indestructible

 Tina Turner wrote a second autobiography which was published in 2018, titled My Love Story.  

        I read it on Sunday.

On You Tube, there's a channel called "TINA Turner Blog."  It has some good content:  in a video, "5 Life Tips Learned From Tina Turner (Vlog) - 2020," at about the four-minute mark, they added an interview of Tina, done by a French presenter.  He speaks in French and you see subtitles in English.  

        (And then when she answers in English, you hear a lady repeating what she says in French.)

        It's funny, for some reason - in a nice way - this happy chaos of languages, and besides this, the man doing the interview is curiously - aggressive, sort of - !  I mean, not in a scary way.  It's humorous.  It must be his style....

"Tina Turner!  Indestructible Tina Turner!  'When The Heartache Is Over.'  And Tina, who is joining us for a few minutes"...

She walks up, he kisses her on one cheek, then the other.

"Merci...thank you for being with us tonight"

"My pleasure."

"Now honestly, you have to tell me,  You must have a secret.  It's incredible.  I observed you during the song.  An incredible energy, a jaw dropping tonus.  So now you won't leave this studio, without telling me how you do it!"

        OK, did he just threaten to - kidnap her and hold her prisoner in the studio? - LOL.

And it's all said in French, so it sounds even more sinister, albeit more stylish, at the same time.

I had to look up the word tonus.

It is a word.

--  "the constant low-level activity of a body tissue, especially muscle tone"

        Everything sounds more glamorous in French, even a weird word like tonus.

-30-

"I don't know..."

 

dialogue from the first episode ("pilot") of The Sopranos

"I don't know, stress, maybe - I don't know, morning of the day I got sick, I been thinkin' - It's good to be in somethin' from the ground-floor, I came too late for that, I know - But lately, I'm gettin' the feelin' - that I came in at the end.  The best is over."

"Many Americans, I think, feel that way."

"I think about my father.  He never reached the heights, like me.  But in a lot of ways, he had it better.  He had his people.  They had their standards.  They had pride.  Today - what d' we got?"

-30-

rationing typewriter ribbon

 --------------------- [excerpt from Apropos of Nothing, by Woody Allen - Copyright 2020, Arcade Publishing] -----------------

It [the film Annie Hall] got nominated for a number of Oscars.  The night of the ceremony I was playing jazz in New York.  I remember playing "Jackass Blues," a tune made famous by King Oliver.  

I used my gig as an excuse, but I wouldn't have gone if I was free.  I don't like the idea of awards for artistic things.  They're not created for the purpose of competition; they're made to fulfill an artistic itch and hopefully entertain.  

        I'm not interested in any group's pronunciamento as to which film is the best film of the year, or the best book, or the Most Valuable Player.  

I don't want to get into this and waste my typewriter ribbon, because then I'll have to get that guy over who changes it and feed him.  Suffice it to say, Oscar night, I played the blues best I could, went home, went to sleep, and the next morning on page one of the Times noticed down below we had won four Oscars including Best Picture....

        I was in the midst of writing Interiors, and that's what held my attention.  Not a movie I'd done a year ago.  Don't look back, Satchel Paige said, something may be gaining on you.  I heed that great man's advice.  I try never to look back, I don't like living in the past.

scene in Annie Hall

-30-

"I don't care if the sun don't shine..."

 You Tube has videos of TV Christmas specials from the past - Cher, in the mid-1970s; Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra from the late Sixties....

        Cher had one with Redd Foxx in it - he was hilarious.

        Cher's special was her alone, not the Sonny-and-Cher team to which we were accustomed - they had separated and were getting a divorce.  I remember, I was shocked by that.

        Sonny - got too bossy, or something....

Dean Martin shows up in several episodes of The Sopranos - not the actual person, he had passed on by the time they were making the saga of Tony Soprano - but references to Dean Martin and some of his music, and to Steubenville.

In an episode titled "White Caps" Tony is having conflict with a lawyer over a real estate deal, and he takes his boat out near the lawyer's beach side cottage and plays a Dean Martin nightclub act (some talking - "How long I been on?" - and some singing), from a CD-player with a big sound system.

        The lawyer gets mad - his wife points out, 'if you call the authorities on him, Tony Soprano can just keep paying those two-hundred-dollar fines.'

        It always amazes me how mad people get if they hear music being played by someone else.  Like - music is only OK if they themselves put on the record, or CD or whatever.

Weird.

-30-

away to the window, I flew like a flash

 

What makes Christmas?

church (in childhood)

"A Charlie Brown Christmas"

"How The Grinch Stole Christmas" (1966 version)

"It's A Wonderful Life"

the songs - "Hark, The Herald Angels Sing" has always been one of my favorite 'hit hymns.'

get-togethers

...and all our traditions, whatever they are.

        You Tube has 

A Charlie Brown Christmas FULL ALBUM

Thank you, Mr. Tube.

Nice gift.

        When I was little (before kindergarten) I had "Twas The Night Before Christmas" memorized - it was fun to turn the pages of the book, saying the words, pretending to read.

-30-

the art of gambling

 Listening to "Talking Sopranos" podcast on You Tube, I felt like I was "in the know" when I heard someone say, talking about gambling, you can "let it ride" - and I knew what Let It Ride meant.

(Or - I think I do.)

        Then one of the guys says it's a crazy decision to let it ride because "it's really hard" to get those same numbers to come up again.

And I thought - "really hard" implies there's effort and skill the gambler puts into it.  "Really hard" is sort of not the right phrase:  more like, "very unlikely."

Dice are like the weather.  We don't have any control over it, or influence over it. 

Right?

A certain component for people who enjoy gambling has to be - Believing In Stuff.  Believing you have a special connection with the universe, to where It (the Universe) is going to let you have special luck.

There.  Luck.  That's the thing one is believing in, if one is gambling, I guess.

 

-30-

the band's still playin' it loud and lean

 

Bob Seger

So you're a little bit older

And a lot less bolder than you used to be

So you used to shake 'em down

But now you stop and think about your dignity

So now sweet 16's turned 31

You get to feelin' weary when the work day's done

Well, all you got to do is get up - and into your kicks

If you're in a fix

Come back baby, rock and roll never forgets

You get yourself a partner

Go down to the concert, or the local bar

Check the local newspapers

Chances are you won't have to go too far

Yeah, the rafters will be ringing 'cause the beat's so strong

The crowd will be swaying and singing along

And all you got to do is get in, into the mix

If you need a fix

You can come back baby, rock and roll never forgets

Ooh, the band's still playing it loud and lean

Listen to the guitar player making it scream

All you got to do is just make that scene tonight

Hey, tonight, ooh

Well now sweet 16's turned 31

Feel a little tired, feeling under the gun

Well, all of Chuck's children are out there - playing his licks

Get into your kicks

Come back baby, rock and roll never forgets

Said you can come back baby, rock and roll never forgets

Oh, come back baby, rock and roll never forgets

Ooh-ooh-ooh

Oh, yeah, oh, yeah

Ah, uh-huh, uh-huh

Never Forgets, oh, no, oh, no

Oh never forgets

Oh yeah, ooh-ooh...

...

Type this song in on You Tube, and - enjoy!

Downtown Detroit

-30-

rock and roll never forgets

 

A few different times when I have written about Christmas memories I think of that sled referred to in my poem of two days ago.

It occurred to me Friday, Oh great, now I'm like the fanatic in Citizen Kane who has his memories at the end of the movie, where he thinks of the sled he had when he was a kid, & the sled was named Rosebud.

He moans, "Rosebud ... Rooose-buuud.."

LOL.

        At least my sled didn't have a name.

The other day on the radio I heard the Bob Seger song, "Rock And Roll Never Forgets."  It may have been 46 years since I heard that song, and the notes and lyrics still came right up in my mind as I listened.

        It was like an old friend.

-30-

reindeer days

 {a holiday poem}

----------------------------------------

----------------------------------------------

Christmas - Times

Black night sky

Over peaceful snow like

Diamond-sprinkled white cake

In the garage:

A sled!

In the garage,

Because it 

Was too big

For under the tree

My stocking,

Thick beautiful family heirloom

Calico cat

Nearby

-30-

teardrops - poets - dreams

 Those episode titles in A Man On The Inside are references to other media-works and art-works.

Taylor Swift uses those in her song titles and lyrics.

She has a song called "Wildest Dreams" - Tina Turner had a different song, but with that same title - I think it was the album title, too, in maybe 1997 or so.

Taylor Swift's latest album, The Tortured Poets Department, seems to be a reference to the '90s film, Dead Poets' Society.

And she has a song on one of her early albums called "Teardrops On My Guitar" which puts one in mind of The Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps."

-30-

clear and present in Havana

 

A series on Netflix:  A Man On The Inside.

Ted Danson stars.

A lot of his acting is body language.

He is strikingly graceful.

In the 1981 film Body Heat his character bursts out into a few casual dance steps - little "softshoe" - in spare moments.  Noticed his glib grace back then, too.

Each episode in Man-Inside series has a title.

1.  Tinker Tailor Older Spy

        (from a book title, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy)

2.  The Man Who Knew Too Much About Bridges

        (from Hitchcock movie, The Man Who Knew Too Much)

3.  The Emily Always Rings Twice

        (from novel, The Postman Always Rings Twice - plus two movies based on it)

4.  The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Painting Class

        (from - I don't know what)

5.  Presents and Clear Danger

        (from movie, Clear And Present Danger)

6.  Our Man in Sacramento

        (from Our Man In Havana, a novel by Graham Greene - and there may have been a movie based on it)

7.  From Russian Hill with Love

        (from movie, From Russia With Love)

8.  The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

        (from a novel of that title written by John LeCarre [I think] and there was a movie based on that, too)

Ted Danson's dancing feet in Body Heat

-30-

convicts were cooperative

 

San Francisco painting

In his memoir, Apropos of Nothing (Copyright 2020 - Arcade Publishing), Woody Allen discusses making the 1969 film, Take The Money And Run:

------ [excerpt] ------------- Though it wasn't in my contract, they trusted me to have total artistic control and never once bothered me for a second.  I shot in San Francisco, a town that has been lucky for me down through the ages.  

        The Herb Ross movie of Play It Again, Sam was shot there.  So was Take the Money and Run and later Blue Jasmine, all did well, and I did well as a comic at the Hungry I and got started as a jazz player at Earthquake McGoon's.

Much of the cast were local San Franciscans and they were wonderful.  Plus there were some Hollywood character actors.  I kept within the million-dollar budget and finished on time.  The first day of shooting was to be in San Quentin Prison.  

All my excitement was over the fact I was going into a prison and there'd be felons and I'd see an iconic big house I'd only read about or saw versions of in old black-and-white movies.  

        I couldn't have cared less that I was debuting as a director.  It was the prison I was fascinated by.  We were warned by the warden that the population was dangerous and if there was a riot, or any of us were taken hostage, they would do all in their power to get us out short of releasing any convicts....

        So I entered San Quentin and began my career, staging a riot in a prison yard.  Convicts were cooperative and we yelled action and the guys put on a real free-for-all riot.  When I yelled cut and they dispersed I remember picking up a shiv from the yard floor. ...

Woody Allen's character in Take The Money And Run, playing cello in a marching band...

-30-

take the money and run

 There's an expression, if you want to be away from someone, or not do business with them and you would like to be a little bit rude about it, you "show them the door."  Figuratively speaking, probably. 

        In another great Sopranos scene, the character played by Steve Buscemi interacts with a Korean owner of a massage parlor, who says belligerently, "I would never hire you, except I need Tony Soprano for union!  If not for him, I show you da fuckin window!"

Which is a sort of mix-up of the expression, "show you the door."

Not technically a malapropism, I don't think - rather, a "Little Carmine-ism."

So funny - it reminded me of an early Woody Allen movie called Take The Money And Run.  Just in the style of the humor.

-30-

things set apart

 So the "albatross around my neck" expression is not from the Bible, it's from a poem called "The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

We read and analyzed several of his poems in college, I think this was one of them.

You can read it and get the context.

At any rate, it is not "albacore" - that's tuna.

And then the phrase "the sacred and the profane" (not propane, lol) - Google says it "originates from the work of French sociologist Emile Durkheim, who used it to describe a fundamental distinction in religion, where "sacred" refers to things set apart as extraordinary and revered, 

        while "profane" refers to the ordinary and mundane aspects of everyday life; essentially, the sacred is considered holy or special, while the profane is considered commonplace and not religiously significant."

"Little Carmine" is a character in The Sopranos TV show - he is son of Carmine Lupertazzi.  His verbal communication is absolutely thick with malapropisms and mispronunciations.

(A "debacle" is a "DEB-ukel" to him - it's hilarious.  On You Tube, there are whole videos just about his aberrant talking.)

 "Little Carmine" on The Sopranos

-30-

Quasimodo didn't predict stuff

 Re:  the malaprop examples we used earlier this week:

It's supposed to be

"like an albatross around my neck"

not "albacore".

And it's supposed to be

"the sacred and the profane,"

not "propane."

And it isn't

"Quasimodo predicted all this,"

it's "Nostradamus predicted all this."

The albatross one - I think that might be a Biblical quote, I have to look that up when I have time.

-30-

the artist formerly known as president

 Talking about malapropisms yesterday, I thought later I might have made it sound like these "wrong word" usages are something within the Sopranos "universe."

To be precise, no, malapropisms existed separately before the HBO Mafioso-series was created.

Malapropisms were used for comic effect in the early 1970s in the TV show, All In The Family; also, if you go on You Tube and type in the word "malapropisms" you'll get some videos of George W. Bush, U. S. President from 2000 to 2008.

        He made these types of errors sometimes, when speaking.

Something else that I find interesting about this former president is that in retirement, he took up painting.  You can check it on Google or You Tube and get some background.

I can imagine President Bush while he was still working as the leader of our country, planning and picturing himself, once out of office, having his painting studio and all the stuff you need for that, and practicing this art - because he would have the time.  He wouldn't be in meetings and stuff, anymore.

oil painting of a dog named Barney, by George W. Bush

-30-

on the malaprop train

 One of the pleasures of The Sopranos is the sprinkling into the dialogue of what are called "malapropisms."

Where they use the wrong word.

"You're like an albacore around my neck."

"It's like the sacred, and the propane."

"You know - Quasimodo predicted all this...."

        You could die laughing.

        Or - maybe we should not throw around the word "die" when discussing a show based on members of the Mafia. ...

Recently in a Sopranos discussion it was mentioned they used to get requests from fans for "less yacking; more whacking"....

David Chase, creator of The Sopranos

-30-

...well, it's all - right...

 Oh, and I have one more song to round out this blog's Thanksgiving week special:  go on You Tube and listen to "End Of The Line" by The Traveling Wilburys.

I had meant to name the rock-and-roll icons who comprise this band, but instead, look on the video and see if you can place them.

        It's such a good song, I really like it.

        (Understatement.)

There's a scene in The Sopranos where Tony is sitting in a parked vehicle with one of his associates; music is playing from the radio - the other guy asks a question and Tony kind of brushes it off because it's something they can't know yet - it's essentially a useless question, just filling up space because the guy is worried.

Tony advises, "Enjoy da music."

        I am not very much like a Mafia boss, but on that point I would join with Tony Soprano's position when someone's talking over music:  "Enjoy the music."

-30-