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

This past week marked an important anniversary in many of our childhoods.  It was 100 years ago, on 14 October, 1926, that author A.A. Milne published his first collection of stories in the UK, featuring Edward Bear, or, as he became known to children the world over, Winnie the Pooh.

Milne began writing the stories after his son, Christopher Robin Milne, received a stuffed bear for his birthday.  The elder Milne began writing stories about Pooh and his menagerie of friends including Eeyore, Piglet, Tigger, Owl, Rabbit, Kanga, and Roo and all of their wonderful misadventures with Christopher Robin in the Hundred Acre Wood.

Milne wrote only one other collection of Pooh stories in 1928, The House at Pooh Corner.  However, Pooh's legacy has lived on through the works of many other authors.  In 1961, in what's become the fate of so many classic childhood stories, the rights were purchased by the Walt Disney Company.  Like so many people today, this is the image of Pooh that I grew up with.  Those images were everywhere when I was a kid--storybooks, colouring books, stuffed toys, even stickers that later decorated Susan Tedeschi's guitar.  I remember vividly watching educational film strips in elementary school in a series called "Winnie the Pooh and the Right Thing to Do."  (I even developed what I thought was a pretty decent impression of Piglet.)

Eventually, though, children grow up.  I did... well, maybe not up, but certainly older.  And even though it was never documented in the stories, I assume Christopher Robin did as well.

I'm one of those odd people who wonders where certain fictional characters I grew up with are today.  Depending on when certain stories took place, there's a good chance they would not even be alive today.  Let's be honest, if Winnie the Pooh was first published a century ago, Christopher Robin would be older than that.  Even the real Christopher Robin died in 1996.  But one can't help but wonder what some of these characters grew into.  This week's film attempts to shed some light on that.

Set sometime after World War II, Christopher Robin (played by Ewan McGregor) is all grown up with a wife (Hayley Atwell) and a daughter (Bronte Carmichael) and even a grown-up job.  Christopher works for a luggage manufacturer and has been assigned by his boss (Mark Gattis) to spend the weekend cutting costs--and probably some employees--instead of spending it with his wife and daughter.

Clearly distraught and unsure of how to proceed, he is confronted and comforted by his old friends from the Hundred Acre Wood.  Together they help Christopher solve his problems--both professionally and personally--and help him get back to his wife and daughter.

Released in 2018, the film was written by Alex Ross Perry, Tom McCarthy, and Allison Schroeder (from a story by Greg Brooker and Mark Steven Johnson), and was directed by Marc Forster.  Featuring the voices of Jim Cummings (Pooh and Tigger), Brad Garrett (Eeyore), Nick Mohammed (Piglet), Peter Capaldi (Owl), Sophie Okonedo (Kanga), Sara Sheen (Roo), and Toby Jones (Owl), please enjoy Christopher Robin.

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 find it interesting how frequently--especially at my age--I get asked what my favourite colour is.  It does feel like something one would ask a grade-schooler.  Although, to be honest with you, I still enjoy answering those kinds of questions.

For the record, just to satisfy everyone's curiosity, my favourite colour has always been blue and the varying shades in which it can present itself.  From the time I was little, I've always found it very soothing.  But, as I got older, I realized that blue is not just a colour.  It's a mood, a state of mind, and an amazing style of music.  The really cool part is that the music can actually relieve the mood and state of mind.  Blue is nothing if not versatile.

I've always loved the blues--the music--just for the simple fact that it's the basis for so many other styles of music.  Jazz, rock, R&B, soul, rap, and hip-hop all have their roots in the blues.

I've been listening to quite a bit of blues music lately.  I tend to be a bit reflective and blues-leaning at this time of year.  I don't know what necessarily causes it.  It could be the changing of the leaves, the dropping of the temperatures.  I may just be sensitive to certain anniversaries, good and bad, that occur at this time of the year.  In fact, I'm still convinced that today, 17 October, is the anniversary of something obscure that only means something to me, but I can't remember what.  (I actually thought it might be the Saturday Night Massacre of 1973, but that occurred on 20 October.)

As much as I do love the music of John Lee Hooker--my go-to artist when I need to hear the blues--sometimes you need to switch things up a bit.  I pulled this week's album off the shelf a couple weeks ago and have found myself returning to it quite a bit since.

I first became aware of this album when I worked at Barnes & Noble.  I had not yet become the manager of the music department, but I spent a lot of time there during my lunch breaks.  At the time, we had a "listening wall" where you could check out select titles the company was featuring.  This album happened to be among those on the wall.

I don't know why I decided to check that one out specifically, but I did.  I was immediately taken with both the artist's guitar playing as well as her voice, which sounded as if Janis Joplin had come back from the grave.  (In fact, she was born one month after Joplin died.)

I began to look at the cover, which featured her posing with her guitar.  I was quite amused by the Winnie the Pooh stickers that adorned her instrument.  But then, something else caught my attention--what appeared to be a familiar-looking signature scrawled at the bottom.  When I looked closer, I realized that blues legend Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown had autographed her guitar.  Even though she and I have never met, I felt an immediate bond with her as I also have Brown's autograph on a picture and ticket stub from a show in 1997.  It still hangs proudly on the wall in my music room.

I fell in love with that album and to this day, it's still my favourite of hers.  About a year later, the day before I officially became the Barnes & Noble music department, I had the distinct pleasure of seeing her perform live at the first Indianapolis Jazz and Blues Festival in the summer of 1999.  It still ranks as one of the best live performances I have ever seen.

Originally released in February of 1998, this week, please enjoy Susan Tedeschi's second album, Just Won't Burn.  (The enclosed link is for the expanded edition released in 2023 for the album's 25th anniversary.)

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 Film of the Week!

I've written in the past about my days selling music and movies at Barnes & Noble.  The crew I worked with in that department once I'd moved to northern Indiana still cracks me up.  We would have geeky pop culture discussions.  Best albums by a particular artist, best songs to play at a particular time on a particular day... whatever struck our fancy.  As I've said, it was like being in the record store in the film High Fidelity (or the novel), only under a corporate banner.

One day, the subject turned to concert films.  When it came to what we thought was the best, I noticed that we seemed split between Jonathan Demme's 1984 film about Talking Heads, Stop Making Sense, and Martin Scorsese's film about The Band's last concert, The Last Waltz.  For reasons passing understanding, I have never seen Stop Making Sense.  I don't know why--I'm a fan of both Jonathan Demme and Talking Heads.  Consequently, I always seemed to pick The Last Waltz.  (For more, you can read what I posted here on 25 January of last year.)

In the years since that discussion, I have seen one other concert film that I feel should be in contention for anyone's list of greatest concert films.

The event was a three-day festival at the Monterey County Fairgrounds in Monterey, California, organized by John Phillips of The Mamas & The Papas, record producer Lou Adler, Alan Pariser, and Derek Taylor.  The Monterey Pop Festival was a celebration of rock music as a legitimate art form, featuring performances from both well-known artists like The Who and Simon & Garfunkel, but also artists from that area of California including The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and Big Brother & The Holding Company who weren't as well-known... yet.

D.A. Pennebaker and his crew filmed all the action during that three-day period from 16-18 June, 1967.  During that time, he captured some career-defining--and, in some cases, career-establishing--performances.  After her appearance with Big Brother in Monterey, Janis Joplin became a star.  Otis Redding performed for the first time in front of a largely white audience bringing his R&B stylings to a much broader audience.  (Tragically, he died in a plane crash a mere six months later.)  And Jimi Hendrix blew everyone's minds by making sounds with his guitar that no one had ever heard a guitar make before.

The resulting film, Monterey Pop, was released in 1968 and perfectly captured the hippie/counterculture zeitgeist of the time.  Everything and everyone seemed cool, groovy, and peaceful, and, unlike Woodstock, the weather cooperated.

Full disclosure--I was not alive in the 1960s.  When I watch the film, part of me wishes I had been.  Another part of me is glad that, due to technological advancements made since 1967--particularly in film--I didn't have to wait 50 years to see the film the way I first saw it.

One year when Barnes & Noble was having a sale on Criterion DVDs and blu-rays, I took a chance and bought a 3-disc set titled "The Complete Monterey Pop."  It contained not only the original movie, but a second disc featuring over two hours of performance footage that was cut from the final film, which is only 79 minutes long.  The third disc contains the complete performances of Jimi Hendrix and Otis Redding.  (Comedian Tommy Smothers was intent on introducing Redding to the crowd.  He later confessed that that was the only time he ever appeared on stage high.)

This week, please enjoy my pick (at least for the time being) for best concert film, D.A. Pennebaker's Monterey Pop--especially if you can get your hands on that 3-disc Criterion set.

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 recently read an article in The New York Times about a new book detailing the making of Paul Simon's landmark album Graceland.  This year marks the album's 40th anniversary.  (?!?!--I know, right?  40!  I can barely believe it my own self!)  The book, Days of Miracle and Wonder, was written by Ashley Kahn, who was a member of the Graceland tour's production team. 

Apparently--and I haven't read the book, although I'd like to--it brings up a lot of old debates and issues.  Kahn apparently presents valid perspectives on both sides of those debates.  When I think about it with (again) 40 FREAKING YEARS of hindsight, those debates and issues were things I somehow missed when the album came out.  An argument could be made that I was too young to fully understand them.

If you were too young to remember the brouhaha, or, if you just need a refresher course--a lot of artists in the 1980s boycotted the country of South Africa for its policy of apartheid.  Long story short--Simon broke that boycott and traveled to South Africa.  There he connected with musicians that he'd heard on a bootleg cassette someone had given him.  He was inspired to record Graceland, largely in South Africa, with them.

(It should also be noted that the album features contributions from noted American artists including Linda Ronstadt, Los Lobos, Good Rockin' Dopsie and The Twisters, and even his early idols The Everly Brothers.)

When the album was released, it introduced many Americans to South African performers such as The Gaza Sisters, The Boyoyo Boys, and Ladysmith Black Mambazo.  While many praised the album--it did go on to be nominated for four Grammy Awards, winning two for Album of the Year and Record of the Year--many cried foul and essentially accused Simon of cultural appropriation, a debate which apparently continues to this day.  Even Linda Ronstadt's appearance generated controversy.

I was 12 when the album was released.  As I said, somehow I have no recollection of the controversy.  At the time, I was more enamoured with the music of my parents' generation than my own.  When "You Can Call Me Al" hit the charts, I was just pleased that someone I actually liked was getting radio play.  (My sister and I even developed our own hand motions for the third verse.)  I only became aware of the controversy after watching the DVD that came with the special 25th anniversary edition of the CD.

But, like a lot of Americans, I was entranced by the music.  It was different.  It was exciting.  It was new... to us, anyway.  I even became a fan of Ladysmith Black Mambazo.  According to the Times article, Mark Braude wrote that in his book, Kahn presented Simon's argument of the whole "appropriation" debate, which is that, "music is by nature a fluid, unsteady thing, to be shared and misheard and re-evaluated by anyone and everyone, thriving through cross-pollination."  Honestly, I think it worked--beautifully.

I personally have issues with the whole "cultural appropriation" argument.  I know it's easy for me to say as a white guy and I'm not saying it didn't actually happen--especially in the early days of rock 'n' roll--but I genuinely feel that if you aspire to do anything, especially anything creative, you will take what came before you and influenced and inspired you, appropriate it, and--if you're really good--synthesize it into something that is uniquely yours.  If you're even better, your fans will seek out those influences and become fans themselves.  It's always worked for me.

I reject the notion that Simon appropriated anything.  And I don't do this outright because I'm white or a fan of his music.  I've actually given this a lot of thought and consideration.  It's because of Graceland that I am a fan of Ladysmith Black Mambazo--whose members have referred to Simon as their brother--and have a deep appreciation for African music in general.  It's because of Graceland that I am a fan of zydeco music.  Am I not allowed to appreciate these things just because they were introduced to me by a famous white American musician?  That just doesn't seem right to me.  But the debate continues.  And, honestly, I think it should continue.  Please, by all means... debate away.

What I really love is the fact that Graceland wasn't the beginning or the end of Simon's musical exploration.  His next album moved to another country on another continent and explored new sounds and cultures.  Weirdly, I don't remember any controversy over this album.  Maybe it was because Nelson Mandela was out of prison and apartheid was on the verge of ceasing to exist.  Maybe nobody cared if he experimented with Brazilian music and musicians.  Maybe they did but thought it was pointless to complain--people and critics loved Graceland, they would probably love this one too.

Maybe there was a controversy and, like with Graceland, I missed it too.  Because, like with Graceland, I was so taken with what I was hearing that any issues with it went over my head.  I'm probably in the minority on this, but I'll go as far as to say that I like this album better than Graceland.  It might even be my favourite of his albums--or if it isn't, it's certainly close.

The album featured appearances by Uakti, Grupo Cultural Olodum, Milton Nascimento,  both Randy and Michael Brecker, J.J. Cale, Jerry Douglas, and even Ladysmith Black Mambazo, among many others.  It went on to receive two Grammy nominations including Album of the Year. This week, please enjoy the one and only Paul Simon with his 1990 release, The Rhythm of the Saints.

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 Film of the Week!

Last week, I talked about the western film and how, like musicals, I have to be in the right frame of mind to watch one.

As I pointed out last week, when I think of western films, two names immediately come to mind--John Wayne and Clint Eastwood.  I focused on Eastwood specifically, not just as an actor, but as a director.  Over the last 50+ years, he's made a lot of "revisionist" westerns--films like Pale Rider, The Outlaw Josey Wales, and of course Unforgiven--films that were more realistic than the westerns we had seen in decades past.  In Eastwood's films, you couldn't always tell who was good and who was bad by the colour of their hats.  Good guys weren't completely good, bad guys weren't completely bad--there was a certain moral ambiguity all around.

John Wayne's movies, on the other hand--and not just his westerns--featured no such ambiguity.  Concepts like "good" and "bad" were very much defined in black and white--oftentimes they were even filmed that way.

Through the years, Wayne seemed to excel in two film genres--the western and the war film.  If he wasn't on horseback, he was in the trenches keeping America safe overseas.  He was a champion of good old fashioned "American" ("conservative") values, which today comes off as a bit outdated, even kind of corny.

Because I'm on the eccentric side, however, my favourite John Wayne movie is my favourite because it is neither a western nor a war film.  And even though there is some politically incorrect material, particularly his physical treatment of Maureen O'Hara's character as well as clearly outdated male/female relationship dynamics, I tend to look at it as a product of its time--at the very least a product of the time that's depicted in the movie.  In spite of that, O'Hara, who provided the commentary track for the DVD, seemed extremely proud to have been a part of it, even citing it as her favourite of her own movies.

In the film, Wayne plays Sean Thornton, an American boxer who has given up on the sport--we find out later he accidentally killed a man in the ring--who returns to his birthplace in Ireland to live a quiet life.  There he falls in love with Mary Kate Danaher (O'Hara) who lives nearby with her brother Will (Victor McLaglen).  Sean eventually wears down Mary Kate's fiery resolve with some help from Michaleen Oge Flynn, a local matchmaker (played by Barry Fitzgerald, who steals every scene he's in).  Will, however, doesn't like Sean too much and refuses to pay the proper dowry (like I said, outdated male/female relationship dynamics).  This leads to what I believe to be one of the greatest cinematic fistfights of all time--certainly one of the funniest.

I think what really makes it my favourite John Wayne film has nothing to do with any of that.  Director John Ford--who worked with Wayne 14 times and O'Hara five times, three times with both of them together--had a specific vision for the film that was a hard sell to Republic Pictures, but he stuck to his guns and it paid off.

He wanted to shoot the film on location in Ireland, something that was virtually unheard of at the time.  He also wanted to shoot it in Technicolor, which was considerably more expensive than shooting it in black and white.  Republic initially didn't want to do it--given the basic story, they didn't figure anyone would go see the picture, so why put up the added expense for locations and Technicolor?  Ford was insistent and the executives at Republic eventually agreed on the condition that, in exchange, Ford would make a low-budget, black and white western with Wayne and O'Hara that would be guaranteed to make money at the box office--in this case, 1950's Rio Grande.

However, Republic's concerns were ill-founded.  Ford's apparent passion project went on to be nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Picture and Supporting Actor (McLaglen).  It did win for Best Cinematography--back in the days when there were two cinematography categories, one for colour and one for black and white--and Ford scored his fourth Oscar for Best Director.

My favourite story, however, involves what lengths some directors will go to in order to get what they want out of their actors.  At the end of the film, Mary Kate whispers something in Sean's ear.  He gives her a funny look and then chases her up the hill.  After a few takes, Ford was still not getting the reaction he wanted out of Wayne.  According to O'Hara, Ford told her to whisper something specific in Wayne's ear.  She had some issues with saying it, but she did it anyway.  The look on Wayne's face indicates that he was not expecting that and he inadvertently gave Ford exactly what he was trying to capture.  To this day, no one knows precisely what she said to him and all three of them took that information to their graves.

Released in 1952 and based on a story by Maurice Walsh (adapted for the screen by Frank S. Nugent), this week, please enjoy The Quiet Man.

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 made an interesting discovery some time back.  I realized--and this may not be true for all of you, but it often is for me--that my first exposure to something, especially something musical, is often what sticks with me the most throughout my life.  It often acts as a starting point to discovering other things, even better things, but that first taste of it frequently remains my favourite.

Nowhere is this truer than in jazz.  I remember finding Jimmy Smith's 1962 album Bashin' in my parents' record collection when I was in high school.  On a whim, I put it on the turntable just because I was looking for something new and/or different to listen to.  (For more on this, you can read my post from 25 April of this year.)

Ultimately, that album made me fall in love with not just Jimmy Smith's music, but jazz in general.  You'll likely never find it on a list of the greatest jazz albums of all time--hell, you probably won't even find it on a list of Jimmy Smith's greatest recordings.  But 35 years after discovering it, it's still not only my favourite jazz album, but one of my Top 10 favourite albums of all time.  My mom's old copy of that album is now framed and hangs on my wall.

In college, I used to frequent a shop on the south end of the Ball State campus called The Discount Den.  They sold BSU swag, magazines, slushies, and novelty items.  If I had ten spare dollars, I could usually be found there browsing the CD rack that spanned the length of one wall.  I acquired some of my favourite albums from those racks during my four years of school.

One day, while determining that I needed more jazz in my collection, I happened to stumble upon a CD by saxophonist John Coltrane.  I mostly knew him by reputation as one of the greatest sax players of all time in any genre of music.  FULL DISCLOSURE:  I had (still have, actually) a CD that a family friend gave me called Miles & Coltrane, which was a collection of live recordings that he had done with Miles Davis--I believe as part of Davis's band--in the mid-1950s.  But I really wanted to hear Coltrane leading his own band in the studio.

Like so many other jazz albums I bought at the Den, I was not disappointed.  It got me exploring more of the music he created in his too short life, particularly the albums released for Impulse! Records in the 1960s, most notably his masterpiece, A Love Supreme.  But invariably I keep coming back to this album.  It may not be his best remembered album, but it's still my favourite because it was what I heard first.  It's funny how things stick with you like that.

Recorded in 1957 and released in January of 1958, this was Coltrane's only album released for Blue Note Records.  His band included trumpeter Lee Morgan, trombonist Curtis Fuller, pianist Kenny Drew, double bassist Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones on drums.  Produced by Alfred Lion and engineered and mastered by the great Rudy Van Gelder, please enjoy John Coltrane with what I feel is the highly underrated and underappreciated Blue Train.

(GEEK NOTE:  Some of the more eagle-eared listeners may notice the title track for its use in the 1992 Cameron Crowe film Singles.  I know I was excited when I first caught it just because in a film full of contemporary Seattle grunge music that I didn't really listen to, here was a song I recognized.  I'm still bummed it was left off the soundtrack album.)

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 Film of the Week!

 Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin):  Nobody does westerns anymore.

John Chambers (John Goodman):  It's ancient Troy.

Siegel:  If it's got horses in it, it's a western.

--from the movie Argo, 2012

Last week, I wrote about musicals and how, even though I'm a fan, I can't just pop any musical into my blu-ray player and enjoy it.  With one or two exceptions, I typically have to be in the right frame of mind to watch one.

When I think about it, there's really only one other genre of film that I have to be in the right mood for--and that is the western.  I've tried to understand why.  Maybe it's the background which always seems so stark and empty, yet at the same time really bright.  It's like a prerequisite for a western that it must be set in some bleak, uninhabited area with lots of wide, open spaces and dirt.  Maybe there's a small town on a dirt road with a dry goods store, a saloon, and a whorehouse a couple of miles from where the protagonist lives on a farm or a ranch.  Normally, this sort of thing doesn't do anything for me.

Again, I have to reiterate that I do really like westerns.  If nothing else, I deeply admire it as a distinctly American art form.  I just have to be in the right mood to watch one.  I've found that the best time to watch them is on a Sunday morning or early Sunday afternoon.  I find that time of day/week seems to put me in the right mood for a western.  (This is also an ideal time for epics, war films, and anything starring Steve McQueen.)

I should clarify that there are two exceptions--I can watch Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Blazing Saddles anytime without having to be in the right mood for a western.  You can read my thoughts on Saddles here.

When discussing westerns, two actors immediately spring to mind--John Wayne and Clint Eastwood.  Of the two, I'm a bigger fan of Eastwood, probably because he clearly appreciates the craft of filmmaking.  He doesn't just act, he also produces, directs, and in the last couple of decades has even composed his own scores.  In fact, Warner Brothers even named one of their scoring stages after him.

I sat down to watch this film recently, partially because it's one of my favourite Eastwood films--as I understand it, it's also one he's especially proud of--but also because it's celebrating its 50th anniversary this year and I'm kind of a dork about things like that.  I was even kind of in a western mood.  I hadn't watched it in over a decade and I had forgotten how good it really was.

In the film, Eastwood plays a simple Missouri farmer whose wife and son are murdered in front of him by renegade Union soldiers during the Civil War.  He then joins a group hellbent on vengeance.  After the Confederacy surrenders, his group is offered amnesty, but he refuses to join them.  He watches from a distance as they are double-crossed and executed.

Assuming correctly that they'll be coming for him, he goes on the run trying to help one member of his group (played by Sam Bottoms) who was wounded trying to escape the slaughter.  Along the way, he reluctantly picks up stragglers--a couple of Native Americans, some settlers from Kansas, and even a stray dog.  They ultimately band together to protect each other from bounty hunters and hostile Union soldiers.

Eastwood not only acted, but he also produced and directed the film.  Based on the novel Gone To Texas by Forrest Carter (you can Google him if you're so inclined), the film co-stars Chief Dan George, Sondra Locke, Geraldine Keams, Paula Trueman, John Vernon, Bill McKinney, and Will Sampson.  This week, please enjoy The Outlaw Josey Wales.

Until next week, stay safe, be good to your neighbours, and please remember that governments don't live together--people live together.

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

The Reverend Will the Thrill