The Reverend Will the Thrill Presents the Film of the Week!

Honestly, I should have done this a couple weeks ago, but I wanted a chance to re-watch the movie in question.  Strangely enough, as great as I thought it was nearly 20 years ago when I first saw it, I had really only seen it... well, once.

In the movie, Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová play "Guy" and "Girl."  Guy works with his father repairing vacuum cleaners, but his true passion is music.  In his spare time, he can be seen busking on the streets of Dublin playing his songs with aspirations of moving to London to try to make a living as a musician.

Girl happens to see him playing and approaches him.  The two strike up a conversation where Guy discovers that Girl also plays piano.  He shows her his songs and they start playing together.  Over the course of a few days, before he heads off to London, they get together with some other musical friends to record some of Guy's songs in a professional studio.  As you might guess, Guy and Girl fall in love.

The film became the darling of the Sundance Film Festival and was one of the most critically acclaimed films of 2007.  In 2008, it went on to win an Academy Award for the song "Falling Slowly" (written by Hansard and Irglová), beating out three songs from Disney's Enchanted.

I received a text a couple of weeks ago from my uncle (whose name, oddly enough, is actually Guy), informing me that Hansard had been killed in a motorcycle accident.  I was loosely familiar with Hansard's music outside of the film, but immediately felt bad that I wasn't as familiar with his work as so many music geeks my age.

Hansard had begun his career in the 1990s as a member of the Irish rock band The Frames.  Over the years, he also worked as a solo artist and formed the band The Swell Season.  He and Irglová even continued to work together both professionally and personally for a couple of years after the success of the film.  I'm sure his sudden death will prompt me to explore his music further and wish I had been more familiar with it when he was alive. 

This week's film--the one that was all the rage at Sundance back in '07--was written and directed by John Carney, who was a former bassist and vocalist for the Frames and knew Hansard well.  Hansard had last acted nearly 15 years earlier in the classic The Commitments and had been primarily focused on his music.  But Carney convinced him to do it and the results speak for themselves.  I don't know why I waited so long to re-watch the movie and I'm sad that it took Hansard's death to get me to do so.  Now that it's a little more fresh in my mind, I'm sure I won't wait as long next time.  This week, please enjoy Once... preferably more than once.

As stated in my Album of the Week "sermon," I'll be taking the next couple of weeks off from writing these.  Until I return, stay safe, be good to your neighbours, and please remember that if at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.

Yours in peace, love, and rock 'n' roll!

The Reverend Will the Thrill 

 

 

The Reverend Will the Thrill Presents the Album of the Week!

Long-time readers of this blog--if, in fact, they exist--know that I'm something of an old-school romantic when it comes to certain things.  However, the older I get, and the more technology changes--and not always for the better, in my opinion--the harder it is to do.

One thing that I've been adamant about for many years now is that Bruce Springsteen, particularly with the E Street Band, sounds better in a vehicle with a stick shift.  I scientifically proved this in the spring of 2002.  (Actually, I think I technically proved it in the fall of 1998 with The Who, but I didn't understand what I was experiencing in the moment.)

In fact, I've come to believe that any type of "driving music" sounds better in a stick shift.  George Thorogood, ZZ Top, Meat Loaf, Blondie... even great jazz music.  There's something tactile and visceral about the whole experience.  Part of it is the art of matching the music with environmental elements like weather or time of day--certain things sound better in the rain or at night or in the autumn than they do at other times.  I realize not everyone thinks of or even notices these things, so you're just going to have to trust me on this: Leon Redbone is best appreciated on a sunny Sunday afternoon in October, especially if you're going to be driving while playing his music.

Again, I know I tend to romanticize these sorts of things.  But if you've never shifted into a higher gear when Roger Daltrey lets out that primal scream in "Won't Get Fooled Again," well... I guess you'll just never know.

As I stated last week, I don't have room for my entire music library on my phone.  So I like to play certain CDs, particularly during my work commute, that I might not listen to otherwise.  Often, it's something I haven't listened to in awhile--something I likely knew I wouldn't listen to all that much which is why it's not on the phone to begin with.  When I listen to those albums again, I'm often transported back to a time when I first heard it, often evoking a lot of memories of and nostalgia for the period, reminding me of why I bought the CD in the first place.

My clutch burned out about three years ago.  Those things are expensive to replace and I've never been able to afford to get it fixed.  So I've been driving my backup car ever since... you guessed it--an automatic.  Even after all this time, I still find myself occasionally trying to put my left foot on something that doesn't exist.  Sometimes, because I have exceptionally wide feet, I wind up with both feet on the brake causing somewhat violent stops.  But at least I still have a car with a working CD player, something that's almost as hard to find as a stick shift these days.

A few days ago, I grabbed something off the shelf for my morning commute that I hadn't played in quite awhile.  If I were to place a label on it, I suppose I would call it techno.  Not necessarily something I dislike, but not exactly my go-to musical preference either.  I remember when the album came out.  I was quite taken with the obvious blues and gospel influences, backed up by this heavy club beat.  As I was driving, I realized that even though I was driving an automatic, the music was actually quite perfect for the drive.  Not only that, but I'm going to go out on a very narrow limb and say that this particular album may actually sound better in an automatic.  If I ever again get access to a stick, I may have to test that theory.  In the meantime, this week, get in your car and please enjoy Moby with his 1999 album Play.

Just to reset my brain, I'll be taking next two weeks off from writing these.  Until I return, stay safe, be good to your neighbours, and please remember that if at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.

Yours in peace, love, and rock 'n' roll!

The Reverend Will the Thrill

 

 

The Reverend Will the Thrill Presents the Film of the Week!

"The life of everyone on board depends upon just one thing:  finding someone back there who can not only fly this plane, but who didn't have fish for dinner."

--Leslie Nielson as Dr. Rumack

I recently read a book that was such a delight that it prompted a re-watch of not one but two of the funniest films I've ever seen.  I bought the book in April.  I was actually trying to save it for a bit.  But I saw above the barcode a label that said, "Best If Read By:  March 2035."  It's the first book I've ever seen with a freshness/sell by/expiration date.  Even though I had roughly a decade, I figured comedy is better when it's fresher.

The book is titled Surely You Can't Be Serious:  The True Story of Airplane! (available at Barnes & Noble and other fine bookstores).  In it, David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker--collectively known as ZAZ--recount what went into one of the most beloved and quoted comedies ever made.  And I have to be honest, the stories about making it are almost as funny as the film itself.

The three of them had worked together at the University of Wisconsin at Madison in the early 1970s forming a theatre troupe known as the Kentucky Fried Theater.  It was successful enough that they decided to try their luck in Los Angeles.

KFT's stage show could best be described as "sketch comedy."  For inspiration, they would set up an early model VCR and let it record whatever was on television overnight.  The results were a lot of parodies of ads and movie trailers.

One night, they inadvertently recorded a B-movie from 1957 called Zero Hour! starring Dana Andrews, Linda Darnell, the great Sterling Hayden, and former NFL star Elroy "Crazylegs" Hirsch.  In spite of the fact that the film was a drama, ZAZ found it to be unintentionally funny--even more so than the commercials on which they usually tended to focus.

The three started writing their own parody script for an airline disaster movie.  They actually found Zero Hour! to be so funny, there were instances where they essentially quoted it verbatim.  (To avoid royalty issues, not to mention charges of plagiarism, they even bought the rights to the original film, which had been co-written by Arthur Hailey.)

Having never made a movie before, ZAZ wrote another film of seemingly unrelated sketches, more akin to their stage show.  The Kentucky Fried Movie debuted in 1977 and jumpstarted not just their careers, but also that of director John Landis.  (For more, feel free to check out my "Film of the Week" sermon posted on 7 September, 2024.)  While the film was both a commercial and critical success, they really wanted to direct their own movie.

They realized early on that the key to the humour was for the actors to play it as seriously as possible.  As such, they cast actors who were mostly known for dramatic work--actors like Lloyd Bridges, Robert Stack, Peter Graves, and Leslie Nielsen.  It seems hard to believe in hindsight, but none of these actors had ever really done comedy at that point and it wound up opening new doors for all of them.  In one more nod to Zero Hour!, which cast "Crazylegs" Hirsch as an airline pilot, ZAZ cast NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the co-pilot, Roger Murdock... who, of course, was actually Kareem in disguise.

The basic plot of the film involves former fighter pilot Ted Striker (played by Robert Hays) who boards a flight from Los Angeles to Chicago in an effort to win back the heart of his ex, Elaine Dickinson (Julie Hagerty) who happens to be a flight attendant on the plane.

Things take a turn for the worse when acute food poisoning runs rampant among the crew and the passengers.  Oh, and it's very important that a little girl (Jill Whelan) gets to Chicago because she's in need of a heart transplant and a donor has been found.

The film--the first to feature three credited directors--made back its production budget in two days and changed the face of film comedy.  It was the first film that taught me to actually pay attention to the credits as there could be the occasional joke(s) thrown in for good measure.  There might even be a little bit after the credits finish rolling.

(To this day, I've never seen the movie Gladiator.  In fact, I'm not even really a fan of that genre of film.  I often say it's because I'm afraid I'll get molested by Peter Graves.)

Featuring supporting performances and cameos from Lorna Patterson, Barbara Billingsley, Rossie Harris, Norman Alexander Gibbs, Al White, James Hong, David Leisure, Jonathan Banks, Gregory Itzin, Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker, Charlotte Zucker, Ethel Merman, Maureen McGovern, Stephen Stucker, and, of course, Otto (who actually does have his own IMDb page) from 1980, please enjoy the classic Airplane!

Until next week, stay safe, be good to your neighbours, and please remember that if at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.  (So there.)

Yours in peace, love, and rock 'n' roll!

The Reverend Will the Thrill

The Reverend Will the Thrill Presents the Album of the Week!

There's a new album that was released in the last couple of months.  It's called Where The Willow And The Dogwood Grow.  It's a compilation of songs written by Tom Waits and/or Kathleen Brennan (his wife and musical partner) performed by other artists.  The recordings themselves had all been previously released by said artists between 1984 and 2020.  And even though I already had about a quarter of the performances on the album, being the Tom Waits fan that I am, I felt compelled to buy a copy.  I've listened to it a number of times now and I seem to be finding something new and different each time I do.

The fascinating thing to me is that it's also made me want to go back and listen to the albums that featured some of those songs.  I don't have enough memory on my phone to include my entire music library.  In fact, with the exception of Bruce Springsteen's rendition of "Jersey Girl," I didn't have any of those Waits covers that I already owned on my phone.  Because of that, I haven't actually listened to a lot of those albums in quite some time, and it's been a joy to revisit them.

This week's album in particular stood out to me because I remember how taken I was with it when it was released more than 20 years ago--long before I had any non-landline phone, let alone an iPhone.  As I write this, I'm listening to it again for the first time in many years and remembering why I was taken with it in the first place.  Full disclosure--I did have a bit of a celebrity crush on the artist.  I suppose if I'm honest, I still kind of do.

After a decade of mining classic pop standards from the "Great American Songbook," Diana Krall decided to branch out a bit for her new album.  While half of the songs on the album are covers, this time, they were more in a folk and blues vein including songs written by Mose Allison ("Stop This World"), Joni Mitchell ("Black Crow"), the aforementioned Mr. Waits ("Temptation"), and even Elvis Costello ("Almost Blue"), whom she married the year before.

However, the one thing that excited me was that she and Costello co-wrote the other half of the album's songs.  As a fan of her interpretations of standards, I was curious to hear what she was capable of writing--although, to be fair, I was already a fan of Mr. Costello's so I had a sneaking suspicion it would be at least pretty good.  Needless to say, I was not disappointed.  To this day, it's still one of my favourite albums of hers just because it does feel distinctly hers.  This week, please enjoy the one and only Diana Krall with her 2004 album, The Girl In The Other Room.  I keep hoping the two of them will do something like this again.

Until next week, stay safe, be good to your neighbours, and please remember that if at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.

Yours in peace love, and rock 'n' roll!

The Reverend Will the Thrill

The Reverend Will the Thrill Presents a Bonus Album of the Week! (One From the Vault!)

I stumbled upon this in my Facebook Memories.  I wrote it and posted it there on 3 August, 2024--shortly before I started posting these here every week.  Honestly, I had forgotten about it.  But when I re-read what I wrote, I have to say, I'm kind of proud of it.  Hope you like it.  (One or two sentences were edited out because they didn't fit in this context.)

 

 

I don't know why I'm fascinated by identity politics, but I am. More specifically, I find it disturbing that identity is political these days. I'll be honest with you, I don't give one good goddamn rat's ass about what pronouns you use, or your sexual orientation, or your gender identity, or the colour of your skin, your religion, your party affiliation, etc., etc., etc. That being said, I will address you by whatever names and/or pronouns you ask me to use out of respect for you as a human being. Also, don't think that I don't have the utmost respect for whatever national, religious, and/or cultural background(s) you claim. In fact, not only do I respect it, I'm probably fascinated by it. But--and I realize that this is easy to say given my background--I don't necessarily believe it sums up you as a person. I don't care WHAT you are--I prefer to know WHO you are. I long for a day when we judge each other not by things like race or sexual orientation, but by things that are truly important... like music tastes.

 

I have my own descriptive labels as well--I'm a white, cisgender (which is a word I actually hate), heterosexual male who uses he/him pronouns. I'll even throw in other terms like "redhead," "eccentric," and "Chicago Cubs fan." But here's the catch--I don't define myself in those terms (well... maybe "eccentric"). They don't sum up who I am as a person. It's not my identity. I suppose if I identify as anything it's as a writer. It's something I've always liked doing. I'll even go as far as to say I'm passionate about it. I don't know if I'm particularly good--aside from a "Six-Word Memoir" I once submitted to Smith Magazine, I've never had anything published. But it is what I find myself doing probably more than anything else. I'm always stringing words together in my head, even if I'm not jotting them down on paper or sitting behind my computer. I'm a writer who, yes, happens to be straight, white, and male, but I am a writer first and foremost. That's who I am. The straight, white, male stuff is just incidental fluff. Hey, that rhymes. Wow--not only am I a writer, apparently, I'm also a poet.

 

I usually feel like I have something to say. Whether what I write resonates with anyone is debatable--I have a sneaking suspicion that most people seeing this post on Facebook stopped reading at least a paragraph ago. (Yes, Heidi, I'm lookin' at you, cous!) And I get it. This particular forum isn't exactly designed to increase our attention spans. But it doesn't appear to have stopped me so far.

 

Just because I feel like I have something to say doesn't mean the words are always forthcoming. I could have a Shakespearean vocabulary and still not be able to figure out the proper word combinations to express whatever I'm feeling at that moment. I also often find myself using the same words and phrases over and over again which sometimes makes me feel like my vocabulary is somewhat limited. But I usually catch it when I'm proofreading and, for the most part, I'm pretty successful at finding a different word or phrase that means the same thing. For all its faults--like the fact that "tough," "cough," "plough," "dough," and "through" all have different pronunciations--I do so love the English language. But sometimes... sometimes I just don't know what to say even though I feel like I have to verbally express myself soon or I'll develop an ulcer.

 

I think that every writer has their own method of writing, even when the words won't come. In 1993, Billy Joel spoke to students at the Berklee School of Music and talked about not being able to write. "I got stuck once and I couldn't write--like, I didn't feel like a writer anymore. You feel terrible. It's like a ball player who's in a slump. You can't hit, no matter what you do, you can't call on your old skills, it's just not working, you can't put it all together. So what I do is... I go to Little Italy in Manhattan. And I get a nice outfit on--like a writer's outfit. Like a songwriter, like a sort of modern-day Chopin. So I'm lookin' baaaad, you see? And I sit at a table and I get a glass of wine. And I sit there, I have my notebook and my pen, and I delude myself into feeling like writing. I mean, that's just my little jump-start trick that I do sometimes... and all these people are staring at you, so you've got to do something!"

 

Even though I've never, to the best of my recollection, experienced what I would call "writer's block," I took that anecdote to heart. I developed a writer's ritual of my own that I like to employ from time to time--sometimes just for the hell of it (like I am right now). I find this activity is best done at night. I like to sit in a room, either with a paper and pen or behind a word processor of some kind, preferably with not too bright ambient light from a single table lamp or even a floor lamp. I put on a pair of shades--I find something bluesy and poetic about wearing sunglasses at night in a dimly lit room--and try to convince myself I'm a writer of great... songs, poems, essays, novels, short stories, introductions for roller derby skaters--whatever needs to be written in the moment.

 

I've found that the real key to the whole thing is background music--unless I'm trying to write music of my own, then it's just distracting. But, by and large, I'm trying to express myself verbally and I find that music helps. Depending on my mood, I might put on jazz music. Classic Miles Davis recordings are good for this, maybe some John Coltrane or Lee Morgan--really anything recorded for the Blue Note label in the 1950s and 1960s. Other good choices include early Peter, Paul & Mary and Bruce Springsteen's first two albums.

 

I put this week's album on late one night many years ago while trying to write something. I don't know why it stuck with me as a writing aide. It could be the poetic nature of the songs themselves--it could be the cover art which looks like it has its own story to tell (which I'm sure has been told a few times over the last 60 years, even if it's just among musicologists). Whatever it is, whenever I find myself in the mood to write but don't know what to say, this week's album often yields a good start. From 1963, please enjoy The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan.

 

Until next week, stay safe, be good to your neighbours, and please remember that if at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.

 

Yours in peace, love, and rock and roll!

The Reverend Will the Thrill

 

 

The Reverend Will the Thrill Presents the Film of the Week!

I recently saw Steven Spielberg's latest film, Disclosure Day.  I've heard it described as the third film in a trilogy that began in 1977 with Close Encounters of the Third Kind and continued in 1982 with E.T. the Extraterrestrial.  Spielberg clearly has a fascination with what may exist beyond our planet, given that he's made so many movies about it over the last half century.

Personally, I was moved by the film--not to tears like I am when I watch E.T., but moved, nonetheless.  It's one of the best films I've seen this year--possibly even the best--so far.  And it got me thinking about the portrayal of aliens in our popular culture.

We frequently depict aliens as invaders, intent on taking over our planet and wiping us out.  From The War of the Worlds (even the original 1898 novel) to Independence Day, we seem to have this notion that any species not of this planet would want nothing more than to take over and colonize this measly little blue dot.

Honestly, I feel this says a lot about us as humans.  Are we really that terrified of "the other"?  Of course, I ask the question and then I look around and I see how we treat other humans because they don't have the same language, nationality, skin colour, sexual orientation, religion, etc.  If "they" are different from "us," we panic and claim they're invading us, stealing our jobs, and eating our pets.  (Okay, admittedly ALF liked cats, but still...)  And this is how we act toward other humans, so... yeah, I can only imagine how we'd act toward an extraterrestrial species.

And--let's be honest here--we're concerned about the invasion, colonization, and potential testing and anal probing because that's what we would do if we landed on their planet.  Of course, we would be doing it in the name of science, so that makes it alright.

(Wow!  I knew I could be cynical, but... damn!)

I've always been fond of the science fiction in which aliens are portrayed differently.  Perhaps the best example of this is the classic 1951 film The Day the Earth Stood Still in which an alien species comes to Earth and, recognizing our warlike nature, declares that if we don't start getting along with each other, they will essentially view us as a threat to other planets and destroy us.

Personally, I've always liked the "backstory" described in 1997's Men in Black--that a bunch of aliens "wanted to use Earth as an apolitical zone for creatures without a planet.  Did you ever see the movie Casablanca?  Same thing, except no Nazis."  And to this day, aliens of different species from all over the universe live among us, just trying to make a living.

The aliens in Spielberg's films never tried to take over.  Hell, E.T. was just a botanist who was accidentally left behind.  I don't really see that as much of a threat.  If anything, those films show how cruel we as humans can be.  I would even argue Disclosure Day is no different.

Perhaps my favourite film alien is the subject of this week's film.  Like E.T., he was kind of accidentally stuck on our planet and just wanted to go home.  He even had a pretty wicked sense of humour and enjoyed a good time as much as any human I've ever met.

In the film, Graeme Willy and Clive Gollings (Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, who also wrote the film) are two English comic book artists who come to America to attend Comic Con and take a road trip through all of the alien hot spots in the desert southwest.  Along the way, they wind up picking up an alien who goes by the name Paul (voiced by Seth Rogen).  Paul has just escaped from a government facility that has been holding him for many decades.  He's managed to make contact with his "people" (for lack of a better word) who are going to come pick him up.

Graeme and Clive agree to help Paul return home, despite the fact that he is being pursued relentlessly by Agent Zoil (Jason Bateman) who enlists the help of Haggard and O'Reilly (Bill Hader and Joe Lo Truglio), two rather immature agents who are intentionally left somewhat out of the loop.  Along the way, Graeme, Clive, and Paul get some more help from Ruth (Kristen Wiig), whose ultra-religious father owns the RV park where they've decided to temporarily hide out.

Directed by Greg Mottola and featuring appearances by Jeffrey Tambor, Jane Lynch, David Koechner, Jesse Plemons, John Carroll Lynch, Blythe Danner, and even a voice cameo from Steven Spielberg himself, from 2011, please enjoy Paul.

Until next week, stay safe, be good to your neighbours, and please remember that if at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.

Yours in peace, love, and rock 'n' roll!

The Reverend Will the Thrill

The Reverend Will the Thrill Presents the Album of the Week!

I've never really made much of a secret of the fact that, traditionally, I tend to root for older people--especially in entertainment and sports.  This has been true ever since I was little.  So many people my age would complain about the stories their grandparents would tell, but I was always fascinated by them.  I never found them boring and loved hearing about how things were 50 years before I was even born.

I remember when I was in college and seeing news reports of Nolan Ryan pitching no-hitters and George Foreman winning heavyweight boxing championships--at the time, both were in their mid-40s--and thinking that was pretty awesome, especially for an athlete.  Today, it's commonplace for star athletes to play as long as they possibly can.  Just look at LeBron James.  He's 41, which I still think of as old for someone in his profession.  But in spite of that, he's still one of the best players of the game... and I don't even particularly like basketball!

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, artists like Paul McCartney and The Rolling Stones were often looked at by the press as being a bit "old," but when I look at concert footage from that time, all I can think is how young they looked.

It seems hard to believe now, but around that same time, the legendary Johnny Cash had been kind of forgotten about by the music establishment.  Sales of his albums had dropped off considerably starting in the 1970s.

After seeing him perform at Bob Dylan's 30th anniversary concert in 1992, the equally legendary producer Rick Rubin--founder of Def Jam Records and a man known for producing primarily rap and heavy metal music--felt that Cash, then in his early 60s, was still relevant.  Rubin offered Cash a contract with his label, promising a lot of creative control.  So began both a professional and personal partnership that lasted the rest of Johnny Cash's life.

And while only they knew what that relationship entailed, we all can still revel in what came out of it.  Over the next decade, the two gave us one of the most celebrated series of albums ever produced, American Recordings.

For the first volume, released in 1994, Cash recorded for the first time with only his own guitar accompaniment.  As he did on the rest of the series, he chose not only his own songs, but songs that he admired by other songwriters including Kris Kristofferson, Loudon Wainwright III, Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, and former stepson-in-law Nick Lowe.

Throughout the series, Cash took songs, many of which were written by hard rock artists, and made them distinctly his own--sometimes becoming more popular than the original versions.

This week, I wanted to highlight one of those albums which, for some reason, I find myself repeatedly playing.  Released in 1996, this was the second of Johnny Casn's American series.  While his first album featured only Cash's own guitar accompaniment, here he was backed by an actual band, specifically Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

The album won the Grammy Award for Best Country Album and Cash received a nomination for Best Male Country Vocal Performance for his cover of Soundgarden's "Rusty Cage."  (Personally, I like it because he does a great cover of one of my favourite country songs, "Sea of Heartbreak.")  Featuring appearances by Marty Stuart, Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood, and Flea, please enjoy the one and only Johnny Cash with American II: Unchained.

Until next week, stay safe, be good to your neighbours, and please remember that if at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.

Yours in peace, love, and rock 'n' roll!

The Reverend Will the Thrill