On Coming Home

It's Memorial Day. The front page of the SF Chronicle heralds Barry Bonds 715th Home Run surpassing Babe Ruth's 714th, this story pretty much consumes the entire page with a nice large color photo of Bonds. Two side story headlines read "Revering those lost to wars" and "Iraqis flee as killings increase" while a third story covers the second part in a series on school resegregation in San Francisco. Turner Classic Movies is showing a classic WWII film called The Longest Day with an all-star cast including Henry Fonda, John Wayne, Peter Lawford and a host of other top-rated actors from this generation.

In contrast, here's a trailer from Coming Home, a film that depicts the effects of another war that we did not need to fight. Released in 1978, Coming Home was produced by Jerome Hellman, directed by the late Hal Ashby with a screenplay by the once blacklisted Waldo Salt. Coming Home proved to be a labor of love by all involved in the production. Jane Fonda, Jon Voight, and Waldo Salt (original screenplay from a story by Nancy Dowd) won Academy Awards.

On Sunset Boulevard

The first time I saw Sunset Boulevard years ago was on"Saturday Night At The Movies." It took a few more years before one of my dreams came true and I made that first drive out Sunset Boulevard. Gloria Swanson played Norma Desmond an aging (50) and once shining star now forgotten and cast aside by the Hollywood system. Interesting that Sunset Boulevard came out in 1950 and I am pretty sure Swanson made her own brief 'comeback' with this film at the age of 50. I've always loved William Holden---never thought of him as a great actor, maybe because it came easily to him, he was a great star and enjoyable to look at on screen. Holden made some wonderful films in the 50's, among them another favorite, Born Yesterday. Take a look at the Sunset Boulevard trailer:



I loved Andrew Lloyd Weber's musical Sunset and feel lucky to have seen the original London production with Patti Lupone. Lloyd Weber fired Lupone later and replaced her with Betty Buckley. Buckley must have been an amazing Norma--- on my next trip to London, I bought tickets to see it again, unfortunately Betty Buckley's stand-in played the role so I never got to see her in "Sunset." Did get to multiple Betty Buckley concerts where she performed two or three of the shows signature songs---stunning.

On Magic . . . never believe it's not so!

<----Click on the movie screen. Magic seems to be everywhere. I am constantly amazed by the creative spirit. Take a look at this Starburst comprised of 81 parachute canopies. Enjoy!

On Tap Dancing

Here's an enjoyable though fuzzy looking film clip of Eleanor Parker and Fred Astaire tap dancing in the 1940 classic Broadway Melody, just click on the movie screen to view! Introduced to tap dancing at age 5 as a "dancing buttercup" in Miss Bagley's Kindergarten Class, I soon found myself watching Shirley Temple movies on television and dreaming of learning how to tap dance like Shirley. Mama brought home Shirley Temple paper doll books for my entertainment. (Once I'd cut Shirley and her outfits out of the book, I never really enjoyed paper dolls). After the "dancing buttercup" period, Mama enrolled me in Virginia Dell's School of Dance where I remained through the third grade. I took up dancing lessons again in high school, years later while living in Washington, DC, a group of friends and I took a tap class. Honestly, I am not a very good tap dancer and usually forgot the routine steps---though I do admire and love all of my dancing heroes!

On A Prairie Home Companion

What fun! Last night the 49th SF International Film Festival closed with A Prairie Home Companion to a packed house at The Castro. You can always count on Robert Altman. With guest appearances by two members of the ensemble cast, Lily Tomlin and Virginia Madsen, the screening ended with a terrific Q&A. Lily Tomlin has been one of my heroes since the Laugh-In days and over the years I've never missed her one-woman shows--always brilliant and generous with her audience and her colleagues, last night was no exception. She and Meryl Streep play the surviving members of the singing Johnson Sisters, playing off one another and with one another throughout their scenes together, their chemistry and fun-loving spirit sparkles on screen. Tomlin told the Castro audience that she took singing lessons for several months before the shoot and still told Altman she was concerned about her singing badly, his response was something like 'then don't sing.' Kevin Kline ever splendid and funny. Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly hilarious as Dusty and Lefty, two cowpoke trailhands singing every bad joke you may have heard or a few new ones written by Keillor, who also wrote the screenplay. Virginia Madsen talked about not knowing what was going to happen with her character the Angel and that she'd just walk about the set, sometimes directed by Altman and then pulled off because it wasn't working. She said she hung around the set each day sitting on the first row in the audience watching because she just couldn't leave, it was all too much fun and wonderful. A live radio show in a movie. Perfect. A Prairie Home Companion was shot on location at The Fitzgerald Theatre (the sight of the radio show). There are multiple great scenes as the action takes you on stage, backstage and down to the dressing rooms. Exceptional scenes include the ones between Yolanda and Rhonda Johnson as they sit in front of the make-up mirrors reminiscing and talking with Lola played by Lindsay Lohan ---a tribute to classic Altman filmmaking and a triumph for Streep, Tomlin, Keillor and the rest of the cast. A delight.

On Muriel Spark: " A Poet and A Dreamer"

MURIEL SPARK 1918-2006

‘Scottish by formation’, one of the greatest writers of the 20th century has died, aged 88, writing till the last. Excerpts from article by Alan Taylor, Literary Editor, The Sunday Herald, Scotland UK , April 16 2006.

EVEN as a young girl in Edinburgh at James Gillespie’s High School – the prototype of Marcia Blaine’s in The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie – Muriel Spark was known as “a poet and a dreamer.” Her poems appeared in clusters in the school magazine and she won city-wide prizes for her essays. Her fellow pupils knew her as a storyteller and her teachers, such as Christina Kay, on whom she was later to model Miss Brodie, were aware of her burgeoning talent.

It was another Catholic writer, Evelyn Waugh, who marked her arrival on the literary scene, lavishly praising her debut novel The Comforters. Her publisher took her to lunch to celebrate, after which, she recalled in her autobiography, Curriculum Vitae, she “went on her way rejoicing”. It was a phrase she used regularly and which, I believe, summed up her attitude to life. Once, attending a party at her house in Tuscany, I asked her how I might be of help. “Pour champagne ceaselessly,” she instructed.

In the course of making a BBC documentary about her life and work, I asked her to sum up her achievement. “I have opened doors and windows in the mind,” she said. She wrote 24 novels, several short stories and three well-received biographies in her long career but will be best remembered for The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie. She said she found it “useful” to be an expatriate. “Being at an angle I find a help,” she once told reporters. “It means one has a different perspective, a new angle of absurdity.”

Spark was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire in 1993 and in 1978 was elected an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Among the many awards she received throughout her career was the David Cohen Literature Prize for lifetime achievement in 1997 and the Bram Stoker prize in 1987 for her biography of Mary Shelley. Her last novel, The Finishing School, was published in 2004.

On Egg Dying

A friend sent this along with a string of other funny cartoons depicting egg-related parodies---you know each year at this time, I remember to wonder about the origin of the Easter Bunny, baskets with green plastic grass,the tradition of dying hard-boiled eggs, chocolate bunny rabbits, and those yellow chick sugar things that I never learned to like.
Why did we dye eggs, put them in our baskets with candy and get completely new head-to-toe outfits to wear on Easter Sunday?After Church, we had Easter Egg Hunts. I remember being excited by the creative process of egg dying and have always enjoyed new outfits----but I just don't remember the point of the egg and basket thing at all. Does anyone have this real story?

On Oprah

Yesterday I tuned into a PRWeb sponsored teleseminar featuring Annie Jennings, a Public Relations expert who's currently promoting her consulting services about 'How To Get Booked On Oprah.' Annie's guest happened to be a former producer on the Oprah Show. The session prompted me to pause a moment and reflect on why I really chose to tune-in on Annie's teleseminar. It's pretty simple, I've come to expect the best from Oprah because that's what she and her team deliver. Who wouldn't want to (1) share their best with the best and (2) share it with others who may in turn be inspired because they watch the show. Today I met with a filmmaker client who had made a notation on a draft publicity strategy I'd put together for her. On the client goals section she'd written "Oprah." I grinned and shared the vision I'd had while driving over the San Francisco Bay Bridge on my way to meet her: I'd clearly seen her, the film's cinematographer and co-director, and a few key cast members onstage with Oprah laughing and sharing their experiences. They were on the show because it's a best-in-class documentary that reasonated with the team at Oprah who knew it would do the same with everyone who watches the show. Dreaming Out Loud!

Imitation of Life

Here's two great dreamers. . . one of my high school theatre buddies, Ken Fallin uses his unique drawing style to render sketches of notable folks for the Wall Street Journal and other clients. Today's drawing of the legendary gospel singer Mahalia Jackson caught my attention.

My first memory of hearing Mahalia Jackson is sitting in the darkened 5-Points movie theatre with my parents and watching the Lana Turner remake "Imitation of Life." It's also my first recall of watching black & white racial discrimination on film. I was 8 or 9, so it had to be about 1959. I remember sitting with a huge lump in my throat trying not to cry as the maid’s daughter, very light skinned and ashamed of being black, had decided she wanted to be accepted into society as white, the lump was due to her treating her Mother so badly—when her sweet Mother died, Mahalia Jackson sang at the funeral. By this time, the lump in my throat was enormous, I could barely breathe. I always remember Mahalia Jackson in this way, singing up in the choir loft. Another amazing person who showed up for civil rights, Mahalia Jackson lived her life with amazing grace.

On Unreasonable Woman Diane Wilson

In October 2005, I had the pleasure of picking up great dreamer and "UnReasonable Woman" Diane Wilson from the San Francisco airport---she was traveling "on the lam" having just been ordered by a Texas judge to return to Texas and serve a stint in jail on an old Dow Chemical plant trespassing charge. We found ourselves continually on the look out for Texas Rangers or other Federales while waiting for her baggage--- it dawned on me at this point that I was "harboring a fugitive from justice". Like many others, I've come to support Diane for her passion and non-violent action to change things that are not OK in this world. You might not always agree with Diane on how she approaches something---but you can readily agree with her on what needs changing. On the drive to her hotel in Marin, we talked about being a writer and her love of the great American writer William Faulkner. If you haven't read Diane do so now, she's a gifted natural-born writer.

Diane managed to stay "on the lam" until early December when she slipped back into Texas and was arrested after unfurling a banner while chanting "Corporate Greed Kills and Iraq Kills Too!" at a Houston fundraiser for the less than admirable, Tom Delay--since she was very close to the podium when VP Dick Cheney approached to speak---obviously, she would be stopped and removed from the event. We've come to know now that anyone who wears a 'support' this or that t-shirt in the public viewing seats at the U.S. Capital will be taken away. The macabre scene that followed Diane's removal from the Delay fundraiser got even more frightening when neither her attorney, family, or closest friends and allies could find her for several days in the Houston jail system, reportedly due to a confusing mix up surrounding the name she was booked under. You can imagine how concerned everyone was for her safety. Sparked by the conditions and treatment of detainees within the jail system, once Diane was transferred from Houston to the Victoria jail, she placed a call-to-action for Texas prison reform. Of course she would, this is Diane Wilson.

The world-reknown environmental activist, author, and co-founder of Code Pink is not your everyday 'criminal'or activist. She got real angry about what was happening in her own backyard in the mid-1980's and chose to stop it. She chooses to go out daily to put her own life on the line for the future of her family, grandchildren and for the rest of us around the globe. Her work has cost her dearly in the process and she knows it. Diane Wilson follows her passion: unwavering dreams for peace and a healthy green environment. An UnReasonable Woman, a great dreamer, Diane Wilson's the real thing.


Producer and Director Carolyn M. Scott's TEXAS GOLD is the award-winning documentary about Diane Wilson's 'fight against chemical industry giants in the most polluted place in America.'

Photo Credits: Vicente Franco, Director of Photography, TEXAS GOLD

On The Sopranos 6th Season

Brilliant. Thanks to David Chase for (1)not shooting Tony at the end of the 5th Season and (2) figuring out to have Junior do it in Episode 1 of the final season! With Episode 2, Chase gives Edie Falco her time to shine as she delivers one of the best performances on the program in any season. I'm inclined to go with SF Chronicle Tim Goodman's prediction that Carmela will end up running the business (Goodman also gives himself an out with other possible endings). Last night's Third Episode reveals even more about the true character motives driving Soprano mob members,Carmela ends up sitting in Tony's chair at Dr. Melfi's office, and Christopher's back pitching another film idea: "it's Saw meets Godfather 2." In a meeting with potential investors, Christopher gives the set up: "It's about a wise guy with a big mouth and bigger dreams."

On The Amazing Sarah Caldwell