I recently learned of the senseless death of a friend from elementary school—someone I hadn’t seen in over forty years.  His name was Joe Kane.   The news reached across all that time and unexpectedly unlocked a reservoir of childhood emotions I didn’t even know I was still carrying.   Letting those feelings out left me feeling connected to Joe's spirit and to the memory of his kindness, a quality that many have remembered and commented on after hearing this tragic news. And in that connection, I came to a better, if bittersweet, understanding of this period in my own life, of the odd and destabilizing duality of growing up in an alcoholic household and how the magical resilience and essential fragility of childhood continues to co-exist within us, bringing us together and apart and together again, if we're lucky.    A lot of this episode draws from comments on a couple threads on my personal Facebook page which I've made public.   This episode is an expanded version of an essay I wrote in my newsletter about Joe's death. You can read it here if you'd like.   Here's the article that started all this.   And here's the link to the GoFundMe for Joe's funeral expenses and to benefit the Beth-El Center

Here's the next episode in a little courtroom-drama jag I've been on; it's about the second of screenwriter Steven Zaillian's three directorial efforts, 'A Civil Action', from Zaillian's adaptation of the best-selling Jonathan Harr nonfiction book of the same name.

Like 'The Rainmaker', 'A Civil Action' provides a large roster of fantastic actors opportunities to deliver amazing portrayals that rely as much on non-verbal communication as they do the words written by Zaillian. IMO this makes Zaillian an impressive director, because what writer would willingly NOT want to hear more of his own words coming from the actors mouths.

 

The Onion thread on X

Sydney Pollack scene from 'A Civil Action'

Sydney Pollack in Woody Allen's 'Husbands and Wives'

Sydney Pollack in 'Eyes Wide Shut'

Sydney Pollack in 'Tootsie'

Sydney Pollack on Stanley Kubrick

Dead & Company's 60th Anniversary three-show stand is an opportunity to talk about about the living history that the band's music represents, the ongoing and still-vital multi-generational pull of the concerts, which drew about 175,000 people, and the fascinating real-time challenge represented by sitting in with the band.  Using Sturgill Simpson and Trey Anastasio as examples of how players find a space for their instrument to occupy in the band's sonic tapestry, I dive into the sink-or-swim weirdness of entering this telepathic onstage space and speculate on what could be next for the band and the songs.

You can watch the first songs of all the nights here on YouTube.

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Check out nugs.net for the streaming 4K videos of the Dead & Co Golden Gate and other shows.

Vertex Effects 'The Guitarist Behind' Series is fantastic. This is the Wendy Melvoin one referenced in the episode. Other favorite are the Michael Thompson, Darryl Stuermer, Tim May, Ray Parker, Jr, Dean Parks, and Eddie Martinez.

In 1996, Francis Ford Coppola needed the money.

He was coming off a run of films that included The Godfather Part III, Bram Stoker's Dracula, and Jack.  His critical and box office results were at a career nadir.

So he agreed to direct an adaptation of the John Grisham bestseller 'The Rainmaker' for Paramount.  He wouldn't direct another film for 10 years.  And he'd make only four more, including the epic disaster 'Megalopolis'.

Curious then that 'The Rainmaker' is a superlative example of a courtroom thriller, a  big-business-versus-the-little-guy movie that features fantastic performances from a large cast of total pros; a film that deserves to be considered among Coppola's best, and maybe a film whose constraints brought out the best in a filmmaker not know for personal or professional restraint.

Well, it's come to this. Was it curiosity? Was is discovery? A sense of completism?   Oxygen deprivation? Whatever it was, I've now watched '2010: The Year We Make Contact' and I leave it for you to decide whether I'm any better for it.

 

We've come to the end...or is it the beginning?  This is part 4 of my series of episodes about the emotional and intellectual contact Stanley Kubrick made between movie-goers and his epic science-fiction film of 1968.

Here's the amazing mashup between Pink Floyd's 'Echoes' and the final sequence of 2001.

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In Part 3, I geek out into how incredible and evocative the HAL sequences are in this film; what an amazing sense of character and personality Kubrick creates through the use of Doug Rain's iconic, best-in-class voiceover and the varying cutaways to HAL's electronic eye in scenes featuring the computer.

Be sure to check out my other episodes covering the other sections of 2001.

Next up: THE STAR GATE sequence in Jupiter And Beyond The Infinite.

In part 2 of my four-part series on 2001, I am going through the TMA-1 (Tycho Magnetic Anomaly One) sequence in which Dr. Haywood Floyd of "The Council" visits the International Space Station, diverts some Russian scientist attentions, presents a specious, US Governmental coverup of the Clavius discovery to a group of cowed committee members, and then embarks to Clavius base on the Moon to visit the Monolith.

This sequence famously uses Johann Strauss' 'The Blue Danube' as well as additional modern pieces by Ligeti.

Here's the hilarious video making fun of the exposition scenes in the latest Mission Impossible movie. Tom, we kid because we love!

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The first of my four-part series on Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey' covers some introductory approach notes and the first sequence in the film: 'The Dawn Of Man'.

In these episodes I want to avoid a nerdy technical discussion about how the filmmakers did what they did in this extraordinary, still-vital film masterpiece and instead focus on the remarkable ability of the film to inspire thoughts and feelings in its viewers.  

For a bibliography of resources consulted in the research of these episodes, check out my 6/13 newsletter for links to materials you might find of interest.

I'd never seen Texas Chainsaw Massacre before this episode.  I had also never seen Texas Chainsaw Massacre II. Regrets, I have a few.

And this apparent chainsaw-sized hole in my film-going life is at the heart the Brad Caleb Kane Experiment In Terror that are our Cannon Fodder series of episodes.

Find out what happened in this chaotic mess of an episode.