Monday Magazine Section ====August 3, 2014.

A Note from the Editor

On behalf of all the members of the Bumbastories staff, I would like to offer some explanation as to why this Bumbastories Sunday Magazine Section has had its name changed to Monday Magazine Section. As you may or may not be aware, this Bumbastories blog is titled Every Day Another Story. For a brief while we at Bumbastories believed ourselves capable of answering the daily writing challenge: every day another story. Quite rapidly, though, Every Day Another Story devolved into a de facto “story maybe every couple of days” kind of thing.

Then we arrived at the weekly Sunday Magazine format!

And we’re even late on that!

So, with an admission of our incorrigible sloth, and with a touch of realistic goal-setting, Bumbastories has pushed back the deadline yet another day and will now publish the Monday Magazine Section.

⦿⦿⦿⦿⦿⦿⦿⦿⦿THE MONDAY MAGAZINE SECTION⦿⦿⦿⦿⦿⦿⦿⦿⦿⦿⦿⦿

George Packard, retired schoolteacher and roving reporter for Bumbastories was back out there – roving the streets of Los Angeles on his bicycle. Looking for a scoop.

Exciting stuff, no?

George thought so too.

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George Packard, roving reporter, roved on….

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How ’bout a song to move us along today? Click to hear Bumba playing Up a Lazy River or the umpteenth time. Bumba says he can’t help it. He uses the song to practice his chords.

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And now for the thrilling continuation of the Ted Morris, Los Angeles Private Eye of the Raymoond Chandler ilk story.

Ted Morris picked up Angelina Despaigne from the Adelanto Federal Prison out past Victorville the day after Robert Kennedy got shot. It was a sad, sad time. For every one. Even the prison guards seemed to be in shell-shock.

Angelina Marquez walked quickly out of the big prison door and got into the car. She had tears in her eyes. Stiffly she sat next to Ted Morris in the car. She held her duffel bag on her lap.

“Drive, baby,” she spoke, looking straight out at the road ahead. She watched coldly as they passed through the prison gates, which were slowly opened for them after a quick inspection of Morris’ visitor’s pass and Angelina’s release papers.

Ted Morris, tough and hardened Los Angeles private eye, found himself crying too as he eased the low-riding black Chevy Impala onto Rte 395 and headed toward L.A. It was the emotion of Angelina’s release together with all the accumulated sorrow and held-back tears of the Kennedy assassination. The last chance had been shot down. It was the final nail in the national coffin. It was too hard a blow. As he drove he reached with his free hand down into his trousers’ pocket to get his handkerchief. He felt Angelina’s hand clutch his. He patted and then grasped her thin fingers with his big paw, as he carefully steadied the big Chevy on the road. Rte 395, long and straight and dusty lay ahead of them.

“At least you’re coming home,” he said, drying his eyes. “We’re all glad about that.”

“You’ll see'” he continued. “Francisco’s fixed you a party.”

“Ted Morris,” she began. “How do I thank you? Ever?”

“Hey, Angie, you know we made a deal.” He turned to look at her briefly. She was smiling as a tear ran down her cheek.

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A Happy Monday and a Happy Week to All!

Sunday Magazine

Welcome to Bumbastories’ Sunday Magazine Section.

This week’s Magazine opens with a Letter From The Editor.

Letter from the Editor

As editor of the Bumbastories Sunday Magazine Section I would like to make it clear – and I suppose you could call this a confession – that there is no such thing as a Bumbastories “staff” of roving reporters, muckrakers, inspired poets, songsters, debutantes, etc, etc. The plain truth is that the entire Bumbastories staff consists of just the three of us: Bumba, George Packard, and me.

And if you think it’s easy for a meager staff of three underpaid journalists – two of whom are none too clever I may add (and I include myself in that category) – to put out a weekly magazine section of such obvious high calibre as this…. Well, you have another thing coming!!!!!

Speaking of another thing coming……………….

(Oh, Oh………Here comes another of those As I Sat On The Bus Things!!!!)

As I Sat On the Bus (AISOTB#37)

As I sat on the bus last week I found myself without paper to write an AISOTB.

(Hey, maybe we’re going to luck out)

Might I try a photographic essay?

(Why not? Go ahead. We can take anything!)

OK. Here’s the bus. Then there’s the bicycle path – or rather the new bicycle path, built alongside the Silver Line train – and that path leads to the Ballona Creek bicycle path – that leads to: the beach.

(Is that it? Is that the entire AISOTB? I must confess, I’m quite relieved. Let’s move on)

OK, here’s a song I wrote a long time ago called Wanna Tell You About My Susie or, more simply, Susie.

And now a poem

A poem at the end of the day

Oh to the glory of the setting sun

The light cast golden

Oh to the glory of the end

Of the working day

Day come home

Yet still

Alone in a wilderness

Where is my way home?

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A Bumbastories Art Review

Non-Represenational Art

Last week, the security guards at the Getty Museum were commenting on the Henry Moore sculpture outside the monorail depot. They were saying that the sculpture reminded them of a nude woman. They indicated the fair lady’s breasts and other parts or her anatomy. I launched into an explanation of non-representational art. I also told them that perhaps they were standing around just looking at the same thing for too long.

However, the other day I passed by the very fine non-representational sculpture in the mid-Wilshire neighborhood. I’ll be darned if it wasn’t just non-representational. Goshdarnit, it was quite, how shall I say it? erotic. It reminded me of…..

Lest this Sunday Magazine Section becomes overly erotic (is there such a thing as too erotic?), we shall concliude this week’s edition with Best Wishes for a Good Week.

Sunday Magazine Section

Welcome to the Bumbastories Sunday Magazine Section.

A Song of Peace

To quote Elvis Costello: “What’s so funny about peace, love, and understanding?”

Here’s a great song by Pete Seeger.

Where Have All the Flowers Gone, written in 1955, recorded by Pete, Joan Baez, Bobby Darin and many, many others, most notably by Peter, Paul, and Mary. Bumbastories celebrates Pete’s straightforward stand against war. Bumbastories asks why it is that pacifism is no longer popular. It’s not in vogue. No one seems to talk any more about simply ending war. Not to end this war or that war, but to end armed conflict altogether. It’s a simple concept. Maybe they should hash-tag it. In any case, it’s a fine song, and Maybank does a decent job on these simple, but poetic lyrics. We were playing it the other day…..

As a footnote, last week’s beautiful ceremony in Normandy, France that commemorated the soldiers who died on Omaha Beach seventy years ago was a fine demonstration that lasting peace is possible. The nations of western Europe, former enemies who are not without conflicting interests today and who may still not even like each other very much, have at least resolved to avoid war. Call it a Pax Americana. But they are not fighting with each other. They’ve had enough of war. The horrors of WW II are not forgotten. Never again. Let us live in peace.

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As I Sat On the Bus (AISOTB #36) The Bus Rolls On

Just around the corner from the bus stop I found a shady stoop to sit, and I began to write. I knew that I needed a big story: a storyline that would carry the reader through pages of excitement and rapture. The wait for the bus was going to be long.

James Madison (no relation to the fourth American president and framer of the Declaration of Independence long gone) set out on the road.

Madison was a slim man who looked much like his namesake Guy Madison, the actor who played Bat Masterson on TV. James M weighed in at 178 lbs now. At 6’1”, at age 74, he still moved well.

I got up from my seat on the corner stoop to peek out to see if the bus was coming. Nope, no bus.

Madison had been a basketball player as a young man. A fine athlete. He even played in the InterContinental League for three seasons before his enlistment in the agency, the CIA. Madison was still in pretty good shape. He was a professional. The guys who were after him would have a hard time catching him.

James Madison sat on the #28 bus. Alongside him his suitcase and a large backpack. He was headed for Union Station. The Amtrak to….Madison still hadn’t decided what his next move would be.

I got up again to check for the bus. No sign of it.

“Probably Kansas City,” he considered. “They’ll never find me in Kansas City.”

Madison had left his cellphone, computer, GPS, etc at the apartment. He’d have to do without those devices. Credit cards out too. Madison carried $100,000 in cash. It would have to last a long time. James Madison (no relation to the American president) was charged with conspiracy. If they caught him, he’d never see the outside world again.

Madison sat on the bus and made plans for his next life. “Yes. Kansas City will be perfect.”

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And the winner of last week’s Bumbastories Contest is none other than the well-preserved and partially pickled G.A. Miller, whose response to the “What color was George Washington’s white horse?” question won the hearts of all the Bumbastories judges. Miller’s blog is one to check out, by the way. Congratulations to Miller.

Sorry, no contest this week. But stay tuned.

The Bumbastories Sunday Magazine Section

Today’s Sunday section features the following:

Keen Political Analysis: What Is Really Going On in Washington Anywaze?

Sitting On Top of the World: a song to listen to so you don’t get too bored while you’re reading the keen political analysis.

As I Sat On The Hill and A Childhood Memory: a wayward departure from the As I Sat On The Bus formula that serves double duty as an AISOTB and also as a folksy piece of nostalgic fluff.

A Sports Section: a tribute to a fine basketball player and a Los Angeles Clippers Playoff Update. What? You didn’t know Bumba was a Clippers fan?

Another Art Review: Alexander Calder at the LACMA museum

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The Obama Presidency, the Republican party’s secret strategy: the role of Big Money in Politics etc, etc.”

By Bumba on April 19, 2014 | Edit

Although the media markets and sells their coverage of politics as entertainment with good guys and bad guys, the actual forces moving the players in Washington are larger than life: Government institutions, cartels, “interest groups” and lobbies that take on lives of their own (What a life!): Bureaucracies, fueled by petty, personal concerns carry great inertial force, like glaciers: and then the corporations, flooding the floors of Congress with dollar bills. Currently, moneyed interests are in control. It’s the age of banana republics. The forces, the players, are monolithic conglomerates. A guy like Obama, the politician on whom so many pinned their hopes, is just a guy like everybody else – an ambitious fellow who instinctively knows to go with the flow. He is just one of the players. The moneyed interests (who remain nameless because we usually don’t have a clue who they are aside from names like Dupont and Rockefeller) currently trump Obama and the U.S. Congress. It’s time for some simple constitutional amendments.

1. Direct election of President. After the Florida election debacles you’d think this one would have happened already. Nope. Everything’s a struggle. The people will have to organize and fight like dogs for even the simplest of reforms.

2. Publicly-financed elections. The politicians currently spend half their time fund-raising. They are indebted to their donors.

3. Shorter election campaigns and primaries.

4. Removal of corporations’ individual rights

5. A graduated income tax where the rich pay higher taxes. Oh, that’s right. They already have that amendment. Oops.

6. Repeal of the 2nd amendment, or at least abolition of assault weapons. At least we can stop killing ourselves.

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Sitting On Top of the World

By Bumba on April 19, 2014 | Edit

This is a plain blues that is sung a number of different ways as it is rooted in a number of different traditions. But, no matter who, when, or where it’s being sung, it’s still Sitting on Top of the World. I like the image of sitting on top of the world – feet hangin’ down. However on this version I forgot to sing the verse about top of the world feet hanging down. Mostly it’s harmonica.

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As I Sat on the…..(AISOTB#34) and a Childhood Memory

By Bumba on April 19, 2014 | Edit

Announcing an expansion, an extension, a widening of the rules for the Bumbastories As I Sat On The Bus Invitational!

Entries will now be accepted for anything that begins (or includes somewhere in the text) the phrase As I Sat On.

Under these new rules, you can be sitting anywhere, albeit the bus and other modes of public transportation are still preferred.

This week ………

I sat on top of an grassy incline, an artificial hill at the public park, and gazed out at the setting sun. On the field below a nine-year-old boy with a plastic baseball bat was whacking a wiffle ball senseless. And then chasing after it, tossing it up fungo-style, and smashing at it again. Then walking after it, picking it up again, taking another swing…Etc, etc. The boy tired after four or five of these wearisome maneuvers, tossed the bat in the air, and layed down on the grass.

I was reminded of a boyhhod friend, Bill M, who would play stickball by himself for hours at a time early in the AM’s during the summer months.

Bill just loved to play, and he played viciously – which is how Bill did just about everything. Bill was fundamentally violent, solitary, almost disdainful of others, and competitive. Not many of the kids ever liked him. And Bill didn’t care about that either. Bill was a great ballplayer, and as such, qualified as our leader.

When Bill tried out for the high school baseball team, it was immediately clear that he had made the team. The coach asked him to pitch some batting practice to some of the team members. Bill was striking them all out. Blowing it past them. What a fastball. And Bill had a curve too. Then Bill messed it all up for himself. He beaned two batters. Intentionally. I guess he thought he had to brush them back from crowding the plate. Or maybe Bill just got mad. That’s just how he was. Bill never played for the high school team. And, as I say, nobody ever liked Bill very much. But he was some hell of a ballplayer.

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Here’s to Jamal Crawford

By Bumba on April 19, 2014 | Edit

What follows is the ¤Bumbastories¤

¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤Clippers Report¤¤¤¤¤¤¤

This article was sent in by one of our readers (OK, it was me) …

¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤Here’s to Jamal Crawford¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤

OK. The Clippers had a nice season. They’ve blossomed. DeAndre and Blake, together with a sterling (no pun intended) backcourt of Chris Paul, JJ Reddick, Darrell Collison….. and the wonderful Jamal Crawford – surely one of the most enjoyable players to watch in the NBA, nay, in the history of the NBA – have a chance to be NBA champions.

Here’s to Jamal Crawford! What a pleasure for the Clippers – and what a treat for us fans – to have this beautiful player who is capable of scoring at all times.

Now, if Jamal and JJ Reddick are both strong and healthy… Well then maybe ….just maybe… we Clipper fans may have us a championship this year. Could that be? After all these long years (like 30!) of second division finishes? It’s a long shot, but it’s possible folks.

Ah, but can they overcome San Antonio and Oklahoma City? Or Miami, Indiana. Or Memphis, Portland? Or nearly any of the Western division playoff teams? Can they overcome their first-round oppponent, the Golden State Warriors?

It’s bound to be a great NBA playoffs this year. A lot of teams could win it.
To quote the great Ralph Lawler: “Clipper fans, fasten your seat belts!”

………………..CLIPPERS UPDATE

OK, the Clips lost the first game. Maybe I put a curse on Jamal. He had a terrible game. Couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn.

Looks like a great series between the Clippers and the Golden State Warriors, who are a terrific team too.

Still, and looking forward to more playoff action, I’m glad we have Jamal Crawford on our side.

Posted in: Uncategorized | Tagged: Clippers, Clippers Report, Jamal Crawford, NBA, Sports Report

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Art Review: Alexander Calder at the LACMA museum

By Bumba on April 19, 2014 | Edit

Another heads up to those readers in the Los Angeles area. The Alexander Calder exhibition at LACMA is still running. It’s a treat. Our official Bumbastories art critic visited again and wrote the following.

This Calder exhibit, so lovingly displayed and presented at the Resnick Hall at LACMA reminds us of the joy of art for its own sake. Calder celebrates beauty and balance. He entertains us with his craftsmanship. He brings joy. What a pleasure. Again, Bumbastories gives this exhibit two thumbs up.

Seen below, an outdoor Calder mobile at LACMA. (Photographs of the special exhibit are forbidden)

Posted in: Uncategorized | Tagged: Alexander Calder, Art