Take solace there is hope of better times.
From the cycles of change of the past.
The soul has survived lifetimes.
The mind questions unasked.
© 2014-2023- Ronovan Hester Copyright reserved. The author asserts his moral and legal rights over this work.
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© 2020 Ronovan Hester Copyright reserved. The author asserts his moral and legal rights over this work.
© 2020 Ronovan Hester Copyright reserved. The author asserts his moral and legal rights over this work.
This song was the inspiration for the prompt words of the Haiku Challenge this week. Getting here was a roundabout way, from watching magic/syfy on Netflix, to thinking through during my quiet time about my current book idea, and ultimately having the words he’s a magic man come to mind. Well, being a child of the 80s means I also listened to a lot of music in the 70s. And thus, here we are.
Imagine my surprise when I began my research of this song and finding a Marine’s daughter who chased after this older man who left for Canada to avoid the draft and Vietnam. Yes, a whole lot of that song is autobiographical.
Ann Wilson was that girl, still living at home and going to art college, and meeting future band mate and manager (and older man) Mike Fisher. Ann stated in a Rolling Stone’s interview that during one of those phone conversations with her mother she was even asked if she were taking birth control. The early 70s was beyond the Marine wife’s comprehension.
Now you have a bit introduction into how Ann ended up being a rock goddess and member of the hall of fame, along with her sister Nancy. The sisters even dated brothers who were both in the band. Both couples broke up in 1979. Ann is married with children and Nancy, is now married again after divorcing director Cameron Crowe ending their 24 year marriage.
Ann was the lead singer, dark-haired beauty with a voice to wake the devil and warn him she was coming. She was told by industry people that she was the face while her younger sister Nancy was the body. Ann used drugs and starved herself trying to stay thin.
While watching a 1967 episode of ‘My Show’, the name it is affectionately it’s been given, I had a hunch. One of the guests the panel had to guess was a young man named Howard Kennedy. No, I never heard of him before this show. Once I found out what his occupation was, where he worked, and his goals, I had to check.
Begin at 12:20.
Howard E. Kennedy was an apprentice perfume sniffer/tester with Revlon. What was his goal? He wanted to go beyond sniffer and create his own fragrances. Did he succeed?
Let’s find out.
Mr. Kennedy didn’t stay with Revlon, he moved on to Pfizer’s Consumer Products Division (Coty). I have no idea what that is, okay, I didn’t know before now. Maybe the ladies do. Did he advance there?
Let’s find out.
Mr. Kennedy became chief perfumer for World Wide Fragrance and Development and ended up with five FiFi awards for Fragrance of the Year. Have you heard of his fragrances?
Let’s find out.
Iron, Lady Stetson, Stetson for Men, Sophia, and Nuance.
I know I’ve used Stetson for Men. Stetson and Sophia are two Mr. Kennedy most identifies with in what he wished to achieve. The others you may have heard of.
Let’s find out.
Wild Musk (Coty), Undeniable (Avon), and Ginger with a Twist (Origins). After such success what does a man do?
Let’s find out.
How about two companies formed?
With Royal Essence, Ltd. and H.K. Enterprises, Inc., 1987 and 1990 respectfully, Mr. Kennedy became his own boss and fulfilled an ultimate dream.
A few pieces of non-Perfume trivia:
Gotta love the title of this post from my co-author! 😉
Where do I begin?
That’s a difficult question in and of itself but when your life is transformed into something else, do you start when you’re born or when your life truly began?
I was born in London as Gabriel Wallace. The child of high society; although I was raised to appreciate
everything that softly landed in my hand. I followed all the rules. I worked hard, studied hard and ended up a captain in the Royal Navy before my twenty fifth birthday. Unfortunately, I saw the world through my own eyes, not the eyes of my superiors and my vision was clear.
I knew my duty. I knew my job. I also knew deep down, regardless of the loyalty my commission required, my stance was in opposition and it was but a matter of time before they’d…
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It’s been some time since I did a Tuneful Tuesday but here we are…it’s Tuesday and I’m in a tuneful mood.
It’s a Saturday night in 1979-1980 and I’m on the roller rink rollering away, possibly trying not to break my arm or neck as I hang on to the rail . . . teaching myself to skate. A foolish endeavor when looking back on the fact that one of the prettiest teenage girls ever, my baby-sitter or whatever, was an expert skater and wanted to show me how. Oh how boys can be dumb at a certain age.
Then the scary thing happens. The somewhat empty floor is swarmed. Why? Because the first #1 hit in the land for a British Hall of Fame act is announced as being next.
It’s crazy. Yes, it’s even just a little thing. But I have no idea what it had to do with love.
Freddie Mercury and Queen with Crazy Little Thing Called Love begins and the drum beats of Roger Taylor that are possibly forgotten in their influence through the years due to a once in a life time voice and performer in Mercury drives everyone around the rink.
The meaning of the lyrics? They are what they are and the song is a tribute to Elvis Presley. One of those rare songs from a legendary performer that was what it was. That’s cool if you think about it.
From Melody Maker interview 05/o2/81:
Let’s talk about your song writing. Can you write songs to order: “At two o’clock today I will start working on song . . . ?”
I have no set rules for writing, but yes, I can write like that, I really can. It’s haphazard and it’s become a bit of a joke to me, but if I knew we’re going into the studio I just get my thinking process going. I can write songs to order, like a job. Some songs come faster that others: “Bohemian Rhapsody” I had to work at like crazy. I just wanted that kind of song. “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” took me five or ten minutes. I did that on the guitar, which I can’t play for nuts, and in one way it was quite a good thing because I was restricted, knowing only a few chords. It’s a good discipline because I simply had to write within a small framework. I couldn’t work through too many chords and because of that restriction I wrote a good song, I think.
And the live version.
Crazy Little Thing Called Love
This thing called love I just can’t handle it
this thing called love I must get round to it
I ain’t ready
Crazy little thing called love
Much Respect-Much Love
Ronovan
Ronovan is an author, and blogger who shares his life as an amnesiac and Chronic Pain sufferer though his blog RonovanWrites.WordPress.com. His love of poetry, authors and community through his online world has lead to a growing Weekly Haiku Challenge and the creation of a site dedicated to book reviews, interviews and author resources known as LitWorldInterviews.WordPress.com.
© Copyright-All rights reserved by ronovanwrites.wordpress.com 2015
It’s May 1, 2015 and the April A to Z Blogging Challenge is completed. For those of you not knowing what that is, you blog in alphabetical order posts each day, minus Sundays for good behavior, from A to Z.
You can choose a theme or just seat of pants it. I chose comic book creators from around the world. Why? I grew up reading comics and I see them as being a part of why I read as well as I do, am as creative, and just plain goofy at times.
I learned a lot during the challenge, and not just about comic books, comix, albums, manhua, manga, or any other names they are called, oh yeah, Komiks.
I learned geography, cultural history, world history, societal influences. All of this learned while researching comic books. Each nation had commonalities that one might be surprised about. Comic books are treated differently depending on where you are in the world.
In the US they are still seen as a children’s book. They are far from that now. Very far. In other parts of the world they are seen as art work, graphic literature, which is what I like to call comic books, and they are not always about superheroes.
If I were teaching right now I would use an A to Z format to give students a way to learn those aspects I mentioned learning earlier. By researching something they are interested in, sticking to the challenge without wavering, and marking the countries, regions, provinces, or cities you visit, you learn a great deal, and through that joy of learning you remember those things as well as realizing learning can be fun.
Some will think I am stretching how much I learned about geography, cultural history, world history and societal influences but I’m not. Graphic Literature is a way people express themselves. Through fictional superheroes a person can tell a controversial societal or political issue using a down and out weakling who becomes a hero and then fights against the superficial popular hero who is really fake and a sham and scam underneath.
That’s how one gets away with telling certain stories in countries where one might be imprisoned or executed if coming out against the ruler of the nation.
Through this challenge, one I decided on at the last moment, and had no real idea of a theme until the very last moment, I’ve come to realize some priorities in life.
It’s no longer April, but I encourage any of you to do this challenge even now. But let me give some advice. If you are going to do an around the world thing, be careful. Some of those letters are tough to find people. Not many places for the letter X.
I’ll leave you with some last images of a book that was one of my favorites books, Ruse, by a company called CrossGen, which is now owned by Marvel Comics. A book about a Sherlock Holmes type character with a female Watson type. Powers in the book, yes, but one of the most beautiful pieces of artwork series ever.
Much Respect
Ronovan
© Copyright-All rights reserved by ronovanwrites.wordpress.com 2015
I find it interesting how world events, and politics can shape the creativity of a society.
I am reminded somewhat of the old Martin & Lewis movie Artists and 
Models1 every time I do one of these articles when there is a long history of graphic artist interpretations of literature. In the movie these types of books are seen as a detriment to society through their influence on the young. Personally, I learned how to be a great reader through the form.
Graphic interpretation of writing goes back a ways in Lithuania, and there was even satire leading up to WWII. Something we might find surprising with our thoughts colored by the Cold War and Soviet Block since then.
The Early Years.
A man named Jonas Martinaitis was one of those early satire painters and writers. He also did work for publications where he would use satire in the text of his work and often in rhyme.2 This sounds much like types of things we do here in a Haiku Challenge I host each week.
During the research for this series, I found comics in the form we know them today isn’t how they’ve always appeared. Early on, the text appeared in spaces beneath the images. In a way that makes sense in that you get to see a full piece of art. And understand, these were and can be works of art. Try to draw or paint some of what you see. Many people don’t realize that many comics are painted. But back then, those text balloons get in the way. These days the art is laid out in such a way as to account for the balloons.
Following WWII things were a bit more strict, much like what happened here in the US in the 1950s, with the publications being somewhat dictated to and any artistic images and wit were spun toward propaganda, not like here in the US in the 1950s. Fortunate or not, Martinaitis didn’t have to suffer this creative death. He passed away in 1947.
Creativity Grows Cold.
Imagine if for decades I were to tell you when creating Haiku here on my site, the only place you could write Haiku and that was the only way you had to make money, that your words and images had to support something or be against something, regardless of what you believed. If you fought against me I would make sure you didn’t work anywhere else, because I had control there as well or possibly I could have you thrown into prison.
For Lithuania it was like that. Artists were subject to their work needing to meet the guidelines of Socialist realism as regulated by the government.3
It wasn’t until 1990 that Lithuania became the first Soviet republic to declare its independence after being occupied in WWII by the Soviets and the Nazis.4 I am trying to imagine the kind of things I would create under that atmosphere.
The Yoke Loosens.
In the 1960s the loosening feel, the I am free to be me feel, that seemed to be in the air must have stretched to Lithuania in some way. Artistry and creativity in literary aspects changed slightly.
A painter named Aleksandras Vitulskis created what would be called the greatest of all Lithuanian comics 
work in 1968 and 1969.5 The work was compared to that of Alex Raymond6, creator of Flash Gordon7 in 1934. Considering the impact Raymond’s Flash Gordon had on US society in graphic interpretation and cinema I can only imagine what Vitulskis did for Lithuania. Here are samples of his work, not his comics work. I was unable to find any of that at this time. But will update this article when I do.
A Touch of Humor and a Touch of Simplicity.
But not all Lithuanian creators were painters and detailed artists. Some went with simplicity and touching the pulse of a society. Enter Fridrikas Jonas Samukas and Miko Ridiko.Samukas focused using his wit and showing human flaws, something everyone could associate with.8 His art was simple and to the point, uncluttered so as to give a quick 
impression. For me, if I were looking at the painting above by Vitulskis, I might spend more time looking at each part rather than taking in the message. You need to look at your balance to achieve your goal. If you click on the image to the left you will see there are no words needed to relay the message. That message is universal in every society.
Samukas did that, and did it very well. Mikko Ridiko has been published since 1968 if that tells you how successful his method worked. It still goes on today although under other artists since his death in 2003.
Artists of Today.
First there is Andrius Zaksauskas. I love the images he comes up with. Some are a bit to the point. All very well done, very painter like with one I picked today that gives me a Charlie Brown feel, not so much in the style but in the feel of the words and yes, even in perhaps the style a bit with the size of the heads of the children. But the words spoken by the character in front reminds me a bit of Charlie Brown. I translates I can.
Forces you did not seek to be more than a person then you will be less than a human.
That is how Google Translate does it. I get the meaning but am having difficulties expressing it here. Can you put it into words that make better sense for me? Leave a comment below. Seriously.
The next is Herta Matulionytė-Burbienė. I love this one. I so wish these 
were in English, but if you are a blogger or someone who Tweets or FBs things, you will get this image meaning easily. That’s the talent of this creator.
Cats Anonymous Slave Society
Prisipazjstu, that I am powerless over my cat, and humbly To be completed by all his wishes.
That’s it for today. I enjoyed researching for the article. Loving history and comics and art and writing, this series has been a lot of fun for me. I hope you enjoyed it. Tomorrow is some place beginning with M. I have no idea yet. I best get on that.
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References
Return Artists and Models
1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artists_and_Models
Return to The to Early Years
2 http://www.ljudmila.org/stripcore/burek/lithuan.htm
Return to Creativity Grows Cold
3 http://vddb.laba.lt/fedora/get/LT-eLABa-0001:E.02~2011~D_20110615_101047-35146/DS.005.0.02.ETD
4 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithuania
Return to Aleksandras Vitulskis
5 http://www.ljudmila.org/stripcore/burek/lithuan.htm
6 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Raymond
7 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_Gordon
Return to Fridrikas Jonas Samukas
8 http://www.respublika.lt/lt/naujienos/pramogos/zvaigzdes_ir_zmones/kaip_fsamukas_atrado_legendini_mika_ridika/
Return to Artists of Today
People can remember events in their lives or recall specific details of life associated with an event even decades later. The odd thing is, they don’t even know the relevance of what that detail is.
Just imagine all the beautiful sounding songs you’ve ever heard and then think of some of the lyrics to them. You can’t right of the top of your head probably. It’s one of those “If you hadn’t asked me I could’ve named a dozen of them” kind of things.
One song that is incredibly simple, sweet, and beautiful has said to be one of the top 10 most covered songs ever. Some cover it because it’s beautiful. Some, though, realize there is a message there.
Blackbird written by Paul McCartney was recorded in 1968 and appeared on the Beatles ‘White Album’. Do you know the message? It’s 1968, an Englishman looks at America and sees what is happening. He thinks of the people in America and thinks of a girl, a bird.
Blackbird is born. McCartney writes about Civil Rights. Normally I would explain a little more and then give you the song followed by the lyrics. But there is a reason Paul’s song has been covered so many times. He’s an author more than a song writer. I call poetry micro chapters of my autobiography. Paul writes micro chapters of history.
It’s 1968. America.
April 1968 Martin Luther King Jr has been assassinated.
June 1968 Paul McCartney enters the studio and records,
“Blackbird”
Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise.
Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to be free.
Blackbird fly Blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night.
Blackbird fly Blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night.
Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
You were only waiting for this moment to arise.
You love the song from the moment the first chord is struck. The music and the voice harmonizes and you get lost before you even know what the song is about. You just know you love the song. Then one day you listen to the words and there it is. You but the year and the song together and you get it.
I’m a Southern man. Many may automatically think all Southern men have racial issues. I know of attitudes that are like that now. You can see it in the news today where something happens and they write it off as ‘well that’s the south for you’. Take a closer look at the news. It’s not just the South or mostly the South.
I’m a Southern man and I love all people. I love this song. I love the message. As a historian I am amazed at what it says. Paul McCartney, historian, author, singer, songwriter.
For those who say the Beatles weren’t something special . . . keep your Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber.
Much Respect
Ronovan
© Copyright-All rights reserved-RonovanWrites.wordpress.com.
Wanting to be a Paperback Writer
by: Ronovan
I want to be a writer, paperback, hardback, e-back, whatever, I want to write.
There are songs that you love before you know why or before they have a meaning or significance. You become a fan of an act and naturally enjoy what they do. Over the course of time each song slowly matures as you do and the meaning is found.
I have a special place for songs recorded before I was born. Perhaps it was a more innocent time, or the 1960s were just filled with such great discoveries and experiments that it’s difficult to match. Only the 1980s might have as much experimentation and even producing some great music out of that whirlwind of synthesizers and big hair bands.
From the year 1966 comes Paperback Writer by the Beatles. Some of the younger generations say the Beatles are overrated. I say they have no clue as to what the Beatles were and are. Their style changed so incredibly in just the matter of a few years. This song was one of those changes.
Not about love or holding a hand, Paul McCartney writes about a man who writes a letter to a publisher wanting to sell his book, a thousand page novel. He’s begging to become a Paperback Writer.
All these years and decades later after first loving the song, it has found its true meaning in my life. For those of you who are my writing Friends you should be able to take this one to heart. Enjoy the video. I have included the lyrics below.
Paperback writer
Dear Sir or Madam, will you read my book?
It took me years to write, will you take a look?
It’s based on a novel by a man named Lear
And I need a job, so I want to be a paperback writer
Paperback writer
It’s the dirty story of a dirty man
And his clinging wife doesn’t understand
His son is working for the Daily Mail
It’s a steady job but he wants to be a paperback writer
Paperback writer
Paperback writer
It’s a thousand pages, give or take a few
I’ll be writing more in a week or two
I can make it longer if you like the style
I can change it round and I want to be a paperback writer
Paperback writer
If you really like it you can have the rights
It could make a million for you overnight
If you must return it, you can send it here
But I need a break and I want to be a paperback writer
Paperback writer
Paperback writer
Paperback writer, paperback writer
Paperback writer, paperback writer
Paperback writer, paperback writer
Paperback writer, paperback writer (fade out)
Hope you Enjoyed
Ronovan
© Copyright-All rights reserved-RonovanWrites.wordpress.com-July 06, 2014.
“Bill, one of the boys isn’t looking too good back there,” said the man dropping down in the co-pilots seat.
“Airsick?” Lt. William Thies asked.
His friend nodded. “Probably all this flying around blind we’ve been doing. Dead reckoning is fine but we really need to find some clear sign to point the way home soon or we’ll all end up sick. There’s something about this not seeing anything but sky and air that can get to you after a while.”
“I’ll bring her down some. Maybe that’ll help.”
The men in the back of the plane felt the descent.
“Told you he would do something about it,” said one young man.
One sick looking man just moaned. “I didn’t want him to know I was airsick. Just think, an airman airsick. Tough man, huh?”
“Just get over by the window and focus your eyes on something instead of the movements.”
The sick man nodded. “Good idea.”
Pressing his face against the window he watched as the plane lowered down through the clouds. He had always liked that part. He felt like one of the new comic book hero types like that super guy, just not having to wear long underwear. He smiled at the thought, already beginning to feel a little better.
He spotted water below and a sense of reality settled over him. It wasn’t solid ground but at least it wasn’t invisible air. His eyes roamed over the water. His teeth hit the window hard as he slammed his faced against the glass.
“Land!”
“What?” His friend turned to him.
“Land–there,” he said to excited to actually give directions.
Independence Day.
byfor: The Soldiers of America
WWII in the Pacific, 166 years and 6 days after the Declaration of Independence. I know the United States is celebrating or about to celebrate July 4th, Independence Day, and that isn’t something associated with WWII, but in truth any fight American soldiers are involved in that keeps the country independent is part of the celebration to me. And that is why I wanted to write about a story that had escaped me for so long, or perhaps the old mind had forgotten it.
I have mixed feelings about what happened between Japan and the Allies. A lot of innocents died at the end. One has a guilty feeling about being against the bombings of Japan, but it wasn’t the citizens who bombed Pearl Harbor. I know people say that by dropping the atomic bombs that many more lives may have been saved than were lost. But it still doesn’t make me at ease.
This in no way means I think badly of any soldier involved. Orders were given, they were living in the time of war, and they knew more than I did. There are things you cannot understand unless you are there. I’ll never be the one to be a Monday morning quarterback, or more appropriately a Next Century General, when it comes to actions. I have my freedoms and liberties today because of things these men and others like them, including my father, did in the service of their country.
Sure I can have opinions but for some things I just don’t know. I think if we are all honest with ourselves we twist inside about things.
Things may have turned out differently if not for that airsick crewman of the American PBY Catalina on July 10, 1942 over the Aleutians near Alaska. The conversation may have been my own creation but the situation was not. I don’t know that there has been an exact dialogue written down.
The crewman really did look out the window as the plane, off course, flew lower because he was sick. He saw land, which meant they could find their way back to their base. But they found something else instead.
About one month earlier Tadayoshi Koga had to make an emergency landing after his Zero had been damaged in an attack run on Dutch Harbor on Unalaska Island, Alaska. His Zero flipped upon attempting a landing on
Akutan, he died upon impact. He was 19 years old.
Why do I write about this?
Koga’s plane was the first intact Zero the Allies had been able to get their hands on. After recovering the plane and making it work properly again it was tested and the
weaknesses of the plane were discovered. The plane that had been destroying the Allies in the Pacific was no longer the deadly threat it had once been.
If not for an airsick crewman the war may have ended differently.
Was it luck in finding the Zero? If so, then whose luck was it, the good of the Allies or the bad of the Japanese?
Also, I still cannot help but think of the results of the two bombs. “But look what they did at Pearl Harbor.” Those civilians didn’t do it. And like I said, I have nothing but respect for the men who carried out the mission. Did they know completely the devastation that would happen? What went through their minds before, during and all the years following?
People like to think soldiers don’t think about the results, the impacts. My father doesn’t talk about his war experience. He doesn’t want to relive it. I don’t know any of those in the service that do. They talk about their time with their fellow soldiers and the good times they were able to snatch.
Unfortunately for me I have this mind that feels both sides of something. I cannot help but feel the hurt and anger and devastation on both sides of the war. I understand those who say Pearl Harbor meant it was okay to do what happened. Then I see those surviving citizens in Japan who say my child didn’t do anything. Then the Pearl Harbor parent will come back with, “Neither did my child.”
Independence comes at such a high price. We are all the same people. We all want the same things. I just wish we all could understand that.
You won’t find images of either Pearl Harbor or the bombings in Japan here. I looked at them and neither of them are something I want to share. I don’t want to remember them. I am hoping that after sleep my amnesia will take it away . . . but I don’t think it will.
Much Respect
An Appreciative American and Son of a Veteran
Ronovan
© Ronovan Hester Copyright reserved. The author asserts his moral and legal rights over this work.-July 02, 2014.
I doubt Helene Rother knew as she and her young daughter escaped to a refugee camp in northern Africa from Nazi occupied France that before long she would be illustrating for Marvel Comics, apparently Jupiter Jimmy, and designing automobile interiors in the United States.
This is a gem I found as I was researching for a car that might have been used in the American Zone of Berlin by an American officer in the late 1940s. I don’t traditionally like to utilize the cliché vehicles we read about in every other book. Instead I want something interesting that I can learn from. When I found the 1948 Nash 600 and Helene Rother I knew I had found my car.
(Interior shot courtesy of autoweek.com)
Helene is credited as being the first woman to work as an automotive designer back in 1943. It’s really no wonder that she was so successful. She knew what women liked and thus what men would like. She brought class to the middle class. And she changed the way the auto industry treated not only the less wealthy auto buyer but the creative woman as well.
Helene went on to design interiors for ambulances and hearses and have her own design company. She even designed the Skylark silverware pattern for Samuel Kirk & Son.
Later in life she began designing stained glass for churches. (Stained glass images courtesy of michiganstainedglass.org)
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