If you were a young man in the '70's...if you remember that album cover of Olivia with that blue shirt on with those big blue eyes staring right at you, every boy's, every man's dream, was that I would love for that girl to be my girlfriend.---John Travolta
Olivia Newton-John, 73, died earlier today at her Southern California ranch.
Her public singing career spanned over 50 years, but during the 10-year period 1971 ("If Not for You") to 1981 ("Physical") there was no greater star in music. Her voice was strong and ranged over two octaves and, of course, her looks helped. She had the whole package.
At the age of 28, she was cast as the high-schooler Sandy in the musical Grease, which was the most popular film of 1978 and had one of the best-selling movie soundtracks of all time. During the pandemic I re-watched a lot of musicals, including Grease. My estimation of Olivia Newton-John grew from that of a fine singer who churned out a lot of hits back in the day to that of a truly great entertainer. R.I.P.
Al Harrington took his place behind the lectern. The year was 1966.
He had played football in high school and had returned as a football coach. My expectations were low; all coaches were expected to teach a course. I assumed that freshman European History was not his primary focus.
(Teaching wasn't the priority for my 8th-grade Biology teacher who was also a world-class surfer.)
I was wrong about Mr Harrington. He was fully prepared for his lectures, speaking authoritatively in a voice that seemed almost theatrically trained. He assigned homework from the text every night and got it back to us promptly, marked with bold flourishes.
But what I remember most clearly from those days was the passion with which he spoke, and how he emphasized the points that were important. His wasn't the cheap and easy kind of history teaching, where the students are inundated with dates and genealogical charts, but the one that explicated the forces behind the Renaissance and Reformation, and showed how Napoleon arose from the French Revolution.
As a senior I signed up for AP European History. It was a breeze, and so was the exam, thanks to the preparation from Mr. Harrington three years earlier
In 1972 Al Harrington's talent was recognized by the producers of the original Hawaii Five-O when he was signed to the role of Ben Kokua. His entertainment career took off, and we lost a great teacher.
He died yesterday of a stroke. RIP.
Below is Al Harrington speaking at Punahou School at the groundbreaking for a new sports facility in 1979
Significant but slow-developing issues don't get the public's attention unless a celebrity is involved. Such is the case with how movie actors are compensated now that theaters appear to be dying: [bold added]
Scarlett Johansson, star of the latest Marvel movie “Black Widow,” filed a lawsuit Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court against Disney, alleging her contract was breached when the media giant released the film on its Disney+ streaming service at the same time as its theatrical debut...
The suit could be a bellwether for the entertainment industry. Major media companies are giving priority to their streaming services in pursuit of growth, and are increasingly putting their high-value content on those platforms. Those changes have significant financial implications for actors and producers, who want to ensure that growth in streaming doesn’t come at their expense.
During its July 9 opening weekend, “Black Widow” grossed $80 million at the domestic box office and $78 million overseas, and generated another $60 million from $30 at-home purchases on Disney+. It was the first time Disney broke out a film’s streaming performance in such detail. Disney shares ticked upward on the news that Monday.
The current model--theatrical release to streaming purchases to DVD sales to premium channels to non-premium channels with ads--is being upended again with the time compression between events, or in Black Widow's case, no delay at all between the theatrical release and initial streaming.
Apparently, Ms. Johansson's contract was not up-to-date with the latest market developments, further aggravated by the lack of future Black Widow opportunities (the character is less marketable because she died in an earlier movie). The issue of actors' compensation will recede as contracts adapt.
Honolulu's Cinerama theater, where I saw It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, How the West Was Won, and 2001, is now an auto parts store.
The important takeaway is this: the coronavirus only accelerated the trend towards streaming as the at-home technology became cheaper and better. Brick-and-mortar theaters have high labor and plant costs, and last year's health issues were the killer blow (the opposite of the killer app that marks the birth of an industry).
No, theaters won't completely disappear but will be more like booksellers where only one or two major chains survive.
I'll start going to the movies again, but it won't be this year.
Bob Dylan has sold his entire music catalog to Universal for more than $300 million. He's the rarest of celebrities who have been in the public eye during the lifespan of the baby boom generation. Growing up in then-remote Hawaii, even we grade-schoolers knew the words to 1962's Blowin' in the Wind.
Given its enormous impact and the prices paid for other cultural influences, the Dylan songbook seems underpriced. Perhaps there was some financial structuring involved. ("Name the price, and I'll set the terms.")
The WSJ briefly discusses some of the financial considerations: [bold added]
In selling his copyrights, Mr. Dylan creates more tax certainty and potential benefits for himself and his heirs. He likely will pay a one-time capital-gains tax of 23.8% in addition to state taxes, as opposed to paying 37% plus state tax on the annual income his catalog generates. Doing the sale now means he pays the capital-gains tax in accordance with today’s rates and rules rather than facing the potential higher rates and tighter restrictions that Democrats have proposed on both capital gains and ordinary income. For his estate, he can plan tax strategies on his remaining assets without his heirs and the government engaging in a lengthy fight over the value of the copyrighted assets after his death.
Frankly, it would be surprising to your humble blogger if this were an all-cash deal. Bob Dylan's financial representatives would not be doing their job if they didn't capture for their client some of tomorrow's upside from streaming and other technologies barely imagined. Tomorrow is a long time.
Movie companies (those who want their pictures to be profitable--a necessary qualifier when producers knowingly make money-losing "message" movies) aren't pleased when stars take a position on a controversial issue. It doesn't matter which side the actors take, there will be potential viewers who find the politics so repugnant that they will stay away from the film.
The phenomenon isn't confined to Americans. Liu Yifei, star of Disney's 2020 live-action remake of Mulan, has taken the side of the police (that is, mainland China) in the Hong Kong protests.
Liu unadorned; not unadored...yet
Liu, in her own post, added in Chinese, “I also support the Hong Kong police,” and included heart and strong-arm emojis. Liu has 65 million followers on Weibo, a Chinese social media platform. The original post received over 2 million likes and an outpouring of support, and Liu’s post was liked 81,000 times.
Liu Yifei, also known as Crystal Liu, was cast as Mulan in 2017 after Disney saw nearly 1,000 candidates for the role, according to the Hollywood Reporter...
Although her sentiment received an outpouring of support, Liu also quickly faced backlash from many across the world who support the protests, with the hashtag #BoycottMulan emerging on Twitter. “She could be a powerful voice for justice but instead, she supports this brutality,” one Tweet said of Liu.
If Liu Yifei's political stance gets no more publicity, there's a good chance it will be forgotten when the film is released. So Disney, stay on the good size of Donald Trump; the last thing you want is for him to tweet about Mulan, reviving the controversy and potentially killing the American audience.
Todd Fisher, 60, spent his life in the presence of two Hollywood icons, his mother, Debbie Reynolds, and sister, Carrie Fisher.
More than just a chronicler, Todd helped them through failed marriages, financial problems, and substance abuse:
The author turned patriarchal in his teens, when he discovered his mother being cheated out of program sales during a Broadway show and observed [Debbie's second husband Harry] Karl’s lawyers shoving her around in their divorce negotiations. Mr. Fisher’s role expanded beyond son and brother into lawyer, bouncer, doctor, stage manager, business adviser, psychiatrist, gate-keeper and pal.
Fun fact: Todd Fisher was named after his dad Eddie Fisher's best friend, Mike Todd. When Mike died in a plane crash, Eddie Fisher left Debbie Reynolds to marry Mike Todd's widow, the A+-lister of the 1950's and 60's, Elizabeth Taylor, in 1959. So that's what my parents were talking about and why they changed the subject when we kids entered the room.
When the storm trooper asked for ID (yes, really) the proper response is, "I am not the droid you are looking for."
If the New York Giants can play their football games in New Jersey, then it can't be a problem for the San Francisco Comic Con to be held at the Oakland Convention Center.
A weekend pass for $80 seemed a bit much for this newbie (to conventions, not comics), so your humble blogger bought a $50 Saturday ticket and strolled around the convention floor.
Most people seemed happy to be there, with about 20% garbed in costumes---Batman, Spider-Man, Wonder Woman, and Star Wars characters were the most prevalent.
The booths consisted of comic collections--no surprise--but it was disheartening to discover that half the titles and most of the artists were unfamiliar to me. Also disheartening was the monetization of everything; one could easily blow $100 on an autograph and selfie with a C-list celebrity. Even the Oakland Convention center got into the act, charging $22 for 4 hours parking on a Saturday. (I paid $15 for all-day Saturday in SF a couple of weeks ago.)
I'm glad to have experienced Comic Con, but once is enough.
“I’ll be honest, I haven’t ruled politics out,” he said. “I can’t deny that the thought of being governor, the thought of being president, is alluring."
The Rock didn't make these comments impulsively. He's been thinking about politics for a while. From 2012:
"Right now the best way that I can impact the world is through entertainment. One day, and that day will come, I can impact the world through politics," Johnson — whose latest film, "Journey 2: The Mysterious Island," opens Friday — tells the site. "The great news is that I am American, therefore I can become President."
In the media age one has to be able to speak well, but there don't seem to be other gotta-haves. It helps to be wealthy, beautiful, somewhat ideologically consistent, and politically experienced, but we can all point to successful candidates who lacked one or more of the above.
By the way, the Rock's political affiliation is Republican.
Aren't you tired of people who talk tough? This guy is tough. The slogans write themselves.
[DJ David] Mueller and his girlfriend and co-worker, Shannon Melcher, attended a meet-and-greet with [Taylor] Swift for work. Mueller and Melcher joined Swift for a photo, after which Swift allegedly complained to her security team that Mueller had lifted her “skirt with his hands and grabbed her bottom.” Mueller and Melcher were immediately removed by Swift’s security personnel; afterwards, Mueller was fired.
David Mueller has sued Taylor Swift for making a false accusation that cost him his job. Supposedly, there's evidence.
The photograph was unavailable, but both sides contend it backs their side.
This morning, all flights by United Airlines flights were grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration, initially according to a computer “glitch,” according to wire services. United is a division of United Continental (UAL).
Hours later, flight operations were resumed, and United issued a statement saying it was a problem with a router.
Sure, I can relate. Sometimes my home router freezes up, too, then I pull its plug, reboot, and I'm back in business in five minutes. Hey, United, did you try doing that?
(Examiner image)
Shortly after the air travel news, it was the NYSE's turn to experience a "glitch":
The New York Stock Exchange abruptly halted trading in all issues, stating “We are currently experiencing a technical issue we are trying to resolve. We are doing our utmost to produce a swift resolution…”
After more than three hours, trading resumed at 3:10 p.m. Eastern.
Authorities say that the outages have nothing to do with the Chinese stock market crash, Greece's possible exit from the euro, or the computer hackers that have invaded major U.S. corporations and the Federal Government in the past year.
In the Golden Age of Television the movies available on our black-and-white TV's three channels were Westerns or Shirley Temple films. Shirley Temple's popularity during the 1950's, however, was just an echo of her fame two decades earlier.
From 1935 to 1939 she was the most popular movie star in America, with Clark Gable a distant second. She received more mail than Greta Garbo and was photographed more often than President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Shirley Temple Black was also a diplomat: U.S. representative to the United Nations, ambassador to Ghana, and ambassador to Czechoslovakia. Unlike other celebrities and donors who are rewarded with cushy appointments, she was more than a figurehead:
She could have been a haughty movie star and political figure, but she majored in being down to earth.
She also talked knowledgeably about the economic conditions of [Czechoslovakia], getting down into the weeds about likely private joint ventures that would work. She also described the environmental degradation she had seen in Czechoslovakia from years of Soviet rule, calling the situation the “Pollution Curtain.”
It was clear that she had a passion for human freedom — this was not a newfound conviction. Before serving in this post, she had served as ambassador to Ghana under President Gerald Ford. Hardly a cushy assignment; she went there to work on the challenges of a developing nation. Before that role, she had served as a delegate to the United Nations under Richard Nixon. [snip]
Shirley Temple Black, who died Monday night, could have traded on being Shirley Temple for all her life, I assume. But she didn’t. She served her country, she stood for important values, and she did all that without pretense.
She could have rested on her laurels and childhood earnings, but she kept serving throughout her life. R.I.P.
Not handsome and rarely playing a good guy, Phillip Seymour Hoffman was not the classic Hollywood leading man. His characters were complex, often haunted, and never boring.
Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett, Ethan Hawke, Amy Adams, and Ellen Burstyn have paid their respects to Philip Seymour Hoffman, an actor widely considered among the best of his generation. Hoffman’s private funeral was held Friday in Manhattan. It ended with pallbearers bringing the coffin out of the church and putting it back in the hearse.
The list of mourners also included Michelle Williams, Julianne Moore, Joaquin Phoenix, Louis C.K., Mary Louise Parker, John Slattery, Jerry Stiller, Marisa Tomei, Spike Lee, and Diane Sawyer and her director husband, Mike Nichols.
The catharsis of Hoffman’s performance is that he held up the mirror to something that actors, even great ones, almost never have the daring to reveal: the scrappy, private pain of a completely ordinary person. And that was the beauty of it, the way that Hoffman exposed that pain. [snip]
It may seem obvious to say that his crowning achievement was Capote (2005), for which he won a richly deserved Academy Award, but to me it truly was.....Hoffman was playing an immensely powerful man in dweeb’s clothing, and so he was able to assemble the twin dynamics of his acting — the impulse to hide, and the impulse to reveal — into a single extraordinary portrait of the artist as master manipulator.
I had never heard the songbook of Finian's Rainbow until our high school performed it. We had wonderful singers and talented comedic actors in the class ahead of us, and playing in the concert orchestra I was lucky to have a front row seat.
The tunes have stayed with me---much more than other Sixties musicals that garnered more awards---but, now that I am closer in age to the old Irish father than his daughter, the lyrics take on poignancy.
How are things in Glocca Morra?
Is that little brook still leaping there?
Does it still run down to Donny cove
Through Killybegs, Kilkerry and Kildare?
How are things in Glocca Morra?
Is that willow tree still weeping there?
Does that laddie with the twinkling eye
Come whistling by? And does he walk away
Sad and dreamy there, not to see me there?
Happy Saint Patrick's Day, especially to everyone who is far from home.
[Note: the 1968 film with Fred Astaire and Petula Clark, directed by Francis Ford Coppola(!), is on Amazon Streaming Video and is free to Amazon Prime customers.]
2012: the spandex would be even more uncomfortable
Initially hesitant, I became a faithful viewer of Star Trek: the Next Generation through its seven seasons from 1987 to 1994.
To fans of the original "Star Trek Classic", it was disconcerting to encounter a universe where the Klingons were (surly) allies, and phasers were unholstered only as a last resort.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard, played by Patrick Stewart, was an educated Frenchman whose English accent suited Star Fleet's preference for diplomatic solutions. Unlike the previous century's James T. Kirk, Captain Picard largely left the romancing and fighting to an athletic cast of underlings.
I was sad to hear of Nora Ephron's death on Tuesday. I'm a guy with low-brow movie tastes, but I liked the "Nora Ephron film"--yes, her movies were as distinctive as Martin Scorsese's or John Ford's.
Her stories tapped into the universal quest for happiness but were never heavily philosophical. We laughed at the stumblings of her characters because of our rueful self identification with them.
Nora Ephron's feminism wasn't preachy, which greatly aided her popularity:
A rare author and screenwriter whose works appealed to highbrow readers and mainstream moviegoers, Ephron wrote fiction that was distinguished by characters who seemed simultaneously normal and extraordinary. Like many people, they wrestled with commitment, principles and fame, but often exhibited keen, comic insights about their predicaments.
Her protagonists, who included the chef Julia Child and the whistle-blower Karen Silkwood, were often women and typically were just as capable as the men around them, if not more so.
In one of Nora Ephron's most popular movies, Sleepless in Seattle, the soundtrack of Golden Oldies is integral to the atmosphere of romantic yearning. She used artistic tradition to evoke an audience response that helped her make great art herself. R.I.P.
On my six-day Hawaiian vacation I found myself sitting in the pew of the church where we got married over 30 years ago, listening to amateur artists sing Gershwin. Nora Ephron would have approved.
Psychologists and musicologists have analyzed how music produces physical reactions like goosebumps and tears. One reason is appoggiatura:
An appoggiatura is a type of ornamental note that clashes with the melody just enough to create a dissonant sound. "This generates tension in the listener," said Martin Guhn, a psychologist at the University of British Columbia who co-wrote a 2007 study on the subject. "When the notes return to the anticipated melody, the tension resolves, and it feels good." [snip]
Chill-provoking passages, [researchers] found, shared at least four features [bullets added].
They began softly and then suddenly became loud.
They included an abrupt entrance of a new "voice," either a new instrument or harmony.
And they often involved an expansion of the frequencies played. In one passage from Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23 (K. 488), for instance, the violins jump up one octave to echo the melody.
Finally, all the passages contained unexpected deviations in the melody or the harmony. Music is most likely to tingle the spine, in short, when it includes surprises in volume, timbre and harmonic pattern.
In the 20tn century we were alarmed by how easily the emotions of the masses could be manipulated by propagandists and hidden persuaders. In the 21st century brain scans and other "advances" have pushed the science far beyond what Riefenstahl could have imagined.
Your humble servant was able to resist the emotional pull of Adele's Grammy winning "Someone Like You", which was analyzed in the article. However, when one adds a dash of patriotism, visual spectacle, a well-known standard, and a great singer at the height of her powers, then yes, I get the chills.
We know that we are getting on in years when the icons of our adulthood pass away, and they're younger than we are.
Whitney Houston not only had the voice of an angel; she controlled it as magnificently as Da Vinci wielded a paint brush. She could hold a note perfectly and unwaveringly, or let it skip up and down the scale, keeping it separate from the accompaniment until the end when they all landed together in major triumph. And she was beautiful, too, as beautiful as Taylor Swift is today, but her voice was much stronger and clearer than Taylor's. When Whitney Houston was at the height of her powers she succumbed to human weakness and was hurt by those who should have helped her. Her death on Saturday, after a long decline, was not shocking, but the event does throw cold water on our belief (hope) that it's never too late to correct our mistakes or improve our lives.
Freddie Solomon, who played on two of the 49er Super Bowl teams, died of cancer today. Freddie Solomon was the "speed" wide receiver that was essential to the operation of the Bill Walsh offense, which spread passes around to tight ends, running backs, and "possession" wide receivers like Dwight Clark. Freddie tutored Jerry Rice though he knew Jerry would take his job. A relaxing retirement was not for Freddie.
After his playing days, he devoted himself to community service in Tampa. He worked with youths for 20 years through a program with the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office. He also teamed with former 49ers owner Eddie DeBartolo, a Tampa resident and close friend, on an annual Christmas celebration for foster children.
Freddie Solomon did not receive the awards given to his more famous teammates, but in character and generosity he was among the greatest of 49ers.
To a kid growing up in 1950's Hawaii, TV was a rare treat. Allowed to watch during the short window between homework and bedtime, I generally liked my parents' and grandparents' viewing choices.
However, when an opera came on I left the room. I didn't bother to look at the screen--the sound of a powerful soprano was enough to chase me away. Was it the content of the music or the hyper-sensitivity of a child's hearing? They sang in another language and covered their ample frames with strange costumes, but the bottom line was that I didn't care for the sound. In harsh contrast to popular songstresses such as Doris Day and Judy Garland opera-style music was boring and even grating.
That is, until I heard Kathryn Grayson, who sang beautiful melodies, spoke English, and as a bonus didn't look like she was heavier than the male lead. Ms. Grayson, who died [obituary and photo from the Washington Post] on Wednesday, didn't actually perform in operas until after she quit Hollywood in 1956. But she was the only operatic singer in movies that I enjoyed listening to, and for those pleasant memories I am grateful. R.I.P.
The network painted itself into a corner when it swapped out Jay Leno for Conan O’Brien as The Tonight Show host last year.
Now, the peacocks have come home to roost at NBC following Leno’s disastrous 10 p.m. show. The network plans to put Leno back in his old 11:35 p.m. slot, shift O’Brien back to 12:05 a.m. and, well, few folks are paying attention to how it all affects Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, apparently.
Actually, for this erstwhile (I regularly watched Johnny Carson) viewer, it’s been comedy gold. Jay Leno and Conan O’ Brien have never been funnier this week, lamenting their uncertain futures and mocking the suits at NBC.
While Conan takes a few shots at Jay in each show, those have been mild compared to David Letterman’s nightly pox-on-all-their-houses monologue on CBS' The Late Show. Letterman plays off his resentment at Leno’s inheritance of Carson’s mantle, but that occurred in 1992, and no human being could have stayed mad for 18 years and been successful, much less remained upright.
It’s all material to these professionals, and they’re mining it for all it’s worth. Here are Conan’s list of changes that NBC executives are making to improve the Winter Olympics (in a bow to Letterman’s Top-Ten routine, except the items aren’t numbered).
Move the Winter Olympics to summer, but still call them The Winter Olympics.
Replace the Olympic theme with Subway’s “5 Dollar Footlong” song.
Have all event judging done by Paul Abdul, David Hasselhoff and for some reason, Flavor Flav.
Attempt to boost ratings with new event featuring obese people on sleds called “The Biggest Luger.”
Replace the flags on the giant slalom course with breached NBC contracts.
Reserve the right to cancel ski jumps mid-jump.
Move the Bronze up to Gold’s place, Silver stays where it is, and add a new medal for fourth place called the “NBC.”
I've set the DVR to record these shows for viewing at a more civilized hour. The comedic kerfuffle will only last a few weeks, and, as one of them said, these shows might be collector's items.
Hawaiians have a great deal of affection for local boys and girls who make good on larger stages. Bette Midler, Steve Case, Shane Victorino, and, of course, Barack Obama are welcomed back as hometown heroes. But it doesn’t hurt for one’s politics to be left-of-center.
Substitute “the Bushes” for “the Obamas” in the following sentences from the WSJ, and the media and popular reaction would be quite different.
The city shut down a public beach so the Obamas and their guests could swim on Sunday. On Tuesday, they picnicked alone on Hanauma Bay.
On New Year's Eve, the Obamas watched "Avatar" in a shopping-mall theater cleared of people.
It's a refreshing sign of the new tolerance that shutting down public access to popular beaches, malls, and other gathering places [the meaning of O’ahu, BTW] does not show elitism, special privilege, and arrogance. Also, I do not begrudge the President his Hawaiian vacation.
Just spare me the outrage when a Republican President (and, yes, we’ll probably have another one in our lifetimes) does the same.
