Alex Bennett Quote - Today is the First Day of the Rest of Your Life

This journal entry does not have a specific person in mind, nor does it refer to a specific situation. Some years ago I picked up a booklet listing courses for the Learning Annex. There was a course titled “Moving On and Letting Go”with a description stating that life is a series of beginnings and endings and that one should not be caught in an ending. We all must face rejection in our personal and professional lives. We must accept that and learn from the bad experience. Some years back I interviewed for a university and was not hired. I found out that so few librarians at that school attain tenure, so it was for the better that I didn’t get the job. Very often friendships end abruptly through a bad experience or misunderstanding. Sometimes people just grow apart from each other and move on. In any event there is never any sense in dwelling on the past. The best thing to do is to make new friends and let go of the old ones.

My excellent autobiographical memory is a blessing and a curse. I am guilty of thinking back to bad experiences and thinking how I should have handled them differently. No matter what we do or think, the past can never be changed. I remember a quote by radio personality Alex Bennett who once worked at WPLJ. He said “Today is the first day of the rest of your life. Make the best of it.”

When I Paint My Masterpiece by the Band -Dylan Cover of the Day

The Band must be one of the most underrated group in rock history.  They are called the Band because they were Bob Dylan's band back in the mid 1960s.  Does anyone remember 33 1/3 rpm LPs?



Oh, the streets of Rome are filled with rubble
Ancient footprints are everywhere
You can almost think that you’re seein’ double
On a cold, dark night on the Spanish Stairs
Got to hurry on back to my hotel room
Where I’ve got me a date with Botticelli’s niece
She promised that she’d be right there with me
When I paint my masterpiece

Oh, the hours I’ve spent inside the Coliseum
Dodging lions and wastin’ time
Oh, those mighty kings of the jungle, I could hardly stand to see ’em
Yes, it sure has been a long, hard climb
Train wheels runnin’ through the back of my memory
When I ran on the hilltop following a pack of wild geese
Someday, everything is gonna be smooth like a rhapsody
When I paint my masterpiece

Sailin’ round the world in a dirty gondola
Oh, to be back in the land of Coca-Cola!

I left Rome and landed in Brussels
On a plane ride so bumpy that I almost cried
Clergymen in uniform and young girls pullin’ muscles
Everyone was there to greet me when I stepped inside
Newspapermen eating candy
Had to be held down by big police
Someday, everything is gonna be diff’rent
When I paint my masterpiece

Copyright © 1971 by Big Sky Music; renewed 1999 by Big Sky Music

Snowtober!

It is very rare indeed when it snows in New York City in October.  It didn't snow very much in Queens, but the areas north and west of here got significant accumulations.  I was going to visit my mother in Long Island today, but just did not want to drive in hazardous conditions.  This storm is supposed to end early tomorrow morning, so I"ll be able to go then.

Remembering Gene Clark

Gene Clark may he rest in peace never got the recognition he deserved and sadly passed away at age 47.  He was a founding member of the Byrds and wrote or co-wrote many of The Byrds' best-known originals, including: wrote or co-wrote many of The Byrds' best-known originals, including: "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better", "Set You Free This Time", "Here Without You", "If You're Gone", "The World Turns All Around Her", "She Don't Care About Time" and "Eight Miles High.  He left the group to pursue a solo career and eventually rejoined them long after they stopped making chart hits.

Today Lee picked one of his solo CDs to play while we ate dinner.  It featured his version of Mr. Tambourinine Man.  I invite my readers to hear this fantastic version.

Alias The Neighborhood Bully

A few days ago I reported in this journal that I was reading Stephen Scobie's book Alias Bob Dylan.  I finished it this afternoon on the subway ride back home.  Professor Scobie provided some good insights into Dylan's works.  No evaluation of Dylan or anyone else can be exhaustive.  There was a significant alias in the Dylan song Neighborhood Bully that was on the Infidels album in 1983. According to Dylan's web site he never performed it in concert. This database indicates that no artist ever covered it. Can you figure out just who or what is the Neighborhood Bully?



Well, the neighborhood bully, he’s just one man
His enemies say he’s on their land
They got him outnumbered about a million to one
He got no place to escape to, no place to run
He’s the neighborhood bully

The neighborhood bully just lives to survive
He’s criticized and condemned for being alive
He’s not supposed to fight back, he’s supposed to have thick skin
He’s supposed to lay down and die when his door is kicked in
He’s the neighborhood bully

The neighborhood bully been driven out of every land
He’s wandered the earth an exiled man
Seen his family scattered, his people hounded and torn
He’s always on trial for just being born
He’s the neighborhood bully

Well, he knocked out a lynch mob, he was criticized
Old women condemned him, said he should apologize.
Then he destroyed a bomb factory, nobody was glad
The bombs were meant for him. He was supposed to feel bad
He’s the neighborhood bully

Well, the chances are against it and the odds are slim
That he’ll live by the rules that the world makes for him
’Cause there’s a noose at his neck and a gun at his back
And a license to kill him is given out to every maniac
He’s the neighborhood bully

He got no allies to really speak of
What he gets he must pay for, he don’t get it out of love
He buys obsolete weapons and he won’t be denied
But no one sends flesh and blood to fight by his side
He’s the neighborhood bully

Well, he’s surrounded by pacifists who all want peace
They pray for it nightly that the bloodshed must cease
Now, they wouldn’t hurt a fly. To hurt one they would weep
They lay and they wait for this bully to fall asleep
He’s the neighborhood bully

Every empire that’s enslaved him is gone
Egypt and Rome, even the great Babylon
He’s made a garden of paradise in the desert sand
In bed with nobody, under no one’s command
He’s the neighborhood bully

Now his holiest books have been trampled upon
No contract he signed was worth what it was written on
He took the crumbs of the world and he turned it into wealth
Took sickness and disease and he turned it into health
He’s the neighborhood bully

What’s anybody indebted to him for?
Nothin’, they say. He just likes to cause war
Pride and prejudice and superstition indeed
They wait for this bully like a dog waits to feed
He’s the neighborhood bully

What has he done to wear so many scars?
Does he change the course of rivers? Does he pollute the moon and stars?
Neighborhood bully, standing on the hill
Running out the clock, time standing still
Neighborhood bully

Copyright © 1983 by Special Rider Music

The fences at Citifield will be brought in next season.

After three seasons the Mets will bring in the fences at Citifield.  The Mets have always stressed pitching and defense with only a few major sluggers in their history.  Shea Stadium was always a pitchers park, but with the open outfield balls would often carry.  I have seen so many long drives fall short in Citifield, so hopefully the shorter fences will help David Wright and Jason Bay. On the other hand, the shorter fences will help the visiting team. Story from ESPN.

Jay Bushinsky - Then and Now

It has been some time since I have taken a walk down memory lane.  From 1957-1962 I was a student at the Hebrew School at the Rego Park Jewish Center.  During my first two years Dvora Bushinsky was my teacher.  I remember her telling the class that she was a soldier in the Israeli War for Independence.  During my last year her husband Jay Bushinsky was my teacher.

I have heard his reports from Israel on 1010 WINS radio for years and think back to his classes.  There is a nice biography of him at this CBS Philadelphia site.  I must assume that his reports are heard on CBS radio stations throughout the USA.  When I saw his picture, he looks like Benjamin Netanyahu.