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!
Since it’s the 4th of July weekend, we’re going to keep this simple. We stole this from a blogger named Idzie, who called this the F.A.B. (film, audio, book) meme, so we’re F.A.B. again.
Movies
F. Film: What movie or TV show are you watching?
On Monday, my wife and I visited the Spectrum Theatre in Albany to see the comedy Caddyshack. Neither of us had ever seen it before, but we heard that it was very popular in 1980 when it came out. We were mostly unimpressed. Chevy Chase’s character was somewhat interesting, and Rodney Dangerfield was funny for a while, but Bill Murray seemed to be in another movie. I had to start looking at why so many find the film beloved.
The Wikipedia post was helpful: “The film was met with underwhelming reviews in its original release, with criticism towards the disorganized plot, though Dangerfield’s, Chase’s, and Murray’s comic performances were well received. Roger Ebert gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four and wrote, ‘Caddyshack feels more like a movie that was written rather loosely, so that when shooting began, there was freedom—too much freedom—for it to wander off in all directions in search of comic inspiration.'” If you’ve ever talked with a person who’s stoned, you’re not, and they think everything is hysterical? That may be this movie.
Harold Ramis, a first-time film director, noted that “In the DVD documentary, TV Guide had originally given the film two stars (out of four) when it began showing on cable television in the early 1980s, but over time, the rating had gone up to three stars.” Maybe it’s better with repeated viewing.
Music
A. Audio: What are you listening to?
This being July, some of the birthdays are those of Ringo Starr, Linda Ronstadt, Carlos Santana, Alison Krauss, Mick Jagger, and Jim Stewart. So I’ll play Linda, Santana, and the Rolling Stones. Who’s Jim Stewart? He co-founded the legendary STAX Records with his sister Estelle Axton. I also play a lot of compilations of Beatles covers, and I have many of them.
Photograph – Ringo Starr
Telling Me Lies -The Trio (Ronstadt, Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris)
Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen – Santana
Maybe – Alison Krauss
I Am Waiting – The Rolling Stones
Green Onions – Booker T. and the MG’s
You Can’t Do That – Harry Nilsson
Text
B. Book: What are you reading?
My friend Fred Hembeck wrote so kindly about former Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter, who died recently at age 73, regarding Fred’s participation in the Fantastic Four Roast and Fred Hembeck Destroys the Marvel Universe, I thought I’d read the book The Marvel Universe According to Hembeck.
Please come back next week.
Booker T and the MGs takes me back. Loved music back then.
Why did I like Caddyshack? Only 1 reason.. the little gopher dancing to the theme song.. Simple minds and all that.
I saw Caddyshack many years ago. I’m sure I thought parts of it were funny. Is that the movie where the baby ruth candy bar ends up in the pool causing a panic? I’m not sure I would find that funny today. I imagine I thought it was gross back then.
Yes, it is the Baby Ruth. I didn’t find it gross, merely juvenile, which I suppose was the point.
The Marvel universe. Wow. Comics have come a long way since I paid any attention to them. It used to be the highlight of the month, going to the store with a couple of quarters and buying all the comics we could find.
When I first visited America, I was staying with somebody in Los Angeles and they asked us to watch Caddyshack, saying “This is the funniest movie you will see”. Having watched it, I politely lied and said “It was quite amusing” but the truth is I didn’t really find it funny at all.
I kind of grew up with “Green Onions” because my dad loved it. I also like Black Magic Woman by Santana.
:o)
Cheers
PM