My last few years in Los Angeles, when Joe and I shared an apartment in West Hollywood, I stopped watching the big movie awards show. Roads were closed all over town, even to pedestrians, to make sure that, God forbid, a celebrity should run into a common person on the way to a post-award show party. I was at the movies at least once a week in L.A. (in Morgantown, once a year), so I had generally seen all the movies. I knew the nominees were the movies the studios wanted nominated, not necessarily the best.
I still keep a membership in SAG-AFTRA. In thirty years, I haven't made what I've paid in dues. So okay, I like to brag that I have worked, even minimally, in Hollywood. The SAG Awards are slightly more democratic, because it's only acting awards, and actors vote. Still, little-seen movies with great acting won't win.
This year, maybe because of the state of the world, or because a few movies got to me, I would have watched the show. We now have an actual television, but the network hosting the show can only be seen on cable from Pittsburgh. We don't have cable. We only watch DVDs on our new device. I asked on Facebook if anyone was having a viewing party (more popular than Super Bowl parties in L.A.), but I guess not.
SAG-AFTRA sends me DVDS or codes to watch things online. I saw "Moonlight" in Greenbelt, Maryland, "La La Land", "Jackie," "Manchester by the Sea," "Fences" and "Hidden Figures" on DVD. All of them were good.
I liked "La La Land." I've been to auditions where I've learned a speech and they stopped me after two words; my sister's husband, a jazz pianist, was once fired for improvising on Christmas carols. Los Angeles looked beautiful and dream-like, which it often is, just as it can be heartbreaking. For most of us, we found love there, but our careers didn't take off. Some of us left, and some stayed in jobs making less than they were worth in a city they couldn't afford.
"Moonlight" was more disturbing. All of us who are gay have had stunted lives because of hatred from society. We've hid our real selves to get by at whatever we were doing. Often we don't stay where we grew up, but end up in Los Angeles, San Francisco or New York, where being gay is not such a big deal. I was blindsided by the prejudice I dealt with, even in Los Angeles. There is some redemption in "Moonlight," and that's when I was most moved.
I know people who didn't care for "Jackie." I was an impressionable fourteen-year-old when John Kennedy was assassinated, and to see a totally believable Natalie Portman deconstruct the legend of Jackie was beautiful and hard to watch. The horror of that time has not gone away.
"Hidden Figures" is an important, well-acted story that needed to be told, and although there was a book, the movie reached many more people. "Fences" is a classic American play, and Denzel did a great job directing it for the screen.
I found "Manchester By The Sea' disturbing also. I didn't like any of the characters, and I thought the women were even less sympathetic than the men, and underwritten to boot. Still, Casey Affleck was believable.
So I didn't disagree with all the awards. I might have gone for Meryl Streep or Natalie Portman for best actress, obvious choices, but I don't deny Emma Stone's fine performance.
I listened to all the songs online before the awards, and "City of Stars" was the one that made me cry.
Mahershala Ali was on "Fresh Air" on NPR. He talked about being a Muslim, and how he felt about the kid in the movie. He talked about being part of a community under attack, which he related to as a Muslim in America today, and he said he could see how gay people could feel that, too. I'm wildly paraphrasing here. It's touching to me that Muslims, gays and Jews have been brought together, mostly since the election.
After years of ignoring African-American actors and filmmakers, I'm glad that a film like "Moonlight," not big box-office, and never playing in Morgantown, was recognized for the great achievement it is. The LGBT Center at WVU finally showed it last week at the college. That's not to take anything away from "La La Land," an excellent and heartbreaking old-fashioned (in a good way) film.
So I guess i am still, even marginally, in the "film community." I wish our two multiplexes here would show better movies. Often, when I am looking to see a good movie, I get Joe to go with me to Pittsburgh, because the good stuff isn't here.
If I had more of an entrepreneurial streak, I would restore and reopen the Warner Theater in downtown Morgantown and show art movies. Maybe the era for that has passed, but a man can still dream.
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Monday, February 20, 2017
Carbon County, Pennsylvania and Mauch Chunk
I had a stressful few weeks, leading services at temple and writing a sermon, teaching a four-week class about Bruce Springsteen called "Bruce Springsteen is 67!", and beginning a campaign for Morgantown City Council. I did the service, which went well, finished the class, likewise, and I'm waiting for printed cards before I go door-to-door for my campaign. I was at three meetings Sunday, and other meetings Monday, Tuesday and Thursday nights. My campaign committee met with me Saturday afternoon. I was ready to go.
The weather reports suggested that Presidents' Day Weekend was going to be unseasonably warm, and might break some records. How I relax is to disappear for two or three days to someplace I've never been before. I have a list prepared: counties within three hundred miles of Morgantown, in any state, in alphabetical order. Carbon County, Pennsylvania is number fifty-six.
Jim Thorpe is the county seat, and I remember reading in school about how the town came to be named that. The original name was Mauch Chunk, and there was an East Mauch Chunk. The two merged to become Jim Thorpe when the great athlete was entombed here in the 1950s. Thorpe attended an Indian school in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, maybe a hundred miles west of here. His third wife made a deal with the city, and the tomb is here with statues and plaques telling his story.
Presidents' Day weekend is "Winterfest" here where you can rent snowmobiles and have a great wintry experience. There is only one chain motel on the edge of the county, although many bed and breakfast places in town, all booked. I looked at PurpleRoofs.com, a site for gay-friendly B&Bs and found one listed. Two men own it. I called and spoke to one of the owners. They were booked solid, as were two other places he recommended. He said he and his spouse were from Pennsylvania, but had lived in the Seattle area for twenty years. They felt that social attitudes had improved enough that they could move back. He said there is still some static, but they are happy to be in their home state. I told him that my husband and I were in West Virginia the last five years after more than two decades in California, and that we were both from the East. Maybe it was just time for us to be back near where we were from.
Meanwhile, through the local tourism website, I found an ancient hotel in the heart of the city, and was able to book a room. With detours off the highway for lunch, gas and bathrooms, it was 300.5 miles to the hotel from our house. It was about 58 F. at 4 P.M., apparently down from a high of 62. Small piles of snow lined the gutters, but a snowmobile was out. People rented bicycles. I walked around the town, took pictures of a few historic sites, then came back to the hotel to rest up. I dined at a little Chinese place, similar to the one in Lynchburg last month, walked around the town some more, although it was empty by 7 P.M.
Today, I was out from 9:15 until after 5. Jim Thorpe, with 4800 people, is only the third largest borough (Pennsylvania for "city") in the county. Lehighton with 5500 and Palmerton with 5400 are larger. (The figures are rounded from the 2010 Census via Wikipedia). I also visited Lansford, Nesquehoning, Weatherly and Weissport. None of them were as old or as fixed up as Jim Thorpe.
Carbon County was so-named because of the anthracite coal that was mined here starting in the 1820s. The problem was how to get it from the steep mountains to the cities, and the solution originally was a canal paralleling the rough Lehigh River, and later a train, used as a roller coaster ride in later years. The canal is used mostly for recreation, and a part of the train route is used for tourists on holiday weekends, like this one.
The coal is mostly gone, although I saw a few mines open to the roads in the county. It's still a beautiful place, but on many of the mountainsides, the trees are gone and there are gashes left by minig, and abandoned factories. Some of the towns seem to be hanging in there, but Lansford, which has a historic district, has next to no commercial life.
I didn't bring appropriate clothing for outdoor activities. Still I hiked a bit of the Appalachian Trail on the southern border of Carbon County and swampy with newly-melted snow. I visited a string of parks along the Lehigh River, the canals and the railroad line.
I got back to Jim Thorpe after 4:30, parked the car and walked the six blocks of Broadway that is most of the town. In California, we would call Broadway a "canyon" because of the steep hillsides on both sides of the street, held up by massive stone walls, visible behind the structures on the street. The first few blocks are touristy shops and B&Bs, but farther up, there are real people living in the houses. Old-timers' homes are covered in aluminum siding; the gentrifiers have taken the fronts back to brick.
In many of the towns, I still saw "Trump" signs and even some Confederate flags. I felt some sympathy for the people. especially when I saw the empty storefronts in a town like Lansford, once prosperous, apparently, and now just sad. People with brains and ambition probably left generations ago, but the towns are pretty, and there is a certain majesty to the scarred landscape and the abandoned industrial sites. I wish things had turned out better for most of these towns. Even in Jim Thorpe, the school is now apartments, the jail and some of the churches are museums, the stores sell expensive soaps and candies to tourists.
There is a mall of sorts in Lehighton, with a chain supermarket and a few other stores. I even found a synagogue there, Temple Israel of Lehighton. Their website says they are "A Jewel of a Shul", founded in 1924, and undergoing "Re-Jew-Venation." The rabbi lives in much-larger Allentown, about 30 miles away. Her husband works in the Jewish community there.
I'll be home tomorrow (Tuesday), ready to work full-time on my election campaign.
I took lots of pictures.
The weather reports suggested that Presidents' Day Weekend was going to be unseasonably warm, and might break some records. How I relax is to disappear for two or three days to someplace I've never been before. I have a list prepared: counties within three hundred miles of Morgantown, in any state, in alphabetical order. Carbon County, Pennsylvania is number fifty-six.
Jim Thorpe is the county seat, and I remember reading in school about how the town came to be named that. The original name was Mauch Chunk, and there was an East Mauch Chunk. The two merged to become Jim Thorpe when the great athlete was entombed here in the 1950s. Thorpe attended an Indian school in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, maybe a hundred miles west of here. His third wife made a deal with the city, and the tomb is here with statues and plaques telling his story.
Presidents' Day weekend is "Winterfest" here where you can rent snowmobiles and have a great wintry experience. There is only one chain motel on the edge of the county, although many bed and breakfast places in town, all booked. I looked at PurpleRoofs.com, a site for gay-friendly B&Bs and found one listed. Two men own it. I called and spoke to one of the owners. They were booked solid, as were two other places he recommended. He said he and his spouse were from Pennsylvania, but had lived in the Seattle area for twenty years. They felt that social attitudes had improved enough that they could move back. He said there is still some static, but they are happy to be in their home state. I told him that my husband and I were in West Virginia the last five years after more than two decades in California, and that we were both from the East. Maybe it was just time for us to be back near where we were from.
Meanwhile, through the local tourism website, I found an ancient hotel in the heart of the city, and was able to book a room. With detours off the highway for lunch, gas and bathrooms, it was 300.5 miles to the hotel from our house. It was about 58 F. at 4 P.M., apparently down from a high of 62. Small piles of snow lined the gutters, but a snowmobile was out. People rented bicycles. I walked around the town, took pictures of a few historic sites, then came back to the hotel to rest up. I dined at a little Chinese place, similar to the one in Lynchburg last month, walked around the town some more, although it was empty by 7 P.M.
Today, I was out from 9:15 until after 5. Jim Thorpe, with 4800 people, is only the third largest borough (Pennsylvania for "city") in the county. Lehighton with 5500 and Palmerton with 5400 are larger. (The figures are rounded from the 2010 Census via Wikipedia). I also visited Lansford, Nesquehoning, Weatherly and Weissport. None of them were as old or as fixed up as Jim Thorpe.
Carbon County was so-named because of the anthracite coal that was mined here starting in the 1820s. The problem was how to get it from the steep mountains to the cities, and the solution originally was a canal paralleling the rough Lehigh River, and later a train, used as a roller coaster ride in later years. The canal is used mostly for recreation, and a part of the train route is used for tourists on holiday weekends, like this one.
The coal is mostly gone, although I saw a few mines open to the roads in the county. It's still a beautiful place, but on many of the mountainsides, the trees are gone and there are gashes left by minig, and abandoned factories. Some of the towns seem to be hanging in there, but Lansford, which has a historic district, has next to no commercial life.
I didn't bring appropriate clothing for outdoor activities. Still I hiked a bit of the Appalachian Trail on the southern border of Carbon County and swampy with newly-melted snow. I visited a string of parks along the Lehigh River, the canals and the railroad line.
I got back to Jim Thorpe after 4:30, parked the car and walked the six blocks of Broadway that is most of the town. In California, we would call Broadway a "canyon" because of the steep hillsides on both sides of the street, held up by massive stone walls, visible behind the structures on the street. The first few blocks are touristy shops and B&Bs, but farther up, there are real people living in the houses. Old-timers' homes are covered in aluminum siding; the gentrifiers have taken the fronts back to brick.
In many of the towns, I still saw "Trump" signs and even some Confederate flags. I felt some sympathy for the people. especially when I saw the empty storefronts in a town like Lansford, once prosperous, apparently, and now just sad. People with brains and ambition probably left generations ago, but the towns are pretty, and there is a certain majesty to the scarred landscape and the abandoned industrial sites. I wish things had turned out better for most of these towns. Even in Jim Thorpe, the school is now apartments, the jail and some of the churches are museums, the stores sell expensive soaps and candies to tourists.
There is a mall of sorts in Lehighton, with a chain supermarket and a few other stores. I even found a synagogue there, Temple Israel of Lehighton. Their website says they are "A Jewel of a Shul", founded in 1924, and undergoing "Re-Jew-Venation." The rabbi lives in much-larger Allentown, about 30 miles away. Her husband works in the Jewish community there.
I'll be home tomorrow (Tuesday), ready to work full-time on my election campaign.
I took lots of pictures.
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| Nesquahoning High School, now apartments |
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| Along Broadway, Jim Thorpe |
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| Race Street, Jim Thorpe |
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| Carbon County Courthouse, Jim Thorpe |
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| Harry Packer Mansion, Jim Thorpe |
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| Asa Packer Mansion, Jim Thorpe |
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| Railroad Depot, Jim Thorpe |
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| The Inn at Jim Thorpe, where I stayed |
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| Public Library, Broadway, Jim Thorpe |
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| Russian Church, Palmerton |
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| Appalachian Trail on the southern border of Carbon County |
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| Blue Mountain Ski Resort, still active in warm weather |
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| Summit Hiigh School , now apartments, Summit Hill |
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| Once the end of the Mauch Chunk switchback Railway, Summit Hill |
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| I found this moving, Lansford |
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| Empty storefront, Lansford |
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| St. John the Beloved Coptic Church, Lansford |
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| Tomb of Jim Thorpe, Jim Thorpe (formerly East Mauch Chunk) |
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| Temple Israel, Lehighton |
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| Falls in Hickory Run State Park |
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| Carbon County Jail, now a museum, West Broadway, Jim Thorpe |
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| Once the home of a large patriotic and religious fraternal organization which disbanded in 1964. Now restored, Lansford |
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| Along the Leihigh Canal, Weissport |
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| Abandoned machinery, near Little Gap |
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| covered bridge, Little Gap |
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| Train station, Lehigh Railroad, Jim Thorpe |
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| St. Mark's Espiscopal Church, Jim Thorpe |
Thursday, February 2, 2017
The New Reality
I was at John's Barber Shop in Star City yesterday. BJ, John's son, cut my hair. I like the small town feel of the place, even if local Republican politicians get their hair cut there, and the talk often turns to gun collections and what animals they killed during hunting season. I'm usually not there long; I don't think they are ever busy and I go in the afternoon before school is out and people get off work. And also, I don't have a lot of hair to cut.
Yesterday, BJ said "I'm guessing you don't think much of the new President."
I said "No, I don't like him at all, but I imagine you do."
He said " I'm giving him a chance."
I should have asked him what exactly he liked about Trump, but I didn't want to hear about keeping Muslims or Mexicans out of the country, or stopping abortion, making people on welfare go out and get jobs, or "it's just those people in New York and Hollywood" (code for "Jews"). Those are the answers one might typically get in West Virginia, along with everyone's favorite "He's going to bring back coal." I've only heard that once, from an actual coal miner wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat, in line at Sheetz, our local convenience store, before the election. I'm not sure many people around Morgantown actually believe that.
My friends are back in therapy, crying continuously, doing crossword puzzles instead of reading the newspaper, updating their passports. I see women in headscarves at Kroger looking distraught and speaking animatedly to each other in Arabic. West Virginia University has warned foreign students, especially those from Iran and Syria, not to leave the United States, for fear they will not be able to come back. Me, I call our US Senators' offices every day, asking them to block every nominee. Senator Manchin, our too-conservative Democrat, finally agreed to vote against Betsy DeVos, the nominee for the Department of Education, who plans to destroy the public school system.
In my travels around Appalachia before the election, I saw Trump signs in many of the dead and dying Appalachian cities and towns, often in the wealthier neighborhoods in places like Johnstown, Pennsylvania. I was reminded of the train trip Art Spiegleman's parents take to Switzerland before 1933 in Maus, where they are horrified to see Nazi flags in towns along their route.
Just in the last week, there was the ban on Muslims from several countries, the Holocaust Memorial Day, celebrating the liberation of Auschwitz in 1945, where the President didn't mention that it was mostly Jews who were killed there. I haven't heard yet about the National Prayer Breakfast this morning. Rumor has it he was going to release yet another Executive Order, this one freeing "religious conservatives," even government employees and health care workers, from serving people who they find objectionable. That would include me and my husband.
It's become clearer to me that my candidacy for City Council in Morgantown, in addition to issues like traffic, parking, crime and snow removal, has to include a statement about inclusivity. We have to confront this administration about the hatred and bigotry they have brought to the fore, and in West Virginia, Morgantown is the place to start. Our county voted 50.5% for the Republican nominee, but I suspect it was much less in our small city. We can set an example for the rest of West Virginia.
Things are happening in other cities here. There was a march against the Muslim ban in Huntington this weekend, and at least seven cities in the state have anti-discrimination ordinances on the books that include LGBT protections.
I commented on an article on Huffington Post January 31, where they went to Harrisville, a town in Ritchie County, eighty-five miles southwest of us, described as "Northern West Virginia." The five or so people they interviewed are all supporters of the ban. There are just over 10,000 people in Ritchie County. Harrisville, the county seat, has fewer than 2,000 people.I pointed out that people in Morgantown have protested against the Muslim ban, and that all of "Northern West Virginia" doesn't think like the handful of people they interviewed in Harrisville
The Washington Post sent someone to Accident, Maryland, population 325, only forty miles from Morgantown. Yup, the locals there like Trump, too. The media likes these colorful stories from small towns, but these people only represent themselves and not even all the people who live in those places. Meanwhile, more mainstream views from larger towns are less frequently expressed, and all of us in Appalachia are made to look like yokels.
I want Morgantown to be a center for inclusivity and compassion, in defiance of the national administration, if need be. I pledge to work for that.
Yesterday, BJ said "I'm guessing you don't think much of the new President."
I said "No, I don't like him at all, but I imagine you do."
He said " I'm giving him a chance."
I should have asked him what exactly he liked about Trump, but I didn't want to hear about keeping Muslims or Mexicans out of the country, or stopping abortion, making people on welfare go out and get jobs, or "it's just those people in New York and Hollywood" (code for "Jews"). Those are the answers one might typically get in West Virginia, along with everyone's favorite "He's going to bring back coal." I've only heard that once, from an actual coal miner wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat, in line at Sheetz, our local convenience store, before the election. I'm not sure many people around Morgantown actually believe that.
My friends are back in therapy, crying continuously, doing crossword puzzles instead of reading the newspaper, updating their passports. I see women in headscarves at Kroger looking distraught and speaking animatedly to each other in Arabic. West Virginia University has warned foreign students, especially those from Iran and Syria, not to leave the United States, for fear they will not be able to come back. Me, I call our US Senators' offices every day, asking them to block every nominee. Senator Manchin, our too-conservative Democrat, finally agreed to vote against Betsy DeVos, the nominee for the Department of Education, who plans to destroy the public school system.
In my travels around Appalachia before the election, I saw Trump signs in many of the dead and dying Appalachian cities and towns, often in the wealthier neighborhoods in places like Johnstown, Pennsylvania. I was reminded of the train trip Art Spiegleman's parents take to Switzerland before 1933 in Maus, where they are horrified to see Nazi flags in towns along their route.
Just in the last week, there was the ban on Muslims from several countries, the Holocaust Memorial Day, celebrating the liberation of Auschwitz in 1945, where the President didn't mention that it was mostly Jews who were killed there. I haven't heard yet about the National Prayer Breakfast this morning. Rumor has it he was going to release yet another Executive Order, this one freeing "religious conservatives," even government employees and health care workers, from serving people who they find objectionable. That would include me and my husband.
It's become clearer to me that my candidacy for City Council in Morgantown, in addition to issues like traffic, parking, crime and snow removal, has to include a statement about inclusivity. We have to confront this administration about the hatred and bigotry they have brought to the fore, and in West Virginia, Morgantown is the place to start. Our county voted 50.5% for the Republican nominee, but I suspect it was much less in our small city. We can set an example for the rest of West Virginia.
Things are happening in other cities here. There was a march against the Muslim ban in Huntington this weekend, and at least seven cities in the state have anti-discrimination ordinances on the books that include LGBT protections.
I commented on an article on Huffington Post January 31, where they went to Harrisville, a town in Ritchie County, eighty-five miles southwest of us, described as "Northern West Virginia." The five or so people they interviewed are all supporters of the ban. There are just over 10,000 people in Ritchie County. Harrisville, the county seat, has fewer than 2,000 people.I pointed out that people in Morgantown have protested against the Muslim ban, and that all of "Northern West Virginia" doesn't think like the handful of people they interviewed in Harrisville
The Washington Post sent someone to Accident, Maryland, population 325, only forty miles from Morgantown. Yup, the locals there like Trump, too. The media likes these colorful stories from small towns, but these people only represent themselves and not even all the people who live in those places. Meanwhile, more mainstream views from larger towns are less frequently expressed, and all of us in Appalachia are made to look like yokels.
I want Morgantown to be a center for inclusivity and compassion, in defiance of the national administration, if need be. I pledge to work for that.
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