Month: April 2020

Two weeks ago I posted a Facebook query asking friends to volunteer a movie most others like but they don’t. I got a load of wide ranging responses, everything from “Avatar” to “Zoolander.”   There were many anti-Avatars and considering how much money that film made, I can see how some would check it out and then go “meh, not for me.” Lots of women did not like “The Godfather.”  My guess is they didn’t enjoy seeing how in 1940’s Mafia life the women were treated like second rate citizens.

Everyone has their favorite and least favorite movies.  It’s a subjective issue and there’s no right or wrong, only opinions.  So with that I give you three films that were very well received both critically and at the box office,.and I don’t like them!

GHOSTBUSTERS-  I know why this one was such a money huge maker but it had nothing to with the quality of the script or the acting.  Director Ivan Reitman had two former Saturday Night Live members in the cast (Bill Murray & Dan Ackroyd), a hit theme song “Ghostbusters” from Ray Parker Jr. and the logo of a ghost with a circle and a slash through it, just when international signs like that were taking hold. T-shirts with the Ghostbuster logo were a big deal and worn by many.  By the way, Ray Parker Jr. was sued for ripping off musical riffs from Huey Lewis’ hit “I Want a New Drug” and the money matter was settled out of court for the always popular “Undisclosed Amount.”  The first third of “Ghostbusters” was mildly entertaining with Murray, Ackroyd and Harold Ramis trying to drum up business for ridding buildings of bad spirits.  Then we had Murray’s mugging for the camera and being Mr. Glib when trying to romance Sigourney Weaver. At this point things were slipping and as soon as ghost number one was removed from a hotel banquet room, the movie died for me.  It became a supernatural beast chasing farce with the Stay-Puf Mashmallow Man as its key character. The special effects took over “Ghostbusters” and I found it to be lame. I know I’m in the minority with this one but I still see the movie as nothing more than an elongated SNL bit with a catchy song and not much more.

“FIGHT CLUB” I’m a big fan of Director David Fincher who has brought us dark movies like “Seven,” “Zodiac”, “The Game”, “Gone Girl”, “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” and “The Social Network.” However, “Fight Club” was a disappointment to me and I’ll never get what people saw in it. Well, you did have a buff, shirtless & very scummy looking Brad Pitt to look at.  Then there was the curious but clueless venturing of Edward Norton and a really filthy sex tramp in Helena Bonham Carter. There WAS one key line that people took from this movie and still quote it to this day.  “The first rule of Fight Club, you do not talk about fight club.”  One line of dialog does not a movie make.  Ugh.  The story plodded along with escalated brawls and a mystery as to what may happen at the end.  The film ended with the flat taste of a glass of Coke that was left in the sun all day.  Sorry Brad, Edward, Helena and Mr. Fincher, but when it comes to praising good movies, my first rule is to not talk about “Fight Club.”

“FIELD OF DREAMS”- I saved this most overrated (in my opinion) movie for last.  Again, there’s a catch line filmgoers latched on to like barnacles on an old rusty fishing boat, “If you build it, they will come.”  Jeesh.  Here we have farmer and family man Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) listening to weird voices that tell him to construct a baseball field in his acreage so some old time players from the disgraced 1919 Chicago White Sox can come out of nowhere.  Really?  This is your idea for a film? It sounded like one of those ‘wonderment’ stories from “The Twilight Zone”, certainly not a 107 minute love letter to baseball romantics.  Full disclosure, I played years and years of baseball and still enjoy watching the game, but this story reeked of maudlin sappiness.  I’ll never forget when the film ended; I was walking out with the crowd at the Oak Brook movie theater and grown men were sobbing, crying like their hearts were broken!  I felt like smacking these wimps in the face but that would’ve made them cry harder.  Not long after seeing “Field of Dreams” I read the best critique of the movie.  The comment was: “Field of Dreams was designed to make the Reagan generation feel good about baseball.”   Wow!  Truer words were never said, and I didn’t need this trite movie to appreciate America’s favorite past time.

Sometime in the future I’ll have to tap in to two of three films that I find to be underrated and underappreciated.

NEXT BLOG- COVID 19 Comments & Observations.

Everyone has their favorite songs of all time.  Some were number one smash hits, others may have been top 20 songs or even album tracks.  It’s all subjective and the gamut of preferences can range from heavy metal to basic rock n roll, to soft ballads, bubblegum pop, jazz, country music, etc.

So with baseball season currently on hold, I thought I’d offer a ‘triple play’ of songs that I never tire of; tunes that I could listen to a million times and would still want to hear more plays of them.

“SATISFACTION GUARANTEED”- The Firm.   This was a British supergroup featuring singer Paul Rodgers (Free, Bad Company, Queen) guitarist Jimmy Page (Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin) drummer Chris Slade from Uriah Heep, Manfred Mann & AC/DC and bass player Tony Franklin.  On their debut disc, the first single was “Radioactive” which landed at #28 on the charts.  The next single & video was “Satisfaction Guaranteed” which failed to chart and that is a travesty.  Paul Rodgers is one of the most underrated singers in rock history and is still going strong on solo tours and road runs with Bad Company.  Page’s guitar is strong on this cut but its Rodgers’ vocals that make this an aces song.

“GIMME LITTLE SIGN” Brenton Wood.  Born Alfred Jesse Smith in Shreveport Louisiana in 1941, Wood graduated high school then chased his music making dreams in Los Angeles. Speculation is he changed his name to emulate the wealthy L.A. district of Brentwood but that was never confirmed.  Wood who played keyboards, wrote “Gimme Little Sign” and in 1967 it made it to #9 on the pop charts and #19 on the R&B side.  But for me this song is a number one hit and one everybody should know and appreciate.

“THE SALT IN MY TEARS”  MARTIN BRILEY This ‘I’m better off without you’ song only made it to #36 on the Billboard singles chart in 1983 but the video was in heavy rotation on M TV. This was back when M TV actually played music videos.  Martin Briley was a one hit wonder, never charting again as a singer.  However Briley has written songs for N’Sync, Celine Dion, Michael Bolton, Kenny Loggins, Gregg Allman & Barry Manilow.  That’s quite a wide range of artists to pen for.  Still, “The Salt in my Tears” is a track worth hearing again and again.

So there’s a quick sample of personal favorites from me. I’ll be posting up some more links to other ‘never get tired of’ songs in the near future.

NEXT BLOG: Movies others love and I never did.

Two weeks ago I submitted a query on Facebook’s “I Remember Elmhurst” page. I asked members of the group to “Name a regret (slight or serious) they had from their high school days.

Over the next week there were plenty of responses, some folks with minor issues, some with more serious thoughts. I didn’t tally them up but many people regretted not taking their studies seriously enough when at York or Immaculate Conception High School.  A few noted they got more dedicated about their learning when eventually getting to post high school classes, a few of whom entered college in their late 20’s and early 30’s to further their careers.  Better late than never, right?

The other bulk answer was the regret of being too shy or lacking confidence to do any of the following: Join the drama club, play sports, get more involved with after school activities and of course the reticence to not pursue romantic interests.  When reading those regrets I thought it would be a good primer for teens who are about to enter high school or are in the midst of their four years right now.

As far as my regrets, I had just three.

Regret #1. Not taking Spanish classes. When I was at York (1975-1979) I didn’t give taking a foreign language a second thought. However if I had known that twenty years later there would be such an increase of Hispanic speaking citizens, I DEFINITELY would have learned the language.  In my teaching career, there have even been a few jobs I did not apply for because they wanted someone who had a Spanish speaking background.

Regret #2.  Not learning how to play the guitar.  As a lifelong music lover and occasional warbler of songs, playing a six string acoustic is something I should have pursued.  Being able to strum out the chords to the Eagles’ “Take it Easy” and The Who’s “Substitute” would’ve led me into some interesting situations. I sometimes joke that if guitar playing was my thing in high school I might’ve ended up blowing off college for awhile and played in rock and country bar bands.  That could’ve been pretty cool!  Country star Brad Paisley has often said his grandfather told him if he learned how to play the guitar he would NEVER be alone, even when by himself.  Right now during this pandemic, boy do I get that! Truth be told I do own an acoustic guitar and am slowly learning basic chords from online tutorials, but it would’ve been better to learn as a teen.  

Regret #3. Not asking more girls out during my four years of high school. While at York, I put on an outgoing and sometimes over confident front with my peers. However, deep down like most guys, when it came to making moves on girls, I was a wuss. Me and my friends were interested in girls but slow to get out of the gate.  We were, as Bob Seger sang in “Night Moves”, ‘Working on mysteries without any clues.’  There were a couple of lasses who I asked out and was politely shot down. That wasn’t the end of the world but those rejections, gentle as they were, tempered my eagerness to ask others to see a movie or go to a dance.  As a junior, I ended up dating a girl a year older than me who I worked with at White Castle.  Even when she went away to college downstate we stayed in touch and saw each other occasionally.  Trust me, when it came to the opposite sex, 90% of my male classmates were in the same ‘slow lane’ that I loafed in.  And I bet had I learned how to play guitar back then, I would’ve garnered more interest from the ladies.  Fortunately, like with most of us, things with the opposite sex got better as I grew up.  Although my standard joke is, “I’ve dated my share of women…  It’s just that my share is so little.”  

So there you have my high school ‘woulda, coulda, shouldas.’ Nothing too awful there and my lacking guitar skills is something I’m currently working on.  No matter what, my four years at York were a blast. From sophomore year on I played for the Dukes baseball team, I was a three year staff writer for the yearbook, worked at White Castle, hung out with loads of friends from most circles or cliques and went to more fun and sometimes crazy parties than I can count. And I sure had a blast doing it all!

So my advice to those in or about to enter high school anywhere would be:

1. Learn to speak fluent Spanish, it will help you in the future.
2. Whatever urge or interest you have in music or the arts, be sure to pursue it while you’re young.
3. And that girl or guy who you are interested in? By all means, make it known and give it a shot.

You only have one four year set of high school years, make the most of them and as the Nike slogan says, “Just do it.”    Class dismissed.

Next Blog- A triple play of underappreciated songs.

Years ago Sammy Llanas wrote the Bo Deans song “Naked” where he sang- ‘I’ve been around the block and I’ve done some things that I ain’t so very proud of.”

We’ve all been in that “shouldn’t have done that” boat; sometimes for minor things, sometimes for stuff more serious.  So here’s another round of “Have You Evers” to ponder.  So be honest, keep track of how many of these sins you’ve committed and no looking at your neighbor’s answers.

HAVE YOU EVER…

BEEN STRANDED BECAUSE YOUR CAR RAN OUT OF GAS?

BLOWN OFF A TOLL?

HAD SEX WITH YOUR EX? (Spouse or former boyfriend/girlfriend)?

WELCHED ON A BET?

BEEN THE UGLY DRUNK AT A SOCIAL EVENT?

HAVE YOU EVER…

BEEN AT SOMEONE’S HOUSE AND SNOOPED IN THEIR MEDICINE CABINET?

DINED AND DASHED?

SEXTED SOMEONE?

GAMBLED ON A FART AND LOST?

LOCKED YOUR KEYS IN YOUR CAR?

HAVE YOU EVER…

SPREAD A RUMOR ABOUT SOMEONE YOU KNEW WAS NOT TRUE?

MOONED OR FLASHED SOMEONE?

HAD SOMEONE WHO WAS YOUR REGULAR ‘BOOTY CALL’?

PUT A DENT IN SOMEONE’S PARKED CAR AND NOT LEFT A NOTE?

BEEN ONE HALF OF ‘THAT COUPLE’ MAKING OUT AT A PARTY THAT EVERYONE TALKED ABOUT?

HAVE YOU EVER…

HIT ON A FRIEND OR CO-WORKER’S SPOUSE/SIGNIFICANT OTHER?

BOUNCED A CHECK?

HAD SEX WITH A BOSS OR CLIENT TO ADVANCE YOUR CAREER?

‘GHOSTED’ SOMEONE YOU WERE IN A RELATIONSHIP WITH?

EGGED SOMEONE’S HOUSE?

FULL DISCLOSURE– I can answer “YES” to 12 of these 20 items. Which 12 I’ve done goes with me to the grave.  Sorry.

NEXT BLOG:  Regrets?  I’ve had a few.

Last week Melissa Etheridge was set to play Waukegan’s Genesee Theater but that bastard Coronavirus postponed the gig.  So I thought I’d share some memories of the first time I saw the Kansas born rocker in concert.

As passionate as Melissa Etheridge’s recorded music is, you really have to see her live to get the full appreciation of her talents. I’ve been to several of her shows over the years and admire what an intense performer she is.  There’s a real ‘love it live’ thing going on with her fans.  I’ve seen this mutual bond over the years but the most memorable exchange occurred during a 1992 concert at the Chicago Theatre.  Melissa’s “Never Enough” CD was her most recent and both old and new songs were well received.

That night during a break between songs, a fan sitting a few rows from the stage called out to Melissa and offered her something.  As security let the woman get to the front row she handed the star an authentic Chicago Policeman’s leather jacket, complete with the real patches and tags.  Melissa was surprised at the offering and asked twice if the jacket was really for her.  It was and you could tell she was genuinely touched by this present.  The whole theater cheered and it was a cool moment.  I shared that tale with a friend of mine who promoted for Ms. Etheridge’s label. Years later he brought up the jacket story to her and Melissa lit up saying it was the coolest gift she ever got from one of her fans.

One other highlight that night was at show’s end.  Melissa saved one of her early hits “Bring Me Some Water” as a final serving. Coming out with her twelve string acoustic guitar she held it high above her head with both hands like it was Excalibur.  The crowd screamed its approval of this cool pose, then Melissa gave a sly grin and launched into the unmistakable opening chords that got the place jumping as one.  Then she started with those well known lyrics, “Tonight I feel so weak, but all in love is fair…”

So if you ever get to see a Melissa in the future, you’re in for an evening of great music and a rowdy ass time.  And if you ever want to bring her a cool gift than can top that leather Chicago Police officer’s jacket, good luck!

NEXT BLOG- A New Round of “Have You Ever.”