Archive for December, 2009

2009: What A Year!

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

I lost my significant other in the 1990s. I once told a friend who lost his wife that same decade that trying to get through the holiday season when everyone around you seems coupled and you’re not is like walking an emotional tightrope made of tinsel. Only at 12:01 am on New Year’s morning, do you feel like you’ve made it across safely to the other side. After all have kissed and the festive, sentimental season is winding down.

This year was different. Like millions of other Americans who’d worked hard for a long time, suddenly I was out of work. I needed unemployment benefits for months. I also got an application for food stamps. Yes, sir, 2009 slapped me around like I was Faye Dunaway’s character in the last 20 minutes of CHINATOWN. This year was a test of faith — faith in a Higher Benevolent Force and faith in one’s self. You need faith in yourself to keep applying for work and moving forward past each rejection. This year, something happened to me that was truly life-affirming, a simple act of kindness that made my spirit light up like a Christmas tree. Several friends of mine called me or took me out for coffee to give me encouragement. It wasn’t just “Don’t worry. Things will get better.” They made sure the words “Do NOT give up” really landed on my heart. They gave me good counsel. They listened to me. The told me that I’m talented. They hugged me. They made me feel significant in their lives. All of which, I needed.

Never had I been so broke during a holiday season. Yet, rarely have I felt so rewarded. So blessed and humbled by the attention of friends. Corny as it may be, I did feel a bit like George Bailey at the end of IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE. Only I didn’t have Zuzu’s petals in my pocket. I turned on the TV this morning and found ANNIE HALL playing on a cable station. Here’s an example of how sweetly funny life can be. Sigourney Weaver was an extra in that 1977 comedy classic. She’s seen briefly in the last scene of the movie. Woody Allen’s character is giving a monologue and she’s seen as his date, standing with him under a movie theater marquee. It’s a long shot. You don’t even see her face close up and she has no dialogue. She just the tall lady standing next to Woody’s character. In the credits, Sigourney Weaver’s name is next to last. Two years later, she played Ripley in ALIEN. That role changed her career. She went on to make Oscar® history as one of the few women to be nominated for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress in the same year. Today, she’s starring in AVATAR, one of the biggest hit films of 2009. See? Life can be sweetly funny. You can’t lose faith.

I made it through this year with more than a little help from my friends. And family. I had a wonderful Christmas season. I wish for you one of the best new years ever. Cheers!

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AVATAR: Feeling Blue

Tuesday, December 15th, 2009

It has a character called “Sully” and some aircraft is brought down by birds.

Will kids want to see the new 3-D sci-fi action fantasy from director James Cameron called AVATAR? Yes. The special effects in the sequences with the blue jungle natives are dazzling and make 3-D more respectable than any film, so far, has. It’s no longer a 1950s novelty. However, parents need to know that AVATAR is over 2 1/2 hours long. Cameron definitely ignored bladders and butts when he made this movie — and you know how kids are. You figure that a movie at the cineplex is now preceded by, at least, ten minutes of trailers and commercials before the feature starts. Children under 12 are going to get fidgetty. The movie is not non-stop action. Plus they have to wear special glasses to get the 3-D effects otherwise you’re squinting like you’ve got glaucoma.

The AVATAR storyline is very “Protect the Rainforest.” Cameron basically pulls from his previous hits and visually repeats himself. It’s like a spoonful of TERMINATOR, a cup of TITANIC and two quarts of ALIENS. To that, he’s added essence of DANCES WITH WOLVES and sprinkled the whole thing with cosmetics from Blue Man Group. As one friend of mine said, “It looks like it should be called AVA-TARZAN.” He’s right. AVATAR is entertaining and one battle sequence near the end will literally make you gasp. Do I want to run out and pay to see it again when it opens? Not right away. Not like I want to see UP IN THE AIR again. (Scroll down to read my review of that film.) AVATAR was just too darn long. Plus, the script is really more for youngsters in an ABC “After School Special” sort of way. Aside from the length, that’s the main glitch. You’d think that — after years of time and millions of dollars spent on this truly beautiful production — someone could’ve come up with a snappier script. Cameron is boasting that AVATAR is revolutionary and takes film-making to a new place. In some ways, it does. But not in the script. George Lucas’ STAR WARS opened with humility in 1977. We went expecting to see a new sc-fi movie with special effects that upgraded the Saturday afternoon kind of movie we babyboomers were used to seeing as kids. We got that. And we got more. Lucas gave us a legend with spirituality as strong as that in some ancient literature. Even Joseph Campbell discussed and analyzed it at length in the must-see 1988 PBS presentation, The Power of Myth. If you’ve never seen the Bill Moyers interview of Campbell as he discusses, among other things, the mythological importance of the original STAR WARS films, you must rent it. Brilliant and enlightening! AVATAR is positioning itself as being just as deep but the storyline is more like comic book fun. When some of the most memorable lines are “Shut your pie-hole!” or “Marine, I wish I had ten more like you,” come on. Comic book. Not high art. The plot has futuristic military officers and scientists dealing with blue jungle beings who, apparently, live in a land rich with oil. Corporate greed strikes some of the Donald Rumsfeld types and they’re at war philosophically with good scientists like the character played with style, wit and verve by Sigourney Weaver. She makes her entrance in an ALIENS-like pod. One macho Marine falls for a blue jungle lady and embraces her people’s respect for the land. That’s the love story that validates the TITANIC-like song over the closing credits.

There’s a chase scene that made me chuckle. One group is fleeing from another. The group running away has a middle-aged woman with auburn hair, a husky black guy with facial hair, a slim dorky white dude and a muscular man in a wheelchair. I said to myself, “This is absolutely perfect for a parody on The Family Guy.” Let’s see if that happens.

Have fun if you take the kids to see AVATAR this weekend. But remember: It’s over 2 1/2 hours long — and you have to wear special glasses.

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come saturday morning

Saturday, December 12th, 2009

What a week! We got two different versions of the Black/Norwegian experience. If Tiger Woods was going to be a guest programmer on Turner Classic Movies tonight with Robert Osborne and introduce one of his favorite old movies, it would have to be GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES. More fair-haired women claimed to have had affairs with the superstar golfer, taxing his marriage to his Norwegian wife even more. If Tiger had been married to one of the women on my block when I was a kid growing up in South Central Los Angeles, his proctologist would still be working to remove the nine iron. You do not make a woman sit through that much golf and then cheat on her. You just don’t. On the other hand, a very happy President Barack Obama and Mrs. Obama travelled to Norway where Mr. President received the Nobel Peace Prize just a couple of weeks after announcing that he’s sending more troops into war.

As for Tiger, I logged onto his website and saw his post that he’s taking “an indefinite break from professional golf.” If you’re really into the game, check out the left side for Tiger Tips. A few are:

–Fix, finish and swing
–Maintain a quiet head
–Face up in the rough
–Staying connected
–What’s changed in my swing?

Details are on www.TigerWoods.com.

For your Saturday night entertainment at home, CBS is repeating the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer classic claymation special. That’s the one with Hermie, the elf that looks like a little version of “Good Morning America” weatherman Sam Champion. NBC airs Frank Capra’s now-revered holiday noir, It’s A Wonderful Life. When we babyboomers were kids, we could –and often did — see that movie in the middle of summer on any local independent TV station. It was a public domain film, not in mint condition. The license had not been renewed. Capra’s movie could have found a home on The Island of Misfit Toys visited by Hermie and Rudolph. My generation embraced that tale of an unemployed, middle-aged family man who is so broke that he considers suicide so his family can live on the insurance money. When Jimmy Stewart’s George Bailey glimpses the possible future thanks to Clarence the Angel and overcomes the local Scrooge, that film (along with LOST HORIZON and MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON) prove that Capra indeed was the Charles Dickens of Old Hollywood. I’m so glad that film preservationists restored and remastered the 1946 feature to the pearly state you can see on the network tonight. And how relevant it’s become again in these unfortunate financial times. One last thing about IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE. To me, film is literature and many telling things about character are visual, not verbalized. For instance, when Lionel Barrymore as the spiritually and physically crippled Mr. Potter is out to heartlessly seize corporate control of Bedford Falls, notice that he’s photographed near a bust of Napolean. George Bailey is framed near a portrait of a beloved American president. When George gets the psychic gift of seeing what the town would’ve been like had he never lived, notice that there’s not one single Black person in Pottersville. Compare that to the racial diversity in the scene where all the neighbors and friends come to the Bailey home at the end. Very cool, Mr. Capra.

I returned Wednesday from a 2-day trip to Atlanta for the good fortune to shoot an audition for a possible new TV vehicle. This year, I’ve repeatedly had to pick myself up off the mat from the longest stretch of unemployment in my entire life. To get that audition and to work with the excellent crew was a blessing. I came back, continued the job hunt here in Manhattan and took yesterday off from the job hunt to attend a screening of James Cameron’s new sci-fi thriller, Avatar. More about it later. But I will tell you this: It has a character called Sully and some aircraft is brought down by birds. Go figure. Enjoy your weekend.

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Janet Jackson Does “The Matrix”?

Thursday, December 10th, 2009

Did you ever hear of an author named Sophia Stewart? If you hadn’t, frankly neither had I until this morning. She’s a New Yorker who, reportedly, has been living in Salt Lake City for about five years.

She wrote a book in the early 1980s called THE THIRD EYE. A court has ruled in this Black woman’s favor that her science-fiction manuscript did indeed inspire two blockbuster Hollywood movie franchises — THE TERMINATOR and THE MATRIX.

Stewart, according to Facebook, was heard on Chicago talk radio station WVON this morning and revealed that Janet Jackson and 50 Cent are both interested in appearing in and serving as executive producers of THE MATRIX: 4. That’s some juicy news for you sci-fi fans. To me, that whole legal story — and the amount of money that Sophia Stewart will receive — is one of the most under-reported entertainment news stories to come out of Hollywood this year. I had no idea that the true creator of The Terminator and The Matrix was a Black woman! How come no Black network news person like Deborah Roberts on ABC or her husband, Al Roker on NBC, has brought this to our attention? Did “Entertainment Tonight” cover this story? I could not find the book on the Barnes & Noble website. It is carried but currently out of stock on Amazon.

I read an item stating that Stewart will receive damages for the three MATRIX films plus THE TERMINATOR and its sequels. Apparently, she sent her manuscript to The Wachowski Brothers, who requested new sci-fi works, in the mid-80s. They are credited with writing 1999’s big hit, THE MATRIX, starring Keanu Reeves. There are articles online about her long court case. Go to Google and search this: Sophia Stewart wins lawsuit.

If this is all true, I would love to see a TV interview of Ms. Stewart. Wouldn’t you? Please leave comments if you know anything else about this Hollywood sci-fi secret. I sure hope WVON Radio puts up a podcast of that interview.

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“Up In The Air” with George Clooney

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

Let me get right to it. If you’re a George Clooney fan, you must see the excellent performance he brings to Up In The Air. Do not be surprised if you hear George Clooney’s name as a Best Actor Academy Award nominee for this mature, relevant comedy. He knocked me out with this role. He not only broke me up laughing but he also brought tears to my eyes with the depth, texture and heart he gives to a character that you’re prepared to hate when the film opens.

The movie is about making connections and about the baggage we carry in our lives. Is it really heavy baggage or not? Are we really getting anyplace better and faster when he travel without any of it? Especially when we’re middle-aged? It’s also a modern-day look at loyalty and loneliness. Don’t worry. There’s also a woman and a little sex to give the story that Preston Sturges or Billy Wilder lemon zest. Clooney’s wise-cracking character, Ryan Bingham, is a sexy corporate Terminator. He frequently flies to companies that are downsizing and he fires people. He talks each person through the severance package. He’s also a motivational speaker. The thing is, you feel that he doesn’t fully believe that whole line of jive he’s slickly giving out at the podium. As for the moments when he tells people they’ve been laid off, you sense that he hates delivering that news and works hard to give each meeting some silver bit of uncorporate humanity.

Did you ever see Cary Grant in Hitchcock’s North by Northwest? Remember when his smooth-talking ad man character, Roger O. Thornhill, pulls out his initialed matchbook on the train and Eve, the cool blonde, asks “What does the ‘O’ stand for?” He saucily answers, “Nothing.” Clooney’s Ryan Bingham is that “Nothing.” If Up In The Air had been a wry comedy made during the economic recession of the early 1950s, it would’ve starred Cary Grant. As the film begins with individual workers expressing disbelief and anger at being let go after years of job loyalty, you are grabbed. This movie’s release is as perfectly timed today as The China Syndrome was in 1979. It’s an odd thing to write, but if you’ve been on unemployment this year, this is the comedy for you.

Be cautious of listening to movie critics review it or National Public Radio show hosts interview actors or writer/director Jason Reitman. He also directed Juno. Be cautious because they reveal way too much nowadays about the films. Especially on NPR. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard a host on NPR begin a new film interview question with “At the end of the movie when…” Drives me crazy. Just go and enjoy George Clooney’s new movie. I attended a preview screening. I saw it for free and I’ll be paying to see it again. This won’t ruin anything: There’s a section in Wisconsin. The night time scene in front of the chalet restaurant to the end of the Wisconsin sequence presents some of the richest, funniest and most touching acting of Clooney’s film career. He’s terrific. Well-acted by everyone, smartly and compassionately written and directed by Jason Reitman, Up In The Air is one of the best American films I’ve seen this year.

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The White House Party Crashers

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

By now, most of us have seen Mr. and Mrs. Salahi. They’re the man and wife hungry for reality show celebrityhood. So hungry that they sneaked into the recent White House State Dinner, causing a big mess for all involved with White House security. When is America going to put its national foot down about grown people behaving like irresponsible children in order to get on national television? Look at all the wasted network news time and local money because a greedy, self-absorbed, controlling dad claimed that his little boy was carried into the air in a runaway balloon? I was watching Wolf Blitzer lob cottonball questions at that slappable dad in a live interview and my gut told me that the dad was flat out lying. For one thing, he dodged Blitzer’s questions and gave vague answers.

There’s something fishy of The Salahis too. And I wonder if that fishy odor comes from a peacock. The NBC peacock.

As the husband and wife prepared to crash the private White House party, they were filmed by a Bravo TV crew. Mrs. Salahi had dreams of being a member of Bravo’s popular “Real Housewives of…” franchise. Bravo is a cable branch of the NBC family tree. The party crashing couple gave its first interview about its security breach exclusively on NBC’s Today show. Matt Lauer conducted the interview this morning. A clip was posted on the show’s website.

NBC is, shall we say, very GOP friendly. Although he had no television experience whatsoever, local NBC New York hired a local rock morning radio show DJ named Billy Bush out of Washington, DC. He did local morning news lifestyles reports for WNBC. Four months later, he was booted up to network and became a contributor for the “Today” show. Within a year, he was added to “Access: Hollywood,” the show he now hosts. During that time, he was profiled in The New York Times and he talked about his uncle, then-President George W. Bush. Billy has another member of the family in the NBC spotlight. Former President Geo. W. Bush’s daughter, Jenna, is now a “Today” show contributor. During W’s presidency, Tom Brokaw wasn’t the only NBC talent granted admission into the Oval Office for an exclusive chat. So was Matt Lauer. And Al Roker.

Years ago when there was speculation that former action movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger would, like Ronald Reagan, leave movies and throw his hat in the Republican ring of politics, news outlets reported that Schwarzenegger was holding a press conference. At it, the wires reported, he’d probably make the official statement that he wanted to be the Republican Governor of California. At the last minute, came the news report that the press conference had been cancelled. That ended speculation of his political ambitions. Wrong! He was throwing his hat into the political ring. But, instead of holding a press conference, he decided to make the big announcement on a late night entertainment talk show — NBC’s Tonight show with Jay Leno. I’m sure I don’t have to remind you that Mrs. Schwarzenegger is Kennedy clan member Maria Shriver of NBC News.

If I was a TV reporter talking to The Salahis, I would need them to tell me that their crashing of our Democrat President’s White House state dinner was not partly aided by some mischief from a GOPeacock. Feel free to leave some comments.

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