A Neighbor of Note: Mr. Rogers and Me

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood,
A beautiful day for a neighbor.
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?...

I've always wanted to have a neighbor just like you.
I've always wanted to live in a neighborhood with you.

Won't you please,
Won't you please?
Please won't you be my neighbor?”
                                              -- Fred Rogers
                                                 Host of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood

Mr. Rogers trademark sweater is in the Smithsonian

For 35 years on PBS Television, Fred Rogers exchanged his shoes for sneakers, pulled his cardigan sweater out of the closet, asked thousands upon thousands of young kids to be his neighbor, and promised to like them just the way they were.

Many responded. All were rewarded. But for some, like Benjamin Wagner, the experience was more personal. For Ben, Mr. Rogers was not just the kindliest TV neighbor ever, he was a real-life neighbor on the island of Nantucket.

Wagner met Mr. Rogers as he was celebrating his 30th birthday. After singing his signature song from his show Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood and "Happy Birthday" to Wagner, Mr. Rogers offered him  this advice: “I feel so strongly that deep and simple is far more essential than shallow and complex." And then he asked Wagner to “spread the message.”

After Mr. Rogers' death in 2003, Wagner teamed up with his brother Christopher to begin making the documentary Mr. Rogers and Me, an 80-minute film detailing Mr. Rogers' life and legacy.

Today, the Wagner brothers appeared at the Newseum to show their film, which debuts on selected PBS stations and on DVD this month. Following the movie, the brothers hosted a panel of 3 of Mr. Rogers' friends to describe in person the effects Mr. Rogers has had on them. The panelists were:

• Maureen Orth, the wife of the late Meet the Press Host Tim Russert and another real-life Nantucket neighbor.
• NPR correspondent Susan Stamberg who had been involved with taping specials on children and divorce with Mr. Rogers and
• Amy Hollingsworth, who after a 10-year friendship with Mr. Rogers, wrote the book The Simple Faith of Mr. Rogers   

Stamberg said Rogers, who was shy, overweight and bullied as a child, had an innate ability to make people feel comfortable. For example, she became extremely nervous and unsure when it became time to work with Rogers on a special for children. She received a long telephone call from Daniel Tiger (a Rogers character from his show) who said she shouldn't be afraid.

"He knew just what I needed to hear," Stamberg said. "He had me almost wanting to suck my thumb. He's was amazing. He was everybody's Fred Rogers.

Wagner agreed that there is a universality to Mr. Rogers, noting that the "Me" in his film title refers to the unique relationships Rogers developed with people he encountered both on screen and in real life.

"The message is about Mr. Rogers the man, the values, the work," Wagner said. "He said the greatest gift you can give anyone is your honest self. He gave that gift to all of us"

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
Mr. Rogers stopped producing his show, which debuted in 1968, in 2001. It is no longer on the air. However, DVDs of the episodes are available for purchase for people who want to see them again or show them to their children. Wagner said a show involving Rogers' character Daniel Tiger is ready for broadcast. The are many websites, such as this one, which contain pieces of Mr. Rogers'  spiritual wisdom. And, now there is the Wagner brothers' documentary. "There are people who say it (Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood) feels dated. I would say it feels timeless," Wagner said.

The Chieftains Show Their Irish Roots

For 50 years, The Chieftains have been playing the best of Irish roots music and tonight the band gave DC a day-early St. Patrick's Day gift by performing at the Kennedy Center as part of their 50th anniversary tour.

As it has been since the beginning, the group is fronted by Paddy Moloney on tin whistle and Uillean pipes. The rest of this year's touring lineup, each member of which was given ample time to shine on extended solos, includes:

• Matt Malloy, flute
• Kevin Conneff, dodhran and vocals
• Sean Kean, fiddle
• Jon Pilatzke, fiddle and dancer
• Triona Marshall, harp and keyboards
•  Jeff White, guitar and vocals
• Deanie Richardson, fiddle

On several numbers, the main band was augmented by Alyth McCormack on vocals and Cara Butler and Nathan Pilatzke as ethnic dance demonstrators. For one number each and the finale, the Chieftains were joined by a DC-area young Irish dance group and a high school drum and bagpipe corps.

In a special tribute to both The Chieftains and the incredible lasting power of Celtic music, Irish-American astronaut Cady Coleman joined the group on several numbers. The NASA astronaut marked last St. Patrick's Day in space by playing a solo on Paddy Moloney's pennywhistle and Matt Molloy's 100-year-old Irish flute she had borrowed as she traveled on the international space station.

"I might not have mentioned that the trip would have been six months long and that their flutes would have traveled millions of miles before they came home. Actually, they were never far from home because we flew over Ireland several times a day," Coleman said following a video of her far out (in space) performance.

Tales, Tidbits, and Traveling Tips
In their 50-year career, The Chieftains have recorded with a who's who of rock and country music stars, including Sting, Ry Cooder, Van Morrison, and Vince Gill. My favorite Chieftains CD is The Long Black Veil, which included the title track with Mick Jagger and "The Rocky Road to Dublin" with all the Rolling Stones. Tonight the band (without the Stones) played the latter track. To get an idea of what the Celtic Roots/Rock combination can sound like, check out these 2 videos. The 1st is The Chieftains with the all-female Irish band The Corrs, who opened for the Rolling Stones on one of their tours. The 2nd is a version of The Who classic "Behind Blue Eyes" sung by Roger Daltrey with backing from the Chieftains.

Back from the Big Apple

If you read this blog regularly, you know we haven't posted for a few days. That's because Judy and I were spending some time in New York City.

While there, we attended a concert at Carnegie Hall where 21 different music stars performed 1 song each from The Rolling Stones' greatest hits LP Hot Rocks and a still-in-previews Broadway production of the political play Gore Vidal's The Best Man with James Earl Jones and a host of great TV and film actors. We also viewed Twin Peaks' director David Lynch's 1st solo NYC art show since 1989, 3 exhibitions at the MoMA including Diego Rivera murals, and an exhibit on British Romantic poet Percy Shelley and his wife Mary, the author of Frankenstein, at the NY City Library.

You can get more details on our quick trip by clinking on this The Prices Go to NYC travel blog link.

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
I like New York. Judy doesn't. She says its dirty, costly, and crowded. But there is an energy there unlike any other American city and there are many things you can only see and do in New York.  However, when it comes to living, we both prefer the DC area. It's less crowded, it's cleaner, and, with all the free museums, book talks, and concerts, it's definitely cheaper.

Picturing Frida Kahlo

When you think of Frida Kahlo and pictures, you probably think paintings, not photographs. But over the years Kahlo collected more than 6,500 personal photographs, 240 of which are on display at the Frida Kahlo Her Photos: The Celebrated Artist's Life Revealed Through Personal Photographs at the Artisphere in Rossyln.

The exhibit is divided into 6 sections or rooms. They are

1. The Origins (young Kahlo and her family)
2. The Blue House (the home where Kahlo was born, lived, and died)
3. The Broken Body (images of Kahlo's recovery from the tram accident that almost killed her)
4. Loves (friendships and deeper relationships)
5. The Photography (influences on her work)
6. Diego's Eyes (images presumed to have been shot by her husband Diego Rivera)

The Rossyln exhibition marks the only United States showing this year of the collection, curated by Mexican photographer Ortiz Monasterio. Kahlo and Her Photos will close March 25.

Tales, Tidbits, and  Tips
We viewed the Kahlo exhibit immediately on our return from a 3-day New York City trip. The Vamoose bus which we had used for transport dropped us off just a block from the Artisphere. The Kahlo exhibition provided a nice artistic closing for our journey since we had viewed the murals of her husband Diego Rivera at the Musuem of Modern Art (MoMA) as part of our NYC stay. You can check out details about Rivera and our NYC trip by clicking here.

Fighting Stereotypes with Art

For Japanese-American artist Roger Shimomura, a seismic shift in his art came, strangely enough, following a surreal chat with a farmer at a Kansas auction. Shimomura, who spent 2 years of his childhood behind barbed wire at an internment camp in Idaho, tells the story this way:

At the time I was collecting windup toys. I was at an auction looking for items and this farmer kept inching closer to me. Finally, he said, I was listening to you talk and I was wondering how you came to speak the (English) language so well? Where are you from? Seattle, I replied. Well, then where are your parents from? Seattle, I replied. I knew what he was after but I wanted him to have to work for it. Are you Indian, he asked? I said no, I was Japanese-American. Then he drawled, Well Ka-nich-eee-wa. Me and the little lady collect them Gee-she girls with Kimonos. Do you paint that kind of stuff?

Returning to his studio, Shimomura was unable to get the conversation filled with stereotyped thinking out of his mind. The thoughts drove him to create Oriental Masterpiece, originally fifty 5' by 5' paintings in a series containing Oriental items. Before the series was completed, it came to number almost 150 works.

Shimomura Crosses the Delaware

Shimomura, who appeared at the National Portrait Gallery today to discuss his unique works of social commentary, then spent the next 4 decades creating art inspired by his views of the challenges of being different in America.

At the beginning of his 1-hour presentation, held in a small gallery room containing 5 of his works all created within the last 2 years, Shimomura said he really didn't like to discuss the works themselves. "You make work disappear by talking too much about it. It is up to the viewer to fill in the sentences," he said.

American vs. Disney Stereotypes

The artist, who is a professor at the University of Kansas, said that his latest art falls into 3 broad thematic categories.

First, were paintings based on the interment camp years. Although Shimomura did have a few memories of those years, much of his work came from the 56 years of diary entries his grandmother had kept which he had to have translated from the original Japanese.

That was followed by years of work on dealing with "yellow-term stereotypes" especially prevalent during the World War II years. Using Ebay, Shimomura amassed a collection of more than 2,000 such items, many of which found their way into his art. He said he was particularly struck with what at the time were called "Jap hunting licenses." These free cards, distributed at barbershops and other places where young people might congregate, jokingly allowed the bearer to kill any Japanese and further specified the method (gun, knife etc) that was to be used. Shimomura said that even in today's more tolerant America, insidious stereotypes can still make an appearance. During a recent auto crisis, Shimomura said an advertisement in a Kansas periodical depicted a yellow, buck-toothed, slanty-eyed Japanese pilot bombing America with Toyotas and Hondas.

American Born

Finally, Shimomura said some of his work deals with "the whiny sort of issues that I've had about being Asian-American." As an example, Shimomura cited the oft-expressed belief that all Orientals are the same. "I get upset when someone mistakes me for a Chinese. People are always asking - where were you born? I'm an American. I was born here. You put me in a concentration camp. I've been in your damn army. I don't know what else I can do," he said.

Tales,Tidbits, and Tips
Shimomura's 5-piece collection is part of a larger show at the National Portrait Gallery entitled Portraiture Now: Asian American Portraits of Encounter. That exhibition is on view until October 14.

Journopalooza: It Rocked with the Write Stuff

By day, like mild-mannered Clark Kents and Lois Lanes, they worked their journalistic jobs - editor, columnist, public policy writer. But as darkness descended on DC tonight, they exchanged their pens for guitars and their laptops for drum kits and  transformed into reporter-rockers, intent on helping their groups win best band at Journopalooza.

Proceeds from the charity event, which this year was being held on the new Hamilton concert stage, would benefit Writopia, an organization which helps young student writers, and REACH Incorporated, which trains low-level reading high school students to help younger struggling students become better readers.

For our $20 each, we would get to see 7 bands compete to become the reigning 2012 news band of Washington. The contribution entitled you to cast 1 vote for the band of your choice. You could cast additional votes by placing money in tip jars which lined the stage.

After a welcome by Grammy-nominated progressive hip-hop artist and host Christylez Bacon, Paddy Goes West kicked off the contest. Dennis Dunleavy, senior Washington editor of ABC News, joked as he tuned his acoustic guitar that the purpose of their opening was "to make the other bands look younger" and, in actuality, "sound better." However, with their instrumental lineup of Irish fiddle, penny whistle, and hammered dulcimer, the band managed to pull off a rousing rendition of the Steve Earle-penned "Galway Girl" before leaving the stage.

Next up was Lethal Bark led by Tom Toles, Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist for The Washington Post. From his drum kit, chief song-writer Toles directed the guitar-less band with its 3 boa-ed female vocalists and lead violinist in progressive originals about such subjects as Tom's bother by the same mother, George, and narcissism.

The 3rd act was the band we had really come to see - the cover band Stepping Stones, anchored on drums by John Kelly who writes the 5-day-a-week "John Kelly's Washington" column in The Post. As the group's name implies, the band plays a heavy rotation of Monkees tunes, song choices particularly appropriate considering the death of Monkee lead singer Davey Jones earlier this month.  The band, whose main vocalist wore a black  arm band over his white jacket in Jones' memory, played several Monkee hits including "Last Train to Clarksville,  "I'm a Believer" and "I'm Not Your Stepping Stone," as well as lesser known tunes such as the Jones' song "Cuddly Toy." But, for me, the band sealed the performance with the Kinks' garage classic "Till the End of the Day," one of my favorite 60s album cuts of all time.

After The Stepping Stones finished, we cast our votes and headed home. Of course, leaving early meant we missed the last 4 performers - The Charm Offensive, Dirty Bomb, Nobody's Business, and last year's Journopalooza winner Suspicious Package. However, with a room full of reporters, I was certain I would hear the news of this year's winner soon enough.

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
To say that Washington's music scene is vibrant and growing is an understatement. Since we moved to the area last summer, 3 new venues have opened and 1 more is scheduled to debut next month. First up was the Filmore in Silver Springs. Next came the jazz and blues Melody Tavern , located less than a mile from our Crystal City apartment. Earlier this year, The Hamilton began in a reconverted Borders on 14th Street. And next month, concerts will resume at the renovated Howard Theater, which lunched the careers of DC legends Duke Ellington and Marvin Gaye.

Game Change: Behind the Scenes

Ed Harris as McCain, Julianne Moore as Sarah Palin in the HBO movie Game Change

Journalists Mark Halperin and John Heileman say they always conceived of  their best-selling book Game Change, part of which was made into the HBO movie by the same name , in cinematic terms with broad set pieces and vivid characters..

The idea for the book came early in the 2008 election campaign as Halperin and Heileman were riding back together from a John McCain event in Washington, DC.

"We knew the nomination races would have great plot twists and be very cinematic," Heileman says. "So I turned to Mark and said 'let's write a movie.' Mark asked if I had ever written a screenplay and I said no. He said let's focus on something we actually know how to do."

So the pair wrote the book, actually titled Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime about the "human story" behind the candidates and the process. The book rights were purchased by HBO. After a couple of false starts, a decision was made to create a movie based on the 2 chapters of the book that deal with the selection of charismatic, controversial Sarah Palin as McCain's Vice Presidential running mate.

The movie has generated a great amount of news coverage, much of it attempting to judge how fairly it portrays McCain and especially Palin. Both GOP political figures have indicated they have no plans to watch the film.

Today, Halperin and Heileman appeared at The Newseum to discuss their book, the film, and the reactions it has provoked. The talk, part of the Newseum's ongoing Inside Media series, came one day after the facility hosted an invitation-only world premier for Game Change attended by such Hollywood luminaries as actress Julianne Moore, who uncannily portrays Sarah Palin, and producer Tom Hanks, as well as a who's who of Washington DC media stars..

Heileman, who stood only a few feet away as Palin, then a virtual unknown governor of Alaska, made a spectacular entrance into the world of national politics with her riveting acceptance speech at the GOP Convention to nominate McCain, said Palin's unusual story line and characteristics provided natural material to translate into a  powerful film.

"There was a press frenzy around her," Heileman said. "The pressure on her could not have been greater. She could have fallen like a souffle and been taken off the ticket. But with her speech, I don't know how she could have done any better. She showed her natural charisma. The pick looked like genius. At that moment, Sarah Palin took over the heart of the Republican party."

But in the weeks that followed, Palin's star tarnished. Based on a series of gaffes and comments, much of America judged her as unfit to be vice president and she and McCain lost to Barack Obama and Joe Biden in the 2008 election.

Some of Palin's diminished appeal came from a perception that she lacked intelligence and political acumen, a failing comedian Tina Fey promoted with her spot-on impersonations of Palin on Saturday Night Live. 

Fey's impersonation was  so fixed in the public's mind, that it sparked a natural question - why not have Fey portray Palin in the movie?  "It was a brilliant, funny caricature, but it wouldn't  have worked in a serious movie," Halperin said.

Concerning widespread criticism from Republican die-hards about the film, Halperin replied that "people should see the film. Then, if they have specific criticisms, we would love to hear them."

As for Palin's political future, both authors said the last chapter in that real-life story has yet to be written. "Gov. Palin still has a huge voice in the Republican party. She will be part of the national discussion for a long time.," Halperin said.

Heileman agreed. "She is young. She still packs the house like no one else. It wouldn't be a surprise at all if she someday runs for president," he said.

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
Obviously, most of the Inside Media program focused on Game Change. However, since both Halperin and Heileman are covering this year's GOP primaries, questions about that race also surfaced. Halperin said Mitt Romney began the campaign as the front-runner and he "still is that."
He cautioned that despite his lead, Romney still faces 3 major problems: he may not have the required majority of delegates by the time the convention begins, he didn't do well in the recent voting in the South, and with Alabama and Mississippi next, "you can begin to talk about a scenario in which Rick Santorum can take Mitt Romney out." Heileman, who has called this political season "whack-a-doodle" in his writings, says Romney's weak support demonstrates how many voters  are "reluctant to embrace him. He's not really in sync with where the Republican party is today." Heileman said that is somewhat ironic since Romney was considered the conservative alternative to McCain in 2008. In a national election, it appears Romney would struggle to gain the votes he would need from Hispanics, women, and independent voters to gain the presidency. "He  has done himself damage, but whether it is lasting damage or temporary damage remains to be seen," Heileman said. Despite the outcome, the authors revealed that they would be writing a sequel of sorts. Heileman jokingly suggested that they already had 2 good titles: Game Change 2: This Time It's Personal or Game-ier, Change-ier

Talking Grace; Talking Hate

And the words of the prophets
Are written on the subway walls
                                            -- Paul Simon
                                              The Sounds of Silence

He entered the Yellow Line Metro car, a smiling black man probably in his early 40s, and sat down directly across from us, next to a young woman reading a book.

"I'm Chuck. I 'm a subway preacher and rapper," he said in a loud clear voice, looking first at us and then turning left to look at more of the passengers, some standing, most sitting in the crowded rush hour train headed toward DC.

"Now I have a statement. It's not a confession. A statement ... not a confession," he said, slowing his phrasing for emphasis. "I am a sinner. I am human, therefore I am a sinner."

"I know I have sinned today. Let me look at my phone. It's 6:15. I've sinned  ... oh 6 or 7 times today, probably more like 10 or 12 if I thought really hard about it. But that's OK. I'm a sinner. Jesus Christ came to take care of my sins. Through him I can be forgiven."

The young woman next to Chuck buried herself deeper in her reading. The older man to Chuck's immediate left, their shoes almost touching, looked awkward and pained. The 2 women in fashionable boots, possibly secretaries for some Arlington business firm, stood 3 feet from Chuck, talking and making plans for their weekend. The rest of the commuters throughout the car seemed oblivious, doing whatever it is that passengers do on the 6:15 Metro after a day of work.

"Let's keep it real," Chuck said, reaching into the black gym bag he had dropped by his feet when he first came through the Metro doors. He pulled out a black, well-worn copy of  the Bible. "Keep it real. I am going to read something here. I need to hear it. You need to hear it."

He read from Ephesians Chapter 2: Verses 8-10. He started face forward, then turned slowly left, then right, as he read in a clear and passion-filled voice. "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God —  not by works, so that no one can boast.  For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

"Do you hear that? That is God's gift. He gave it to me. He gave it to you. You can't buy that gift. If you bought it, then it wouldn't be a gift. You cannot earn it. God gives it to you. You should do good works. But his Grace, God gives it to you."

"You see," he stood up, the Bible in his left hand. "We are all the same. I  am no better than you. You are no better than me. He is no better than her. She is no better than him. We all have grace. We all have God's gift."

He sat down. He carefully placed the Bible back in his gym bag, which he slung over his shoulder. He adjusted the brown Kango hat which had slipped slightly when he had bent forward to store his Bible. The train slowed as it reached the L'Enfant Plaza Station. It lurched a few times and came to a stop. The doors opened. Chuck sprang from his seat. "This is my stop. I must go now," he said. "But you have a blessed day." He disappeared out the door. The young woman continued reading. The older man just looked relieved.

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips

As I listened to our Metro missionary, I was reminded of another voice I had been hearing all week - the voice of conservative radio commentator Rush Limbaugh. One speaker's voice was filled with words of grace; the other with words of hate. One speaker rode a train, speaking to an audience that appeared not to hear; the other sat in front of a microphone, his voice riding the airways to thousands and thousands of listeners nationwide. One speaker asked for no money, convinced that all he needed was contained in the black bag he carried; the other is scheduled to make an estimated $400 million to rant until 2016. One speaker called for equality; the other created disunity. Interestingly, if asked, they both  would say they were doing God's work. However, if there turns out to be a Heaven, I think they may be in for quite different receptions there. One speaker might hear: "you spoke of My grace. Come in. The gates are open." The other might hear "Sorry. Slut just doesn't cut it here. You sir, can rush straight to hell."

Roger Williams: A Rebel with Our Cause

He should be considered America's first great trouble-making rebel, who despite a life-sustaining devotion to God, believed just as deeply in complete separation of the sacred and the secular. His writings and ideas greatly shaped the 3 iconic documents that form the basis for our country, especially the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. During his time, he was both revered and reviled, finally literally being cast out of his Massachusetts community for the then-savage wilds of what is today Rhode Island for his beliefs about the essentials of liberty and conscience.  But never, in all the turmoil and the triumphs, did Roger Williams ever waver from those beliefs. To do so, he said, succinctly, would "stink in the nostrils of God."

To try to capture the essence of this engaging 17th Century historical presence, John Barry appeared at the Newseum tonight to discuss his book Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul: Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty.

At the beginning of his talk, Barry acknowledged that a study of Williams' ideas is particularly pertinent given today's emotionally charged political debates concerning the roles of government and religion. "It is a little bit too timely. I wish it were a little bit less timely," Barry said. "Really not much has changed about the arguments except the spelling and the grammar. It's a fault line that runs through 400 years of American history."

The beginnings of the argument can be focused on the ideas of 2 men, both of whom were among the earliest English settlers of America. The more prominent majority view was encapsulated by the thoughts of John Winthrop, the originator of the idea of a new, purified government operating as "a shining city on the hill" run by "a new chosen people" putting into practice God's will as outlined in the Bible.

Williams, although equally sure of God's existence, wanted a separation from "the wilderness of the world and the garden that was the church." Barry said Williams was convinced that "if you mix religion and politics, you get politics" and to force worship and religion into governance would be "a monstrosity" that "would stink in God's nostrils."

Barry told the audience that it was important to remember that this initial debate was not theoretical, but came "as a specific response to specific historical events." For his part, Williams' views were a refined version of those held by his mentor and the great English jurist Edward Coke, who pioneered the idea of habeus corpus and established the legal concept that "the house of everyone is as his castle."

"Coke's views on liberty ran in Roger Williams' veins," Barry said. It is equally apparent that Coke shaped Williams stand on moral courage. When he was imprisoned in the Tower of London by King James, Coke said "If the king desires my head, he knows where he can find it."

After arriving in New England, Williams, discouraged by what he saw developing around him, began sounding the trumpet for the idea that government didn't get its authority from God, but from the people. "Today, it's hard to imagine how revolutionary that idea was," Barry said.

Eventually, those expressed thoughts earned Williams a banishment into the bitter, harsh New England winter. He went on to establish Providence, which in its time was the freest place the world had even seen. Williams "allowed all religions, even atheism, to flourish, not just be tolerated. While his northern Puritan neighbors were hanging Quakers, Williams wanted to debate them," Walker said. 

"He was the first to link the freedom of religion to political freedom," Barry said. "He established that government can't get its authority from God, but from the people."

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
We almost didn't get in to hear Barry's fascinating talk. Arriving at the Newseum, we noticed about 20 yellow-vested valets on the sidewalks parking cars. The people streaming through the front door were all dressed in fancy suits and fine dresses. Confused, we walked up to one of the half-dozen or so black-dressed women obviously registering these important looking people. "Is this for the Roger Williams talk," I asked a woman behind a sign that clearly indicated for Congressmen only. "No, this is a Comcast event," she said. "But you might ask her. I think she might be with the Newseum," she said, pointing to a black-dressed lady with a dangling lanyard around her neck. I darted in front of 2 men wearing expensive Italian suits and asked, "Is there a talk on Roger Williams here tonight?" . Making no attempt to disguise her crinkling nose and raised, carefully plucked eyebrows as she looked at me in my orange work-shirt, orange and white Tennessee Volunteer t-shirt, and ripped, faded jeans, she curtly replied, "No, it's not here. It was never even scheduled." Now, more confused than ever, I dragged Judy outside and plopped down on an empty bench to check my i-Phone. There it was. 7 p.m. Newseum. John H. Barry speaks about his new book on Roger Williams. "Let's try another door," I said.  On the side of the building, we did indeed find the right entrance, were cheerfully checked in, and rode the elevator to the 8th floor for our talk. Now I know there were no valets at our entrance and the audience wasn't as impeccably arrayed as the first-floor crew, but I have the suspicion that the ideas we received were probably wiser than any message those lobbyists and Congressmen downstairs got. Now, as for what Mitt Romney, or Rick Santorum, or Newt Gingrich, would believe, that, as they say, is another story.

Secret Agent Man

Since the 1960s, when Americans think of spies, the first name that probably comes to mind is  James Bond, that suave fictional British agent extraordinaire.  However, the most important name in American spydom is actually Wild Bill Donovan, a wealthy Republican Wall Street lawyer and political figure who created the OSS and modern American espionage and, interestingly enough, worked as a spy with Ian Fleming, the British author who created the Bond character.

Today, author Douglas Walker appeared at the National Archives to discuss the life, times, and legacy of Donovan, the subject of Walker's latest book entitled aptly enough Wild Bill Donovan: The Spymaster Who Created the OSS and Modern American Espionage.

Walker said that during the years of research for his book, 3 intriguing stories developed. First, there was the biography of an extremely interesting character. Secondly, there was an engrossing tale of World War II spying and the creation of the OSS (the Office of Strategic Services) which was the forerunner to today's the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency). Finally, there was a a tale of political intrigue at the highest levels of American and world governments.

According to Walker, Donovan was rakishly handsome with flashing blue eyes that made him irresistible to women. He slept only 3 hours a night and speed-read at least 3 books a week. He spent lavishly and often wore a colorful ascot with his military uniform. Before becoming America's top spy, he had been a starting quarterback for Columbia University, a Congressional Medal of Honor winning colonel from World War I, a successful New York lawyer, and a failed GOP candidate for New York governor.

Donovan got his name from the men he trained for combat in World War I. Acutely aware of the dangerous, difficult times they would be facing, he was relentless in his training. One day, the story goes, as his men lay breathless on the ground around him after a particularly brutal session, Donovan began berating them, pointing out that, although older, he was not the least bit tired. One of the men reportedly hollered out: "we are not as wild as you are" and the nickname stuck. Although Donovan later publicly indicated that he did not like the nickname because it clashed with the cool, calm spy image he was trying to project,  his wife said that privately he was really pleased.

Walker said Donovan appeared to be absolutely fearless. "He actually enjoyed combat and wrote his wife that going out on a combat mission was like trick or treating on Halloween night," Walker said.

In 1940, as President Franklin D. Roosevelt was preparing America for what he knew would be entry into World War II, he called on Donovan to undertake fact-finding missions to Europe, the most important of which was to determine if Britain could keep from being defeated by Nazi Germany. It was during the first of these fact finding missions that Donovan would be escorted by British spy Fleming.

After the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack, FDR charged Donovan with creating the OSS to provide intelligence for an Allied victory. Starting with only himself and 1 agent, Donovan, who was open to any and all ideas no matter how outlandish, quickly started to build a spy network. These steps and plans included:

• asking Kodak Eastman to supply travel pictures from Europe
• enlisting salesmen to bring back information from their travels
• employing economists and insurance agents to suggest the best targets for air strikes
• testing various truth serums on unsuspecting subjects, including Mafia mobsters.
• trying to find Hitler's vegetable garden and injecting the vegetables with female hormones so the Fuhrer's mustache would fall off and he would gain a falsetto voice
• distributing pamphlets from the made up League of Lonely Women to German troops on the front lines claiming their wives and girlfriends at home were having wanton sex with other comrades
• dropping fire-bomb loaded bats from airplanes onto the wooden homes of the Japanese, a plan that had to be aborted when the bats, made super heavy from the incendiary devices, simply plummeted to their deaths.

After the war ended, Donovan, fearing a threat from the Soviet Union, hoped to remain on and continue to head up an intelligence gathering group. But he had made many enemies, including powerful generals, disgruntled members of his own organization, and head of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover. In fact, Donovan once said that his "enemies in Washington were as ferocious as Adolph Hitler."

Walker said not all the spying in World War II had been directed toward the enemy; Allied groups kept constant covert tabs on each other, too. "As I was researching I sometimes wondered when did they have time to spy on the Axis because they were always spying on each other," Walker said.

Often these tactics were brutish and dirty. For example, someone, believed to have been Hoover, leaked a report to FDR's successor Harry Truman claiming that Donovan was having an affair with his own daughter-in-law.  While the OSS chief had indeed had a series of mistresses and affairs, his relationship with his son's wife was purely platonic.

In 1947, Truman authorized the formation of the CIA and there was no place for Donovan. He hoped to regain his stature in 1953, but new Republican President Dwight Eisenhower bypassed Donovan for one of Donovan's own World War II underlings, Allen Foster Dulles.  Donovan died in 1959 at the age of 76, still estranged from the intelligence community he had helped formulate.

Asked how important Donovan's group was to America's success in World War II, the Cold War, and the rest of the modern era, Walker replied: "Well, 4 of the CIA's first directors cut their teeth learning their craft under Donovan."

As to the war effort, even Donovan acknowledged that other groups such as the code-breakers for Project Magic were more important to the winning effort.

"The OSS isn't what won the war; brute force won the war," Walker said. "But the OSS played a part just like a soldier in Europe and a sailor in the Pacific and Rosie the Riveter back home."

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
Hollywood had long glamorized spies. But in World War II, the movie industry actually played a significant role in the secret agent/intelligence war effort. As a lawyer Donovan had represented Mae West and other Hollywood stars and his brother Vincent was known as the Hollywood priest to the stars. Donovan used his California connections often and wisely. For example, he convinced director John Ford to produce pro-US propaganda films for public consumption. He was also able to work out a deal with Paramount Pictures. The film company had large reserves of foreign currencies that the spies could use as cash.

Dancing Your Pants Off

Now modern interpretive dance is just one of the millions of things I know virtually nothing about.

In truth, dance just isn't my thing.

In elementary school, I hid in the boys' room whenever they announced a ladies' choice number at Tune Time.

In high school, I played keyboard in a rock band, so I was performing when everyone else learned to do the pony, and the horse, and the funky chicken.

In college, I vividly remember staring in wide-eyed, stoned wonder for 4 hours at 2 of the most beautiful girls I had ever seen who walked over after the mixer and told me and my Neil Young-lookalike friend Frank Haircut, "we do know how to dance and you missed your chance" before leaving out the door forever.

I am still having nightmares from the time a few years back when my wife dragged me to a dance recital for her god-daughter that I swear featured 7,000 munchkins and went on for a week-and-a-half.

And there was that episode just last month where Fidel Castro tried to evict me from Cuba for attempting to kill the well-endowed professional Cuban salsa dancer who was trying to instruct me in her art. All I did was stomp on her feet, blindly stumble, and desperately grab her endowments, which caused her to scream and both of us to wildly crash into a precious, irreplaceable Santeria altar. And I swear I was during really well for the 3 seconds before the unfortunate mishap.

Now I tell you all this to set the stage to try to explain my inexplicable decision to purchase 2 tickets to the Kennedy Center tonight to see the Keigwin + Company dance performance. It may have had something to do with the preview of the performance I had read in The Washington Post. That preview said innovative and hip company director Larry Keigwin grew up dancing behind his bedroom door to an '80s MTV playlist: Michael Jackson (when he was alive), Madonna (when she was young), Whitney Houston (when she was still alive) and the original cast recording of "Cats." The previewer promised an evening of provocative and stylish entertainment. I like provocative. Stylish can be good. And there was that fact that my wife was still smarting from my ruining her romantic Havana Valentine's Day with my very unstylish Salsa stumble.

I bought the tickets. I wanted to have a good view so they were directly center stage. But given my previous dance record, I wanted to be safe so I made sure they were in the last row in the 2nd balcony of the massive Eisenhower Theater. You know, just in case.

We arrived at the theater and after climbing a whole lot of stairs, we found our seats. Despite our distance from the stage, the view was great. Just like a rock concert, they were playing warmup music. I made out Boy George's "Karma Chameleon." And 2 or 3 hits by Madonna I recognized. Hey, I may be able to get into this modern dancey thing, I thought.

The lights dimmed for the 1st of 4 scheduled movements - "Megalopolis." 12 dancers in futuristic black and silver garb moved around the stage in impressive machine-like motions. Then there was a part with a darkened stage and a dancer with 2 flashlights performing to a pulsing MIA song. Then more futuristic marching to a minimalist, but still driving soundtrack. Then another brief club moment. Then a curtain. I wasn't certain exactly what I had seen, but I had enjoyed it immensely. If I had to say, it had something to do with the impersonality of the future world and man's search for connection and meaning in such a place. Like Charlie Chaplin's classic silent film Modern Times. In fact, the whole thing was sort of like a fast-forward version of Chaplin's film with 2 extra doses of a night in a hot NYC club. I was content with my interpretation of the work. But I knew if I wanted to,  I could find out the real story by asking anyone around me. I could tell I was in the midst of modern dance experts. They had vibrant stylish scarves draped fashionably around their necks and wore expensive dangling earrings. And that was just the men.

The lights dimmed for movement 2 - "Mattress Suite." On stage left, you could see a solo dancer in a wedding dress. In the center was a mattress on its edge. Stage right was still dark. Then the lone dancer began to move. "Oh my God no," I silently screamed to myself. She was dancing to an opera track. I hate opera. I mean I really hate opera. I hate opera so much that it has made me deathly afraid of any full-figured woman. I am terrified that if I so much as look at one, she will break out in a high-pitched powerful song in a language I have no chance of understanding. I closed my eyes, but I couldn't close my ears. It got worse. A 2nd opera track. I finally opened my eyes. There was a man in a wedding tux dancing. But wait. What was that in the darkened back corner of stage left? It couldn't be. This was the staid, proper Kennedy Center. But it appeared the early dancer was disrobing. I strained forward to see better. Yes, she definitely was suggestively swaying slowly as she slid her wedding dress down over her shoulders. In the faint stage back light, I saw glimpses of her white bra. She let the dress fall to the floor. Now she was in just bra and panties. In my concentration on the 1st dancer, I had failed to recognize that the 2nd male dancer had also stripped to his tidy-whities. The pair flipped the bed down.. For the next few minutes, they bounced, and intertwined, and flipped and retwined on the bed. But then something happened and the woman stormed off stage, leaving the male to dance a hauntingly sad solo with the mattress to Bill Withers' "Ain't No Sunshine." Then somehow there were 3 dudes (including the married guy) cavorting on that much used mattress to a Verdi backing. I didn't care for this much, but those earring wearers I referred to earlier seemed to really get into it. In the final scene, the female wedding dancer returned to close the movement with a beautiful solo dance to Etta James' "At Last." Much of this was done while touching the now again upright mattress. To be honest, unlike the 1st movement, I really didn't have a thematic clue about this section other than it involved multiple looks at different aspects of love. But I did like the costumes, except the ones on the 3 dudes.

After intermission, the lights dimmed for the 3rd movement - "Love Songs." Now my wife swears I don't have a romantic bone in my body, but I was convinced I would like this movement the best. First, there were no stupid opera tracks. And I was extremely familiar with all 6 songs the 3 couples would be dancing to. Two were by Roy Orbison - "Blue Bayou" and "Crying." Two were by Aretha Franklin - "Baby, I Love You" and "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I love You)." Two were by Nina Simone "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" and "I Put a Spell on You." As I thought, I loved the movement. After the curtain came down and I finished applauding, I turned to my wife. "See, I can do romantic," I said. She just shook her head.

Now, I was really ready for the final movement - "Runway." According to the previewer, it was a look at modeling in a 1960s-meets-techno-music sort of way. And sure enough, 12 dancers turned the stage, and indeed the entire bottom of the theater, into a giant runway. The women wore pastel-colored 60s mini-dresses and sported high-poofed hair. The men wore black suits with white shirts and skinny black ties. I was still taking in the initial costuming when it suddenly got even better. Four of the 6 females stripped down to bra and panties which matched the pastel colors of their dresses. Four of the men also stripped down too, but you can't expect everything in a dance performance to be perfect. All too soon the final movement, and indeed, the performance was over. One bow. Two bows. One breast. Two breasts. Then fini. Our night with Keigwin + Company was complete.

Now I'm sure you're asking - Dave, given your past history with dance did you really enjoy the performance? And the answer is an unqualified (and with my lack of knowledge about modern dance I mean really unqualified) yes. I give those big thumbs up even with the 2 opera tracks and 3 dudes cavorting in their tidy-whities on that mattress. In fact, I was so moved by the 4 movements that I am going to take my wife to National Geographic on April 13th for a night of Cuban Salsa dancing. And to keep in practice, I am going to make a few visits to the posh, discreet Gentlemen's Club just across the street from our apartment. I know I can learn some really cool dance moves from those talented hard working girls, especially Kat, and Krystal, and Kandi, who I have been following closely on the internet. I definitely want to keep abreast of this dancing thing. And I'm virtually certain that I won't be subjected to any opera songs. I believe they are banned in Gentlemen's Clubs. I just hope that same ban applies to earringed men in tidy whities.

Tales, Tips, and Tidbits
I'm sure you understand that I may have played fast and loose with a few facts in my above re-creation of our neat night with Keigwin + Company. First, my Villanova University buddy wasn't named Frank Haircut. His real name was Frank Hackett, but we did call him Frank Haircut and he was a dead ringer for a 1970s Neil Young. Obviously, there really weren't 7,000 munchkins at the described local dance recital. The dancers weren't munchkins at all; they were cute little girls and there couldn't have been more than 6,973 of them tops.. Finally, for full disclosure, I wasn't  ordered out of Cuba by Fidel Castro. It was really his 80-year-old younger brother, Raul. I just always thought Fidel was way cooler. Now as to my enjoyment of the Keigwin + Company performance, my only concern is that my meager writing talents failed to convey how much I truly enjoyed the night. And I swear, no matter what you think, it was all about the dancing, not the costuming.

Watergate Once Again

Like so many of the young men who came of age in the late 1960s and early 1979s, Thomas Mallon believes that Richard Nixon was the dominant political figure of his time. .

Mallon, an author of historical fiction and head of the Creative Writing Program at George Washington University, says his fascination with Nixon began when he was in the 4th grade. "I was a 9-year-old with a Nixon-Lodge button running around telling people not to vote for Kennedy because he did not have enough experience," Mallon now says with a laugh..

Later, Mallon actually met both Nixon and his wife Pat as the couple was riding in a Long Island motorcade and shook their hands. "It was an open-air car and Mrs. Nixon was sitting on top of the seats. She had these spiky high heels that were digging into the red leather (of the seats). Now I was 16 and hardly knew what pornography was, but that image stayed with me," Mallon said.

During his college years, there was Nixon behind the Vietnam War, the shootings at Kent State, the political unrest, the ending of the military draft, the end of the Vietnam War, and finally the end of the Nixon era itself with the Watergate scandal and Nixon's resignation in disgrace as President of the United States.

And it is that Watergate scandal period which provides the setting for Mallon's latest work Watergate: A Novel. Tonight he appeared at Politics and Prose to read from the novel and discuss the background behind the book, which obviously included many hours spent with the Watergate tapes.

For his reading, Mallon chose the chapter where Nixon's secretary Rosemary Woods is introduced to readers. Mallon said Woods, who feels rejected by Nixon's reliance on his aide Robert Haldeman, is one of about 6 major characters in the work.

Mallon told the audience his main purpose in writing the book was "not to write about the skulluggery, but the emotional toll that made this story intimate." 

When asked what he considered Nixon's key flaw, Mallon replied: "I think the saddest and his real undoing was his worship of toughness."  He added that he believes that is why Nixon used so much obscene language on tapes and made so many crude ethnic remarks. "Nixon called it 'our gangster language.' It was their locker room talk," Mallon said.

The author also dismissed the idea that Nixon, while guilty of ordering a cover-up of the Watergate break-in, actually ordered the bungled burglary of the Democratic National Committee offices. "It is inconceivable to me to believe that he knew in advance. Listening to the tapes, he would have had to have been a phenomenal actor. Actually, it often seems that he is trying to pretend he knew more than he did," Mallon contended.

Nixon was, and remains, a pivotal figure in 20th Century American history. "It's never difficult to start a conversation about Richard Nixon," Mallon noted.

Mallon's book has been receiving critical praise and is already on the best-seller list in Washington. The author said that while he appreciates positive comments from readers, as a writer of historical fiction, those comments can sometimes be troublesome.  "I worry when people say 'I learned so much history from your book.' It's historical fiction, not history. The adjective trumps the noun," Mallon said.

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
I am a contemporary of Mallon, graduating from high school in 1969 and Villanova University in 1973, so I share aspects of his Nixonian fixation. I was an active protester against the war, twice being tear-gassed in Washington during demonstrations. I worked against Nixon's re-election in 1972, getting spit on and dejected for my efforts. I was a cub newspaper reporter the week that Nixon resigned. The Washington Post team of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein and Rolling Stone gonzo journalist Hunter Thompson, who demonstrated a legendary loathing for all things Nixon, were my heroes; the disgraced Nixon was evil personified, a vile leader who had soiled the presidential office forever. But as I aged, I became more understanding of the complex man who was Richard Milhouse Nixon. I no longer had to, as an American patriot, give him a 1-finger salute every time I saw his image. I reassessed his record - relatively strong in domestic affairs, outstanding in most foreign matters. But there was always Vietnam, and Watergate, and those damning tapes. Today, my assessment of Nixon is that he was essentially a tragically flawed figure, his insecurities and rises and downfalls almost Shakespearean in scope. Mallon, who admits to being conflicted about his current opinion of Nixon, alluded to those horrible insecurities when he delivered this true background tidbit during his talk. As a young man, Nixon was smitten with Pat. She didn't return the love. He had a car. She didn't. He offered to drive her around on her dates with other men. She accepted and he did just that, an almost cringe-producing action much more pathetic than presidential. But as this ugly, endless.GOP presidential season filled with fear and loathing lurches on, it's almost enough to make you long for the Nixon days again. But before we get to0 carried away by the past, there is always Vietnam and Watergate and those damning tapes.

Mexico and Its Masks

This is a story about how Adolph Hitler's hatred for Jews indirectly helped bring a marvelous new exhibit of more than 140 Mexican masks to the Mexican Cultural Institute here in the Columbia Heights section of DC.

It goes like this ...

In 1938, rightly fearing Hitler's horrendous plans for Jews, the family of  the young teenager who was to become Ruth Lechuga was able to board a ship and escape to Mexico, eventually planning on relocating in the United States. After a short stay in Mexico, the ship sailed on to Ellis Island, only to find that America was letting no more Jews enter the country. Mexico agreed to take the immigrants in and provide them safety from the Nazi terrors.

This act created a life-long gratitude toward Mexico on the part of Ruth. All her life, she was fascinated by the beauty and depth of Mexican culture. She spent years traveling to all parts of Mexico collecting masks and other items that represented the history, the culture, indeed the spirit and soul of her adopted land. Eventually, she possessed more than 10,000 items in her collection, including more than 1,400 masks.  .

Early on, Ruth as she preferred to be called, received instruction in photography so she could more accurately account for her findings. "I'm not a great photographer," she once told her friend and anthropologist Marta Turok who helped her catalog her immense collection. "But it gives control and documentation to the objects that I have collected."

Eventually, Ruth died, but Turok continued to work on the collection. "I looked at it as an anthropologist," Turok, who served as curator for the exhibit said in an opening-week talk at the Institute today. "Taken out of context and displayed just as art work they (the masks) are beautiful, of course. But when you work in the context about where they came from and what they mean for the people, they say so much more."

The masks, which are different for each of the regions of Mexico, have been employed in ceremonies since long before the Spanish conquered the land. "The masks were used to transmit stories to present and future generations," Turok explained, a function that still continues today. She showed slides of an early 21st Century festival which captured a masked replica of Osama bin Laden and a fireworks display depicting the destruction of the Twin Towers in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001.

Of all the various ceremonies that Mexicans enjoy that use masks, the Day of  Dead is probably the most familiar. But there are ceremonies celebrating nature, religious beliefs, and historical events.

"And, of course, behind each mask is a mask maker," Turok said.

But Turok says she fears the centuries old tradition may be ending, a victim of changing times and dwindling resources.  "It's a new crisis," Turok told the capacity crowd which packed the large hall at the institute to learn about the masks and their traditions. "Generations X and Y are into different things. And even the older people are urging the younger to leave and seek a better life. They say "do you want to live in this dire poverty? Don't become an artisan. Become something else.'"

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
Cliches are cliches because they are true. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. So let's dispense with the words and look at some pictures taken by my mask-collecting wife Judy.

    

Live from The Wire: (David) Simon Says

David Simon discuss a scene with cast during shooting

The drug-filled scenarios from The Wire were fiction based on reality, but the fact is that America's failed war on drugs is actually part of a systemic class war that is "killing the poor" and a shockingly visible sign of "what is going wrong with the American experiment," says David Simon, the co-creator of the 5-season HBO series which many critics agree is the greatest show in television history.

"We are brutalizing the poor at an incredible rate. The drug war is a war against the poor. That is all it is. It's just shameless and it's got to end," said Simon, responsible for what is termed the complete trilogy of modern urban life - The Wire, Homicide: Life in the Streets, and The Corner.

"We don't know what to do with the poor. We don't have work for them. So we're putting them up as someone to be feared instead of part of the American collective,"  Simon added.

Simon, who spoke for 90 minutes today at his alma mater, the University of Maryland, as part of the Dean's Lecture Series, said prison numbers support this class destruction. "America has more of its population in jail than any other country on the face of the earth. When we started The Wire (in 2002) there were 500,000 people in prison. Today, there are 2.3 million. Then, 34% were incarcerated for a violent crime; today that number is 7%," Simon said. "Why are we doing this? It's as if we are saying we don't need these people."

Simon fears there is another dark motive for continuing the war on drugs and increasing the national prison population - corporate greed. "Now we have for-profit companies taking over the prisons," he said. "They want to grow the prison population for money. It (the drug war) hasn't worked for 40 years. It didn't affect anything and yet it goes on. What's happening in Mexico is a holocaust. Our drug war really means that we are willing to fight to the death of the last Mexican or the last 14-year-old on the corner."

He pointed out that despite overwhelming facts to the contrary, many Americans in power still see drugs and the addiction problems that often ensue as a moral issue, rather than an economic and medical one."Morality is really cheap. There's no (legal) work in the inner city. It's destructive, but really it's a rational decision for a kid there to sell drugs. The only people hiring are in the drug trade," Simon said.

Not content with destroying the poor, unbridled corporate greed also threatens to eviscerate the middle class, Simon said. "When we were writing The Wire we were trying to write a cautionary tale about America," Simon said.  "The middle class is being eviscerated. The truth is this was 20 to 30 years in the making. Labor is in decline. Organized labor made this country great. (In the series) the police, the union workers, the immigrant sex workers, the teachers, the news people are all seeing this. Capitalism is a great economic engine. But we're forgetting the need to marry it to a social consciousness. You are a fool if you think capitalism is going to result in social justice."

Now a revered television maker, a respected social critic, and a winner of the the half-million dollar MacArthur Genius grant, Simon said he had no inkling of his future when he was young. His introduction to introspective political and social thought came early by way of his family. "We were all lefties. I remember sitting at the table and having all these incredible discussions. We had a house with a lot of books, a lot of newspapers, a lot of periodicals and a lot of debate.  It was a house to have arguments and I mean that in the best way."

After college, Simon was hired as a reporter for The Baltimore Sun. "I was a generalist. I wasn't chasing a career. It was a way of kind of being a voyeur and not growing up," Simon said. "Journalism was a very pure way for me to learn something and then tell a story and then the next day you do something different."

Then he was  assigned to the crime beat.  "There I was, a 22-year-old thrown into covering crime," he said. "I was aloof from the cop culture. I got into 15-minute arguments with the desk sergeants. So the game was on even before I got out in the streets.  I realized I was only being told things from 1 perspective. I was missing some of the things I needed. I had to get out and learn, meet people on their own terms"

As his perspectives widened, Simon's writing blossomed in detail and depth. One of his most famous articles, written in January of 1987,  featured a corporate chart of the complete workings of the large drug gang of Baltimore crime lord Melvin Williams. "It was full of smart people who were really organized. This looked a lot like corporate America." Simon said.

While his articles "gave some people (at The Sun) the fidgets," Simon said "they left me alone and they didn't promote me. It was an inertia that worked out for me. Had they made me cover higher education, I would be a different person today."

Simon wrote a book that was turned into Homicide. Then came another that became The Corner. Finally, Simon took a buyout from the paper and began work on what was to become The Wire, which has been praised as a thorough, riveting, Dickensian-like telling of modern American inner city life.

Throughout his talk, Simon stressed that The Wire was a collective effort among his creative partner Ed Burns, a former Baltimore cop and teacher; the writers which included 3 of America's greatest crime novelists - George Pelecanos, Richard Price, and Dennis Lehane; and the talented cast and crew of the show.  He said he is "shocked by what a long tail" The Wire, which ended in 2008 after 60 episodes and 5 seasons, has grown. For example, it is regularly taught in university campuses like Harvard across the country in courses as varied as drama, urban history, sociology, and ethics.

Simon said that while he is pleased with the public reception the show continues to receive,  he really hopes viewers consider the complex arguments it showcases. "The last thing I ever wanted to do was to sustain a franchise. Drama is life without the boring parts, although some people probably feel we put too many of those in. We were angry (about the state of America) and we were trying to tell about real lives and real problems and spark real arguments and real discussions. We never considered ... the people love Omar so we can't kill Omar or the people want more Stringer Bell,  let's give it to them." 

While most of Simon's talk was extremely serious about extremely serious topics, it was not without its humorous moments. When informed by an audience member that President Barack Obama had, once again just 1 day earlier, repeated during an ESPN interview that The Wire was his favorite TV show and that its moralistic gay hitman Omar was his favorite character, Simon laughed as he remarked, "I wonder what audience he was shooting for. I really need for him to talk about Treme (Simon's new HBO show about New Orleans recovering from the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina)."

Simon also gave shoutouts to his Mother who was in the 2nd row of the auditorium Like her son, she too graduated from Maryland, but there was a major difference. "She was summa cum laude and I was summa come nothing," Simon said.

In his introductory remarks, Simon said he had totaled up the student tickets he had received while a student at Maryland and the generous amount of his speaking fee and "just realized that I got every dollar back." Actually, that wasn't true. As he does with all his speaking fees, Simon turns his speaking money over to a Baltimore group that works with Baltimore kids, a pledge he has been keeping since The Corner was released. That shows concern. That shows compassion. That shows commitment. In essence, even more than The Wire, that shows the real David Simon. I bet his summa cum laude Mother was proud even though Simon expressed her initial concern that "I would use some profanity that she'll tell me later I should be ashamed of."

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
Although most of Simon's powerful talk was directed to laying out a cogent, compelling argument about some of America's most glaring faults, some solutions were also suggested. They included:

• admitting that even if a person takes no action on the drug problem, we are all actively or tacitly involved. During the discussion, an audio clip was played conveying this idea. In that clip, Omar, a known but moralistically motivated hitman is testifying against a drug dealer and the opposing attorney is trying to portray him as a vicious criminal who would say anything to which Omar replies: "I got the shotgun. You got the briefcase. It's all in the game."
• if you find you are on a jury that is trying to convict someone of a non-violent drug offense, use your Constitutional right of jury nullification. "You have the moral right not to uphold an immoral law," Simon said.
• encourage the government when it negotiates favorable trade agreements with other countries to makes certain  those countries encourage proper working conditions and promote strong unions. "Tell them to say we're not going to sanction child labor or a dead labor leader in a ditch," Simon said.

Visible Influences of an Invisble Man

Richard Wright in 1928

Richard Wright may have felt invisible in a white-dominated America when he wrote the classic African-American novel The Invisible Man in 1952, but his influence is clearly visible on many young Black writers such as Jabari Amin and Danielle Evans, who came to the Library of Congress today to honor the author on the occasion of what would have been his 98th birthday by reading from both his and their own works and explaining how Wright had affected their writing.

Amin, the author of What Obama Means for Our Culture and The N Word: Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn't and Why, read Wright's short story "Afternoon," a tale of  a few hours in the life of 2 young Black boys, Buster and Riley.

He followed that with a powerful, poignant reading of his own short story, "Genesis," which he said was inspired in part by Wright's tale.

Jabari Amin

 "It was lingering a little in my mind," Amin said, before reading his story of a dramatic afternoon in the lives of 2 friends, Crispus and Roderick. Amin's marvelously crafted tale combines the unlikely elements of a pint of Sealtest chocolate ripple ice cream, baseball card stats about Curt Flood, a neighborhood bully, an unexpected action, and flowing red blood to magnificent effect.  (Note: If you read only 1 short story this year, make it "Genesis." It would rank in the top 10 modern short stories I have encountered.)

For her part, Evans, who is a professor of Literature and Creative Writing at American University, said she felt incredibly fortunate that in her profession she "gets the pleasure of rediscovering Wright every semester."

Danielle Evans

Evans, who won the 2011 PEN Prize for a first book for her short story collection Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self, chose to read excerpts from The Invisible Man. She said the novel has had an enormous impact on her.

"I was understood by the book before I understood it," Evans said. "What beautiful language it has. He (Wright) had all the words for the things I'd always known but couldn't name. It takes a 2nd or 3rd or maybe even 4th reading before you see how wonderfully structured it is."

She said she was particularly struck by how Wright  "dares to try to make sense of America" and show how we are "always haunted by the American past and the ways in which we can feel the past in the present."

Evans jokingly said she was using photocopies of the pages of Wright's work because if she brought her tattered, taped copy of  The Invisible Man to the Library of Congress she would "be arrested for book abuse or something." 

She said that she believed reading her own work after reading from Wright's masterwork was like "being after Beyonce in a beauty contest." Evans then proceeded to read from the opening of her new novel in progress which opens with an insightful rumination about railroad cars and then shifts to focus on Phil, a 50ish black man, and his initial encounter with a 20-something young white woman Diana on a sweltering Washington DC afternoon.

After hearing Evan's read from her unpublished work, I can't wait to pick up the novel which features my new home city. Until then, I guess I could wisely spend some of my time re-tackling  Wright's work.

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
As they plan to do  at each of the Library of Congress' author birthday celebrations (the 1st was for Langston Hughes - for more details on that ceremony see our Feb. 1 posting) Library researchers also presented a variety of Wright-related items from their extensive collections. Among the items  displayed were:

• the original typed manuscript of The Invisible Man
• a neatly written outline on yellow lined over-sized paper for the first 8 chapters of an unpublished novel
• a letter to friend and All the King's Men author Robert Penn Warren which began "We've been thinking along the same channels'
• a letter to author William Faulkner arguing against the release of poet Ezra Pound from jail.