Someday, Someday, Maybe

One of my favorite TV characters of all time is LorelaiGilmore.  She’s witty, strong (even when she thinks she’s not) and houses a great knowledge of cultural trivia.  She’s my kind of gal.  Lauren Graham who so wonderfully played Lorelai just released a novel, Someday, Someday, Maybe. 

The story centers around Franny Banks, the actress/waitress who is trying to make a go of life in New York City and realizing her dream of one day being interviewed on the stage of the 92^nd St Y.  That would mean she had made it as an actress, a well-respected theater actress.  She has 6 months left in her self imposed quest to make it happen. Franny’s a little bit Lorelai and probably a lot of Lauren.  Lauren had said in an interview that it’s loosely based on her life and what she couldn’t remember, she made up.  She credits Diane Keaton with the suggestion to put these stories into a book. 

The story is about struggle and self-realization.  Anyone who has a dream, no money and lives on their own, can relate to it.  Franny occasionally asks her dad to supplement her income.  She deals with each situation with self-depreciating humor and determination.  The story also drives home that support, understanding and kindness can come from unlikely resources.

Lauren uses reproductions of Filofax pages to show the passing days.  If you don’t remember Filofaxes, they were the lifeblood of daily organization.  Before Palm, Blackberry or the smart phone, there was the Filofax. At the end of the year I would flip through mine and think, wow I guess I did accomplish something.  The voicemail messages from her English teacher father are sarcastic and sprayed with love. You can hear his voice in your head.  Franny had to have a cool, good-looking boyfriend, who you know will turn out to be a jerk.  I believe a guy like James is a rite of passage for every single girl in the city.  I could relate. 

Loved reading this book.  Someday, Someday, Maybe is sweet, charming, snappy and engrossing.  Oh did I mention, it’s also well written.  

The Leonard Lopate Show: Lauren Graham - WNYC

Following The Following

I started watching The Following for one reason:  Kevin Bacon.  He is one of our best actors and he played Fenwick in Diner, that alone is reason enough to love him. 

The three episodes had me.  It was like a page turner on TV, then.....  
 http://www.tvfanatic.com/2013/04/the-following-season-finale-review-finishing-the-story/
Bacon plays Ryan Hardy and ex-FBI agent who captured a serial killer, Joe Carroll who is now running a cult via his jail cell.  Hardy is called back into action to track down Carroll, despite being fired from the FBI. He's an alcoholic who we don't see drinking after the first few episodes. 

The show really got stupid when Carroll escapes from jail with the help of the warden (the beginning of a tiresome show of law enforcement being totally inept).  He exits into a helicopter and Hardy misses him by seconds. This will be played out in every episode, as well as several dead people (most of them are FBI and lots of stabbing. It became tiresome, but I held out and watched the whole season which concluded last night because Kevin Bacon is a good actor. 

Who on this show gave the ok to light the show the way they do?  Regardless of them being in a dark room, why does it have to be so dark the viewer can't see anything?  There is a big fight scene at the end, but I had no idea what was happening because I couldn't see anything.  This has been going on all season.  

For my amusement, I could not stop reading online reviews of the season finale.  I have been laughing out loud all day.  I have to share some of my favorite lines.  It's clear that I am not the only one to find that that show lost it's way early in it's first season.  It has been renewed by Fox.

• Sweet Claire is dislocated herself, waking in a dark room that shouldn't surprise her because hey, everything in the set design is dark.
• Weston [an FBI agent], convinced they don't have to play by Joe's rules, utters perhaps the finest line of the series thus far: "WE CAN CHANGE THE STORY." (If right after this you screamed at your television "WE CAN CHANGE THE CHANNEL," then tweet me so we can become best friends.)
• Bodies move around in space (I really do apologize but I can't see anything on this show) until somehow, someway, Hardy and Joe's tussle lands them in a boathouse full of gas tanks.
• THERE SHE IS, HARDY, THERE'S YOUR CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND STABBING YOU NOT IN THE BACK BUT RIGHT IN THE STOMACH OH HOW DID WE MISS THAT ONE.

hollywood.com Henning Fog

• And there are days when I think the high school girls on Pretty LIttle Liars are a collective Sherlock Holmes compared to the FBI on this show.
• Seriously, no one can die from a gut wound on this show, can they?
• This show really tests my facial recognition.

TV.com Nick Campbell

• Are you surprised that law enforcement didn’t rise en masse and demand that the second season of The Following be killed for portraying all cops as mentally slow and unable to hit a target?
• Ryan goes to the address that Joe described in the book.  There he finds Emma and gets syringed in the neck.  Because he’s an idiot. 

wsj blog Dawn Fallik

ANNETTE

In memory of my favorite Mouseketeer and Beach Party Gal.

My Mouseketeer Hat

First Thing I Thought Of When I Heard Margaret Thatcher Died

Remembering Roget Ebert

Richard Brody pays tribute to Roget Ebert in this New Yorker piece.  It's worth reading for Roger's thoughts on what it takes to make a film and what a filmmaker puts into her/his work.  Being able to appreciate what goes into making a film, is probably what made him so good at critiquing them. 

Phil Ramone

Every obituary I've read about Phil Ramone talks about the artists he worked with which is long and illustrious.  Of course there is Billy Joel; Phil's first production with him was The Stranger.  That album was the beginning of catapulting Joel into music legend status.  Joel has always given Phil credit for his work.   Phil was mainly engineering at that point in his career.  The Stranger was one of many in his string of big time producer credits. Phil was behind the board for the famous duet records of Ray Charles and Frank Sinatra.  He has numerous Grammys.

I've yet to read an article that mentions his short lived record company N2K Encoded Music.  That's how I know Phil.  I was managing the band mini-king, who passed up a deal with Columbia Records to sign with Phil and his new label. The label was all about new technology, which always interested Phil.  Their office was on Wall Street.  What?   They needed to be in a building that was equipped with the latest technology and the Wall Street building had it.  N2K had their own online music seller:  Music Boulevard.  This was 1997. 

Phil signed on to produce mini-king's first record.  The band was schooled and influenced by the great 60's and 70's pop songs, so working with Phil was a dream come true.  The band's founding member Michael LaMorte remembers working with Phil. 

While he was completely comfortable in his own skin, he could sense any sort of discomfort that most artists tend to have - especially before making a record, and would remedy this by describing the studio, or a place you have only read about - in great detail just to let your mind wander, thus putting you at ease. Not many people have a gift like that. Sort of a soothing/descriptive way about Phil. I learned so much from him - I wish every artist could work with someone like Phil at some point in their career.

Back Cover mini-king unreleased album

The band and Phil recorded at Sony Studios.  The record was completed.  We hired a stylist.   The band took publicity shots and the album was suppose to come out on a Tuesday.  Monday we got word the label, cut staff and was restructuring, which was one way of saying the label would no longer exist in a short time.  That week's Billboard Magazine had a full page ad on the back cover promoting the album.  The biggest loss was that mini-king did not make another album and the Phil Ramone produced record never was officially released. (Listen to 3 tracks from the album on Reverb Nation.)  The good news is Michael LaMorte is still playing music under the name Miguelito LaMorte, scoring animated projects (The Rattles) and is getting ready to unleash his film project Superstitious. 

Phil was upbeat and had fantastic stories to tell. He lived and breathed music and then shared it with us. 

Related Note:   I watched the documentary Family Band:  The Cowsills Story on Showtime.  Ironically their first big hit  The Rain, The Park and Other Things was recorded at A and R studios in New York.  Phil Ramone owned A and R Studios. 

Unknown Pleasures

Chances are you are British if you saw Joy Division live. They had a tour of the US planned, but they never made it here, another short lived band-span (just like the Sex Pistols).  I don't even think the band existed for 3 years. 

Peter Hook's book (I had to say that), Unknown Pleasures does a great job of capturing the exciting, but limited time he lived as a member of Joy Division.  I felt like I had a bird eye's view of what it's like to be a 20 year old in a band gaining momentum in England in the late 70's.   Read this book to get insight into their recording process, the trials and tribulations of performing live (when a show wasn’t cancelled) and the dynamics of a band. 

Peter owns his behavior.   He lets his immature self shine through.  I think a lot of people forget just how young and inexperienced these musicians were.  It was interesting reading this book back to back with Rotten.  They occur in the same time period and they were the same age when starting their bands.  In the case of Joy Division, they had a manager who cared and got them an exceptional record deal even by today’s standards.  (The band’s royalty rate was 58% to Factory Records 42%.  The band didn’t get an advance, but retained financial and creative control.)   We all know that The Sex Pistols manager Malcolm MacLaren didn’t have a clue and no one saw any money.  Not that the members of Joy Division got rich from record sales.  Money came later. 

There is plenty in the book about Ian Curtis, the band’s lead singer who suffered from epileptic seizures and killed himself on the eve of the band’s US tour.  Ian underplayed his illness and band members went along with him.  They just wanted to play music to make enough money to quit their day jobs. 

Martin Hannett, their record producer believed for a record to have a lasting effect and impact it has to have clarity and separation.  Joy Division’s records certainly have that.  Originally Peter and Barney hated the sound of their album Unknown Pleasures.  They wanted it harder and harsher, sounding more punk, which was hitting its peak at that time.  Martin had an interesting way of recording the drums:  which was one drum at a time, meaning the snare drum part was recorded by itself, the bass drum part by itself, etc.  I can’t imagine the music having the same feel or a musician being able to play that way.  That being said, Martin definitely carved out a distinct sound for the band. 

There is a thread of humor in Unknown Pleasures.  Peter in a typical British way takes a piss on everything including himself.  Apparently Martin wasn’t a fan of his and he describes Martin’s feelings about being in the studio.  “He used to get pissed off with us, especially me and Barney; we were about as welcome as a dog at a bowling alley.”  It should be noted that Martin was an eccentric. 

There does seem to be many similar band experiences in 1970’s England (mainly in the Manchester area). This is what I’ve taken away from reading these memoirs. 

1. Apparently no one properly drives a car in England.
2. Practical jokes were constantly played on each other.  I read a lot of “let’s jape their room” or “jape their bus”.  Jape is archaic for an act of mischief.  We need to revive the word. 
3. Bands experienced lots of cancelled shows, whether it was due to band reputation or circumstances.  I doubt that either Joy Division or The Sex Pistols put in their 10,000 hours.  There wasn’t enough time and venues were limited.

There is a lot of recap and redundancy in the book.  It almost reads like a self-help book in that each chapter has a timeline review.  It’s filler.  I could have done without it.  If you’re a die-hard fan of the band, you will love Peter for writing an anecdote on every song.    Peter put me in his shoes and I think that’s what made this book such a good read.  




On a packaging note:  If you are old enough to remember Joy Division when they were a band, you might get this reference.  The book looks like a 3/4" video tape. 

A Sign of Spring?

Carl Schurz Park this morning.