Tagged: randommusings

Everytime I channel surf the past few weeks, there's Ralph Macchio sulking, being oblivious or - most often - getting his ass kicked by every living soul whose path he crosses in one of the three Karate Kid flicks. I was roughly the age of high school student and social pariah Daniel-san, the character Macchio was playing, when The Karate Kid opened in theaters in the summer of 1984. (Macchio was, at the time, already in his forties) The movie was, as I recall, an unexpected hit. I saw [...]

I was watching Pardon The Interruption the other morning before work when I heard Mike Wilbon mention something that - by his reference and my recognition - dated both of us. The clicker. The first people that I knew who were capable of dictating commands to the television by merely lifting their fingers would have been my grandparents. My brother and I were gobsmacked. We couldn't wait to get our hands on The Clicker for a spin through the dial. With half a dozen channels, it [...]

(rebroadcast from February, 2010, now with added calcium) I read the news most days. But, unlike my parents and their generation, I don't make a point to watch a news broadcast each day, merely pausing on the news channels if something catches my attention. The other night, as I was watching some basketball, there was a commercial for the local news. It was some perky chick yammering about a murder suspect possibly being loose - or, in the parlance of our legal system, on the lam - in [...]

(reimagined from a post from February, 2011) I commute. I do so relunctantly and under silent protest and, on good evenings, I can block out Sting howling the lyrics to Synchronicity II , which plays on a loop in my head during the drive. “ Another working day has ended Only the rush hour hell to face Packed like lemmings into shiny metal boxes Contestants in a suicidal race ” The morning trek, though, is typically Zen. The [...]

Paloma has, on more than one occasion, wandered into the living room of our treehouse to find me watching an episode of Finding Bigfoot . Her usual response is to shake her head. She doesn't share my fascination at the possibility of an unknown species of giant hominids living in the most remote forests on the planet. (but I still think she's swell) I have no expectations that, if the sasquatch does exist, the intrepid quartet of Finding Bigfoot will actually do so during the course of the hour. [...]

(a rebroadcast from January, 2011...) The first time that I ever participated in a store inventory was in college. It was a small record store - a dozen of us, max - and it lasted until about two o'clock in the morning. It was a drag. Several years later, working in a record store so large that we had a staff of sixty or so to cover the fifteen hours we were open each day, I gained a dose of perspective. This store took inventory two times a [...]

While trekking about this morning, I had the Sirius tuned to the Bruce Springsteen station because, as you might be aware, there is no channel devoted to The Smiths. As Be True blared from the speakers, The Big Man was - as the jazz cats might say - blowin' notes and it occurred to me that the saxophone has all but vanished from rock and roll over the past several decades. Then, it occurred to me that, though the saxophone might not be as prominent in rock music as it might [...]

As a kid in the '70s and a teenager in the '80s, I lived in that world of limited entertainment options unfathomable now. Our small town in the hinterlands had an old movie theater and the movies of the day usually made it to the screen, but it might take a month or two. Most of the movies that I watched were ones that I'd catch on one of our half-dozen television channels late at night or on Saturday afternoons. These were often flicks from the '50s and '60s and, at the conclusion of the [...]

Tonight is the end of Daylight Savings Time, a ritual that is still odd to me. I grew up in one of two small areas in the US that didn't kowtow to The Man on the issue of Daylight Savings Time. Aside from some time in Southeast Asia, I was into my twenties before I ever moved a clock forward or set one back. I let time do its thing. Then, I was suddenly a forced participant in this national game of Hokey Pokey with a chronological twist. Now, after weeks of adjusting [...]

One of the finest things about the treehouse lair that Paloma and I share is the number of windows. The living room has a small, round window that I have always referred to as "the portal." One clear, full-moon nights, the moonlight pours through in concentrated form, leaving a spotlight on the carpet. And, behind the couch, is a large, two-sided window that overlooks a well-trafficked neighborhood street. I have often stared out the window, my chin resting on the back of the couch, watching the flow of cars on the street just below and [...]

...or be stomped into a pulpy mess by an ostrich. I spent a good twenty minutes - or maybe it was two hours - pondering this existential quandry. It began when I told a buddy that I wanted the power to picture everything and everyone as cartoons. (even bad things are amusing in cartoon form) This friend - a gangly fellow with glasses, prone to bobbing his head in a furtive fashion - immediately wanted to know what kind of cartoon character he would be. "An ostrich. With glasses. [...]

Eddie Money spooked Paloma. His mug appeared on the television as he belted out Two Tickets To Paradise in a commercial for some beer or burger or chainsaw. (or something) "That's scary," she noted. There was something about the aging rocker, shuffling about the screen in an exaggerated manner and belting out song in a gravelly voice, that made me think of Joe Cocker. "He reminds me of Joe Cocker. I think that the two should go out on tour together." I pictured the [...]

I entered school a mere half-decade after humans first set foot on the moon and, at the time, astronaut was a trendy career aspiration for kids our age. Astronaut was a very cool gig. You worked in space. (the job sold itself on that alone) Sometimes you returned home and found a bottle on the beach where you landed with Barbara Eden trapped inside. Sometimes you ended up on a planet dominated by talking apes. Space was the final frontier and it was full of possibilities. [...]

Happening across the movie King Kong on cable the other night, something occurred to me - it might have been the most influential movie of my childhood. I’d seen the original version watching it on the late, late show when I slept over at a friend’s house in second grade. Not long after, the hype began for the remake. It was nothing compared to the hullabaloo for some movies now – no cable, no internet – but it seemed to begin a year before and the scope and duration was something I’d never seen [...]

The poster creeped me out - the slightly sepia tint that almost gave it the appearance of a photograph and the inhuman creature splashing through the shallow water. Below the movie's title was a tagline that, like the poster, was simple but made it truly chilling. A true story. I hadn't thought of the movie in years and years, but, The Legend Of Boggy Creek bobbed to the surface of the subconscious a couple weeks ago. It would seem from perusing the internet that the nearly forty-year old flick has maintained a [...]

Though it's still quite summer during the day, the morning commute through the backroads has been one with less light and a slight chill in the air. The chill is unmistakeably September. As a kid, September meant that - like it or not - you were entrenched in the school year. Summer wasn't coming back for months and months and months... But, we would still try to squeeze as much time outside as possible, playing some hoops or football in someone's yard until the dark ended the festivities earlier and earlier each night. [...]

A buddy of mine has, for a good decade, had the cushiest gig known to man, serving as a nanny to a couple who are cardiologists. His duties mostly consisted of driving the two kids to and retrieving them from school. In return, he had quarters in a huge home in a posh neighborhood as well as a handsome salary. As the children have been driving for several years, his responsibilities have been minimal and, now, the position has been rendered obsolete. I fear that he will have a difficult adjustment to the true working [...]

There is a great likelihood that Paloma and I will be purchasing a new vehicle between now and when the Mayans zap the planet with a giant ray gun. (or something like that) I confess that the process - the considerations and calculations of buying a new car - isn't one that blows back my hair. I can't help but think of Jim, the father of a Chris, a high school buddy. Jim had a gig that often consisted of long hours and considerable stress, but he went about his days dutifully. [...]

It's summer and that means sequels. So - not because it was extraordinarily well-received or critically acclaimed - but simply because...here is the follow-up to some observations about the movie Jaws ... When we left off, Chief Brody and Hooper had performed a shark autopsy and headed out into the night in Hooper's sloop, hoping to find the shark. Brody was liquored to the gills and Hooper was munching down pretzels like he had an endorsement deal... 49:55 As Brody continues to hit the sauce, he and [...]

(upon reading of the death of movie mogul Richard Zanuck, it seems timely to dust off a three-post running diary of a viewing of Jaws - which Zanuck produced - that appeared here a couple years ago...) Thirty-five Thirty-seven years ago, almost to the week, Jaws was released. Had Paloma known of this milestone and, given my fascination with the film , she would have likely baked a cake for me. I was seven when the movie became a national phenomenon and, the [...]