Old Economy Steve

Generational angst is pretty strong when too many young people or Generation Xers had parents who had very different lives. I wonder what the psychological outcomes of this will be for millions who probably heard their parents call them losers or if that remained unsaid, the cloud of disappointment hovered like exhaust out of a pipe that never dissipated but filled the air with the stench of regret.---The Squawker

In Search Of The Underdog: Lionel Rogosin's "Come Back, Africa" And "Black Roots" Coming On DVD, Blu-Ray

If you've been following this blog for any length of time, you'll recall that we ran an extensive two-part interview this summer (by Chairman Ralph) with Michael Rogosin, who's the son of the late, legendary underground filmmaking maverick, Lionel Rogosin.  As Michael mentioned during the interview, he's working hard to restore his father's cinematic legacy, and make it available again for whoever wants to explore the themes that his father so tirelessly championed.  More information will before forthcoming -- and, hopefully, a review of these releases -- but, suffice to say, if you have any interest in alternative cinema...in stories that largely remain untapped, or untold, by those who wield the keys to the red carpet, and the box office...you need to check these releases out! I look forward to seeing the fruits of this vision myself...the relevant info follows below.  --The Reckoner

Street date: February 25, 2014
“Heroic … a film of terrible beauty, of the ongoing life it captured and of the
spirit embodied by Rogosin and his fellow artists.” — Martin Scorsese
Milestone Films is proud to announce the deluxe DVD and Blu-Ray releases of Lionel Rogosin’s 1959 shattering classic Come Back, Africa. After witnessing fascism firsthand as a soldier in World War II, Rogosin vowed to fight it wherever and whenever he saw it reemerging. In an effort to expose “what people try to avoid seeing,” Rogosin travelled to South Africa and secretly filmed Come Back, Africa under the constant threat of being discovered. When released, the film revealed to the world the cruelty and injustice suffered by the black majority under apartheid.

Much of Come Back, Africa was filmed in Sophiatown, a black ghetto and a vibrant center of music, art, literature and politics. Residents included Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela, Father Trevor Huddleston, Hugh Masekela and four of the film’s main contributors – Drum Magazine’s author/journalists Bloke Modisane, Lewis N’kosi and Can Themba along with the already celebrated singer, Miriam Makeba. Even as they filmed, the township’s future was under threat. Shortly after production ended, Sophiatown was forcibly emptied, then razed and rebuilt as a whites-only suburb called Triumf.

In making Come Back, Africa, Rogosin’s goal was to reveal the harsh injustice of apartheid. To make a film that honestly and accurately portrayed life in Sophiatown (as he did with New York skid row inhabitants in his first film, On the Bowery), the filmmaker spent almost a year meeting with activists and writers, both black and white. Rogosin cast the film before writing the screenplay, basing the story on the experiences of the cast and crew. The actors created their own dialogue in order to create an authentic representation of their lives. Even 55 years later, the film seems emotionally raw and immediate.

Taking its name from the title of an African National Congress slogan, Come Back, Africa premiered at the 1960 Venice Film Festival where it won the Critics Award. In 2012, Milestone released the restored 35mm prints of Come Back, Africa across the US and Canada to rave reviews from the press and universal acclaim by the audience. Bonus features for the film include the remarkable An American in Sophiatown, a documentary by Lionel’s son, Michael Rogosin and Have You Seen Drum Recently?, by Jürgen Schadeberg, the renowned photographer/filmmaker who, as the staff photographer for Drum Magazine in the 1950s, took some the very first photographs of the young Nelson Mandela.

In the second feature of the deluxe set, Rogosin took the fight for equality to his homeland with his astonishing and powerful fourth feature Black Roots. The film, which is ripe for rediscovery, featured an extraordinary cast, including Reverend Frederick Douglass Kirkpatrick; attorney and feminist activist Florynce "Flo" Kennedy; and musicians Jim Collier, Wende Smith, Larry Johnson and Reverend Gary Davis. All tell stories of heartbreak and despair while their songs blow the roof off the rafters. In an extension of the famed shebeen scenes in Come Back, Africa, the participants in Black Roots spoke openly about politics and race in a way that is still rarely seen on screen. In 1970, it was a radical and daring move by a great director. A deeply humanist film, Black Roots combines tales of oppression with hauntingly beautiful images of the faces of black men, women and children.

Lionel Rogosin’s group portrait of a handful of civil-rights activists, bluesmen, and gospel singers, including the great Rev. Gary Davis, has been all but unseen since its 1970 premiere — which makes its home-video debut as the B-side to Milestone’s terrific release of Rogosin’s Come Back, Africa a cause for celebration. Angry, vital, and compassionate, it’s a mosaic of spoken testimonies on the experience of segregation and racial exclusion, intercut with stirring musical performances—Davis’s “Death Don’t Have No Mercy” is a bone-chilling highlight—and rapid-fire close-ups of young African-Americans filmed on the fly in New York. “If I can’t live my life in freedom,” guitarist Jim Collier wails at one point with last-ditch urgency, “I’ll burn the whole thing up.” The movie’s final minutes take up that promise: stern young men stare the camera down, a child pumps his fist in the air, and “Purple Haze” blasts on the soundtrack. From roots to revolution. —Max Nelson, Film Comment

  

The home DVD and Blu-Ray of COME BACK, AFRICA:
The Films of Lionel Rogosin,Volume 2 is a two-disc boxed set featuring:

Disc One:
Come Back, Africa. South Africa. 1959, 86 minutes. Restoration Cineteca del Comune di Bologna. From the 2K Restoration. SDH subtitles.
A Martin Scorsese Introduction. 2 minutes.
An American in Sophiatown: The making of Come Back, Africa. Directed by Michael Rogosin & Lloyd Ross. 64 minutes.
Lionel Rogosin talks about Come Back, Africa. Radio Interview, 1978, 19 minutes.
Come Back, Africa. Theatrical Trailer. 2 minutes.

Disc Two:
Black Roots. United States. 1970, 63 minutes. Restoration Cineteca del Comune di Bologna. From the 2K Restoration. SDH subtitles.
Bitter Sweet Stories. Directed by Michael Rogosin. 27 minutes. Color/B&W. Documentary on the making of Black Roots.
Have You Seen Drum Recently? Directed by Jürgen Schadeberg. 1989, 74 minutes.

Street: February 25, 2014

DVD UPC: 784148013343
DVD ISBN: 978-1-933920-53-5
DVD SRP: $34.95 Item # Mile00133

Blu-Ray UPC: 784148013350
Blu-Ray ISBN: 978-1-933920-54-2
Blue-Ray SRP: $39.95 Item # MileBD00133
 

www.comebackafrica.com

 

Dead Stores

As the American way of life dies out, and we become a Third World country, one's childhood memories of stores can be pretty intense in seeing so much closed down. Many remember going shopping at some of the stores above, and now they are all gone. Some try to blame the internet for the defunct retail store but that is not the whole story by any means. Jobs disappeared and so did expendable income, and thusly, so did shopping, except for bare necessities. Say goodbye to a thriving retail market!

What other stores could be added to this list?

Blockbuster
Borders Books
Frank's Nursery & Crafts

Radio Shack has been struggling.
Sears is having major problems.
JC Penny has had to lay off many people.
K-Mart is on the way out

Here's a far more comprehensive list:

DEFUNCT RETAILERS IN THE USA

Here's a video about dead malls in America:



America is becoming a waste land of empty store fronts. We have the closed stores here in our local area and a zombie mall, where a church rented one of the old big department stores and only a few stores remain open--The Squawker.

Poverty Rates Surge in the Suburbs

The first woman is fortunate to be able to live with a relative, imagine where she would be living on $19,000 a year or $1,400 a month? The jobs are paying far less. For a job I made $11 an hour in the mid 1990s before I was disabled; they now pay people only $8 an hour and still expect some education.

Many people who grew up in the suburbs with parents that did well, are now facing the fact they cannot get jobs like their parents held or make anywhere near the money they did and maintain the same lifestyles.. However, the mother that this lady lives with is working two jobs to keep expensive property taxes paid on a small two bedroom house.  One thing I am glad the video points out, is that many of these poor people are WORKING and just not making enough to pay for food and other necessities. They talk about Suffolk County, where the cost of living is higher. That applies to a lot of places now.

Many futurists have written that the suburbs will be the ghettoes of tomorrow.---The Squawker

War on Homeless Graphic

                                                                [from poverty infographics on Pinterest]-- The Squawker

Shining Mr. Lincoln's Shoes (Letter To The Powers That Be, 1998)

"He's a temporary contract man

Since the union lost its clout

Got no meds or benefits
He's living hand to mouth

"In the shadow of the monument

He finally paid his dues

Dying of a heart attack

Shining Mr. Lincoln's shoes..."

(Wayne Kramer, "Shining Mr. Lincoln's Shoes")

While rummaging through our proverbial back pages, The Squawker and I have run across some interesting artifacts of our past. That's one of the fascinating things about cleaning: you never know what you're going to find, of which the following letter (below) stands out as a good example.

We've racked our brains, but can't recall where the letter went. The date coincides with our brief (three-and-a-half year) flirtation with the urban bohemian lifestyle, but -- other than that -- we can't recall the destination. At first, I assumed that we'd targeted one of the local alternative weeklies, until The Squawker reminded me: "Have you forgotten all the trouble that you encountered with temp agencies?"

And that's when the penny dropped, as they say in England.  I did a fair amount of office temping when we started our big city tenure. My best experience came as a phone collector at a microfilm company, where the assignment actually lasted the full three weeks. Most of the "slow-pay-no-play" clientele in this situation were established businesses, which diminished much of the guilt that you might have felt (say) for pursuing the marginal earners...but I digress.

On the last day, our boss actually bought doughnuts for all of us contract types, which I've never seen anybody do before, nor since. The typical assignments, however, never lasted more than a couple days, or a week. On one occasion, yours truly found himself told not to return after putting in an eigh-hour shift rearranging and organizing shelves at a hardware store...because the owner came in, and didn't like the look of me. I still remember the paycheck: $64 for the day, of which $8 went back to Caesar in taxes!  Over to you, Mr,  Kramer, for that last verse:

"In the shadow of the monument

With those mop-n-bucket blues

His soul sang sweet surrender

While shining Mr. Lincoln's shoes..."

Eventually, I found a dreary office job that required 45 minutes of travel back and forth every day to some northern suburban enclave -- which, for awhile, seemed like a better bargain than patching together this or that assignment to satisfy the weekly and monthly bottom line. However, my lasting memory of those daily bus rides isn't the job itself, nor my co-workers, but the ugly '50s and '60s architecture dotting the town...great, big lumps of concrete with right angles and corners jutting out here, there and there, I'd always think...how much money did someone plunk down to get the village looking like this?

In any event, the following letter brings back numerous memories of my short-lived temping experiences, which The Squawker and myself saw chronicled in 'zines like Temp Slave -- then, and now, one of the few publications that told the truth about what was really happening then. I have vivid memories of seeing the Redi-Men buses cruising the city, sneaking a glance at the occupants as they kept their heads down, or gazed randomly out the window, wondering how to play the crooked hand that life had dealt them...feeling too exhausted to do anything about today, and uncertain if tomorrow might bring anything marginally better.

Few knew it then, I'm sure, but the system was grooming everyone involved for a new life...the 19th-century-style insecurity of the Gigger Nation, and the uncertain world of shining Mr. Lincoln's shoes.  The letter follows now...

December 13, 1998

OK, Folks --

Your latest fly-the-flag-of-capitalism pitch is like watching a multi-cubicle pileup on the interstate. You've lost track of the flying glass and metal shards because you refuse to see what you're seeing. Your smart-mouthed managers' work-hard-play-by-the-rules pitch is nauseating in all its naked dishonesty, so stark and stunning is the mental impoverishment on display here.

To recap -- only a complete fool, or Armani-coated apologist, is unaware that capitalism creates savage, unforgiving divisions in society. To shrug one's shoulders and say, "I'm all right, Jack, but if you're not, that's not my problem," sounds suspiciously like Marie Antoinette's parting words before those unwashed lemmings stormed the Bastille to kick her powdered-wigged ass. In an American society speedily returning to Twenties-on-Prozac levels of inequality, your commercial is a gross insult to working people dying on the vine, with nothing to show for all their college-educated, 50- to 60-hour workweeks except loss of meaningful benefits, and carpal tunnel syndrome.

Oh, and while I'm clearing out my chest's unbridled arsenals of rage against your slack-jawed, complacent idiocy, let's not forget that a great majority of wealth -- in America, or anywhere else, for that matter -- is inherited. My current boss currently owes his $1.2 million annual gross ($180,000 per month, you denim-clad morons!) to his dad's death in 1983. Like an old plate, the bugger expired, and his son cashed in accordingly -- who, incidentally, thinks nothing of cheating his own salespeople out of $25 commissions (or paying me $9.75 per hour, sans benefits).

Ah, there I go, getting pissed again, what's the use -- I'm sure some weaselly spinmaster at your company will fire off some mindless "now there, there, it's not all bad" letter, or the equally inane, "Aw, c'mon, man, it's just a commercial, can't you take a joke?"

Don't waste your time if either response emanates from your stinking spin mill. Save it for the Third World men and women struggling to keep body and soul together in your vast, octopus-like sweatshop network. I'm not sure if they'd be able to afford a corrugated tin shanty on what you pay them!

No Regards,
The Reckoner & The Squawker

CODA: PS...
Whilst looking around for suitable images to accompany these unfortunate recollections, I came across an interesting broadside from a German anarchist group that's launched a campaign to abolish temp work:

http://libcom.org/library/abolish-temporary-work-campaign-fau-iwa

The heading in the graphic ("Gleicher Lohn fur gleicher Arbeit! Leiharbeit Abschaffen!") roughly translates to, "Equal pay for equal work! Abolish temporary work!"...though, honestly, I preferred the original Google translation for the last half of the slogan ("Leiharbeit Abschaffen!" = "Temporary Exterminating!").

At any rate, you'll find some interesting commentary awaiting you, once you pull that translation trigger.  For more disturbing reading, look no farther than The New York Times ("Temporary Workers, Permanent Problems": 6/28/13):

http://6thfloor.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/28/temp-workers-permanent-problems/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

For me, the phrase that leaps out is this one: "The temp industry is expanding at a rate 10 times that of the private sector -- it's easy to speculate that this growth comes at the expense of full-time jobs." D'oh, y'think? Nah, never mind...anyway, to round things off, here's the song that started this whole meditation:

"Shining Mr. Lincoln's Shoes" (Wayne Kramer):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lgPoHKZZZE

"Happy" reading and listening, one and all...The Reckoner

Where Did The Good Jobs Go?

                                [link]


Where Did The Good Jobs Go? Globalization, Free Trade And The Demise Of America’s Middle Class

“I might be doing the work of three people due to under-staffing,” McDonald’s employee Kareem Starks, a 30-year-old former Parks Department employee, told Salon. “It’s been hard trying to live off the minimum wage, $7.25, and support my two kids plus pay rent.”

Many of the older fast food workers are well-educated, with 42 percent of employees over the age of 25 having least some college education, including 753,000 with a bachelor’s degree or higher."

 

Globalization is destroying the USA economy. Honestly when young people ask me what should they do for a living or study it's hard coming up with a secure answer. Notice the number of the college degreed flipping burgers now for The Clown. ---The Squawker