For Half a Century, Wholly a Classic

This week marks 50 years since the debut of 2001: A Space Odyssey, the landmark science-fiction adventure written by motion-picture director Stanley Kubrick and noted SF author Arthur C. Clarke (whose 1951 short story “The Sentinel” helped inspire the movie). 2001 premiered on April 2, 1968, at the Uptown Theater in Washington, D.C., and then opened to wider U.S. distribution on April 3—half a century ago today.

One of the most beautiful and memorable aspects of that film was its musical score, employing a variety of classical works, among them Richard Strauss’ “Also sprach Zarathustra,” which served as the main title theme. (Click here to relive the big-screen drama of that opening number.) What people forget, especially half a century on, is that Kubrick had commissioned Hollywood composer Alex North (Spartacus, Cleopatra) to create an original soundtrack for his film. However, as Wikipedia notes, Kubrick decided during his post-production work on 2001 to toss that score “in favor of the now-familiar classical pieces he had earlier chosen as ‘guide pieces’ for the soundtrack.” Wikipedia adds that “North did not know of the abandonment of the score until after he saw the film’s premiere screening.” One can’t help wondering whether 2001: A Space Odyssey might be remembered rather differently had Kubrick stuck with North’s musical score, the beginning of which—including an alternative main title theme—can be heard here. More selections from North’s 2001 score can be sampled here.

READ MORE: “2001: A Space Odyssey 50th Anniversary: 5
Highlights from Original Soundtrack” (Billboard); “What 2001 Got Right,” by Michael Benson (The New York Times); “Fifty Years Later, the World Is Finally Catching Up with 2001: A Space Odyssey,” by Owen Gleiberman (Variety); “2001: A Space Odyssey: Book Celebrates 50th anniversary of Sci-fi Movie Masterpiece,” by Brian Truitt (USA Today); “50 Years Later, 2001: A Space Odyssey Is Still a Cinematic Landmark,” by John Powers (National Public Radio); “Cannes Interview: Christopher Nolan,” by Eric Hynes (Film Comment).

Five Years, 50 Years—Mission Accomplished

Tonight marks 50 years since the debut of the NBC-TV series Star Trek. Terence Towles Canote has a nice in-depth post up about this anniversary, which notes that

Since September 8, 1966, Star Trek has become the stuff of television legends. It was the low-rated science-fiction show saved by its fans from cancellation that became a phenomenon in syndicated reruns. While there is some truth to the legend (in its initial network run Star Trek’s ratings were always moderate to low), there is much about the legend that simply isn’t true. Indeed, even while in its first run there were signs that Star Trek was on its way to becoming a phenomenon.

Comic-book writer Christopher Mills offers his own thoughts on the show, in Atomic Pulp, explaining that the original, 1966-1969 Trek “inspired and informed the person I became.

I learned the value of reason and logic from an alien with pointed ears and a Satanic visage. I learned the nobility of humanity and compassion toward all life, regardless of shape, color or form, from an anachronistic Southern medic. And, most importantly, I learned about the worth of boldness, courage, and tempered wisdom from a charming leader with a confident swagger sporting a gold tunic. [Captain James T.] Kirk was a fighter, a diplomat, a philosopher—and a libidinous wolf—but in my eyes, he was the best of us as a species. He wasn’t perfect—and to his credit, usually admitted his flaws and acknowledged his mistakes—but he was also a man of intelligence and action, who sought out brave new worlds and always had his eye on the future.

My own experience with Star Trek didn’t begin until the early 1970s, when I was old enough and aware enough to appreciate television. To my mother’s regret and my father’s everlasting bewilderment, I became a Trek fan for life as a result of watching reruns of that series’ original 79 episodes about a multi-cultural crew of explorers who raced across the galaxy in a sleek starship, bringing help to humans and aliens in need, and taking with them a message of hope and love and peace. (It didn’t hurt, either, that there was the occasional Orion dancing girl to catch a young boy’s eye!) I have since seen all of the Star Trek spinoffs and every Trek movie save the most recent one. I even went with my niece one year to a Trek convention, during which I had the pleasure of listening to William Shatner recount his hilarious experience in traveling to Seattle for that event.

I think creator Gene Roddenberry’s vision for Star Trek has been greatly enhanced and deepened by some of the people who took over the franchise after his death in 1991, particularly executive producer Rick Berman. Yet Roddenberry gave television watchers the blueprint, and even half a century later, his “Wagon Train to the stars” is as durable and promising and hopeful as ever.

Live long and prosper, my fellow Star Trek fans!

READ MORE: “To Boldly Imagine: Star Trek’s Half Century,” by Andrew Liptak (Kirkus Reviews); “Star Trek’s Still as Relevant on the 50th Anniversary,” by Dave Marinaccio (Bookgasm); “The Mission to Restore the Original Starship Enterprise,” by Jackie Mansky (Smithsonian); “Star Trek at 50: The Theme Song Has Lyrics. No, Really,” by Chris Barton (Los Angeles Times).

Come Hell and High Water

It’s no coincidence that I have been listening recently to CDs by New Orleans street musicians, wearing T-shirts I picked up during Mardi Gras more than a decade ago, and gorging myself on episodes of David Simon’s wonderful HBO-TV series, Treme (a show I had never watched until this month). I knew today was coming--the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s deadly assault on Louisiana’s most beautiful city.

It should really be New Orleanians commenting on this occasion, as they are doing in the pages of The Times-Picayune newspaper. I’m not a native of the city, and have visited there only a handful of times, most recently in 2007. I can’t speak for the people who weathered Katrina’s wrath or aftermath. But I wrote a great deal about the storm and the flooding and the incompetence of George W. Bush’s administration back in 2005 and 2006, when the disaster occurred. And I’ve kept up ever since with efforts to restore New Orleans in ways that don’t steal away its charm or historical significance. I even trained, shortly after Katrina struck, to be a Red Cross volunteer, hoping to be dispatched to help residents of the flooded Big Easy recover from the devastation. (Unfortunately, the Red Cross stopped sending people there before I had completed my preparation.) So I feel compelled to at least acknowledge this anniversary and send my best wishes to everyone in New Orleans who is still trying to get back what they lost in the storm, whether it be a home or a job or a familiar way of life.

I was pleased earlier this week to see President Barack Obama visit New Orleans, to hear him speak about the vast social inequalities that had weakened the Crescent City even before Katrina’s approach, and to hear about the extraordinary efforts by his administration to put the metropolis back on its feet. I am no less pleased to read this editorial in The Times-Picayune, which maintains that “The progress is palpable in New Orleans”--even if crime rates are still up, school quality is down, “African-American residents especially feel the unevenness of recovery,” and many folks have not yet received the loans or insurance money they need in order to rebuild. Someday I hope to see New Orleans again, and find that--as it did after another Category 4 hurricane, the one that struck a century ago, in 1915--the city has made a new order for itself and achieved a new vitality, even if it’s not exactly the same place it was.

On this anniversary Saturday, here are a few other related stories worth reading: “Anatomy of a Flood: How New Orleans Flooded During Hurricane Katrina,’ by Dan Swenson (The Times-Picayune); “These Maps Show the Severe Impact of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans,” by Esri, Katie Nodjimbadem (Smithsonian.com); “Hurricana Katrina, in 7 Essential Facts,” by German Lopez (Vox); “The Flooding of America” (The New Republic); “People of New Orleans Say Government Didn’t Do Enough After Katrina,” by Natalie Jackson (The Huffington Post); “These New Orleans Residents Are Still Trying to Go Home,” by Bryce Covert (Think Progress); “Images of Abandoned Iconic Spots in New Orleans Urge Us Not to ‘Forget’ About Katrina 10 Years Later,” by Eleanor Goldberg (The Huffington Post); “‘It’s Not Just a Party, It’s Our Life’: Jazz Musicians Led the Way Back to the City After Katrina--But What Is This ‘New’ New Orleans?,” by Larry Blumfeld (Salon); “Gulf Coast Residents Mark Katrina Anniversary: ‘We Saved Each Other’,” by Rebecca Santana and Kevin McGill (Talking Points Media); Front Pages from Katrina’s 10th Anniversary,” by Kristen Hare (Poynter); “Unnatural Disasters, or Queering Katrina,” by Jonathan Alexander (Los Angeles Review of Books); “17 of the Best Things Ever Written About Hurricane Katrina,” by Nick Baumann (The Huffington Post); “Ex-Aides: Bush Never Recovered from Katrina” (Associated Press); “After Katrina, Disgraced Former FEMA Director Continued Disaster Aid. It Didn’t Go Well,” by Emily Atkin (Think Progress); Jeb’s Massive Katrina Fail: New Campaign Ad Features Infamous ‘Heckauva Job Brownie’,” by Sophia Tesfaye (Salon); “Is Your City Ready for the Next Katrina?,” by Rebecca Leber (The New Republic).

Open Wide

Today marks 40 years since the cinematic debut of Steven Speilberg’s 1975 summer blockbuster horror yarn, Jaws. To commemorate this occasion, I have posted in The Rap Sheet a gallery of book and magazine covers by Roger Kastel, the artist responsible for the 1975 paperback front of Peter Benchley’s novel as well as the iconic poster advertising Spielberg’s box-office hit. Check it out here.

READ MORE: “So What Else Is on the Menu?” by J. Kingston
Pierce (Limbo).

Say U.N.C.L.E.

Well, I’ve done it again: written something in The Rap Sheet that should also interest Limbo readers. As some of you may know, it was 50 years ago today--on September 22, 1964--that NBC-TV introduced a new weekly spy-adventure series titled The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Clickety-clack here to read my anniversary post.

Bret Maverick in a Pontiac Firebird

As I note in one of my other blogs, The Rap Sheet, it was 40 years ago tonight that The Rockford Files, starring James Garner, debuted on NBC-TV. You will find my recollections of that event here. Enjoy!

Bang Bang, They Shot Them Down

It was 80 years ago today that notorious Depression-era outlaws Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker were assassinated by members of a posse on a backcountry road in northern Louisiana. Read my notes on this anniversary in The Rap Sheet.

A “Rockford” Anniversary

Fan and blogger Jim Suva reminds us that today marks 40 years since the debut, on March 27, 1974, of the pilot film that launched The Rockford Files. Also known by the title “Backlash of the Hunter,” that 90-minute NBC teleflick found perennially broke ex-con private eye Jim Rockford (James Garner) being approached by a young bikini-shop proprietor (played so delightfully by Lindsey Wagner), who is convinced her wino father was murdered, rather than having committed suicide. She wants Rockford to prove that she’s right.

The Rockford pilot ranks as one of my all-time favorites of the breed, and it spawned what I believe is the best gumshoe series ever broadcast on the American small screen. If you haven’t seen the film before, or would enjoy watching it again, you’ll find it here.

50 Years Ago Today

READ MORE: “A Heartbreaking Contemporary Account of America’s Grief for Kennedy,” by Murray Kempton and James Ridgeway (The New Republic); “Dallas Holds First Ever JFK Ceremony as City Confronts Its Infamous Past,” by Tom Dart (The Guardian); “The Kennedy Assassination and American Fragility,” by Charles P. Pierce (Esquire); “Sleuths of Camelot: John Kennedy’s Most Thrilling Afterlife,” by J. Kingston Pierce (Kirkus Reviews).

Chasing After Fame

It was 50 years ago today that The Fugitive, the drama series created by Roy Huggins and starring David Janssen, debuted on ABC-TV. That program about a physician accused of his wife’s murder, and his subsequent struggle to track down the One-Armed Man he’s convinced holds the answers to her slaying, eventually ran for 120 hour-long episodes over four years, becoming one of the most respected small-screen productions in history.

Stephen Bowie opines in the A.V. Club blog that it “may be the perfect television drama.

That’s not to say that The Fugitive is superior to today’s best dramas, or even to its finest contemporaries, like The Defenders and Ben Casey. But The Fugitive achieved a perfection of form that was unique: It was part crime procedural, part action-adventure, and part character-driven melodrama. It was fusion TV. The push and pull between the contrasting generic elements meant that episodes were highly varied, but with so many different traditions to draw from, nearly always satisfying. The Fugitive achieved a phenomenally consistent level of quality--which makes this a particularly tough list to compile.

You will find my own tribute to The Fugitive--posted four decades after its final episode aired, on August 29, 1967--by clicking here. And in celebration of today’s 50th anniversary, Bowie provides an interesting alternative ending to Richard Kimble’s saga here.

Really? That Long?

National Public Radio reminded me this morning that it has been eight years since Hurricane Katrina smashed into the lovely city of New Orleans, Louisiana, destroying homes, flooding historic neighborhoods, and undermining the local economy. Much of that Mississippi River metropolis has come back since the devastation, but if you’ve visited there since that big blow (as I have), you know the hurricane left a mark on New Orleans that will never be completely expunged.

It was also NPR (which I use to wake me up every morning) that noted today’s other big anniversary: Twenty-five years have now passed since the founding of The Onion, one of America’s premier sources of satirical news. Listen to NPR’s story here.

Promises, Politics, and Progress

From Salon’s coverage of today’s anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom:

If you listened to President Obama’s commemoration of 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s speech at the March on Washington, and heard a mere paean to the civil rights movement, you weren’t paying enough attention.

At its core, Obama’s speech was a reminder--almost a warning--to minorities and equality advocates not to lose sight of the fact that politics is central to the cause of advancing the causes of the progressive movement King helped unleash.

When Obama’s opponents lambaste him for politicizing the anniversary of the March, as they already are, they’re not basing their criticisms on anything illusory--they’re hoping to diminish its impact.

That’s because Obama beseeched his politically detached supporters to remember that the things they want to see happen in the country won’t happen if they stay that way.

“To secure the gains that this country has made requires constant vigilance, not complacency,” Obama said. “Whether by challenging those who erect new barriers to the vote or ensuing that the scales of justice work equally for all and the criminal justice system is not simply pipeline from underfunded schools to overcrowded jails, it requires vigilance.”

You can read the whole piece here. And a full transcript of the President’s “stirring speech on inequality” can be found here.

READ MORE: “President Obama Shows the Progress We’ve Made. His Speech Shows How Terribly We’ve Failed,” by Ezra Klein (The Washington Post); “Obama and the Promised Land,” by Ed Kilgore (Washington Monthly); “Nastiest Responses to Today’s March on Washington,” by Alex Halperin (Salon); “A Partisan Advantage at the Lincoln Memorial,” by Steve Benen (The Maddow Blog); “Boehner, Cantor Turned Down Chance to Speak at March Anniversary,” by Emma Dumain (Roll Call).

Living It Up on the Edge

Cliff House in the 1890s

As the San Francisco Chronicle reminds us, it was 150 years ago this week that one of Northern California’s foremost landmarks--the Cliff House, a restaurant with spectacular views over the Pacific, located just north of San Francisco’s Ocean Beach--opened to the public. The present incarnation of that wind-whipped structure, though, is far from the first; and it’s certainly not the most palatial. I devoted a couple of spreads in my 2009 book San Francisco: Yesterday and Today (Publications International) to the Cliff House. Here’s what I wrote to accompany the photos:

Point Lobos, named by Spanish explorers for the sea lions (lobos marinos, or sea wolves) that languished and barked on the surrounding rocks, is the westernmost tip of San Francisco. It’s been a leisure destination ever since the mid-1850s. In 1863, a real-estate speculator named Charles Butler constructed the first, fairly modest Cliff House just south of that point. It initially attracted the chic and well-heeled set, who ventured out by carriage over a toll road (later Geary Boulevard) to dawdle and dine, to survey the marine life on adjacent Seal Rocks or thrill to the sight of daredevils treading tightropes above the crashing waves. However, as more common folk discovered this resort, and competitors for the coastal tourist trade appeared, Butler added card rooms and saloons to the Cliff House, both of which lent it an unsavory reputation.

In the early 1880s, Adolph Sutro purchased the Cliff House. A Prussian-born entrepreneur and resolute dreamer, he’d made a fortune in Nevada’s Comstock mining country, developing a chemical technique to extract residual wealth from already processed ore and then boring a tunnel deep into the heart of the mining district, to bleed off hazardous gases. After acquiring an idyllic cottage on the promontory above the Cliff House and Seal Rocks, which he enlarged and surrounded with gardens full of scandalously underdressed statuary, Sutro began restoring the respectability of Butler’s former oceanside resort. Although a chimney fire burned the Cliff House to the ground in 1894, Sutro seemed undiscouraged. With architects Emile S. Lemme and C.J. Colley, he soon erected a considerably grander, French château-style replacement, stuffed with private dining rooms, curio shops, and parlors. He also built an electric trolley line out to the beach, so more people of lesser means could enjoy his entertainments.

(Right) Sutro Baths

Beside the Cliff House on the north, the ambitious Sutro raised the largest public bathhouse in the world. Opened officially in 1896, while its creator was serving his first and only term as mayor of San Francisco, Sutro Baths boasted seven swimming pools of varying sizes and depths (the largest being an unheated, L-shaped seawater pool 300 feet long and 175 feet wide), and 500 dressing rooms. The Victorian structure, with its Greek temple-like entrance, was roofed by two acres of crystal glass and also contained sweeping staircases, gardens of palms and ferns, restaurants, a theater, a gymnasium, and an eccentric museum that showcased Egyptian mummies, stuffed animals, medieval armor, and even a carnival made of toothpicks, crafted by a penitentiary inmate.

Adolph Sutro died in 1898, only a year and a half after relinquishing the mayor’s office to banker James D. Phelan. In 1907, his luxurious Cliff House went up in flames during a remodeling project. It was replaced two years later by a conspicuously less grandiose (but more fire-resistant) version, the essence of which still stands today. The Sutro Baths persisted as a recreation center well into the 20th century, though its largest pool was turned into an ice-skating rink in 1937. Declining attendance and rising maintenance costs finally shuttered the facility in 1966, shortly after which it too burned, leaving what some call “the finest ruins in the city,” now part of the Golden Gate Recreation Area.

I’ve been out to the Cliff House on numerous occasions--the first time, in the 1970s, with my parents; the most recent time with my brother, Matt, on a very long walk west from downtown. I know that it holds a special place in the hearts of native San Franciscans. But every time I visit the Cliff House, I feel, well, just a little disappointed. I’m too familiar with photographs of the Cliff House at its baronial, turn-of-the-last-century best, and I keep hoping that the next time I visit there, it will have been somehow magically restored to that incarnation. Unfortunately, that’s a dream only to be realized in trick photos such as this one.

If you’d to learn more about this landmark, pick up or order a copy of Mary Germain Hountalas’ 2009 book, The San Francisco Cliff House (Ten Speed Press).

And Much Later, Limbo Was Born

It’s not going too far to call this development world-changing:

It was twenty years ago today, on 30 April 1993, that CERN made the technology of the World Wide Web available free of charge to the public. The World Wide Web would not only revolutionise the Internet, but in the process would also revolutionise the world itself. From science to education to business to entertainment, there has probably not been one field that has not been changed by the World Wide Web.

A Shroud of Thoughts has more on this subject here.

And the Rest Was Musical History

Here’s a bit of trivia to know and share: the first compact discs became available in the United States on this date, two decades ago.

Apparently, on March 2, 1983, CBS Records released 16 titles on CD in the U.S. The first CD to be manufactured was The Visitors by ABBA in Germany in 1982. The first album to be released on CD was Billy Joel’s 52nd Street, which reached the market alongside Sony's CD player CDP-101 on October 1, 1982, in Japan. I guess that means the ABBA recording was produced before 52nd Street but released after.

And, to confuse things further, Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA was the first compact disc manufactured in the United States for commercial release, when CBS opened its CD manufacturing plant in Terre Haute, Indiana, in September 1984. Discs previously had been imported from Japan.

You can find out more here. And here.

Another Promise of Change

As we continues to celebrate President Barack Obama’s re-election, let’s not forget that this week also brings an important political anniversary. It was on November 8, 1932--80 years ago today--in the harrowing midst of the Great Depression, that Democratic New York Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt was first elected as the 32nd president of the United States, winning 42 states to Republican incumbent Herbert Hoover’s ... er, six.

The energetic and highly innovative Roosevelt would go on to be elected three more times, and serve in the White House until his death in 1945 (at which point Harry S. Truman assumed the presidency). He is commonly remembered now as the greatest U.S. president of the 20th century--even by Newt Gingrich--and certainly ranks among the top presidents ever.

You’ll find a collection of FDR’s greatest quotes here.

Come Fly with Me

This has certainly turned out to be a television-nostalgia-focused week. In addition to my posts about prime-time series introductions, I must note that it was 50 years ago today that the futuristic animated sitcom The Jetsons debuted on ABC-TV.

To a certain extent, the Space Age world that George Jetson and his small family inhabited--perched at nose-bleed heights above any sort of land in the year 2062, in aerodynamically designed buildings that looked like nothing so much as Seattle’s iconic Space Needle--was a nightmare. The numerous machines that were so integral to the lives of humans kept breaking down, and even that far-flung future seemed plagued by the same sorts of social and economic issues familiar to the early ’60s.

Yet, that was really the series’ point: that no matter how technologically advanced the world might become, it would still likely be hampered by entropy, human failure, and the psychological limitations of tradition. Whether children of the Kennedy era understood all of the nuances of The Jetsons wasn’t for certain; they probably did not. Surely, the social commentary passed over their noggins. But then, The Jetsons, like The Flintstones, Rocky and Bullwinkle, and other cartoons of the time wasn’t meant exclusively for prepubescents. In fact, this program debuted during television’s prime-time evening schedule, when both adults and children would be watching.

The Jetsons, a Hanna-Barbera production, had an original run of 24 episodes; another 41 were created for syndication in the mid-1980s. An 82-minute theatrical release, Jetsons: The Movie, came out in 1990 (though I never saw it), and there’s still talk of developing a live-action film version of The Jetsons. All of which demonstrates the appeal of the future, even if it’s a pretty laughable place and--except maybe for the flying cars and undependably servile robots--isn’t so very different from the world around us today.

READ MORE: “50 Years of the Jetsons: Why the Show Still Matters,” by Matt Novak (Paleofuture); “Eep Opp Ork Ah Ah,” by James Lileks (Star Tribune); “Meet the Jetsons,” by Bob Sassone.

TV in 1972: “M*A*S*H”

Tomorrow, September 17, will mark 40 years since the debut of M*A*S*H, the popular CBS-TV “medical dramedy” that focused on frequently anarchical doings around the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital stationed in Uijeongbu, South Korea, during the Korean War. That half-hour series--which starred Alan Alda, Loretta Swit, Harry Morgan, Jamie Farr, and a variety of others--was adapted from the 1970 Robert Altman film M*A*S*H. It ran from September 1972 through February 1983, and spawned one short-lived TV spin-off (AfterMASH) as well as the pilot for another sequel (W*A*L*T*E*R) that was not picked up by any of the U.S. networks. Pernell Roberts’ Trapper John, M.D. (1979-1986), in which he played a character portrayed by Wayne Rogers in the series, can also be considered a spin-off from M*A*S*H.

To celebrate this anniversary, the Me-TV Network--which reportedly now blankets 83 percent of the United States with vintage boob-tube content--is planning to air the opening two installments of M*A*S*H on Monday night, “Pilot” and “To Market, to Market,” beginning at 7 p.m. ET/PT. “During the rest of the week,” explains Television Obscurities, ”Me-TV will acknowledge the milestone with M*A*S*H facts and trivia.”

All of this started me thinking about other TV programs introduced during the 1972 fall premiere season on what were then just four American broadcast networks. M*A*S*H was certainly not the only one that’s still remembered fondly. So over the next six days, I’ll post some of the pages from the September 9-15, 1972, edition of TV Guide that previewed that season’s brand-new shows.

But let me start here with the issue’s write-up about M*A*S*H (simply right-click to enlarge the image):



And to acquaint you with what television watching was like in 1972, here’s the new prime-time schedule from that same issue of TV Guide. Yellow highlighting identifies the new series:



READ MORE: “10 Classic Episodes of M*A*S*H,” by Noel Murray (A.V. Club).

Finding the Future in the Past

Happy anniversary to the original Star Trek series! That “Wagon Train to the stars,” as creator Gene Roddenberry described it, debuted as part of NBC-TV’s prime-time schedule on September 8, 1966--46 years ago today. Google celebrates this occasion with a special homepage doodle, while Steven Thompson breaks out some Star Trek memorabilia to herald the show’s cultural impact.

Happy Birthday, Jamaica

As blogger Oliver Willis observes, it was “50 years ago today [that] Jamaica became an independent nation. Considering the hardships and obstacles it has faced (and continues to), Jamaica is a Caribbean success story. It is a small island with an outsized international influence, from athletics to art--people all over the globe know about the island nation.”

I’ve been fortunate to visit Jamaica several times over the years, seeing most corners of the country (including a less-than-spectacular daytrip to the capital, Kingston). The natural beauty and music and life rhythms of that fourth largest island nation of the Greater Antilles inevitably make me feel, well, more alive than I do in other parts of the world. As my friend Tom Wilmer has remarked before, it takes me mere moments after landing in Jamaica to fall into it the leisurely, “ya-mon” pace.

It wouldn’t surprise me at all to learn that, in some previous life, I lived in or at least conducted frequent commerce around that former Spanish possession and ex-English colony.

Is it time for a rum punch yet?