Repost - November 22, 2014

Friday, November 15, 2013

Kennedy Connection

I am not an avid reader but I have read almost every book on the subject of the Kennedy Assassination. (I can even spell assassination without looking it up). There have been some completely loony theories, some creative theories and some compelling theories on the subject. I have my own opinion based upon the local coverage from WFAA in Dallas immediately after the shooting.  

I am not a "lone gunman" believer.  I will never be sure exactly how Oswald was involved, but think he was more of a patsy than anything else. Once you open up the possibility that it was a planned operation it gets difficult to follow. It is not so important if the secret service driver of the limo pulled a hand gun and shot the President, or if it was E. Howard Hunt who shot the President from a storm drain below Elm Street. Obviously those are crucial details in the murder but what group is responsible for the plot to kill the President. Three groups are usually thought of as suspects.  They are:

1) The CIA. It is true that Kennedy didn't like the CIA and they didn't like him.  He was supposed to support the CIA Bay of Pigs invasion with air support but he didn't and the operation was a disaster.  Kennedy was quoted as saying he was going to "splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it into the winds". 

Side note: Allen Dulles, head of the CIA was fired by Kennedy over the Bay of Pigs incident. Several of his staff resigned in protest including deputy director Charles Cabell.  Allen Dulles was later appointed to the Warren Commission by Lyndon Johnson.

2)The Mafia.  It is believe that the Mob helped Kennedy get elected in a very close race with Nixon.  There were voting districts in the Chicago area that seem to have been as tainted as any in Florida during the 2000 election.  Sam Giancana, the Chicago boss, was said to have "influenced" the ballot boxes in several districts.  However, once in office JFK unleashes his brother as Attorney General who began to crack down on organized crime with a manic passion.  Carlos Marcello, New Orleans mob boss was dogged by Robert Kennedy and is quoted as saying, "Take the stone from my shoe" meaning get Bobby Kennedy off his back.  Santos Trafficante the Miami/Cuba mob boss said, "If you cut the dogs tail off the head will still bite. If you cut the dogs head off the tail no longer wags." The Traficante idea was, kill the president and his brother will no longer be the Attorney General. After he heard that President Kennedy had been killed, Jimmy Hoffa is quoted as saying "Well, that makes Bobby Kennedy just another lawyer, doesn't it?" (Five years later Bobby was assassinated when it looked like he might become president) 

3)Wealthy Texas Right Wing Radicals.  Dallas hated Kennedy and the day he arrived for the visit there was a full page ad in the Dallas Morning News accusing him of treason and calling for his impeachment.  Months before Adli Stevenson was physically assaulted by a protester when he was visiting Dallas, Texas. Dallas in particular, was a hot bed of hatred toward the Kennedys. Earl Cabell was mayor of Dallas at the time of the assassination. He was the third generation of a Cabell as mayor of Dallas. His Father and Grandfather had both been mayor of Dallas. More importantly Earl Cabell is the brother of Charles Cabell ousted deputy director of the CIA.  The fact that the route of the motorcade through Dallas needed the Mayor's approval has always been a curious connection to the tragedy. 

It is possible to make a case that any one of these three "groups" could have motive to plan and execute the assassination. They were all one in reality.  Here is how they connect.

It is easy to connect the Mafia and the CIA. They were both working together to take Cuba back from Castro. For the CIA it was strategic and for the Mob it was business since all their casinos had been nationalized and then closed by Castro. Frank Angelo Fiorini was in several branches of the United States military, aided Fidel Castro in the Cuban revolution of 1958, and worked as an undercover operative for the CIA. When Castro won the revolution he appointed Frank Fiorini as "head of national gaming" for Cuba. Fiorini was the contact between Castro and the Mafia operations of the casinos for a year after the revolution.  Fiorini left Cuba when Castro closed the mafia hotels. It is obvious he continued in the employ of the CIA. Frank Fiorini later changed his name to Frank Sturgis and was arrested in the Watergate Break in. He alone proves the link between the CIA, Cuba and the Mafia. 

It is also easy to connect rich Texas Right Wing radicals with the CIA at the time.  In the early late 50's early 60's George H.W. Bush owned the Zapata Offshore Company, a subsidiary which specialized in offshore drilling in Houston Texas. Although Mr. Bush would later become head of the CIA, Vice-President and eventually President there is no proof that he was CIA during his oil company days. However, two of the ships used in the Bay of Pigs invasion (provided by a wealthy un-named Texas oil man) were named the "Zapata" and the "Barbara" two names closely associated with George H.W. Bush. In the Warren commission it states that private citizen George H. W. Bush was "briefed" on the assassination investigation by the government the day after the event.  This was before Mr. Bush was part of the official government. He was one of the only private citizens to receive an official briefing.  I am not implying that "George the first" had anything to so with the assassination of John Kennedy. I simply point out that the over lap between the prime suspects in this case is more than coincidental. 

So there you have it 50 years later and it is still a mystery.  I suggest it will always be.  There is no smoking gun proof of anything including the theory that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. I am pretty sure the Warren Commission got it wrong, but it will be the only story that will survive ultimately.  Twenty-five years from now we will find an empty file that will lead to more mystery.

As you were,

Jay   

To Post or not to Post... that is the question....

Don't you just wonder how many twitter followers William Sheakspear would have if he were writing today? How could he come up with all that literature not having a bunch of "likes" and half a dozen reposts, retweets and shares?  How did he know he was popular, and how did he get people to come and see his plays without creating a Facebook event?
Not only that but we will never know what "William" had for lunch as he was writing "Twelveth Night". We don't know if it took him more than twelve nights to write it if there was no "time line". Would there be selfies of author and cast as the Globe? I would love to see a post like this:

"Bill ...saw Mid Sum Nite Drm yesterday... LOL"     or

"OMG William that clip of Hamlet and the Skull went viral"  or

"Juliette and Romeo both die at the end?????.... WTF"

Likes, Thumbs up, pokes, friends, followers and feeds are just numbers.  The time it takes to click or touch a word on a computer screen is in direct proportion to the depth of sincerity in the act.  It always makes me chuckle at the irony of clicking "like" on a post about the death of a relative or family pet.   "My Father passed away this morning suddenly"....  LIKE!  It has become so thoughtless that Like and Friend have lost all traditional meaning.  Friend has even become a verb.  "I friended him the other day."  of  "I had to unfriend that douche bag."   Like now means... I "clicked".
Why are these "numbers" so important and when did they become so?  I'm asking because I don't know.
What I do know is that in today's world the question asked at Call Back auditions to get an acting part is: "How may Twitter followers and Facebook friends do you have?" When two actors are equal in all other aspects of being right for the part... the one with the most "followers" gets the job. As if these numbers translate into viewers or ticket buyers. In the words of sage and bald Texan Dr. Phil... "How is that working out for you?" Why not skip that acting class or dance school and spend the time working on increasing your "social media" numbers?
There are reasons why this is on my mind today.  Within moments of the Presidents speech last night my Facebook "home" feed displayed some very hateful things about our duly elected Commander in Chief.  I'm okay with differing points of view and civil debate, but this was hateful, ignorant, racist jingoism.  All of these awful things were posted by Facebook Friends.  It was then I realized I don't hang around with people like that in real life and they would certainly not ever be a friend with those feelings.  Every time I saw one of those race bating rants I went to that person's page and unfriended them.  It's not that I only want to associate with people who feel exactly the way I do, No. I am not in total agreement with all the people I know and love, politically, religiously or sometimes even philosophically. But we can enjoy our differences in civil discourse, and lively debate. Friends don't act like yelling screaming political talk show hosts.

As John Cleese and Michael Palin said in a Monty Python sketch...
Michael: "An argument is not the back and forth name calling and repetitive yelling of the words yes and no"
John: "Yes it is"
Michael: "No it's not"

In my younger days I had great admiration for politicians who sat across the aisle from each other with totally different points of view but could work together on a compromise that was generally better than either side could come up with on their own.  Was Sen. Everett Durksen a Republican?  Was Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn a Democrat?  I would have to look it up.  Back then it was just a party affiliation not a lock step group of ignorant followers.  Back then we at least pretended there was respect and democracy. America is not Red or Blue, the Constitution says a true American is colorless.

Today respect has been assassinated and democracy means "we are in charge now" so fuck off.
And it is true from both sides of the aisle.  If our standing in the world has been lowered it is due to the fact that our enemies only have to repeat the hateful things our leaders say about each other. What ugly things could an enemy say about our President that has not already been said about him on the Senate and Congressional floor.
Hey ISIS... If you are looking for people to recruit that spew hate toward our leaders,  hand out some flyer's when the House of Representatives is in session.
I'll quit ranting now so you can go to my page and unfriend me.  However, I am making a conscious effort not to post, print, write, tweet, share, blog or acknowledge hate and his friend fear in my life.
As you were,
Jay

Mike Nichols

When I was old enough to be aware of what Comedy "is" my first crush was on Nichols and May.  Not just because they were a comedy team (like I wanted to be as a ventriloquist) but because of what kind of Comedy they performed.

Most of the comedy going around the Sullivan show at the time was borsch belt brand humor. The routines were mainly set up jokes and stories. Make believe situations with stereo typical characters.  There were a lot of mother-in-law jokes and one liners like "Take my wife.. please".  I did not think these comics were so much funny as goofy.  Even comedy teams like Martin and Lewis did goofy humor. Martin the suave Italian singer and Lewis a frenetic chimp interrupting the song with stupid.  Allen and Rossi, Steve Rossi an Italian singer Mary Allen a wild haired troll with a lobotomy.

They say a comedian says funny things and a clown says things funny.  Then there was Nichols and May. They didn't look funny.  They weren't clowns. They didn't do funny ethnic accents. They did real characters in real situations that became hysterically funny as the situation drove the humor. Things like: The mounting frustration of a man who wants to get his dime back from a pay phone operator.  A funeral director who offers a cheap funeral while adding on "extras" like a casket and driver for the hearse.  They gave us a satirical look at how our everyday lives can spiral into a comedy of errors from just trying to communicate.  The jokes came out of the frustrating situations we all find ourselves in from time to time.  They were the sirens for the fogged out beatnik generation that was morphing into a society of consciousness seeking hippies.  Put on one of their albums, close your eyes and let them take you on a journey not that different from your own life only funny.

At the height of their career  Nichols and May were hired to write and perform the voices for cartoon characters to sell Jax Beer.  Jax was a New Orleans beer company that was more a regional brand than national.  The commercials were hysterical and sometimes better than the shows they were sponsoring.

For example:  A funny looking lady walks into a bar.  She has a funny little voice and orders a Jax beer.  The bartender gives her the beer and says "Here you go, Jax beer" in the same funny little voice. Lady says, "Are you making fun of my voice?"  In the same voice the bartender says "No. absolutely not. Ma'am" At this point a man come up and orders a Jax beer in a very normal voice.  In a regular normal voice the bartender says "Here you go my friend a Jax beer." The man walks away and the lady, a little pissed off, says to the bartender, "I thought you said you were not making fun of my voice." in the same funny voice the bartender says, "I wasn't making fun of your voice... I was making fun of his."

The commercials were extremely successful to the point I still remember that one to this day.  However, after one cycle the commercials were discontinued.  Not because they were not popular but because even though the commercials were great the Beer remained awful.  The commercials became more popular than the beer.

I was destroyed when Nichols and May broke up.  It wasn't a drama like Martin and Lewis, I guess Elaine and Mike decided they had done all they could together. I felt like the most popular kid at school had just moved away.  I was going to miss their talents just as I was trying to find my own.

Elaine May went into writing and acting.  She was hysterically funny as the ditzy millionaire opposite Walter Mathau in "A New Leaf" and other projects.  Mike Nichols became a Broadway director.  and a Film director  (check out those credits) and one of the few people to become an EGOT ( winner of an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony.. EGOT) AND he married Diane Sawyer.  He was a genius of real comedy, funny and real.  I was never fortunate enough to meet him but will always be a huge fan.

Nichols and May made it possible for comics like Bill Cosby to become stars doing real life situational humor and not just jokes.  Perhaps that is the very reason why Mike Nichols decided to move on after 83 incredibly creative years on earth. He didn't want to see what he started in the hands of a comic that  now seems so unworthy. Mike Nichols was the real deal and from what I have heard a wonderful person.  He will be missed in so many ways.

As you were,

Jay

Culture of Fear

Once in a while something makes you stop and think. We seem to live in a constant state of fear nowadays.  ISIS, Ebola, Iran, North Korea and the government are  just a few of the things that can make us  pull the covers over our head and cower. What is it that is making us so afraid?

The event that made me start contemplating this idea was a video I saw yesterday.  It is going around the Internet.  In the video a fundamental Christian woman explains why the energy drink Monster is a product of Satan.  She states that the stylize M on the can is actually the Hebrew character for the number 6 repeated three times, or "666" (Satan's personal license plate number see illustration).  Since my lucky number is 7,  I always thought it looked like three sevens.  

As an artist it looks like the scratch marks that Monster claws would make.  But the idea that the logo might be the mark made by a monster fits nicely into her interpretation.  My advertising professor at the University of North Texas would call it perfect "artistic symbolism that reinforces the name of the product." (Baskin Robins has an incredible logo which also does that very well.  The BR actually becomes a 31 for the number of flavors of ice cream they serve).

Back to the Satanic energy drink. The Christian lady points out there is a cross in the middle of the O in the name. But although the cross is a sacred symbol to Christians that is not the intent of this logo. It is there because when you turn it upside down to drink out of the can you are inverting the cross. The inverted cross is one of Satan's favorite emoticons.  

Although the Christian Lady sees a cross, I see a circle with a line through it.  In Algebra that symbol means "there is no solution"  a "null equation".  In other words, to me it means  "absolutely nothing" literally and mathematically.  

Some time ago fanatic Christians thought that there were "back masked" lyrics in rock and roll music.  That's the idea that when played backwards certain songs suggest satanic worship. There were lots of religious zealots who were playing songs backwards to hear the Satanic message.  Marylin Manson spoke up during this outrage to say, "If we could write songs that had a backwards hidden meaning we wouldn't disguise Satanic messages. We would hide the message 'buy more of my records.' " 

With all due respect to the differing opinion of the Monster drink Church Lady, she is not  promoting the Love and understanding  of her religion ... she is promoting a culture of fear.  In this case we need to fear going to hell for consuming a Demonically inspired energy drink.

If there is a personified devil the power would not be in the enigmatic symbolism of an energy drink, or rock and roll lyrics backwards, the power and control would be in the Fear.  It is said that "the devil is in the details".  Not true the devil is in the fear.  Franklin Roosevelt said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself".  

The roots of fear are found in oppression,  ignorance, isolation and intolerance.  Fear is always used to control and suppress the masses.  Alexander the Great hired mercenaries to occasionally raid the outlying villages of his empire.  He kept the people in fear of attack from an unnamed enemy so they would not break away from his rule. 

So.. Church Lady I have never consumed a Monster Energy drink nor have I even held a can in my hands.  I guess I am near the "front of the line to heaven". I would certainly be in front of those unknowing sinners who participated in the Satanic ritual of inverting the cross when they were just trying to stay awake in class. However, I think my personal salvation is not a matter of canned drinks.  Someone named Jesus once said, "Fear not... neither be afraid".  Instead of trying to teach us to fear advertising graphics, why not teach us how to  do that?

As you were,

Jay

The Meeting of Artists

Some time ago I wrote about the relationship between the puppet maker and the ventriloquist.  If you didn't get a chance to see it, here is a link to the post about my friend Kirk Thatcher.

Kirk is a member of the notorious Bubonic Players and has become one of the most famous "monster makers" of our generation.  If you were a fan of Jim Henson's Creature Shop television show you will know Kirk from his duties as a judge on that show mentoring a new generation of monster makers.

For years the Bubonic Players would take over the Comedy and Magic Club to present an annual Halloween show.  It was produced and written by me and my partner/friend Harry Anderson, so it was a mash up between a scary ride through a haunted house and a comedy show.  We finally had to quit doing the show when our kids got old enough to go trick or treating.  For one year we actually tried to use them in the show.  They liked it but the reward of audience applause was not enough to come between kids and the yearly pursuit of candy.  The shows have now become part of Comedy and Magic Club history and are even more impressive in the retelling of fond memories. 

For several years the recurring star of the Halloween show was "Log Chainey" the psychopathic wooden killer.  Every year at Halloween Log, an inmate at the Home for the criminally insane, would escape.  His hatred for ventriloquists and magicians not to be contained.  He would seek out those performers to exact revenge.  This would, of course,  cause him to break into the Club while we were performing.  He always made his way for me first since he hates ventriloquists for their constant wood jokes.  He would take me hostage by grabbing me at the waist and dragging me on stage. Log Chainey is a 7 foot evil tree/man puppet created by Kirk Thatcher.  

I knew that I had pictures of Kirk and me with his creation.  They seemed to be lost in Halloween files past. However, yesterday while looking for a document I found them filed in the wrong place. Here are those pictures. 

I'm not sure how old Kirk is in this picture because he has always been a kid in my eyes. (an extremely talented, funny and creative kid).

It is a shame that no video exists of Log in action because the illusion is so much better in motion.  Log is actually a body puppet with a leg switch.  The green scrubs that Log wears (barely visible in these pictures) are actually my legs.  The legs in the tuxedo pants are fake.  It looks as if Log is dragging me along. It was an uncomfortable position to maintain so the routine was much longer than 7 minutes.  

I miss doing those shows very much. Particularly now that the kids are grown and there is nothing to keep us home on Halloween night any more. It was always a challenge to come up with a new show each year for the club.  Harry and I usually spent more money than we made, but the value we received from the creative challenge was priceless.  Nethernore, Long John LaFeat (another Thatcher creation) and Log Chainey were just a few of the characters that were created for the Bubonic Players Halloween show.  There is nothing more satisfying to an artist than the pursuit of expanding his art.  

So here is a shout out to Kirk a creative genius, Harry who is from an other planet and Mike Lacey,  the nicest person in the world to deal with and owner of the Comedy and Magic Club.

I paraphrase a line from the movie "Stand By Me" which asks, "are there ever any friends like the friends of your youth?"  Probably not but the joy and blessings from those youthful associations feed your soul for a long time after.   

I miss Log Chainey.  He is probably ready to perform again.... I'm just not sure my body can handle it again. But there are 11 more months till Halloween if I start limbering up now... who knows.

As you were,

Jay 

Comedy or Drama

How many times have you heard someone one say regarding an unusual event,  "You couldn't make that stuff up." This response is a total denial of the truth.  OF COURSE YOU CAN MAKE IT UP, just because it is a story you haven't heard before doesn't mean that it's the truth or even that unusual. 

We are all blind men trying to describe an Elephant to a blind population.* The elephant is the story of our lives. 

I am not saying that our lives are nothing more than stories. I am saying, the way we interpret our lives is nothing more than a story.  Our lives become the story that has become comfortable enough for us to share with others.  In reality it is all we know about others. Since we can not experience any body's life from the inside out,  all we really know about anyone is the story they tell or that others tell about them.   

I once saw a Top hat that looked every bit to be 140 years old.  Well taken care of, but fading with age,  it was an interesting item.  If I had seen it in a thrift shop I might have offered five dollars to buy it.  Other than obviously being old there was nothing that made the Top hat very special. However , I did not see it in a thrift shop but in a traveling exhibit at a Los Angeles Museum.  It was (according to the story) Abraham Lincoln's top hat warn on the steps of the Capitol during his Inauguration.  Priceless. 

The value of the item was only in the story. How much more complicated it is to assess value on human beings much more complicated than a hat. A human story is full of plot twists and decisions that change direction.  Our story is like the mental mask we wear. We tell the story of a person we want others to believe we are. Like an old Top hat we can only know so much about a person by observing.  Our story becomes the most important part of our sense of value. 

In one of my English classes, either high school or college, I found a quote by a noted British author. I have forgotten the class, the teacher, the author and everything else associated with it except, I did not forget the quote.  Here it is:

"He wears a Mask and his face soon grows to fit it."  

I carried these words in my wallet for decades.  It made total sense then and now.  What we project to the world usually becomes what we are.  It is our story, our autobiography, the way we want to be seen.  

The truth is: we are the writers of our own story.  And the stories are so complex as to fool us into saying, "You couldn't make that stuff up." We are making every thing up as we go, so why not write a comedy.  

I would love to make my life a comedy, but there is nothing funny about what happens in my life. Every time I think that I am getting ahead, something slaps me back down. Why would I write a story like that?

So your story is: I have no control over what happens... "something" always goes wrong.  Why not write a story with the theme "I have total control over "something" that might happen."  You are the hero of your own story, why not give yourself super powers.  

As always this blog is intended for the sole purpose of Jay Johnson attempting to understand himself. Not for the use of anyone else.  Do not read this if you are nursing, pregnant or may become pregnant while reading. Tell your doctor that you have read or plan to read any other posts in this blog.  Side effects may include loss of limbs, organs or even consciousness.  Stop reading this blog if you have sudden feelings of sadness, nausea, ventrilophobia or have an erection that lasts more than 4 hours.  Women should avoid contact with anyone who might have read this blog and if a woman reading this blog accidentally has an erection that lasts more than 4 hours, you are on your own.  Call immediately if you have the symptoms of a life threatening condition.  

As you were,

Jay

*Three blind men are touching an elephant describing it as they conceive it.  One touches the tusk and says the Elephant "is like a tree."  One touches the tail and says the Elephant "is like a rope".  Another touches the elephant's trunk and says the Elephant "is like a snake." 

Am I Blue?

I don't write too much about politics. It's the same as writing about religion, no one is looking to change their own ideas- only everyone else's. Some people are expecting change now that the Republicans control both houses of Congress.  No doubt things will be different, but I do not think things will change.  Here is my reasoning.

For the last six years the Republicans have disagreed with everything done by this administration. There was never an alternative compromise plan, or suggestions on how to make better laws, just a flat out "no" for every idea.  Even when it meant closing the government, losing our top credit rating and showing complete lack of respect for the office of President. In fact it was sometimes hard to distinguish between mere disagreement and personal contempt for the man  currently holding the office. The only strategy was to create failure and reflect poorly on the present administration.  There were no such words as bipartisanship, compromise or phrases like "working together". It was the idea that the bigger the fall of the current administration, the greater the bounce for the GOP.

Well, now they have the congressional steering wheel and right wingers are proclaiming a return to good old unregulated capitalism and an end to grid lock. It was accomplished by spending more money than has ever been spent on mid-term elections with almost exclusively negative ads.  It resulted in a lack luster turn out and electorate interest that wained the longer it continued.  

Even before yesterday's election wing nuts like Ted Cruz were suggesting that his ilk might not vote for or support Mitch McConnell as Majority Leader.  I rest my case. The Republican party has spent so much time getting salacious negative headlines, they have forgotten how to govern.  Old habits die hard and I don't think just because one of their own is now in charge of the Senate it will be enough to change the stripes of the tigers. 

Take for example out going governor of Texas Rick Perry.  No one has been more out spoken about his hatred of the National Health Care Reform or this administration and this President.  He also believes that the National Government is too involved in the affairs of his ruby colored Texas constituents.  But then Ebola comes to Dallas, a big city in his own State.  His response? "It is up to the National Government to do something about this (potential pandemic.)" Like most people who sit on the sidelines and yell at the coach, when it is their turn to lead a team they've got nothing.

This last congressional class has been the least productive of any Congress in the history of the United States.  Their approval rating is lower than the Presidents approval ratings.  Congress is a punchline to every talk show host and Comedy Club Comic performing (except maybe Dennis Miller... who has become a punch line unto himself).  

The Republicans have been the party of "no" for so long I believe it will take some time to change course.  The government won't change, but the rhetoric will.  For the next two years expect the majority leader of both Houses of Congress to say things like.... "We can't fix things over night... they have been in charge for 6 years."  Or  "We can't do anything while there is a Lame Duck presidency."

Starting today no matter what happens the Republicans will be touting the idea that they can't do anything until they get their own president in the White House.  This "change in leadership" that was heralded with the taking of the Senate is only the "loss leader".  They will be kicking responsibility of governing "for the people" down the road to 2016.  Plus for the last few years the Republicans have given the Democrats a road map on how to keep Congress from acting on anything... karma is a bitch no matter what color is takes.  

In the mean time the peon electorate continues to struggle with almost no consideration or concern from the "ruling" class.  I wouldn't care what "political party" is in charge if they would make laws and rules that made it easier for me to live my own life. Neither party will because the "new breed" of politician in both parties is not a statesman nor a diplomat but a self centered egotist that is in the game only for themselves.... no one is working for their constitutes.   Today I am not purple, red or blue....today I am just pissed. Pissed that politics has become an expensive "let them eat cake" game for the wealthy to play. 

Just my opinion. I'm not trying to change yours.... (That's what's called working together respectfully)

As you were,

Jay