MICK KAHLER'S WORLD

It’s time for one more round of re-living certain moments I’ve experienced while watching movies. 

“American Pie” 1999- I saw this bawdy comedy the first weekend it was in theaters.  While it certainly earned its R rating, I found the teen sex movie to also be sweet, poignant and relatable to my own high school days of lust and wanting.  And yes, Jim’s date Michelle sharing her post prom party revelation was a total surprise and a great belly laugh.  A friend of a friend made custom T-shirts and I came up with an idea and he delivered.  I asked for a white T-shirt with a drawing of a flute and under it the words, “And this one time at band camp…”  I still have that shirt.

“Eyes Wide Shut” 1999-  I heard plenty about director Stanley Kubrick and the making of this psycho-sexual thriller starring Tom Cruise and his then wife Nicole Kidman.  I saw this one alone and remember it being one of the most disappointing movies I ever paid to check out.  This film was not erotic, it was not enticing or exciting and the high pitched monotonous one note piano key playing used throughout it was annoying.  Before seeing this flick but after reading Roger Ebert’s review of “Eyes Wide Shut” I easily predicted Nicole Kidman’s last two words that ended the movie.  What a dull thud. 

“The Blair Witch Project” 1999- As if seeing “Eyes Wide Shut” wasn’t bad enough, later that very same day I took a date to see this shaky camera mess.  Two totally overhyped and under delivered movies in one day. And to make things worse, these two films were seen on the next to last day of my weeklong vacation.

“Winter’s Bone” 2010- I like how I fell into seeing the movie that made Jennifer Lawrence an actress to watch. I was on summer break and at the Landmark Theater in Highland Park to see an early afternoon showing of the charming film “Please Give.” While in line for my ticket I saw the poster for “Winter’s Bone” which was also playing there.  I had not yet read any reviews but the movie’s display piqued my interest.  I checked the show times and learned when my movie ended I’d have a half hour to kill before the next showing of “Winter’s Bone.”  “Please Give” was a solid three star film and when it ended I went across the street to Michael’s Deli for a quick hot dog. I then came back to the Landmark, bought a ticket for “Winter’s Bone” and fell hard for such a realistic drama about the struggles of Rhee Dolly in the middle of rural meth land. This was not your typical Hollywood movie with its feel being like a documentary of poor white folks. My mother passed away the previous fall and driving home late that afternoon I thought of how much she would have loved the bravery young Rhee Dolly showed in “Winter’s Bone.”  

“Uncut Gems” 2019- I knew very little about this movie before going to see it. All I heard was that this was a major breakout role for Adam Sandler as he played a fast talking degenerate gambler/jewelry dealer.  Put it this way. The frenetic pace and intensity of this drama left me physically spent!

“Parasite” 2019- All I knew about this Academy Award winning movie was it involved a poor Korean family trying to get into the lives of a rich Korean family. It was crazy, with all the twists and turns this subtitled film took. I was engrossed with the characters and the whole story. This was another one of those movies where when it ended, people in the theater were talking to each other and remarking about how special and different this drama was.

NEXT BLOG- Wrapping up 2020.

“AIN’T IT FUNNY HOW A MELODY CAN BRING BACK THE MEMORY, TAKE YOU TO ANOTHER PLACE IN TIME, COMPLETELY CHANGE YOUR STATE OF MIND.” (CLINT BLACK)

At this time forty-five years ago, C.W. McCalll’s “Convoy” was climbing the charts to become a number one hit on pop radio.  The track about toll busting lead truckers Pig Pen and the Rubber Duck introduced the rest of the world to CB radio talk.  It also inspired the CB fad among non-truckers and even brought us a bad movie starring Kris Kristofferson and Ali MC Graw.

As schlocky as “Convoy” was, the song brings back great memories to me.  Ones that make me smile and laugh to this day.

First memory– The fall of 1975. I was a high school freshman and the main focus in my life was playing pinball. Several pals of mine and I would often get our parents to drive us to The Game Room in Lombard which housed half a dozen pinball machines and an air hockey table.  No other nearby towns had pinball.

However, the BEST place to play the silver ball was at a huge arcade in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin called “Game Land.”  They had more new and old school pinball games and attractions than you could play in a weekend.  

That fall and winter, my older  sister Marianne was the good sport who drove me and my close pal Mark Fredriksen up to Lake Geneva to flip our flippers and aim for high scores on the Gameland pinball machines.  This was heaven to us and Mary even played a few games herself.  She was in nursing school at the time and the Saturday rides 90 minutes north for gaming, fudge and other eats were a welcome break for her. 

Mary drove a ’73 Plymouth Duster with an AM radio and a cassette deck under the dash. The big song blasting on that radio during every trip to Lake Geneva and back was, you guessed it, “Convoy.” WLS and WCFL seemed to spin that hit every damn hour and while in the car on our trips, we caught every play of it. I think I knew that song backwards as well as forwards.

My sister and I had many other adventures over the years; Movies, concerts ballgames, beach trips and of course loads of fun at home too.  She passed away in November of 2014, but the fun we had on those gaming trips to Lake Geneva as we rocked out to “Convoy” will never be forgotten. 

2^nd Memory– The summer of 1981- I was at a college classmate’s raging beer bash in Carol Stream the night before I was to host an all day 4^th of July barbecue at my parents’ house.  With me at this party was my longtime buddy Willie Costello. Will and I had comparable tastes in music and similar twisted ideas on how to liven up social gatherings.  (There was the time at a party when someone left a disposable camera laying around and Will & I covertly took photos in a bathroom documenting a pissing contest, but I better not say any more about that one)

Anyway, the host of this Third of July wingding had a killer stereo sound system in his basement rec room with speakers set up in the backyard where most of the partygoers were tapping a keg.  The guy had a giant collection of vinyl discs. 

The party was packed guts to butts with college kids as they rocked to music by The Police, Clash and Rolling Stones.  So late in the evening before leaving the party, we took one last look at this guy’s record collection. There in the stacks of wax was C.W. McCall’s album. We snickered at the discovery of this novelty gold. Nobody else was manning the stereo so Will and I decided to play impromptu dee-jays and switched out the Jimmy Buffett disc on the turntable for, you guessed it, “Convoy.”

The song started up with the opening CB radio talk among truckers as Willie and I prepared to dash out of the house to his car.  For good measure I pushed the lock button on the rec room doorknob behind us so it would take a couple of minutes for someone to bust in and dump the corny “Convoy” cut.   As we zipped out the front door and McCall’s hit was pumping though the speakers, I could hear the groans and some “What the hell is this?” complaints from the party crowd.   Willie and I laughed our asses off the whole way back home to Elmhurst!  

HERE’S THE LINK TO C.W. MC CALL’S MID 70’S NOVELTY HIT.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqYTX7parRw

So whenever I think about C.W. McCall’s “Convoy’, I get taken back to good time trips with my late sister. And I also get taken back to that basement rec room when Willie and I schooled some hipsters on what fun a schlocky novelty song can be.

NEXT BLOG– One more round of movie memories.    

I’m sharing some more of my favorite opening lines to songs from all genres. 

ODE TO BILLY JOE/Bobbie Gentry-“It was the third of June another sleepy dusty delta day. I was out chopping cotton and my brother was bailing hay.” 

A southern gothic tale about indifference and a mystery still unsolved.  I can easily picture the characters in this one and that’s thanks to the framing of that opening line.

SATURDAY NIGHT’S ALRIGHT FOR FIGHTING–Elton John w/lyrics by Bernie Taupin– “It’s getting late have you seen my mates, ma tell me when the boys get here.”  

This one also has the best line about going out to get drunk. “Get about as oiled as a diesel train.”  Whoa!

LYIN’ EYES/Eagles– “City girls just seem to find out early, how to open doors with just a smile.”

I could go on to the rest of that lyric about the ‘Rich old man’ but this notation does just fine on its own. 

THREE CHORDS AND THE TRUTH/Sara Evans– “On a highway bound for nowhere, I ran my fingers through my tangled hair as I pulled in for another tank of freedom.”

If you want a great example of how country music affects people, this is your song. (One of the most underrated songs in that genre) One time during a radio interview at US*99 John Howell and I had to convince Sara to put this song back in her set for an upcoming Chicago concert.  And she did!  I still can’t believe Sara Evans doesn’t play this one at every show she does.

GIRLS TALK/Elvis Costello- “There are some things you can’t cover up with lipstick and powder, thought I heard you mention my name can’t you talk any louder?”

Elvis done well with these words, who can resist thinking of an interpretation of this line?

NEXT BLOG– A novelty song that brings back great memories.

My annual Thanksgiving Break started on Friday November 20th at 3 pm. And I did a few things.

Home work– I continued the purging of things I no longer need or use, lots of junk being wheeled out on garbage day. I filled in a couple of small basement wall holes thanks to Flex Paste and my snow blower is now prepped for the impending winter weather.  Finally, when cleaning a closet I found a pair of slippers I thought were lost. This, two weeks after I started wearing my newly bought Ugg slippers.

Meals– I’ve been on a salmon eating kick of late.  One good hunk of that fish and some vegetables and I’m stuffed for the day.  For Thanksgiving, I enjoyed ham from Honey Baked Ham along with loaded smashed potatoes, corn and Hawaiian brand rolls. Dessert was chocolate chip cheese cake from Elmhurst’s Lezza Bakery.

TV Watching– I was locked in to several NFL games for two weekends plus the two games played on Thanksgiving. (Sad that the Steelers-Ravens game had to be postponed due to COVID 19) Here’s hoping the Bears can eke out a win against the Packers to close out the weekend.

You Tube brought me an hourlong interview Bob Costas did with Glen Campbell back in the 90’s.  The late Rhinestone Cowboy s told great stories about working with artists from all musical genres.  You Tube was also where I caught the documentary “Desert One” which tells the whole story of the 1980 attempt to send in special forces to rescue U.S. hostages held in Iran. 

On Netflix I liked the creepy mystery/thriller “His House” giving it a “B” grade.  Then there was “Hillbilly Elegy” a film based on the bestselling 2016 novel by J.D. Vance.  Reviews for this movie were not great but I gave it a C grade.

Netflix also premiered the ageless Sophia Loren in “The Life Ahead” which was a well done B+.

The new edition of HBO’s “Real Sports” had a wild feature on how hallucinogenic drugs have been curing former pro athletes of their depression and other post career emotional issues. Former Blackhawks star Daniel Carcillo was one of the athletes who turned to this method and he no longer has suicidal thoughts.

HBO also ran the interesting documentary “The Mystery of D.B. Cooper.”  It’s the tale of the famed sky-jacker who in 1971 parachuted out of a passenger jet with a paid ransom of two hundred thousand dollars.  Four different suspected “D.B. Coopers” stories are examined.  If one of them was the stunt pulling Cooper, then the other three tried to ‘hi-jack’ that American folklore story as their own.  

Finally, I did an On Demand viewing of “The Last Movie Star” with Burt Reynolds pretty much playing himself as an aging former box office movie king.  Interspliced in the movie were real clips from old Reynolds’ movies and it was a decent B- watch.

Writing– In between meals and TV watching, I wrote and edited what will be my final blogs for 2020.  The last one should be posted around December 20^th before I take a holiday break.  Al Flash and I worked on a couple of song parodies plus I outlined the first of a trilogy of short stories that are Pandemic related.

Black Friday- As I do each year, I celebrated the day after Thanksgiving as “Clint Black Friday” which meant only listening to Clint’s music all day.  The real Clint Black ‘liked’ the meme I tweeted him, he does that every year.

Most Important- Finally, I gave thanks for the overload of good things in my life.  I do this every day, not just on Thanksgiving.   Forget playing the lottery, I’ve hit the jackpot and hope you have too!

NEXT BLOG:  More opening lyrics to songs.

As a lifelong music fan, I’m always interested to learn the inspirations and process in the writing of well known songs in pop, rock and country.  If you don’t already know the stories behind these songs, you will now. 

“WITCHY WOMAN”- The Eagles- It’s no secret I’m a lifelong Eagles fan and this 1972 hit single has a fun story behind it.  Guitarist Bernie Leadon came to band mate Don Henley with a low key music riff that had a tribal feel to it.  Henley penned the words ‘witchy woman’ not as a nod to the occult but to a woman who is enchanting and seductive.  At the time, the Eagles drummer was reading a biography of Zelda Fitzgerald and pictured her to be a muse in his writing.  It’s been speculated the lyric, “She drove herself to madness with the silver spoon” was a reference to Zelda’s time in a mental institution. The ‘silver spoon’ was used to dissolve sugar cubes with absinthe, a popular 1920s alcoholic drink distilled from the wormwood tree and called “the green fairy” for sometimes inducing hallucinations. Pretty heady stuff for 1920’s Hollywood.  

One more note on “Witchy Woman”, it was featured on an episode of ‘Seinfeld’ as Elaine tried to get her boyfriend to adopt that tune as their song. She tried to do the same with “Desperado” but that song was his own.  That song was also on an episode of ‘Dharma & Greg” as Dharma’s mother noted she once dated Don Henley and was certain she was the inspiration for “Witchy Woman.” 

“LYIN’ EYES”- The Eagles- The story behind writing this 1975 hit is documented in “The History of the Eagles” documentary.  Glenn Frey and Don Henley were hanging at the L.A. restaurant Dan Tana’s. The place was a hub for lots of beautiful women and the two Eagles talked about the stunning lasses who were out cheating on their husbands.  They spotted one very hot young woman with a fat, wealthy man who was much older than her.  Frey commented, “She can’t even hide her lyin’ eyes.” There was the groundwork for a great song. Glenn and Don were living together at the time and put the words and music together in pretty quick order with Frey carrying most of the freight.

One side story on Glenn Frey; he was a slob when living with Henley. Glenn would take the butts of burned out cigarettes and leave hundreds of them standing on end all over the house.  Don Henley said the leftover butts looked like little buildings in a city.   Frey also earned the nickname ‘Roach’ for leaving the tiny remnants of smoked marijuana joints all over the same house.

“THE VALLEY ROAD”- Bruce Hornsby- This brightly played track came out in 1988 off Hornsby’s sophomore album “Songs from the Southside.” The original music video showed a bunch of local folks marching around playing instruments; but this belies the real message of the song.  It’s about the daughter of a wealthy land owner. The girl takes up with a poor country boy working on the farm. That country boy shows her what they do down the long valley road and a pregnancy happens. The song’s story unfolds with the lyrics; “Out in the holler they were talking in a whisper, everybody noticed she was gone awhile. Somebody said she’s gone to her sister’s. Everybody knew what they were talking about.”  Yes, this young girl got an abortion then came back around “like nothing really happened.”  As for the poor country boy he was “Good enough to hire, not good enough to marry, when it all happens nobody wins.” 

A quick side note on Bruce Hornsby— In my radio days I had the opportunity to hang with the piano playing song man on three different occasions, once as his personal escort/tour guide when he came to Chicago for a radio station event. I’m happy to report Bruce Hornsby was one of the most affable, normal acting music stars I’ve ever met and a total class act!

NEXT WEEK’S BLOG-  Some more great opening song lyrics.

A few blogs ago I wrote about some of the memorable experiences I’ve had when watching movies in theaters.  Certain scenes and outcomes of films have been burned in to my memory banks and it’s fun to relive some of those happenings.

“Glory” 1989- When marginalized Civil War soldier Denzel Washington was being whipped on his bare back and shed a single tear, I shed my own tears.  I saw this movie alone and think it’s the first movie that ever got me that emotional.  Denzel won a Best Supporting Oscar for his amazing work in that film.

“Field of Dreams” 1989- When this sappy baseball flick ended, I was walking out of the theater among a full crowd of movie goers and saw grown men sobbing.  I thought, “Dudes, walk like you got a pair!” What made me want to cry was that I paid full price for this maudlin piece of crap movie.

“Forrest Gump” 1994- When this movie came out, my mother refused to see it with me. She didn’t like the simpleton way Tom Hanks’ title character talked in the previews. I came home giving high praise to this now classic film.  A couple of weeks later, mom relented and asked if I would see it with her which I happily agreed to.  When Jenny died, my mom was a sobbing mess and noticed I wasn’t crying.  She elbowed me in the ribs and whispered, “What’s wrong with you? Why aren’t you crying?”  I explained to her I was a bucket of tears when I saw it the first time.

“The Shawshank Redemption” 1994 I loved every minute of this movie but don’t know if I was ever more surprised at a plot twist than when inmate Andy Dufrain escaped from Shawshank Prison. (Sorry if this is a spoiler to anyone.  You’ve had 26 years to see the damn film) This story had me lulled into the comfortable idea that Andy was staying forever at Shawshank and his ‘redemption’ would be in learning to live the best life possible despite being wrongly convicted.  When Warden Norton tore that Raquel Welch poster off the cell wall and we see the hole and tunnel Andy dug, it was so stunning and crazy. I truly never ever expected that prison break to happen.

“The Usual Suspects” 1995- I saw the trailer to this movie many times before getting to the theater to see it. The good news was unlike so many film previews, this one gave away zero plot twists or spoilers.  When the close of the story was happening I was POSITIVE I figured out who was Keyser Soze’.  Imagine my shock when I learned how wrong I was. And I was fine with being so off with my deductive reasoning. 

“Fargo”1996- I saw “Fargo” by myself at the Piper’s Alley Theater the first weekend it was out.  I like checking out movies before everyone starts buzzing about them and this was one of those.  When this black comedy ended, I remember the lights went up and everyone in the theater stayed seated and we all kept looking at each other.  Strangers were smiling and talking to each other remarking on what an unusual film we just saw.  I’ve only experienced that kind of happening a few times in the theater and this one was pretty cool.

NEXT BLOG– A new round of stories behind songs.

When it comes to music of all types, I’ve always been a lyric driven listener.  A song could have a great beat and sound but if the lyrics don’t match up to that melody, I can’t get into it.  Back in his WLS radio days, dee-jay Tommy Edwards had listeners call in to guess a song from which lyrics he quoted.  Tommy would usually use the song’s opening lines.  With that in mind, I thought I’d post up some of my personal favorite opening lyrics.  There’s no way I could cover them all in one blog so here’s just a few tune openers.

“The Mississippi Delta was shining like a national guitar. I am following the river down the highway through the cradle of the Civil War.”(‘Graceland’ by Paul Simon)

This IS my very favorite opening line ever.  It evokes so much in vision and feel.

“With her killer graces and her secret places that no boy can fill. With her hands on her hips oh and that smile on her lips because she knows that it kills me.”  (‘She’s the One’/Springsteen)

Bruce’s track from ‘Born to Run’ is a close second for me.  A song about wanting someone so bad in spite of the fact that you know the outcome isn’t going to be a good one.

“You walked in to the party, like you were walking on to a yacht, your hat strategically dipped below one eye, your scarf it was apricot” (“You’re So Vain”/Carly Simon)

Did Carly write this song about Mick Jagger or Warren Beatty?  Who cares?  It’s a finely framed indictment of a suave and thoughtless Romeo.

“We’ll be fighting in the street, with our children at our feet. And the morals that they worship will be gone.”  (‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’/The Who)

There’s not a better defiant set of words.

“Son, she said, have I got a little story for you, what you thought was your daddy, was nothin’ but a…”  (‘Alive’/Pearl Jam)

A realistic mini story that’s been told to many a child over the years.

NEXT BLOG– More of my favorite moments at the movies

I’m a proud ‘word nerd’, always was, always will be.  As I write in the almost finished memoir “Raised on the Radio”, my inability to draw good pictures in grade school made me turn to the English language to express myself.  Writing to state ideas, comments and jokes, that’s how I worked my way to and through over twenty years in big city radio.  As a Special Education teacher, I still use those skills.

Currently in the English vernacular, there are some words and expressions I need to address.  Some I like and some I cannot stand. 

 “Woke”- This word is a popular one used on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.  “Woke” is the current term for “being aware of something.”  It started with social causes where someone would say, “Aren’t you woke to global warming?”  Or, “You need to get woke to racial injustice.”  Hey, I’m fine with knowing about these social concerns, just not with using that word “Woke.”   It sounds stupid, trite and over-used.  Now “woke” is used for being aware of anything on the American spectrum. “Man, you need to get woke to Baby Yoda” or “Get woke to pumpkin spice lattes.”  I looked up some other commentaries on “woke” and as early as 2018 essayists were already saying “woke” is dead.  Terms like “hip to”, “into” or “aware of” work better anyway. Let’s take the word “woke” and put it to sleep.     

“Drops”- Using this word in terms of something new coming out for sale or public consumption has been around for at least ten years.  You hear it on TV or radio, “Hey the new Beyonce album drops at midnight tonight” and “The I-Phone 50 will drop next week at Apple Stores.”  Careful folks, you drop that I-Phone and you’re gonna have a cracked screen on that pricey device that wastes too much of your time.  The best is hearing middle aged TV journalists and entertainment reporters throwing the term “drops” into their daily works.  Do you know how stupid and desperate to seem cool that sounds?  Reminds me of the late 60’s and early 70’s when an older person would try to relate to younger people by using the term “groovy.”  Just keep it traditional folks, when the new Springsteen album comes out, you just say, “It comes out on so and so date” or “The new Wonder Woman movie hits theaters in December.”  Give it up wannabe hipsters and drop the term ‘drops’ from your talk.

Play Ball- For years, sports talk media and baseball announcers have tried to substitute traditional jargon in the game for new words.   Home plate or the plate is often referred to as “The Dish.”  Sorry, eject that term.  It’s silly.  Others have tried to call the foul pole the “fair pole.”  Nope, I cry foul on that one.  Same goes for those sportscasters who say so and so “went 3 for 4 today with 3 RBI.”  Get real with your English folks, if there’s more than one RBI in the stat, then it is ALWAYS RBIs, PLURAL! 

 The only different term in baseball that I DO accept is calling the pitcher’s mound “The Bump.”  As a former hurler, I like that substitution.

FORGET TERMS LIKE ‘THE DISH’ INSTEAD OF ‘THE PLATE’ AND MORE.

The ‘T’ is silent- A decades long time irritation for me has been people who pronounce the ‘t’ in the word “often.”  Sorry, pronouncing the ‘t’ in often makes you as if you’re superior to others.  Just be normal folks, and lose the ‘t’ in often.

Just Google “Often” and read this-

Do you pronounce the T in often?The \t\ is silent. Why? Often has a medial /t/ that, like similar words such has “hasten” and “soften,” was once pronounced and is typically silent.

Self Correction- For as long as I can remember, when saying the word ‘both’ I somehow threw in an ‘L’ sound into it. I would pronounce the word as “bolth.”  I have no idea where this came from and nobody ever called me on this idiocy.  This finally came to light when I heard Garth Brooks talking about how years ago he heard one of his daughters say both as “bolth.”  He realized she picked that up from a hired caregiver.  As soon as I heard Brooks discuss this, I dropped the ‘L’ in my saying “both.”

Double terms for a single meaning– Finally, someone tell me why ‘fat chance’ and ‘slim chance’ mean the same thing.  Help!

Call me a curmudgeon, a stickler, prickly or a…you know what,.but the afore mentioned language louse-ups needed to be addressed.   I feel much better getting all this out in the open.  If and when I think of more terms to cover, I will do so.  You know me, when it comes to the English language, I ponder its usage often.  WITHOUT pronouncing the ‘t.’

NEXT BLOG- Sharing some great opening lines to songs.

Watching a new TV commercial for Applebee’s, they’re using the old Tim McGraw song “I Like It I Love It.”  The lively chorus, “I like it, I love it I want some more of it” fits the idea of enjoying good eats with family and friends.  Applebee’s has been using other songs like John Sebastian’s “Welcome Back”, Robert Palmer’s “Simply Irresistible” and the theme from the TV show “Cheers” but the mid-90’s Mc Graw song seems to work best.

I still say some chain restaurant needs to use the old Paul Revere and the Raiders track “Hungry” in commercials.  “I’m hungry for those good things baby, hungry through and through, I’m hungry for that sweet life baby with a real fine girl like you.”

UPDATE ON WEEKEND UPDATE

Saturday Night Live opened their TV season with several straight weeks of live shows leading up to and through last week’s election.  Lots of political sketches and fun laughs were had and Jim Carrey has proven to do a good Joe Biden send-up.  However, Weekend Update’s Colin Jost and Michael Che have only been so so.  Their lines are O.K. but these two guys have taken to giggling at and commenting about each other’s jokes and approach.  It’s annoying. Guys, just deliver the lines, let us decide the merits of your humor.  (And no, I’m not jealous that Colin just married Scarlett Johansson.  Scar-jo did this to make me jealous.  He can have her!)

WHERE’S MYERS?

Speaking of SNL, I got curious over whatever happened to their alum star Mike Myers.  Yes he made a cameo in the Queen movie “Bohemian Rhapsody” plus  two ill-fated seasons of him hosting a strange reincarnation of the 1970’s “Gong Show.”  Other than that, the normally prolific Myers has been off the grid.

I looked up Mike Myers on IMDB and he does have an Austin Powers 4 movie in the works along with an un-named project for Netflix. So maybe we’ll see more of the Canadian comic’s work before too long.

One thing Mike Myers did a few years ago that is definitely worth seeing is the documentary “Super Mensch” which Myers directed.  It covers the amazing career and life of show-biz manager Shep Gordon.  Check out the trailer for what was a fine piece of film making on a versatile show-biz mover and shaker.

BROOKE, WHERE ARE YOU?

I have a love/not so much a fan thing going with CNN afternoon news host Brooke Baldwin.  I enjoy Brooke’s reporting and interviews but often take issue with how casually her on camera clothing choices can be.  In the warmer months, you’ll see Ms. Baldwin wearing skin baring tank tops and other summer garb that are more conducive to attending an outdoor pool party than they are reporting on the Presidential election and other serious news.

However, Brooke Baldwin isn’t on CNN right now.  A few weeks ago, on the 10^th anniversary of working at CNN she posted a cryptic Instagram message saying Jake Tapper would ‘hold down’ her hour until after the election.  Baldwin insists it’s not a health issue (she was very ill with Coronavirus in April) and “It’s not my choice.”

This piques my curiosity.  Here we were in the heat of the election and pandemic and Brooke Baldwin has been pulled off her popular afternoon hosting show.  Something’s up and I can’t wait to find out where she lands, if not still at CNN and more important WHY was she taken off TV.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROBIN!

Me and my song parody partner Al Flash often contribute bits of humor in music videos to the Channel 9 Morning News.  One of our favorite subjects is co-anchor Robin Baumgarten who has a great sense of humor and is a fun muse for us to play to.

Here is the latest annual birthday song Al and I put together for Robin. 

NEXT BLOG- Coming to terms with certain terms.

Arguing over and fretting about politics, I’ve been as guilty as anyone of doing it.  I’m embarrassed over the hours I wasted with aggressive Facebook comments, tweets, re-tweets and the like.  For the past 4 years I’ve been going back and forth with e-mails with longtime friends who are on the opposite side of my views.  The bottom line is I’m never going to change their minds and they’re never going to change mine either. It’s a stalemate. We live in a country more sharply divided than ever before and with social media those divisions grow deeper and more irreparable with each volley of arguments.  I’ve had more than enough.

Folks, all that time and angst over this stuff is just not worth it.  Now don’t get me wrong, I think it’s still important to vote and have an interest in American politics.  It’s also important to peacefully protest and try to have things changed for the betterment of the masses.  But you (or at least I) need to keep things in perspective and respect the limits of persuasion.  So many people have their heels dug in to their ideas and to engage in getting opposing views to change their minds is wasted energy. It doesn’t amount to a hill of crap.  One thing I’ve learned in teaching students with behavioral issues, NOBODY wins in a power struggle.

This year on election day after our students were dismissed, we teachers and staff had some personal wellness activities to work on through a new program focused on resiliency.  Much of this program has to do with mental wellness as we continue to slog through the current pandemic.  There were survey questions to answer and personal reflections to make.  I got some positive insight from the activities and there will be more mental and physical wellness issues to engage in with in this program.  I sure could use them!

On election night I watched the 5:30 network news, clicked on some Facebook comments then shut down my concern and worry about politics.  Earlier in the day I voted and that was the best voicing of personal choice I could make.

I spent the rest of the night watching The Godfather and Godfather Pt. 2. I let go the concerns over who won each state and the local political races as well.  During commercial breaks I also logged on to Amazon to order a new alarm clock and a new pair of slippers which will be needed come the cold winter months.  It’s time for me to end my concerns over which states are blue, which are red and the like. 

I’m sure this de-politicizing is going to take some time and the positive after effects will bloom in the coming days, weeks and months.  Hey, I’ve already got a new alarm clock and warm slippers to look forward to, so that’s a start.  As it was so eloquently put in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel:

EVERYTHING WILL BE ALRIGHT IN THE END, AND IF IT IS NOT ALRIGHT, THEN IT IS NOT YET THE END.

I’ll close off this blog with what is my mantra in these crazy times.

NEXT BLOG- Applebee’s, SNL, Mike, Brooke & Robin.