Alexander

Not only was Ringo not a fool, but he was a pro long before the other three Beatles. When John, Paul, and George were struggling to get gigs for the Quarrymen (and other early incarnations of the group), Ringo was an honest-to-God professional musician and a local celebrity. He was older than the others, and he could actually afford to buy a CAR as well as make his living playing music, so it would not be a stretch to say that the others had actually looked up to him. John himself once said that if the Beatles hadn't taken off, he believed that Ringo was the one among them who would have made it anyway.

You don't have to like him, or even respect him. I'd be quite the hypocrite to piss all over Leslie Nielsen's memory and then bitch because somebody said something mean about John Lennon. However, I find your comment disingenuous. I can't believe that you didn't "notice" when he died (I assume that's what you mean. Not that you weren't aware that he'd been dead for the past thirty years). Even as a child, albeit the child of Beatles fans, I could see that the story was all over the news at the time. This was not treated by the media like the passing of some also-ran pop musician. This was more akin to the death of a Head of State. The death of John Lennon was treated, by the media and populace alike, as equal to the death of JFK or Martin Luther King, Jr. Because the story here was not merely death, or even untimely death (Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, Keith Moon), but VIOLENT, untimely death. Whatever you thought of the Beatles, John Lennon's death was BIG, BIG NEWS. You noticed. Or did you also not happen to notice 9/11? "Hey, didn't there used to be a couple of towers over there? What do mean, 'where have I been'?" I can see missing George Harrison's passing. It wasn't quite the same level of news story. But missing John Lennon's death? Do you have ANY memory at all of 1980?

I was nine, turning ten in a few weeks. I've been a Beatles fan since babyhood, so I was well aware of John Lennon by 1980. I woke up the next morning and heard the news on my clock-radio. My first thought was, "I must still be asleep. I'm dreaming." I got up, went into the kitchen (still unsure if I had really heard what I thought I heard) and found my mother crying in the kitchen.

Some of us, at any rate... RIP anyhow.

Kind of off topic, but I went to the mall yesterday with my 10-year-old daughter yesterday to see a movie ("Tangled"). After the movie, she wanted to stop at Brookstone to buy a Christmas gift for her mother. Not only did she get her mom a very thoughtful gift (based on something she had overheard her mother mention), but she did not ask to stop at the toy store, the pet store, or any of the other places she usually likes to browse for herself. In fact, the only other place she wanted to go was Justice, where she's going to buy a gift for her two best friends (she wants to get them a three-way friendship necklace), but she decided not to because she didn't have the money on her. Very mature kid! I'm impressed. SOMEBODY sure did a good job raising her. Sure wasn't me or her mom...

Wrong. From Merriam-Webster: Ok. Whatever. By any standard, Nielsen fits the definition. All actors are paid for their work. Nielsen was loved(or at least well-liked) by many, apparently except for you. Let it go, please. Everybody realizes you don't like him, you're not going to convince anybody else you're right. Not trying to convince anybody. Just defending my POV.

Wrong. From Merriam-Webster: Ok. Whatever. By any standard, Nielsen fits the definition.

I'll be right there with you on David Spade. I have nothing good to say about that guy... So Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Lionel Hampton, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, etc are hacks. Hackwork: literary, artistic, or professional work done on order usually according to formula and in conformity with commercial standards. Does that definition fit with the above mentioned artists? I don't think it does. It does, however, fit with much of Michael Caine's work (as I previously noted) and pretty much all of Leslie Nielsen's work.

You obvious haven't seen "Forbidden Planet." So you don't see any contradiction between those two statements? None. A "hack" is an artist who does something for money, no matter what it is. He will accept any role, no matter how demeaning; no matter how bad the film. For most of his career, Michael Caine was a "hack." Some of the films he made were great. Many were all right. Some were outright awful. He didn't care. He got paid. In recent years, Caine has made a string of wonderful films. He can afford to be more selective in the roles he chooses, and he does so. Caine was always a very, very talented actor. He was just a hack. Incidentally, these days most of my acting work consists of commercials, industrial films, in-house promotions, etc. So I am DEFINITELY a hack, although I don't make enough money at it to be able to be picky. Maybe someday...

This is kind of ridiculous. I think it's pretty obvious that taste in comedy, like taste in music, is entirely subjective. And what makes me laugh might not make you laugh. For example: Monty Python: Yes. Benny Hill: No. Early Woody Allen: Yes. Any Jerry Lewis: No. Eddie Murphy on SNL: Yes. Eddie Murphy's movies (for the most part): No. "Young Frankenstein": Yes. "History of the World, Part I": No. Ricky Gervais' "The Office": Yes. The American version of "The Office": No. George Carlin: Yes. Dane Cook: No. Seth Rogan: Yes. Adam Sandler: No. That's just an example. I'm sure many agree with me on many of these, and I'm sure that just as many strenuously disagree. I am allowed to find Leslie Nielson to be a modestly talented hack actor. My opinion of him hasn't changed because he's dead. I also think that Ronald Reagan was the worst thing to ever happen to this country, and I continued to say so even after he died. Believe me, Leslie Nielson is not bothered by my opinion of his talent. Not now. And when he was alive, he had plenty of money and fans to assure him that he was great. So he was in on the fact that he wasn't really funny?

Guy walks into a bar. He says, "Ow!"

See?

I'm not saying that he wasn't aware that he was being cast in comedies, but rather that he thought he was being cast in comedies because of his brilliant comedic skills. I mean, it sure seemed to me that once he cottoned to the idea that he was a comedian, his mugging became unbearable. Oh, and Lloyd Bridges WAS funny. Did you ever see his turn on "Seinfeld"? No, what is sad is that an amateur like you is taking hacks at someone like Leslie Nielsen. "For some reason he kept getting cast in comedies"? Give me a fucking break. I'm not an amateur anymore, Dan. I get PAID to be funny these days. You ain't a professional if you don't know the difference between a "comedian" and a "comic actor" and I would say that if you magically doubled your comic skills it wouldn't equal the comic skills contained in Leslie Nielsen's foreskin. Seriously denigrating the man's skills shows appalling ignorance. Of course I know the difference between a comedian and a comic actor (of course, to the ancient Greeks, the terms were synonymous. A "comedian" is an actor who acts in comedies, just as a "tragedian" is an actor who acts in tragedies), but I also know funny. And Leslie Nielson, whose entire shtick consisted of dead-panning juvenile comic dialogue written by somebody else, wasn't particularly funny. "Airplane" is a funny movie, but Leslie Nielson didn't do anything more impressive than turn up and say his lines without drooling or falling over. I can do that. In fact, I do that all the time. What I do, Dan, for your information, is improvised comedy. That means that not only am I funny, but I MAKE UP the funny things I say and do. On the spot, no less. And I get laughs. BIG laughs. My skills are modest and always improving, but they are good enough to be put on-stage by a professional improv company on a weekly basis. An improv company, incidentally, which includes alumni from Second City, BATS, Freestyle Repertory Theatre and the Upright Citizens Brigade. So, yes, I am funnier than Leslie Nielson's foreskin...

I'm not saying that he wasn't aware that he was being cast in comedies, but rather that he thought he was being cast in comedies because of his brilliant comedic skills. I mean, it sure seemed to me that once he cottoned to the idea that he was a comedian, his mugging became unbearable. Oh, and Lloyd Bridges WAS funny. Did you ever see his turn on "Seinfeld"? No, what is sad is that an amateur like you is taking hacks at someone like Leslie Nielsen. "For some reason he kept getting cast in comedies"? Give me a fucking break. I'm not an amateur anymore, Dan. I get PAID to be funny these days.

Today's update features the Four Aces performing "Aces' Breakdown," a hybrid of Cajun and traditional country fiddle tunes. Next, in our final entry, we will look back at the "Anthology" and try to see what we have learned...

I was never a fan, but I am sorry to see him go. It always seemed to me that Nielsen, in his "second career," was never really in on the joke. When he was cast in "Airplane," it wasn't for his comedic genius. It was because he was just the sort of wooden actor who appeared in disaster movies (and Nielsen did plenty of those). The hilarity grew out of his speaking absurd lines with the same fake-gravitas he used in his dramatic parts. For some reason, he kept getting cast in comedies, and the sad part is that he really seemed to believe that he was a comedian. He did seem to understand that they cast him as a hack actor because he WAS a hack actor.

Once again, thanks so much for your help! The post is (finally) up.

In our penultimate update, the Hackberry Ramblers perform "Dans Le Grand Bois (In The Woods)," a Cajun song about an assignation in the forest...

Thanks for the help!

Does anybody have a transcription and/or translation of the lyrics to "Dans Le Grand Bois" by the Hackberry Ramblers?" My high school French is too rusty...

I have this on LP. Wish my copy was in better shape, but it's a nice album...

I don't want people to think that I'm in favor of invasive searches without reason. What gets me is that the same people who are objecting so strenuously are the same people who, a few years ago, were screaming, "Security at any price!" I've also had it pointed out that overseas people have been dealing with similar airport security for decades (just as they've been dealing with higher gas prices). Our vocal objection also goes to show how relatively sheltered and pampered Americans are...

Roosevelt and Uaroy Graves return, along with pianist Cooney Vaughn, as the Mississippi Jook Band in today's update, performing "Barbecue Bust."

Next year I'd like to see him do Lou Reed's "Metal Machine Music."

I have an LP by Jones called "Jesus Christ from A to Z." Good stuff! If there are no duplications, I'll probably pick this up...