Happy Birthday to Rooftop Reviews!

It was on this date in 2009 that I posted my first blog. I celebrate it each year by either skipping a post that day or re-posting an old post; sometimes the first one; which is what I did last year. Sometimes I tell the story about how I started this thing to begin with. And each year it gets harder to think of something special to mark the occasion.

So, this year I decided on fireworks and a big festival. It was great. Wish you could have been there. The food was delicious, too! Seriously though; and I hate to be like that; what I have actually decided to do is to do nothing. It’s just another day.

Here is a clip of two of my favorite performers; Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong. Did I ever tell you how Louis Armstrong got me involved in coin collecting? I was about 9 years old at the time. I had read that Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans on July 4, 1900. That set my imagination on fire! July 4^th was the birthday of our nation and 1900 was a new century.

Man, I wanted a piece of that for myself! Something tangible to hold in my hand that would make me feel as if I were holding a part of history itself; something which had actually been there at the time; a penny.

So, I went to the Hobby Shop on Coney Island Avenue and bought a 1900 Indian Head penny for about 50 cents. I was hooked. I wore that penny out; turning it over and over in my hands; even sleeping with it. The book I’d read said that Armstrong played for pennies in New Orleans as a kid. I couldn’t help but feel; make that know; that this was one of those pennies.

Anyway, this is what I do here. I tell stories to myself in the hope that someday my grandkids; and even great grandkids; will sort through all of the flotsam and jetsam of these posts, and obtain a better picture of the “old man” as a result.

Meantime, enjoy the video. It’s from the 1947 film “New Orleans” and serves as the title song, performed here by Billie Holiday on vocals and Louis on vocals and coronet. The song appears in the film several times as background music, and also by Armstrong and Holiday in a big band setting; but this is what I call the “performance” version. It’s also my favorite one.

And, if you really would like to see the first post of Rooftop Reviews from March 29, 2009 (which was also a Sunday) just hit this link;

http://robertwilliamsofbrooklyn.blogspot.com/2009_03_01_archive.html

"The Sugar's at the Bottom of the Cup" by By Elda Del Bino Willitts and Patricia Henley

It was 5 years ago today that I began this blog by re-posting a book review I had written for a friend at the time who had a blog of her own. That review led to another which led to still another and before long I was in the “habit”, so to speak, of blogging daily on a variety of subjects. I no longer have the friend, but the blog lives on thanks to people like you stopping by. As long as people read it, I’ll write it.  And so, with this re-post I begin my 6^th year of Rooftop Reviews.

Ever wonder what the Marina District along the Northern edge of San Francisco was like in 1916? Or what Ocean Beach was like before all those houses arrived in the Richmond and Sunset Districts? Then “The Sugar’s at the Bottom of The Cup” by Elda Del Bino Willitts is a book for you.

With a sparse and direct approach to the subject, Mrs. Willits takes you back in time to an era when steamships still arrived daily in San Francisco and filled the streets with newly arrived Americans from all over the world. Adding to this mix was the influx of European immigrants arriving by train from the East.

Elda Del Bino was seven years old when she stepped off the train and into the fast moving cosmopolitan world of San Francisco. With straightforward prose she vividly describes her journey by ship to New York and Ellis Island and then the train trip across rural America prior to the First World War, arriving in San Francisco in 1916.

Taking up residence in the Cow Hollow area South of Lombard Street and the present day Highway 101, finding jobs, enrolling in school, learning English, Mrs Willitts draws a clear and accurate picture of San Francisco’s bygone era. Through the changes of the 1920’s and the dark years of the Depression, the book captures the flavor of a changing city. The World War Two years in San Francisco and the changes in morals and values that flowed from that war are all here to examine in the life of one elderly woman.

Full of wit and inescapable charm, Mrs. Willitts has written a wonderful and informative book about San Francisco, the City by the Sea.

This review has also been featured on Garden Lust Journal: http://mendogardens.blogspot.com/

Reflections On the Written Word

This poem, or attempt at a poem, was inspired by something Suzy, of http://mendogardens.blogspot.com/ said in an e-mail about talking on the phone. Sometimes the little nuances of writing are missing as people attempt to talk over, and outdo one another in the conversations. They seem to get lost within themselves. I don't often write in this style, so bear with me.

Reflections On The Written Word

Words on paper-seem so clear.
Much clearer than the ones we hear
on telephones.

When 2 friends speak and words collide,
There’s nothing there,
the words aside.

Words on paper seem so real.
They have a texture and a feel,
all their own.

When two write down the things they think,
The meaning’s sure,
the words distinct.

But still, the lines, between, when read,
Sometimes contain
things unsaid.

And of these two, the one that lasts,
is the one you grasp
with two bare hands.

Picking up a scrap, to see,
words that once
were writ to me.

Concord, NC June 24th, 2010

Happy 1st Birthday Rooftop Reviews!

Well, it has been one year ago today since I started this blog. It was an impulse based on boredom. And when I saw that my freind Suzy at Garden Lust Journal had a blog, well, I just had to have one too!

The name kind of popped into my head - and the best rooftop photo I had was the one you see and I have grown attached to over the 15 years or so that it has hung on the bedroom wall of wherever my wife, Sue, and I have lived. Currently, that is North Carolina.

Originally I was going to compare books with the movies that were made from them, but somehow I got sidetracked into everything from a short autobiography in 31 installments to book and movie reviews as well as music and theater. I actually did get around to doing a couple of comparisons with movies and books here. It was a surprise to me as well!

I have met and corresponded with so many different people through this site. Most comments come as e-mails, my address is posted right at the top. The correspondents range from authors such as Boris Gindin to Tommy Chong. (I'm still smiling from that one!) I have communicated with Mafia hitmen and ex FBI agents. My favorite in that category has been Abraham Bolden, he was the first African-American Secret Service Agent. Appointed by Eisenhower, he was later placed on the Kennedy White House detail. A very spiritual person, with a very interesting story to tell.

I get almost no negative e-mails, well that depends on your point of view. I did have one Aryan fellow e-mail me to tell me how right I was in my assesment of a particular book. I had to re-read the book to make sure that I was not going crazy!

So this is a day off for me- I can't believe I stuck it out for a year already. I don't post every day, more like 4 or 5 times a week. I avoid politics and religion. There are already too many divisive voices out here. I like to think of this site as an oasis. I hope you do as well, and thanks for stopping in. It really means alot to me that you do.

The Timeless Quality of Glass

Glass comes in all shapes, sizes and colors. It graces the windows of Cathedrals in beautiful depictions of Religous events. It comes in bottles that house your favorite beverage. It serves as a window to the world around us. It is also art.

Thousands of peolpe collect bottles, I am one. I prefer the medicine bottles of the 1800's and the earlier 20th century soda pop bottles with the names embossed in the glass itself. I have also been fascinated with "beach glass" since my early childhood when I would pick up small pieces at Riis Park and Rockaway Beach in New York.

Something about the irregular shapes, smoothed edges and varied thicknesses has always seized my imagination. Where did they come from, what were they, how did they get here?

And so I was really thrilled to receive some "beach glass" from my freinds at Garden Lust Journal (http://mendogardens.blogspot.com) They are so much more than just pieces of glass to me. They are a symbol of something durable- something lost and then found again.

The glass is making it's way through the house- first it was on the dining room table, where I do alot of reading. Then they went to the TV room where I do alot of movie watching. Now they are on the piano, adding grace and charm to an already warm room. They are seeking their proper place in my home. And like the tides that washed them ashore thousands of miles from me- the tides of fate will decide where they will permanently reside.

But these faded and smooth colored pieces of glass will always be close at hand- a symbol of endurance- an affirmation of a freindship that so long ago drifted away on a tide, only to be returned when ready. I am so glad to have them.