I Donate to Several Charities and Non-Profit Organizations

 

Over the past year I have donated to several organizations including (in no particular order):

• American Cancer Society
• American Red Cross
• Salvation Army
• Lustgarten Foundation
• Pancreatic Cancer Network
• Masbia
• World Hunger Year
• Coalition for the Homeless
• Bowery Mission
• WFUV
• WBGO
• Paley Center for Media

  A foundation must spend money to make money, but I hope that all these organizations minimize their overhead.  Once I have donated to an organization, they constantly come back to me asking for more money.  A better strategy would be to seek out new donors.  In this "online era" I suggest that groups only make appeals through email and websites.  It costs money for printing and mailing fundraising appeals.

Perusing the Radio and TV Collection at the Paley Center

 

I have reported several of my visits to the Paley Center in this journal.  Below is what I found today as I perused the collection:

• 60 Minutes Seminar Creating a Tradition,  Reviewing the first 20 years of that program. - June 15, 1987.  I miss Mike Wallace, Ed Bradley, Andy Rooney, Harry Reasoner, Morley Safer and others who have passed away.
• 30th Anniversary of The Beatles - A special broadcast on WCBS-FM hosted by Cousin Bruce
• Tribute to Charles Kuralt at the Museum of TV and Radio held December 1, 1998.  I also viewed several segments of his On the Road.  He sure knew how to tell a story.

First Visit to the Paley Center in Over Two Years

 

I have documented many visits to the Paley Center for Media in this journal.  It is an archive of thousands of television and radio programs held in their library.  For years I have been a member by making an annual contribution.  Unfortunately, it was closed since early 2020 on account of the pandemic.  According to my records, my last visit was in September 2019.

Yesterday, I decided to go over and watch some videos for a few hours.  I watched:

• One episode of All in the Family
• One episode of Archie Bunker's Place which was a spinoff of All in the Family
• A recording of a tribute to Katie Couric held at the Center in 2005.  At that point in time it was known as the Museum of Television and Radio.

The First Two Years of My Retirement Journey

It is hard to believe that it is now two years since I retired.  I have not read the book whose cover is featured above, but I do believe in its premise that retirement is a journey.  For me, the journey usually comes in one-day adventures.  Sometimes the daily adventure is planned while it also can be an impulsive activity.  Some activities are repetitive when others are one-time events.  When I retired, a very heavy burden was taken off my shoulders.  I no longer have to work at a position that I didn't enjoy during my last years.  There are no more bosses who like to assert their managerial muscles by dominating their subordinates. Commuting delays are a thing of the past.  I have received the precious gift of time to do what I want.

• Reading - I have read tons of books over the past two years.  In the summer months, I sit in parks and read while in the winter I often bring my reading material to the local public library where I don't have to worry about bean counters and scatterbrains.  I also have visited research libraries look up books on baseball and pop music.
• Traveling - over the past two years I have visited:
• Pittsburgh
• Tulsa, Oklahoma
• Phoenix
• Seattle
• Museums - my favorite museums (in no particular order)
• Whitney
• Museum of Modern Art
• Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Paley Center for Media
• Brooklyn Museum
• Jewish Museum
• Guggenheim Museum
• Movies - I regularly go to the local multiplex which usually screens mass appeal films.  I have often traveled to Manhattan to see independent films aimed at a niche audience.
• Bob Dylan- I organized a group that has met once so far at NYU.  Hopefully, this group can be sustained.  I attended the research symposium at Tulsa, Oklahoma.  There were concerts at the Beacon Theater in November 2018 and 2019.
• Music - I have more time to listen to umpteen internet radio stations and to SiriusXM.  I have probably bought more CDs than I really need.  You got to keep me away from Amazon.com 
• Baseball - I had time to attend more Met and Yankee games.  I am also active in the Society for Baseball Research (SABR) by coordinating fact-checking for the Games Project and indexing articles from the Biography Project.
• Hiking - I have spent a couple of hours a day walking through parks in Queens.  These walks are almost therapeutic.

My most pleasant surprise in retirement concerns finances.  I am actually saving money and not having to worry about taking on another job to make ends meet.  My savings through TIAA and my bank IRAs really worked out.  My best advice to younger readers is to plan ahead for retirement.

Tomorrow is another day and another adventure.

Tomorr

Random Thoughts of the Day

So Gerrit Cole is getting $324 Million over 9 years which is $36 Million a year that equates to about  $1 Million per start and $10,000 per pitch.  Does this guarantee the Yankees will win the World Series?  Of course not.  Will Cole stay healthy for the 9 years of his contract?  Let's take a look at some long term contracts where the player lost significant time to injury:

• David Wright
• Giancarlo Stanton
• Yoenes Cespedes
• Jacoby Ellsbury

I am sure there are many others.

I went to the Paley Center for Media  to view some videos of Elton John since I just bought his biography.  For once, the cost of the print book was less than that of the Kindle edition.  When I searched the holdings I found a radio interview of Elton with Pete Fornatale in 1970.  I also found interviews with Pete interviewing Simon and Garfunkel and Carole King.

Back in September, I attended a function concerning archives of Pete's interviews coming to the Performing Arts Library of NYPL.  Three months later these archives are still not accessible at NYPL.  When I visited them I was given the name and email of the person who is the archivist.  Periodically, I have emailed her and she responds that there are technical problems about getting the archives online.  I think they should not have had the "celebratory" gathering until the recordings were available to the public.  There is no urgency on my part to hear them, but I think it is poor public relations on part of NYPL to have this function when the new unique resource is not yet available.

NFL Exhibition at the Paley Center

Today I made a trip to the Paley Center for Media to see the exhibit for the 100th anniversary of the NFL.  Below are some of the photos that I took.

Superbowl Trophy

Joe Namath Jersey

LT (Lawrence Taylor) Jersey

In the auditorium on the ground floor, the broadcast of Superbowl 21 with the Giants facing the Denver Broncos was shown.

Another Visit to the Paley Center

I hadn't been here in over a month so Karen and I went over and did a few searches "on the fly".  We saw:

• Carole King: A New Color in the Tapestry - this was a concert shown on PBS.  No date was given.
• American Masters - The Life and Times of Allen Ginsburg.  This aired in September 1997, a few months after his death from liver cancer.  This documentary profiles poet Allen Ginsberg through interviews with family, friends, and colleagues; archival footage; and clips of television appearances and poetry readings.
• American Masters - Joan Baez: How Sweet the Sound.  This documentary explores the lives and achievements of folk singer/songwriter and political activist Joan Baez, tracing her fifty-plus years in entertainment.  It includes interviews with Roger McGuinn and Bob Dylan.  It included some footage with Dylan that I don't remember seeing before.  It originally aired in October 2009.

Random Searching for Videos at the Paley Center

I thought I would visit the Paley Center again today, but I had no specific topic to research.  As I went on the terminal certain random topics came to mind and I viewed the following:

• A documentary on the 1960 presidential campaign focusing on the Wisconsin primary with John F. Kennedy running against Hubert Humphrey
• A review of New York City News events of 1958 featuring Gabe Pressman who was the dean of New York TV reporters for many years
• Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In featuring Howard Cosell on December 18, 1972
• 20 years of On the Road with Charles Kuralt featuring stories done from 1967-87.  Charles passed away in 1997.

Today's Visit to the Paley Center

Since I will be viewing the Andy Warhol Exhibit at the Whitney Museum tomorrow I thought I should see what programs the Paley Center had on the American pop artist.  I found a program that was part of the American Masters series that was aired in 1992.  It profiled the life and career of pop artist Andy Warhol through interviews, archival footage, and images of Warhol's artworks.

Since today is Pearl Harbor Day I searched the collection and found a documentary from 1966, the 25th anniversary of this tragic event in American History.  Highlights include the following: the U.S.S. "Arizona" memorial; Signal Corps footage of the attack on Pearl Harbor, including the destruction of the U.S.S. "Tennessee," "West Virginia," "Oklahoma," "Maryland," "Nevada," and "Arizona"; changes in Brockton, Mass., the hometown of John R. Johnson, one of the men killed at Pearl Harbor.  It was narrated by Frank McGee and Edwin Newman.

Viewing WMCA and WABC Radio Seminars at the Paley Center

The Paley Center is certainly a treasure of radio and TV shows.  They also archive the seminars they hold there as well.  Back in 1998, there was a seminar featuring the WMCA Good Guys who were DJs when the station played hits in the 1960s.  As the camera panned the audience I saw some people that I know. .

• Alan Berman (may he rest in peace)
• Kevin Sealey
• Rob Frankel
• Alan Seltzer
• Mary Shaw

 I attended that seminar but didn't see myself in the audience

There was a similar seminar in 1985 featuring the late Rick Sklar with the WABC DJs who were there when it was a Top 40 station.  Sadly most of them have passed away.

It was Scott Muni Day for Me at the Paley Center

For readers who are not radio enthusiasts, Scott Muni was a distinguished radio personality who worked at WMCA, WMCA, WNEW-FM, and WAXQ in New York until his passing in September 2004.  I searched the Paley Center's online catalog and found two tributes for him that were held at the Center previously known as the Museum of Television and Radio.

• September 26, 2002 - while he was living
• May 19, 2005 - several months after his passing

At the 2002 tribute, he appeared on stage with Zach Martin who was one of his producers.  The program started with several airchecks and interviews from the various radio stations listed above.  He started in radio while he was in high school and at one time succeeded Alan Freed at WAKR in Akron before he came to New York.  He also related some anecdotes including what happened the night that John Lennon was killed.  He was at WNEW-FM's Christmas show at Radio City where he received a phone call and then rushed uptown to the Dakota.  Much of the session was devoted to questions from the audience that included radio personalities such as Dan Ingram and Meg Griffin.  I was surprised to see radio enthusiasts Mary Shaw and Matt Seinberg seated next to Dan Ingram.

Dennis Elsas moderated the May 2005 tribute with Bill Ayres, Dave Herman, Dan Neer, and Ken Dashow as panelists.  There were recorded tributes by Billy Joel and Paul McCartney.  There were many comments by the panelists and audience members who were in the radio business.  They remarked that Scott introduced obscure recording artists to a wider audience.  They considered Scott a brother to other radio personalities.

I remember Scott best for his syndicated Beatles show called Ticket to Ride that was heard on WNEW-FM Sundays at 11 AM.  There is a radio station with the calls WNEW at 102.7 FM today, but it is just not the same.  I miss the classic rock radio of the Scott Muni era.

Accidental Visit to the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA)

Today Karen and I want to go to the Paley Center but when we arrived we find out that it was closed for a special event in the evening.  We decided to walk around the corner and go to the Museum of Modern Art.  Lee and I were there in March so I thought there would be new exhibits.  We saw:

• Toward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia, 1948–1980
• Bodys Isek Kingelez: City Dreams
• The Long Run

I wish there was more time to examine the numerous paintings, sculptures, and photographs in more depth.

Comments about the Paley Center

Yesterday Karen and I visited the Paley Center and viewed a seminar from 1996 about the documentary maker Ken Burns.  It started out with highlights of some of Burns's works, including, among others: "Brooklyn Bridge" (1981), "Huey Long" (1985), "The Statue of Liberty" (1985), "The Congress" (1988), "The Civil War" (1990), and "Baseball" (1994).  Mr. Burns fielded questions from universities across the country about various aspects of making documentaries.  We also saw a "Midnight Special" hosted by Wolfman Jack from 1981 that featured performances by David Bowie and Paul Simon.

I have visited the Paley Center at least once a month since I retired and am impressed by their rich and unique collection.  I am disappointed when I see so few people in their library viewing programs.  Perhaps everyone is at home viewing Youtube and Amazon Prime.  I think the Paley Center needs to market themselves more aggressively to the public.

Museums that I Have Visited in 2018

Here is a list of museums I have visited since I retired in January 2018:

1. Brooklyn Museum – David Bowie Exhibit
2. Frick Collection
3. Guggenheim Museum
4. Holocaust Museum
5. International Center of Photography
6. Jewish Museum
7. Metropolitan Museum of Art
8. Museum of Modern Art – Manhattan
9. Museum of Modern Art – PS1 – Queens
10. Museum of Sex
11. Museum of the American Indian
12. New Museum
13. Paley Center for Media
14. Skyscraper Museum
15. Whitney Museum

In the months to come I want to see:

Brooklyn Museum - I only saw the David Bowie exhibit

Queens Museum - this one is really close to home

American Museum of Natural History - this is an all-day trip

Bronx Museum of Art

Viewing Radio Seminars about WCBS-FM and WNEW-FM at the Paley Center

It seems that I have been going to the Paley Center about once a week since I retired.  Today  I viewed two radio seminars that were held at the museum years ago.

The first one discussed the state of oldies radio in 2003.  Even back then WCBS-FM was playing less music from the 1950s and early 1960s.  The following radio personalities spoke and answered questions from the audience:

• Bill Brown (now deceased)
• Joe McCoy  - then the Program Director
• Bob Shannon
• Don K. Reed
• Norm N. Nite

Nobody even imagined the flip to the dreaded Jack format two years later.

The second seminar held in 1997 considered freeform radio as it began in 1967 when WNEW-FM adopted that format.  The following radio personalities spoke and fielded questions from the audience:

• Pete Fornatale (now deceased)
• Dave Herman (now deceased)
• Rosko (now deceased)
• Scott Muni (now deceased)
• Zacherle (now deceased)
• Vin Scelsa
• Dennis Elsas
• Jonathan Schwartz

Elvis Presley, The Beatles and Sam Cooke at the Paley Center

I think I have visited the Paley Center almost once a week since I have retired.  Lee came with me today as he wanted to see his buddy, Elvis Presley.  We found his 1968 Comeback special in their vast collection of the history of TV and Radio recordings.  After that, he wanted to see the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show.  Yours truly actually watched those show before Lee was a gleam in my eye.  We saw the shows from:

• February 9, 1964
• February 16, 1964
• February 23, 1964
• September 12, 1965 - this show also featured Soupy Sales doing the Mouse.

We actually fast forwarding through those 3 shows and only viewed the appearances by the Fab 4.

We found the first show of Shindig in September 1964 which featured Sam Cooke singing Blowin' in the Wind.

Serendipity at the Paley Center Finding Art Fleming's Jeopardy Among Other Things

Today I went to the Paley Center with Karen and Lee without anything specific in mind.  Karen was interested in the Moody Blues.  A search yielded an appearance on the Tom Jones Show in 1969.  Lee was interested in Johnny Cash so we found some of his performances from 1958.  I did a search on Bob Dylan and found an appearance in 1979 on Saturday Night Live where he sang Gotta Serve Somebody.

Just for the heck of it I searched under Jeopardy and found two episodes from the 1970s featuring Art Fleming with Don Pardo as the announcer.  The amounts for each question were much lower back then, and the second and third place finishers could keep their winnings.  If I remember correctly Art Fleming was the host from 1964-79.  The Alex Trebek version started in 1984 and is still going strong.

Thank You Paul Simon

I hope you can read this letter that was sent by Paul Simon to his fans.  I am happy that he is "retiring" on his terms and is going to give a tour with the proceeds going to philanthropic organizations.  I can understand that over 50 years of recording sessions and concerts is enough and that it is time for him to end it.  His legacy will endure for generations to come.  I am sure that the loss of his guitarist and friend Vincent N'guini was devasting to him.

I have completely enjoyed the music that he recorded with Art Garfunkel and as a solo performer.  Let me scratch my head and try to remember the concerts that I attended:

• Summer 1966 - Forest Hills Stadium with Art Garfunkel
• Spring 1987 - Paul Simon at Radio City Music Hall (Graceland Tour)
• July 1999 - Bob Dylan and Paul Simon at Jones Beach
• Fall 2009 - at Madison Square Garden with Art Garfunkel

Today, I visited the Paley Center and viewed American Masters: Paul Simon: Born at The Right Time that originally aired on PBS in 1993.

Random Thoughts from a Recent Retiree

I woke up this morning dreaming about encountering in person a Facebook friend I have never met.  I should do an inventory of how many of my 529 "friends" I have never met or only met once.

About a year ago I submitted 3 articles to SABR for a book about significant Met games.  The editor finally sent them to me for revisions.  That editor is really tough, but I have to conform to their style.

It was a little warmer today, so I decided to go out and walk around Alley Pond Park.  I was surprised to see that many of the walkways were icy.  I walked for a mile or so down 73rd Avenue in Oakland Gardens instead.

I went to my small local public library to return the biography of Roy Campanella that I just finished.  I changed gear and found Keith Richard's biography.

When I got home I watched Inning 3 of Ken Burns Baseball on Amazon Prime.  It saved me a trip to the Paley Center.

Baseball is Keeping Me Busy This January

Last year people gave me advised me to keep busy during retirement.  I believe in the cliche "idol hands make for devil's workshop."  A few years ago I joined SABR (Society for American Baseball Research) thinking that once I retired I would step-up my activity.  Recently, I became an editor for the Games Project.  I assign manuscripts for fact-checking.  I have also written up a few games for SABR.  I must say the editors are really tough.  I think I must adjust to writing in the SABR style as nobody edits this journal.

I have read the following two baseball books this month:

Bondy, Filip. 2016. Pine tar game: the Kansas city royals, the new york Yankees, and baseball's most absurd and ... entertaining controversy. New York: Scribner.

Lanctot, Neil. 2012. Campy: the two lives of Roy Campanella. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks

I have also made two trips to the Paley Center where I have watched the first two episodes of  Ken Burns Baseball.  However, Phil Belkin informed me that that series is available on Amazon Prime so I can watch it at home.  There are certainly thousands of other TV shows I can watch when I return there.

The best thing a retiree can say is:  " I am so busy, I don't how I found time to go to work."  I am not quite at that point.