The 1989 San Francisco Quake—Is It A Warning For What Chicago Could Experience With The Predicted New Madrid Fault Quake Coming In The Near Future?

                “…..as the Oakland A’s take….take……I THINK WE’RE HAVING AN EARTHQUAKE!!”

                                                     --Al Michaels and Tim McCarver

        These are the most famous words I heard from these sportscasters who were part of the ABC televised broadcast of Game 3 of the 1989 World Series on October 17, said at the time that an surprise temblor unexpected knocked off their TV signal and temporarily halted the game’s activities for a while in Candlestick Park in San Francisco. I would experience the first time ever that a televised baseball game was knocked off the air due to an earthquake, but I was lucky not to be in San Francisco—I was in Chicago when that went down.

         Before the big shaker under the earth happened, I saw ABC was into pre-game coverage of what they called the “Battle of the Bay” as the Oakland A’s battled not against the Cincinnati Reds, or the New York Mets, or even the Los Angeles Dodgers (in the famous dynasty years of 1972, 1973, and 1974, where the A’s beat these three teams in the years’ World Series, winning back-to-back-to-back World Series championships), but against another Major League team that is also from California, but it was not the Dodgers—it was a team called the San Francisco Giants.

        I saw that Tim McCarver, the color commentator alongside Al Michaels, was mentioning to World Series viewers in the opening minutes of the pre-game of the fall classic about a few highlights of Game 2 at the Oakland Coliseum. One of the highlights McCarver recalled was the Oakland A’s Dave Parker attempting to hit a home run in the bottom of the 4^th inning but  misses it by a few feet as the ball hits the outfield wall, with Giants’  Candy Maldonado, the outfielder, taking up the ball, and single-pumping the ball before throwing it in full commitment into the infield as A’s’ Jose Canseco runs and successfully scores a run as the ball throw was cut off at second base unsuccessfully as Dave Parker reaches second base with a double and an RBI to boot,  and at that point, I heard the background noise of the stadium crowd roaring—I thought at first it was a signal that the Giants have went onto the field, and then, suddenly, I saw the TV screen flash into snowball and white-and-black lines for 3-4 seconds with distortion sounds, then the broadcasters announced to the crowd the word “earthquake”  just before I saw the TV display disappear into a super with green background that said “World Series”, in a still picture, and the audio was temporarily silenced for a couple minutes. As this sudden thing---probably the most famous interruption ever done by an earthquake in my whole history of watching sporting events on TV---happened, I wondered as the program went off the air for about two minutes, how big the earthquake was and I did not know at that point if the quake was really the big one in California. I did not know about any deaths, injuries, or damage at that point but I realized by the knocking out of the TV signal that the quake was probably huge, and I realized after ABC went back on the air, and I saw the first news footage of the quake, where a double-decker expressway bridge in the city  buckled and caused a vehicle to cave in, and another area in San Francisco where there was a large gas-related fire due to a broken gas main in some residential area of the city, gave me quick conclusions that the fault that caused the quake—the San Andreas Fault---was responsible for the main shock, and from seeing the footage of the quake damage, I was thinking that the quake may have reached nearly 7.0 on the Richter Scale and about 9 to 10 in the Mercalli scale. I was about 60-70 percent right in my predictions. Also, when the picture came back, I realized that most of the fans in the stadium remained even though I did not know if stadium officials wanted the fans to evacuate the stadium just in case of possible aftershocks, and I saw that the roof and the decks of the stadium were mainly unscathed.

        The way I had got lucky that Chicago avoided that October 20, 1989 earthquake that happened in San Francisco—the quake that rocked—as well as interrupted—the 1989 World Series---was interesting. The main shock that rocked the City By The Bay happened just 2 days from my 19^th birthday…and was something that at first made me laugh to myself about it. Five years after 1989, however, I got word that the New Madrid Fault that cuts through the Tennessee Valley and touches the tip of extreme southern Illinois could be in for a catastrophic earthquake in the near future, which could cause severe damage to the Champaign-Urbana area (my campus town alma-mater, about 150 miles away from the fault zone),and Chicago (located about 300 miles north away from the fault line)  could get hit with a 3.0 to 4.0 magnitude (maybe a 4.0 most likely). I realized that the main authority on earthquake prediction happens to be the USGS—the United States Geological Survey,  which announced this earthquake prediction ever since a past major earthquake (which happened on  December 16, 1811, with a magnitude reaching about 7.5 on the Richter, so that means on the Mercalli scale, maybe close to a 10 or 11 rating—nearly catastrophic) along the new Madrid fault changed the course of the Mississippi River in the area at the fault line.

1997--Bugs--And Then The Brain Bug--Makes Me Fall In Love With The Science Fiction Flick Called "Starship Troopers"

Bugs – and then the Brain Bug – Makes Me Fall In Love With The Science-Fiction Flick Called “Starship Troopers”

       This movie may not be exactly “War of the Worlds”, but it is a twist on it from my standpoint. So I learned that the main character in “Starship Troopers”---Johnny Rico, after graduating from a high school from Buenos Aires (his hometown), joining up with the Federal Service to fight against bugs from the planets making up a fictional system called Klendathu, was not going to be a cakewalk for him. 

      First, I saw him go through boot-camp facing Drill Sergeant Zim, and even through the tough training, he gets quickly enamoured by recruit trainee, Dizzy Flores, a tough, rugged military lady who can fight like a man. Then I see Johnny then make it up through the ranks as squad leader, and had dreams that his second love interest, pilot trainee Carmen Ibanez (not knowing yet about  Rico's love for Dizzy) informs Johnny that she is going to have a full-time career in the Federal Service fleet, wanting to be a fleet ship commander, hurting Rico’s chance for any intimate relationship with her. Then, everything is stripped bare from Rico when during a live-fire exercise, he accidentally kills teammate Breckenridge, gets flogged 10 stripes with his demotion to private, and decides to leave the boot camp area. But then, I observed in the area that word spreads out that a bug meteor from Klendathu impacted Buenos Aires into a fiery holocaust with millions of people dead. Then I see Johnny decided to re-instate himself as a private to fight in the war, even with strong resistance from Sergeant Zim. 

       I then observed that Fleet battle station Ticonderoga is the main action point for the first offensive against the Klendathu planet, or Big K. The fleet flotilla does make a massive assault despite bug batteries firing plasma. But then, the arachnid soldiers on the planet were ready for the Fleet soldiers, with over 100,000 casualties for the Fleet after the 1st attack.

       Sky Marshal Dienes resigns after the failure of that 1st offensive and a replacement sky marshal sets up the 2nd attack. The Zegema Beach attack is a much better success as the Fleet fighter planes bomb the arachnids dead on the ground, and then the MI (mobile infantry) comes in to kill off the remaining arachnids, including a tanker bug.

       A major then informs Johnny that a distress call on Planet P is serious, breaking their rest break during his love scene with Dizzy which I liked in the film. (This part reminded me of my past loves). On P itself, Johnny's rank is raised to sergeant as the Mobile platoon finds Port Joe Smith, abandoned with bloody baths of dead soldiers. They find General Owen locked up in the port's command post, take him out of the post, and realizing that an arachnid ambush is coming, the platoon makes a counterattack that would soon fail, but a rescue ship saves their day. Regrettably, Dizzy is badly wounded by a rogue arachnid as the platoon retreats on the rescue ship, and later dies, making Johnny swallow his pride.

      Now, the last offensive in the flick focuses on getting back to Planet P to capture a brain bug that may be responsible for the failed Klendathu offensive.

      Well, fortunately, even though the Fleet offensive sustains heavy losses and Carmen and his pilot instructor escape from an escape pod from the Jolly Roger command ship that gets destroyed by bug plasma, right into Bug City, they could not escape one arachnid, but Johnny finally rescues the two out

of the way. 

      Finally, I saw that the brain bug is finally caught, but it was a close call for Carmen and Johnny.

       I give the movie 3 ½ stars.

June 17, 1983--My Reactions to "Superman III"

Note: This post does have some spoliers.

     When I first saw this flick, Ross Webster now becomes sort of a offshoot of the evil Lex Luthor in the Superman and Superman II.
    With that, Ross in Superman III focuses on Gus Gorman (a computer expert played by Richard Pryor) to defeat the powers of Superman by modifying all of his regular behaviors of what Superman stands for--good, kindness, and sincerity.
    I then realized that the attack on Superman was three-prong. First, Ross forces Gus Gorman to alter the  weather satellites on a computer mainframe system, so that the altering will cause a major tropical storm in Colombia that would destroy the country's coffee crop and terribly destroy the world markets that depend on that valuable crop.
    I also see that Gus does his evil deed but was informed that Superman countered this super-storm over Columbia by his common super-strengths (like turning a twister upside down or blowing strong winds with his mouth to dry up the flooded crops), which made Ross mad.

     Then, the second prong is to find Superman's chemical qualities, which included of course, Kryptonite, made of course from the planet Krypton, which detonated completely by the super-heating sun in the first Superman movie. Gus gets back to a mainframe computer station and does find the exact chemical qualities in the Krypton, and then, that Krypton rock is sent to Superman, and then, Superman becomes two parts--one angry and drunk--called "bad Superman", and the other part, called "good Superman." 

     This leads to the final battle in a garbage dump between the two different Supermans...finally, a choke hold by the good Superman ends the bad Superman for good. When I saw that happened—it was a sigh of relief!
     The third prong attack on the good Superman (with the "bad Superman" now gone) focuses on Gus's design of a supercomputer somewhere in the desert Southwest. I then saw that Ross then beckons Superman in the final conflict, and Superman knows that he has to be stopped before the supercomputer rules Ross's goal of world conquest that could lead to worldwide chaos and destruction.
    I found that this third prong attack was in 2 stages. In stage 1, as Superman comes towards the location of the cave from the outside, he is greeted by plenty of surface-to-air rockets (part of the computer's exterior defense system) that aims toward him, but Superman does evade the destructive missiles as Ross, along with two lady assistants, uses the supercomputer as some time of video game as they were destined to kill Superman. When those regular missiles were ineffective, there was a call to fire the MX--a much bigger surface-to-air missile, which does hit Superman and he falls to the ground near the cave. At the same time, Gus Gorman goes into the cave and sees his computer creation come to life. Gus then is greeted graciously by Ross, to join in the computer's bells and whistles to try to finish off Superman.
     Superman does get up after the MX missile hit and is back to the fight quickly, and I see him go right into the supercomputer cave, and tells Ross that this game is over. This leads to Stage 2 of Ross's attack, when Ross then stops Superman with the computer's Krypton laser pulse--the chemical Gus made. As Superman is stunned in terrible pain and collapses, Gus then runs into the main power switch and pulls the plug, turning the whole computer off.
     This buys time for Superman, but suddenly, the computer goes on again, and Gus realizes that the computer wants to be something like a monster. It had gone completely mad, and one lady assistant is entrapped by the device and becomes an evil cyborg. Superman leaves the cave and comes back with a closed special acid canister that is inert. He then stops the cyborg, but then the mad computer was about the eat at Superman with shock hits and is about to fatally entrap him; at this point, I saw him open up the acid canister, and I saw the acid do its work. It eats away and then destroys the whole supercomputer from the inside out--starting with small--and then big--explosions.
      After all of the explosions were over, I now find that the supercomputer is now rubble with twisted and bent steel, and I then see that Superman comes out from the destruction, was able to find Gus alive (he hid somewhere to evade the carnage), and takes Gus back alive, out of the cave, to his original workplace. Superman says that the other people will be brought to justice, including Ross.

     From all of the seriousness of this flick, there is a lighter part of this movie where Lois Lane is introduced to a brand new writer for the Daily Planet, Lana Lane. She appears brighter in appearance than the original Lois. The ending of the movie was, I thought, something that Superman had which wasa new trait—the ability to bring a historic structure back to its normal place, and that is what Superman did to bring the Tower of Pisa, which went straight up when Superman turned bad, back to its original leaning position. The Italian clay makers who saw Superman, as I see it, realize what happened and I see the makers use sledgehammers to destroy those uprighted statue replicas of Pisa….well, that made me laugh too. 

Lucky That I Escaped The Greatest American Volcano Eruption Ever in History—May 20, 1980

       Well, I do not exactly remember the time that my mother informed me that one of the mountains in Washington—which was a dormant volcano for a long time, showed signs of spewing magma and small eruptions---until ¼ of its 9,000-foot summit blew up in the most shocking massive explosion that you only often see in a blow-up of a bulk storage facility of a pyrotechnics factory….an explosion so massive that it seemed like somebody planted a nuclear bomb into the mouth of the volcano and then the nuclear bomb detonated and blew up almost the whole volcano.

        At the first seeing of the time-lapse photography of that fateful day—when Mt . St. Helens massively blows its summit and spew large amounts of ashy smoke up to 60,000 feet high that it even created its own weather (and because the volcanic ash was very hot and it cooled as it spewed up into the sky to the troposphere to temperatures as low as -40 to -50F); it created a cumulonimbus cloud great enough and an atmosphere so unstable enough to create enough separation charges to create thunder and lightning in that volcanic ash cloud. But I did not know about volcanic eruptions triggering lightning until I heard that Tom Skilling told me on WGN that it can happen.

          And I learned that even when the ash spewed upward and you think the eruption is going to be over when the smoke goes up….but I learned that just like in Amaro, Colombia, the top of the mountain of Mt. St. Helens—the icecap---melts from the intense heat and the resultant pyroclastic flows that came with it caused pounds and pounds of ash, water, and mud to spread towards a large area away from the mountain, uprooting trees and incinerating almost anything that went in their way.

         And the ash cloud itself moved 200 miles to Spokane, Washington as it spread away from the summit. I did not even know about it.

            I found out that 61 people died when all of the hell of the massive eruption was finally over, but we were lucky.

TV Commercials I Remembered in 1979

BUDWEISER

I found out that I remembered the famous words, “This Bud’s For You….for all you do, the King of Beers is comin’ through.” But I never drank even a sip of Budweiser because at that time I was too young to drink alcohol or beer. But my father loved that beer. I could also that there was a lone Clydesdale horse on the countryside in the middle of the commercial.

CATCH THAT PEPSI SPIRIT

In that Pepsi commercial, I remember that there was a scene on a cruise ship that lands on port to an arriving crowd that cheers and celebrates, and background singers saying “Catch that Pepsi spirit---drink it in, drink it in, drink it in.” I guess the end of the commercial featured a

Jewish couple celebrating front and center in a bar mitzvah party.

HAVE A PEPSI DAY

 I can remember that the commercial took place in the farm of a typical American family. I see a boy wearing a blue shirt and Denim jeans, and I also see galloping horses. The key was D major, and the Pepsi logo had the red, white, and blue colors.

PAN-AM AIRLINES

Well, this airline is now kaput, but I can remember the phrase “Say hello to a brand new world, say hello to Pan-Am”, and I also remember that the end of the commercial featured lady models in red and black going down on a floor in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

RAM TOUGH

I remember that this commercial for Dodge Trucks was often used in a lot of 1979 sporting events from college football all the way to Major League Baseball and more often, in the National Football League. I remembered those two rams clashing against each other several times, especially on the sung phrase, “Dodge trucks are ram tough!”. I remembered that the commercial was for the Dodge B-100 with its light brown on the top and the white on the bottom.  I understood the concept of “ram tough” – it means very, very tough. 

More Things I Can Remember in the 1970s

       My first introduction to a house party was going to Alexis' house,

1739 W. 106th St. My favorite remembrance was hearing a remix of

the famous Chic song, "Good Times", in the bass line. So much the

better was that the sitcom, "Good Times" sprung up in the 1970s,

a comedy supposedly shot in the Cabrini-Green projects in

Chicago.

***

     My first love for music started immediately at that time (say, around 6 or

7 years old, in 1976-1977), and it grew. For instance, I can remember the song

 "Tie A Yellow Ribbon" by Tony, Orlando and Dawn. I loved it, even if I didn't 

even know the words--I adored the music. Even their short-lived TV variety show, 

supposedly made to look like something out of the Ed Sullivan Show, was very

 interesting to me. But this set the stage for a laid-back version of the Ed Sullivan 

show--the Lawrence Welk Show, in the next decade. I was introduced to the 

Lawrence Welk’s orchestra that brought great Broadway classics, and some vintage 

pop and jazz classes, and some great ballroom dance classics as well.

     With music came jazz, and I was introduced to the sounds of George

Benson, when my father Joseph put on "Weekend in L.A." on his old

stereo system. The album he had was an 8-track--passe right now,

but I can remember the 8-track indicator with the red lights moving on to

the next song. But I realized that there was more than just George Benson

on the guitar. There were some drums, too.I didn't even know the drummers 

from the George Benson band until about 20 years later. They turned out to

 be Harvey Mason (on drumset) and Ralph Macdonald (playing Latin 

percussion). And like theEd Sullivan show, I remember that "American 

Bandstand" exploded n the 1970s with the latest 70s hits, especially when 

the show rode along the 'disco wave'. Barry Manilow's theme song to the

program made me want to swing, but I did not have the knowledge

to swing dance yet. Too bad...

***

Emma introduced me to the sound of public transportation. I can

remember taking a ride on the CTA train many times with her. I

can remember the rattling, the loud wind-like sound, the screeching of the

train when it made its banks (or "turns"), and the squeaking of the doors 

as it opened and closed.

***

Grandma's house on 6940 S. Peoria (in the neighborhood of West

0hatham) was still there even though we moved out around 1975.

Naomi Smith, my grandmother, used to baby-sit with me as my mother or

father dropped me off to go to their jobs. I can remember the

very old piano in the living room--often out of tune, and the ivory keys

seeming to look like teeth being yellow from tobacco

stains. I can also remember holding a Raggedy Ann doll in one of

her bedrooms, as if I was holding another person. At other times,

I was hooked to the TV, watching such programs as "Sesame Street"

or "The Price Is Right". Naomi is now deceased.

       One thing I really was unable to bask into in the 1970s was the

disco craze. The reason: both parents were quite conservative, and

Emma was conservative because she was a Christian, even though I

was able to see images on TV regarding the stuff related to disco…

the disco clubs, the colored moving lights, and dance floors

featuring moving color patterns. I was about 6 when the craze started

with its sensual, promiscuous music that may be good enough to attract

Jezebel, and about 9 when fireworks, dynamite, and Steve Dahl’s DJ

antics at Chicago’s Comiskey Park on July 12, 1979 on “Disco

Demolition Night”, brought an explosive end to the craze.  Finally,

I was too young to go to any of those disco clubs.

   Well, while disco was temporarily “the king”, the ultimate zenith

of disco I had experienced indirectly---seemed to be “Saturday Night

Fever”, and I got the first tastes of John Travolta (who played Tony

Manero) and Karen Lynn Gorney (who played Stephanie Nagano). I was

about 8 at that time so I could not even get the story line down pat

but I can remember the lighting in the Apollo 2000 disco club scene

and all of that dancing…that is, I focused on the lights and the

dancing. But its mixture of disco-twinged pop and rock music also

turned me on.

     I can remember when WLS AM radio was popular, the disco super group,

The Bee Gees, made fame with this movie and I can remember

the several times the radio station put on “How Deep Is Your Love?”

I never have known the Bee Gees at that point but that song with its

beautiful, laid-back music with its pretty good chordal changes seem

to be the hook of the song. I was not in love at that point even though it 

was a romantic song, but this slow, ballady music is quite incarnating.

Some of My Favorite Game Shows From The 1970s---Name That Tune and Wheel of Fortune

NAME THAT TUNE

       The house band in that game show was cheesy but it was sad that the credits did not acknowledge the musicians, but it was a setup similar to The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson—-technically a big band, with a brass section, a rhythm section with a drummer in the center, and a

keyboardist with a conductor. In my further research, this seemed almost like an Allyn Ferguson band setup—the band who released the “Barney Miller” theme song (as mentioned earlier).

       Tom Kennedy was famous as a host of the show from 1974-81, and I realized that the voice-over at the time was Jules Harlon (the man who mentioned the game prizes’ and some

of the end credits, etc.), but I did not care about both of these people.

       The structure of the game was a little bit like Family Feud with red

plunger buttons that set off an alarm sound effect just before the contestant answers. The Golden Medley, one of the structured final rounds in that game show, was a little bit like Beat The Clock on another game show, “The Price Is Right”. But what struck me about the game structure was the

vast variety of musical tunes from the pop, easy listening, swing, big-band, and jazz eras that I was exposed to, even if it was not done in the complete versions (some of the songs only lasted 3-15 seconds, and when the plunger sounds, the music stops—so it is a little bit like “musical

chairs”—the game I used to play in Beacon School).

        Kathie Lee Johnson was the most inspiring lady in the game show, setting up the buildup to what Vanna White did later on in another game show, Wheel of Fortune. She was born on August 16, 1953 and was formerly Kathie Lee Epstein, and she joined up with a group called

Pennsylvania’s Next Right before she earned a spot as a singer on Name That Tune.

           Being first raised in a town called Bowie, Maryland (her birthplace), I did not yet know at that time that Kathie was known as the “La La Girl”, on that game show, because when she sings with

the house band, the titles of the songs the contestants need to answer would be replaced by “la la” syllables. In my autistic mind, I secretly called her “The Little Jean” (not just the aforementioned “La La Girl”) —because to me, the name Jean is perceived to me as something with a sense of fullness and extroversion, but at the same time, a strong dose of gentleness. In other words, when she sings the songs, she strongly expresses herself as musically as she can, but in doing this, her dancing was controlled—she dances during some songs, but she doesn’t do it too wildly.  Her vocal style, overall, is a little bit like her being in the Keith Textor Singers and Band—her singing

with the house band was worthy of her being in that band that was famous on Sesame Street, even though she was not appointed to sing for that ensemble. She also reminded me of Karen Carpenter,

a singer and drummer who was famous at that time.

          Regrettably, after 1980, Kathie Lee Johnson was dropped from singing in future Name That Tune episodes, which made me a bit maudlin.

WHEEL OF FORTUNE

      In my perceptions, this game show was definitely based on the casino game known as roulette, and add a bit of a twist on solving crossword puzzles and you get the meat of what the game is all about. I have seen this show in the 1970s over 100 times already probably

because I loved all of the variety in it—from the colorful indications of money values on the spinning wheel all the way to that “Eeeeehhhh” buzzer when a contestant utters the wrong letter in the attempt to solve the puzzle. 

      In the movie “Rainman” (with more details in it mentioned later in the book), character Raymond Babbitt was known to recite perfectly the script of the opening mentioned by the voice-over at the start of the Wheel of Fortune game. But I had reluctance to recite the famous open for

the show—unlike the character. I usually wanted to feel much more introvert at that time.  Pat Sajak and Vanna White had run the helm of the show for over 25 years or so, but I do not know why they had been on for so, so long.

ANOTHER ASIDE - MY MEMORIES OF TELEVISION COMMERCIALS IN THE 1970s AND 1980s

ACE (HARDWARE STORE)

In the 1970s and 1980s, it was the most popular hardware store of all, competing with another hardware store brand called True-Value Hardware Stores. The most important thing I remember in

the Ace thing was the focus on red in their logo. In the early commercials, there was a focus on the “hardware man”, mainly because most people who are interested in hardware items were men, but then, about 2000, to prevent racial discrimination in the workplace, the commercial changed the phrase from “hardware man” to “hardware folks” in that decade of increased awareness in following political correctness.

BATTLESHIP

The famous phrase, “you sunk my battleship!”, was the common catch phrase I learned from a board game called “Battleship” when I played with Stan.

CONNECT FOUR

Of course, I can remember this Milton-Bradley classic board game, a game which is a cross between checkers, tic-tac-toe, and quincunx. The object of the game was to get four chips in a row of the same colors across, vertically, or diagonally.

IF YOU GOT THE TIME, YOU’VE GOT THE BEER (MILLER BEER)

Well, at that time, I was 2 years old, and it was a spinoff of that commercial in 1977 that I understood when my father loved to drink beer, but I was too young to drink at that time. It was used especially during the 1972 World Series…even though I never had any recollection of it at age 2 until I saw this

commercial on Youtube in 2013.

MEMOREX – THE ELLA FITZGERALD PHENOMENON AND THE SHATTERING GLASS

Scotch had its recording tape in a commercial that featured soul singer, Ray Charles, but Ella Fitzgerald’s wine-glass-breaking feat in the Memorex tape commercial was very memorable. I did not think at first that a wine glass can be broken without being dropped.

MIKEY AND “LIFE”

Well, I felt like a child with that commercial, but I had my eyes on Kellogg’s Corn Flakes instead.

REACH OUT AND TOUCH SOMEONE—ILLINOIS BELL TELEPHONE

Well, this jingle I heard a lot in the 1980s in the Illinois Bell Telephone TV commercials reminded me of the Diana Ross song, “Reach Out and Touch Somebody’s Hand”,  but this song was much different than

Diana’s. It was more of a 4/4 rock song than a ¾ pop waltz feel like the former song.

SEVEN-UP AND THE “UNCOLA”

Coming out of the 1970’s bubbles, the bubbles treated 7-Up like champagne. I believe at that point that the “Uncola” was because Coca-Cola was always caramel brown when you pour it into your

favorite cup or mug.

SIMON

The four big buttons of blue, yellow, red, and green, would eventually become the Microsoft logo in the 1990s, but in the 1980s, this challenging mind game had the famous “wrong” buzzer, which reminded me of something out of a cheesy pinball game.

THE LOOP – FM 98

The commercial for that Chicago radio station known as WLUP was popular leading up to Disco Demolition Night of July 12, 1979. The commercial focused about a station that had less talk with no commercials. What I remembered was that the commercial’s visual concept focused on something

like art noir (black and white) to pay homage to some of the heavy metal rockers who focused on the colors black and white in some of their outfits. And there was Lorelei – the Loop Lady – I did not know

what she intended to do in that commercial. But wow…..that’s all I know.

VENTURE

This logo was only black and white lines, slanted. It was supposed to be a big retail store that would precede today’s Walmart.  My father used to go to such a store at 87^th and State St. just near the Dan Ryan Expressway.

VIRGINIA SLIMS

From my autism, I perceived the word “Virginia” as a lovely lady, and “slims” as the word “slams”, wanted me to make the gesture of folding my arms so that my hands are at the sides. I learned too late that it came from a 1971 television commercial for a cigarette brand called Virginia Slims, before

new laws banned cigarette smoking advertisements on TV and radio around the middle of 1971.

WHITE SOX PROMO – NA NA HEY HEY GOOD-BYE

In 1979, what I remember was very scary at the end of the commercial; the scariest thing was seeing the exploding scoreboard doing its explosive stuff and lighting up like a pinball machine gone crazy, as the

voice-over says “The Chicago White Sox…it’s more than a ballgame—come play with us!”

    The first part of the commercial, of  course, featured the iconic rock song used by the White Sox organization in the 1970s when homers were hit, when the starting pitcher of the opposing team leaves the mound, and when the Sox get a victory—of course, “Na Na Hey Hey Goodbye” by Steam. It was a bit nice that Steam borrowed Jack Brickhouse’s home run call that ended with him saying “Hey Hey” and not end up being sued for this quotation. I didn’t care about the intercutting camera technique that shows shots of White Sox fans in different areas of the ballpark—and away from the ballpark—singing Steam’s well-known song. But the scoreboard I saw---even on TV---really made my heart race, and Isaid to myself “I will never go to another White Sox game.”

Details on My Electroacoustic Composition, "Synth vs. Synth", at Electronic Music Midwest October 2005

Exact Title of composition:

"Synth vs. Synth"

(Also okay to put title in caps (e.g., SYNTH VS. SYNTH))

Name of the performer (s):

Charles Joseph Smith, who will be the actual performer of the piece since it is a tape
composition. The actual improvisation in "Synth vs. Synth" was done beforehand on the
keyboard and a sequencer, which was transferred to tape.

Synopsis of "Synth vs. Synth"

 "Synth vs. Synth" started out in 1997 as an contemporary musical improvisation using a
 Kurzweil PC-88 synthesizer and a Master Tracks Pro (v. 4.3) sequencer, that lasts
 between 3-4 minutes, and at first, it was not composed out.

The piece uses three tracks: a trombone, Synth FX 1, and Synth FX 2 (the last two tracks
 being expansion sounds from the Kurzweil PC 88).
 As it was saved on a MIDI file, the same piece was played back using the Roland JV-35 and Roland

JV-40 synthesizers at the CAMIL (Computer Assisted Music Instruction Lab) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Playing it back, the Synth FX 1

and Synth FX 2 showed more of a white-noise distortion on the Roland synthsizer since
the types of preset sounds on that synthesizer were different than that of the Kurzweil PC-88.

The composer decided not to give up the composition....but realize that it can be a new form of the composition.The piece starts off with a key center in D minor. After the long notes, starting with two
octave Ds (which opens the piece), we hear the first theme, pointillistic and pizzicato in nature (on the notes A-G-F-E-F-A-D) in the bass line. Soon after that, arpeggiated chords on Gb-Bb-Eb and D-F-A create tension, and lead to a Gb-Bb-Eb-Gb/F-A-D-F/E-G#-C#-E, chordal pattern, in a style reminiscent of a film music featuring a mystery novel, which the chordal pattern creates tension.

A very brief staccato canon of only two measures takes place, and then two measures after that, a

crescendo appears. The tension leads to the E-Ab-Db-F chord, held along, depicting a certain person

having one's hair stand up on end, depicting that one saw something terrifying.

More detached chords come in the middle and lower registers, while another track

brings out longer notes decorated with dotted rhythms.
 
The pedal points in the bass comes afterward; first on an Eb-C, second on an E-D-F, and another on an E-C#-G reverberate as two open voices--one pointillistic and in a very high register, and the other, slightly lower in register and more melodic, permeate in a contemporary conversation.

 Suddenly, a D-E-G-Bb-C# chord on the trombone track indicates an aura of fright, as if you were watching a more scary version of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Then, the music relaxes a little as a partial reprise of the pizzicato, pointillistic theme in the bass heard in the beginning takes shape. At  the same time, long bass notes and long high notes linger at the point trying to make an almost pointless conversation.

Suddenly, a new part emerges, changing the key center to something like A minor. A haphazard

theme of pointillistic quality (toccata-like) occurs over a series of long bass

notes. At one point it is interrupted by 2 seconds of silence, with a lone note passage
F#-C#, in the trombone track. The toccata returns immediately, building up to a climax
on an E-C-G-F chord, and a Eb-Bb-F chord.

A brief quiet section with an ostinato-like pattern on the notes Eb-E, and after a brief

cascade in the upper tracks, staccato notes permeate and the key center is changed to
A minor as several bass drones on the fifths A-E add to the staccatos.

 This leads to the coda in A minor as the Synth FX 1 track does an running, haphazard

toccata, while the trombone and Synth FX 2, bring out chordal clusters in the mid-register and a staccato bass in the low register.

The final chords in the composition represent something like what I describe as "a white-noise type

of Armegeddon". It starts off with a G-A-B-Eb-G chord in the trombone track, finishing off with two bass chord clusters in Synth FX 1 and Synth FX 2 that depict something like someone trying to censor a radio program with indefinite noise so horrible that you feel like turning the radio off.

My List of Selected Idioms

barbecue(v.)--to let something set on fire; to be exposed

to extreme heat or fire. Also: be toast(v.)

baseline(n.)--the area where the end of the horizontal, long

boundary ends and the vertical, short boundary begins

blast(n.)--a great event; an explosive sight; a successful

happening

boogie(v.)--to dance swing-style in freedom

boogie down(v.)--to dance freestyle to dance or dance-mix music

break(n.)--a situation where an offender runs free of the

defense on the way to the other opponents' basket

bring someone to its knees--make someone pay attention

charge(n.)--a charging foul(basketball)

come clean(v.)--to free oneself from suspicion or reprehensibility

cry foul(v.)--protest that something is wrong or unfair

explode(v.)--to run hastily; to get angry suddenly

fast-paced(adj.)--hurried; quick-thinking

first-of-its-kind(n.)--brand new; original; something not seen before

follow(n.)--a back-up shot or second-effort shot that a

player attempts after a rebound(basketball)

field goal(n.)--a 2-point or 3-point shot(basketball)

general skinny(n.)--same as the word 'lowdown'

gully-washer(n.)--a heavy rainstorm; a downpour; a deluge

heads-up(adj.)--something done with a lot of attention or

concentration(basketball)

heartthrob(n.)--famous star young people admire or look up to

hoopla(n.)--haranguing; pandemonium; a lively craze; cheering

household name(n.)--a very famous name

hypercoaster(n.)--a roller-coaster that is said to reach new heights

in its use of thrills

jammage(n.)--refers to the word 'jam', a pitcher's technique

of throwing a bail so fast that the batter won't have time to

hit the ball with the meat of the bat at the right time, keeping the

ball in the ball park

jam sandwich(n.)--same as the word 'jammage'

kaplooie!(n.)--another way of saying 'kaboom!'

live large(v.)--to live overweight or obese

lowdown(n.)--events or anything else happening right now

make some noise(v.)--to become famous; to start being

noticed

make waves(v.)--to start being attractive or famous

nitty-gritty(n.)--basics

pump up(v.)--to shoot(basketball); to raise something

penetrate(v.)--to go through the defenders(basketball)

reach base(v.)--to go safely to a base by menas of a hit or a walk

run(n.)--a situation where a team is on a winning streak in

the game by shooting opportunistic baskets due to an op-

posing team's turnovers, missed shots, etc.)

run(v.)--to be ejected; to be thrown out

sacked(adj.)--referred to the bases being loaded, such as bases

sacked(baseball); also, a quarterback being tackled by a defender

way behind the former person's line of scrimmage(football)

schlew(n.)--crowd

skip(n.)--manager(baseball)

smoker(n.)--smoke grenade

suck(v.)--a disapproving reaction to bad or horrible conditions

three(n.)--a 3-point shot(basketball)

three-bagger(n.)--triple(baseball)

to hit the three(v.p.)--to shoot a 3-point shot(basketball)

to play by the rules(v.)--to follow rules or regulations

two-bagger(n.)--double(baseball)

upper tank(n.)--upper deck(baseball)

1979 - Caesar’s Palace Spectacular Featuring Diana Ross - My Reactions

     Well, it was probably something I would be afraid of going to because basically it was a big show,

 

something like a sporting event in some way or another.

     So when I saw on YouTube what I missed in 1979, I realized that Diana Ross as the foremost

singing superstar and actress—and not just simply a disco diva per se.

      So along with The Eddie Kendrick Singers and the Caesar’s Palace Orchestra as well as a

rhythm section that I often had seen in a house band in the 1970s version of “Name That Tune”

(which featured a pianist, keyboardist/organist, bassist and drummer), Diana Ross pulled off, in

my opinion, a spectacular concert that not only shook the audience who attended at Caesar’s,

but also all of Las Vegas and the rest of America as well. A great show that mixed in everything you

 

see in theater—projections on the walls, cheesy colorful lighting, dramatic sets, change of wardrobe

especially for Diana herself, a background orchestra and singers, dancing, and even some audience

participation—and even a few Diana fans allowed to go on stage and dance with Diana (fortunately

those people did not hit on Diana, those people were modest).

         “Love Hangover”, in my opinion, was the most “theatrical” of the numbers in that concert

spectacular. It was lovely for my part to see my thoughts of surrealistic dreams in the middle of the

song, as the music—which started out as a slow disco ballad in E-flat minor---segued into an high-

energy disco funk number, as I saw the dancers (about 5 or 6 of them) on stage do mainly jazz,

 

modern, and some disco dance moves---as Diana Ross left the stage for a while to change to a

different costume.

At that point, I was saying to myself, “When will Diana Ross appear? When will Diana Ross appear?”

And  then, I got that wish—just before the song ends, the dancers introduce Diana Ross from the

covered curtains onto the stage, wearing a sparkling blue costume (hope I am right) as she is lifted

by the dancers. I then said to myself, “I wish I was going to be famous just like that Diana!”

          One moment that intrigued me in the show was one of the show dancers on roller skates

when Diana sang the disco number “The Boss”. This has a bit of something coming out of Andrew

Lloyd Webber’s roller-skating musical, “Starlight Express”, but it wasn’t really that much.  The song

was a bit more lively than the “Love Hangover” that used to like, and I saw that the whole audience

clapped their hands and stomped their feet, and a few others stood up from the tables and seats to

do their own version of disco freestyle dancing—the way

Diana wanted it to look like. Oh yeah!

          The last song in that concert, “All For One, and One For All”, was a song that strongly

emphasized Diana as not only a “we” person”, and not just an “I” person. She sang her heart out in

all-white attire, including her dress and gown, so the effect I felt was that she felt quite “heavenly”.

           So the total package Diana delivered was not only  the ballads and disco numbers we grew up

with, but also the songs that appeared in her actress appearances in the movies, “The Wiz” and

“Mahogany.”

Primary source:

“Diana Ross: All For One, Caesar’s Palace , 1979, Closing  (Part 17 of 17),
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YP16vnUB7uw. Uploaded on June 13, 2009.

Introduction to Music Theory--15 Week Plan

Introduction to Music Theory--15 Week Plan
 

Note: Parts in boldface in the weeks after Week 1 (Day 1) would mean new material

is added.

PART I

Week 1--Day 1

Introduction of the class

What is theory?
The 12-tone temperment system
Consonance and dissonance
Names of the intervals (minor second, minor fifth)'
Quarter notes, whole notes,  dotted half notes and half notes

Assignment: Identify the names of the intervals on the staff, and tell also if the intervals are consonant or dissonant.

 

Week 1--Day 2

REVIEW:

What is theory?

The 12-tone temperment system
Consonance and dissonance
Names of the intervals (minor second, minor fifth)
Quarter notes, whole notes,  dotted half notes and half notes
 

Dotted eighth notes, dotted quarter notes, triplets, and sixteenth notes

Key identification or pitch identification
         MIDI-note
         Note with number (for example, C6)
         Frequency of the note (for example, A-440)

Assignment: For given notes on the staff, write down the MIDI-note number.

Also give the note identification for each of the given notes.

Week 2--Day 1

REVIEW:
Key identification or pitch identification
         MIDI-note
         Note with number (for example, C6)
         Frequency of the note

Scale degree identification

      Tonic, supertonic, mediant, subdominant, dominant, submediant, leading tone,
       octave
Introduction to the major and minor triad
The Ionian major scale and the Aeolian minor scale
    Guido d'Arezzo's solfège system
         Movable Do
         Fixed Do
    Numbers system
    Letter system
Identification of rests (quarter rests, half rests, sixteenth rests, thirty-second rests)

Assignment: For a given note passage, identify the solfege syllable in the notes using

      a Fixed Do.

Week 2--Day 2

REVIEW

Scale degree identification
      Tonic, supertonic, mediant, subdominant, dominant, submediant, leading tone,
       octave
Introduction to the major and minor triad
The Ionian major scale and the Aeolian minor scale
      Guido d'Arezzo's solfège system
         Movable Do
         Fixed Do
    Numbers system
    Letter system

Identification of rests (quarter rests, half rests, sixteenth rests, thirty-second rests)

Introduction to the ostinato and the passcaglia.

Introduction to simple meter (2/4, 3/4, 4/4)
Ostinato, Passacaglia
What is Counterpoint?
What is a Canon?
What is polyphony?
What is a tuplet?
What is a triplet?
 

"Passacaglia for Keyboard in G minor" (Handel)"

"Canon in D major for String Orchestra" (Pachelbel)"

 More identification of rests: whole rests, multimeasure rests, dotted rests

Assignment: Define the words: counterpoint, canon, polyphony, ostinato,

passacaglia, tuplet, triplet, whole rest, half rest, quarter rest, eighth rests,
dotted rest, multimeasure rest, sixteenth rest, thirty-second rest, Ionian major scale, Aeolian minor scale, movable do, fixed do, solfège.

Week 3--Day 1

REVIEW

Ostinato, Passacaglia
What is Counterpoint?
What is a Canon?
What is polyphony?

Introduction to simple meter (2/4, 3/4, 4/4)

Introduction to the augmented and diminished triads
Introduction to compound meter (6/8, 9/8, 12/8, 6/4, 9/4)

Canon

"Frère Jacques" (Traditional French folk song)
"Totentanz"--Canon part (Liszt)
Assignment: Do an original canon for two voices.
Also, define: augmented triad, diminished tried, simple meter, compound meter.
 

Week 3--Day 2

REVIEW

Canon form
Introduction to the augmented and diminished triads
 

Rondo Form

Sonata in C major, K. 545, third movement (Mozart)
Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso for Violin and Orchestra (Saint-Säens)
Assignment: Do an analysis on where the parts (A,B,C, etc.) occur in Mozart's
    Rondo in A minor, K. 511, for piano. Also, define: augmented, diminished,
   major, minor, triad, tonic, supertonic, mediant, subdominant, dominant,
   submediant, leading tone, canon, rondo form.

Week 4--Day 1

REVIEW

Rondo Form

Sonata Form

"Waldstein" Piano Sonata in C Major, op. 53, first movement (Beethoven)
"Moonlight" Piano Sonata in C-sharp minor, op. 27, no. 2 (Beethoven)

Assignment: Do a part analysis of the Symphony no. 7 in A major, first movement

 (Beethoven), figuring out where the introduction, exposition, development,
 recapitulation, and coda are.

 Week 5--Day 1

Prepare for Quiz 1
Review material covered for weeks 1-4 

Week 5--Day 2

Quiz 1
Quiz will involve dictation, analysis and also written material. 30-40 minutes per
    student.

PART II

Week 6--Day 1
Four Part Voice Leading, Part I, according to Gioseffe Zarlino
Good voice leading examples
Bad voice leading examples
Forbidden parallel motion in the voices, according to Zarlino
      Octaves, fifths, and unisons
Requirements of movement of the leading tone

Assignment: Do a four-part voice composition in 4 measures following Zarlino's

    rules. 

Week 6--Day 2

 

REVIEW

Four Part Voice Leading, Part I, according to Gioseffe Zarlino
Good voice leading examples
Bad voice leading examples
Forbidden parallel motion in the voices, according to Zarlino
      Octaves, fifths, and unisons

Requirements of movement of the leading tone

Four Part Voice Leading, Part II, according to Gioseffe Zarlino
Open Chords
Closed Chords
Rules of Doubling
Rules of Resolution
 

Assignment: The teacher will give an already-composed 4-part composition to the students, giving examples of stuff that would not be acceptable under Zarlino's rules. (for example, parallel 5ths). Those unacceptable stuff should be marked with a red circle.

Week 7--Day 1

ABA Form

Funeral March Sonata, third movement (Chopin)
Fantasie-Impromptu (Chopin)
Assignment: Do a part analysis in Chopin's "Ecossaise in D major".
 

Week 7--Day 2

REVIEW

ABA Form
Prepare for midterm exam.
Review stuff covered in the first 7 wekks.
 

Week  8--Day 1

Midterm Exam
Each student will have 40 minutes. Parts of the exam will include analysis, dictation,
    and performance 

Week 8--Day 2

AABA Form
"Bydlo" from Pictures At An Exhibition (Mussorgsky)
"Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks" from Pictures At An Exhibition (Mussorgsky)

Assignment: Do a part-analysis for the "Variation for the Prince" from The Nutcracker  Ballet (Tschaikovsky).

 

Week 9--Day 1

REVIEW

AABA FORM
ABACA Form
"Pathetique" Sonata in C Minor, op. 13, second movement (Beethoven)
"Symphony no. 7 in A Major, second movement (Beethoven)
Assignment: Do a part-analysis on "Lost Illusions" from  Songs Without Words
     (Mendelssohn).
 

Week 9--Day 2

REVIEW

ABACA FORM

Variation Form

Spanish Rhapsody, beginning, skipping the introduction into the Folies d'Espagne
"Appassionata" Sonata, op. 57, second movement (Beethoven)
Assignment: Do a part analysis of the Paganini Etude no. 6 in A minor (of Franz
    Liszt), numbering each variation, and also writing down where the coda and
    introduction to the main theme are. 

PART III

Week 10--Day 1

REVIEW
Variation Form

Polyrhythms

"Slavonic Dance in G minor" (Dvorak)
Bulgarian Dance For One Piano, Four Hands (Bartok)

Assignment: Do an original clapping piece that uses polyrhythms.

 

Week 10--Day 2

Bichordal elements

"Rite of Spring" (Stravinsky)
   * Dance of the Young Girls (beginning)
    * The Ritual of Abduction
   * The Sacrifice--Introduction (beginning)
    * Sacifical Dance of the Chosen One (beginning)

Assignment: Detect and circle bichordal elements in the "Dance of the Old Ox-Driver" from the Three Argentine Dances (Ginastera).

 

Week 11--Day 1

REVIEW

Bichordal elements

Recurrent Themes

"Symphony From The New World" (Dvorak)
"Eroica Symphony in E-Flat Major, no. 3, final movement (Beethoven)

Assignment: Look at the "Dance sacrale" from The Rite of Spring (Stravinsky),
       and look at the beginning measures, and mark the measures  at the end of
       the music that have the recurring themes.

Week 11--Day 2

REVIEW
Recurrent Themes

 Folk  Scales

The Arabic scale
The Hungarian folk scale
"Hungarian Rhapsody no. 12 in A Minor for Piano" (Liszt)
"Toccata" (Khachaturian)
Assignment: Locate areas of the Hungarian gypsy scale in "Hungarian Rhapsody
     no. 19 in D minor" (Liszt)

Week 12--Day 1

REVIEW

Folk scales

Dodecaphony

How to recognize 12-tone
"Sonata no. 1", second movement (Ginastera)
 

Week 13--Day 1

REVIEW

Dodecaphony
How to recognize 12-tone 

Quartals  and Quintals

"The Sunken Cathedral" (Debussy)
"Fanfare for the Common Man" (Copland)

Assignment: Find and circle quartals and quintals in "Pagodes" (from Estampes) for Piano  (Debussy).

Week 13--Day 2

REVIEW

Quartals  and Quintals

Fixed Pentatonic Elements

"The Little White Donkey" (Ibert)
"The Fountains of the East Village", from "Years  of Pilgrimage" (Liszt)
Handout of Italian music terminology for students to know (for example,
"espressivo", "adagio", "legato", "staccato", "forte", "piano")
 

Week 14--Day 1

Review for Final Exam, Part 1
Material covered from Weeks 1-6
 

Week 14--Day 2

Review for Final Exam, Part 2
Material covered from Weeks 7-13
 

Week 15--Day 1

Final Exam
Each student will have 40 minutes.

Week 15--Day 2

Make-up final exam for those students who miss the final exam.