In November of 1986, when America’s evening news featured scenes of gendarmes with submachine guns at the major intersections in Paris was like viewing a scene ripped from the pages of “1984,” that had come to life. A series of terrorist incidents had prompted coworkers to suggest that it might be a good idea to cancel the trip. Our reply was: “Yeah, but if I get killed by a terrorist’s bomb in Paris that will mean that my demise will be reported on the front page of the New York Times.” November in Paris in even numbered years means that the Month of the Photo will be celebrated and since we had waited all our life to check out the moveable feast in action, we scoffed at the idea of canceling the trip. A paucity of tourists meant that the traditional comedy shtick about Parisian waiters being rude to American Tourists had also been put on “Pause.”
An American in Paris, in November of 1986 didn’t get the royal treatment that American soldiers received in August of 1944, but any Gringo tourist who was there for the 1986 Month of the Photo was accorded semi-hero status. We hope that this year’s American tourists who want to make “April in Paris” one of the highlights of their life and not just a song title, won’t be intimidated by fear and trepidation.
On Monday, January 14, 2015, there was a report on KCBS news radio that a controversial ad juxtaposing Hitler and a Muslim had appeared that day on busses in San Francisco. It was reported that the ads would remain on display. We went to Fog City on Tuesday to get a photo of the newsworthy bus ad.
We spent some time trying to find and photograph the elusive ad. We changed plans and headed towards the San Francisco Museum of Cartoon Art. As we walked through the financial district, we noticed flyers, taped to various light poles, that depicted the prophet Muhammad as a cartoon stick figure.
The Museum, we learned, was trying to formulate their response to the attack on cartoonists in Paris.
Wasn’t Charles Chaplin known in France as “Charlot”? Didn’t he inspire the names for two brands of cigarettes? Tramps and Charlie?
Cliff Robertson won a lead actor Oscar for playing the title role in the 1968 film “Charlie.”
A source close to the Conspiracy Theory Manufacturers Association, speaking anonymously, told us that the move to portray the Hebdo Massacre as the French 9-11 as a way to start vaporizing French citizens rights is underway. It is time (as they used to say in the Sixties) to run that theory up the flagpole and see who salutes it.
As with all events these days, some people are suggesting that it was a false flag tactic.
Is it time to print T-shirts depicting Charlie Chaplin, General de Gaul, and Che and have the same dialogue balloon on each one that read: “Je suis Charlie!”?
On Wednesday, January 14, 2015, when the new issue of Charlie Hebdo magazine was in the news, the topic became which media were showing the cover and which were only describing it. We began to think that perhaps we should not post even the image of the right side of the flyer we saw Tuesday in San Francisco.
If American media can print the Pentagon Papers but not the cover of the latest issue of Charlie Hebdo magazine, you shouldn’t have to wonder if the terrorist attacks are being considered a success and will be continued.
We spend the better part of a day roaming around San Francisco trying to get a photo to illustrate this week’s column and we come up empty-handed. We’ll have to settle for an innocuous and non controversial image that is (hopefully) at least eye-catching. What can a columnist do about a week’s search that delivered a Sisyphus’ type final score?
Then we had the brilliant idea that maybe it’s time to market an article titled “Being the World’s Laziest Journalist is hard work,” but then we asked ourselves: “Who’d want such an item?” and immediately we replied: “What about ‘the Idler’ magazine in Great Britain?”
Surely the Brits would grok to the concept of “editor errant,” wouldn’t they? We’ll have to pitch them on some story/column ideas we think they would dig and see what their reaction is.
Maybe we could become their editor at large in the San Francisco Bay Area and finally realize our goal of sitting around in a posh gin mill and have fawning fans besiege us with potential column items just like our heroes Herb Caen and Walter Winchell used to do?
That should be a hella easier than covering riots, such as we did in December, and encountering a phalanx of police officers in riot gear as we have done repeatedly in the last half dozen years.
The reassurance of a large police presence was contrasted by what happened in Los Angeles after the Rodney King verdicts were announced. LAPD Chief Darryl Gates announced that the LAPD wouldn’t respond to the calls for help generated by rioting and looting that occurred the night the verdicts were announced. All f*****g hell broke loose in “Shakeytown” that night.
The slowdown by police in New York City recently would seem to be a limited example of the sit-down strike philosophy.
When workers at Ford, in the Thirties, called a strike action, a few were shot and killed and the strike was of short duration. Later workers at General Motors went to their work stations and remained idle, it was called a sit-down strike. It was a tipping point for unions and the Auto Workers Union became a viable entity in the history of Detroit.
The concept that police officers have the right to self defense while performing their dangerous job should be obvious. The fact that such a right can lead to egregious abuses of that right should also be obvious. Since discourse in America has disintegrated into a binary choice, compromise is rendered impossible to achieve.
(Can’t you just imagine the voice of Lenny Bruce suggesting that a study commission come up with an acceptable number of yearly police shooting totals? )
The goal of zero accidental fatal police involved shootings is impossible to achieve. It should be obvious that castrating the concept of policing is a bad idea, too.
This year will have a massive amount of feature story potential. It is very unlikely that this column will be the first and only mention of the fact that the Battle of Britain will be marking its 75th anniversary this summer.
It also seems quite likely that for political pundits, 2015 will be a bumpy ride with the use of seatbelts being mandatory.
If Obama is impeached, and if the Vice President is sworn in as President, what will Hilary’s chances be for landing the 2016 Democratic Party’s Presidential Nomination? Don’t incumbent Presidents, who aren’t restricted by term limitations, have a lock on the nomination?
Wouldn’t it be more pleasant to be churning columns out describing delightful assignments such as (hypothetically speaking) a lunch/interview with an author in his hometown of San Francisco?
The closing quote this week is a famous line of dialogue from the film “Apocalypse Now:” “Charlie don’t surf!”
Now the disk jockey will play a the song with the title “Charlie don’t surf!,” the Kingston trio’s “MTA,” and Waylon Jenning’s song “Don’t you think this outlaw bit’s done got out of hand?” We have to go cover the 13th annual Noir City Film Festival (noircity dot com) which starts in San Francisco this weekend. Have a “no politically incorrect images” type week.
Journalism and the shell game?
If the Supreme Court is setting up the country for another gotcha decision, then it is critical for the main stream media to make loud and emphatic proclamations asserting that the decision could go either way. The universal meme in the main stream media that says the fellow with the swing vote is impossible to second guess in advance was ubiquitous last week and Americans believed it. GMAFB; TV personalities stand ready to go on camera and pontificate on any subject at any time and then suddenly they all balk? Isn’t there something very fishy with that? Will this be seen by future historians as the key to the strategy that calls for a repeat of the “leave the decision with the clerk and then get out of Washington on the night before the results are announced” game plan? If gay marriages are found to be unconstitutional, will the journalists be required to say “no one saw this coming” and then move onto other matters clamoring for the attention of America’s various managing editors?
Does anyone honestly believe that seasoned veteran journalists don’t have any strong hunches about the final result? Do the news reporters with many years experience in covering the United States Supreme Court really have no background material available to provide (at the very least) an educated guess at which way the guy is going to vote?
If American journalists really wanted to fulfill their mission, they could couch the story by reminding voters that the Supreme Court has done that previously and that the current landmark case is the golden opportunity for the Conservative Christian majority group to strike a blow against a trend that they perceive to be an abomination against nature.
So what if some obscure columnist points out the absurdity of this attempt to set the public up for an “up yours” ending for the current Supreme Court session?
This weekend the talking heads political analysis shows will want to look like they are scrutinizing the Yemen crisis and the Saudi Royal family history but (odds are) if you listen closely you will (mixed metaphor alert!) see that they just repeat the basic facts and make it seem like they are examining all pertinent information.
If the so called Mid-East experts don’t mention the part that WWI events played in the history of the Saudi Royal family will it just seem to be an in-depth analysis?
It wouldn’t be very entertaining if the experts said: “We haven’t read ‘The Seven Pillars of Wisdom’ by T. E. Lawrence and so we don’t have a clue as to what’s going on.” Wouldn’t that be too much honesty for TV?
So if they can appear to be extremely well informed about the history of the Saudi Royal family but the reporters who have covered the United State Supreme Court for years can say they have no clue as to how the Republican majority body will decide, are you really going to believe that?
Did Winston Churchill (and FDR?) pressure the Saudi Royal family to produce more oil during WWII? Did they Saudis refine oil and sell it directly to the British Navy operating in the Mediterranean? (Just asking.) If someone offers to give a complete background briefing (between ad breaks) shouldn’t they deliver what they promised?
This weekend under-inflated footballs, inoculations for the measles, and the fate of two hostages who are scheduled to be executed should provide some excellent examples of “red Herring news.” It is information meant to throw citizens off the trail that they ware following to become well informed voters.
Speaking of used car salesmen, Charles Willeford titled his book about a used car salesman, “The High Priest of California.” Is “Go see Cal” just an L. A. thing?
Where were we?
Oh, yes, . . . Should the USA send troops to maintain a new puppet government in Yemen?
How realistic is it to ask a Republican majority led Congress and Senate to tax the rich and give tax breaks to the middle class?
The pundits are unanimous in the opinion that the Senate and Congress will pay little attention to the words of President’s state of the union speech on Tuesday of this week. That will be good practice if Obama decides to become a political pundit and write columns after his term expires.
Surrealism in action in Paris? Is it true that some of the leading existentialist philosophers in France are postulating that the attack on the Charlie Hebdo magazine offices was an indication that the surrealists have returned to Paris?
Historians who look back on this week may very well focus on bits of pop culture that featured under inflated footballs, an outbreak of the measles, and an installment of the Getty and Armstrong radio show that provided an in depth examination of the medical phenomenon of broken penises . . . then again . . . maybe the historians will dwell on some facts of great significance that the main stream media just didn’t think were all that important.
Historians tend to focus on just one aspect of the past in a way that is similar to a jig-saw puzzle fan working on assembling an image of an old steam locomotive. Columnists, however, who dabble in punditry can be compared to the challenge that would be presented if the jig-saw fan’s wife dumped all the different puzzles into one gigantic pile of puzzle pieces and harrumphed about the futility of using a butterfly net to catch a rainbow.
Does anyone want to read an entire column devoted to the fact that to celebrate the Fiftieth anniversary, another 50 Cobras will be made and sold?
In the “Only in Frisco” feature, we note that this week’s copy of the San Francisco Weekly has a notice informing their audience that the weekly newspaper is seeking a cannabis critic.
[Note from the Photo Editor: To illustrate the columnist’s challenging task of plucking the best pop culture items to discern a pattern and capture the spirit of a hectic week, we chose a graffiti collage seen in Berkeley.]
We’d like to think that Andre Breton was referring to the Sunday gabfests when he wrote: “I resent passing through these ill-lighted sentences, receiving these confidences without object, suffering at every moment, through the fault of a chatterbox, a sensation of ‘I knew that before.’”
Now the disk jockey will play Jerry Lee Lewis’s “I wish I was 18 again,” “Forever Young,” and Orson Wells rendition of “I know what it is to be young, you don’t know what it is to be old.” (It’s on Youtube.) Now, we have to go look for a French language bookstore. Have a “Je suis Charlie” type week.