I don't know when it became de rigueur to shave the fro below, but it wasn't in the 80's - all you youngins just take my word for it.
Someone sent me a link to Clitical so me bein' the Innocent Lamb and all, I just HAD to look. Which then led to Feather Touch.
Somehow the 90's produced a bit of sanity, but I don't know where it started. Maybe being the porn cap of the world, the Valley* had something to do with it.
Whatever, lawn-mowing was here to stay - THANK GOD. Ladies, you just don't understand the true meaning and depth of the phrase, "carpet munchin'," unless yer a lesbo then god bless.
Somewhere in the mid-90's I met one of the few howlee gals I've been involved with. More a curiosity thing than anything else. Anyway, I'd be lyin' if I said that it was her bush that killed it but...
DAMN.
That first time I was stunned - In the semi-dark her kooch looked like a tumbleweed.
Remember, this was the mid 90's. I'd had earlier gfs that shaved.
Then there's man-scaping. Is that gay or something?** Damn.
====================
* The San Fernando Valley, a vast nether region/cultural wasteland, otherwise known as "lil podunk," cause while it's close enough to LA it's even more provincially vapid (if that can be said of an LA suburb) than LA.
** This is all old old old to Stern's fans. Shit, even ARTIE manscapes.
I'm a man without a corporation. ~Paddy Chayefsky
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Pee Pee Be Gone Sustainably
Damn! Falcon Urinals rock da Palladium!
Some of you know about my interest in sustainability/green/community etc topics. They kind of mesh at some point with the bigger picture as everything does, but sweet virgin mother, I never thought it'd be pee pee I'd be writing about!
Truth of the matter is that I've been wanting to write about this for a while as "my" building where I do time on the plantation of the evil empire is fitted with Falcon Waterfree Technologies urinals. Suh-weeet!
The first time I wizzed in one of these babies I was like, "duh," cuz there's no flush handle. And I remember reading the Falcon label; "Falcon Waterfree Technologies," and thinking, "...?" What threw me off even more is that there's a snake inlet for plumbers nearby, so I even tried pushing that to no avail of course.
(Notice the snake inlets nearby?)
These things don't flush. Cause they don't use water. At all. Period.
No, instead Falcon does a filter and different kind of trap thing technology as opposed to the standard "s trap." Yeah, I know a thing or two about plumbing that's utterly useless when trying to impress broads - except when ya gotta fix something and be macho man with tools and they turn into the helpless damsel. In a French maid outfit. With stiletto heels. But I digress.
I'll post pics of our state of the art in pee pee stalls soon - those aren't exactly the kind of pics you obtain easily, if ya know what I mean. But then again, if ya don't ya betta axe sumbuddy. Note: Falcon's world hqs are here in LA. Yippee.
(Falcon orgy)
Falcon. Conjures up majestic images of a razor sharp predator, on the prowl for...
PEE PEE!!!
What does a falcon have to do with pee pee...? I dunno. I mean, look at their logo; is poor Mr. Falcon's head just peeking out above an ocean of pee pee?
Damn.
Some of you know about my interest in sustainability/green/community etc topics. They kind of mesh at some point with the bigger picture as everything does, but sweet virgin mother, I never thought it'd be pee pee I'd be writing about!
Truth of the matter is that I've been wanting to write about this for a while as "my" building where I do time on the plantation of the evil empire is fitted with Falcon Waterfree Technologies urinals. Suh-weeet!
The first time I wizzed in one of these babies I was like, "duh," cuz there's no flush handle. And I remember reading the Falcon label; "Falcon Waterfree Technologies," and thinking, "...?" What threw me off even more is that there's a snake inlet for plumbers nearby, so I even tried pushing that to no avail of course.
(Notice the snake inlets nearby?)
These things don't flush. Cause they don't use water. At all. Period.
No, instead Falcon does a filter and different kind of trap thing technology as opposed to the standard "s trap." Yeah, I know a thing or two about plumbing that's utterly useless when trying to impress broads - except when ya gotta fix something and be macho man with tools and they turn into the helpless damsel. In a French maid outfit. With stiletto heels. But I digress.
I'll post pics of our state of the art in pee pee stalls soon - those aren't exactly the kind of pics you obtain easily, if ya know what I mean. But then again, if ya don't ya betta axe sumbuddy. Note: Falcon's world hqs are here in LA. Yippee.
(Falcon orgy)
Falcon. Conjures up majestic images of a razor sharp predator, on the prowl for...
PEE PEE!!!
What does a falcon have to do with pee pee...? I dunno. I mean, look at their logo; is poor Mr. Falcon's head just peeking out above an ocean of pee pee?
Damn.
Friday, December 22, 2006
Raging Belly
Starting now I'm going to open up my personal life a bit more. This is so those out there can get a better picture of me but also because so much of what I write about are things outside of my life, so to speak. So, with a toe in the water, I'll begin by writing about one of my friends from UCLA, Dave. (For posterity, as of this writing the Bruins are number one. Collison, Afflalo, Shipp, Mata... under Coach Howland, after reaching the final last year AND losing Jordan Farmar [who's doing really well, thank you] to the Lakes...)
Some who know me may wonder, why with a friend and not close to home, like my daughter or brother?
The truth of the matter is that I've always been a private person, having grown up an only child. I've also been on the net since before it was GUI based, and I've seen the explosion of personal information taken in every which direction, good, bad and for the most part boring. So toe in the water and let's leave it at that for now. Maybe it just takes getting used to. We'll see.
So me and Dave go back to school days. I'll give more background info on him in future posts, because a little of that goes a long way and in one dose can be lethal. One thing we share in common; we're foodies. One more; as we get older, our metabolism... is... slowing... down.
Hardy fucken har.
Here's a recent convo:
me: Man, we had SO much grub left over from the office party I thought I'd give some to the security guard and the invisible mud peeps (mps) cleaning crew.
D: You mean the mud people as in brown persuasion?
me: Uhm. So first I ask if it's alright to give the mud peeps some food, and I get the word to tell them to just come on up. So, as I get my "alleviate privileged amerikkkan guilt quotient" temporarily sated, I gather up some cupcakes for the poor, downtrodden mps and make my way downstairs. But not before I grabbed a box of lemon cake.
me: I give the mps the cupcakes and tell them, "Tenemos mucho comida; Antes termine va al cuarto" - they smile and thank me and my quotient scale hits "F" for fulfillment. Of note, the security guard, an older brotha prolly in his 60's, looked down sorta derisively at the cupcake but nodded a thank you. Anyway, here's the rub: I kept the lemon cake.
D: [laffs]
me: But there was more, and they were going up there...
D: Well, I had this peach cobbler...
me: The fish place we went to that time...?
D: Yeah. So, I got a small one for myself and a large one for my sister (Sonia) and her used-car salesman chump, er, bf. (disclosure: I called him that, but Dave would agree. No, laff, then agree.)
I get home, chow down my cobbler, then settle in.
me: To "Command Center 3"? (in joke)
D: Yeah. So then Sonia comes home. I said, "hi."
[medium long PAUSE]
me:[Saw it coming before it left the station but laffing anyway]
D: [not missing a beat] Yeah I did.
me: [belly laff]
D: Then there was my protest.
me: Huh?
D: Well, yesterday I went to the local burger joint and got fish 'n chips - we've been there before. (Dave lives in a suburb of LA near JPL/CalTech, not exactly close to me) They gave me this MOUNTAIN of fries.
me: So you scarfed them?
D: Well, I got about half way through them, then I said to myself, "Damn, I'm only half way through. This is gonna get serious." (NOTE: One thing I didn't mention; Dave's 6'3" and, well, as his peeps say, he's big boned-ed).
me: [small belly laff]
D: So I plowed down to the last three fries and left them.
me: Huh???
D: Yeah - those were my "protest fries."
me: [bigger belly laff] And I suppose you had a "protest Coke" along with that?
D: Horchata. Yeah, I went and got a refill then went home. Walked in the house and threw it away.
me: Huh???
D: My "protest horchata."
Some who know me may wonder, why with a friend and not close to home, like my daughter or brother?
The truth of the matter is that I've always been a private person, having grown up an only child. I've also been on the net since before it was GUI based, and I've seen the explosion of personal information taken in every which direction, good, bad and for the most part boring. So toe in the water and let's leave it at that for now. Maybe it just takes getting used to. We'll see.
So me and Dave go back to school days. I'll give more background info on him in future posts, because a little of that goes a long way and in one dose can be lethal. One thing we share in common; we're foodies. One more; as we get older, our metabolism... is... slowing... down.
Hardy fucken har.
Here's a recent convo:
me: Man, we had SO much grub left over from the office party I thought I'd give some to the security guard and the invisible mud peeps (mps) cleaning crew.
D: You mean the mud people as in brown persuasion?
me: Uhm. So first I ask if it's alright to give the mud peeps some food, and I get the word to tell them to just come on up. So, as I get my "alleviate privileged amerikkkan guilt quotient" temporarily sated, I gather up some cupcakes for the poor, downtrodden mps and make my way downstairs. But not before I grabbed a box of lemon cake.
me: I give the mps the cupcakes and tell them, "Tenemos mucho comida; Antes termine va al cuarto" - they smile and thank me and my quotient scale hits "F" for fulfillment. Of note, the security guard, an older brotha prolly in his 60's, looked down sorta derisively at the cupcake but nodded a thank you. Anyway, here's the rub: I kept the lemon cake.
D: [laffs]
me: But there was more, and they were going up there...
D:
me: The fish place we went to that time...?
D: Yeah. So, I got a small one for myself and a large one for my sister (Sonia) and her used-car salesman chump, er, bf. (disclosure: I called him that, but Dave would agree. No, laff, then agree.)
I get home, chow down my cobbler, then settle in.
me: To "Command Center 3"? (in joke)
D: Yeah. So then Sonia comes home. I said, "hi."
[medium long PAUSE]
me:
D: [not missing a beat] Yeah I did.
me: [belly laff]
D: Then there was my protest.
me: Huh?
D: Well, yesterday I went to the local burger joint and got fish 'n chips - we've been there before. (Dave lives in a suburb of LA near JPL/CalTech, not exactly close to me) They gave me this MOUNTAIN of fries.
me: So you scarfed them?
D: Well, I got about half way through them, then I said to myself, "Damn, I'm only half way through. This is gonna get serious." (NOTE: One thing I didn't mention; Dave's 6'3" and, well, as his peeps say, he's big boned-ed).
me: [small belly laff]
D: So I plowed down to the last three fries and left them.
me: Huh???
D: Yeah - those were my "protest fries."
me:
D: Horchata. Yeah, I went and got a refill then went home. Walked in the house and threw it away.
me: Huh???
D: My "protest horchata."
Thursday, December 21, 2006
The Way it Was: Homage to Ahmet Ertegun
A legend left this world 12/14/06.
As with my earlier paean to Bill Graham, Ahmet Ertegun is the last of a dying breed. Like Pike Bishop's Wild Bunch, the very underpinnings of history are moving beneath their feet; "Those times are closing fast."
Ertegun had that nurturing ability when it came to artists, what in the business is a lost art; development. That art is gone because the economics of today's music oligopoly obliterate the human touch and replace it instead with spread sheets, value maximization and all of the attendant ilk. But it was Ertegun who - along with older brother Nesuhi and (fellow legend) Jerry Wexler - instilled that nurturing spirit into their baby, Atlantic Records.
Press junkets and photo ops - those are the stuff of today because they "maximize value," much as a developer trashing a single-family home and erecting a condo.
Ertegun - like Graham - was passionate in his diversity; from blues to his first love, jazz and on to some of the biggest names of 60's and 70's rock. Of note, he always contextualized those genres as "black American music."
He could have had all of the privilege his lineage afforded him; his father was the ambassador to his motherland, Turkey. But his older brother would hold sway, and as a young man, in a foreshadowing of his sensibilities, Nesuhi was known to have hung around Breton. It would also lead to Nesuhi exposing a young Ahmet to "race music."
Ertegun saw Nat Cole play before he became "King" and knew who the demi-god Art Tatum was despite the master's public obscurity. Hearing Clapton for the first time playing live but not immdediately seeing him, he knew ... he also felt the same way about Page when he got the fledging post-Yardbirds nascent Led Zep's demo. Thus, two of the three British blues-based rock guitar gods (the third was Beck) went to Atlantic and made history.
Today, Tower records goes bankrupt and the music oligarchs throw up their hands at the burning of Rome. "Downloading is killing us," they say. Maybe. But is it just a coincidence that as a kid I'd listen to records and pour over liner notes, read "Down Beat" and "Creem" and "Rolling Stone" (when it was worth a plugged nickel), and be enthralled? Music seemed to be about more then, and something, dare I say it, was in the air. And Ertegun was an integral part of that spirit.
The air in today's room is putrid.
Open the windows. Ahmet Ertegun has left the room.
As with my earlier paean to Bill Graham, Ahmet Ertegun is the last of a dying breed. Like Pike Bishop's Wild Bunch, the very underpinnings of history are moving beneath their feet; "Those times are closing fast."
Ertegun had that nurturing ability when it came to artists, what in the business is a lost art; development. That art is gone because the economics of today's music oligopoly obliterate the human touch and replace it instead with spread sheets, value maximization and all of the attendant ilk. But it was Ertegun who - along with older brother Nesuhi and (fellow legend) Jerry Wexler - instilled that nurturing spirit into their baby, Atlantic Records.
Press junkets and photo ops - those are the stuff of today because they "maximize value," much as a developer trashing a single-family home and erecting a condo.
Ertegun - like Graham - was passionate in his diversity; from blues to his first love, jazz and on to some of the biggest names of 60's and 70's rock. Of note, he always contextualized those genres as "black American music."
He could have had all of the privilege his lineage afforded him; his father was the ambassador to his motherland, Turkey. But his older brother would hold sway, and as a young man, in a foreshadowing of his sensibilities, Nesuhi was known to have hung around Breton. It would also lead to Nesuhi exposing a young Ahmet to "race music."
Ertegun saw Nat Cole play before he became "King" and knew who the demi-god Art Tatum was despite the master's public obscurity. Hearing Clapton for the first time playing live but not immdediately seeing him, he knew ... he also felt the same way about Page when he got the fledging post-Yardbirds nascent Led Zep's demo. Thus, two of the three British blues-based rock guitar gods (the third was Beck) went to Atlantic and made history.
Today, Tower records goes bankrupt and the music oligarchs throw up their hands at the burning of Rome. "Downloading is killing us," they say. Maybe. But is it just a coincidence that as a kid I'd listen to records and pour over liner notes, read "Down Beat" and "Creem" and "Rolling Stone" (when it was worth a plugged nickel), and be enthralled? Music seemed to be about more then, and something, dare I say it, was in the air. And Ertegun was an integral part of that spirit.
The air in today's room is putrid.
Open the windows. Ahmet Ertegun has left the room.
Hanky the Terrorist, Uncle Scam and Mega Media
A week or two ago I was watching Charlie Rose and he had that basset hound Henry Kissinger on, and the inevitable "Iraq question(s)" come up. The parallels; escalation, insurgency, civil war...
But it's absolutely amazing how Charlie can be so off point and more, a softballer. I mean, he's the ONLY talk show that will guest Chomsky, which just goes to show how deep the "Jewish mafia" runs in mega-corp controlled mass-media. Btw, for anyone who doubts the Janus faced history of Jews in Hollywood, just read Gabler's, "An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood." Jesus Christ (how's that for irony?), I thought my peeps were fucked up in terms of self-image. It cracks me up - wryly, of course - how, whenever I speak on a panel or at a seminar, inevitably I meet up with wide-eyed film students, hoping against hope that theirs is the lucky lotto number....
Shudder.
These poor kids - they spend tens of thousands of dollars on a film school "education" but can't tell you who this is...
let alone this dude
and god send money should they know who THIS is...
...cause I'll need a Costco sized bundle of tp to wipe my ass from the shock shit.
So. Charlie "sometimes on point" Rose has Henry, "I systematically TERRORIZED millions of mud people got a Nobel Prize out of it and some fat ass speaking engagements," Kissinger on. Asking the Iraq questions. The parallels.
THE PARALLELS???
I got your parallels, hanky, ya punk ass beeeatch, hiding behind your rat-bastard nixonian presidential seal while pushing buttons that terrorize; how about some donkey balls parallel to your chin muthaphuka??? How about THIS for a parallel, that you ILLEGALLY and sytematically TERRORIZED millions of Asians via the TET fucking offensive, you putrid piece of regurgitated bukake?
"The terrorists," "the war on terror" ... Parallel this: We're the laughing stock of the world because of this embarrassment of an administration.
Just as with the nixon administration.
I think this is the great trick of uncle scam; the games he sets up are basically elementary - taking a page from Goebbels and another from Bernays while being later deconstructed by Herman & Chomsky:
1. Control messaging via mass-media. Check.
2. Make sure the freeways that govern access to political power are constantly jammed with over 30,000 lobbyists, each wtih a man purse of laundered money. Check.
3. #2 also serves another purpose; it effectivly cuts off the .000001% of the riff-raff mud peeps that have a smidgen of power.
3. Have an endless supply of diversions - concocted or not - that mis-direct the laity and can be amply farmed out to #1. Check.
4. Liberal (in the conservative sense of that word) mentioning of buzz words/phrases; "freedom," "democracy," "America loves freedom," "war on terror," etc., while making Hegel twist in his grave by antithetically citing "the enemy," and that, "they're jealous of our freedom."
5. Lather, rinse... you now the drill.
It goes without saying so I"ll say it; sell-outs like this reprobate
not to in any way be corn-fused with THIS dude
are a necessary part of uncle scam's equation as well.
It's one of the most energy-sapping things to watch, the way these devils run their games.
I'ts also hard to critique when most of us are so self-involved with our own personal crap, because while the game is basically fundamental, it's macro. And we're not trained to think macro, much less long-term, much much less, critically, much much much less analogically.
For ONCE I'd like to see our mainstream journalists grow some nuts - JUST ONCE, so that I can have a smile fest for a minute just watching human puss sacks like Kissinger squirm in his grease. This is why Howard Stern, despite ... well, you know, he's Howard, it's why things like sending Stuttering John out to completgely deflate pompous celebs were fucking brilliant. Sasha Baron Cohen ain't got nothin' on Stern.
For someone like me, born in Hollywood (Kaiser, right on Sunsent), mass media's in my DNA. Just not in the, "I'll-degrade-myself-to-sub-species-level-AND-eat-mega-corp-conglomo-mierda-to-even
have-what-I-think-is-a-shot-at-working-FOR-FREE-on-your-plantation," sense.
Hanky, do humanity a favor; shove a burnt weenie sandwich up yer butt so that weasels rip your flesh to get at it.
Allusions and wordplay in this post: At least two. I think. (I'm particularly proud of the last one...)
But it's absolutely amazing how Charlie can be so off point and more, a softballer. I mean, he's the ONLY talk show that will guest Chomsky, which just goes to show how deep the "Jewish mafia" runs in mega-corp controlled mass-media. Btw, for anyone who doubts the Janus faced history of Jews in Hollywood, just read Gabler's, "An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood." Jesus Christ (how's that for irony?), I thought my peeps were fucked up in terms of self-image. It cracks me up - wryly, of course - how, whenever I speak on a panel or at a seminar, inevitably I meet up with wide-eyed film students, hoping against hope that theirs is the lucky lotto number....
Shudder.
These poor kids - they spend tens of thousands of dollars on a film school "education" but can't tell you who this is...
let alone this dude
and god send money should they know who THIS is...
...cause I'll need a Costco sized bundle of tp to wipe my ass from the shock shit.
So. Charlie "sometimes on point" Rose has Henry, "I systematically TERRORIZED millions of mud people got a Nobel Prize out of it and some fat ass speaking engagements," Kissinger on. Asking the Iraq questions. The parallels.
THE PARALLELS???
I got your parallels, hanky, ya punk ass beeeatch, hiding behind your rat-bastard nixonian presidential seal while pushing buttons that terrorize; how about some donkey balls parallel to your chin muthaphuka??? How about THIS for a parallel, that you ILLEGALLY and sytematically TERRORIZED millions of Asians via the TET fucking offensive, you putrid piece of regurgitated bukake?
"The terrorists," "the war on terror" ... Parallel this: We're the laughing stock of the world because of this embarrassment of an administration.
Just as with the nixon administration.
I think this is the great trick of uncle scam; the games he sets up are basically elementary - taking a page from Goebbels and another from Bernays while being later deconstructed by Herman & Chomsky:
1. Control messaging via mass-media. Check.
2. Make sure the freeways that govern access to political power are constantly jammed with over 30,000 lobbyists, each wtih a man purse of laundered money. Check.
3. #2 also serves another purpose; it effectivly cuts off the .000001% of the riff-raff mud peeps that have a smidgen of power.
3. Have an endless supply of diversions - concocted or not - that mis-direct the laity and can be amply farmed out to #1. Check.
4. Liberal (in the conservative sense of that word) mentioning of buzz words/phrases; "freedom," "democracy," "America loves freedom," "war on terror," etc., while making Hegel twist in his grave by antithetically citing "the enemy," and that, "they're jealous of our freedom."
5. Lather, rinse... you now the drill.
It goes without saying so I"ll say it; sell-outs like this reprobate
not to in any way be corn-fused with THIS dude
are a necessary part of uncle scam's equation as well.
It's one of the most energy-sapping things to watch, the way these devils run their games.
I'ts also hard to critique when most of us are so self-involved with our own personal crap, because while the game is basically fundamental, it's macro. And we're not trained to think macro, much less long-term, much much less, critically, much much much less analogically.
For ONCE I'd like to see our mainstream journalists grow some nuts - JUST ONCE, so that I can have a smile fest for a minute just watching human puss sacks like Kissinger squirm in his grease. This is why Howard Stern, despite ... well, you know, he's Howard, it's why things like sending Stuttering John out to completgely deflate pompous celebs were fucking brilliant. Sasha Baron Cohen ain't got nothin' on Stern.
For someone like me, born in Hollywood (Kaiser, right on Sunsent), mass media's in my DNA. Just not in the, "I'll-degrade-myself-to-sub-species-level-AND-eat-mega-corp-conglomo-mierda-to-even
have-what-I-think-is-a-shot-at-working-FOR-FREE-on-your-plantation," sense.
Hanky, do humanity a favor; shove a burnt weenie sandwich up yer butt so that weasels rip your flesh to get at it.
Allusions and wordplay in this post: At least two. I think. (I'm particularly proud of the last one...)
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Mark Cuban on Customer Service
This is great. Should be required reading for every company
Success and Motivation - Connecting to your customers
I have a couple customer service sayings I tend to over use. I dont usually speak them outloud. I usually say them to myself as a reminder to always put our customers, in any business first. "Treat your customers like they own you. Because they do." "You have to re-earn your customers business every day" and one that came from YAHOO, which I thought was brilliant. When asked what Yahoo stood for, some folks there responded "You Always Have Other Options". I personally think that the only way you can connect to your customers, is to put yourself in their shoes. For me personally, if I can't be a customer of my own product, then I probably am not to do a good job running the company. When I go to a Landmark Theater, I don't call ahead and tell them Im coming and ask for special treatment. I stand in line and pay for my ticket like everyone else. I get my popcorn and Diet Coke like everyone else. I get my seat like everyone else.
With the Mavs, I sit in a seat that is for sale to the general public, Its a great seat next to the bench, but I also make sure that I sit in the very top row behind the baskets, our $2 dollar/10 dollar seats during the season as well. Same routine. Im not surrounded by security. I dont get special anything. If the Nachos are slow and the beer is warm, I know it and the people sitting around me also let me know.
Its interesting to watch different CEOs of different companies and how they deal with the issue of making customers happy. You can tell the ones that don't trust their products or services. They travel with big groups of people. There are advance teams to make sure everything is perfect. They bring security to places where their customers are families and kids. They protect themselves from any possible interactions, whether direct, phone or email by having secretaries filter everything, and they respond with formletters or assistants, if at all.
I dont know how they do it. I make my email available to everyone and anyone. Not only that, and more importantly, I make sure that all the customer service emails get forwarded to me. If someone is complaining, I want to know what about, and I want to get it fixed quickly. The best focus groups are your customers telling you what they think. No company is perfect, but the CEO who doesnt listen to direct feedback from customers will not take the company as far as it can go.
But it gets worse from there for CEOs that don't communicate with their customers. There used to be a saying that happy customers might tell one person, but unhappy customers tell 20. In the internet age, one happy customer might make a note in their blog or forward an email. An unhappy customer, starts a blog, writes about how unhappy they are, takes out an ad on search engines to let people who are looking for the product know how made they are, starts an email forwarding chain asking people to boycott the product, does a Youtube video about it and games Youtube to make it one of the top 10 most viewed videos.... You get the picture.
IN this day and age, its a lot easier to proactively communicate than to react.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
More on Albert Cullum: Letters
select letters from viewers and students from the ITVS site ...
6/20/06
Ken Ramirez
Bethesda, Maryland
I was one of Albert Cullum's students at Midland School in Rye, New York. My life was changed forever. I grew up a fearful and unhappy boy with very little to feel good about. I stuttered constantly, was awkward and introverted, and felt the future offered nothing.
Al Cullum changed all that. He taught me that there was a world of greatness, creativity, and beauty just waiting to be experienced. Every thing Al touched was magical, be it history, math, poetry, or art. His classroom hummed with joy and excitement. Every subject was treated with contagious creativity. We solved math problems in King Tut's tomb, raced around the room solving geography problems, read great poety to our peers, guessed the names of masterpieces of art and I'm not even scratching the surface.
Al's lunch breaks were taken up with batting balls to us. Instead of commuting home 30 miles to New York, he stayed after school three days a week in referee the street hockey games he had organized. He accepted my parent's invitation for dinner one night and stayed to watch my little league baseball game.
I went on teach English nine years in the public schools, and I marvel at the man's dedication, creativity, and energy, not to mention his love.
Al made me feel special long before Mr. Rogers came along. So much of what I am and what I value comes from that man who trekked to the suburbs every day for what must have been a small compensation.
I logged on to the computer tonight because I have been thinking about Al recently, and I wanted to thank him for what he did for me. I was saddened to find out that he had passed away, but I was delighted to see that this wonderful movie had been made, and that many of my former classmates felt the same way about him that I did.
We give a lot of lip service to teachers, but we pay them little and bestow a marginal status on them. I don't teach anymore, but my daughter is now the same age I was when I met Al, and I truly cherish these wonderful people who inspire and care about her just like Al did for us.
I am very fortunate, and I know all of Al's former students are too. Rest well, Al, your life was well spent.
====================
11/21/05
Sam Leary
Chesapeake, Virginia
I just viewed the film "A Touch of Greatness" in a class for gifted certification. Dr. Cullum reminded me of another "gifted" teacher I encountered early in my career. He believed students learned through all their senses and taught history in a most unique manner. Students hid under desks as the bombs (books)rained down on helpless Londoners (students)during the Battle of Britian; air-raid siren blaring (he was very good at sound effects). He never sent a student to the principal as they almost worshipped him as their leader. He was a performer in his classroom who knew every child and found a way to get the best from each one. His school became his life. Every afternoon, he was in the gym playing basketball with the kids no one else could tolerate. He too, incurred the rath of his fellow teachers who could not or refused to form the kind of relationship he forged with his students. They found ways to demean his accomplishments to the point that he did not socialize with them in the lounge, but was happy to hold court in the student cafeteria with his loyal subjects. In the end he did very well and I feel was rewarded for his service to young people; he retired after touching many lives and today lives very, very comfortably with an inheritance bequested by two wealthy spinsters whom he cared for many years. Mr. Holloman, you truly made a difference.
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9/19/05
Ron Fisher, Ph.D.
Atlanta, GA
Albert Cullum reminded me of my freshman (high school) teacher who honored the 55 students in each of the 4 sections of his English class (Catholic prep. school) by having us read Shakespeare instead of studying grammar, 1960-64. He got in trouble because we didn't do well on the standardized grammar tests. However, I learned about human nature, and I learned to think critically, as Albert Cullum taught his fifth-graders. A few years later, having dropped out of college because I found it boring, I talked my way into a teaching position at my h.s. alma mater in San Francisco, teaching four sections of English. In addition to teaching Shakespeare, I offered a writing seminar to all interested students during their (and my) lunch hour. I was told by the principal to desist, that lunch time was for athletics. So, flying under the radar, I moved the class to my apartment on Saturdays.
After pursuing a Ph.D., I found that my goal of infecting college students with my love of literature and creative writing would "get in the way of your being tenured."
I abandoned teaching--in the classroom--and became a personal and career counselor, getting a Ph.D. in psychology but always believing I learned most about human nature not from Freud but from Shakespeare and my h.s. English teacher, Mr. Franxman.
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8/12/05
Muffy Mallory
Orinda, CA
My family left Rye in the middle of my 4th grade year at Midland School in the late 50's. One of my good friends was Steve Lawson and that connection (long severed, now reconnected) led me to this wonderful film. I have been haunted by it since watching it, twice. My older brother Peter had Mr. Cullum which is why I knew him as well as I did. Peter is 60 and talked about Mr. Cullum all the time. We had him to dinner at our house a number of times and I recall my parents embracing him and, I am guessing, his techniques. I was shocked to see that he was an outcast. I have few regrets in life but I can add to that short list this one: that I didn't have the opportunity to be taught by such a great man. What I do recall, however, was how proud I was in 2nd grade to have gotten published in the Chatter Box. I still have the issue, in fact.
Nothing in recent memory has produced such excitement in me as much as this film. My partner is on the board of a small school in San Francisco and he enjoyed the movie so much that he is going to share it with the head of the school. I intend to share it with as many people as I can as well as with my three siblings, all of whom recall him. Al Cullum was surely a man ahead of his time. Thank you for making this film.
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8/2/05
Mary S. Bahr
Baltimore, MD
Being a creative person, I am SO impressed by Albert Cullum specifically in that he was confident in knowing he was uniquely different and not afraid to express what came from a deep place within him. Teachers can be well educated and trained, but they don't ALL have that unique, inner freedom and special spirit, which makes for greatness. How can children be truly taught and transformed without such greatness as a role model? Children can discern the types of hypocrisy. Two examples of my grade school life: in 8th grade, the school librarian was more than livid when I told her I had just read "Rebecca" [Daphne DuMaurier] and thought it was so good that the school library should get their own copy. And, on the other hand, my 7th grade science teacher taught really fun classes and, therefore, I told my parents that science was my favorite subject and that what I learned most was why he painted his house black (an oddball personal story he would always talk about). Needless to say I also failed science. I am a post-grad from an art college where there was a freedom of expression along with discipline of craft, but I learned more to discern the good, innovative teachers from ones I likened to be "ingenuine puppets with a reputation to uphold." The best influence on my development was my father - who didn't "teach" me as much as be a role model in what, as a man, who was a fine arts painter, truly valued and acted on with a deep well of great spirit. And his college students gravitated towards his genuiness. He and Mr. Cullum, I think, would have liked each other.
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3/2/05
Gideon Ansell
Boston, MA
Watching this film left me teary, exhilarated, sad, and a little bit more hopeful than before. Al Cullum was my teacher at Midland School in the early-to-mid 60s and I was fortunate enough to be in two productions of his (in fact I'm in some of the archive footage film and that's me in the picture on the right of "The Teacher" page of this site.) As with his former students featured in the film, his effect on me continues to this day. Over the years I've frequently related stories of Mr. Cullum and credited him with fostering so many of the life choices I made and core principles I hold out to my kids.
Simply put, Mr. Cullum had the most profound impact a teacher can have on a student. By being who he was, he made us understand that art mattered, that we mattered, that there was truth, compassion, and beauty in the world, and that we shouldn't be afraid to embrace them. That sounds like a lot to load onto a fifth grader, and of course I didn't realize any of it explicitly at the time. All I knew was that I loved being in any classroom or after-school actively with him. Thanks to this movie, though, I was able to see from an adultÃs perspective the effects of Mr. Cullum's philosophy and practice of teaching on us. Our interest in, and excellent retention of, normally dry subject matter like vocabulary and grammar was astounding. Our desire to learn and participate was impressive. Most importantly, the performances he drew out of his kids, by simply letting us know we were up to the task of understanding the characters we were portraying, were profound.
I do have to say that even at the time I was amazed that Mr. Cullum was allowed to get away with half of what he did, and as the years pass and my observation of institutional conservativism and myopia increases, it amazes me even more. In retrospect it makes me even more astonished that I was able to have those important years with Mr. Cullum.
As a final note, my reaction was not just misty-eyed nostalgia working its way on me forty-odd years later. My wife is a theater arts teacher, and my daughter is a theater major at a public performing arts high school. Both of them were enthralled and touched by the film. It showed me that Al Cullum's loving and honest approach to teaching transcends time and place and can be a touchstone for new generations. I'm hopeful that this film can jump-start a few teachers to approach the process in a new, more thoughtful, and exciting way. Even in the face of "No Child Left Behind" bureaucratic nonsense.
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1/21/05
Katie Kemple
Arlington, VA
I watched this program on a snowy lunch break at home yesterday. Though I am a fan of Independent Lens, I was not prepared for the beauty I beheld in this film. The footage of children performing Shakespeare and other great works, made me laugh, but then, it made me cry too -- not from sadness, but because their movement was so pure. Teachers like Cullum don't touch ones life everyday, but through this documentary, he was able to touch more lives even after his death. It was some of the most inspired footage I have ever seen. Thank you for making this available to audiences around the country.
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1/21/05
Lisa Gibson
Tyngsboro, MA
I was blessed to have Professor Cullum as my teacher while at Stonehill College. At an age in which one is bordering on adulthood and told to "grow up" and "act your age", he taught us that it is ok to loosen up, have fun, and understand what it is to be a kid again. Through this authentic play-making, he helped us express our creativity at a time in our lives in which conformity to our peers and the rules of adulthood are becoming key. He gave me a sense of confidence and freedom that is rare in the classroom.
I hope that he knows what a difference he made in so many lives. I regret that I did not have the opportunity to thank him.
One wish is that the program could be shown in the Boston area at a more watchable prime-time hour. I'd watch a program of this quality over "The Bachelor" for instance anyday.
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1/18/05
Charles E. Walton, IV
Birmingham, Al
Something woke me from sleep last night in my hotel in Roanoke,Va. at 4:00 am. The television was on and it was playing this incredible story. I was so moved I tried to buy it last night to show everyone I know. I only wish there could be a "Mr.Cullum" in spirit in each school. I am too much of a realist to even wish. This film at least validates the efforts of the ones that still try. Reading your talkback section was a self portrait of my ugly face. I was a disruptive class clown trying my best to undermine the class for my troubled attention needs. I have not stopped thinking all day -what if.....what if, I had been lucky enough to have been exposed to such knowledge and influence. One can only imagine how, not just the class clowns like me but the troubled students and the truly gifted could change the world with the gifts this man gave. I am in awe.
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1/18/05
Estelle Haferling
New York, New York
Joy to the world. Joy from a child. This man Albert Cullum understood the core of the human spirit. He was not afraid to be himself and to help others freely express themselves. I don't think humiliation or embarrassment were part of the story in his classes. You did what you did and learned from it.
This wonderful documentary reminded me of the production of the school play "Islands" which was made in Maine and which had a staging on Broadway in 2001. We here so much about the big deal heroes. Mr. Cullum is surely one of the special people and his students were so lucky to have been in his class.
It doesn't have to be school where soul murder occurs (definition: stealing the joy of a person). The workplace is all too often the deadly setting for adults to play out the loss of joy; for mediocre bosses to strip the joy and spirit of workers. Please show this superb documentary again. I smiled throughout and experienced such joy. Thank you, thank you so very much.
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1/18/05
chicago, IL
I only saw the tail end of the program (about 20 minutes). I was struck by one of the teachers saying that, essentially, one cannot be an innovative teacher without incurring the wrath of the incompetents, the mediocre, and/or the indifferent teachers/administrators. As a former substitute teacher for the Chicago Public Schools (about 3 months in toto), I found that to be absolutely true!
It seems I have a natural knack for teaching EMH students. At one school, I subbed for a special education teacher. When the 'retard' students actually began to learn, to understand what I was teaching, the teacher's aide stopped me. Mid-sentence! She had already told me that the students were essentially unteachable and here I was putting her to the lie. And she wasn't having it! I remember we were reading about electrical conductivity. The book said that rubber did not conduct electricity well (I think I'm remembering correctly). The students were frowning or looking at me blankly. I used as an example, the rubber boots that firemen wear so that when standing in water, they won't get shocked by any loose live wires. It was more detailed, but the upshot was that the students' faces ALL lit up and they watched me now avidly instead of passively. They were learning! The aide saw what was happening and put a stop to it.
At a Chicago public high school for the retarded, after 2 days of subbing, I became the talk of the school. One student who never talked to teachers was talking to me (interestingly, it so upset her when she realized this - it was her one claim to fame - that she moved to another desk on the far side of the room away from me). I never sat behind the desk; I was on the move and interacting personally with every student. I treated and talked to each student as a student, not a 'retard'. It turned out I had a particularly difficult class. Teachers would peek their heads into my room to see what was going on because my room was never that quiet. Gratifyingly, almost every teacher appreciated my efforts - and success! - with the class. On the 3rd day, however, the principal dismissed me. The clerk in the office hid her head in shame, embarrassment, commiseration, whatever, when I signed out for the last time. It turnedout that having heard about the wunderkind sub, the principal felt that I was 'over-reaching' myself in that I dared to control a class that was considered incorrigible, through kindliness, dedication, and belief in the students' abilities to learn. That the students were responding AND LEARNING he considered an affront. I was a sub, not a REAL teacher (the reason I was given for the dismissal was that the regular teacher was returning early from vacation, the next day. It was not true, but as my work spoke for itself, he had no other option except to lie about my performance. Which, thank heaven for small favors, he did not).
I have not, and do not anticipate subbing ever again. The mediocrity and 'don't rock the boat' status quo (thankfully, at the EMH high school, this was not the case with most of the teaching staff, just the affronted principal, which incidentally, I never even met) are enough to drive innovative teachers with a drive to excel at all they do, away.
My sister is a certified teacher in the public school system. When I told her of my experiences, she was not surprised. An innovator herself (2 of her former elementary students who became honor society students in high school, independently and unaware of the other, nominated her for a Golden Apple award - usually only ONE student nominates a former teacher), she was disgusted but, having paid the price for her own excellence, understood perfectly the intimidated, status quo mediocrity behind the aide's and principal's efforts to thwart my reaching the minds of the students.
I, too, am finally NOT surprised. My first few years in public school were a total learning experience. My family moved and at the next school, I was INNUNDATED with uncaring, unresponsive, disdainful and medicore teachers. My high school educational experience was so dismal that I remember thinking in my sophomore year that I had better graduate fast before I became 'dumber and dumber' (in 8th grade, I was reading at a 12th grade level; in 10th grade, I dropped 2 levels in reading to a 10th grade level). As a substitute teacher, I saw how the system keeps its children's minds passive, inactive and oftentimes uninvolved and disinterested in the learning process. It does this through chaining to standardized methodology, any of the teaching staff's creative and innovative approaches to teaching individual as well as groups of students. This approach works fine for the unenlightened, the barely competent, the disinterested teacher. It stifles, frustrates, and eventally drives away the gifted, the strivers for excellence in teaching.
The Indie program - what I saw of it - was excellent. Will it change administator and/or teachers' attitudes toward maximizing students' learning potential? I doubt it. The mediocre, the incompetent, the just plain mean and petty not only out-number the dedicated and gifted, they are in charge of the system. Thanks for this opportunity to vent.
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1/18/05
Spike Dolomite Ward
San Fernando Valley, Cali
What an inspiration: "A Touch of Greatness" and Albert Cullum. As an arts education activist, I couldn't agree more with everything I saw and heard in this film. I'll be ordering many copies of this film to distribute to schools in the San Fernando Valley.
I started a nonprofit 5 years ago to fill a void that has been present in public education for an entire generation: the absence of the arts. We are in the Los Angeles Unified School District, one of the worst districts in the entire country. To date, this nonprofit provides services to about 4,000 students (two comprehensive arts education programs in two Title I elementary schools, and supplemental support to several other elementary schools with supply donations, field trips, and cultural assemblies. We also donate art and music supplies to middle and high school art departments to take the burden off of teachers who are expected to purchase supplies out of their own pockets or fundraise to do their jobs.)
As an activist, I believe to the very depths of my soul that the arts are absolutely critical to a well rounded education. In my experience over the past five years, I have seen many children pulled up out of the where they have suffered with labels such as "ADD," "learning disabled," "behavior disorder," or "too dreamy." Through the arts, these kids are finally being given a chance to succeed at school. They have become visible, comfortable and respected.
Sadly, though, with the No Child Left Behind Act and standardized testing, these kids can not be assessed creatively by their teachers. If they don't fill the bubbles in just right on these ridiculous tests, then they don't get rid of their labels. Teachers have been forced to marginalize their classrooms by separating the kids who are not easy to teach from the rest of the class by assigning these labels. If they can be assessed with any sort of disability, then they go into a special file where the teacher no longer has to be fully responsible for teaching them. And the schools don't have to worry about their test scores bringing down the school's test scores. That's what education has been reduced to. Not only does public education deny children a well rounded education by teaching the arts, but it also gives up on creative kids. They are outcasts, misunderstood, and too much work for classroom teachers who don't have enough time in the day to prepare their kids for the next test. Teachers can no longer be creative in how they teach. Everything is scripted for them and they are under a tremendous amount of pressure to make sure that their kids test well in the spring. And those kids who are, and always will be, easy to teach, well, they're public education's little soldiers. If we can marginalize every kid who doesn't test well, then our school will get a good report card. Thanks, George Bush!
We need the arts to save the kids who have fallen through the cracks. At-risk kids need the arts so that they can safely express themselves. We need the arts to challenge the good test takers to climb outside of the box to explore the limitless possibilities that lie outside of the box, those possibilities with no one right answer. We need the arts to restore creativity to teaching as a profession. Where would we all be if Einstein's mom was told that he had ADD and needed to be medicated? Sitting in the dark, that's where! Great test takers are not always great thinkers!
I totally agree with Mr. Cullum's comment about public education being the cancer of mediocrity. As a parent, I'll be pulling my kid out of public education after this school year.
As sad as it is to lose such a man as Albert Cullum, he lives on in his students, his work, and this film. I'm going to order a box of them today!
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1/14/05
Leslie Neidig
Louisville, KY
My 16 year old son Cody actually sat down and watched this documentary with me. He took a break from his computer games to get a Coke. Cody usually takes a minute on his way back to the computer to sit down and give me a hug and then off to gamerland he goes.
Not this time.
He actually sat down and watched a black and white documentary. Then Cody said Albert Cullum was cool.
For me to say I loved this story is an understatement and nothing compared to being called cool by a 16 year old boy in 2005.
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1/14/05
Shawna DeRice
South Portland, Maine
I am one of Professor Cullum's students. I feel very priveleged to have spent my college years learning from such a wonderful man. I graduated a year before he passed away. Right up until the end he was inspiring education majors to remember that learning is not measured by tests, but by the interest and involvement of the students. I was very happy to see this video and can remember him telling us about it. The world has lost an irreplaceable tresure.
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1/13/05
Betty Stroup
North Pole, Ak
George Bernard Shaw (also mentioned by Albert Cullum in your video) is quoted as saying, "What we want to see is the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child." I have that hanging in my class as a constant reminder to me of how I should teach. Albert Cullum exemplified this philosphy in an exceptional and extraordinary way. He had a gift and I'm not sure one can teach that at a university but I'm trying. Viewing this video will be added to my syllabus as a requirement by my university students. I should add that I also teach 2nd and 3rd. grades (looping) in a public school system and this is also how I love to teach; as an inquiry based constructivist. My class is always noisy and there's a lot of learning going on within its walls. No doubt Mr. Cullum enjoyed going to work every day he taught just as much as his students loved coming to his class. I know I do!
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1/13/05
brandon nemeth
overland park, KS
from flipping the channels trying to fall asleep, i found something that grabbed my full attention. this film should be shown to all teachers and to those with asperations of teaching too. being just out of high school, i know what is like when someone isn't having fun when they teach, and if "you aren't having fun, no one is", right? this film has definatly inspired me to become a better person with a young soul.
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1/13/05
Queens, NY
I watched your program about Albert Cullum TWICE. I am a little younger than the students profiled in the program but I literally cried at the end because I know the world would be a much better place with more innovative teachers like Mr. Cullum. When I was in the 4th grade I had a creative teacher who thought outside of the box and she clashed on a regular basis with some parents but mainly the administration. They wouldn't let her use her gifts to teach us in wonderfully inventive ways. Eventually she left because she wouldn't comply with their wishes to conform and return to the same old boring method of memorizing facts & figures. I fear with the emphasis on testing, we squelch any opportunity for teachers like Mr. Cullum to inspire the next generation and for that we all lose out.
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1/12/05
David Powell
Hendersonville, TN
Last night, my son and his girlfriend has just finished watching the reality series "The Biggest Loser" when they turned to our Nashville Public TV station and started watching "A Touch of Greatness" whereupon I joined them, and we all found ourselves captivated by this captivating program. I have been a teacher for 38 years and, in all modesty, have considered myself a pretty good high school English teacher, but suddenly I felt myself beginning to pale when compared to Albert's majestic teaching. His comments about American education are, whether we like it or not, right on the money. This film should be required viewing for every teacher training program in America if not for every current teacher. So many school districts have slogans about focusing on the child when, in fact, they focus on state-mandated compentency testing that now seem to validate their existence in the public eye. Albert Cullum took a risk and focused on the children, and, in doing so, was one of "America's Biggest Winners."
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1/12/05
jane
shirley ny
I had the misfortune of attending a private, catholic grade school. We had to look alike (uniforms) and any kind of talent or uniqeness you had was extinguished. I now wonder how different my life would have been if I had been encouraged to be myself.
I feel cheated out of my childhood.
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1/12/05
Regina McCarthy
New York, NY
As one looks around education today I think, where is the joy? I was inspired, renewed and reminded why I have chosen this noblest of professions when I saw this show on Albert Cullum. He was so on target in what he said about teacher preparation. I taught in the 'great reform' movement of Open Ed.back in the early 70's. It was our passion and joy for years...and they, the system, fought us all the way. Ironically, many of the things we did then are standard practice, and teachers are now being strong armed into using some of those methods??? What's wrong with this picture?
Yes, Yes, yes, we need to re-inspire those college kids we teach, they are dead in their souls!!! Life is joyful and an adventure in learning....and those that feel that way should teach. Unfortunately, standardardization and testing in schools today is deadening. I do however support standards, because they are guidelines for what is important...but they are just that, guidelines, not edicts as they are used in schools today.
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1/12/05
Susan
Cheshire,CT
It was interesting to me to read how many people had tears in their eyes as they watched A Touch of Greatness. I think it was because Albert Cullum allowed us to see what a simply beautiful thing learning can be. The love and joy that his students were experiencing shone through the television screen. Perhaps we were mourning a missed opportunity to experience our own greatness. Or one for our children to experience theirs. I wonder how many children of all backgrounds and possessing all kinds and levels of ability could be "saved" with a teacher like Mr. Cullum.
Thank you for a truly wonderful film.
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1/12/05
Ann Stanton
Montpelier, VT
I was inspired by both the film and others' comments. I teach in a "university without walls" situation, highly influenced by Dewey and I get to use an individualized creative approach with each adult student. It is a truly wonderful way to work. I can't imagine what it must be like to "teach to the test" and the other nonsense nowadays. My institution, Vermont College of Union Institute and University, has a teacher licensure program that follows Dewey's model and philosophy, for anyone who wants to follow up on these ideas.
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1/12/05
Sharleen Leahey
Somerville, New Jersey
After watching "A Touch of Greatnesss" I could not stop the tears flowing from my eyes. I have rarely been so touched by a documentary. I immediately called my daughter who just started teaching second grade in New York City. The most disturbing discovery she made was the removal of art and music from the new curriculum. I think every school administrator should see this program. We need to change direction and Albert Cullum's legacy should be a major signpost.
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1/12/05
Eileen Boland
Barton, Vermont
I am the director of after-school programs at seven rural schools in northeast Vermont. I was glued to the television last night - the film was beautiful - the man extraordinary.
In this age of rigid attention to skills and scores, I have been looking for a way to illustrate the potential of after-school programs to engage, excite, and liberate students. Sharing the film with our staff will provide that spark.
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1/12/05
Paul Seif
San Francisco, CA
As the last seconds of "A Touch of Greatness" pass before my eyes (eyes filled with tears of gratitude and mourning for Albert Cullum) I can hardly believe what I have just seen and I feel so lucky to have watched this documentary.
I am moved beyond telling and I feel like Albert has allowed me to share in the same expansion of experience and learning as his students decades ago. He has touched me deeply.
His spirit is completely the human spirit and his courage and natural passion, his willingness to love and hold his children sacred, sets a standard for all of us to honor.
In a cynical world, in our wealthy nation with almost twenty percent of its children living in poverty, Albert's legacy is simple- tap into your humanity, remember your youthful curiosity and act! If we truly cared about each other as Albert did his students we would indeed act boldly to improve our world.
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1/12/05
Cindy Noland
Austin, TX
The student of Albert's who grew up and became a teacher remarked that certain populations of students were being prepared to be fry-cooks. At the school where I taught 6th grade, I used to say they were being prepared for the jail down the street. Always in trouble for my classroom being loud and kids not being in their seats, facing the front and only listening, my school failed to certify me as an alternative teacher certification candidate. They considered teaching methods putting the children in charge of their learning to be failures. The focus there was on walking in straight, silent lines down the hall and passing those ever-present tests.
I've read that there is an ever-present tension in the fight for public school pedgogy between the creatives, who constitute 1/4 of the teaching population, and the traditionalists, who make up the other 3/4. It's amazing we accomplish as much as we do, considering the odds are always against us. Keep up the good fight, teachers, for the sake of our kids and the sake of our future.
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1/12/05
Eddie
Miami, Fl
That was the most beautifully inspirational thing I have ever seen.
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1/12/05
Jacqueline Ancess
New York, NY
This is the authentic no child left behind.
6/20/06
Ken Ramirez
Bethesda, Maryland
I was one of Albert Cullum's students at Midland School in Rye, New York. My life was changed forever. I grew up a fearful and unhappy boy with very little to feel good about. I stuttered constantly, was awkward and introverted, and felt the future offered nothing.
Al Cullum changed all that. He taught me that there was a world of greatness, creativity, and beauty just waiting to be experienced. Every thing Al touched was magical, be it history, math, poetry, or art. His classroom hummed with joy and excitement. Every subject was treated with contagious creativity. We solved math problems in King Tut's tomb, raced around the room solving geography problems, read great poety to our peers, guessed the names of masterpieces of art and I'm not even scratching the surface.
Al's lunch breaks were taken up with batting balls to us. Instead of commuting home 30 miles to New York, he stayed after school three days a week in referee the street hockey games he had organized. He accepted my parent's invitation for dinner one night and stayed to watch my little league baseball game.
I went on teach English nine years in the public schools, and I marvel at the man's dedication, creativity, and energy, not to mention his love.
Al made me feel special long before Mr. Rogers came along. So much of what I am and what I value comes from that man who trekked to the suburbs every day for what must have been a small compensation.
I logged on to the computer tonight because I have been thinking about Al recently, and I wanted to thank him for what he did for me. I was saddened to find out that he had passed away, but I was delighted to see that this wonderful movie had been made, and that many of my former classmates felt the same way about him that I did.
We give a lot of lip service to teachers, but we pay them little and bestow a marginal status on them. I don't teach anymore, but my daughter is now the same age I was when I met Al, and I truly cherish these wonderful people who inspire and care about her just like Al did for us.
I am very fortunate, and I know all of Al's former students are too. Rest well, Al, your life was well spent.
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11/21/05
Sam Leary
Chesapeake, Virginia
I just viewed the film "A Touch of Greatness" in a class for gifted certification. Dr. Cullum reminded me of another "gifted" teacher I encountered early in my career. He believed students learned through all their senses and taught history in a most unique manner. Students hid under desks as the bombs (books)rained down on helpless Londoners (students)during the Battle of Britian; air-raid siren blaring (he was very good at sound effects). He never sent a student to the principal as they almost worshipped him as their leader. He was a performer in his classroom who knew every child and found a way to get the best from each one. His school became his life. Every afternoon, he was in the gym playing basketball with the kids no one else could tolerate. He too, incurred the rath of his fellow teachers who could not or refused to form the kind of relationship he forged with his students. They found ways to demean his accomplishments to the point that he did not socialize with them in the lounge, but was happy to hold court in the student cafeteria with his loyal subjects. In the end he did very well and I feel was rewarded for his service to young people; he retired after touching many lives and today lives very, very comfortably with an inheritance bequested by two wealthy spinsters whom he cared for many years. Mr. Holloman, you truly made a difference.
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9/19/05
Ron Fisher, Ph.D.
Atlanta, GA
Albert Cullum reminded me of my freshman (high school) teacher who honored the 55 students in each of the 4 sections of his English class (Catholic prep. school) by having us read Shakespeare instead of studying grammar, 1960-64. He got in trouble because we didn't do well on the standardized grammar tests. However, I learned about human nature, and I learned to think critically, as Albert Cullum taught his fifth-graders. A few years later, having dropped out of college because I found it boring, I talked my way into a teaching position at my h.s. alma mater in San Francisco, teaching four sections of English. In addition to teaching Shakespeare, I offered a writing seminar to all interested students during their (and my) lunch hour. I was told by the principal to desist, that lunch time was for athletics. So, flying under the radar, I moved the class to my apartment on Saturdays.
After pursuing a Ph.D., I found that my goal of infecting college students with my love of literature and creative writing would "get in the way of your being tenured."
I abandoned teaching--in the classroom--and became a personal and career counselor, getting a Ph.D. in psychology but always believing I learned most about human nature not from Freud but from Shakespeare and my h.s. English teacher, Mr. Franxman.
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8/12/05
Muffy Mallory
Orinda, CA
My family left Rye in the middle of my 4th grade year at Midland School in the late 50's. One of my good friends was Steve Lawson and that connection (long severed, now reconnected) led me to this wonderful film. I have been haunted by it since watching it, twice. My older brother Peter had Mr. Cullum which is why I knew him as well as I did. Peter is 60 and talked about Mr. Cullum all the time. We had him to dinner at our house a number of times and I recall my parents embracing him and, I am guessing, his techniques. I was shocked to see that he was an outcast. I have few regrets in life but I can add to that short list this one: that I didn't have the opportunity to be taught by such a great man. What I do recall, however, was how proud I was in 2nd grade to have gotten published in the Chatter Box. I still have the issue, in fact.
Nothing in recent memory has produced such excitement in me as much as this film. My partner is on the board of a small school in San Francisco and he enjoyed the movie so much that he is going to share it with the head of the school. I intend to share it with as many people as I can as well as with my three siblings, all of whom recall him. Al Cullum was surely a man ahead of his time. Thank you for making this film.
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8/2/05
Mary S. Bahr
Baltimore, MD
Being a creative person, I am SO impressed by Albert Cullum specifically in that he was confident in knowing he was uniquely different and not afraid to express what came from a deep place within him. Teachers can be well educated and trained, but they don't ALL have that unique, inner freedom and special spirit, which makes for greatness. How can children be truly taught and transformed without such greatness as a role model? Children can discern the types of hypocrisy. Two examples of my grade school life: in 8th grade, the school librarian was more than livid when I told her I had just read "Rebecca" [Daphne DuMaurier] and thought it was so good that the school library should get their own copy. And, on the other hand, my 7th grade science teacher taught really fun classes and, therefore, I told my parents that science was my favorite subject and that what I learned most was why he painted his house black (an oddball personal story he would always talk about). Needless to say I also failed science. I am a post-grad from an art college where there was a freedom of expression along with discipline of craft, but I learned more to discern the good, innovative teachers from ones I likened to be "ingenuine puppets with a reputation to uphold." The best influence on my development was my father - who didn't "teach" me as much as be a role model in what, as a man, who was a fine arts painter, truly valued and acted on with a deep well of great spirit. And his college students gravitated towards his genuiness. He and Mr. Cullum, I think, would have liked each other.
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3/2/05
Gideon Ansell
Boston, MA
Watching this film left me teary, exhilarated, sad, and a little bit more hopeful than before. Al Cullum was my teacher at Midland School in the early-to-mid 60s and I was fortunate enough to be in two productions of his (in fact I'm in some of the archive footage film and that's me in the picture on the right of "The Teacher" page of this site.) As with his former students featured in the film, his effect on me continues to this day. Over the years I've frequently related stories of Mr. Cullum and credited him with fostering so many of the life choices I made and core principles I hold out to my kids.
Simply put, Mr. Cullum had the most profound impact a teacher can have on a student. By being who he was, he made us understand that art mattered, that we mattered, that there was truth, compassion, and beauty in the world, and that we shouldn't be afraid to embrace them. That sounds like a lot to load onto a fifth grader, and of course I didn't realize any of it explicitly at the time. All I knew was that I loved being in any classroom or after-school actively with him. Thanks to this movie, though, I was able to see from an adultÃs perspective the effects of Mr. Cullum's philosophy and practice of teaching on us. Our interest in, and excellent retention of, normally dry subject matter like vocabulary and grammar was astounding. Our desire to learn and participate was impressive. Most importantly, the performances he drew out of his kids, by simply letting us know we were up to the task of understanding the characters we were portraying, were profound.
I do have to say that even at the time I was amazed that Mr. Cullum was allowed to get away with half of what he did, and as the years pass and my observation of institutional conservativism and myopia increases, it amazes me even more. In retrospect it makes me even more astonished that I was able to have those important years with Mr. Cullum.
As a final note, my reaction was not just misty-eyed nostalgia working its way on me forty-odd years later. My wife is a theater arts teacher, and my daughter is a theater major at a public performing arts high school. Both of them were enthralled and touched by the film. It showed me that Al Cullum's loving and honest approach to teaching transcends time and place and can be a touchstone for new generations. I'm hopeful that this film can jump-start a few teachers to approach the process in a new, more thoughtful, and exciting way. Even in the face of "No Child Left Behind" bureaucratic nonsense.
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1/21/05
Katie Kemple
Arlington, VA
I watched this program on a snowy lunch break at home yesterday. Though I am a fan of Independent Lens, I was not prepared for the beauty I beheld in this film. The footage of children performing Shakespeare and other great works, made me laugh, but then, it made me cry too -- not from sadness, but because their movement was so pure. Teachers like Cullum don't touch ones life everyday, but through this documentary, he was able to touch more lives even after his death. It was some of the most inspired footage I have ever seen. Thank you for making this available to audiences around the country.
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1/21/05
Lisa Gibson
Tyngsboro, MA
I was blessed to have Professor Cullum as my teacher while at Stonehill College. At an age in which one is bordering on adulthood and told to "grow up" and "act your age", he taught us that it is ok to loosen up, have fun, and understand what it is to be a kid again. Through this authentic play-making, he helped us express our creativity at a time in our lives in which conformity to our peers and the rules of adulthood are becoming key. He gave me a sense of confidence and freedom that is rare in the classroom.
I hope that he knows what a difference he made in so many lives. I regret that I did not have the opportunity to thank him.
One wish is that the program could be shown in the Boston area at a more watchable prime-time hour. I'd watch a program of this quality over "The Bachelor" for instance anyday.
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1/18/05
Charles E. Walton, IV
Birmingham, Al
Something woke me from sleep last night in my hotel in Roanoke,Va. at 4:00 am. The television was on and it was playing this incredible story. I was so moved I tried to buy it last night to show everyone I know. I only wish there could be a "Mr.Cullum" in spirit in each school. I am too much of a realist to even wish. This film at least validates the efforts of the ones that still try. Reading your talkback section was a self portrait of my ugly face. I was a disruptive class clown trying my best to undermine the class for my troubled attention needs. I have not stopped thinking all day -what if.....what if, I had been lucky enough to have been exposed to such knowledge and influence. One can only imagine how, not just the class clowns like me but the troubled students and the truly gifted could change the world with the gifts this man gave. I am in awe.
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1/18/05
Estelle Haferling
New York, New York
Joy to the world. Joy from a child. This man Albert Cullum understood the core of the human spirit. He was not afraid to be himself and to help others freely express themselves. I don't think humiliation or embarrassment were part of the story in his classes. You did what you did and learned from it.
This wonderful documentary reminded me of the production of the school play "Islands" which was made in Maine and which had a staging on Broadway in 2001. We here so much about the big deal heroes. Mr. Cullum is surely one of the special people and his students were so lucky to have been in his class.
It doesn't have to be school where soul murder occurs (definition: stealing the joy of a person). The workplace is all too often the deadly setting for adults to play out the loss of joy; for mediocre bosses to strip the joy and spirit of workers. Please show this superb documentary again. I smiled throughout and experienced such joy. Thank you, thank you so very much.
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1/18/05
chicago, IL
I only saw the tail end of the program (about 20 minutes). I was struck by one of the teachers saying that, essentially, one cannot be an innovative teacher without incurring the wrath of the incompetents, the mediocre, and/or the indifferent teachers/administrators. As a former substitute teacher for the Chicago Public Schools (about 3 months in toto), I found that to be absolutely true!
It seems I have a natural knack for teaching EMH students. At one school, I subbed for a special education teacher. When the 'retard' students actually began to learn, to understand what I was teaching, the teacher's aide stopped me. Mid-sentence! She had already told me that the students were essentially unteachable and here I was putting her to the lie. And she wasn't having it! I remember we were reading about electrical conductivity. The book said that rubber did not conduct electricity well (I think I'm remembering correctly). The students were frowning or looking at me blankly. I used as an example, the rubber boots that firemen wear so that when standing in water, they won't get shocked by any loose live wires. It was more detailed, but the upshot was that the students' faces ALL lit up and they watched me now avidly instead of passively. They were learning! The aide saw what was happening and put a stop to it.
At a Chicago public high school for the retarded, after 2 days of subbing, I became the talk of the school. One student who never talked to teachers was talking to me (interestingly, it so upset her when she realized this - it was her one claim to fame - that she moved to another desk on the far side of the room away from me). I never sat behind the desk; I was on the move and interacting personally with every student. I treated and talked to each student as a student, not a 'retard'. It turned out I had a particularly difficult class. Teachers would peek their heads into my room to see what was going on because my room was never that quiet. Gratifyingly, almost every teacher appreciated my efforts - and success! - with the class. On the 3rd day, however, the principal dismissed me. The clerk in the office hid her head in shame, embarrassment, commiseration, whatever, when I signed out for the last time. It turnedout that having heard about the wunderkind sub, the principal felt that I was 'over-reaching' myself in that I dared to control a class that was considered incorrigible, through kindliness, dedication, and belief in the students' abilities to learn. That the students were responding AND LEARNING he considered an affront. I was a sub, not a REAL teacher (the reason I was given for the dismissal was that the regular teacher was returning early from vacation, the next day. It was not true, but as my work spoke for itself, he had no other option except to lie about my performance. Which, thank heaven for small favors, he did not).
I have not, and do not anticipate subbing ever again. The mediocrity and 'don't rock the boat' status quo (thankfully, at the EMH high school, this was not the case with most of the teaching staff, just the affronted principal, which incidentally, I never even met) are enough to drive innovative teachers with a drive to excel at all they do, away.
My sister is a certified teacher in the public school system. When I told her of my experiences, she was not surprised. An innovator herself (2 of her former elementary students who became honor society students in high school, independently and unaware of the other, nominated her for a Golden Apple award - usually only ONE student nominates a former teacher), she was disgusted but, having paid the price for her own excellence, understood perfectly the intimidated, status quo mediocrity behind the aide's and principal's efforts to thwart my reaching the minds of the students.
I, too, am finally NOT surprised. My first few years in public school were a total learning experience. My family moved and at the next school, I was INNUNDATED with uncaring, unresponsive, disdainful and medicore teachers. My high school educational experience was so dismal that I remember thinking in my sophomore year that I had better graduate fast before I became 'dumber and dumber' (in 8th grade, I was reading at a 12th grade level; in 10th grade, I dropped 2 levels in reading to a 10th grade level). As a substitute teacher, I saw how the system keeps its children's minds passive, inactive and oftentimes uninvolved and disinterested in the learning process. It does this through chaining to standardized methodology, any of the teaching staff's creative and innovative approaches to teaching individual as well as groups of students. This approach works fine for the unenlightened, the barely competent, the disinterested teacher. It stifles, frustrates, and eventally drives away the gifted, the strivers for excellence in teaching.
The Indie program - what I saw of it - was excellent. Will it change administator and/or teachers' attitudes toward maximizing students' learning potential? I doubt it. The mediocre, the incompetent, the just plain mean and petty not only out-number the dedicated and gifted, they are in charge of the system. Thanks for this opportunity to vent.
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1/18/05
Spike Dolomite Ward
San Fernando Valley, Cali
What an inspiration: "A Touch of Greatness" and Albert Cullum. As an arts education activist, I couldn't agree more with everything I saw and heard in this film. I'll be ordering many copies of this film to distribute to schools in the San Fernando Valley.
I started a nonprofit 5 years ago to fill a void that has been present in public education for an entire generation: the absence of the arts. We are in the Los Angeles Unified School District, one of the worst districts in the entire country. To date, this nonprofit provides services to about 4,000 students (two comprehensive arts education programs in two Title I elementary schools, and supplemental support to several other elementary schools with supply donations, field trips, and cultural assemblies. We also donate art and music supplies to middle and high school art departments to take the burden off of teachers who are expected to purchase supplies out of their own pockets or fundraise to do their jobs.)
As an activist, I believe to the very depths of my soul that the arts are absolutely critical to a well rounded education. In my experience over the past five years, I have seen many children pulled up out of the where they have suffered with labels such as "ADD," "learning disabled," "behavior disorder," or "too dreamy." Through the arts, these kids are finally being given a chance to succeed at school. They have become visible, comfortable and respected.
Sadly, though, with the No Child Left Behind Act and standardized testing, these kids can not be assessed creatively by their teachers. If they don't fill the bubbles in just right on these ridiculous tests, then they don't get rid of their labels. Teachers have been forced to marginalize their classrooms by separating the kids who are not easy to teach from the rest of the class by assigning these labels. If they can be assessed with any sort of disability, then they go into a special file where the teacher no longer has to be fully responsible for teaching them. And the schools don't have to worry about their test scores bringing down the school's test scores. That's what education has been reduced to. Not only does public education deny children a well rounded education by teaching the arts, but it also gives up on creative kids. They are outcasts, misunderstood, and too much work for classroom teachers who don't have enough time in the day to prepare their kids for the next test. Teachers can no longer be creative in how they teach. Everything is scripted for them and they are under a tremendous amount of pressure to make sure that their kids test well in the spring. And those kids who are, and always will be, easy to teach, well, they're public education's little soldiers. If we can marginalize every kid who doesn't test well, then our school will get a good report card. Thanks, George Bush!
We need the arts to save the kids who have fallen through the cracks. At-risk kids need the arts so that they can safely express themselves. We need the arts to challenge the good test takers to climb outside of the box to explore the limitless possibilities that lie outside of the box, those possibilities with no one right answer. We need the arts to restore creativity to teaching as a profession. Where would we all be if Einstein's mom was told that he had ADD and needed to be medicated? Sitting in the dark, that's where! Great test takers are not always great thinkers!
I totally agree with Mr. Cullum's comment about public education being the cancer of mediocrity. As a parent, I'll be pulling my kid out of public education after this school year.
As sad as it is to lose such a man as Albert Cullum, he lives on in his students, his work, and this film. I'm going to order a box of them today!
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1/14/05
Leslie Neidig
Louisville, KY
My 16 year old son Cody actually sat down and watched this documentary with me. He took a break from his computer games to get a Coke. Cody usually takes a minute on his way back to the computer to sit down and give me a hug and then off to gamerland he goes.
Not this time.
He actually sat down and watched a black and white documentary. Then Cody said Albert Cullum was cool.
For me to say I loved this story is an understatement and nothing compared to being called cool by a 16 year old boy in 2005.
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1/14/05
Shawna DeRice
South Portland, Maine
I am one of Professor Cullum's students. I feel very priveleged to have spent my college years learning from such a wonderful man. I graduated a year before he passed away. Right up until the end he was inspiring education majors to remember that learning is not measured by tests, but by the interest and involvement of the students. I was very happy to see this video and can remember him telling us about it. The world has lost an irreplaceable tresure.
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1/13/05
Betty Stroup
North Pole, Ak
George Bernard Shaw (also mentioned by Albert Cullum in your video) is quoted as saying, "What we want to see is the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child." I have that hanging in my class as a constant reminder to me of how I should teach. Albert Cullum exemplified this philosphy in an exceptional and extraordinary way. He had a gift and I'm not sure one can teach that at a university but I'm trying. Viewing this video will be added to my syllabus as a requirement by my university students. I should add that I also teach 2nd and 3rd. grades (looping) in a public school system and this is also how I love to teach; as an inquiry based constructivist. My class is always noisy and there's a lot of learning going on within its walls. No doubt Mr. Cullum enjoyed going to work every day he taught just as much as his students loved coming to his class. I know I do!
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1/13/05
brandon nemeth
overland park, KS
from flipping the channels trying to fall asleep, i found something that grabbed my full attention. this film should be shown to all teachers and to those with asperations of teaching too. being just out of high school, i know what is like when someone isn't having fun when they teach, and if "you aren't having fun, no one is", right? this film has definatly inspired me to become a better person with a young soul.
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1/13/05
Queens, NY
I watched your program about Albert Cullum TWICE. I am a little younger than the students profiled in the program but I literally cried at the end because I know the world would be a much better place with more innovative teachers like Mr. Cullum. When I was in the 4th grade I had a creative teacher who thought outside of the box and she clashed on a regular basis with some parents but mainly the administration. They wouldn't let her use her gifts to teach us in wonderfully inventive ways. Eventually she left because she wouldn't comply with their wishes to conform and return to the same old boring method of memorizing facts & figures. I fear with the emphasis on testing, we squelch any opportunity for teachers like Mr. Cullum to inspire the next generation and for that we all lose out.
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1/12/05
David Powell
Hendersonville, TN
Last night, my son and his girlfriend has just finished watching the reality series "The Biggest Loser" when they turned to our Nashville Public TV station and started watching "A Touch of Greatness" whereupon I joined them, and we all found ourselves captivated by this captivating program. I have been a teacher for 38 years and, in all modesty, have considered myself a pretty good high school English teacher, but suddenly I felt myself beginning to pale when compared to Albert's majestic teaching. His comments about American education are, whether we like it or not, right on the money. This film should be required viewing for every teacher training program in America if not for every current teacher. So many school districts have slogans about focusing on the child when, in fact, they focus on state-mandated compentency testing that now seem to validate their existence in the public eye. Albert Cullum took a risk and focused on the children, and, in doing so, was one of "America's Biggest Winners."
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1/12/05
jane
shirley ny
I had the misfortune of attending a private, catholic grade school. We had to look alike (uniforms) and any kind of talent or uniqeness you had was extinguished. I now wonder how different my life would have been if I had been encouraged to be myself.
I feel cheated out of my childhood.
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1/12/05
Regina McCarthy
New York, NY
As one looks around education today I think, where is the joy? I was inspired, renewed and reminded why I have chosen this noblest of professions when I saw this show on Albert Cullum. He was so on target in what he said about teacher preparation. I taught in the 'great reform' movement of Open Ed.back in the early 70's. It was our passion and joy for years...and they, the system, fought us all the way. Ironically, many of the things we did then are standard practice, and teachers are now being strong armed into using some of those methods??? What's wrong with this picture?
Yes, Yes, yes, we need to re-inspire those college kids we teach, they are dead in their souls!!! Life is joyful and an adventure in learning....and those that feel that way should teach. Unfortunately, standardardization and testing in schools today is deadening. I do however support standards, because they are guidelines for what is important...but they are just that, guidelines, not edicts as they are used in schools today.
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1/12/05
Susan
Cheshire,CT
It was interesting to me to read how many people had tears in their eyes as they watched A Touch of Greatness. I think it was because Albert Cullum allowed us to see what a simply beautiful thing learning can be. The love and joy that his students were experiencing shone through the television screen. Perhaps we were mourning a missed opportunity to experience our own greatness. Or one for our children to experience theirs. I wonder how many children of all backgrounds and possessing all kinds and levels of ability could be "saved" with a teacher like Mr. Cullum.
Thank you for a truly wonderful film.
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1/12/05
Ann Stanton
Montpelier, VT
I was inspired by both the film and others' comments. I teach in a "university without walls" situation, highly influenced by Dewey and I get to use an individualized creative approach with each adult student. It is a truly wonderful way to work. I can't imagine what it must be like to "teach to the test" and the other nonsense nowadays. My institution, Vermont College of Union Institute and University, has a teacher licensure program that follows Dewey's model and philosophy, for anyone who wants to follow up on these ideas.
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1/12/05
Sharleen Leahey
Somerville, New Jersey
After watching "A Touch of Greatnesss" I could not stop the tears flowing from my eyes. I have rarely been so touched by a documentary. I immediately called my daughter who just started teaching second grade in New York City. The most disturbing discovery she made was the removal of art and music from the new curriculum. I think every school administrator should see this program. We need to change direction and Albert Cullum's legacy should be a major signpost.
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1/12/05
Eileen Boland
Barton, Vermont
I am the director of after-school programs at seven rural schools in northeast Vermont. I was glued to the television last night - the film was beautiful - the man extraordinary.
In this age of rigid attention to skills and scores, I have been looking for a way to illustrate the potential of after-school programs to engage, excite, and liberate students. Sharing the film with our staff will provide that spark.
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1/12/05
Paul Seif
San Francisco, CA
As the last seconds of "A Touch of Greatness" pass before my eyes (eyes filled with tears of gratitude and mourning for Albert Cullum) I can hardly believe what I have just seen and I feel so lucky to have watched this documentary.
I am moved beyond telling and I feel like Albert has allowed me to share in the same expansion of experience and learning as his students decades ago. He has touched me deeply.
His spirit is completely the human spirit and his courage and natural passion, his willingness to love and hold his children sacred, sets a standard for all of us to honor.
In a cynical world, in our wealthy nation with almost twenty percent of its children living in poverty, Albert's legacy is simple- tap into your humanity, remember your youthful curiosity and act! If we truly cared about each other as Albert did his students we would indeed act boldly to improve our world.
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1/12/05
Cindy Noland
Austin, TX
The student of Albert's who grew up and became a teacher remarked that certain populations of students were being prepared to be fry-cooks. At the school where I taught 6th grade, I used to say they were being prepared for the jail down the street. Always in trouble for my classroom being loud and kids not being in their seats, facing the front and only listening, my school failed to certify me as an alternative teacher certification candidate. They considered teaching methods putting the children in charge of their learning to be failures. The focus there was on walking in straight, silent lines down the hall and passing those ever-present tests.
I've read that there is an ever-present tension in the fight for public school pedgogy between the creatives, who constitute 1/4 of the teaching population, and the traditionalists, who make up the other 3/4. It's amazing we accomplish as much as we do, considering the odds are always against us. Keep up the good fight, teachers, for the sake of our kids and the sake of our future.
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1/12/05
Eddie
Miami, Fl
That was the most beautifully inspirational thing I have ever seen.
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1/12/05
Jacqueline Ancess
New York, NY
This is the authentic no child left behind.
Oasis: The Genius of Albert Cullum
My latest email blast...
"I believe that education on the national level is a cancer of mediocrity."
-Albert Cullum
Independent Lens & ITVS did it again.
I have always rebelled against compulsory education the way I was exposed to it. In a nutshell, it's boring, lifeless and dull. I've seen the creativity of good kids slowly snuffed out of them, year by year until they've none of it left save for some remnant that lies dormant, like a recessive gene.
One of my favorite topics for table talk is education. I like to find out from others out of all the teachers in their life how many they felt really cared about the kids and went beyond the mundane. The average is usually around 3 at most.
I don't say this often, but this film was great - parts of it soared with inspiration.
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/touchofgreatness
Also, kudos to PBS for consistently distributing this series, one of the few mass-distribution homes for cutting edge filmmaking.
"I believe that education on the national level is a cancer of mediocrity."
-Albert Cullum
Independent Lens & ITVS did it again.
I have always rebelled against compulsory education the way I was exposed to it. In a nutshell, it's boring, lifeless and dull. I've seen the creativity of good kids slowly snuffed out of them, year by year until they've none of it left save for some remnant that lies dormant, like a recessive gene.
One of my favorite topics for table talk is education. I like to find out from others out of all the teachers in their life how many they felt really cared about the kids and went beyond the mundane. The average is usually around 3 at most.
I don't say this often, but this film was great - parts of it soared with inspiration.
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/touchofgreatness
Also, kudos to PBS for consistently distributing this series, one of the few mass-distribution homes for cutting edge filmmaking.
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
A "New" Spin on Mass Media Conglomeration
check this out. newspapers are now jumping onto the citizen journalist bandwagon.
whoopee friggin' DOO.
newspapers are no different from any of the other mass media merchants in that they don't get it or they can't execute efficiently.
they don't get it - meaning, isn't the fact that this story is only appearing NOW, in 2006, proof enough??? mass media news simply can't seem to pry open their minds and look around at the paradigm shift occuring at this very moment in the music industry. they can't think, let alone see, analogically, therefore they can't draw lessons from it.
they can't execute efficiently - mass media, by definition, must carpet bomb on a large scale in order to cut operating expenses. (thus, the stereotypical centralized news source - a national desk - that farms out to its local channels.) this is one of the dynamics i talk about to indie filmmakers, that because big studios are over-concerned with mass market capture, the only approach that makes sense for indies is to target a niche market that's being ignored or under-served by the studios.
that last principle applies to any industry dominated by mega corporations.
anyway, this latest attempt to co-opt grassroots appeal is anything but new; after all, how long has "america's funniest home videos" been around???
-jp
Gannett To Change Its Papers' Approach
whoopee friggin' DOO.
newspapers are no different from any of the other mass media merchants in that they don't get it or they can't execute efficiently.
they don't get it - meaning, isn't the fact that this story is only appearing NOW, in 2006, proof enough??? mass media news simply can't seem to pry open their minds and look around at the paradigm shift occuring at this very moment in the music industry. they can't think, let alone see, analogically, therefore they can't draw lessons from it.
they can't execute efficiently - mass media, by definition, must carpet bomb on a large scale in order to cut operating expenses. (thus, the stereotypical centralized news source - a national desk - that farms out to its local channels.) this is one of the dynamics i talk about to indie filmmakers, that because big studios are over-concerned with mass market capture, the only approach that makes sense for indies is to target a niche market that's being ignored or under-served by the studios.
that last principle applies to any industry dominated by mega corporations.
anyway, this latest attempt to co-opt grassroots appeal is anything but new; after all, how long has "america's funniest home videos" been around???
-jp
Gannett To Change Its Papers' Approach
By Frank Ahrens
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 7, 2006; D01
Gannett Co., the nation's largest newspaper chain, is radically changing the way its papers gather and present news by incorporating elements of reader-created "citizen journalism," mining online community discussions for stories and creating Internet databases of calendar listings and other non-news utilities.
The McLean company has 90 newspapers, including USA Today, the nation's largest. Like all major newspaper firms, Gannett has watched circulation and advertising revenue slide over the past decade, as readers turn to television and the Internet for news and information.
Gannett is attempting to grab some of the Internet mojo of blogs, community e-mail groups and other ground-up news sources to bring back readers and fundamentally change the idea of what newspapers have been for more than a century. The attempt to involve readers in news-gathering is part of a larger plan that also calls for Gannett to merge its newspaper and online operations into single units to speed delivery of news and improve its offerings to advertisers.
At Gannett's Des Moines Register, for example, editor Carolyn Washburn has moved desks to re-organize her newsroom. She created a Data Desk to build reader-searchable databases on topics from restaurant listings to a recent mumps outbreak. Though USA Today will not undergo a similar overhaul, it has merged its newspaper and online staffs.
Gannett's ideas are shared by a growing number of people in the industry who believe that news organizations have driven away readers by becoming too imperial, too distant and not fast enough to respond to reader needs and desires.
While other newspapers, including The Washington Post, have aggressively expanded their online presence or merged it with their print newsrooms, Gannett's move is the industry's first wide-scale overhaul, in name and purpose.
"It's pretty big," said Michael Maness, Gannett's vice president of strategic planning. "It's a fairly fundamental restructuring of how we go about news and information on a daily basis."
The most intriguing aspect of Gannett's plan is the inclusion of non-journalists in the process, drawing on specific expertise that many journalists do not have. In a test at Gannett's newspaper in Fort Myers, Fla., the News-Press, from readers such as retired engineers, accountants and other experts was solicited to examine documents and determine why it cost so much to connect new homes to water and sewer lines. The newspaper compiled the data and wrote a number of reader-assisted articles. As a result, fees were cut and an official resigned. Maness called it a "pro-am," approach, referring to a golf tournament in which professionals play alongside amateurs.
"I am very impressed with the Fort Myers" experiment, said Jay Rosen, a New York University journalism professor. "If that becomes the direction at a lot of Gannett papers, we could learn a lot from that."
Elements of Gannett's plan are seen elsewhere.
Rosen recently founded the Web site NewAssignment.net, which bills itself as "an experiment in open-source reporting" and is being partly funded by the Reuters news agency. Another Web site, NowPublic.com, claims of 31,000 citizen reporters in 130 countries who post news, photos and video to the site. NowPublic reporters were active in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.
Gannett has been testing its new system at a few of its newspapers since July. Now, all of the company's newspapers are being urged to make the transition quickly.
Changes began with newsroom labels. Newsrooms divide coverage by traditional topics, such as national, foreign, local, features and sports.
Gannett's plan renames the newsroom an "Information Center" and divides it into seven areas: public service, digital, data, community conversation, local, custom content and multimedia. In a memo to employees Thursday, Gannett Chairman Craig Dubow said the company's news will be "platform agnostic," meaning it will be delivered however the reader desires -- on paper, on the Web, on a mobile device and so on.
Faced with declining average daily circulation since 1987, newspapers have been struggling to reinvent themselves and stay relevant. Before the Internet, many newspapers tried to look brighter and less staid, following the lead of USA Today, as a flurry of redesigns swept the industry. More newspapers began using color photographs, colored boxes and other design devices, and articles became shorter. Circulation did not improve. Now, newspapers look to the Internet.
Gannett's stock peaked in spring 2004 at more than $90 a share, but steadily declined to $52 a share during the summer. The stock has been rising since, closing yesterday at $58.77 a share, up 75 cents.
Monday, October 23, 2006
From the Corrupt Corporation Files: AOL-Time Warner Fraud
while today marks the day that jeff skilling got over 20 years, let's not revel in that. the reality is that the majority of white collar crime goes undetected, unpunished, or UNDER-punished.
case in point: aol tw, where those at the top escaped.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/22/AR2006102200569_pf.html
AOL Fraud Prosecutors Stop Short Of the Top
Time Ran Out Before Cases Could Be Made
case in point: aol tw, where those at the top escaped.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/22/AR2006102200569_pf.html
AOL Fraud Prosecutors Stop Short Of the Top
Time Ran Out Before Cases Could Be Made
By Carrie Johnson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, October 23, 2006; D01
One of the government's most highly touted accounting-fraud investigations -- into questionable advertising deals at America Online Inc. around the time it merged with Time Warner Inc. -- has apparently hit a dead end, running into the five-year statute of limitations before prosecutors could move as far as they had hoped up the company's corporate ladder.
Despite a lengthy investigation by the U.S. attorney's office for the Eastern District of Virginia, lawyers involved in the case now say the government will not be able to bring criminal charges against top AOL executives over transactions in which the Dulles Internet service provider and its business partners allegedly sought to artificially boost each other's revenue numbers as the dot-com bubble was bursting in 2000 and 2001.
Before the deadline passed, prosecutors filed securities fraud and related charges against two former mid-level AOL executives. They are on trial in a federal court in Alexandria with two former officials of PurchasePro.com Inc., a Las Vegas software maker.
PurchasePro was AOL's partner five years ago in what prosecutors call "round trip" accounting, where no money changed hands but each company claimed to have paid the other for advertising and other services. Such deals, if they are not properly disclosed, can violate accounting rules.
A review of the public record suggests that the leaders of PurchasePro and other AOL business partners paid a far steeper price for their roles in the questionable deals than their counterparts at AOL.
The only former AOL officials to be charged with crimes are Kent D. Wakeford, a former executive director at the company's since-disbanded business affairs unit in New York, and John P. Tuli, a former vice president in AOL's Netbusiness unit in Dulles. Both men, who operated far from the company's highest ranks, are contesting allegations that they struck sham deals with PurchasePro to mislead investors.
Compare that with the top executives of companies that once competed to reach ad agreements with the Dulles company. Charles E. Johnson Jr., the founder of PurchasePro, is on trial on federal charges that he lied to auditors and shareholders about his company's financial health. A half-dozen former PurchasePro employees have already pleaded guilty and could testify against Johnson and a former subordinate, Christopher J. Benyo, in the case.
Meanwhile, earlier this month, Stuart H. Wolff, the former chief executive of Homestore.com, an online real estate venture based in California, was sentenced to 15 years in prison after a jury convicted him of conspiracy, insider trading, filing false reports and lying to auditors in connection with revenue-swapping deals with AOL.
Much of the investigators' interest had been focused on AOL's raucous, since-disbanded business affairs unit, run by David M. Colburn and Eric Keller. Attorneys for both men, who left AOL in 2002, declined to comment for this article.
Among the documents that prosecutors and FBI agents reviewed were internal AOL reports showing declines in the rate of AOL advertising deals before and after its 2001 merger with Time Warner, as well as e-mails and other documents indicating a last-minute race to sign more deals to enable AOL to reach quarterly earnings targets.
At one point in late 2000, Colburn gave an in-house award to Wakeford and a colleague for their work on the PurchasePro account, calling it "science fiction," according to "Stealing Time," a book by Washington Post reporter Alec Klein on the company's accounting practices. Colburn has said he did not recall using that term. Colleagues laughed as Wakeford accepted the award, thanking AOL for its help, Klein wrote.
Lawyers involved in the case, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they have not been authorized to talk about the case, cite many reasons for the apparent dead end.
They noted that the lengthy investigation was run by two different U.S. attorneys in the Eastern District of Virginia and several prosecutors who departed for other jobs. Moreover, while AOL ultimately paid more than $500 million and agreed to cooperate with the government two years ago, none of its high-ranking insiders pleaded guilty and testified against their supervisors. Such assistance was crucial to breaking open complex white-collar investigations of such companies as Enron Corp., WorldCom Inc. and Adelphia Communications Corp.
The trial that starts today is a subdued end to a scandal that prodded Time Warner to restate its financial results twice and agree to a deferred prosecution deal with the Justice Department nearly two years ago. Yet the company continues to experience aftershocks from accounting problems that date to its merger with AOL.
In August, Time Warner said it would restate previous financial reports by $582 million after an independent examiner scrutinized how the company handled advertising revenues in 2000 and 2001, uncovering problems in deals between Time Warner or its AOL unit and 15 business partners. The examiner's report, a condition of the company's settlement with the government, will not be made public, a Time Warner spokeswoman said.
During the investigation, AOL founder Steve Case, Time Warner chief executive Richard D. Parsons and former finance chief Wayne H. Pace gave depositions under oath to securities regulators. The SEC, which has the authority to file civil charges and seek financial penalties and court orders that bar executives from holding certain jobs at public companies, continues to scrutinize former AOL officials, according to interviews and a statement by the agency last year.
But prosecutors' focus now rests squarely on the PurchasePro trial, at which they must simplify scores of complex documents and accounting issues into an easily digestible case about lying to auditors and investors. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Charles F. Connolly and Timothy D. Belevetz, and senior trial counsel Adam A. Reeves declined to comment.
"Kent Wakeford never committed any crime, and that will become apparent during the course of this trial," said defense lawyer Henry W. Asbill. Mark J. Hulkower, a defense lawyer for John Tuli, declined to comment as jury selection proceeded late last week, as did Preston Burton, a lawyer representing PurchasePro's Johnson.
The defense teams received a measure of good news when U.S. District Judge Walter D. Kelley Jr. dropped several charges from the case Oct. 16. But the stakes for those who remain in the case are high. Under federal sentencing guidelines, which are taken under advisement by the judge, each of the former executives could go to prison for several years if convicted.
© 2006 The Washington Post Company
Monday, October 16, 2006
Goin Back to Ojai
i love Ojai.
it has a special place in my history. it's one of southern california's best kept secrets, and i hope it remains that way. i won't have time this week but come the weekend i'll post pics of my trip yesterday up to the Ojai Foundation, the Ojai Film Festival and ... a special place.
Meanwhile, here's a pic of downtown Ojai.
it has a special place in my history. it's one of southern california's best kept secrets, and i hope it remains that way. i won't have time this week but come the weekend i'll post pics of my trip yesterday up to the Ojai Foundation, the Ojai Film Festival and ... a special place.
Meanwhile, here's a pic of downtown Ojai.
Friday, October 13, 2006
Communities Should Fight Back
my latest email list rant...
folks-
this is long. caveat emptor.
one of my pet peeves - no, major soapbox rants - is the way (in particular but not always limited to) corporations spam and price bully their piggish selves into our lives.
i mention this because everyone i know is fed up with the direction our country is headed. what's needed? among the necessities, here are a few i think are required:
1. motivation: a knowledge base of real-world, concrete examples of individuals and communities doing real things to sustain and empower local communities. i am particularly interested in entrepreneurship that energizes communities through letting ideas from the grassroots flower.
2. networking - a consistent platform, not only virtual but real-world, for people to come together and experience the unique dynamic of synergy. i believe synergy is the one thing that local communities and those individuals possess that is our greatest resource - but also the most under-developed. during the dot-com boom, there was a now legendary tech group that met in santa monica quite regularly - VIC, or the Venice Interactive Community (later, the Virtual Interactive Community, i believe, when it grew). their gatherings were thick with the buzz of "something's in the air." some entrepreneur MUST be out there who can figure out how to cater to a comparable audience around sustainability issues and community empowerment.
3. capital - this may be too obvious but i think the approach to capital is soft-peddled and not met with force in the non-profit or community-based realm. financially struggling is no one's idea of a good time, and i've seen it time and again with non-profits and entrepreneurs. one of the problems is that there is no community-based approach to capital - it's always tied in one form or another to corporations. if an idea is funded, say, by relatives and friends, their concentration is so small as to make it a fairly sizable risk. this is what a lot of filmmakers run into - i hear it all the time.
there is a tribal community in africa i heard of years ago that had a novel - and synergistic - approach to capital. when one of the community members had an idea for a business, the rest of the community would pitch in and fund it. then later, when another had an idea, it would make the same rounds. i'm assuming the ideas had to of course pass muster, but the point is they practiced sound investment fundamentals: minimizing risk by spreading it around in small amounts and diversifying their portfolios. simply: by playing the odds via diversification, their bets (investments are bets) are hedged toward probability.
and the more good bets one places, the greater expectation one has. that is what "odds" are about. this is what professional gamblers do. and make no mistake, investors are no different - they are gamblers. (there are of course contextual distinctions...)
one exciting, community-based approach to capital is MICROLENDING. if you're unfamiliar with the subject, there is perhaps no better example of its power than Vinod Khosla.
what this asian brotha has done is nothing short of miraculous; empowering the poorest of the most oppressed and disenfranchised (ie: third world women of color) - and local communities here need to pry open their minds and begin looking for entrepreneurial examples outside of their narrow confines. khosla's story is nobel prize worthy, and one that i'm confident e.f. shumacher would smile at.
for those of you in LA or who know folks here, there is an event this saturday - local, community-based...
eso won books is an institution in LA's black community, and they are having their opening this saturday - tomorrow - in their new location. what's significant is that their new home is in la's black capital - leimert park.
i mention this not just because i support eso won, but i heard a piece this morning where a local leimert park entrepreneur was talking about the changes in the community - developers gentrifying, raising leases and pricing out locals (residential and commercial) and bemoaning the general decline in the community, mostly due to these changes brought on by the pursuit of profit over communities.
so, support this event (take an umbrella tho, there's a small chance of rain) - who knows, you'll get out and see LA, have a good time in one of the jewels that is our city, and hopefully connect with folks who see it the way we do.
gamblers want action, they seek it out and approach it strategically: i think community-minded folks could learn something from that.
thanks for reading.
-jp
folks-
this is long. caveat emptor.
one of my pet peeves - no, major soapbox rants - is the way (in particular but not always limited to) corporations spam and price bully their piggish selves into our lives.
i mention this because everyone i know is fed up with the direction our country is headed. what's needed? among the necessities, here are a few i think are required:
1. motivation: a knowledge base of real-world, concrete examples of individuals and communities doing real things to sustain and empower local communities. i am particularly interested in entrepreneurship that energizes communities through letting ideas from the grassroots flower.
2. networking - a consistent platform, not only virtual but real-world, for people to come together and experience the unique dynamic of synergy. i believe synergy is the one thing that local communities and those individuals possess that is our greatest resource - but also the most under-developed. during the dot-com boom, there was a now legendary tech group that met in santa monica quite regularly - VIC, or the Venice Interactive Community (later, the Virtual Interactive Community, i believe, when it grew). their gatherings were thick with the buzz of "something's in the air." some entrepreneur MUST be out there who can figure out how to cater to a comparable audience around sustainability issues and community empowerment.
3. capital - this may be too obvious but i think the approach to capital is soft-peddled and not met with force in the non-profit or community-based realm. financially struggling is no one's idea of a good time, and i've seen it time and again with non-profits and entrepreneurs. one of the problems is that there is no community-based approach to capital - it's always tied in one form or another to corporations. if an idea is funded, say, by relatives and friends, their concentration is so small as to make it a fairly sizable risk. this is what a lot of filmmakers run into - i hear it all the time.
there is a tribal community in africa i heard of years ago that had a novel - and synergistic - approach to capital. when one of the community members had an idea for a business, the rest of the community would pitch in and fund it. then later, when another had an idea, it would make the same rounds. i'm assuming the ideas had to of course pass muster, but the point is they practiced sound investment fundamentals: minimizing risk by spreading it around in small amounts and diversifying their portfolios. simply: by playing the odds via diversification, their bets (investments are bets) are hedged toward probability.
and the more good bets one places, the greater expectation one has. that is what "odds" are about. this is what professional gamblers do. and make no mistake, investors are no different - they are gamblers. (there are of course contextual distinctions...)
one exciting, community-based approach to capital is MICROLENDING. if you're unfamiliar with the subject, there is perhaps no better example of its power than Vinod Khosla.
what this asian brotha has done is nothing short of miraculous; empowering the poorest of the most oppressed and disenfranchised (ie: third world women of color) - and local communities here need to pry open their minds and begin looking for entrepreneurial examples outside of their narrow confines. khosla's story is nobel prize worthy, and one that i'm confident e.f. shumacher would smile at.
for those of you in LA or who know folks here, there is an event this saturday - local, community-based...
eso won books is an institution in LA's black community, and they are having their opening this saturday - tomorrow - in their new location. what's significant is that their new home is in la's black capital - leimert park.
i mention this not just because i support eso won, but i heard a piece this morning where a local leimert park entrepreneur was talking about the changes in the community - developers gentrifying, raising leases and pricing out locals (residential and commercial) and bemoaning the general decline in the community, mostly due to these changes brought on by the pursuit of profit over communities.
so, support this event (take an umbrella tho, there's a small chance of rain) - who knows, you'll get out and see LA, have a good time in one of the jewels that is our city, and hopefully connect with folks who see it the way we do.
gamblers want action, they seek it out and approach it strategically: i think community-minded folks could learn something from that.
thanks for reading.
-jp
Monday, May 22, 2006
from "the Power of One" files: Hector Salgado
from Mother Jones
http://www.motherjones.com/news/dispatch/2006/05/witness.html
Encounters with the Torturer
Pinochet's dirty warriors tortured Hector Salgado. Now he's tracking them down.
http://www.motherjones.com/news/dispatch/2006/05/witness.html
Encounters with the Torturer
Pinochet's dirty warriors tortured Hector Salgado. Now he's tracking them down.
Nick Miroff
May/June 2006 Issue
CHILE’S MODERN HISTORY IS A STORY OF LISTS. In the 1970s and ’80s, General Augusto Pinochet’s military dictatorship compiled lists of leftist sympathizers, union leaders, student activists, and other suspected comunistas. These lists, in turn, led to new ones—of political prisoners, exiles, the missing, and the executed. After Pinochet stepped down in 1990, more lists were made, identifying some of the 3,000 Chileans who had been killed or “disappeared” under his 17-year rule. By 2004, Chile’s National Commission on Political Prisoners and Torture had compiled the longest list yet, with the names of more than 35,000 people claiming to have been victims of torture.
Then there is Hector Salgado’s list. The names of the former military officers on his list are not well known. They live in pleasant neighborhoods and own nice houses and expensive cars. They have rounding bellies, retreating hairlines, and little reason to recall Salgado. But Salgado, who was arrested and tortured by the military more than three decades ago, has been unable to get these men out of his mind. For the past seven years, he has been gathering their names, addresses, and phone numbers. One by one, he plans to confront them all.
On a mild autumn morning in the resort town of Viña del Mar, Salgado stood on the sidewalk wrestling with his tie. The 49-year-old was dressed in a handsome charcoal-colored business suit, the only one he owns, purchased especially for these occasions. He calls it his “uniform.” The pattern on his tie was a swirl of green and yellow spots, and at the center of one of these spots was a small hole. The glassy eye of a tiny camera lens peered from the hole; Salgado has dubbed this curious invention the “corbata cam,” or tie cam. A hidden microphone was taped inside the breast of his coat. “I get so nervous before these confrontations,” Salgado said, smoothing his slacks. “I never know how they are going to react. And the last thing I want is to be abused by them again.”
Accompanied by his wife, Marianne, and a two-person film crew, Salgado approached the gate of an apartment tower and rang the buzzer. Since he began confronting former members of Pinochet’s military, Salgado has gotten used to having doors slammed in his face. He’s already tracked down more than half of the 20 men on his list, though only 6 have consented to on-camera interviews for the documentary film he and his wife are making. However, he is not overly preoccupied with the legal implications of surreptitiously re- cording the others. He would welcome their lawsuits, he says defiantly—naively, perhaps— as a chance to expose them in court.
A doorman allowed Salgado into the building, and when he reached the lobby, a former navy captain whom Salgado had not seen in more than 30 years was waiting for him, looking puzzled. They exchanged introductions, and the captain, now in his 60s, said he didn’t remember Salgado. “But I remember you,” Salgado said. “I remember you from Talcahuano.”
The mention of the naval base in southern Chile immediately put the captain on the defensive. “Why were you there?” he asked accusingly.
“I was detained. In the gymnasium,” Salgado replied.
“What does that have to do with me?”
When the two men first met in 1973, on Talcahuano’s soccer field, Salgado was a teenage prisoner and the captain a menacing young officer with a hunting knife strapped to his boot and a Colt pistol on his belt. Salgado had been sent with a group of prisoners to clean up the field. There on the grass, Salgado says, the captain ordered him to crawl, kicking him in the ribs and stomach.
“Do you know how old I was then?” Salgado demanded. “I was 16.… You beat me and made me get down and walk on my hands and knees.”
But the captain would admit nothing and insisted that Salgado had him confused with someone else. He steered the conversation into more comfortable territory, justifying the military’s attempts to save Chile from Cuban-style communism—excuses Salgado has heard many times before: That was another era. You can’t judge it by today’s standards. That was the Cold War. “I sleep with a clear conscience,” said the captain.
The two men argued for an hour as the tie cam recorded everything and Salgado’s crew waited in a nearby stairwell, monitoring the conversation. Eventually, Salgado gave up and headed outside. He said that facing the captain after so many years was a small step toward closure, but he was frustrated that the man wasn’t honest with him.
“It’s always the same story,” he said. “The officers say they didn’t see anything and didn’t torture anyone. The lower-level guys say they were just following orders. No one accepts responsibility.”
Hector Salgado grew up in a working-class section of Tome, a small fishing and manufacturing town 400 miles south of Santiago. When Pinochet overthrew Salvador Allende in September 1973, Salgado and his teenage friends were eager to do something to resist. They knew of a local Pinochet supporter who ran a mining operation and kept a large store of dynamite. The boys managed to steal and hide the explosives but had no real plans to use them. “We were just kids,” Salgado says. “It’s not like we had any military training.” A few weeks passed. Then, on the night of October 7, 1973, military officers came and arrested Salgado. A navy lieutenant told his mother her son would be back in an hour.
Instead, Salgado was subjected to weeks of terrifying interrogations, including beatings, electric shocks, and moments so dark he has blocked them from memory. His teeth were knocked out and his nose and ribs broken. On one occasion, officers blindfolded him and told him he was going to be shot, and then staged a mock execution for their own amusement.
The horror and humiliation lasted nearly three months, until a team of psychologists declared Salgado fit to be tried as an adult. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison. Most of his friends received similar punishments, but one, 19-year-old Fernando Moscoso, was sent to a firing squad.
Salgado spent the next three years in prison, housed with political detainees, who gave him the nickname “El Guagua” (“the baby”). In 1976, he was released, put on a plane for the United States, and forced into exile. He landed in New York with $40 and no English, but he eventually made his way to Berkeley, California, where he became active in Chilean exile politics. He married and started a family, and later went into therapy. But he could not expunge his memories of what had happened in Tome and Talcahuano.
As an American citizen, Salgado began traveling back to Chile in 1987 and started gathering information about what had happened to him and his friends more than a decade earlier. He interviewed other ex-prisoners, managed to obtain copies of military records, and even hired a private investigator. Later he realized he could search for his former captors online. “Basically,” he says, “I just Googled the Chilean navy.”
Since then, Salgado has located and met face to face with many of the figures from his past. One former lieutenant posed proudly for Salgado beneath an autographed portrait of Pinochet. A former prison guard who had watched over Fernando Moscoso said he’d fantasized about freeing the condemned man. A childhood friend confessed that he had revealed the names of Salgado and the other boys, under torture, and had been consumed by guilt ever since.
Salgado says he is driven by both the need for answers and his frustration at the slow pace and limited scope of Chile’s official truth and reconciliation process. Only a handful of high-ranking former military officials have been convicted, and hundreds of investigations remain unresolved. (Pinochet has evaded prosecution for years, though the 90-year-old is currently facing new murder and corruption charges.) Amid this dawdling, Salgado’s dogged legwork has attracted the attention of human rights investigators. In 2002, he filed a deposition with a special investigative judge, opening an inquiry that could result in some of the men on his list facing criminal charges. In the meantime, Salgado continues to prosecute them himself, in person and in the ambush-style film he hopes will one day air on Chilean television.
Salgado returned to Chile during the recent election of its first female president, Michelle Bachelet, herself a torture survivor. He had come to track down a man he’d been hunting for many years—the lead judge of the war tribunal at Talcahuano. Salgado had learned where the man was registered to vote, and at seven in the morning on election day, he went to his polling place in a wealthy neighborhood of Santiago.
The morning passed. By mid-afternoon, the man hadn’t arrived. “I watched thousands of faces go by,” Salgado says. “And then, just before the polls closed, he walked in.”
Now in his 70s, the man looked shrunken and slightly disoriented. After the old man had voted, Salgado approached him, introduced himself, and held up a small photo. “This is Fernando Moscoso,” he said. “He was my friend. You sent him to death.”
The judge took the photo and held it for a moment. “These poor kids,” he said, looking up at Salgado.
Salgado pressed him for an admission of guilt, but he would only blame others. Then the old man said he had to leave. As the last voters streamed in, Salgado just stood there and watched him walk away, his corbata cam silently recording everything.
One Sunday morning in 1976, a few weeks before he went into exile, Salgado was granted a one-day furlough from prison. He took the bus to Tome and began walking home for the first time in more than two and a half years.
When he passed Fernando Moscoso’s house, his dead friend’s grandmother was sitting on the porch. She began to cry when she saw him. “Oh, my son,” she wept, “you’ve come home.” She had mistaken him for Fernando, and Salgado didn’t know what to do. So before going home to see his own mother, Salgado brought her to the cemetery to visit Fernando’s grave.
That day, Salgado says, he made a vow. “I promised him that I would expose what happened. When I’m walking to these confrontations, I’m always thinking about that. How right I am. I’m not going there to beat anyone up. I’m not going to destroy anything. I’m going to confront them with the truth.”
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