Fast Food Free For All

The other day I saw a video on YOUTUBE that I couldn't believe, maybe you saw it also - a patron at McDonald's climbing over the counter to punch one of the Crewmembers out, reportedly because he was told that the restaurant ran out of fries!

Now, I love McDonald's fries as much as the next person, but this video disturbed me greatly.  First of all, the restaurant was filled with young people. The man climbs over the counter and runs straight to his adversary and they lock up right away.  There are several crewmembers at the restaurant at the time.  They didn't run - they were successful in subduing this guy. There was a manager taking stock of what happened. There was a young lady taking the video, admonishing the manager in duty, and laughing hysterically at the same time - it was very hard to follow the smartphone video,but  the videographer was so busy telling people what their role was and cracking, you can understand her distraction.

A few things, however, were clear:

The Crewmembers didn't seem very alarmed that a man was standing in the counter and pushing the register out of his way, does this happen often at fast food restaurants?

The man got across the counter in time to be photographed, long before someone called the local police, security, or even the owner.  I think that if I were the owner, I'd like to know that my business was being attacked.

The manager seemed to be in no rush to rectify the situation, and the guy spent several minutes behind the counter - the video I saw ended before he left on his own or was taken out in handcuffs.

The Crewmembers beat the man handily, but he looked a little out of it. I guess you have to be if you want to climb over the McDonald's counter.

Here are my brief words of wisdom, as a former fast food worker at one of busiest intersections in the Midwest - 79th and Stony Island, back in the day:

You're not there to fight- call security or a manager who has some sense

If someone tries to cross the counter, you need to leave the facility - lock your drawer if you can, but break camp - that person is crazy and you need to be safe - if you're cooking, turn off the stove and depart using the closest exit

CALL THE POLICE, even if it's from your house after you get home !

No amount of money or product is worth your life - don't engage the person, just go

Don't work at a place that doesn't have security - in this day and age, that's a must. It might limit your choices, but it will lengthen your life.

This man didn't have a weapon, but be warned - carrying a concealed weapon is allowed everywhere now, and the next one won't come unprepared 

Several years ago, an entire crew was killed at the Brown's Chicken in Palatine, Illinois - learn from their mistakes, or you may wind up frozen in a meat locker at a $8 an hour job!

Hospitality has changed

In one of my favorite scenes in "Casino", Robert De Niro's character laments the demise of old Las Vegas - the part that was dedicated to making sure the guest was completely comfortable.

It's quite true. Back in the day when I was working at the Park Hyatt and the Palmer House and later at the Marriott, all in Chicago, things were quite different.  In my day a guest made a reservation and the first thing we did was check to see what room they stayed in last time. We tried to put them in the same room.  We tried to make sure we had a list of the things they had in their room previously. While I was working at the Hyatt, my first job was to file the guest info cards so that the Front Desk Manager would be prepared. I got to see what Billie Dee Williams had in his room and which brand of champagne Carol Channing likes to drink.

When I went to the Palmer House, I learned to wake people up in five languages ( French, Spanish, German, Italian, and Japanese) because wake up calls were manual back then and you actually called the room until the guest stopped sounding groggy.  I learned how to order a replacement wedding ring at 3:00 am and I learned how to find out where a guest was without seeming intrusive.  We took our jobs seriously and that meant making sure that even though there were over 2,000 bedrooms at the Palmer House, we cared about each guest completely.  We made them feel that they were at home and taking care to make sure they enjoyed every minute of it. When they checked out, we asked each of them when they were coming back - if they didn't give us a new reservation, we were not doing our job.

Now you check into a hotel and no one knows how to pronounce your name and no one even has the sense to ask - they throw you a key and the room may or may not be clean.  If you need something to eat, the person at the desk probably has never eaten at a place in the area, unless it's McDonald's.  No one takes note of your return, back in my day we had a bed check list to make sure there was no one we had to search for. If we didn't send you out with our driver, the doorman called us to say the guest was returning.  Consequently, none of our guests wound up wandering off into the lake or dead in an overnight brawl. We always had 

Make the NCAA go legit

The time has come for the NCAA (National College Athletic Association) to stop exploiting young people and create a partnership that assures their future and prepares them for the next phase of their lives.

If they aren't going to pay student athletes, they need to agree to give the athlete a full education and guarantee that they will pay for their medical expenses, no matter how long it takes to get them back on their feet.

Right now people think that student athletes have it made.  They get to go to the college of their choice, they get a college degree ad can even get a master's degree if they play their cards right.  That's not really the case.

A student athlete gets to select a college out of those that express interest - not necessarily their choice.  They can attend that school as long as they are viable but that doesn't mean that their scholarship can't be yanked if a better athlete comes along during the time they are in school.  It's constant try-outs and constant measuring up.  

If they don't graduate before they exhaust their eligibility to play - the Cinderella carriage turns back into a pumpkin and there are no glass slippers.  The most they can hope for is a back-up fairy godmother and a chance to play as an undercard or a chance to play in Canada or Europe.

If the athlete gets injured and can't play anymore, it's back to the homestead and building a new dream on your own with a lot of people clucking their tongues and talking about how sad it all is.

The NCAA should be able to guarantee the athlete a degree, so at least they are getting something that will help them move on to the next phase of their lives - whether it's a golden pro baseball, basketball, football, or hockey career here or in a foreign country.  It will mean they will be more selective and there will be no more scandals where athletes pay people to take their SAT's for them, and the student and coach have to leave the school before the school loses credit for its entire season.

If an athlete is injured, the NCAA should be required to return the person to their maximum medical improvement level, just like what happens in workers compensation.  They can afford the insurance, and if they can't they need to get safer anyway.

We all see the fanfare and balloons and parents cheering in the beginning, but it's the friends who see the crying and the ambulances and the rehab and the unceremonious rejection from the dorm when the keycard doesn't work anymore and a kid goes from being Big Man on Campus to persona non grata.

The present NCAA program isn't fair. The NCAA needs to read the 13th Amendment - slavery is over.

Selma

I didn't realize that it's been so busy I haven't contributed to this blog in a year - I won't be off again, I promise...

I made time to get out and see "Selma" Friday night. I was disappointed when it didn't come out on Christmas Day in Chicago, and last weekend got away from me, I try to do opening weekends to make sure movies have a chance of being in the top three. The movie was well worth the wait.

"Selma" is about the advent of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This Act was recently watered down and it may be harder to demonstrate voter discrimination as a result.  The movie opens up with an older woman trying to register to vote, something we should ALL be able to do - but the registrar asks her to recite the Preamble of the Constitution.  When she was successful in doing that, he asks her to name the number of head county judges in the state of Alabama.  When she successfully does that, he asks her to name them all - but she isn't able to name them and is send home in disgrace.  The hoops they made you jump through as part of their literacy tests were ridiculous and as a result, there were very few, if any, people of color registered to vote in the south.

The challenge hasn't gone away, even though we have the Voting Rights Act in place - the recent assaults on our right to vote include making people produce a driver's license or an ID, confirming their address with a utility bill in their name,  or asking people to prove they aren't felons who were justifiably removed from the voter roles.  This is what's happening now, so believe me, the fight is not over at all. The tactics may have changed but the playbook from the post-Reconstruction Jim Crow era is still being followed.

So, Martin Luther King Jr. goes to meet the President, Lyndon Baines Johnson, to ask that a new law removing the impediments to voting be put in place.  There seems to be some great controversy
regarding how the President received the request and his supposed opposition to introducing something at that time - so take that into account as you watch the film - but the bottom line is that MLK and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and a young John Lewis and his group, the Student Non- Violent Coordinating Comittee (SNCC) joined forces to bring attention to the need for an end to Poll taxes and Literacy tests to register to vote by marching from Selma to Montgomery.

First, tissue is a requirement for viewing this film.  The first scene was hard to take, especially since I just worked to help people register to vote for the 2012 election, not just in Chicago, but in other states when they threatened not to allow people to register - like I said, it's not over! We have to remain vigilant and cannot afford to ever be complacent.

The thing that will hit you hardest is the terrorism perpetrated on the people of color in the south - the vehement opposition to the thought that anyone would dare oppose their southern traditions - the threats to jobs, the assault on humanity, the sense of entitlement and the fear that things might change.  That's still going on too - look at the recent protests regarding police brutality that have taken place in the country. It's a wonder the United States Attorney General gets any sleep at all.

I don'tknow if "Selma" will win Best Picture, although it certainly is the best movie I have seen so far in the past twelve months.  I certainly think "Glory" should win Best Original Song, it's really great. This will mark the second John Legend song I've ever purchased.

My only criticism of the movie is that it would have been more effective to introduce the name is the characters as the film opened - so that people would know who was who. They introduce the woman trying to vote, but not the group around Martin Luther King Jr., or the little girls who are killed In the church bombing, or any info on SNCC.  if you aren't already familiar with the history and the players, read "Parting The Waters" books I, II, and III - part II  deals with Selma, but they are all worth reading and give great background on the Civil Rights movement and the process.

It also would have been beneficial to release this movie before the mid-term elections, now we are looking at the after effects of a watered down Voting Rights Act, a Republican House and Republican Senate whose agenda is clear to eradicate the Affordable Care Act, make sure illegal immigrants don't receive citizenship, and dash all hopes of marriage equality - like I said, it's not over.

Why "Scandal" Is So Popular

This year people marveled that the 3^rd year season premier of “Scandal” attracted over 12 million viewers and that the show has generated twitter and viewing parties all over the country. The show is about a public relations guru and her on-going affair with the President of the United States. Stories about women who find love and sacrifice it for the greater good are nothing new – but this story seems to have captured the attention of everyone, especially women of color. If you call one while the show is on, you might get hung up on! You might still find a lot of people who have never seen it, but I doubt you can find many people who have never heard of it.

The publicity has been incredible and you've seen Kerry Washington, the actress who plays the lead character Olivia Pope go from being considered a journey woman actress to a star in her own right. The outfits she wears on the show have caused American seamstresses to turn their hands into pincushions in their haste to produce knockoff outfits overnight. The Prada calfskin tote in white and tan are the most sought after items on earth right now – there isn't a SINGLE Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus or Saks that has it in stock in the country. You can find a needle in a haystack before you'll find a white trench coat.

Well, this is only my theory, but I haven't heard anyone dispute me on it. Let me take you back in time.

It was the summer of 2011 when the world was inundated with stories about Muammar Gaddafi's “obsession” with Condelezza Rice. Some reported that he had a room peppered with pictures of her, clippings of her triumphs, a movie about her background and travels that was longer than “The Godfather”, and that he showered her with diamonds and asked her to be his queen. It turned out that much of that was overblown, the room was actually a binder, the diamonds were actually one ring, and the film was a 60 minute video tape. It doesn't matter – I said it at the time and I will repeat it – every woman should know such adulation! He called her his beautiful African princess, he said that he admired her, that he enjoyed watching her tell others what to do, and that he liked the fact that she had so much power and was so intelligent. Count the number of times somebody has told you that! If you still have fingers left, that is the answer to the question about why women are drawn to the television show “Scandal” with such cult-like devotion. The show began a few months after that revelation.

In every episode you see a woman who owns her own successful business that spends each week saving the world from public relations nightmares, all the while meeting the President in the Oval office, or a tech closet, or a secret home in Vermont for their rendez-vous! You wonder how she has the time – her clothes are impeccable, the weave is never out of place, and that handbag never even has a smudge on it. She's a woman of African descent who tells everyone what to do, they all listen to her, and when the show is over, order is restored. You can't find that level of fantasy everywhere.

So, if you're planning on asking a sister out on Thursday night, be prepared for an early evening – she may have a standing reservation at a Chicago viewing party – cause “Scandal” is one show we don't intend to miss!!!

American Hustle

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let me say out of the gate, this movie is a contender and I recommend it highly – but, let me add a caveat – I like David O. Russell's stories about regular people in unusual circumstances, and this movie is very good. What this movie misses is the rich character development that I have come to expect after years of being spoiled by the fabulously lush and detailed storytelling of other con artist and gangster movies I have seen in the past.

The movie is about a con-man who seems to find himself in a lot of trick bags because of the women he runs with. The movie starts by showing you how he found himself obligated to cooperate in a sting operation because his girlfriend (Amy Adams) fails to heed the cardinal rule of the con – cast the net and let the fish come to you. So, at the outset you can see that his work life is very complicated. We then meet his wife – a beautiful and dangerous idiot who keeps his homelife exciting, if not mind boggling. She brings new meaning to the phrase “ A woman should surprise her husband everyday”. That many surprises would shorten anyone's life,

Here are the lessons you will learn from this movie:

Don't hang around people who aren't that bright – life is too short to try and make sense out of non-sense!

You don't have to tell everything you know! – discretion is always going to be the better part of valor!

Give yourself the same advice you would give your best friend! – don't make decisions with your heart when only cold hard reason will do

Don't be a weak antelope! - the devil never sleeps

Get a job! - there is no such thing as a free lunch

Most importantly – do your homework! Don't take things at face value.

The movie is also about an overly ambitious FBI clerk who decides that he's going to give himself a promotion. The guy lives at home with his mother and has a girl throwing herself at him that he doesn't want anything to do with. He's trying to better himself despite the fact that his boss is trying to keep his feet on solid ground. He has a brilliant, but poorly thought out scheme. It's going to cost a fortune and there aren't enough experienced people to carry it out properly. He allows himself to fall in love with the con man's girlfriend and that's another big mistake.

The con artist's girlfriend is a conundrum. She seems pretty dedicated to this guy – he may be smart, but he reeks of smarminess – he's ugly, he's barely making ends meet, he's married -and worse of all – he's pimping her to keep his idiot wife in diamonds and furs. I wish I would!!!

Perhaps the only person you can feel sorry for is the mark in this little escapade – the mayor of a small town who dreams of revitalizing his community with a giant casino that will turn the streets to gold. He seems to have an honest motive, but like the FBI agent, he isn't sure how to do this, and he doesn't ask for help.

I would like this movie a little more if there had been more background, maybe more voiceovers – something to give me more frame of reference. The characters are fairly well developed, but you are really expecting more. I had too many questions in my mind at the end of the movie to make it #1.

Let me talk a little about the music. A good movie has actors who can tell the story wordlessly, a compelling dialogue, and music that that makes the story multi-dimensional, so I take the music part as seriously as the rest of the story. This movie has some great old songs you will be pleased to hear again - “ A Horse with No Name”, “Does Anyone Really Know What Time it Is?”, “I Saw The Light”, “How Can You Mend A Broken Heart”, and a Duke Ellington classic “Jeep's Blues”. Sadly, only the last song listed is on the official soundtrack. If this were my world, all soundtracks would have to include all of the songs in the movie. I've been mad about this lack of thoroughness since “Mary Poppins”.

Right now this movie is on my “best picture” list next to “12 Years A Slave” and “Gravity” but this weekend I am going to see “The Wolf of Wall Street” and I must admit “American Hustle” might get bumped down a bit, but it's still compelling – go see it.



 

 

 



12 Years A Slave

 

 

 

 

I set aside the day to see “12 Years A Slave”. The story is based on the autobiography of a man who was a free negro living in Sarasota, New York with his family twenty years before the Civil War broke out. He found himself cajoled to work in DC and was kidnapped and sold into slavery and spent twelve grueling years dealing the harsh reality of the deep south.

First of all – take the ENTIRE box of tissue with you to this movie. The theatre is going to be so quiet, all you're gonna hear is other people crying. There were about fifty of us at this screening and we all sat together. I've read “Gone With the Wind” and “Roots” and seen the movies many times each and let me tell you – those were the Disney versions of slavery. This strips away the fallacies and brings up the bright lights on the inhumanity that slavery came to represent. You will leave the movie a changed person.

While it is true that there is a beating, or a lynching in just about every single solitary scene in this movie, there are a couple of scenes that give you hope. By the way, what version of the Bible were they reading? Is there a Slave Owners abomination of the King James that I've never heard of – don't you have to wonder how people became Christians if that's what they heard day in and day out? The main character does something at one point that leaves the biggest and longest cliff hanger of all time – if you ever said “How is he going to get out of this?” in your life, you're going to say it and mean it down to your socks at one point while watching this movie. It's in the middle of the movie and you realize there is much more to tell, but you can't see how this episode will resolve.

The heart of the movie is really about the freeman sold into slavery, the female slave he meets, and the slave master. It's also about money, property, and production quotas. The female slave on the plantation regularly picks 500 pounds of cotton a day. Maybe we needed a wider wide shot, because it's hard to believe that there is 500 pounds of cotton on the plantation at all, much less enough to pick that much and more by yourself everyday. By comparison everyone else is coming up short. The line for whippings gets longer everyday because she is literally a cotton picking machine. She garners the master's favor in many ways because she can do something the others can't. He even tells his wife not to try and come between the two of them, because it's no contest.

The main character starts off in the deep south at a plantation that seems brutal enough, where he deals with wood. His master, however, seems to be relatively kind. Unfortunately, he winds up crossing a line he can't afford to cross and we all get to see how completely alone you are as a slave. There are no options available for you and maybe only one person on the whole plantation is going to help you. After his brief encounter there, he is sold to a cotton plantation down river, where you don't see anything other than brutality, beatings and lynching in every scene. At one point, he is rented out to a sugar plantation, and while sugar is the worse field to work, he does find some solace there.

The brutality and manipulation and deep seated cruelty is what will make it hard to take. You haven't seen a movie with this much brutality since “The Passion of the Christ”, and if you didn't see that, you may not be ready for this. I suggest a long leisurely dinner with friends afterwards as I had, to unwind and decompress. Don't go back into the streets right after watching this – take some time to relax and remind yourself that its a movie.

After many fits and starts, the slave is finally returned to his life. He finds that his children are grown and his wife has been patiently waiting for him all of this time. He lived out the rest of his life helping the abolitionist movement. In fact, that's why the book was written. It was an unimpeachable account of his life in the deep south. After watching that movie, looking at what has been accomplished and what remains left to be done, I think I would have left the country for Canada, but I applaud his decision to remain.

I also watched the TV One Special about the movie and the debate on how old you need ot be to see it. I think it depends on how old you were when you learned about slavery and what you learned about it. I really started learning about it in fourth grade. There were so many specials about that and the civil rights movement and the 10^th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination and the 4^th anniversary of the Martin Luther King Jr. assassination and the RF Kennedy assassination that we covered a lot of material. I recall that even then some people downplayed the role of slavery in building this country and its importance in an economic sense. We went to the State capital in 4^th grade and saw Abraham Lincoln's papers and recreations of the Gettysburg Address and the 2nd Inauguration speech. I think people in my class could have handled it. I'm not sure what children are being taught now about slavery and I don't see those same specials and books.

It's clear that no amount of money or time, or education can every really make up for all that our families have lost. I think that free therapy for the children of the slaves and even the children of the slave owners would be a good start. I also think that it is imperative that ALL organizations that benefited from the slave trade be rooted out and exposed. I realize that most of those organizations went out of business, but I will bet they morphed into something, because slavery was big money, and it had to go in someone's pockets. It's time we all learned the truth because the issue isn't going anywhere.