I'd love a bite of your sandwich

I'm going to spend many of the next 24 hours driving up to Mount Desert Island, where I'll be housesitting for the next two weeks. I'm told the house is all wired up for the Internet, so I'm bringing the computer with me in order to keep MeTube going. But just in case I can't do a timely update, I'm putting a longish one up here today.

This is an episode of Fishing With John, a very, very deadpan look at fishing in various spots around the world with actor/musician John Lurie and a different guest star every show. Unlike most of these sorts of shows, we get a lot of the dead-air moments. I suspect the show prefers these times to the times they actually catch something.

This show's guest is Tom Waits, so you know we're talking classic. It's a half hour long, in three parts.

This blog should be played LOUD

Well, I enjoyed my Thanksgiving, and I hope you all enjoyed yours.

Thirty-one years ago today was another very special Thanksgiving - the famous Last Waltz concert was held in San Francisco. The Band, performing for the final time with their classic five-man lineup, had the mother of all going-away parties, with guests ranging from Neil Diamond to Neil Young and pretty much everyone in between. Best of all, it was captured for all time in a documentary directed by Martin Scorsese.

If you've not seen this, you really owe it to yourself to check it out. I'm so crazy about this movie I literally took a two hundred mile bus ride to see it on the big screen. (Okay, I was supposed to see it with someone, but she never showed. Nevertheless, I don't consider it a loss. THAT'S how crazy I am about this movie.)

Here's the very beginning, where we meet the Band members as they stomp through their closing number, a cover of Marvin Gaye's "Don't Do It."



And here they are doing "Mystery Train" with Paul Butterfield on harmonica.



Great story here - the lighting board blew a fuse, and the only light working was the spotlight on Butterfield. So one of the great effects in the show was a one hundred percent accident.

Marjoe

Marjoe Gortner (the name is a combination of Mary and Joseph) became an ordained minister at the age of four. He was a huge hit on the revival circuit; who can resist a little preacher boy?

His folks trained him hard, and then his father absconded with the millions he'd made. This can get a fellow jaded, and Marjoe eventually left the circuit. But before he did, he was the subject of a documentary, Marjoe, that wound up winning an Academy Award. In it, he discussed how he'd manipulate the crowds; the film wasn't shown in the American South, for fear of riots in the Bible Belt.

Marjoe tried breaking into show biz as an actor-singer, and was briefly married to Candy Clark (American Graffiti), but things didn't pan out there. The documentary was thought lost for years (an Oscar-winner, post-1970, lost - can you believe it?), but the negative was found in a vault and the film restored and now available on DVD. Here's how it begins. (Pardon the bad synch.)

You should be dancing

I'd like to take a moment to thank Deputy Dog for linking to my blog on his site; it's doubled the number of people who've stopped by, and I'm happy for the company.

There have been a couple of interesting sites linking to mine; the Yahoo message board for US global investors linked to my Zero Hour/Airplane post (I sure didn't see that one coming). But the biggest surprise was discovering that readers of Julie Andrews Online had stopped by to see her scary movie mashup trailers.

This next clip is for them. (And they should also check out The Great White Dope while they're at it.)



It was fun to see a clip of Gene Kelly in action that I'd never known existed. It's also nice to hear the guy's part in "Supercalietc." sung without a trace of a would-be Cockney accent.

As long as we're looking at one of the great male movie dancers, we might as well take a look at the other one - Fred Astaire, of course. This is my favorite work of his, and it's not with Ginger Rogers - rather, it's with Eleanor Powell, in Broadway Melody of 1940. The clip's actually taken from the documentary That's Entertainment, with Frank Sinatra narrating.



Both of them are stunning, and considering that this is clearly videotaped off a TV screen, the visual quality's not too bad at all.

Chet

Let's Get Lost, a documentary on trumpeter Chet Baker that originally came out in 1988, was rereleased this summer, perhaps to make for the good DVD release that had always been lacking. Chet's been a favorite of mine for some years - for someone who "can't sing," his voice is quite moving, and his trumpet playing's nice too. So even though the pic never came to my neck of the woods, I'm glad to know it'll be widely available on DVD soon.

But be warned - you're going to see Chet ruined. It's shocking to see him go from this...



...to this.



If those brief clips intrigued you, watch Siskel & Ebert's take on it here. And if you'd like a longer clip, here's a beauty - Chet and Van Morrison duetting on a remarkable version of "Send In the Clowns."

The Old Negro Space Program

Since this is African American History Month, and since Ken Burns is gearing up for another major documentary release this year (about World War II), it's time to show how he would have addressed the story of black astronauts.

This goes on a little over ten minutes, but it's Saturday and you're entitled to a good long laugh.

What the movies mean to us

There was a time when I would see at least two movies a week. Not always at the theatre, of course (though there were weeks when that was the case), but you could count on me to make the most of every opportunity.

Nowadays I seem to have neither the time nor the money, nor the burning inclination. Half Nelson came and went, as did The Illusionist, without me ever getting past, "Geez, I should see that." I'm not a member at any local video stores, and I'm not signed up for Netflix. Believe me, when you find yourself thinking, "Hey, I could use that $5.99 a month," you're in no shape to spend money on two hours of just sitting there.

So it's nice to watch this reminder of how great movies are, not just for entertainment, but for the psyche.



This was first shown the start of the 2002 Oscar broadcast. Errol Morris, the director, interviewed a combination of famous and unknown. I was especially happy to see Iggy Pop (at 1:46), Tom Brady (2:04), Lou Reed (2:59), and what may or may not be Tim Curry (3:37). But just look at the evident joy in people's eyes and voices as they talk about their favorites. It means something, doesn't it? And it's nice to think about that on a Sunday morning like this.

"I don't have to unpack my bags, do I?"

This is pretty exciting, as far as I'm concerned.

One of the things I've been checking YouTube for semiregularly, ever since I came to it, was An American Family. Considered the first reality program, AAF followed the family of William C. Loud for nine months in 1971 and wound up with 300 hours of footage, whittled down to twelve one-hour programs that aired in 1973. The Loud family (I know at least two bands named after them) came apart at the seams over the course of the show, which introduced the world to Lance Loud, one of the first openly gay people ever seen on television.

It's been hard to see since (confounded music rights); once again, God bless YouTube for giving it a forum, and many thanks to "subcin," the guy who posted it. I recommend watching the other excerpts posted as well.



This is the most famous scene of the series. Bill Loud's come home from a business trip, with no idea that his wife is about to let him know she wants a divorce.