To my discredit, I didn’t know about Len Chandler, the folksinger and activist who died at his home in LA on August 28th at the age of 88. He sang alongside Dylan, Baez, and Seeger.
He was a classically trained oboist but fell hard for the folk scene after meeting Dave Van Ronk in Greenwich Village. The folksingers would pass the time playing poker in the back room, waiting to perform at the Gaslight. Dylan wrote “Chandler told me once, ‘You gotta learn how to bluff. You’ll never make it in this game if you don’t. Sometimes you even have to get caught bluffing.’”
At the March on Washington in 1963, where MLK, Jr. gave his “I have a dream” speech, Chandler sang the traditional song “Keep Your Eyes on the Prize (Hold On)” with some updated lyrics. Baez and Dylan were among the backing singers. He was on the maiden voyage of Pete Seeger’s Clearwater sloop, and was part of a troupe led by Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland that brought an antiwar revue to military towns and bases at the height of the Vietnam War.
The one song of his that was a hit was “Beans in My Ears” about people not listening to each other. It might have done even better had some medical groups not protested that it would lead to kids putting beans in their ears. I’m not kidding — some stations denied it airplay for that reason. Since Owl Chatter doesn’t give a crap about what you stick in your ears (or anywhere), you can give it a listen:
Chandler was born on May 27 (Linda’s birthday!), in 1935 in Ohio, and studied music at U. of Akron where he also felt the stirrings of activism. In 1954, after being barred from a Whites-only public pool, he wrote to the Akron Beacon Journal: “When will we, the people of the United States, learn to practice the principles of democracy that we preach?”
He earned a Masters degree at Columbia. He wrote over 1,000 topical songs for KRLA in Pasadena from ’68 to ’70. In June of ’68, Robert Kennedy was shot, and the song Chandler wrote contained these lyrics:
Long line of mourners,
Long lines of the slain,
Long lines of teletype
Spelling out the pain.
Long lines at the ballot box
Casting votes in vain.
Long lines line the long, long track
Of another lonesome train.
Dylan wrote: “One thing about Chandler was that he was fearless. He didn’t suffer fools, and no one could get in his way. Len was brilliant and full of good will, — one of those guys who believed that all of society could be affected by one solitary life.”
A mensch.
He is survived by his wife, Olga Adderley Chandler, who was the widow of the saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, and a son, Michael, neither of whom has beans in their ears.
Rest in peace Len.
According to a Letter to The Times today by James A. Steinberg of Rhinebeck, NY, there may be a way around our electoral college mess. By mess I mean how the candidate with fewer votes can become President, and how votes in clearly red or blue states just don’t matter, because the state is going in one direction overwhelmingly.
Steinberg writes about the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, under which states commit to award their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote. If the Compact is adopted by states with a total of 270 electoral votes it will effectively require the winner of the popular vote to become the winner of the electoral college vote.
And, get this — 16 states and DC have already signed on, covering 205 electoral votes. That means that if five out of the following six states join, the total of 270 is reached: Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Virginia. Other combinations would do it too, but this list makes it seem within the realm of possibility.
Frank Bruni’s newsletter was unusually sharply written this week. His topic was the utterly unprincipled Kevin McCarthy. This snippet refers to the time McCarthy had to fly down to Florida to kiss Trump’s, er, ring after reaming him out for the insurrection, and his recent meeting with Marjorie:
“You have eaten so much crow that you’re still coughing up the feathers. You had to make nice with and seek input from Marjorie Taylor Greene, whose counsel doesn’t rise to the level of a Magic 8 Ball’s.”
His “For the love of sentences” includes this note by Rick Reilly in WAPO on how bad the Colorado football team was last year. He noted they lost to Minnesota by 42 points and said: “Most schools could start the faculty against Minnesota and not lose by 42 points.” [Hey, was I just dissed?]
In the WSJ, Jason Gay complained about a prize his daughter won at a state fair: “I don’t know how many of you own a six-and-a-half-foot, bright blue stuffed lemur, but it is not exactly the type of item that blends into a home. You do not put it in the living room and say: perfect. It instantly becomes the most useless item in the house, and I own an exercise bike.”
Speaking of the Colorado Buffaloes, Deion’s team, they are playing Colorado State this Saturday and are 23.5 point favorites. State has an unusually broad recruitment approach that has netted the following players: a Japanese sumo wrestler, two Sudanese tribesmen, an openly gay defensive lineman, a 30-something father of three, and a strongman who can deadlift 800 pounds, whatever that means. Game time is 10pm Saturday, and it’s an Owl Chatter must-see.
By many diverse standards, Nelia Sancho was a jaw-droppingly extraordinary woman. First, she was a beauty, finishing second in the 1969 Miss Philippines pageant, and first in 1971 in the Queen of the Pacific competition, after which she toured Asia representing her country.
While touring, an Australian diplomat opened her eyes to the abuses Marcos was inflicting on her people and told her she was being exploited. Over a ten-year period starting in 1971, Marcos imprisoned 70,000, tortured 34,000, and killed over 3,200. Presses were shut down and protests banned. Nelia stopped competing and started protesting. She soon found herself in trouble and went into hiding in a safe house that turned out not to be safe enough. It was raided and she was arrested after witnessing the execution of two of her professors, a sight that would haunt her for the rest of her life.
After her release, she joined the New Peoples Army and rose to become its CFO. The press called her “guerilla queen” or “rebel queen,” and wondered why she gave up the life of a beauty queen for one of so much danger and struggle. She said it was a choice of conscience, and was easy.
She was imprisoned for 2.5 years and tortured, but met her husband, the activist Antonio Liao, while participating in a hunger strike. It’s a good way to meet guys, she later said. [No she didn’t.] They had two kids, but split in 1998. After Marcos was ousted from power she remained active in numerous causes but retired to a quiet life in her 50’s, enjoying walks on the beach and her grandchildren.
Nelia Sancho died on Sept. 1, 2022 at her home outside of Manila. She was 71. Her death was not widely reported outside the Philippines, which may explain this late obit in the NYT. She is survived by her two children, her sister, and five grandchildren, for all of whom the beauty of her youth never lost its glow.
And with Nelia in mind, we bid you good night — see you tomorrow!
The Wellington Files 