We Are (Still) The World

A friend posted this recently on Facebook.

And it got me thinking back.

I was 14 in 1985 when We Are The World came out and became a global phenomenon, building on the success of the British Do They Know It's Christmas and with the Canadian effort Tears Are Not Enough not too far off.

Of course, we can speculate about how much of the money actually got to Ethiopian famine relief, due to that country's corrupt government.

But I prefer to think of the hope that the words from the pens of  Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie gave to the world.

It was recorded at an all-night session following the American Music Awards.

There was a sign telling stars to leave their egos at the door.

And they all did.

Except for Waylon Jennings, who didn't want to sing a later-scrapped chorus in Swahili.

If I remember right, I think I sang this in a choir in Grade 6 as part of a St. Gabriel School food drive.

And had it recorded not on a phone, but on a real weighty video camera.

And it made me feel good to sing it then.

Still makes me feel good to hear it now.

Because I really can't think of more timely lyrics than "It's true we make a brighter day / Just you and me."


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I Love You Radio: 2000ish Edition AKA Thank You

My last radio post ran a little long, and research shows that people don't like to read long blog posts.

And I have several people I would like to thank.

So here goes...

Buzz Collins, Magic Eddie Mills to his Edmonton friends and listeners and Bono too. It was from whom I first heard the word "blog" after he left Power 92 for a station in Winnipeg, and who once gave me a shout out on an Ontario station just because he knew I was listening online. Thank you sir.

Mike Diesel, now of Go Auto Red Deer, who let me flex my movie critic muscles again for six very fun months in 2007 and 2008.on that K-Rockin' 97 during his evening show. I got to be Movie Man and it was a blast. I even had the pleasure of having both the Pink Panther and James Bond themes accompany me. Thank you sir.

Bill Cowen, former K97 morning cohost, who I met under circumstances normally reserved for adventure movies and icebound reality shows. He pulled me and my wheelchair out of a snowbank I rolled into while wheeling to my family's home from the bus stop.on Easter Sunday 2002. Yes, we had a big snow dump that year. I had just started my appreciation of classic rock, and as Bill pushed me the rest of the way, I complimented him and K97 on their choice to do a Howard Stern type of show locally. When we got to the house I joked to my mom and stepdad that they probably wouldn't recognize Bill because he certainly didn't look the same all bundled up as he did not bundled up on the K97 billboards then popular around town. He left and life sped by until we connected on Facebook about seven years later, almost as if no time had passed at  He invited us to his comedy show, and we even found time to break bread at Cora's some time later. Always Bill's ready smile and great laugh were in evidence. Again life has sped by, but thank you for your kindness my friend, and best of luck in your new endeavors. See you down the (hopefully snowbank-free) road.

Jungle Jay, former evening host on 630 CHED, who pioneered the concept of bringing "morning zoo" energy to the night time, complete with sound effects. To a geeky 15-year-old in 1986 looking for an exciting distraction to accompany my nightly homework, your show provided a party in the radio. And as I have said before, all that energy made me wonder what kind of guy you really were. Even what you looked like, which in those pre-social-media days was not always easy to find out. But I did find out one day when my mom and I went to the Spring Break Video Dance Party at Heritage Mall. The sun obscured the large hanging video screen in the center of the mall, so we wound up dancing to a large TV. But that was OK, because when I met you I found you had the same energy in person as you did on the air. You gave me a Hot Traxx album, and over the years I saw you at various places around town, first at the teen club Studio 82, and again at Heritage Mall for another cohost contest before the one at the station. I busied myself handing you your sound effects carts, something you didn't ask me to do, but you went  with it. Because you were always kind to me. I also seem to remember you and Seanna Collins joking about "fine young cannonballs" for some reason. It was fun following your career through stops after CHED at Power 92, Cool 880, and Capital FM, as well as the broadcasting school. It was a fun afternoon we spent there when I brought my old-school tape case full of airchecks for you to listen to and copy. And you were there for me at Capital when I came to you for advice when I was just starting my brief call center career, which really gave me a boost in that job. I still have those tapes in that case, safely in storage. In my stepdad Jim's basement, as a matter of fact. Jim deserves special mention too, because it is basically his two cassette decks and reel to reel I hogged to capture all of them, sometimes at all hours, and he rarely uttered a peep. So thank you Jim. Because Jay, I believe that your work deserves to live on. You were the best evening radio DJ in the city, and your on air work, your kindness, and your countless acts of giving will be remembered always by the city of Edmonton.

That applies to everyone in radio, by the way. In this world where people can create their own playlist on a whim, the guy or lady on the radio may not seem relevant anymore, but that is not so. Just about every station on the dial has a way and a place to start a conversation with listeners. Isn't NOW Radio's tagline "Join The Conversation"? And Charlee Morgan sure started a few when she was at UP!, that's for sure. Lots of people are sad that she's not there anymore. But sometimes, no matter how much time you spend in a city or province, you just have to go home. It's all good.

In the end, I decided to set my radio dreams aside. Turned out to be a better writer than a talker.

And that's OK.

Thank you all.

I love you radio.

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I Love You Radio: 90s Edition

Now where was I? Cut to the summer of 1992. I graduated from Holy Trinity High and still planned to pursue a career in radio. I wasn't quite sure how I was going to do it. But I sure was going to have fun trying while soaking up the sun. 630 CHED's stature as a Top 40 powerhouse had seen a shift with the gradual emergence of Power 92 FM, And the above aircheck is certainly a time capsule of the period, with Rob and Audie pulling Sunday double duty on the Hot 30. (Yes it was pretaped, but it was still fun picturing them maybe sitting in the studio and drinking coffee  on a Sunday going, "Weren't we just here?"). Also featured is the late Pat Cardinal, then the Power 92 program director and an outstanding DJ as well, doing the noon shift.

But if I could, I'd like to draw your attention to the smiling guy in the crew cut among the pictures featured. He is Ron Clark, and it is Ron who gave me the chance to have my own radio feature on his midday show in 1993. I had gone to the movie premiere of CB4 (short for Cell Block 4), a rap parody somewhat aspiring to be Spinal Tap but missing that mark by a continent or two, despite the presence of both Chris Rock and Phil Hartman. I had a great time lightly chuckling, and called Ron the next morning at the station just to chat about what we had seen. All of a sudden he said:

"Hey, how about we do a new segment on my show?"

My exact words: "Huh? Are you serious?"

"Yes I am," said Ron. "Let's start it right now. You ready? 3,2,1....And on the phone with me right now is Mike At The Movies! We saw CB4 last night and..."

Holy cow, I now had a radio handle I wouldn't have thought of in a million years, although I am a movie buff! That was all him.

And so I would go to the premieres and generally call in on Fridays about ten oclock. We would have a conversation on the phone about whatever the movie happened to be that week, be it Judgement Night with Emilio Estevez or The Chase with his brother Charlie Sheen and Kristy Swanson. Or Disney's Three Musketeers reboot with Charlie, Kiefer Sutherland, and Peter Frampton...uh, I mean Chris O'Donnell (a quip I didn't use on air but preserved here). Yes, it was a hit-and-miss summer moviewise, but we did occasionally get to see underappreciated gems like So I Married an Axe Murderer, a dark but very funny comedy starring Mike Myers, in which he plays not only the main character but also his crusty Scottish father. Others included The Man Without A Face, Mel Gibson's directorial debut in which he also played the title role. And there was also the sweet Heart and Souls, which gave pre Iron Man Robert Downey Jr a chance to flex his Chaplinesque gifts for physical comedy and mimicry.

And it was always a blast for me. But in those pre-digital days I know Ron did a lot of this...





...to make me sound good, sometimes working miracles to get our spot ready for air at the end of the nine song set. Or in a couple of cases at the end of a commercial break...when we would start recording at the beginning of said commercial break. And because I hadn't quite mastered the concept of friendly disagreement being OK when talking about movies in a critical forum. Add to that the fact that I did not discover the radio person's staple of coffee for another 12 years or so, and I'm sure he was wondering about me some days. The best radio people can put anyone at ease, and Ron Clark certainly was that.

And then, in the spring of 1994 after a pretty fun year, it was over.

Ron told me the morning I called to do our Major League 2 review. And I had a feeling we were done the night before when I saw Bob Uecker's Harry Doyle character chide his on air partner about going back to broadcasting school. Because no matter how much fun radio may appear to be, at the end of the day it is a business. And I had a pretty good year for not actually being hired. I was and always will be grateful to Ron Clark for doing all he did to start me on a path. But Ron Clark rocks, ladies and gentlemen. He really does. And not just because of all the radio stuff and all the movies, but for being a great friend as well, which is a rare thing in this crazy world.

Thank you my friend.

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Terry Fox: A True Hero

In the late 70s Real People, an offbeat precursor to today's reality TV boom, hit the airwaves. They usually profiled people like a pint-sized preacher and Disco Larry. But they really hit it out of the park with this profile of Canada's Terry Fox, a young man who became a true national hero by undertaking a cross-country run for cancer research after his own cancer diagnosis. Faced with almost insurmountable hip pain, Terry made it almost halfway across the country, never stopping until the spread of the cancer to his lungs forced him to.

I remember raising money for him when I was at the Glenrose School Hospital in Grade 2. We were all pulling for Terry to make it the whole way, and were heartbroken when he passed. But his accomplishments and humble nature live on in the yearly run that has been held across the country for nearly 40 years.


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Bill Matheson: A Class Act

There are many many people in broadcasting who view small-to-midsize markets like Edmonton as way stations, places to pass through on the way to Toronto or elsewhere in North America. Not so Bill Matheson, who almost instantly became a part of our community from his arrival in 1976 to his departure 20 years later. He is no longer with us, but will remain in our memories and our hearts forever.


And lest we forget, Bill was also a radio star on 930 CJCA along with Bill Jackson on "The Bill and Bill Show" from 1976 to 1992 (thank you Mark Summers):





And I have to admit that Bill was a class act when I met him at CHED in the early 90s. He happened to open the door for me as I left. "What's the weather gonna be like?", I asked.

"Should be sunny, not too bad", said Bill.

"I'm gonna hold you to it!", said I.

Thank God he smiled.


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Star Wars: A Special Moment In Time

I dearly hope that Disney and related copyright police do not take this off of YouTube. Because let's face it, we all had visceral reactions like this when watching Star Wars and other movies that turned out to be cultural touchstones.

I saw Star Wars not in its original 1977 run but as part of a 1983 double feature with The Empire Strikes Back in 1983 which coincided with the imminent release of Return Of The Jedi. The double feature was enjoyed at Edmonton's Capitol Square Theatre by our family, and Jedi at the Westmount theatre on its second weekend.

Oh what a simpler time to live in, where a family could bring in a device like this





and theatre management would not notice (or care).

Kind of makes me wish I'd brought one in 1984 when I was watching Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom at the Paramount Theatre downtown. Particularly during this scene:




during which I screamed, "CUT THE BRIDGE!!!", thereby startling my father, sister, and her friend, on the movie's second Friday.

And  to Mr. William Forsche, who has shared this piece of his life with the world...what a special way to remember your mother.

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Phantom of the Opera Car?

Well, not really, considering that the Mercury XR7 predated the Phantom of the Opera stage play by over 10 years. But the commercial is very cool and almost makes it seem as if the car could have been used as a promotional tie-in for the play.


Oh, and here's a 1977 ad starring Farrah Fawcett plugging that year's model:






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Gord Downie : The Humble Icon

We knew this day was coming, and that it was coming soon.

But it is still heartbreaking.

So much not like a typical rock star was Gord.

Yes a select group of them were Canadian hits.

But they weren't specifically crafted that way.

I mean, a song about a 38-year old who hasn't kissed a girl?

Another about a guy locked in the trunk of a car?

How quintessentially Canadian.

Did the rest of the world get it? Probably not.

Did that fact overly concern Gord? Again, probably not.

Because he downloaded poetry direct from his soul.

And uploaded it to us.

Come to think of it, if either the 38 year old or the trunk occupant actually exist, they are probably stars at their local Timmies.

That would probably tickle Gord pink.

Because as multifacedly talented as he was, he was very approachable.

I know this because I saw the Hip in 2002 at Edmonton's Jubilee Auditorium.

Or rather I should say heard, because people stood in front of me from beginning to end.

But in this case that was fine, because I got to witness the rapt crowd energy more akin to a church service.

And that did me just fine.

As did the opportunity to meet Gord after the show.

I was very excited to have the opportunity, but as my buddy Ralph and I waited, I worried that I did not have a Hip album with me, in fact had never owned one.

But I knew hit songs like Courage, Ahead By A Century, and Blowing High Dough from the radio.

I hoped that made me enough of a fan.

In the end it did. In the brief time that we spoke, Gord seemed genuinely interested in chatting.

And once Ralph let my writerly ambitions out of the bag, as he often does, Gord was advising me on who I should read in the Toronto Star.

I followed that advice, and it planted the seed for a freelance writing career that lasted a few years.

So today I will remember Gord Downie as a musician and lyricist without peer.

A Canadian icon.

And a humble man.

RIP sir. You did good. Rest well.

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Al Pacino Is The Man!

From Any Given Sunday:




Enough said.

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Brilliant IT

I must admit right now that I had never been to a packed horror movie screening prior to a first night screening of IT.

I was 4 years old in 1975, so I was not among JAWS's opening audiences by a long shot, instead catching it on network television, heavily edited for time, in the mid 1980s.

And I saw a smattering of Nightmare On Elm Street installments over the years on video.

So I was primed to do some screaming.

And I did.

For the uninitiated, IT the Stephen King novel and previous 1990 TV two parter concern a group of outsiders-cum-best-friends who deal with the evil clown Pennywise in 1950s Maine after he murders one  before reuniting as adults in the late 80s when OMG!...he comes back! Both the novel and the TV movie spend a lot of time jumping back and forth between decades, which blunts the effectiveness of the terror in those mediums. But director and co-writer Andy Muschetti has made the very wise decision to keep the action set in 1988 and 1989 with school-age kids in their own world, all brave bravado and scatological humor they are just beginning to understand. But the thing that they do understand is that sweet have-your-backness that the best of childhood friends seem to have. Now for a pictoral comparison:


Tim Curry as Pennywise (1990):





Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise (2017):



Obviously Curry, as creepy as he is, was reined in by network standards and practices. But Skarsgard has no such worries in the film.

He is free to scare the shit out of us.

And he does.

But even though Skarsgard as Pennywise is unforgettable, he is not the only memory you will come away with.

Come on now. Which of us wasn't the new kid at school at least once? The fat kid (or the one who felt fat and ugly inside)? The overprotected kid? The bullied kid? We have all felt that way in our lives at one time or another, whether we want to admit it or not. How about the first time you just plain liked a girl in junior high, and it was cool because she was one of the gang? That's here too. As is the basic idea of facing your childhood fears, whatever your IT happens to be. The final confrontation in the third act runs a little long with the cut-cut--cut editing, but that's a minor quibble. Otherwise IT's a new dramatic horror classic.

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Remembering Elvis

Yes it has been 40 years since Elvis Presley passed away into forever legendary status. His force and legacy has been with us for all that time. So in a sense he is not really gone and never will be. We have our memories and thousands of supremely talented Elvis tribute artists to help us remember. At the front of my memory is this timeless clip from the 1968 Comeback Special:





And If  I Can Dream, from the same show:





And speaking of talented tribute artists, here is Robin Kelly, the 2002 Callingwood Elvis Festival Grand Champion, doing Peace In The Valley in Memphis, with the Blackwood Quartet:




Long live The King!

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Adam West: Farcerur Extroardinaire

I was at a World of Wheels show in Edmonton in October 1985 with my dad and sister and we met Adam West under very similar circumstances, right down to the costume. How he saw anything through those eyeholes I'll never know.

But the thing I will always remember about Mr. West was how absolutely pleased as punch he seemed to be there. The people just ahead of us in line had two tykes dressed up as Batman and Superman. He stepped between them, one hand on each of their shoulders, and posed for a picture like it was the most natural thing in the world.

Because whatever misgivings he may have had about being typecast as Batman, by the mid-1980s I think he felt the love for the character and wanted to give some back.

Then he got to us.

And so Mr. West smiled and laughed through my dad's joke about using the Batmobile to get me back to the hospital, as I'd had surgery three weeks earlier and was out on pass that weekend.

And he also laughed and smiled through my sister Jacquie's indignant "That's not how you spell it!" when he dared to spell her name with a k lol. A smart man was he when it came to signing...all the pictures were already signed/stamped "To my pal," His tongue-in-cheek response to my sister? "Chief O'Hara, can I get a stamp?"

Now let's check out a montage of Batman's wall-climbing guest stars.

Rest in peace, Adam West. Your farcical wit will be missed.





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THE DARK TOWER Trailer (2017)

The battle between good and evil epically wrought on a huge canvas from Stephen King's epic.. Idris Elba looks like he can dig deep to fully portray the Man in Black, and it will be interesting to see if Matthew McConaughey can bring some bite to his laid-back persona to portray Roland the Gunslinger.



Coming August 4.



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Dunkirk Trailer

bsolutely stunning. If this is the trailer, (or more accurately, two trailers edited together), then Christopher Nolan has done the world a service by immersing a full three generations of people who have been enjoying the benefits of peace into what it must have been like to be in the harrowing thickness of World War II. And since our world is never completely at peace, a shout out is in order for those remaining few who knew war then, and also those who know it now.

Thank you for your service.

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I Love You Radio: 80s Edition

Yep that's skinny moustachioed me doing the Friday radio club thing at Holy Trinity High School in the spring of 1992. With a trusty double tape deck, occasional turntable, and iconic Realistic mixer I guess I pioneered the "playing what we want" format about a decade before it became fashionable. The principal's request for Neil Diamond's Song Sung Blue has to go on right away? After Digital Underground's Humpty Dance? Okie dokie Mr. Gratton. Dr. Feelgood into Debbie Gibson? Gotcha. But I did love it, even though my compadres Dennis, Steve and Laura couldn't understand why I loved being on the mic so much. Looking back, it probably was a little much. But I was on a mission. Ever since the winter of 1984 when my mom gave me a transistor radio to pass the time as I waited for my ride for school, I was in love with radio. Sounded like fun, that was for sure. Especially with people like Bruce Bowie, Rob Christie and Audie Lynds at the helm in the morning (yes, I was an unrepentant CHED head). Of course, there's a big secret under all the fun: Like anything arts and entertainment related, radio takes a lot of practice and hard work, no matter how easy the aforementioned legendary talents make it sound. But I found that out a few years down the road.


In the mid to late 1980s, 630 CHED was on the cutting edge of radio trends in the Edmonton radio market. Not only did they have the top-rated (and future international award winning) morning show in the city thanks to Rob and Audie, they also decided to be the first in Edmonton to bring the crazy high energy "morning zoo" format to the evening. The ringleader of the "Nighttime Zoo" was one Jungle Jay Hamilton, a very high-energy personality DJ who was perfect at creating a mood and keeping them listening weeknights from 6 to 10 for about six years. I wondered what a guy who had that much energy was really like, and I found out about a year later when I met him at a spring break video dance party at Heritage Mall. Just as cool as I thought. He was gracious enough to remember me when I called during a show a couple months later.

Cut now to May 17, 1989. I was selected as one of the winners of a "cohost the Top 8 At 8 with Jungle Jay" contest, on the aforementioned 630 CHED. (Before I continue, a quick side note about DJs and dates. The nature of radio, as I sure found out that night, is quick and intense. Done and gone. in the blink of an eye. Unless you buy into the theory that all our radio transmissions float out into space for the amusement of alien races. I doubt it. So the DJ's themselves rarely remember what they did and when they did it. And why would they? Life is fast, baby! But one of my particular quirks is that if a date in my life is significant, I never ever forget it. Ask anyone who knows me well. So what do you think I said to Jay when the 20 year milestone rolled around in 2009? That's right: "Hey man, guess what? It's been 20 years since we did the Top 8 At 8! Isn't that cool?". The look on his face told me that no, he didn't think it was particularly cool, and how dare I. But I quickly backpedaled. Phew!

But on with the show. My mom and stepdad got me to the CHED studio about 45 minutes early after I finished the night's homework, which was social studies if memory serves. As I waited in the lobby, Jay came out to tell me it would be a few minutes while he and a colleague adjusted mikes. That was fine with me, because truth be told I was a little nervous. I was just over a chest cold, and taking Buckley's Mixture four or five times a day on the preceding weekend to make sure it would be vanquished by showtime on Wednesday. It was actually supposed to be on Monday, but Jay took a couple days off to get over his own cold, so I got a little reprieve there. Anyway, when I got in there, the last song before the countdown started was just finishing. (Baby Don't Forget My Number by Milli Vanilli if memory serves. There wasn't enough time to tell me the number 8 song before showtime, but enough time for Jay to tell me one very important thing:

"I'm gonna ask you questions, and you're gonna answer them."

Cool, man. So he introduced me, got me to plug Holy Trinity High, introduced Jody Watley's Real Love, and off we went. And after hastily wetting my whistle with a box of Co-Op apple juice, it was my turn to introduce songs such as Donny Osmond's Soldier of Love, One To Many's Downtown (a song I honestly have not heard since that night), Guns N Roses' Patience, Michael Damien's Rock On, Bobby Brown's Every Little Step, Eria Fachin's I Hear a Symphony, and the number 1 song, Paula Abdul's Forever Your Girl.

I sure made up that night for all the note passing I never did in school, Because Jay would write down the name of the next song on a piece of paper and hand it to me as the current song was playing. And as I said before, all at breakneck pace. It lasted roughly half an hour, but felt like about ten minutes.  And all the while I just introduced the songs in my best impression of how Jay would do them. And I must have done something right, because he played a applause sound effect for me at the end. You've heard of baby carrots? Well in the 80s, DJs had baby 8-track cousins that could hold one thing and were always ready to go. Like this one:




When the show was over, I asked my mom how she thought I did. She was, after all, the one who kicked off my love affair with radio by giving me that transistor radio.

She said, "You did great Mike. I know this has been a dream of yours for quite a while. Who knows, you might have a radio show of your own one day. You just might find your very own style!"


And I would.

But that is a story for I Love You Radio: 90s Edition.

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Last Jedi Teaser Thoughts

As I have said before, it is great to have the Star Wars universe in the hands of writers and directors who are more comfortable with the emotional underpinnings of current and subsequent stories than series creator and godfather George Lucas ever was. It will be interesting to see where the potentially interracial storyline between Finn (John Boyega) and Rey (Daisy Ridley) goes. And the opportunity to see Mark Hamill's Luke back on screen in an actual speaking role gives me chills, as does the prospect of seeing Carrie Fisher's Princess Leia front and center in a role she completed filming last July before her untimely death in December.

And as for Leia's continued appearances in the SWU beyond Last Jedi, I believe that they would still be able to happen, as long as it is done in a respectable manner which is amenable to both Fisher's estate and her brother Todd (probably one and the same). Because all SWU properties and likenesses are now owned by Disney. And I am damn sure that from both a financial and emotional standpoint, no one wants to see Carrie Fisher or Princess Leia ever being forgotten.

May the Force be with you!


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Don Rickles: The Legacy

As Don Rickles once remarked, he'd been in the business for 60 years, but his grandkids only knew him from the Toy Story franchise. Not a bad way to be remembered, in the end:








Rickles also often spoke of needing to keep his name alive. While I think that might be a problem for someone like Justin Guarini, I don't think Don Rickles will ever be forgotten. Because the secretly golden-hearted curmudgeon will always have Jimmy Kimmel in his corner:





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RIP Don Rickles

On April 6, the world lost  Don Rickles, a true comic genius, at the age of 90.





Here he is at his quick best in the 1970 action drama Kelly's Heroes. Even at a scant 20 seconds, he makes the scene his as Crapgame.





And here he is 28 years later roasting the film's star Clint Eastwood.


Doing the same thing to Frank Sinatra in the 70s (and Mr. Warmth was the only one whose ribbing Ol' Blue Eyes would tolerate, by far)











More 70s goodness with Sinatra on the Johnny Carson Tonight Show.


Rest well, Mr. Rickles. Ya done good.

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Deadpool 2 Trailer: Eyes Like A Firefly

More of the same jokey, edgy goodness presumably awaits us in Deadpool 2 in 2018. Looking forward to it. But when I saw this in the theatre attached to Logan, I couldn't help but notice the selection of Firefly posters on one of the walls. I thought to myself, "oh shit, the calls for a Firefly reunion are gonna come out in force again."

And I thought that would be cool.

But then I thought that the Firefly TV show was yanked by the Fox network after airing 11 of its 14 episodes. So what network is gonna want to touch it?

The 2005 Serenity film, while providing a great story and a chance for series star Nathan Fillion to really get his John Wayne and Harrison Ford ids on, only made $10 million on its opening weekend and $25 million over its entire theatrical run, as per Box Office Mojo. And that was after one of the most ardent and impressive fan campaigns to get the movie made in the first place. So I can't see Universal ponying up again.

Fillion has recently said that it is time for us to move on. And I agree with him. Here's why.

We all know that Firefly writer-director Joss Whedon is a genius when it comes to creating worlds populated with people who constantly mouth witty and incisive dialogue. But we also know from Whedon's two Avengers films that while the dialogue in those films was serviceably witty, the overall vision of the films seemed massively watered down by the Disney/Marvel behemoth. That is what studios are these days. Behemoths. They have notes, and they expect things done a certain way. Whedon reportedly had problems and clashes, and it shows. So I really don't want to see a watered-down version of Firefly, just to get something out there. And I don't think either Fillion or Whedon want to either.

But long live Deadpool. Looking forward to it.

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Justice League: DC Gets Its Marvel On

Could DC finally be getting its Marvel on with Justice League?  It sure looks that way in these trailers! And as to the guy who commented that Batman/Bruce Wayne joking to the Flash that his superpower was "being rich" is out of character, come on man! DC has obviously gotten the message that they need to lighten the tone of their films a bit in order to gain a piece of the money pie that Marvel has had to itself for almost a decade now. Here's hoping for greatness in 2018! Oh, and congratulations to Ben Affleck for stepping down from directing duties on the standalone Batman film. As he obviously learned on Live By Night, sometimes too much is too much.

And I'm sure that yelling "Action" and "Cut" from under that cowl would be a real bitch.

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Live By Night: Little Gangster On The Prairie

Thanks to Ben Affleck's fine directorial work in films like Gone Baby Gone, The Town and Argo, we know that he can tell a story in a brisk and captivating manner. And on the surface of things, it is great that Affleck's intention is to create an homage to hardboiled 30s and 40s film noir. On that basis he scores excellently, because in terms of tone and set design, there is nothing better. You feel as though you are in that era, with all the cars, clothing and speakeasies on display. Affleck has made no secret of his love for the Warner Brothers gangster films of the period such as The Maltese Falcon, Little Caesar, and the original 1932 Scarface. Yet the essential problem, perhaps because of his multiple hats as star, director, writer, and producer, is that he looks too damn good to portray a hardbitten war hero turned gangster, though he tries mightily to convince us he is so, in an almost continuous and overpowering voiceover. Multiple plot strands involving his character Joe Coughlin coming up in the underworld, a long-lost crush, a woman in Miami, and yet another woman, in the form of an idealistic woman he tries to save, don't help either. Neither does the always-mentioned but barely present brother played by Scott Eastwood who was obviously edited out. And the fact that although everyone else in the film looks and acts suitably period, Ben Affleck's hardbitten gangster looks about as believable as Michael Landon's hardbitten farmer on TV's Little House on the Prairie. But Live By Night is in the end a competent way to get into the film noir mood if that is what you desire.



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Chuck and John

Chuck Berry and John Lennon meet at the Mike Douglas Show in New York in February 1972. They talk and play together: two icons at the summit of talent. Enough said.


MTMG

RIP Robert Osborne: Movie Truth Teller

With the passing of original Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne  at age 84, classic movie fans have lost both a genial movie host and a man with a profound love for and encyclopedic knowledge of film and its history. And in this one TCM introduction I happened to stumble upon while looking for something to post that would represent Osborne's talents in a nutshell, there exists a goldmine. In introducing 1971's Stanley Kubrick film A Clockwork Orange for a scant  two minutes and seventeen seconds, he manages to do three things:

1) Impart a movie truism: Movies don't change. We do.

2) Educate and/or remind us that the film had its supporters and detractors. And indeed, a quick check of the IMDb reveals that the film divided the critical establishment. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times hated the film for its violent  and cynical worldview and cavalier treatment of subjects like murder and rape, while Vincent Canby of the New York Times praised it for the same things.

3) Osborne's admission that he himself was initially one of Clockwork's detractors, walking out of a Christmas season 1971 preview screening after witnessing Malcom McDowell's sadistic and demented Alex stomp a hobo to death while pretending to be Gene Kelly in Singing in The Rain. Not the best way to get into the Christmas spirit, he thought. And he's obviously right. But leaving a screening can be a ballsy and potentially career-damaging thing to do, particularly if he was there to review it. I know I got a stern talking to from my editor for leaving a screening of Constantine that I was reviewing for a college paper simply to answer the call of nature. To give Robert Osborne the posthumous benefit of the doubt, I will assume that the screening was an opinion maker one, to generate buzz in the Hollywood community among critics and other notables, and not one he had to cover.

4) And finally his assertion that with all the things going on in the world in the last while, A Clockwork Orange's cynical, downbeat tone seems more timely than ever.




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RIP Chuck Barris

Chuck Barris, the legendary host of The Gong Show in the 70s and author of the "unauthorized" biography Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind, passed away in his Palisades, New Jersey home today at the age of the age of 87. I cannot say that I was an avid fan of Mr. Barris or the Gong Show in its heyday, but I have to say I admire the man's gigantic balls for taking a small kernel of truth (yes, he did actually apply for the CIA but ultimately opted for a television career) into an action-filled potboiler that people believed for years.

Hmmm...since I have worn a dinner jacket a few times in my life, and since I got a shave and a haircut yesterday, I guess I can start writing my book entitled That Night I Switched Places With James Bond. I'll let you know how that goes.

Now let's watch the trailer for the 2002 film Confessions of A Dangerous Mind directed by George Clooney and starring Sam Rockwell as Barris, as well as a 1977 episode of The Gong Show, essentially an ancestor to America's Got Talent. With no less than young David Letterman on the judging panel.








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RIP Chuck Berry

Let us remember music legend at the point where it all began, with Johnny B. Goode. And also let us remember the 30th anniversary of the 1987 documentary Chuck Berry: Hail Hail Rock and Roll, in which director Taylor Hackford pays tribute to and celebrates the longevity of the man at the 30-year milestone in his career.





And here is a 21-minute outtake from the film with Berry jamming with Keith Richards and Eric Clapton:




Hail hail and rock on!

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Love Actually Actually Again?

So yesterday came word that the team behind Love Actually is reuniting for a followup to the 2003 sleeper hit. with Prime Minister David (Hugh Grant) and his beloved civilian Natalie (Martine McCutcheon) front and center. I am not too sure about this. While I enjoyed the original film's exploration of the different types of love, be it romantic, platonic, friendly, bromance or cute preteen crush, Love Actually also relied heavily on the chemistry between its couples. At the time I had trouble buying Grant as a PM because he looked too good. But I guess history has caught up to us in Canada at least, seeing as we have our very own dashing fella at the helm. It remains to be seen if the magic of Liam Neeson's remark to his son that there is hope for him if Ringo Starr can get a Bond girl, or the sheer audaciousness of Bill Nighy's aging, profane rock star, can be replicated. But I tell you what, if the new plot involves a bus breakdown during the rock star's reunion tour with his old faux Stones band with Liam's son on drums and Ringo as the lad's drum tech, I'm in.


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Thank You, Carrie Fisher

Thank you Carrie Fisher, for the following...


1) For always making sure that Princess Leia always kicked ass and took names.

2) For always telling little girls everywhere (including at our own Edmonton Expo just last September) that it is always their choice whether they want to be princesses or generals.

3) For making Harrison Ford and Paul Simon, two famously grumpy men, smile, as fleeting as your times with each of them may have been.

4) For likely wagging your finger at me right now from the galactic fern bar where you and your mom have a permanent table, as I reveal the question I was going to ask you had I been able to make it to the  Expo: "Aren't you tired of playing Princess Leia by now?"

How utterly bad and insensitive that would have been of me. Of course you were not tired of playing her! She gave you a platform and a voice to chronicle both your career and your mental health struggles in full and frank detail, letting the millions also struggling that is ok for every day not to be a great day, or even a good one. As long as it's a day that can be gotten through. 

And that wisdom, even more than your colossal achievement of the Princess Leia role, is what will resonate forever.

Because there is always hope.

So thank you Carrie Fisher.

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RIP Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher

I was trying to find a way to pay tribute to these mother-daughter icons. Happily, Carrie Fisher already did lovingly pay tribute to her mother, by way of Turner Classic Movies. Rest in peace ladies. If the hereafter has a nightclub or a bar, you are probably closing it down every night with your stories, excited about the fact that you possess very special knowledge: what exactly made both Prince and David Bowie tick. And I imagine you now have a permanent table for two. Funny thing is, with this tribute, you inadvertently wind up paying tribute to each other. And that is very very cool.

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