chuck berry

MOVIE REVIEW: Accidental Courtesy (2016)

ACCIDENTAL COURTESY (2016 PBS)

Directed by Matthew Ornstein

I’ve done it, and you have probably done it too:  Getting in an argument online with a total stranger over racially charged politics.  We live in new times.  It’s the era of Trump, Trayvon, and Mike Brown.  We live in the years of racial profiling and travel bans.  Just when we think we’ve made amazing strides including the first black US president, we seem to be heading backwards just as fast.

Daryl Davis is a musician.  Most notably, he was the keyboardist in Chuck Berry’s band.  He’s played with B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Jerry Lee Lewis, the Platters, and knows all the greats.  He’s a very talented but also intelligent and compassionate man.  Upon watching Accidental Courtesy, I wondered if music really is his first calling.  It seems that Davis’ true talents may just be sitting down and talking.  “When two enemies are talking, they’re not fighting,” says Daryl.

Although this movie is about a musician, it’s not about the music.  Music does play a small role.  The first time Davis experienced race-related hate, he was the only black child in an otherwise white marching band, and didn’t understand why things were thrown at him.  He thought, maybe they were playing the music poorly.  His parents had to explain to him, “They don’t like you because of the colour of your skin.”  Life was never the same after that.

Accidental Courtesy isn’t about his music career, but about what Daryl Davis has done with the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacists.  Since 1990, Davis has sat with various members of the KKK, both high ranking and rank-and-file.  Very few people can rival Davis for his knowledge of the Klan’s history and practices, so much so that Klan members have even approached him to learn.  Over long periods of time, after truly and sincerely befriending Davis regardless of his race, 26 Klansmen eventually turned in their robes to him and gave up the Klan.

It’s bizarre to see men who don’t believe in the mixing of races show up at Davis’ wedding to a white woman, to celebrate with him.  His friendship with them trumped their belief system.  It’s strange to see a black man invited into a KKK home, and vice versa.  It’s certainly unusual to see a fully robed KKK wizard sitting and shaking hands with a black man, simply enjoying conversation and company.

In the film, Davis also sits with the Southern Poverty Law Center, who seem less moved by his “person to person” method of combating hate.  They prefer to use a bigger stick.  What was surprising is how much flak he took from representatives from Black Lives Matter in Baltimore.  Here, he was mocked by two dropout activists for “only” converting 26 KKK members since 1990.  What was especially shocking was that the Black Lives Matter reps refused to continue to the conversation.   To them, he was worse than a white racist; to them he betrayed the cause.  All these white supremacists were willing to sit down and shake hands with Davis, but Black Lives Matter gave him the most difficult time.  They actually got up from the table and berated and belittled him before cutting the conversation off completely.  He was even treated with more respect by the KKK leader who refused to acknowledge the holocaust and said that blacks should be grateful to whites for freeing them.  It’s troublesome to think on what that means.

Certainly not everyone approves of the methods of Daryl Davis.  But in this day and age of social media, it’s more important than ever to talk.  Not online, not on Facebook, Daryl advises.  In person, where people can get to know each other, see each others faces and expressions, actually get to know one another.  Talk to each other, instead of talking at each other.  In this film, Davis asks questions, but rarely lectures.  Davis’ technique is simply to ask what makes people tick.  “How can you hate me when you don’t know me?” is a good opener.  He finds out what makes them think the way they do.  There is always more to the story than appears on the surface.  There is always a root cause.

Some felt Daryl did more harm that good with his methods.  Some feel he has betrayed his own people.  But, as Daryl says in the film, whites and blacks and people of all races must share America together.  That’s why we have to talk and figure out how to co-exist.  If he could convince an Imperial Wizard to hang up his robes, that is one small step to making the world a better place.  Black Lives Matter and the Southern Poverty Law Center have their own methods.  That does not negate the inroads that Davis made, just by talking.

There doesn’t seem to be much accidental about Daryl Davis’ courtesy.  It’s all very much on purpose.  Davis has a rich tapestry of friends behind him, some of whom have given up on hate.  If they can, why can’t everybody?

4/5 stars

#492: The Golden Records

golden 2

GETTING MORE TALE #492: The Golden Records

In 1977, two unique records were pressed that are literally out of this world.

voyager 2The Voyager space probes (1 and 2) were designed for exploration of our outer solar system.  Never to return, the probes were built for the “Grand Planetary Tour”:  a rare alignment of the outer planets that allowed the probes to use gravity to slingshot around and visit them all.  The Voyager spacecraft transmitted to Earth some of the most breathtaking images ever taken.  For the first time, Saturn’s rings could be seen up close, and surprised us with more layers and complexity (including the ‘F’ ring that is kinked) than anyone anticipated.  Jupiter’s Great Red Spot was discovered to be a gargantuan storm, three Earths wide!

Although the probes were not really intended for long term scientific observations beyond their initial missions, their plutonium generators will continue to provide power for another decade.  Clever scientists have managed to use the probes’ limited sensors to observe what goes on at the edge of the solar system.  Both probes are now well on their way out of our home system, and into interstellar space.  Once their generators die, they will go silent forever.  They are now the furthest man-made objects from the Earth and will remain so forever, unless we find the money to invest further in deep space exploration.

Even when the Voyager probes finally go dark forever, their mission will still be ongoing.  Both Voyagers were equipped with special antiquated technology that can tell alien civilizations a little bit about the troubled species that launched these probes in the first place.  If an alien race ever finds our probes (the fictional Voyager 6 was found by a machine race in Star Trek I) then they will find the Golden Records.

The Golden Records, surely the most priceless LPs in the universe, contain a wealth of information selected by a committee headed by the late Dr. Carl Sagan.  Each record is encased in a gold sleeve.  Included is a visual depiction of how to play the record, an easy task for an advanced race.  Extracting sound from the grooves should be a simple process given the instructions.  The needle and cartridge are already included.  The records are made copper, plated in gold, one of the most corrosion resistant materials known to man.

What is included on the records?  A variety of audio for one, designed to give a glimpse into human culture.  First is a greeting in 55 Earth languages.  Then, there are “Sounds of Earth”:  birds, dogs, frogs, cars and trains, and more.  Most interesting to music fans is the selection of compositions from around the world.  There are 90 minutes of different pieces, including Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode” (USA), Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto (Germany), jazz and blues, and many kinds of world music.   (The records are designed to be played at 16⅔ revolutions per minutes, enabling a longer play time.)  In a classic example of record company stupidity, the Beatles were excluded from the golden LPs, because EMI wouldn’t let NASA use “Here Comes the Sun”.  Perhaps they were afraid aliens would bootleg it without paying for it.  (This serves as a fine case of EMI standing for “Every Mistake Imaginable”, as some artists refer to them.)  After the music is an hour of brain wave recordings, of Carl Sagan’s wife Ann Druyan.

There are even 116 images encoded on the disc.  Some of these are intended to help with calibration and interpretation.  The rest are images of Earth:  DNA strings, children, families, landscapes, animals, houses, cities, spacecraft and more.  Tellingly, there are no images of one of human-kind’s most popular activities:  warfare.  Only good impressions were wanted, meaning the Voyager Records contain much false advertising.   The images are encoded in the form of 512 vertical lines, in colour and black and white.

What if one wanted to listen to the rarest records in the universe?  What to do then?  Last year, NASA uploaded the audio contents of the records to SoundCloud.   Now anyone on Earth with an internet connection and speakers can hear the greetings that we sent to the stars in 1977.  Hopefully one day, someone else from another world will be able to listen as well.

Click here for the NASA SoundCloud page, and scroll down for the Voyager recordings!