August 2023 - Page 6 of 7 - Ramblin' with Roger

Sunday Stealing: FB PCs

necessary for our Nation to function

Sunday Stealing this week is FB PCs, which stands for, much to my surprise, Facebook Postcards USA.

1. What do you have hanging on your walls?

Not nearly enough stuff. My wife said we could put artwork and photos on our living room walls once they were painted. That was over a decade ago! And if you ask why I don’t put them up myself, I’m seeking her better sense of design.

2. Have you used an outrageous excuse to get out of jury duty?

NEVER! I wouldn’t ever do so. ‘

A good friend wrote this recently: “I’ve received a summons for Federal Grand Jury duty, and I find it disheartening how many people IMMEDIATELY start giving me advice on how to get OUT of serving. I am being given an opportunity to help determine whether a criminal should be charged, or an innocent exonerated. It may be inconvenient, but it’s a service that is necessary for our Nation to function, and all too few seem willing to participate. I think that’s sad.”

I’ve written about my two experiences with jury duty here and here A friend I ran into leaving a grand jury session this spring reminded me that I’m overdue for another opportunity.

Not THAT!

3. Where do you like to go shopping (not for groceries)

I hate shopping. When I go, I finish as quickly as possible. I used to run the mail order department when I worked at FantaCo in the 1980s, which may explain why I embrace it so readily.

That said, if I shop, it’s mostly at Lodge’s in downtown Albany, founded in 1867.

4. What was the last movie you saw in a movie theater?

Barbenheimer, NOT on the same day.

5. If you wrote a note and put it in a bottle to throw out to sea, what would the note say?

Be of good cheer.

6. What decision have you made in your life that you regret?

Too many and too personal. Okay, here’s one: wearing hard-soled shoes when I was on JEOPARDY in 1998.

7. What is in your junk drawer?

It’s next to my dresser, with coins, pens, cough drops, and goodness knows what else.

8. Have you ever gone to a high school reunion?

My 10th, 35th, and 50th. Also, my sister’s 45th and 50th.

9. Would you rather receive the GOOD news or the BAD news first?

BAD, for sure.

10. What are your top 3 pet peeves?

Self-important folks who block crosswalks, sidewalks, et al. with their cars. Cruel bullies. People who don’t take responsibility for their actions; from here: ” I frankly don’t understand the argument that Trump can’t be found guilty of trying to overturn the election if he really and truly thought he’d won it. Does that mean that you couldn’t convict that North Carolina man who fired an AR-15 rifle inside a pizza restaurant in Washington, D.C. because he really and truly believed it was the home of a Satanic child sex abuse ring involving top Democrats?”

Famous!

11. Are there famous people from where you live?

William Kennedy, Gregory Maguire, Rachael Ray. Mike Tyson trained and fought in the area; I saw him once with Jack Nicholson backstage after an Anita Baker concert at the Palace Theatre in ALB. Here’s a Wikipedia page.

12. What kitchen gadgets do you use most?

Stove, can opener, microwave.

13. Who was your elementary school best friend?

Probably Ray, whose mom was the den mother of our Cub Scout troop.

14. Choose an animal and tell us four things about that animal.

Cat: mysterious, unpredictable, furry, hungry.

15. What is your favorite pizza topping? What do you never want on a pizza?

I’ve grown partial to white broccoli but I’ll try anything if it doesn’t have anchovies.

1973: 27 songs hit #1

Jim Croce and Stevie Wonder

In 1973, 27 songs hit #1. Almost all of them were certified gold; Crocodile Rock was certified platinum.

Five of the exceptions were Motown songs, two by Stevie Wonder. From most reports, Motown didn’t allow the RIAA, the industry association, to look at the books to certify the recordings until the late 1970s.

The late Jim Croce is the other artist on the list with two #1 songs.

This #1s roster includes songs by all ex-Beatles except John Lennon, plus a Beatles colleague. The other non-gold record was by George Harrison.

I have links to all the songs and a dozen posts I wrote when the artist turned a number divisible by five or would have.

Killing Me Softly With His Song – Roberta Flack, #1 for five weeks. Before the Fugees.

Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Ole Oak Tree – Dawn Featuring Tony Orlando, #1 for four weeks

My Love – Paul McCartney & Wings, #1 for four weeks. Wings went to #2 with Live and Let Die.

You’re So Vain – Carly Simon, #1 for three weeks. The song was NOT about me.

Crocodile Rock– Elton John, #1 for three weeks. He also had two #2 songs, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and Daniel.

#1 for TWO weeks

Let’s Get It On – Marvin Gaye. I wasn’t hearing the ripoff that Ed Sheeran allegedly committed.

Keep On Truckin’ -Eddie Kendricks

Bad, Bad Leroy Brown – Jim Croce

Top Of The World – Carpenters. Yesterday Once More Went To #2.

Midnight Train To Georgia – Gladys Knight and the Pips. By this time, they were at Buddah Records. Neither One Of Us went to #2.

Brother Louie – Stories

Will It Go Round In Circles – Billy Preston

Half-Breed – Cher

The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia – Vicki Lawrence. Carol Burnette surprised her with a gold record for the song on the last show of the sixth season of The Carol Burnette Show.

Time In A Bottle – Jim Croce

The Most Beautiful Girl – Charlie Rich

The Morning After – Maureen McGovern

A single week at #1

Touch Me In The Morning – Diana Ross

Delta Dawn – Helen Reddy. Two songs about morning, followed by a dawn song?

Frankenstein – The Edgar Winter Group, an instrumental. Two instrumentals reached #2: Dueling Banjos by Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandell; and Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001) by Deodato.

You Are The Sunshine Of My Life – Stevie Wonder

Angie – The Rolling Stones

Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth) – George Harrison

We’re An American Band – Grand Funk

Superstition – Stevie Wonder

Love Train – O’Jays

Photograph – Ringo Starr

Movie review: The Dial of Destiny

Indiana Jones 5

My wife and I caught a midweek matinee of the movie Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny at the Madison Theatre in Albany in mid-July. It was…only OK.

I saw the Raiders of the Lost Ark back in 1981, which I liked quite a bit. Then I saw the third film, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), which I loved, not only for the comedic riffs between Indy and his dad (Sean Connery) but also taking a leap of faith. But I’ve never seen film two (Temple of Doom) or four (Kingdom of the Crystal Skull).

The new movie starts back in World War II, as Indy and his colleague Basil Shaw are trying to keep a device that can change the course of history out of Nazi hands. But Harrison Ford looks oddly young, or young oddly. It’s the use of AI, which broadly worked, but I found it a tad creepy.

Fast forward to 1969, with Indy as a majorly ineffective professor. But he’s retiring. A young woman joins him afterward, who turns out to be his goddaughter Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), with a hidden agenda.

Exhausting

Lots of breathless chases on three continents ensue. The good part is that these were generally technically fine. The not-so-good part was that, in toto, they went on too long without enough of a point. As one reviewer noted, director James “Mangold can’t find the visual gags in the setups. There’s no joy in the chase.”

One of the villains was a black woman named Mason (Shaunette Renée Wilson) with a classic ‘fro who was presumably in charge of the thugs. The point of this character was lost on me.

Conversely, I liked Teddy (Ethann Isidore), Helena’s very young associate. The hubris of time travel and the pseudoscience involved worked for me. Indy complaining about Father Time was believable. I And the ending, I loved.

Still, it felt as though the movie was coasting on nostalgia. A positive review notes that the film “lacks the effervescent spark that made the series so special.”

I’m not sorry I went, but I certainly wouldn’t want to see it again.

Tony Bennett Day

Anthony Benedetto

It’s Tony Bennett Day!

I’ve often been a sucker for a comeback story. Tony Bennett’s is a great one. Instead of changing with the times – his attempts to do so were disastrous – he returned to being who he’d always been, and the times changed with HIM.

He was born Anthony Dominick Benedetto in 1926 in Queens, New York, but was singing as Joe Bari when Bob Hope made a better suggestion.

Tony was one of those crooners I remember seeing on the variety shows hosted by Perry Como, Judy Garland, Red Skelton, Danny Kaye, Andy Williams, and Dean Martin. Of course, he was on Ed Sullivan, where he appeared 18 times between 1952 and 1971.

While he didn’t entirely fade away, he became less relevant to the cultural conversation for a time.

Rebirth

As Wikipedia noted, his son Danny was pivotal in the change: “His father… had tremendous musical talent, but had trouble sustaining a career from it and had little financial sense. Danny signed on as his father’s manager.

“Danny got his father’s expenses under control, moved him back to New York City, and began booking him in colleges and small theaters to get him away from a ‘Vegas’ image. The singer had also reunited with Ralph Sharon as his pianist and musical director (and would remain with him until Sharon’s retirement in 2002).

“By 1986, Tony Bennett was re-signed to Columbia Records, this time with creative control, and released The Art of Excellence. This became his first album to reach the charts since 1972.

“Danny began regularly to book his father on Late Night with David Letterman… This was subsequently followed by appearances on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, Sesame Street, The Simpsons, Muppets Tonight, and various MTV programs.” I specifically remember Capital City on the Simpsons; the song is on my Simpsons’ Songs in the Key of Springfield CD.

In the collection

I have several Tony Bennett albums, all but one from 1993 or later when the video of Steppin’ Out With My Baby from the album Steppin’ Out was in heavy rotation on MTV.

Then Tony had an MTV Unplugged special, which I watched. Elvis Costello and k.d. lang showed up for one song each. I own his two Duets albums with various collaborators and Tony and lang, Diana Krall, and Lady Gaga on whole albums.

Between 1963 and 1966, he was nominated for eight Grammys, winning two for I Left My Heart in San Francisco. From 1991 to 2022, he was nominated 33 times for a Grammy, receiving 17, plus a Lifetime Achievement Award. Many were songs or albums with artists decades younger than he, including Stevie Wonder and the late Amy Winehouse. He became the king of duets.

I had the pleasure of seeing Tony Bennett at Tanglewood, I believe, in the late 1990s. His opening act was Krall, and they performed songs together as well. Ralph Sharon was the pianist/musical director.

I was reading the 60 Minutes interview about Tony preparing for two concerts at Radio City Music Hall with Gaga. He was aided by his wife, Susan, while living with Alzheimer’s disease. The shows, which he did not remember only days later, were tremendous. It was recently rebroadcast on CBS.

American Songwriter called these the Top 10 10 Bennett songs. Check out his paintings.

Citations

Bennett was inducted into the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame and received the United Nations “Citizen of the World” award.

The US Senate recently passed a resolution declaring August 3 as Tony Bennett Day. Senate Majority Chuck Schumer “cited Bennett’s service in World War II, as well as his decision to march with Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, Alabama in 1965, ‘at a time when the agents of most entertainers discouraged them from marching in these kinds of things because they might lose some fans. But Tony didn’t care; he believed in equality.’” The House passed a similar measure.

Here is a life in pictures from The Guardian. Today would have been Tony Bennett’s 97th birthday. He was the gold standard for singers.

More folks born in August 1953

Happy Days

Here are some more folks born in August 1953. I figure I can milk the year I turn 70 only once.

Butch Patrick (2nd), born Patrick Alan Lilley. Wikipedia: “Patrick is perhaps best known for his role as child werewolf Eddie Munster on the CBS comedy television series The Munsters from 1964 to 1966.” Perhaps? He’s still acting. I feel a bit sorry for someone whose defining role ended when he was 12.

Don Most (8th) was Ralph Malph on the ABC-TV series Happy Days. He is putting out another music album in the summer of 2023 called New York High; interestingly, he’s billed as Donny Most. (I suppose I COULD have put him in the music category, but that’s not how I think of him.)

Lloyd Austin (8th) was sworn in as the 28th Secretary of Defense in January 2021. He has an impressive resume. I do not know whether his “warnings” to Russia and China have any force whatsoever.

Hulk Hogan: (11th) Given that I have zero interest in professional wrestling, I’m impressed that the guy born Terry Gene Bollea has become such a cultural icon.

With Regis, then Hoda

Kathie Lee Gifford (16th) was born Kathryn Lee Epstein in Paris, France, to American parents. She was briefly one of the Hee Haw Honeys. In June 1985, Gifford became the co-host of The Morning Show on WABC-TV with Regis Philbin. The program was syndicated nationally in 1988 as Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee, where she stayed until 2000. She’d talk about sportscaster husband Frank, who I remembered as a player for the New York Giants, and their kids. She was on the boozy fourth hour of NBC’s Today with Hoda Kotb from 2008 to 2019.

Louis Gohmert (18th)was one of the worst members of Congress in my lifetime. Now he’s running for Texas Attorney General.

Mary Matalin (19th) is part of a political consultant odd couple. The Republican advisor has been married to Democratic strategist James Carville since 1993, and they would frequently debate on those talking head shows. She registered as a Libertarian in 2016.

Peter Horton (20th) is an actor/director. He’s best known for performing on thirtysomething. He was married to Michelle Pfeiffer from 1981 to 1988.

Marcia Clark (31st) was a Los Angeles County prosecutor. She is best known as the lead prosecutor in the 1995 trial of O. J. Simpson on charges of the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. Marcia found the media attention hellish, calling herself “famous in a way that was kind of terrifying.” She’s had a busy post-prosecutorial career, providing analysis of high-profile trials for TV news and writing several novels.