(From the Janesville Messenger, 5-20-07)
Once upon a time, we lived in a world where we used a telephone to communicate with our business clients, we met face-to-face to sign contracts, and if we were on the road, we found a pay phone to call our office. We sent typed or handwritten letters and thank you notes through the U.S. Mail. And when we were in the office, we actually spoke to our co-workers.
Then technology stepped in, bringing us the fax machine, the personal computer, e-mail and the cellular phone. Communication has now gotten so impersonal, we e-mail our co-workers from twenty feet away.
When cell phones first started taking hold, I resisted getting one. I didn’t want to be bothered everywhere I went, especially in the car. That was my uninterrupted quiet time to listen to music, relax and think. Then the company I worked for supplied me a cell phone, and I took to it like Barry Bonds to steroids.
Fast forward a few years. The latest of these improvements to daily living is called the Blackberry. For those of you not familiar with this device, the best way I can describe it is that it is your business connected to your hip. This handheld gadget is your cell phone, your address book, your calendar, your e-mail program, your Internet browser, your photo album and your alarm clock, all in one.
I didn’t want a “Crackberry,” as these addictive devices are derisively called. But once again, my workplace forced my evolution by providing me one. It is a blessing. And a curse.
The Blackberry is a blessing because everything you need is at your fingertips. Waiting for an important e-mail? No problem. Need to know some background on a prospect? Don’t have a client’s phone number in your address book? Heck, you want to know the score of the Brewers game? You have the Internet in your hands. It is the truth, it is the way. The Blackberry is a gift from God.
Or maybe it’s from Satan. For example, participating in a golf outing recently, the Blackberry would not let me escape my office. It used to be that if someone wanted you and you weren’t available, it waited until tomorrow. Not any more. My Blackberry was constantly buzzing. I need this information now, the e-mails said, and you can’t hide, I know you’re receiving this. So while my foursome was teeing off, I’m typing messages on the microscopic keyboard, handling whatever I was told couldn’t wait. Or negotiating on my cell phone because “the client wants to wrap this up now.” The only good thing was that it took my mind off my pathetic golf game.
I can’t put the Blackberry down. I have to constantly check my messages. At times, I try to resist. I want to throw it into the deepest part of the Rock River, but I know I can’t. Even if I did, it would probably re-emerge from the depths to find me, like Jason in “Friday the 13th.”
Then suddenly I see it: the key to my escape, the way to restore my sanity, my last hope of inner peace. What is this beast’s Achilles heel?
It’s the “off” button.
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Sunday, May 6, 2007
The Reel History of Janesville
(From the Janesville Messenger, 5-6-07)
Even though I was a communications major in college, my favorite classes – the ones that stick with me today – were my two history electives. So entranced was I by those two learning experiences that I gave serious thought to changing my major to history and becoming a teacher of that subject. Obviously, I decided not to, but my love of all things historical continues to this day. So when the Rock County Historical Society presented me with the opportunity to add narrative to the 1940 “Janesville In Reelife” film, it was a thrill.
“Janesville In Reelife” was shot by a traveling movie-making company, Reelife Films, toward the end of 1940. They went from town to town offering to shoot footage documenting everyday life in the community. Once a financial sponsor was found – in this case, it was The Janesville Daily Gazette – the crew got to work shooting everything from teen dances to Lions Club luncheons. The big attraction was that they shot with full color film, still a novelty in 1940.
The crew shot their footage over the course of a week, took a day to edit it, and then premiered the finished product the following evening at the Jeffris Theatre downtown, which stood next to the Monterey Hotel. What happened to the film after that remains a mystery. It disappeared until several years ago an old reel turned up on a shelf somewhere and found its way into the hands of the Historical Society.
Representatives of the Society showed it to local videographer Dave Haldiman, who said the film was fairly worn with damaged guide holes, bad splices that fell apart and minor dirt and scratches. He recommended they send the film to a lab to clean it up and transfer it to video.
Once that was done, the film was shown to the public at the Helen Jeffris Wood museum. While it was fascinating footage, it was missing something: sound. Plus, there were several scenes that were in need of identification. What exactly were we watching?
When I was approached about working on “Janesville In Reelife,” my resume already included two local history research projects. One was the opening night play for the Janesville Performing Arts Center, “Janesville In Stages,” a history of the Janesville arts scene and the JPAC building. The other was a “Jeopardy” parody for the School District of Janesville featuring questions about the district’s history and using district historical figures as the contestants. So getting the job to research, write text and add narration to “Janesville In Reelife” was like the third chapter in my “Janesville History” trilogy. It’s not exactly George Lucas’ “Star Wars” trilogy, but hey, Darth Vader didn’t live in Janesville.
Fortunately, the Historical Society had copies of newspaper articles from the week of the filming that detailed all the places and events that were being shot each day. That was a perfect place to start. Many scenes were easily identified, particularly footage shot inside General Motors and Parker Pen. Long stretches of factory footage were easy to narrate as there is no lack of documentation about those two corporations.
However, there was also about three minutes of footage inside the Rock River Woolen Mills. Information about that company was frightfully scarce; it’s like the great lost corporation of Janesville. The Woolen Mills was a major employer, at one time the fourth largest in town, but you would never know it even existed here, in the building along the Rock River that was used for years by Panoramic and now houses Rhyme Business Products and Schuler’s Furniture. Ultimately, what information I was able to glean came from personal anecdotes of former workers there.
Personal stories also played a role in identifying footage inside the old Janesville Gazette and WCLO building that was torn down in the late 1960’s. Gazette publisher Skip Bliss, whose father and uncle appear in the film, arranged for me to show the film to employees who had worked there in the 1940’s.
Overall, the film is in tremendous shape. The color scenes, thanks to the work of both the film lab and Dave Haldiman, look crisp and bright. Although a professional outfit produced this, it definitely has a ‘home movie’ quality to it. There is a lot of smiling and mugging for the camera, and what appears to be an obviously staged scene where fire trucks emerge from the fire station and speed through the old Corn Exchange. There is also priceless footage of a Janesville High School play at what is now JPAC, and a live WCLO broadcast celebrating the 20th anniversary of commercial radio (WCLO itself had only been around for 10 years).
The most poignant scene, incredible now in light of what happened since, is of Janesville’s National Guard unit posing in front of the Armory a day before being shipped to Fort Knox for training. These young men, grinning from ear to ear for the camera, were stationed in the Philippines after the United States entered World War II and became the “Janesville 99” on the infamous Bataan Death March. Only 35 of the 99 returned home from captivity at the hands of the Japanese. I’ve watched this footage a thousand times now and it still doesn’t fail to move me.
There are some things we still don’t know. For example, the film had no titles or credits of any kind, and several of the scenes listed in the newspaper as being filmed are missing. It seems obvious that this footage was not the finished product. The speculation is that this is a reel of outtakes or perhaps specific scenes that were edited onto a different reel for unknown reasons. Also, some of the scenes were shot in black and white, begging the question of whether all of this film was really part of the color Reelife project. I believe it may have been, based on the fact that the black and white scenes were listed in the newspaper articles as events that were being filmed by the Reelife crew.
Where is the actual finished movie that was shown at the Jeffris in December 1940? We may never know. But at least we have this, and it was an honor to be asked to put the finishing touches on what I believe to be a pretty important piece of Janesville history.
(Click here to hear my WCLO interview about "Janesville In Reelife")
Even though I was a communications major in college, my favorite classes – the ones that stick with me today – were my two history electives. So entranced was I by those two learning experiences that I gave serious thought to changing my major to history and becoming a teacher of that subject. Obviously, I decided not to, but my love of all things historical continues to this day. So when the Rock County Historical Society presented me with the opportunity to add narrative to the 1940 “Janesville In Reelife” film, it was a thrill.
“Janesville In Reelife” was shot by a traveling movie-making company, Reelife Films, toward the end of 1940. They went from town to town offering to shoot footage documenting everyday life in the community. Once a financial sponsor was found – in this case, it was The Janesville Daily Gazette – the crew got to work shooting everything from teen dances to Lions Club luncheons. The big attraction was that they shot with full color film, still a novelty in 1940.
The crew shot their footage over the course of a week, took a day to edit it, and then premiered the finished product the following evening at the Jeffris Theatre downtown, which stood next to the Monterey Hotel. What happened to the film after that remains a mystery. It disappeared until several years ago an old reel turned up on a shelf somewhere and found its way into the hands of the Historical Society.
Representatives of the Society showed it to local videographer Dave Haldiman, who said the film was fairly worn with damaged guide holes, bad splices that fell apart and minor dirt and scratches. He recommended they send the film to a lab to clean it up and transfer it to video.
Once that was done, the film was shown to the public at the Helen Jeffris Wood museum. While it was fascinating footage, it was missing something: sound. Plus, there were several scenes that were in need of identification. What exactly were we watching?
When I was approached about working on “Janesville In Reelife,” my resume already included two local history research projects. One was the opening night play for the Janesville Performing Arts Center, “Janesville In Stages,” a history of the Janesville arts scene and the JPAC building. The other was a “Jeopardy” parody for the School District of Janesville featuring questions about the district’s history and using district historical figures as the contestants. So getting the job to research, write text and add narration to “Janesville In Reelife” was like the third chapter in my “Janesville History” trilogy. It’s not exactly George Lucas’ “Star Wars” trilogy, but hey, Darth Vader didn’t live in Janesville.
Fortunately, the Historical Society had copies of newspaper articles from the week of the filming that detailed all the places and events that were being shot each day. That was a perfect place to start. Many scenes were easily identified, particularly footage shot inside General Motors and Parker Pen. Long stretches of factory footage were easy to narrate as there is no lack of documentation about those two corporations.
However, there was also about three minutes of footage inside the Rock River Woolen Mills. Information about that company was frightfully scarce; it’s like the great lost corporation of Janesville. The Woolen Mills was a major employer, at one time the fourth largest in town, but you would never know it even existed here, in the building along the Rock River that was used for years by Panoramic and now houses Rhyme Business Products and Schuler’s Furniture. Ultimately, what information I was able to glean came from personal anecdotes of former workers there.
Personal stories also played a role in identifying footage inside the old Janesville Gazette and WCLO building that was torn down in the late 1960’s. Gazette publisher Skip Bliss, whose father and uncle appear in the film, arranged for me to show the film to employees who had worked there in the 1940’s.
Overall, the film is in tremendous shape. The color scenes, thanks to the work of both the film lab and Dave Haldiman, look crisp and bright. Although a professional outfit produced this, it definitely has a ‘home movie’ quality to it. There is a lot of smiling and mugging for the camera, and what appears to be an obviously staged scene where fire trucks emerge from the fire station and speed through the old Corn Exchange. There is also priceless footage of a Janesville High School play at what is now JPAC, and a live WCLO broadcast celebrating the 20th anniversary of commercial radio (WCLO itself had only been around for 10 years).
The most poignant scene, incredible now in light of what happened since, is of Janesville’s National Guard unit posing in front of the Armory a day before being shipped to Fort Knox for training. These young men, grinning from ear to ear for the camera, were stationed in the Philippines after the United States entered World War II and became the “Janesville 99” on the infamous Bataan Death March. Only 35 of the 99 returned home from captivity at the hands of the Japanese. I’ve watched this footage a thousand times now and it still doesn’t fail to move me.
There are some things we still don’t know. For example, the film had no titles or credits of any kind, and several of the scenes listed in the newspaper as being filmed are missing. It seems obvious that this footage was not the finished product. The speculation is that this is a reel of outtakes or perhaps specific scenes that were edited onto a different reel for unknown reasons. Also, some of the scenes were shot in black and white, begging the question of whether all of this film was really part of the color Reelife project. I believe it may have been, based on the fact that the black and white scenes were listed in the newspaper articles as events that were being filmed by the Reelife crew.
Where is the actual finished movie that was shown at the Jeffris in December 1940? We may never know. But at least we have this, and it was an honor to be asked to put the finishing touches on what I believe to be a pretty important piece of Janesville history.
(Click here to hear my WCLO interview about "Janesville In Reelife")
Saturday, May 5, 2007
The "Short Attention Span" Column
(From the Janesville Messenger, 4-29-07)
- Okay, I hate to admit this, but as a baseball fan, I’m truly hoping something (like an indictment for perjury or tax evasion) prevents Barry Bonds from breaking Hank Aaron’s all-time home run record. If he surpasses Hank, it will be the most tainted baseball record ever, far more deserving of an asterisk than Roger Maris. Perhaps Major League Baseball should consider officially designating Josh Gibson’s 962 Negro League home runs as the official record, or the 868 that Sadaharu Oh belted in Japan.
- I was married on April 19, 1986. Since that time, my anniversary day and week has become the Week From Hell as far as national tragedies go. April 19, 1993: The Waco standoff. April 19, 1995: The Oklahoma City bombing. April 20, 1999: The Columbine massacre. Now we have the Virginia Tech student shooting to add to the list.
- On the plus side, April 19, 1987 was the first television appearance of “The Simpsons.”
- In the wake of Don Imus’ firing, I encourage you to go online and read a column by Jason Whitlock of the Kansas City Star. Whitlock, an outspoken black journalist who was let go by ESPN after criticizing the network a few years ago, points out that Imus’ idiotic comments pale in comparison to hip-hop lyrics and he also takes on Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton for using the incident for their own gain.
- An ESPN writer, Dr. Tom Boyd, disputes Whitlock and all “haters of hip-hop culture” and says comparisons between Imus’ comments and rap lyrics are an apples-and-oranges comparison. For one thing, he states, rap songs aren’t “real.” Boyd also praises hip-hop for making words like “diss” and “bling” a part of mainstream conversation. Hey, Tom, where do you think Imus got the word “ho”?
- At a church service I attended last weekend, the pastor was talking about how to get people to believe in Jesus Christ’s resurrection. I have the perfect solution. Just send the story of Christ in a mass unsolicited e-mail. It appears that people will believe anything they read in an e-mail and then forward it to everyone they know. I wonder how many people are still waiting for their $50 check from Microsoft or their free beer from Miller.
- Write this Web address down on a post-it note and stick it on your computer: http://www.snopes.com/. Whenever you receive a mass e-mail, look it up on that site and it will tell you whether it's truth, fiction or hoax. Since I’ve started doing this, I’d say 98% of the mass e-mails I’ve received have been revealed to be garbage.
- The Beloit Education Association has joined the AFL-CIO labor union. Other Wisconsin teachers unions are expected to follow. What I hope this means - that teachers will work hard to force Madison to fix the state’s broken public education funding system. What I hope this doesn’t mean - that I will be continue to be greeted by union t-shirts, buttons and rhetoric when I attend parent-teacher conferences; and that unions will continue painting their local school boards as the bad guys when the board is faced with the thankless task of trying to balance the budget when expenses are outpacing revenues. I know many wonderful, dedicated teachers, but teachers’ union tactics of late are not presenting the profession in a positive light.
- For an example of how unions and management can successfully work together, look no further than the General Motors plant in Janesville. Their partnership is probably the biggest reason that the plant avoided being shut down by Detroit.
- An informal non-scientific poll reveals that I am the only person I know that fills in his own income tax forms by hand. I believe the appropriate mathematical formula would be Old Dog ≠ New Tricks.
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