esrosedotblog

Of course, at my age (moan moan) everything and nothing is a surprise.

We list an important member of our cohort today.

David Bowie Dies at 69; a Chameleon in Music, Art and Fashion

I feel surprised at the empty feeling, of loss, at his death.

The chorus of "Young Americans" is running through my mind.

Watch the video and stay for the next one too.*

*And if that isn't enough for you here are 17! videos in order of greatest hits. Look at him. The ch-ch-changes!

Labels: music, obituary

Jerry Lester, Dagmar, Milton deLugg.

All stars or near stars of the first late night television show Broadway Open House.

I was there.

I was allowed unlimited television time. School was a walk through for me (college not so much), so I had plenty of time and freedom.

I loved this free wheeling show. It had no format. It was talk but it was also play and just plain fooling around.

Jerry Lester was an unreconstructed burlesque comedian and he was more or less uncensored. Dagmar was a statuesque blond with no discernible talent but her big juggs. In fact she was a great personality and played the dumb blond role to perfection with just a hint of a wink that let us in on her joke and that made it just fine. Wonderful.

Milton De Lugg was the bandleader and the first band leader in late night who spoke. He became part of the action. Always funny. Later, many band leaders would become minor luminaries of the late night shows but De Lugg was the first.

He was blessed with a great wit, a funny scratchy voice, a huge nose and a blatant smart ass jew-boy persona that became indelible in my memory.

De Lugg went on to other shows.

And now he is gone.

He sure lasted a long time.

Watch this. It is a fuck lot better than a lot of late teevee. DeLugg is part of the fun.

And, a good look at Dagmar! I couldn't resist.

Labels: nostalgia, obituary, television

I loved his restlessly urgent voice.

David Carr, Times Critic and Champion of Media, Dies at 58

I watched his little video features at the NYT site interviewing difficult subjects and having none of their bullshit. He was a four letter word guy and the impact of his probing was totally effective in disarming the con artists and the villains.

For a long while he did a video program with A.O. Scott and I would not miss any of them. Outspoken and blunt, he always saw another side to things.

Here they are talking about last year's Oscaars.

Labels: media, obituary

I wasn't going to write about this but then it seems that I should.

Joan Rivers, a Comic Stiletto Quick to Skewer, Is Dead at 81

I laughed a lot at her but I also found her very annoying. Most comedians are, actually.

Insult humor is hard to do. Don Rickles is the king and Rivers would be the queen. The thing is, though, that she mostly told on herself. But the effect was that she was zinging others. Often unfairly.

I suppose this is because she had the instant mouth of a born hustler. Talk came easy right after the first thought. No impulse control. And of course that is a key to some comedians' success. Robin Williams comes to mind. Zero inhibitions and a quick wit.

Comedy is the toughest job I think. There is a documentary about her. I have seen it. She had thousands of "joke" cards and yet, she admitted, she rarely went in to look at them. But there they are.

I suspect that they are useless because they were all of the moment, the moment passed and they lost their zing. Now Rivers has passed. We only have the tapes.

Labels: comedy, obituary

There was a time when no matter what the film was, if it was good, it probably had Eli Wallach in it.

Not a real star but a very dependable actor who had starring roles, Wallach was a master of the snitch, the villain, the guy who cheated someone else. A blackguard. Seldom heroic.

He was married to Anne Jackson for over 40 years and they had a durable professional life together. Not like the Lunts. More like good actors who could define their own parts aside from the spouse and do the job required in the script.

He lived a very long time. Now he is gone.

Eli Wallach Multifaceted Actor Dies at 98

The list of credits is very long. I saw a lot of these films. He belonged to a group who were known for their belief in method acting and they often worked together. To our great benefit.

His first film was The Good, the Bad and the Ugly in which he was the first billed star and Clint Eastwood below the top. Wallach was the was the bad. Eastwood the good and Lee Van Cleef was the ugly. His last film was "Wall Street: The Money Never Sleeps", a sequel to the first Michael Douglas film about investment villains.

In between he had countless roles in theater (his first love), television and the movies.

Labels: films, obituary

GONE

Labels: fun, obituary

TWO THUMBS DOWN

We have lost Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert Film Critic Dies

Ebert had been through a terrible siege of mouth cancers, one after the other. Only yesterday or the day before, he said the cancer was back.

Well, it did him in.

Roger Ebert should get some kind of hero status for his life work, movies. And his staying power in the progress of the cancer. He lost all functions of the throat and mouth, ate with a straw and a catheter and wrote in considerable pain.

A little more heroic than I think that I would be but let's put that aside.

There are a lot of film critics. Perhaps you have noticed.

Historically, I followed Pauline Kael and a few of the New Yorkers' reviewers, then the NYTimes. Very few others are worth a pinch of shit.

The reason is that they merely recount plot, which I am not interested in as it spoils, and, often, are easily seduced by the constant lobbying that goes on in the business. The firewall between the business side and the editorial sides of the press are thinnest in the entertainment sections.

The don't have the stars and directors out on junkets for nothing.

Ebert did recount plot but in a way you could jump over. It had a "section" in the reviews. And he was totally immune to the hype.

Something else. Very few critics wander beyond Hollywood. Even the New Yorker seems immune to subtitled films.

Not the NYTimes and not Ebert. Both review everything.

Ebert also was ready to go back and review many films a second time, say, on a tenth anniversary or some other occasion. His second reviews are often mea culpas about missing the goodness the first time around.

In this blog you will notice that only the NYTimes and Ebert appear at the links of the movies I see. The exceptions are those times where there is no review for a particular film or, perhaps, I disagree with their assessment so much at the time, I leave them out.

I don't go back a long way with Ebert. I was not much interested in his work with Siskel. Too pop goes the weasel for me.

But his works were thoughtful and helpful and often in synch with my own reaction.

One defect, I am not sure that Ebert ever saw a gay oriented film that he got right or particularly liked. So, I never or rarely used his review on that genré.

Finally. He wrote clearly and in a way that helped the reader appreciate the process by which a film was made and also, more importantly, how a film was experienced. The rules of the game for writing and directing. Why some stuff worked and other stuff did not.

I have learned a lot by reading Roger.

Goodbye old friend. Off to the show in the sky.

Labels: films, obituary

DRAWN Out

Leo Cullum, New Yorker Cartoonist, Dies at 68

This guy was really funny.

He had a very interesting life.

Combat pilot, career pilot for TWA and American Airlines.

And one of the most prolific and published (not the same thing) gag cartoonists. Particularly at The New Yorker where he had an item in the last issue.

His people had googly eyes that he enhanced with an undrawn circle. You could see the whites of their eyes and no eyeliner.

He was very good with business people, animals and doctors. Go figure.

I laughed a lot at his work and admired its depth. It is pretty hard to be funny and deep at the same time.

Labels: fun, obituary

THE OTHER EARL

Earl Wild, Pianist, Dies at 94

And he was out as a gay man all his career and he lived in Palm Springs and he lived to be 94.

He was great fun to hear on a talk/play format. Witty and engaging.

He and his partner have 38 years together.

Wild played over a wide range of popular and classical work.

He was 30 years older than me so he has been around all of my life and in my musical experience.

I love to see the photos from when they were just coming into their own.

Labels: heroes, music, obituary

THE GREATEST

Another hero gone.

Carl Ballantine dies at 92

I know that he was on McHales Navy and all but I am more interested in his career as a great comic magician.

He was on all the tv variety shows.

His timing was impeccable. He was actually a pretty good magician but it never came out. His tricks all blew up in his face.

The other thing was that, objectively, the act was very simple and plain. Often the same jokes. And he was still hilarious. It is all in the delivery. The innate spirit of the man.

Many laughs over many years. Carl Ballantine. The Worlds Greatest Magician.

I love that he wanted his ashes scattered at Santa Anita. "He loved the ponies".

Labels: heroes, obituary

BIG MAMA

Mary Travers of Peter, Paul and Mary Dies at 72

John and I met Mary Travers on a flight back from St. Croix through Kennedy.

One of us went back to the rest room and saw her. Said hello.

We were caught.

Yak yak yak.

But she was very nice.

When we got off to transfer to a Boston flight, nothing would do but to walk us to the gate and make sure that we were in the right place. She had "done it many times" and was going to see that we, goddamit, were going to do it too.

We didn't dare tell her that we were St. Croix to Kennedy to Boston vets.

She had a big heart. That was for sure. A big mother type.

I was never much for their music, the three of them. A little too folksy in the mannered way. Pop folk. And a little too self righteous. Making a lot of bucks but acting down home.

But she practiced what she sang. Kindness. Caring. Friendliness.

Goodbye Mary. Say hi to Puff.

Labels: obituary

PINTER

Make sure that you see a live production of a Pinter play before you die.

If you can't do that then go to Netflix or somewhere and rent a film of one.

I have seen three productions. Two in London.

Unforgettable.

He was a tough bastard and he did great work. I don't think that he ever became Sir Harold. But he did win the Nobel Prize and used his platform to castigate bush's America.

Harold Pinter, Nobel-Winning Playwright, Is Dead at 78

Labels: art, obituary

PAUL NEWMAN

When I was a teenager, I sat in the Buck Hill Inn movie house with my cousin Barbara going ga-ga over Paul Newman. I can remember Barbara saying that she couldn't wait for him to take his shirt off and my agreeing.

It should have been a tip-off huh?

So, I have to say that my first impression of Newman was as a gay boy.

But more than that, I think I responded to his obvious presence as much as his beauty. Everyone did.

Paul Newman had soul. Deep soul. If it is true that some people are 'old souls' he was one.

My appreciation for Newman and his work became more sophisticated over the years. He was always a hunk and he aged well.

I particularly remember him in Nobody's Fool, a great part for an aging icon. A rebel.

There is no end of praise for Newman's social consciousness. He gave and gave more and took moral positions without fear.

He had a life long partner. How difficult is that in that star-struck realm?

We saw him once. It was on a race track.

A friend had a Formula 4 racing car and we went to see him compete. He got us onto the center there where all the cars get ready to go.

Newman was racing that day. We went and gawked a little. He was immune to that kind of attention. He had a sort of dignity and grace of being present that didn't require the trappings of celebrity and everyone left him alone.

I remember his beautiful blue eyes.

So. Paul Newman died today. He was 83 years old. How could that be?

Where did the time go?

What a beautiful, beautiful man.

Paul Newman Dies at 83

With his strong, classically handsome face and piercing blue eyes, Newman was a heartthrob just as likely to play against his looks, becoming a favorite with critics for his convincing portrayals of rebels, tough guys and losers. ''I was always a character actor,'' he once said. ''I just looked like Little Red Riding Hood.''

Labels: obituary

THE KILLER

When I was a kid, I watched professional wrestling with my Dad.

There were a lot of stars who were either hated or loved in equal measure.

Some were love/hated. Those were the ones who were 'dirty' but had such a flair that you couldn't help but laugh and enjoy their act. Gorgeous George was one. Another was Killer Kowalski.

The killer had the claw hold. A desparate pinch of his big hands on a tender part of the opponent's body.

Now, we all tried the claw hold. You really cannot get much of a pinch out of it no matter how strong your hands are. But boy, how Killer's victims suffered.

He also was great at jumping from the top of the ropes onto his opponent's head.

Today, the killer is gone. But not forgotten.

Killer Kowalski, Wrestler, Dies at 81

Labels: nostalgia, obituary

DeBAKEY

My partner John would probably not be alive today without the work of this man who invented the pump driving the heart/lung machine as well as the techniques of the coronary bypass.

There is more but those two things are enough.

I hear that he was an arrogant bastard workaholic who never let anyone, less himself, off the hook.

A tireless worker for better heart health.

Michael DeBakey, Rebuilder of Hearts, Dies at 99

Thanks Mike.

Labels: health, obituary

FROM OUR FECKLESS LEADER

"Jesse Helms was a kind, decent and humble man and a passionate defender of what he called 'the Miracle of America.' So it is fitting that this great patriot left us on the Fourth of July," President Bush said in a statement Friday.

Two of a kind only Helms wasn't afraid to put the venom right out front. Georgie does it with a smirk and a head fake.

Labels: bush, criminal morons, obituary