Henri Cru(1921-1992) was a life-long friend of Jack Kerouac’s. They met when both were students at the Horace Mann prep school, New York, in 1939. Henri appears as “Remi Boncoeur” in Kerouac’s On the Road, and as “Deni Bleu” in Lonesome Traveler, Visions of Cody, and other books.
Original Author’s Note:
This was written in April 1991 as a present to Jack’s oldest New York friend, Henri Cru, for his 70th birthday. Henri and I had been friends about ten years at this point, and there are endless stories about him, but this is the tale of just one night. It was sort of a written-to-order gift: Henri wanted the girls painted pretty, the jazz described just so, etc., even adding a few brush strokes himself. The title comes from my writing about Henri in the Toronto Star, calling him, “Greenwich Village legend Henri Cru,” and the term playfully stuck for the rest of his life, which sadly ended the year after this night took place.
2010 Author’s Note:
When I read this two decades after he & I last spoke, I could hear his voice again. I hope it works for you — but I’m totally back in his junk-filled apartment listening to Henri tell stories. He had the funniest way of talking. A gracious loquacious preacher, with a little Edward G Robinson, ya-see?
As Eleanor Roosevelt said, “Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art.”
And boy, was he ever. I have tons of phone messages he left over the years — many beginning, “You’re not gonna believe this, but …” It would be such a cool project to gather them onto one tape so you could just listen to Henri’s stories for hours. I need an intern.
We lived 3 blocks from each other, and he’d call all hours of the day or night. I was in my primetime 20’s so was out a lot, but my early-‘80s phone machine would record until the cassette ran out, so there’d be these nights I’d get home in the ska-doobalee of half-past-threebee, and the machine would take 5 minutes to rewind …
Henri loved this birthday piece, and gave it out to everyone he met till the day he died. He’d always give away his last copy, and then call me in a panic cuz he “desperately” needed a new one. :- )
Henri was just crazy in the Best way you can be crazy. Boldly himself, eccentric, benevolent, honest . . . loopy as a loon, but joyously in love with people and life — like so many of the characters Kerouac captured in his books and who populated his life. And mine, too. How ‘bout you?
The Legend Turns 70
An Easter Sunday In Greenwich Village
When I got the birthday invitation phone call to Henri’s House of Cards, on Bleecker Street, Manhattan, U.S.A., I was duly warned – “My apartment is smaller than the last time you were here.” And I knew with all the crap Henri carted home, he didn’t mean he’d rented out a room.
This first invitation was followed a few days later by an urgent midnight phone call. “Why — it’s Henri again! Is the party off? Or we’re getting together a different night? Or, I know, he’s dis-inviting me — his old boozin’ beat buddies are in town and he wants them to have a seat at the Birthday Table.” But noooooooooooo. Not this Cru. He was calling fervently in the middle of the night to simply tell me the rest of his guests would be “just a bunch of real regular fella’s, and I wanted to let you know you’ll be amongst friends. There’ll be no roughnecks or oddballs — just the very nicest people I know in New York.”
“Real salt-of-the-earth types are they Henri?”
“YEEEES,” he bellowed, “You’ve got it exactly.”
He wanted me at his sanctuary by 5:00 on Sunday for some afternoon cocktails before an Easter dinner at a local Village establishment, followed by Maynard Ferguson at The Blue Note. “Hot damn,” I thought. “I’ll be hearing a legend, with a legend!”
As I arrived for the mysterious afternoon rendezvous with god-knows-who, I was smiling over Groucho Marx’s commandment about not belonging “to any club that would have me as a member.” There was no telling what colors might be at this Rainbow Gathering.
From the elevator canyon in the Atrium vestibule I peered up through the opening and could see Henri’s be-signed door with what appeared to be bar stools outside. As I bopped out of the elevator, there was Henri perched in his doorway like Santa Claus in summer, waving his big paw in the air and grinning like a retired Buddha. Sure enough the bartender was positioned behind his overflow stools, with the swatches, swirls and shapes of his castle spilling out behind him.
And speaking of his spilling castle, Henri’s stock-piling of supplies dates back to Pearl Harbor: You never know when you might get bombed, so months of supplies are always needed. And for anyone who gets bombed as often as Henri, you can never be too careful.
The party boy was looking great on his birthday I must say. I couldn’t believe how combed and perfect and full his hair was. His face was cheery and his eyes were bright. And you shoulda seen the vest and tie!
As he rolled his wheelchair backwards down its track (because there wasn’t room to turn around) the other birthday celebrants started coming into view in the dark recesses of The Cru Cave. There was Beanstock Gorman — who I used to think was quite tall until I met Big Tums who was towering above the refrigerator (which was very difficult to distinguish amongst the mosaic of streetside collectibles). Out from the darkness reached the big greeting hand of Beanstock’s on arms that seemed to stretch like Mr. Fantastic’s. Henri graciously ducked while Tums reached over like a pool cue to do the same.
Just as I was starting to feel very insecure about my height, these two Celtic guards began having some kind of Easter hallucination right in front of me, crying out, “Mary, Mary, Virgin Mother Mary of Christ, you look stunning!” I thought that was an odd thing to say to me, and as I turned around to inquire, out of the darkness sashayed this vixen princess in a tight black miniskirt and thigh-high boots. She was grinning so proudly it looked like she really did just sire Jesus! I started thinking to myself, ‘Now wait a minute, am I in Henri Cru’s apartment? Who is this girl? Maybe she´s in the wrong place. The door is open,” I thought as I looked beyond to see it was closed.
Running beneath the curvaceous soft leather skirt ran a dancer’s bodysuit that marvelously illuminated her finest curves. She was happy and giggling like a shy little girl on her birthday. “You look wonderful Mary,” “Mary, you look great,” “Ou BOY,” the guys were falling all over themselves trying to get a better view and out-compliment each other. She blushed, giggled, shuffled and swayed to the chorus of praise. Finally, as the wave began to subside, she politely said, “Hi, I’m Mary,” and reached out her delicate hand. “Henri bought me this outfit for his birthday. Try to restrain yourself,” she said, giggling again in time with the room.
Just as it was beginning to sink in that Henri actually knew someone this pretty, out from behind one of the columns of boxes popped this petit, long haired angel of about 17. Who are these girls, I was asking myself. The Celtic’s cheerleaders or what? “Hi, I’m Alexandra,” the dainty little face said. “Do you have a light?” Things were definitely looking up.
My old friend Henri has lived in Greenwich Village a long time. Some say too long. Visiting his apartment is like visiting a museum of two-for-one offers, or some collage of consumerism. Piles were supporting piles which became walls upon which more stuff was hung.
It’s kind of like that game Mousetrap, where nudging one item could set in motion an unstoppable string of events that crossed the entire room. So much was balancing on top of so much that the tiniest sneeze could bring down an empire. It was Henri’s House of Cards in more ways than one.
The place ticked with the complexity of Professor Pott’s windmill laboratory in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and mystified with the single light bulb ambiance of a subterranean prohibition bookie joint. There was absolutely no room left to stand, except on Henri’s wheelchair track which ran the width of a chair from the front door to the kitchen. Period.
And of course stalactites of flotsam had begun to drip from hooks in the ceiling, in the form of backpacks and tied-bags with clothes hangers hooked on. The cross-beam poles of sagging hickory were draped with belts, utensils and tools of every contrivance. The two Celtics were continually bashing their noggins on some suspended pot or other, or getting their faces caught in cobwebs of clothing, all the while doing this peculiar sort of ceiling dance as they bobbed their heads around the ever-shrinking cavern. It was sort of like urban spelunking. Or like taking a long trip with six people in a small car where every time you wanted to get something — even if it was out of your pocket — all six people had to re-arrange themselves.
And so it was into this slightly tight madhouse that some old trucking friend of Henri’s, Red Jackman, came stumbling in. Old Red — easy to see from his nose and eyes where he got his name — arrived with the slurring promise of a colorful philosopher. He promptly plopped himself down on the center stool and began pontificating about Christ. “Jesus was the only man who talked sense,” he said about 35 times in a row. Seeing as it was the day of His resurrection, the gracious thing was not to argue. Not that anyone could yell a word in sideways.
About this time, over the din of the droning drunk, Henri announced his most prized birthday present of the day: a box full of pre-rolled joints specially from a friend of his old flame Frankie Edie Kerouac Parker. Edie and Henri definitely fell from the same tree. Seeing them together is like watching two married Nick and Nora’s wise-cracking one-liners off each other in a good-natured battle of one-upmanship. Henri showed us the funny birthday card she’d sent, but it just couldn’t make up for her laughter or her silly asides being there.
That joint may have been one the most enjoyable I ever shared with a seventy year old sailor, a couple of Celtics, and two Miss America contestants. I suddenly began to feel like I’d run away with the circus . . . as the Duke Ellington that was tooteling from some hidden recess began to come into focus.
“Here you go Mr. Jackson,” Beanstock said, passing the number to the drunk.
“That’s Jackman,” he protested, and was so pleased to be smoking a joint with two beautiful young girls that he took the occasion to fall off his throne. On the way down he tried to grab two separate stacks of Henri’s Building Blocks, bringing entire mountains of cigar boxes and fishing tackle cases cascading down on top of himself in a Chaplinesque whirlpool of drunken helplessness.
Beanstock and Big Tums cast their fishing pole arms over and hoisted the hoser back onto his stool for another round (even though it should have been stopped with a TKO). Verbally, or slurbally, Red didn’t loose a beat (or the floor, unfortunately) throughout his compromising collapse. He was still ranting on about Jesus, the joys of speaking Hebrew, and his fancy for Alexandra’s, uh, affections.
With one man drowning, the cru began to think about rations and fresh air. Showtime was nine o’clock, and we were thinking —— Chowtime.
Beanstock suggested, “A little Mexican place I know on Third Street — Senor McDonalds.” No argument. It seemed the plan was to leave Mister Jackman in a slumbering daze and high-tail it out of there. Nobody wanted to test his dexterity inside the Blue Note. But just as we were in that ocean of motion, ol’ Jack started to come around, and Lord knows he was out the door with us. A helluva cru we were to look it, lemmi tell ya.
So this highly charged group hit the pavement with Beanstock driving Henri. He took off with the girls down the Bleecker Street sidewalk that Kerouac once described old newspapers blowing along as his idea of “fame.” I was hanging back with staggering Red, when suddenly the cru cut straight across Bleecker through a temporary lull in the river traffic.
It was the old Village Dash, with Beanstock and the girls taking the early lead. Without conferring, the plan went in effect — using Beanstock’s long sober legs to motor Henri in a high-speed chase away from the Collapsing Clown. Tums and I gave Red the sense he was still with the Cru, while Beanstock wheeled a hard right and shot straight up the center of Sullivan Street between the lines of parked cars.
We lollygagged with the loopin around a bluff of flowers at a corner deli, and distant spied the royal procession snapping their quick left into the mayhem of Third Street. With the Jack of Reds bent at the corner sniffing the daisies, we darted off like fish through the sea of Sunday people. I think I heard the Batman theme playing somewhere in the background.
We managed to safely disappear into the sanctity of Senor McDonalds, and promptly sat as far from the windows as possible. Henri backed in between two tables and we all crowded around with our backs to the window for coverage.
It was a grand Easter supper at America’s most famous restaurant — and I was at the Captain’s table! We had a full encampment, and a glorious feast amid wrappers and shakes and salty language. With Big Tums in front of me, Birthday Henri to my left, and my bag with the journalist’s tape recorder to my right, I felt we had the enemy at bay — until I looked and saw the chair was empty where my bag used to be! The horror! The emptiness!
I immediately dashed for the door — and just as I got there, coming out the restaurant’s other doors was some guy holding something in his winter coat. I lunged at him without even seeing his hands — grabbing for the grey backpack he was holding as cover, still not seeing anything that indicated he had mine. I just knew I wasn’t going to let anybody leave until I’d searched them.
Then I suddenly saw my black strap dangling behind his and grabbed with both hands, catching the strap with one and my bag with the other. He offered only guilty resistance, and I pulled my life back into myself.
I pulled the bag to my chest and stormed back into the restaurant, never even looking into the face of my thief. But I’d foiled New York crime once again.
Inside the suddenly bright fluorescent restaurant everything had stopped and everyone was starring at me. Apparently I’d yelled, “My bag!” fairly loud and a jaw-dropped audience was waiting. I just rushed to my encampment in the shock of a loss reclaimed, and the collective silence didn’t help one bit. I high-fived Big Tums — and Beanstock wanted to know what was in the bag — which allowed me to bless and give Easter thanks to the resurrection of each of my lost lifetools.
The Sunday Supper ended peacefully after that, and in no time our cru was on its way across the street to the crowning performance of the evening — Maynard Ferguson’s closing night at The Blue Note Cabaret in New York City.
One of the pivotal trumpet voices of American Jazz was about to give a command performance in the Village of its birth. Henri was bubbling and bouncing like a little kid on his way to Disneyland. Hearing Maynard was to bring back the euphoric swing era of the 1940s for one more night. “He’s one of the last authentic old time jazz players around,” Henri was telling me as we crossed the street. “You can count all the great living trumpet players on one hand,” he went on, “with two fingers amputated.”
Inside, just after we squeezed into our table for six, Paul Schaffer arrived with his parents and sat beside us. Shortly, Maynard himself came swaggering past to pay his regards. There was quite the feeling of anticipation in the air: the glittering mirrors of the famous nightclub; the closing night of a trumpet legend; the attendance of a TV band leader; and the jazz-jumping revisitation of Remi Boncoeur in Greenwich Village.
Maynard’s set was smokin’. He had four horn players with him, an excellent pianist, a 19-year-old upright electric bassist, and drums. All the arrangements were pure horn — no guitar or keyboard solos that had no part of Maynard’s sound. It was just the real thing in the club where other musicians come to hear what you’re up to. This ain’t the road show in Poughkeepsie.
The big guy blew for over an hour, which was pretty great for lungs about Henri’s age. “He doesn’t face the floor or the back of the stage like some novice,” Henri pointed out. “He holds his horn high and proud and in-your-face, confident of hitting the notes, and not burying his instrument like some others.”
Maynard let his young players load up the bases early in the song, and then right when it was climaxing he’d step to the plate and blow the home run solo. He’d wait till the mood was just right then lift you away on one intergalactic joyride of a soul, slingshotting it into Masterspace, and Henri would cry out, “Strat-o-spheric!” The pure brass voice of scatological American history blasting loud and screeching clear — over the fence and into the Mississippi. True and free. Maynard on Closing Night!
He even announced a nice howdy-doo to honorable Canadian Paul Schaffer and his lovely parents from Thunder Bay, Ontario. He regretfully overlooked the mighty Henri, but he coulda been bucking for that shot on Letterman.
The night ended with a bopping version of “Birdland” that blew the napkins right off the tables. All the hornmen were letting fly in one climactic scream of brass-driven magic. It was the “Johnny B. Goode” of jazz — and Henri was rocking back and forth in his seat and hollering something about the “20th century Gabriel.”
And all of a sudden it was over, and the saxophone player was hanging at our table ordering a beer. Henri was quick to snatch a yak, a laugh, a shake, and a birthday autograph to which the hornman grinningly obliged.
We were one big, glowing band as we poured back into the buzzing Village street scene that was just hitting its evening stride. The lights and the street people were blinding our eyes like coming out of an afternoon movie into the sunshine. I thought back to my bag thief lurking in the shadows, hitting on other civilians. Mary was lookin so hot she had to keep bashfully beating away all the boys on the block. Once again our Cru was cookin’.
The evening ended, as all good birthdays should, with a comfortable debriefing back in the host’s living room. Or in this case, wheelchair track. We gathered ‘round the old maestro and sang “Happy Birthday,” and everybody made their testaments to how Henri had changed their lives. The King held court and told stories of wayfaring adventures. Then he sparked up another number for the band. The Cru was in rapture. Beanstock began channeling Lenny Bruce . . . entertaining The Rat Pack in the pack-rat’s maze . . . with background be-bop blasting the soundtrack and setting the tempo . . . and Henri riding it all on a wise-cracking flow, ya-see . . .
Here are the easily printable one-sheet roster line-ups for the different teams, with all players in their positions, on lines, with their Olympic jersey numbers, ages, current teams, etc. . . .
The docs are in Word, and for printing just make sure it’s set to “landscape” — it should come out on one sideways page.
And just print “Current page,” and not “All” unless you want a blank extra.
Being in Canada on Gold Medal Sunday will be like being in America on Obama’s Election Night.
Canadian Kindness: When in public Celebrations — remember, we’re hosting. People rooting for other nations are ourguests and Olympic friends. It’s just a game. They’re just you and me, from somewhere else. Celebrate them for showing pride in a foreign land, and make everyone love this place as much as we do.
I’m back doing Olympic Hockey Reports on ThatChannel.com. Here’s with hosts Hugh Reilly & Nikki Hayes doing The Final Olympic Debriefing discussing the overwhelming effect they had on Canada. (open another window to keep reading this site)
Or here’s Jan. 29th — Brian-Hugh-Nikki — discussing the final cauldron lighting; Canada’s consortium of coaches; the Russians vs Canada; great players vs team sports; the Magic of the Midnight Games; the emotion of Canada winning; the David & Goliath epic being written; and the opening game vs. Norway at the Cineplexes.
And as we should always play the national anthem first, here’s Maritime rapper Class with his new Canadian anthem for your listening and/or viewing pleasure as you discover the Gold in these thar Olympics.
I also highly recommend all Canadians watch the amazingly revealing documentary “On Home Ice” that was filmed over the last year showing how the team was put together. It’s kind-of a must-see if you want to understand this team. And thank gawd somebody put it on YouTube!
The Flow Below
Preliminary Round Gameplans
The Final All-Player Olympics
The Gold Medal will be Decided over Lunch
Overview of 2010 Teams
TV Broadcasts
The Midnight Games
The Crazy-But-True Dept.
The Russians
Rule Changes
3-Point System to Determine Standings
Olympians by NHL team
IIHF Ranking of Participating Nations
Different Leagues in these Olympics
Preliminary Round Gameplans . . .
(feel free to replicate in a town near you)
game 1 — Tuesday Feb 16th — 7:30PM — Canada vs Norway — this is the 10-0 game where we come together as a team and have a gelling & excelling scrimmage. I expect Roberto Luongo in net for his evaluation game against this weakest of opponents. Location: the Cineplex (the Scotiabank one Richmond St.). Yes, the movie theater. I’ve never seen a live game in one. Could you imagine a 100 foot Hi-Def screen with the best surround-sound in existence and hundreds of screaming new best friends? It’s not weather dependent cuz it’s indoors, and t’s the first game, so it won’t have caught on yet as the thing to do. And we let the outdoor scenes have a chance to gel and work out the bugs and spread word-of-mouth and gather mass momentum.
game 2 — Thursday Feb 18th — 7:30 — Canada vs Switzerland — despite our pathetic Wayne Bertuzzi team last Olympics getting shut-out by the Swiss, this should be 5–1 or better, or we’re gonna have trouble again. I expect Brodeur to be in net for Canada in his warm-up try-out game — vs Anaheim’s current monster Jonas Hiller for the Swiss, an excellent foil who’s on a hot streak. And we need to be able to beat good goalies. Since it’ll be a fast-played, exciting game, this is the time to be cheering & high-fiving in a Sea of Red at Nathan Phillips and/or Dundas Sq (weather permitting). We’ll find out which has the better screen and scene. It’s a 10-minute walk between and there’s 15 minute intermissions — I’m anticipating the first period at one party, the 2nd at the other, and the third at the best one.
game 3 — Sunday Feb 21st — 7:40 — Canada vs USA — The Home Game — the 2002 Gold Medal Rematch! This is the one to watch at home or a friend’s house, a la Super Bowl Sunday — there’s a fantastic warm-up game in the afternoon with Russia vs the Czechs from 3:00–5:30 — have a nice afternoon of it, making good use of the kitchen — followed by a 2-hour dinner n drinks break, and then the game that determines who finishes First in our Group, getting a bye directly into the Quarterfinals — and which team has to play an exhausting extra game the night before. The team that wins Gold will likely have gone 6-0 in the tournament. Only 3 teams will win this Sunday Final. And don’t forget — the big Midnight Game — Sweden vs Finland! The second recent Gold Medal rematch of the night!
After these 3 games, I/we/you will have experienced it 3 different ways, and can decide how to do the “game 7″ elimination games, beginning with the Quarter-Final game on Wed Feb 24th, at 7:30 (Eastern).
I anticipate some serious Hi-Def action at Nathan Phillips. Including and especially the pre-Gold Medal games. Stay tuned for details. Semi-final game: Friday Night, 9:30 PM (Eastern), Feb. 26th Gold Medal game: Sunday Afternoon, 3:15 PM (Eastern), Feb 28th
These are the Final All-Player Olympics
Although they won’t officially say it until eons from now in the middle of some summer when no one’s paying attention, the NHL is not going to participate in the next Olympics. Their 4-Olympic association did not produce the desired results of generating massive interest in hockey (in the, um, U.S. they mean). The next in Russia will have all games played in the middle of the night in North America, and the NHL and the KHL don’t get along, and nobody but Russians will be paying a smidgeon of attention, and the best players on every NHL team won’t have to get completely distracted and have their internal clocks thrown off and risk injury and keep everybody else on salary for two weeks doin’ nuthin’ for some nobody’s-watching tournament in a remote port on the other side of the planet. Which, nobody mentions, is located about 5 minutes from Syria, Iraq, Iran & a whole rubble’a trouble. Nobody’s gonna wanna go anywhere near this thing.
So, the all-player Olympics will end with this 4th tournament.
So far it’s: Sweden 1, Canada 1, Czechs 1.
So, rightfully and fairly, it’s Russia’s turn. But . . .
It’s a Clean Slate
People always compare one Olympics to another, as though they’re games in a continuing series. They’re 4 years apart.
What happened before has nothing to do with what will happen this time.
That’s the first thing to internalize.
It’s a clean slate.
Make Hockey Not War
I see hockey as more art than war. I don’t view anyone in this tourney as the enemy, but rather amazingly skilled players joining the all-star jam. I know competition is required for the artform to be created, but when it’s players this good I couldn’t care less what color their jersey is.
This Olympic Chapter
With the Russian’s so dominant right now, it makes for such a great story to have the underdog country win Gold at home. Plus, Russia’s gonna SO win it next Olympics at home.
This is the classic match-up where the team with the will, passion, desire and need will be the one that triumphs. It’s the Moose Jaw Davids against the Moscow Goliaths.
These Olympics will surpass any single assemblage of hockey players in history. There’s never been anything with this many Masters in their prime in the modern uber-skill era. And it’s SO set up for this great underdog home team victory story! ‘72 in the 21st Century. And to top off the weirdness and drama …
Historic Hockey — these four teams’ one-time-only combinations — and for the last time from the NHL — 88 of the greatest hockey players alive are on those Final Four teams — this will be an all-star jam for the ages!
Do not Self-inflict Blindness by Oneteamism — it doesn’t matter where you’re from — do not miss watching and appreciating all the other Top Teams. Every one of them is jaw-droppingly great.
And watch for — a direct correlation between the total number of team penalty minutes and the final standings. The Gold Medal team will have gone 6-0 for the tournament, and will have the lowest number of penalty minutes; the 4th place team will have the most PMs, and so on.
The Gold Medal will be Decided over Lunch
The biggest game in every one of these players’ lives — the game that determines Hockey Supremacy for the next 4 and likely more years — The Gold Medal Game — is being played at puckin lunchtime, High Noon local time — seven hours off all the players’ cycle and schedule. It’s because the Closing Ceremonies are scheduled for dinnertime that night, and this is the climactic Medal of the Tournament — but still. This factor, more than any other, affects the game. It’s like a football game in snow: Who responds to the adverse conditions better?
But the good, weird & wild thing is — every period will be different. In these “morning” games, the team that’s alert and awake in the first period is often not the team that’s “on” in the third.
Overview of 2010 Teams
Although the tournament groups are divided differently, there are essentially four groups of three countries each.
There’s the “Thanks for coming” countries —
Belarus
Norway
Latvia
There’s the “Could pull off an upset” countries —
Slovakia
Switzerland
Germany
There’s the “Could Medal with a hot goalie” countries —
USA
Finland
Czechs
and then there’s “The Three Giants” —
Canada
Russia
Sweden
Either Canada or Russia will win Gold, that’s for sure. If another team makes it to the final, they won’t beat the team in red.
The two semi-final games on Friday (Feb 26th) may very well decide which red team it is. The best thing for Canada will be if Russia plays Sweden, and Sweden wins. Only one of the semi-final teams gets a “bye” and doesn’t have to play a fellow Top-3 Team.
And the way who-faces-who happens is —>
The “3-Point System” to Determine Standings
This is KEY to Canada winning Gold. They MUST finish First and not be in the 2-vs-3 semi-final game. Not only because risking elimination, but the team that wins that game will be bagged for the final.
The U.S. also needs to finish in the top 4 (or above), or 5th at worst, to get to play the 4th place team and upset them. If the U.S. finishes worse than 5th in the Preliminary, they’ll likely be eliminated in the the first quarterfinal game against any of the Big Three.
The 3-game “Preliminary Round” — which determines the rankings for the rest of the tournament — will use the 3 point system — much debated since the NHL’s implementation of the shoot-out and elimination of ties.
3 points – for winning the game in 60 min.
2 points – for winning in OT or a Shoot-Out
1 point – for being tied at end of regulation, but losing later
0 points – for losing in regulation
. . . (seems fairly fair n logical to me.)
Overtime
ALL overtime is played 4-on-4.
Preliminary round — 5 minutes of OT, then shoot-out (3 players, then tie breakers)
All following games, including Bronze Medal — 10 minutes, then shoot-out
Gold Medal game — 20 minutes OT, then shoot-out
Shoot-out Panic Reduction:
Do note: No Olympic men’s hockey game has gone to a shoot-out since Gretzky didn’t skate against Hasek in 1998. And before that, there’d only been 3 all-time. They’re pretty rare. And there’s no way the Gold Medal game will feature two teams who both can’t score a single goal in 20 min. of 4-on-4.
The TV Broadcasts
In Canada: Great News: CTV / TSN have teamed up with Rogers Sportsnet to use all of their collective networks to broadcast the Olympics — meaning all hockey games will be broadcast live and uninterrupted. You can check the specific TV listings here. Additional Major Bonus: Don Cherry’s voice will not be heard anywhere — and the Real Hockey Anthem will be played everywhere!
Play-by-play — Chris Cuthbert, Gord Miller and Peter Loubardias (some guy from Saskatoon who calls the Flames games on Sportsnet).
And we’re gonna be blessed with Buddha Bob McKenzie — the Howie Meeker of our time.
And now . . . let us bow and pray . . . “Lord, may Pierre McGuire takes his meds on time, lays off the coffee, and have his mike turned down.” Sadly, Ray Ferraro is the very weak link in the color dept.
In the U.S.: NBC will do their masterful job again, utilizing USA Network, MSNBC and CNBC so all major games are covered uninterrupted. Make sure you know where those networks are on your cable — and that you have them — or you’re going to miss a lot of it. NBC has an excellent website with TV listings searchable by day and / or by sport.
More Good News Dept.: The Master, Doc Emrick, is doing the play-by-play for the U.S. games. And Jeremy Roenick will be on hand — hopefully some color in the Doctor’s office. But it may be his now-regular sidekick Eddie Olczyk, who’s pretty insightful. Played 16 seasons for a lot of major teams, and was Crosby’s first coach in the NHL.
Great news — all games are televised live in both countries.
Here’s the Preliminary Round schedule with times and networks:
(All times Eastern — and all games are the same time every day:
3PM, 7:30PM, and midnight.)
Tuesday Feb 16th
USA vs Switzerland — 3PM — TSN / USA Canada vs Norway — 7:30PM — CTV / CNBC Russia vs Latvia — midnight — CTV / CNBC
Wednesday Feb 17th
Finland vs Belarus — 3PM — TSN / MSNBC Sweden vs Germany — 7:30PM — TSN / CNBC
Czechs vs Slovakia — midnight — SNET / CNBC
Thursday Feb 18th
USA vs Norway — 3PM — SNET / USA Canada vs Switzerland — 7:30PM — CTV / CNBC Russia vs Slovakia — midnight — TSN / CNBC
Friday Feb 19th
Sweden vs Belarus — 3PM — SNET / MSNBC
Czechs vs Latvia — 7:30PM — SNET / CNBC
Finland vs Germany — midnight — CTV / MSNBC
Saturday Feb 20th
Switzerland vs Norway — 3PM — SNET / MSNBC
Slovakia vs Latvia — 7:30PM — SNET / MSNBC
Germany vs Belarus — midnight — TSN / MSNBC
Sunday Feb 21st — The Big Day
Russia vs Czechs — 3PM — TSN / NBC Canada vs USA — 7:40PM — CTV / MSNBC Sweden vs Finland — midnight — CTV / MSNBC
The Midnight Games
For those in the Central or Eastern who can experience hockey at the witching hour, The Midnight Games are going to be as good or better than the Canada games. The first night it’s the Russians playing the Unified Latvians. Could be even more of a skills display than Canada–Norway. The second night it’s the Russians vs. the Slovaks, which are an amazing team with Gaborick, the Hossas, and Chara, for starters. And THEN on the Final Sunday — it’s the Finns vs the Swedes — 2 of the Top 4 teams will decide who gets the bye and who has to play an extra elimination match. The Midnight Games are going to be some of the best hockey of the Preliminary Round.
The Crazy-But-True Dept.:
If you want to see NHL participation in the next Olympics, you better hope it’s a Canada vs USA Gold Medal game, and that the U.S. wins.
Failing that, this’ll be the last NHL Olympics until at least 2018 — the location of which won’t even be announced until 2011. There will have been 4 all-player Olympics. The next possible one will come when you’re nearly a decade older.
The Russians
It’s going to be such a Gift to watch this team play. Their offensive unit is probably the best ever assembled in the history of the sport.
It’s funny how some think that because they have players from the KHL that they’re not as good as NHLrs. Them folks gettin’ a big surprise comin!
The question is: Can Canada beat them in one game? at home? a la Miracle on Ice? What is in the script?
If it was a 7 game series, the Russians may well take it in 5. But Canada can beat them once, when they have to. As long as they’ve got the goaltending. And they’re gonna have to score 4 or more goals — cuz there’s no way the Russians aren’t scoring 3 or more every game. These ain’t gonna be no 2–1 games.
No matter which team wins, we’re going to have been witness to an historic and lifelong memorable display of the best hockey ever played.
I read the whole thing of course, and there’s a few small differences …
— automatic icing — thank gawd! Whose career-ending injury is it gonna take for the NHL to adopt this?
— no trapezoid, so the goalie can play the puck anywhere
— intermission is 15 min., not 17 min. like NHL
— visors required for everyone born after ‘74
But there’s some major ones, too — Fighting, Checks to the head, and Checks from behind.
In the Olympics:
— Fighting means 5 min. major, plus ejection from game
— Check to the Head (aka a Pronger elbow), or a Check from Behind:
The IIHF officially and clearly states: “There’s no such thing as a clean hit to the head.” So it’s always a penalty.
if it’s not serious — 2 min penalty, plus 10 min. misconduct
if it’s at all serious — 5 min major, and ejection from game Plus potential additional Match Penalty (player out for the next came as well, without substitution). This is my Pronger (and Mike Richards) concern, and why I’m glad Phaneuf’s not on the team.
Breakdown of Olympians by NHL team:
Anaheim (9) — Scott Niedermayer, Ryan Getzlaf & Corey Perry on Canada; Teemu Selanne & Saku Koivu for Finland; Bobby Ryan & Ryan Whitney for USA; Luca Sbisa & Jonas Hiller (goalie) for Switzerland.
Detroit (8) — Lidstrom, Kronwall, Zetterberg & Franzen on Sweden; Pavel Datsyuk (Russia); Filppula (Finland); Brian Rafalski (USA); Ole-Kristen Tollefen (Norway), not to mention Team Canada’s GM Yzerman, asst. GM Holland, Coach Babcock, and former employee and friend Scotty Bowman as unofficial consultant.
San Jose (8) — Heatley–Thornton–Marleau, & Dan Boyle for Canada; Evgeni Nabokov (goalie Russia); Joe Pavelski (USA); Douglas Murray (Sweden); Thomas Griess (goalie Germany)
Vancouver (7) — the Sedin twins on Sweden; Roberto Luongo (goalie Canada); Ryan Kesler (USA); Sami Salo (Finland); Pavol Demitra (Slovaks); Christian Ehroff (goalie Germany)
Chicago (6) — Keith, Seabrook & Toews on Canada; Patrick Kane (USA); Marian Hossa & Tomas Kopecky (Slovaks)
Boston (6) — Patrice Bergeron (Canada, & Crosby linemate); Tim Thomas (35 yr old goalie USA); Zdeno Chara (Slovakia); Marco Sturm (Germany); David Krejci (Czech); Miro Satan (Slovakia)
Columbus (6) — Rick Nash, and asst. coach Ken Hitchcock for Canada; Sami Pahlsson & Fredrik Modin (Sweden); Fedor Tyutin (Russia); Jan Hejda (Czech); Milan Jurcina (Slovakia)
Nashville (6) — Shea Weber (Canada); Martin Erat (Czechs); Ryan Suter (USA); Patric Hornqvist (Sweden); Marcel Goc, & Alex Sulzer (Germany)
Washington (5) — Ovechkin, Semin & Varlamov on Russia; Nicklas Backstrom (center, Sweden); Tomas Fleischmann (Czech)
NY Rangers (5)— King Henrik Lundqvist (goalie Sweden); Marian Gaborick (Slovakia); Chris Drury & Ryan Callahan (USA, plus asst. coach John Tortorella); Olli Jokinen (Finland)
Minnesota (5) — Martin Havlet & Marek Zidlicky (Czechs); Niklas Backstrom (goalie Finland), Mikko Koivu & Antti Miettinen (Finland)
Atlanta (5) — Maxim Afinogenov (Russia); Johnny Oduya & Tobias Enstrom (Sweden); Pavel Kubina & Ondrej Pavelec (Czechs); plus Don Waddell, asst. GM of USA
Los Angeles (5) — Quick Draw McGraw, Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid — aka Jonathan Quick, Jack Johnson & Dust’m Brown, for the Hollywood Westerns; Drew Doughty (the 20 yr old d-man for Canada); Michal Handzus (Slovakia)
Montreal (5) — Andrei Markov (Russia); Jaroslav Halak (goalie Slovakia); Tomas Plekanec (Czech); Sergei Kostitsyn (Belarus); Yannick Weber (Swiss)
Ottawa (5) — Daniel Alfredsson (Sweden); Anton Volchenkov (Russia); Milan Michalek & Filip Kuba (Czech); Jarkko Ruutu (Finland)
Buffalo (5) — Ryan Miller (goalie USA); Henrik Tallinder (Sweden); Toni Lydman (Finland); Jochen Hecht (Germany); Andrej Sekera (Slovakia); plus Lindy Ruff, asst. coach for Canada
New Jersey (5) — Zach Parise & Captain Langenbrunner for USA; Marty Brodeur (goalie Canada, plus Jacques Lemaire as asst. coach); Ilya Kovalchuk (Russia); Patrik Elias (Czechs)
Tampa Bay (4) — Ryan “Bugsy” Malone (USA); Antero Niittymaki (goalie Finland, MVP ‘06 Olympics); Andrej Meszaros (Slovakia); Mattias Ohlund (Sweden)
Carolina (4) — Eric Staal (Canada); Tim Gleason (USA); Joni Pitkanen & Tuomo Ruutu (Finland)
Colorado (3) — Paul Statsny (USA); Peter Budaj (goalie Slovakia); Rusian Salei (Belarus)
Toronto (3) — Phil Kessel (USA — not to mention them being “America’s team” with GM Burke, and Coach Wilson); Tomas Kaberle (Czechs); the Monster (goalie Sweden)
Florida (2) — Tomas Vokoun (goalie Czechs); Dennis Seidenberg (Germany)
Edmonton (2) — Denis Grebeshkov (Russia); Lubomir Visnovsky (Slovakia); plus Kevin Lowe, asst. GM of Canada
NY Islanders (1) — Mark Streit (Swiss); plus Scott Gordon, asst. coach of USA
Current (2009) IIHF Ranking of the Top 12 Nations
[by: ranking — nation — intl points won — position change since 2008]
1 — Russia — 3200 — +1
2 — Canada — 3160 — -1
3 — Sweden — 3095 — 0
4 — Finland — 3050 — 0 . . . (Note: 150 total points separate the Top 4 — then a 135 point drop to the next level)
Only about half the players in these Olympics come from the NHL.
Here’s a breakdown of the number of Olympians from each league:
142 NHL — — (equals 16% of the 860 active players in the league get to go play, and 84% get an amazing 2-week holiday in the middle of the season! No wonder the NHLPA loves it!)
60 KHL
21 GERMAN
17 SWISS
16 SWEDISH
6 NORWAY
5 AHL
5 BELARUS
2 CZECH
1 FINISH
1 SLOVAK
1 WHL
1 FREE AGENT
The Olympic Torch was passin through Oakville yesterday, had to go. It was down at the huge “creek” that created the center of town at the mouth of the massive Lake Ontario. There’s one main bridge, and at end of it is the town’s central library and performance center.
Some guy from Oakville won Gold, Silver and Bronze medals an Olympics or two ago, and he’s part of the Canoe Club based down on the creek below. He was supposed to take the Torch kayaking up the river, but it’s frozen. In fact, it’s totally freezing out, and I’m wearing my big winter jacket, but you wanted to show your red, so I pulled over a giant Team Canada hockey jersey, and looked like freakin Turk Broda on a bike in the circus. And of course add a fire-red, torch-head blazing toque — just in case anybody hadn’t noticed me yet.
Adventureman and Mama Bear
As I’m reconnoitering on my shuttle-craft bike mission, I find the Olympic crew setting up base camp right in front of the library doors, and from a stunningly gorgeous Jordana Brewster who certainly lit my torch, I charmed the exact route right out of her.
I tie up Ranger, and went scouting on foot for the best scenic overlook on the now-confirmed mental map. Turned out to be right at the beginning of the bridge, standing on the fat flat road barricade beams, where you could see everything that’s comin’ along the street and the whole bridge they’ve closed off for the “ceremony.”
With this perfect secret viewing stand scouted and secured by the Bears and their cubs, I decided to do a test run of the path I planned to run beside the Torch to the next exchange spot.
As soon as I zooped around the corner of the library, there’s the entire Olympic village! Runners, officials, torches n everything! In what appears to be their just-unloading staging area right in front of the library doors! The cool white running suits, the white toques, and the white torches they’ll carry. Just standing there near the vans. Nobody’s around. There are thousands of people lining the street, craning their necks for some dim view of the road, and here’s a half-dozen medal-winning Olympians standing a hundred feet behind them.
And they’re just as friendly as can be. Some little kid comes up and the Olympian lets him pretend to hold the torch and have his picture taken. And I’m like, “I’m getting in on that!” And it’s this John Wood guy, who could be my new bff, won the Silver in ‘76 for kayaking or some damn thing. Zoom-bitty-zoom and I’m holding the bloody torch! He’s like, “Here, I want you to feel how heavy it is.” And sure enough it was pretty light for being such a big thing. It’s about 3 feet high, and the flames come out of this black strip about 10 inches long with all these little holes, so if part of it blows out, part of it always stays lit.
Note: there’s nobody around!
Course, right away I get on the cell and call Mama Bear and her cubs to scamper over quick and boom-bitty-boom, there’s dancing Bears in on the act!
Here’s a picture of me taking a picture of Mama Bear and brother Long John Silver . . .
and here I am in full Adventure blaze with Adam the Goldmedalman …
All of a sudden — a cheer goes up from the street. “Let’s see if we can get that perfect spot back!” And dashity-dash, sure enough.
Big parade float-type trucks roll slowly along the running route, with Canadian dancing girls looking almost hot in their parkas. They use one painted lane of the roadway as the perimeter for everyone to stand behind. A little sign on a truck is flashing, “The Torch will be here in a few minutes.” And everyone’s so waitin-for-something-to-happen they cheer the Coca-Cola truck!
Standing on high, Boom, I clearly see the flame early on.
Carrying the torch past us onto the bridge is 87-year-old Rhona Wurtele-Gillis, who, along with her twin sister, competed for Canada in Alpine skiing in the 1948 and ‘52 Olympics.
And all the polite law-abiding Canadians are standing dutifully along the line without any barricades or enforcement, and then Boom, as soon as she’s past with the Torch, and, as respectful as we are, well, darned if there wasn’t just nobody there on the “bridge enforcement” per se, and what the heck? The crowd quickly dissolves from two straight-line formations into this swoosh of amebas slowly then faster spreading like water across the empty bridge.
And I’m like, “Hey, this looks like a surf!” and I grab my board and jump right in, at first at a politely fast Canadian paddle, then the hell with it, I’m running — cut to the outside, zip-zam-zoodle, deak-I-am, and Boom! I slant-right at the end zone and there’s the Aging Alpine Adonis standing beside a kid, and they light Torches — which is the big dramatic moment in these Olympic Torch runs — passing the flame from one to another.
They call it “torching off” — and there’s a whole ritual to it. The lit torch and the unlit are both held high, perfectly perpendicular, and then they each tip towards the other until they touch, or “torch-off,” and hold them in an upside down V. After the second torch ignites, they still hold them together for a couple seconds so there’s this huge raging double flame at the peak. Then they separate out straight up and down, and the new person jogs off. And after a quick minute or less of pics with the flame, there’s a specially trained fire guy at each exchange who extinguishes the torch.
So, this all happens right in front of me, and I’m like, “Wow!”
And then the kid with the fresh Torch starts — as per the revised route — back over the bridge the way it just came, in order to head to the Canoe Club. But he’s running into the wind or something and his flame is really low, plus he’s not very tall, and all these people are still streaming onto the bridge right past him in the opposite direction and don’t even see him.
But I’m stickin with the flame, baby! Totally running along side him. And by the time we get off the bridge, the whole street that was just packed about 2 minutes ago is ¾ empty. Nobody seems to get that this is the Torch coming back the same way.
I can see there’s still a huge crowd up at the intersection, so I cut off the corner and bolt for the “torch-off” point ahead. And sure enough, I get right there just before the fame does — and the kid is handing off to none other than Oakville’s triple medal winner Adam van Koeverden! I’m on the front line, three feet in front of him, and all the camera crews are rolling — The Shot of the Day. This is the guy who carried the flag for Canada into the stadium at the last Olympics. We don’t have too many multi-medal winners up here in Lil’ old Canada, so this guy’s The Man. And I’m like, “Wow!”
And meanwhile he takes off down the road toward his Canoe Club. I wasn’t planning to run anymore, but he was going kind of slowly, so I thought, “What the hell?” and I start jogging after him.
He goes down the big hill to the club and the creek, and I watch from this perfect view on the crest, the whole spectacle, camera crews and people running like chasing the bulls in Pamplona.
And all of sudden another kind of fake-out happens — somebody with an unlit torch (John) is walking away through the parking lot and taking half the crowd with him. But the flaming torch is still blazing down by the river, says Neil, so what the heck? says I, racing down the mountain like a skier, wooo-hooo! Zippity-zooming, and just as I get there, Kayaking Adam has his big red instrument hoisted over one shoulder, with the flame held with his other arm, and since he can’t paddle the water, he portages along the shoreline with both kayak and Torch!
Parts of the impromptu path have all these people clustered, and then there’s whole stretches with nobody but crazy me and him. Oh, and the six guards. They’re all in Olympic uniforms; 2 run in front, 2 on either side of the Torch, and 2 behind, creating this about 4-foot bubble around the Torch-bearer.
So we loop all around the park by the crick, and head back up to the Club and sure enough he’s handing off to brother John! Because of the enormous crowd for this momentous Torch-off between their two famous champions, I’m jogging in the back of a parade. But everybody bails as soon as we hit the hill back up, and sure as shootin it’s just me and Long John Silver & The Six-Pack running up the mountain, and I got my hands in the air clapping to people ahead. Make some noise!
As we round the corner, a bunch of John’s friends are waiting and they’re yelling and he’s yelling and they’re waving and he’s waving and they’re cheering and he’s smiling and they’re snapping shots and he sees someone who makes him start to run over to the sidewalk and the two Captains in front simultaneously yell, “Hey, get back in line! Stay in the center,” and he and I are laughing and he hollers to his friends, “I gotta stay on the straight and narrow!”
And all of sudden we hit traffic! They don’t even close all the streets in this po-dunk town. The Captains yell, “Goin’ Left” and they squeeze over and suddenly they’ve engulfed me. I’m in the sacred circle. And Mother Captain in front immediately looks back sensing her nest encroached, and before she could say anything, I go, “I know, I’m trapped!” And the next available break in traffic I cut to the sidewalk, and even the cops are takin’ pictures. It’s Brother John! Oakville’s prized Olympic hero until Adam took a bite.
I ran over a mile of The Torch Route with one of the greatest Canadian Olympians and several other glowing Silver foxes. I’m exhausted, warmed by the flame, and fully stoked with the Spirit.
Ma’man, Long John Silver — his post-run torched Torch — and a Beaming Mama Linda Bear!
With the Leafs now in 30th place, I need to clarify why I say …
We’re living through a monumental collapse in the history of The Toronto Maple Leafs — a period that will be written about for the rest of hockey time.
Every facet of this franchise is now utterly pucked. Teams can overcome an element or two not being in synch — but not The Full Ginsberg.
Here’s why it’s so bad — and is gonna get worse:
Ownership: A corporation. Who knows nothing about hockey, as much as some of them may think they do. What they know and care about are accounting statements, and that’s it. If they’re charging Le Cirque prices for McDonalds food, and can raise their prices every year and still have a waiting-list every night, that is One performing asset that is not to be mucked with.
GM: A large person is humble and deflects praise to others. A small person takes credit for things they didn’t do. That Burke, as a 2nd yr GM takes credit for that Anaheim Cup … don’t get me started. And certainly don’t get any Anaheim fan started! Now, here he is building a thug-based team in “the New NHL,” while simultaneously dealing away their drafting future, and maxing out their salary cap so UFA’s aren’t even an option. Comic Image: Blustering Burke in the oak paneled boardroom scaring the pants off the manicured suits — until they give him a 5-year, no-supervision contract.
Coach: Prof. Wilson is a textbook mismatch for a “pugnacious” GM like Burke. Wilson may be a passable hockey tactician, but quite obviously not a “motivator” — not a player seems to be responding — and isn’t exactly coaching this low-skilled squad to play disciplined, capitalize on other teams’ mistakes, and score with the special teams. But these poor (okay, not “poor” – “unfortunate”) Leaf players are getting two opposing messages. Their structure is built in conflict with itself. Ironically, the recently unearthed Quinnasaurous Pat may be the only current coach appropriate for this Burke team.
Forwards: Dump & don’t-chase. There’s not a legitimate Top-6 sniper in the squadron. They’re not a threat to any defense or starting goalie in the league. Picture – rocks dinging off tanks.
Goofy’s Goons: 1/6th of every game’s forward roster are staged fighters. The Leafs are the last-place team, and they voluntarily spot every opponent 2 forwards per game.
Defense: As bad as it gets — the most goals against in the league — undisciplined, slow, constantly out of position, neither strong defensively nor offensively, confused, penalty-prone as well as the league’s worst penalty-killers — and with no Leader to quarterback or follow.
Goaltending: The one position that can, in some instances, overcome other factors not in place — and it’s the weakest part of the team. There’s Porous Toskala (who’s currently the 50th worst save % goalie out of 53 to play so far this season); and a giant injury-prone monster who drops to the ice before every shot is taken, and who’s already been out twice with heart and groin problems and he’s only been on the job a week.
Overall: Beyond all the systemic and wide-arcing problems, they have the weakest current starting roster in the NHL, and one of the shallowest farm team talent pools — ranked 22nd, last I checked. And the team having no team Captain is emblematic of them having no leadership whatsoever in the dressing room.
Add to that: Every team has learned firsthand how hard points are to come by in this tight parity era, and unlike seasons past, players are much less likely to take lightly the “easy” games against last-place teams. A couple points has been the difference between playoff bonuses or not for nearly every player in the league.
Why the problem grows: The only advantage to being terrible is getting top draft picks — except of course Burke’s traded away the Leafs’ for the next two years. So far. And because the franchise has been doing that for so many years, they have very little in the stable to draw on — and no major player coming in until 3 years from now (at the earliest).
Rebuilding: Some people have bought the line that the Leafs are “rebuilding” — when, sadly, they’ve been looted, and are being demolished: Almost all their “treasure” is gone, and they’ve sold off their futures, again.
The Long-Term: This modus operendi will continue through (and by consequences, beyond) Burke’s 5-year contract — under a man leading the last war’s weapons into tomorrow’s NHL.
And because his boss, the ownership, doesn’t care if the team wins or loses — as long as they appear that they’re trying, and they sell more hotdogs than they did last year — then this Division of their holdings meets its target, and “Let’s move on to next on the agenda …”
Ramifications: Since the Leafs will finish last or close to it the next two years, every draft pick they could have gotten (and especially the 3 players Boston actually selects) will be held against this Burke era for the next 20 years of those players’ careers. Or picture in 2 years when whomever the Bruins draft 1st overall is having a better season than Phil Kessel. Plus, of course, during this time the Leafs won’t be doing any “rebuilding” at all.
This is no small collapse. It’s historically huge. And the drafted bridges to a future escape are already burned.
It’s like watching Katrina form over the Gulf. It’s so big, so ominous, and so obvious that utter devastation is coming when this hits home.
with a twinkling & loving nod to Neal Cassady . . .
Coming into Manhattan thru the Holland Tunnel, 6PM on the Friday of the Labor Day Long Weekend . . .
My first moments in Manhattan since Obama’s Election Night.
And on the exact anniversary of the very first day I first arrived in this town 29 years ago.
Everything’s not too bad considering, until I cross all the way over the island to the FDR entrance at Houston — and it’s freakin’ closed! No reason no warning. Just big orange blockers. After contemplating just running them, I turn with everyone else and head back to First Avenue to go uptown. It was already a freakin’ nightmare of Long Weekend Friday rush-hour traffic and now the FDR detour is merging with everyone funneling off the freakin’ Williamsburg Bridge so fuget-about-it. Motionless in the quicksand, I brilliantly hang a right onto dark n shady Clinton St. (New York’s first black street) and sneak up to Houston to get around it.
When I turned onto First Avenue from Houston — Zero Street — I couldn’t believe I was seeing a green Avenue light still shining there for a second so I gunned it like hell for the holy grail through the yellowing intersection and right into the end of the racing pack.
Zippity-doo-dahing along the crazy off-road tarmac they call avenues in this town — this whole island should be four-wheel-drive only. But I’m in the mood for some real driving, so I scooch the hell up with the flow and make it all the way to 14th St. without stopping! But suddenly the light’s turning so again I run the yellow past stopping cars on all sides and jump in on the bare-assed end of the next flow. “This is great! I’m gonna stay right here!”
I’m heading for 23rd where I plan to cut over onto maybe clearer 3rd Avenue, but I’m thinking, “Sumpthin’s goin’ on here. This thing’s flowing.” And you don’t break your flow in New York if things are going your way. So, Boom, I stay on it, bouncing through Gramercy Park, using all three mirrors, windows open cuz you need all your senses, jumping lanes as needed, having to not worry about Casey cuz I’m on a serious roll. But of course I glance back for a nano-second and she’s got her claws dug into the luggage and is holding unshakeably on.
Hit the 30’s and still haven’t stopped, slaloming between yellow cabs and other non-personal cars. Nobody in their right mind would risk their own vehicle at more than 10 mph on these cement bike trails.
Suddenly I’m completely surrounded by buses — ahead, behind, both sides — driving in their dark canyon shade, deafened by their roar, gassed into a stupor by their smoke and all the while knowing I could be crushed like an ant in an instant by any one of the Goliath’s bouncing un-phased at 40 mph up this horribly broken track.
Then Boom — the U.N. coming up! “Go tunnel or road? Tunnel or road?” Too quick. In the tunnel lane and there’s no movin’. Poof, down into the dark hole of the only Manhattan non-water-crossing tunnel, then just as soon Bloom! Out and back into the light — and the red one ahead just turns green!! Suddenly I’m crossing freakin 50th Street! And a new flow’s starting! Zoom, right into it, not letting up on the pedal at all. If there’s any space ahead, take it. Go go go. ”Keep chasing the front of the serge, Sarge.”
All of a sudden, “That’s the 59th St. Bridge! That’s the last traffic clog on this Avenue!” And I’m passing 60th St. and haven’t stopped since Houston!
Suddenly it’s just your regular daytime bouncing rapids — fast flowing cars all around, shushing over cement moguls, in the zone, in the flow. Next time I look up I’m passing my old neighborhood, 81st Street. “No frickin’ way! I gotta tell Rob when I get there. I just went 80 freakin blocks in one shot!” And of course right then there’s a major clog! But I’m feeling fine cuz I just set a new freaking All-Time Non-Stop Record!
There’s all these trucks unloading and cabs and people and about 1 lane trying to squeeze through, but I’m already sailing at a mighty clip up the center of the river and keep bullishly paddling straight ahead to where I’m through without stopping — and as soon as I pop out of the hourglass the light ahead’s turning yellow so I just floor it and make it through only by the courtesy of the old New Yorker’s rule: “Never pull into an intersection without first seeing if some maniac is gunning the light.”
But I’m way in the back of the flow again so I just give ‘er, and poor old Casey’s holdin’ on for dear life, but I gotta get with the flow, man — flooring it through yellows all the way till iI catch up. And Lord help me but I’m crossing the fat freakin’ 96th St. at a race-car pace, dented cabs and army-surplus-bumpered trucks smashing along on either side, everything’s raging at breakneck New York old-school speed when we all lived by, “The speed limit is whatever you can manage to drive on these crowded lumpy roads.”
Boom! Going fast as hell through the crazy trunk-bouncing pot-holed rapids of Harlem when the thought first hits, “What if I could make it all the way to Rob’s 117th Street! . . . Play it smooth, now.” I’d raced all the way from the back of the last yellow-light pack up to the pole position. “Don’t be too fast and hit the red.” I pulled ‘er back and just surfed on the crest of the wave. Easy now, easy, just flowin’ with the lights, and glide in softly for a you-won’t-even-notice-it landing, a sweet coasting turn onto 117th Street. And of course I roll right up and park directly in front of his apartment where I won’t have to move the car till Thursday.
117 blocks non-stop through Manhattan during rush-hour on the Friday of a Long Weekend.
A bunch of YouTubes of the Summit can be found here.
The Grand Humanity Jam Continues
Summer Summit ‘09
The “We Made It This Far” Anniversary.
July 31st – August 9th, 2009
An historically great crew reuniting . . .
Amassive scene recreated . . .
Look homeward, Angels.
* * *
Overview: (July 31st thru August 9th)
August Long Weekend (7/31-8/3) — Opening Reception, and gatherings at various lakes.
Wednesday Night Summit (8/5) — at the new District nightclub, a block from Portage & Main.
Friday Night — “A Midsummer Night’s Social” (8/7) — the reunion “dance” at Earl Grey Community Club.
Saturday Afternoon (8/8) — Ball Hockey under the Dome, Yoga in the Park, and Brunch on the Bridge. Saturday Evening — various house parties.
* * *
BREAKDOWN: (for Woodstock in Winnipeg)
With all the characters, the settings, the soundtrack, and the images, we’re recreating Winnipeg life in our time.
Tuesday or Wednesday morning I’ll be on CBC’s “Information Radio” with Terry Macleod talkin about all this — 89.3 FM in the Peg, or you should be able to hear it here: www.cbc.ca/inforadio/
FRIDAY, July 31st – “Christmas in July” — Opening Reception and welcoming home out-of-towners at a classic house in River Heights. (7 PM on)
LONG WEEKEND:
Gimli: the 120th annual Islendingadagurinn festival weekend Gotta crew. Contact me if you wanna joyn in. (Andthe joy will be emphasized. Not to mention Jerry Garcia’s birthday celebrations on Saturday.) Lake of the Woods: a singularly dense mob of old gangsters in the hood.
Monday — travel back to The Peg
Tuesday — chill, regroup, recoup, and reacquaint with family.
Full moon is August 6th — so it’s going to be blazing for the next three nights.
WEDNESDAY night (Aug 5th) at The District: 6PM till 2AM last call.
177 Lombard at Rorie, a block from Portage & Main. Includes separate nice hundred-person restaurant with full dinner menu for those who want to start with an excellent meal.
“It’s super-deluxe comfy everything — like somebody’s really nice house.”
It’s a just-opened nightclub, like one of those secret New York hideaways — antique couches and mystical chairs — 20-foot ceilings – surround-sound music – flat-screens, pool tables — and it’s all a wireless hot-zone for Skyping the missing.
* Evening includes 200 of the best songs you ever heard at a party in 1979.
7:30 or 8 PM – Group Photos at nearby Hollywood & Vine signpost. I mean, Haight & Ashbury. I mean, Portage & Main. Take your own, and/or we’ll shoot from a ladder and have 8×10s by the Friday dance.
THURSDAY – 1PM — Tour of Kelvin High School! Including photo-ops around the classrooms, in the stepped theater on the 2nd floor,and on the classic Kingsway stairs outside. Followed of course by a trip to “Tubby’s” for some Italian health food, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some beer & wine involved.
Evening – much needed time with family and pillow. Or . . .
The Pre-Kelvin “Gang” Summit — the River Heights Junior High Reunion at a house in River Heights, and maybe a bar-b-que at “the club.”
FRIDAY night (Aug 7th) — A Midsummer Night’s Social – the big “Grad Dance” 30 years later at Earl Grey Community Club – 7:30-PM till 1-AM (and counting) — with theCowpokes, One Life,etc. (see details below)
SATURDAY afternoon (Aug 8th) – 1 PM The All-Star Celebrity Old-timers Ball Hockey Game – at “The Dome” at Grosvenor School, btwn Guelph & Wilton.
1:00 “Yoga in The Park with Francie” – in a peanut park near the hockey game.
Brunch on the Bridge
The Sals on the Provencher Bridge
or with nearby alternates maybe it’ll be Food at The Forks – four restaurant/bars with patios:
Muddy Waters BBQ patio holds 60, no reservations, the best place.
Beachcombers – patio holds 80.
Finn’s – terrace holds 50, 150 inside, serves “pub food”
Spaghetti Factory – has a patio
The Tallest Poppy – Saturday all-day breakfast – at Logan & Main (Dunc’s place)
Saturday Night (Aug 8th) — It ends as it all began . . . with a circuit of house parties.
Sunday (Aug 9th) — multi-denominational church service — time and location TBD.
The All-Volunteer Executive Improvised Winging-it Committee –
Brian Hassett — Prankster-at-Large, Sherpa Shepard, Lead Detective on the case
Bill Hodgson (from Philadelphia) – Official Bandleader Composer & Conductor
St. Joey / Mayor Myles / DJ Harry Vest — Director of Winnipeg Operations
Duncan Lennox — The Wizard of Wednesday — and Cent-Com Commander
Stu Hay (from Toronto) — Senior Download Officer and Headlining Comic
Joanne Gillies — Mother of the House, Saturday’s Reunion Award Winner
Kim McDuff — “Lady McDuff” — President of Earl Grey Community Club
Jeff Cantin (from Boston) –The Gang’s Official Curator of Photography
Su Lowery (from Victoria) — Bureau Chief — West Coast Operations
Diana McGhee (from Oman) – Official Midsummer’s Poster Artist
Leslie Stafford – Official Reunion Media Relations Liaison
Francie Adamson (from Toronto) – Official Reunion Artist
Joseph & Pat Myles — Honourary Reunion Chaperones
Mrs. Terry Kupchak — Honourary Reunion Teacher
Mrs. Jamieson — Honourary Reunion Teacher
Mr. Hutton — Honourary Reunion Teacher
Mr. Belton — Honourary Reunion Teacher
Bobby Stahr – Senior Reunion Prankster
[yes, that is The Stanley Cup's profile]
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Prairie buffaloes are returning to the herd from 3 continents and 25 different cities, and counting. Victoria, Vancouver, Whistler, Banff, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Regina, Kenora, Hamilton, Oakville, Mississauga, Toronto, Barrie, Ottawa, Boston, Buffalo, Detroit, Philadelphia, Washington, Tampa Bay, Miami, London Ontario, London England, and Oman in Southwest Asia.
From the left edge to the right coast, from Argyle to Ravenscourt, from St. Paul’s to St. Mary’s, from the class of ‘65 to the class to ‘07, from grey hair to pink hair
This is multi-school, multi-year, multi-national, & multi-disciplinary.
There’s going to be music, video, photography, spoken word, oil paintings, posters, improv madness, and the whole thing’s gonna be some kindatheater!
– — – — – — – – — – — – — –
“A Midsummer Night’s Social” (Hodgstock) — every Winnipeg musician you ever heard of will be playing Friday August 7th at the Hodgson social at Earl Grey.
“From Woody & Hank,
to Jerry & Frank.” There will be versions of:
The Clearwater Boys (bluegrass quintet to open), the Cowpokes, both acoustic and electric, One Life, Million Civilians, The Wake, The Yipmen, Inna Riddim, you name it.
Think Rust Never Sleeps meets The Last Waltz.
It’ll start acoustically, gently, inspiringly, with a greatest-hits of wooden music — bluegrass into folk into country into unplugged rock n roll;
Followed by scorching electric rock, from dancing classics to shredding mayhem,
and through it all streams a steady flow of guest performers and different Band configurations.
At Earl Grey Community Club: 7:30 – PM till 1- AM (and counting). $10
360 Cockburn St. — at Fleet St. — btwn Stafford & Pembina, and Corydon and Grant. And may we suggest coming by Duffy’s cab. Parking isn’t real great, and you’re going to be way past drinking-&-driving by the end of this.
We all know about Neil Young at Kelvin, but Earl Grey Junior High was where he went when he first arrived in the Peg during the start of grade 9 — and this next door Community Club was where he was a 45-playing DJ for the canteen dances, and is where he played his very first gig with his very first band! – (The Jades)
And besides all this madness, anybody can arrange any other kind of a “just us” gatherings! Could you imagine?!?
And of course there’s a “Kelvin 30th” Facebook group for those so inclined.
Accommodations:
Where I’ve stayed — and to me is really the only place in town — The Fort Garry Hotel — the giant castle in the center of it all.
If that’s not to your liking, there are actually a number B&Bs — go to BBCanada.com. There’s the Columns, the River Gate Inn and several others in Armstrong Point — it’s an area Very Much like River Heights, and very central to everything.
Or The Marlborough Hotel is also pretty cool and castle-like, and is also right downtown.
The old highrise NorthStar on Portage Avenue is now a nice Radisson. I’ve stayed there and it’s totally acceptable.
Or there’s The Inn at The Forks, overlooking the historic river junction of the two rivers, and is not unreasonable.
Or the Viscount Gort is still there on Portage Avenue.
Or if you wanna go funky nostalgic — The St. James Hotel above the Fox & Hounds Tavern! ☺
Most common comments so far — “Before, I wouldn’t want to do this, but now I really do!” — “This just made my summer!” – “This is fun already!”
Most common comments from those Not in the Class of ‘79 – “I wouldn’t wanna go to my own class reunion, but THIS is gonna be wild!” — “I went to my high school reunion and it was fun, but this sounds crazy!”
The Grand Humanity Jam continues . . . .
I wouldn’t be me if it wasn’t for you.
This festival is made possible by generous contributions from Google and Facebook.
FANTASTIC, inspired filmmaking. (I gotta look for more Todd Haynes.) Maybe I was super-well prepared for it by this late date, but as it was, I could easily follow it, and it painted a brilliant million-dollar-picture.
Obviously the unsuspecting could be caught off guard by the allegory and non-linear storyline, and I can see how it might come across as not entertaining or helpful for non Dylan fans – but for those familiar with this major artist’s life and work, it’s just full of humor and incredible detail in scene recreations (which are then played with), all mixed in with archival footage of Greenwich Village and such. — Especially the dustbowl Hattie Carroll, and all the Don’t Look Back reenactments! :-) . . . the press conference, the hotel rooms, and the encounter with the Duchess and the overly analytical fan!
I just LOVED the script! How it skipped around in time, but still flowingly told a chronological story. It was like a merge between Bob’s books Tarantula and Chronicles — poetically licensed autobiography (see, also: Kerouac, Jack).
And nobody seems to talk much about the editing, but it’s Brilliant! And the sound editing, and cinematography. (sorry, this is just post Oscars )
It was a lot like Masked & Anonymous — both very surreal musical dramedies starring Another Side of Bob Dylan — both with similar wonderful soundtracks of original Bob mixed with other’s versions — and both featuring a calliope of strange characters, and with a black child singing and stealing the show.
And B), it’s a helluva lot like Renaldo & Clara in many of the same ways. Life is a crazy, dark circus.
This is the kind of movie, like a great CD, that you could just put on at a party and let it play in the background — a series of music & words with images, called “scenes” instead of “songs” — you can dip in and out anytime, for as long as you want, then go back to your conversation. With all the Bob-inspired dialog and songs woven together it’s like a Dylan musical for two hours.
And how ‘bout that hilarious scene at the cross on the hill with Ginsberg & Bob yelling up at it! “Why don’t you do your early stuff?!”
Or that sweet Hitchcockian overhead B&W slo zoom-in of Dylan writing Tarantula with all the pictures surrounding him on the floor.
Or the scene in the car after the great, “That was Allen Ginsberg, man!” –> into the battle between Bob and the reporter –> into that epic Ballad of a Thin Man!! Sick!
And the whole thing interspersed with a Spinal Tap mockumentary riff! woven into Don’t Look Back and a nature documentary about a grizzled Grizzly Adams Gere living in the woods! Great poetic storytelling.
I really liked every one of the Dylan actors’ performances — (in order) Cate (of course), the black kid (Marcus Carl Franklin), Bale, Gere, Heath, and even the 19 yr old in B&W at the table, Ben Winshaw. And how cool about Richie Havens playing the soulful father figure?! And his partner mother-figure telling the young boy, “Write about your own time.”
It was realistically surreal. Like Terry Gilliam can capture it, or van Gogh, or Lewis Carroll, or Alvin Ailey. It’s crazy, it’s distorted, but it’s real.
All around, a playful joyous complex poetic work of art befitting its subject.
* * *
oh, and I noticed in the Special Thanks at the end: Neil Young! , Jeff Tweedy (Wilco), and Ramblin’ Jack.
And that it was mostly shot in Montreal! Beauty, eh!
and A Grate Family Friendly Film Tip – Watch Masked & Anonymous RIGHT After this –
the greatest One-Two-Blow-Off-My-Shoe
Bob Brain-blast Double-Feature Ever!
Bake the brownies in advance.
Think of this 111th Senate full of all these kick-ass, get-things-done progressives & centrists:
Pat Leahy, Carl Levin, Russ Feingold, John Kerry, Chris Dodd, Dianne Feinstein, Barbara Boxer, Chuck Schumer, Dick Durbin, Barbara Mikulski, Ron Wyden . . .
not to mention Senior Statesmen like Robert Byrd, Ted Kennedy, Jay Rockefeller and Tom Harkin;
Then add in Jim Webb, Claire McCaskill, Jon Tester and Mark Udall who are just rockin in their first terms;
Not to mention Al Franken coming on stage soon, and ol’ Bernie Sanders, the Vermont Socialist, who’s enthusiastically blowing his bugle with the band.
In fact, this is a full all-star line-up of players jamming right now in the Senate!
But this Harry Reid guy couldn’t get a stimulus bill passed in the middle of a recession if he had 59 votes to start with!
What’s wrong with this picture?!
Maybe Reid’s a great guy — I don’t know what he’s good at, frankly — certainly not being Majority Leader at this point in Our History.
We’re wasting once-in-a-lifetime momentum, political capital, and time here. We’re one freakin seat away from filibuster-free clear-sailing and this guy can’t make it happen.
And get this — Dick Durbin from Illinois is the #2 Democrat in the Senate after Reid! He’s the Assistant Majority Leader (aka Majority Whip). When Reid goes, he’s currently next in line — and then Obama’s got his man from home (and chaperone in the Senate) in charge. This has GOT to happen, and as soon as possible.
Maybe the same’s true of Nancy Pelosi, but I can’t say that for sure (yet).
But Reid!! It’s so typical of us Democrats to have a milquetoast muttonshop like this in charge!
We’re so hopeless!
But not anymore.
Watch for which Democrats emerge as leaders in the Senate. I’m a lifelong Democrat who’s been considering this Reid question since he was first elected Leader — but I now have no problem making this call. He has GOT to step down (or the Dems force a new leadership vote) or we’re never gonna get anything done.
Feel free to forward this anywhere, and(or) please contact your Democratic Senator. Here’s the list of all of them with their phone numbers and most of their email addresses: http://democrats.senate.gov/members/
and A Great P.S.: — “Good Morning America” just did a piece on the recent meeting between a former KKK member and now-Representative John Lewis (my favorite Rep. in the House) who the KKK guy beat-up back in 1961 in South Carolina. Everything with the Obama election / inauguration made this guy reach out and apologize. Lewis says he’s the first person from those days to have stepped forward.
Hey Homies of the BrotherHood of all that is Good!
The “Mission Inauguration” — Shucks & Awww Ground Operation has Commenced.
Other than Tuesday’s 11:30 – 1:00 swearing-in coverage, this Sunday’s concert will be your best chance to enjoy the Inaugural jazz without being there.
Here’s what we know . . .
2:30PM — The Welcoming Event -
“We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial”
Obama & family WILL be there.
HBO is producing.
The Official Line-up so far . . .
Bruce Springsteen
Stevie Wonder
Bono
Sheryl Crow
John Mellencamp
will.i.am
John Legend
Herbie Hancock
Beyonce
Shakira
Mary J. Blige
James Taylor
Garth Brooks
Usher
Josh Groban
Martin Luther King’s son, Tom Hanks, Jamie Foxx, Denzel Washington and Samuel Jackson will be among those reading historical & inspirational passages.
More as it develops
Brian O’Bama
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
We’re Gonna Sing
[#2 -- January 17th]
Checkin in from Yasgur’s Farm,
Maggie’s Farm,
Obama’s Farm.
Just got the physical ticket in hand and’ll be right up front for the swearing-in on Tuesday.
Going On The Road in a few minutes to Baltimore for the Whistle Stop tour — the train tracks, Festival Express, my grandfather George the CPR engineer, the Dream Tracks Indian book with Teri McLuhan, the hopping trains in the Peg to get around town — all clicketty-clackin into one.
Barack and Joe ridin’ the rails,
from Constitution Hall in Philadelphia to Constitution Avenue in Washington,
and Brian & Mitch are Jack-&-Nealing in the salt-streaked Blue Bomber Cruiser
lookin like it’s burned white through re-entry
from driving like lightning through the salt-dusted blizzard roads,
chasing history’s trains
and America’s future.
*
The HBO stage at the Lincoln Memorial is just Gorgeous and HUGE!
This is SO Woodstock –
in the 21st Century.
It’s entirely custom designed and built for this one concert,
with camera booms swooping,
and dozens of Jumbotrons rippling the images across the Reflecting Pool
to America,
and the world,
this one, short, creative human fireworks celebration.
So right.
And now
Breaking News:
This musical spiritual moment will be beaming live into your eyes starting at 2:30 Sunday for free on every HBO station in North America!
This is a visual auditory novel — a large canvas that’s being painted by many of the greatest artists of our time, for one moment only.
As a species, we’ve done some things right.
And there’s Lots of work ahead,
But for a moment,
We’re gonna sing.
I saw The Man in Baltimore today! :-)
woo-woo!! goo-goo ga’chooo-chooo!
He & Michelle and Joe & Jill all went up the steps at the small old-world town hall square in front of City Hall, maybe 30,000 people, we breezed right in. You can watch the speech online but he was talking a lot about the history of America and how the great works that prior Americans did need to inspire us to rise to that in our own lives, and collectively as a nation.
*
He just came across as so comfortable — staying a long time afterwards shaking hands and just hanging and waving and being very calm and kind to people.
The guy’s in the middle of this Whistle Stop whirlwind and about to start the hardest job in the world in the middle of two wars and a depression, and he’s just buoyant. He instills confidence. And earnestness. And honesty. And a friendliness.
Afterwards, the streets in every direction were like a Dead parking lot with happy people selling just about anything you could think of with some image of Obama on it — toy trains, toques, posters, postcards, baby clothes, flags, car window flags, every possible article of clothing from jackets to underwear, every type of glassware for the kitchen, wooden flutes, bobblehead dolls . . .
Baltimore is the third city I’ve been to that was completely jazzed and transformed by the joy, pride and hope that this guy brings to people’s hearts (after New York and D.C.) You could hear “O – ba - ma” randomly hollered from car windows. And groups of strangers starting to chant, “Yes we can,” for no particular reason, and then laughing that they’d all done it together.
*
We drove back from Baltimore (where we’d parked at the classic Camden Yards Ballpark) and went straight to The National Mall for the concert rehearsal, joining maybe a hundred people there in the cold sub-zero night.
And who should be playing as we walk (and then run) in but U2! Priiiiiide, in the name of love. And City of Blinding Lights, Obama’s campaign and favorite U2 song, and which the band also played (debuted?) outdoors at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City. Bono’s struttin around like Mick Jagger, and Clayton’s wearing this huge hooded parka that looks so ridiculous, like a Neil Young Road-eye. : -)
Then James Taylor came out and did three takes of this beautiful, long Shower The People you love with love, with John Legend, Jennifer Nettles and others really stretching it out vocally into some transcendent channeling chant off the final refrain. [and P.S. -- that 3rd take was even better than the Sunday show!]
Then Garth Brooks ran though a couple takes of a 3-song medley that includes bye bye Miss American Pie, which is just gonna go over so freakin’ well! The guy’s such a born entertainer. He has this whole choir of kids that come out and just lift it. There were about a hundred of us in a space designed for millions, but he was just giving it like we were the world.
And then afterwards, I’ve never been much of a Garth Brooks guy, but he came over to where we were standing and talked to every single person, signed anything for them, posed for pictures. I talked to him for bit, asked him how Don McLean was doing — he said, “He’s doing great. He’s too stubborn to have it any other way.” I told him I’d seen them duet at his show in Central Park, and he was, “Ah boy, you sure hit the big ones!” After he’d talked to everybody and his handlers were sighing, “Thank gawd! Let’s gooo!” just then this whole bus full of people suddenly arrive. “Hey, Garth! We’re from Texas!” they’re yelling as the whole herd of them runs up to him waving their cameras.
were the only words I was able to scribble down
after returning home from the wars,
eyelashes singed and clothes still smoldering
from celebrating this democracy and world we live in.
There was a joy that I’ve rarely felt before,
and it came after the concert
biking around the Washington Monument and the Capital Dome
with all the families of America,
whether they were foreigners just arrived,
or descendants of slaves,
whether in new full-length leather coats,
or mama’s cloth rag from the attic,
whether they squeezed the family in the car and drove up from Atlanta,
or flew in from Boston for the day,
everyone was united in their love passion for Democracy –
and how it’s not something you have,
but something you DO.
And these people and this spirit
is what’s on display for the world to see in Washington DC right now.
Here’s kids running up the steps of the Capital
and jumping for joy that they are where they are,
trading off cameras to send pictures home.
Today, it was all about the kids
in each of us
being ignited.
All that was powerful . . .
But it all came down to families,
of relations or not,
of natural-born Americans
or not,
who recognize how great
voting
and voting for Hope can be.
And we’re all the living proof
we need.
Brian
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = The Day That Could Never Happen
[#5 January 20th] (pre-Ianug)
Brothers and Sisters of the Universe,
The final and official stage of our National Transformation is here –
And all of us are taking The Oath
to be more understanding of others
and to help each other as ourselves.
And masses of Hopesters and Democracy-loving Americans have made it to the mountaintop, running like water through the streets, which are all closed to cars this glorious day. There’s t-shirt and button vendors lining every riverbank; giant rows of port-o-potties are winding through the trees like a giant Christo installation; and packs of police and fatigue-wearing National Guard everywhere are — but never a single arrest is ever made.
The High temperature tomorrow is predicted to be maybe 32 degrees -
so, feel that freeze when you sees
those couple million standing there in majestic dignity (as MLK called it).
After it’s over, Obama and everyone on stage will walk back inside the Capital Building where the new President has lunch with the members of Congress.
As usual for this kind of moment, I highly recommend hitting “mute” as soon as it’s over so you can let it sink in and form Your Own opinions – You saw it for yourself; the talking heads will still be babbling about it years from now.
At 1:20-ish, a large helicopter will rise up from the other side of the Capital building and ex-President Bush will fly the hell out of our lives. It’s a very cool visual moment — the peaceful hand-off of the leadership of the most powerful country in the world.
3:45-ish the parade begins — as President Obama rides in his new tank Caddy from the Capital Building along Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House.
There’ll never be anything like this in my lifetime.
The greatest moment of my life? Probably.
And I got to spend it all with my best poli-warrior buddy, Mitch!
He always “got it”, and we fully lived Clinton’s election and inauguration – but as great as all that was . . . this was transcendent, beyond words.
It’s changing history – besides eveverything else, a major nation electing a minority to lead it — and as it was happening, every single one of the 2 million people I met were Beaming with joy. In terms of a crowd euphoric, the only thing I ever heard of that was like this was Woodstock in ‘69. And that changed a lot, but this was Woodstock in the seat of power. Jimi’s Star-Spangled Banner was the prelude, and a scant 40 years later, here’s that scorching soul of new thinking actually overtaking the reigns of government. As Barack put it in his speech, roughly, “That a man who not long ago might not have been served at a local restaurant could now stand before you to take the most sacred oath in this nation shows how far we have come.”
Rollin in after 9 hours of sub-zero frost I looked like a guy stumbling down off Everest — white parched lips, face scorched red from freezing, but liquid eyes blazing. And the thing I miss most in the tranquil heat of home are the screams of joy I heard all day long.
So, please excuse if this isn’t polished sculpture — but the levee’s broken and emotions runneth over. I know you have our own wonderful memories of this day and what it all meant, but here’s a tale of the day everything changed from someone who was there . . .
*
I left the apt. in Virginia at 9:30 by bike. It was 22 degrees — without riding into the wind. Starting out in the carless streets of Rossyln and crossing the scary-empty bridge it was like living through one of those end-of-the-world movies. Not only were there no cars, but all the people were already at “the show” and it was just me and the wind. I finally got to the last point they’d let me ride by about 10:15, worked the miles of snaking security line, and was inside the gates by 10:45.
My ticket was for the Blue South field which was off center, but after seeing the freeform mayhem once you were inside the security zone, I figured I could wing it, and weaved and excuse-me’d toward the center, and in no time I was right in front of the stage!
And then the whole show goes down, which you saw on TV. Part of the fun of being there was all the running commentary everyone was making, like me yelling, “Dr. Strangelove” at Dick Cheney in his wheelchair, the comical booing of Bush, the “Na-na, na-na-na-na, hey hey, good bye” chants. It was all in good fun. And of course I just loved Aretha singing, “Let freedom ring!“ And that beautiful orchestral piece by John Williams, with Yo-Yo, Itzhak & company elevating us like wind into heaven. And my new-favorite Reverend Lowery closing the show with the poetry of Amen. And of course Barack’s speech. But you saw all that for yourself.
{That’s Barack delivering his Address, looking to his left.}
*
THE PARTY AT THE PODIUM
When the official program was over, the fun started. Just as I figured, everyone started to leave. Once again I was happy I grew up in Winnipeg and could handle a little cold, and I just stepped over the green fence and walked straight to the podium. Security was over. The new President and all the ex’s were back inside the Capital building — there was nothing to “secure” anymore. So I just breezed right the heck up there and started the party.
Those who were really touched by what happened were still sitting there aglow. A few others, like me, had shimmied up on the energy waves. I just kept riding it till I was right below the podium with the music stands and walls of cameras on either side. It was just a gorgeous party — and it went on for hours. People from all over the country and all over the world were handing each other their cameras, laughing, and ouing and awing. And looking out at the crowd from the Capital hill and seeing people all the way to the horizon — what a sight! What a moment. There was no one there who’ll ever forget it.
And then of course when the Marine One helicopter rose up from behind the Capital with the now-former President on board, and once again without a shot being fired, the most powerful nation on earth changed it’s leader — and elected a member of a minority “race”. We gotta be doing something right.
*
I could’ve lived in that party for the rest of my life. And in fact I think I will. Everyone was SO happy, beaming, radiating, loving, friendly. Any which way you turned was another amazing picture. Straight up at the glowing Capital Dome. Looking out at the masses of people as far as you could see. Looking into the blissful faces right next to you. Looking up at the deep rich red, white & blue flags draping the brilliant white Capital. The sun coming out from behind occasional clouds in the bright blue sky with the flags flapping against it. Just overwhelming beauty.
Cell phone access was way-intermittent — messages coming in from Canada, New York City, Pennsylvania, California, and friends in the crowd trying to find me. So I head on down outta the party to the now vacant Mall, and go to my favorite General’s monument, Ulysses S. Grant majestically on a horse right at the foot of the Capital, looking straight down the Mall — I was just communing with the big guy. And right in front, the Capital Reflecting Pool is frozen, there’s one person skating on it, and scads of kids running and sliding on the first ice surface they’ve ever seen.
It’s a grounding spot for people to find me, and Democracy-loving road warrior Nadette from New York (the only person I know who made both the election night at Barackefeller Center in NYC and the Inauguration in D.C.) pulls it off, and so up we ramble back to the Podium Party, and Lord knows it’s still goin on.
*
And after another hour of New Years Eve hugging and doing unto others, I walked over a few feet to where you could actually look all the way from the Capital down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House — all cleared off and waiting for a parade. And then Boom ! — suddenly there’s a roaring stream of blue motorcycle cops to my right. A loud cheer go up from a crowd far away. Some flags are marching past. A band is playing. “The parade’s starting!”
Everybody said you can’t do both. It’s either the parade or the Inaug.
But I’m walkin forward.
I ask a cop, “Was that Obama that went by right in front?”
“No, there’s a couple of bands first, then him.”
Oh my God, really?
The whole thing is — I’m still inside the Capital grounds. Everyone coming for the parade is on the other side of the Avenue. So I just start walking towards it, skip over a few fences, la dee-dah across a grass field, and I’m right at the point where the cars are pulling out of the Capital!
And there’s the press trucks shooting backwards behind them — there’s Andrea Mitchell reporting from the back of one of them.
“They’re coming!” I realize. “I’m right here!”
And then Boom! — there he is! There’s “the Beast” — the new nuclear-proof Cadillac — and there’s Michelle 20 feet in front of me, there’s the kids sitting facing their parents and all waving and beaming out the windows, and there’s Barack on the other side! I’m right freakin here! This is the whole Big Parade Moment that people have lined up for since 7AM.
Not only did I see the swearing-in beginning of this Presidency right up front, but I’m standing on the curb as our new President Obama drives by on his Inaugural trip to the White House!
*
This was God’s gift. I had put so much into doing the Inaug right, I had no plans or hope of seeing the parade — and here I am a few feet from the family sedan!
All sorts of other amazing, touching, life-giving moments happened with people of every age and color, it would take a long night of beers just to scratch the surface, but this was The Moment — God’s glowing gold bow on the gift of the Inauguration, after a day of freezing, weeks of planning, months of campaigning, and a lifetime of volunteering in Democracy — and this is the thanks I get!
*
Take what You’ve gathered from the day, or let contemporary historians nudge you, but I just wanted to share one person’s experience of participating in Democracy the day history changed.
This will be on postage stamps and dollar bills a hundred years from now. And no matter where you were, you lived to see it. Thank your spirit source.
Roman Polanski (French-born, Polish raised) (director, Rosemary’s Baby, Chinatown, etc.)
Robert Frank (Swiss) (photographer, filmmaker)
Arnold Schwarzenegger (Austrian) (Governor of Caleefornia)
John Lennon (English – famously applied for U.S. naturalization)
Bob Marley (Jamaican) (musical philosopher)
Neil Young (Canadian) (musician, green car investor)
Yo-Yo Ma (French) (cellist)
Itzhak Perlman (Israeli) (violinist)
Leonard & Phil Chess (Polish) (founders of Chess Records)
Martin Short, Jim Carrey, Mike Meyers, Dan Aykroyd, Phil Hartman, Howie Mandel, Lorne Michaels, David Steinberg, Tommy Chong, John Candy, Rich Little, etc, . . . (Canadian comedians)
Early morning in the Universe – sunrise over a New America.
I arose from the floor of a Harlem hotspot dreaming of something way bigger than me. And right off the mat, the Election Morning Ritual of tea & subtlety, pacing & breathing, and dreaming in the bright new light of it.
And there’s the widescreen of Barack & Michelle & their girls walking into the polling booth in Chicago and taking their time to burn in the memories of casting their historic ballots.
And all over New York you could hear doors slamming on apartments and taxis and trains as young and old, black and white went through their daily rituals — and today’s quite singular one.
I realized we were getting Obama as President, at least as Veep to Hillary, back on Super Bowl Saturday in January when I first watched will.i.am’s “Yes, We Can” video (here). It had just been uploaded the night before, and I watched it early in the jingle-jangle morning and just lost it — couldn’t watch it without getting choked up for weeks afterwards. It was so obvious then that he was ours — America’s, the world’s, right now’s. Somehow it felt more ancient than futuristic, more traditional than trendy, more Rushmore than YouTube. And it was good.
But of course there was still a helluva race ahead — first the primary against Hillary and then the general against McCain, and it did look close a couple of times, but especially starting that Monday of the Lehman Brothers collapse and McCain “suspending” his campaign and stumbling around like Henry Fonda in the woods in On Golden Pond, followed by Colin Powell coming out on Meet The Press, you knew who was going to win. In fact, I was able to post the final election results on this here site on Halloween, a full four days before election day — and was 99.5% accurate.
I spent the afternoon getting all gussied up in black velvet tails and Ben Franklin knickers with knee-high socks topped off with a top hat, accented with colorful Obama buttons, and everything underneath my waving homemade Obama pennant flag with a little red & white Canadian one on top. All I needed was a clanging bell and some rolled parchment.
Heading into the Election Night, for the first time in my life I was the most popular person in Harlem! Looking like a “Hear-ye, hear-ye!” town crier from the American Revolution, I was carrying Obama’s flag into battle — lighting up faces of people who still haven’t come close to learning English. Shopkeepers were waving, and mothers were pointing me out to their small children. Passing pedestrians were either breaking into huge smiles or full-out hollering, “Obama!” It was dusk on the final day of The Nightmare From Texas, and minorities may have been happier than anyone that the lying war sap’s reign of error was ending.
Riding the subway through Harlem in black velvet regalia — facing beaming white smiles from dark African faces, shining and sharing across the aisle like Washington will soon be if all goes according to plan. A little boy beside me is admiring my buttons, and finally says in the cutest voice, “All Barack!” So I reach in my bag and find a button for him just before he gets off. And some guy’s watching me do this, and he pulls out his keys from his pocket and wound off and his little Obama key-chain and handed it to me across the subway car. It’s the coolest thing and I’ll cherish it forever. And so I looked in my bag and found another button and handed it across to him. And there was some guy standing nearby smiling as he watched all this go down, and the guy I just gave the button to handed it to him. A crowd got on right after that and we all got separated — but within seconds all us strangers had just given each other something for nothing. America was changing right before our eyes.
Then I’m off, flying between the towers of Midtown, when suddenly a-ha, a “Vote Here –>” sign for a polling station, and, decked head-to-toe in Obama, I enter most illegally and go beaming around. Poll site day-workers are smiling back huge hugs, and then I spot the ancient New York State steel levered polling machine and go over to open the curtains and have a good gander –
but Nooooo — The Big Bossman spots me and nearly football tackles me the heck outta there! So there I was; Tossed back into the Manhattan rush-hour of snappy suits and swinging briefcases, big ego scowls and some big-hearted smiles.
And then ah into the ah of the Election Plazah at Barackefeller Center! People. All beaming faces. Lights. A red, white & blue skyscraper. Broadcast trucks. Giant screens. And rows of flags waving wide and high in tonight’s heavy winds of change.
There’s lots of people, but it’s not crowded. And NBC had once again laid out the red carpet. Well, actually it was blue. And plush and thick, from one end of the plaza to the other — “Election Night 2008″ woven into the ground that democracy’s participants were walking on. And not just Americans, but thousands and millions who came here from foreign countries, like me — because “America” is so much a part of so many.
And meanwhile, I’m getting photographed more than I ever have in my life. Plus, they’ve got somebody dressed up like donkey and somebody like an elephant, and for an hour the three of us become the most in-demand trio in New York. And on top of that, the inside of my coat is lined with buttons that I’m selling. Which I never even mentioned to anyone, but people kind of figured it out. All I kept saying was, “Vote Socialist! Vote Obama!”
And a couple times I actually get challenged about being an interferring Canadian, but I quickly bounce ‘em back with ol’ Christopher Columbus and Thomas Paine and Alexander Hamilton as pretty cool un-Americans. And if that don’t shut ‘em, I drop Albert Einstein, Andrew Carnegie and Madeline Albright. And if that don’t do it, John Lennon, Neil Young and Charlie Chaplin usually does. You can be American from wherever you’re born.
And waving my colorful homemade flag was doing the trick! It was like a freakin’ antenna pulling in the channels. Friends were tuning in from all over. Philip the Iraq war reporter with his big pro camera weaves in documenting the stories of regular people in the eye of history. And here’s Levi, the online LitKicks disturber, happily dancing through the crowd like it’s an outdoor Dead show. And there’s the Jimmy Carter staffer Zoe waving from her comfortable perch, soaking in the immensity of it all.
And friendships are being made instantaneously all over the plaza, conversations starting without introductions. It was a family reunion and we all knew each other. And even though it was early it felt pretty late, with everybody already a little giddy, a little silly, a little too happy — and it didn’t matter to anyone.
And of all excellent things they were actually handing out plastic beer mugs! Or maybe they were coffee mugs, but I figured they’d work way better for beer. So, I copped several for the crew, and off dee-do.
It was getting time to plant the flag and hold the fort. There are two main giant screens: one for NBC, and one for MSNBC, which has been my network of choice since it came on the air about 10 years ago. And to boot, it’s their side of 30 Rock that’s completely bathed in Democratic blue and turns out to be the naturally livelier side of the grand plazoo all night. So, I promptly claim n maintain the center screen-front fort-site!
There’s a six-inch high curb running across the battlefield a perfect distance from the screen and it makes the best forward line I can think of. Next, I’m lookin for SOUND — where some half-deaf old people can hear what’s being said even while crazy New Yorkers are screaming in joy. And right along the curb line directly in front of the MSNBC screen, there’s a nice big Bose speaker on a stand, squared off by barricade stantions. So that becomes our solid right flank; and I’m holding down the front curb-line; and our left flank is held by Gina Gershon’s sister and a wall of her girlfriends who haven’t moved in an hour. ”We’re solid.” “We’re bull’s-eye center.” “It’s a go, General.”
We had our private box at the theater – once we had our perimeter secured, there was a buffer of about 50 people deep in every direction around us – and we could just GO! And lemmi tell ya, nobody’s burners were on “medium”!
And as I keep waving my Canadian–Obama flag, along comes Winnipeg-Manhattan guitarist brother Terry; and Paul, who I only just met but who’s been a friend for life; and Anna, Philip’s pregnant wife blessing her child who’ll be born around the same time as the next President in January. And here comes Ralph the producer, and Brad the net oracle, and Anne the global adventurer. And then comes somebody holding up a giant Obama yard sign as they’re dancing and weaving through the crowd, and as the sign floats closer, sure enough, underneath it all is Nadette, an actress friend of nearly 30 years bringing suburbian lawns into this uber-urban plaza.
And from our private box we could easily make runs to the deli which you could almost see from our “seats”. The only trick was getting back through the outer ring of the scene — excuse-me-ing through the tight outer strata of late-comers and non-insiders, then weaving through the gentler inner rings of patriots to our secret center where we had enough room to dance.
And dance we did. Along came four cute girls from England who’d flown over just for this moment and were as funny as that other Fab Four who flew over here. Or the flowing French poet who’d also flown in just for this. Or the gorgeous Kim Basinger with the flower in her long blond hair. Or the Canadians who kept appearing all night from Vancouver and Montreal and Toronto and Edmonton. It was like all the Americans who materialized in Ontario when we were registering people to vote with Democrats Abroad. In fact, as the night comically revealed itself, our encampment became surrounded by Canadians — typically too shy to say anything, but when they saw my flag came and stood near and felt safe. I became the freakin’ Canadian Consulate at Barackefeller Center on Election Night.
As Zoe & I are making what we thought at the time was the final beer run of the night at about 7:40, and we bump into this group of four Midwestern couples in their 40s and 50s leaving the scene. Of course we start talking and they mention they’re heading out to get something to eat, to which I say, “Are you fuckin’ crazy?! The big moment is coming right up and you’re gonna be staring down at a tuna sandwich?!” They all laugh as I give ‘em hell, Harry. So, Zoe & I hit the deli, and sure enough a minute later the whole crew of ‘em come in and say, “You convinced us.” And they just grabbed some road grub and headed back into Democracy’s mosh pit.
Another wonderful thing about the scene was the diversity of people. Besides there being every conceivable shade of pigmentation from the darkest African blacks to translucent northern whites, there was also every body type, age, and orientation. There were turbans and ball caps, piercings and wheelchairs, suits and sandals. It was America, and it was the world.
I was talking to this bunch of Jamaicans and we were all laughing and beaming and “Yesing,” and their accents were so damn thick I understood not a word they said the entire time! Except “Obama.” Yet we were totally communicating for a good long time — our faces and hearts knowing what the other was saying all along.
And I’ll tell ya, there’s been a buncha times I wished John Lennon was here, but oh boy, none more than while we’re talkin’ bout a revolution, well, you know. And how this was the world playing out that he and so many other visionary men of peace have shared through sermons or songs or non-violent stands. This was the dream — and it has manifested and is dancing and cheering and wired.
It’s like tonight had gone into sudden-death overtime where you couldn’t leave because it could be called and be over at any moment! The best part of course was when the Dems scored points by winning a state — and a cheer went up as far as you could hear, echoing through the canyons of our spines. And for every Kentucky or Mississippi there was a playful boo, then we laughed out loud at our own silliness.
And as each state was called, just like in ‘04, NBC had these two giant tapestries, one Dem blue & the other Republican red, that were being pulled up the side of 30 Rock, one foot for each electoral vote won. Except this time the blue side was climbing much higher than the red one.
Although my predictions for the Presidential winner, electoral college numbers, percentage split, and Senate and House seats were all Dead on or close damn to it — the one thing I (joyously) didn’t get right was the time the news organizations would project a winner. I knew it could come at 8, and if not then, at 9 for sure. “There’s no way we’re not going to know before 10.” But all those hours came and went with nothing.
Here’s an obvious conspiracy for those who enjoy those sort of things: There was obviously collusion between the networks to all hold off their Presidential projections until 11PM. They obviously didn’t coincidentally all make the “call” at exactly the same time. They coulda called it a week ago, or anytime all night . . . but what the heck, the whole county was riveted until the match was sparked and the emotional fireworks set off. No matter when you tuned in or arrived at your election night gathering, by 11:00 you’d been on the edge of your seat for a while. Or, the edge of your curb, as the case may be.
There was a clock on the bottom of the screen — and although it was obvious to some of us what was going to happen when it struck 11:00:00, most in the crowd didn’t know it was coming.
But after hours of good-vibe build-up, the clock ticked eleven and the screen tocked Barack — and the voices and the spirits and the hands shot up, fingers splaying, eyes blazing, thousands jumping, people hugging, falling into another, high-fiving hands so fast you never see the arms, screaming, tear-soaked faces like thousands of brand new parents – but no romantic midnight New Year’s Eve couples kissing — for just a moment there was something even bigger than one loved one.
Some people were frozen in Buddha-still calmness, others were bent over crying and shaking. People were hanging out windows, flashbulbs were flashing from every direction, horns honking over everything, girls screaming like Beatlemania, it all swirling into a roaring, deafening tornado, tossing us side to side, but hardly anyone falling down. And the cheering kept going — there was no person telling us to simmer down so the show could resume. Talking heads were yammering away on movie screens and the speakers were still blaring but we were all chanting “O – ba – ma” or “Yes we can” so loud nobody heard a word. And after one wave of peak cheering would begin to subside, another would start out of nowhere and everyone would raise their voices and arms again for no reason except the joy of it, the beyond-beliefness of everything — as new layers of what just happened were rolling through people’s hearts and minds and out their faces.
For some it was a tearful release of exhaustion after sleepless nights for days or weeks or months — defenses down, fatigued openness, sleep-deprivation delirium. And for others it was such a sweet gentle smile of serenity. . . . “Finally.”
But so-sadly, with the networks calling it at 11:00 — that was the exact time of the last elevator to The Top of The Rock rooftop so there was no way to kiss the sky as well as all the pretty girls in the plaza.
After a prolonged evening of anticipation, the dominoes fell quickly. I lost any sense of time at this point, but it seemed like right after the projection, John McCain was walking out to give his concession speech. As I expected, he was huge and gracious — his best speech since I-dunno-when. Poor old guy got waylaid somewhere, off into the Rovian practices of kill n torture what you don’t like and ask questions later (See, also: Iraq, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, Clelland, Kerry, Bush-McCain 2000, etc., etc.)
Everybody was in a “boo-McCain” spirit, but I knew he was better than what we’d seen in this campaign. So every time he said something particularly gracious, I’d yell, “Alight! Give it up for John McCain!” And nobody would. The crowd had followed my every cue all night — when to clap, cheer, laughing at my one-liners — as Zoe said, “You had those people eating out of your hand,” — but when it came to giving props to the distinguished gentlemen from Arizona, I had zero pull.
And geez I just gotta say — in politics, your opponent is your enemy onlyuntil you win; and the moment it’s over, you become colleagues again. You compete as hard as you can, or “vigorously” as Obama wonderfully called it; then we all work together. Done.
So, immediately after McCain finishes his concessionary congratulatory comments to the new President-elect, the world was transported via Marshall McLuhan stacks of amped televisions to the massive gathering in historic Grant Park in Chicago where Democratic supporters had their heads bashed in by billyclubs in 1968 – and had them blown off by words in 2008.
And once again, Obama Presents a beautiful stage, with a classic row of flags like those waving around the Washington Monuments and this Barackefeller rink in New York City.
And as the soul-speaker soars, the Barock Center New York crowd is cheering like we’re at the greatest Central Park concert ever. Except there’s no rock star. There’s not even a person. Just “two big screens and a politician.” And we’re peaking all over the city, all over the country, all over the world in a synchronized riot of joy. This is not just an American story, not just a black story, not just a Democrat’s or young person’s story, nor just an immigrant’s story or this story — it’s all of us — all North America, Africa, Europe — dancing as one, in more ways than one. It’s every underdog, every book-reader & book-writer, every neighbor, every one with hope in whatever language they speak — this Rose smells as sweet tonight.
And Obama’s calmly asking for our collective help, our common good. It gets so quiet you only hear the people sobbing in the crowd of thousands. Complete breakdowns. Some couples now hugging like they didn’t at the New Year’s Moment — because now one of them is shaking and crying. We see the soon-to-be-famous tears from Jesse and Oprah, but seeing them for real glistening in the Barockefeller Lights on the cheeks of both women and men, old and young, white and black, red-eyed and helpless, weeping uncontrollably, and there wasn’t an unblurry eye in the house.
“This is our time to reaffirm that fundamental truth, that out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope. And where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can’t, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can.”
And your cells and limbs harmonize with the words, and you’re “Yes!” And Joe Biden walks out, and that gem finally kicks in – “Oh my god! Joe freakin’ Bidenis Vice President!!”
And as the guests began to leave, I stayed and shook hands or winked into their dazey eyes or stood for a picture next to their ear-to-ear smile as they passed from the plaza womb out to the new world of New York tonight where strangers were stopping strangers just to shake their hand.
As we were leaving the light and into the night, my final image was of the giant blue column still climbing up 30 Rock, and the whole plaza bright and glowing . . . like it should be.
Meanwhile the streets were all a half-hour-after-midnight on New Year’s Eve — laughter echoing through every canyon, girls holding hands and skipping down the sidewalk, old shopkeepers watching everything from their doorways.
Terry and I whirl around the corner onto Sixth Avenue and Boom! Right into the Midwestern crew we talked into staying at 8:00! And it was now a whole lot more than a few hours later. The well-put-together folks we’d met were now red-faced and joyous with their glasses listing crookedly, their hair a shambles, shirt-tails flapping, just a puddled mess they were, and as soon as they saw me rounding the corner they dropped their bags and ran over with giant bear-hugs of joy, thanking me most profusely for encouraging them to stay. And the leader goes, “Hey, wait a minute,” and rushes back to his bags, and another guy says with a beam, “You’re gonna get something nice.” And sure enough he comes back with this high-end print of an almost 3-D painting of Obama & Biden that will beam tonight from my walls forever.
And after a boatful of giant hugs, off they sailed into the glistening New York Sea at night as Terry & I floated on down the Avenue of The Americas, following The Great Invisible Forces to . . . . Times Square.
And as we whoosh around the corner into Times Square’s trash & vaudeville – the barricaded streets, shut-down sidewalks, yellow police tape everywhere, battalions of uniforms, and eight lanes of traffic racing through the center of it! The massive crowd has dissolved down to a nice loud throng — so we fit right in! – bolting directly to the center island — the core of the core – ground-to-sky screens all around — Obama’s ears 8 Miles High — a constant roar — traffic, different speakers blasting different speakers, and a very high cheers-per-second ratio.
cue: ”Dancing In The Streets” — loud. [Phil Lesh & Friends, NYC, Nov. 6th, 2008 recommended]
And my Canadian flag’s immediately attracting a flood of delirious Canucks, some from the city I just left, some from places I never heard of. And again it’s the celebrity flash-flash of my town crier top-hat n tails hailing in the news in Times Square routine.
All heck’s broken loose — for a moment it seems like old New York — people having a good time and no one interfering. “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” is being belted out by an ensemble well beyond any concerns over harmony. There’s a thousand Lady Libertys with one arm raised holding torches of camera-phones broadcasting beacons of freedom’s light to the rest of the world. It’s the first time New York’s been like this since the Rangers won the Stanley Cup in game 7 at Madison Sq. Garden, when all the cars on Seventh Avenue were caught in the human flood, and the streets for blocks around became an instant street party — and you could walk up the avenue between rows of cars high-fiving both drivers and passengers from their open windows.
It was like that all through Times Square, except it seemed every car was coming from an Obama party, not just arriving at one! It wasn’t random drivers caught up in some random New York street party, but every person in the city was in on it. Or at least every person who was awake and outside. The few Republicans here were long since safe behind their security systems, and anyone who was alive for the last few hours couldn’t help hearing and seeing and feeling the emotional and literal fireworks shooting off of every streetcorner in New York.
It was Fourth of July. It was Beatlemania screams still echoing outside Ed Sullivan’s Paramount Theater. Not only was every car smiling like a cartoon, and every driver too, but there was a person sticking out of every sunroof that went by — and people leaning out the side windows to high-five the Times Squarers as they drove through the piazza. And if you weren’t honking your horn enough and got stuck at a light, brothers reached in your open window and honked it for you. And not only were people chanting as they marched, a fire truck went by honking out “O – ba – ma” on his horn in time with the crowd, and the young Irish cops were doing stand-up routines for the crowds and working the passers-by like the best street comedians.
I talked to one of the officers in charge who said there’d been no problems at all over the entire city all night.
Nice, eh?
New York, I love ya! So much like the blackout night five years ago — happy positive vibes emitting from everywhere. It was Woodstock without the mud. It was a sunrise without the hangover. It was a White House without a Bush.
And word filters up that Union Square was overflowing with people, and St. Marks Place in the East Village has broken into a spontaneous street-long block-party, and it was clear this was not going to be over anytime soon.
And it was so gawdamn global – the giant screens were flashing crowds of people in Paris and London and Rome and Rio and Sydney and Toronto and hot-damn, summer in the city! The back of my neck feelin’ all goosebumpy.
It was great that we were not dancing just cuz it was some date on a calendar, but because of something worked for by people the world over — and because of all the changes this will bring, from the smallest of human exchanges to the speeches of kings — it’s “a transformation of civilization” as Neil Young is currently singing it — it’s the hundredth monkey cracking the cocoanut for milk — an evolutionary step in our species — a turning-point that’ll be taught long after we’re gone.
And it’s happening now. If you can read this, you’ve got your invitation. We are the cells that are multiplying. We are the lucky ones that make it across the river to The Promised Land. This is a moment all people will wish they lived through. And that this is even bigger for the world than it is for America.
It is our time, as he kept saying.
Live it or lose it, as I keep saying.
= = = = = = = = = = =
And wonderfully P.S.
A night later, a bunch of us went to the best band goin’, to my ears, Phil Lesh & Friends, and at the beginning of the show, the 68 year old bandleader came out and Dedicated the show – something I’ve never seen any GD member ever do . . .
Phil: ”Two days ago, we lived through and participated in a turning point in history, as important as anything that we’ve seen in our lives. And I bet everybody in this room was a part of that in some way. So, I want to dedicate this show tonight to that uniquely American spirit, which was just thrown up, at the perfect moment, with this man, and this movement, and these people. So, here’s to you!”
Followed by chants of, “U.S.A., U.S.A., U.S.A.,” at an underground Grateful Dead concert in the core of Manhattan!
I finalized my predictions on Nov. 1st, and called the final Electoral College to be:
367 to 171 and it turned out:
365 to 173
“My bad”: I thought the Dems would pull off North Dakota; and I gave Indiana to the Repubs, but the Dems squeaked it out by .9%. And then McCain eventually won Missouri by .1%!
Missouri & Montana were my two final changes All along, I was calling Missouri for McCain, but at the last moment (!) I switched it, figuring the national “mo” that was with Obama would sway the “.1%” in Obama’s favor and keep Missouri’s streak going. But, nooooooooo.
Also: I figured McCain would get 56 million votes, and that’s exactly what he got on election night, but ended up with 59 million after all the absentees were counted.
I called Obama hitting 70 million, and he ended up with just over 68,500,000 — so, damn close there.
I figured the spread would be: 54% – 45%. . . . Turned out: 53% – 45.7%.
I called the Senate: 56 – 42 – 2
and at present it’s: 56 – 41 – 2 — with Minnesota yet to be decided.
Without knowing much about the House, I guessed it would end up 265 – 170, and it currently stands at 255 – 176, with 4 undecided.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Final Numbers (as of Dec. 9th):
Obama: 68,520,000 votes, . . . 52.79%
McCain: 59,455,000, . . . 45.81% (1.4% for “other”)
total votes cast: 129,786,000
(source for the above: The Green Papers)
November 2008 U.S. population: 305,836,000 (U.S. Census Clock)
Total eligible voters: ____ million
Total registered voters: 169 million (86 Dems, 55 Repubs, 28 independents) (source: Wikipedia)
and listen to a radio show about the election while you’re reading! What fun!
7:00 – - 6 states — The Bellwethers – doing their hit “Georgia & Indiana” — If McCain is doing worse than winning by 3%, he’s in trouble. If McCain’s winning by 8% or better, it’s NOT going to be a full blow-out night.
8:00 – - 16 states – - Ahoy Missouri! They’ve only voted correctly for the winner in every Presidential election for the last hundred freakin’ years (except, like, once).
Dems (138) – - Florida 27, Pennsylvania 21, Illinois 21, New Jersey 15, Massachusetts 12, Missouri 11 (but will be too-close-to-call until Way-later), Maryland 10, Connecticuit 7, Maine 4, New Hampshire 4, Delaware 3, D.C. 3 . . . . . . (16 + 20 + 138 = 174)
And this should have been spoken to Tim Russert R.I.P. but was delivered by Sec. of State Colin Powell to Tim’s brother & colleague Tom Brokaw.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
I have some concerns about the direction that the Republican party has taken in recent years. It has moved more to the right than I would like to see it, but that’s a choice the party makes.
I have especially watched over the last six or seven weeks as both candidates have really taken a final exam with respect to this economic crisis that we are in and coming out of the conventions. And I must say that I’ve gotten a good measure of both.
In the case of Mr. McCain, I found that he was a little unsure as to how to deal with the economic problems that we were having and almost every day there was a different approach to the problem. And that concerned me, sensing that he didn’t have a complete grasp of the economic problems that we had.
And I was also concerned at his selection of Governor Palin. She’s a very distinguished woman, and she’s to be admired; but at the same time, now that we have had a chance to watch her for some seven weeks, I don’t believe she’s ready to be President of the United States, which is the job of the Vice President. And so that raised some question in my mind as to the judgment that Senator McCain made.
On the Obama side, I also watched him during this seven-week period. And he displayed a steadiness, an intellectual curiosity, a depth of knowledge and an approach to looking at problems like this – as well as picking a Vice President that, I think, is ready to be President on day one. And also, in not just jumping in and changing his approach every day, but showing intellectual vigor. I think that he has a definitive way of doing business that would serve us well.
I also believe that the approach of the Republican Party and Mr. McCain over the last seven weeks has become narrower and narrower. Mr. Obama, at the same time, has given us a more inclusive, broader reach into the needs and aspirations of our people. He’s crossing ethnic lines, racial lines, generational lines. He’s thinking about how all villages have values, all towns have values, not just small towns have values.
And I’ve also been disappointed, frankly, by some of the approaches that Senator McCain has taken recently, or his campaign has, on issues that are not really central to the problems that the American people are worried about.
This Bill Ayers situation that’s been going on for weeks became something of a central point of the campaign. But Mr. McCain says that “he’s a washed-out terrorist.” Well, then, why do we keep talking about him?
And why do we have these robo-calls going on around the country trying to suggest that, because of this very, very limited relationship that Senator Obama has had with Mr. Ayers, somehow, Mr. Obama is tainted.
What they’re trying to connect him to is some kind of terrorist feelings. And I think that’s inappropriate. I think it goes too far, and has made the McCain campaign look a little narrow. It’s not what the American people are looking for. And I look at these kinds of approaches to the campaign and they trouble me.
The party has moved even further to the right, and Governor Palin has indicated a further rightward shift. I would have difficulty with two more conservative appointments to the Supreme Court, but that’s what we’d be looking at in a McCain administration.
I’m also troubled by, not what Senator McCain says, but what members of the party say. And that it permitted to be said such things as, “Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim.” Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he’s a Christian. He’s always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, so what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer is no, that’s not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be President? Yet, I’ve heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, “He’s a Muslim and he might be associated terrorists.” This is not the way we should be doing it in America.
I feel strongly about this in part because of a picture in a photo essay I saw about troops who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. And one picture was of a mother in Arlington Cemetery, and she had her head on the headstone of her son’s grave. And as the picture focused in, you could see the writing on the headstone. And it gave his awards — Purple Heart, Bronze Star — showed that he died in Iraq, his date of birth, date of death. He was 20 years old. And then, at the very top of the headstone, it didn’t have a Christian cross, it didn’t have the Star of David, it had crescent and a star of the Islamic faith. And his name was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, and he was an American. He was born in New Jersey. He was 14 years old at the time of 9/11, and he waited until he can go serve his country, and he gave his life. Now, we have got to stop polarizing ourselves in this way. And I’m troubled about the fact that, within the party, we have these kinds of expressions.
So, when I look at all of this and I think back to my Army career, we’ve got two individuals, either one of them could be a good President.
But which is the President that we need now? Which is the individual that serves the needs of the nation for the next period of time?
And I come to the conclusion that because of his ability to inspire, because of the inclusive nature of his campaign, because he is reaching out all across America, because of who he is and his rhetorical abilities — and we have to take that into account — as well as his substance — he has both style and substance — he has met the standard of being a successful President, being an exceptional President. I think he is a transformational figure. He is a new generation coming into the world — onto the world stage, onto the American stage, and for these reasons I’ll be voting for Senator Barack Obama.
I know it sounds crazy, but I’m lovin’ the new Hockey Night In Canada. As u know, I think it’s been an embarrassment to our great country and our even greater sport since I started watching the show again in ‘04 or whatever.
I just saw the first two Ottawa vs. Pittsburgh games from Stockholm — and they were outstanding broadcasts. THIS is what hockey broadcasting is supposed to be.
Jim Hughson on play-by-play is IT — maybe the best ever, currently close to Doc Emerick in his prime and Danny Gallivan and Foster and Bill Hewitt in theirs — and he may end up ranked higher than all of them by the time he’s done. Frankly and honestly — I think he’s the best I’ve ever heard. I’d have to re-listen to Doc and Danny again, but he’s got the the poetic linguistic master’s mind and the verbal skills of Doc Emerick, but so much better timbre; Danny Gallivan may have been the only comparable hockey play-by-play man with his combo of timbre, poetry, and knowledge of the sport.
Criag Simpson is his sidekick color guy — and there’s nothing wrong with him. He’s not offensive or stupid or long-winded or anything. And he & Jim have worked together for a long time — so as long as Hughson likes him . . . it’s like, Garcia could pick any rhythm guitarist he wanted. and as long as Jerry liked him, and he wasn’t offensive, then he was okay with me. It’s like Ed McMahan to Johnny. It’s all all about Johnny — and Jerry and Jim . . .
whoever the heck they wanna play off of, it’s their call.
and THEN — in both intermissions they didn’t have Don the Assclown! Of course, he hasn’t has a passport in 30 years and he’s not about to go to pansy Europe now. So, instead, CBC hosted this incredibly intelligent conversation about hockey, and the Make Believes never even came up once! In 5 years of watching I’ve never seen a single HNiC broadcast that didn’t talk about the Leafs no matter what two teams were playing. But this was completely Loaf-free TV — for two whole games! “Yes, President-elect Obama, the world has changed!”
Just totally SMART hockey guys discussing what’s happening in the game. Jaw-droppingly retard-free. When Ron MacLean gets away from Assclown, he really knows the sport. And of course Kelly Hrudy is really smart. I reckon Mike Millbury is sort of the Kramer to Hrudy & Ron’s Jerry & Larry David.
Anyway, just some awesome good news for hockey fans everywhere.
And we went from a woman to a kid writing the Hockey National Anthem.
Recorded Friday, Sept 26th, after the 1st Presidential Debate btwn Obama & McCain.
Location: The Royal Windsor Pub, in Oakville, Ontario, Canada
We were playing to have a little pre-game show, but everyone was having such a good time we never got around to it . . . so, after almost everyone had left — just the hardcore’s remained — and by fluke I had the camera, and Ben Stiller just happened to have come, so I gave him the camera and he did a great job!
Cat’s In The Well (Bob on keyboard for whole show)
2.
It Ain’t Me, Babe (Bob – nice harp solo)
3.
Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again
4.
Girl Of The North Country
5.
High Water (For Charlie Patton)
6.
Just Like A Woman
7.
Rollin’ And Tumblin’
8.
Tryin’ To Get To Heaven
9.
Highway 61 Revisited
10.
Moonlight
11.
It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)
12.
When The Deal Goes Down
13.
Thunder On The Mountain
14.
Ain’t Talkin’
(encore)
15.
Like A Rolling Stone
16.
All Along The Watchtower
.
Captain Bob’s Arresting at Copps
Brian’s Field Report to the Global Bobster Brotherhood
Bob & His Band – at Hamilton’s Copps Coliseum – August 20th, 2008
Stunning. Blown away. Has he been this good all year? This was my first show since the NY City Center tour-ending gig about 2 years ago (when he debuted Ain’t Talkin’).
I’m stunned, I’ll just tell ya straight-up. I thought Bob was on, let’s say, not on an upward trajectory. I’d love it if any regulars who were there and have seen / heard multiple shows this tour can say whether this was average – or was more “on” than usual? It was like – Wow. I’m speechless.
But I’ll try . . .
:- )
For those of you who weren’t there – this is a fanfreakintastic venue! SO much better a crowd and hall than the arena in nearby Toronto. For one thing, everybody on the floor stood up for the entire show! I couldn’t believe it. I now know I’d go to a show at Copps Coliseum ANYday over one at Toronto’s ACC. It’s like a baby arena – small floor, small sides, small everything. I was front center floor, and you could run out of there, go to the bathroom, stop and get a beer and be back at your seat before one song’s over. Serious. Everything was that close. It was like being at a show in your house.
It felt like a crowd-size circa 1966 – Before The Flood. Both myself and an old veteran stagehand estimated the house at about 7,000.
There were a ton of Dead shirts there – so nice to see – in fact the last time I was in that building was on a very psychedelic couple of nights back in the spring of 1990 seein’ The Boys just before Brent Myland died – including that awesome Hey Jude – Dear Mr. Fantasy medley. Anyway :- ) . . .
One Weird Thing: I had long conversations with about 30 different Bobheads (from the Toronto-Hamilton area) and not a single one of them had ever even heard of ”Masked & Anonymous”. It’s just SO bizarre how unknown that great work is, even by fairly hardcore Bob fans.
One Funny Thing: This is Canada, and Hamilton is nicely off the beaten path, and, well, there were just PLUMES of pot smoke billowing out from behind the side-of-stage scrims! I mean, it looked like a freakin dry-ice smoke machine! Giant CLOUDS of it wafting slowly across the stage. It was SO funny. It was SO loose. I mean, MSG ain’t like this anymore. The ACC in downtown Toronto is like going to a concert at your phuckin’ parent’s house. But this is like goin’ back to the ‘70s man! :- ) Total time travel. Free-form everything everywhere. Loved it! No posing or pretentiousness. Just wild uninhibited dancing, freedom smokers, and beer flowing like crazy (but not a single obnoxious drunk spotted all night long).
One Canadian Thing: Not only do the big white hockey rink boards go all around the floor, but the freakin’ benches and penalty boxes are right there too! And people are sittin’ in ‘em. And nobody thinks anything of it. That’s the beauty part. It felt like I was back at the Winnipeg Arena.
One Guitar Thing: The “new” guy is just outstanding. I can’t get over it. I don’t know whether he was really “on” or is simply this amazing all the time. I don’t know why I had doubts about this “new” band, but they were just So spot-on. Maybe it’s just me, but I think Bob & His Band just keep getting better & better. How is that possible? Luckily the sound was crystal clear, and wonderfully, Bob was annunciating every syllable of every word!
One More Thing: He closed Woodstock ‘94 with a transcendent “It Ain’t Me, Babe”, and basically opened this show with one as well — with a bouncing, lyrical guitar, and a long harmonious harp solo to end it. Then the rockin’ Memphis Blues Again with Bob on organ trading solos with the guitar. High Water was just outstanding – so articulate and precise in both the vocals and instrumentation.
Rollin’ & Tumblin’ is such a wonderful live rock n roll dance song. What a great performance card to be able to play any time you want. Then Tryin to Get To Heaven was ethereal, and again, with gorgeous accompanying solos by both the guitar and Bob’s keys. Gawd, for a tape of this show! Then this smokin’ Highway 61, and, I know, he’s played it a lot, but for both this and the encores, I pretended like it was the first time I’d ever heard these songs — which was easy cuz for so many people in the room that WAS the case – and people were just goin’ bananas. And 61’s dueling solos, with Bob in the Al Kooper role playing off a feisty 21st century Bloomfield. It felt like one of those traveling “Rock n Roll Revues” of the late 50s early 60s – dancin’ in the country shed to the big rock n roll radio hit of the summer. “How does it feeeel?”
A: SO much fun.
The highlight for me was the song where I first “got” Bob — “It’s Alright Ma” – somebody hit me back if you know where to download a recent version of this song. It was so beautiful, so melodic, so rich, flushed out . . . so complete. Gawd bless the gawds n bawbs for guiding this onto my flightpath.
And, just like Rollin’ & Tumblin’, how great a live song is Thunder On The Mountain? A born show-closer. Those two songs can stick around forever as far as I’m concerned. He ended with this trance-endental Ain’t Talkin’, which reminded me of the way Neil Young sometimes ends shows with Tonight’s The Night. Haunting, mystical, lots of air & space – a transportive, trace-inducing meditation.
Then of course the big party ending with thousands of people hearing Like A Rolling Stone and All Along Jimi’s ‘Tower for the first time. Rock n roll dancing pandemonium.
I started thinking about this watching tonight’s “Civil Forum” with Obama and McCain and this paster Rick Warren. Somebody mentioned that he wrote “The Purpose-Driven Life”, and I remembered that was the book that woman read to the escaped convict who kidnapped her in Atlanta back in about 2005. (March)
I’d always remembered the way she told the story the first night that she got free. It was the most amazing, real, solo story-telling performance I’ve ever seen in my life. Then I somehow remembered her name! Ashley Smith. So I was able to look it up online, and even though this is a slightly edited down version, all I can say is — be in a quite place, get yourself comfortable, don’t be distracted, and just go right into this.
There’s something about her accent, her demeanor, her calmness, her honesty . . . this person just picked out of the hundreds of millions, who never expected to be in front of a camera in her life, let alone held by an escaped convict who’d just killed people. And all on the same day.
And this was riffed the evening it ended and before she went to sleep — like, it was still live in that day for her. This is so raw.
And it was done on the fly in (I think) the restaurant of the hotel that the city put her up in that night. The reporters just plopped her on a couch, and she just riffed it all out in one uninterupted non-stop solo! How she holds it together and keeps going is just riveting, chilling, jaw-dropping . . .
It’s a real-life performance you will never forget.
p.s. There’s this whole huge passage edited out of the link above. If anyone ever finds the whole entire story, let me know and we’ll link. In the meantine, here’s this whole amazing part that’s edited out — frombetween 5:30 and 9 in the morning . . .
About 5:30, 6–well, 6, 6:30–he said, “I need to make a move.” And I said, “A move?” He said, “I need to get rid of this car before daylight, this truck [the agent's].” I said, “OK.”
I knew that if I didn’t agree to go with him, follow him to get the truck–he’d just take the truck, then one thing–or two–one of two things. He would kill me right then, and say, “All right, well, if you’re not going to help me, then I won’t need you anymore.” Or the police would never find him, or it would take longer. And someone else would get hurt, and I was trying to avoid that.
So I went . . . I said, “Can I take my cell phone?” He said, “Do you want to?” I said, “Yeah.” I’m thinking, well, I might call the police then, and I might not. So I took it anyway. He didn’t take any guns with him. The guns were laying around the house. Pretty much after he untied [me], they were just laying around the house.
And at one point, he said, “You know, I’d rather you shoot–the guns are laying in there–I’d rather you shoot me than them.” I said, “I don’t want anyone else to die, not even you.”
So we went to take the truck, and I was behind him, following him. And I thought about calling the police, you know, I thought, he’s about to be in the car with me right now. So I can call the police, and when he gets in the car, then they can surround me and him together, and I could possibly get hurt, or we can go back to my house.
And I really felt deep down inside that he was going to let me see my little girl. And I said–or then when I leave, he can be there by himself, or he–he finally agreed to let me go see my daughter. I had to leave at 9, 9:30. And I really believed that he was going to.
From the time he walked into my house until we were taking that truck, he was a totally different person to me. I felt very threatened, scared. I felt he was going to kill me when–when I first–when he first put the gun to my side. But when I followed him to pick–to take the truck, I felt he was going to–he was really going to turn himself in. So he took the truck.
He got in the car and I said, “Are you ready now?” And he said, “Give me a few days, please.” I said, “Come on, you’ve got to turn yourself in now.” I didn’t feel like he might–I felt like he might change his mind, that he might not want to turn himself in the next day, or a few days after that, and that if he did feel that way, then he would need money, and the only way he could get money was if he hurt somebody and took it from them.
So we went back to my house and got in the house. And he was hungry, so I cooked him breakfast. He was overwhelmed with–”Wow,” he said, “real butter, pancakes?”
And I just talked with him a little more, just about–about–we pretty much talked about God . . . what his reason was, why he made it out of there.
I said, “Do you believe in miracles? Because if you don’t believe in miracles–you are here for a reason. You’re here in my apartment for some reason. You got out of that courthouse with police everywhere, and you don’t think that’s a miracle? You don’t think you’re supposed to be sitting here right in front of me listening to me tell you, you know, your reason here?”
I said, “You know, your miracle could be that you need to–you need to be caught for this. You need to go to prison and you need to share the word of God with them, with all the prisoners there.”
Then 9 came. He said, “What time do you have to leave?”
[ then the conclusion of the story continues on the clip ]
Lesser known Character actors I love:
Jane Adams
JT Walsh
William Hickey
title(s): “Movies to See — Four or More and Lots of Stars”
This is not a list of what you necessarily think are “the greatest movies of all time” but rather a list of the movies you’ve actually watched all the way thru a minimum of 4 times (maybe this should be 3) and could watch ten more.
Seeing a movie twice is very different than seeing it three or four times. we all see a lot of movies once, then maybe a second time passively with a friend. but it’s when you intentionally watch it for a third and especially a fourth time that the film crosses a line into a special category.
some say there’s no point in watching a movie twice, or they’re too busy. but I say: can you only look at a great painting once? Or listen to a great song or read a great book once?
The only reason movies are listed is based on the number times watched – not whether you want to say you liked it or not, or that you recommend it, or think it’s one of the great films of all time. those are different lists – for critics and academics and film institutes and such. this is Your List, a People’s List, and Actually Watched List. And it’s a game as you fill in your own puzzle, make your own movie of your life’s movies. what you’ve watched, not what you should have watched, or fib or pretend that you’ve watched, or wished you’d watched more than once. I wouldn’t put “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” on a Greatest Films list, or even want to admit I watched it three times – but I know I have. And that’s part of the discovery of going down this path.
You must have physically — and joyously. sat thru the entire movie many times, not just done it in your head, and not just watched it once then seen snippets a few times. and you should really really want to watch it again, like, right now.
If you can’t remember the movie in great detail, you probably didn’t see it 3 or 4 times. You should be able to recount the plot, the arc, lots of key scenes, the actors, and parts of the dialog in detail.
The movie should give you chills or goosebumps, or make you laugh yourself silly, or cry at some point. in the best cases, several of the above.
do Not list movies you’ve only seen twice! it’s very tempting to embellish your memory. you have to really think about it to confirm you’ve actually seen the whole thing 3 times.
you could have seen a movie once or twice and it really stuck with you, but those don’t count.
also – it Really doesn’t count if you started to watch it one more time but then didn’t see it all the way thru! — we’ve all got Lots of those!
also – it doesn’t count if you Want to see the movie a 3rd time. if you want, you can start a “seen twice and wanna see more” list for these movies
also – don’t worry that some movies make it on the list because your all-movie cable network happened to be playing them in heavy rotation for weeks or months. I would never have seen the great Cage & Travolta performances in “Face/Off” if it wasn’t on some digi movie net when I was homebound for a spell. You catch a few minutes flippin the channels one day, and go, “Hmm, this is actually pretty good.” then you make a point to catch it from the beginning, and then it’s so good, you watch it again. and then once you get the rhythms of it, the different subtexts, and subliminal themes, and subtleties of performance, you can really enjoy watching it a third time as an insider playing in the orchestra and riding the score, the arcs, hit the cymbal-crashing peaks, and rise to the top with the solos while simultaneously keeping the beat with the supporting melody-players. Do you want to hear Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture” only once in your life? Those rare moments in art where it all comes together. Nobody’s ever even heard of his “1811 Overture” because it probably sucked.
and films are even harder to create than a symphony. there are so many variables that all have to come together. the weather — see “Lost In La Mancha”, or a problem actor — see “Heart of Darkness, A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse”., or meddling producers — see “Hollywood Ending”. or a cheesy script — see ?
you remember the first time you saw a movie – the discovery, the unfolding, the first impressions.
and you know if you saw a second time – when you knew what was happening and what was coming.
and you should remember the third time – when you could really relish in it, dance with it — or realized you’ve seen it enough and you won’t be coming back..
and you know you’ve seen a movie four times because you’ve almost memorized it, played right along with it, became one with it.
The there’s the Watched-A-Ridiculous-Amount-of-Times List. these are the movies that have really become a part of you.
also – Screen Size Does Matter: I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: “You can’t really say you’ve seen a movie unless you’ve seen it on the big screen. That’s what they’re made for.” And I still stand by that. but for me — and most people for most multiple viewings. usually the repeat viewings occur on a TV at home. and that’s okay.
also — there are lots of great movies not on this cuz I didn’t like them enough to watch them more than twice, and there’s lots I just haven’t seen four times but I want to; say, Dr. Strangelove, Touch of Evil, the Maltese Falcon.
also — older movies have an advantage since they’ve been able to play over and over again on TV for so much of your lifetime.
a few movies will also make anyone’s list because they were an old girlfriend or boyfriend’s favorite. that’s okay, too. If you’ve seen it 4 times, you’ve seen it 4 times.
“guilty pleasure” — define, redefine, and/or come up with other term for.
the most important thing is to be honest in putting all movies on the list and not editing the truth. it makes a more interesting, fun and complete picture.
it’s useful to make this list for yourself as you’ll discover directors you didn’t know you liked so much – and then check out or reconsider their other films.
this really amounts to: Brian’s Required Viewing – If I was to teach a film course, this would be the curriculum.
or recommend movies for friends to rent. if people shared their lists, you’d have a list a great movies to rent — for when you can’t think of one..
it should also have the “Oh, Yeah!” factor – when somebody reads down the list they suddenly remember a movie they always wanted to see, or saw once and always wanted to see again.
the idea is: every one of these movies has to be great or I wouldn’t have watched it four times. if you had passed on the movie for some reason, my hope is you’ll reconsider.
other orders: style/genre; chronological; by director; best to worst — in your opinion.; alphabetical
a greatest movie shouldn’t have a bad scene or subplot in the movie.
what are the commonalities with these films?
you could write your own little synopsis review for each film and why it’s great
and that becomes your own movie review book.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Movies I’ve watched so many times I’ve lost count. say, at least 7 or more times.
The Watched-A-Ridiculous-Amount-of-Times List:
(all these movies ARE ON the master list already)
Woodstock
Festival Express
The Last Waltz
Goodfellas
It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World (as a kid)
Jesus Christ Superstar
The Sting
Don’t Look Back
Masked & Anonymous
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
The Shining
Rebel Without a Cause
A Hard Days Night
Fargo
Lucky Numbers
Star Wars (as a kid)
Fawlty Towers
The Civil War series (PBS, Ken Burns)
Round Midnight
My Cousin Vinny
Groundhog Day
Forrest Gump
In The Heat Of The Night
Primary Colors
Cat On A Hot Tin Roof
Treasure of The Sierra Madre
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
format:
Title — year; director; writer; stars; notes.
my 4+ times watched movies:
– in the order I thought of them.
Rear Window — 1954; Alfred Hitchcock; Jimmy Stewart & Grace Kelly, Thelma Ritter, Raymond Burr.
Fargo — Coen brothers.
Lucky Numbers — Nora Ephron.
State & Main — Mamet.
Goodfellas — Scorcese.
The Sting — George Roy Hill.
Woodstock — Wadleigh.
The Last Waltz — Scorsese.
Festival Express — Bob Smeaton.
In The Heat of The Night — 1967; Norman Jewison (Torontonian); Sidney Pottier, Rod Steiger, Warren Oates, Lee Grant, Anthony James (creepy diner guy); “They call me Mr. Tibbs.”
This is such a masterpiece, but so many people don’t know it. Just tonight I’d sent out an email to get people to catch the PBS airing of it, and a few did, one writing to ask me if this was a “cult classic”?
I’ve watched it many times — and next time FULLY dig and study the ancillary music — It’s all Quincy Jones, and all the piano playing is Ray Charles.
also listen for the diversity and both musical styles and instrumentation. I don’t know if this won awards for the music, but boy it sure shoulda.
This is an amazing movie for blind people.
It almost sounds as good at it looks.
The Talented Mr. Ripley — Anthony Minghella.
The Curse of The Jade Scorpion — Woody Allen.
Airport — 1970; George Seaton; from Arthur Hailey novel; Dean Martin, George Kennedy, Burt Lancaster, Jacqueline Bisset, Helen Hayes, Van Heflen (bomber), Maureen Stapleton.
It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World — 1963!; Stanley Kramer; Buddy Hackett & Mickey Rooney, Ethel Merman & Phil Silvers, Jonathan Winters, Milton Berle, Spencer Tracey, and a ton of cameos!
The Player — 1992; Robert Altman; Michael Tolkin; Tim Robbins, Vincent D’Onofrio, Fred Ward, Cynthia Stevenson, Whoopi Goldberg, Dean Stockwell, Lyle Lovett, and million cameos.
Matewan — John Sayles.
Best In Show — Christopher Guest.
Don’t Look Back — D.A. Pennebaker.
Psycho — Alfred Hitchcock.
North By Northwest — (1959) Alfred Hitchcock; Gary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, Martin Landau — GREAT script and cinematography – great Manhattan location shots circa 1958; great Mount Rushmore shots
Forrest Gump — Robert Zemeckis.
Masked & Anonymous — 2003; Larry Charles; Dylan.
Star Wars — George Lucas.
Spinal Tap — Rob Reiner.
The Big Chill — Lawrence Kasdan.
Happy Birthday Wanda June — Mark Robson; written Kurt Vonnegut; Rod Steger, William Hickey amazing performance
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest — Milos Foreman.
The Shining — Stanley Kubrick.
The Big Picture — Christopher Guest!. Kevin Bacon
Memento — Chris Nolan.
The Wizard of Oz — Victor Fleming.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail — Terry Gilliam.
Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid — George Roy Hill.
Groundhog Day — Harold Ramis.
What About Bob? — Frank Oz.
Rebel Without A Cause — Nick Ray.
Citizen Kane — Wells.
Annie Hall — Allen.
Young Frankenstein — Mel Brooks.
Hudsucker Proxy — Coen brothers.
Round Midnight — Bertrand Tavernier.
Beat The Devil — 1953; John Huston; Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre, Jennifer Jones, Robert Morley. I can’t believe these guys (Houston, Bogart, Jones) weren’t comedic actors & director. this is SO funny – if you look at it right. Morley is Brilliant. and the dialog is brilliant. I would love to have this script. this is one of my favorite movies of all time. there’s also so many plot changes. great characterizations. Jennifer Jones out Marilyn’s Monroe in 1953 playing the most wonderfully dreamy and deluded blond. The Talented Mr. Ripley is a kind of later version (although that’s not a comedy).
The Planet of The Apes — Franklin Shaffner.
A Streetcar Named Desire — Kazan.
Pull My Daisy — Robert Frank & Alfred Leslie.
Lust For Life — Vincente Minelli, father of Liza.
Cat On A Hot Tin Roof — Richard Brooks. – it’s all about the acting. and sex.
Dead Poets Society — Peter Weir.
The Poseidon Adventure — 1973; Ronald Neame.
Paper Moon — Peter Bogdanovich.
Jesus Christ Superstar! — Norman Jewison!; Ted Neally.
Hair — Milos Foreman; Treat Williams, Beverly De Angelo. fantastic
Secret Window — 2004; David Koepp; (from a Stephen King novel; starring Johnny Depp, John Turturro; music Philip Glass.
Throw Mama From The Train — Danny DeVito.
The War of The Roses — Danny DeVito.
Funny Farm — 1988; George Roy Hill; Chevy Chase writer-in-the-country comedy.
Big Business — Jim Abrahams; starring Better Midler & Lily Tomlin.
The Ladykillers — 2004; Coen Brothers.
That Thing You Do! — dir & written by Tom Hanks!.
The Haunting — Jan de Bont; starring Catherine Zeta-Jones.
A Hard Day’s Night — Richard Lester; starring The Beatles.
Apocalypse Now — Coppola.
Fast Times At Ridgemont High — 1982; Any Heckerling; written Cameron Crowe; starring Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Phoebe Cates.
Bonnie & Clyde — 1967; Arthur Penn; starring Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway.
The Devil’s Advocate — 1997; Taylor Hackford; Al Pacino, Charlize Theron, Keanu Reeves, Jeffrey Jones.
Jaws — 1975; Stephen Spielberg; Peter Benchley novel & screenplay; Richard Dreyfuss, Roy Schnieder, Robert Shaw.
Sling Blade! — 1996.
The Untouchables
The Blues Brothers!
Sleuth — 1972; Joseph Mankiewicz; written by Anthony Schaffer; Lawrence Oliver, Michael Caine.
Deathtrap — 1982; Sidney Lumet; Michael Caine, Christopher Reeve, Dyan Cannon.
The World According to Garp
Broadcast News
Harold and Maude!!
Being There!
The French Connection!
MASH!!!
Cabaret!
Duck Soup! — Freedonia!. — 1933, Leo McCarey; Groucho, Chico, Harpo, Zeppo Marx, Margaret Dumont.
Swiss Family Robinson!
The Ghost and Mr. Chicken!!!! — Don Knotts! — have on VHS, with captions
Quiz Show!!
Yellow Submarine!
Meet The Parents
Ghost
Ghostbusters
The Birdcage!
Animal House!
My Cousin Vinny!!
Cast Away
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Breakdown! — 1997; Jonathon Mostow; Kurt Russell, J.T. Walsh, Kathleen Quinlan.
Trading Places — 1983; John Landis; Dan Aykroyd, Eddie Murphy, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ralph Bellamy, Don Ameche.
Beetlejuice! — 1988; Tim Burton; Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Geena Davis, Alec Baldwin, Catherine O’Hara, Jeffrey Jones, Robert Goulet, Dick Cavett; Keaton’s only on scene 17 min., but with Burton’s permission, totally created the vibe of the movie, and is his favorite movie that he’s in..
A Fish Called Wanda!! — 1988; Charles Crichton; John Cleese, Michael Palin, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline. brilliant.
The Candidate — Robert Redford, Peter Boyle.
Thelma & Louise! — Susan Sarandon & Geena Davis.
Witches of Eastwick — Nicholson, Pfiffer, Sarandon, Cher.
The Gods Must Be Crazy! — 1980; dir & written by Jamie Uys; starring N!xau, Marius Weyers, Sandra Prinsloo.
The Odd Couple! — 1968; Gene Saks; Neil Simon; Walter Matthau & Jack Lemmon
The Aristocrats — 2005; Paul Provenza (and Penn Jillette); featuring nearly every comedian you’ve ever heard of, but the key & funniest ones I remember are: Gilbert Gottfried, Bob Saget, Drew Carey, Sarah Silverman, Paul Reiser, George Carlin, Andy Dick, Martin Mull, Mario Cantone (as Liza Minelli), Kevin Pollak (as Christopher Walkin), Eric Meed the card trick guy, and South Park.
* Dogtown and Z-Boys — memorizing “birth of skateboarding” documentary — 2001; dir: Stacy Peralta (the famous guy), Jay Adams, Tony Alva; Craig Stecyk (original writer & photographer); narrator: Sean Penn;
The Sunshine Boys – 1975; dir. Herb Ross, written by Neil Simon; Walter Matthau & George Burns; best scenes are the 2 in Willy’s (Matthau’s) apt. where they rehearse and reminisce (have on Aristocrats VHS); brilliant portrayal of aging entertainers; love the city vs. the country combative theme
Salesman – the 200th film added to my list! filmed in 1966, released in 1969; Maysles Brothers riveting masterpiece documentary about four door-to-door Bible salesmen. starts outside Boston (Webster, Mass), then they go down to Miami. first saw in Phyllis’s kitchen. seen twice. will be my 200th film in the list! what’s amazing is the complete breakdown on one of the salesmen . REWATCH/LISTEN TO COMMENTARY – he explains HOW he makes them — empathy: from commentary: Albert Maysles became lifelong friends with Paul Brennan (the guy who lost it). David Maysles loved Arthur Miller plays, would see them multiple times. just the two of them, no assistant. David on sound (directional microphone, into a customized Nagra to record for 15 times at a time), Albert on camera (weighted 20 pounds; had early zoom lens). he says — took 30 years to get it on TV. shot 100 hours, boiled down to 90 min. cost $200-300,000!!! the processing of the film. the editor’s salary (the woman)
National Lampoon’s Vacation – 1983 – dir; Harold Ramis; written by John Hughes, Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo, Randy Quad, Imogene Coca
National Lampoon’s European Vacation – 1985 – dir. Amy Heckerling; written by John Hughes; Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo,
The Treasure of The Sierra Madre — John Huston. his father, Walter Huston, won Best Supporting Actor; plus Huston for both directing and screenplay
For me it was one of those movies i had to see more than once to appreciate. i started watching it once or twice and found it REEEALLY boring — these old farts trudging around the desert and pawing in the dirt. Whoopy! was it actually filmed in slow motion?
then . . . ah, Then . . . on the 2nd or 3rd try all the pieces came together and now i recognize its mastery and why it’s one of the greatest films ever made. The original story, perhaps dating back to Chaucer, who could’ve picked it up from somebody else. Maybe it’s a lost Homer epic. The story is eternal. Like “absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
how greed can overpower an otherwise good man. how some, in the face of wealth, become a-holes, and others always retain a clear vision of what’s important in life (Howard/Walter). which kind of person are you? we all think, as Dobbs/Bogart did, that we would never become morally corrupted — yet we’ve seen in the real world (and as depicted in this movie) how that happens.
the arc of the Dobbs character is a classic in 2-hour cinema, and how Bogart portrays the transition from sanity and good-will into madness, greed & murder is up there with the greatest performances of any actor ever. the leprechaun magic of Walter Huston. the authenticity of the location shooting, including all the extras and bit roles. the depth, detail and polish of the script. the torn, sweat-soaked costumes. the fabulous music that mutates as the characters do.
if it was a standard western or movie in general, it all would have taken place in the first town and been about how they exacted revenge from the unscrupulous businessman who rips them off — the workers against the corporation.
but then the characters are taken beyond that to where they form their own limited partnership — and how some people turn out to be good and some don’t. it’s life.
if only we got to watch our own life movie several times until we got it. but since we can’t, you have another shot at this movie. it took my reincarnation as a viewer to finally get it right.
“It wouldn’t be that way with me. I swear it wouldn’t. I’d take only what I set out to get.”
boy, would this be a great movie to see the alternate takes from!
and think how Walter Huston’s performance pushed Bogart.
Top 10 movie – gotta list those
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the Seen Three Times list: be careful not to list movies you’ve seen twice!
– in order I thought of them.
Titanic — James Cameron.
Luck
Phil The Alien
All The President’s Men
Waiting For Guffman — Christopher Guest.
Clockwork Orange — Kubrick.
Shawshank Redemption
It’s A Wonderful Life — Frank Capra
Some Like It Hot
Lost In La Mancha — doc on Terry Gilliam making movie
Giant – James Dean
Places In The Heart
Return of the Secaucus Seven — Sayles.
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolfe?
Sleepless in Seattle — Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan.
When Harry Met Sally — Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan.
Blow — 2001; Ted Demme; Johnny Depp, Jordi Molla, Paul Reubens.
Deliverance — Burt Reynolds, Jon Voight, Ned Beatty
2001: A Space Odyssey — Kubrick; Keir Dullea.
Caddyshack – Bill Murray, Rodney Dangerfield, Ted Knight.
The Grateful Dead Movie
Almost Famous — Cameron Crowe.
Raising Arizona — Coen brothers.
Face/Off — (1997) dir. John Woo; John Travolta, Nicolas Cage, Joan Allen, Gina Gershon, John Carroll Lynch (as the prison warden, was the husband in Fargo) and Harve Presnell (as the FBI, and was William H. Macy’s father-in-law in Fargo – made the year before this movie).
Midnight Cowboy — Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight.
The Graduate — Dustin Hoffman.
Requiem for a Dream — 2000; Darren Aronofsky; Hubert Selby wrote; Jared Leno, Jennifer Connelly, Ellen Burstyn.
JFK — 1991; Oliver Stone; .
Being John Malkovich — 1999; Spike Jonze; written by Charlie Kaufman; Cusack, Cameron Diaz.
Stand By Me — 1986; Rob Reiner; written by Stephen King; Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Keifer Sutherland.
Misery — 1990, Rob Reiner; written by Stephen King; Kathy Bates, James Caan.
Mississippi Burning — Gene Hackman & Willem Defoe.
Midnight Run — 1988; Martin Brest; Robert De Niro & Charles Grodin.
Rain Man — 1988. — Dustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise.
Dances With Wolves — Kevin Costner.
Hannah and Her Sisters — Woody Allen, Michael Caine.
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels — Michael Caine, Steve Martin.
Planes, Trains and Automobiles — John Candy, Steve Martin.
Network — 1976; Sidney Lumet; Paddy Chayefsky; Peter Finch, Fay Dunaway, William Holden, Robert Duvall, Ned Beatty.
Papillion — 1973; dir. Franklin Schaffner; Dustin Hoffman & Steve McQueen. only AA nomination was for music!?
Little Big Man — Dustin Hoffman.
Cool Hand Luke — Paul Newman
The Wild One — Marlon Brando.
Arsenic and Old Lace — Cary Grant.
Miracle on 34th Street
The Thin Man — 1934, W.S. Van Dyke; written by Dashiell Hammett; William Powell & Myrna Loy; early classic climax scene with all suspects assembled in same room to reveal the murderer.
Live and Let Die! — Roger Moore.
Bowling For Columbine — Michael Moore.
E.T.
Men In Black — 1997; Barry Sonnenfeld; Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones.
Mrs. Doubtfire — 1993; Robin Williams.
Pretty Woman — Julia Roberts, Richard Gere.
Tootsie — Dustin Hoffman, Jessica Lange, Bill Murray.
City Slickers — Billy Crystal.
On Golden Pond — Henry Fonda, Katherine Hepburn, Jane Fonda, Dabney Coleman.
American Graffiti — 1973; George Lucas; Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Cindy Williams, Wolfman Jack, Harrison Ford)
Analyze This — 1999; Crystal & De Niro.
Good Will Hunting — Matt Damon, Robin Williams.
Pulp Fiction — Quinten Tarantino
Kramer vs. Kramer — Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep.
Back To The Future — Robert Zemeckis.
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off — 1986; John Hughes; Matthew Broderick.
Flirting With Disaster — 1996; David O. Russell; Tea Leoni, Ben Stiller, Lily Tomlin, Alan Alda, Mary Tyler Moore, George Segal.
Hollywood Ending — 2002; Woody Allen; Tea Leoni.
Happy Accidents! — 2000; Brad Anderson; Vincent D’Onofrio, Marisa Tomei.
Carny — 1980; Robert Kaylor; Jodie Foster, Gary Busey, Robbie Robertson.
Swear To Tell The Truth — Lenny Bruce documentary — 1998; Robert Weide.
Wag The Dog — 1997; Barry Levinson; Robert DiNiro, Dustin Hoffman, Denis Leary, Anne Heche, Willie Nelson.
Zoolander — Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson.
Desperately Seeking Susan — Madonna.
Club Paradise — 1986; Harold Ramis; Robin Williams, Peter O’Toole, Rick Moranis & Eugene Levy {the two Barry’s}, Twiggy, Jimmy Cliff.
Phantom of the Paradise — Paul Williams.
Pleasantville
[prior 3 Not found by looking up "p's" ! ]
Diner – 1982; Barry Levinson; Kevin Bacon, Mickey Rourke, Paul Reiser, Daniel Stern, Ellen Barkin, Steve Guttenberg
Showtime – 2002; Tom Dey; Robert De Niro & Eddie Murphy
Primary Colors – 1998; John Travolta, Emma Thompson, Kathy Bates; about the Clintons, by Joe Klein
Glengarry Glen Ross – 1992; Mamet screenplay
I Love You To Death – 1990; Kevin Kline, Tracey Ullman, Joan Plowright, River Phoenix, William Hurt & Keanu Reeves
Bob Roberts – 1992 – written & directed by & starring Tim Robbins; plus Gore Vidal, and Ray Wise (the guy from Twin Peaks & Good Night, And Good Luck); tons of cameos, including a very young Jack Black; Robbins wrote and performed his own songs; done in mock-documentary style; this could almost be on the Most Disturbing List, and is particularly scary post Iraq War II;
Haiku Tunnel
Trees Lounge – Steve Buscemi wrote, directed and stars
The War Room – Clinton’s 1992 Presidential campaign doc.
Pushing Tin — 1999; Mike Newell; Billy Bob Thornton, Angelina Jolie, John Cusack. not to mention Cate Blanchett and Vicki “NewsRadio” Lewis — fantastic performances by all. Plus a cameo by the great John Carroll Lynch (husband Norm in Fargo) as the scared Dr. Freeze.
Shut Up and Sing – 2006 – Dixie Chicks (seen twice) mindblowingly great — it’s like Don’t Look Back in so many ways — London, controversy, news + backstage + stage + young performer(s) caught in a contemporary controversy . . . Rick Rubin scene in the middle is super insightful – core of the movie. plus they play an awesome version of Bob Dylan’s “Mississippi” at one of the climaxes of the movie. Also, Toronto has a sweet and proud cameo.
The Gates – Albert Maysles – amazing doc about Christo’s show in Central Park
I’m Not There – 2007 – Todd Haynes; Cate Blanchett (just fantastic!), Richard Gere, Health Ledger, Christian Bale, Marcus Carl Franken (the little black boy), Julianne Moore (as the Joan Baez character), David Cross (as Allen Ginsberg), Richie Havens, Michelle Williams (briefly), Kris Kristofferson (narrator); great! a surreal symphony! (I wrote a review for this on BH.com and IMDB.)
28 Days – Sandra Bullock – about rehab, really good; small role for Steve Buchemi
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movies that were so effectively disturbing, I don’t want to see again:
Rosemary’s Baby – 1968; Roman Polanski; Mia Farrow, Ruth Gordon, John Cassavetes (Guy), Charles Grodin
Midnight Express – 1978; Alan Parker; written by Billy Hayes; Brad Davis, John Hurt (Max), Randy Quaid.
Grizzly Man — 2005; Warner Herzog; Timothy Treadwell.
Schindler’s List – 1993; Steven Spielberg.
The Exorcist — 1973; William Friedkin; William Peter Blatty; Linda Blair, Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow.
Harsh Times – Christian Bale
(6)
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The Movies about Making Movies:
The Big Picture
The Player
State & Main
Hollywood Ending
Living in Oblivion — 1995; writ & dir. Tom DiCillo; Steve Buscemi.
The Independent — 2000; Jerry Stiller, Janeane Garofalo, Ben Stiller, a zillion cameos. funny
I Love Your Work — Giovanni Ribisi, tons of cameos, Elvis C, Vince Vaughan, Jason Lee,
docs:
Lost in La Mancha
Heart of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse — 1991; writ & dir by Fax Bahr, George Hickenlooper;
The Kid Stays In The Picture – 2002; Nanette Burstein, Brett Morgan; from Robert Evans book; Robert Evans and most of Hollywood.
(5 – not on other lists)
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the Made-for-TV Exceptions:
Fawlty Towers – BBC; 1975 and 1979 (6 episodes in each year, 12 total); ? dir ?; written by John Cleese & Connie Booth; Cleese, Prunella Scales (Sybil), Andrew Sachs (Manuel), Connie (Polly), Ballard Berkely (the Major).
True West — PBS; 1984; Allan Goldstein; Sam Shepard; John Malkovich & Gary Sinise.
Death of A Salesman — CBS; 1985; Victor Schlondorff; Arthur Miller; Dustin Hoffman, John Malkovich, Kate Reid, Charles Durning.
The Civil War — PBS; 1990; Ken Burns; made by Florentine Films for WETA PBS in Washington, D.C.
Magical Mystery Tour — 1967; dir by George Harrison!? and Bernard Knowles; The Beatles.
Liza with a ‘Z’ — NBC; Sept. 10, 1972; dir & choreographed by Bob Fosse; Liza Minnelli; Marvin Hamlisch musical Director; Phil Ramone engineer; won 4 Emmy’s, best Single program, best Director, best Choreography, best music; shot live, one take.
“The Campaign” – The Newsroom episode – Ken Finkleman
Canada-Russia ‘72 (CBC; 2006) unbelievably great
Movies I want to see — for the first time, or again: (These movie are NOT on the master “seen” list — may be added as viewed)
Once Around – (seen once) would love to see again – Richard Dryfuss, Holly Hunter, Danny Aiello, — funny wild bizarre family comedy
Zodiac – 2007 – Jake Gyllenhaal (see twice) LOVED it. totally surprised — i’m not a seriel killer fan at all — other than Scorsese there’s not many movies with much killing on my list. there’s not much in this either, but again, it’s just not a movie i would normally watch — but, like many a great movie, i discovered it cuz it was on regular rotation on the movie network. first of all, i LOVE Jack Gyllanhalle, AND his sister Maggie!
i love how it’s set in a newspaper newsroom, and how the JG character is a lowly guy with ideas.
also — Robert Downey is his typical great self.
and just his whole pursuit of how he tries to track the killer down is a well-told story.
plus i love that it’s a period piece set in the 70s and also set in and around SF, one of my very favorite cities.
also — Great Casting — all the secondary / supporting roles are just perfectly cast. (another big thing i appreciate in films)
Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein — 1948; Charles Barton; Bug Abbott & Lou Costello, Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney; Jerry Garcia’s favorite movie. (seen once)
Dr. Strangelove — 1964; Stanley Kubrick; Peter Sellers — 3 roles., George C Scott (seen twice)
A Prairie Home Companion — 2006; Robert Altman; Garrison Keiller; (see twice). boring, even though it’s Altman, etc.
The Cocoanuts – 1929; Marx Brothers – Florida real estate (seen twice)
Wallace & Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit — 2005 (seen once)
The Comedy of Terrors – 1964; Jacques Tourneur; – Vincent Price (great), Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre, Basil Rathbone, bizarre funny black comedy parody of the horror genre; very much like Young Frankenstein, or Beat The Devil. soundtrack funny too. (have most of it on VHS) (seen once)
East of Eden – James Dean (seen twice)
The Maltese Falcon — 1941; John Huston; written by Dashell Hammett & John Huston; Humphrey Bogart, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Mary Astor) (seen twice)
Donnie Brasco – 1997; Mike Newell; Al Pacino, Johnny Depp
Good Night, and Good Luck — (seen twice) — David Strathairn, Ray Wise.
Miller’s Crossing
Touch of Evil — Orson Wells (see once)
On The Waterfront – Kazan’s justification for giving names to the McCarthy hearings — (Kazan in Brando role) won best picture, director, actor, screenplay
The Crucible – Arthur Miller’s reaction to Kazan testifying before McCarthy hearings; John Proctor as Arthur Miller — final speech.
The Front — staring Woody Allen, but not written by him; about the McCarthy hearings. (seen once)
A View From The Bridge (Vu du pont) 1961; Sidney Lumet; Maureen Stapleton; one act play. Miller’s response to Kazan’s On The Waterfront. B&W 110 min.
Lenny – docudrama on Lenny Bruce — Dustin Hoffman, Valerie Perine — seen once.
Lenny Bruce Performance Film – 1965 (late-career “routine” but mostly a broken down rant)
Laurel Canyon — (seen twice) — 2002; dir & written Lisa Cholodenko; Kate Beckinsale! Frances McDormand. “inspired by” Joni Mitchell
Ruby in Paradise — 1993; Ashley Judd (seen once)
The Fisher King — 1991; Terry Gilliam; Robin Williams, Jeff Bridges (seen twice – hard to get through)
Pay It Forward – Kevin Spacey (seen twice)
Silver City – 2004; dir & written by John Sayles; Chris Cooper, Tim Roth. about politics
This Film Is Not Yet Rated – 2006; dir. Kirby Dick; doc about film ratings. (seen once)
Coney Island – Ric Burns doc (60 min) (Joey pick)
The Donar Party – Rick Burns (Joey pick)
National Treasure – 2004; partially about the Templars (Dunc) (have on VHS)
Withnail & I — 1987 British comedy, set in 1969 (Cutts recommendation)
Iraq For Sale: The War Profiteers — 2006; Robert Greenwald (doc)
Eulogy – (saw once) 2004 – Zooey Deschanel, Hank Azaria, Ray Romano, Debra Winger, Piper Laurie, Glenne Headly; really funny, absolutely great black-comedy about family funeral
* Drop Dead Gorgeous – 1999; Michael Patrick Jann; Kristen Dunst, Alison Janney, Denise Richards, Ellen Barkin, Kirstie Alley, Nora Dunn; twisted dark comedy; pretty dumb, but some surprising spitter lines! Prairie Home Companion & Fargo meets Spinal Tap fake doc.
Soylent Green – 1973; Edward G. Robonson, Joseph Cotton, Charlton Heston, Dick Van Patten, numerous people have recommended it, and referenced it.
Marilyn Monroe: The Final Days (2001, AMC) amazing doc, with the 37 missing min. of last film “Something’s Got To Give
Factotum – Matt Dillon portraying Bukowski – Albert recommendation
I Know I’m Not Alone – 2005 – Michael Franti – goes to Baghdad and Gaza, funny guerilla doc. – Albert recommendation
* Paris When it Sizzles – 1964 — pretty surreal and comedic! Audrey Hepburn, William Holden – about a screenwriter and his girl,- “the screenplay within the screenplay”
Coffee & Cigarettes – Jim Jarmush (Megan & Adam in PA)
Office Space — 1999 – dir. Mike Judge; Ron Livingston, Jennifer Anniston (Judge did Beavis & Butthead – so it’s kind of that take on corporate life (seen twice)
“The Rocket” (aka “Maurice Richard”) – 2006 – this, along with Miracle may be the 2 best sports dramas.
Miracle – 1980 U.S. hockey team gold medal – Kurt Russell as Herb Brooks
Cookie’s Fortune – 1999; Altman
These Girls — 2005; comedy – 3 girls, the dude in town (seen twice) have on VHS
Mr. Smith Goes To Washington — (seen twice) mom would like
City Lights – Chaplin – one of the top rated of all time
Modern Times – Chaplin – one of the top rated of all time
The Brothers Grimm – 2005 — Terry Gilliam – saw once 2/07 – AMAZING – another Gilliam masterpiece – gorgeous Lena Headley, like a young Jaquiline Bisset – also about writing! the sets are to die for (as usual in Gilliam movies) and it’s about forests (where I like to spend my days!) “You’re my brother. I want you to believe in me.” Jacob Grimm Ghostbusters from the 1800s
Smoke – Megan and others keep quoting it.
The Shining – Steven Weber, Rebecca de Mornay – really scary, actually better than Kubrick’s (seen once)
Blades of Glory – comedy about figure skating, Will Farrell
Monty Python episode – party-crashing scene
Mystery Alaska – funny hockey movie, Russell Crowe, Hank Azaria, Michael McKean, Burt Reynolds, Phil Esposito, Mike Myers, Terry David Mulligan, Little Richard, Mary McCormick
Kinky Friedman: Live from Austin, Texas — 1975 PBS Austin City Limits – never aired, released 2007
Tucker – Jeff Bridges, about re-life Preston Tucker the car inventor – great! (seen twice)
The Battle of San Pedro – documentary — 1944-ish – dir. John Huston
Bullworth (seen twice) – Warren Beatty
Nixon – Anthony Hopkins
Bird – dir. Clint Eastwood – extraordinary Charlie Parker bio-pic (seen twice)
Man of The Year – (2006) — Robin Williams (seen twice) – he says many lines similar to Obama. this is made shortly after Obama’s speech at the DNC Convention in 2004.
Straight, No Chaser – the Thelonious Monk documentary
State of The Union – Spencer Tracey, Katherine Hepburn, Angela Lansbury (seen once)
Dave – Kevin Kline — great political comedy
Ocean’s Eleven – Sinatra version – (seen it twice)
Thirteen Days – (2000) – great historical political drama about the Cuban Missile Crisis; Kevin Costner (seen once) great movie – cuz of the subject (parts of the script were taken from transcripts of Oval Office conversations) and the portrayal of the two Kennedy brothers.
No Country For Old Men – (seen twice) SUCH a first-view movie; Mesmerizing on first viewing; very so-so on second. this movie is all “style” — there’s plot holes and bad scenes all thru this – no wonder the Coen’s were surprised they won Best Picture, and acted like they didn’t deserve it. I can sure see why JB won best actor. riveting memorable performance. But I needed closed-captions to understand what many of the others were saying. It’s very disturbing, like Natural Born Killers.
Short Cuts – 1993 – Robert Altman; (seen twice) there’s no through-plot to follow – it’s a series loosely connected scenes of lives in and around LA; it’s hard to watch
The Beach – 2000 — DiCaprio, Tilda Swenson (seen twice)
Sicko – 2007 – Michael Moore – fantastic doc. (seen twice)
Let’s All Hate Toronto (2007) doc 75 min. by Albert Nerenberg and Rob Spence – very funny, very well done doc. (seen a few min. of it – seems Great)
Blood Diamond – DiCaprio (seen twice)
Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 – Walter Matheau, Robert Shaw, Martin Balsim – (seen twice)
Little Children – 2006 – Kate Winslett, Jane Adams, Jennifer Connely, Patrick Watson – amazing, powerful, stayed with me – Jane Adams character, and the haters. (since once)
Prey For Rock n Roll – (2003) — Gina Gershon, Drea de Matteo – two robo-babes in an all-girl rock n roll band – very authentic (written by a rock n roller) (seen twice)
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movies — from above list. that you’ve seen 4 or more times but don’t really plan to / need to see again:
– which also means, to some extent, that you don’t really recommend the film to others.
except – if somebody’s never seen one of these movies, they should.
every one of these movies should be seen once, if you’ve never seen it.
Star Wars
Happy Birthday, Wanda June
Wizard of Oz
Planet of the Apes
Back to the Future
The Poseidon Adventure
Phantom of the Paradise
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Comedies: [59]
Fargo — Coen brothers.
Lucky Numbers — Ephron.
State & Main — Mamet.
The Curse of The Jade Scorpion — Allen.
It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World
Best In Show — Guest.
Spinal Tap — Reiner.
Happy Birthday Wanda June
The Big Picture — Guest!.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Groundhog Day
What About Bob? — Frank Oz.
Annie Hall — Allen.
Young Frankenstein — Mel Brooks.
all 12 episodes of Fawlty Towers
Hudsucker Proxy — Coen brothers.
Beat The Devil — Huston.
Throw Mama From The Train — Danny DeVito.
The War of The Roses — Danny DeVito.
Funny Farm — George Roy Hill!.
Big Business — Jim Abrahams; starring Better Midler & Lily Tomlin.
The Ladykillers — 2004. — Coen Brothers.
A Hard Day’s Night — Richard Lester; starring The Beatles.
Fast Times At Ridgemont High — 1982; Any Heckerling; written Cameron Crowe; starring Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Phoebe Cates.
The Blues Brothers!
Harold and Maude!!
Being There!
MASH!!!
Duck Soup! — Freedonia!. — 1933, Leo McCarey; Groucho, Chico, Harpo, Zeppo Marx, Margaret Dumont.
The Ghost and Mr. Chicken!!!! — Don Knotts! — have on VHS, with captions
Meet The Parents
Ghostbusters
The Birdcage
Animal House
My Cousin Vinny
Trading Places
Beetlejuice — 1988; Tim Burton; Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Geena Davis, Alec Baldwin, Catherine O’Hara, Jeffrey Jones, Robert Goulet, Dick Cavett; Keaton’s only on scene 17 min., but with Burton’s permission, totally created the vibe of the movie, and is his favorite movie that he’s in..
A Fish Called Wanda — 1988; Charles Crichton; John Cleese, Michael Palin, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline.
——– — below: seen 3 times. ——-
Phil The Alien
Some Like It Hot
Waiting For Guffman — Chris Guest.
Caddyshack
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels — Michael Caine, Steve Martin.
Planes, Trains and Automobiles — John Candy, Steve Martin.
Arsenic and Old Lace — Cary Grant.
Men In Black
Mrs. Doubtfire — 1993.
City Slickers
Analyze This — 1999; Crystal & De Niro.
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off — 1986; John Hughes; Matthew Broderick.
Flirting With Disaster — 1996; David O. Russell; Tea Leoni, Ben Stiller, Lily Tomlin, Alan Alda, Mary Tyler Moore, George Segal.
Hollywood Ending — 2002; Woody Allen; Tea Leoni.
Happy Accidents! — 2000; Brad Anderson; Vincent D’Onofrio & Marisa Tomei.
The Aristocrats
Drop Dead Gorgeous
The Comedy of Terrors
Office Space — 1999 – dir. Mike Judge; Ron Livingston, Jennifer Anniston (Judge did Beavis & Butthead – so it’s kind of that take on corporate life)
I Love You To Death – 1990; Kevin Kline, Tracey Ullman, Joan Plowright, River Phoenix, William Hurt & Keanu Reeves
National Lampoon’s Vacation – 1983 – dir; Harold Ramis; written by John Hughes, Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo, Randy Quad, Imogene Coca
National Lampoon’s European Vacation – 1985 – dir. Amy Heckerling; written by John Hughes; Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo,
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Serious, Compelling Dramas — non-comedies, even tho they might have funny bits.: [91]
Rear Window — Hitch.
Fargo
Goodfellas — Scorcese.
In The Heat of The Night — Norman Jewison – Torontonian.
The Talented Mr. Ripley — Anthony Minghella.
Airport — ‘70. — George Seaton.
The Player — Altman.
Matewan — Sayles.
Psycho — Hitchcock.
North By Northwest — Hitchcock.
Forrest Gump — Robert Zemeckis.
Masked & Anonymous — 2003; Larry Charles; Dylan.
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest — Milos Foreman.
The Shining — Stanley Kubrick.
Memento — Chris Nolan.
Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid — George Roy Hill.
Rebel Without A Cause — Nick Ray.
Citizen Kane — Wells.
Hudsucker Proxy — Coen brothers.
Round Midnight — Bertrand Tavernier.
True West — for PBS. — 1984; Allan Goldstein; Sam Shepard; John Malkovich & Gary Sinise.
Death of A Salesman — for PBS. — 1985; Victor Schlondorff; Arthur Miller; Dustin Hoffman, John Malkovich, Kate Reid, Charles Durning.
A Streetcar Named Desire — Kazan.
Lust For Life — Vincente Minelli, father of Liza.
Cat On A Hot Tin Roof — Richard Brooks.
Dead Poets Society — Peter Weir.
The Poseidon Adventure — 1973; Ronald Neame.
Paper Moon — Peter Bogdanovich.
Secret Window — David Koepp; starring Johnny Depp.
The Haunting — Jan de Bont; starring Catherine Zeta-Jones.
Apocalypse Now — Coppola.
Bonnie & Clyde — 1967; Arthur Penn; starring Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway.
The Devil’s Advocate — 1997; Taylor Hackford; Al Pacino, Charlize Theron, Keanu Reeves, Jeffrey Jones.
Jaws!
Sling Blade! — 1996.
The Untouchables
Sleuth — 1972; Joseph Mankiewicz; written by Anthony Schaffer; Lawrence Oliver, Michael Caine.
Deathtrap — 1982; Sidney Lumet; Michael Caine, Christopher Reeve, Dyan Cannon.
Harold and Maude!!
Being There!
The French Connection!
MASH!!!
The Civil War — Ken Burns. — one of the 4 made-for-TV exceptions.
Quiz Show!!
Ghost
Cast Away
Breakdown! — 1997; Jonathon Mostow; Kurt Russell, J.T. Walsh, Kathleen Quinlan.
the Three Times on-the-fence list: (dramas cont.)
Titanic — James Cameron.
Luck
All The President’s Men
Clockwork Orange — Kubrick.
Shawshank Redemption
It’s A Wonderful Life — Capra?.
Treasure of the Sierra Madre — Huston.
Lost In La Mancha
Giant
Places In The Heart
Return of the Secaucus Seven — Sayles.
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolfe?
Blow — Ted Demme; Johnny Depp.
Deliverance
2001: A Space Odyssey — Kubrick.
Almost Famous — Cameron Crowe.
Face/Off
Midnight Cowboy
The Graduate
Requiem for a Dream — 2000.
JFK — 1991; Oliver Stone.
Being John Malkovich — 1999; Spike Jonze; written by Charlie Kaufman; Cusack, Cameron Diaz.
Stand By Me — 1986; Rob Reiner; written by Stephen King; Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Keifer Sutherland.
Misery — 1990, Rob Reiner; written by Stephen King; Kathy Bates, James Caan.
Mississippi — Gene Hackman & Willem Defoe.
Midnight Run — 1988; Martin Brest; Robert De Niro & Charles Grodin.
Rain Man — 1988. — Dustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise.
Dances With Wolves — Kevin Costner.
Hannah and Her Sisters — Woody Allen, Michael Caine.
Network
Papillion — Dustin Hoffman, Steve McQueen.
Little Big Man — Dustin Hoffman.
Cool Hand Luke — Paul Newman
The Wild One — Marlon Brando.
The Thin Man — 1934, W.S. Van Dyke; written by Dashiell Hammett; William Powell & Myrna Loy; early classic climax scene with all suspects assembled in same room to reveal the murderer.
Live and Let Die
On Golden Pond
Good Will Hunting
Pulp Fiction
Kramer vs. Kramer
Happy Accidents! — 2000; Brad Anderson; Vincent D’Onofrio, Marisa Tomei.
Carny — 1980; Robert Kaylor; Jodie Foster, Gary Busey, Robbie Robertson.
Swear To Tell The Truth — Lenny Bruce documentary — 1998; Robert Weide.
Wag The Dog — 1997; Barry Levinson; Robert DiNiro, Dustin Hoffman, Denis Leary, Anne Heche, Willie Nelson.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Music Movies: [14]
Woodstock — Wadleigh.
The Last Waltz — Scorsese.
Festival Express — Bob Smeaton.
Don’t Look Back — Pennebaker.
Masked & Anonymous — Larry Charles, Dylan.
Spinal Tap — Reiner.
Round Midnight — Bertrand Tavernier.
Jesus Christ Superstar! — Norman Jewison.
Hair — Milos Foreman.
That Thing You Do! — Tom Hanks!.
A Hard Day’s Night — Richard Lester; starring The Beatles.
Cabaret
Yellow Submarine
The Blues Brothers
Magical Mystery Tour — 1967; dir by George Harrison!? and Bernard Knowles; The Beatles.
Liza with a ‘Z’ — 1972; dir & choreographed by Bob Fosse; Liza Minnelli; Marvin Hamlisch musical Director; Phil Ramone engineer; won 4 Emmy’s, best Single program, best Director, best Choreography, best music.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Documentaries: [13]
Woodstock
The Last Waltz
Festival Express
Don’t Look Back
The Civil War
Lost in La Mancha
Dogtown and Z-Boys
Bowling For Columbine
Grizzly Man
Swear To Tell The Truth — Lenny Bruce
The Aristocrats
Marilyn Monroe: The Final Days (2001, AMC) amazing doc, with the 37 missing min. of last film “Something’s Got To Give
The War Room
The Gates – Albert Maysles – amazing doc about Christo’s show in Central Park
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Great Movies about Politics (15)
Primary Colors
Mr. Smith Goes To Washington
All The President’s Men
The Candidate
Wag The Dog
Bullworth
Bob Roberts – Tim Robbins
Nixon – Anthony Hopkins
Man of The Year – Robin Williams
The Newsroom’s The Campaign episode – Ken Finkleman
The War Room – documentary of ‘92 campagin
State of The Union – Spencer Tracy & Katherine Hepburn, Angela Lansbury
Dave – Kevin Kline
Run, Granny, Run – 94 year old Doris ‘Granny D’ Haddock’s run for the 2004 New Hampshire Senate seat
Recount – about the 200 election – HBO – amazing! Kevin Spacey
The American President – Michael Douglas
Charlie Wilson’s War
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
By Auteur: am I counting 3 timers on this? I should be.
Rear Window — Hitchcock
Psycho — Hitchcock
North By Northwest — Hitchcock
The Sting — George Roy Hill
Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid — George Roy Hill
Funny Farm — George Roy Hill!
Animal House — John Landis
Blues Brothers — Landis
Trading Places — Landis
The Player — Altman
M*A*S*H – Altman
Best In Show — Guest.
The Big Picture — Guest
Goodfellas — Scorsese
The Last Waltz — Scorsese
The Curse of The Jade Scorpion — Woody Allen
Annie Hall — Allen
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest — Milos Foreman
Hair — Foreman
Forrest Gump — Robert Zemeckis
Back To The Future — Zemeckis
In The Heat of The Night — Norman Jewison (Torontonian!)
Jesus Christ Superstar! — Norman Jewison
Throw Mama From The Train — Danny DeVito
The War of The Roses — Danny DeVito
Star Wars — George Lucas
American Graffiti – George Lucas
Lucky Numbers — Ephron
Sleepless In Seattle – Ephron
Matewan — John Sayles
Return of the Secaucus 7 — Sayles
State & Main — Mamet
Wag The Dog – Mamet screenplay
Glengarry Glen Ross – Mamet screenplay
The Untouchables – Mamet screenplay
A Streetcar Named Desire — Kazan. written by Tennessee Williams
Cat On A Hot Tin Roof — Richard Brooks. written by Tennessee Williams
Woodstock — Wadleigh.
Festival Express — Bob Smeaton.
The Talented Mr. Ripley — Anthony Minghella.
Airport — ‘70. — George Seaton.
It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World — Stanley Kramer.
Don’t Look Back — Pennebaker.
Masked & Anonymous — Larry Charles, Dylan.
The Big Chill — Lawrence Kasdan.
Happy Birthday Wanda June — Mark Robson; written Kurt Vonnegut.
The Shining — Stanley Kubrick.
Memento — Chris Nolan.
The Wizard of Oz — Victor Fleming.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail — Terry Gilliam.
Groundhog Day — Harold Ramis.
What About Bob? — Frank Oz.
Rebel Without A Cause — Nick Ray.
Citizen Kane — Wells.
Young Frankenstein — Mel Brooks.
all 12 episodes of Fawlty Towers — Cleese.
Round Midnight — Bertrand Tavernier.
The Planet of The Apes — Franklin Shaffner.
Beat The Devil — Huston.
True West — PBS – Malkovich & Sinese.
Death of A Salesman — PBS, Hoffman & Sinese.
Pull My Daisy — Robert Frank, Alfred Leslie.
Lust For Life — Vincente Minelli, father of Liza.
Dead Poets Society — Peter Weir.
The Poseidon Adventure — Ronald Neame.
Paper Moon — Peter Bogdanovich.
Secret Window — David Koepp.
Big Business — Jim Abrahams.
That Thing You Do! — Tom Hanks!.
The Haunting — Jan de Bont.
A Hard Day’s Night — Richard Lester.
Apocalypse Now — Coppola.
Fast Times At Ridgemont High — Any Heckerling.
Bonnie & Clyde — Arthur Penn.
Best / Favorite Scenes Ever in a Film:
Marisa Tomei on the stand in My Cousin Vinny
William Hickey’s cookie scene in Prizzi’s Honor
Pottier & Steiger’s first scene in In The Heat of the Night
the final Jordi Molla – Johnny Depp confrontation in Blow
Kathleen Turner & Michael Douglas – dinner party Bacarat story scene
Favorite / Unforgettable — greatest? Acting Performances Ever:
– in order I thought of them.
Joe Pesci in Goodfellas
William Hickey in Happy Birthday Wanda June
Billy Bob Thornton in Sling Blade
Bill Murray & Richard Dreyfuss in What About Bob?
William Macy in Fargo
Ruth Gordon in Harold & Maude
Mia Farrow in Rosemarie’s Baby
Brad Davis in Midnight Express
John Travolta in Lucky Numbers
Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump
Dexter Gordon in Round Midnight
Gene Hackman in French Connection
Nathan Lane in The Birdcage
J.T. Walsh in anything — Breakdown, The Big Picture, Sling Blade, Good Morning Vietnam, A Few Good Men, Pleasantville, Nixon.
Richard Burton & Elizabeth Taylor in Virginia Woolfe
Dustin Hoffman in Papilion
David Strathairn in Good Night and Good Luck
Ray Wise in Good Night and Good Luck
Cate Blanchett in Aviator
Brad Davis in Midnight Express
Best overall bunch of actors in one film (ensemble?):
Talented Mr. Ripley
Lucky Numbers
++Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
That Thing You Do
Spinal Tap
A Hard Days Night
Throw Mama From the Train
Beetlejuice
Duck Soup
Mad Mad Mad Mad World
Midnight Express
