Wordless Wednesday: This One Is Phor Phillies Phans

The Astros are in Philadelphia tonight. City of Brotherly Love. 

Teddy Pendergrass' nephew.

Steve Carlton

Mike Schmidt

Our intrepid photographer Gary Firstenberg.

Photos courtesy Gary Firstenberg
www.firstinphoto.smugmug.com

Duty To Warn: More Carjacking Escapades

Stolen cars are sometimes simply taken for a joy ride 
and wrecked. Others are taken by pros to chop shops
where they are dismantled. Photo: Public Domain

Is carjacking on the rise because the social order is breaking down? Or is it because people going through hard times are turning to crime? On one level it doesn't really matter which. What you need to know is that you becoming a victim of a carjacking is is not something you want to have to deal with.

I came to Minnesota in 1976 and a few things surprised me regarding winter. First, in those days parking meters in cities had plugs on them so you could plug in your car to make it easier to start when it was thirty below zero. Automobile engines changed in the 1980s so this was no longer the problem it used to be. 

The second thing I noticed is that people frequently left their cars running when they went into the Post Office or did other errands at 30 below. I guess they wanted to keep the heat running in their vehicles. Being from New Jersey I thought it risky, but here it was fairly normal. "Minnesota Nice."

Well, Minnesota Nice is a byword now. I still see cars or trucks running in front of the post office, but I have also heard of cars left running being gone when the owners came out. As the saying goes, forewarned is forearmed.

Here are some of the carjacking stories from the past few days on my Google Alerts feed. You can read the headlines or you can click on the story which is a hotlink. 

Woman escapes with her life as carjackers open fire on her in Buckhead - FOX 5 Atlanta Carjacking, police pursuit on N.J. Turnpike ends with crash, 4 armed teens arrested - nj.com

Father carjacked, vehicle stolen with child inside from NJ ShopRite… - ABC7 New York

Exclusive: Some Vehicles Carjacked In Philadelphia Exported As Far Away As Africa ... - CBS Philly 

Armed carjacking suspects arrested in Seattle - KIRO 7

Liz Collin goes undercover with carjacking unit for firsthand look at Twin Cities crime - YouTube

617 carjackings in Mnpls last year. 101 in St. Paul, plus more in the surrounding suburbs.

"Teenagers are usually responsible."

Police take person of interest in custody in Towson carjacking - WBAL-TV

1 arrested, 1 sought in SW Atlanta carjacking, police chase

2 attempted carjackings reported in Chatham; delivery driver shot after suspects couldn't drive stick

Seattle woman warns of rising crime following beating, carjacking - KIRO 7

Carjacking led to theft of car that caused downtown Louisville crash; suspect arrested - WAVE 3

Man stabbed during carjacking in NYC - New York Post

Essex County Man Charged with Carjacking | USAO-NJ | Department of Justice NJ man charged in gunpoint carjacking of woman in driveway

CARJACKING SAFETY TIPS HERE (Bottom of Page)

https://pioneerproductions.blogspot.com/2022/02/our-national-carjacking-epidemic-and.html

Brooklyn Museum Honors Rodin with Major Exhibition on Centennial of His Passing

The power of the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg is derived in part from seeing all these striking works in one place, experiencing the progression of his vision as well as the scale of so many of these pieces. This year, the Brooklyn Museum is doing a similar unveiling of its Rodin collection in what will undoubtedly be a rewarding experience for anyone able to take it in. The exhibition will feature 58 Rodin pieces, honoring the 100th anniversary of Rodin's death in November 1917. This body of work provides an overview of his career from 1840 to 1917 during one of the most significant periods in art history, the movement from classical to modern.

If you recall, this period included the transition through French Impressionism that included Monet, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Seurat, Renoir. The sculptor Rodin was a close friend of Monet, the famous painter of water lilies, to whom he once wrote: “the same feeling of fraternity, the same love of art, has made us friends for ever… I still have the same admiration for the artist who helped me understand light, clouds, the sea, the Cathedrals that I already loved so much,but whose beauty awakened at dawn by your rendering touched me so deeply.” *

Auguste Rodin, who grew up poor, was teased for his lack of academic prowess and retreated into shyness. Around age ten he took an interest in drawing and molding clay and no doubt got enough strokes from this that he kept it up and pursued a career in art. Failing to get the recognition he desired resulted in an emotional collapse after which he recuperated in a monastery. After his recovery he rented a studio and began hiring models to pursue the recognition he believed he deserved.

His best known works include The Thinker, and The Kiss. He also produced busts of notable literary figures including Balzac and Victor Hugo, indicative of the caliber of his associations. A visit to Italy in 1875 resulted in his first-hand experience of Michelangelo's sculptures, inspiring a renewed pursuit of heightened realism in his own pieces. 

Like many artists doing groundbreaking work Rodin's achievements were not appreciated during much of his life. He didn't fit the mold of what was expected, had broken with tradition and pursued his own vision. By the turn of the century, however, he was world-renowned after his work was displayed at the World's Fair.

Rodin's The Thinker may be universally recognized, but is only one of the many thousands of busts and fragments and statues he created over the course of five decades. If you have the opportunity, the Brooklyn Museum will be sharing its collection throughout the winter. Or, you may wish to make your way to the Philadelphia shrine devoted to Rodin's work, the Rodin Museum, the only museum in the world outside of Paris that is wholly dedicated to Rodin's art.

* * * *
Four Quotes for Contemplation

"Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely." --Auguste Rodin

"I invent nothing, I rediscover." --Rodin

"To any artist worthy of the name, all in nature is beautiful, because his eyes, fearlessly accepting all exterior truth, read there, as in an open book, all the inner truth." --Rodin

"The artist must create a spark before he can make a fire and before art is born, the artist must be ready to be consumed by the fire of his own creation." --Rodin

* * * *

Meantime, art goes on all around you. Dig it. 

Photo Source, The Thinker: Wiki Commons 

* http://www.musee-rodin.fr/en/collections/archives/letter-auguste-rodin-claude-monet

Dylan's Concert For One

If you're a regular follower of the Never Ending Tour, then this is old news... but it was fun to find that last month in Philadelphia Dylan assembled his team to do a concert for one. It seems our man Bob is determined to continuously confound. Who would have thunk he'd do a Super Bowl commercial? We've known he was an artist but who expected a sculpture show? A radio hour, books of his paintings, and other surprises seem to pop up in unexpected ways.

That's what makes sites like ExpectingRain.com so much fun to visit. The contributors are committed to sharing the never ending story.

For the concert in Philadelphia on the afternoon of November 23 only one ticket got sold. There were plenty of seats, but a very thin audience. That lucky patron was a Swedish fan, Fredrik Wikingsson who has a television show there... in Sweden, not Philadelphia.

Here's a video about the event, Experiment Ensam, contributed by Egil Mosbron.

Or if you prefer the music alone, here's another source.... now being shared by popular demand. Yes, he's still the king of cool.

The set list that afternoon went like this:

1. Heartbeat (song by Buddy Holly)
2. Blueberry Hill (song by Fats Domino)
3. You're Too Late (song by Lefty Frizzell and Hank Williams)
4. Key To The Highway (song by Charles Segar)

Historical classics and tributes, and none of his own songs. Maybe this is in part prelude to his own upcoming album in which he does Frank Sinatra covers, though this Forbes story claims that Dylan is not really doing covers, but rather is "lifting them out of the grave and bringing them into the light of day."

I began checking out the lyrics to these songs and found something else they have in common. Or thought I had. Fats Domino's classic begins, "I found my thrill on Blueberry Hill." It's just a line nearly everyone is familiar with.  The Buddy Holly tune Dylan began with also had the word "thrill" in it.  "I know that new love thrills me..." he sang.

This got me thinking I'd found something. So I checked out the lyrics to You're Too Late.

If I had someone that's true
It would thrill me through and through

There, it's another thrill. When I finally scanned Key to the Highway, my investigation broke down and I realized I'd been overthinking it.

Anyways, the concert must have been a thrill, even in its brevity.

Keep on truckin'.

Dylan the Elder Statesman painting by ennyman.

Episode on South Street

SHORT STORY MONDAY

One of the wonders of the Internet Is that it has enabled writers to share their work even if they can not find a publication to put it in print. In 1994-95 I learned just enough html to launch a website (now located at http://www.enewman.biz/) where I deposited my favorite unpublished stories, a much better solution than having them sit in a drawer. Three have now been translated into foreign languages, and this one made into a short film.

In early October 2004 the film adaptation of this story "Episode on South Street" premiered in Erie, PA during the Great Lakes Horror/Suspense Film Festival. Co-producers Adam Fish and Matthew W. Detisch of DF Productions were thrilled about the project. The film was well received as best of show.

The story is about a somewhat disturbed young artist with obsessive compulsive disorder, and an incident that occurs one evening while working in his Philadelphia studio just off South Street.

Episode on South Street

It was close to ten o'clock when the thought first struck me: Something terrible is going to happen tonight, and the dread surged through me. I was painting in my studio late that night with two deadlines to meet and I didn't have time to work myself through another episode. No doubt the deadlines set it off.

"This is ridiculous," I told myself. "Nothing is going to happen; think about something else." But the muscles in my face were taut and my ears were hot and I couldn't think of anything else. As if a cloud suddenly hid the face of the sun, the room seemed sunk in shadow and with it, my mood darkened as well and though my movements were now lethargic and leaden, my mind raced wildly to catch hold of the terror producing thought as if it were some kind of secret knowledge.

I wonder what terrible thing is going to happen? was my next thought and in seeing the red paint on my paintbrush I knew intuitively. Something dreadful and bloody was going to happen. I took a deep breath, counted to ten slowly and tried to relax.

My mind raced on. Why are you just sitting here when someone could be out there being killed?

I'm standing in the middle of the room now, trying to decide whether I need a jacket or not. After checking the clock, I grab my leather and head out the hall to the fire escape, the quickest way down to the alley to South Street, the main strip.

It was a Friday night and a full moon; South Street is jammed with people and I'm scared.

I look at the crowds - punks, yuppies, jocks, freaks, Philly rednecks - and flee back down the alley. As I walk between the buildings a young fat teen, who is being chased by several leaner and tougher looking boys, runs smack into me. As he does so, he looks straight up into my eyes and I see down inside his soul, and I see his terror. At the same moment, he sees into my own soul, and sees a terror more terrible still... the terror of nightmares come alive, of irrational demons that compel a man to madness, to participate in terror, to be an agent of terror.

As this young kid falls backwards away from me, I wish that it were only a beating by thugs that I needed to be afraid of. I would welcome such a beating.

Instead, I am driven forward on my mission of rescue. Something dreadful is going to happen and it may be that only I can stop it.

I remember that I had forgotten to wash out my paint brush and try to return to my loft, but when I reach the staircase, I am urged to hurry back to the street. Someone is being killed. Are you going to waste time washing out brushes while someone is dying? And with the thought comes pain. It's more than I can bear. I must do something. I must act. I must save. And I am running back to South Street.

As I round the corner I am immersed in the great swarm of people flooding the sidewalks and I am fighting my way through it.

You are really acting crazy tonight I think to myself and I feel comforted by the kernel of truth in this observation. Using all my will power I manage to halt my progress through the stream of humanity and lean back against the front wall of a restaurant.

Across the street two mounted policemen are looking in my direction and all kinds of feelings erupt. First, I feel beside myself with a need to run and tell them that there is going to be a murder if something isn't done to stop it. At the same time, I fear that in my distress--along with my knowledge of this terrible thing I am trying to prevent--I will become a suspect in the crime. Next I fear that I am already acting suspicious and that the police have noticed me, that I can't give a rational account of my behavior and I have no alibi, having been alone in my studio. Most of all, I am scared.

I step away from the building and turn to my left, to return to my studio, but then the fearful thought comes again: I am abandoning a fellow human, leaving him to die. Only this time, I see an image with the thought, a large, wide knife, flashing through the air in a dark, crowded room - a bar? where? - and my fear begins to make sense. But it's such a horrible thing, worse than a murder... a madman with a knife in a crowded room.

Now I am walking up the sidewalk again trying to see more clearly this glimpse of vision, to replay it in my head. The knife: it's a deli knife. The deli! Something terrible is going to happen there. I don't know if I can handle it.

I'm running now, pushing people out of my way. It's only two, maybe three blocks up the street, and I am running hard.I can hear people shouting at me, "Hey, watch it!" and "Are you crazy, man!" as I push past them, though some people move out of my way, clearing a path for me. My heart is beating wild and my breathing is labored when I get to the front of the deli.

CONTINUED