EARLY AHMAD

The holy Trinity of my piano icons when I was young and attempting to play jazz piano in clubs were Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans and Ahmad Jamal. I couldn't come close to Monk of course, but I bent down over the piano in imitation of Evans and did my best to get his light touch (though no one can match it, Bill Charlap comes closest), but Ahmad Jamal I was most able to sound something like now and then when I was lucky.

Here's a rough and mislabeled and badly edited but nonetheless historic clip from a live TV performance with jazz greats looking on as the young Ahmad impresses his elders with his skill and innovative genius:

MEMORIAL DAY

This day was intended to honor those who died in war while in the military. Sometimes people get confused and use it to honor all military veterans and those still on active duty, which is fine, but not what "Memorial Day" means.

Having served four years in the military myself, I hate the way our society insists all who serve are somehow brave and/or honorable and do it for the highest most selfless reasons. I joined the service to get back at my girlfriend at the time and because I knew the draft would get me eventually anyway (back in the day when they still had the draft).

And many I met while serving were not selfless or honorable or brave at all. Though some were. I'm not denigrating anyone else's service or saying those who saw combat, which I didn't, aren't to be honored and cared for because of their sacrifice, they should be. Like the woman I tried to memorialize in this post two years ago.

NEWEST OLD UNFAVORITE QUOTE (TURNS OUT THIS IS A MISQUOTE, SORRY FOR NOT FACT CHECKING BETTER)

LOVE & FRIENDSHIP

Another delightful Jane Austen adaptation. This time of her early novella, LADY SUSAN, adapted and directed by Whit Stillman, a filmmaker I was a big fan of back in the day and am happy to see him in fine form in LOVE & FRIENDSHIP.

But the heart of the movie is Kate Beckinsale's impeccable performance in a role that requires speaking so many lines of perfectly devious but brilliantly manipulative English it's almost hard to keep up with her and her brilliance.

The rest of the cast is also up to the usual Brit-Jane-Austen-film-adaptation excellence, but two in particular dazzled me with their performances: Xavier Samuel as the prize, Reginald DeCourcy, and Tom Bennett as the rich but dimwitted fool Sir James Martin.

LOVE & FRIENDSHIP is not based on the most perfect Jane Austen book (that would be a tossup between PRIDE AND PREJUDICE and SENSE AND SENSIBILITY, or for some Austen fans EMMA) but even her minor efforts are better than many writers' best. Same for this film, a minor but most entertaining movie experience.  

NEW FAVORITE MEME

MY 50TH

that's me wearing glasses in the bottom left corner, at my 50th birthday party in the home I rented in Santa Monica, with some of my friends who were there, like actor Jeff Kober (China Beach at the time, Walking Dead more recently) hovering over me, his son Henry holding Jeff's finger, behind Henry is actor Michael O'Keefe (The Great Santini, Caddy Shack etc.) and behind me sitting on the floor is Christopher, then boyfriend of Sharon Stone, who is beside and slightly below him, with actress Jamie Rose (of  Falcon Crest, Lady Blue and Biker Chicks in Zombie Town fame) in the doorway talking to my daughter Caitlin...not sure who took the polaroid

MOSTLY TRUE