The Oppenheimer Report 12/29/14

I've always considered New Year’s Eve to be amateur night, and for the past twenty years I think we have walked to the one or two celebrations we have attended. I used to throw a pot luck dinner party when I lived in Buffalo, and shortly before Midnight, we’d head downtown to watch the not-so-big ball drop from the Niagara Electric building on Genesee St. I was usually stewed by this point, and there were always several designated drivers to insure our safe passage. It was almost always miserable weather, and it just seemed like a lot of trouble to go out. I could be getting wasted in the comfort of my own home, watching America’s oldest teenager MC the gig for me on television. Dick Clark was the best; much better than Ryan Seabreeze.

 

This year my friend Juan Barbosa and his band will be playing in Huntsville, and I think Shauna and I will break tradition and head down to see them play, because he always puts on a good show. I was never a huge fan of big New Year’s Eve gatherings in general, even when I was drinking, and I will always find it a little strange to attend a celebration where most of the other attendees are drinking heavily, now that I am on the wagon.  I’m getting a bit more used to it after a year and a half of sobriety. As long as the partiers have arranged for a sober driver, or a cab ride, I say have at it. Probably the strangest part about being around drunk people is they remind me of what a jackass I could be when I was under the influence.

 

I always enjoy the week preceding the New Year, because it is now when we are reminded of all the newsworthy events that took place throughout the year. A few come to mind automatically. 2014 started out cold. By the end of January, I had for the first time in my life purchased a block heater for my car. I also learned a new term: polar vortex. The crippling Christmas ice storm in Toronto left my mother-in-law without power, as well as most of the rest of the Greater Toronto Area.  The destruction from this storm was astounding. 2014 was also the year when the Toronto Mayor Rob Ford went completely off the rails, for all the world to see. After Toronto Star allegations that Ford had been videotaped smoking crack, incriminating photographs and videos surfaced of Ford publically drunk and ranting, urinating in public, consorting with lowlife criminals, and generally making a damn fool of himself.  I find it ironic that it was ultimately abdominal cancer that sidelined him from the mayoral race, not his deplorable behavior. Local (Huntsville) Olympic Slopestyle skier Dara Howell brought home the gold from the Sochi Winter Olympics, prompting the town to go wild. It was a bad year for Malaysian Airlines. First there was the jet that disappeared without a trace, presumably off the west coast of Australia, and then there was the jet shot down over Ukraine. Now, just the other day, yet another Malaysian jet has disappeared, although this latest tragedy was likely the result of bad weather. Other stories: the “Heartbleed” computer virus, unleashed by a 19 year old Canadian man, reminds us how vulnerable our sensitive information really is. The Ebola virus devastates West Africa claiming thousands so far and still out of control.  RIP, Casey Kasem, Jack Bruce, and most recently, Joe Cocker, dead at 70 of lung cancer.

 

As we usher in 2015, I can only say that 2014 flew by. I think I fulfilled my resolution for 2014, which was to stay sober and to become a better musician/ songwriter.  I finish up this year #3 on the Hunters Bay Radio Top 20 list, and I don’t suck half as badly as I did a year ago as a performer. I still have a long way to go. I resolve to be a more tolerant, loving human being in the year to come, and to assist some of the more gifted artists in my community to find their voice in some public forum. Happy New Year to my 12 loyal readers, see you in 2015!  

 

Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c2014 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

The Oppenheimer Report 12-22-14



The best part about the holidays

A few weeks ago, Shauna’s mom Ethel bit the bullet and bought herself a tablet computer with her air miles points. We honestly did not think she would embrace the internet, especially using a tablet and touch screen technology; up until now she has shown little interest in “surfing the net.” She is just about to turn ninety, and she has always said that new technology is a bit overwhelming to her. But I remember my dad became internet savvy, well into his nineties, and he took to it instantly. Intelligence knows no boundaries. He was for decades his class agent for the Cornell University Alumni News, and an avid correspondent in general. Adding the internet and email to his tools of correspondence vastly upped his game. In much the same way, Ethel has thoroughly embraced this new form of communication, in a very short period of time. The other day she even figured out how to access her supermarket coupons online. She sends messages to friends and family, and recently, she learned how to navigate Facebook. This has been an amusing ride for Shauna and me. As Ethel discovers the wonders of limitless communication, so has she discovered the pitfalls of hitting the “Send” button. The other night, Shauna noticed that Mom Taylor had posted what she thought was a personal message, but instead of posting to her own timeline had posted to George Takei’s – you know, the man who played Lt. Sulu, helmsman on the starship Enterprise, on Star Trek. She is not quite clear about the security settings available for Facebook. No one is less a Trekkie than my mother-in-law, but there she was, sending personal messages to Sulu. Somehow she must have commented to one of his posts by accident, thus sending her “personal” message out to thousands of strangers. We are still trying to figure out how George Takei became her “friend” in the first place! Who else has she friended? Charles Manson? Kim Kardashian? And what is next for my newly enlightened mother-in-law? X-Box? Weird YouTube videos?

 

Last week was a good one for bad news. A lone terrorist commandeered a coffee shop in Sydney, Australia, killing two of his hostages in the standoff, before he himself was killed. Of course there are many questions about why this man had not been incarcerated already, given his rather long history of subversive behavior. There are so many ticking bombs, how can we diffuse them all? Another story that outraged me concerned the Taliban slaughtering about 100 schoolchildren and teachers in Pakistan. Talk about Charles Manson.These demented religious fundamentalist have given evil a new face, and their “buy or die” mentality flies in the face of any decent religious doctrine.  It saddens me when I get my song ideas from these horrible stories on the news. Someone was quoted as saying “The smallest coffins weigh the most” and I found that phrase profound. It is difficult to know how such perversion of everything that is decent and good can be deemed in any way a service to G-d. Then again, look at The Crusades, or Christmas for that matter.

 

America resumes diplomatic relations with Cuba after sixty years, and many Cuban Americans are up in arms. I do not know how I feel about this. I remember the Cuban Missile Crisis, and those bombing drills in school … as if hiding under my desk was going to protect me from a nuclear bomb! I suppose it’s about time. It’s not as if America does not have relations with other oppressive regimes. While this restoration of diplomatic relations will inevitably send the message to the world that Castro won, and maybe he did, the lifting of embargos will likely benefit the beleaguered Cuban people, which is the silver lining. Surely it will improve the Cuban economy. Finally the Cubans will have Big Macs, crappy movies, and access to new American cars. Rejoice Raul, you no longer need to jury rig the old Desoto.     

 

My favorite talk show hosts are going off the air! I was both a David Letterman and a Craig Ferguson fan. I just watched Ferguson’s last show, which surprisingly featured Jay Leno as his final guest. Considering Letterman’s production company produces Ferguson’s show, that seemed an odd choice, but apparently Ferguson and Leno are buddies. For Josh Robert Thompson, the guy who was the voice behind Ferguson’s wisecracking gay robot skeleton, it might be cancellation bookings in the Poconos. That would be a shame because the guy is really funny. Final entertainment comment: About the Sony hacking scandal – now they think it was that little pimp, Make Me Ill Junior, in North Korea, and they have scuttled the Christmas release of the new blockbuster comedy The Interview, because of terrorist threats. What a wuss move! I could care less about the release, and am still working on trying to see movies released five years ago, but has anyone else noticed how often our sensitive databases are being compromised by cyber terrorism? While I do not know much about the fundamentals of hacking, it occurs to me that the horse of out of the barn, with both oars out of the water, and he didn’t look before he leapt. Too many of those anarchist guys with the “V” masks on, it makes me nervous. Time to invest in diamonds.

 

The smartest Bush running for president? Jeb will throw his hat in the ring, maybe. I am sure if he does, the big “elephant money” will all go his way. I can see the slogan now: “Vote for me, I’m not as big a train wreck as the other guys!” I can spell and I know how to pronounce N-U-C-L-E-A-R! Hillary Clinton vs. Jeb Bush, that could be an interesting race. Seriously, who would really want to lead America right now? Are there any leaders who can fix the mess we’re in? 

 

Peace and love to all my readers, Merry Festivus,  Happy whatever, with whomever!!

 

Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c2014 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

The Oppenheimer Report 12/15/14

Today’s self-righteous rant concerns the trouble I ignore, but which seems to be knocking on my doorstep. I watched with sadness the coverage of people protesting the Ferguson, Mo. shooting, and more recently, the bizarre seemingly unjust acquittal of the Staten Island officer charged with killing Eric Garner by putting him in a suffocating chokehold. There seems to be a growing consensus that the police are using unnecessary force with African Americans and that this problem undermines our very system of justice. So I think about justice in a free society,  and I think about right and wrong. At what point does force fail to enforce? America, and to a lesser extent, Canada, seem to be sitting on a powder keg, at home and abroad. How do we diffuse the bomb?

 

The other night there was a news story about Omar Khadr, the young Canadian tried for treason and murder and sentenced to serve in prison at Guantanamo Bay, although he was under sixteen years old when he was apprehended. Now a young adult, going blind in a Canadian prison, Khadr claims he was railroaded, and his lawyer says that he did not get a fair trial. Khadr, he argues, was a child soldier, forced under duress to do the crimes for which he was accused, and it is the adults who directed him in his crimes that should be held accountable. Khadr confessed to killing an American soldier and to assisting in terrorists activities (bomb making), so there is little chance in a post 9-11 world that he will ever be exonerated. After years of reported abuse in Guantanamo, he was recently sent back to Canada to finish out his sentence. When I read his story, it became a little clearer to me how a young Muslim becomes a radical. I can look at these people and say that they (all Muslims) are the enemy; it is the simple solution to have an us-or-them mentality, especially when we are force fed outrageous images of Western hostages, brutally beheaded by Islamic radicals. But not all Muslims are fanatical, violent monsters. Most are peace-loving, good people, just like you and I. It does humanity and injustice to demonize the second largest and by some accounts fastest growing religion in the world.

 

I just watched an interesting video entitled The Islamic State, which I found on the International Herald Tribune website. It is attributed to a filmmaker and journalist named Medyan Daireh, who for three weeks was embedded with Islamic State rebels in Syria, and who covered the story for an organization called Vice News. First of all I cannot believe that this man was allowed to document what he saw and whom he interviewed without being killed, but he did, and the footage is a sobering look inside the foul underbelly of the Middle East. I do not know how accurate the information was, but I did find the footage alarming. While I always knew that the Muslim extremists hate the infidels, and want us all dead, this documentary seems to suggest that their poisoned ideology is growing and more widespread threat than I had imagined. What becomes evident is that these fanatics control a good part of Syria and now Iraq, and seem to be closing in on other parts of the Middle East as well. With the recent disturbing one-man attacks in Canada and the United States, I fear it is only a matter of time until some of these religious nut balls succeed in their diabolical mission to carry off some new genocide in North America. Terrorism is ultimately indefensible when the terrorists are perfectly willing to sacrifice their own lives. What happens to the rules of engagement when one side completely abandons them? While I sit here frustrated because my Blackberry will not communicate with my laptop properly, twelve year olds are learning how to shoot automatic weapons, and being indoctrinated with the hatred of an ever growing poisoned theocracy. Did we foment this hatred by backing monsters like Assad and Hussein, or were these religious wars bound to erupt? Do we justify torture now because we are trying to catch up with a new kind of enemy? We cannot fight this enemy with bullets and drones; I think it is clear that will simply alienate the innocent and mobilize the enemy.

 

Here is what I see, at least in myself. I see I don’t know who is right or wrong; I used to think I did. Especially where religious ideology is concerned, people are still hated for their chosen beliefs in G-d, and this perplexes and astounds me. I also see the growing gap between the haves and the have-nots.  I’m a have, at least for now, and as much as I yammer on about my thankfulness, I am acutely aware that some of my good fortune is unearned. Every time I hear about a soldier taking his or her own life, and about the hopelessness that so many vets feel due to PTS, or about an African American man shot and killed for no good reason, I get a glimpse of how out of touch I am becoming with the world. I am numbed by the news, and no matter what the spin, the facts are clear to me. Ignorance and fear are the enemies, not Muslims, Jews, Blacks, or the police. Ignorance and fear are growing every day, ironically fueled by today’s increased “information.” They cannot be fought with force, only with education.

I am as ignorant and afraid as the next man, but while it is hard for me to face my failures as a human being, I have not given up on love. As we approach the upcoming holiday, which used to stand for peace and goodwill , but which has fallen so far off the tracks it’s ludicrous, I ask only this, of myself, and of my friends. Try to make an effort to understand what you do not understand,- the other side - be it another culture, or religion, or race. Love is not dead, but it is fighting for its life. I’ll try harder if you will.

 

“And time just seems to swirl up like the leaves in a blow/ So much spinning out of my control.

And I want to solve the problems of this oh so troubled world/ But I can’t even seem to solve my own …”

 

Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c2014 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

The Oppenheimer Report 12/8/14

The Yusuf Cat Stevens concert proved to be everything I’d hoped it would be. Thank you to my lovely wife Shauna for that wonderful birthday gift! As I mentioned in last week’s report, this concert involved substantially more security than most others I have attended. We arrived at 6:15PM for an 8PM concert and the line was already half a mile down Yonge Street. A friend of ours was standing in line with us, and her significant other was late. He is an actor and had a scene in the TV series The Good Witch. The shoot was 4 hours behind schedule, and he had to come from somewhere far out on the west end, which meant that, by the time we reached the front entrance of Massey Hall, he had not yet arrived. According to the strict rules of admission, she was required to enter with him or he would not be allowed to attend. Once in the venue, no one was allowed to leave (tough luck for the smokers!). I don’t know how she pulled it off, but she did eventually get him in when he arrived, and he only missed two songs. Perhaps the security guys took pity on her. The concert was delayed by over an hour because of the tight security. It became “The Peace Train a Little Late Tour.”

Anybody can go on Cat’s Facebook page and see the set list for the show, and of course there are pictures of his performance all over the internet. His voice is still as distinctive as ever. He played a lot of the old favorites from Tea for the Tillerman, and Teaser and the Firecat, and he played a lot of songs from his new album, Tell ‘em I’m Gone as well. That album is a bit of a departure from the Stevens music I know, and it has a bluesy edge to it. As I said in the last report, I did not go to this concert with any preconceptions about his politics or his religion, and he did not really talk about his beliefs with the audience. He did make some cryptic references to the bad press he has battled for much of his career. Of course there were the usual jerks in the audience that jeered “Play something we know!” which must drive an artist nuts. I think Cat did a great job of entertaining us, and even his several covers were unique. When he played Father and Son, I admit it, I had tears in my eyes. Of late I’ve read a bit about how he is perceived in the public eye, and it makes me wonder if I could ever tolerate being a celebrity. A lot of people are saying nasty things about him, and especially now, when Islam is being tainted by the actions of a small radical minority, he is perceived by some as a radical Muslim. Back in the late 80’s he made some comment about the fatwa imposed on author Salmon Rushdie, and I think it was blown way out of proportion. I am wary of any religious fundamentalism, especially when it spawns violent zealots, but I have never had the impression Stevens was like that. In fact I think he has moved more to the center than he used to be, specifically because of the onerous restrictions of religious fundamentalism.

 

Last Friday, Shauna and I dropped in to Hunter’s Bay Radio for a visit and to pick up five copies of “The Gift”, the new compilation CD of local artists. Of course, we’ve listened to the disc several times through now and I for one am impressed. Many of the 14 holiday songs are strong, original tunes, and while I did not submit a track for this year’s CD, I feel honored to be a part of the musical community that produced such good work. Ten dollars from the sale of each CD will go to area food banks, and it is being sold at many local establishments from Huntsville down to Gravenhurst. Ranging from bright and cheery to quite dark, some of the songs really moved me, and I am going to send copies to some of my musical friends and family. Next year, I want to write a song about Krampus, the Christmas monster who eats naughty children, thus making Santa’s job a little easier. I’m not making this up; Google Krampus if you don’t believe me (or refer to The Oppenheimer Report 12/19/11 in the archives of this blog)! If you can, buy this CD, or ask me to send you a copy (a deal at $15, and I’ll even throw in the shipping), it really is good. The starting gun for Christmas has long since been fired and, as we brace ourselves for the onslaught of forced over-eating and drinking, fist fights in shopping mall parking lots, and nonstop television advertising depicting Norelco shaver-riding Santas and Scrooge lusting after wireless headphones, I wish you all patience, peace, and balance in your lives. I can be found holed up in front of my television set, watching  It’s a Wonderful Life over and over again, crying like a little girl ... Zuzus petals!!!! Don’t get me started on that movie.

 
Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c2014 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED