Goodbye Jim

April 7, 1928 ~ July 19, 2014

James Garner is one of my all time favorite actors.  So much in fact that I kind of always dreaded seeing James Garner grow old.  I knew that that inevitable day would come, and never wanted it to.  How did a mere actor find his way into so many peoples hearts?   It's almost as if hearing of an uncle's death.

Funny thing, I tried to write this post last month, but simply couldn't pull my thoughts together to write about him. How did he manage to get into this heart like that? It's a month later, and I want to make note of his passing.  I still can't wrap my mind around it.
Perhaps a past post will suffice.

what Robin Williams taught me

July 21, 1951 ~ August 11, 2014

I am not a professional stand-up, but I am a funny fellow.  I know that's my lot in life is to laugh and make others laugh.  If I am not doing that, and in the dumps, I know that I am not doing what God meant me to do.  My purpose is joy, and the fight in my life is to keep the devil from stealing it.  I'm serious.

I was saddened to hear of Robin Williams death today.  I am purposely not going to linger on the tragedy of what they are saying is a suicide.  Instead I will linger on all the laughter in my life that he's directly responsible for.  I am going to thank God for that joy that shot out of his being like a fire hose.  I am sorry Robin, that you left before the end of the show.  What an awesome fellow.
Robin Williams had a big influence on me down through the years.  I didn't care for all his movies, but the guy was fluent in comedy.  He was the greatest ad-libber of his generation, and perhaps anyone who has gone before.  Like Robin, I was influenced by his early influence, Jonathan Winters.  Both possessed the same comedic genius, as if they were father and son. 

I watched the Wacky World of Jonathan Winters as a kid from '72 - '74.  It was Winter's show that I started exercising that brand of wacky improvisational wit.  When Robin landed as Mork in '77, I enjoyed watching a younger and zanier version of Winters.  Like I started this post, I am not a stand-up, but I've always related and learned from those two nuts.

There was a time in the mid-eighties that I picked up some bad advise.  You see, ad-lib requires to be spontaneous and work without a net.  With this brand of comedy, you associate everything, pull funny out of nowhere, not knowing where you find the next bit.  It's all free association humor, and it's often not pretty.  The problem is, I was told by someone I loved and respected dearly that I should think through everything I say before I say it and say only the funny stuff.  I tried doing this for about three years and it made me feel as if I was tripping over myself ~ and I was!  A lot of the joy had gone from me, and I just wasn't myself.

In the early nineties, after I was married and living in Bowling Green, I was watching an interview with Robin Williams.  In his interview he expressed that he made mistakes all the time.  He said he works out his act while doing his act.  He said that he did have prepared material that he used only as a springboard, and just dives into the unknown.  The success of his act is that he was pulling the stuff out of nowhere with just a little memorized material.  He was like a wild and uninhibited comedic Tarzan swinging from vine to vine, with an oblivious hope of where the next line would be.

You'll never know what it meant for me to hear that conversation.  This fellow wasn't filtering every word, but the freedom came from just jumping in there and having fun with it.  It was God whispering in my ear to go out there and break a leg ~ have fun, bring the spirit of Joy with you...and don't look down.  

I also learned through that interview that I can have fun without necessarily being funny.  I've had plenty of moments when people have said, "That's not funny!"  I reply, "So?"   I fail less often these days, I don't apologize when I do.  I just get back up, laugh at myself and keep pitching.  The only failure is to lose the joy.

Robin, thank you! 

that red headed jewish girl

September 29, 1942 – December 3, 1999

I was and always will be a fan of the late Madeline Kahn.  A classic beauty, an incredible actress, singer and dancer...Madeline could do it all.  She remains one of my all time favorite comedians. You could've taken that talent of hers and dropped it anywhere in the Hollywood timeline and she would've risen to the top.  Her best work was with Mel Brooks, who tapped into her comedic genius.  Brooks literally had to gag his film crew every time Madeline was in front of the camera, she was that funny.  Yet Madeline never thought herself to be a funny person, she said that she had to work hard at comedy.  You'd never know it to watch her.  Oh how I wished she were still around entertaining today.

no easy horses

Me on my two-wheeled chariot, a long time ago.

Learning to ride a bike is as easy as falling off a bike.

Kelsey is eleven years old.  It's past time that she learns to ride a bike.  I need the exercise, and I want to ride bikes with her before school starts.  My girls, like a lot of kids today, are indoor creatures.  They read, play video games and forage for food in the fridge.

Today I beckoned Kelsey out to the garage.  I oiled up the chains to Gina's old Schwinn an got Kelsey to fill the tires with the foot pump.  I made some adjustments to the handlebar and seat and commenced to teach her how to ride a bike.

She's compliant to instruction, but she had the look as though she had rather be inside playing Minecraft on her Kindle Fire.  Kelsey has spent enough of her short Summer in her room playing Minecraft or creating stuff with her Legos.  She needs to get out, move around, feel the wind in her hair.

I don't remember when I learned to ride a bike.  I was pretty young.  No one taught me how to ride.  The only way I was going to keep up with my older siblings was to jump on that thing and learn.  I remember falling a lot. I don't remember getting frustrated.  I wanted to learn it right then and there and I don't recall it taking me that long to learn.  The secret to riding a bike is not falling off.

There are two steps to successful bike riding; (1) motion (2) balance.  Kelsey seemed to get the balance down pretty quick. She's still having trouble getting her foot on that peddle for that initial thrust.  She'll get it, not today, but soon, and for the rest of her life.  You go girl!

¡Viva la muerte... tua!

I stumbled across an Spaghetti Western made back in 1971 that starred Eli Wallach and Frano Nero.  It's a quirky film which has similarities in plot to The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.  Wallach once again plays a bandito character and Franco who's character is a Russian Prince.  Both characters, like in Leone's masterpiece, are two men who don't like each other but both after a buried gold treasure.  Sound familiar?

Both Wallach and Nero play well off each other in this strange Western action adventure comedy. There's plenty of action and adventure and the story doesn't drag like many substandard Italian Westerns often do.  The comedy aspect falls flat in this picture.  It's a shame the script and production are weak.  I watched this movie because of the late Eli Wallach.  I'm a fan.  He's always entertaining to watch, but he didn't have the choice lines, nor were his scenes framed very well.  The story had potential, but just wasn't carried through as well as it could've been.  It's still though enjoyable movie to watch.

¡Viva la muerte... tua! is the original title, English translation is Long Live Your Death.  Eli Wallach didn't like the title so he insisted on Don't Turn The Other Cheek for the American release.  You'll understand the title as the story unfolds.