Tapley Remembered

A Valentine Story

 



 

Beloved Valley cartoonist Renrut has a Valentine's Day cartoon that takes place at the former Springfield Tapley Elementary School (above). Like a number of Springfield schools, Tapley was closed in the 1980's, allegedly because it was unfit for students and staff to occupy less than eight hours per day. Then, at a pittance of what it cost to build the new school to replace it, Tapley was rehabbed and re-opened as a building fit to be occupied by tenants 24 hours per day! The closing of Tapley and other historic schools in Springfield was all a big scam to create an artificial shortage of classroom space in order to ensure that there would be a steady stream of new school construction contracts to feed to the politically connected contractors with ties to the local Democrat Party Machine.

To read Renrut's Tapley School Valentine comic in it's entirety go here 

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Valentine's for Journalists

 

Meanwhile, Valentine's Day is not even here yet, but the UMass store is already looking ahead to the next commercial holiday.

Kathy's Diner

Have you ever been to Kathy's in downtown Northampton? Here's the famous Kathy herself. 

Lot's of students go there.

Kathy's in downtown Hamp - where the 1950's never ended. 

Three Pics

Who stuck this on a Hamp paper box and why?

A carriage belonging to Stop & Shop (or Stop & Shit as we used to call them when I worked at The Big Y; they in turn called us "The Big Lie") has been thrown into this ravine along the woodland way into downtown Northampton.

 



In Amherst this house was once part of the Cowles family farm. Built in 1821, it is one of the oldest structures still standing in town.

Today's Music Video

 

FRANKLIN'S TOWER

Musical composition by Jerry Garcia
from a poem by Robert Hunter.

In another time's forgotten space
your eyes looked from your mother's face,
wildflower seed on sand and stone
may the four winds blow you safely home.

Roll away the dew.

I'll tell you where the four winds dwell,
In Franklin's tower there hangs a bell,
It can ring -- turn night to day
It can ring like fire when you lose your way.

Roll away the dew.

God save the child that rings that bell,
It may have one good ring, baby you can't tell,
One watch by night, one watch by day
If you get confused listen to the music play.

Roll away the dew.

Some come to laugh their past away
Some come to make it just one more day;
Whichever way your pleasure tends
If you plant ice, you're gonna harvest wind.

Roll away the dew.

I'll tell you where the four winds sleep,
Like four lean hounds the lighthouse keep,
Wildflower seeds in the sand and wind
May the four winds blow you home again

Won't you roll away the dew?

graphic by devin gallaher

Beatnik Comics

Mostly Disappointing.

 



With fewer and fewer people reading books these days, it is no surprise that a lot of literary stuff is being made available in comic book form. When the popular artists Harvey Pekar, Ed Piskor and others united to do a collection of comics based on the lives of the writers of the so-called "Beat Generation" that sounded like a great idea.

However, now that the results have been released by the publication of the hardcover comic anthology The Beats: A Graphic History , unfortunately the quality is very mixed. While the writing accompanying the comics is first-rate and supportive of the idea that the Beats were major figures in American Literature, the pictures that go along with the text are often ugly and inappropriate.

The chief appeal of Beat Literature is in it's celebration of life, Jack Kerouac in particular had a gift for seeing the excitement and adventure in life even in the face of unhappy and even sordid circumstances. These drawings capture all of the sordidness, but too little of the lust for life. It's hard to believe it could be done, but even Neal Cassady, the most intensely passionate of the Beat adventurers, is made to look neurotic and depressed. 

 



Kerouac is portrayed as a pathetic drunk.

Nearly all of the figures from the Beat scene come across as depressing lowlifes.

Of coures the truth is that they WERE lowlifes in some ways. But that was the point, that despite their "beatness" they still celebrated the ability to get the most out of life even while living on the edges of society. It is this enthusiam for life and love of existence for its own sake that was at the core of their appeal. Stripped of that quality by these gloomy comic images, anyone who had never read any of their books might well be left wondering by these comics what the appeal of the Beats was in the first place.

Despite this major flaw, there are some important areas where these comics make meaningful contributions. The section of the book called The Beats: Perspectives has some great material giving long overdue credit to some of the so-called minor figures of the scene, such as Robert Creeley, Kenneth Patchen and Dianne di Prima. There are a few who are unfortunately overlooked, such as Jack Micheline, but in general these comics are important additions to our understanding of the scene as a whole.

The best of the beat perspectives is a cartoon written by Joyce Brabner and drawn by Summer McClinton called Beatnik Chicks. This cartoon explores the less than admirable way the male beatniks treated the women in their lives. Whatever their literary virtues, from a feminist perspective the male Beats were sometimes real bastards, as shown below in this devastating critique of poet Leroi Jones and his marriage.

Even the sainted Cassady is denounced by Brabner as "a sociopath, dangerous to know and hurtful." Some of Brabner's criticism is unfair, since you can't really hold people of the past to the standards of later times. Sadly, despite their celebration of freedom, the men of the Beat Generation were all too typical of many of the men of that era in being exploitive and even cruel to the women in their lives. While we might wish that they had been more enlightened in their behavior and attitude towards women, to condemn them for being like most men of the 1940's and 50's is like saying that we wish people of the 1800's had been more enlightened about child labor. It's just not reasonable to expect those in the past to have lived by social standards that simply didn't exist at the time.

Overall I would judge this book as worth reading, if only for the fresh critiques it offers of the Beat era and the appreciation it shows for some of the lesser known figures. But in the area in which it should be most effective - the artwork - it is mostly disappointing. 

Ziff Scenes

Here's some cool pics from ace Valley photographer Jeff Ziff.

The scene outside the Haymarket in Northampton. 

Holyoke street scene. 

Bunch of guys making a scene at the Mt. Carmel celebration in Springfield. 

Sumner Avenue in Springfield. 

Railroad tracks in ol' Pine Point by Five Mile Pond. As a boy I once came upon the skeleton of a dead dog on these tracks. It was cut in two.

Hell of a hood in Agawam. 

Entertainment scene on Worthington Street in downtown Springfield. 

Classical Condominiums in Springfield. 

Holyoke Police Chief Anthony Scott. 

Porter with a pregnant girlfriend in Brimfield, Ma. 

Sunshine striking the statues atop the Barney Mauseleum in Springfield's Forest Park. 

Bad Comic

Fucked up Funky.

 



Did you read Funky Winkerbean this morning? As usual lately, it was not funny.

I used to like Funky Winkerbean, but now it sucks. This is the history of the comic according to the King Features Syndicate:

Tom Batiuk's popular Funky Winkerbean made its debut on the comics pages in 1972, and today appears in more than 400 newspapers worldwide. The cartoonist not only entertains teenagers and adults alike with his portrayal of the students and faculty at Westview High, but has earned high marks for his sensitive treatment of important social and educational issues. His groundbreaking series on teen pregnancy, reading impairment dyslexia, teen suicide, teen dating abuse and breast cancer earned Batiuk high marks from fans, educators and community leaders.

Oh bullshit. The serious stuff was always the worst. After reading a newspaper often full of depressing news, I don't want to turn the comic's page and see my favorite comic characters dying and shit. Remember when that chick died of cancer?

That was not funny! The purpose of comics is to make you laugh, and that was not humorous, except maybe to a particular reader.

Now the strip has hit a new low, with all the characters suddenly being drawn as if they were aging badly. It's a disgrace what's become of Funky himself:

The wise readers of The Comics Curmudgeon had just the right take on this travesty, and here's a sampling:

Brown-eyed Girl says:

I’ve been ignoring Funky Winkerbean and hoping it will go away. All the comments about this week’s strip made me look, and I am sorry I did. It’s only been a week, but I hate what Batshit is doing with his characters. I think I need to stop reading FW snark too. Bah.

Mooncattie says:

To Brown-eyed Girl - There is wise advice from Marvin, the Paranoid Android from Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy…”Why stop now, just when I’m hating it?” The FW cast is actually HAPPY this week as they remember the cancer victims and watch Funky work himself into an early grave. Just think, the depressing stuff is still to come! I can’t wait!

Buck Ripsnort says:

So, anybody taking bets that the Funk’s real problem turns out to be diabetes from the years of booze and bad diet?

Baron Von Foobenstein says:

I foolishly stumbled onto the Stinky Funkerbean website and looked at the character profiles. Maybe it’s just my perception, but the 46 year old characters all look a helluva lot older than 46.

Jogo says:

The horrible thing about Funky is that he now looks like an out-of-shape George W. Bush

In short, I have added Funky Winkerbean to my growing list of comics I no longer read in this humorless age. 

Much has been made of Hanna Montana, the symbol of TV teenage innocence played by Miley Cyrus (below with dad Billy Ray). 

But have you seen her boyfriend Justin Gaston? I know I would have a hard time maintaining my innocence with this lad around. 

On the commons in Amherst this morning they had a voter registration drive. 

Yesterday my sister Donna and I had to go down to the courthouse. This was the view of beautiful downtown Springfield through the windshield of my sister's car.

I was tempted to buy one of these two dollar hotdogs, yet I resisted. Although I am more of a common sewer than a connoisseur, I'm trying to upgrade my diet. 

While crossing Court Square I spotted the award winning blogger Bill Dusty schlepping around looking for bloggable material. Here he is with my sister Donna. 

Me on the courthouse steps.