A little practical advice, and lots of memories, from a former beach lifeguard. Take a little risk. Have a lot of fun. Even if we were not in a world war, no one gets out of this room alive.
Did you say "the first few pages into a comment on my first linked video"? I can see you've gotten more prudent about writing and saving off-line but I think you should make your comment into a post. And then we can banter back and forth on each other's comment threads!
I'm honored to be in such great company, and thanks so much for recommending me to Mike, with whom I'm not familiar.
I'm having a lengthy conversation with Vincenzo on the Imagination Seeks Attention YouTube, and it turns out he's another professor who resigned over his principles regarding the treatment of students. And another person who paid a heavy price. Just thought you should be aware of one another.
Enjoy your trip, Steve! Thanks again for this fun musical romp into an era I knew well.
Yes ... first few pages, but thank goodness I saved it to word processor. I am in the mountains of West Japan (Toyama prefecture) and the internet connection is spotty at best. Will take a few days yet to finish and post.
Much thanks for the heads up about the former prof. I was talking to a Japanese friend about how at the beginning of my career, I had overestimated faculty and administration. Because so many have a Ph.D. beside their name, I naively assumed they were 'philosophical'. She laughed and said how 'green' (aoi) I was, the Japanese word for 'naive'. She is a rare female section chief of personnel for a major Japanese company which recruits from the Japanese 'Ivy Leagues'. But she soon realized there was very little correlation between work ethics or capabilities with the branding of the school employees were recruited from. We both agreed from our experience that Deans or members of boards of directors of either corporate or educational institutions have little to do with merit or qualifications, and a lot to do with being born into, or attracted to, the class of money handlers. Ha. Reminds of an old joke about academic credentialism, B.S. is bull shit, an M.S. is more of it, and Ph.D. is piled higher and deeper. 😂 I wish I had known that 40 years ago.
Will get back to you in that YouTube post in a few days. And thanks to a growing substack community, I have two more books I have to read and digest, yours and Mike's. His chat with Tess Lawrie showed a like-minded soul.
What an excellent and entertaining read, Steve. You have a great style. I look forward to hearing the soundtrack when I'm getting something else done, which will be very nostalgic. It could well be the soundtrack to my coming of age story.
It was a guilty pleasure and self-indulgent distraction from the present forever war of mankind against itself. But I wanted to send it out before summer is through, maybe give a few others a chance to reflect on better times.
I caught a typo or so with my late night, groggy read — after I hit the send button. And I wished I could have tweaked and tightened the connection and balance between text and song a bit more.
In future experiments, I will add voice-overs for my text so that it would be all the more user friendly. But I was a little frustrated in finding that listeners would not be able to just hit a 'play and forget' button without having to constantly be at the keyboard, hitting a key stroke or two every time a video came up.
I was hoping to come closer o old, late-night radio experience of old — when you could just turn it on to a mixture of banter and tunes while sipping a beer, doing the dishes, or prepping for the next day's fishing trip. But I did try to take advantage of the linking this time.
Meh. I guess there are plusses and minuses for every medium. Still trying to find my groove on this one. Glad I'm not getting paid for it. Just hope a few could enjoy something familiar and something new.
Inspired by people such as you, Margarette Anna Alice, Mike Fairclough (an educator Tess Lawrie had a podcast with — I sent him a heads-up about you), Charles Eisenstein (wow), and a new buddy, Guy Duperreault ... just so many others along the path ... I am still busy collecting reams of digital comments, snippets, and insights for my own first book. I also have that urge to add my voice to the chorus, but am constantly torn between my love for reading, learning , and meeting new members of the tribe ... and my need to funnel it through my voice.
I am still only a few pages into commenting on the first video of your most recent link, and headed for a three-day road trip across Japan. So expect something in about a week or so. I do want to complete that comment, as it feels like a conversation left hanging mid-air, — as do most of my comments. Ahhh ... but the river near stops, and the eddies and currents have carried us further down the stream. Huh? What am I saying? We ARE the stream. 😅
Thanks for the compliments about the text and soundtrack. There are so, so many pieces of music before and after those days, and so many other genres in between. That is one river I am glad that never ends.
Here's my "I didn't quite drown but" story. In my much younger days, I took a dive trip on a dive boat in Mexico that in hindsight was a little shady. My first clue should have been the ancient, dried out BC they gave me to use. I put on the standard weight that I usually use for diving, but because the BC was so dry (making it more buoyant), I couldn't submerge, no matter how hard I kicked. Neither the dive master (my dive buddy) nor the crew on the boat was paying attention, so by the time I gave up trying to descend, I was quite the distance from the boat due to the strong current. I yelled at the boat but the crew couldn't hear me and the divemaster and the rest of the divers were 60 feet under by then.
I put a little extra air in my BC and took stock of the situation. There was no way I could swim back to the boat, the current was just too strong, and the dive was for 40 minutes, so no one would miss me until then. I decided to swim straight west to Playa Del Carmen, hoping that I could make it to the beach before I was swept past the tip of the Yucatan into the vast Gulf of Mexico. But about a half hour later of constant paddling, I wasn't any further to shore. The current eastward, away from the beach and out to sea, was probably just as powerful as the northward current, and I was about ready to drift past the last of the beaches and hotels of Cancun.
Just about then, I heard a small outboard motor - and a small wooden boat came towards me. There were two Mexican fisherman in the boat who were just about as surprised to see me in the middle of the ocean as I was to see them. I'm not great with Spanish, but I managed to communicate that I came from a dive boat to the south. One of them had to stand up in his boat to see my boat, it was that far away, but they spotted it, pulled me in and took off towards the dive boat. They dropped me off and I thanked the fishermen profusely, waking the dive boat crew from their siesta. They were a little surprised to see me. But then they shrugged, eh, you're fine. A few minutes later, the divemaster surfaced and came aboard with the same reaction, a little surprise and then, meh, you're okay.
I still wonder to this day what would have happened if not for those two fisherman who plucked me out of the open ocean...
Whoa! Life changing stuff there. And sadly, some grim implications about the average human's capacity for empathy and/or imagination.
Great story for a digital campfire chat. Hmm ... maybe a new joint substack project to think about? As this not-so-great 'reset' sets in, local 'art-communities' may be one of our few options for thinking of what it means to be human, or remembering.
I had trouble loading my own post here because it was so heavy with videos, but gave a quick look and could not find my near-disaster scuba-license check-out dive story. About as close to a near-death experience as I have had, and in retrospect, fundamental to some insights and values I will probably carry to the grave with me. Another story for another time.
Looking forward to reading more of you Milehijules.
I'm not sure how I missed this response except that I missed this! I meant to bookmark your substack/post as there are SO many great stories and videos, and somehow didn't, and then... life happens. New job, moving...
I have been working on some new substack posts but haven't published for quite a while now. I was a prolific Twitter poster, though shadow banned in every way possible, so was getting pretty frustrated until they banned me permanently - for mentioning that enough aspirin can kill you (advocating suicide) and questioning the DoD! I think I needed the break more than I realized, I felt quite literally poisoned by the end of it.
Hi D. Thank you for the compliment, but judging by my success in navigating the petty politics of Japanese institutions, I have the intelligence of a duck out of water. I am happy to console myself in believing that we've stumbled upon like-minded spirits in each other.
OK entirely the wrong time of year in the Northern Hemisphere to read this — hopefully the lifeguarding gig went well for the person asking. But know this, from not a former beach guard, but pool guard: It will never leave you. You will never go to your chosen body of water again and not click into the visual scoping rotation.
30+ years later and I still just default to sweeping whats in front of me at the water park or whatever.
Yeah ... nowadays, I just do my 'Sitting by the Dock of the Bay' ... peering beneath the surface.
On the bright side, I have just enough flab so that if I ever kick into rescue mode — I would bob like a cork. Two drowning swimmers couldn't drag me under. 🤣
Thanks Aion. I enjoyed writing that trip down memory lane. But after reading the likes of William Blum (Killing Hope), Howard Zinn, and Naomi Klein ... maybe the insanity has always been there. Now, it is just hitting closer to home. 😕 Time to get my butt in gear and reclaim by place in the front lines of the war of mankind against its own worst nature.
Great playlist. Missing was Bust-a-Move, and Superman (Laurie Anderson).
Maybe missing too, Hit the Road Jack and War What is it Good for. And Sea Lion Woman Nina Simone. Lol! Yes the music is endless so feel free to ignore this list. Hmmm. Have you listened to Steve Reich's Drumming? So interesting.
Glad you enjoy it. Stuff like that is so fun to write, remember, and listen to. Especially in these times, and this time of our lives. You named some classic tunes there. I am in the process of making a sing-along-list of potential English learning songs for Jr. High students over here, and 'Hit the Road Jack' is one of about a hundred, and growing. 'Sea Lion Woman' was new to me until I heard another version in the endng soundtrack to a movie (either Richard Gere or John Travolta). I didn't even touch on my old Motown and Stax favorites, could, and will write reams about Joni Mitchell and Tom Jobim alone. And then there are the likes of the Burt Bacharach and Hal David combination and Michel Legrand. Geez, this list could go on and on, and I am not even into my favorite genres yet. I have an old Quora post about the pianist, Bill Evans, that is perfect for bring over to this format ... and updating, polishing as a potential shield and spear against the approaching darkness.
As for Steve Reich, is that the minimalist composer? If so, I haven't heard his drumming, but have the 'Different Trains / Electric Counterpoint' collaboration between him and Pat Metheny. Wow, just looking at his discography, percussion seems to be his big thing. Not really familiar with him, so would love to see maybe a YouTube link to your favorite. As of now, my favorite all-round percussionist has to be Airto Moreira. He could make music out of a pencil on a desk. Collin Walcott is a close runner-up for his impeccable sense of style. He really knew how to use silence for dramatic tension. And for drumming, much tougher call, but Tony William is my go-to. His final album before his untimely death showed him coming into his own as a great composer as well ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkJoTY0GE8M
Ooops! Gotta run. Will chat soon Guy. We've got a lot of music to share.
Steve Reich is the minimalist composer. Here is a great Drumming, live, from a university band. https://youtu.be/uDhwFTw4VnI. Watching it is mesmerising, or perhaps meditative, depending on state of mind or language skill. ;-). And then Reich's 'Music for 18 Musicians' is mind blowing. https://youtu.be/2lMNflRSej8.
I'll check out the new to me people you have suggested. After another listen to Drumming. It sure catches something in me.
Sorry to be so slow in responding. Life keeps accelerating, and I am still more of a consumer here than either a creator or correspondent. Hoping to change my slothful ways.
Great stories. If there were not so many real horror stories unfolding, I could imagine a collection of anecdotes on the high seas.
Did you say "the first few pages into a comment on my first linked video"? I can see you've gotten more prudent about writing and saving off-line but I think you should make your comment into a post. And then we can banter back and forth on each other's comment threads!
I'm honored to be in such great company, and thanks so much for recommending me to Mike, with whom I'm not familiar.
I'm having a lengthy conversation with Vincenzo on the Imagination Seeks Attention YouTube, and it turns out he's another professor who resigned over his principles regarding the treatment of students. And another person who paid a heavy price. Just thought you should be aware of one another.
Enjoy your trip, Steve! Thanks again for this fun musical romp into an era I knew well.
Hi Tereza,
Yes ... first few pages, but thank goodness I saved it to word processor. I am in the mountains of West Japan (Toyama prefecture) and the internet connection is spotty at best. Will take a few days yet to finish and post.
Much thanks for the heads up about the former prof. I was talking to a Japanese friend about how at the beginning of my career, I had overestimated faculty and administration. Because so many have a Ph.D. beside their name, I naively assumed they were 'philosophical'. She laughed and said how 'green' (aoi) I was, the Japanese word for 'naive'. She is a rare female section chief of personnel for a major Japanese company which recruits from the Japanese 'Ivy Leagues'. But she soon realized there was very little correlation between work ethics or capabilities with the branding of the school employees were recruited from. We both agreed from our experience that Deans or members of boards of directors of either corporate or educational institutions have little to do with merit or qualifications, and a lot to do with being born into, or attracted to, the class of money handlers. Ha. Reminds of an old joke about academic credentialism, B.S. is bull shit, an M.S. is more of it, and Ph.D. is piled higher and deeper. 😂 I wish I had known that 40 years ago.
Will get back to you in that YouTube post in a few days. And thanks to a growing substack community, I have two more books I have to read and digest, yours and Mike's. His chat with Tess Lawrie showed a like-minded soul.
Catch ya in a few days Tereza!
— steve
What an excellent and entertaining read, Steve. You have a great style. I look forward to hearing the soundtrack when I'm getting something else done, which will be very nostalgic. It could well be the soundtrack to my coming of age story.
Thank you Tereza.
It was a guilty pleasure and self-indulgent distraction from the present forever war of mankind against itself. But I wanted to send it out before summer is through, maybe give a few others a chance to reflect on better times.
I caught a typo or so with my late night, groggy read — after I hit the send button. And I wished I could have tweaked and tightened the connection and balance between text and song a bit more.
In future experiments, I will add voice-overs for my text so that it would be all the more user friendly. But I was a little frustrated in finding that listeners would not be able to just hit a 'play and forget' button without having to constantly be at the keyboard, hitting a key stroke or two every time a video came up.
I was hoping to come closer o old, late-night radio experience of old — when you could just turn it on to a mixture of banter and tunes while sipping a beer, doing the dishes, or prepping for the next day's fishing trip. But I did try to take advantage of the linking this time.
Meh. I guess there are plusses and minuses for every medium. Still trying to find my groove on this one. Glad I'm not getting paid for it. Just hope a few could enjoy something familiar and something new.
Inspired by people such as you, Margarette Anna Alice, Mike Fairclough (an educator Tess Lawrie had a podcast with — I sent him a heads-up about you), Charles Eisenstein (wow), and a new buddy, Guy Duperreault ... just so many others along the path ... I am still busy collecting reams of digital comments, snippets, and insights for my own first book. I also have that urge to add my voice to the chorus, but am constantly torn between my love for reading, learning , and meeting new members of the tribe ... and my need to funnel it through my voice.
I am still only a few pages into commenting on the first video of your most recent link, and headed for a three-day road trip across Japan. So expect something in about a week or so. I do want to complete that comment, as it feels like a conversation left hanging mid-air, — as do most of my comments. Ahhh ... but the river near stops, and the eddies and currents have carried us further down the stream. Huh? What am I saying? We ARE the stream. 😅
Thanks for the compliments about the text and soundtrack. There are so, so many pieces of music before and after those days, and so many other genres in between. That is one river I am glad that never ends.
Cheers Tereza.
Will be back soon.
Great column, especially the music accompaniment.
Here's my "I didn't quite drown but" story. In my much younger days, I took a dive trip on a dive boat in Mexico that in hindsight was a little shady. My first clue should have been the ancient, dried out BC they gave me to use. I put on the standard weight that I usually use for diving, but because the BC was so dry (making it more buoyant), I couldn't submerge, no matter how hard I kicked. Neither the dive master (my dive buddy) nor the crew on the boat was paying attention, so by the time I gave up trying to descend, I was quite the distance from the boat due to the strong current. I yelled at the boat but the crew couldn't hear me and the divemaster and the rest of the divers were 60 feet under by then.
I put a little extra air in my BC and took stock of the situation. There was no way I could swim back to the boat, the current was just too strong, and the dive was for 40 minutes, so no one would miss me until then. I decided to swim straight west to Playa Del Carmen, hoping that I could make it to the beach before I was swept past the tip of the Yucatan into the vast Gulf of Mexico. But about a half hour later of constant paddling, I wasn't any further to shore. The current eastward, away from the beach and out to sea, was probably just as powerful as the northward current, and I was about ready to drift past the last of the beaches and hotels of Cancun.
Just about then, I heard a small outboard motor - and a small wooden boat came towards me. There were two Mexican fisherman in the boat who were just about as surprised to see me in the middle of the ocean as I was to see them. I'm not great with Spanish, but I managed to communicate that I came from a dive boat to the south. One of them had to stand up in his boat to see my boat, it was that far away, but they spotted it, pulled me in and took off towards the dive boat. They dropped me off and I thanked the fishermen profusely, waking the dive boat crew from their siesta. They were a little surprised to see me. But then they shrugged, eh, you're fine. A few minutes later, the divemaster surfaced and came aboard with the same reaction, a little surprise and then, meh, you're okay.
I still wonder to this day what would have happened if not for those two fisherman who plucked me out of the open ocean...
Whoa! Life changing stuff there. And sadly, some grim implications about the average human's capacity for empathy and/or imagination.
Great story for a digital campfire chat. Hmm ... maybe a new joint substack project to think about? As this not-so-great 'reset' sets in, local 'art-communities' may be one of our few options for thinking of what it means to be human, or remembering.
Something I discovered while chatting with Tessa Lena the other day ... https://makelanguagegreatagain.com/episodes/broken-boy/ Blown away, I just had to strike a chat with her about that piece ... https://tessa.substack.com/p/the-rotting-smell-of-the-fourth-industrial/comment/9290020
I had trouble loading my own post here because it was so heavy with videos, but gave a quick look and could not find my near-disaster scuba-license check-out dive story. About as close to a near-death experience as I have had, and in retrospect, fundamental to some insights and values I will probably carry to the grave with me. Another story for another time.
Looking forward to reading more of you Milehijules.
But gotta runs some errands for now.
Hope to catch you soon.
— steve
I'm not sure how I missed this response except that I missed this! I meant to bookmark your substack/post as there are SO many great stories and videos, and somehow didn't, and then... life happens. New job, moving...
I have been working on some new substack posts but haven't published for quite a while now. I was a prolific Twitter poster, though shadow banned in every way possible, so was getting pretty frustrated until they banned me permanently - for mentioning that enough aspirin can kill you (advocating suicide) and questioning the DoD! I think I needed the break more than I realized, I felt quite literally poisoned by the end of it.
I look forward to more posts and more chatting...
Steve,
You are a very intelligent living being! Thanks for the montage of flash backs in my mind, through your many selections of music.
Blessings ¬
Hi D. Thank you for the compliment, but judging by my success in navigating the petty politics of Japanese institutions, I have the intelligence of a duck out of water. I am happy to console myself in believing that we've stumbled upon like-minded spirits in each other.
G'night from Japan!
Yes, I believe that to be the truth. Good day from SW.
OK entirely the wrong time of year in the Northern Hemisphere to read this — hopefully the lifeguarding gig went well for the person asking. But know this, from not a former beach guard, but pool guard: It will never leave you. You will never go to your chosen body of water again and not click into the visual scoping rotation.
30+ years later and I still just default to sweeping whats in front of me at the water park or whatever.
PTSD perhaps
LOL. Hello Dr.
Yeah ... nowadays, I just do my 'Sitting by the Dock of the Bay' ... peering beneath the surface.
On the bright side, I have just enough flab so that if I ever kick into rescue mode — I would bob like a cork. Two drowning swimmers couldn't drag me under. 🤣
'Effective' New Year to ya!
steve
あけおめ！
Yeah well rescue efficacy is a different thing. Still hard to just zone out and relax when we do a waterpark!
🤣
Thanks for the advice. I really enjoyed how you gave us a huge playlist to go along with the chronicles from a less insane age.
Thanks Aion. I enjoyed writing that trip down memory lane. But after reading the likes of William Blum (Killing Hope), Howard Zinn, and Naomi Klein ... maybe the insanity has always been there. Now, it is just hitting closer to home. 😕 Time to get my butt in gear and reclaim by place in the front lines of the war of mankind against its own worst nature.
Fun!
Great playlist. Missing was Bust-a-Move, and Superman (Laurie Anderson).
Maybe missing too, Hit the Road Jack and War What is it Good for. And Sea Lion Woman Nina Simone. Lol! Yes the music is endless so feel free to ignore this list. Hmmm. Have you listened to Steve Reich's Drumming? So interesting.
Hey Guy!
Glad you enjoy it. Stuff like that is so fun to write, remember, and listen to. Especially in these times, and this time of our lives. You named some classic tunes there. I am in the process of making a sing-along-list of potential English learning songs for Jr. High students over here, and 'Hit the Road Jack' is one of about a hundred, and growing. 'Sea Lion Woman' was new to me until I heard another version in the endng soundtrack to a movie (either Richard Gere or John Travolta). I didn't even touch on my old Motown and Stax favorites, could, and will write reams about Joni Mitchell and Tom Jobim alone. And then there are the likes of the Burt Bacharach and Hal David combination and Michel Legrand. Geez, this list could go on and on, and I am not even into my favorite genres yet. I have an old Quora post about the pianist, Bill Evans, that is perfect for bring over to this format ... and updating, polishing as a potential shield and spear against the approaching darkness.
As for Steve Reich, is that the minimalist composer? If so, I haven't heard his drumming, but have the 'Different Trains / Electric Counterpoint' collaboration between him and Pat Metheny. Wow, just looking at his discography, percussion seems to be his big thing. Not really familiar with him, so would love to see maybe a YouTube link to your favorite. As of now, my favorite all-round percussionist has to be Airto Moreira. He could make music out of a pencil on a desk. Collin Walcott is a close runner-up for his impeccable sense of style. He really knew how to use silence for dramatic tension. And for drumming, much tougher call, but Tony William is my go-to. His final album before his untimely death showed him coming into his own as a great composer as well ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkJoTY0GE8M
Ooops! Gotta run. Will chat soon Guy. We've got a lot of music to share.
Cheers!
Steve Reich is the minimalist composer. Here is a great Drumming, live, from a university band. https://youtu.be/uDhwFTw4VnI. Watching it is mesmerising, or perhaps meditative, depending on state of mind or language skill. ;-). And then Reich's 'Music for 18 Musicians' is mind blowing. https://youtu.be/2lMNflRSej8.
I'll check out the new to me people you have suggested. After another listen to Drumming. It sure catches something in me.
Hi Citizen Doctor,
Sorry to be so slow in responding. Life keeps accelerating, and I am still more of a consumer here than either a creator or correspondent. Hoping to change my slothful ways.
Great stories. If there were not so many real horror stories unfolding, I could imagine a collection of anecdotes on the high seas.
Cheers Citizen!