The Oppenheimer Report: June 2019

Tuesday, June 25, 2019

The Oppenheimer Report 6/24/19

Flock Of Seagulls

Is it just me or has anyone else noticed that escapism seems to be overtaking the film industry? A while back, perhaps during the last Oscars, I remarked that I was tired of all the emphasis Hollywood was placing upon superhero movies, and fantasy movies in general. Yes, I have an imagination, and I enjoy a good fantasy film, but there are so many interesting, real, and new stories to tell. I also suggested that the reason those big budget Marvel movies and Game-Of-Thrones-style fantasies are so popular, especially now, is because there is heightened trepidation about the state of the real world. Donald The Imbecile, as I have newly crowned him, routinely flirts with international disaster, and American politics has begun to resemble the World Wrestling Federation. Vision, creativity, and leadership are sorely lacking, and this is reflected in the music to which we listen.

Billy Macpherson, a musician friend with whom I recently sang a duet in the Hunters Bay Radio fundraiser event at Huntsville’s Algonquin Theatre, gave me an interesting article to read the other day. It was written by singer-song writer/ playwright Ian Tamblyn, and in it, he traces the gradual decline of popular music as a valued art form. The gist of the article is that the digitalization of music has facilitated that decline. Once an expensive venture, largely controlled by big record companies, the recording and promotion of music had become much easier and cheaper with the emergence of digital recording. Gradually, a new generation of listeners, raised in the digital age, came to believe that they shouldn’t have to pay for recorded music. Why buy the cow when the milk is free? No longer are fans buying (or listening) to entire albums of music. Now they buy, or download for free, only the songs they choose. While the field of talented artists continues to grow exponentially, the rewards for being creative and talented are getting harder to reap. I realize this sounds like Jamie the fuddy-duddy, ranting about the “music these days”. I confess I am a little grumpy today. Still, I think that there are more young people these days listening to the music my generation likes than there were young people from my generation, listening to the music our parents liked. By the way, I’m not saying I don’t like Hip Hop or Rap – there is a sub-culture of those two genres about which I am learning and have come to respect and appreciate – I’m talking about what is being played as pop music on commercial radio today.

This week, I decided to broadcast another all request theme show, and I put up a post on Facebook asking for weird, bizarre, goofy, bubble-gummy, and otherwise unusual pop songs that my listeners remember from their past. In my opinion, even the terrible novelty songs from the distant past seem pretty good to me, when compared to the soul-sucking auto-tuned, synthesized sameness of much of today’s pop music. It all goes back to what I suggested at the beginning of this report. In my opinion, imagination is on injured reserve. In the five hours after asking for quirky pop songs, I had 43 responses. Typically, I will receive somewhere between 60 and 100 song suggestions in the month leading up to one of these theme-based all-request shows with a theme, but there may be more for this one. Next month on Lyrical Workers, I will place emphasis on Canadian pop music. I fully expect to get some imaginative selections suggested by my listeners. They have not let me down so far. I know that I will have a lot of fun putting that show together. Yes, of course Yummy, Yummy, Yummy by Ohio Express will be on the playlist. It’s one of my favorites! What is YOUR goofy pop tune choice??

Jamie Oppenheimer, Songwriter, Author, Blogger, Radio Producer, & Host has been writing THE OPPENHEIMER REPORT every MONDAY since 1992 and has published the articles on his blog since 2006. We are including Jamie's weekly reports, as a new feature of #HuntersBayRadio, The Bay 88.7FM.
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Monday, June 17, 2019

The Oppenheimer Report 6/17/19

Another Father’s Day has come and gone, and I am always reminded of my dad when the day rolls around. If you have a good dad, I hope you appreciate or appreciated him, not just on Father’s Day, but every day he is alive. Anyone who has been reading this report for a while knows that I have great love and respect for my departed parents. Sometimes, when I’m out and about, and I see a boomer caring for his or her elderly parent, I am reminded of some of the challenges my family faced when my parents got old. Both my mom and dad lived well into their 90s, and I might have been one of the first of my circle of friends to face those challenges. There were some difficult times. Someone once suggested to me that that the most horrible thing for an elder to experience is the loss of their ability to think and reason. I’m not sure I agree. My mom was in a state of advanced Lewy Body dementia for almost five years before she passed. While caring for her was complicated and challenging, I think her deterioration was harder on her loved ones and her caregivers than it was on her. She and my then nonagenarian dad spent their last years at home, accompanied by round the clock caregivers. I think all of it was harder on my father, because was relatively clear-headed until he passed at 98. A fiercely independent man, he had difficulty coping with the loss of his dignity, and the gradual erosion of his quality of life. As our elderly population grows, and more of my peers are facing the challenges of caring for their elderly parents, it’s easy for both the children and the parent to lose perspective. The Golden Years are not always so golden.

I remember sitting with my dad at his bedside one night, shortly before he passed on, and he told me he felt as if he had no purpose. He wanted to die. I am sure other children have had this experience with their elder parents, but I did not know what to do with that information. Dad had lost his perspective on what he had achieved in his life, and how much his life had positively impacted others. The next morning, I wrote him a long letter, and in it I pointed out some of the things he’d forgotten about his numerous achievements in life. It didn’t matter if he could no longer balance a check book, or to change the furnace filters by himself. He had done a lot of wonderful, unselfish things, and he’d been a great dad. I just wanted him to know that his son respected him and loved him for the good man he had so consistently been. Old age can be an emotional mine field, and it might be the hardest mental challenge I have ever encountered. If it was hard on me, I cannot imagine what it was like for my dad. I guess this is all a long-winded way of saying, if you have (had) good parents be thankful. My parents weren’t perfect, no parents are, but they taught me the meaning of love, and no matter what happens to me now, I am armed with the best defense I could ever hope to have.

Last Thursday night was notable for several reasons. First, we held a very successful, well-attended HBR fundraiser concert at the Algonquin Theatre in Huntsville, wherein over thirty local musicians, organized by our talented fearless leader Sean Cotton, re-created the legendary Joe Cocker’s Mad Dogs & Englishmen concert. After a high energy show, we all headed over to the Huntsville Brewhouse to watch the Raptors beat the Golden State Warriors for their first ever NBA championship in Raptors history. What a thrill it was to watch this historic event with an enthusiastic crowd in a bar! As I write this, Shauna and I are watching the Raptors victory parade presently creeping towards Toronto’s City Hall. There are reportedly over 2 Million people celebrating in and around Nathan Phillips Square, and this may be one of Canada’s proudest moments in a long time. I’m happy for Toronto fans, and delighted to see the country celebrating so happily.

Monday, June 10, 2019

The Oppenheimer Report 6/10/19

Let there be no mistake, I am not a fan of basketball. In fact, I’ve lost much of my limited interest in professional sports. I was once a big fan of the Buffalo Sabres, and for about 20 years, beginning with the inception of the franchise, my family held seasons tickets and attended all Sabres home games. They broke my heart hundreds of times, but I remained a loyal fan for a long time. Then, in '94, when I got married and moved to Toronto, I gradually got sucked into the Toronto Maple Leafs vortex of doom. The Leafs were the nail in the coffin for me. I have always maintained the opinion that professional sports are over-rated. While the athletes are often remarkably talented, the obscene amounts of money involved spoil everything for me. Lately I have lost interest in most professional sports, developing the same disdain that I have for overpaid pop musicians, and celebrities in general. I feel, especially here in North America, much too much emphasis is placed upon the ones who earn the most money. I concede that they are paid enormous salaries because they attract large audiences and earn money for their employers, but there is a universe of talent out there that is eclipsed by the overpaid few. I suppose I’ve always felt that way, but the older I get and the grumpier I become, the less inclined I am to get worked up over a team that will inevitably break my heart.

Enter the Toronto Raptors. As I said, I am not a basketball fan, and never have been, but from the moment I watched Kawhi Leonard’s remarkable last-second, four-bouncer basket to beat the 76ers, I was hooked. I’ve watched every Raptors playoff game since that win, and it has been an exciting ride. Buoyed by the exuberating energy of the Toronto fans, I have been swept up in the excitement, and will watch their journey until the bitter or sweet end. I have learned more about the sport in the past three weeks than I ever knew, and the more I understand the strategies of the game, the more I appreciate their victories. What particularly impresses me about the team is that they do not appear to be overtly arrogant or cocky. I remember watching the Buffalo Bills just before their first (and I think most humiliating) bid for the Superbowl title, and their arrogance was palpable. To a man, the Raptors seem composed, focused, and most astonishingly, relatively humble. The message so clearly received from these underdogs is: we haven’t finished the job; we will try our hardest, and we will not pop the cork until we win. I love the story, not only because they are the underdog, but because they have fought so hard to get where they are, for so long, supported by so many loyal and enthusiastic Toronto fans. Is it not appropriate that the only Canadian NBA team is a strong contender to be overall champions, given that James Naismith, a Canadian, invented the sport? I don’t know what will happen tonight, but regardless of the outcome of this game, they still have three more chances after that, and they’ve already done their fans, their city, and their country proud.

Final note. While I lost interest in the Stanley Cup playoffs after the Leafs were eliminated, I am encouraged to note that the Boston Bruins, who barely beat the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round, are now headed back to Boston for Game 7 of the finals. Don Cherry said they’re going to win the cup, and shouldn’t we believe everything that snappy dresser says? Even though I am an abused sports fan, and even though I have sworn not to get sucked into pro sports ever again, I have been intoxicated by the Toronto fandemonium, and cannot help myself.

But I still hate pro sports.

Tuesday, June 04, 2019

The Oppenheimer Report 6/3/19

Shauna with Jon Brooks 6/1/19

Last Wednesday marked the 25^th anniversary of my marriage to Shauna Leigh. We have been through a lot as a couple, yet the fundamental principles that brought us together are still intact. Because Shauna has been incarcerated by illness for almost two years, these past few weeks have, figuratively speaking, been the spring to our prolonged winter. We’ve been out four or five times together during the past month, and Shauna is slowly beginning to regain some of her independence and self-esteem, which had been eroded by her two-year struggle to regain some sense of normalcy. As many of my readers can attest, illness is isolating and demoralizing. Until we lose our good health, we sometimes take for granted the mundane pleasures of life. A walk, a dinner out, a house concert, or the simple act of doing the laundry together, all become more meaningful after a long bout of illness.

Friends and family worry about me, because I am the caregiver. Shauna has suffered from a myriad of debilitating chronic illnesses, likely triggered by an episode of severe food poisoning, which almost killed her she was a young woman. I was well aware of Shauna’s medical condition before we married, but I knew in my heart that there was enough love and mutual respect to make the marriage work. I don’t think anyone knows for sure what a lifetime commitment is going to entail, and judging from divorce statistics nowadays, a lot of folks throw in the towel before they find out. No one, regardless of their circumstances, escapes adversity in their lives. These past two years have proved to be a test for us. Anyone put in this position knows how hard it can be emotionally, both on the caregiver, and on the one who is ill. The logical advice is that caregivers need to take care of themselves so that they can take care of others, but it’s remarkable how that logic goes out the window when the sh#t hits the fan. The good news is that Shauna seems to have weathered this latest storm, and is beginning to recover from the neurological attack which came close to blinding her.

On our anniversary, we spent the day in Huntsville, took a short walk, enjoyed a great iced coffee at The Nutty Chocolatier, and ended the day with a sumptuous feast at the Tall Trees Restaurant. To most, these activities would have seemed mundane, but to a couple sidelined by illness, this was a long overdue vacation. In this report I often speak about losing perspective. In my youth I took a lot for granted, but have lately begun to feel thankful for simpler things. It is largely a North American myth that material possessions and monetary wealth are the only measures of prosperity, but I’ve learned a hard lesson that prosperity without health and contentment is meaningless.

Last Saturday night, Shauna and I attended a house concert together, featuring the brilliant Jon Brooks, one of our favorite songwriters (accompanied by bassist Vivienne Wilder and our own Sean Cotton on guitar). The concert was held at the Bracebridge home of Hunters Bay Radio host and friend Silver Lake Joe Thompson and his wife Corinna. It was a wonderful night of music and laughter. Since Shauna’s re-entry into the outside world, we have attended two excellent house concerts in Muskoka, both having occurred within the last month. After music brought us together, twenty-five years ago last Wednesday, I married the woman I deemed to be my soul mate. Shauna, I’m glad you’re starting to get back on your feet, and that we are once again sharing live performances together. Here’s hoping we will attend many more concerts, side by side, throughout next twenty-five years!

The Oppenheimer Report