Uncle Mike and Auntie Shawna love you so very much!
Christmas is such an exciting and special time of year isn't it?
It really brings a smile to my face to think of all the fun that you guys must be having along with your mom and your dad.
And from the huge smiles on your faces I can tell that you will always be there for each other (if you really want to be cool you can say "I have your back" to each other).
And I also have a feeling that you will be carrying those smiles the whole year round as you live each day to the fullest with your many adventures, like this one on the Santa Train:
We love you Penelope and Mikaela! Merry Christmas!
With perhaps an eye to making a mark on cinema history and pop culture similar to Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard has released Eight Days A Week: The Touring Years. While there are already a ton of documentaries on the Fab Four, most of them either focus on the period after John, Paul, George and Ringo decided to retire from touring or choose to focus on individual
members. Never have the touring years been covered so extensively, as the trailer shows. Throw in new recollections from Paul and Ringo and completely remastered concert footage, with crowd screaming reduced so the music can actually be heard, and Eight Days A Week is likely how The Beatles will be heard and seen for generations to come. Were you laughing when the Nobel committee judged Bob Dylan's lyrics literature? Not me, because if all of his lyrics were collected, they would probably fill anywhere from 500 to 1000 books. And make no mistake, we are entering a time, maybe 50 or 100 years from now, when the music, lyrics and history of The Beatles will be studied as literature and art, just as Mozart and Shakespeare have been for centuries. And having Ron Howard's fresh historical document will make it much easier!
And for those wanting a bit of an insight into John Lennon, here is the trailer for a wonderful 1988 documentary, Imagine: John Lennon, edited together from 240 hours of personal audio, film, and video:
And for a great example of guys carrying on the Beatle tradition, check out Vancouver's The Fab Fourever, seen here performing at Beatle Week 2015. With Kevin as John, Jody as Paul, Charles as George and Paul as Ringo (trippy, man), you will see lifelike visual and sonic recreations of all the Beatle eras when they come to your area!
30 years ago today, I began my first day of Grade 8.
But more importantly, 30 years ago tonight I saw Huey Lewis and the News at the then Northlands Coliseum.
In the mid-80s they were huge, basically a horn-based blues band with tight drums and keyboards, which at the time was the golden ticket to maximum radio airplay.
And I have to laugh at that drum machine that shows up for the third song. Because while I fully remember and appreciate Huey's assertion that 80 percent of that era's music was produced by some form of drum machine, it is a wheezing oldster compared to the app or algorithm that produces the autotune that infects 105 percent of today's musical output.
But Huey and the boys used their highly trained musicianship to put on a very memorable show almost identical to the one pictured above, right down to the Tower of Power. A fun night out with my uncle Remi and aunt Wendy to be sure! (As fun as a school night can be, in any case).
39 years ago today, Elvis Presley left the first big hole in pop culture with his passing. Here he is near the height of his powers at New York's Madison Square Garden. The 16mm film editing is a little choppy, but it is still a testament to the power and energy of an icon.
Beloved and iconic character actor Kenny Baker, forever known as the man inside R2D2 in the Star Wars universe, died Saturday after years of poor health. The above interview, presumably for Swedish television, features Baker's fond recollections of Jeremy Brett, who played Boba Fett, and of David Prowse, the former bodybuilder who portrayed the physical presence of Darth Vader. Asked about his main costar Anthony Daniels, who portrays C3-P0, Baker responds simply, "I haven't seen Anthony", and the interviewer wisely doesn't push the issue. I can say that in 1999 I was at an Edmonton convention during which Daniels shot down a hapless child's question about whether R2D2 and C3P0 get along in real life by turning to him and imploring, "Do you get along with all YOUR friends all the time?" So no love lost there.
But really no matter. Such was the contribution of the 3"8' Baker (with Oscar-winning sound designer Ben Burtt on "vocals") to the Star Wars fandom and legacy that in 2001 Lucasfilm produced a 3-part faux documentary on Artoo called Beneath The Dome which gives him a sister, brother, and (naturally) disapproving father. Throw in his days as a counterculture rebel, babe magnet, and tempermental movie star, and there is no way any of that should be any more than firmly tongue-in-cheek. Yet thanks to Kenny Baker's fine work over almost four decades, it is almost believable.
And the hole in pop culture's fabric continues to widen with the passing of Sir George Martin, a true genius who was known for producing everything from albums of classical music to comedy albums with Peter Sellers in the 40s and 50s. But he is perhaps best known for his groundbreaking work with The Beatles, most notably on their 1967 opus Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Martin pioneered the use of physical tape loops for effects in an era before sampling was done on computers with the click of a mouse.
And on one memorable occasion during the recording of Strawberry Fields Forever, physically cutting up tape, throwing it up in the air, and splicing it back together where it landed to produce the randomly jumbled orchestral piece which appeared at the end of the song. Ever repaired an 8-track cartridge? Times that about 1000 is what George Martin did.
Rest in peace, Sir George. You were a true pioneer and genius who will be missed, but your work will live on forever.
And now in closing, Ringo and George Martin discussing the recording of With a Little Help From My Friends, as well as George Harrison's use of the sitar:
George Martin's can-do spirit was certainly on display in 1978 when he produced the soundtrack for a movie that was essentially the answer to a drunken party question: "Hey man, d'you ever wonder what would happen if the Bee Gees ever recorded the Beatles music? Like maybe Sgt Pepper man? And somebody brought like a movie camera and Peter Frampton and Aerosmith and like the old guy from Oh God? And the old guy actually like SANG man?"
Really not as bad as all that if you just say what the hell and go with it. Under Martin's guidance the music is well produced, and nothing in this movie is as goofy or scattershot as the opening for the 1990 Oscars, which Allan Carr, the producer of the Sgt. Pepper's movie, also produced. Right?
Glenn Frey had quite the accomplished career outside of his work with the Eagles:
You Belong To The City, a song written by Frey and frequent collaborator Jack Tempchin, fit the Miami Vice soundtrack like a glove. There is no song better at encapsulating urban city life when the sun goes down, even as slightly romanticized as it may be. Of course, I lived in Edmonton in 1985 and still do. Never even been close to Miami as of yet. But the song still did it for me. It was easy for me to imagine Crockett and Tubbs sneaking into Edmonton in the middle of the night on some secret mission or something. Maybe going forward in a time machine hidden away in a carnival ride for a night to prevent our then-Stanley-Cup winning hockey team from sucking pond water between June 19, 2006 and last Sunday.
Couldn't happen, right? Crockett and Tubbs in Edmonton?
But I digress. Back to the topic at hand.
The producers of Miami Vice obviously took notice of Frey's screen presence, and wrote the Smuggler's Blues episode around his same-named hit and giving him the choice role of Jimmy. Here he is reprising the role in a cool 1985 Pepsi ad with Don Johnson:
But his greatest acting challenge was yet to come...
Here he is on the sports-themed Dan Patrick Show, proving the adage that sports guys love to talk music and music guys love to talk sports. This took place last April, with Frey not looking well at all, probably wishing that the show was just broadcast on radio and not TV. He seems to be in sage mode, offering advice and stories while surveying his career as if on a mountaintop. And he lets Patrick's goofy on-air sidekick absolutely destroy three of his hits simply because he always wanted to sing in front of Glenn Frey. One imagines Don Henley storming out of the interview under the same scenario. But Frey seemed to understand two very important things: First, our current karaoke/American Idol culture has convinced the world that absolutely everyone in the world can sing like a superstar.
Obviously not true.
But Frey seemed to understand a second, even more important thing, that I'm not sure most musicians realize. At a certain point, most iconic songs such as You Belong to the City, Smuggler's Blues or The Heat is On, are going to connect with the culture and take on a life of their own, regardless of whatever intentions Glenn Frey or anyone else had for them when they were written. And for most people, that will be singing at the local Thursday night karaoke jam. Or on a national radio show, with the song's performer or writer in attendance. I'm sure it must have been a somewhat discomfiting experience to hear his songs sung even briefly in such a frankly bad manner. But I have a strong feeling that on some level he must have been proud that his songs are and always will be permanently embedded in the cultural fabric, and that they meant the world to the world.
So he just let it go.
And for that, I have even more respect for him than I already did.
Fresh from mourning David Bowie, we now mourn Glenn Frey, cofounder of The Eagles, this past Monday at age 67. I can't confess to owning the landmark Hotel California in 1976, as I was only 5. But I remember all the music, probably because it was on the radio, which was at the time tuned to 126 CFRN "Good Sports". Which is retroactively hilarious because CFRN is now a sports station.
But because I heard it there, I always remembered it. And I always will.
New Kid in Town was always one of my favorites.
Now let's flash forward to 1995...
I had the absolute good fortune to see the Eagles on March 30 of that year at the Edmonton Coliseum, amid press reports stating that this was a must-see-now, once-in-a-lifetime event. I believe it was the first event in the then-refurbished arena. Glenn Frey was the de facto host for the evening when the band felt the need to talk. He thanked the audience for coming, and remarked that to his recollection the Eagles had been last in Edmonton in 1978 with Jethro Tull opening (A quick check of www.eaglesonlinecentral.com reveals that the date was actually July 23. Another fun fact: That show was actually the start of another North American leg of the Hotel California tour after a 10 month break, presumably to break up the monotony of recording The Long Run album, which had been going on for a year and a half at that point).
Everyone seemed to be relaxed and having fun at the Hell Freezes Over show. Both the Eagles classics and everyone's solo hits were well-represented, which was surprising and welcome.
30 years ago yesterday, I was on my way to Northlands Coliseum with my mom and sister to see Corey Hart. I have included the above clip for those who weren't there or who have trouble remembering. For a time, Hart and Bryan Adams were running neck-and-neck in popularity in the mid 1980s, and the fact that Adams might be better remembered today might be due to the fact that Corey has ostensibly retired from the business to spend time with his wife and kids in the Bahamas.
But on this night 30 years ago, he was huge, and my sister and I bought into the music and hype hook line and sinker. We had been to Corey's Coliseum show the previous August, and my mom, seeing what a good time we had at that show, and after making sure that Never Surrender wasn't some punk rant against authority but rather a song about triumph over adversity, gave us tickets for Christmas. This was not easy for her to do as a single mother, and we appreciated it very much. The show was very much as represented in the clip above and the other two that go with it, and it was a blast.
So thank you Corey.
Thank you Mom (who, unbeknownst to me, added a few lines to a fan letter I had written to Mr. Hart, to better my chances of getting a response. Which I did, in the mail that night, from his mother Mindy.)
Veteran character actor Abe Vigoda, best known for his role in the Godfather films as Sal Tessio, and on TV as Barney Miller's Detective Phil Fish, died this morning in his sleep at the age of 94 while under hospice care at his daughter's home in New Jersey.
Although throughout his career he had been plagued by various death hoaxes, which he always took with characteristic good humor, this time it's really true.
I can't claim to have seen everything Abe Vigoda ever did. I'm generally not one of those bloggers who spends an hour on IMDb or YouTube and comes away a world expert on anything or anyone. But both those resources are good for a quick fact check or a memory gap.
But I have seen the Godfather films, and I was always struck by the way that Vigoda as Tessio was able to express volumes of emotion with just a very direct stare and a few well-chosen lines, as Tessio wearily and resignedly accepts his fate for past sins.
Just a few years later Vigoda was back, employing that same direct stare, and even fewer well-chosen lines, as Detective Phil Fish on the groundbreaking sitcom Barney Miller. It was a role for which he was Emmy-nominated three times, and it is easy to see why. Fish lets his colleagues have all the wordy glory, then steals everything with just that look. It is a damn shame that, just as now, there was so much outstanding television being made in the 1970s that Abe Vigoda had to forgo the recognition of his peers for his stellar talents.
The world of music and entertainment mourns the loss of musician and actor David Bowie, who died late yesterday at the age of 69.
His music and films will be rightly be celebrated.
But for me, Bowie's artistic legacy almost boils down to this one 1983 clip, in which he criticizes MTV for not playing enough black artists while being interviewed on MTV by Mark Goodman, one of the channel's star VJs.
Consider that in 1983, Bowie was in the midst of a humongous comeback after shedding his Ziggy Stardust persona and attempting a poppier sound with the Tonight album. It was one of two albums that were all over the airwaves that summer, the other naturally being Michael Jackson's Thriller. MTV had been forced to almost begrudgingly place the Billie Jean video in high rotation to acknowledge Jackson's dominance, but were doing other black artists no favors by shuttling them to the 2 to 6 am graveyard shift. Bowie very calmly but firmly points this out to Goodman, who responds with total going-through-the-back-door-around-the-issue generalities that the star lets the big hairy guy get away with. The label PR person we don't see but probably hear near the end was probably alternately turning apoplectic shades of red, white, and blue at that point, but Bowie does not seem to give a shit. Nor does he seem content to be letting Goodman off the hook with "I understand your point of view".
But at least David Bowie did not kiss PR ass. He said what needed to be said.
