Got a few things on my mind so here we go.
The actor’s strike is finally over. This means during sex women everywhere can now go back to “faking orgasms” if they need to.
With the actor’s strike over, during sex, ‘faking it’ is now allowed again.
Netflix has been on a roll with some new offerings I really enjoyed. The first being “Sly”, the documentary on Sylvester Stallone. Lots of great early footage of the actor along with tales on “Rocky” that I never knew before. Growing up, Stallone had a really rough relationship with his father and those issues dovetail into the actor’s film career. The ‘Rocky’/’Rambo’ star also comes to serious realizations about the time he’s missed with his own kids.
“Nyad” is the drama about open water swimmer Diana Nyad and her struggle to swim from Cuba to Florida when in her 60’s. Annette Bening is great in the lead role and it wasn’t until when the end credits rolled that I realized her close pal and coach was played by Jodie Foster. “Nyad” does well covering the swimmer’s long athletic history by mixing in old clips and pics with real life videos from her past. You don’t have to be an avid swimmer to appreciate all that Nyad went through to make history.
“The Killer” is a tense drama as Michael Fassbender plays a well- traveled assassin. The film starts out a little slow but picks up the pace after Fassbender blows a murder assignment and is forced to seek revenge on those who attacked his girlfriend. The battle he has with “The Brute” is the wildest man to man fight I’ve seen onscreen in years. “The Killer” was directed by David Fincher who brought us “Seven”, “Fight Club” and “Gone Girl” and it is as slick, clever and dark as those films were.
It was good to get back into a movie theater for the first time in over a month as I checked out Paul Giamatti as a boarding school teacher in “The Holdovers.” The film takes place in 1970 and I don’t want to say much more except that I did not want this two-hour movie to end. Stay away from looking at the movie trailer for “The Holdovers” because like many previews, it gives away too much. Movie studio bosses need to stop treating us filmgoers like idiots.
“The Holdovers.” By all means, see it!
A couple months ago, Netflix started running “The Return of Tanya Tucker” a and I just caught up to it. The documentary was first released in 2022. Fantastic coverage of the making of Tanya’s first album in almost 20 years. It was all thanks to the fandom and passion of Brandi Carlile. Back in my radio days, I got to meet Tanya a couple of times and she’s always been a favorite of mine. Seeing this special just reinforced that!
The Eagles are coming back to Chicago for 2 shows in March of 2024 as their “Long Goodbye” tour rolls on. I missed the band the last time they came to town and am not a big fan of being in big crowds anymore. However this time around, I’m thinking about heading out to the United Center to hear “One of These Nights”, “Take It Easy”, “Life in the Fast Lane”, “Hotel California” and other favorites live one more time. Ticket prices are ridiculous right now but waiting until the last minute to score seats could save me money.
One of the coolest ways to open a concert. With Vince Gill and Glenn Frey’s son Deacon in the band the past few years, this cover of Steve Young’s song has more of a bluegrass romp to it than when they performed it years ago. This is how the Eagles do it every night.
On the subject of concerts, Mariah Carey is taking her Christmas show to the United Center on Sunday December 3rd. The debate over her mega-holiday hit “All I Want for Christmas is You” continues. Some love it, some hate it. And some of us (like Al Flash and I) make fun of it with some help from Al’s very talented daughter Michelle.
NEXT BLOG- Getting on top of some covers.