Christmas Goodies and Fun

Merry Christmas, dear Reader!

This was a quiet time for me, with no family visiting from out of town. Thanks, COVID! But I did keep in touch through video chats, emails, texts, and phone calls. Lots of time to laze around, sleeping, reading, eating, and watching stuff. I wasn't really into any seasonal movies, even though I own a few classics, and there are loads on the streaming services. Instead, I watched a bunch of the 30 Rock TV show's Christmas episodes. My favourite show of all time, so it's always a blast to revisit those "oldies" (way back in the 2000s) with some snacks and libations on hand.

Tina Fey as Liz Lemon on TV's 30 Rock

Not a big gift haul here this year, at least in terms of physical items. Mostly cash and gift cards, and I turned those gift cards into e-books. I did order a record with some of that moola (mentioned in last week's post), but won't see that for a few weeks since it's shipping from overseas.

As for fun media stuff, I got a couple of things worth mentioning. I treated myself to a 2022 wall calendar. It's become harder and harder to find calendars that I like, since I have used (and keep - don't ask) so many James Bond and Rush calendars over the years that I now see a lot of repetition of the images on them. So I am always questing for something different that'll look good on my kitchen wall. I finally settled on a big colourful Beatles wall calendar. Not the best I've ever seen, but it was reasonably priced and will do the job.

I was given a very cool band biography, one which I had dropped a hint about months ago. It's the one and only book in the world - ever - about the short but fascinating career of Canada's Max Webster. Max has long been a favourite band of mine, ever since I saw them play a gig at one of my high school "dances" back in the late 1970's. If you know anything about Max Webster, you'll understand my enthusiasm for the the band... and this book. If you have never heard of them, think back to rock radio in the 70's and 80's (maybe even later) when Max staples were in heavy rotation, stuff like Check, Battle Scar, Paradise Skies, Gravity, and Let Go the Line, to name just a few. If you're still drawing a blank, then how about the name Kim Mitchell? He was the frontman/singer/guitarist for Max Webster, before moving on to a more maintream solo career. Kim's solo songs include Go For Soda, Patio Lanterns, and Rock N' Roll Duty. Ring any bells? Those are among his most famous tunes, all from the 80's, when Mitchell enjoyed a lot of success and radio airplay, mostly in homeland Canada, but also got some exposure in the States.

Anyway, I can't wait to get into this book, entitled Live Magnetic Air: The Unlikely Saga of the Superlative Max Webster, by Canadian music author Martin Popoff. My copy was signed, too... and to me. A cherished gift that I'll never part with. That will take its place beside my trilogy set of hardcover books about the history of progressive rock royalty, Rush (also Canadian, eh), also by author Popoff. Rush and Max were on the same record label and were actually good friends,  touring together in their heyday, and even recorded a song together that appeared on Webster's final album.

New Additions to the Record Shelf

My recorded music collecting slowed to a near standstill the past few months. This was for a couple of reasons. First off, I've been struggling with what I even want to add to my couple hundred plus records. Between my vinyl and my CDs, I must have a thousand albums or more... a mere drip compared to some collections out there, but it's significant given my space limitations and spending budget.

So it's a always a bit tough to decide what to get next. I do have a list of stuff I'm interested in, but some of those albums are ones I already own on CD and simply want a vinyl version, while others are by bands I like, but I am not familiar (very much, or at all) enough with them to take the plunge. Therefore it's easy to put off those purchases until I can even give them test listens (hello, Youtube) to be sure I want them.

Add into that equation the fact that I do not have a bottomless budget for such things. Life is getting more expensive, between inflation and more day-to-day necessities. Sigh, sometimes the fun has to go on the back burner. There is a small handful of albums on my Wishlist that I'd love to get ASAP, but they aren't cheap, not old used copies, or even brand new reissues. So I'm kind of stuck.

Every once in a long while, I'll dig a bit deeper for a pricier record, just because it's one of very few I'll buy over a stretch of time... and because it's a more important addition to my collection. When I know I've been very restrained for months, picking up only cheapie vinyl at thrift shops, or nothing at all, I feel I can justify a $30-40 purchase - at intervals. 

Anyway, all that to say that my buying power is at a low these days, so all the music I've gotten in the past couple months, and only very recently, are:

Lucifer II, by Lucifer - on vinyl, sealed, a 2018 German import. 70's retro-styled hard rock-doom that resonates with me. I hear a bit of Sabbath, Blue Oyster Cult, Danzig, and even a touch of Ghost in their cool, tough, un-forced "light" occult metal, with smoky female vocals and cryptic ancient Egyptian themes here and there.

Lights, Camera, Revolution, by Suicidal Tendencies - seminal 1990 recording jam-packed with gems by this So-Cal band who pioneered crossover styles hardcore skate punk-thrash metal. Angry music with a message and primo musicianship, especially Rocky George's melodic yet stinging guitar soloing. Rare-ish on vinyl, unless you break the bank, so I opted for the CD.

Diary of a Madman, by Ozzy Osbourne - yes, this classic 1981 sophomore metal foray by our beloved ex-Sabbath frontman. I've been revisiting this over and over lately, rediscovering just how great and timeless the album is... much better than his debut, in my opinion (I'm sooo tired of Crazy Train). Rhoads' guitar tone was corrected to near-perfection here (unlike that weird, compressed, chunky, un-musical sound on Blizzard of Ozz) and his song ideas and playing are even more mind-bending. I'd ignored Ozzy's music, even his best stuff - these oldies - for ages, but coming back to it proved to me that I needed a proper copy of the album after all these years. After my tape days in the 80's, all I ever owned was a compilation mix of Diary and Blizzard, minus a few tracks, on homemade CD. Having learned that modern versions of Diary have been seriously tampered with sound and performance-wise, I sought out an older remaster on CD, which was highly recommended. Happy!

The Beatles: Get Back Documentary Thoughts

I felt just a little left behind when I began hearing about all the fuss over the new Beatles: Get Back documentary that's now appearing on the DisneyPlus streaming service. I did check out several Youtubers' comments to get a feel for how good the doc is, so I could make a proper decision about whether to re-activate my Disney account just to watch this. As it turned out, everyone who talked about Get Back online was a Beatles fan to begin with, so they found the documentary fascinating, if not great from start to finish.

My two CD bootlegs of the music, in various forms, produced in the Get Back

sessions in 1969, intended for what would become the Let It Be album.

I really only waited about a week or so after it first aired to finally get on board. I began my Beatles journey on a Friday, immediately after I got home from work. While I wasn't held rapt to the thing for long stretches, I could see that this was a golden opportunity to look into the minds and lives of the Beatles and their close associates as they created the songs that would be played in their "big" upcoming performance and appear both in a film and on an album. So I knew I was in it for the long haul, and broke up those three marathon episodes (2.5 to 3 hours per episode) into several viewing sessions. And I completed the whole near-eight hour thing over the course of that weekend. The final hour or so was the culmination of all that goofing around and - late in the game - hard work to make things all come together.

I must admit that there were spells where I was, not bored, but kind of just existing with the Fab Four and their people in that room... watching and listening to their ideas and everyday chitchat. Thankfully, it wasn't a whole lot (very little, in fact) of technical mumbo-jumbo. The Beatles were somewhat unschooled, at least with formal theory training, in music, being mostly self-taught, learning songs by ear, and refining their skills through tons of practising and gigging. This meant that they spoke in very understandable words as they tossed ideas back and forth, hashing out songs bit by painstaking bit. I have only a small amount of music theory under my belt, most of it related to guitar only, so I easily got the gist of what they were talking about.

It was certainly an unbelievable undertaking putting this documentary together. I believe about sixty hours of film were shot and about 150 hours of audio recorded at the time (1969) and it was up to modern day director and producer Peter Jackson to whittle all that material down to the "tight" eight hours we ended up with. A labour of love, to be sure. Jackson had this on his To Do List for ages, and it took him nearly four years to edit the thing into something that viewers could digest without bursting their brains.

Get Back dispelled the notion that the Beatles hated each other by this point in time. Sure, there was a bit of drama, but it was mostly surrounding George's dissatisfaction with his part in things. And even that wasn't as big a deal as we thought it was prior to this fly-on-the-wall look at the reality of it. George, after his temporary quitting the band, came back with valuable musical contributions that saw some of his best work come to fruition. We didn't see any true nastiness from John and Paul toward George, or each other. George wanted to feel good about what he was doing, but also needed more of a democracy in the group, with less of Paul telling him what to play. A secret recording captured John revealing as much to Paul, and how he could cut George some slack and be a bit less of a "boss" in the band.

The shared leadership of The Beatles became more apparent here, too. John was the leader, at least historically, since Paul joined John's exisiting band in the early days. Over time, and especially in these 1969 development sessions, Paul stepped up to organize everyone and get the ball rolling... faster... since the clock was ticking and they hadn't produced much for weeks. But they all got on the same page eventually and hammered out some of their finest songs before the final bell.

Though it was cool to see producer George Martin hanging around in his tailored suits, enjoying some of the group's shenanigans and participating occasionally in musical ideas and technical set-up, it did seem odd that he was there so much, day in and day out. He and the recording engineers and other technical guys were ever-present, sometimes fiddling with wires or bringing in yet another new "toy"... ah, we've got the money, let's get another keyboard in here, sometimes sipping tea or pouring drinks for the band as they jammed and joked about.

Ringo was quietly in the background for pretty much the whole thing. He did pipe up once to announce that he had "farted. Just wanted to let you know". Over time, the boys began to bring their wives in to spend the days hanging out while they "worked". Yoko was there from day one, and though she definitely looked extremely out of place, an unnecessary presence in the room, she rarely spoke a word and never caused problems. I have to wonder if the other guys felt a bit put off by this extra body - not participating or part of their work - right up in their faces all the time. But no matter, Yoko wasn't the nuisance that I previously thought she was. At least during this filmed period of activity.

The arrival of Billy Preston was the game-changer. He casually dropped by one day and started jamming with the guys. When they got down to the song Get Back, a troublesome tune to develop, there was magic in the air. You could see and hear the room light up, and the expressions on all their faces said it all. The final piece of the puzzle had fallen into place. Billy, the gifted pianist, was exactly what The Beatles needed to make that song - and others - really shine.

Get Back was informative and somewhat entertaining, though mainly for a major Beatles fan. A few friends of mine, only casual fans, lost steam after only one or two episodes. I totally understand that because these lengthy episodes are jam-packed with not very much going on. It's stuff only a true fan would lap up and fully appreciate. I've been a Beatle-head since I was a kid, collecting their music as well as reading many books about the band. Though I haven't been quite as rabid a fan as the decades wore on, my love of their music never went away, and since Get Back is something rare and special, I realized this was a long time coming and needed my attention. Peter Jackson's pristine film and audio restoration makes this look like it was shot yesterday, with all the latest technology. You feel like you are right there in the room with The Beatles.

I'm happy I watched The Beatles: Get Back, but I know I'll never drag myself through it again. It's just too damned long for what it is. Yes, it's an important document of what went down in the final days of the most famous and successful musicians of our time (all time?), but it didn't make for scintillating viewing. The final hour of the final episode was the culmination of all that sitting around, and made it worth the long wait. But once was enough for me. I've other Beatles stuff to watch and listen to. In fact, I plan to re-watch Ron Howard's excellent documentary, Eight Days A Week: The Touring Years, sometime soon. Also a passion project, this captures the excitement of The Beatles on the road... on planes, abroad, on-stage... before they quit performing live and became exclusively a studio band.

Fab Four forever!

My Favourite Movie Actors

Someone recently asked me who my favourite movie actors were. This initially stumped me, mainly because I never think in terms of actors... instead, I have favourite directors, film score composers, and movie genres. But that same person, seeing my distress at this difficult question, then suggested I think of actors who appear most often in my favourite movies. That helped me to narrow it down a bit.

Yup, that's a 13-year-old Natalie Portman in Leon: The Professional, the story 

of a hitman who reluctantly takes in a girl orphaned after her family is murdered

Unlike some film fans, I don't think I could name just one absolute favourite actor. I mean, I pretty much never see a movie based solely on who stars in it. So I might have a core group of best-liked actors, and then a whole bunch of others who I enjoy watching but could never rank them.

I suppose I'd say the handful of actors I admire and enjoy watching most are:

Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, Sean Connery, Clint Eastwood, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nicole Kidman, Robert Duvall, Bill Murray, Harrison Ford, Kirk Douglas, Gregory Peck, Humphrey Bogart, Michael Shannon, and Jimmy Stewart.

All talented and charismatic people who have made names for themselves through their years of screen portrayals. Sure, the odd actor in that bunch isn't exactly universally known as a GREAT actor even though they have achieved star status, yet through hard work and developing a solid reputation in the film industry, each has climbed to the top of the ranks in Hollywood. They've all earned respect and big bucks in the process.

Not necessarily any less competent - or just plain cool - are these other well-known performers:

Jimmy Stewart, John Wayne, Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Ingrid Bergman, Gary Oldman, Oscar Isaac, Gene Hackman, Leslie Nielsen, Claude Raines, Sam Neill, Vincent Price, Lance Henriksen, Ian McKellen, Greta Gerwig, Charlize Theron, Amy Adams,Tom Selleck, Peter Sellers, Roy Schieder, Orson Welles, Carey Grant.... ah, the list could go on forever.

But you get the idea. A decent mix of classic and modern Hollywood, and whatever fell in between... plus some non-Hollywood actors thrown in there for variety.

You might wonder about a few of my choices, like Leslie Nielsen. Though most of us know him best for his low-brow comedic movies, he did start out in dramatic roles (in the 1950's!), but the 80's saw him transform into a hilarious comedy machine. Though extremely silly and childish at times, his form of humour speaks to me on a base level. Light entertainment at its best.

Lance Henriksen may not be a household name since he has appeared in mostly supporting roles, yet he is the definition of a reliable working actor who brings his likable, often quirky personality into the characters he plays. He's in a number of my favourite movies, mostly in genres like horror, sci-fi, and action. The Pumpkinhead horror movies and the Alien franchise are most notable. Quite prolific, Henriksen may take first prize for the most direct-to-video movies. A lot of crapola, but ol' Lance is always fun to watch.

And you might question my selection of Tom Selleck, who's best known for his 80's hit TV show Magnum P.I. and more recently, the show Blue Bloods. He hasn't exactly been a star of the big screen (only about two dozen films to his credit), but it has been his made-for-TV movies that have caught my attention, where Selleck played a small town police chief in his Jesse Stone series. Based on the crime fiction of one of my favourite authors, these adaptations are excellent, even when they stray from the source material. The casting is excellent, and Selleck shines as an aging and troubled cop trying to thwart modern day crime by his old-school methods.

I'm sure that after posting this, I'll think of more actors I find highly watchable, but maybe that will be a post for another day. Or not. Feel free to share your own fave actors in the Comments below.