Herblock Looks at 1962

Herblock at his desk

It is a tense political September. There is that huge question of medical programs and costs. Americans are concerned that their Democratic president is affording too much aid to welfare freeloaders. The pesky debt ceiling is hanging around. And, perhaps most threatening of all, there is a small foreign country at the center of a nuclear controversy that would threaten the existence of all humankind.

No, although all those problems sound familiar, the above conditions aren't describing today. The Democratic President was John Kennedy, the small country was Cuba, and the year was 1962. And, as is often the case, few captured those turbulent times better than political cartoonists. And, at the head of those cartoonists stood Herbert Lawrence Block, better known as  Herblock, who during his 55 years at The Washington Post won 3 Pulitzer Prizes for his work.

His pointed commentary and art offer an opportunity to reflect on the history and culture of his times and our times - how much has changed and how much has remained the same.

After he died in 2001, Herblock's archives were turned over to the Library of Congress, which offers a constantly changing retrospective of his cartoons. The most recent exhibition featured drawings from 50 years ago.

As a cartoonist, Herblock preferred to let his drawings speak for themselves. "A cartoon does not tell everything about a story,"he once said. "It is not supposed to. No written piece tells everything either. As far as words are concerned, there is no safety in numbers. The test of written or drawn commentary is whether it gets an essential truth."

Here are 4 of Herblock's 1962 cartoons. You can judge for yourself how close he got to those important essential truths.

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
If you don't believe editorial cartoonists have a lot of influence and power, you need only to check today's headlines. Here is a Washington Post article recounting the story of an Indian political cartoonist who has been jailed for criticizing political corruption. While chilling, the story also makes us appreciate that marvelous freedom of speech that we enjoy as Americans.

Yo! It's Yo Sushi

Yo! It's circling sushi.

When I was little, I loved going to Philadelphia with my Mother. There was the lure of the big city. Big crowds of people. Big buildings. Big department stores filled with big and small toys. Big bookstores. Big restaurants.

A Horn and Hardart of days past.

And when it came to big restaurants, one of my favorites was the Horn and Hardart Automat on Chestnut Street. For those of you not old enough to remember Horn and Hardart  Automats, they were cavernous, waiterless establishments which represented a combination of fast-food, vending, and cafeteria-style eateries. By the 1950s, these restaurants, with their chrome-and-glass coin-operated machines, brought high-tech, inexpensive dining to more than 800,000 customers a day. In fact, you could consider these Automats America’s first major fast-food chain.

Well, what goes around comes around, although often in a modernly modified format.

Yesterday, we visited the new Yo! Sushi in Union Station for the 1st time. As its name implies, the eatery features Japanese food with an emphasis on sushi. But the unique thing is, the sushi and other food bowls are placed on a conveyor belt which loops around the dining area. Sitting on stools or in booths, diners simply grab what they want for their meal. The bowls are colored-coded by price so you know what you are spending.

Not sure what to do? Consult your placemat.

 But the choices are daunting. For example, there are more than 70 dishes to try including 26 hot Japanese classic meals, 4 salads, 5 desserts, and 42 different types of sushi. Unlike Horn and Hardart, there are waitresses present to explain the operation to you. You can also consult your placemat for how to proceed.  The waitresses will bring you drinks and soups. I would recommend the iced green tea and the Miso soup, since both entitle you to limitless refills. And I would strongly suggest  finishing your meal with the green tea custard. It is small, but really tasty.

 

Condiments such as chopsticks, soy sauce, ginger, and wasabi are located in recessed areas of the booths and countertops where you eat.

Everything you need for your sushi.

For anyone worried about freshness or desiring entertainment,  you can watch the sushi chefs preparing their creations in an open kitchen right in front of you.

The Washington DC eatery is the 1st Yo! Sushi in America. The British chain now has establishments in 8 countries including Dubai. The firm is planning to open a 2nd Yo! Sushi in the Chinatown section of DC before expanding to other U.S cities.

 

I wonder how you say, "this is like a future version of the old Horn and Hardart Automat" in Japanese? Oh, that would be これは古いホーンとのオートマットの将来のバージョンのようなものです.

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
If you are visiting DC or you find yourself near Union Station, you might want to check out Yo! Sushi. It's a unique, fun way to eat a meal whether by yourself, a partner, or a group of friends. You can click here for the complete menu.

Celebrating Muslim Civilization

Nomad Dancers perform an Egyptian dance

For what seems like forever, conflict and violence have been raging in the Middle Eastern Muslim world. Iraq. Iran. Afghanistan. Syria. But a peaceful vibe permeated the National Geographic Museum today, where thousands of DC families of all ethnicities and beliefs gathered to celebrate the enduring legacy of Muslim civilization.

The free family festival was scheduled in conjunction with the National Geographic's latest exhibition 1001 Inventions: Discover the Golden Age of Muslim Civilization, which was named Best Touring Exhibition of the Year at the recent Museums and Heritage Excellence Awards.

While many families checked out the exhibition, others opted to head to a large indoor area featuring special creative activities for youngsters including frankincense burner painting, textile making, Arabic calligraphy, mosaic making, spire constructing competition, perfume making, and henna art. A special Sultan's Tent was set up where members of the DC public library read famous Arabian tales and children's stories. Still other families strolled the grounds, perusing Mideastern crafts for sale or creating impromptu picnics from Mideastern food items purchased at a series of food trucks parked nearby.

Reading in the Sultan's Tent

Building, Arab style

An impromptu family picnic

One of the most packed locations was the auditorium where a program featured alternating performances by the Saltanah Middle Eastern Music group and the Nomad Dancers. Perhaps the most popular of the dances was the Raqs al Assaya, a traditional Egyptian cane dance developed as an imitation of tahtiyb, a male martial arts dance. The Nomad Dancers closed its performance with The Hunt, based on a 14th Century poem and using a song popular today in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan. In the Persian court-style dance, a singer proposes visiting places of natural beauty, like gardens, meadows, and mountains, but reminds her friends not to hunt creatures there because each one of them reminds her in some way of her lover.

After a short break, the Nomad Dancers, still in costume, returned to the stage and instructed about 30 youngsters and their parents in the basic hip-gyrating, slowly spinning movements of Mideastern dancing.

Tales, Tips, and Tidbits
Although the Family Fest was a one-day event, the 1001 Inventions exhibition will be on display until Feb. 3. To learn more about the exhibition, click here.

2 Visionaries: John Cage & Nam June Paik

When most people think about Woodstock, they think about the 1969 music festival where upward to 500,000 hippies proved to the world "that half a million kids can get together and have three days of fun and music and have nothing but fun and music." But when avant garde music fans think of Woodstock, they primarily see it as the site where revered composer John Cage debuted his  masterpiece "4:33" 17 years earlier. And both those versions of the Woodstock story contribute heavily to famed video artist's Nam June Paik's 1973 PBS documentary of his friend Cage, a trippy tribute which received its Washington D.C. premier this week at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

The showing of the one-hour film, appropriately entitled A Tribute to John Cage, is just one in a series of events being held in D.C. to commemorate what would have been Cage's 100th birthday. The event also served as a preview of the museum's extensive exhibition on Paik, which is scheduled to open this December.

Both Cage and Paik were artistic visionaries, creating works that still push the boundaries of music and art today. To place the documentary in perspective, John Hanhardt, senior curator of the musuem for video arts, talked at length about the friendship of Cage and Paik, their respective places in the art world, and Paik's moving image essay about his friend's life and work.

The two first met in Germany in 1958 and formed a bond, which given the nature of their creative philosophies and endeavors, wasn't surprising. Both created challenging music and art, often as much (or, in many cases, more) about performance than composition.

"There was always something about Nam June's performing that was totally unpredictable," Handardt said. "During one of Paik's musical performance, he jumped from the stage, went into the audience and began cutting John Cage's shirt and tie, then smothered him in shampoo. He was making his own performance a playful hommage to the master John Cage"

Handhardt said both artists were intent on "opening our ears to listening and opening our eyes to watching."

Both explored the role of chance and randomness in art. For example, Cage would often use the Chinese I Ching to determine the best places to schedule performances which sometimes turned out to be busy street corners or vacant, trash-filled lots.

In addition, Paik and Cage created the technology to allow them to display their art. "And they were both looking for a way to humanize technology and to get to a democratization of performance," Handhardt said.

Finally, both were well aware of the power of silence in an increasingly cacophonous contemporary  world. "What we require is silence and what silence requires is that I go on talking," Cage says in Paik's film.

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
Of course, words do little justice to the magic of Cage's music or Paik's video genius. So here are some links where you can witness that power for yourself.

• Paik captures Cage performing a portion of ":4:33."
• Paik uses a robot, an isightful stuteering critic, the 1969 Woodstock, and Cage himself.
• Cage performing on a Nam June Paik TV special.
• A look at Nam June Paik's Electronic Superhighway (on display at the Smithsonian

The Teacher as Hero, Not Zero

Preach it, Brother Kozol

The accolades of the introduction were done. Today's most eloquent spokesmen for the disenfranchised. A nonstop battler for better education, especially for the poorest students in America. The author of 13 books championing social justice for all. Almost 50 years of pricking the conscience of readers by laying bare the savage inequalities inflicted upon children for no reason other than the accident of being born poor in the wealthiest nation on earth.

Jonathan Kozol, now in his 70s, strode to the microphone. He began with a question. "How many of you are teachers?" he asked the crowd that filled the meeting room at the Sidwell Friends School here in D.C. for the special book talk sponsored by Politics and Prose. Dozens and dozens of hands were raised. Kozol smiled. "I always feel safer when I am in a room with teachers. Teachers are my heroes. They get to be the best thing you can be in life."

Kozol comes by his admiration for teachers and the difficult job they do on a daily basis honestly. Before there was Jonathan Kozol, award-winning author, sought-after speaker, and indefatigable champion of social justice, there was Jonathan Kozol teacher.

Interestingly, Kozol never had designs on teaching and his formative years couldn't have been more different than those of the young students he has been writing about now for almost 5 decades. Kozol grew up a Jewish child of privilege. He attended an exclusive New England prep school, then Harvard University, where he studied classical literature with the great American poet Archibald McLeish. He received a Rhodes Scholarship to further his education at Oxford. He followed that by spending time in Paris with such noted authors as William Styron and Richard Wright. He was set for a life of academia and high-brow writing. And then came the Civil Rights movement.

"Many of us were transformed forever," he said. In the early 1960s, Kozol was living in Cambridge, just outside of Boston. One day, he decided to drive to a black section of Boston and see a minister friend of Martin Luther King. "I had never even been in a black community before," he said. "I went to the Reverend and asked Can I be of use?' He said 'of course, you can, young man. You don't have to go to Mississippi to find injustice in America.'"

Kozol decided to become a teacher in one of the poorest districts in inner-city Boston. "They gave me a kindergarten class. I had no idea what you do with people that size. Little people are very squirmy. They have only a theoretical connection to their chairs. But I survived and they promoted me to the 4th grade."

But Kozol's success in teaching was short lived. In 1964, appalled at the readings his all- black class was required to read, he brought in a poem by Langston Hughes and taught it. He was summarily fired for failing to follow the state-specified curriculum. He turned that incident into the basis for his first book, Death at an Early Age.

Today, one of Kozol's favorite topics is his distaste for the testing craze which is now so embedded into American schools. "There is this business-driven madness about things that can be numbered," he said. "Instead of giving kids beautiful books to read, we test, test, test. But pleasure can't be tested. You get no points for pleasure. But why else should kids' read? Teachers are teaching half the year how to outwit the test. It has nothing to do with learning. Excitement isn't on the 9th grade exam. It's as if if something can't be numbered, it doesn't count."

Kozol said his father was a psychiatrist and used to take him to some of the institutions where he was trying to help people cope. Kozol said he noticed that those with the most extreme problems were often reduced to simply counting things. "Maybe some of these bureaucrats we have today would enjoy a stay in the recovery room," he remarked, sparking laughter from much of the crowd.

Instead of testing, education should be promoting curiosity and questioning, Kozol claimed. "But we're told curiosity and questioning won't improve the scores. In fact, they will impede them. Kids in wealthier schools are taught to question. But our poor kids are just trained to spit out pre-digested answers and the (learning) gap gets greater."

Part of the problem with ending the testing culture is that there is so much money to be made. "People see an opportunity for unprecedented profits if they can invade the public sector and so they slap a punitive label on a child's forehead which is no help at all," Kozol said.

Kozol said he has little patience with the people who ask him - "well, Jonathan what would you do, just throw money at the problem? I tell them yes. Throw the money. Drop it from a helicopter. I'll take it to the schools myself. I don't know a better way than money to fix a roof or hire another teacher."

The author also blasted critics who blame teachers and students for the failures of urban education. "They say if these kids would buckle down and do their work and their teachers weren't so lazy, things would be better. But they have never even seen the conditions the kids are forced to live in. And when did teachers become the enemy?"

Even though Kozol said he would again vote for Barack Obama for president, he was disappointed that the president hadn't "taken more steps to rid us of this madness of testing. He is a brilliant orator. He could make a strong stand for teachers."

Just as he believed as a fledgling teacher in the 1960s, Kozol is still convinced that the way to inspire  kids to learn is through "meaningful, beautiful books." To drive home his point,  Kozol cited an encounter he had recently on a flight across the country. As he so often does, Kozol was reading a kids' book to check it out. The man seated next to him was reading the Wall Street Journal. But he kept sneaking a peek at what Kozol was reading. Finally, Kozol turned to his seatmate and said,"I'm sure what you're reading is interesting, but this book can save your soul."

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips

Mr. Rogers in his neighborhood

Given his strong stance as an unceasing advocate for poor children  everywhere, it's no surprise that Kozol admired and was friends with Fred Rogers, who for years charmed children on his PBS show Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. Kozol told the Sidwell School crowd about one of his last sessions with Rogers, who died in 2003 of cancer. Kozol and Rogers had just finished a program together in New York and now Mr. Rogers wanted to visit one of the schools Kozol had written about. "I told him the best way to get there was by subway. You know, it's only about 8 minutes to get from the richest parts of Manhattan to some of the poorest parts of the Bronx. Fred was concerned that he might intimidate the children. But I thought - he's Mr. Rogers; I think we can handle it. After we got out of the subway, we were walking down the street, when a sanitation truck stopped, a big burly worker got out, ran up to Mr. Rogers, and just started hugging him. When we got to the school, the kids started squealing and the teachers were almost crying with delight. This one youngster came flying across the room like an airplane and wrapped his arms around Rogers. 'Welcome to my neighborhood, Mr. Rogers' he said. When Kozol first learned that Rogers had cancer, he said he tried to strike a bargain with God. I'm Jewish so we can do those things. I said, please God give him one more year. Then two more years." But eventually the kindliest man ever to appear on television died. Kozol used that incident in his closing. "My friends, we're all going to die. The old trees and the innocent children will outlive us all. We don't know how much time we have left, so we should all use it wisely."

Speaking Out for the Poorest Children in America

For almost 50 years, in powerful, heartbreaking books like Death at An Early Age, Rachel and Her Children, and Savage Inequalities, Jonathan Kozol, who has been called "today's most eloquent spokesman for the disenfranchised," has been talking about children whose only crime was to have been born into pockets of horrendous poverty in the wealthiest nation in the world.

During talks to promote his books, Kozol was constantly asked some variant of this question - what ever happened to the young boys and girls you wrote about?

Well, Kozol has now provided some answers.  In his new book, Fire in the Ashes: Twenty-five Years Among the Poorest Children in America, Kozol writes about many of those children, the ones who made it, and, tragically, those who didn't.

Last night, at a book talk sponsored by Politics and Prose, Kozol appeared at the Sidwell Friends School in D.C. to discuss that book and continue his fervent call for social justice for those who have no voice. 

"Some of the marvelous young people I wrote about, I'm sad to say never recovered from the battering they received," Kozol told the large crowd who came to hear him talk about a world much different than the one in which they live.

As one example, Kozol cited a 14-year-old who was "subway surfing" with a group of his friends. "They were all laying down on the top of the subway car, but this young man, as if to say nothing this city can do to me anymore can stop me now, suddenly stood up, only to find his skull crushed when the subway raced under a low overhang," he said.

But there are great success stories, too. "Happily, there are many, many children in the book who battled back courageously from the obstacles and won triumphant victories," Kozol said.

One of those characters was Pineapple, whom Kozol first encountered as a 6-year-old. "She found me deeply flawed, especially my social life," Kozol said, sparking laughter from the crowd. "She tried to  fix me up with her teacher."

Kozol described in detail the horrific conditions Pineapple faced in kindergarten. "It smelled like a feeding trough for cattle. You need to see and smell what we do to these children. Ugly settings coarsen their mentalities," Kozol said.

The situation worsened as Pineapple moved up through the grades. She had 7 different teachers in her 3rd and 4th grade years. "Discontinuity of that kind is calamitous," Kozol added.

Pineapple had 36 other students in her class. With numbers like that, even the most effective teacher can't address the needs of individual students, Kozol explained. "If smaller class sizes are good for the son of a wealthy banker or the daughter of a senator, then it's good for the poorest child in America," he added.

Kozol said that instead of lively, vibrant literature Pineapple was forced to read phonics shorts with phrases like Sad Sam sat in the sand. "And from that she was supposed to predict what is going to happen next," Kozol said.

The author said that while Pineapple struggled to read, her conversational skills were superb. "She had been artificially retarded by the state of New York," Kozol charged.

Finally, Pineapple was accepted into a private school and "her love of learning came alive," Kozol said. Today, she is in college and is planning to become a teacher and return to her Bronx neighborhoods to help the students there. "Pass the torch, that's what I'm going to do," she told Kozol at one of their recent meetings.

"Pineapple was lucky. She won the hearts of grownups who could help her," Kozol said. "And now she wants to give it back. Kids like Pineapple are the fire in the ashes."

"I'm out of fashion now. A lot of people have given up on the whole Jeffersonian idea. I'm glad for Pineapple, but charming is not a substitute for social justice. It's too subjective; it's too precarious. We have to do better," he said.

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
As we walked up the long, curving  driveway to the Sidwell school, I noticed a solitary figure sitting on a bench, talking into his cell phone. I recognized him immediately. It was Jonathan Kozol. Now I don't know who your living idols are. But Kozol is one of mine. I approached him, put out my hand, and thanked him for all he has done for education, teachers, and most all, poor students over the years. He motioned for me to sit down. "Mind if I smoke?" he asked. As he lit his cigarette, I couldn't help but notice the grey sneakers he was wearing with his black suit. Not only passionate and brilliant, but cool, too. He asked me if I was a teacher. I said I had been one for 25 years, but was now retired. "I hope there will  a lot of teachers here. I always feel more comfortable around teachers," he said. Kozol asked me where I had taught. I told him South Jersey. "Anywhere near Camden?" he asked. (Camden had been featured in one of his books.) I told him it was south of that. "South of that, wow," he said with a laugh. He looked around the grounds. "I'm familiar with these kinds of places. They can be snooty. I went to a private school in New England. I was the first Jew there in 100 years." I told him how I had used excerpts from his book Rachel and Her Children: Homeless Families in America in a Christmas unit with the Phil Collins' song "Another Day in Paradise" and A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. My students, although inner city kids themselves, were always moved by the horrific stories in Kozol's book. It inspired many of them to reach out and help those even less fortunate than themselves. Kozol just smiled. I had a thousand questions I wanted to ask, but I saw a representative of the school approaching. "I have to ask, how much does it cost to go here," Kozol asked the representative, whose name was Jean. "It's $33,000 a year," she said. "But you give scholarships and have a diverse student body, right?" Kozol asked. "Yes," she replied. "That's good, that's always good," he said. "Well, I guess we best be going. I think they want me to sign some books before I speak." He turned to me. "Hope you like what I'm going to say," he said as he walked away. "Oh, I'm sure I will," I said. And, as I knew I would, I did. Jonathan Kozol may be in his late 70s, but if there is a better spokesperson for the crucial role of education in the lives of the poor and the disenfranchised in America I have yet to meet them. I was really grateful that I had a chance to hear him speak. I wish everyone could. For if they would listen and act on what he has to say, America would be such a better place.

Picturing the People

Dennis Hopper

When it comes to creating a portrait, artists have long been constrained by time, place, and subject. But, at the turn of the century, photographer Robert Weingarten, one of the earliest adapters to digital photography, was intent on breaking those constraints.

"I had to allow myself to break from the usual and the historic boundaries of portraiture and utilize today's technology to redefine what a portrait can be," Weingarten said. "I wanted to know if you could transcend time, place, and subject."

The spectacular results of Weingarten's efforts are now on display in the exhibit Pushing Boundaries: Robert Weingarten at the Smithsonian's S. Dillon Ripley Center. The exhibit features 16 of Weingarten's metaphorical collage portraits, which he calls translucent composites.

Probably the most unsual aspect of the work is that none of the portraits include a visual likeness of  its subject. Instead, Weingarten lets the subject's interests speak for him or her.

The artist began with a group of recognizable subjects such as former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, author Joyce Carol Oates, dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov, and astronaut Buzz Aldrin. "I asked myself would I know who (these people) are in 50 years? Would I know what they did or understand that what they did was important?"

Weingarten then asked each of his subjects to send him a list of things that were important to them and made them who they are. For example, baseball great Hank Aaron responded with a list of 4 items:

• the city of Atlanta
• baseball
• fishing
• the Hank Aaron Chasing the Dream Foundation

Hank Aaron

After figuring out what pictures would best capture the importance of the items on the list, Weingarten then traveled around the country to shoot a series of photos which, when completed, he would alter and arrange into a large collage format.

"Although the person is not physically seen, I wanted the work to be a summing up of personal and public life experiences," Weingarten said.

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips

As people, we know a lot about a lot of things. But sometimes the subject nearest to us - ourselves - remains a mystery. Weingarten's starting question - what makes you you? - is a question we all need to ponder from time to time. Preparing a list of what we value is a good place to start. The next time you have a few minutes you might want to try to compose such a list. Here is the one actor Dennis Hopper submitted which you can use as an example:

• the motorcycle from "Easy Rider"
• golf clubs
• director's chair
• his photography
• his painting
• a camera
• an Andy Warhol painting with the bullet holes Hopper made in a drug-induced frenzy
• cigars

You can definitely have fun with this simple exercise. And you might be surprised at what you learn.

Farewell to the Opera Stage with Snails Space

When British artist David Hockney was young, he struggled with a dilemma. He had great passion for both art and music. So which should he choose as a career? Hockney, universally recognized today as one of the most influential British artists of the 20th Century, went with art. However, after a few years, he realized that by designing sets for operas, he could combine both interests. So, for almost 20 years Hockney practiced his craft in opera houses around the world.  But by the mid-1990s, his hearing had seriously deteriorated and he realized he would have to give up his opera work and return to painting.

His work "Snails Space with Vari-Lites: Painting as Performance," completed in 1996,  represents his reluctant farewell to his 2nd career as a set designer for operas. It is now on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

The piece uses theatrical lighting to transform color into a kind of performance. In a 9-minute changing sequence, the installation is transformed into separate settings that rotate among pastoral, stormy, vibrant, and elegiac.  Although abstract, many observers point out that they see landscape references in the piece, which in structure resembles a 3-dimensional stage.

Hockney's end of his music involvement, signaled a new experimentation with using technology such as fax machines, photo copiers, and most recently, the iPhone to create art.

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
The Smithsonian American Art Museum, which is located in the same building as the National Portrait Gallery, is my favorite art institution in DC. Since it is located off the National Mall on 8th and F streets, it is not as crowded as the mall museums. That allows a much more intimate viewing experience. The 2 museums are also open until 7:30 p.m. year-round. I am really looking forward to 2 big exhibitions that are coming later this year - The Civil War and American Art and Nam June Paik: Global Visionary.

The Toys of Days Past

Until a time machine is invented, one of the best chances for those of us who grew up in the 1950s and early 1960s to recapture the joy of playing with our toys of those days is to visit the Smithsonian American History Museum. 

At its Pause and Play Lounge, the museum is featuring  pop culture objects related to the emergence of youth culture from 1950 to 1964. In addition to exhibits from the time to view, youngsters and oldsters can engage in a variety of activities ranging from creating Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head dolls to drawing comics and cartoons on giant wall boards.

You can begin your trip down memory lane by checking out the showcases. In one, there is the Superman suit actor George Reeves wore. Another contains artifacts from early childhood TV shows such as the original Howdy Doody puppet, a Mickey Mouse Mouseketeer cap, a Lone Ranger lunchbox, and a Capt. Kangaroo coloring book.

There is a showcase that contains a tribute to the jukebox and the vinyl records of the period. A song list of 21 tunes ranging from Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock" to the Beach Boys' "Surfin' Safari" plays continually in the background during your visit.

Until this era, all market advertising was aimed at adults. But with the advent of TV, advertisers discovered that they could appeal directly to the young people they were trying to entice with their products. On a large screen, there is a loop of more than a dozen advertisements for toys and food items such as cereal.

The large lounge offers 2 hands-on areas. On one wall, you can draw your own comic and cartoon character. At a series of tables you can build with Legos, etch a sketch, or watch a Slinky slink.

On three panels are photos submitted from visitors who grew up between 1950 and the early 60s where contemporaries can wax nostalgic and those who aren't can discover what it was like to grow up then. If you would like to contribute copies of photos to be included on the panels,  you can do so by clicking here.

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
 Many of the toys from the Pause and Play Lounge are still available today, making them a play staple of kids for 6 decades. Here are did-you-know facts about some of them.

• The View Master was not orginally marketed as a kid's toy. In fact, the View Master was created as a way to see 3D color images of popular tourist attractions.
• The 1st Mr. Potato Heads used real potatoes. From 1952 until 1964, the toy was sold as fun features that could be stuck into potatoes or other vegetables to make silly faces.
• Slinkys were inspired by an accident. A U.S. Navy engineer accidentally knocked a specially designed spring off a shelf and was suprised to see that it could "walk."
• In 1960, the Etch-a-Sketch was so popular that the Ohio Art Company continued manufacturing it right up until noon on Christmas Eve and then shipped them out for last-minute shoppers.
• Legos, among the earliest plastic toys, comes from the Danish words leg godt which means "play well."

Of Football and Kings

The Redskins on offense against the Buccaneers

The preseason game between the Washington Redskins and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was still in the first quarter when the chant began. It started with the fans in the Redskins' end zone and spread around the stadium. "Bring Cooley back!" "Bring Cooley back!"

That morning it had been reported that the Redskins had released tight end Chris Cooley, one of the most popular and productive players in the team's history. Cooley had been plagued by injuries the past 2 seasons, but appeared healthy this year.

In the off-season, the Redskins had drafted star college quarterback Robert Griffin III in hopes that he could return the Redskins to the glory years when they were regularly winning Super Bowls. It was something Cooley, although he played hard and squeezed the most out of his ability, had been unable to do.

The fans in D.C. loved Cooley not just for his hard play on some pretty pathetic Redskins teams, but for the crazy incidents stemming from his oddball character. There are dozens of great Cooley stories, but none probably more widely told than this one. A few years ago, Cooley was photographed with the Redskins playbook. Now, in and of itself, that doesn't seem strange. However, at the time Cooley was holding the playbook in his lap. He was also naked. So the photo featured not only Cooley's playbook, but all of his genitalia as well.

If anyone had any doubts about how popular Cooley was, they would have been dismissed by counting the number of fans wearing his #47 jersey last night. But while fans are important, Cooley's dismissal proved that modern sport is a bottom-line business. In today's professional athletics,  there is little, if any, room for loyalty. Older athletes are replaced by younger, faster, and in many cases, cheaper versions.

Sports is a lot like politics. There are winners and there are losers. Old kings make way for new ones. In Washington, old king Cooley is gone. The young RGIII is set to take his place. All hail the new king. But no matter how the RGIII era unfolds, the fans made it clear last night that old king will not soon be forgotten.

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Sonny Jurgenson as an Eagle

We had really good seats to the game which we had picked up on Stubhub for a total of $20. They were only about 15 rows from the field, right at the front edge of the end zone. Sitting next to us was a black Redskins father who had brought his 11-year-old son to his first professional football game. The game had been a surprise. The son had thought he was going to peewee football practice, but the father had gotten permission from the coach to let him come see the Skins in person. As I listened to the father explain the intricacies of the game, I couldn't help but think about my own experiences with football with my father. Even though he was a fan of the old American Football League, my dad knew I liked the local Philadelphia Eagles. I was one year younger than the young fan sitting next to me last night was when pro football became a Sunday ritual for my father and me. 50 years ago, my favorite Eagle was quarterback Sonny Jurgenson. In my eyes, he could do no wrong. That's why I was so excited when some of the Eagles were scheduled to play a charity basketball in my home town in the winter of 1963. Jurgenson, along with Tommy MacDonald, Pete Retzlaff, Ted Dean, Theron Sapp, and more of my Eagles' favorites would be in the same gym where I played City League basketball. I begged my father to take me. I just knew I could get all of their autographs, but most especially that of Jurgenson. After the game, I joined a crush of young fans outside the locker room. I got many signatures. But there was no sign of Sonny. One of my friends tapped me on the shoulder. "Sonny's already outside. If you hurry and get out there, you can catch him." I rushed out into the cold night without a coat.  I scanned the parking lot. I saw Sonny, his beautiful girlfriend on his arm, approaching a sports car. He opened the door for his girlfriend. I sprinted to the car just as he got in the driver's side. I held my pen and and notebook out for him. He looked at me, smiled, threw the car in gear, and sped away. I was stunned. I didn't understand, but I didn't cry. Why would my idol do something like that? A few years later, Jurgenson was traded to the Redskins, where he became an even bigger star. Last night, as now happens at pro games all over America, former stars of the home team are feted on giant stadium screens. During a time out, Jurgenson, in all his Redskins' glory, received such treatment. Long-time Redskin fans showed their enthusiasm for their great quarterback, cheering and clapping loudly. I did neither. Make no doubt about it, Sonny Jurgenson was a great NFL quarterback. But to me, he will always also be a fallen idol who sped off into the night, leaving a star-struck 10-year-old boy shivering in a dark gym parking lot, an unsigned piece of paper in his hand

By the Book

Washington D.C. is a book lover's paradise. There is Politics and Prose with its more than 450 free book talks a year. Busboys and Poets frequently has left-leaning authors such as Ralph Nader and George Pelecanos as speakers. Authors writing about media and its concerns are a staple at the Newseum. The National Archives, the National Portrait Gallery, and the Library of Congress all provide forums for authors to discuss their books.

And there is the D.C.book biggie of them all, the National Book Festival, sponsored annually by Library of Congress and held on the National Mall..

This year's festival is set for Sept. 22 and 23 and festival organizers have released the schedule. Here are the authors I am most looking forward to seeing and hearing:


Saturday - Sept. 22

• Mike Lupica
• Walter Dean Myers
• Thomas Friedman
• Philip Roth
• Stephen Carter
• Michael Connelly
• Sandra Cisneros
• Robert Caro
• Douglas Brinkley
• Colson Whitehead
• Philip Levine
• T. C. Boyle

Sunday - Sept. 23

• Avi
• Eric Weiner
• Mario Vargas Llosa
• David Maraniss
• Stephen Carter
• Junot Diaz
• Patricia Cornwell
• Thomas Mallon
• Charlaine Harris

Of course, just like with big music festivals such as Bonnaroo or the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, you aren't able to see everyone you want. You have to make choices. Some will be relatively easy. For example, as much as I like Douglas Brinkley, David Maraniss, and Walter Dean Myers, I have seen them before and, if there is a conflict with their times, I will choose another author. However, there are 2 writers I will not miss - Michael Connelly, who is my favorite crime writer, and Charlaine Harris, the author of the Sookie Stackhouse novels on which HBO's show True Blood is based.

Boy, whoever coined the phrase so many books (and, in this case, book authors, too) and so little time was right on the money. Especially when it comes to National Book Festival.

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If you would like to know more about the National Book Festival and who will be there, click here.

George Bellows: American Artist with a Punch

"Dempsey and Firpo"

From his early days as a baseball player coveted by the Cincinnati Red Stockings to his later years as a noted painter of boxing matches and scenes of New York, George Bellows was a quintessential example of an American steeped in the American concerns of his times.

Bellows, who died in 1925 at the age of 42, is the subject of a current comprehensive exhibition at the National Gallery of Art. He was also the main focus of a weekend lecture delivered by Gallery lecturer Lorena Baines entitled Creating the Legacy of George Bellows: The Artist and His Critics
which was designed to explore Bellows' art in broad social and cultural trends.

"Bellows was always known as a specifically American artist," Baines told a large crowd assembled to hear her Sunday talk. "To understand Bellows, you have to ask - what did it mean to be an American in 1925?"

In the 1890s, right before Bellows emerged on the art scene, Americans, for the first time, began to consider American art as equal to that created in Europe. "Until then, American art was still under European influence," Baines said. That trend escalated through Bellow's career, "fueled by a surge of patriotism that came after World War I," she added.

Another factor reflected in Bellows' art was a growing tendency to celebrate a culture of masculinity and manly pursuits, much of it established by the personna of popular progressive President Teddy Roosevelt, who was a huge supporter of boxing.

A 3rd factor was a sense of isolationism, a belief that America should keep itself separate from all foreign concerns and press its own agenda. "There was a lot of reveling in American ingenuity,  American achievements such as the Panama Canal, and man's power to change the landscape," Baines said.

Finally, there was a real interest in regionalism, a rooting of art in "the familiar and understandable linked to American values," Baines said.

In his time, because he dealt so well with so many of those period concerns, Bellows "was hero-ized and much talked about," Baines noted. Even as recently as 2011, a critic contended that Bellows  "shows us what it means to be American."

Bellows was identified with the Ashcan school of art, which "believed art should make a social statement," Baines said. One of the best examples of social concern in Bellows' work is contained in his painting "The Lone Tenement" (1909) with its focus on the daily struggles of people displaced by increasing modernity and industrialization.

"The Lone Tenement"

His classic "Both Members of the Club" (1909) captures both the beauty and brutality at the heart of boxing, which at the time was illegal in New York. Enthusiasts, however, got around the ban by staging matches at local sporting clubs, making the boxers temporary members of the clubs. A closer look at "Both Members ..." shows the garish, grotesque faces of the crowd as if Bellows "was saying something special about the type of people that would go to these events," Baines postulated.

"Both Members of the Club"

And, of course, there are the magnificent renderings of New York City such as his series on the creation of Penn Station and "New York" (1911). In that latter work, Baines said Bellows "with his almost visual overload, captures the frenetic energy of New York City."

New York

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If you can, I would highly recommend that you check out the Bellows exhibition. I think it is the best retrospective now viewable in D.C. The show closes on Oct. 8.

The Sax Sideman Takes Center Stage

Bobby Keys and me

Here's a great rock and roll question for you: what do "Live with Me" by the Rolling Stones, "The Wanderer" by Dion, and "The Letter" as performed by Joe Cocker have in common?

If you answered that they all feature sax solos by the legendary Bobby Keys, you can take your place in the rock fan's Hall of Fame. And if you added that they are the 1st 3 songs on Keys' latest touring project, Bobby Keys and the Suffering Bastards, set list, then you must have been at the restored Howard Theater last night as the band played an energetic, two-hour show packed with songs Keys contributed to both live and in the studio and a few sax classics.

Of course, the staples of the night, and the highlight for many of the older crowd at the Howard, were the Stones songs from the Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, and Exile on Main Street period of the late 60s/early 70s. In addition to "Let It Bleed," the band interspersed "Brown Sugar," "Bitch," and "Sweet Virginia" in their 2 sets. The group closed with "Can't You Hear Me Knockin" and encored with Keith Richards' "Happy."

Keys, who will turn 69 this year, kept up a Texas-twanged patter with the audience throughout the night, often providing humorous commentary and background on each song before it was played. Keys 1st made his mark as a session player. "The first time I heard myself on the radio, well it was little but it was a real radio, was on 'The Wanderer,'" Keys said.

After touring with Cocker's all-star project "Mad Dogs and Englishmen," (Keys also included Leon Russel's "Delta Lady" last night), he became a regular sideman for the Stones, then living with his still-best friend Keith Richards in the south of France. "Man, those were great days," Keys told the audience. "Don't remember much about 'em. The mind's kinda' vague. But we had us some good times."

Keys with the Suffering Bastards

Keys has been performing with the Stones live since those days, and if, as expected, the Stones take to the road soon to celebrate 50 years of making music, you can be sure that Keys will be there with Mick, Keith, Charley, Ron, and the rest.

But Keys also has close ties to 2 of the late Beatles. He played sax on George Harrison's "What Is Life?" and provided the start to one of John Lennon's last hits "Whatever Gets You Through the Night." The Lennon song provoked a lot of good-natured humor last night. Keys told the crowd that the song begins with the highest note he can hit on his sax. "Some nights I get it, and some nights I don't," he said. Well, last night was one of those nights. But after 2 aborted  attempts, Keys hit the note and Sufferin' Bastards were off and playing.

Even after more than 50 years on stage, it's clear that Keys truly loves the life he chose. "Man, playin' for ya'all, it doesn't get any better than that," he said. Keys' on-stage foil is lead singer and guitarist Dan Baird, formerly of the Georgia Satellites. A few times, Baird had to point out to Keys that he was skipping over songs in the play list order. "So, I'm old, and fat, and can't see," Keys responded. Keyes acknowledges Baird as a songwriter by always including Baird's piano-driven honky tonk rager "You Look Like I Could Use a Drink."

Keys said when, as a youngster, he begged his mother to buy him a saxophone, she finally relented if he would promise to learn one of her favorite songs, Duke Ellington's "Harlem Nocture." Keys did and performed an extended version of it as one of 3 instrumentals in the set. When he was 15, Keys met soul sax man King Curtis. "Man, I had questions. What kind of reeds do you use? What do you listen to? What do you wear? What do you eat?" Keys explained. Finally, Curtis imparted simple advice to Keys on how to get better. "Just point that thing near your mouth and blow," he said. Today, Keys' rendition of Curtis' "Soul Serenade" serves as a tribute to his mentorship. The 3rd instrumental was a relatively unknown B-side for Motown saxman Junior Walker entitled "Hot Cha."

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As evidenced by his impressive resume, there are few in rock n' roll who have had the longevity and the depth of career of Bobby Keys. Of course, he has been sharing that experience from stages all over the world. But earlier this year, Keys released a well-reviewed autobiography entitled Every Night's a Saturday Night: The Rock 'n' Roll Life of Legendary Sax Man (as Keith Richards warns in the foreward "not to be confused with sex man") Bobby Keys. After the show, Keys signed copies of the book and talked to fans in individual sessions in the Howard's green room.  And, of course, Judy and I were there. When Keys asked how I wanted the book signed, I asked if he could make it out to our son, Michael Keith, born in 1973 and named after Michael (Jagger) and Keith (Richards). "Yeah, ol' Michael Philip (Jagger) himself just had a birthday. We're all gettin' up in years." I told Keys how much we had enjoyed seeing him on a small club stage. "Yeah, well I still love these places," he said. "Man, I started out in some small places in Texas. There were clubs where they not only shot at you, they threw grenades up on the stage." Of course, I had to ask Keys about the much-discussed, upcoming Stones special extravaganza. "I bet you'll be getting a call pretty soon, huh?" I asked. Keys eyes twinkled. "They call me all the time. They're always askin' my advice," he said. But what about that special call? "Yeah, I might be gettin' one," he said.

Uncle Sam Needs More She-Heroes

If you think there is a gender gap in political power, statistics support you. While 52% of the American population is female, there has never been a female president in the 200+ years of this country. Only 17 of the 100 U.S. Senators are female. That same 17% percentage holds in the U.S. House of Representatives. In fact, the United States ranks only 91st in the world when it comes to women in the national legislature. Gender disparities are even greater at state and local levels where men occupy 44 of the 50 governor's seats and run 92 of the country's 100 largest cities as mayor.

So why the gap?

Dr. Jennifer Lawless, director of the Women and Politics Institute at American University, believes that myths about the electability of female candidates such as they can't raise enough money to be successful are partly to blame.

"The myths become a self-fulfilling prophecy,"  Lawless says. "They are a real response to what you perceive as an unlevel playing field."
  
Then there are actual impediments as well. For example, men are recruited to run for office in far greater numbers than women. "There are growing numbers of women who have the credentials and qualifications, but they are not getting the same encouragment,"  Lawless maintains.

Lawless was one of the panelists appearing last week at the National Archives to discuss the topic Beyond the Vote: Post-Suffrage Strategies to Gain Access to Power. She was joined by Dr. Joy Kinard, central district manager of the National Capital Parks and Jennifer Krafchik, assistant director of the Sewall-Belmont House and Museum for the talk, which was moderated by Page Harrington, the executive director of Sewall-Belmont.

A study co-authored by Lawless with Loyola Marymount professor Richard Fox found 7 main factors for the political gender disparity. They are:

• Women are substantially more likely than men to perceive the electoral environment as highly competitive and biased against female candidates.
• Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin's candidacies aggravated women's perception of gender bias in the electoral process.
• Women are much less likely than men to think they are qualified to run for office.
• Female potential candidates are less competitive, less confident, and more risk averse than their male counterparts.
• Women react more negatively than men to many aspects of modern campaigns.
• Women are less likely than men to receive the suggestion to run for office - from anyone.
• Women are still responsible for the majority of childcare and household tasks.

The panel agreed that more effort must be made to increase women's political power. "Equity and a seat at the table are 2 different things," Lawless said."We need seats at the table. We need someone other than just 55-year-old white males making decisions."

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Interestingly, as evidenced daily in news of the 2012 election campaigns, there is a not-so-subtle shift
happening in the battle over what have been traditionally considered women's issues. It appears as if party affiliation, not gender, is determining the sides, with Democrats increasingly on the pro side and the anti's populated by Republicans. "There is an increasing party polarization. What we're seeing is an opportunity for Democrats to benefit from the gender gap and feminist issues," Lawless said.

The Burning of Washington

It was Aug. 24, 1814, and, as usual for that time of year, summer conditions were creating a humid, hot inferno in what was a still-swampy, but slowly developing new capital city of the United States. The males of the city, along with President James Madison, were gathered in militia units about 6 miles away at Bladensburg, hoping to repel superior British forces determined to enter Washington and destroy it.

However, in less than an hour, the outcome was clear. American forces had been defeated and the way to Washington was clear. The news created a panic. Residents frantically scrambled to flee the city, saving only the possessions they could carry.

"Transportation had become more valuable than gold or jewelry," said author Anthony Pitch, who appeared at the National Archives today to discuss his book The Burning of Washington: The British Invasion of 1814.

The British troops entered the city unopposed. First, they burned the Capitol, the home of the Senate and the House of Representatives and the symbol of the hopes and aspirations of the young American Republic. They then staged a silent, orderly march down Pennsylvania Avenue. Arriving at the White House, they found the home of James and Dolley Madison completely deserted. While some of the troops feasted on a table set for 40 in the White House dining room, others spread through the home, looking for war-time souvenirs. They found a hat worn by Madison. An officer placed it on his bayonet. "If we can't capture the little president (Madison was only 5'4") we will parade his hat in London," he said.

Within an hour, all that remained of the White House was charred limestone and piles of ash. The British stayed in the city for another day, torching other government buildings. Cannons were spiked and dropped into the Potomac. A magazine of gunpowder exploded, killing and injuring dozens. Until a violent storm set in, the fires burned so brightly they could be seen in Baltimore. The British troops were under strict orders not to tamper with personal property. But that edict didn't apply to the residents of D. C. who hadn't been able to flee. Gangs roamed smokey Washington, taking advantage of the chaos and confusion to destroy buildings and loot any valuables they could find.

"Those 2 days were definitely a low point in American history," Pitch said. "But in times like these there are always a few individuals who represent the best stuff we are made of."

Pitch recounted 2 such stories; one well-known and the other not so much so. Despite orders to leave earlier, the President's wife, Dolley, refused to evacuate until she and her servants could save the giant painting of George Washington which still hangs today in the White House. "Now that's incredible," Pitch said. "That is real patriotism. It is a word that is much bandied about today and cheapened. But that is real patriotism."

Another hero was clerk Stephen Pleasanton, who saved America's most valuable historic documents from British torches. Acting with little help, Pleasonton acquired several coarse linen bags, and filled them with as many State Department records as they would hold. These included the still-unpublished secret journals of Congress, the commission and correspondence of George Washington, the Articles of Confederation, the United States Constitution, and all the treaties, laws, and correspondence of the Department since 1789. He had all of this carted to a grist mill  three miles beyond Georgetown. Before he left, he noticed the Declaration of Independence had been forgotten and was still hanging in its frame on the wall, and took that as well. Pleasonton became fearful that the British would destroy a nearby cannon foundry and possibly even the grist mill and procured wagons to take the material another thirty-five miles to Leesburg, Virginia, where they were stored in an empty stone house until they could be returned to Washington.

"Because of the actions of Stephen Pleasanton you can still see the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution upstairs in this building," Pitch said.

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Even though it began 200 years ago, the War of 1812 and its aftermath share similarities with today's political headlines, Pitch maintains. For example, initial intelligence indicated that the British would march on Baltimore, not Washington. "History does repeat itself," Pitch said. "That (bad intelligence) happened a few years ago in the Middle East." Then there was the task of rebuilding D.C. itself. The process was delayed by political bickering and cost overruns. Columns that were supposed to cost $1,500 actually ended up costing $5,000 each. "You see Congress never changes," Pitch said, provoking much laughter from the crowd.

All the News That's Fit to Paint

Ken Keeley's "Newsstand:" Reading as Art

Most people look at books and journals as reading material. But since the 16th Century, visual artists have been using books and other forms of the written word as symbols and images in their paintings, a point driven home with exactness at a recent lecture at the National Gallery.

The lecture, entitled All the News That's Fit to Paint: Reading as Art, served as an introduction to the gallery's upcoming major exhibition Shock of the News, which will examine how artists have used newspapers during the 20th and 21st centuries.

Virgin Mary reading

During the one-hour talk, Gallery Lecturer Eric Denker outlined the use of print in art from the Renaissance to the French impressionists of the 19th Century. Early such works were religious in nature, with painted scenes of the Virgin Mother or the saints holding or reading books, usually the Bible or a book of Psalms called a Psalter.

In England, the British painter William Harnett pioneered the use of various forms of reading material as still life. The writing in such works looked like real words but on closer inspection they were just unrelated markings painted to resemble the formation of sentences and paragraphs.

In the 18th century, broadsheets began using art work to illustrate points. In 2 famous related  drawings by William Hogarth entitled "Beer Street" and "Gin Lane" the artist drove home the point that while beer could provide stability and happiness, the demon gin would leave drinkers in ruin.

Hogarth's "Beer Street" on left; "Gin Lane" on right

American artist Richard Woodville provided a classic painting of the emerging power of newspapers with his "War News in Mexico" (1849). "The painting is a patriotic reminder of the victory over Mexico. The young man is reading the news. At the American Hotel, there is room for everyone. Meanwhile the man talking to the older man at the bottom may be symbolizing that reading is replacing talking as a way to convey information, " Denker said.

Woodville's "War News from Mexico"

 Indeed, after the 1850s, "the press not only reported the news, but it became the most important way to disseminate artistic news," Denker said.  By the 19th Century, painters were using reading as a subject to convey stability, family togetherness, and as an acceptable activity for women of all ages.

Many of the impressionists including Degas, Manet, and Cezanne employed reading and readers as a subject for their works. Paul Cezanne used his father reading a paper in one of his paintings. However, he used the title of an underground publication of the day, similar in nature to DC's The City Paper or Rolling Stone, as the paper his father was reading. "Cezanne's father would not have been reading that," Denker said. "Cezanne put that avant garde paper into his father's hands as a way of legitimatizing his own (new) art."

Paul Cezanne captures his father reading a paper

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So what will the Shock of the News exhibit be like? Denker says it will include work from artists such as Andy Warhol and others to celebrate the last great years of newspapers. "Today, we are inundated with information, but it's less likely to come from newspapers and journals than electronically," Denker said. The exhibition will open on Sept, 27 and close on Jan. 27. According to National Gallery press, soon after the turn of the 20th century, visual artists began to think about the newspaper more broadly—as a means of political critique, as a collection of ready-made news to appropriate or manipulate, as a source of language and images, as a typographical grab bag, and more. The exhibition will examine this trend as it quickly grew into a phenomenon, encompassing both Europe and America, and will trace its development from 1909 to 2009. From Filippo Tommaso Marinetti and Pablo Picasso to Ellsworth Kelly and Adrian Piper, most of the 60 artists in the exhibition will be represented by one exemplary work, ranging from collages, paintings, and photographs to a nearly room-size installation by Mario Merz, À Mallarmé (2003).