Carmel-by-the-sea

 

        It turned out this writer I met during the summer of '77 was originally from South Dakota, but he lived in Carmel, California most of the time, and was part-owner of a restaurant there, with Clint Eastwood.

        I didn't have a lot of knowledge about Clint Eastwood back then - I knew he was in a movie called Dirty Harry.

        He had majored in English literature in college (the writer, not Mr. Eastwood) and worked as sportswriter for the San Francisco Examiner.

        He told  me stories about an apartment building he lived in, in San Fran - the interesting and eccentric people who lived there, and I think he wrote a story about it - can't remember for sure...

We hung out and talked, several times that summer - lunch one day, pizza one night, and I can't even recall most of what we talked about, now, but it was nice.  Hassle-free; controversy-free, no "drama," and never boring.

I guess he was a good story-teller.

        I talked, too, but I didn't know much, at that age, compared to him!

When I told him something about experiences I had and the impressions they left, he responded by giving his perspective on it compared to other ways the events could have gone, and his point was always positive - encouraging.

He was a serious person, and also simply a joy to be around.

Oh, and he was in a movie that Clint Eastwood directed and starred in, called Play Misty For Me (made in 1971, same year as Dirty Harry).

        Writer-friend was in it for only a few seconds, small part - he and another guy are in front of a restaurant, and nearby on the sidewalk Clint Eastwood and actress Jessica Walter are having kind of an altercation.  The two men observing them assume for a moment that the woman needs saving from Eastwood, but it's the opposite, she's tormenting him.

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pink dress

 After we met the writer (and rather interrupted his writing, I guess) - we went back to the resort where we worked and lived.

Later that week, the writer called me and asked if I would like to go out to dinner - on, like, Saturday night, or Friday night, or something.

        I had this pink dress I had bought for some reason - I had a job, I had some money, and I got it because it fit and I liked it.

I said yes to dinner, and wore that dress.

I had never really had a real date, before.

And this man was handsome, interesting, and 27 years older than me.

        45, and I was 18.

I didn't hesitate to say yes when he called me, but then later I thought about it - am I "allowed" to go out with a man who is that much older than me?

        I decided I was allowed.  I was allowing myself.

Lovely evening.  Conversation was fun and easy.  He was not a negative person.  He didn't complain, or scoff, or try to manipulate me.

        And after dinner we went to a nightclub in Keystone and danced!

He told me the music they were playing was "disco," & that it was going to be the next big trend.

        (He was right - a month and a half later when I got to B.U., it was a close guess which music was coming out of the most dorm rooms - Fleetwood Mac's Rumours album, or the songs from Saturday Night Fever....

Well you can tell by the way I use my walk,

I'm a woman's man, no time to talk...)

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1977

 

        In the summer of 1977, between high school graduation and starting college on the East Coast in the fall, I had a summer job as a waitress in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

I met a man there who was a writer.  He lived in California full time, but was temporarily in the Black Hills, staying in a cabin on family property near Hill City, and  writing a novel.

        I was introduced to him in the cabin's kitchen where he was seated at a table, turning out pages on a classic manual typewriter, and smoking cigarettes.

He put out his current cigarette and talked with my friends and me.

Playing those Neil Diamond songs recently made me think of him, because one time he was driving me back to where I lived and he turned on some music in the car, and it was Neil Diamond.

He said something like, "I enjoy music like this, it inspires you and gives you energy."

        We were on one of those roads in the hills that curves this way and then that way, you're looping back and forth, getting where you're going, but not in a straight line.

The sun was shining; the sky was blue - which song was it?

"Cracklin' Rosie"?

"Cherry, Cherry"? - - She got the way to move me... we got things we gotta catch up on... you, you you know what I'm sayin'...

His car was a sort of light gold color.

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"play it now! play it now!"

 you tube video titled:

Neil Diamond - Cracklin' Rosie (Audio)

uploader /channel - Neil Diamond

Play and Listen, and here are some audience comments:

*  One of the most uplifting songs ever

*  I don't remember my dad singing out loud in the car but while on a vacation road-trip in the 70s it's the only song I ever recall him singing.  That memory is there forever.

*  ...The way he melds the words together is like honey. ...

*  Ese recuerdo es inolvidable!

*  DAT is MUZIEK !!!  Wordt je vrolijk

*  I never will forget the day the country was shut due to Covid and Neil came on Facebook playing songs to cheer us up.  So kind of him.  I have always loved his music, now I love him too for that.

*  this man knew how to write a great song

Neil Diamond; Bob Dylan

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"Sex Machine is the choir director at his church"

 
Jim Belushi in Song Sung Blue, currently on Netflix

        Later on in the movie "Song Sung Blue," the Neil Diamond tribute band "Lightning and Thunder" gets an offer to headline a show - and the character Mike (played by Hugh Jackman) says, "We're gonna need a choir."

And the guy who is his manager / dentist comes up with - "Sex Machine is the choir director at his church!"

"Sex Machine" is the nickname of a guy who does an impersonation of the funk music superstar  James Brown.

Uh - yes -- -- "Sex Machine" can take care of that.

The reason the guy's nickname is 'Sex Machine' is that Sex Machine is the name of a hit song by James Brown.

        I brought up the song on You Tube and listened, and watched the performance:  it's really not about sex, it's about focus and power and belief.

It's interesting.

the real James Brown - nicknamed "the hardest working man in show business"

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"we got things we gotta catch up on"

 

        When I mentioned the movie "Song Sung Blue" a couple of posts ago, I was mainly being made happy by all the Neil Diamond music in the film - so many great songs, so familiar, so memorable, just like an integral part of our lives... I thought maybe I didn't give enough attention, or credit, to the movie itself - it's a great movie, actually.

It's on Netflix - it was in theaters, I think - last year...  having played it several more times (while doing things at home - that's the new way of "watching" movies, in my current busy lifestyle - movies are "on" while I'm doing necessary things that have to get done...), yes, I see now it's an excellent movie, very well-told story.

        Looks like it has attracted award recognition, and on You Tube under a video of the film's preview ("trailer") people's comments are very warm, and enthusiastic.

I respect those opinions, and agree.

The actor Michael Imperioli (Christopher Moltisanti in The Sopranos) appears in Song Sung Blue, as a Buddy Holly impersonator - the black-rimmed glasses - he's terrific in this, as is Jim Belushi.

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song to listen to -

on You Tube

video titled:

Neil Diamond - Cherry, Cherry (Audio)

uploader / channel:  Neil Diamond

Enjoy

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a nation of immigrants

 

Neil Diamond, whose music we've been listening to, here, was born in Brooklyn, New York.  All four of his grandparents were Jewish immigrants:  his father's side came from Poland, while his mother's family members were from Kyiv, Ukraine.

        I got to thinking about people coming from other countries to live in America, since I was talking about Neil Diamond - and also, Maurice Tempelsman - born in Belgium, his parents moved the family to America when the Nazis invaded, during World War II.

        I started wondering - there's a quote, "America is a nation of immigrants."  

Who said that? - 

        so I Googled, turns out, it was President Kennedy.

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