Pearl & I had fun watching the Super Bowl today, and though the game wasn't a classic, it's a hell of a thing to watch Tom Brady, at age 43, just keep rolling along. A truly amazing Brady stat is that he won his first Super Bowl nineteen years ago, and his latest one today, with a different team and at an age when most QBs have long since called it quits. I used to be a world class Brady Hater, because that first championship came at the expense of Kurt Warner and the Rams (who were in St. Louis then). The Rams have always been my team, and Kurt was our hero, having QBed the team to victory in the previous SB. At the time, all the pundits were picking Kurt to become the next Joe Montana, but then in the 2002 Super Bowl, this freakin' kid came along and beat the Rams on the last drive of the game. That kid was Tom Brady, and for years I couldn't stand him. Of course, I wasn't alone, because besides winning all the time, he's just so Brady (all that TB12 stuff, the diet and robotic lifestyle) that just as many fans hated him as loved him.
But as the years passed, and the guy just kept doing it, I had to throw in the towel. I couldn't hate him anymore, especially now that he'd become an elder statesman, and way past any player's expiration date except George Blanda. The turning point came for me when Kurt Warner himself, now an NFL commentator, called Brady the G.O.A.T. a couple of Super Bowls ago. Up until then, I was still hanging on to Joe Montana as The Greatest of All Time (and I once hated him too, haha), but after Kurt said that about Tom Brady I had to agree, grudgingly at first, but in his last couple of SBs I've actually been rooting for him. He's the Babe Ruth of football, or maybe the Einstein, or whomever you care to name. You think of a superlative; I'm all outta words. Anybody who dedicates themselves that thoroughly to any endeavor, be it sport or what have you, is not only worthy of admiration in my book, but is also a special kind of person, who shows us what can be achieved with total focus on the goal.
So here's to Tom Brady. He didn't win today's game by himself - that Tampa defense was off the charts, but do you think they'd have won the Super Bowl (or even made it there) without him? Holy Smokes, folks. ///
My movies for the past two nights were another couple of World War Two documentaries. You might be getting sick 'of em by now, lol, so I'll refrain from getting on my Historical Soapbox and talking about the moral imperatives of the war, or it's legacy, and I'll just give you the basic details instead. The first film, watched last evening, was called "The Fighting Lady"(1944). It was produced by the U.S. Navy with the help of Hollywood, so you could call it a propaganda movie, but it was exceptionally well done. The title subject was the USS Yorktown, an aircraft carrier and the Navy's latest secret weapon in their battle against the Japanese fleet. Lieutenant Robert Taylor (yes, that Robert Taylor) narrates the story of the carrier's deployment in the vast Pacific Ocean and it's victories toward the end goal of taking Japan's islands.
All footage is actual - there is no dramatisation - and Robert Taylor's narration is frank and to the point as enemy ships are sunk and their planes shot down. There is no attempt to put a shine on the proceedings, the battle scenes are brutal, but we also get a tour of The Fighting Lady, which houses a crew of 3000 and qualifies as a small city, with the necessity of every occupation that would include, from bakers and butchers, to plumbers and electricians, to firefighters, airplane mechanics and administrators. Taylor points out that the entire effort is to serve the pilots onboard, whose missions against the Japanese coast are all important. The film was directed by a man named Edward Steichen, who interestingly enough I first heard about in my high school photography class, for he was one of the greatest still photographers in the 20th century, and of all time. Our teacher Mister Ibach talked about Steichen all the time, and now here he is directing a war documentary. But as I said, the Navy worked hand in hand with Hollywood on this short picture (61 minutes). Alfred Newman did the music, William Wyler co-directed.
I had never heard of it before last night, but it's without doubt of major importance as a record of what happened. It is imperative that this history never fades away, because it is precisely this kind of footage that will help to prevent it happening again. ////
Tonight's documentary was called "The Memphis Belle"(2004), and I'm just gonna give you a couple sentences cause it's late. I reserved this film from the Libe because I thought it was William Wyler's movie of the same name, which he filmed as a Lieutenant Colonel in the 8th Air Force based in England. A good many men from the motion picture industry in Hollywood went to war (including Jimmy Stewart, who was a bomber pilot), and Wyler, who was a famed director, actually shot combat footage from the Memphis Belle, a B-17 whose crew survived 25 missions, a rare feat.
The dvd I got from the library was not Wyler's documentary but an English production from 2004, where they used some of Wyler's footage to make their own presentation. While it was well done, I still want to see the original, by William Wyler, which ran 45 minutes and won an Academy Award for Best Documentary in 1944. ////
That's all for tonight. Don't take any wooden nickels. See you in the morning. :)
Tons of love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
It is heartening to see that Alex and Geddy are set to work together again, as they have done since they were fourteen years old. There is something so "garage" about that, something so pure to the spirit of rock n' roll which seems forgotten now in the non-musical age of pop, that two guys who reached the pinnacle of rock heights would "start over", even though, yeah, I know they're rich and famous, after the loss of their bandmate who took the ride with them. It's like Al & Ged are starting over again, at 67 going on 15, starting a new band and looking for (a drummer.......sacrilege!) or just looking to make new music, even though if they are playing rock they'll need a drummer. I'm sure they'll pick someone Neil would approve of, but to be honest, I wouldn't mind if they just went acoustic, because I can't imagine music from Alex and geddy without Neil.
Do it right, guys. Make it the Lee Lifeson Band, with guest musicians. And I'm sure they will. But most of all I just like that Garage Factor, of two legendary musicians who have done it all going back to the spirit of why they did it in the first place. I think Neil is making them do it. Thanks Neil. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment