Pondering Favorites

I am a fan but seldom a fanatic. I enjoy a variety of sports teams, foods, books, movies, TV shows, and Bible versions.

Sports have always been a significant part of my life. Growing up in New Orleans, I was an avid supporter of both the LSU Tigers and Tulane Greenwave. I still cheer for those Tigers (and their recent NCAA national championship in football) and most SEC schools. As a child I liked the St. Louis Cardinals baseball club and even have a memory of seeing the great Bob Gibson pitch in old Busch Stadium. I was a Pistol Pete Maravich fan as well as that of Johnny Unitas and the Baltimore Colts. My favorite sport was baseball to watch, play, and umpire. Relief pitcher Lindy McDaniel was one of my heroes. After 21 years in the majors, he now is active as a blogger (Pitching for the Master) and a minister for the Lavon church of Christ in Texas. I would love to meet him one day as we seem to have a lot in common.

I enjoy lots of foods especially when my wife is cooking them. I am a fan of the homemade. We joke about our favorite place to eat being the Lee Family Restaurant. Through her masterful patience and tutelage, I have learned to help create in our kitchen. The best smell to savor in returning home from Sunday worship is the fragrance of a roast simmering in the crock pot since 5 a.m. That odor is better than fresh baked bread. Of course it is surrounded by potatoes and carrots and covered in gravy. Is your mouth watering yet?

My favorite book is The Black Rose by Thomas B. Costain. As an avid childhood reader, I enjoyed dog stories by Albert Payson Terhune, Jack London, Jim Kjelgaard, and James Oliver Curwood. I was also thoroughly entertained by the collected works of Edgar Rice Burroughs and nearly anything science fiction.

I have an extensive DVD collection. My prefered genres include science fiction and fantasy, westerns, sports, and those cheesy Hallmark movies (Christmas and otherwise). I also love the old musicals Sound of Music, Brigadoon, My Fair Lady, and others. I still enjoy replaying old television shows including The Andy Griffith Show, West Wing, and JAG.

On a much higher plain, I grew up learning from the King James Version of the Bible. In college I began using the Revised Standard Version and helped distribute the Good News for Modern Man on Campaigns Northeast during the summer of 1971. In my later adult years I have evolved through the New American Standard Version, New International Version, and English Standard Version. These days I listen to The Message on my phone. The fresh wording of familiar passages in this paraphrase often inspires my blog ideas. It presents a fresh approach that encourages my imagination.

My life favorites, whether trivial or serious, are varied just like yours. It is fun to remember preferences and choices stretching from childhood into "old" age. I am a huge fan of both memory and imagination.

Comfort Part 2

I read and watch "old" movies. If I liked the book or film the first time, I invariably delight in it the next. Revisiting the story line and characters seems like a reunion with old friends. It is similar to eating my wife's cooking. The meal is usually amazing the first time and often better as planned-overs (our name for left-overs) once the flavors have time to blend overnight. Recently she made blackened chicken and rice. I indulged four times over the next few days. Yum!

Whether I'm stressed or simply tired, I enjoy lounging in my oversized recliner listening to my favorite book on audio. The Black Rose by Thomas B. Costain is an historical fiction novel. Oxford student Walter of  Gurnie flees the Norman oppression of England and joins Kublai Khan's conquest of China. He returns home a wealthy hero. It is an enthralling mix of adventure, travel, science, and romance. Our first meeting was decades ago in junior high school. Now I have a personal reunion with Costain's best about every other year. I feel the same about the more than two dozen Tarzan books by Edgar Rice Burroughs and the numerous Sunnybank collie stories of Albert Payson Terhune.

Similarly I get special comfort from watching old films for the umpteenth time. The Fifties science fiction classic Them is at the top of my favorite's list. Despite its black and white format, I marvel as giant ants challenge Matt Dillon and Santa Claus in the sewers beneath Los Angeles. Additionally John Wayne westerns (Hondo or Big Jake) and James Stewart big screen treasures (It's a Wonderful Life or Broken Arrow) can relax me after a busy day. I can slip comfortably into nap time in my recliner during any showing. When I awake, I know exactly where the movie is. There is no need to rewind. No, it's not a total waste of time. It is simply comfort.

Matter…does it?

Though science was never my strong suit (or study) in school, science fiction (and the astronomy that accompanied the spacey ends of sci-fi) was always of great interest. I even “collect” classic movies from the 50s including The Thing from another world (Matt Dillon of Gunsmoke version), Them (also starring Matt, aka James Arness before the cowboy hat), The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Deadly Mantis, The Giant Claw (cheesiest monster ever screened), and a few others. I even have a DVD wish list with a few more noted in case you ever want to buy me something.

Shifting gears…I remember the scientifically iron-clad, set-in-concrete, hard-and-fast, absolute statement that went something like “Matter can neither be created nor destroyed.” Before I rescind, rethink, and revisit this “absolute” theory…allow me to tie it to the fantasy. I’ve seen time and time again on both big and little screens matter being melted, powdered, atomized, and disintegrated. You may remember the ray that came from the robot’s faceplate in The Day the Earth Stood Still. Gor left a visible, if somewhat shadowy, pile of darkness behind when combating man or his weapons. Captain Kirk and crew, with phasers on full rather than set just to stun, seemed to vaporize what they hit as the opponent or rock turned to a sparkly nothingness. James Arness seemed to become simply a pile of cloth when caught in the mankind-saving arc of electricity near the North Pole. That reminded me of the fantasy (though not quite of the sci-fi genre) The Wizard of Oz which showed pure natural spring water by the bucketful melting a wicked witch into a heap of fabric – fortunately for memorabilia collectors, the broomstick survived (probably floated on the water molecules). Remember also that the lightsabers of Luke and papa Darth seemed to have the same effect on victims (when sliced, all that was left of Ben was his robe – though it is possible that Scotty beamed him “up” just before Vader’s saber cut into him) unlike the blasters which just left oozing holes of death. Some of these imaginary weapons seemed to destroy flesh and bone but not clothing. Other times there was “complete” disintegration. It depended on the script, the director’s whim, and the skill of the special effects guy (sorry for the gender stereotype).

Let us return for a moment, not to those “thrilling days of yesteryear” (apologies to the masked man and his Indian-friend Tonto – before that nomenclature for the latter became politically incorrect), but to the reality of the only time in all creation (pun intended) when the matter theory was violated. Early chapters of Genesis record that God created some things from nothing by merely speaking. Other times He chose to actually work with his hands to manufacture or place items. God spoke and light was (1:3); again He spoke and dry ground appeared (1:9); a third time He verbalized and vegetation and plants were everywhere (1:11).

Then there were the occasions on which the Creator seemed to want to actually “get His hands dirty” by not using full omniscience and omnipotence; rather, he chose to make “two great lights…and set them” in the sky (1:16-17). God’s greatest day’s work was when he “formed” man from dust and dirt (2:7). Then you might remember how he actually “planted” the garden (2:8) to create the Eden paradise for Adam and Eve (first surgical operation – rib transplanted for semi-cloning? Though she no doubt was lots better looking that her husband – 2:21-22).

It all reminds me of a statement from another course of study that I was never too fond of…mathematics. I remember hearing that if A = B then B = A. If we are made in His image and after His likeness, then not only are we like Him, but He is like us. Hmmm…

So, while we, made in God’s image and after His likeness, may wish at times to create something from nothing or by simply stating, “Let there be…” (You complete the wish.) we are limited to taking what He or His created have made available to us…we work from real matter to invent and construct. Only God can totally destroy matter…or create it from nothing.

Dueling

Recently I watched one of my favorite movies about music, The Five Pennies, detailing the life and struggles of Ernest Loring “Red” Nichols, cornet player and Big Band leader extraordinaire. As you may never have pondered, there is a difference between a musical and a movie about music.

The former takes a possibly otherwise music-less plot and characters and puts lots of songs at strategic points scattered appropriately throughout the scenes. Examples of musicals are The Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, Fiddler on the Roof, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Brigadoon, The Wizard of Oz, Oklahoma…the list is almost endless including good and bad renderings. I love many musicals, some just for the music, others for the storyline as well. One highlight of our mid-life travels included our staying at the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, Vermont. That’s where the Sound of Music family settled after immigrating to America to escape the spider flag people that made everyone so cross with one another during World War II. That vacation was a picturesque and memorable experience.

The latter, movies about music, would include the aforementioned Pennies, The Glenn Miller Story, and Yankee Doodle Dandy, just to name a few. Those usually include great music with a better-than-average plot involving the lives of real characters who loved music and made it a top priority in their lives. In the three named above, Danny Kay, Jimmy Stewart, and James Cagney all do remarkable jobs of portraying Nichols, Miller, and George M. Cohan respectively. I enjoy both types of movies a lot.

So if you’re still with me and haven’t as yet escaped back into your real, music-less world…you may be asking yourself what in the treble clef this has to do with the title of this blog…Dueling? It just so happens that Red Nichols hooks up with Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong in Pennies to engage in what I like to call dueling brass. Red’s cornet begins a jazzed-up version of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” which is joined by Satchmo’s trumpet in true Dixieland style. They “duel” together on screen while ad-libbing and echoing each other as the tempo brightens and the pitch soars. As a brass lover who played trumpet for 10 years from grade two until high school graduation, I love watching and re-watching that scene. It also helps that I have fond memories of my son Daniel who became quite a good trumpeter in his teen years.

That made me ponder other “duels.” Of course, historically, there was Burr’s outshooting Hamilton in that episode from early U.S. History that we all studies in junior high and high school classes. Several movies and television shows about duels come to mind as well. In The Count of Monte Cristo, Edmund Dantes and his “son” discover the truth before they shoot it on the “field of honor.” An episode of my favorite TV show, all about Andy Griffith and life in and around the peaceful town of Mayberry, has the Wakefields and Carters performing their version of the Hatfields and McCoys as Sheriff Taylor takes a side-trip to ponder the goings on of the Bard’s Romeo and Juliet. With Andy’s well-scripted guidance, the feud ends and a happy marriage commences.

Two other musical “duelings” come to mind. Of course there’s the famous and infamous “Dueling Banjos” in Deliverance; and more dueling banjos picking at top speed to win a coveted prize and title in “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.” Those boys were smokin’! (Exactly what I'm not sure?)

The “real” dueling that comes to mind however has nothing at all to do with music. I don’t even remember Dennis Weaver or the my-face-can’t-be-on-film truck driver ever singing, playing, or even humming or whistling anything. The movie was Duel (1971 – year of my marriage – no I wouldn’t dare blog about that 39+ year dueling – just kidding, honey, it’s been wonderful). It was one of creepiest films I’ve ever seen. I think my wife would agree. Dennis Weaver is driving an old, broken-down, barely alive automobile cross country on a business trip in the daze before GPS and cell phones. He gets in a periodic duel with a tanker truck obviously driven by a terrorist (one bent on terrorizing others – in this case Weaver’s character – for no apparent reason that the script dictates it) played by famous stunt actor Carey Loftin. It gets dangerous; it gets scary; it gets intense. Choose your weapons? Not swords or clubs or even pistols at 10 paces (certainly not musical instruments)…count, walk, turn, and fire at will with your carefully-chosen seconds poised to enforce the rules and assist the wounded. Not this flick. These two “stars” get in their respective vehicles and stalk each other on the highways at high speeds with evil intent. I trust that’s just enough of the plot to whet your appetite.

So my mind foggily blogged from the serene and entertaining musical brass duel of The Five Pennies to the intensely powerful, dramatic vehicular “war” of Duel. Such is the nature of blogging…at least in my cranial cavity.