Tag: Roger Ebert

September Rambling

Roger and Patricia Green were married 50 years ago on August 19, 1961.

But before I get to that, the baseball playoffs begin today and Scott wants to know:
How do you think the MLB playoffs will go?

I expect that Boston will beat Atlanta in the World Series.

Wait, are you telling me NEITHER of them even made the playoffs after MASSIVE leads in the wild card race on Labor Day? I got a haircut yesterday, and a Red Sox fan walked into the shop and immediately, before anyone could even say a word, noted that the Yankees’ collapse in the 2004 playoffs (up 3-0, lost in 7 games to the Red Sox) was worse than the Bosox slide this year. Maybe. This year was certainly worse than the 1951 Dodgers’ collapse.

OK. Yankees over the Tigers, though with Verlander pitching for Detroit, anything’s possible. The Rangers over Tampa Bay. Texas over NYY.

Phillies over Cardinals. Brewers over Diamondbacks, though I know almost nothing about that Arizona team. Philadelphia over Milwaukee.

Phillies over Rangers.

Rooting interests, in order: NYY, Milwaukee, Detroit, Tampa Bay, St. Louis, Philadelphia, Arizona, Texas.


I remember reading earlier this month that actor Cliff Robertson, “who starred as John F. Kennedy in a 1963 World War II drama and later won an Academy Award for his portrayal of a mentally disabled bakery janitor in the movie ‘Charly,” had turned 88. Then, I discovered, he died the very next day. Some fans will recall that he was the “very first man ever to enter ‘The Outer Limits’, in addition to…his two trips to Rod Serling’s original ‘Twilight Zone’.” And yes, he was Spider-Man’s Uncle Ben. (NO relation to the rice of the same name.)
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Eleanor Mondale died. She was the hallmate of my wife’s best friend in college. Yikes, she was only 51.
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Justice denied in the Troy Davis case
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I came across Linda Carmical’s blogpost about grief – she lost her daughter on 9/11/2001 – somehow through Twitter, and I made a comment on her blog. Here’s her response to my comment. (Got that?)
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Spatula Forum says goodbye to R.E.M.
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Roger Ebert falls down (and don’t we all?)
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Great customer service
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Something I can’t do (and, I suspect, neither can you). Confidential to…you know who you are…red-haired woman.
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Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker’s son is a minister. And apparently a good one.
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I’d definitely file an amicus curiae on Jesus’ behalf
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This is called On Black People and Homophobia, but it turned out to be very sweet.
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Wither the ampersand?
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The Economy’s Latest Casualty: America’s Baby Bottoms
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Shooting the boss with an AK-47, at his request. (No blood is spilled, thankfully, but still.)
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Cover of Toxicity-System of a Down by 2 Cellos [LISTEN]
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Pinky and the Brain meet the Beatles [WATCH]

GOOGLE ALERTS
Roger and Patricia Green were married 50 years ago on August 19, 1961.

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Macca is 69, and soon Brian will be

“Dennis is clapping like his life depended on it.”


Paul McCartney formerly of the Beatles turns 69 today. Brian Wilson, formerly of the Beach Boys, will be 69 on June 20. The southpaws, labelmates in the US on Capitol Records, inspired each other musically.

NEXT year, I’ll post my favorite songs by McCartney (solo/with Wings) and the Beach Boys. But these are the songs that have caught my attention recently:

Heather from McCartney’s Driving Rain album; I hadn’t listened to it very much, and the song is a new discovery. It’s about Paul’s daughter, BTW, not his now ex-wife.
You Won’t See Me, one of my favorite Macca Beatles songs.

And a couple of versions of the Beach Boys I Get Around. In the first one, as a commenter noted, “Dennis is clapping like his life depended on it.” It has some brief ads at the end. Here’s a clean version

What McCartney and Wilson songs, solo or in their groups, have struck your fancy lately?

The McCartney and McCartney II albums have been re-released, as a pair of double albums.

Paul McCartney Joined By Family, Celebrities At Linda McCartney Photo Launch this month.
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Since it’s also Roger Ebert’s 69th birthday, here is his TED Talk: Remaking My Voice.

May Rambling

Susannah Spencer is somehow an ancestor of Diana Spencer, who married Prince Charles, who had two sons, William and Harry.

When Blogger was down for about 24 hours earlier this month, it really threw off my blogging rhythm. For reasons mundane (I’m used to it) and functional (it’s a backup system), I still compose my blog in Blogger, THEN copy and paste into this WordPress format. And the day it was down was a Thursday, which meant I actually HAD time to post for an hour between work and choir. Or go to other people’s blogs, or leave comments on other people’s blogs, but I couldn’t do that either. Then when Blogger finally came back up, I realized that none of the blogposts that I had Scheduled actually saw the light of day, so I had to repost them. Oh, well. Arthur, and others whose primary blogs are on Blogger, had it worse than I.
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Went to see HAIR this month.
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The eldest niece’s website.
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Gordon at Blog This, Pal! has been blogging for seven years, which is amazing. He’s the only out-of-area blogger I’ve met through blogging, when we went to a Chicago Cubs game at Wrigley Field in 2008. Naturally, the home team lost.
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Who hit the most home runs during the 1960s? More than Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Frank Robinson, or Willie McCovey. That would be Harmon Killebrew, whose goodbye note to his fans was very touching, and who died this month of cancer at the age of 74. He was probably my father-in-law’s favorite player. Incidentally, my father-in-law’s 75th birthday was this week.
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Samoa will lose a day! And willingly, no less. Gotta mess up birthdays, astrological charts…
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A Berlioz Requiem sampler of the Albany Pro Musica concert. The “Dies irae” and the “Lacrymosa” are only fragmentary parts of the longer originals, due to uploading limits.
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The National Jukebox, from your Library of Congress.
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Did you know Jack Kirby had an alternate design for Captain America, created for some purpose he couldn’t remember, that never appeared in a comic book?
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I feel as though I really need to see the movie Thor. It got a 70%+ positive rating from Rotten Tomatoes, but a real negative one from Roger Ebert. Something about his take, though, 1) compelled him to respond to his critics and 2) makes me think that I might like it anyway.
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Addresses of Marvel Superheroes in New York City.
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Fight the Rebellion! Darth Vader is countng on you!
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This is an interesting video. I’ve subsequently found more people doing this on other videos, but this pair seem to be the best.

Editing literature and the N-word Questions

As usual, The Daily Show addresses the Mark Twain controversy well.


You’ve probably heard about someone wanting to take the works of Mark Twain and republish them, replacing the word N@$$%! with the word “slave”. I think this is pretty lame as I have previously indicated.

Yet, while I’m not crazy about the word, I’m less bothered by it when it’s 1) used in historic context or 2) to make a particular point. Film critic Roger Ebert got into some hot water using the word recently. He didn’t bother me, but some of the comments I’ve seen in response to his use – “well, he has a N@##%! wife” – seems to justify my general antipathy for the word.

Should Huck Finn and other works of Mark Twain be edited to remove a word current sensibilities might find offensive? If so, how should such a book be labeled?

When, if ever, are racially charged words acceptable? There’s a John Lennon song that I believe is making a larger point of social commentary.

As usual, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart addresses this well. NSFW, if the use of N@##$! might get you fired.

November Ramblin’

This is almost as funny in Old Elizabethan as it is in contemporary English.

I’m watching this brief video Jaquandor posted, and it suddenly reminded me of an incident from when I was a teenager. Our next-door neighbors were taking down a tree on their property. I witnessed my father going over and telling the adult male, “Hey, the way you’re chopping that, the tree is going to hit your house.” The guy said to my dad, “Why don’t you mind your own business?” So, naturally, next thing you know, the tree topples into the house, with large branches penetrating the roof. I can’t help but think that if he’d just hired someone who knew what he/she was doing – or actually LISTENED to my father – he could have saved himself a lot of money and grief.

(I blame Mike Sterling for getting the song Zoot Suit Riot stuck in my head.)

You may have heard about the woman on the game show Wheel of Fortune who solved a puzzle with only one letter revealed – see HERE. But I found it even more entertaining the way I initially viewed it,  out of synch.

Actor and Author Steve Martin Will Be at a SOLD OUT Event at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York City, Sunday, Dec. 5 at 11:30 a.m. I’m hoping it will be subsequently broadcast. Meanwhile, a couple of his recent musical performances, of Atheists Don’t Have No Songs and the classic King Tut.

A wonderful putdown by George Takei.

What the 2010 elections meant; a mandate, indeed.

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This is almost as funny in Old Elizabethan as it is in contemporary English:
Who’s on First works, especially after the first minute of setup. Of course, it maketh no sense unless you’re familiar with the original Abbott and Costello routine; I think the radio version works better than any of the video versions I found on YouTube, such as this one.

“Neil Young” and Bruce Springsteen

Harry Nillson on the Ghost and Mrs. Muir, a 1960s sitcom. A snippet of another 1960s TV show F Troop featuring future members of the band Little Feat.


The essence of Time magazine

Roger Ebert on loneliness. And, since he has an Eleanor Rigby video, how about, for no other discernable reason, its B-side, Yellow Submarine.

Death won’t stop this Democrat
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Beautiful and haunting music and video of a piece by Henryk Gorecki, who died this month.

A couple seasons ago, there was this nighttime soap opera called Dirty Sexy Money. It…wasn’t great, but I watched it for the cast, which included Donald Sutherland and Peter Krause. But most of all, I watched it for Jill Clayburgh (pictured), who I loved seeing in Semi-Tough, An Unmarried Woman, and Starting Over in the late 1970s, but not much after that – Ally McBeal’s mom, a couple of episodes of The Practice – before DSM. I was surprisingly sad to note her passing at the age of 66 from cancer.
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Ken Levine did a couple of great obits this month, one for George “Sparky” Anderson, baseball’s first manager to lead teams from both the National and American leagues to World Series titles. When Sparky Anderson was 30 he looked 75. And now that he’s passed away at 76 I still think of him as 30.

Levine’s sometimes partner announcing Seattle Mariners games, Dave Niehaus: He became the second most treasured icon in Seattle, right behind Mt. Rainier… Dave had something that so few announcers have today – SHOWMANSHIP. You were not just getting play-by-play, you were being told a tale by a master storyteller. Name me a better way of spending a warm summer night sitting out on the front porch.

An Open Letter to Andrew Carnegie from Ted Sorensen about libraries. Sorensen, JFK adviser, died this fall.

Publisher of Classique magazine Albany Annette DeLavallade died suddenly this month, a loss to the community.
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DO NOT LEAVE ALCOHOL NEAR PUMPKINS!

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