tongue and groove

Mill Valley

(snapped a few years ago one evening when J was playing at Sweetwater with Joe Louis Walker)

seeing Linda's post about Joe's Taco Lounge in Mill Valley instantly made me want to spend a day there. in Mill Valley, i mean, not the taco lounge...though given how much i love tacos, that wouldn't be outside the realm of possibility.

Mill Valley and i go way back. somewhere around 1980-81, i lived there briefly, in a house on the east side of town with two roommates. one was an old friend, a dancer and choreographer; the other was someone i didn't know, a Scientologist who worked at Heath Ceramics in Sausalito.

i was working at an upscale men's and women's boutique in the heart of downtown Mill Valley, on the corner of Miller and Throckmorton. (the last time i was there, a coffee place was in that space.) it was a store geared to the affluent Mill Valley crowd...$400 linen shirts for women, Italian gabardine slacks for men, Lucchese boots. i was paid the whopping sum of $5/hour and was basically in charge since the owner and her partner mostly hung out in the office in the back.

one day a quiet, middle-aged man came in and purchased some slacks. i recognized the name on his credit card. he changed into his new slacks and as i kneeled on the hardwood floor to pin the hems (did i mention that my $5/hour, no commission pay included having to hem every pair of slacks i sold?), i thought how odd it was to have come of age during the Watergate era and now find myself hemming the pants of Daniel Ellsberg. Jim Lange shopped there. i once waited on a barefoot, coked-out woman in ratty jeans who paid for her purchases with a huge wad of hundred dollar bills she had stashed in her pocket.

the first time i ever saw a car phone (back when cell phones were car phones) was while working at that job. i was standing at the counter when i saw a guy in a gold Mercedes convertible (of course) turn left onto Throckmorton. i thought, "was that...? was he holding a phone?!" it looked like something out of Get Smart.  :)

after work, i'd walk around the corner to Sweetwater, sit at the bar and have a glass (or two or three) of white wine. i've spent many a night in Sweetwater--seen lots of live music there. it was  probably my all-time favorite music venue and i was heartbroken when it closed. a friend of mine in Marin actually looked at buying it at one point in the late 90's. i was also sad when Village Music closed since it was one of the most amazing record stores in the country. maybe i sound like an aging baby boomer whining over the old days, but these were cultural institutions. (if you don't believe me, start Googling.) and to replaced by what? another cupcake store?

in the evenings i'd sometimes go to an aerobics class in a studio above a bookstore not far from my house. a bookstore where Van Morrison could sometimes be spotted reading at a table in the cafe. i'd see Carlos Santana having lunch at my favorite sandwich spot. when you live in Marin County (which i did for a total of about 8 years in 5 different towns), you're used to seeing celebrities--it's no big deal.

i love Mill Valley. i've never known why it tugs at me so hard. maybe it's the physical environment. there are redwoods there and since i'm from redwood country, redwood groves instantly make me feel at home. when i read Linda's post, i suddenly realized i didn't know anything about Mill Valley's history. my genealogy research has given me a new fascination for history. so i looked it up at Wikipedia. well, looky there...in the mid-1800's: "Some of the rest of his land was leased out for dairy farming to Portuguese settlers.^[13] A majority of the immigrants came from the Azores Islands." i haven't yet figured out how my paternal great-grandparents made their way from the Azores to Del Norte County. wouldn't that be something to learn that as part of their journey, they went through Mill Valley. and this: "...Ranch 'B' is one of the few remaining dairy farm buildings and located near the parking lot at the Tennessee Valley trailhead." i haven't been to Tennessee Valley in ages, but i've hiked to the beach there dozens of times in the past and probably looked at and walked right by that building.

the more i study my family's genealogy (on all sides), the more i realize just how small this world really is...and just how much wonder is waiting to be discovered.

why the Oscars blew it.

poor James Franco. i'm not going to waste time reading any reviews of this year's Oscars telecast, but i suspect that his work as co-host will take a lot of blame for why the show sucked. but i don't think it was his fault.

last Thursday he posted a photo to his Whosay account of what appeared to be the telecast's writing room. take a look, and make sure you note the large man with the Prince Valiant haircut, red glasses and blue t-shirt. you know who that is, right? Bruce Vilanch. for anyone who might not know, Vilanch has been writing jokes for the Oscars shows for over 20 years. some of you may know him for his uproariously funny work (NOT) as a performer and joke writer on Hollywood Squares. (although it might sound like i do, i mean no disrespect to Mr. Vilanch. he's clearly carved out a very successful career for himself in mainstream Hollywood comedy.)

this, to me, is the crux of the problem: the people who run the Oscars telecast still think we're living in a Hollywood Squares world.

the Academy acted like it wanted to rocket the show into relevance by casting James Franco and Anne Hathaway as hosts. this was breaking the mold! this year was going to be different! this would surely get the kids to watch!

the first sign of trouble in my opinion was when the opening montage (which had been pretty good up to that point) suddenly presented us with the aging Christopher Lloyd and Michael J. Fox in their Back to the Future roles. if you really wanted to skew younger demographically, i'm not sure i'd have gone with a reference from 1985. but that's just me.

i'm trying to understand what the thought process was in the writers' room when someone suggested, "hey, you know what would be really great and funny? let's have 94-year-old Kirk Douglas teeter out there on his cane to present!" or: "i know! we'll put Anne in a tux and then she can sing a really corny song about Hugh Jackman. and then we'll send James out dressed like Marilyn Monroe! because she'll be dressed like a man...get it?! that'll KILL!" because nothing skews hipper than a sight gag that Hollywood's been doing since Uncle Miltie days.

the only reason i even watch televised awards shows anymore is to read the accompanying Twitter snark. if Twitter didn't exist, i wouldn't even waste my time--i'd just watch the video clips online the next day. Twitter's the only thing that makes it tolerable. the only time i laugh is when i'm reading tweets.

during Sunday's show, the consensus on Twitter seemed to be that James Franco was baked. i laughed at all the tweeted Franco jokes as much as the next person, but i actually didn't think he was stoned. (though if he wasn't, he probably wishes he'd been.)  :)  maybe i'm old-fashioned, but he seems to come from a pretty tight-knit family. i guess i have a hard time believing that he'd have his parents and grandmother sitting 3rd row center just get really high before he performed in front of them. i felt bad for him. he could only do what they asked him to do, and they didn't ask him to do much. and the tone was all off. Anne Hathaway is a lovely, adorable young woman and a good actress. but she was coming off like a gushing, fawning cheerleader rather than a host. it would have been even weirder for Franco to adopt her tone. so he was left to stand there in his tux, next to Anne and occasionally recite some corny words written for him by a roomful of highly-paid Hollywood writers.

he was taking some bashing online for his backstage posting, but maybe firing off those photos and very short videos during the show was the only thing helping him get through the show. i was watching the video clips as he posted them and i found one of them very telling. James is with Jordan (Rubin, i think). he says that Jordan is the head writer and points out that it's all his responsibility. Jordan says there are other writers--that he can't take all the credit. to which James replies that, no, it's his responsibility. Jordan says James has improvised a lot. James insists that he's said the lines as they were written for him. watch.  :)

what was the point of Billy Crystal's appearance? (and why in god's name was he given a standing ovation?) was that a nod to the 60+ crowd to say: we didn't forget about you--here's someone you know and love. and just to drive the point home--and make sure that the 80-somethings didn't feel left out--they also included Bob Hope. because lord knows, nothing says 2011 like a hologram Bob Hope.

James Franco often blazes his own path and last night was no exception. and with a mother like Betsy, it's no surprise. my favorite quote from this profile of her last week: "If your partner doesn't understand creativity, just find somebody else." from reading about Betsy and her husband, it's clear that the Franco kids were raised in a home where creativity was not only encouraged, but valued:

"My kids are very, very inspiring to me," said author Betsy Franco. "They are so fearless. I consider myself fearless, but no way, by comparison, when I see what they are doing. If you are willing to fail, you can pretty much do anything. If you pick yourself up and keep going, you can do anything."

James Franco, some will say that you failed as an Oscars co-host. i applaud you for being willing to try it. i'd even argue that it was the Academy and its writers that failed you.

and where is James Franco today? based on this photo, my guess would be he's right where he wants to be...back at school.

screenwriting

this is a fascinating interview with screenwriter Aaron Sorkin. Happy Oscars Sunday!

enlivened

this past weekend, i read this profile of Debra Winger in the New York Times Sunday Magazine.  i've always loved Debra Winger's work as an actress. we're the same age and her performances in "Urban Cowboy"* and "An Officer and a Gentleman" were big touchstones for me as a young woman and don't even get me started on "Terms of Endearment"...her Emma never fails to reduce me to heaving, wracking sobs. ;)

i admire Winger for how she stepped away from the Hollywood machine years ago...and for how she's managed to not confuse acting with celebrity. in recent years i've been thrilled to see her working again.

i haven't read her book, but i'm curious to check it out.

this morning i watched this PBS interview with her from two years ago conducted by the editor of Texas Monthly. it's about 25 minutes long and well worth a look. she tells a hilarious story about an incident at Magic Mountain when she worked there as a troll. in talking about the internet, she reminds us that if we're constantly locked into our Blackberries, we're not engaging with life. near the end of the interview, she's asked if she's happy at this juncture of her life. she says, "the word 'happy' for me is almost meaningless. i feel very enlivened by life right now..." enlivened means to make lively or spirited. and, really, what more could we ask for from life? who wants to reach "happy" and then flatline? give me lively and spirited any day.

Debra Winger has enlivened my life through her work. if you feel the same, you'll enjoy this talk with her.

 

 

 

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*i once found myself stranded overnight, along with five other intrepid souls and the cleaning staff, at Gilley's in Paradise, Texas where they shot "Urban Cowboy"...but that's a story for another post.  ;)

 

performers

i've always been fascinated by the entertainment world. show business. whatever you want to call it. in fact, here's a confession:  for the longest time, i couldn't understand why anyone would want to work in any field that wasn't entertainment.  (shallow much?)  :)  i think because that artificial world brought me so much pleasurable escape as a child, i saw it as a refuge. many of the career paths i dreamed of pursuing when i was young were entertainment-related:  dancer, actress, stand-up comic, runway model.

i feel incredibly fortunate to have grown up in an era rife with hugely talented performers who were multiple threats...performers in the truest sense of the word. they could act, sing, dance and make you laugh. in those days you didn't become famous for being on a reality show (because they didn't exist). reality shows have become celebrity factories.  we turn the participants into celebrities who carve out hugely successful careers at doing nothing more than being famous.

when i was young, you could come home from school, turn on the TV and watch talk shows hosted by Mike Douglas or Merv Griffin. Dick Cavett and Dinah Shore had talk shows. on Sunday nights we'd watch Ed Sullivan (who introduced America to The Beatles) and Hollywood Palace (with different stars guest-hosting). i could stay up late and watch Johnny Carson followed by Tom Snyder. what an incredibly glorious time it was.

in March 2009, actor Kevin Pollak premiered an internet talk show, Kevin Pollak's Chat Show. it streams live on the web on Sundays at 3 pm Pacific. it's a freewheeling couple of hours and because it's the internet, he and his guests can speak freely. (so just a heads up that profanity can ensue.)  ;)  in my opinion, Kevin's chat show is what "Inside the Actors Studio" aspires to be. (and, i'm sorry, but i can't watch James Lipton anymore without thinking of Will Ferrell's impersonation of him.)  :) Lipton's show is reverent and precious; Pollak's is a no-holds-barred frank conversation about the performers' early lives, how they entered the business and how they're surviving in it. his chat show archive is a treasure trove of information on performers' backgrounds.

for all of you Mad Men fans, here's a recent show with veteran actor (and hugely talented stage performer) Robert Morse: