Ramblin' with Roger

Movie review: Song Sung Blue

Neil Diamond tribute band

Apparently, many people thought the new movie Song Sung Blue was a biopic about the singer Neil Diamond. No. It’s a biopic of a Neil Diamond tribute band fronted by “Mike and Claire Sardina, a real-life couple that performed covers of Diamond classics in Wisconsin under their act ‘Lightning and Thunder.’ Directed by Craig Brewer, the movie dramatizes how the couple fell in love, became a hit in the Milwaukee area, survived a life-altering accident, and made a comeback.”

And that’s the arc of the new movie with the same title. Mike (Hugh Jackman) was a journeyman performer, covering a variety of artists before meeting Claire (Oscar-nominated Kate Hudson), who specialized in covering Patsy Cline. He tells her early that it was his birthday, but in a subsequent meeting, that it was his sobriety birthday.

At least in the movie, it was Claire who suggested to Mike that he specialize in being Neil. “It took a while to build a following. It’s true, as the movie shows, that the pair was booed out of a biker bar in Chicago. But after performing at the giant music festival Summerfest and the Wisconsin State Fair, their fan base grew. Singing “Forever in Blue Jeans” with Eddie Vedder in 1995 as the opening act for a Pearl Jam concert put them on the map.”

Credible

The movie chemistry between Jackman and Hudson was believable. They were on some show together (CBS Mornings?) Jackman was attached to the film first and was enthusiastic about Hudson after he saw an interview with Hudson about then-new music album.

There were some funny moments in the film. One involved Mike’s oblivousness about what Pearl Jam was. Another was when Mike and Claire tell Claire’s daughter Rachel (Ella Anderson) that she would be meeting Mike’s daughter Angelina (King Princess), who usually lives with her mother in Florida. “What’s this, a playdate?”Claire also has a young son Dana (Hudson Hensley), who was NOT one of those cloying movie kids.

Some of the reviews (78% on Rotten Tomatoes) complained that the film was “made with such falsely constructed schmaltz.” But I was more in this camp: “What the movie does well is some well-staged musical numbers. Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson prove to be very capable singers in this movie. While the movie is a downer a lot of the time, the songs are uplifting for the most part.” And that middle act WAS a downer, though it reflected Mike and especially Claire’s, reality.

I like Neil Diamond well enough, especially his early stuff. (Alas, Thank The Lord For the Night Time didn’t make the cut, even when they had a choir on stage.)

My wife and I liked Song Sung Blue, as did 97% of the Rotten Tomatoes audience. We saw it on MLK Day at the Spectrum Theatre in Albany.

“The Librarians” FILM SCREENING

Big Jim and the White Boy

Purloined from the NYS Writers Institute email

“The Librarians” FILM SCREENING, 7 p.m., Friday, February 20, 2026

Page Hall – University at Albany Downtown Campus
135 Western Avenue, Albany, NY 12203 See map.

(United States, 2025, 92 minutes, color. Directed by Kim Snyder)

Here’s the official trailer.

Join us for a screening of this surprise hit documentary film, followed by a conversation and Q&A with a panel of local librarians, including:

Alicia Abdul of Albany High School
Roger Green of the Friends and Foundation of the Albany Public Library
Amanda Lowe of the University at Albany Libraries.

The film profiles librarians across America as they face and combat book-banning— defending intellectual freedom on democracy’s frontlines amid unprecedented censorship in Texas, Florida, and beyond. The film features librarians who have been fired for refusing to remove books from the shelves, or simply for questioning the directive to do so.

The New York Times said, “From its superb opening-credits sequence paying tribute to card catalogs of yore to its sharp selection of vintage clips and intimate reportage, ‘The Librarians’ is as well-crafted as it is profoundly alarming.”

Cosponsored by the Capital District Library Council (CDLC)

FFAPL

Speakers for the Friends and Foundation of the Albany Public Library, Tuesdays at 2 pm at the 161 Washington Avenue branch.

January 27 | Book Review | These Truths: A History of the United States by Jill Lepore. Reviewer: James Collins, PhD, Prof. emeritus, Anthropology Dept, Program in Linguistics & Cognitive Science, U. at Albany, SUNY.

February 3 | Book Review | The Trial, the 1925 German novel by Franz Kafka. Reviewer: Joshua Bovee, copy editor and local author.

February 10 | Book Review | An Afternoon with the “Slow Horses,” Mick Herron’s Spy Thriller series in Books and TV. Reviewer: John Rowen, former president, Friends of APL.

February 17 | Illustrator Talk | Marcus Kwame Anderson, Deputy Director, Underground Railroad Education Center, discusses his most recent graphic novel, written with David Walker, Big Jim and the White Boy: An American Classic Reimagined.

February 24 | Author Talk | Avery Irons, prize-winning author, now a local but born & raised in central Illinois, discusses & reads from her new book, Belonging to the Air.

First Pres, Albany

Beacon In The Park is a two-day arts celebration at First Presbyterian Church of Albany, featuring a juried art show, a Gershwin concert, docent-led tours, and a special lecture on Tiﬀanyʼs inﬂuence in the Capital Region.

Free and ticketed events welcome all ages.

Lydster: home for the holidays

“That’ll do, Pig. That’ll do.”

This past year, I particularly enjoyed the Daughter being home for the holiday. I attribute this to two primary factors. One was that she was away for an extended period last year, from early February to mid-June, while studying at the University of Cape Town in South Africa.

The other is that, in part because she had gone abroad, she had a different perspective. For instance, we were having a conversation about genericization, as one does. She noted that in South Africa, when one refers to toothpaste, they usually say Colgate. It’s like Americans say “Kleenex” for tissue paper, “Band-Aid” for bandages, or “Xerox” for a copier.

Famous quote

For some reason, my daughter said, “That’ll do, Pig. That’ll do.” I assumed she was referring to the 1995 movie Babe, spoken by taciturn farmer Farmer Hoggett (James Cromwell) after the title porcine does what it does.

But no! She was referring to dialogue in the animated series Gravity Falls (2012-2016) by Dipper (Jason Ritter) after the pig Waddles saves him from embarrassment.

Television/video

The Daughter has been a big fan of Crash Course, a YouTube series hosted by Hank and John Green. I recall she used several videos about the French Revolution when she was in high school. But she also checked out videos about geology.

She turned me onto Big History, which is “the history of everything. We’re going to start with the Big Bang, take you right through all of history (recorded and otherwise).”

On her own, she tends to watch some television which she knows I think are trash. And she doesn’t disagree, but she finds them sociologically interesting.

This fall, I was watching long enough that she asked me to guess the title. “TikTok Moms?” Based on the show’s history, it was not a bad guess. It was actually the Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. This got my wife to watch it briefly because two of the Wives were on Dancing With The Stars this season, which she watches devotedly.

Cooking

There is a lot more food in our refrigerator when the Daughter is home. Part of it has to do with her being a pescatarian, which means she makes her own meals a lot.

The other is that she likes to bake, usually with her good friend Kay. She wasn’t always great at cleaning up, as the cutting board above shows.

It was nice to have her home.

Sunday Stealing says, “C’mon, Get Happy!”

walls of books

Welcome to Sunday Stealing. Here we will steal all types of questions from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent questions. Cheers to all of us thieves!

We found this one at CreativeGene. It’s designed inspire “happy thoughts on a frigid January day.” Obviously, temperatures vary based on locale, but it’s a lovely sentiment, so let’s go.

Before answering this, I should note how much the title “C’mon, Get Happy!” resonates with me. I was in a production of Boys in the Band in 1975 in Binghamton, which I wrote about here. The only music cue I can recall was Judy Garland singing Get Happy, from the 1950 movie Summer Stock.

This should not be confused with the Elvis Costello album. Get Happy!

Here are 10 things that make me happy:

1. Having enough money to pay all of my bills. I’m not one of those people who balances his checkbook. (What’s a checkbook?) I just want the money in (Social Security plus some other sources) to be greater than the money going out. It got out of whack in 2025 because some medical reimbursements were less than what they should have been. (It’s too complicated to describe here.) But it has been resolved as of February 2026.

The usual

2. Listening to the music, which should be no surprise. It’s just TOO HARD to wash the dishes, clean the office, etc., without listening to music. (Currently playingMega Hits Dance Classics, including Let’s Get Serious by Jermaine Jackson, which features Stevie Wonder.)

3. Knowing stuff. I will freely admit that I fare less well watching JEOPARDY these days because I’m less up on current popular culture. (How can I keep track of all the shows on all of the streaming services and the big hits on Spotify?) But I know a lot of other things. I keep up with current events. My wife and I do the New York Times news quiz each week, and generally get 10 out of 11 right. The 11th question is usually in the “who cares” category.

4. My office, specifically the wall of books therein, built-in bookshelves in every direction. Many I’ve read, but more I have not. But there are a couple of rows I refer to often, books on music (of course), movies, and television.

5. Singing in the church choir. It’s an oddly collegial thing, especially after retirement.

6. Living in a place with accessible mass transit. The CDTA buses will get me downtown (to the library and church), to the nearest hospital, and to the Best Buy, which is the only store in Crossgates Mall I actually shop at.

7. Reading scripture in church. I’m told I do it well.

8. Reading the newspaper, the physical manifestation, not online.

9. Writing this blog. It’s my therapy and, increasingly, my memory aid.

10. There is a 10th.

Thank you for playing! Please come back next week.

Mainstream and alternative rock #1s for 1991

So You Think You’re In Love

These are the mainstream and alternative rock #1s for 1991. There is some overlap. The mainstream tracks will be designated M and the alternative A.

Mysterious Ways– U2, 12 weeks at#1 M, 9 weeks at #1 A, #9 pop

All This Time – Sting, 7 weeks at #1 M, 2 weeks at number one A, #5 pop

Lift Me Up – Yes, 6 weeks at #1 M, #86 pop

Learning To Fly – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, 6 weeks at #1 M, #28 pop

Right Here, Right Now – Jesus Jones, 5 weeks at#1 A, #7 M, #2 pop

Kiss Them For Me – Siouxsie and the Banshees, 5 weeks at #1 A, #23 pop

So You Think You’re In Love – Robin Hitchcock and the Egyptians, 5 weeks at #1 A. This is a great pop song, yet it did not reach the pop charts.

Run Around – Van Halen, 4 weeks at #1 M

Dream Line – Rush, 4 weeks at #1 M

Top Of The World – Van Halen, 4 weeks at #1 M

The Other Side Of Summer – Elvis Costello, 4 weeks at #1 A. I only bought Mighty Like A Rose since COVID.

Teenage Wasteland redux

Rush -Big Audio Dynamite II, 4 weeks at #1 A, #40 M, #32 pop. Samples Baba O’Riley by The Who

Highwire – The Rolling Stones, 3 weeks at #1 M, #57 pop

Losing My Religion – R.E.M., 3 weeks at #1 M, 8 weeks at #1 A, #4 pop

Get A Leg Up – John Mellencamp, 3 weeks at #1 M, #14 pop

Poundcake – Van Halen, 2 weeks at #1 M

Out In The Cold – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, 2 weeks at #1 M

See The Lights -Simple Minds, 2 weeks at #1 A, #10 M, #40 pop

Get The Message – Electronic, 2 weeks at #1 A

Until She Comes – the Psychedelic Furs, 2 weeks at #1 A

Give It Away – Red Hot Chili Peppers, 2 weeks at #1 A, #73 pop. Grammy for Hard Rock Performance. I actually know this song better as Bedrock Anthem by Weird Al Yankovic

The Fly – U2, 2 weeks at number one A, #2 M, #61 pop

She Talks To Angels – the Black Crowes, 1 week at #1 M, #30 pop

Silent Lucidity – Queensryche, 1 week at #1 M, #9 pop

Heavy Fuel – Dire Straits, 1 week at #1 M, #22 A

Kinky Afro – Happy Mondays, 1 week at #1 A

Smells Like Teen Spirit – Nirvana, 1 week at #1, #7 M, #6 pop. And of course, Weird Al’s Smells Like Nirvana

At the time, I was mostly listening to U2, Sting, Petty, R.E.M., plus the Black Crowes, BAD II, and Nirvana.