December 7 and September 11 Bookends

Soon after the September 11 attacks, a billboard message appeared along the entire length of an industrial building outside wall not far from my neighborhood, visible along the rapid transit line from downtown Chicago to Midway airport.

Bookended by flags at both ends were two dates: Dec. 7, 1941 and Sept. 11, 2001. Centered between them was a succinct message: “America will not forget!”

That billboard is still there. At first, the equivalency with the attack on Pearl Harbor was jarring. A decade later, that connection to World War II seems entirely apt, as we have moved from immediate shock and anger to still trying to make emotional sense of it all.

There had been much to consider by World War II’s GIs returning from the front lines and by its civilians readjusting on the home front. It took time.

So, too, amid of flood of tenth anniversary September 11 retrospectives.

Remembering writer Nicholas Schaffner, 20 years on

Nicholas Schaffner was the quintessential New Yorker.

A respected writer, poet, and musician, he led an artist’s dream life in Greenwich Village. (Though on occasion he stopped by Chicago, usually for the annual Beatlefest fan convention.)

Nick died two decades ago, at the end of August in 1991. His passing at the age of 38 marked the first time I saw the effects of AIDS touch a personal friend.

Here are memories of my upbeat and positive last visit with Nick Schaffner, along with background on his life and writing.

[Thanks to PJ for sharing her photo of Nick Schaffner (left) along with co-author Pete Shotton (right)]

It was April 5, 1990. I was in New York City on a business trip and had the opportunity to attend an optional get together late one evening at the Rainbow Room at Rockefeller Center. A tempting lure.

However, I had already calculated that night would be my only opportunity to zip down to Greenwich  Village and visit Nicholas Schaffner.

“I have to see Nick,” I explained as I passed on the party.

Ringo Starr’s Best Starring Role: Ringo Starr

Earlier this month, as a lead-in to the annual Chicago Fest for Beatles Fans, this site posed eight survey questions about Fab Four fan favorites. There were no “correct” answers, just the quest for preferences.

Two questions had overwhelming favorite answers.

Given a choice of roles from Ringo Starr’s movie career, some preferred Atouk (from Caveman, where Ringo met future wife Barbara Bach), Mike (from the rock movie That’ll Be The Day, one of Ringo’s most-praised roles), or Frank Zappa (from Zappa’s own 200 Motels, where Ringo struck a surprisingly creditable pose as the musician’s doppelganger).

Plugging into Will Rogers 76 Years after His Crash

“I only know what I read in the papers” was one of the signature observations of Will Rogers as he launched into his humorous observations on the events of his era.

Until his plane crash death in the Alaska Territory (August 15, 1935), Rogers made public appearances, wrote newspaper columns, acted on stage and in films, and delivered radio commentaries about the issues of the day.

Presumably he’d have found plenty of fodder scanning the Internet. His own legacy is out there in cyberspace, awaiting fresh curiosity seekers. The always-eclectic annual summer Book Fair at the Newberry Library provided my motivation to follow some of those threads, spurred on by a 1983 bargain book collection (only $3!) of more than two dozen transcripts, Radio Broadcasts of Will Rogers.

Bohrman Beams To Current TV

It was like a moment from “Star Wars.” On Election Night 2008, CNN beamed a “hologram” reporter from its Chicago set-up at the Barack Obama celebration in Grant Park back to its news coverage set. “Stepping into” the studio picture, correspondent Jessica Yellin evoked the projection of Princess Leia from R2D2 (“Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi!”), right down to her other-worldly shimmer, as she began her conversation with Wolf Blitzer.

That created a signature moment in CNN’s coverage that night. It also had David Bohrman’s fingerprints all over it. So will Current TV with his new position as that channel’s president.

Crafting the Personalized Beatles Fan Experience

Who attends a Beatles fan convention?

The answer to that hasn’t really changed over the years.

While conducting live trivia games and discussions at the annual Fest for Beatles Fans (previously known as “Beatlefest”), I’ve observed the teens and tweens are still there cheering on the music and displaying their remarkable savvy in collectibles and obscure factoids.

No, these aren’t the grown up fans now nostalgic adults. These are NEW faces from the same demographic, the next generation(s), still buoyant over a group that officially broke up four decades ago. There’s an obvious reason: Songs originally aimed at young music fans are still reaching exactly that age group, just multiple generations later.

What makes the perfect Paul McCartney concert?

An excited buzz went through the crowd at Yankee Stadium for the July 15 Paul McCartney concert. About a half dozen numbers in, McCartney offered this introduction:

“This is an old song but it’s one we’ve never performed before. I’ve never done this live.”

With that, he launched into “The Night Before.”

The song was indeed a first-timer. From the 1965 “Help!” film (and album). Featured in the scene with the group playing in an open field, hiding in plain sight from the bad guys who were out to get them.

The Beatles never performed ‘The Night Before” in concert. Until Yankee Stadium, neither had McCartney. Which is why it became a sweet spot for many of the concert goers. Familiar yet obscure. Old but fresh. Something special. He continued to include it at the subsequent stops of his brief “On the Run” tour of other baseball parks, including Chicago’s Wrigley Field.

It might seem that Paul McCartney would have the easiest job in the world performing in concert. He’s been associated with dozens of chart toppers across the decades since the 1960s. All he has to do is play them, filling an entire night with number ones.

But McCartney the showman is too smart for that.