The Apocalypse and Danny Greene

Well, if you are reading this another protestant radio preacher is wrong, for at least the second time; of course the non-english speaking world has not heard about this one. Some of you must be old enough to remember the shysters Hal Lindsey and Pat Robertson. They too were wrong on this, as on so much.

It is reported, that, he [Harold Camping] spent millions of his own stash of cash on advertising. Billboards, some with a gold seal with the words “The Bible Guarantees It” are part of the message. Not all of the billboards have that presentation, and the smug certainty, of that phrase, galls me the most. Each crackpot speaks ex-cathedra on his personal interpretation, that is binding to all. The first i had seen of this particular Last Day (Zadnji Dan, Ultimo Giorno, Dernier Jour...), a girl was handing out leaflets on the side of the cathedral during the St. Patrick parade. At that moment, i was not amused. I now regret not allowing a family member to take one of the tracts.

The American Protestant patois is ‘rapture’. This is borrowed from a fellow named John Nelson Darby [he also invented the term ‘dispensationalism’] in victorian Britain, who was an original in the sect Garrison Keillor grew up in. Some have given it a theme song, “I’ll Fly Away”. This was a shape note gospel song that found its way to bluegrass. Albert Brumley created it in 1929 while picking cotton, i don't know how much theology he was suggesting. He had an earlier song in mind, he was thinking “actually, I was dreaming of flying away from that cotton field when I wrote I’ll Fly Away”. The term ‘rapture’ in Catholic theology is considered ‘bullshit’.

There has been some media coverage on this in the last few days. What think you, when the gulled will awaken Sunday morning to find themselves earthbound with nothing other than ordinary troubles striking civilisation?

Gary Trudeau [a Catholic], the cartoonist, saw this coming and he devoted this past week to it. The ‘stoner’ Zonker quotes the proper Matthew [xxiv. 36] quotation that should shut these idjiots [sic] down, or up. To-day he quoted Paul, “For yourselves know perfectly, that the day of the Lord shall so come, as a thief in the night.” It is the job of the jester to tell truth and deflate balloons of hot air.

The conjunction (and, or) is the quickest way of connecting two thoughts, so that, from any point, one can go to any point. Greater Cleveland in the bicentennial year had fireworks. It was not just Bob Hope at Municipal Stadium for a doubleheader on Independence Day. Cleveland likes fireworks. That year Cleveland was ‘Bomb City USA’. The mafiosi were clearing their benches, something the police could not do.

Those bombs caused personal apocalypses for some. Recently, a movie, Kill the Irishman, was released about Danny Greene, the Cleveland gangster. It was filmed a couple of years ago in Detroit, apparently Cleveland could not fill in as Cleveland. One story is that Michigan cut taxes for filming. Detroit in 2009 looks more depressing, dingy, decrepit and derelict than Cleveland 1960-77. The first thing one notices is they did not film in Cleveland, other than a panorama shot in the beginning. They could have bought some old film besides the television news stories about Greene and the bombings. The first thing someone from Cleveland notices is that the film was not shot in Cleveland.

The film lingered on signs. The stupidest one came early — Islamic Slaughterhouse. The slaughterhouses were next to the train tracks on W. 65. I didn't come to watch for these details, and saw the film once. I don't remember trains in the film. ‘Islamic’ was not in the lexicon then, the word was ‘moslem’, and later ‘muslim’. People who became familiar with ‘muslim’, did not recognise, or remember, ‘moslem’. ‘Islamic’entered America through the Iranian revolution and the taking of hostages, after the time period of the film. Oh, and there was no such building in Cleveland.

The rest of the world has St. Malachy*, it is the actor's parish in Manhattan. Cleveland has St. Malachi (a parish history notes, but cannot explain the spelling). Lennon was just beginning his church closures in Cleveland. They could have photographed here. Malachy’s in Detroit is a modernistic edifice in Sterling Heights. I don't know the stand-in used.

The street signs in Cleveland are dark blue and white. The film had green and white, Danny did not have them changed. A fellow from work said disgruntledly, “It’s not Lakewood”. One sign was ‘Elizabeth W’. Where the hell is that? They could have gotten one to read, ‘Waterloo’ (which is ironic and accurate), ‘Lakeshore’ or ‘E.156’.

The film took along time in development. A cop author, Rich Porello was listed as executive director. His grandfather was once capo of the local mob during Prohibition. Could he not have suggested accuracies in filming (the dialogue was authentic)? The silliest error was about Collinwood. Collinwood is on the east side of Cleveland. Collinwood is where Greene lived. After the beginning of the movie, it became ‘Collingwood’. Did some typist obey a spell check programme? Of course, the local post office had a ball stamp with that spelling, they may still have it.

Greene is an interesting character. He was always nice to the Sisters, in Collinwood. The Ursulines taught at St. Jerome on E. 152, and St. Joseph at E. 144. He was devoted to at least SS. Jude, Patrick and Mary. He spent baby years at the catholic orphanage in Parma. He went to school at St. Jerome’s in Collinwood, and then for high school to the Jesuits at Ignatius, before going, and leaving, Collinwood High [(in the movie some fictitious Metro-East was mentioned, Cleveland has an East, and an East Tech) why a bio-pic creates such unnecessary, and peculiar inventions is beyond reason].

He cheated his brother longshoremen, this is not acceptable amongst union brothers, unfortunately it is too common. A friend remarked to me, that, he has a great problem in the glorification of a gangster†. Greene dealt death while being phlegmatic about his own. There is a call for a psychological and a dramatic study of such a scenario, it has come up short so far. Greene believed his Guardian Angel was successively vigilant; he believed in Christianity, an Irish Catholic one somehow intertwined with folklore and history. He was a Boy Scout and a Marine, a boxer and a marksman. He knew both Mars and Mammon. There is a conflict in that soul.
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*there are prophecies about the end of the world attributed to Saint Malachy
†some mafiosi see themselves as businessmen, and they are; and it is not permitted in the US to criticise them