Back in the early 1950s. living in a two bedroom spacious apartment on West 97 Street in Manhattan's Upper West Side with the whole block full of parking spots, I will tell you about two items that are way different from today. I used to listen to the WMCA Good Guys who played Elvis and Little Richard on an old and cracked Zenith plug in radio.We were not poor and our rent was $119/month and that old Zenith was the only "device" our family had and we were fine with it. We also spent hours talking to each other.
Last night our grown kids were out, my wife and I spent hours of time on the 5 laptops that run our businesses. Our cell phones were going and glitches and software problems abounded. One of our dental care providers had to be reviewed. When I was a child, the good doctor used to come up to our apartment from his own in the building with a big black bag. In it he had every shot and pill to cure my sister and I. My Dad gave him
$5 and that was our health care. It must have worked because I have never been sick since then and I will be 59 in January. If you had to have surgery at Flower Fifth Avenue Hospital or St. Luke's and you had to stay for awhile, since there were no credit cards to get us in debt, you paid maybe $600 cash for the stay at a race track window on the first floor. All I can say is that we are in a preposterous era today when you think of how complicated and tension filled everything we do is. We even had repairable sex and fabulous music for a long time until that changed.
Last night was Christmas Eve and I was home alone with my wife of 28 years. You know that we did not have much to say which is normal at this juncture in wedded bliss. So I went to bed with my Apple IPhone set to my Pandora App and playing my station Bob Dylan Only. When Tom Rush and Bob Seger started to wind down as I drifted off to memories of a packed McDougal Street and the magnificent Clearwater on a clean Hudson, the device went off. I woke up Christmas Day cradling my new Age Zenith in the Electronic Age and feeling edgy about what is to come.
Friday, December 25, 2009
Friday, December 4, 2009
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Where Is The Fred Astaire Of Today's Entertainment Industry?
For no specific reason other than the usual boredom with things television, I stumbled tonight upon the old movie Top Hat starring Fred Astaire. Sometimes by happenstance I ephemerally stop on some obscure cable channel and end up fixated on one of the historic movies of the 1930's or '40s. Tony Bennett, incidentally, the "singer's singer" as noted by compatriot Frank Sinatra, hero of I Left My Heart in San Francisco unleashed at the Fairmont Hotel in downtown SF, was ultimately to become an unsigned artist. His son stepped in as his creative consultant and Tony's career went flying again with the release of this wonderful compilation CD of Fred Astaire Music entitled Stepping Out. This was the exact musical content of Top Hat, the movie I accidentally landed on tonight. Now why would I go on about Fred Astaire who I do not know is even mentioned or discussed in our illustrious 21 Century?. It is because if you look at the sheer magnificence of the gentleman's presentation and the alacrity and precision of his singularly genius abilities in dance and unmitigated charm, do you realize that there is not one person in the entertainment business who could even tie the shoes of Fred Astaire. While it is true that for years I have written about the Idol Mentality and the influence this has had on our music business and Hollywood in 2009, I am not really going there again at this point. I am just wondering why not only is there no Fred Astaire performing today, there is no Ratso Rizzo, Five Easy Pieces or going back, no Bob Mitchum, Richard Widmark, Humphrey Bogart, Lana Turner and endlessly going forward with many more entries. In music, no band can rock like Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, croon like Billy Eckstein or vocalize like Brook Benton or Benny E. King or Jerry Butler. I am in no way saying that the music business or Hollywood and entertainment is a vast wasteland but we have got to stop depending on oldies acts to carry the ball over the line. Jackie Vernon has been dead for many many years and a long time ago I remember him as a fixture on the Ed Sullivan Show as a stand up comic. Jackie emanated from the old Time Square Dixie Hotel set which included Lenny Bruce and the real deal comedians that were the colleagues of Don Rickles and Don Adams as they were discharged from service in WWll. Jackie Vernon would stand there on stage with a clicker and exhibited a completely dead pan face and say "I was a deck hand on a submarine then I got a job as a night watchman in a day camp.Needless to say, besides my favorite comedian Chris Rock, Jackie Vernon, a blast from the distant past, was much funnier than anybody out there today. In summary, I see a need for a reorganization of the entire bunch today (Johnny Depp excluded), which means to somehow stop the millions of dollars it is needed to appease actors and singers who should be more negotiable and whereas some are no real talent hard bodies. What we need is some Fred Astaire's, 21 year old Stevie Nicks and a 2009 James Taylor. There is too much cherry picking Cd's out there and no more Tapestrys.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Monday, September 21, 2009
New Rule: You Can't Complain About Health Care Reform If You're Not Willing to Reform Your Own Health
Bill: I remember Mort Sahl at the Hungry I in San Francisco and for my generation he was the most incisive and provocative political satirists in memory. Yourself and Dennis Miller are excellent and the above article has impressed me in ways other than quips and comedic allusions about a healthy life style which I have always practiced diligently Aside from your skills in entertainment, I would rather concentrate on your telling message. At least since 1986 I have gained not one pound and I have never required any operation and have never had any physical disease of any sort. I was born in 1951. I think still and all I must be 15 lbs overweight but cannot understand after all these years why 36 inch waistline has not change a millimeter. Something that was not addressed is exercise, I swim or walk every single day. That is so important for your physical and mental health. I have not had any fast food from anywhere in 20 years. no fried food, Special K and fruit with no exception very Am, Since Tab, I drink diet Soda all day and never more that one scotch a day. You see, Bill, your article was a satirical wake up call, but seriously no one in super size land will agree to my Spartan lifestyle.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
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