SANTANA “Smooth”  with Rob Thomas

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Sanibel Island Causeway. Florida.  2016. By Paul Goldfinger ©   Click to make the Yeti bigger.

In case you thought that a Yeti is a tall, hairy creature from the Himalayas, in Florida it is a brand of insulated bags that sell for exorbitant  prices, but the ice never melts  (much like the places where the Yeti lives.)

NORAH JONES—-a girl with a cold, cold-hearted Yeti boyfriend.

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By Max Goldfinger, c. 1955.    Graceland

After gathering family movie clips from a collection of 8 mm travel and family films, I was able to convert the movies to DVD’s. My late father Max Goldfinger took all the videos.

So while looking through one of those reels on my computer, I saw this. I was surprised, so I chose it for my still life collection (see below.)

Dad never showed any interest in art except for music. We never went to a museum or talked about visual arts, except when his small movie boxes came in the mail.

But I liked this still life by a movie maker who never kept his camera still. Where was it taken? Why did he dwell on this? I have no idea, but maybe it gives me a bit of insight into a side of him that I did not know.

I guess everyone has at least one work of art to produce during their life. In photography anyone can make one first rate fine-art image.

How did I do it? I paused a frame from a family DVD I was reviewing on the computer. Then I photographed it with a high end digital camera. The captured image was sent over to the Apple photos software. And then it was exported to my desktop for use on my blogs.

Some of you might wonder why I pair music to still photography. They enhance each other, but the viewer may be challenged to connect the dots.

However, as in poetry or other art forms, the viewer can bring their own interpretations to the experience.

It is no different to when music is played during movies. That practice goes back to the silent movie era, and these 8 mm clips are, in fact, silent movies as in the days of Charlie Chaplin where a pianist or organist performed in the pit while the movie was shown. It’s always made sense, but the use with still photography and modern digital music performances is my original idea.

Paul Goldfinger,  Editor Blogfinger.net

PAUL SIIMON:   from the album Graceland

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Ocean Grove “giant flea market” gets so crowded, it should be the “flee market.”   Impossible for COVID times.  Cancelled 2020.  Still on for 2021. Paul Goldfinger photo c. 2018. ©

RENEE ZELLWEGER   from the motion picture soundtrack   Chicago:

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Giant June Flea Market in Ocean Grove. Pre-Covid. Blogfinger photo. ©

By Paul Goldfinger, MD   Editor Blogfinger.net

The Hippocratic Oath.   The opening line in my native Greek:  ὄμνυμι Ἀπόλλωνα ἰητρὸν καὶ Ἀσκληπιὸν καὶ Ὑγείαν καὶ Πανάκειαν καὶ θεοὺς πάντας τε καὶ πάσας, ἵστορας ποιεύμενος, ἐπιτελέα ποιήσειν κατὰ δύναμιν καὶ κρίσιν ἐμὴν ὅρκον τόνδε καὶ συγγραφὴν τήνδε:

I took the Oath with 99 of my classmates at the George Washington University School of Medicine—in English.     Among the promises was: “Into whatsoever houses I enter, I will enter to help the sick, and I will abstain from all intentional wrong-doing and harm.” 

I guess entering your Ocean Grove houses to organize a Town Wide Yard Sale in the midst of a burgeoning pandemic in New Jersey will, in my mind, fall under the heading of making a medical decision for the community.   I am still licensed as a physician so I believe I have a responsibility to do the right  thing medically even though I am mostly a blogger these days.  We doctors never stop being physicians.  And we are trained to practice “evidence based medicine..”     These days even politicians claim to “follow the science.”

So, late last year, I announced the 10th Annual Ocean Grove/Blogfinger Yard Sale, assuming that by May we could all get back to a semblance of life as usual with appropriate precautions.  I was thinking of small curbside sales as a perfect way for our residents to enjoy a safe small event in town.

But, about a month ago it was evident that New Jersey was spiking, and it continues to do so being one of 5 states to currently be peaking in a worrisome way.  So I had no choice but to reluctantly cancel.

Hippocrates would say, “First, do no harm.”    I didn’t want to be responsible for an event that might pose a health risk.

Along with that decision I stated that all large events such as the giant Flea Market  should be cancelled since the massive crowds prevent distancing and fully avoiding droplets in the air.

The Chamber of Commercials is, with blinders on, planning a Giant Spring Flea Market on June 5 in addition to other events where close contact cannot be avoided such as the Spring Fling Arts and Crafts Show on May 1.   You can go to oceangrovenj.com for details.

And, we don’t know for sure, but the CMA will probably be going ahead with large events. And the tents are being prepared  for occupants as we speak.

The Township has a responsibility to not grant permits for events that pose a risk to the public health.

Last season tent life was subdued, to say the least.  Life in Tent Village can’t help but be close.

It seems that individuals in the Grove should be able to make decisions for themselves, but they need to think about whether their decisions may enhance the risk for others.

We have heard from some Grovers who wanted us to go ahead with the TWYC while others agreed with our decision.

So, getting back to yard sales in general and with a small focus, I do believe that individual sales could safely proceed. There is no specific research to tell us what to do.  But we can use opinions, science, good judgement and common sense rolled into one.

Eileen and I will probably do one—-curbside.   We are thinking of the Flea Market date June 5, but we are not sure.

If any of you want to plan a yard sale with a bunch of neighbors or on your own, just let us know and we will promote it on Blogfinger.  Lately we have been averaging about 500 hits each day, so many locals will find out about your event.  Send us your name, address, date, items for sale–email Blogfinger@verizon.net.

And let’s all of us take good care of each other. “Prevention”  is the way to go.

BOBBY VEE:

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My friend “Buddy”  and his prom date Georgene. 1959. He was the football quarterback and was in  every musical activity along with me. He went to West Point.

Bill Hutzel was the band director who changed the lives of so many of us at Rutherford High where most students were in music activities.  He taught me syncopation–a gift.

We were four close friends. Ross is in the trumpet section of the Rutherfordians dance band. I am in the front on alto sax (white mouthpiece) Ross became a judge.

Paul Goldfinger, MD     Editor Blogfinger.net

When we were kids my Dad used to take movies with a primitive 8 mm movie camera. We kept those negatives for many years in our basement, and we had long lost the projector to view them.   Recently we sent some of them to Legacybox, a company that converts media from one format to another.

We had ours made into DVD’s. We had no idea what to expect. Much of those movies were repetitive, but there were moments sufficient to elicit powerful emotions, recognitions, laughter and tears.

I had a set made for my brother and one for us.    The DVD’s could be popped into a DVD player and  set to play on our TV or into my computer using an Apple USB Super Drive.

It turns out that my Dad was a poor photographer, chopping off heads, moving too fast from one subject to another or up to the sky or down to our shoes.

Of course, there was no sound, and that really robbed the moments of an important component.  And he moved so fast, you couldn’t study much of the material.   But the worst part was the poor quality of the images. I guess there was some deterioration over the years.

The typical 8 mm movie of that time was where the subjects walk towards the camera, smile and wave; or, as with my brother,  he was always mugging, making faces and blowing his trombone.  He was and still is a character. And my mother, another character,  would dance around and mug.

I tried an experiment to produce still photographs from the movies on my computer screen by photographing rare compelling moments, just as a still photographer (like me) does routinely.  It is  needed because watching those movie clips showed everything going by too fast.

The challenge is to capture decisive moments, a la Cartier-Bresson.  It requires patience as you must get the exposure and focus right, and the light keeps changing in those videos, and then you must go back and then forward multiple times.  Then you have to do some fiddling around with the photo software.

And yet, it was strikingly profound to see these scenes from over 50 years ago; many of the cast of characters are now gone.  My Dad took scenes of my brother and me marching in parades, playing in concerts, and cavorting with family and friends.

My Dad had no interest in sports, so there are no movies of me playing soccer, tennis, football and basketball. Not once. But one thing he did was to take some clips at our senior prom and of the Rutherford High School marching and dance bands.

Some of the material was profoundly emotional, and I need to view them over to understand how such distant moving moments, some of which were fairly mundane, can have such impact now.

I was absolutely floored when I saw  my friends  with our beautiful dates.    We all looked profoundly happy that night at the Rutherford High School Senior Prom.  My friends and I all went with Junior girls.

The memories came flooding back:  rented tuxedos, flowers in our lapels, gowns, crinolines, cars,  and corsages, but mostly the laughter, the wonder of it all— and the music.

I am in the process of sending some samples to my friends from that time.  The results are pretty good, but all things considered, it is miraculous to have them—the content and not the quality are what counts. I am posting some samples now and more  later.

My friend Jeff with Janie. He drove me into “the City” on the back of his motor scooter. She had parties in her basement; lights out time. Janie became a lawyer. Jeff a banker.

Charlie played sax in the dance band and sat next to me. He played football. Here he fills in on tuba. He became a very successful engineer selling giant pumps to the Chinese.

RHS Marching Band. Memorial Day Parade, 1959. Ah! Those beautiful girls. Sweet music.

I hope to post more of these photos as I take my time unearthing them from the shadows of time.  I will show up when I can find a decent shot.

And so will Carla my prom date, Eileen, Bro’ Mel and others who were part of my life, including more fun at the prom and in the band.

EMMY ROSSUM:

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The Great Synagogue of Warsaw, which was destroyed by the German forces during World War II, was recreated virtually with light as part of anniversary commemorations of the 1943 uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto, in Warsaw, Poland, Thursday, April 18, 2019. The multimedia installation, which included the archival recordings of a prewar cantor killed in the Holocaust, is the work of Polish artist Gabi von Seltmann. It was organized by a group that fights anti-Semitism. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

Post-war aerial photo of Warsaw ghetto shows how thoroughly German SS units destroyed the ghetto in 1943 (public domain)

Many people in the United States observe Yom Hashoah, which is also known as Holocaust Remembrance Day. It commemorates the lives and heroism of Jewish people who died in the Holocaust between 1933 and 1945.  In 2021, Yom Hashoah is held on April 8.

Zevi Ghivelder is a Brazilan journalist who attended the trial of Nazi killer Adolph Eichmann.  This is what he said about the long term charge that Jews did not fight back:

“As the youngest reporter covering the trial exactly 60 years ago, I heard testimony that showed Jews were not lacking in heroes during the Holocaust”

The most striking example was the heroic revolt in the Warsaw Ghetto where the Nazis were shocked by the unexpected resistance. They had to bring in a huge strike force including artillery to close down the revolt.

Jewish partisans surrender after courageous revolt in Warsaw Ghetto.

Even children emerged from the rubble. The uprising lasted from 4/19 to 5/16 1943, much longer than expected.  7,000 Jews died during the revolt.

Heroic survivors are marched off to their deaths.

About 400,000Jewish residents of Warsaw  were stuffed into the Warsaw Ghetto where many died of starvation, violence and disease.  Many more were transported to concentration and extermination camps, especially Treblinka.  There, a revolt occurred:

“On August 2, 1943, some 1,000 Jewish prisoners at Treblinka seized weapons from the camp’s armory and staged a revolt. Several hundred inmates escaped; however, many were recaptured and executed.”  From History.com

And you may recall the 2008 movie Defiance:  Defiance (2008) Directed by Edward Zwick, Defiance tells the true-life story of the Bielski partisans, a group led by Belarusian Jewish brothers, who saved and recruited Jews in Belarus during the Second World War.

Here is a trailer from that movie:

PRAGUE CELLO QUARTET:  “Schindler’s  List.”

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