Dear London

One of my favourite YouTube channels is Letters Live, in which celebrities read letters written by people both famous and not, many of which are quite humourous.  I stumbled upon a video some months back in which Benedict Cumberbatch (a frequent letter reader) announced a competition encouraging viewers to write a letter to the city of London.  The winning letter would be read aloud by Cumberbatch at a Letters Live performance.

While the winning letter was ten times more eloquent than anything I could have ever hoped to have written, I was still kind of proud of my submission.  So I thought I'd put it here where you can read it.

 

9 September, 2025

Dear London,

Let me begin by saying that I am an American. Please don't hold that against me. I've only been to London—in fact, I've only been to the UK—once. But it had such a profound effect on me that in the years and decades since my visit, I've found myself reflecting on my short time there more than frequently.  My sister (also an American, but I swear she's cool) was spending a year working for The Simon Community, a charity that was a favourite of the Queen Mother, and I was visiting her with another friend of ours on holiday (or "vacation" as we call it in the States).

Like many Americans, I probably had a slightly romanticized vision of London from literature and films—specifically the works of Richard Curtis and, of course, Mary Poppins. And I definitely felt a bit of that from the minute I got off the plane at Gatwick Airport. After exchanging our currency, my friend and I got on a train to take us into the city. As we rode past what I thought were quaint little homes that looked like an illustration in a children's book, I had to remind myself that actual people actually lived in those actual houses. We have houses like that in America too—along with actual people who actually live in them—but they were never anything special to me in my own country. For the first time in my life, I was the foreign visitor. I suddenly felt compelled to be on my best behaviour and not come off as the stereotypical "ugly American." I hope I was at least moderately successful.

I spent my 27th birthday roaming the streets of your fair city, occasionally singing aloud the chorus of Bill Withers's song "Lovely Day" because... well, it was. To this day, it was one of the loveliest days I've spent. I became completely enchanted by you. I don't know if it was you, or the company I was keeping on the day, but it was the best birthday I've ever had.

As I said, I was affected by the experience. Just to be ornery, I now write dates backward by American standards and I've adopted the British spellings of certain words like "colour." And if HP Sauce ever needs an international spokesperson, I'm available. It is, quite possibly, my favourite condiment.

In spite of that, I haven't been back in the nearly 25 years since, simply because I'm afraid that it won't be as enchanting the second time around. Perhaps our relationship is destined to be a brief, but hopefully meaningful, fling—ships that pass in the night and all that. Perhaps... but I hope not.

With much love,

Will Allen

 

Tower Bridge, London, UK, April, 2001

 

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

Today is Dick Van Dyke's 100th birthday.  And having grown up watching him, first in reruns of "The Dick Van Dyke Show" and later "Diagnosis Murder" in which he played a mystery solving doctor who worked alongside his detective son (played by his real-life son Barry), I've been a fan pretty much my whole life.  I have a deep admiration for him and his work--if for no other reason that even at his age, he's still quite the hoofer (check out the Coldplay video he appeared in just last year if you don't believe me).

In honour of that, I felt compelled to submit this bonus film for the simple fact that I've loved this film most of my life.  My mother took me to see it in a theater when I was four or five years old.  She had always been a fan of both of the film's leading stars.  As such, I grew up to be a fan of both of them myself.

I alluded to this movie in last week's film "sermon" when I talked about certain scenes within a movie.  I mentioned specifically the tea party on the ceiling from this movie as being one of my favourite individual film scenes.  In fact, being the compulsive list-maker that I am, if I had to rank them, I would put it at #3 on my list of all-time favourite scenes (behind the assassination of Don Fanucci in The Godfather Part II and Wolfman Jack's scene in American Graffiti).  Although now that I think of it, I would probably put the "Step in Time" number with the chimney sweeps on the rooftops at #4.

In spite of the fact that Van Dyke gave us what is arguably the worst Cockney accent in film history (perhaps eclipsed only by Lin-Manuel Miranda in the 2018 sequel), it's still a perennial favourite.  It's one of the greatest family films ever made, arguably one of the greatest Disney films ever made, and one that I still like to revisit from time to time.  Julie Andrews won an Oscar for what was only her first (released) film and became an overnight sensation as the titular magical nanny to two children.  The songs that Richard and Robert Sherman wrote for the film are just as classic and still sung today including "A Spoonful of Sugar," "Feed the Birds," "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious," and the Oscar-winning "Chim-Chim-Cheree."

Bill Walsh and Don DaGradi wrote the screenplay based on P.L. Travers's series of children's books.  Unfortunately, she was not a fan of the movie and was skeptical throughout the development process (for more on this, check out the 2013 film Saving Mr. Banks starring Emma Thompson as Travers and Tom Hanks as Walt Disney).

Released in 1964 and directed by Robert Stevenson, this week, in honour of Dick Van Dyke's centennial, please enjoy the one and only Mary Poppins.  Like Julie Andrews in her Golden Globe acceptance speech, I too would like to thank Mr. Jack Warner for making it all possible.  (You can look that one up, if you're not familiar with the story.)

This will be my last Film of the Week "sermon" for 2025.  I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season, whatever holiday you celebrate (or even if you don't).

Until 2026, 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 have a theory about the holiday season.  I think most of us--at least most of us over the age of about eight years old--don't really believe in Santa Claus.  I mean the idea of a jolly, fat guy in a red suit who lives at the North Pole (a fairly uninhabitable place) with a wife and a bunch of elves, who travels on a flying sleigh pulled by reindeer... that alone is fantastically absurd.  And I haven't even gotten into the more professional aspects of his life!  But I do think that most of us, regardless of age, want to believe in Santa Claus.  And, frankly, who wouldn't?

(Many years ago, I commented that I would like to see a "Far Side"-type cartoon of Fox Mulder's office decorated for the holiday season.  On the wall behind him would be his "I Want to Believe" poster, but instead of depicting a UFO, it would have a reindeer-pulled sleigh.  A friend of mine actually drew that cartoon for me that Christmas.  I still have it.)

For those of us who at least want to believe in Santa Claus, we kind of have to rely on depictions of him in film and television.  Over the years, we've seen a variety of actors put on the red suit and yell, "Ho!  Ho!  Ho!"  From Kurt Russell in The Christmas Chronicles to Tim Allen in The Santa Clause, they make us actually believe in Santa Claus... if only for a couple of hours.  One of my personal favourite performances was Ed Asner in Elf--in spite of his jollity, he had kind of a world-weariness about him.  The fact that so few people believed in him genuinely seemed to hurt him, which actually kind of hurt me as a viewer.

But the performance of Santa in this week's film is, I think, the best.  Watching it makes you want to believe in Santa even more than you probably already want to.  In it, Edmund Gwenn plays a department store Santa (Macy's specifically) who is introduced to us when he saves Macy's annual Thanksgiving Day Parade by filling in for a "Santa" who's clearly too drunk to function.  He goes on to work in the store, meeting children and finding out what they want for Christmas.  He even does the unheard of by sending parents to other department stores to find items that aren't in stock at Macy's.  He's offended by the crass commercialism of the season and just wants to make children happy.

He befriends Doris Walker (the great Maureen O'Hara), a single mother who happened to hire him for the parade.  She's raised her young daughter Susan (played by Natalie Wood) to not believe in fairy tales or Santa Claus or anything else other than "reality," to keep her from being disappointed later in life.  Unfortunately, this Santa Claus believes he really is Kris Kringle.  In fact, his employment card at Macy's lists his name as Kris Kringle, born at the North Pole.  His next of kin are even listed as Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donder, and Blitzen (which I assume must be a blow to Mrs. Claus).  Before long, Fred Gailey (played by John Payne), a lawyer who is letting Kris room with him temporarily, has to defend his new roommate in court to prove that he is sane and shouldn't be institutionalized.

Edmund Gwenn put on 30 pounds to play Kris and went on to win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, making him, to the best of my knowledge, the only actor to win an Oscar for playing Santa Claus.  The Thanksgiving Day Parade scenes at the beginning of the film were actually shot during the real Macy's Parade in 1946.  Spectators didn't even realize it was Gwenn in the Santa suit.  George Seaton not only directed but also wrote the screenplay based on a story by Valentine Davies (both of whom won Oscars for the screenplay and story respectively).  Released in May of 1947 (because 20th Century Fox studio head Darryl F. Zanuck argued more people went to the movies during the summer), the film went on to become a holiday classic that's still beloved today.  In fact, it's one of only three Christmas movies ever nominated for Best Picture--the other two being The Bishop's Wife, which was nominated the same year, and It's a Wonderful Life, which was nominated the year before.  This week, please enjoy Miracle on 34th Street.

Due to mitigating circumstances, I'm submitting a bonus Film of the Week "sermon" this week.  Stay tuned.

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

The Reverend Will the Thrill

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

It's that time of year again--snow is falling, bells are jingling, toes are mistling... that's right, folks, it's the holiday season!  And whatever holiday you personally celebrate based on whatever faith, religion, or tradition you practice (or even if you don't), I hope you're having a great one.

A couple of weeks ago, I mused about the differences between adults and children where it pertains to the falling of snow.  To some degree, I think this is true of the holidays as well.  I get a lot less excited about them as an adult than I did as a kid.  I suppose it could just be me, so I won't speak for all adults.  And I suppose I would feel differently if I had young kids of my own--or even grandkids, as I've discovered so many people my age now have.

I don't dread it like I did when I worked retail, but I did that for so long that I still have certain attitude problems that never fully went away.  And my current job doesn't shut down for the holidays.  In fact, I actually have to work this Christmas.  It's a lot harder to get excited about the holidays when you know that's looming over your head.

The older I get, the more of a curmudgeon I become.  It's not that I hate the holidays--I mean, I haven't said "Bah! Humbug!" since 2008--I just have to convince myself to participate.  I still put up a tree and watch a lot of holiday movies.  (And, yes, I do consider Die Hard to be a Christmas movie, but more importantly, I think Lethal Weapon is a better Christmas movie than Die Hard.  Yeah, I said it!) But there are still some battle scars from my retail days.  Clearly, I stayed in it too long.

The one thing I do more frequently than I did a decade ago is listen to holiday music.  As I've often said, when I worked retail, I would usually find myself burned out on Christmas music around Veterans' Day because corporate started pushing it sometime after Labour Day.  But when I don't have to listen to it 40 hours a week, I find I actually want to from time to time.  The interesting thing about holiday music is that it's hard to screw up.  Consequently, I find that I have some Christmas CDs in my collection by artists that I don't even like (maybe I'll focus on that next year).  The one habit from my retail days is that I still tend to examine lyrics that make no sense.  I don't understand why the ox and lamb kept time.  As the Little Drummer Boy... isn't that his job?

Anyway, this holiday season, I want to share one of my favourite Christmas albums.  The one thing I like about this album is that the first half of the album is more "contemporary" Christmas songs, and the second half is more traditional songs with a heavy gospel influence (in fact a couple of songs aren't even Christmas tunes--just straight up gospel).  I firmly believe that the album's opening track, the Jerry Leiber/Mike Stoller penned "Santa Claus is Back in Town," is the best rock 'n' roll Christmas song ever recorded.  The second half of the album, in particular, shows off the vocal talents of The Jordanaires, who I contend were the greatest backup singers of all time.  They, more than anyone else, actually gave me an appreciation for gospel music that I never used to have growing up.  From 1957, please enjoy the King of Rock 'n' Roll himself with his first--and I've always felt his best--collection of holiday tunes, Elvis' Christmas Album.

This will be my last "Album of the Week" sermon for 2025.  I wish you all a fabulous holiday season and you'll be hearing from me again in the New Year.  In the meantime, be kind to the retail clerks and restaurant servers and cafe baristas who wait on you this holiday season.  Many of them are likely just trying to get through it.

Until 2026, 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 was thinking about some of my favourite films--not just the films, but specific scenes from those films.  There are certain movies where one certain moment in the film moved me in such a way, that I don't have to watch the entire movie--just that particular scene.  For as much as I love Mary Poppins--and I do--I'm perfectly content to just watch the tea party on the ceiling.

This week's film is kind of like that.  I love the whole movie, but one scene near the end has always stuck with me and I find myself pulling it up on YouTube once in awhile just to watch it out of context (I've included a link to it as well).  It's kind of sentimental, because it stars one of my heroes.

I think it's safe to say that Wolfman Jack has been a profound influence on me since I read his memoir Have Mercy! Confessions of the Original Rock 'n' Roll Animal in the summer of 2001.  Admittedly, the Wolfman was a little before my time.  I do have faint childhood memories of seeing him on "Hollywood Squares" when I was in preschool.  And he died in 1995 while on a book tour for that memoir which had just been published.  But in reading it, I felt like I had found a kindred musical spirit.  He seemed like someone I would have liked to have known--like someone I could have been if I were considerably less restrained than I am, both personally and professionally.

His influence, at least subconsciously, wormed its way into the promotional announcements I would make at Barnes & Noble in Bloomington in the 2000s.  In 2008, he even came to me in a dream and told me that he really liked those announcements.  I was terribly flattered.  I didn't even know he'd been in the store, let alone heard my hijinks over the store's PA system.  Of course, after I awoke, I remembered that he had died the year the store opened--two years before I even worked there.  And I've still never figured out what we were doing in my high school gym.  But it was enough to keep me doing it, both in and out of the store.  If you ever had the dubious honour of witnessing me announce a roller derby bout, you would not be wrong in saying that Wolfman Jack had some influence on The Reverend Will the Thrill.  I had a lot of fun earlier this year cosplaying as the Wolfman for a trivia competition.  (This is something of a long story, but I enclosed a picture.  I just wish I could have had his hair.)

I finally saw the movie American Graffiti after my father passed away--I found it among his DVDs.  I don't know why I had never seen it before, but I hadn't.  It was one I had always wanted to see and not just because Wolfman Jack is in it.  I grew up watching many of the actors in the cast and wanted to see the film that was a huge boost to so many careers, including the director.

To call the film nostalgic is a gross understatement.  I'm not sure there is even a word in the English language to describe the level of nostalgia that practically drips from this movie.  The soundtrack is fully loaded with some of the greatest songs of the first decade of rock 'n' roll, often punctuated by the Wolfman's full-throated introductions.  (As a call-back to my earlier tribute rant to Steve Cropper, I will say that the film is set in 1962 and the soundtrack does contain "Green Onions" by Booker T. & The MGs.)  It's a wonderful look back at young adulthood, that transition between high school and life, and the car culture of California in the early 1960s.

The film stars future Oscar-winning director Ron Howard (or "Ronny" as he's billed here), Richard Dreyfuss, and Charles Martin Smith as high school friends on their last night together after graduation before heading out into the great big world.  Along for the ride (before they were widely known) are Cindy Williams, Paul Le Mat, Candy Clark, Suzanne Somers, Mackenzie Phillips, and Harrison Ford.

Four years before Star Wars changed the way movies were made, George Lucas made a name for himself by co-writing and directing this love letter to his youth.  The movie would go on to be nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay (which Lucas shared with Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck), Supporting Actress (Candy Clark), and Film Editing (Verna Fields and Marcia Lucas).  Released in 1973, this week, please enjoy American Graffiti--whether it be the whole film or just Wolman Jack's scene with Richard Dreyfuss.

Until next week, stay safe, be good to your neighbours, and please remember that the Wolfman is everywhere!

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

The Reverend Will the Thrill

Yes, gracious, ladies and gents, everthing's gonna be everything, 'cause the Wolfman is in the house!  And we're gonna be rockin' and rollin' and movin' and groovin' to the greatest songs of all time.  All.  Night.  Long.  HAVE MERCY!!!!

The Reverend Will the Thrill Presents the Album of the Week--Part the Second!

This week's bonus album was unplanned.  But I would feel remiss if I didn't do it.  One of the... hallmarks, for lack of a better word, of these weekly "sermons" is what I call the memorial rant.  And we lost one of the greats this past week and I feel compelled to mention it here.

Steve Cropper died earlier this week at the age of 84.  A cornerstone of Memphis soul music in the 1960s, he was ranked #39 by Rolling Stone on their list of the 100 greatest guitarists in 2015.  (Mojo, a British publication, ranked him at #2 on their list of guitar greats, just behind Jimi Hendrix, in 1996.)

As a member of the Royal Spades, Cropper joined Stax Records in Memphis when they were still known as Satellite Records.  The Royal Spades later became known as The Mar-Keys, playing in session recordings for the studio, even having a hit single of their own in 1961 with "Last Night."  The following year, Cropper became part of the new "house band" at Stax, Booker T. & The MGs.  Alongside Hammond organist Booker T. Jones, drummer Al Jackson Jr., and bassist Lewie Steinberg (later replaced by Donald "Duck" Dunn), they backed many of the artists who recorded for Stax including Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Eddie Floyd, Wilson Pickett, and Carla Thomas.  Cropper even co-wrote quite a few of those hit songs including Pickett's "In the Midnight Hour," Floyd's "Knock On Wood," and Redding's posthumous hit "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay."  Booker T. & The MGs even managed to score a few instrumental hits of their own including "Time Is Tight," "Soul Limbo," "Hip Hug-Her," and of course "Green Onions," which seems to be featured in the soundtrack to any movie set in 1962.

In the late 1970s, John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, then part of the Not-Ready-For-Prime-Time Players at "Saturday Night Live," formed a musical group.  Cropper, along with fellow MG "Duck" Dunn and a tremendous group of musicians became part of The Blues Brothers Band.  They became so popular on the show that they were eventually signed to a recording contract with Atlantic Records.  The Blues Brothers toured the country opening for comedian Steve Martin.  Aykroyd wrote a whole backstory for the band (which is partially chronicled in the liner notes to their 1978 album A Briefcase Full of Blues), eventually developing it into a screenplay and a movie, The Blues Brothers, which was released in 1980.  (For more on this, please see my "Film of the Week" rant from 22 November of this year.)

Over the years, Cropper continued to record--both as a musician and a producer--with a whole host of artists including Rod Stewart, John Prine, Jeff Beck, John Mellencamp, Eric Clapton, and Sammy Hagar.  He also received many accolades along the way including two Grammy Awards, with five other nominations between 1967 and 2022.  Booker T. & The MGs were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1992, and Cropper was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2005.

But I will always think of him first and foremost as an architect of the "Memphis Sound" that defined some of the best soul music ever recorded.  This week's album is one of my favourites of the era by my favourite singer of all time.  Released in 1965 on the Stax subsidiary Volt Records, the album consists of mostly cover songs, three of them by Sam Cooke, who had been murdered the previous year.  Backed by Booker T. & The MGs as well as the Memphis Horns, please enjoy the one and only Otis Redding with his third album, Otis Blue / Otis Redding Sings Soul.

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--Part the First!

Well, folks, it's that time of the year when I pick my favourite album that was released in 2025.  Keep in mind that what I like is not always what shows up on Billboard charts or Spotify's most streamed lists.  Sometimes, but not always...  I'm not a huge fan of the music of Taylor Swift or Bad Bunny, but I do love the new Florence + The Machine album (although I just submitted one of Flo's albums recently, so I won't pick hers).

There were some wonderful albums that came out this past year that appealed to me.  Early on, Ringo Starr released Look Up, a country album that was quite good.  It was produced by the great T-Bone Burnett and featured appearances by artists like Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle, Lucius, and the always amazing Alison Krauss.

Jon Batiste released his newest album, Big Money, a few months ago.  I'm a big fan of Batiste and it's a fantastic album although, to be honest, I bought it primarily for his duet with Randy Newman (of whom I'm an even bigger fan)--a cover of the classic Doc Pomus song "Lonely Avenue."  Worth the price of the album.

I was quite entertained by the soundtrack to the film Spinal Tap II: The End Continues.  It consisted of new music from "England's Loudest Band," with some appearances by Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Elton John, Garth Brooks, and Trisha Yearwood on some of their classic songs.  What really sells it is the cover, which is an homage to Crosby, Stills & Nash's first album.  It was photographed by legendary photographer Henry Diltz who also photographed the CSN album in 1969.

Speaking of Elton John (who yelled from his bedazzled body cast in his hospital bed--and I quote--"FUCK SPINAL TAP!"), I was probably most taken with his new album.  Actually, it's a collaboration.  He and lifelong fan Brandi Carlile--quite the singer/songwriter in her own right--teamed up and released an album this past April.  Frankly, I found it uplifting--inspiring even.  These are emotions that are sometimes in short supply these days.  So I take them where I can find them.  Produced by uber-producer Andrew Watt (who has produced everyone from Cardi B to my beloved Rolling Stones), Elton and Brandi co-wrote all the tracks with Watt and Elton's longtime creative partner Bernie Taupin.  The album climbed to #9 on Billboard's Hot 200 chart and #1 on the Top Rock and Alternative album chart.  Every so often my tastes do coincide with the general public.  So this week, please enjoy my favourite album of 2025, Who Believes in Angels?

(It should be noted that the album features the song "You Without Me" which also appears on Brandi Carlile's also quite excellent solo album Returning To Myself, which came out in October.)

There's a previously unplanned bonus album featured this week!

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

The Reverend Will the Thrill