Saturday, December 28, 2013

"Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey."


One of the best documentaries I have seen lately is "Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey."  It is the true story of how the very famous band "Journey" found an improbable replacement lead vocalist in Manilla.  This is the story of Filipino, Arnel Pineda who grew up in poverty in Manilla, all the while striving to be a successful lead singer.  Meanwhile, Journey had parted ways with Steve Perry, their uniquely talented lead singer, and gone through a hiatus and several personnel changes.  Journey founder and guitarist, Neal Schon, found some Internet video of Arnel Pineda singing Journey covers and was knocked out.  They flew Arnel over to audition and the rest is history.  This movie will make you smile and feel good all over, but it is also very fascinating, especially the auditions and first live performance segments.  I loved it, and Arnel is such a joyous, irresistible dude.

The story was previously fictionalized in one of my "guilty pleasure" movies, "Rock Star," (2001), which I highly recommend.  Mark Whalbery plays a lead singer in a tribute band covering a famous band, Steel Dragon.  Dragon loses their lead singer and Whalberg's character eventually gets the gig, same as Arnel and Journey. However, in "Rock Star" the fame brings Whalberg down (drugs, ego, and the like), whereas with Arnel the opposite happens.  Anyway, I highly recommend "Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey." It's currently streaming on Netflix.

Saturday, December 21, 2013

Music video treasure trove

You just have to check out this cool music video site.  Five pages of videos all the way from Jackie Wilson (on page 1) to Led Zeppelin (on page 5).  A real trip is Sonny and Cher doing "I Got You Babe," the first entry on page 5.   I'm pretty sure you'll dig it - something for everyone.

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

A maxim for all young men...

"I will not be a common man.  I will stir the smooth sands of monotony.  I do not crave security.  I wish to hazard my soul to opportunity."
 ~ Peter O'Toole in a note he wrote to himself when a young man.

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Reading Tolstoy

Among the hundreds of books I would like to read, was Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina." I'm over half-way through reading it and am enjoying it immensely.  Reacquainting with Tolstoy is a real treat.  One of the things I enjoy the most are his one-paragraph analogies, which are so ingeniously crafted that you can't help but be charmed by them.  Here is the paragraph that opens Chapter 14:
Levin had been married three months.  He was happy, but in quite a different way from what he had expected.  At every step he met disillusionments in his old fancies and new and unexpected enchantments. He was happy, but having embarked on family life he saw at every step that it was not at all what he had anticipated.  At every step he took he felt as a man would feel who, after admiring the smooth happy motion of a little boat upon the water, had himself got into the boat.  He found that besides sitting quietly without rocking he had to keep a lookout, not for a moment forget where he was going, or that there was water under his feet, and that he had to row, although it hurt his unaccustomed hands;  in short, that it only looked easy, but to do it, though very delightful, was very difficult.
See what I mean?

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Remembering Dave Lambert

 When I was in my very early twenties, my friend Michael Lally turned me on to Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross.  I've loved their work ever since.  Every once in a while I get the itch to hear them and today was such a time.  Only this time, I wanted to see them as well as hear them so I poked around on YouTube to find them in a live performance.  I came across this gem.  It's over 8 minutes long, but worth every breath.  In listening and watching I realized how under-appreciated Dave Lambert was.  Jon Hendricks is so charismatic and technically awesome that Dave often got overshadowed.  This recording shows you that Dave had some serious chops.  The tune: "Airegin" by Sonny Rollins -- by the way that's "Nigeria" spelled backwards.  As you may know, Dave was tragically killed in a "traffic incident" in October of 1966.  There are varying accounts, as summarized in the following from Wikipedia:
Accounts of Dave Lambert's death vary slightly in details. It is established that he was on the Connecticut Turnpike[4] and that a flat tire was involved and that he was struck by a tractor-trailer truck driven by Floyd H. Demby in the wee hours of October 3, 1966. The disabled vehicle was not fully off the roadway and its lights were turned off.
Some accounts mention that Richard Hillman was killed in the same incident.[5][6] Newspaper stories differ about whose vehicle was disabled. Jet Magazine's account says it was a panel truck owned by Lambert.[7] Jon Hendricks' telling of the story says that Lambert was a compulsive do-gooder and that he had stopped to assist another motorist.[8] The newspaper followup stories say that Demby was not at fault and that the Lambert and Hillman were in the roadway when they were struck.
Enjoy and think of Dave.  By the way, Jon and Annie are still with us, Jon being 92 years old.