My friend Dan Kraus, published author, cinematographer, future Miss America adjudicator, has been publishing his old teen movies on his blog. There are quite a few, and I haven’t watched nearly all of them (though I particularly enjoyed The Blob). Dan has just posted the last one, the culmination of Danman Productions: The Godfathers: Part Two. It’s now 70 minutes long, cut down from its original length of over two and a half hours. Dan took his expertise at film editing and cut it down to what he originally envisioned, and posted it. His writing about the movie is elegant, and I’m pretty sure I can’t wait to watch it.
Incidentally, Mac users, I love ClickToFlash. Aside from blocking Flash silliness, you can download the H.264 source videos for any YouTube video, which I use all the time. Highly recommended.
My friend Laura is a graduate student studying poetry, and I blame her for an uptick in my interest and appreciation for poetry over the past year or two. She pointed this one out today, and it really spoke to me.
A Brief for the Defense, by Jack Gilbert
Here’s a favorite piece:
We must risk delight. We can do without pleasure, but not delight. Not enjoyment. We must have the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless furnace of this world.
This is a really good thing to remember.
First, I’m sure anyone reading this has probably already done so, but just in case you haven’t, make a donation to help relief efforts in Haiti. Just a few days ago I played a little benefit show with the excellent Diana Lawrence, and through her tremendous efforts and those of the friends who donated goods to the silent auction we hosted, and the help and donations of all our friends who came by that night, we raised almost $1000.
Next, I own a television, but I don’t have cable, and my digital broadcast TV connection is pretty flaky. I watch almost everything I watch on DVD or over the internet. My nights are often busy with work or playing gigs, so I don’t get to watch Conan O’Brien’s crazy show as much as I’d like to. Now, of course, it’s over at least for a while, and that’s disappointing. I spent a couple hours tonight catching up on some episodes on Hulu, and it just reinforced how sad it is that he’s losing the Tonight Show. He’s a total class act, really funny, not afraid to do things that are weird, and never boring. I feel really lucky now that I got to see his show back in December while it was looking like he’d be on for quite a while.
Pretty much all the episodes and clips currently available on Hulu are going to be worthwhile viewing, but Conan’s last remarks are really touching and worth spending four minutes to watch.
I miss you already, Conan. And I’m sorry for thinking of you as Coco during this I’m With Coco campaign.
I went to see Ricky Jay in person for the first time on December 1. A couple of weeks ago, I saw an ad in the Reader (there’s a preview of the show on their blog) about his new show: “A Rogue’s Gallery: An Evening of Conversation and Performance”, and eventually decided to buy a ticket, even though it was expensive ($80 after the fee, and this without Ticketmaster!), and the seat was in the very last row of the balcony. I really couldn’t bring myself not to go; I saw a recording of his first off-breadway show, “Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants”, a couple years ago and was blown away. He lives in Los Angeles and performs just a few times a year at most, usually there or in New York. My friend Craig, who’s the only person I know who’s a bigger magic enthusiast (See how I didn’t say nerd? You’re welcome!) than I am, talked me into going. Ricky Jay performs vanishingly rarely in Chicago, and being in his 60s, probably won’t take the show on the road that much longer. I needn’t have worried about the seat; the Royal George Theater’s main room seats around 500, but in any case I could see the man quite clearly without the binoculars I brought.
I’m quite pleased that Chicago is not going to be hosting the Olympics in 2016. Congratulations to Rio, to whom I wish the best of luck in getting ready for it. Contrary to what the Chicago 2016 committee published, I think support for the Olympics among the citizens was pretty lean. We were never included in the decision to host the games in the first place, and no real effort was made by the committee to explain what Chicago 2017 would look like. The money’s not there, the support’s not there; it just wasn’t a good idea right now.
Another issue I hadn’t thought of until today was what it would be like for athletes and visitors who wanted to get into the US for the games. This story from a Canadian who had a hard time getting in for a conference illustrates the point. The US has been strong for a long time in education, research, and so forth, drawing people from all over the world. If the borders get too hard to cross above-board for honorable purposes (business, art, athletics, whatever), it could be very problematic.
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