I returned the found iPod a few days ago. It wasn't as sad as I expected it to be. I guess iPods can be annoying, the way their earphones tug at your ears, their power shorts out all too often, and they play songs you don't like (especially on the borrowed ones).
When I had the iPod, I was thinking I would be getting one of my own after I returned it to its owner. But now I'm back to Square One, before I got to use it for a few weeks, thinking I have much more important things to be spending my money on, like food, gas, utility bills and car payments.
Tuesday night I watched "Steal this Movie!" and learned about life in the radical '60s and Abbie Hoffman. I didn't know anything about Abbie Hoffman before I watched the movie, and didn't even realize I was getting a movie that was based on a true story. As I watched it, I thought that perhaps his name was a little familiar, but I couldn't be sure. He was so caught up in who he was, being recognized, and making a difference. He obviously did make a lot of difference to some people (maybe a lot of people), but I think his self-centeredness is what killed him. Fame can really get to a person. Especially when the fame has a touch of notoriety to it.
There were a few lines in the movie, or maybe in the interviews about the movie, that talked about how radical people who worked in the 1960s to effectuate change by protesting and being active in government helped advance society to where we are now, by advancing the civil rights movement, advancing women's rights and improving social services for the financially challenged. I wasn't around then, and I wasn't around before then, and I'd never heard it explained that way before. Overall, the movie met my likability standards, which must be pretty high, because it doesn't happen to me too often. I'm not trying to convey that it was a great movie, and I wouldn't go around telling everyone that they have to watch it (I probably wouldn't do that no matter how good a movie or book was); but it had depth, comedy, drama, psychological themes, and it was intellectual. Give me more of that, please, Hollywood!
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I picked up a signed copy of "Steal This Book" at the Underground Railroad (the legendary club that was at 123 Pleasant St in mo'town in the mid-80's). This was the last night the Underground was open, about a year after the mysterious and still unsolved disappearance of its owner Marsha Ferber. I believe Marsha told met that she and Abbie were childhood pals. I always thought they grew up in New Jersey, but I see in Abbie's wikipedia entry he was born in Massachusetts. Anyhoo, I won the last pool game played at the Underground that night before it closed, and I tried to steal the damn book, but ironically I couldn't because Abbie left some copies there for free a few months before.
The Wikipedia Abbie Hoffman bio is disappointingly short. When I was talking about "Steal This Movie!" with a friend a few days ago, he, too, told me about Marsha Ferber and her connection to Abbie. Good story.
I am Marsha Ferber's niece, Debbie. I google her name every so often to see what is being written about her around the web. Marsha and my father grew up first in Uxbridge, MA, and then moved to Worchester, MA, where they went to school with Abbie Hoffman. Marsha, Abbie and my father were friends in BBYO - a Jewish teen youth group. Marsha kept in touch with Abbie through the years.
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