Sunday, August 08, 2010

"Morning Papers" - Its Origins

The Rooster

"Okeydoke"

The warnings of the Climate Crisis began with the industrial revolution and an concern of increased carbon dioxide levels.

Due to lower populations of human society and a consumerism that wasn't yet in full blossom, the idea of a 'warming gas' to the troposhere was dismissed as unimportant in the face of capitalism's wealth and philanthropy.

It would be later with the advent of cars and personal purchasing power and the exponential growth of consumerism that the reality would take a prominence as a scientific pursuit.  Even in 1960, there was a race to find the evidence and reverse the trend when scientists realize how long the growth of greenhouse gases had existed.

In the early 1960s, C.D. Keeling measured the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere: it was rising fast. Researchers began to take an interest, struggling to understand how the level of carbon dioxide had changed in the past, and how the level was influenced by chemical and biological forces. They found that the gas plays a crucial role in climate change, so that the rising level could gravely affect our future.

The pursuits of this alarming reality would be conducted on a short while when it became evident 'The Greenhouse Effect' would override Earth's ability to maintain life 'in the thin blue line.'  '

Keeling began the study which would result a decade later in the first "Earth Day" on April 22, 1970.  Below is Ron Cobb's Ecology Symbol.  And the race to stop deadly trends was launched with full vigor and still hangs in the balance today.

The moment in time when the world stopped spinning.



The manned program for NASA started with Project Mercury and Gemini and culminated in the Apollo Program which took the USA to the moon.

On May 5, 1961, astronaut Alan Shepard became the first American in space when he piloted Freedom 7 on a 15-minute suborbital flight. 

John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth on February 20, 1962 during the flight of Friendship 7.

The video below is a depiction of the events.  The video of the newscasts are accurate and people globally watched at whatever screens were available to them to witness the USA's Neil Armstrong as he stepped on the moon.

The USA Supreme Court would find "I am Curious" (Yellow) to be obscene.




The loop is an unpublished scene from "I am Curious" (Blue).  It is not obscene, but, reveals the passion of a young woman discovering the reality of life.  "I am Curious" (Yellow and Blue) were intended to be seen in one sitting for three and a half hours.  It is a Swedish film.  The 'sixties' were a time that could be coined as 'an awakening' from 'straight laced loyalty' to any form of 'conventional mind speak wisdom.'

In 1969, the film was banned in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for being pornographic. However, after proceedings in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts (Karalexis v. Byrne, 306 F. Supp. 1363 (D. Mass. 1969)), the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and the Supreme Court of the United States (Byrne v. Karalexis, 396 U.S. 976 (1969) and 401 U.S. 216 (1971)), the Second Circuit found the movie not to be obscene.[3]

The statement about mental health was released in "One Flew Over a Cockoo's Nest



The rigidity of the 'medical society' was to change and mental institutions were to be scrutinized for mental cruelty and control.  It was the beginning of investigations such as Willowbrook.





The fascination begun in the 1960s continued from some time including the all popular "Rainman."

Published in 1963, "Where the Wild Things Are."

I was still reading it to my children in the 1980s.

The book was initially banned in libraries with negative reviews.  But two years later when children everywhere were demanding it and reading it the tide turned.









The book tells the story of Max, who one evening plays around his home making "mischief" in a wolf costume. As punishment, his mother sends him to bed without supper. In his room, a mysterious, wild forest and sea grows out of his imagination, and Max sails to the land of the Wild Things. The Wild Things are fearsome-looking monsters, but Max conquers them by "staring into all their yellow eyes without blinking once", and he is made "the king of all wild things", dancing with the monsters in a "wild rumpus". However, he soon finds himself lonely and homesick and he returns home to his bedroom where he finds his supper waiting for him still hot.

Media Scholar of the time was Herbert Marshall McLuhan






















...Understanding Media, first published in 1964, focuses on the media effects that permeate society and culture, but McLuhan’s starting point is always the individual, because he defines media as technological extensions of the body. As a result, McLuhan often puts his inquiry and his conclusions in terms of the ratio between the physical senses (the extent to which we depend on them relative to each other) and the consequences of modifications to that ratio. This invariably entails a psychological dimension. Thus, the invention of the alphabet and the resulting intensification of the visual sense in the communication process gave sight priority over hearing, but the effect was so powerful that it went beyond communication through language to reshape literate society’s conception and use of space....


... McLuhan wrote with no knowledge of galvanic skin response technology, terminal node controllers, or the Apple Newton. He might not have been able even to imagine what a biomouse is. But he pointed the way to understanding all of these, not in themselves, but in their relation to each other, to older technologies, and above all in relation to ourselves—our bodies, our physical senses, our psychic balance. When he published Understanding Media in 1964, he was disturbed about mankind’s shuffling toward the twenty-first century in the shackles of nineteenth century perceptions. He might be no less disturbed today. And he would continue to issue the challenge that confronts the reader at every page of his writings to cast off those shackles.
—by Terrence Gordon, July, 2002


Marshall McLuhan



July 21, 1911-December 31, 1980
--------------------------------------------------------------------


Born Herbert Marshall McLuhan in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. McLuhan was a leading voice in the interdiscplinary field of media ecology. He coined the controversial phrases "the medium is the massage" and the "global village" to probe into the cultural shifts caused by the electronic revolution, focusing mainly upon TV. McLuhan held several degrees in English, including a PhD. He taught at several colleges and universities throughout Canada and the United States and was highly sought after by both religious and world leaders as well as major corporations for his insights. He was the receipient of many honorary Literary degrees and awards in Cutural and Communications studies. While he had many detractors, his influence is still recognized by media ecologists and in the formatting of popular reality TV shows today.
McLuhan married (elopement) Corinne Lewis naive of Fort Worth, Texas, in 1939. Together they had six children.

McLuhan's The Gutenberg Galaxy: (click here) The Making of Typographic Man (written in 1961, first published in Canada by University of Toronto Press in 1962) is a pioneering study of print culture, a pioneering study in cultural studies, and a pioneering study in media ecology.

The women of 'The Sixties' spanned the diversity of the country.



















Maya Angelou  (click here)

"I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings"

The free bird leaps
on the back of the win
and floats downstream
till the current ends
and dips his wings
in the orange sun rays
and dares to claim the sky.



But a bird that stalks
down his narrow cage
can seldom see through
his bars of rage
his wings are clipped and
his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.


The caged bird sings
with fearful trill
of the things unknown
but longed for still
and is tune is heard
on the distant hillfor the caged bird
sings of freedom


The free bird thinks of another breeze
an the trade winds soft through the sighing trees
and the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawn
and he names the sky his own.


But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing
 
The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.
 
 
Betty Friedan and "The Feminine Mysti (click here)
 





"The Equal Rights Amendment" 

Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.



Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.


Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.



The ERA was introduced into every session of Congress between 1923 and 1972, when it was passed and sent to the states for ratification. The seven-year time limit in the ERA's proposing clause was extended by Congress to June 30, 1982, but at the deadline, the ERA had been ratified by 35 states, leaving it three states short of the 38 required for ratification. It has been reintroduced into every Congress since that time.

"Imagine" by John Lennon

Imagine there's no Heaven

It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today


Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace


You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one


Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world


You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one
 
This loop was performed in 1972.  It was released in 1971.

On 25 February 2009, the Supreme Court of the United States quoted the lyrics to the song in footnote 2 of Pleasant Grove City, Utah v. Summum, a case dealing with the messages of monuments:



What, for example, is "the message" of the Greco-Roman mosaic of the word "Imagine" that was donated to New York City’s Central Park in memory of John Lennon? See NYC Brief 18; App. to id., at A5. Some observers may "imagine" the musical contributions that John Lennon would have made if he had not been killed. Others may think of the lyrics of the Lennon song that obviously inspired the mosaic and may "imagine" a world without religion, countries, possessions, greed, or hunger.
 

...silence is betrayal...

The visual media made no doubt that social tides were turning. In the Main Street theaters...from the Pulitzer Prize Winning Novel, "To kill a Mockingbird."

Values separated generations and the language of freedom left behind incohesive understandings between generations and the gap was too wide to cross.

Anthony works in the grocery store

Savin' his pennies for someday
Mama Leone left a note on the door,
She said,
"Sonny, move out to the country."
Workin' too hard can give you
A heart attackackackackackack
You oughta know by now
Who needs a house out in Hackensack?
Is that all you get for your money?


And it seems such a waste of time
If that's what it's all about
Mama, If that's movin' up then I'm movin' out.
Mmm, I'm movin' out. Ooh-hoo, uh-huh, mmmm


Sergeant O'Leary is walkin' the beat
At night he becomes a bartender
He works at Mister Cacciatore's down
On Sullivan Street
Across from the medical center
Yeah and he's tradin' in his Chevy for a Cadillacacacacacacacac
You oughta know by now
And if he can't drive
With a broken back
At least he can polish the fenders


And It seems such a waste of time
If that's what it's all about
Mama, If that's movin' up then I'm movin' out.
Mmm, I'm movin' out. Ooh-hoo, uh-huh, mmmm


You should never argue with a crazy mi-mi-mi-mi-mi-mind
You oughta know by now
You can pay Uncle Sam with the overtime
Is that all you get for your money?


And if that's what you have in mind
yeah if that's what you're all about
Good luck movin' up 'cause I'm movin' out.
Mmm, I'm movin' out. Ooh-hoo, uh-huh, mmmm


I'm movin' out...
 

There was no other era in the USA where innocence was played out with such passion as the 1960s.

The Post War Baby Boom created a generation of children reaching higher in ideals than any of their parents.  They didn't want to be tainted by capitalism and came to understand the world around them through more media and higher education.  They were starry-eyed dreamers with the goal set on using the education they achieved to change the world around them and achieve peace.  They were the 'first' liberals and still exist today....

...untainted....

...pure of spirit....

...meloncholy for a world united in peace...

...with openness that would defy any stererotype...

The Population of the United States was 177,830,000

Unemployment existed among 3,852,000 people


The National Debt 286.3 Billion


The Average Salary $4,743


The Average Teacher's Salary $5,174


The Minimum Wage $1.00


Life Expectancy: Males 66.6 years, Females 73.1 years


Auto deaths 21.3 per 100,000 per year


An estimated 850,000 "war baby" freshmen enter college; emergency living quarters are set up in dorm lounges, hotels and trailer camps.
 





















It's Sunday Night

"Edge of Seventeen" by Stevie Nicks

Just like the white winged dove...


Sings a song...
Sounds like she's singing...
Whoo... whoo... whoo...
Just like the white winged dove...
Sings a song...
Sounds like she's singing...
Ooo baby... ooo... said ooo


And the days go by...
Like a strand in the wind...
In the web that is my own...
I begin again
Said to my friend, baby...
Nothin' else mattered


He was no more... than a baby then
Well he... seemed broken hearted...
Something within him
But the moment... that I first laid...
Eyes... on... him... all alone...
On the edge of... seventeen


Just like the white winged dove...
Sings a song...
Sounds like she's singing...
ooo baby... ooo... said ooo...
Just like the white winged dove...
Sings a song...
Sounds like she's singing...
Ooo baby... ooo... said ooo


I went today... maybe I will go again...
Tomorrow
And the music there it was hauntingly...
Familiar
And I see you doing...
What I try to do for me
With the words from a poet...
And the voice from a choir
And a melody... nothing else mattered


Just like the white winged dove...
Sings a song...
Sounds like she's singing...
ooo baby... ooo... said ooo
Just like the white winged dove...
Sings a song...
Sounds like she's singing...
Ooo baby... ooo... said ooo


The clouds... never expect it...
When it rains
But the sea changes colours...
But the sea...
Does not change
And so... with the slow... graceful flow...
Of age
I went forth... with an age old...
Desire... to please
On the edge of... seventeen


Just like the white winged dove...
Sings a song...
Sounds like she's singing...
Ooo baby... ooo... said ooo
Just like the white winged dove...
Sings a song...
Sounds like she's singing...
Ooo baby... ooo... said ooo


Well then suddenly...
There was no one... left standing
In the hall... yeah yeah...
In a flood of tears
That no one really ever heard fall at all
Oh I went searchin' for an answer...
Up the stairs... and down the hall
Not to find an answer...
Just to hear the call
Of a nightbird... singing...
Come away... come away...


Just like the white winged dove...
Sings a song
Sounds like she's singing...
Ooo... baby ooo... said ooo
Just like the white winged dove...
Sings a song...
Sounds like she's singing...
Ooo... baby ooo... said ooo


Well I hear you in the morning...
And I hear you...
At nightfall...
Sometime to be near you...
Is to be unable... to hear you...
My love...
I'm a few years older than you...


Just like the white winged dove...
Sings a song...
Sounds like she's singing...
Ooo baby... ooo... said ooo