Davy Jones Dies

Davy Jones died last week. It was one of those pieces of news that makes you feel old. One cannot help when they hear of the death of a person who has a spot in their memory from years past. I can easily remember The Monkees show on television. Not the endless reruns but from a time frame in which I was so young that I do not know how old I was.

I remember the theme song and the intro sequence with them all running around. I want to think it was on Saturday mornings but am not sure.

When the Monkees started they were a created band. They did not play instruments. But they could sing. Some of their songs have aged very well. Pleasant Valley Sunday, Last Train to Clarksville and the like are still songs I like to hear. Davy Jones was very talented.

Those of my age group all remember when Davy appeared on The Brady Bunch as Marcia Brady's dream date. I beleive it is true that David Bowie, whose real name was David Jones had to change his name as it had been appropriated.

Davy Jones was 66. He had a massive heart attack. He lived a good life. He died too young. We are all mortal. Even Monkees.

Harry and Tonto

I had never heard of this movie until I saw it in the listings on TCM a couple of weeks ago. Seeing that Art Carney had won the Oscar for Best Actor I was interested, Carney famous to me from The Honeymooners was worth watching.

The movie was, for me, a great film. I love old people. I think that an older person who makes his way in the world with dignity and caring, against the pains and troubles of age is a person to be revered. Putting that in perspective with my own father's illness to early and death when I was still young and I am always enamored of older men who could be father figures.

Carney who I was surprised to see was only on the young side of his sixties when this movie was made, played an older man, a retired widower named Harry Coombs. Harry has a cat named Tonto who lives with him. Harry treats Tonto like a dog. Putting him on a collar and leash Tonto joins Harry on his travels through his neighborhood in New York.

When Harry's building is condemned he refuses to leave. Eventually Harry is removed, sitting in his favorite chair. He moves in with his eldest son, Harry Jr, who desperatly wants his Father to feel comfortable and happy. As Harry says however he is " a pain in the ass" and eventually he feels underfoot.

His son gets him tickets to visit his daughter in Chicago. Troubles with taking his cat get Harry off the plane and onto a bus. Troubles with his cat adapting to bus travel get Harry off the bus and into a car. Harry has a series of adventures on his way to Chicago and then from there on his way to Los Angeles.

Ellyn Burstyn plays his Chicago daughter, a scene with them walking along the shores of Lake Michigan is quite powerful. Scenes with Harry driving in his car by himself talking to his cat held me rapt. Are we all not afraid of the ultmate lonliness of talking to our cat.

Larry Hagman post Jeanie and pre Dallas appears as Harry's high flying L A son who Harry soon finds out has money trouble, a pending divorce and a life in shambles. Harry resolves to help him but tells him he has to live by himself, they both do.

Tonto does not finish the journey with Harry and we are sad. The sad fact of getting old is that we often spend too much time saying good bye. The movie ends with Harry as part of another community of old folks who get together each day, instead of at a park in the city at the beach in California. Harry meets a lady who is feeding many strays and they joke about combining the expenses of living. The movie ends with Harry chasing one of the stray cats that reminds him of Tonto and then watching a little girl build a sand castle.

A movie where not much happens but which is totally effecting. Joshua Mostel who has been in scores of movies since then appears as his grandson Norman who is a very likable character. At first in the movie exploring a vow of silence, then joining Harry in Chicago, and then going with a young girl Harry befriends on the road to a commune in Colorado. His character is soft and sweet and harmless and one that we all would welcome in our lives, if we put down our preconceptions. A loving young man confused by the world.

This is a great movie. Art Carney with his bushy sideburns and huge eyebrows, glasses, hat, and ex salesman's friendly greeting to strangers is a wonderful character. This is a movie to watch and enjoy for the pace. What we all see in our future could be well served by loving people like Harry Coombs.

Bullitt

This iconic movie is well known for it's car chase scene. Considered one of the , if not the best, car chase scene ever placed on film it has out shined what was a very good movie.

Steve McQueen was known as The King of Cool. The title may have changed hands in the decades since his death but he still is one of the leading contenders. When I was a young boy, still in the single digit years I had no real knowledge of who Steve McQueen was, I certainly had not seen his movies. I did know though that he made movies and he was cool. His spot in the culture was so big that somehow it drifted down to a young boy like me, perhaps from my older brother, perhaps from other sources. Steve McQueen was a cultural icon.

In this movie he plays Frank Bullitt, a San Fransisco police lieutenant given the task of protecting a mob informant the weekend before he testifies. Nothing goes as planned, the police officer protecting him is overpowered, the witness is shot and eventually dies but all is not as it seems. Frank Bullitt over the course of the movie solves the case but not before several people are dead. The movie has several actors that we came to know later. Norman Fell, who long before being Mr. Roper was a well known character actor in many films. Vic Tayback, later well known as Mel in the Alice movie and television series also appears.

I pointed out to my sons that the actor playing Senator Chalmers the ambitious politician driving the case against the witness was played by Robert Vaughn. For the current generation at least here in Maine, Robert Vaughn shills for Joe Bornstein advising us to tell our potential plaintiffs that we mean business. Most notably appearing beside McQueen is a young Robert Duvall in a small role as a cab driver who provides some information to the Lieutenant. From small parts big careers develop.

The movie is all McQueen however. His ability to express himself with a look or a stare and usually with as few words as possible was well honed by this time. His collarless shirts with a nice jacket were a style that he put in place and that was copied not just by hipsters but suburban Dads trying to be cool. McQueen's image has lasted for several reasons. He was cool. He died young so we never saw him grow old and he in the sixties, a very culturally crazy time, was one of the few entertainment icons who could appeal to both sides of the emerging divide between young and old.

The car chase is great, the movie is good, but McQueen was immense. He filled the screen. He was The King of Cool.

The Magic Power by Triumph

Growing up in the late seventies and early eighties the radio station of choice was clearly WBLM. As we stood around in our early teens, smoking a cigarette badly, convincing ourselves we were cool I remember a friend advising that the call letters stood for We Believe in the Legalization of Marijuana. I do not know if that is true, we surely did not smoke marijauna but it seemed like a cool idea.

Then at some point WBLM changed their signal and we could no longer get it. The radio station for those of us who were way too cool for Top 40 Radio was WTOS. Otherwise known as The Mountain of Rock and Roll. They played Dr Demento on Sunday nights and album oriented rock the rest of the week.

They also were big fans of the band Triumph. For a period of time The Magic Power was the most played cut on WTOS. Even after it was not you could still count on hearing it each weekend night and most weeknights as well. The song was powerful with it slow buildup was more popular than any of the many songs that their Canadien predecessors Rush released.

Last week driving flipping through the Satalite radio what should I hear on Classic Rewind but Magic Power. How is it you can go twenty five years without hearing or thinking about a song, and then when you hear it be transported to a very specific place and time. Yesterday was 2012 but hearing that song makes yesterday 1982.

I am riding in my friend Ted's car. It's a early seventies gold colored Plymouth Satalite with a Mopar 318. It will fly at any rate of speed one wishes to. Ted has equipped the vehicle with sidepipes so that as good as it looks it sounds even better. WTOS is on the radio and with the side pipes one has to be thankful for the supersonic speakers, only those could be heard and on this night as on many nights in the early eighties Triumph is singing about The Magic Power. For those on the edge of adulthood in the early eighties, for this person sitting in that car on that night Triumph's message hit home. We were sure we had the power.

Bruce Springsteen on Jimmy Fallon

Last Friday night Jimmy Fallon finished Bruce Springsteen week with a bang with Springsteen as his only guest. It was a very entertaining show. Fallon, perhaps better than anyone else, has the ability to " be us " in the interview, sometimes showing excitement that seems a bit unprofessional. For him though it works, we appreciate his excitement.

Springsteen sat for an interview and was very personable. Telling a very funny story about a visit, or attempted visit to Disneyland in 1982 with Steven Van Zandt that did not work out as planned but was very funny now, thirty years later.

On the cold open Springsteen and Fallon did one of his famous singing skits with Springsteen as himself circa early eighties and Fallon as, of course, Neil Young. Playing an extremely slowed down version of LMFAO's Sexy and I Know It. One has to be pretty comfortable to poke fun at oneself so easily.

Later in the show it was music time. With Tom Morello on guitar, Tom seems to be an unofficial member of the band these days, Bruce played Death to My Hometown and Jack of All Trades from the new album and ended the show with a version of The E Street Shuffle that included The Roots and even Jimmy playing in the band. The show ended with the audience on stage while a seemingly impossible number of people, Springsteen's band and ensemble as well as The Roots gathered on the band stage.

In today's late night environment only Jimmy Fallon could pull this off. He brings a level of excitement and enthusiasm that allows for the spontaneity that you cannot find on other shows.

An example of how good late night television can be.

Harry Smith on Brian Williams Rock Center

Longtime CBS News reporter Harry Smith has found a new home on NBC. I have not been a CBS news fan, always tending to Brokaw and now Williams on NBC, my biggest exposure to Harry Smith was on David Letterman's constant running jokes regarding his on air colonoscopy.

So it is with surprise that I in watching the new Brian Williams show what a strong reporter Harry Smith is. Not a pretty boy by any means, and being so incredibly personable one cannot help but like Smith. Beyond that however his interview skills are very strong.

When the Brian Williams show debuted this year the first story was about a town in the Dakotas in the burgeoning oil fields that could not get enough workers, in short if you were willing to go there a job was waiting. Recently he visited Africa and dealt with the story of the illicit trade of rhino horns and ways that is being attacked. This week he was in Russia speaking to dissidents against the corruption of the Putin regime. No matter the story Harry Smith connects. He is a fantastic reporter and another reason not to miss Rock Center.

The Early Stories 1953-1975 by John Updike

John Updike was a writer. While that seems obvious what that sentence means is that John Updike was a constant writer. When one looks at the output he amassed in his years of writing it is easy to understand the difference between a writer and a WRITER. John Updike was a WRITER. He write poetry, essays and reviews. Along with that he wrote a great quantity of short stories, many of which were in this book. And of course he wrote many novels with his four novel set of Rabbit books being perhaps the quintiessential novels of the second half of the twentieth century.

As I read several books at once this set of stories has been something on my bedstand for about a year. With a collection this large I would read one or two a night and then miss a week or be faithful for a month and then miss a month. With stories so strong one does not want to hurry through but to savor and enjoy.

Of course an issue with reading a book over so much time, especially a book of short stories is your recall may be limited. I can say that this book is wonderful, that the stories are among the best collections you will ever find but to isolate more than a specific few stories may be a bit impossible.

Still the series makes it easier by putting the stories in subsets. Those that especially moved me were the Olinger stories, Married Life, Family Life and the Tarbox Tales. A couple of the sets were a little out there for me, but in a book of short stories over 800 pages long this will happen. Updike was nothing if not adaptable. He would tackle any subject.

The Tarbox tales along with the Olinger series appear to come from as close to Updike's foundation as one might find. Reading The Indian one sees what a good short story can do. I remember reading a paragraph from one of the stories about a month ago and telling her that to have a talent like that is something few mortal men will ever know.

Updike died in 2009. It was a great loss as he wrote right up to the end. When Pierre Salinger died recently there was a great outcrying. Of course he wrote the great Catcher in the Rye and then did the hermit thing for forty years. That will attract it's own set of attention. What Updike did was write. He did not hide. He knew it was not about him, it was about the stories. When one thinks of what a writer is and can be think not of the Salinger's and others who are more about them, think of someone like Updike who always knew that writer's write and it is always about the story.

A wonderful collection. Superior. Must Have.