If you happened to be in B-town this weekend and desperately tracking my Blog like the other three fervid LoisLife fans ;), you would have noticed 2 things:
1. I did not Blog on Sunday, as I'd promised to do two weeks ago, and
2. there was an especially strong, freezing wind that blew through this Martin Luther King holiday weekend, such as rarely hits Baltimore, even in January.
If you marveled at these strange events, marvel no more! Such things can be explained quite simply. My parents were in town, having "blown in" as it were from the North--from Rockland County, New York, actually--and when they came in, they brought the usual rush of frigid air in their wake.
As is our tradition, my folks came in to Baltimore over the MLK, Jr. holiday weekend and stayed with me over that time. Given that my parents (especially my Mom) are basically a whirling vortex of energy and then some, I am generally, during this time, caught--trapped, some might say--somewhere between the eye and the eye wall of a hurricane.
My Mom loves to say that she is just like anyone else's Mom--but really, there is no one quite like her, she is very much a unique sitcom-type character all unto herself. When my family gets together, it is guaranteed to be a very 'Seinfeldian sitcom-y family experience' in the nature of a Costanza family reuinion. If you've ever watched Seinfeld, you might imagine this to be a tad--well, exhausting, to say the least. And though I meant to Blog yesterday, somehow, when my 'rents left town, I didn't quite feel up to it, needing as it were the entire day just to recover.
Now really I had planned to skip mention of my own real-life New York based Jewish "sitcom type family's" visit entirely, but it occured to me that a connection might be drawn somewhat between my family's visit, this Blogshow, and a certain TV sitcom I just learned about a few days ago called "The Goldbergs." This was a show which aired some time ago, back in 1949.
It was in fact the first TV sitcom ever--the original situation comedy show "about nothing"--long before Jerry Seinfeld dreamed of his or, in fact, before he himself was even the slightest glimmer in his parents' eye. It broadcast the adventures of a fictitious Jewish family residing, at the start of the series, in a lower East side tenement in New York City. And though I am told (for I have never actually seen the show) that it incorporated various stereotypes about Jews, immigrants, and poor people living in such communities, it was nonetheless generally the first show to portray such groups in a positive light.
It was all the brainchild of one woman, Gertrude Berg, a veritable mega multi-media pioneeress who not only created the show but starred in it and carried it through and past the transition from radio to TV for a breathtaking 17-year run, plus managed to spin this off into a Broadway play besides.*
These days some might say that Gertrude had a "face and a body built for radio," but she surely must have been something--she undoubtedly must have possessed a a talent, vision, and personality bold and large enough to sweep all else aside. For Gertrude Berg's TV sitcom was both widely and wildly popular, and it surely paved the way for so much entertainment to come--from Jerry Seinfeld's "little show about nothing" to so many other situation comedies and dramas besides. Not to mention, the sort of multi-media mega-fame that other actress/writer/visionaries (like Oprah, Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett, Rosanne Barre, etc.) since achieved.
And I suppose, in some small way, I, and my my little self-styled "Baltimore Blogshow" with its sitcom type episodes--might be said to be in Gertie's debt too.
So I just wanted to say "Thank you" to Gertie, and for her remarkable achievement in creating this new artform and for daring to use this new media to help bring people together, to accomplish much social good, and help many folks see themselves and those around them, through the combined power and magic of art, humor, and mass distribution of entertainment via new technology, in a bit of new light.
As for my particular "real life TV sitcom-style family," they did leave the greater DC-Baltimore area after taking in many of its primary cultural attractions and highlights: the Hopper exhibit at the National Gallery of Art in DC on Saturday, as well as the Sculpture Garden and ice skating rink just outside of it and a movie (The Savages) at Landmark's E Street Cinema not far away, then Cafe Hon and the Poe birthday celebration here in Baltimore on Sunday.**
And while they might have left the city itself, and some of its residents, a bit "shaken and shivering," on the whole I think they left it more or less intact. And they did arrive back safely in New York, as I am sure that my little "Blogshow's audience" will be happy to hear--leaving me, ultimately, free to recover and once again, write.
Copyright 2008 by Lois
*To learn more about Gertrude Berg and other Jewish American entertainers and notables, catch Jewish Americans: Home, airing here on Maryland Public TV at 9 PM Wed, Jan 23rd and on Maryland Public TV-Select Digital at 9 PM Sat, Jan 26th.
**The "spooky Poe headstone" photo I've posted to this Blog was actually taken at last year's Poe birthday celebration. Photos from this year's Poe birthday celebration, which took place Jan 19-20th in Westminster Hall, can be viewed at the 'Meet 4 Fun' social networking website here. To track upcoming Poe events here in Baltimore, click here. Note that 2009 is the Bicentennial of Poe's birthday. Look out for details on the City's, and the Society's, plans for a dizzying array of Poe events to celebrate this momentous occasion in 'the monumental city' as they become available.
July_10_2010_vlog.mp4
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