#josh dunson

[broadsidemagazine]

"Yevtushenko, Lorca, and Bob Dylan", written by Josh Dunson

"Mr. Dylan's compositions don't fit into any pigeonhole; the minute you have one characterized, it flies away. His lyrics mix a solo sermon out of Guthrie's conversational folksay with a dash of Rimbaud's demonic imagery or even a bit of Yevtushenko's social criticism." Robert Shelton, New York Times, April 13, 1963

A lot of other people have been comparing Bob Dylan not only to Yevtushenko but to Garcia Lorca, especially after hearing Bob do his “Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall”.

It is difficult to fit any true poet in a “pigeonhole”. That's too small a space for a creative artist, too small for a roving singer like Bob Dylan. When asked how he writes his songs, Bob just says they're up there in the air, and he just picks them down, and if he didn't, somebody else would. I think there's more in this thought than merely modesty. In it there are many scatterings of truth.

Why is it when you read through great poets of different cultures and different times that much of their imagery is similar, and many times they talk about the same feelings and things? One way of answering this is to say there are certain common events all these poets see and react to -- war, love, nature, children; and that their images likewise come from common experience. The way Bob Dylan might answer it would be that these poets reached up into the same piece of air, and what they pulled down, in their individual ways, was their poems and their songs.

A number of people see Yevtushenko and Dylan as being close together. as both being social critics, and thereby playing a similar role in their respective countries. It seems to me that the impact of and the poetry itself are quite different. In Russia there is the tradition of the poet as an important social critic that dates back to Pushkin, and goes right through the Soviet period beginning with Mayakovsky and finally to the present day where Yevtushenko’s most recent book, published in 1962, sold out its edition of 100,000 copies. America's most important social critics have been her novelists, ie: Harriet B. Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and her journalists, ie: Lincoln Steffens’ Shame of the Cities. Our poets, even our popular ones like Robert Frost and Carl Sandburg, undergo book editions of 5 to 10 thousand with the publisher still taking a loss.

But we have had our great social poets, and I think when Bob’s work is fully evaluated he will number among them. Bob does not mince words when he speaks about the "masters of war”:

I hope that you die and your death will come soon, I’ll follow your casket by the pale afternoon, And I’ll watch while you’re lowered down to your death bed, Then I’ll stand over your grave ‘til I’m sure that you're dead.

Yevtushenko wishes death on the anti-semites in Babi Yar:

How horrible it is that pompous title the anti-semites calmly call themselves,  Society of the Russian Race. No part of me can ever forget it. When the last anti-semite on the earth is buried for ever let the International ring.

Yevtushenko sees in the death of the anti-semites a re-affirmation of the society in which he lives. Dylan in his songs too calls for the righting of the wrongs in his society, but they are so multitudinous and deeply imbedded what may be necessary is a new society as Woody Guthrie visualizes. A striking difference between Yevtushenko and Dylan is that Bob’s action is much more intense -- he will follow the war planner's casket to make sure that he is dead. And in “Emmett Till” he lashes out not only at the lynchers but at the great mass of us who by standing aside and failing to take action against racism permit it to continue:

If you can't speak out against this sort of thing, A crime that's so unjust,  Your eyes are filled with dead man's dirt, Your mind is filled with dust. Your arms and legs they must be in shackles and chains, Your blood must refuse to flow, For you would let this human race, Fall down so godawful low.

Intensity added to a wide-ranging view gives us this Dylan verse in “With God On Your Side” which has implications much deeper than only the problem of anti-semitism:

When the second World War came to an end We forgave the Germans and then we were friends. Though they murdered six million, In the ovens they fried, The Germans now, too Have God on their side.

I get the feeling on hearing Dylan and reading Lorca that they both pull their poems out of the same body of air, although there are marked differences and Bob has never read Lorca. It is as though they met one night on a mountainside and looked out over the world’s lands and oceans and saw the same things and agreed to tell us, each in his own way, what they saw. Bob sings: “I heard the sound of a thunder that roared out a warning” while Lorca says: “these clouds are broken by fistblows of coral that carry a fiery cocoon on their backs.”

Bob is much influenced by Woody Guthrie, of course, and I think it is here where comparisons become the most meaningful. Woody did not confine himself to “silo sermons” and those who say he “did not exceed the boundaries of talk song” should take another look at his work. His imagery many times is subtle, strong and lyrical:

I tell you about the winds and the weathers and oceans and the lands and the continents that have riz and sunk since this little hunk of dirt first whirled off the burning sun. I tell you of the men and the women that bathed their eyes in the zig zag lightning and hugged and kissed in the rumbling thunder and about every union wheel that ever did run down a union road…

Bob Dylan’s “Hard Rain” and “Blowin In The Wind” come to mind right away. He means it sincerely when he sings in his “Letter To Woody”:

Hey Woody, but I know that you know All the things that I’m sayin and many times more.

(Broadside #27, June 1963)

#josh dunson #bob dylan #yevtushenko #lorca #broadside #broadside ballads #broadside magazine #sing out #sing out! #writing #articles #folk music #folk #music #1963 #60s

[kwebtv]

Bonanza:  The Next Generation  -  CBS  -  March 23, 1988

Western

Running Time:  93 minutes

Stars:

John Ireland as Captain Aaron Cartwright

Robert Fuller as Charlie Poke

Barbara Anderson as Annabelle 'Annie' Cartwright

Michael Landon Jr. as Benjamin 'Benj' Cartwright

Brian A. Smith as Josh Cartwright

John Amos as Mr. Mack

Peter Mark Richman as Mr. Dunson

Gillian Greene as Jennifer Sills

Kevin Hagen as Nathaniel Amsted

William Benedict as Gus Morton

Richard Bergman as Sheriff Montooth

Dabbs Greer as Sills

#Bonanza: The Next Generation #TV #CBS #Western #1980's #John Ireland #Robert Fuller #Barbera Anderson #Michael Landon Jr. #Brian Smith #John Amos #Peter Mark Richman #Gillian Greene

[milliondollarbaby87]

MOTION PICTURES

Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Parasite

HYAE JIN CHANG / Chung Sook YEO JEONG CHO / Yeon Kyo WOO SHIK CHOI / Ki Woo HYEON JUN JUNG / Da Song ZISO JUNG / Da Hye JUNG EUN LEE / Moon Gwang SUN KYUN LEE / Dong Ik MYUNG HOON PARK / Geun Se SO DAM PARK / Ki Jung KANG HO SONG / Ki Taek

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role Joaquin Phoenix, Joker

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role Renee Zellweger, Judy

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role Brad Pitt, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role Laura Dern, Marriage Story

TELEVISION Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series The Crown

MARION BAILEY / Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother HELENA BONHAM CARTER / Princess Margaret OLIVIA COLMAN / Queen Elizabeth II CHARLES DANCE / Lord Mountbatten BEN DANIELS / Lord Snowdon ERIN DOHERTY / Princess Anne CHARLES EDWARDS / Martin Charteris TOBIAS MENZIES / Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh JOSH O’CONNOR / Prince Charles SAM PHILLIPS / Equerry DAVID RINTOUL / Michael Adeane JASON WATKINS / Harold Wilson

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

CAROLINE AARON / Shirley Maisel ALEX BORSTEIN / Susie Myerson RACHEL BROSNAHAN / Midge Maisel MARIN HINKLE / Rose Weissman STEPHANIE HSU / Mei JOEL JOHNSTONE / Archie Cleary JANE LYNCH / Sophie Lennon LEROY McCLAIN / Shy Baldwin KEVIN POLLAK / Moishe Maisel TONY SHALHOUB / Abe Weissman MATILDA SZYDAGIS / Zelda BRIAN TARANTINA / Jackie MICHAEL ZEGEN / Joel Maisel

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series Peter Dinklage, Game of Thrones

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series Jennifer Aniston, The Morning Show

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series Tony Shalhoub, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Fleabag

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series Sam Rockwell, Fosse/Verdon

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series Michelle Williams, Fosse/Verdon

STUNT ENSEMBLES Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture

AVENGERS: ENDGAME Marija Juliette Abney Janeshia Adams-Ginyard George “Gee” Alexander Derek Alfonso Nate Andrade Christopher Antonucci Randy Archer Brandon Arnold Steven S. Atkinson Ben Aycrigg Jennifer Badger Christopher Balualua Danya Bateman Loyd Bateman Kelly Bellini Joanna Bennett Carrie Bernans Felix Betancourt Gianni Biasetti, Jr. Mike Bishop Tamiko Brownlee Troy Butler Jwaundace Candece Marc Canonizado Janene Carleton Elisabeth Carpenter Sean Christopher Carter Kevin Cassidy Hymnson Chan Courtney Chen Anis Cheurfa Fernando Chien Alvin Chon Tye Claybrook, Jr. Marcelle Coletti David Conk John A. Cooper Brandon Cornell Thomas Joseph Culler Jahnel Curfman Gui Da Silva-Greene Chris Daniels Keith Davis Martin De Boer Robbert de Groot Isabella Shai DeBroux Holland Diaz Josh Diogo Jackson Dobies Justin Dobies Cory Dunson Jessica Durham Justin Eaton Jared Eddo Katie Eischen Kiante Elam Jazzy Ellis David Elson Jason Elwood Hanna Tony Falcon Guy Fernandez Mark Fisher Alessandro Folchitto Colin Follenweider Glenn Foster Simeon Freeman Shauna Galligan Monique Ganderton Johnny Gao Jomahl Gildersleve Denisha Gillespie Daniel Graham Ryan Green Carlos Guity Califf Guzman Dante Ha Akihiro Haga Garrett Hammond Lydia Hand Daniel Hargrave Kandis Hargrave Sam Hargrave Regis Andrew Harrington III Thayr Harris Zedric Harris Jimmy Hart Alex Hashioka Zachary Henry Danny Hernandez Mark Hicks Maria Hippolyte Bobby Holland Hanton JT Holt Crystal Hooks Niahlah Hope Damita Howard Justin Howell Jacob Hugghins Lindsay Anne Hugghins Michael Hugghins Tony Hugghins Scott Hunter James Hutchison III Pan Iam CC Ice Sarah Irwin Mami Ito Duke Jackson Michael Jamorski Kirk Jenkins Preshas Jenkins Floyd Anthony Johns Jr. Richard M. King Ralf Koch Khalil La’Marr Matt LaBorde Danny Le Boyer Matt Leonard William Leong Bethany Levy James Lew Marcus Lewis Jefferson Lewis III Eric Linden Scott Loeser Rachel Luttrell-Bateman Adam Lytle Tara Macken Dave Macomber Julia Maggio Ruben Maldonado Richard Marrero Rob Mars Andy Martin Aaron Matthews Tim R. McAdams Taylor McDonald Kyle McLean Crystal Michelle Mark Miscione Heidi Moneymaker Renae Moneymaker Chris Moore Tristen Tyler Morts William Billy Morts Marie Mouroum Spencer Mulligan Travor Murray Jachin JJ Myers Anthony Nanakornpanom John Nania Nikolay Nedyalkov Carl Nespoli Paul O’Connor Marque Ohmes Olufemi Olagoke Noon Orsatti Rowbie Orsatti Jane Oshita Leesa Pate Natasha Paul Gary Peebles Nathaniel Perry Josh Petro Lloyd Pitts George Quinones Taraja Ramsess Greg Rementer Antjuan Rhames Meredith Richardson Bayland Rippenkroeger Ryan Robertson Christopher Cody Robinson Donny Rogers Carrington Christopher Eric Romrell Michelle Rose Corrina Roshea Marvin Ross Elena Sanchez Maya Santandrea Matthew Scheib Erik Schultz Jordan Scott Joshua Russel Seifert Brandon Shaw Bruce Shepperson Joseph Singletary III Tim Sitarz Dominique Smith Dena Sodano Robert D. Souris Jackson Spidell Daniel Stevens Jenel Stevens Diandra Stoddard Milliner Granger Summerset Phedra Syndelle Mark Tearle Hamid-Reza Thompson Tyler J. Tiffany Aaron Toney Amy Lynn Tuttle Tony Vo Todd Warren Kevin Waterman Amber Whelan Aaron Wiggins Joseph Williams Matthew M. Williams Thom Williams Zola Williams Mike Wilson Tyler Witte Michael Yahn James Young Marcus Gene Young Woon Young Park Casey Zeller Keil Zeperni

Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Comedy or Drama Series GAME OF THRONES Boian Anev Mark Archer Kristina Baskett Ferenc Berecz Richard Bradshaw Michael Byrch Andrew Burford Yusuf Chaudhri Nick Chooping Jonathan Cohen David Collom Christopher Cox Jacob Cox Matt Crook Matt Da Silva Levan Doran Dom Dumaresq Daniel Euston Bradley Farmer Pete Ford Vladimir Furdik David Grant Lawrence Hansen Richard Hansen Nicklas Hansson Rob Hayns Lyndon Hellewell Jessica Hooker Gergely Horpacsi Paul Howell Rowley Irlam Erol Ismail Troy Kechington Paul Lowe John Macdonald Leigh Maddern Kai Martin Kim Mcgarrity Carly Michaels Nikita Mitchell Chris Newton David Newton Jason Oettle Bela Orsanyi Ivan Orsanyi Radoslav Parvanov Oleg Podobin Josh Ravenscroft Andrej Riabokon Zach Roberts Doug Robson Stanislav Satko Paul Shapcott Mark Slaughter Sam Stefan Jonny Stockwell Ryan Stuart Gyula Toth Marek Toth Andy Wareham Calvin Warrington Heasman Richard Wheeldon Belle Williams Will Willoughby Leo Woodruff Ben Wright Lewis Young

WINS BY STUDIO Disney – 1 Neon – 1 Netflix – 1 Roadside Attractions/LD Entertainment – 1 Sony Pictures – 1 Warner Bros – 1

WINS BY NETWORK Amazon – 3 FX – 2 HBO – 2 Netflix – 1 Apple – 1

SAG Awards 2020 – Winners MOTION PICTURES Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Parasite HYAE JIN CHANG / Chung Sook…

#2020 Awards #Amazon #Apple #Avengers: Endgame #Award Winners #Awards #Awards Season #Awards Season 2020 #Ben Daniles #Brad Pitt #Charles Dance #Disney #Fleabag #Fosse/Verdon #FX #Game of Thrones #HBO #Helena Bonham Carter #Jennifer Aniston #Joaquin Phoenix #Joker #Judy #Laura Dern #Marion Bailey #Marriage Story #Michelle Williams #Neon #Netflix #Olivia Colman #Once Upon a Time In Hollywood

[blackrockandrollmusic-blog]

Turbogeist - Mermaid’s Revenge

#Turbogeist #James Dunson #Jimmy Jagger #Luis Felber #Josh Ludlow #Video

[pennsylvaniaprelawland-blog]

Moderna Loses Patent Case Against Arbutus Biopharma, Potentially Hindering Their COVID-19 Vaccine Progress

By Raevin Dunson, University Of Pennsylvania Class of 2020

July 30, 2020

Moderna, an American biotechnology company, recently lost a lawsuit that was brought to invalidate a patent owned by Arbutus Biopharma [9]. An administrative court of the United States Patent and Trademark Office sided with Arbutus and concluded that Moderna did not adequately demonstrate that the patent, also known as the ‘069 patent,described obvious concepts, which would have made the patent ineligible [10]. The ‘069 patent deals with the use of lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), which are molecules that many messenger RNA (mRNA) specialists use in their medicines [7]. Moderna brought this case in January 2019, and the case has some apparent implications for the company as they develop an experimental COVID-19 vaccine known as mRNA-1273 [7].

Moderna has been heavily involved in pharmaceutical development of medicine with modified mRNA[5]. They have been granted over 100 patents for their inventions in mRNA therapeutics and have licenses to discoveries from the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University [5]. Moderna began working on a vaccine for COVID-19 on January 13th, and they are currently in Phase III clinical trials ofmRNA-1273 in collaboration with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) [6]. The vaccine uses messenger RNA to build the spike protein of the coronavirus and allow the immune system to respond [3]. During Phase I of clinical trials, they conducted a study with 45 healthy adult volunteers, and the results indicated that the vaccine led patients to produce a significant level of antibodies to neutralize the coronavirus with minor side effects such as fatigue and headaches [1]. The results received praise from Moderna CEO, Stephane Bancel; Anthony Fauci, the director of National Institute for Allergy   and Infectious Diseases; and Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, who all found the results to be encouraging and an important step forward in dealing with the coronavirus [2].

Moderna released a statement that the formula it has developed for the COVID-19 vaccine was not covered under any Arbutus patents [4]. However, there has been heavy concern that Arbutus might have a claim to royalties for the coronavirus vaccine [10]. LNP technology has been essential to the efforts that Moderna has been taking to developing the mRNA-1273 vaccine [10]. However, Moderna claims that this patent issue occurred long before COVID-19 and that the technology used currently has been developed well beyond the technology that is described in the patent [7]. This is the third court decision in several cases that Moderna has brought against Arbutus, with two of the rulings happening last year [8]. Patent disputes are generally settled through court injunctions to stop infringement or royalties to get rights to intellectual property [8]. Moderna has had other issues with patent technology since around 2016, when the company licensed technology from Acuitas Therapeutics, a subsidiary of Arbutus [9].

When the court released their decision to reject the patent lawsuit, Moderna’s stock price fell by 9% [9]. On the other hand, shares for Arbutus almost doubled in price after the ruling [7]. However, Moderna quickly began to recover, especially as they have announced significant progress in their COVID-19 vaccine [4]. Any action that Arbutus may be legally justified to take against Moderna will likely be faced with backlash should it interfere with the development of mRNA-1273 given the urgency of the COVID-19 pandemic [9].

________________________________________________________________

Raevin Dunson is a Class of 2020 graduate of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with concentrations in Legal Studies & Business Ethics and Healthcare Management & Policy. Raevin is currently pursuing a career in law and enjoys learning about legal systems in the United States and around the world. _______________________________________________________________

[1] “Experimental COVID-19 Vaccine Safe, Generates Immune Response.” National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 14 July 2020, www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/experimental-covid-19-vaccine-safe-generates-immune-response.

[2] Herper, Matthew, and Damian Garde. “First Data for Moderna Covid-19 Vaccine Show It Spurs an Immune Response.” STAT, STAT, 14 July 2020, www.statnews.com/2020/07/14/moderna-covid19-vaccine-first-data-show-spurs-immune-response/.

[3] Kane, Andrea. “The First Phase 3 Coronavirus Vaccine Trial in the US Is Expected to Begin next Week. Here's How the Vaccine Works.” CNN, Cable News Network, 25 July 2020, www.cnn.com/2020/07/24/health/moderna-vaccine-barney-graham-gupta/index.html.

[4] “Moderna Says Patent Ruling Not to Affect COVID-19 Vaccine Development.” Reuters, Thomson Reuters, 24 July 2020, www.reuters.com/article/us-moderna-patent-vaccine/moderna-says-patent-ruling-not-to-affect-covid-19-vaccine-development-idUSKCN24P2LJ.

[5] “Moderna's Intellectual Property.” Moderna, Moderna, Inc., 2020, www.modernatx.com/mrna-technology/modernas-intellectual-property.

[6] “Moderna's Work on a COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate.” Moderna, Moderna, Inc., 27 July 2020, www.modernatx.com/modernas-work-potential-vaccine-against-covid-19.

[7] Nathan-Kazis, Josh. “Moderna Lost a Patent Case and the Stock Is Slipping.” Barron's, Barrons, 24 July 2020, www.barrons.com/articles/moderna-lost-a-patent-case-and-the-stock-is-stumbling-51595596274.

[8] Taylor, Nick Paul. “Moderna Stock Sinks as Patent Case Spurs Concern for COVID-19 Vaccine.” FierceBiotech, Questex, 24 July 2020, www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/moderna-stock-sinks-as-patent-case-spurs-concern-for-covid-19-vaccine.

[9] Terry, Mark. “Moderna's Vaccine Technology Continues to Be Tangled in Patent Challenges.” BioSpace, BioSpace, 24 July 2020, www.biospace.com/article/moderna-loses-patent-challenge-with-arbutus-on-vaccine-technology/.

[10] Wolfe, Jan. “Moderna Loses Challenge to Arbutus Patent on Vaccine Technology.” Reuters, Thomson Reuters, 23 July 2020, www.reuters.com/article/us-moderna-patent/moderna-loses-challenge-to-arbutus-patent-on-vaccine-technology-idUSKCN24O2XY.

[newstfionline]

A Plane Crash, A Glacier, And An Entrepreneur: How Icelandair Opened Up Air Travel For Everyone

By Missy Schwartz, Fast Company, May 26, 2017

In the winter of 1951, Alfred Eliasson’s company, Icelandic Airlines, was about to go under. The founder and his executive team had decided to pull out of the transatlantic market just a few months prior, after established carriers like Pan-Am proved to be tougher competition than expected. Low domestic demand in Iceland, a country of just 200,000 inhabitants at the time, also proved to be a challenge. By December of 1950, the airline known as Loftleiðir in Icelandic had only one scheduled route. It was between the capital city of Reykjavik and a small group of islands off Iceland’s east coast.

That year, most of the company’s revenue came from odd jobs that Eliasson scraped together. He spotted schools of fish from the sky for local fishermen and shipped cargo for local businesses. By New Year’s it appeared the six-year-old airline would have to fold.

But Eliasson refused to give up. He was a fiercely ambitious man on a mission that ended up changing the face of the airline industry. Through force of will, he and his cofounders invented the budget transatlantic flight and opened up Iceland to the rest of the world. His efforts laid the groundwork for Iceland to transform itself from one of Europe’s poorest nations to the most developed nation on earth by 2008.

But first he had to dig an aircraft out of a hole-–or rather, a glacier.

In September of 1950, an Icelandic Airlines plane carrying cargo back from Luxembourg went down over the Vatnajökull glacier, in the southeast of the island. A U.S. Air Force (USAF) rescue team flew to the crash site, landed on the ice, and found the Icelandic Airlines plane severely damaged, but all crew were alive. When they tried to take off, the engines of the USAF’s DC-3 plane failed due to the frigid temperature. The rescue team had no choice but to depart on foot and leave the plane behind. Assuming that the aircraft would get buried in snow, the Americans wrote it off as a loss.

The following spring, Eliasson made a deal with the USAF and bought the salvage rights of the downed DC-3 for $600. He led a small team of Icelandic Airlines employees to Vatnajökull to dig the plane out. The winter had been particularly harsh, and when they arrived, only the rudder was visible. Eliasson and his group spent the next month shoveling snow, eventually leasing a bulldozer to drag the plane to an airstrip 60 miles away. The batteries and engine worked, so they flew back to Reykjavik, where they registered the plane under Icelandic Airlines’ name and christened it Jökull, the Icelandic word for glacier.

In its day, the DC-3 plane was a war horse, a near indestructible tank for the sky. During World War II, it was the only cargo plane to register an aerial kill. The story goes that a kamikaze Japanese plane tried to take one down by flying into it. The DC-3 lost most of its left wing but soldiered on, while the Japanese plane went down into the ocean.

However hardy, Eliasson’s recovered aircraft required considerable repairs, and in the fall of 1951, it was commercially retrofitted in England. During the trip to the U.K., the Icelanders received an unexpected offer: The Spanish airline Iberia offered $75,000 to purchase the DC-3. The papers were signed within days.

Over the course of a year, Eliasson had saved his company and in the process earned a nice return. With cash and a killer founding story, his puddle-jumping days were behind him. So he set his sights on something much bigger.

If there was a holy grail in the 20th-century airline business, the transatlantic market was it. Americans and Europeans had been eyeing the route ever since Charles Lindbergh flew nonstop from New York to Paris in 1927 and opened the public’s eyes to the possibilities of international air travel. That flight marked the beginning of a race to convert millions of seafaring travelers into airline customers. But while early aviation races–-to be first to put a plane in the air or fly a group of passengers–-were led and won by inventors, the later contests were dominated by bureaucrats. The challenges of air travel transitioned from breaking physical barriers to breaking governmental ones. And no man was more influential in the aviation bureaucracy than a British man named Sir William Hildred.

In 1951, Hildred was promoted to director-general of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the organization founded after World War II to regulate the nascent international airline industry. According to Josh Dunson, author of Freedom in the Air, Hildred was “always a firm believer in the need for regulation and controls.” Much of his philosophy was formed during World War I. As an infantry man for the British army, he saw the destructive potential of airplanes. He was determined to make the skies a safe place. According to him, “The open skies failed and must always fail–-they would be deadly.”

During his first years as director-general of the IATA, Hildred had succeeded in regulating the world’s 200 airlines. He organized meetings between airline executives and state officials, and by 1952, there were thousands of bilateral agreements between governments and airlines. The IATA regulated everything from prices to timetables, which earned it a reputation as one of the most powerful cartels in the world. One of the international laws it introduced restricted airlines to flights to or from their country of registry.

At a board meeting in 1952, Eliasson and Icelandic Airlines’s chairman Sigurdur Olafsson decided to challenge that law by launching a flight from New York to Luxembourg that was $100 cheaper than the prices set by Hildred’s group. Ad copy read, “Icelandic to Europe. For people who do a lot of saving.” Icelandic was nicknamed the “hippie airline” because its flights were the starting point for Americans who embarked on the famous Hippie Trail through Europe and Asia.

The move was a bold one–-and entirely legal. Between New York and Luxembourg, Eliasson introduced a one-hour layover in Iceland. Technically passengers were buying two flights: one between New York and Iceland, and another between Iceland and Luxembourg. Luxembourg didn’t have an international airline, so it couldn’t be penalized by the IATA.

By dodging regulations, Icelandic Airlines (later renamed Icelandair) was able to set its own prices and position itself as the world’s first low-cost carrier at a time when international travel was reserved for the wealthy. Within a decade, Icelandic was flying middle-class families across the Atlantic in droves. With an incentive to lower prices, Eliasson and his team found creative ways to cut costs–-including flying older planes, a strategy used by many budget carriers today–-and attracted more customers.

Icelandic became one of the fastest growing companies in the industry. By 1953, 5,000 passengers flew Icelandic per year. By 1960, that number spiked to 40,000. And by 1970, the airline was flying 71,500 passengers and generating $23.5 million in annual revenue. That’s the equivalent of $145 million today-–an impressive number for a country with a population of 200,000 back then.

By the time the airline industry was deregulated in the 1980s, other entrepreneurs followed Eliasson’s model, launching low-cost carriers like Laker Airways, and in the 1990s, Southwest and Ryanair.

For hundreds of years, Iceland sat isolated in the Atlantic Ocean, but Eliasson’s airline helped the country jump to the top of the United Nations’ Development Index in 2007. To borrow words from Edda Helgason, the daughter of Icelandair’s first chairman, the company opened Europe to Americans, and America to Europeans, with Iceland located perfectly in between.

#Alfred Eliasson #Icelandic Airways #Icelandair #Iceland

[broadsidemagazine]

"Birth of a Broadside", written by Josh Dunson

Broadside's home is a small little room that's got chairs and a sofa with a tape recorder finishing off the bottom wall space. First people Sis Cunningham welcomed in after me was two-thirds of the New World Singers. Gil Turner took out his 12-stringer, borrowed a flat pick, Sis took out the mike for the tape recorder, and out came a talking blues Gil just wrote about the newspaper strike that had us all quietly laughing. We didn’t want to laugh louder than quietly because that might get on the tape.

Before the song’s over, in walks Bob Dylan and Suzy [Suze Rotolo], who sometimes illustrate's Bob's songs. The last verse that Gil was singing had how he was going to see his friend, Bob Dylan, who is a walking newspaper and will give him the lowdown on what's happening in the world. Bob thought it was a great song just from hearing the last verse.

Then, Gil took out his 6-string Gibson, handed it over to Bob Dylan saying how Bob’s new song “Masters Of War” was a powerful and a great one, one of the best Bob had ever written. I kept on thinking he had written a lot of good ones, some that had real lyric poetry like “Blowin’ In The Wind” and “Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall” (which makes you think right away of Lorca), and I waited for the images of rain, and thunder, and lightning to come out in great spectacles.

But no, this time there was a different kind of poetry, one of great anger, accusation, just saying what the masters of war are, straight forward and without compromising one inch in its short sharp direct intensity. I got a hunch this is the most difficult Dylan song for others to sing right, 'cause it can so easily be over sung, made a melodrama. But when Bob sings it, it rings honest and true. I hope a record is made of Bob singing this song and that a lot of people will listen to the quiet voice that Bob sings this song in because there is a dignity in the words that comes from when they have been thought about for a long, long time.

And right after that, not waiting for a chance to get two breaths, Bob came along with “Playboys & Playgirls Ain't Gonna Run My World," a group song that like Pete Seeger said later in the evening "is going to be sung by a million people in the next year.” Its tune catches whole crowds easy, and the words come right along from the feeling, Hell man, I was born here and I live here, but I’m not goin’ to let rats knock things down where I was born, where I live.

In the meantime, Phil Ochs, his sidekick, and the third third of the New World Singers, Happy Traum, came in. Boy, this room was so jammed packed with people that there was real foot and banjo and guitar shifting necessary to get Phil Ochs close enough to the mike to record his three new songs. Phil Ochs. What a guy! Quiet, soft spoken, but there with his guitar he spun some of the most real verses that's goin' to be written about the death of N.Y. Youth Board worker Louis C. Marsh and the miners striking in Hazard, Kentucky. There was an immediateness about those two songs Phil did. I got a strong feeling that his song on Hazard is going to be remembered past this strike, and be resung in many strikes to come.

Phil’s last song, a fine one of hope with a great group chorus had the last half of it heard by Pete Seeger who later that night was going to sing at the Hazard strikers rally at Community Church. After hearing the tape of the songs, smiling all the way through, Pete sang a number of new songs sent him recently.

We were all out of breath without breathing hard, that feeling you get when a lot of good things happen all at once. Pete expressed it, leaning back in his chair, saying slowly in dreamy tones: “You know, in the past five months I haven't heard as many good songs and as much good music as I heard here tonight.”

That’s what makes Broadside, all that good singing and all that good writing, plus a lot of hard work, labor pains. In the sheets of paper there are many smiles and many glances of anger, and even more the strong hope that these songs just won’t stay on the mimeograph pages, but will live and be sung.

(Broadside #20, February 1963)

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