Kevin Marshall's America
If you haven’t already, you can still enter to win two tickets to see “A Conversation with Steve Martin” at The Palace Theater. The contest ends tonight at 11:59pm! Get crackin’!
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Image via Wikipedia
Earlier in the week I wrote of my early appreciation of and exposure to Steve Martin through Saturday Night Live. Another early attachment I have to Martin is through the film “Three Amigos.” The film was an early favorite and bonding moment for my father and I, and continued to serve as a barometer for those with whom I would develop the closest friendships (including friends like Eric and my roommate Steve). I find that if someone likes the film “Three Amigos,” I’m more or less guaranteed to like them.
But it’s not just his film or even his comedic roles that is at the root of my admiration. It is his body of work as a whole. It’s his range as an artist, and the fact that his range does not effect the quality of his work. Martin is not a celebrity who dabbles in different projects with middling (or lesser) results. He’s a legendary comedian, a good director, a wildly entertaining playwright, a fascinating playwright, an engaging orator, and so on and so forth.
He didn’t have to extend himself in the ways that he has through his career, and he certainly isn’t one of those that comes across as pushing his work on the basis that he’s a celebrity. Rather, he does it because he is compelled to do so artistically. That’s something I identify with; not in the sense that I think any of the output I have or will generate is at or neat the quality of his work, but that there’s nothing wrong in doing the things that you want to do and not being afraid to branch out past the expectations of those around you.
That’s why I consider him one of the few people that I’d liken to a role model that continues to push me to do different and varied things.
Which is why I plan on being in attendance on March 30th. I want to hear this man talk about his art, and his continued art. I want to get an insight into what his creative process is and what gives him the right to be a wild and crazy guy and a mad scientist and write two very well received novels and tell the story of a chance meeting between Picasso and Einstein at the Lapin Agile. I want to thank him for showing me that one can be both thoughtful at times and silly at others, and embrace both aspects of life.
Then I want to ask him “what the Hell is that?”
At this year's Daytona 500, Trevor Bayne shocked the world. Then Sports Illustrated shocked freelancer Tom Bowles by firing him for being a human being.
Over on her Times Union blog, WTEN anchor Lydia Kulbida touched on SI.com’s controversial firing of a freelance journalist because he was caught applauding (along with most others in the press box) after underdog Trevor Bayne won the Daytona 500.
At issue is the concept that sports reporters are not supposed to be seen “rooting” for athletes. The freelancer in question also posted a defense to his Twitter account that essentially said it doesn’t matter so long as there is no bias reflected in the actual reporting itself.
A lot of pundits are using this to decry a lack of professionalism in sports journalism, and in particular sports reporters acting as fans.
Thing is, I’m not entirely sure this is rooted in anything other than a fantasy obscured by the cigar-smoke of yesteryear. You’ll be hard pressed to find any sports reporting that has ever been as neutral as straight news stories on current events, crime, or any other topic. That’s because at its root, sports journalism is more malleable. Which is as it should be, particularly when it comes to sports like NASCAR, boxing, and Mixed Martial Arts, where the applause and praise is given on the spot to individual achievement and not to the achievement of the individual; an important distinction that sadly the otherwise stalwart Sports Illustrated failed to make in rendering their decision.
Also, it’s a game. It’s always, at its root, a game. No matter how many millions a person is earning, how inspiring a story may be, or how poetically one waxes: it’s games. Competitive, yes, but it’s recreation. While culturally prevalent and necessary, it is not a life and death struggle that effects the day to day life of a city, state, nation, or humanity as a whole.
There is a line, blurred as it may be by an industry that asks reporters to be “neutral and professional” in the press box on Sunday and write a scathingly provocative editorial on Wednesday. I think that line, though, rests with financial means and influence. I don’t think a group of reporters cheering a young kid because he shocked the world crosses it. On the other hand, someone like Fox Sports’ Jay Glazer providing coverage, news, and analysis for teams that also employ him as a consultant absolutely crosses that line. The difference is intent, context, and integrity.
There are standards that need to be upheld, but there are also varying degrees and like everything else in sports journalism, everything is dependent on the circumstances. Tom Bowles, the freelancer in question, was not covering the New York Mets and cheering every time a Met got a hit. He was not at the Super Bowl and hugging his fellow reporters as the final seconds ticked down and his favorite team was given the Lombardi Trophy. He was simply a reporter celebrating a sports moment and, in turn, a sport as a whole. He was not “being a fan” in the press box, he was being a human being that got caught up in a historic moment, no different than the reaction that every single reporter in the press box had during the “Miracle on Ice.”
None of them were fired, so why should Tom Bowles?
Where this crosses the line from silly to sad is that these reporters and pundits who jumped on Bowles are applauding a news organization for not standing by one of its reporters and allowing the loud consternation of a select few contrarians and braggarts to dictate their editorial policy. It is that action taken by Sports Illustrated against their own that is the betrayal of journalistic ethics and a real cause for concern.
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Keep an eye on Lydia’s blog, as she’ll have more on this tomorrow.
If you haven’t already, you can still enter to win two tickets to see “A Conversation with Steve Martin” at The Palace Theater. Contest runs through Thursday at 11:59pm.
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Image via Wikipedia
I was a big fan of comedy growing up, and in particular the old Saturday Night Live episodes that used to air on Nick at Nite. Of all the talent that was on that early cast, my favorite cast member was always Steve Martin.
You read that correctly and yes, I was mistaken.
Martin hosted Saturday Night Live on occasion, but was never actually a part of the cast. It just seemed that way because he was such a vibrant and electric personality that stuck out like a sore thumb amongst the early cast.
One gets the impression from watching those early years that the cast members know they’re onto something big. The backstage stories that later leaked out through interviews, anecdotes, and memoirs showed on the stage; they were comic rock stars, the whole lot of them. Steve Martin was different. He seemed to be genuinely having fun, regardless of who was on stage or what the material was. As a result, he stuck out like a sore thumb; a tall, white-haired figure who shot exuberance out of his fingertips.
It wasn’t until I was almost in my teens that I found out Martin was only a host and not a cast member. I had seen every episode and memorized so many skits by heart. How could I have operated under such a wildly incorrect assumption? I checked back thinking maybe – just maybe – Martin had hosted and appeared with such frequency that he might as well have been a cast member. To my surprise, he was a frequent host but still in those early years only appeared a half dozen times. Though he would go on over the course of the next two decades to host the program a record fifteen times, the fact that he was only a semi-frequent host rather than a regular cast member was surprising.
Martin with Dan Akroyd, seen above trying to convince Martin that 9/11 was an inside job.
The reason I thought he was a permanent cast member is because I wanted him so badly to be one. When watching those old episodes now, many of the bits don’t hold water. Some jokes are so hyper-relevant they dated themselves the morning after they aired, while others seemed so inside you could almost hear the audience faking their way through a skit, hoping the others around them will think they’re in on the joke and this special thing occurring onstage that they didn’t quite understand.
Martin was different. He brought with him a weighty charisma and enthusiasm that put him leaps and bounds above his contemporaries. I always imagined watching Martin perform must be the closest thing we can approximate to the experience of seeing those old Vaudeville performers that gave it their all in front of an audience, which would look desperate were it not for the fact that it worked and, more importantly, a complete lack of self-consciousness.
That’s what made Martin truly special to me. Murray, Chase, Belushi and others didn’t want you to know they were performing. Martin knew you knew, but it didn’t matter. As the youngest of five children who was desperate for acceptance and trying to carve out an identity for himself, I latched onto Martin’s performances and he became an early and lifelong favorite.
I still remained an SNL fan through the years, and that original cast and writing staff contianed some truly gifted minds. But as great as those old episodes of Saturday Night Live were, imagine if instead they had ten or twelve Steve Martins performing every weekend. Now that would be something worth staying up for.
At work the other day, I heard this jingle come on:
The combination of pure cheese and earnestness struck me as funny, particularly since if you didn’t know any better, you’d think it was a joke. But no, it’s quite real.
After sharing my astonishment of its existence on Twitter, I was tweeted this from local PR dude Andrew Mangini:
I love picturing two guys sitting down to write this jingle and one of them going “hey, I got an idea. Check this out: COUGARCOUGARCOUGARCOUGARCOUGAR!”
If you haven’t already, you can still enter to win two tickets to see “A Conversation with Steve Martin” at The Palace Theater. Contest runs through Thursday at 11:59pm.
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Office hours have commenced for Daniel Nester this month at the Troy Arts Center.
Combining aspects of performance art with self-exploration as a writer, friend and fellow TU blogger Daniel Nester has set up shop at the Troy Arts Center in Monument Square.
His Memoir Office is part of a bigger piece called The Memoir Project, where people share their experiences through art and the written word. This month the theme is Text as Art, of which Dan’s project specifically is a featured highlight.
When I read about it yesterday I got excited, since I remember him brainstorming the idea to me several months ago. To see what he was describing come to fruition was exciting. Unlike so many other writers who serve as academics, I’m drawn to Daniel’s work because it is wholly inorganic and without pretension. When he writes a line that is supposed to be amusing, he does not give the audience a phony wry smile.
Then, as I wrote those very words you just read, Daniel leaned over and drew a gigantic phallus on a page of my notebook.
That, friends, is Daniel Nester in a nutshell, and why you should stop by The Memoir Office during his posted office hours and check out the other work on display this month at the Troy Arts Center.
Also, it wouldn’t kill you to get off your sorry ass and get a little culture.
If you haven’t already, you can still enter to win two tickets to see “A Conversation with Steve Martin” at The Palace Theater. Contest runs through Thursday at 11:59pm.
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Sheen, who has more attention than ever, needs less of it.
The last few days we’ve been inundated on television and through online outlets with various interviews with Charlie Sheen, whose public self-destruction over the course of the last year has culminated in a spectacular manic episode.
The latest included him passing a blood and urine drug test over the weekend administered by the Radar Online. The urine test is limited but covers three days potentially, while the blood test surprisingly can only capture the previous twenty-four hours.
We all know the details: he’s living with a porn star and a “model,” he’s not bi-polar he’s bi-winning, the cancellation of the remainder of the current season of “Two and a Half Men,” the anti-semitic remarks, and so on and so forth.
What concerns me most of all is how much entertainment value we’re getting out of this. When I say we, I absolutely include myself in that. I’m riveted by the coverage, even while I’m privately condemning the interviewers for encouraging his delusions of grandeur by increasing his exposure and forums.
What makes it worse is that I’ve already seen this story play out and I know exactly how it ends. Needless to say, there’s no happily ever after. Yet I still find myself sitting here examining his ramblings and picking apart points where he contradicts himself, as if that’s any great exercise. I find myself watching a slow-motion car crash, knowing full well that there are people inside that car. Except this is worse, because I find it amusing.
Perhaps, as the old Langston Hughes quote infers, we laugh to keep from crying. I just hope that he somehow defies expectations and somehow manages to see himself through to the other end of this thing.
Steve Martin
One of my lucky readers is going to win two of the most sought after tickets of the season.
“A Conversation with Steve Martin” goes down March 30th at 8:00pm at the Palace Theater.
The evening will feature the comedic legend – and a personal idol of mine – talking at length in an impromptu moderated panel that will include a question and answer period. In addition to his acting and comedic roles, Martin will be discussing his work as a novelist, filmmaker, playwright, and musician.
To win your tickets, please post your favorite Steve Martin memory in the comments below. A winner will be drawn at random, and all comments posted on this blog post between now and Thursday March 3rd at 11:59pm will be eligible to win. Only one entry per person, please, and use a valid e-mail address when posting.
Also keep an eye on this space later today and throughout the week, as I’ll be sharing my own memories of Martin and the effect he’s had on my creative endeavors.
So have at it, folks, and good luck!
Lena Horne, who passed away last May, struggled to find acceptance for black actors in Hollywood. That struggle continues despite insistence to the contrary. Image via Wikipedia
Last night at the 83rd Annual Academy Awards, Halle Berry introduced an extended tribute to Lena Horne. Horne was an actress, singer, and activist who faced numerous obstacles throughout her professional career and found acceptance as an artist and a performer to be an uphill battle.
She passed away last May, but the struggle didn’t die with her.
Far from it, in fact. For despite over fifty years of work by people like Horne to change perceptions and open up doors in Hollywood, there was not a single black nominee for an Oscar this year.
Some such as Whoopi Goldberg would insist it’s not a trend, but the silver and small screens don’t lie. This isn’t a statement on the Academy Awards so much as the industry as a whole, which continues to keep its doors closed to black artists. Black films and television shows are an anomaly in the 21st Century. On the rare occasion they do get made, they only get acclaim if they show black America trampled under foot and experiencing the harsh travails that come as a result of racism.
Apropos? Perhaps, given that the entertainment industry continues to whitewash America despite periodic glad-handing such as airing a tribute to a woman whose work has not gone unnoticed, but whose aspirations for a more welcoming entertainment industry have gone unrealized.
Strides have been made since Hattie McDaniel won her Oscar in 1940. Blacks are not subject to the same abuses, mistreatments, and injustices both on and off-screen that Ms. McDaniel had to endure. However, the counterpoint to that should have been better black roles, not a near disappearance from the mainstream.
Then again, it probably shouldn’t surprise us that the Oscars are so out of touch given last night’s ceremony, which tried to put pretty stars and starlets in the roles of comedian hosts. The result was like watching a butcher try to perform open-heart surgery, with non-jokes and egotistical snark (“good job nerds,” James Franco said after a segment was shown congratulating the technical achievements of people who have made it their life’s work to make him not appear insufferable) triumphing over entertainment.
Regardless, if there’s one thing to take out of this year’s Academy Awards, it’s not the terrible jokes or the lousy presentation or even some questionable choices of attire. It is, instead, that a country that prides itself on its multiculturalism and achievements in the area of civil rights has an entertainment industry that, both at home and abroad, only exports the white experience.
REMINDER: Join us tonight at Buffalo Wild Wings in Clifton Park (22 Clifton Country Road) for UFC 127 live, starting at 10:00pm!
Preliminary bouts will air live on the ION Network (check local listings) starting at 9:00pm. The free hour of fights is headlined by a potential Fight of the Night contender featuring lightweights Ross Pearson and Spencer Fisher.
The event itself is headlined by BJ Penn taking on Jon Fitch with a potential shot at the Welterweight Title on the line and co-headlined by what has become a Middleweight grudge match pitting British fighter Michael Bisping against veteran fighter Jorge Rivera.
Make sure you get to Buffalo Wild Wings early, as seats will be filling up quickly.
The full fight card, and my predictions, are below.
Main card
Welterweight bout
B.J. Penn vs. Jon Fitch
Prediction: Fitch by Unanimous Decision. Penn is going into this fight undersized – he came in at 167 while wearing jeans at the weigh-ins – and will have trouble overcoming the grappling prowess and strength of Fitch, who is arguably the best Welterweight in the world not named Georges St-Pierre.
Middleweight bout
Michael Bisping vs. Jorge Rivera
Prediction: Bisping, but I’ll be rooting for Rivera for obvious reasons (Bisping’s an overrated blowhard).
Lightweight bout
George Sotiropoulos vs. Dennis Siver
Prediction: Sotiropoulos by Unanimous Decision. I think, though, it’s going to be a lot closer than people think. Siver’s no joke, though his troubles with making weight yesterday were a bit disconcerting.
Welterweight bout
Chris Lytle vs. Brian Ebersole
Prediction: Chris Lytle via Unanimous Decision. With a combined 114(!) fights between the two combatants, there are perhaps no more well-traveled fighters on tonight’s card. But while Ebersole has ebbed and waned against middling competition and aged warriors (one of his recent wins comes against Carlos Newton), Lytle has been fighting the best in the world for the better part of the last four years and he’s on an impressive three-fight streak that includes wins over a tenacious Matt Brown and former champion Matt Serra. Ebersole’s definitely a step down, and barring some unforeseen disaster shouldn’t have any trouble here.
Middleweight bout
Kyle Noke vs. Chris Camozzi
Prediction: Noke via KO in Round 2. He’s looked impressive and refocused since arriving in the promotion last year, and I think he’ll further his streak here.
More after the jump.
These Tumblr sites.
One is Holy Maury Mother of God, which captures iconic images from “Maury” and posts them online.
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The other is Where’s Randy Savage?, and it is exactly what you think it is.
There. Now you have something to do with the rest of your afternoon.
STALK ME
