Random Monday notes and warnings

As every single Star Wars movie has said at least once: I have a very bad feeling about this. PLEASE brothers and sisters in the Occupy movement, do not underestimate a cutthroat conservative politician who is afraid of losing their base, and what they might do to keep that base happy.

Occupiers are planning to defy Governor Haley's unconstitutional 6pm curfew at the State House in Columbia. My best Deadhead vibes are with them, as well as my warnings. My Tarot counseled me in no uncertain terms, not to go. Reshuffled, threw it again, even worse the second time. I decided that since I have no bail money, I would sit this one out. If I had a lawyer at the ready and bail money, I would be taking part.

Nikki Haley is weathering several scandals right now, and Occupy Columbia is popularly regarded as one of these. Conservatives want her to sweep the place, and "get tough" on Occupy. She finally did, and the nineteen arrests were greeted as a positive by conservatives.

Haley is currently dealing with an ethics-based lawsuit:

COLUMBIA -- A top Republican donor and critic of Gov. Nikki Haley asked a court Thursday to decide whether she broke ethics laws while she was a member of the South Carolina House. Haley discounted the lawsuit.

The lawsuit filed in circuit court in Richland County by John Rainey centers around Haley's jobs as a fundraiser for the Lexington Medical Center and with an engineering firm that has state contracts.

The lawsuit is the culmination of months of digging by Rainey, former chairman of the state Board of Economic Advisors, who first raised questions about Haley's work in 2010 during her campaign for governor.

Rainey, a longtime Republican activist, declined comment on the suit Thursday, as did his lawyer, Democratic Party Chairman Dick Harpootlian.

"There's nothing there," Haley said during a visit Thursday to the Alcoa aluminum plant in Goose Creek. "He needs to get a life," she said, referring to Rainey. "It's a silly vendetta."

The lawsuit accuses the Republican governor of working as a lobbyist for the hospital, and of soliciting lobbyists to donate to its foundation.

It also accuses her of failing to disclose information on campaign filings about her work for Wilbur Smith, and of not recusing herself from a vote benefiting the employer, as well as not explaining on another vote why she did recuse herself.

"Haley exploited her public office for personal financial gain by trading on her influence and office to benefit corporations that were paying her money," the lawsuit alleges.

The lawsuit accuses Haley, first elected in 2004 to represent Lexington in the House, of lobbying the state Department of Health and Environment Control on behalf of Lexington Medical, as it sought permission for a new open-heart surgery center.

In addition, fiscal conservatives have been livid over her well-publicized "jobs junket" to France and Germany.

Governor Haley has unfairly baited and trashed Occupy Columbia from the beginning. Therefore, I am worried that she will use a crackdown for political gain, and as a diversion tactic.

Please, everybody, be careful and be prepared.

~*~

Required reading: At Religious Right Forum, GOP Candidates Weep and Proselytize. Yes, it's as bad as you think it is.

What's funny is how Newt and Ron Paul can't quite get with the program. They are congenitally unable to act a fool in public:

Herman Cain lost his composure when talking about he was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer; former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, Penn., came apart a bit when berating himself for having stayed emotionally distant from his youngest daughter, who has a grave genetic disorder that has twice brought her close to death.

Rep. Michele Bachmann, Minn., told of how her father abandoned her family, leaving her mother to sell their wedding gifts -- "all the pretty dishes" -- at a garage sale. Apparently lacking a personal story to match theirs, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Ga., summoned the tale of a friend's gravely injured child to simultaneously choke up and rail against the health-care reform law signed by President Barack Obama.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry talked of finding Jesus. Rep. Ron Paul, Texas, gave hints of Christian Reconstructionist leanings, but proved himself inept at public soul-bearing. Asked to reveal some personal difficulty, he talked of how injury cut short his high school track career, but then said he realized it wasn't that big a deal.

Another example of why people like Ron Paul: even when he tries to be all touchy-feely and play the Dr Phil game, on some level, his sensible side just won't play along with the okey-doke. He's a doctor, remember?

Newt also tries hard, but his Ebenezer-Scrooge-personality inevitably shows itself, no matter what he does. Now he has added a moral-mea-culpa page to his website, pandering to the Religious Right that is still skeptical of his serial monogamy and general assholery.

I am not surprised Newt has surged to the front of the pack, what with sexual harassers, stoners and religious flakes embarrassing the GOP. He IS smart (like a fox) and the Republicans are long-tired of being shamed by conservative stupidity. Newt, college lecturer and shape-shifting busybody, is the flavor of the hour.

~*~

Glenn Greenwald accurately speaks my thoughts aloud, asking WHY children of rich politicians and commentators get hired by the media, as if they have a clue? Meritocracy? Say what?:

I really don’t understand what those angry, lazy losers in the Occupy movement are so upset about. America is a meritocracy; if you work hard and prove your skills, you get ahead. The winners deserve what they have because they have earned it. And when all else fails, we have a media filled with insurgent outsiders who will be relentless watchdogs over those in power because that’s what our media outlets are: true outsiders there to check the most powerful factions.

Even more encouragingly, we have a media that ensures that diverse views are heard; Chelsea Clinton previously worked at a $12 billion hedge fund and her former-Goldman-Sachs-banker husband earlier this year launched his own hedge fund with “two guys from Goldman,” so she brings a depth and diversity of perspetive that is sorely lacking in our news (true, CNN boldly features Erin Burnett — the former Goldman, Sachs employee and current fiancé of a top Citigroup executive — but nothing can compete with Chelsea Clinton’s rich, impressive journalism background).

And now, we can add Meghan McCain to that list, along with Luke Russert, Imogen Lloyd Webber and Jenna Bush.

Meritocracy? Only if you have the merit to be born to somebody important.

~*~

Have I mentioned that I don't like the fact that there is a movie called "The Kids Are Alright"--since there is also an old documentary about The Who by that name? Please be original enough to think up original names for your movies! If you can't, even if you are Lisa Cholodenko and directed one of my favorite movies of all time, I will boycott your cutesy mainstream movie.

Be advised!

Below: Check out the bemused expressions on the faces of folks floating by in the boats. Keith was adorable! Roger still hadn't morphed into a fashion plate, so you may not even recognize him.


The Kids Are Alright - The Who

Dead Air Sells Out, BJU robs Greenville County (again), etc

At left: Famous cover of THE WHO SELL OUT, from whom I stole half of today's blog post title.



I have decided to enable Google ads on my blog, at long last, because I have run out of unemployment checks. CLICK THOSE ADS, people.

Seriously, I didn't want to. I initially took them off waaaay back in November 2009, due to all the "Is Barack Obama a Muslim?" and "Is Barack Obama the Antichrist?" ads (probably my own fault for naming a post that), which I found pernicious and possibly racist. Thus, in a purist political huff, I yanked the ads. Now I have put them back, since I promised myself if I got X amount of hits, it would be worth my while to do so. And in fact, I have received far more than X, but did not keep my promise to myself.

Why? Well, I still don't like the ads, that's why.

For example, the first ads that came up were for HRT, since one of my posts this month was about hot flashes. Even though I carefully state in the piece, that Hormone Replacement Therapy causes cancer, the ad-placement appears that I approve of HRT if you don't regularly read my blog and/or just skim. Annoying.

Then again, I look at the some of the atheist blogs, and they don't seem to care if they get the Billy Graham Association or Bible Study Guides on their Google ads. (Some of the ads are humongous, and they still don't care!) If they can bite the bullet, I guess I can too. On some level, they are probably thinking that 1) the juxtaposition of atheist content and Bible ads is amusing, and it is, and 2) their readers should be able to come to their own conclusions. And they should.

Supposedly, one can target ads. However, perusing the Google adsense FAQ (containing copious html code), lots of this stuff appears to be written in high-tech gibberish, inaccessible to mere mortals. (I barely figured out how to install my tag cloud, okay?) And I don't know how well the targeting actually works.

But in any event, you will now see ADS, when before, I could afford to be ideologically pure. Next time someone accuses me of disliking capitalism, I can point to all the ads here on DEAD AIR, and say WHAT ABOUT THOSE? Advertising is the American Way, after all.

~*~

Daisy Deadhead Show update: Today was our BEST SHOW YET! We featured the two run-off candidates for mayor of Simpsonville, Perry Eichor and Tammy Bagwell, as well as other call-ins. Check out the podcast to the right.

As promised, I trashed Bob Jones University, and someone called in to helpfully inform me that the BJU Art Gallery downtown was turned over to the county due to staggering debt, and now WE are supporting it. [Note: There is a "satellite" gallery downtown in the old Coca Cola building, while the main gallery is on the BJU campus.]

Well, that's certainly interesting, isn't it?

Entering the address of the BJU art museum into the tax records for Greenville County, I see that 420 College Street, Greenville, SC is deeded to: GREENVILLE COUNTY MUSEUM COMMISSION. Oh yeah? So, Bob Jones University no longer owns it, and they sold it to the county for (one assumes) a hefty profit. Was this sale voted on? Because you know, I don't remember voting on it. Who approved the sale and for how much?

Obviously, one of those sweet backroom deals that local BJU-Republicans are known for.

Market value of the property is listed as $1,394,060. Is that what the County paid for it? Where did this money come from, exactly? Who decided on the deal in the first place? How does this benefit the county?

Stinks, really stinks.

Further, my caller recently visited the Greenville County Auditor's office (Scott Case, BJU again), where there are two brand new fancy plasma TVs for people to watch while waiting in interminable lines. And can you all guess what channel these TVs are tuned to? No, not the Food Network!

Fox News.

When my intrepid caller asked a county employee WHY Fox News? The employee said that was the decision of SCOTT CASE and all interested parties would have to take it up with him.

So, we have TVs paid for by the county (that is to say, US) presumably intended for the entire county population to watch, but they are permanently set on FOX NEWS. Does the county government endorse Fox News officially? Because I think that amounts to political partisanship in neutral government territory.

But then, neutrality is not something they major in, over at BJU. Using the government to their advantage and getting local government to foot their bills and dig them out of art-gallery debt? They have obviously figured out how to do that, as has Governor Haley. And here's the punch line: all while calling themselves fiscal conservatives. As long as they use the magic talisman of *fiscal conservatism* -- they can pretty much run through as much of our collective money as they can get their greedy little hands on.

No wonder the BJU gang all voted for Haley; they have the same morality, or lack of it.

I wish they'd stop saying that...

General Announcement!

The Who without Keith Moon and John Entwhistle are not The Who. Thus, THE WHO are not playing the Super Bowl. HALF of The Who are playing the Super Bowl.

Just wanted to clear that up.



And now, some music with (among others) the REAL Who.



~*~

I have played this video before on DEAD AIR, but love it so much it gets a rerun. All that mods-on-speed dancing! Great cultural artifact, enjoy!

Keith looks about 14... in fact, by my estimation, he was only 18 or 19.



I Can't Explain - The Who (circa 1965)



~*~

Dirty Work - Steely Dan (1972)



~*~

Earworm time! This has been IN MY HEAD FOR TWO SOLID WEEKS! And then I always think of Bill Murray in Lost in Translation (three hanky alert for that clip, for those of you prone to sobbing in the middle of the day!)...

Check out Bryan's early-80s hair, very nice! Most guys who sat and watched themselves in a video-within-a-video? I'd make a nasty crack about narcissism... but this is Bryan Ferry, and as this song makes clear, he has earned the right to do whatever he wants.

More Than This - Roxy Music (1982)



~*~

More Than This - Bill Murray in Lost in Translation (2003)

Birthday jams

I think it's vaguely creepy how Blogger features birthday cake today when I log in. You're a BOT, dude!

Thanks to all my Twitter friends who wished me a happy birthday when I threatened to become hysterical! I love you!

Below: stuff that makes me feel particularly old, in no special order.

~*~

If you are drinking heavily and/or involved with bikers, this is a great break-up song. Famous guitar riffs at the end (by the late Duane Allman), sound just like a whip. WALLOW IN THAT PAIN, people!

Whipping Post - Allman Brothers Band



~*~

Speaking of Twitter, there is hashtag titled #Iwish, and I bet them whippersnappers don't even know where that came from.

Turn it up!

I Wish - Stevie Wonder



~*~

One of those songs that when you search for it on YouTube, you get every single damn amateur troubadour from here to Luckenbach, thinks he can sing it.

We received our education in the cities of the nation...

Me and Paul - Willie Nelson



~*~

Montage of early Who clips. Roger had not yet discovered his trademark flashy Elvis-on-acid outfits, and sometimes appears as if he had just emerged from bad job interview. (He shows his incipient fashion sense at approx 1:02, dons sunglasses.) John, age 21, looks about 14; Keith Moon was all of 19 years old, appears 12. Pete was working on his pseudo-alienated, "I'm too good for mere rock and roll" major artiste pose, which would serve him very well throughout his life.

Check out those 60s mods and their strange amphetamine-inspired dance moves!

I Can't Explain - The Who



~*~

Captain for Dark Mornings - Laura Nyro



Enjoy, and happy birthday to me!

Welcome to the camp, I guess you all know why we're here

White Rabbit knows I simply could not resist stealing this graphic!! (Stalin as a condom is utterly perfect for this post.)






Okay, sports fans, I have calmed my ass down since Saturday, so that's good.

I still have a variety of hits coming from Heart's hardy Ellen Jamesian faction, the faction currently roasting her on a spit. This sordid spectacle reminded me of some patriarchal lyrics by one of my favorite white men, recalling the mass-defection from another (fictional) cult-leader: We forsake you, gonna rape you, let's forget you, better still.

As Oliver North once so memorably said: I no longer give a rat's patootie.

And several supportive emails I received (yes, my lurkers support me in email!) agreed: It is patently ridiculous to seriously posit the idea that I was the one to viciously hack Heart's website (not even sure what "hacking" involves, the old hippie/borderline-Luddite admitted) and/or the one who "handed over" incriminating Biting Beaver quotes (you know, the blogger I am not sure I ever read?) to the bored-teenaged-male-masses, so they would suddenly hyperventilate on cue and rush over to Heart's blog in a collective fury.

Of course, this begs the question of how one gets teenagers to do what you WANT them to do? Anyone who thinks I have ever possessed this magical ability, has clearly not been reading this blog on any sort of regular basis.

(((sigh)))

The Ellen Jamesian blogs have now taken their various purges private. Damn, I hate that, since I know I am now being discussed and accused of everything but the Manson family murders. I'd like to be able to defend myself against these accusations being made about me behind closed doors, but... well....they wouldn't be Ellen Jamesians if they were open and allowed dissent or discussion. They are welcome to come here and confront me openly. None have, preferring to lob their grenades anonymously and send me threatening, cryptic emails. Trashing someone's reputation is a vicious, evil, nasty thing to do. But I realized long ago, when I first criticized Heart's presidential campaign, that this day would likely come, and Heart (who first made the charges against me) and her defenders/cultists would someday seek revenge. Too bad she waited until her influence was waning and disappearing, though... she might have waged a pretty good war.

I am reminded of Ursula K. LeGuin's novel THE LATHE OF HEAVEN, about George, the hapless fellow whose dreams all come true. A megalomaniacal psychiatrist, Dr Haber, learns of George's amazing dreaming-power while treating him for insomnia; George is afraid to sleep, since he cannot control his dreams. (For example, he dreams his sister dies, and she does.) Thus, the good doctor begins "programming" George to dream about those things Dr Haber WANTS to come true: an end to hunger, an end to war, world peace, etc.

Problem is, it doesn't work that way. George can't quite believe there could be a world with no hunger (which is a given in this futuristic novel)...he has never seen or experienced such a thing and cannot envision it. So what George dreams is, there has been a worldwide plague and a large portion of the human race dies off, leaving enough food for everyone remaining. In one of LeGuin's most fabulously-written passages, George slowly wakes and feels himself gain flesh around his middle; he has never before had extra weight. He knows, with a sick, scared, guilt-ridden dread: there is now plenty. Because six-sevenths of the world has died.

Poor George just keeps getting it wrong in exactly this fashion. When he tries to dream of world peace, there is an invasion of aliens, because George just doesn't have it in him to imagine world peace.... there has to be a common enemy to unite the human race. So, there is world peace, all right, but not exactly peace.

And Heart wants to reunite her cult followers, but can't quite do this without introducing a common enemy. Guess who?

Not exactly peace, although it may introduce peace over there in Heartville.

At the end of the novel, the aliens stay...they become part of the new world George has made; a jumble of alternate worlds and histories that he has dreamed. It is incredibly beautiful and poetic, as George (finally cured of his "effective dreaming") embraces the reality he has unwittingly created.

As we all do, of course.

And you know, I don't mind being one of the aliens in feminist Blogdonia, either. Really, I don't. Just allow me the right to stay.

~*~

Turn it up!

Joan Jett & the Blackhearts - Bad Reputation

Another reason to talk about the Who

Fun meme, borrowed from Ren and Amber!

Rules: Choose a singer/band/group- THE WHO

Answer the following using ONLY titles of songs by that singer/band/group
Band/Artist

1. Are you male or female? The Real Me
2. Describe yourself. The Acid Queen
3. What do people feel when they’re around you? They are all in love
4. How would you describe your previous relationship? Cobwebs and Strange
5. Describe your current relationship. Success Story
6. Where would you want to be now? Sea and Sand
7. How do you feel about love? Is it in my head?
8. What’s your life like? Quadrophenia
9. What would you ask for if you had only one wish? Tattoo
10. Say something wise. Love ain't for keeping

Anyone who wants to borrow that, feel free! HIPPIE MEMES ALWAYS!

~*~

In the movie Quadrophenia, we are treated to an inside Mod joke: punctuating the lyrics "Why doncha all ff-ff-ff--" someone helpfully bellows FUCK OFF!!!!! (instead of the much nicer, radio-safe "ff-fff-fffade away"...)

And forever after, I've always heard it that way. ;)

The Who - My Generation (at the Monterey Pop Festival)



Notice:

1) Those really amazing amoebas flashing on the stage. Was that somebody's job, to make those? (Out of squishing paint together, or what?)

2) The clothes are something else. They didn't call them Mods for nothing! Roger's cape makes him look like he is getting ready to sit down, offer you some herbal tea and read your tarot. At the end, during the pandemonium, he is just spinning around, cape flying, oblivious.

3) Nice montage at the end, of various historic destructive Who finales throughout the ages.

4) Keith defies description, as always.

Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere

I've had a hectic work schedule, so my apologies to everyone I owe email to, as well as regular snail mail and phone calls! (Cousin Bethie, this means you.) I'll get around to it, I swear!

Meanwhile, you all get to listen to the Who. You really don't need much else in life.

Fun visual effects in this one, as the primitive black-and-white camera (1965, British TV) swoops around every which-way, trying to look suitably psychedelic for the times. Keith Moon looks maybe 14 years old, as he smashes away at the drums. God, I miss him. I forget which writer (possibly Greil Marcus or Dave Marsh?) said Keith kept Pete from taking himself too seriously, balancing The Who in a way that was forever lost when he passed.

Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere



From the same year, American TV (does anyone remember Shindig?)--

I Can't Explain



PS: Don't forget to watch the Vice Presidential debate tonight! To keep you occupied, by way of wonderful Cracker Lilo, comes the Sarah Palin Baby Name Generator! Amaze your friends!

Dead Air Church: A Quick One While He's Away

We! Have a remedy!

Why am I choosing this for Dead Air Church, you ask? Because of the moral of the story: you are forgiven. And don't forget it!

This was recorded in 1968 for Rock and Roll Circus. If you like rock music, even 40 years gone, this is one of the best live performances on TV that you'll ever see. Enjoy!

(And even though it's incredibly difficult to choose, it might be my favorite song.)

~*~

The Who - A Quick One While He's Away

[via FoxyTunes / The Who]

Captain Walker didn't come home

Left: Tommy's mother, Ann-Margret, swims in baked beans, for reasons unknown, in Ken Russell's version of The Who's TOMMY (1975).

If you've never seen Ken Russell's phantasmagoric version of The Who's rock opera Tommy, you will have the chance tomorrow at 6pm EST, on Turner Classic Movies.

As a big Who fanatic, I will admit here: I used to hate the movie. As a teenager, I wanted the story of Tommy to be all hippie-sensitive and Dr Phil... sort of like the Broadway version turned out, I guess. But now? Bollocks, as Pete Townshend would say.

How often do you get to see Roger Daltrey dosed with acid (by Tina Turner, no less) borne by hundreds of hypodermic needles in some kinky-weird lotus-blossom creation? Keith Moon as child-molesting Uncle Ernie? ("Your mother's left me here to mind you/Now I'm doing what I want to!") Check out Jack Nicholson, as Tommy's concerned physician, sagely intoning "He seems to be completely un-recep-tive! The tests I gave him show no-sense-at-all!" And BTW, where did this American doctor come from? And how did American Ann-Margret get to be the mother of Roger Daltrey, with that Shepherds Bush accent of his? And who doesn't want to see Ann-Margret swimming in baked beans? Come on, admit that you do not see that every day.


Ken Russell is berserk, and extended his berserkery to the film. For those of us who had very definite ideas about Tommy, who he was, what he represented, the movie smashed all of that to hell. Of course, I now see that this deliberate iconoclasm was the whole intention; Townshend was giving the finger to those of us who were deifying Tommy, which was the warning delivered in the rock opera: Don't deify human beings. Only God deserves our worship.

Left: Tommy passes the acid test.

There is one truly incredible, bang-up sequence in the movie, delivered by hizzoner Eric Clapton, which I have included below. The blues classic Eyesight to the Blind (written by Sonny Boy Williamson) was the only non-original song in the rock-opera and was simply too perfect not to include, since Tommy IS deaf, mute and blind. This sequence--Tommy's mother taking him to a faith-healer played by Clapton at a Marilyn-Monroe shrine--is Ken Russell at his finest and most trippy. (Other times, if you've ever seen Russell's indescribably bizarre films The Devils or Lair of the White Worm, you know he can drift far off into Andromeda somewhere... Earth to Ken!) This particular sequence manages to be just bizarre enough to be utterly fabulous.

Great observations, meditations and hallucinations about music, God, worship, disability, trauma, child abuse, sexual abuse, religious hucksters and all of that good cosmic stuff. If you've never seen it and you have a taste for the strange, don't miss it.

~*~

Soft-core memories of the Drive-In

Left: THE STEWARDESSES which of course you know is the highest-grossing 3-D movie of all time!



In my post yesterday, I mentioned soft-core porn. In reading it back, I wondered if such a thing even exists now? What was called soft-core in my youth, could now be broadcast on regular network TV with no trouble and no censorship. And certainly, a movie like Midnight Cowboy, (which, believe it or not, was rated X when it first came out), barely qualifies for an R these days.

But what I loved... ah!... were the soft-core movies at the Drive-In! These movies had occupational names like The Stewardesses and Private Duty Nurses. (This was one reason early punk bands sometimes chose names like The Waitresses.) The women in these movies were often in semi-formal competitions with each other, to see who could bed the most guys, and alas, one would always fall in love and have to quit the competition. It was sweet!

The dialogue was weird, as it was usually written by men. Thus, it was the kind of sexual talk men assume women do outside of their presence. (Check out the fabulous song GIRLS TALK by Elvis Costello; at least Elvis knew he didn't have a clue, which just made him more nervous.) These B-movie girls sounded like guys in a locker room, not surprisingly. What's interesting is that they always seemed to be enjoying the dirty dialogue and performed their sex scenes with aplomb. In one of these (and I regret to say I cannot remember the title, as they all tend to run together in my mind), one woman reached over and turned a lamp on during sex, and smiled the dirtiest smile I've ever seen, before or since. Like the guy in Citizen Kane who remembered the girl with the parasol once a month for the rest of his life... I have always remembered that wicked B-movie smile.

I saw these movies at that transcendent and resplendent place called THE DRIVE IN... I miss drive-ins so much, at times, I fear I will scream when I see photos of them, and particularly (((shrieks!)) if I see a photo of one I actually went to, like this one.

The Drive-Ins showed old movies, second run, B-movies, foreign, whatever. The screens were so enormous, you could see them a mile away. Outside one restaurant parking lot (with an excellent view of a drive-in screen), several of us as teenagers would collect randomly to watch the movies with no sound--and it was in this manner I saw several bad movies (LINDA LOVELACE FOR PRESIDENT), as well as movies that required no sound to enjoy (A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS).

Working-class couples used to take their kids to the drive-in; as children, we'd all be asleep by the time the dirty movies (second feature, usually) came on. Taking the kids in a car meant no babysitting costs; it was a cheap way to have a good time. As kids, we would go in our pajamas and run around like crazy before the movie started, then at nightfall we would be suitably exhausted and fall asleep right after the cartoons, even before the opening credits. The adults might take some beer and some eats, maybe invite the cousins or neighbors--I can recall a "line" of cars that was my stepfather's family--two of his brothers, their wives and children. Lots of people would "meet" other cars at the drive-in and then move from car-to-car--as you might recall from the movie Grease.

If your mother had forbidden you to see a certain boy, you dated his friend, and when you all showed up at the drive-in, you could change places. :) Likewise, pot-smokers, gay folks, and people having extramarital affairs, all found fun stuff to do at the drive-in, and everyone was very discreet.

At the drive-in, leaving your car at night (to go to the bathroom, buy some sodapop or whatever), and moving amongst the microphone-stands, was a thoroughly magical and hallucinatory experience. The microphones, hundreds of them inside cars or outside on their stands, broadcast the movie in unison. This created an amazing, haunting stereophonic echo: drive-in polyphony, as beautiful in our memories as a medieval choir.

I can still remember going to get some 7-Up and hearing the most fantastic noise of my life, and I turned transfixed to see a 50-foot-high, white-fringed Roger Daltrey on the screen in front of me, which was as incredible as if Jesus Christ had come back to earth. Holy shit!--I thought. I stood there in the dark, hypnotized by the huge screen (beautifully surrounded by trees and crisp Midwestern summer night), as those hundreds of microphones brought to me the sound of the greatest rock band in the history of the world. (No, that is not open to debate. Not for nothing is my email "Who fan"!) And I can remember the sound of the film WOODSTOCK at the drive-in, as The Who, Paul Butterfield, Alvin Lee, and so many others radiated rhythm from all of those little microphones...

My wish for everyone is that they should have such a wonderful memory.