The Oppenheimer Report

Monday, September 30, 2019

The Oppenheimer Report 9/30/19

Last week, there was a fundraiser, known as the Algonquin Outfitters Charity Paddle Art Auction. Local artists painted and/or carved their work onto canoe paddles, and the finished products were subsequently sold at an online auction. Shauna and I bid on several of those paddles. There were 182 from which to choose. We were entertained while watching the bidding process occur live online. As expected, some paddles with higher opening bids were more in demand than others. Shauna and I had nicknames for the paddles we were following. One work, by Zoe Valentine, was particularly interesting to us. It depicted a dead human arm and hand grasping a multi-coloured painted human arm. In some detail – and I may not have this exactly right – the artist described how the work represented the salvation of Tom Thomson’s artistic soul, from everyone who had copied or exploited his art. I suppose the painted arm and hand represents “original art”, and it is metaphorically pulling (the soul of) Tom Thompson out of the lake where he drowned. I like the concept, and think that the art is unique and creative. Shauna was hiding from me yesterday, trying to remain out of ear shot, because I kept bugging her, facetiously asking about the paddle in question: “What’s the latest bid on the psychedelic alien arm fishing Tom Thomson’s corpse out of Canoe Lake?” As I said, some of the paddles were more in demand than others, based on the success of the artist and/or the quality of the art. One paddle that Shauna and I particularly liked, crafted by an older local artist named John MacKenzie, was beautifully carved and painted to depict maple leaves in Autumn. After a prolonged bidding spree, that paddle sold for $1675. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and this paddle art auction had something for everyone, at every price point. I understand that proceeds from the auction will be used to benefit several local art organizations, so it’s a win-win for our community. Shauna and I successfully bid on with two paddles which will soon adorn our log walls. It was our first time participating in one of those art auctions, but probably won’t be our last.

We have the artwork of several of our friends and local artists hanging on the walls of our house. I’ve known a lot of artists during my lifetime, and I try to support the ones whose work I respect. As I said earlier, art is in the eye of the beholder, and far be it from me to determine what is “good” or “bad” art. I can appreciate the expression and the intention without enjoying a work of art aesthetically. For me fine art is visceral. It’s a gut reaction, pro or con.

When I lived in Buffalo, I lived walking distance from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and spent many hours there. The Albright-Knox specialized in modern art, not my favorite style of art, and there were some paintings in that gallery that completely eluded me. I vaguely remember one rather large painting, entitled something similar to “Fifty-Six Square Miles Of The Pacific Ocean South Of Oahu.” It was simply a large swath of blue. I think that’s kind of phoning it in. Given that I saw it in the Albright-Knox, I assume the painting was quite expensive. I don’t understand how art is valued, and it seems as if much of the great art in the world is only appreciated after the artist dies. I’m always amazed when I notice that the paintings of an artist like Van Gogh made the “most expensive” list, nine having been sold at auction for a total of close to $1 Billion; yet, Van Gogh died in poverty. Apparently, only one of his paintings was sold (for around 400 francs) while he was still alive. I wonder what someone would pay for his severed ear. I’ll bet Trump would buy Van Gogh’s ear, and then have it gold-plated. Provenance could be tricky to ascertain.

It seems to me like these are the dark ages for emerging artists, and unfortunately, I see many of my talented friends struggling to make ends meet. I can’t imagine a world without good art and music. Sadly, and as I have often said, the cream does not always rise to the top. Artists of all kinds are an important part of our community. Whenever possible we try to show our support. By the way, I was happy to hear that the canoe paddle with the rainbow-coloured arm, fishing Tom Thomson’s lifeless arm out of the lake sold for about $650. All told, that paddle auction raised over $30,000 and, all kidding aside, I am delighted to hear this. I hope that the money is well spent to support our local art community. Artists and their art make life better.

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.
#GotLocal? HuntersBayRadio.com #WeAreMuskoka #WeAreAlmaguin

Monday, September 23, 2019

The Oppenheimer Report 9-23-19

In 2014, Jeff Carter, Managing Director of Hunters Bay Radio, suggested that I host a radio show about songwriting. I was apprehensive, but reluctantly accepted the offer. I did not know it at the time, but my decision to produce and host the show Lyrical Workers was one of the best I’ve ever made. For well over forty years I’d been interested in the craft of song writing, but for most of that time, I’d been writing in a vacuum. I had no mentors or friends who shared my love of the craft. Gradually, after we moved to The Almaguin Highlands, I came to know many of the writers in this local community. By osmosis I absorbed a lot of the music that they liked. As I began to produce my weekly show, I learned about new writers every week. As an American ex-patriot, I had some catching up to do to apprise myself of all the Canadian artists. Artists that I’d never heard of before have now become my favorites. Writers with whom I was previously unfamiliar, like Jon Brooks, Garnet Rogers, Rose Cousins, Rob Lutes, Penny Lang, Noah Zacharin, and Scott Nolan, opened my eyes to the vast field of talent here in Canada. After a year or two, and after meeting some of the mind-blowing artists who graced the Hunters Bay Radio Home Depot stage, it became evident to me that this little community radio station was fast becoming an important forum for under-recognized Canadian talent. One of the artists, well-represented in the Hunters Bay Radio music collection, is Ottawa Valley singer-songwriter Brock Zeman.

I met Brock for the first time very briefly several years ago. He did a very short live interview and played one song during a Hunters Bay Radio Radiothon fundraiser. He was in Huntsville doing another show, and though pressed for time to get back in the road, he graciously agreed to come in and perform at the station for a few minutes. I did not have a chance to talk to him, but I was mesmerized by his short performance. He premiered Let Me Be Your Coffee, and I remember, as he was walking out the door after the performance, I sat speechless, staring at the stage, gobsmacked by what I had just witnessed. His performance was that compelling. I vowed that I would not miss my next opportunity to see him perform.

Regrettably, it took two or three years for that to happen, but that moment finally arrived last Saturday night, when Jeff Carter and The Bay 88.7 brought him in to play the Huntsville Legion for one of our free (to the community) concerts. Shauna and I were by that time already huge fans, and to see this man perform live was a huge thrill for us. We drank up his 90-minute performance and it seemed as if it was over in the blink of an eye. Each of Brock’s songs is a compelling story, delivered with the genuine honesty and passion of a seasoned musician who believes in his art. These songs are brilliant postcards of angst, humour, dysfunction, sadness, and all the other weird back alleys of the human psyche. To me, his songs represent somewhat embellished reflections of his life, made universal by his eloquence, and by his ever-blossoming imagination.

I could regurgitate the bullet points of Brock Zeman’s biography, but I implore you to simply listen to this man’s songs. Listen to the dark hilarity of Dreamland Motel, or the marvelously sinister myth of The Greasy Skillet Boys. Revel in the poignancy of Gastown or Danny’s Song. Brock has a black belt in storytelling; his stories are compelling. If you love good songwriting as much as I do, you will likely find his talent undeniable. While at the concert, I purchased his book, entitled The First Dirty Dozen, which is a complete collection the lyrics from his past 12 albums. I don’t think there is a weak song in the collection. Good artists shine like a full moon. They move me in some visceral way and always leave me wanting more. Brock is decidedly that guy.

Monday, September 16, 2019

The Oppenheimer Report 9/16/19

After her landmark win against Serena Williams to win the U.S Open Women’s Singles competition last week, Mississauga, Ontario tennis superstar Bianca Andreescu is the newly anointed queen of the tennis world, and the pride of Canada. Accordingly, Toronto Mayor John Tory declared today Bianca Andreescu Day. I’m not sure what officially designates a day as a “Day” but apparently, based on Tory’s declaration, it has to do with some elected official establishing it as such.

Every weekday morning, shortly after 8:30 AM, Hunters Bay Radio Managing Director Jeff Carter, along with morning host Grant Nickalls, and a rotating group participants, play a game called “On This Day”. Sometimes it is quite amusing. Jeff asks a question about some event that happened on the given day in history, and the guest players try to answer that question. I hardly ever get the answers correct when I play, and some of the wrong answers offered by the players are (intentionally) hilarious. The late James Carroll, who was the beloved voice of Hunters Bay Radio once upon a time was a master of the wiseass answer to these questions. After the quiz section, Grant lists notable birthdays that occur on that day, and finally, Jeff runs through a list of designated “days”. For instance, in addition to the newly established Bianca Andreescu Day, today is also International Day For The Preservation Of The Ozone Layer, Collect Rocks Day, and National Play Doh Day. I know, it’s about time someone acknowledged the awesomeness of Play Doh. I used to love that stuff; I even had the little Play Doh brick making machine. Do you want to know something else, you can eat Play Doh and you won’t die. Tomorrow is National Apple Dumpling Day, September 22nd is Elephant Appreciation Day, the 25^th is National Tree Day, the 29^th is World Rivers Day, Oct 4^th is World Animal Day, October 7^th, the day before my birthday, is World Habitat Day, and the day for which we’ve all been frothing in anticipation, October 21^st, is Reptile Awareness Day. I think, technically speaking, any day one is bitten by a reptile is reptile awareness day. Finally, mark it in your calendars, October 24^th is the beginning of Bat Week, which, appropriately ends on Halloween. We used to have a lot of bats around here, but I have not seen any lately. I miss them. Shauna does not, she’s terrified of bats, so bat week is a non starter for her

I saw an ad the other day that made me shake my head in disgust. For most of my life, I’ve been a fan of vintage sports cars. While there are some good-looking sports cars made otday, usually the really expensive ones, most of the cars today resemble stool softeners on wheels. With so much emphasis on aerodynamics and fuel efficiency, body style has suffered horribly. Gone are the days when one could easily identify a car by its unique body style. Although they were often unreliable and not particularly well engineered, many of the old British sports cars are beautiful. Among my favorites were the older MG’s and Jaguars with their swooping body designs and low-cut doors. I don’t know what happened to Jaguar, but their cars don’t look so cool anymore. The other day, I saw an ad for the new Jaguar F-Pace SUV, and I was horrified. It just seems wrong that Jaguar, once famous for their classic body designs, like the XK 120, and the E Type, now makes an SUV that looks like a Nisson Murano. Ugh, the world is going to hell in a handbasket.

Monday, September 09, 2019

The Oppenheimer Report 9/9/19

As I may have mentioned in earlier reports, of late I have been experiencing an anxiousness I can’t explain, and it is, among other things, affecting my sleep. I chalked it up to all the depressing news I can’t seem to ignore, and I suppose to some extent, world events are responsible for that anxiousness. I’ve been trying to meditate every morning, but I’m not very disciplined when it comes to taking care of myself. Vitamins help, and I’ve found that a B100 complex is helpful to take off the rough edges. Now, I understand there are other possible explanations for my restlessness.

I was talking to a friend the other day, and he was wearing one of those Fitbit watches. On top of the annoying alarm that tells you when you’re being too sedentary (mine would be going off all day), there is a feature which monitors your heart rate while you sleep. My friend was not getting the sleep he needed, and this Fitbit feature, which monitored his resting heart rate, confirmed that something was interrupting his deep sleep while he was unconscious. When he then investigated the factors that could affect his sleep, he learned that exposure to blue light might have been the culprit. I did not know this, but apparently, the blue light emitted from computer screens and from cell phones is particularly counter-productive to sleep. It has something to do with the hypothalamus region of the brain. Artificial light, and especially blue light, interferes with the brain’s normal tendency to produce melatonin, the hormone which regulates our sleep-wake cycles. I learned that it is advisable to turn off computer and TV screens one half hour to an hour before going to bed. When my friend did this, he told me he had a more restful sleep. I’m not sure if this works or not but I’m going to try to wean myself from this stimulus just before bedtime to see if it makes any difference. Restful sleep is so important and I’m hearing more and more people complain about the quality of their sleep.

In general, I’ve been suspicious of the effects of all the wireless electronics that surround me – and it IS all around me - wondering if any of it might be harmful to my health. Some studies suggest that it can be, but no one can tell me what is too much. Certainly, the earliest cell phones were more dangerous, known to emit harmful radiation and perhaps to increase the likelihood of brain tumors. I remember those first Motorola cell phones, the really heavy ones. Now that cell phone technology has developed, and many of us have grown so attached to our smart phones, we seem to get nervous if we are without them. Now I’ve got to consider the possibility that my computer and my cell phone are keeping me awake at night. It’s always something.

Hurricane Dorian has run her course, and will likely go down in the history books as one of the bad ones. We still don’t know how many people perished in the Bahamas, because so many are still “missing” and presumed dead. While Florida did not get hit too hard, Dorian crawled all the way up the east coast, with impact on the Carolinas. It even hammered the Canadian Maritime provinces much further north as a Cat 2 hurricane. This morning there was frost on the ground here in Katrine, and everyone was grumbling about the chilly weather, but so far we still have a roof over our heads. I’m thankful. My heart goes out to the Bahamians so devastated by Dorian’s wrath.

Monday, September 02, 2019

The Oppenheimer Report 9/2/19

Labour Day weekend disaster! We awakened this morning to the televised satellite images of Hurricane Dorian, hovering over the northern Bahamas, as it ever so slowly creeps towards the eastern coast of Florida. Communications from The Bahamas have been limited, but I just watched a video interview with a Freeport resident who reluctantly sought cover in a designated shelter once the storm surge became too dangerous. This Category 5 Hurricane stalled directly over the island of Grand Bahama for over 10 hours. We’ve seen the destruction an F5 tornado can generate in 30 seconds. Imagine that same wind force plaquing your community for 10 hours!

As a self-proclaimed storm junkie, I am fascinated by any and all catastrophic weather events. Hurricane Dorian certainly falls into that category. I’ve been following this storm for about a week, and I have been very concerned about my friends who live along the east coast of Florida. At present, 9 counties are under a mandatory evacuation order, but a lot of seasoned veterans of hurricanes in that region are ignoring evacuation orders, choosing instead to rely on their intuition and ride out the storm. On Friday night, I had a lengthy telephone conversation with my friend Gil Walker, a former high school classmate and fellow music lover, who lives in Vero Beach, Florida. Gil has ridden out many hurricanes over the past 25 or 30 years, and he has every intention to hunker down for Dorian. He was relieved to have procured a working generator (his own was not operational), and now his biggest concern is that he won’t enough gasoline to fuel it long term. He has been through some hurricanes wherein his electrical power was not restored for almost 2 weeks. I just spoke to him recently and he assured me that he was as prepared as he could be, waiting for whatever bad weather is to come. As of tonight, Vero may not be as hard hit as originally anticipated. Then again, the path of this storm has been difficult to predict.

We all know weather forecasting is not an exact science. I don’t think the people in The Bahamas were expecting a Catagory 5 hurricane to hover over their islands for an entire day. By the time I end up posting this report on Tuesday, the track of the storm will likely be more predictable, but while I was writing this, early Monday afternoon, there were still curious onlookers, watching the high surf hammering the east coast. I’ve been in touch with my nephew, a senior level meteorologist with NOAA (National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration), who lives and works in Virginia, and sends me regular updates on the track of the storm. At this point, the models have the hurricane brushing the shores of Florida, but no one really knows yet how close it will come, or how much of the east coast it will impact. I think back to the spring flooding we experienced here in the Muskoka and Almaguin Highland regions this year, and it reminds me how destructive and devastating any water damage can be. Considering the fact that, in addition to its ocean frontage, Florida’s east coast also has numerous rivers and inland waterways, one can imagine the potential for major destruction from a hurricane-fueled storm surge.

Finally, my heart goes out to the community of Odessa,Texas where the latest mass shooting occurred. I wish I had the solution to the gun violence problem in America, but I don’t. I’m in favour of gun control, but I fear that this is a bigger problem. The shooter in this instance failed his background check, and perhaps had psychological problems. Regardless of those facts, he managed to purchase a powerful automatic weapon. At this point, guns are easier to buy in The United States than weed, and that’s just wrong.

Monday, August 26, 2019

The Oppenheimer Report 8/26/19

Are you a collector? When I still lived in Buffalo,NY, I collected historic postcards, with special emphasis on cards relating to that city. I belonged to a postcard club and regularly attended the annual postcard shows in Cheektowaga, NY. I suppose that officially makes me a nerd. Over the years, I collected three or four albums full of old postcards. Some of those cards are quite rare. Eventually, I stopped collecting, but every so often, if I find an unusual postcard, and if the price is right, I’ll buy it. If I want to send correspondence that is particularly memorable, especially to a fellow songwriter, I’ll include one of those old, postmarked cards. While I used to search for pristine cards with no markings on them, sometimes it’s more interesting to have a card which was previously postmarked and dated. It’s also entertaining to read what someone else wrote on those cards, sometimes over 100 years ago. Before the era of texts and email, postcards were the popular mode of abbreviated correspondence. “Having a wonderful vacation; yours ‘til Niagara Falls!” Back in the day, I used to be pretty good at appraising the value of an old postcard, but now that I’ve been out of the collecting business for 25 years, I have no idea what my cards might be worth in today’s market. Back then, I discovered that the cards I’d collected early on had doubled in value within a few years. Some of the rare postcards might fetch $25 or more today, but most are likely not all that valuable. For a while, I only looked for old cards from Crystal Beach, On., because those cards are difficult to find.

In keeping with my love of correspondence, the other things I’ve collected over the years are rubber stamps and other hand stamps. If you’ve ever received a letter or postcard from me, it most likely included a rubber stamp imprint. I enjoyed collecting these from the different places I’ve travelled, and they are enduring mementos. Whenever I use one of these stamps, I am reminded of the place where I purchased it. While I have not actually counted all the stamps I own, I probably have close to 100.

To those who responded to last week’s report about the break-in and arson fire at Hunters Bay Radio’s transmitting station, thanks for reading the report. My intention was not to fuel controversy, but merely to point out that it was a very suspicious fire and that, in my opinion, it deserves to be further investigated. Everyone is certainly entitled to express their own opinion, but some people insinuated that I or Hunters Bay Radio had an alternative agenda. We simply want to know who would choose to destroy a communications tower. I hope the $1000 reward offered will lead to a tip as to who committed that deplorable crime.

Friday, August 23, 2019

The Oppenheimer Report 8/19/19

Around 10:45 p.m. on Shauna’s birthday last week we got a text message from one of our friends and fellow volunteers at the radio station, informing us that he was unable to tune in to the FM signal for Hunters Bay Radio and it appeared to be off the air. He asked if in our location we were experiencing dead air, and indeed we were. When we called Managing Director Jeff Carter to inform him, he quickly logged in and determined that there was no transmission from the radio tower. Early the next morning, Jeff and Grant Nickalls drove up to the tower to discover that someone had broken into the building that houses our broadcasting equipment, and that there was evidence of a fire. After further investigation, Jeff learned that the fire had occurred roughly one week earlier, but the station had never been informed. It was the thick black smoke and soot from said fire that had eventually damaged our equipment. There was evidence that an accelerant had been used, and clearly that would indicate that this was not an accidental fire.

The following day, on the Hunters Bay Radio Facebook page, Jeff posted a notice along with photographic evidence of the damage. He learned that the police had inspected the scene of the crime, shortly after it had initially been reported by the person who had discovered it. Oddly, the police had come to the conclusion that this crime was a simple break and enter, and not arson. The tower is in the middle of nowhere, almost a kilometer past a locked gate which had not been opened. In other words, someone had to have driven to that remote location, parked a vehicle, walked with a container of accelerant, probably with a crowbar as well, pried open a heavy-duty steel door to the transmission building, and set a fire which in turn damaged thousands, maybe tens of thousands of dollars in broadcasting equipment. My understanding is that this is, by definition, arson, and a Federal offense. Our station, along with the owners of the building, have offered a $1000 reward for information leading to the arrest of anyone involved in this crime. It seems suspicious to me that someone would travel such a great distance into the middle of nowhere to break into a relatively well-secured building, carrying a flammable substance, simply to perform a random act of vandalism. I was at the building with Jeff on Saturday and personally witnessed the destruction. The stench from burned electrical equipment was almost unbearable. It is puzzling and frustrating that no one thought to contact our radio station to inform us about the crime, so that we could have inspected our equipment earlier. Perhaps if we had been afforded a little lead time the resultant damage could have been lessoned.

Of course, there are those who think this might have been an attack on our station, but I really have no idea who would do something this despicable. There are other businesses who operate equipment in that tower building; perhaps it was someone with a grudge against one of them. Regardless of the motive, a Federal crime was committed in our community, and we urge local law enforcement officials to find the people responsible. These officials publicly criticized our station for representing this fire as an act of arson when, by definition, it was. Not only did this cowardly crime destroy thousands, maybe tens of thousands of dollars in valuable equipment, but someone out there in our community probably knows who did it. We didn’t even realize there had been a crime committed until our equipment failed, a week later. Whether our station was the target or not, the end result is that our community radio station, which has pumped over $100,000 back into local businesses and charities, and provides countless other services to the local community, is for the time being, compromised. We are now forced to use our limited funds to get back up and running at full steam. You may have noticed that the FM signal is weaker than it was previously. Hopefully, that will be rectified soon. Shame on whoever is responsible. You did a very bad thing to many good people.

Monday, August 12, 2019

The Oppenheimer Report 8/12/19

Shauna and I watched an interesting movie last night, entitled Can You Ever Forgive Me?, starring Melissa McCarthy in an uncharacteristically dramatic role. Based on the novel by the same name, it is the story of author Lee Israel, who was infamous for having forged around 400 letters she pretended were written by famous authors and celebrities. She then sold these forgeries to collectors, with remarkable success. Eventually she was caught, but then after receiving a relatively lenient punishment, she went on to write a successful book about her con. I found the story fascinating, and her forged letters were clearly works of art. She went so far in her quest for authenticity as to use typewriters that would have been used by the authors she was impersonating, and she was masterful in her ability to mimic the voice and tone of the authors she copied. I heartily recommend the movie to anyone who might be interested in the subject of letter-writing; admittedly a small group. The story was really about a frustrated, troubled writer who could not make ends meet. Israel had received some early recognition for her original work but, like so many creative artists, she was her own worst enemy. I found her character fascinating and complex

I used to be an avid correspondent, and I loved sending and receiving letters and postcards. Back when I was taking a lot of photos I even had some of my own pictures printed as postcards. When I was actively pursuing a music publishing deal, I’d send out my submissions to various publishers and record labels, along with one of these cards, self-addressed for a response. Most of the time the people to whom I submitted my work wouldn’t write back, but sometimes they did. One of my favorite rejections notices, I think from Capital Records, read: “This song goes on and on and nowhere! Pass.” I was so deluded that I was encouraged that a big record company even wrote back!

I think letter writing is a lost art, and I receive precious few these days. I still write them from time to time, perhaps as a tip of the hat to my dad. He was a great letter writer, and he could make a mundane story into a hilarious adventure, simply with his wit and his uncanny ability to embellish. I think it all boils down to telling a good story. The other day, I was ranting in this report about the death of creativity and storytelling. So many of the blockbuster movies are remakes of old stories, or else they are animated. I find it ironic that the animated films are often better written than the films with real actors. To me, this is a sign of the times. While I am hardly a scholar of the English language, I am more and more impressed when people who correspond with me, show even a modicum of communication skills. My bar gets lowered every day. In these times when people cannot be bothered to speak in complete sentences, I think of my letters as a way of exercising my decaying communication skills. When I write letters, I am forced to consider what I am about to say, rather than texting the first misfire that comes into my addled brain. I am also likely to edit what I wrote (or have my long-suffering wife edit it for me). I’m not sure the world would be a better place if we became better communicators, but like, um, ya know, it like, couldn’t hurt. RU feelin’ me?