Man of a Thousand Voices on the Radio

I'm on the radio now for occasional pieces. You might have seen the widget on the left. I signed on with BlogTalk Radio to perform and read a range of works. Different styles and voices, from a tinny 1950s AM radio to a Chicago-ized accent (with accompanying attitude), looking at things as diverse as pizza, the 8-5 grind and the modest beauty of small town living. Four shows are up, 3-8 minutes each. Whenever you visit my blog, look for the radio widget to see if there's something new. I'd love to hear your opinion.

Anthony Trendl is a poet and writer living and working in the Chicago area, best known for his Amazon book reviews and Hungarian bookstore. As a storyteller, Trendl has performed across central Illinois, and recently has been doing spoken word poetry performances in Chicagoland. His poetry can occasionally be seen in Decision Magazine, and articles and public relations writing have been published in periodicals and newspapers across the United States. He has written speeches for leaders of Fortune 500s to inspire employees to succeed, always with a storyteller's flair. See http://anthonytrendl.blogspot.com/ http://anthonytrendl.com/

Slightly smoky, gravely, Chicago styled writer Anthony Trendl presents his work, looking at life from the underside, seeing what others often miss. Imagine Studs Terkel meets Erma Bombeck meets NPR, tweaked with a little Garrison Keillor. He tackles books, sociology, running, and even theology. As a big fan of the Beat movement, jazz and dead American poets, you will hear their influence in his work.

• Love Song for Charlie Parker - Jazz/Poetry Performance
  Looking at the difficulty of modern life and culture through a spoken word performance. Influenced by the Beat Movement, Jack Kerouac, post-modern despair and the audacity of hope. Charlie Parker's piece "Orinthology" provides the background. A brief introduction on the Beat Movement followed by an avant garde poetry reading.
   
• Matching Pop With Sausage Pizza: Pepsi is the Best Choice
  In Chicago, pizza matters. We take it seriously. While we did not invent pizza, we perfected it. After many years of sampling, it turns out Pepsi is what goes with a good sausage pizza. Listen and learn why.
    
• Morning in Suburbia, Morning in the World
  One morning last summer, when there was no snow, and a friendlier sun, I awoke early and thought about what was around me. It was not the drab beige life of minivans and soccer moms. The Midwest has more than that to love, but can be missed if we forget to see the life we live for what it is. 
• Visions of a Snowy Morning: Workaday Joes Filing By My Window One-by-One
  An essay looking at my hardworking neighbors en route to their next stop in their commute. It is both lonely and hopeful, as they trudge on a gray day looking forward to better days.

They Would Not Let Me Vote Today (and a Republican Didn't Get My Vote?)

Today is voting day. Illinois Primaries. I tried to vote. I was denied at the polls the opportunity.

I'm not a Republican. I'm not a Democrat. I'm not Green. I'm not communist. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not!

I'm not.

(Can't see bumper sticker on the top left? Click here.)
See where I'm going with this? I am not the member of a political party. Why not? Besides the fact that that party ideology can no longer be assumed (example: Scott Brown, the Republican in Massachusetts that may influence the Obama Health Care initiative, is pro-choice), the fighting between the two is horrid and ugly. Not just radio pundits and congressmen, but real people. I had two friends, one a lover of Obama and Democrats, and the other a Republican and hater of Obama, absolutely go postal on me when they realized I didn't embrace their views. Really. It was uuuggglee. Profanity, swearing, masculinity suggestions, and so on. Yeah, I'm a little sore from this still.

A recent workplace even had one coworker bitterly announce how bad President Obama was when arriving at work, with anti-Obama posters on their office door. It made things uncomfortable, to say the least.

Don't get me wrong. Some party members are some of my best friends. Good folks. Voting smart, even when we disagree. I live in a community that has a balanced block of voters. This year, my county was overwhelmingly for Obama, but could have just as easily gone to McCain. There is a misconception from people who don't live here what our community politics are, but, to DuPage County's credit, it is a broad-minded, diverse area filled with people not as closed-minded as those who presume otherwise.

What? I was denied the opportunity to vote?
Yes, it is true. I am properly registered, and otherwise legal to vote. This was not in question. I was at the right polling place, proper ID, and everything was in order. In fact, they said I was free to vote... if I chose a party.

I had a candidate I wanted to vote for. He happens to be Republican going for a largely apolitical position. I went to the polling place. I asked for a ballot. "Which party?" they asked. I said that I had no party. They said I could not vote unless I chose a party. I said I preferred not to. While I don't at all like the term 'Independent' since I have exact views, I suggested that. They said no, I couldn't do that either. They said that's how the primaries are done. I didn't dispute this. I am not as knowledgeable about the system as some.

Why? One reason is that they opposing party might gather its troops to vote for the weakest candidate, hoping he would win, making a victory by the other party more likely. It makes sense, but I don't like it.

About Election Signs
I will write more about this in the next election, but I greatly despise seeing all the political signs on public property. I don't like them elsewhere, but I believe a person is free to post whatever sign in their own yard.

Before the next election, I'll suggest to area editors that this needs to be written about. I'll be taking pictures and posting them here.

PrimariesI have never voted in a primary. I prefer, in general, for the wheat and chaff to sort itself out. As it turns out, just about every candidate I have been inclined to vote for lost in the primary, and not by a little.

reference: Politics in a Box: Why I Am Not a Republican, Why I Am Not a Democrat

About Obama
I watched the 2008 election. I voted heartily. I really liked Barack Obama. I think he's sincere and  wants a better America. I disagree with how he wants to get there. I realized (among many other issues), 1) he is adamantly pro-choice and more unborn children would be massacred on his watch with his approval 2) though he is pro-peace and desired to strategically pull soldiers out from the Middle East, I didn't believe he would actually do it (and now our defense budget is huge), and 3) I've seen national health care in a European country, and believe it injures society not helps, plus engages the American government into the lives and business of private citizens inappropriately.

As for his speeches, they are well-delivered. Some claim they are inspired by him, and my questions is always, "Inspired to do what?" I am still waiting for someone to answer with something more substantial than, "He makes me feel good." Good for him, but that's not inspiration. To be inspired means to have a new breath, or direction to act. If the answer was, say, "Help my neighbor," great! But unless you are actually doing something for your neighbor, then you aren't inspired. You are just talking.

McCain hardly thrilled me, mind you, so I was not happy that he was the only other candidate with an actual chance of winning.

IPad in a Kindle World?

No, it isn't yet a Kindle world. Not at my home. Still reading old fashioned books here in good ol' Wheaton, Illinois. I've seen the Kindle, and I want one, but am waiting until they get the bugs out, the features in and the cost down.

Roughly translated, I can't afford one.

Now, the new kid on the block is iPad. Apple is cranking these out, and maybe it will be to books what the iPod was to CDs. Ipad blogs are popping up all over.

Like the Kindle, it is an e-reader, and like the Kindle, I can't afford it. It is just as well. One or the other will lead the pack, and I want the leader, not the wannabe.

So far, it is not clear to me how these are not much more than software on a funky, keyboard-less laptop, a repackaged PDF with some cool features. Sure, it is focused on books, periodicals and the like (and I do like), why not converge it all? Get this all on my laptop. With the iPhone features. I already have iTunes there, and reading plenty on it. Software is software, and I'll already have more hardware firepower. Shrink my laptop, provide a snap-off keyboard, and viola! An e-reader.

Andy Griffith Football Story from 1953 - Video

Funny stuff for a cold day.

"Andy Griffith's famous 1953 stand-up monologue about college football. It has become one of the most beloved comedy recordings of all time."

I'm Rooting for the Country Girl (American Idol)

I'm rooting for the country girl. I can't remember her name, but she bought her dress for something like $4.00. I hope she has real talent tucked away back there.

While Kelly Pickler's fun in an Ellie Mae Clampet kind of way, she was already doing the beauty queen circuit. At this point, she seems all schtick. This current gal is the real deal country. She's from a small town in the sticks, not very sophisticated, is sincere on every level.

I might, for the first time ever, vote for someone in American Idol.

If nothing else, if the country gal isn't quite ready for the big time, maybe a generous viewer will think kindly of her and give her a music education.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Poe

Cut my literary teeth reading Edgar Allan Poe's work in junior high school. Loved his work ever since.

Happy birthday, pal. We've been through a lot together.

Pablo Says

"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up."
— Pablo Picasso

(Stolen from my cousin's Tumblr acct)

Martin Luther King and the Rest of Us

An old friend posted on Facebook a quote from Martin Luther King, from 1956.

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."

Real controversy, the kind which matters more than my petty interests, I have never faced. Likewise, tragedy. I have had stressful times, been shouted down, and have buried my mom, but the deepest controversy I have never seen. There has never been a day in which my faith was muzzled.

King faced this. His faith was not muzzled, per se, but he was killed for his beliefs. His beliefs, on the surface, look like the typical Jesse Jackson-style social religion. In fact, Jackson was involved in King's work. Jackson never has understood what King was about, however, looking at it all as merely a form of racial conflict resolution. That end was and is noble, and by degrees, we are getting there. King served a deeper goal. His name misnomers his reality. He knew the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords.

In the Wikipedia article on King, his faith in Christ is ignored, except for mentions what organizations he was involved with. In his letter from the Birmingham jail, he is not St. Paul writing prophetically from the Ephesus jail (though he makes the allusion, and a few parallels do exist), but it is clear who King serves and why he was doing what he did. An injustice often overlooked suffered by King is that his motivation is ignored.

This is not agreed by all. One website writer disagrees completely. However, in reading his site, reading some pseudo scholarship he used in defending his King James Bible only defense, the whole lot is suspect. It brings up the question of how do we know any celebrity Christian's faith? With the likes of Benny Hinn and Robert Tilton tugging on the checkbooks of their flock, and the blatant racism found in Barack Obama's pre-White House pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright, it is easy to be cynical. Toss in the Ted Haggard (an evangelical leader) and the Catholic priest abuse scandals, and it is a wonder anyone believes anything.

As Christians go, I don't hold King up, or down. That he died from the consequence of what he believed does not make him greater. He was murdered, or assassinated (I don't what the distinction is), and this, no doubt, was a response by someone afraid of what he was accomplishing. He is a hero, but what matters to me is not how he died, but how he lived.

The ultimate issue is not what do they believe, but what do I (and you) believe. Scandals are nothing knew. Complex motives are part of everyone's life, and complex lives are reality. The hypocrite and liar cannot change truth. Was King really as I see, or as the website writer linked above sees him?

Visions of a Snowy Morning: Workaday Joes Filing By My Window One-by-One

An essay looking at my hardworking neighbors en route to their next stop in their commute. It is both lonely and hopeful, as they trudge on a gray day looking forward to better days.

Listen to me read this on BlogTalkRadio.

It snowed last night.

I looked through the window, and saw them passing by, those people who live in the homes around me. The sidewalk this morning had a path of neighbors stepping in a suburban linear regiment. Each one, walking. Footprints in the snow. Coffee in hand, bag in the other, like quiet soldiers without guns. Or students, sans coffee, with backpacks bigger than parachutes, but not as buoyant. Their day would be filled with factory floors, or cubicles with short walls. Or driving something, pushing snow, delivering packages or people. Or in classrooms, surrounded by sniffles, wet socks and struggles to remember fractions.

Typing, calling, affixing, packaging, shipping. Whatever the pay, whatever the skill, the job's the job. It is not the beach, the woods, the theater, or the dinner under candlelight. Punch in/punch out, or work all day for a salary, few are not slaves to some kind of clock. Time is money, so they all sell their days for a loaf of bread, shoes, pants and a shirt. Water is still free, more or less, if they know where to look.

Each walked toward something the same, independently yet as one congregation. Protesting nothing, catholic without a pope, unified, global, universal, though unknowing their connection. Their religion was to get through the day, not to get through to God, but God still watches and loves them. Some know this, but it is hard to tell which own which heart; each looks the same with massive black jackets, dark pants and boots, silhouetted against the streetlights leftover from the night. They press on because it is not today they see, but a sunny day in July. Then, the schools are out, or they have vacation, or, they just don't mind the walk any longer, leaving no footprints in my sidewalk.

The whiteness of the snow is offset by the overcast of an unfriendly January sun and eyes not ready to open. The coffee will seduce the eyes into seeing the gray skyline, and the workday will start soon. Better days will come as the snow melts and the days lengthen, but for now, this is their lot. This is a morning; this is today.

Susan Boyle Sings Amazing Grace

Susan Boyle Sings Amazing Grace

more versions - Variations on Amazing Grace (various singers)



from her CD

I Dreamed A Dream