June 2014 - Page 5 of 7 - Ramblin' with Roger

The end of the world

The End of the World by Skeeter Davis, which came out in early 1963, is considered the most successful crossover hit ever

I’m rushing out to go to work last Friday when my eyeglasses break. This isn’t the screw coming out, for which I have tools for fixing the problem – assuming I can find the screw, and the tools. No, this break severed the screw. AND I can’t find the lens because I don’t have my glasses. The Wife comes to my aid.

I seek older pairs of my eyewear. Even days later, I discover: 1) the previous pair of glasses is MIA; 2) the pair before that is broken. I found a couple of eyeglasses cases that are empty. Discovered an old pair from, a decade ago? or longer? that The Daughter thinks are scary because they’re much larger on my face. If I had my photos in order, I could find a photo of me wearing them.

Got through the weekend with the ancient pair. Not so hard to use at the computer, but it’s a challenge reading music at church on Sunday, especially the offertory in 5/4. Fortunately, the anthem was “Come Thy Holy Spirit” by Pavel Tschesnokoff, which I first sang 45 YEARS AGO. (Lots of versions online as “Let Thy Holy Spirit“.)

In other words, breaking the glasses was not “The end of the world,” especially after I get them fixed Monday.
***
Sad news: Warren Olin died Sunday afternoon. He was the patriarch of the Olin clan, eldest of eight children, and the family genealogist who discovered his ninth generation ancestors John Olin and Susannah Spencer, and wrote the book – actually two books – about them and their descendants. Warren was the older brother of my mother-in-law, and my wife’s uncle.

Oddly, though, he didn’t want any funeral or public event, much to The Wife’s surprise. We’re sure all the branches of the clan would have wanted to acknowledge his passing. I can only gather that he didn’t want to be a bother.

(For my departure, you can make all the civilized ruckus you want. I’m requesting Chopin’s “Raindrop” Prelude in D flat Major, Op.28 No.15, which someone was playing after church this weekend.)
***
Some friend of my niece Alexandria was noting the passing of a huge asteroid by the Earth this past Sunday.

peaking about “The Beast”, [an expert] said: “This one would definitely be catastrophic if it hit the Earth…
“If it hit a city, it would definitely wipe out an entire metropolitan area.”
The explosion would unleash an explosion with a yield of about 2000 megatons.
“You’d end up with a crater about 4.8km (~3 miles) across… An event like that would break windows over 100 kilometres (~62 miles) away.”

Alex’s friend complained: “So why am I only finding out about this NOW?” The facts were known by astronomers two weeks ago. I wondered, “What would you do if you knew?”

Now if we knew this, or a subsequent large asteroid, WERE going to hit the earth, I wonder how we would live our lives differently?
***
All this, of course, had me thinking about music. I Googled End of the World music. Naturally, I got that REM song. But that wasn’t what I was wanted.

I had on my mind The End of the World by Skeeter Davis, which came out in early 1963. It is considered the most successful crossover hit ever, going to #2 on both the country and pop charts, #1 on the adult contemporary charts, and, surprisingly, #4 on the rhythm and blues charts, “making Davis one of the very few Caucasian female singers to have a top ten hit in that market.” I love the set on this live version.

Cat fight

He still chases her, but occasionally, she chases him.

I had previously mentioned our cat Midnight, who we got March 23 when he was two months, two days old. What I have not mentioned is that we subsequently got Stormy, back on August 15, when she was two months old to the day, as a companion for Midnight.

Midnight was instantly hostile to Stormy, even when we had her in a cage, or him in the cage, in order that they get to know each other better. And after she got fixed, we continued to separate them for fear that he might hurt her.

So this is how it worked: two feeding stations, two litter boxes, one in the kitchen, one in the Daughter’s room. The cats would alternate being in the room or the rest of the house. This was really a pain to maintain. And when the one in the room got out, there was a lot of drama in the house until the recapture.

Everyone said they would get along eventually. So on Palm Sunday, with the Wife and The Daughter out of town, I let them have the run of the house together. Stormy is much bigger and stronger now. When they got too rough, I sprayed them with water. Eventually, they tired of the struggle.

Now I feed them at the same time, with their bowls a foot apart. They’ve become, as the Daughter put it, frenemies. He still chases her, but occasionally, she chases him. One will sleep on the sofa, while the other will sleep on our bed. And I was surprised to note that, one time when I was taking a nap, they slept on my bed together.

Life in the household is much easier, and the Daughter’s room, bereft of the litter box, is a little cleaner.
***
The Cat Came Back. Oscar®-nominated animation is based on the century-old folk song of the same name. Old Mr. Johnson makes increasingly manic attempts to rid himself of a little yellow cat that just won’t stay away.

V is for Van Halen

In that great musical debate about the preferred lead singer of Van Halen, I suppose I’m in the David Lee Roth camp, rather than the Sammy Hagar camp. It is only because my one and only VH album, 1982’s Diver Down, features Roth. “From 1974 until 1985 the band comprised guitarist Eddie Van Halen, vocalist David Lee Roth, drummer Alex Van Halen [Eddie’s brother] and bassist Michael Anthony.” That’s the group I remember watching in the early days of MTV.

Eddie played the blistering guitar solo on Michael Jackson’s hit single Beat It [LISTEN], #1 for three weeks in 1983.

LISTEN to: all charting info from the Billboard (US) charts.

From Van Halen II:
Dance The Night Away, #15 in 1979

From Diver Down:
Oh, Pretty Woman, #12 in 1982. This is one of five covers on the album, this one originally recorded and co-written by Roy Orbison.
Big Bad Bill Is Sweet William Now (Is Sweet William Now), which was written and first recorded in 1924. Jan Van Halen, Alex and Eddie’s father, plays the clarinet.
Happy Trails. The theme song of that singing cowboy of movies and television, Roy Rogers, written by his wife, Dale Evans.

From 1984:
Jump, #1 for five weeks in 1984.

When Michael Anthony left/was booted out of the band in 2006, coinciding with Roth’s second return, the new bassist was Wolfgang Van Halen, Eddie’s son with his former wife, actress Valerie Bertinelli (One Day at a Time, Hot in Cleveland).

Van Halen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007. But at the time of the induction ceremony, Eddie Van Halen was heading for rehab. As it turned out, only Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony, both ex-members of the band, showed up.

ABC Wednesday – Round 14

Yer basic book meme

“I don’t feel guilty about pleasure.”

I’m not doing this because SamuraiFrog did it. I’m not even attempting it because Jaquandor completed it. I’m doing it because I haven’t written a blog post in five days, and MAYBE it’ll jump-start the process. And what I have determined is that sometimes, my answers change, so I find that interesting.

1. Your favorite book:

I used to say the World Almanac, and it was probably even true. I used to devour it, at least the year in review section. But now… Haven’t reread it in over a decade, but my longtime favorite book to read was Growing Up by Russell Baker, the New York Times columnist I used to read avidly. I even have a signed copy when I saw him speak somewhere in Albany in the 1980s. (The book was published in 1982.)

2. Your least favorite book:

I used to say none because I gave up on a lot of books if I didn’t like them. But Jaquandor reminded me of one I actually DID read, all the way through – I think I was in California visiting one of my sisters, and someone lent it to me, and I didn’t have much else to do – was The Celestine Prophecy. Not sure it was my LEAST favorite book; that would be almost anything that was REQUIRED READING in junior high school such as Johnny Tremaine or Ivanhoe. (Always thought I should give Ivanhoe another chance, but never did.)

3. A book that completely surprised you (bad or good):

I read The Fate of the Earth by Jonathan Schell, which was about avoiding nuclear annihilation, a real policy wonk piece. And somewhere in the book, and I’d have to look through it again to find it, was some hopeful narrative that was almost poetic in its verbiage, and it made me smile. I even used it at a ceremony once.

4. A book that reminds you of home:

Bartholomew and the Oobleck by Dr. Seuss, the first of his books that really spoke to me beyond what his previous books had.

5. A non-fiction book that you actually enjoyed:

This is a problematic question in that MOST of the books I’ve read ARE non-fiction. I’ll pick one that’s closest to where I’m sitting: Finishing the Hat by Stephen Sondheim.

6. A book that makes you cry:

I’m sure there are some, but none come to mind.

7. A book that’s hard to read:

I haven’t even tried to read a half dozen books in this category, but it’d include some Shakespeare histories.

8. An unpopular book you believe should be a bestseller:

The Nearly Complete Essential Hembeck Archives Omnibus.

9. A book you’ve read more than once:

I used to do so a lot, and now I feel like there are so many books that I need to go to the next one. I read the Bible at least thrice all the way through. There are any number of Beatles bios, notably Shout!, I’ve read more than once.

10. The first novel you remember reading:

Some novelization of an I Spy TV episode. A real novel, without being assigned? A Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood.

11. The book that made you fall in love with reading:

Green Eggs and Ham. (It’s the Green thing.)

12. A book so emotionally draining you couldn’t complete it or had to set it aside for a bit:

There have been one or two, lost in the mists of my memory.

13. Favorite childhood book:

This is probably a cheat, but besides the ones mentioned, The Methodist Hymnal that came out in the 1920s. I used to read all the liturgical stuff in the front and the back. I can tell you without looking that the first hymn is Holy, Holy, Holy.

14. Book that should be on a high school or college required reading list:

I have no clue. Someone once suggested I run for the school board, and I declined because people might ask me questions like that.

15. Favorite book dealing with foreign culture:

The World Is My Home by James Michener, which may be the only one of his books I ever read all the way through, though I’ve read sections of his novels.

16. Favorite book turned movie:

The Bridges of Madison County, which really is one of those movies that is WAY better than the book.

17. Book turned movie and completely desecrated:

I have no clue. I went to look at the Oscar-nominated adapted screenplay, and of the ones taken from a book (as opposed to a play, or something else), the only ones I’ve both seen the movie and read the book were The Godfather, The Color Purple, and To Kill A Mockingbird. The only other book-to-movie that comes to mind is Catch-22, and I saw the film first.

18. A book you can’t find on shelves anymore that you love:

That first book by Jaquandor. Can’t find it anywhere. (Oh, he hasn’t finished it yet…)

19. A book that changed your mind about a particular subject (non-fiction):

I’ve mentioned it before, but Jesus for President has changed my understanding of a lot of the Jesus parables, that this was a guy speaking to the power elite in a language they understood. And I think a lot of the message has been watered down over the centuries to please the power structure and especially the church elite.

20. A book you would recommend to an ignorant/racist/close-minded person:

The Sweeter The Juice: A Family Memoir in Black and White by Shirlee Taylor Haizlip.

21. A guilty pleasure book:

Jaquandor: “I don’t feel guilty about pleasure.”

22. Favorite series:

The Marvel Masterworks of the Amazing Spider-Man.

23. Favorite romance novel:

Love Is Hell by Matt Groening. OK, not that. No idea. (But talk about something I read more than once…)

24. A book you later found out the author lied about:

Isn’t that why writers write, to tell truth? So if the facts are not 100% accurate, does that negate the greater truth? Oh, I don’t know.

25. Favorite autobiographical/biographical book:

Growing Up.

26. A book you wish would be written:

And I’m not going to write it…

27. A book you would write if you had all the resources:

And I’m not going to write it…

28. A book you wish you never read:

Not applicable.

29. An author that you completely avoid/hate/won’t read:

Also not applicable. I wasn’t going to read Orson Scott Card anyway.

30. An author that you will read whatever they put out:

No one. I’m very catholic within my genres. Although there was a time when it was Russell Baker and Garrison Keillor.

MOVIE REVIEW: Million Dollar Arm

My wife thought Bill Paxton was so convincing as pitching coach Tom House, she thought he was the actual guy.

I suppose I should not have been surprised that the Daughter expressed tremendous interest in seeing the film Million Dollar Arm. She watches these annoying Disney shows on TV, and I imagine they have promoted the movie incessantly. A Memorial Day matinee trek to the Spectrum Theatre was in order.

There is an inherent problem with most movies based on real life. Additional issues come from sports movies, which generally slip into cliche. Still, the premise was interesting: a struggling sports agent, JB (Jon Hamm) comes up with a wild idea. What if he could find a baseball pitcher or two from India, perhaps kids who grew up playing cricket? This would attract a brand new market of a billion people to start watching American baseball.

Of course, the process does not go smoothly, but eventually, two young men make the trip to the US to learn the game and experience the fish-out-of-water hijinks one might expect. Finally, the big tryout is scheduled.

Here’s the thing: I rather liked much of the movie anyway. The parts in India were especially interesting. And a scene where one of the players was leaving home for the first time and had to say goodbye to his mother I found touching.

Much of the cast I enjoyed, including Suraj Sharma (star of Life of Pi) and Madhur Mittal (Slumdog Millionaire) as the young pitchers, Pitobash as the coach wannabe, and Aasif Mandvi (The Daily Show) as JB’s partner. Lake Bell (In a World…) was fine as Brenda, JB’s tenant, even though their eventual relationship is telegraphed. My wife thought Bill Paxton was so convincing as pitching coach Tom House, she thought he was the actual guy. Alan Arkin is always good; he plays a scout.

Possibly the weakest link was Jon Hamm. I have liked him on Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock, but here he was more mechanical, or maybe it was the writing. Ken Levine wrote: “The one thing I took from seeing MILLION DOLLAR ARM is that Jon Hamm needs Matthew Weiner’s words. Don Draper’s really a boring guy without great writing.”

The Daughter loved the music, and danced to the Bollywood hip hop at the end of the film; the other dozen patrons had already left. Despite its 2:04 running time, I was seldom bored, and it was a decent pic to see with the kids.

In the end, we see the real people in the story. The fact that Million Dollar Arm used the hidden fact trick did not diminish the story.
***
Saw Monsters University, the Pixar film, at my daughter’s school on a recent Friday night. I’d never seen Monsters Inc., so barely knew the characters. I enjoyed it, though I missed some dialogue; sometimes the audience was louder than the film.