Author: fifteenkey (Page 76 of 95)

Last night I watched the last episode of “Love Monkey.” Several times during the show, I felt myself beaming with delight. Yeah, there’s the music, the great scenes of NYC and its clubs, but I really think the appeal for me is the bonds of friendship the characters had and their personal integrity. I have friends like that I don’t see nearly enough of. In the final scene, all the friends come together for the birth of a baby. As each friend arrives at the hospital to wait and worry, a song silences dialogue. It spoke to me about “the journey.”

There’s been quite a bit of buzz surrounding whether the box-office take of “The Da Vinci Code” will be follically challenged when it opens this Friday. There are also Catholic groups, including “Opus Dei” asking for a film disclaimer. Opus Dei doesn’t want to be portrayed as secretive monk-freaks… Um, whatever. As for the Catholic bureaucracy, Josh Grossberg wrote in E!-Online, “In a Good Friday sermon at St. Peter’s Basilica, Father Ramiero Cantalamessa, speaking before Pope Benedict XVI, attacked the book and the upcoming film as “pseudo-historic” works aimed at undermining the Church’s authority.” The church’s authority? Is that the same authority some of their priests used to rape little boys? Just wondering.

As for how the movie will do, just do the math. “Da Vinci” sold over 40 million copies of the book. Multiply that times people lending their copy to others, library borrowing, illegal Internet distribution of the text and audio version and that 40 million is probably 400 million. Those that haven’t read the book have certainly heard about it, so I expect the opening weekend to be huge. After that it will be all about word of mouth advertising. With Ron Howard directing, I expect movie-goer opinions to be stellar. I dare say that if “Da Vinci” had a love story and a sinking luxury-liner, it might end up the highest grossing film in history.

“Happy Mother’s Day” I said with a smile as she walked out the door. Dressed in black, the mother of our children floated away, back out into the rain of a bittersweet day. Standing at my feet was our four year old grand-daughter, Mackenzie. I was told she burst into tears at church on this day. To “Kenzie,” Mother’s Day is a painful reminder of her mother, who took herself out of the game over two years ago. Her return is uncertain. “She wanted to see her Auntie Megan,” I was told. Kenzie made herself comfortable on the couch with her Uncle Kyle, so there was no need for Megan to get up just yet. Entering Megan’s room to let her know, I was horrified to see a tornado had touched down and violently swirled the contents of her room into a splintered, random mess. I climbed over the wreckage and dug through debris until I finally found her. She was sleeping soundly, unfazed by the destruction left in the wake of a wicked whirlpool of wind. Relieved my Megan survived the devastation; I kissed her cheek and told her of our visitor. She sprang up like a rookie being asked to pinch hit in a big game… a really big game. Based on Ms. Daley’s past performance in these pressure situations, I have no doubt she’ll hit a homer.

“It is so beautiful here; I wonder how many people decided to end things here and jump-off?” I didn’t know the answer to Barb’s question about the Golden Gate, but I would find out.

Research turned up “The Bridge,” a film by Eric Steel documenting the deaths of some 20 people who didn’t come to walk, or jog, or linger to absorb the beauty. They came to “cross over” the ledge to the other side. Since opening in 1937, the bridge has been magnetic to those with a death wish, and its pull has claimed over 1,300 lives.

Walk On By…
In a Q&A; session during the SF Film Festival, Mr. Steel spoke of things that surprised him during his year at the bridge. One incredible observation was that many people walking by would clearly see that a person was preparing to jump, but would just keep on walking without making any effort to intervene or help. While that seems incredible, it’s not really surprising. Many among us are indeed colder than the icy waters of the San Francisco Bay.

I hear Prom Night is big with the chicks. Here are a couple from last night’s prom… No, I don’t have any idea why it was on a Thursday. Anyway, here’s Megan (R) and her pal, Courtney. No words can explain the joy I feel seeing the smile on her face and the sparkle in her eyes. My little girl has become a smart, funny and most beautiful woman.

The Robot Strikes again…
My friend Jeff is a brilliant writer. He’s the reason I’m here, and I mean that on several levels. In the last couple days he’s written another of his exposes’ on the Tar Hut years, and today has a sweet interview with Brian Henneman of the Bottle Rockets. They are in town June 17th… Don’t miss ’em.

Between work, travel and watching Love Monkey, I just haven’t had much time to write lately, but for this I’ll make time. Back in June, I posted this photo of Kyle posing with “Bruce,” the shark from “Jaws.” Yesterday, I received this email:

“On your website, I stumbled across your picture from Jawsfest posing with Bruce. I don’t know if you’ve heard of the documentary, THE SHARK IS STILL WORKING, but I’m one of the producers of it. My name is James Gelet, and I’d like to have your permission to include that photo in the documentary. In fact if you could better yet email me a higher res version of it than what is on your site, that would be wonderful.

If you’d like to learn more about the doc, check out www.sharkisstillworking.com. I’d be happy to hear from you if you have any questions.

-James”

I quickly wrote back to James and let him know what a huge fan Kyle was and of course included a hi-res version. Here’s James’ response:

“Thanks a ton for the speedy response. We’re honored to have you and Kyle in the doc. It’s just going to be a quick musical break where we talk about how Greg Nicotero’s shark was such a hit. We’ll have a little medley of people’s photos, and I think we’ve already made the decision to have Kyle’s photo be the last one so he can stay on screen a little longer. He looks like he was really happy and had a fantastic weekend.

Thanks again, and I’d be happy to hear from you any time if you have
any questions at all.

-James”

Kyle in the movies… How cool is that?

Sometimes it’s the song, sometimes it’s the choreography, and sometimes it’s just because…

5. Sloan, Hampton Beach Casino, NH (2004) – Megan’s first show in a club and she was about 10 people deep from the stage when the band opened with “Gimme That.” She turned to look back at me and her smile said it all. Sure, there was Jeff Tweedy kicking off my first Wilco show with a solo version of “Gun,” and Queen in 1978 at Boston Garden opening with “Tie Your Mother Down,” and the Who, and of course my first Bruce show, but this one makes it just because…

4. Black Sabbath at Live Aid (1985) – No, they didn’t open, but when I stumbled in after an all-nighter driving from Boston and partying in the parking lot, Ozzy and Sabbath were rocking in front of a sea of 100,000 people in Philly’s old JFK stadium. Surviving that show was like going 15 with Ali.

3. Stones, U of Colorado (1981) – College roomies Phil, Marty, Pat and yours truly drove 900 miles from Tucson, AZ to see the boys and there was one song I really wanted to hear. I’d never seen the band, so the first chords Keith ripped to “Start Me Up” was good enough to make the top 5. Oh, and “Under My Thumb” they played 2 songs later…

2. KISS, Providence Civic Center, New Years Day (1976) – Lights, smoke, bombs, action! Gino’s bass line thumps as he and Paul Stanley descent 20’ high stairs opening their “Destroyer” tour show with “Detroit Rock City.”

1. Alice Cooper – I don’t remember when or where, or even what the first song was, but Alice’s theatrical entrance to the stage was the best I’ve ever seen. Ever. (Granted, I never saw Spinal Tap live…) The lights go down and a film is projected on a movie theatre screen made up of long, white vertical strips. The scene is of a wheat field being harvested. We then move to a bottling plant where large vats of clear liquid are seen and then the filling of thousands of vodka bottles… (At that point, we all got it. Alice had famous battles with the bottle, even back then. Bottle after bottle was filled and sent down the line to be capped and boxed. At the end of the line, the bottles were falling toward us and into one of twelve slots in new cardboard boxes. Suddenly one bottle is coming at us and is uncapped. Just as the vodka begins to spill from the bottle, Cooper bursts out from the projected image and onto the stage as guitars wail and drums crash. That was cool.

“Dad, we need an exterminator” Megan shouted out from the kitchen. I walked in with an attitude, intent on conducting a complete forensic investigation prior to paying someone to spray generic bug spray. More specifically, in our case, ant spray. The ant invasion had begun. It seems every spring, these freakin ants get off the plane from Florida and head right to my kitchen. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a good cook and they know they can get a good meal here, but jeez, call ahead, willya? Megan and I have held intense strategy sessions (she’d say I just yell at her) about keeping the kitchen spotless so there’s no food sources to attract the little bast… um, guys. Megan had washed the floor and i had thoroughly cleaned all countertops. The place was clean, but still, I would not have eaten off the floor. In spite of our efforts…ants. I opened up our cupboards (how come that’s pronounced “cubbords”and not “cup-boards?”) to see if some package was open and providing the food source I wanted eliminated. I found this.

Yes, it’s shocking, but combating illegal ant immigration is a dangerous and sometimes scary vocation, and it’s not always pretty. Just consider this a free, “keepin it real,” good housekeeping tip from fifteenkey.com.

There’s drink n’ dial, txt intoxicated, and blogging while blind. I don’t think I’m quite in the latter category, but it is Cinco De Mayo (that’s Greek for “Jeff’s Birthday”) and I’ve celebrated with some fine Mexican cuisine and libations appropriate for this annual festivity… Oh, so the title… Well, I’m at my brother Kevin’s house outside Philly that he shares with his very cool wife, Noreen and their adorable daughter, Margeaux. At two, my little niece looks like her Mom, but has a miniature evil streak passed from her Dad’s (and mine) side of the family.

I spent much of today working on Sales issues, trying to help my business partners close business. Closing is hard. My brother is in the business of training Sales professionals, so I asked him why it’s sometimes so hard to close business. He said, among other things, that you’ve got to find out what your prospect’s pain is and then convince then you can take it away. “What if you don’t know what the pain is,” I asked. “You either find out or find another prospect,” he replied. “Otherwise you’re wasting your time and theirs.” Thanks, bro.

“Blog Ideas” is a document where I keep um…well, I had a note in there to write about cool based on an article I read in the Chicago Tribune. Instead, I’ll write about it within the context of one day in San Francisco, a city where (almost) everything’s cool.

Day two of the odyssey began by resuscitating Barb with a Starbucks Triple Venti Latte. Her pulse restored, Barb was ready to seize the day. I was just ready for some breakfast. The place we found could not have been more perfect after a long day into night involving some great California wines. Adel’s Restaurant is on the corner of Wabash & Broadway, in Eureka, CA. It was so cool. It was Samuel L. Jackson cool. In fact, I was sure we’d hear Sam saying this before we left, but he must have been delayed with Mr. Wolf. After refueling on a breakfast that rocked the cholesterol Richter scale, we were off to the city by the bay (did I just quote a Journey song? OMG, I’m sorry…). I won’t get into a major retelling of the whole day, but pretty much everything we did ended with a “that didn’t suck.” Here’s the punch list:

• Jamba Juice
• The View (Yeah, click the photo above…)
• Legion of Honor
• Haight-Ashbury
• Amoeba Records
• Kezar Pub
• The Buena Vista
• Lou’s Pier 47 Blues Club
• Sir Francis Drake Hotel

It’s a tough call on what was the “coolest” thing we did on that particular Sunday. For me it was likely the return to the Legion of Honor museum. On my inaugural visit, I didn’t appreciate art the way I do now, so it was like seeing an old friend years after acquiring some semblance of wisdom and maturity. Fun hit it’s highpoint at Lou’s Blues where we made fun of the “Fleetwood Mac” type drama we thought we were seeing. It was pretty clear the bass player, think Art Garfunkel without the money, was “with” the female lead singer, and the completely disengaged guitar player um, wasn’t… anymore. It was such a contrast to see “Art,” mojo on, jumping around in “Krameresque” fashion while the guitar player played almost motionless, a blank gaze pointed out the window to Jefferson Street below.

By the time we sat down for dinner at the end of Day 2, I had a blank gaze of my own; one of complete exhaustion. Barb claims the waitress flashed her a couple “boy, he seems like a lot of fun” looks, but I didn’t catch those. I’d seen enough for one day.