John McKernan

“Oh, but you who philosophize disgrace and criticize all fears,
Bury the rag deep in your face
For now’s the time for your tears.”

–The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
Bob Dylan

The headline of the lead article in the Sunday April 27th Post Standard was “How a lonely old man died of exposure at the home that was supposed to care for him.”

In March of 2006 John McKernan, suffering from dementia, wandered away from an adult home and froze to death wearing only a T-shirt and a diaper. The policy issue is lax state regulation of adult homes. The motivating cause was greed, since the adult home refused to transfer the patient to a secure facility, despite the recommendations of D.S.S. and University Hospital.

But I’m not writing about those issues. The internet headline for the article is “A man who cast no shadow.” That’s not entirely true. As the article mentioned, John McKernan was a member of Syracuse United Neighbors. John served on our Board of Directors and had leadership roles in two of our neighborhood groups.

I knew John McKernan. When I first started at SUN in 1994, he was one of the co-chairs of the Southside Coalition, the neighborhood group with which I still work. He lived on W. Newell St. near McKinley-Brighton school. During my first year with SUN, the two big issues on the Southside were centered in his immediate neighborhood: the drug dealing and vacant houses on Cannon St. and the attempt to turn the old Enrico’s restaurant on the corner of W. Newell and Midland into a bar/convenience store.

The article mentioned that John did not possess “a warm and fuzzy” personality. One of the few relatives still in touch with John is quoted as saying that “John was not really a pleasant person.” This could be true, especially as the twin evils of alcoholism and dementia began to work on John. I remember some acidic comments about people, both inside and outside of SUN, that he felt were talking nonsense or were none too bright. But I also remember other moments.

The day before I was to start work at SUN, my mother passed away. My start date got pushed back a week and I was unable to attend the monthly meeting of the Southside Coalition. A day after the funeral I received a wonderful note in the mail from John, expressing his sympathy and noting that losing his mother had been a difficult time for him as well. I had met John all of one time, at an interview before the Board of Directors.

I also remember John, having moved to W. Onondaga Street, helping stage a rally at City Hall to convince then Mayor Roy Bernardi to finance the reconstruction of Fire Station 6 on the near west side. This commitment had originally been made by Mayor Tom Young and Bernardi was trying like hell to wriggle out from underneath his predecessor’s promise..

SUN loaded up ashes and debris from a fire on the near-west side, put them into an old fashioned chamber pot, and carried them from the old Fire Station on Oswego St. down to the Mayor’s City hall office. John carried the pot on the final leg of its journey up the stairs, placed it in front of the Mayor’s locked door and led us all in a round of the chant he had coined: “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Mayor Bernardi, don’t break our trust.”

I feel badly that we lost touch with John after he moved off of W. Onondaga St., but that’s not unusual for an organization like ours. New residents, new issues, SUN continues to move on. People have a web of connections that prevent themselves from becoming the kind of person that doesn’t cast a shadow. Our families, friends, schools, churches and social organizations provide the social interaction that defines humanity. John burned through all these connections and was left to face the end of life alone, ill and demented.

John probably wouldn’t have approved of my epigram at the top of this post: Bob Dylan at his folkie populist heights. A student of classical music, John liked his culture high. But I can’t help it. Now is the time for tears.

Life Continues On E Street

From Backstreets.com:

APRIL 22, TAMPA: “BETTER GET THIS RIGHT…. SOMEBODY’S WATCHING”

And the show goes on. Eight days after their last performance, five days after the passing of Danny Federici, and just one day after the funeral service, Bruce and the E Street Band took the stage in Tampa. There was no question that they’d be honoring Danny’s memory tonight. The real question might have been, how would they do it? The answer: by acknowledging the magnitude of the loss, by embracing Danny’s contributions to the band, by tapping a deep well of emotion and playing their hearts out all night.

The night began with a film montage. Bruce and the E Streeters came out and turned to watch the screen behind Max’s drums, standing stone-still as archival footage and stills from Danny’s life (remember that long, flowing hair?) played out across it, set to “Blood Brothers.” Patti was there, too, for her first show of 2008 — the E Street Band out in full force. A spotlight, meanwhile, lit up Danny’s organ riser (where his accordion was propped, too), and remained shining on the empty station for the band’s first song of the night, “Backstreets.” Bruce gave a raw and emotional howl at the end, and as he pointed to the organ, the light faded.

After the poignant opening, Charlie Giordano came out to join the band from “Radio Nowhere” on, remaining as subtle and discreet as you could possibly imagine on this night, while doing his job and doing it well. But emotional — even emotionally draining — as it was, it wasn’t a somber occasion. This was an intense performance, with each member of the band electrified. Solos — Max on “Badlands,” Steve on “Gypsy Biker,” Roy on “Racing in the Street” (yes, they did “Racing,”) Nils on “Because the Night” — burned even brighter. And Bruce himself put it all out there, starting with a thematic setlist clearly tailored to recall Federici’s place in this band of brothers and the impact of his musicianship on Springsteen’s work.

After “Gypsy Biker,” Charlie moved over to the piano as Roy strapped on the accordion for “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy).” “We want to thank you for all your prayers and condolences,” Springseen told the crowd. “Roy, you better get this right — somebody’s watching.” Soozie and Patti offered beautiful harmonies, and it was a magical performance of “Sandy.” Bruce wiped away tears and gave Roy a kiss. “One more fairy tale,” he said, leading the band into “Growin’ Up.” That song recalled the old days in more ways than one, as Bruce began a little story during the instrumental break with that familiar phrase, “There we were…”

“There we were, on the highest hill in Flemington, New Jersey… It was a sunny, hot summer morning… and the preacher said… ‘I took month-long vacations in the stratosphere…’”
“Thank you so much for coming out tonight and helping us through,” Bruce said as they came out for the encore. And he wasn’t just talkin’: the crowd — unusually full for a postponed show — was there at every turn, giving the energy back on sing-alongs like “Badlands,” “Out in the Street,” and “Waitin’ on a Sunny Day.” For the first encore song, Bruce pulled out the premiere of an old gospel standby, “I’ll Fly Away.” This one went out to Danny, of course, and everyone came down front — even Max, on tambourine — for a rousing rendition with a Seeger Sessions feel. Bruce called it “New Jersey bluegrass.”

A few songs later, “Spirit in the Night” was setlisted, but Bruce chose to replace it with one of the only unplanned songs of the night — “Tenth Avenue Freeze-out.” It was a fine choice, recalling the formation of the legendary band that Danny Federici was a part of from the beginning, its lyrics equal parts exasperation, determination, and celebration. Teardrops on the city, yes… and tonight they busted it in half for Danny.

“Sugar magnolia, blossoms blooming . . .”

"Sugar Magnolia, Blossoms Blooming . . ."

Originally uploaded by Phil At Sun

“Sunshine, daydream, walking in the tall trees. . .”

"Sugar Magnolia, Blossoms Blooming . . ."

Originally uploaded by Phil At Sun

Danny Federici, 1950-2008

Danny Federici, organist and (occasionally) accordion player for the E Street Band, died Thursday afternoon following a three year battle with melanoma (skin cancer). “The Phantom” played with Bruce for over 40 years.

Check out this video of
Danny playing accordion with Bruce and Nils playing acoustic guitars on “Fire.”

The Springsteen song that most comes to mind now is “Mary’s Place” from The Rising. The narrator wonders how, given the sadness and grief caused by the loss of a loved one, you can “live brokenhearted.” Amidst all the religious symbolism of the song, what really seems to pull the narrator through is the power of music, especially the music shared with the departed:

Seven days, seven candles
In my window light your way
Your favorite record’s on the turntable
I drop the needle and pray
Band’s countin’ out midnight
Floor’s rumblin’ loud
Singer’s callin’ up daylight
And waitin’ for that shout from the crowd . . .

Turn it up, turn it up, turn it up.

Donations may be made to the Danny Federici Melanoma Fund at the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

God Speed Danny

God Speed Danny

Originally uploaded by Phil At Sun

Photo Credit: A.M. Saddler/Backstreets.com

Saturday April 19th Is Record Store Day

The rise of downloaded music has not only made iTunes the number one music store in America and threatened the entire business model for corporate record labels, it has put a horrific beating on record stores–chain and independents alike. While many chains (Tower Records, Sam Goodies) have already bit the dust, many independents are still managing to hold on.

A recent article on the Princeton (NJ) Record Exchange profiled a proud independent that is making a go by catering to audiophiles that prefer vinyl records, employing insanely knowledgeable clerks and being a cool place to hang. Independents may have a better chance than chains to be the last holdouts for boomers that prefer to buy records rather than download mp3 files. All the chains can offer is a huge selection–but that’s the internet’s main advantage. Literally anything can be found online. But you can’t feel like part of a community, get a cup of coffee and discuss the merits of dub v. dancehall reggae online. Well, you can–but it’s not as satisfying.

A coalition of independent record stores have designated April 19th as Record Store Day and hundreds of stores across the country are participating with sales and in-store performances. So, on Saturday, go check out the best local record store: Soundgarden on Walton St. in Armory Square.

I will be celebrating all the memorable record stores that I’ve hung out in in my life:

Camelot Music in the Fayetteville Mall. In the 1970’s they ran a discount promotion for an album of the week if you brought in three candy bar wrappers (feeding two of my addictions.)

Gerber Music, a store that I spent a goodly amount of money in at all of their locations, but who fired me from their Fairmount Fair location for my persistent inability to run the cash register and for turning up the volume on Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy” to earbleed level.

Plastic Fantastic on the Penn campus where I trolled the used bins every week.

Spectrum Records at S.U., especially when it was located in a since demolished house on University Ave., for making me feel like a sophisticated and cool college student, even when I was a wannabe high schooler.

Record Theatre on both the SU campus and on Erie Boulevard. They used to give out trading stamps that you pasted into a booklet that gave you a discount on completion. Wednesday’s were always the day to go, because it was “double lick” day, twice the normal number of stamps!

Disaster Averted, Roy Bernardi Passed Over As New HUD Secretary

OH, THANK GOD! Roy Bernardi, currently Assistant Secretary at the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, has been sidestepped by the Bush Administration for the top job. GW announced today that Steve Preston, director of the Small Business Administrationhas been named to succeed the disgraced and retiring Alphonso Jackson as the next Secretary at HUD.

Preston is evidently competent, working diligently to remake the SBA. Most governmental agencies run by Bush appointees feature a steel cage match between incompetence and corruption to determine standard operating procedure. Preston apparently prizes competence and results. The signature accomplishment of his tenure at SBA was cutting through the languishing backlog of assistance requests at SBA for small businesses wiped out by Hurricane Katrina. Preston pushed $6 billion in aid out the door in a matter of months.

Our nation has been spared the incompetence of Roy Bernardi, a political hack whose signature accomplishment as mayor of Syracuse was mismanaging the Finance Department so badly that the city had no idea what its accounts receivable balance was on any given day. This led to charges of fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission because when the city issued a bond, the information provided to investors on the city’s finances was just a guess.

A Bernardi-directed HUD would be unable to tackle the pressing problems facing our country in the mortgage foreclosure/credit crunch/undefinable derivative financial product /Wall St. land grab (take your pick) crisis. Wow, it is certainly a new day in Bushland–competence over cronyism.

As If I Needed Any More Convincing . . .

In a piece of news that is probably more important to this blog than any other in America: Bruce Springsteen has formally endorsed Barack Obama for President.

Summing up his feelings with a quote from his song “Long Walk Home” Bruce writes:

“LIke most of you, I’ve been following the campaign and I have now seen and heard enough to know where I stand. Senator Obama, in my view, is head and shoulders above the rest. He has the depth, the reflectiveness, and the resilience to be our next President. He speaks to the America I’ve envisioned in my music for the past 35 years, a generous nation with a citizenry willing to tackle nuanced and complex problems, a country that’s interested in its collective destiny and in the potential of its gathered spirit. A place where ‘…nobody crowds you, and nobody goes it alone.’ “

The New York Times notes another positive by-product of this endorsement. Now Hillary will have to stop playing “The Rising” during her campaign appearances.

Syracuse Invitational Tourney–Final Four

City Semi-Finals

6) Dinosaur BBQ v. 1) N.Y. State Fair
Dinosaur faces an insurmountable challenge. One of the many attractions at the Fair is . . . Dinosaur BBQ! The Fair even has the free music, cheap booze and if you swing over to the NYS Police tent, the motorcycles.
In an ironic twist, we’ll celebrate the NY State Fair’s victory by taking a heaping plate of Dinosaur BBQ over to Chevy Court and settle in for the Joan Jett show. We’ll probably sneak back after for some Gianelli sausage, too!

3) Syracuse U. Lacrosse v. 1) Syracuse University
Even though Nancy Cantor signs the coach’s checks and ponies up the player’s scholarships, S.U. Lacrosse blows the University out of the water. Why? The most successful athletic team at a University obsessed with big-time athletics is not treated with the same respect as the two other “big-ticket” sports. Boeheim and Robinson make more money than the Chancellor. I’ll bet that some lousy physics professor makes more than Coach Desko. Football and basketball players get full ride scholarships, laxers all get partials. It’s about RESPECT baby and no one in town knows more about Final Fours than S.U. Lacrosse!

S.I. T. Championship Game

1) NY State Fair v. 3) Syracuse U. Lacrosse
Well, S.U. Lacrosse may have won 10 National Championships, but it went to over 20 Final Fours. It’s not going to win this one either. Nothing speaks to the soul of a CNY’er like the New York State Fair. Tom Young went from Fair director to Mayor and it was probably a demotion. The Fair gives us a last summer blow-out before school and work get serious again, as well as some memories of blue skies and warm weather before the gray and cold envelope us for 5 months. Toss down a brewski (or wine slushie), eat some fried dough, go on the rides and celebrate the winner of the Syracuse Invitational Tournament–the New York State Fair.