OOPS!

 

The way I have to walk every day is a perfect path of ice.

Despite my years of expert experience walking on icy New England sidewalks, I somehow managed to put my foot down in just the wrong way and before I knew what was happening I was on the ground. At first I tried to pretend that nothing was wrong, even though my right knee hurt. As the morning went on it started to swell and wasn't showing any sign of receding. Finally I went to see the nurse at work and she said, "You need to have that x-rayed." So off I went to the emergency room. 

The nurse at the desk told me that the hospital had been seeing slip and fall injuries all week. She brought me to this room filled with medical contraptions.

When they did the x-ray of my knee the news was good - no fractures. However I had strained a knee-ligament and would have to stay off my feet for the rest of the week. Thank God for sick days! Here is a picture of the big bandage on my knee.

So what's a good thing to do while primarily sitting? Well, reading is cool, and I've been enjoying a big biography of Massachusetts writer Nathanial Hawthorne. But even that gets dull, so I've also been spending some time sitting in restaurants, such as the Evolution Cafe in Florence. Joining me one day was my friend Emily, who was once involved with the same hippie drug cult that I was, but at a later time and without the drugs. As we chatted in the cafe she worked on making an origami crane.

Traveling further afield I went to The Ugly Duckling in Sturbridge, which is well worth the extra drive for their outstanding hamburgers. 

All of Northampton is abuzz about the new restaurant called The Roost, located where Pop's Liquors used to be. 

Inside I discovered two celebrities dining - multi-media figures Jaz Tupelo and Bill Dwight. They tried to block being photographed, but were no match for my paparazzi skills.

Jaz and Bill have just launched a new show on Valley Free Radio. Bill asked me if I would come on the show sometime and gave me his card. It had a cool radio graphic on it.

I almost went on Valley Free Radio a few years ago when Mary Serreze and Paolo Mastrangelo had a show. However, just before I was to appear the program got canceled. Warning to Bill and Jaz, inviting me on your show could be dangerous to your career!

Speaking of hotboy Paolo, he's been riding a wave of notoriety lately on his blog reports about the worsening rat problem in New York City. However those bold and nasty NYC rats are nothing like our sweet Northampton rodents, which never appear on Main Street unless accompanied by balloons.

Did you know that Ronald Reagan is now on a postage stamp?

This looks like an interesting show. I wonder what a band called "Mail Myself to Thoreau" sounds like. It should either be a beautiful country band or an ultra-extreme punk band. Ideally, it should be both. 

The Jerry Garcia Fire and Snow Ritual in Turners Falls, Massachusetts.


May the grit from the road of life
never tarnish the snowbanks of your love.

Holyoke photo and concept by Greg Saulmon  

WHMP Radio Revolt

montage by d. vazquez

Valley liberal talk show host and sometimes politico Bill Dwight (above) is back in business, or in the pod to be precise. He is now creating podcasts at various intervals as the latest evolution of The Bill Dwight Show after he and producer Jaz Tupelo ended up no longer employed by local radio station WHMP. What happened? According to the program's Facebook page:

Bill was told by Chris Collins, the station's program director, that Michael Kusek, an area publicist, was no longer allowed on the show because one of the businesses he represented was no longer airing ads with the station's FM affiliate, 96.9 The River.

Shortly after, Dwight said he was told by Sean O'Mealy, the station's general manager, that "either Michael is off the show or 'The Bill Dwight Show' is finished." WHMP maintains Bill's decision to leave was voluntary. However, one indicator that this was not truly voluntary, his fine producer, Jaz Tupelo, has been fired as well.

Not surprisingly WHMP has a different perspective on what went down, as they explained in the following statement:

Like any other business, we set up some rules that we think are important for our employees to follow. We try very hard not to be too bureaucratic especially in an entertainment based business in which creativity is valued. We have many long-time employees who have carved out their own identity following some simple guidelines. For his own reasons Bill became uncomfortable with those guidelines and chose to leave WHMP. He was not asked to leave and in fact, we were not expecting for this to be a significant issue - it certainly hasn’t been for our other staff members. 

 



More details surfaced in a message Chris Collins (above) wrote to Dwight fan Susan Apgar:

Bill wanted complete autonomy to book his own guests on the show. That autonomy doesn't exist in our company, and pretty much every other radio company in the world, if the truth be told. Bill was not willing to adhere to our mandate regarding editorial control, and there was NO WAY we were going to cede that control to anyone, least of all a part-time host, popularity notwithstanding.

You should also know that I did cut Bill a wide berth during his tenure, and allowed him to book a wide range and variety of guests, yourself included, and 99.9 percent of the time, I had no problem with the people he had in. This time, I did have a problem, and that's what led to this impasse, and his eventual departure.

You can feel free to classify us as the "bad guys" if you choose, but I have a sneaking suspicion that anyone who has had a boss or has been a boss is going to very much understand and appreciate our position.

The bottom line is, in the "real world," even in radio, you don't get to have everything your way, and, at the end of the day, that's what this was really all about.

The switch to a podcast will give Dwight all the creative control he wants, but also has certain drawbacks. Eventually all of what we now call "radio" will be some form of podcast, but that day ain't now. Traditional broadcast radio still has the advantage of being freely available over the air to nearly all the population, while podcasts still have a limited, tech-savvy audience that makes it hard to draw the numbers necessary to sell advertising. Soon that won't be a barrier, when digital becomes the only medium, but at present most successful podcasts are primarily supplements to programs that are also available on the airwaves. That doesn't mean Dwight can't succeed, but it does mean he has to show persistence, patience and a knack for economics.

Having knocked around the Valley radio scene myself, I wrote on Dwight's Facebook page the following appraisal of the radio profession:

As the former host of several versions of The Tommy Devine Show I can testify that radio is a ruthless, bullshit business where you can find yourself off the air at any time and for any reason or for no reason at all. The pay generally sucks, the management is reptilian and the gratitude level is zero, but if you fall in love with the medium you'll put up with it.

Personally I like Bill Dwight, WHMP, Jaz Tupelo, The River, Chris Collins and everybody else involved, and I'm sure I speak for many fans when I say that I just wish all this drama would go away.

Artist/designer Jon Sendelbach recently completed a beautiful metal townscape of Amherst for display in Raos Coffeeshop. 

Pretty neat, eh? It shows from the right, Grace Church(on the Amherst Common), the Octagon (Amherst College), Amherst Town Hall, Johnson Chapel (Amherst College), Old Chapel (UMass) and Emily Dickinson's house.

Montague Bookmill by Greg Saulmon.

Locally harvested maple syrup at the Northampton Farmer's Market. Only 52 bucks a gallon!

Flowers in a mug at the Haymarket Cafe. 

The first rays of the rising sun strike these flags. 

Grateful Dead bear shirt for sale in Hamp. 

I like these little Smart cars, or "Smarties" as they're affectionately called, but I wonder how safe they are.

Interesting paint job. 

Outside now. 

Radio Memory

Failing Forward

 



In 1993 I got a radio show on WNNZ, a station that talk show host Al Giordano used to call "the media blowtorch" because it was the only station that could be heard in every city and town in the Pioneer Valley. My program was a fill-in show for one of their regular programs which was on hiatus for the summer. If by the end of the summer The Tommy Devine Show got better ratings than the program I filled in for then my show would become permanent.

That didn't happen because my ratings were too low, or so I was told, but rumors kept reaching me that then Springfield Mayor Robert Markel was urging WNNZ behind the scenes to take my program off the air. I never found out if that was true, but if Markel did complain I wouldn't blame him, considering the stuff I was saying about Springfield politics and his administration on the air.

In the funny way I have of "failing forward" in life, the cancellation of that show actually expanded my media career because Dan Yorke of WGGB-TV40 took me under his wing and made me one of his stable of fill-in hosts, so I ended up getting far more exposure on the more powerful medium of television. That never would've happened if I had stayed with WNNZ, which was Yorke's competitor because in addition to his TV show Yorke had a radio show on WHYN, where I also became a recurring figure on their show The Reporter's Roundtable with Kateri Walsh. Sometimes in life we think we're failing when really God is just clearing away the wreckage so that we can follow the path He intended for us.

Despite the ultimate failure of The Tommy Devine Show I had a lot of fun with that program. One of my best memories of that time is of something that happened before the show even started. That night Jay Libardi and I were sorta stumbling out of the Pine Point Cafe with a bunch of friends at closing time and Jay climbed into the truck ahead of me because I was talking with some people. Suddenly he shouted, "Hey Tom! Listen to this!" and he cranked the radio way up so that me and everyone else in the parking lot could hear.

It was an advertisement for the upcoming premiere of my show, with music in the background and everything, and it was such a thrill to hear it so unexpectedly for the first time under those circumstances. Everyone listened in perfect silence until the ad ended after sixty seconds. Then the whole parking lot erupted in cheers and clapping. I don't care if someday I appear before a million people with a thousand spotlights shining on me, I don't think I'll ever feel more like a star than I did that night before a dozen people in the parking lot of the Pine Point Cafe.

 

Springfield Stadium Blues

Sygnatore Remembers

When Pete Sygnatore was made head of Springfield's controversial License Commission by former Mayor Charles V. Ryan, the citizens of Springfield were slack-jawed with amazement - they had never seen an honest person in that job before! That's Sygnatore below with legendary Springfield activist Karen Powell. 

Just recently I got the following email from Sygnatore, not about liquor licenses but about insensitive radio dudes.

Meredith Baxter recently announced on the Today Show that she was a lesbian. I was listening to the “The Morning Show” which stars Brad Shepard and Bo Sullivan on WHYN on my way to work and they were discussing it.

At approximately 8:50AM, (paraphrasing) Brad made a statement similar to “I hope this doesn’t start a blog called The Curse of Family Ties.” Bo seemed a bit confused about where Brad was going with this statement and said something invoking further explanation.

Much to my astonishment Brad continued “Well first Michael J. Fox comes down with his health problems and now Meredith Baxter announces she’s a lesbian? What next? As far as I know Michael Gross is o.k. and Tina Yuthers seems to be alright.”

There wasn’t much but a nervous chuckle from Bo at that point.

I could not believe what I was hearing. Was Brad really likening a horrible disease like Parkinson’s Disease to Meredith’s lesbianism?? I am not usually sensitive about slightly anti-gay remarks but this was SO over the top that I have been stewing over it all day.

I’m am more conservative than liberal and frequently agree with Brad, the Republican over Bo, the Democrat on issues they are discussing on the show. This remark was highly homophobic however. WHYN needs to censure Brad Shepard and he needs to make a public apology for his grossly insensitive remark!

Thank you for allowing me to vent.

Peter L. Sygnator

 

But in the days before he was a radio critic and City Hall insider, Sygnatore was a long suffering member of the bogus committee that was seeking a site for a baseball stadium in Springfield during the Albano Administration. I call the committee bogus because it was never intended to to do anything but provide a false impression of public involvement, when in fact the location of the ill-fated stadium was already chosen before the committee was even formed. 

The pre-picked site was next to the Post Office near the Springfield Newspapers. The paper was rumored to want to unload its factory on the taxpayers to be used as a parking lot for the stadium so it could relocate to a new facility in East Longmeadow. The Springfield Newspapers vehemently denied this, but no one believed them.

Going through my vaults recently, I came across a first hand account of Sygnatore's tenure on the Stadium Search Committee, and here are some amusing excerpts illustrating how frustrating it can be to serve on a committee whose input is not just ignored, but unwanted.

December 5th, 2000 -

We had a noontime meeting today with Joe McEacharn, a VP of the Eastern League. There was only a few dozen of us there including Steve Clay, Bill Foley, Chris Cignoli, Art Godding, Doug Cesan, John MacMillan, Leon Simons, Frank Marzanno, Gene McCarthy, J.J. McCarthy, Pat Markey, Bill Collins, Bo Sullivan, Tim Ryan, Ian McCollum, Karen Powell and me.

Earlier that morning a core group of the committee had toured the city, pointing out all of the sites to Mr. McEacharm. Interestingly, on our way to one of the sites, McEarcharn spotted the Smith & Wesson property and shouted "Hey, wait a minute! What's this?" He wanted to know why we weren't looking at it for a stadium site. He cried out that it would be the perfect spot for a stadium. We all agreed with him, but unfortunately we had to tell him that Mayor Albano had told us that the site was "off limits" because of the big new industrial park that was going to go there. Stop laughing! Sadly our mayor's fantasies take precedence over reality.

McEarcharn said the community will judge the success of the stadium based on attendance, profit, recreational activity plus "spin-off businesses and jobs." I asked twice what the spin-off businesses might be but they still can't give me a good answer. They name things like bars and restaurants. But why would anyone locate a bar or restaurant next to a stadium that will be empty and inactive for 90% of the year? It doesn't make any sense but they keep pushing that "spin-off" idea.

February 20, 2001 -

A very bizarre editorial in the Sunday paper by Larry McDermott. I'm not sure what initiated this unless it was the report about the light turnout at most of our citizen input meetings. Perhaps McDermott was scared that the public was losing interest in the stadium. Perhaps Larry should have realized by now that the public never HAD much of an interest in the stadium, certainly not as much as the mayor and his newspaper lackeys do! The editorial served no real purpose and didn't seem to have a point other than to just say, "Shame on you Springfield for not allowing us to sucker you into this project!"

Poor Larry, he needs to find a nice comfy shrink's couch someplace where he can finally learn to let it go. Just let it go Larry - let it go. Bob Powell responded to Larry's latest diatribe with a letter to the editor but I'm not holding my breath until it gets published.

March 1, 2001 -

Andy Cohen, managing partner of Northgate Plaza, wrote a letter to the editor rebutting McDermott's weird editorial. Andy points out that "Springfield visionaries" were very short-sighted in focusing on only one location for their stadium and refusing to even look at any others proposed. He also blames the Springfield Newspapers for the loss of businesses at the Northgate Plaza.

Also, Mr. Mayor toured the Northgate Plaza site - and no others - with representatives of Jeter, Cook and Jepson, an architectural firm, as well as Diversified Technological Consultants, an engineering firm, so that they could assess the site for use as a stadium. Both firms claimed that the site was ideal. Now there's a surprise huh? Will someone please tell me why our committee even exists if only one site is actually under consideration by the mayor?

May 7, 2001 City Council Meeting -

City Council President Angelo Puppolo brings the topic up of rescinding the two million dollar bond to consider the stadium. The purpose was to prevent the mayor from misusing the funds before the stadium is actually approved. The most interesting part of the meeting was when the councilors called Chief Financial Officer Donna Williams to the podium and asked her what happens after they vote to rescind. Her response was, "What's left of the bond will be taken off the books."

You could have heard a pin drop in the council chambers! All of the councilors looked at each other as if to say, "What did she say?" Williams then went into a very circuitous explanation about some of the money already being spent for site preparation at Northgate plaza! Incredible! They are already spending money on the Northgate site! So much for our site search committee! This whole process has been a complete farce.



And so it was. Ultimately the entire stadium site controversy became moot when the Albano Administration was discovered to have submitted false information in an attempt to scam some funding for the stadium. In the end, the whole project was exposed as designed to be nothing more than a slush fund and patronage nest for the Albano gang. 

When Judge Constance Sweeney killed the stadium plan, she accused the Mayor and his cronies in open court of filing false information to obtain funding, and although attempting to obtain taxpayer funds under false pretenses is a felony, no legal action was ever taken against Albano or any other of the stadium schemers.

 

Coakley's Crime

God bless Deadhead Ann Coulter for joining the rising chorus of those calling for the Democrat nominee for U.S. Senate Martha Coakley to be defeated on the basis of her involvement in the Amirault child abuse scandal:

Remember all that talk about President Bush shredding constitutional rights? Overzealous liberal prosecutors and feminist do-gooders allowed Gerald Amirault to sit in prison for 18 years for crimes that didn't exist -- except in the imaginations of small children under the influence of incompetent child "therapists."

Martha Coakley allowed her ambition to trump basic human decency as she campaigned to keep a patently innocent man in prison.

Anyone with the smallest sense of justice cannot vote to put this woman in any office. If you absolutely cannot vote for a Republican on Jan. 19, 2010, write in the name "Gerald Amirault."

To read the whole column click here.

Around Amherst

Every year the Boy Scouts are threatened with being thrown out of downtown Amherst's Kendrick Park, in part for being a "hate group" that bans homosexuals - yet every year they're back selling their holiday trees.

Personally I support the right of any private group to choose whoever they want as their members. But this being Amherst I'll continue in a politically correct vein and report there is a newly constructed"snowperson" on the Town Common. 

An antique biscuit box at Amherst's Carriage Shops. 

Guitar Dudes at McMurphy's bar.

Michael Phelps on a Subway trash can in Amherst.

This cardboard cutout of a cartoon character by Springfield's Dr. Seuss was promoting a dance at the Student Union. 

UMass Discriminatory Practices

Erasing the Legacy of the 80's

 



The University of Massahusetts has a proud history, despite having had students like me. Yet even in the rogues gallery of my family history there was my Uncle Steve Willis, who played for UMass in the 1920's and then went on to play professional football for the Springfield Acorns. In fact, it's safe to say that during every period since its founding UMass has always had much to be proud of.

However, some eras were certainly better than others, and a certain low point was reached at UMass during the 1980's. That was when political correctness ran rampant on campus, and a number of bad policies were implemented. For example, pages of the UMass Collegian were set aside weekly for various minority groups to rant about how oppressed they felt. Sections of dorms were set aside to segregate such groups. There were even takeovers of campus buildings with the demand that members of the grievance groups receive more money or power or both. The administration usually caved-in to their demands.

There were also a number of alleged racist or sexist "incidents" on campus where no perpetrators were ever caught. None the less, these incidents often resulted in actions favorable to the grievance groups, even when suspicion fell on persons belonging to that minority. The university library, which never had a name in the more than a decade since it was built, was rededicated in the 80's in honor of W.E.B. Dubois, an admirer of both Adolph Hitler and Mao Zedong. Eventually even the beloved UMass Minuteman came under attack as a "white patriarchal oppressor bearing a gun."

 

In an excellent article in this morning's UMass Collegian, writer Alana Goodman reveals that another unwanted vestige of that era remains - automatic seats on the student government which are allocated by race and ideology. Some excerpts:

As we prepare to swear in our elected representatives to the SGA Senate next week, UMass students should be aware that 13 percent of our SGA Senators will not have even competed in Tuesday’s elections. Instead, they will be appointed to their positions before the election results even come in, solely on the basis of skin color.

This portion of the Senate is appointed by a registered student organization (RSO) called the African American, Latino, Asian American, and Native American (ALANA) Caucus (no relation to this columnist). Only minority students who fit one of those four racial categories– or other students who the Caucus approves as “minority allies”– are considered eligible for these Senate seats.

Proponents of the ALANA Caucus will argue that anyone can be a member of the group and have access to its appointed seats, and they may be right– technically. On paper, RSO’s like the Caucus are open to all fee-paying UMass undergrads. But while most RSO’s actively work to recruit a large membership, the ALANA Caucus doesn’t; you will almost never see their members “tabling” in the Student Union or advertising their meetings to the general public. They seem to prefer their organization small and close-knit, and why shouldn’t they? Unlike other RSO’s, ALANA’s annual funding isn’t contingent on the size of its membership – the SGA’s “ALANA Caucus Reserves Fund” earmarks an exorbitant $10,000 for the Caucus each year.

Not only is this practice undemocratic and unfair to non-minority students, but Goodman explains that it appears to be illegal as well:

In a December 23, 2003 memo, the UMass General Counsel Terence O’Malley informed former Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Mike Gargano that the Caucus seats violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which prevents state governments from discriminating against individuals based on race or ethnicity.

“It is my opinion that the approval of the ALANA representation provision by the Board of Trustees would be unconstitutional,” wrote O’Malley. “The proposed [ALANA Caucus] amendment reserves positions in the student senate on the basis of race or ethnicity.”

On the advice of the Counsel, Gargano asked the SGA to remove the race-based appointments. Instead, the Caucus promptly branded Gargano a “racist” and held campus rallies comparing him to Satan.

In the wake of controversy surrounding the issue, the illegal race-based seats were never removed.

But now the subject is being broached again by the new Vice Chancellor, Jean Kim. On August 26, Kim sent a memo to SGA President Ngozi Mbawuiki asking that the race-based seats be removed by March 1, 2010. Hopefully Mbawuiki complies and puts an end to the Caucus’ exclusion of students who don’t possess the “right” skin color or the “correct” mindset.

It was nearly 55 years ago, after all, when Rosa Parks stood up against race-based seating on public busses. But today, right here at UMass, seats of a different kind are still being allocated on the basis of race and ideology. It wasn’t right then, and it isn’t right now.

 

More Radio Blogging

 



Hey this is one of my pieces for WHMP. I like how they added polka music and Rod Stewart. To listen click here. 

Tasteless but Funny

 



Around Amherst

Mount Norwottock.

The last sunflowers. 

It's sad to see another school year begin and the Jeffrey Amherst Bookstore still standing vacant.

 



Anti-war activists in the UMass Campus Center. 

Today Bruce Springstein turns (gulp) sixty. Gosh, everybody's getting so old - good thing that ain't happening to me!

The first time I saw Bruce Springsteen was as a teenager when I hitchhiked from Springfield up to UMass to crash their Spring Carnival. Here's an account of that UMass Springsteen show by Jim Laford (class of 1976) with photos:

On a cold June day in 1973, close to 18,000 UMass Amherst students streamed into the football stadium to eat, drink, and listen to music as part of Spring Carnival week. Three bands were scheduled to play: Cold Blood, It’s a Beautiful Day, and the Elvin Bishop Group.

A few days before the event, the concert committee learned that the Elvin Bishop band had split up. Luckily, they had a replacement, someone they described as “a breaking talent.”

At 1 P.M. on June 5, to no fanfare, a young Bruce Springsteen and his band took the stage.

Because they were unknown, you can see from one photo that students just walked by the front of the stage with little notice. Not until a few years went by did I realize who that opening band was.

I still consider myself a Springsteen fan, although my enthusiasm has faded as the music became more acoustic and the songwriting got preachy. Yet Bruce remains an interesting and important artist to this day.