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Something the Lord Made - Bluesman Mike Lindner - 02-26-2006
Maggers Wrote:I just watched "Something the Lord Made." What an extraordinary film. I was unfamiliar with the history upon which the film is based. I'm so happy I saw it.
In the beginning of the film in 1930's Tennessee, Vivian and his brother are walking together. Without thinking, without a fuss, they step aside off the narrow sidewalk each time a white person passed by. They lower their heads, nodding "good day" to the whites and are never acknowledged in return. That's just a brief, eye opening example of the everyday racism mentioned by FPW that was so prevalent, so routine.
"Something the Lord Made" is indeed a breathtaking little gem of a movie that should be seen by everyone. You cannot watch it and not be moved to your core.
For all the professional race-baiters would have us think, things really have changed in this land. I was reading about the 1943 Detroit riots last night. The tragic beef was 3 black men in a defense plant got promoted ahead of their white counterparts. "I'd rather Hitler and Hirohito win the War before I have to work besides a nigger." And John Keel once told me of his early days in NY, when he befriended a young black poet, around 1947. "Lindner, he was talented, had a wry way of looking at men and women's interactions. And he knew how to use the language. He got published in a few of the little poetry 'zines floating around at the time. He really could write. But he was so angry... he was almost incandescent with rage. What happened to him, Lindner? Well, we kept in touch. We had a deal--each would help the other with writing jobs. When I started to get steady work, I'd call him, "I recommended you, my editor might have a job for you." By that point, he wasn't writing anymore. He found heroin. He died a junkie."