For all my affectations of trying to read many of the classic novels, historical and biographical books, enjoying a wide range of all music and of course classic movies I was raised a country kid.
I grew up in a small town, we went to the car races all summer long, and when I was a 12 year old boy and went with a friends family to the drive in ( another thing long gone from the landscape) to see this movie it was a highlight.
I loved this movie. As a twelve year old it had a cool star, fast cars, a Trans Am no less and enough cursing to be be considered cool. Later we would watch Porky's and feel the same but for now the Trans Am was a huge star, one that young boys would fall in love with.
Now I should admit that I also in this time frame or soon thereafter found The Dukes of Hazzard to be a great show too. That show too featured cars and racing as well as those Daisy Dukes.
With the Dukes still on CMT I got a chance to watch this the other day. It does not age well. I do not feel any affection for it. It is awful to watch.
However catching Smokey and the Bandit on cable a week or so ago I have to admit a stunning fact. I love this movie. It is a good story. It is not illuminating in any way. It does not teach or moralize. But it is funny.
Perhaps the best thing about the movie is Jackie Gleason. He was an underrated actor and in this role as Sheriff Buford T Pusser he lays it on thick. It works. Burt Reynolds underrated in many of his roles plays his part well and certainly not in an understated way. Sally Fields and Jerry Lee Lewis were also good.
Some movies just work. This movie is a snapshot of redneck culture in the mid seventies. Good, bad or indifferent it works. It still does.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Bat Out of Hell by Meatloaf
Driving the other night the local station, Stephen King's channel, played the title track from this seminal Meatloaf album.
This song ages well. Overdone,overblown, over dramatic all of these adjectives fit this song. Yet it still works.
Driving down a dark street on a cold winter night hearing this epic song was a treat. Sometimes a song just is in the right spot in your life.
Last Saturday night this song had me singing to myself going down the road. That does not happen often enough.
This song ages well. Overdone,overblown, over dramatic all of these adjectives fit this song. Yet it still works.
Driving down a dark street on a cold winter night hearing this epic song was a treat. Sometimes a song just is in the right spot in your life.
Last Saturday night this song had me singing to myself going down the road. That does not happen often enough.
The Betrayal of Local 14 by Julius Getman
Julius Getman a professor out of Austin Texas is a well respected labor law specialist. There is not doubt where this man comes down on the issue clearly siding with organized labor.
In conversations with friends in our " solving all the worlds problems lunches" in talking about the Reagan legacy I have often said the domestically perhaps the most long lasting policy he pursued was when he fired the Air Traffic Controllers. This was the beginning of a long steep decline in organized labor and it's influence.
In 1987 International Paper was sending signals that the upcoming negotiations with UPIU Local 14 in Jay, Maine were going to be contentious. It became soon apparent that the plan was to break the union or to gain concessions so deep that the effect would be the same.
This book tells the story of the year and half long strike. It tells the tale of a small Maine mill town torn apart. We learn about strikebreakers, the politics of a strike, the different parts to play and sometimes different agenda's of the international union and the local union leadership.
At different times in our lives we may feel differently about situations which we come across. I remember as a man in my early twenties during this strike and struggling to get on my feet not understanding why these men were striking. Of course I had a strong memory of my Dad and his position on such matters.
At this time in my life having long ago since come to the conclusion that 99.9 percent of for profit companies in this country have no morals and no soul I would never consider scabbing.
In the book Getman while he sides with the strikers is for the most part sympathetic to the replacement workers. Understanding that many of them are pawns in something bigger than they are that they cannot comprehend is something he does well.
When I say I would never scab I believe it but I also learned long ago one should never say never as one never knows until one walks in ones shoes.
The one thing that is clear to me is there is one evil in this story. That evil is International Paper.
They are not alone, search a website for who has fair and moral labor policies. The list will be short.
This book probably will not appeal to those on one side of the spectrum but with an open mind it is a book they should read.
An eye opening book. You will feel like you know the people we hear about. If you look hard enough around you you might know someone just like them.
In conversations with friends in our " solving all the worlds problems lunches" in talking about the Reagan legacy I have often said the domestically perhaps the most long lasting policy he pursued was when he fired the Air Traffic Controllers. This was the beginning of a long steep decline in organized labor and it's influence.
In 1987 International Paper was sending signals that the upcoming negotiations with UPIU Local 14 in Jay, Maine were going to be contentious. It became soon apparent that the plan was to break the union or to gain concessions so deep that the effect would be the same.
This book tells the story of the year and half long strike. It tells the tale of a small Maine mill town torn apart. We learn about strikebreakers, the politics of a strike, the different parts to play and sometimes different agenda's of the international union and the local union leadership.
At different times in our lives we may feel differently about situations which we come across. I remember as a man in my early twenties during this strike and struggling to get on my feet not understanding why these men were striking. Of course I had a strong memory of my Dad and his position on such matters.
At this time in my life having long ago since come to the conclusion that 99.9 percent of for profit companies in this country have no morals and no soul I would never consider scabbing.
In the book Getman while he sides with the strikers is for the most part sympathetic to the replacement workers. Understanding that many of them are pawns in something bigger than they are that they cannot comprehend is something he does well.
When I say I would never scab I believe it but I also learned long ago one should never say never as one never knows until one walks in ones shoes.
The one thing that is clear to me is there is one evil in this story. That evil is International Paper.
They are not alone, search a website for who has fair and moral labor policies. The list will be short.
This book probably will not appeal to those on one side of the spectrum but with an open mind it is a book they should read.
An eye opening book. You will feel like you know the people we hear about. If you look hard enough around you you might know someone just like them.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Citizen Kane
Consistently rated as the greatest movie of all time I was anxious to watch this movie. Orson Welles playing a newspaper magnate modeled after publisher William Hearst.
The movie is told in flashbacks where a reporter after his death is researching what was the significance of his last word " Rosebud"
The movie was good. It was interesting. Orson Welles was magnificent.
Perhaps its me, maybe it is just not my type of movie. But greatest movie of all time. I have seen many many movies I enjoyed more.
This was good but overrated. Watch it but do not expect the greatest movie ever.
The movie is told in flashbacks where a reporter after his death is researching what was the significance of his last word " Rosebud"
The movie was good. It was interesting. Orson Welles was magnificent.
Perhaps its me, maybe it is just not my type of movie. But greatest movie of all time. I have seen many many movies I enjoyed more.
This was good but overrated. Watch it but do not expect the greatest movie ever.
American Masters - Merle Haggard
PBS runs a great series of in depth retrospectives of influential artists across many spectrums. This was an excellent program.
Telling the story of Merle Haggard was very revealing. Not just as an artist, as a singer that my parents listened to but as a microcosm of a class of people born in the twenties and thirties with simple tastes and patriotism in great quantities.
It is not a stretch to understand the appeal of Haggard and how his followers of that time are the economically stretched but culturally conservative population that are still difficult to understand.
Haggard was shattered by the sudden death of a father he adored. He was a troubled youth ending in prison at San Quentin. A 1958 concert by Johnny Cash made him see what h wanted and that perhaps could take him there.
He was talented and it did happen. The peak year may have been 1970 when Okie from Muskogee swept awards of Country Music.
His music is timeless. His voice is much better than one thinks. When you listen to Sing me Back Home his voice is as good as many of the greats.
When my daughter was born about that time Haggard released a song called Think about a Lullaby. It was not a hit. It was however the perfect song for a Dad to sing his baby to sleep with.
For that alone I will always have a memory and connection to Merle Haggards music. From my parents listening on the weekends when I was little to singing his song to my newborn daughter.
This show told us much about him we did not know. That was enjoyable. For me however it reminded me of many things I needed to remember. That was priceless.
Love you Dad. I do still remember the songs you sang.
Telling the story of Merle Haggard was very revealing. Not just as an artist, as a singer that my parents listened to but as a microcosm of a class of people born in the twenties and thirties with simple tastes and patriotism in great quantities.
It is not a stretch to understand the appeal of Haggard and how his followers of that time are the economically stretched but culturally conservative population that are still difficult to understand.
Haggard was shattered by the sudden death of a father he adored. He was a troubled youth ending in prison at San Quentin. A 1958 concert by Johnny Cash made him see what h wanted and that perhaps could take him there.
He was talented and it did happen. The peak year may have been 1970 when Okie from Muskogee swept awards of Country Music.
His music is timeless. His voice is much better than one thinks. When you listen to Sing me Back Home his voice is as good as many of the greats.
When my daughter was born about that time Haggard released a song called Think about a Lullaby. It was not a hit. It was however the perfect song for a Dad to sing his baby to sleep with.
For that alone I will always have a memory and connection to Merle Haggards music. From my parents listening on the weekends when I was little to singing his song to my newborn daughter.
This show told us much about him we did not know. That was enjoyable. For me however it reminded me of many things I needed to remember. That was priceless.
Love you Dad. I do still remember the songs you sang.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
On The Waterfront
Perhaps I need to watch more bad movies. By using TCM as a movie source and using TIVO on the classics of the past I guess my reviews will remain more positive than most. I am not a great reviewer I do not want to watch movies I do not think will be good.
In this movie, finishing up my fifties run Marlon Brando plays Terry an ex boxer working the docks. The docks are run by a gangster who is well ensconced in town by a cooperative D A.
After unknowingly setting up an informant for murder by the mob Terry befriends the mans sister played by Eva Marie Saint. Soon he is convinced to work with the crime commission to change things by the sister and the local priest played by Karl Malden who is wonderful in his role.
The movie contends one of the most famous lines in the movies Brando's " I should have been a contendah"
He was right. This is a contender for one of the great movies. It was. Brando and Malden were tremendous in this move...energizing the screen.
Sometimes with the cartoon like figure he became late in life we forget how incredible Brando was. He was the real thing.
In this movie, finishing up my fifties run Marlon Brando plays Terry an ex boxer working the docks. The docks are run by a gangster who is well ensconced in town by a cooperative D A.
After unknowingly setting up an informant for murder by the mob Terry befriends the mans sister played by Eva Marie Saint. Soon he is convinced to work with the crime commission to change things by the sister and the local priest played by Karl Malden who is wonderful in his role.
The movie contends one of the most famous lines in the movies Brando's " I should have been a contendah"
He was right. This is a contender for one of the great movies. It was. Brando and Malden were tremendous in this move...energizing the screen.
Sometimes with the cartoon like figure he became late in life we forget how incredible Brando was. He was the real thing.
High Noon
Continuing forward with fifties week I watched this, another Gary Cooper classic. Shot in black and white this movie tells the tale of a Sheriff played by Cooper who is to be faced with a return to town of a convict, and his gang, that he put away.
Donna Reed plays the newlywed Quaker wife of the aging lawman played by Cooper. She wants him not to fight. Still Kane is worried about the townsfolk being terrorized if h goes through with his retirement.
The townspeople are no help either afraid or not willing to help for their own personal reasons such as Cooper's deputy played by Lloyd Bridges.
This is a great movie.
Sheb Wooley plays the gunman's brother and the title song sung by Frankie Laine was a hit and still provides a good time capsule to the era.
Again, a great movie
Donna Reed plays the newlywed Quaker wife of the aging lawman played by Cooper. She wants him not to fight. Still Kane is worried about the townsfolk being terrorized if h goes through with his retirement.
The townspeople are no help either afraid or not willing to help for their own personal reasons such as Cooper's deputy played by Lloyd Bridges.
This is a great movie.
Sheb Wooley plays the gunman's brother and the title song sung by Frankie Laine was a hit and still provides a good time capsule to the era.
Again, a great movie
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