story of triumph is Ruettiger.

What the real Ruettiger accomplished was incredible. Humble roots, dyslexia, small, slow, the only thing he did have was heart. Its also an incredibly sad film. The reality is much of what he did then would be impossible now for a young person to accomplish. In those day you actually could “work your way through college”. Kids today would have a hard time believing that. College costs today are a “life debt” that affect the graduate’s decisions for decades. Athletics has now dropped all pretense of being anything other than a business. Recent rulings now allow the athlete to at least profit off of his “name and image“. Universities and armies of coaches have done that for years.

A coach today making $4 million a year would never go out on a limb for a kid. The selfish nature of people today would look at exalting someone by carrying them off the field as unthinkable. But that $4 million dollars? That’s not BS. A very, very, mediocre coach at Iowa has been making that going back at least 15 years. “March Madness”, the college basketball extravaganza? Guess what that contract is worth to CBS? In its most recent contract CBS paid the NCAA $10.8 billion dollars.

And we’re supposed to believe in the sanctity of “student athletics”? I was getting ready to post this when I realized I couldn’t “bring it home”. I was having a hard time figuring out what my major point was. Everything in America has been turned into such big business. The odds have been so stacked against the individual. Horatio Alger is dead and buried. The ‘American dream’ is now a nightmare. I think an outgrowth of that is the traction flat-out socialists are having in the 2020 presidential race. I don’t think people could explain it, but they know something is wrong in America.

Corporatism. That’s the word they’re looking for. Life is a series of pendulum swings. It has swung too long in favor of business (perhaps always). I think people realize this even if they couldn’t explain it. What Bernie and Elizabeth Warren are saying resonates with them. Socialism is of course Fool’s Gold, its a shiny lure with a hook in it they won’t feel until they bite down. At least we have a “dream”. Mexicans don’t, they have to come here for one. Brit’s don’t. Read their classics sometime. In the 1800s when old Horatio was writing his tales of rags to riches, British literature was consistently filled with the poor, deserving heroine who makes out when a rich relative assumes room temperature.

In the 1980’s and 1990’s there was a series of chess matches between the titans of the day and versions of IBM’s “Big Blue” supercomputer. For the longest time humans always proved master of the machine. Sometime around 2000 that was no longer the case. We no longer are in charge of our own destiny, we are simply along for the ride.

Ode to Trampy

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The 1 year anniversary of the death of a very fine German Shorthair Pointer came and went in October. In this picture it captured him before the infirmities of old age ravaged his body. As I would tell people as my mistakes as an owner became more and more obvious, he was one hell of a lot more dog then I was owner.  I’d really like to warn other owners not to do what I did. Tramp liked to play Frisbee. So we played Frisbee. Lots of Frisbee. No vet had ever warned me: work them too hard and they will blow out their knee.

GSHP are stiff necked. They are working dogs. They will work themselves to death if you don’t show some judgement. He looked at Frisbee as his ‘job’. He was very good at it. It was up to me to have limited it. He blew his knee. Very painful, very long rehab. That and an idiot vet in Huxley who let me mask the pain symptoms for years with pills. It eventually caught up with him. It just kills me when I see lazy owners riding on a bicycle with their dog on a leash running beside them. They’re coasting and the dog is working himself to death to please them.

Tell you what fat ass, let’s see you get off the bike and run that fast for 30 seconds. You’re asking your dog to do it for 30 minutes. It should be against the law.