My father hipster hero

My Father, Hipster Hero

Norman Mailer said in his essay , The White Negro that the negro is the source of hip because he has been living on the margin between totalitarianism and democracy for two centuries. My father Virtis Lanier embodies hipster values to the hilt even as he lies speechless from the bed of his nursing home room were even without speech, he is still the king of hip.  A stand-up guy and the leader of his group of  true hipsters whose passion was being hip . It was his passion, not fashion .

Growing up it was always cool to live in the same house with the king of cool, who as a true hipster did not draw attention to himself and approached life with a sense of cool beyond Frank, Sammy and Dean. If they were the Rat Pack, he was the cheese. My father approached life's situations with a coolness that to this day has helped me get through many setbacks in my life with a cool that glides me over the rough spots. His favorite expression was either you learn the game or be played by it.

He taught me that anger is not the way to solve problems thinking them through and  knowing that anger only creates illusion and not much else. As a hipster, he laughed in the face of racism and class ism knowing that the only attitude that you can change is your own and that prejudice was uncool. He felt that the cool would outlive the uncool and eventually  have more say to how things are going to be .

My father's style oozed of coolness  from his shades to his suede Stacey Adams. He taught me how to dress with style and not trend. How your trousers should hang and how to match clothing that makes you in hipster fashion blend in not stick out. That was his goal in life not to draw attention to himself and focus on home, family and friends
He taught about jazz both as an art form and a lifestyle. I first heard the intense bebop rhythms of Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk and what it means to be original over an imitator. He loved all music but his love affair with jazz as mine goes on to this day . He gave me an appreciation of Jazz and the artists that created it more than even a university education did.

Speaking of education, my dad gave me a good understanding of what it meant from a hipster's point of view . I was taught and I still believe that education that does not open your eyes and pull your coat to what is really happening in the world around is useless. As a teacher this is what I teach my students that education is first to open minds then hearts, then doors. Throughout the Civil Rights Era he taught me that superficial achievements were worthless if they did not first open the heart and the mind. To this day the lesson of true education being the freeing of the mind and understanding what thinking really means. Thinking is not compliance or compromising it is construction of thoughts, ideas and ideals. 

He always knew what was important, job promotions were uncool because they caused stress and made a person into an uncool pile of nerves incapable of enjoying the life you were blessed with. He thought that family, friends, building relationships and honor were more important.  It took me a long time to learn that lesson, but now that I have, I am more relaxed, less stressed and extremely healthy.
On this father's day I have reflect on my father and the greatest gift a father can give a son, that of hip and sense of person.

Fighting My Way to 85
Three weeks ago I went to the Doctor for a check up. After he gave me a work up, he found out that my blood pressure was 220/120 and my blood sugar was 450. These are not good numbers in any way shape or form . So I was hospitalized in order to get both of these numbers under control.
After about a week, my vitals were somewhat under control but I would have to work very hard to get my life under control. At least I know how it got out of control.
It got out of control through stress and neglect on my part . Stress because I am out of work and have been for the last three years . It is not like I have not been looking . Over the last three years I have sent out several resume's and cover letters to every organization from schools to retail establishments to no avail.  So most of the stress is caused by being out of work for so long and unable to get even one interview. So I spent most of my time eating and watching television but I have been exercising daily since March. So now I have to get my blood sugar and weight down all the way down. This means extreme measures  meaning strict control of what I eat and an increase in the amount and kind of exercise I do along with monitoring it properly.
One of the things I am doing is exercising twice a day starting at 5 am . Exercising in the morning helps to set the metabolism for the day it also gets you going for the day.  I have also started to monitor and control the amount of carbohydrates that I consume. I am working hard to eliminate as many carbs from my diet especially bread. Eliminating carbs will help lower my blood sugar and lose weight both if which I need to reach my goal of a fasting blood sugar of 85 . The way it works with type 2 diabetes is the lower your weight the lower your blood sugar. The more active you are the less likely you are to have high blood sugar.
The other day I bought a fitbit .  A fitbit is a band that you wear on your wrist it monitors the amount of exercise that you do along with caloric intake.  I am going to use this to monitor my exercise and what I eat to help me bring my numbers down . Over the next few months I will be writing about about my journey the highs and the lows until I reach my goal of 220 lbs . I hope we enjoy the ride. Me, you my bike and my fitbit.

Black Irish

I can still remember that famous line from the movie The Commitments where the main characters explained why their band should be a R and B band . He said that R and B was the music of black people in America . He said since the Irish were oppressed in Europe like blacks, were in America, that the Irish were the blacks of Europe. Years after watching that movie, I have the tendency to believe him.
Norman Mailer said in his essay The White Negro  that the Negro is the most innovative of all America. Mailer's explanation of this is because black people in America have to be innovative to survive . In Mailer's words, the negro is the true hipster because he lives on the border between democracy and totalitarianism .  So it is safe to say that American popular culture was born and still resides in black America. Jazz, Rock and Roll, the Blues and Hip Hop were born of the African-American experience . Style, language and other things like science, engineering and design are also influenced by black America.
I once took a group of students through the high school that I taught at to show them the contributions of black inventors. From the cafeteria on the ground floor to the library on the top floor each floor had something that was invented by a black inventor. So it's not just entertainment that is influenced by black America every part of what we call America has the finger prints of black America.  The same can be said for Britain, the rest of Europe and the world.
From Literature to the Sciences to Popular culture, the Irish have used their oppression to create a world that is a lot easier to live in . In how the book How the Irish save Civilization  by Thomas Cahill, the Irish saved western culture from the Huns and the Visigoths . Writers like Jonathan Swift and James Joyce gave much to the creation of the western political style. Paul McCartney along with John Lennon created a musical style that has lasted for over 50 years .
The Irish came to America and created political dynasties in cities like Boston and New York and produced a President John F. Kennedy. Writers like F. Scott Fitzgerald chronicled the 1920s and became one of America's premier writer showmen like George M. Cohan produced shows that lauded America's Patriotism .
At the same time that the Irish were doing their thing in America, African Americans were creating the Harlem Renaissance and Jazz music as its' soundtrack. Out of WWII came swing and Rock and Roll in the Fifties . While JFK was in the house and the Senate preparing for the presidency , Dr. Ralph Bunche was negotiating the Arab-Israeli conflict and won the Noble Peace Prize and Richard Wright and James Baldwin were creating the voice of Black America and Charlie Parker was creating its' soundtrack.
All of this came from the oppression and marginalization that each group was subjected to. Each group took that oppression and turned it into gold . As oppressed groups African-Americans and the Irish have gone beyond oppression and have reached our goals. We are still marginalized by the mainstream but both of us have had one of our brethren in the oval office and at the height of cultural.
The Irish are the blacks of Europe but blacks are the Irish of America.

Cause I'm Happy!!!!!

I was always taught that you can either be happy, productive and proactive  or you can be angry, unproductive and reactive. In the scheme of thing that does not give you many options but when you think about it, it does.
Warren Buffett says that his success has been based on a variety of factors including genetics, geography and time. He was born white and male in America.  He was born at a time where all of that mattered and he took advantage of the opportunities that were presented to him. With all of those factors combined, he became one of the riches men in the world instead of a guy who runs a service station. The fact that his father was a congressman and he lived an upper-middle class childhood in Omaha Nebraska during a depression that divested  many families  and killed many dreams .  Mr. Buffett took what was given to him and worked toward his success. When he was rejected, he regrouped when he was successful, he did not sit on his laurels but went on to seek his next success. I guess you could say that Warren Buffett was happy, productive and proactive. He took what he had and made his success.
When I look at myself, I also have to look at what gifts were given to me and how they can help me to achieve success. I was not born white or upper middle class. Although I was born male albeit a black male that for me is to my disadvantage. Up to 50% of all black males in America are either unemployed, incarcerated or addicted to some sort of drug. We are not seen a a good risk for anything and even if we are not one of those statistics many people think we are. With the exception of currently being out of work, I am the exception to all of the above-mentioned stats.  I do not use drugs or alcohol, I am well educated and I have never been to jail.
I could dwell on the negative, the discrimination and the lack of opportunities available to someone of my race , age and sex and out my head back under the covers but there are many factors that keep me from doing this.  The most obvious of these is that I only meet one of the above-mentioned stats and I only meet that one is  because of the current  economic situation. I am well educated with
a great deal of experience. I come from a good family that is very supportive of me and my attitude is positive and upbeat .
When I think about it yes I am a black male in America so I am not at the top of the success tree. It could be worse, I could be a black male in Brazil or a variety of Latin American or African countries or in Europe for that matter. As things go, America is one of the best places to be black. If I lived in Brazil for instance, I would probably be living on the streets in abject poverty. If I lived in France I might be living in the high-rise ghettos that blacks are relegated to. In America where our success rate is not as high as it should be , we occupy the White House and are CEO's of major corporations, have a seat on the Supreme Court and own several lucrative business and have won many high awards like the Noble Prize and the Pulitzer Prize. Maybe as a whole statistically we have not achieved as much as white men but we are not white men we are black men in a society that practices racism .
When I think about this, I feel that I have just as good of a chance at success as any man 'cause I'm happy and because I am the exception not the rule.

Johnny We Hardly Knew Ye

There is an old Irish song called Johnny We Hardly Knew Ye. That in my mind encompasses my thoughts on JFK and his administration .
President Kennedy gave his life for his country 50 years ago today and I or any American will never forget him . During the time of his presidency many Americans did not understand his vision of America. He moved fast on some things like our race to the moon against the Soviet Union but not fast enough on issues like Civil Rights of Women's Rights.
We were inspired by his inaugural speech that asked us not to just  take from America but to give as well to take the torch that has been given to us and to light the world. He gave the challenge to youth at the time to go out into the world and make it better . He started the Peace Corps that said to the world that American troops would not be the only young people in their countries.
President Kennedy inspired us all and gave us hope but we did not know him. We did not know that he was very ill and suffered excruciating  pain throughout his presidency. We did not know that his father suffered a stroke and was unable to communicate. As someone whose father suffered a stroke and cannot communicate, I understand the stress he must have been under. His children were under a constant spotlight. President Kennedy was from privilege  and did not always understand what it was like not to have it but he was willing to listen. What was great about President Kennedy is that he did not know everything and he knew it . He reached out to America to help him understand. He made mistakes and was willing to admit it . He made mistakes and he made changes. He toured FBI headquarters and asked director J Edgar Hoover why he had only one Black agent in the entire FBI and called him to recruit more. President Kennedy knew that America was far from perfect but he was willing to do what was necessary to make it such. He was slow and sometimes resistant on Civil Rights but went on to know that it was either Civil Rights or Civil War.
President Kennedy was all that was good about the new America and he was willing bring us into it kicking and screaming. I was only 6 when President Kennedy was killed but he has shaped my thoughts , my political philosophy and all that I dream of .
Johnny we hardly knew ye but we're glad we did.

When Life Gives You Broken Legs, Walk on Your Hands

I was watching a movie the another night called "Wings of Eagles". It was about the life of Frank "Spig" Wead aviation pioneer and screenwriter . It was directed by John Ford and starred John Wayne as Wead. It was an average movie kind of melodramatic and stiff in some parts. What I liked about this movie was not the movie itself but its message. It was my burning bush for career change and the incentive to move on.
In the movie, Spig Wead an award-winning aviator and recently promoted from Lieutenant to Lieutenant Commander returned home to visit his wife and two daughters in Coronado California.
Awakened in the middle of the night by his daughter crying, he leaps from his bed and rushes to her aid. On the way he trips and falls down the stairs breaking his back.
The injury caused paralysis making it impossible for him to sit up or walk on his own.
Having hope that he would fly again he underwent physical therapy but abandoned the idea of being an aviator again . He was unable to fly again but he came to realize that he had other talents that could be used by him to start another career.  After reading  stories in detective magazines, Wead started to submit stories . At first he was rejected but after revising his stories and resubmitting them, he eventually sold one and the check for the stories arrived on the same he was to be medically retired from the Navy.
To make a long story short, Frank "Spig" Wead became a Hollywood screenwriter, novelist and award-winning playwright . At the start of WWII Wead went back into the Navy and became a top-notch aviation strategist and planner. His ideas helped to re-build naval aviation after Pearl Harbor . He died two years after the end of the War.
Okay, that's the outside story here is the inside story, my story.
Just like Frank Wead, I came to a roadblock in my career that stopped me in my tracks. I didn't break my back and I wasn't an aviator but my career as a teacher meant a great deal to me and I put my all into it and became the best prepared of any of my peers, little too prepared. To make a short-story shorter, I was forced off my job because I made too much money . That broke my back in many ways, financially, professionally and socially. At first I was angry and frustrated that I could be forced off my job for the simple fact that I wanted to stay prepared as an educator.
I thought this way until I saw "Wings of Eagles" and realized that some people do not have a rosy career path and run into obstacles . When something is taken away from you like your back or your job you have to look at not what you don't have but what you do have . Maybe I didn't have my teaching job any more but I had to think about what I do have . A good education, a wealth of experience and the confidence and ability to know that there isn't anything that I can't do .
I am an excellent communicator, resourceful and a quick study. I know what I am willing to do and what I am not willing to do. I am a salesman but I do not like sales . I am a teacher but I do not like when people do not value learning. I know what kind of business I would like to work in and will not stop until I am in a work situation that I am comfortable in.
I want to began a career in the area of training and communications. I have taken the talents that I have and parlay them into a new career knowing that is will not be easy. The most difficult thing about starting a new career is the fact that most of the people that you have come in contact with see you in a particular role and it is hard for them to get that role out of their head. This might sound harsh but I will have to distance myself from those people and find people who see me in the role that I want to be seen in and prepare for that role. Isolation sometimes is a good way to  stay away from people until you are fully immersed in the role that you want.
I want to be a writer so I have to write, blog publish and develop ideas. I have to spend all of my free time preparing for my new career. Sending out resume's and preparing writing samples, going to trade shows and conventions until people see me as a technical writer and trainer. Do not waste my time being involved in anything that will not get me into my new career.
Just like Spig Wead, I broke my back and now I have to take what I have been left with and start anew. I may not be able to fly anymore, but soon I will soar like an eagle.

Gatsby is Still Great

Gatsby is Still Great
I did something that I was very reluctant to do the other night. I went to the theater and saw the latest version of The Great Gatsby. I was reluctant to do it because I did not want to ruin the visions that I had of the 1975 version of the movie starring Robert Redford as Jay Gatsby. I was apprehensive about viewing the latest version because I felt that it might take away from Redford's stellar performance and destroy my adolescent illusion of what I saw to be a perfect adaptation of the novel.
I approached this new version with a sense of caution caused by this idea of perfection. I was wrong about the movie and the entire concept of the hip hop version of the Great Gatsby. After sitting down and putting on my 3-d glasses and settling in for the show I realized that this movie was well beyond a hip hop Jay-Z produced version of a classic.
I think that Sean "Jay -Z" Carter took on this project as a way to show the public at large that he has risen well beyond that role and his talents far exceed the implications. I like, I am sure many of the other viewers, were coming to hear hip-hop but what we saw was a fusion of jazz hip-hop and pop music of both the 1920s and 2013. The scenes and the characters were well enveloped by this blend of music and magic that transported us from our seats into the world of Jay Gatsby taking Jay-Z our music genius of the 21st century to George Gershwin the Jay-Z of the 1920s.
This was clearly evident with the introduction of Gatsby on the heels of Rhapsody in Blue, delivering the character from enigma to reality and face to face with Nick Caraway who to this point had only had brief glimpses of his elusive neighbor and whiffs of evidence that he actually exists  . Rhapsody builds up to a crescendo and there is Gatsby face to face with Nick. I have not seen as spectacular a meeting since Spenser Tracy said to Cedric Hardwicke " Dr. Livigstone, I presume?" Leonardo DeCaprio simply says Jay Gatsby . At that point the torch was passed from Redford to DiCaprio and Gatsby was his.
What I liked about DiCaprio's performance was that by the end of the movie you truly believed that Leonardo DiCaprio was Jay Gatsby not the Redford version but the Fitzgerald version . He showed what Redford did not Gatsby's frailties, his insecurities and his downright weakness. Particularly in the tea party scene where he walks outside in the rain to avoid Daisy afraid to confront her after a 5 year hiatus from her life.
Tobey McGuire gives an excellent performance as Nick Caraway . By the end of the movie I was wishing  that he was my friend. His performance took him far beyond the Sam Waterson version of Caraway who in my opinion was more of an observer and by the end clearly unaffected by the events of the summer and the death of Gatsby. Waterson was clearly upset by Gatsby's death but McGuire was completely changed by his experience with Gatsby and led to a nervous breakdown and a recovery through literature. McGuire like DiCaprio is a consummate actor, who becomes the character he is playing and because of is nondescript persona he is like modeling that enhances a movie rather than overshadow it. These two actors to my knowledge have never been paired up before and may never be paired up again but they are foundation that this quality movie is built upon.
The rest of the cast follows the lead of DiCaprio and McGuire and complement one another including Carey Mulligan and Elizabeth DeBicki  playing Daisy Buchanan  and Jordan Baker respectively. They transcended the roles played by Mia Farrow and Lois Chiles in the Redford version . They brought more personality and aggressiveness to their roles and showed they were in Daisy's words not just little fools but complemented DiCaprio and McGuire.
All in all the new version of the Great Gatsby has a place right up there with the 1975 Redford version . This version was more blunt and sassy and makes Gatsby greater and gives us a real sense of the character that Fitzgerald labored so hard for us to get to know. By the end of the movie I agreed with Nick Caraway that he was better than all of them put together.