Make some noise tonight

A preview of the State of the Union Address

9-11
Saddam Hussein
We were attacked on 9-11
They are out to get you They are out to get us
Be afraid…The terrorists are out there and don’t forget that on September 11th we were attacked 9-11
So we are are trying to protect you. Nothing else matters. We want to protect you.
Be afraid of them but do not be afraid of us. We are NOT SPYING ON YOU. WE ARE SPYING ON THEM.
You are not them. They are not us. We make the laws. We are good. 9-11 was bad.
There are weapons of mass destruction out there somewhere.
And they want to use them on us because they are BAD and they hate us ’cause we are free
And on September 11th Saddam Hussein and some other guys with turbins attacked us
on 9-11 and like Alberto Gonzales said people jumped off of buildings on fire so we want to protect you so that you and your children are never attacked and have to jump off of buildings that are on fire because evil non-christians and non-jews attacked us
on 9-11.
So we have to make sure that Iraq is free so that the Iraqi people can have freedom and vote instead of being gassed
and women can drive instead of being raped and children can eat Hershey Bars and not starve themselves and end up in a coma and kept on life support like Terry Schiavo so that someday they can get better and hopefully we can all grow as long as we are not attacked like we were on September 11th 2001 in NYC and we can grow up and procreate and not abort and and make sure that all the businesses and stuff can save money on taxes and grow big and strong and hopefully not get attacked. So please just keep watching American Idol and believing that we are looking out for you ’cause we are fighting the war on terror and you are not smart enough to know what we know and if we told you what we are doing it would be dangerous so please do not question US EVER ’cause that threatens our security and strengthens the enemy that attacked us 9-11 that is now in Iraq and soon will be in Iran SO SHUT YOUR MOUTH AND YOUR EARS AND SIT YOUR BUT DOWN and OBEY! CUZ WE DO NOT FLIP FLOP. WE DO NOT FLIP FLOP. THIS IS WAR. THIS IS YOUR LIFE. YOU VOTED FOR IT.

GOOD NIGHT AND GOD BLESS THE USA!

Aloha Mr. Hand

The other day I posted a link on this blog to an article at “The Onion” that i thought was hysterical. It was about Sean Penn and kind of mocked him for his seeming propensity to be overly-vocal toward trendy causes and seeking the spotlight. In the article they used the word “a**hole.” I thought the article was funny enough and figured that its just one word and after all I personally didn’t write it…I was just linking to it. But there was a small voice in my head and the conversation went like this:

Voice: “Ya know you visit a lot of schools and perhaps some kid could read this and a**hole is considered foul language”
Me: Yeah true…But its just one word and it is actually mocking the use of the term…Plus most kids in High School speak a lot worse.”
Voice: True but you yourself know that some people might be more sensitive about it than others. Is it worth offending someone or making them have a different opinion about you?”
Me: Well there is always the chance that ANYONE could be offended by ANYTHING. Am I supposed to censor everything and sacrifice my intellectual or comedic honesty so as to make sure that not one person gets offended. Its impossible.
Voice: Well whatever. Its your blog dude. I’m just a voice. Yer gonna do what you want anyway. By the way how many of these voices like me are in your brain.
Me: You wouldn’t believe me if i told you.
Voice: Try me.
Me: Nahh just ask the guy behind you.

So anyway I posted the link and sure enough no one complained or commented. And then the other morning I went to Central Catholic School in Pittsburgh. Awesome school. Great students and staff. Brother Joe and Brother Bob were excellent and Father George made me feel right at home. I mentioned to them before the show that my favorite shows are always Catholic schools or Jewish schools. Not so much because of the religious aspect but because there is actually more of a freedom on stage. No one is worrying about every little word or if a character says “sucks”, “hell” or “ass.” Because there is a certain realization that I am presenting something intellectually and dramatically honest and “slice of life.” Public schools have so much pressure from principals, PTAs, and administrators that they must by their nature be more conservative than a religious school. Sort of the opposite of what many would expect.So anyway the show was great and all was chill and I stuck around to visit some classrooms afterward and participate in some of the breakout groups and discussions. One discussion in Brother Bobs class about EMPATHY really stuck in my mind. He said its different than sympathy which is feeling bad for someone. Empathy is to actually feel how the other person feels. So anyway, I walk into this other classroom and I saw something that we never had when I was in school. A teacher teaching from his computer/notebook. The lesson plan and outline on a projector on the wall. Cool. I’ve seen this all the time in colleges and workshops and stuff but its fairly new in High Schools. So the teacher says “Wow what an honor come in, come in. We were hoping that you would come in. Great show. We were just talking about you and we went to your website and just called up your blog on the wall.” DUH DUH DUH DUH.

Voice: I told you..
Me: Shut up!
Teacher: Excuse me.
Me: Sorry nervous tick I was talking to er uh someone else..

Yup sure enough my blog was 10 feet tall and on the wall and all I could do was pray that the teacher would not click on that link and there in big bold capital letters on the wall of the classroom would be the word A**HOLE! So sad. So funny. So awkward. Thank god he DID NOT click on it (I pulled the plug…kidding). I felt so awful man. Its just that I put all my time and energy into this show and I do not want someone to judge me or have any opinion of me based on the words of some onion article. If I’m gonna be judged I want to be judged by the show on the stage and the words I personally create. But I suppose as a somewhat public figure there will always be the chance that people will find me guilty by association or attack me for some political or second hand comment…But I should not make it easy for them. So I guess I know how Sean Penn might feel eh? He does great work on stage and is a brilliant mind and actor but he is judged by many for his political and sociological involvements and making statements that get misconstrued. So now I have EMPATHY for Sean Penn. So as soon as I got home I deleted that blog from my site. So now I’m on a plane to Indianapolis listening to Stevie Wonder and typing this but before I took off my wife called and said that she just heard in the news that Chris Penn had died. Sean Penn’s brother. She said it may be drugs. And that to me is just the worst thing I could have heard. I would never want anyone to go through what my family and I have gone through with my brother and to see a young guy like that pass away so young is just…Well its something I get. Ya know… uhm…empathy. So I think of Sean Penn today. I think of Spiccoli. I think of his Oscar and his speech. I think of him going to New Orleans and at least trying to help people. I think of him in France. I think of him in Taps. I think of his brother. His family. I think of the subtle effects of our words not just on others but on ourselves. I’m flying over Michigan now I think and I’m listening to Mark Knopfler sing “Boom Like That.” I’m thinking of Sean Penn and I’m thinking of my brother Glenn and my place in this world and how this show has become bigger than just a simple collection of monologues that I assembled. I’m trying to figure out my place in it all and I’m thinking about Sean Penn’s brother, Brother Bob and empathy. Aloha Mr.Hand.

Munich - Seems like it took a couple of months

I took time to go to the movies today so now all my readers will be treated to my insightful review.
Went to the Birmingham 8 on Old Woodward here in Michigan. 12:45 showing of Munich.
Packed theater. Had my own private “directors chair of one” that reclined back.
Spielberg…One of my favorites. Seen ALL of his movies. Yes ALL.
Eric Bana last saw him in the Hulk which I actually liked.
The topic on the surface seemed fairly interesting.
I went in to this movie just waiting to love it and all the stars were aligned but unfortunately it was as Jon Stewart would say “Uhm uhh not so good.”
First of all why can’t a director make a two hour movie anymore. This movie comes in at 2:45 minutes and it felt like four. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve enjoyed a movie that’s over 2:30 minutes and I don’t know if modern directors are really full of themselves or surrounded by Yes Men or think we are dumb but this movie could have been under two hours and been a lot better. And that is the essence of why this movie was not so good. Spielberg does not tell us one thing NEW in this movie nor does he do anything new as far as cinematography to justify its length. The performances are average and the plot is kind of boring. There is nothing really that interesting here. Yes it is certainly topical but no one will really be changed or enlightened here. The plot is basically a revenge story. The Israeli government seeks revenge for the 72 Munich kidnapping and murders. They hire Avner (Eric Bana) to assemble a gang to do it. They globetrot all over Europe killing Palestinians who were involved. Throughout the story we meet Palestinians and also get into the characters of these Jewish guns for hire. They both talk of homeland and god and family. And of course we meet the stereotypical French nationals Neutral self preserving mobsters/farmers who celebrate cheese and top secret information. Whatever. We are also supposed to be enlightened by such HEAVY HANDED DIALOGUE that you would have to be an idiot to miss THE MEANING OF THIS MOVIE. Por example there’s this Frenchman who invites Avner to his farm to share a meal. While cooking they hold their hands up to eachothers and complain about how they have big hands which are too big for cooking. This line then follows.

“We are tragic men. We have hands of butchers but gentle souls.”
PUKE.
YA GET IT. GET IT EVERYONE. Killing is bad. We are all killers. But we are all the same. The same. Killers kill for a reason. Every man has his raison huh ha huh. Then we are treated to endless dialogue about Palestinians and Israelis are involved in an endless war and are equally guilty. BORING. Imagine 2 hours and 45 minutes of this. Not to mention camera tricks that he recycled from Private Ryan. I mean this was a 2 hour and 45 minute clumsy way of saying “An eye for an eye leaves both blind”. Which took me 10 seconds to type and five seconds for MLK to say it like 40 years ago. Okay Okay Let me calm down and say something nice. There was this scene where Avner is walking on the boardwalk along a beach in Israel. As he walks we see all these people going about their fun and vacations and their lives while these horrible deeds are being planned. It was clever without being over the top and it LOOKED AWESOME. It was actually a BRILLIANT scene and it was SO well filmed. There was this background of people flying by that looked like they stepped out of a Renoir impressionist painting. It was very very cool. Yes there were some really nice moments like this in the movie…That’s what makes the length and hackneyed parts of this movie so tragic. Spielberg has a great mind and he is a man of vision…But his last two movies (war of the worlds) have seriously fallen flat. So overall I would give this like a C+ or maybe even a B-. Anyway…Tonight I’m going to see Syriana…Great director..Great actors..Set in the middle east. Hmmm. On second thought maybe I’ll just go see the new Jenifer Aniston flick.

You’ll Never Find

Growing up in the 70’s and 80’s I was always into hard rock and metal. My first albums were Neil Young’s Live Rust and Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde. In 7th grade I got AC/DC’s Back In Black and Def Leppard’s Pyromania. I saw Van Halen on the Diver Down Tour and I practically lived at the local auditorium as acts like The Kinks, The Clash, and Ozzy came through. My dad didn’t really care for this kind of music but we were always able to find some common ground. There were two artists that we could listen to TOGETHER and both enjoy. Billy Joel and Lou Rawls. Dad was always singing Lou Rawls. Even after his throat cancer he would SING Lou Rawls. I remember one day my brothers little garage band was recording their music and they couldn’t find a blank tape so they took my dads Lou rawls tape and recorded over it. I was so pissed that during the night I swiped their tape and re-recorded over their stuff with 60 minutes of me singing and doing looney toons skits and making fart noises. My brother was pissed but Justice had been done. Years later I gave my dad some CD’s of Lou Rawls and we jammed out in his little apartment listening to “You’ll Never Find”, “Tobacco Road”, “Love Is A Hurtin Thing”, and “Dead End Street”. Dad and I loved Lou Rawls and last May he came to Boston. He wasn’t feeling well enough to go see him so my wife and I went by ourselves and watched this guy amaze us at symphony hall in Boston. I have so many memories of his music tied into my life and my own story. I always loved the way he made little people feel BIG. His songs were for all of us who know what its like to suffer and struggle and still find a way to smile. I heard he had cancer a while back (The same cancer that took my Dad few weeks ago) and I went to his web site a few months ago. He said quote

“I want to thank everyone for your prayers and expressions of love. Your concern touches me…but don’t count me out. There’s been many people who have been diagnosed with this kind of thing, and they’re still jumpin’ and pumpin.’ I’m thinking good thoughts.
Yeah Buddy,
Lou”

What a guy. What a voice. What an inspiration. Lou Rawls passed away this morning…He was 70 years old. I’m sure right now he’s giving my dad a private concert and I can see them both singing “You’ll Never Find…” Lou Rawls Thank you…and sing some Sinatra for my Dad up there. Show him how “Ol Brown eyes sings Ol Blue eyes.” I would like everyone to check out this song I posted below. Its called “Dead End Street ” Download it and enjoy one of THE coolest cats to ever swagger up to a microphone. Yeah Buddy!

Dead End Street