Mike Shanin

The term “legend” is tossed around loosely these days,  but there are some folks who deserve the appellation. I had the great pleasure of seeing and hearing one perform last week.Singer Marilyn Maye has been part of the local music scene for decades but she continues to defy the clock, and the inexorable march of time.  Age has not diminished her immense talent or her equally immense charm.  She wowed the New York critics not long ago and is returning to the Big Apple for appearances this fall.To watch Marilyn perform is to watch that rarest of entertainers—an original.  It also reminds us of the great gift of talent some, but not most, people receive.Talent can be developed and refined, but it can’t be taught.  There’s no Marilyn Maye 101.  Talent is either there or is not.  Marilyn’s has been evident from the outset.  On stage these days, she’s like a very hip grandma whose contemporary ad-libs are made possible by years of experience.  She kids herself and her audience.  But she doesn’t kid about her vocalizing.  When the patter stops and the music starts, Marilyn Maye again becomes the consummate nightclub singer whose repertoire runs the gamut from Broadway to Birdland.She tells her audience she has no plans to quit singing, a comment that engenders sustained and sincere applause.Marilyn Maye’s vocal skills and stage presence are presents that keep on giving.

Heading to vacation, I’m reminded of years past when major news events took place while I was away.  It’s a frustrating thing to encounter when stories you would love to talk about and hear what listeners think of them occur while you’re away from work.

In 1977, I was in San Francisco when the major Plaza flood hit Kansas City.  Ditto the late 80s-early 90s when some of the countries of the old Soviet Empire broke away and history was forever changed.  I was in Monterey-Carmel.

Just last year, I was lounging in Las Vegas the same week that rioters were protesting in Iran over the rigged elections, Governor Sanford of South Carolina was professing his unfaithfulness to his wife and, on the plane ride home, I learned of Michael Jackson’s death.

We’ll find out on Monday, June 14 when Scott and I return to the program if major news has again happened on my time off (how dare it?) and if  history has repeated itself.

It strikes me as an act of absolute silliness for the Kansas City, Missouri City Council to approve a resolution calling on Arizona to rescind its anti-immigration law.  It’s silly for several reasons:  It resolves nothing.  It has no effect or application in law.  It’s none of the council’s business.  It is not a reflection of the Kansas City community’s views.  And, it serves to further antagonize area residents who live outside Kansas City, Missouri, and already have a less than positive opinion of its government.  It’s also silly–to use that word again—that two council members have declined invitations to be on the S&P program to explain the rationale for the measure.  One was a co-author, Beth Gottstein; the other, Mayor Funkhouser.   The mayor’s office reported last Friday that he was “too busy” to join us for a short conversation.  Odd, he’s not short of time when he wants to promote his “Schools First” initiative.  Never short of time to make an hour-long monthly appearance on the program.    The mayor missed a golden opportunity to enhance his re-election hopes by opposing this ludicrous idea.  Funkhouser says that his experience as mayor has made him more responsive to conservative impulses.  This should have been one of those times!

It was painful to watch Jay Leno at last night’s White House Correspondents Dinner.  The master of the one-liners lost his mastery, telling predictable jokes and falling far short of the performance that preceded his—that of President Obama.   I think Leno’s main problem was that he was confined to the area behind a podium, a lectern.  Normally, he roams the stage of the “Tonight Show” and is not working in a limited space.  Also, he was using note cards, visibly flipping one to the other as one joke died and the next prepared to be sacrificed.  Usually, Leno is much better.  He, more than anyone, must be deeply disappointed by his work last evening.  It’s painful to flop! I speak from experience.  Even the best  have an off-day once in a while.   Lest anyone doubt that, watch the video of Leno’s performance!

In the aftermath of the Plaza melee a few weekends ago, we are hearing the familiar cry of teens, a cry that echoes through the decades:  There’s nothing to do!When I was a teen in the late 50s, my friends and I said that.  When Parks was a teen in the 80s, he and his friends were saying that.Regardless of your age, I‘m confident you said that.It’s a particularly silly argument today.  No generation in history has had more things to do and more opportunities to do them.Yet, civic and political leaders won‘t say that.  Instead they argue the need for more diversions, more recreational outlets, more entertainment.  Teen summits are held and the summiteers are asked what needs to be done. (That’s like asking homeless people to design a housing plan for the community.)  My favorite quote from a recent meeting is this.  A teenage girl told city officials, “We need a place to party!”  Will the financially strapped city government of Kansas City, Missouri, be able to offer a place to party?  And, even if it could, should it? Are you kidding?

Mayor Mark Funkhouser of Kansas City, Missouri, is wrestling with the problems caused by last weekend’s melee on the Country Club Plaza.  To his credit, he does not seem to buy into the silliness that the 700 teens, mostly black according to eyewitness and other accounts, were causing injury, destruction and fear because “they had nowhere to go and nothing to do.”  No generation in the history of the world has enjoyed the entertainment and recreation opportunities afforded today’s teens.  Obviously, not all the kids were complicit in the  lawlessness.  But all were part of the large crowd that gathered on purpose for no apparent purpose except, perhaps, to create disorder. Funkhouser, an ex-officio member of the police board, also rejected the lame suggestion that officers “over-reacted” in their use of pepper spray, thus inflaming the situation.  The mayor, city council and police board now have two important responsibilities to fulfill.1)  Give police personnel all  the support they need and encourage the department to make a show of force on the Plaza this weekend.2)  Don’t “commit Sociology” by trying to create programs and projects to occupy the time of errant teens.  There are more important issues to contemplate and better ways to spend the public’s money.Funkhouser recently visited with the Mayor of Philadelphia, Michael Nutter, who is a black man.Philadelphia has also recently experienced “flash mobs” and “wilding” incidents.  Nutter gave Funkhouser his perspective.  It‘s a good one.  “I was elected to be mayor, not mama!”