Rant #672: Eight Arms to Hold You

Today is the 48th anniversary of one of the most memorable TV appearances of all time.

On this date in 1964, the Beatles made their first live appearance on American television, performing on "The Ed Sullivan Show."

Although I wasn't even seven years old yet, I remember the show vividly.

I remember that this was a time when TV was shared with all the family. Families generally had one TV, and everyone gathered in front of the TV to watch shows, and watch them together.

I know that my family gathered in front of our Dumont black and white TV to watch the Beatles that night. We always watched Ed Sullivan on Sunday night. It really was a tradition that stretched until the end of the show's run in 1971, and this night was going to be no different than any other.

But it was.

Ed Sullivan was old Hollywood. He would have on the Georgie Jessels, the Judy Garlands, and the other greats of that time period.

But in the late 1950s, Sullivan, ever the showman, knew that to keep his show up to date, he had to have on something for the kids.

Elvis Presley's successful performances on the show solidified that notion, and Sullivan, until the show's end, always had on something for younger viewers, whether it was the Muppets, Topo Gigio or the hottest recording acts of that time.

The Beatles were hot, hotter than hot in 1964, giving all of us something to look forward to less than three months after JFK was assassinated.

And they delivered.

Kids like me sat there mesmerized at the four British moptops.

Their music was new, they looked unlike anyone else I'd ever seen, and they looked like they were having fun.

And viewers were too.

I will never forget that night. Never.

Some say it led them to be musicians, or at least to pick up a guitar and learn to play it.

But for me, it didn't lead me to my future occupation or made me do anything that I wasn't going to do before seeing them.

But to today's kids, who simply have to turn on their TVs or go on the Internet to find the latest recording sensation, they have no idea how world changing that night in 1964 was for my generation, and, yes, down the road, for their generation too.

Rock was finally accepted. It wasn't a trend or a fad.

Elvis laid the groundwork, and the Beatles ran with it.

From then on, "The Ed Sullivan Show" featured the hottest rock acts of the day on a regular basis, everyone from the Dave Clark Five to the Rolling Stones to Sly and the Family Stone to the Supremes to the Association to ...

I mean, it was endless, and served as a reason to watch the Sullivan show each and every week, amid the plate twirlers and the comedians and the Broadway acts.

And I loved it.

There's nothing like it today, and I am glad I was around to witness the night when everything was turned inside out.

And the funny thing is, Beatlemania is still with us. Both Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr each released new albums in the past few weeks, and George Harrison and John Lennon remain alive in our hearts even though they have each been gone for years now.

But it started with that night, an evening I will never forget.

Rant #671: First Radio, Then the World!

Today is the 90th anniversary of something that seems innocuous, at best, but was pretty revolutionary for its time.

On this date in 1922, President Warren G. Harding had a radio installed in the White House.

Well, this is no big deal in the context of today's world, but back then, this was pretty awesome.

Radio really hadn't been around too long back in 1922, but it was the first of the electronic mediums to usurp newspapers' hold on us as a deliverer of news.

So putting up a radio in the White House pretty much signaled an acceptance of this medium by the American public.

If the president could have one of these newfangled things in the White House, it was OK for the general public to have it in their houses too.

And Presidents have learned to weave the use of electronic mediums into their political lives. They make speeches, they appear regularly on whatever electronic medium is in vogue, and they have learned that these electronic mediums can be wonderful, but they can also be a curse.

But looking back to a simpler time, tthose radios, they were pretty ornate. I guess you had to have them "installed" in your home. They were like a piece of furniture that talked to you.

And for about the next 25 years, radio was the electronic medium of choice, until television took over in the late 1940s.

But for Harding to put a radio in the White House when there really wasn't even an electronic medium to speak of is something incredible.

It's probably the most impressive thing he did during his term ... do you know anything else that he did when he was in office?

As a President, he is nothing but a footnote in our history. And that's saying a lot about this guy.

But radio was the standard for about 25 years. Not only did it deliver news on the spot, but it delivered entertainment, sports, and probably the first instance of "white noise" in our history.

But it, too, was pushed out of the way by television, which right now, is being pushed out of the way by the Internet.

What electronic marvel will come next to make the Internet obsolete?

Who knows, but it all may have started with Warren Harding.

Show your friends how smart you are by telling them you actually know something about him.

I guarantee that they will be impressed.

Rant #670: Junk Food Gold To Kids

Everybody seems to be on the healthy eating bandwagon.

"Eat healthy, and you will live longer," say some, and perhaps it is true.

But for kids, I really don't think they care about such stuff. They will eat whatever they like.

"Start kids off in their lives with healthy eating, and you will set them on the right path," say some, and perhaps it's true.

But my generation filled up on Devil Dogs and Twinkies, and it didn't seem to hurt us too badly.

But some continue to say that eating healthy is the right way to go, and schools can be a big help in fighting off the fat.

A new study now says that roughly half of U.S. elementary school kids can still buy junk food at their schools, even after repeated mandates to remove this stuff from these centers of learning.

Researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago said such horrid things as cookies, cakes and chips are still sold through many school cafeterias and vending machines, even if they are not served during lunchtime.

Sure, rising obesity in children is a reason to rethink what we feed our kids, but schools really shouldn't be held responsible for kids getting fat.

That's like saying that McDonald's is responsible for creating Chubbsy Ubbsies across the country, and although some have even taken fast food providers to court over this, the cases are always thrown out.

You have to have the mindset to eat healthy, and that starts at home.

And you know what? All this talk of healthy eating is fine in my book, but generally, people don't want to eat healthy. The healthy stuff should be available, but you can't force any food provider outside of your own home to regulate what your kids eat.

Again, it has to start in the home.

And when I was growing up, everything literally was on the table. You could eat salads--and I did--but I loved my Yodels and Oreos, too.

Yes, I am overweight right now, and I still love my cookies. And that is my fault, because although my eating habits have changed over time as I've gotten older, it's my decision to eat like I do.

But did it hurt me as a kid? No, I don't think so.

My wife watches herself like a hawk, and I am very proud of her. She looks 20 years younger than she really is, because she does what she has to do to be fit, including exercises regularly. She is beautiful, has a great figure, and rarely noshes.

I choose to nosh.

My son, 16 years of age, eats everything and then some, and he is as skinny as a pencil.

You have to want to eat healthy, not literally have it forced down your throat.

And you can't expect schools to fully toe the line.

We are very much into the blame game in this society, and schools are likely targets for lots of blame on a variety of subjects.

But if you want your kids to eat healthy, give them the broccoli at home, not a Yankee Doodle.

And stop expecting schools to regulate what your kids eat.

They can help, but ultimately, the burden falls on the home, exactly where the burden should be.

Rant #669: Stupid Bowl to Possible Cinderella Story

Now that the Stupid Bowl ... err, Super Bowl--is over, maybe the world can get back to normal.

I didn't watch a single minute of the game, really don't care about football, and congratulate the New Jersey Giants ... err, New York Giants for their victory.

In fact, my wife and I watched the film "Moneyball," a film about baseball and really about life, instead. It was the perfect film to watch when the rest of the world is losing their sanity about a game that 90 percent of them could really care less about.

Funny how betting and parties makes most everyone a football fan. I bet most of those people don't even know what the line of scrimmage is.

And now we can move on.

Oh, that's right, I forgot, the parade in New York City for a New Jersey-based team that left New York City decades ago is on tap for tomorrow.

Boy, New York City is sure a friendly town, holding a parade for a New Jersey-based team.

But anyway, I saw a New York team that plays in New York play this weekend.

Yes, I went to a Knicks game with my son, and we saw a great game, probably the most important game of the year for the NBA team.

They beat the New Jersey--until next year, when they become the Brooklyn--Nets by a score of 99-92, and we might have seen the birth of a new star in the name of one Jeremy Lin.

Lin has been a journeyman player during his short career. Only recently signed by the Knicks, he might be a focal point of one of the great Cinderella stories in New York sports history if he can do what he did on Saturday night on a regular basis.

The Knicks, who were supposed to be a powerhouse this year, have been downright terrible. They had lost two straight tough games and have been perennial losers the past few weeks, and the shine that the Giants put upon the city was not rubbing off on the lowly Knicks, who continued to lose.

One main reason is that the Knicks do not have a point guard, or the player who sets up the other players on offense.

Without a point guard, players simply stand around, and without dedicated ball movement, the offense goes static.

The Knicks had two point guards--Chauncey Billups and Raymond Felton--but through various deals and trades, those guys are gone.

The Knicks were losing again, and losing badly to the also lowly Nets. The Knicks were down 12 points in the first quarter, and it looked like another dismal showing for the team.

Then came Lin.

Coach Mike D'Antoni, who I swear would have been fired if the Knicks didn't win this game, inserted Lin during the second quarter, more out of desperation than anything else.

And Lin clicked.

He ended up scoring 25 points and most importantly, registered seven assists.

That is what a point guard is supposed to do, and it appears the Knicks may have had one buried on the bench all of this time.

Lin is an interesting story. He is just the second NBA player of Chinese-American heritage. The other one played during the NBA's inaugural season in 1948, so there's nearly a 65-year gap.

And Lin played his college ball at Harvard, of all places.

He went undrafted, and when he finally caught the eye of the NBA, he was let go by two other teams before being signed by the Knicks a few weeks back to take up bench space. They even demoted him to the developmental league, their minor league system, to add polish to this guy before he got bed sores.

So Saturday's game was the game of this young player's life.

It also brought life to the newly refurbished Madison Square Garden, which had been more like a mausoleum than an arena lately as the losses piled up.

Fans were chanting his name, the place was loud, and you could have sworn you were at a playoff game, not just another regular season contest.

Nobody is expecting this kid to have another game like this, but even if he doesn't, he made my and my son's evening something special the other night. And the same can be said for the nearly 20,000 other fans who were there that night, and millions of others watching on television at home.

Maybe it is the first coming of a major star on the horizon, maybe not.

The last time something like this happened to the Knicks, it was with John Starks, who became a mainstay with the Knicks teams of the 1990s, teams that never won a championship but came close numerous times.

But New York loves underdogs, and maybe Lin is that guy, and with football season mercifully over, maybe the light can shine on him, and the Knicks ... until baseball season begins soon.

JE-RE-MY! JE-RE-MY!

And yes, people wanted to buy his basketball shirt after the game, but none were to be had. You can bet that at tonight's game, you will be able to get them.

And just imagine. If this guy does become a star, he couldn't do it in a better place. With New York's huge Asian population--and Chinatown just blocks away from the Garden--this guy could be the biggest thing since Hideki Matsui played for the Yankees.

I wish him well. The Knicks need some spark, and this unlikely sparkplug might be just what they needed.

Sometimes, you really can't see the forest for the trees.

Rant #668: The Day the Music Died

Today is the 53rd anniversary of the so-called "The Day the Music Died," when a horrific plane crash took the lives of rock and roll stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. Richardson, better known as "The Big Bopper."

They perished in a small plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, the first of many plane crashes that have taken the lives of rock stars over the years.

I remember when Stevie Ray Vaughan died in a plane crash, I wondered why so many had perished this way, including one of my favorites, Otis Redding.

I still don't have an answer. I guess the best that I can come up with is that since part of their job is traveling all over the country and the world, the chances that one will perish via a plane crash goes up because of the frequency of use.

If you go on a plane once a year, then your chances are much less than a person who goes on a plane 100 times a year.

I guess.

But the original rock and roll-related plane crash took three of the brightest stars on the music horizon at the time.

Buddy Holly was a trailblazer, one of the first rock stars with broad appeal. His music--including "Peggy Sue" and "Maybe Baby"--has influenced countless generations of musicians, including the Beatles, and the areas he was trailblazing then as someone barely out of his teens was astonishing. Too bad the world didn't get to hear what he had next up his sleeve.

Ritchie Valens may have been a lightning in the bottle-type of act, but we'll never know. As the first Latino rock star, his music--including "La Bamba"--blazed trails for all Hispanic acts that followed.

"The Big Bopper" was a novelty act, but a real good one. One of the first disc jockeys to have a hit record, his "Chantilly Lace" was a huge seller, and he also was a songwriter, writing "Running Bear" for Johnnie Preston.

This date was immortalized by Don McLean's "American Pie," bringing the fact that there was such a day to a new generation of listeners in the early 1970s.

Why are we so in-tune with the day?

I guess it has a lot to do with youth that goes way before its time. It's also the legendary "crash and burn" situation, where youth rides a quick rocket to stardom and then gets it all taken away from them.

It's like they made a deal with the devil and this was the payback. Since many in society at the time thought that rock and roll was the devil's music, I am sure many believed they got what they deserved.

But I can't help feel that we lost more than Holly, Valens and Richardson as a result of that crash.

We also lost our innocence to a certain degree, and that would come to the fore just three years later, when JFK was shot in Dallas.

So, on the 53rd anniversary of the three rockers' death--and the upcoming 50th anniversary of the passing of our President--let's reflect on what these personalities did during their lifetime, not what they could have done if these unfortunate things didn't snuff them out way before their time.

Rant #667: Soul Train Derails

I am sure you know that Don Cornelius, the affable host of the "Soul Train" dance and music show, died yesterday at 75 years of age, apparently a suicide.

Cornelius had many demons in his life, and I am not going to go into them now.

But for awhile in the 1970s and 1980s, he was to soul music what Dick Clark was to rock, pop and soul music.

I am going to take a different path than many who are eulogizing Cornelius, who I think had his heart in the right place with his show but to me, the show was the antithesis of what Clark tried to do with his show, and more importantly, what America was trying to do during the 1970s and 1980s.

"American Bandstand" was a staple on the ABC schedule for years, and while it highlighted the hit-making singers of its day, it did much, much more than that.

Clark fought to have both white and black dancers mingle among each other--and remember, the show began in the 1950s (Clark came on board after its creation), and segregation in all parts of life was the norm during that time period.

Clark didn't want an all-white show, and the guests and regulars were a mix of all races. Whatever was the hot song at the time denoted who would be a guest, not what the performer's color was.

"American Bandstand" featured a gaggle of dancers, and although blacks and whites generally danced with their own kind on the show, they still mingled out on the dance floor together.

This was a revolutionary experience back then. Blacks and whites were separated by law in many cases, so for Clark to insist that his show have both blacks and whites on it was revolutionary.

And remember, early on, "American Bandstand" was a daily show, so it was probably the first daily network show to feature such a mix of the races.

Fast forward to the late 1960s.

There was plenty of racial tension during this period, but few cared that "American Bandstand" and Clark's other shows, including "Where the Action Is," had blacks and whites on them each and every week.

There were dance shows a'plenty on the air, many of them locally produced, and few cared that black kids and white kids were dancing on the same floor.

"American Bandstand" was still hot, featuring black kids and white kids cheering on their pop heroes, and dancing to their music.

In New York, "American Bandstand" was preceded on another station by Cleveland's own "Upbeat," a similar type show on a much smaller budget, so you could generally watch at least two hours straight of this type of show in the New York area on a Saturday morning.

"Upbeat" ended, and there was a void, at least on New York television.

I am sure the same void was experienced on other stations around the country, which had their own dance shows but saw them pretty much evaporate during this period.

This void was filled by the syndicated "Soul Train."

"Soul Train" went back to the 1950s, but took it one step further.

"Soul Train" was segregated, at least in its earliest incarnation, and for many years afterward.

What Clark had fought so long and hard to have on his show--both blacks and whites dancing to the hit sounds of black and white artists--was turned upside down by "Soul Train."

With few exceptions during a large chunk of its run, the show featured an almost entirely black cast of dancers grooving to the sounds of an almost entirely black cadre of artists.

Sure, you might see one or two white dancers on the show--and you might see a white performer, but in a supplementary role, not as a group leader, such as with an act like Sly and the Family Stone--but generally, the dancers and artists were black.

This is the one bone I had to pick with the show. "American Bandstand" was integrated; "Soul Train" was pretty much segregated.

I am sure Cornelius--who was the show's host during most, but not all, of its run--and others associated with the show had their reasons for doing this, and I guess it had largely to do with their desire to make the show a showcase for black soul acts.

But why take a step backward when Clark's show represented a step forward?

Cornelius once said something to the affect that when Clark zigged, he zagged, and vice versa, so "Soul Train" was done as kind of the opposite to "American Bandstand" purposely.

But to Cornelius' credit, he did see that America was changing, and later on in the show's history, white acts and more white dancers were featured.

If I remember correctly, David Bowie even appeared on "Soul Train."

But as a chronicle of the times, I have always thought the show completely missed the point that Clark made with his show, that exclusion leads to hate and misunderstanding.

In his own way, Clark more closely followed the world that Martin Luther King wanted than Cornelius did.

But that aside, you can't beat the lineup of guests that "Soul Train" had, everybody from Al Green to the Jackson Five to later funk creations like Earth, Wind and Fire.

And if you want to see a selection of some of the greatest Afros and outfits and dance moves in TV history, you had to watch "Soul Train."

And Cornelius was one of the snappiest dressers ever on TV. He made Clark look like a hobo.

Like most of us, I was sorry to hear of Cornelius' untimely passion, but I have to think that "Soul Train" was a show that meant well, but missed the boat, at least early on, on the changing times we were experiencing in this country.

You probably won't find that viewpoint anywhere else, but that is just how I feel about the show.

Certainly, growing up in a mixed-race neighborhood has something to do with the way I feel, but to this day, I do think that "Soul Train" was pretty much misguided, although incredibly successful.

So R.I.P., Don, it's too bad you had to go so soon.

Rant #666: The Number of the Beast

So, we have reached Rant #666, the dreaded number of the beast.

What will happen today to justify this blog reaching that number?

Will I be visited by the devil himself? Will something come that will hit us all in the head?

Will my angelic personality turn devilish?

Will I eat a Devil Dog as opposed to broccoli?

Yes, I know that I often have the devil in me, but I am not the anti-Christ, I am just a good Jewish boy.

But let's look at the number 666.

666 is the sum of the first 36 natural numbers, so if you add 1, 2, 3, 4 ... and through 36, you will get 666.

Honestly, that is about the only other thing I know about the number.

I've never been into devil worship or numerology, so my interest in the number really isn't that great.

But for some people, 666 is the worst number there is.

I know that if you are part of the Aryan nation, and you get a tatoo, this number will probably be scrawled across your body.

No wonder these clowns are perceived as idiots by most people. And they are just that.

I know I am rambling here, but reaching Rant #666 is a pretty good accomplishment.

Only 34 away from 700--which I should reach sometime in March--and only 334 away from 1,000--which I should reach in 2013.

Oops, 2013 ... the number 13 is perilous to some people as much as 666 is horrid to others.

I guess I can't win, can I?