STICKY FINGERS by JOE HAGAN : CHRISTINE TRZYNA BOOK REVIEW

STICKY FINGERS : THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JANN WENNER and ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE by JOE HAGAN    (A Biography of Jann Wenner and his Magazine...)

I'm going to start by dropping names : Mick Jagger, John Lennon, Yoko Ono,  Bruce Springsteen, Joni Mitchell, Bono.   Michael Douglas, the actor.  Annie Leibovitz, the photographer - a whole lot about her.  Writers - Hunter S. Thompson and Tom Wolf.

Some of these people had far more influence over the magazine than I would ever suspect.  Jagger is unafraid to have his influence and an idea person.  Lennon and Ono become friends but also expect to be treated as celebrities.  Mitchell get's pissed off but eventually forgives.  Leibvitz is - perhaps - having a lesbian affair with Jann Wenner's wife, Jan, but is depicted as a serious drug addict whose talent manages to make it through despite the effects.

This is not to diminish at all the story of Jann Wenner's magazine's endurance, the stops and starts, the move from San Francisco to New York, and the fact (unknown to me) that he also started and succeeded with other magazines. So if you're interested in the history of the magazine don't let the name dropping turn you off. Rolling Stone magazine is not just a music magazine but part of pop culture and so are those people who star in pop culture including the artists - that actors, singers, songwriters, musicians, and the record companies that believed in them and earned millions on their talents, who made it onto the magazine's pages. Writers and editors were assigned. Careers were made but also, opinions could hurt.

 And as a disclosure, I've never been a regular reader. In fact, I have barely read it at all.

I've been thinking about this since I realize some of you may think that's odd, considering how often I post YouTube videos of classic rock and soul music especially. The book may explain that, without my especially noticing it, pop culture was marketed to me, my people. Knowing that there are so very many talented people in the music business, knowing that getting a record contract for even one album is rare enough to be considered a miracle, one wonders how much luck has to do with success and popularity and becoming a public personality, and how much was and is having acquired the best management and marketing.  Articles in magazines, profiles and interviews, photos - especially the cover of a magazine...

This book is simply excellent, so perhaps I should mention that it does include the personal life of Jann Wenner, his long marriage that produced children, to a woman who was very much a part of it all yet who mostly lived a life separate of her husband. Jan Wenner is depicted as someone who was "bisexual" (like Elton John) but, having had many a sexual adventure with men while married heterosexually, ends happily married to a younger man, with whom he has children by surrogate. After he was official with his new partner, he did not divorce for another seventeen years.  So there's the coming out story - but, importantly, this is not one of those books that exists to prove someone is "really gay."

I listened to this book as an audio book and it was well read.  I've been doing that sort of listening- reading more these days, in part because I'm also sewing and crocheting.  The real treat was at the very end when the author himself talked about how he got the assignment and the cooperation, and the people he thanked, including a list of the women who had cooperated, women who were there.

C 2023  Christine Trzyna

SALMAN RUSHDI GETS STABBED, J.K. ROWLING GETS THREATENED, and PEOPLE ARE FLOCKING - JUST LIKE IN STEPHEN KING'S CELL

What a god-damn weekend. 

I have never read J.K. Rowling.  A librarian friend said of the Harry Potter books, "It got kids reading again." I realize Rowling has been accused of getting kids into witch craft but fantasies of kid-power go way back. 

I've never read Salman Rushdi.  I did try to get into a lecture he gave at the LA TIMES - UCLA book fair one year, but it was sold out, and later when it was all over, I saw him pulling a rolling suitcase behind him, alone, going for his car. I'm aware of what his life became years ago when a book he wrote, called Satanic Verses, was published.  It was a novel. Novels can be political or have an agenda though fiction.

However, I support writers, as creators, and as humans who have, because of their inventions: books, and their personal beliefs and opinions, taken fire. 

It seems today there are any number of evil people waiting for some 'trigger' to go bezerk and hurt one or more people violently. I'm becoming more and more in favor of the death penalty - without delay - for serial killers and mass executioners. That includes the people who are using cars as weapons and school shooters who are kids.

I was at a library when I heard the news that Rushdi had been stabbed multiple times and it sickened me. I felt a wave of nausea come over me.

Just a few days ago I had the opportunity to watch the film Cell; I had read Stephen King's book Cell, years ago. As I heard it King was dubious about owning a cell phone.  (At the time I did not own one.  My immediate knowing was that they would become tracking devices. I also dreaded the work day never coming to an end and the interruption of my private life via phone calls about things not close to emergency being made by so by "employers.' Eventually I did get one and all that came true.) 

Although I could not remember the book well enough to know how true to it the film was, if you haven't read the book or seen the film, all the people who have cell phones or get an electronic message or electronic impulse sent to them that turns them into extremely violent murderers.  These reprogrammed people turn into crowds that flock - like birds, the comparison being made.  They do get down time - sleep time - when they lay in fields or parking lots together.  Their individualism is gone, their choice is gone, they are programmed with intent - to murder those who are not getting the message or convert them too. THEY ARE CONFORMISTS.

You see Stephen King is a popular writer, a best-seller, and there are serious themes in his work, but I doubt his work is taught in any literature program where it can be deconstructed.

In the story, a few people get it right away that the difference between them and these murderous ones is the cell phones. They realize that they should discard their phones - burn them - throw them in the freezer - at least keep them turned off - but Oh the habit, the temptation!  They are used to using them to contact their family, their loved ones, on a good day but now it's an emergency. The desire for connection, the need to love or be loved, is strong enough to turn on the phone and risk being turned into one of the programmed. Those programmed with intent to murder will turn on those who they once loved.  There are some truly frightening scenes in the film and it's the mindless flocking that's worse than the violence.

(Remember when women would say they were just getting a cell phone so that if they had an emergency, like if their car broke down or they had to drive at night, they would be able to call their husbands?)

I was thinking about this, as well as the pain in the ass of having a cell phone turned on, to be on-call for EVERYONE, which is especially horrible when you're researching, writing, painting - doing something that requires concentration. That's me.  Then I'd get calls in which someone was complaining/demanding explanation for why I did not pick up or where I was or what I was doing. (Do you remember not having to explain your every move or needing to or wanting to?) I loved saying "I'm in a library where phones must be shut off." Too bad my closest library has now degraded to allowing people to have long cell phone conversations inside the library. On those days I can barely concentrate there.

(It also becomes a little difficult to remember which of your friends does not want phone calls certain hours because they are meditating or doing yoga; they COULD turn their phones off.)

I was also thinking about commercials and advertising. 

It used to be, if you watched television, that you would watch a commercial in about 55 minutes, or about 25 minutes, or about 15 minutes in. If you went to the theater to watch a film, you got a dose of advertising - usually for films coming up or the popcorn and soft drinks available for purchase - but then you could see a film uninterrupted for a couple hours.  

But now, if you want to watch a two or three minute YouTube music video, you will likely be forced to watch at least some of an advertisement until you click it off the screen, right away, or at the end, or whatever it is will be interrupted in the middle. You might even have to listen to an ad as long as the video. BOMBARDED WITH ADS, some repetitive (more likely to brainwash), lately the lawyers looking for victims of childhood sexual abuse and the sellers of dental tooth restoration come up again and again - as do the small native american tribes that don't want the big native american tribes to have all the benefits of legal gambling profits. (Gambling: there's a vice.)

Commercials every minute to three minutes.

And if you want to find videos that do not have commercials you can listen to a half dozen to find that one. More time gone by.

((Remember the days when you would put an album on a turn-table repeat and have in the background the music you relaxed to without having to tend it?))

I had a project in which I was looking for ad-free videos. You know - videos put up by organizations or individuals who were not all into it for profit - which was the original premise to get YouTube going - the old lie that it was a big collaboration - a 'community.' (When I post videos to this blog, which I've been doing a lot of, I always seek out decent sound quality and no ads. I'm not always sure I succeed.) Back in the day videos without commercials were not so difficult to find and they were not for profit so if you were posting on a not for profit website (such as a blogspot) you didn't think about if the original artists were being thieved - which is a whole other post. 

((A while back I mentioned listening to the entire All Things Must Pass album by George Harrison; I did so on YouTube. The other day I wanted that experience again, and this time there was a commercial before every single song, which totally ruined it so I quickly exited. That'll teach me I should find my vinyl copy.)

The truth is that every advertiser, marketer, and PR person knows that there's a GRAB FOR OUR THINKING and REPEAT ADVERTISING is the game.  We are to be swayed into purchasing - be that hiring a lawyer - buying dental restoration - or some other thing we maybe don't want or need. Their job is to make us think we do want or need it.

Your e-mail is also polluted with advertising, which is supposed to catch your attention - and often waste your time - and so is the news online. Pop up ads that are so annoying, you click on them to get rid of them but sometimes end up on a web site.  (I wonder when the very same shoes come up on a number of ads from various companies on the same web site at the same time. You're tempted to find out who has the best deal even if you don't like the shoes!)

CAN YOU BE OK ALONE?  FOR HOW LONG?

CAN YOU TURN OFF YOUR PHONE FOR AN HOUR?, A DAY?, A WEEK?

HAVE YOU FOUND A WORKING PHONE BOOTH ANYWHERE?  (How about one in which a person can call you back?)

FOR THE MONTHLY COST OF A CELL PHONE - HOW MUCH PER PHONE CALL ARE YOU PAYING?  

CAN YOU GO WITHOUT CHECKING YOUR E-MAIL?  FOR HOW LONG?

DO YOU HAVE A FREE RESOURCE (No commercials) FOR MUSIC, BOOKS, FILM?  (Check in with your local library!)

HAVE YOU READ A BOOK OUTSIDE YOUR USUAL INTERESTS LATELY?

IF SOMEONE HAS A DIFFERENT OPINION THAN YOU, how tolerant are you really?  (I suppose it may depend on their delivery, but do you feel triggered inside and stuff it, lash out or what?)

WHAT SITUATIONS ARE YOU IN where you go along to 'keep peace?"

ARE YOU AFRAID TO SPEAK UP?

C 2022 Christine Trzyna

THEMATIC

For some time there's been a thematic underlying this blog which suspect that only one or two people (other than me) in this world is perceptive of.  

The thematic ties into my postings about the art of Andy Warhol (whose studio was called The Factory), my postings about products ("they didn't pay me to say this") and what I perceive as people seeing themselves as defined (and self promoted) by what they buy/own/like.  People reducing themselves to lists as well as advertisements and informational blurbs, in particular to prove they have value beyond their basic humanity (which some of them attempt to deny to others), often defined as having money for Brands ("We only eat Gelsons") - class - superiority through acquisition. People (including authors) turning into BRANDS so now you can sue someone for hurting your Brand/ income potential re defamation of BRAND (object) rather than a human being.  People promoting and marketing themselves for career, for friendship, for love.... but also for survival. (So if you're an author who also writes poetry, or you want to write fiction and non fiction, or more than one genre you may have to have several names of the pen.)  Not wishing to offend anyone with your version of truth - or opinion - we are in an era of self censorship and stifling in order to be liked - or employed.

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In some stories, a character's fashion purchases stand in as character development since these purchases define their sensibilities.

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When I post my (current) "likes" does my reader know me?  (Maybe, slightly.  I recently surprised myself with a "sea change" about something I'd been dedicated to for about 10 months.)

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Though I've taken down or not re-posted dozens of song/music videos that I was in the mood for or hearing in my head at the time I posted them, my personal music inventory is vast but also telling since I'm Old School and not at all into or informed on the hip hop and rap artists. Does that peg me?

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I once had a friend who was uniquely beautiful (and privileged) who was always used the term "Boyfriend" to mean "Date" as in "I have a new Boyfriend" after a couple Dates. She wasn't es[especially promiscuous but she wanted people to think so, that they had a chance with her. She attracted so many men who she enjoyed toying with; even the ones she didn't want. I caught on eventually that she also didn't want to loose any of her entourage to other women and these men let her waste their time. Her phone rang constantly (pre cell) with them just checking in, just telling each other what they were doing with their day, in search of Fame.  Interviews, auditions, practice sessions, and in the evenings the clubs to nurse a beer while showing support for each other. She was years ahead of most of us when it came to thinking of herself as a Brand and Self Promotion and Marketing which actually hid her true self, an unknowable self perhaps, unknowable as a means of self protection. It took me a while to realize I had been "conned by her charisma" and to get over the shock of realization that I'd made a major life decision based on her bullshitting me.

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It's NOT "all good."


C 2019  Christine Trzyna  All Rights Reserved

THE PRIZE WINNER OF DEFIANCE OHIO : CHRISTINE TRZYNA FILM REVIEW

This film staring Julianne Moore and Woody Harrelson was really SWEET! 

I loved the historical value of it, the 1950's, the days when women used their literary talents and musical talents to write jingles.  These women entered contests to win prizes small and large and a group of them, including a woman in an iron lung, formed a sort of support/writer's group too!

Evelyn Ryan, was a real live Defiance, Ohio housewife and mother of ten, who managed to win the down payment of their house and years later save it from foreclosure, due to her winning spirit.  Rarely sorry for herself or their poverty, Evelyn was the kind of woman that isn't around much anymore.  Her strongest talent may be an ability to forgive and move on.



Another strong positive on this film is the unsentimental but revealing way Evelyn Ryan's plight as a housewife and mother of ten in the 1950's is determined by what we would identify as prevailing sexism in American culture. 



That wasn't so long ago.

C 2013 Christine Trzyna  All Rights Reserved

reposted April 2021

BRANDING CHRISTINE TRZYNA or WHILE WRITING I EAT CRACKERS AND CHEESE

Favorite Grocery Store of ALL TIME (Particularily during the Ralphs/Vons strike) : TRADER JOES (Does civilization exist where Trader Joe's arn't?)

Favorite Nail Salon/Polish : OPI (All things OPI are wonderful. Do exotic vacations take place where no one is wearing OPI?)

Favorite Chewing Gum to chomp while on the Internet: ORBIT Maui Melon Mint (The trendy pop art packaging lured me to try it.)

Favorite Crackers to read books eating : KEEBLER Townhouse Flipsides Pretzel Crackers

along with

Favorite Cheese to read books eating : SARGENTO Reduced Fat Swiss Cheese.

(Hint: Stuffing a holiday stocking for me should be simple with these clues.)