The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2020 Induction Ceremony

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame had to change its induction ceremony for 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Gone were the performances by reunited bands or tributes by singers who admired an artist who has passed away or is otherwise unable to attend the ceremony. Without the big event itself, we got a video biography and acceptance speeches by some of the inductees, but not all of them. It wasn’t an ideal situation but necessary for the health of everyone involved.

The video packages for the broadcast ceremony were somewhat uniform, ranging from a fast thirteen minutes (for the Notorious B.I.G.) to more reasonable seventeen minutes (each for the Doobie Brothers and Depeche Mode) for the artists being inducted. Thankfully, the two non-performers only got ten minutes (for Jon Landau) or eleven minutes (for Irving Azoff). Still, Azoff got almost as much time on screen as the Notorious B.I.G. Something seemed off about that, but then again, much of 2020 has been “off,” hasn’t it?

The Doobie Brothers

Nine members of The Doobie Brothers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but only three people accepted the trophies during the broadcast: original lead singer Tom Johnston, replacement lead singer Michael McDonald, and guitarist Patrick Simmons. I suppose lead singers always get attention, and Simmons is actually the only original member who has been involved throughout the entirety of the Doobies’ fifty-year history. Who decided which members get to speak? Many of the members are still alive.

Country singer Luke Bryan inducted the Doobie Brothers by saying that their inclusion was “long overdue.” That may be, but the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has a notorious history of not inducting people until they’re “long overdue."

In addition to Bryan, the Doobie Brothers got testimonials from film director Judd Apatow, country singer Brad Paisley, and legendary guitarist/singer Nancy Wilson of Heart. Paisley’s reference to Michael McDonald as a “wasabi-infused garlic” that changed the direction of the band was a highlight of the induction.

At no point did anyone mention that the Doobie Brothers were one of the few multiracial bands. Tiran Porter, an African American singer and bass guitarist, was a member of the original band and stayed with them for more than a decade. He was included among the inductees, and yes, he’s still alive. It was a very odd omission.

When I was at my junior-senior prom in 1980, the stoners outside kept yelling for the band to play “China Grove.” I can never hear that song now without thinking of the stoners from my high school.

Yes, the tribute video mentioned how the Minute by Minute album changed the trajectory of the Doobie Brothers’ career, winning them Grammy Awards and international success. However, it also highlights their appearance on What’s Happening. How many rock bands from that era appeared on TV sitcoms? Awesome.

I had forgotten that the Doobie Brothers often had multiple singers, multiple guitarists, and even two drummers at a time on stage. That’s some amazing synchronicity.

Michael McDonald’s hair has now completed its journey toward total whiteness. Patrick Simmons, by comparison, has gray hair, but it’s still long, just what you want in a rock star.

The full list of inductees: Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, John Hartman, Michael Hossack, Tom Johnson, Keith Knudsen, Michael McDonald, John McFee, Tiran Porter, and Patrick Simmons.

Nine Inch Nails

Seven people were inducted as part of Nine Inch Nails, but only Trent Reznor got to accept the award. Again, who decided that only Reznor’s acceptance would be needed? The other six members of the group were barely even shown during the video.

You know you’re cool when Iggy Pop agrees to induct you into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

You’re also pretty cool when you get testimonials from legendary producers Rick Rubin, Jimmy Iovine, and Mark Ronson. Having Miley Cyrus and Annie Clark of St. Vincent talk about the influence of your band doesn’t hurt either. In fact, Clark sums up the style of Nine Inch Nails pretty well: “heavy corrosive industrial goth music.” Sounds pretty accurate to me. “Industrial” music doesn’t seem to quite capture it as fully.

The logo for Nine Inch Nails has to be one of the most famous and most recognizable band logos in history.

The tribute video spent too much time on Reznor’s work on the soundtracks for such films as The Social Network. Yes, his bandmate Atticus Ross collaborates with Reznor on these scores, but do they really count as Nine Inch Nails releases? And why didn’t Ross get to accept the award too?

The induction of Nine Inch Nails is a victory for all the goth kids and the angst-ridden suburban teens who found some connection to the dark music that the band released. When you see pictures of Reznor from when he was a teen, you have to wonder what particular demons he was struggling with that led him to start writing music.

The full list of inductees: Alessandro Cortini, Robin Finck, Danny Lohner, Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, Ilan Rubin, and Chris Vrenna.

Irving Azoff

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame presented two Ahmet Ertegun Awards to non-performers in 2020. Why two? I don’t know. It’s a mystery to me too. The first to be recognized during the ceremony was Irving Azoff, an agent, personal manager, movie producer, and record executive.

Azoff was nicknamed “Big Shorty” but acquired another nickname when his most famous clients, the Eagles, were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. That’s when Don Henley described him as “Our Satan.” Let you mind ponder that one. The Eagles, that notorious band of hedonists, thought of someone as “their satan.”

Azoff is credited with keeping the Eagles together as much as possible or putting them back together after they broke up… again… and again…and again.

The range of people giving testimonials about Azoff’s contributions to music was pretty wide: director Cameron Crowe, Don Henley and Joe Walsh of the Eagles, members of Earth, Wind & Fire, and musicians Gwen Stefani and Adam Levine.

Azoff was one of the producers of Fast Times at Ridgemont High. That alone makes him deserving of some kind of award or honor.

The Notorious B.I.G.

The Notorious B.I.G. got the shortest induction at a brisk thirteen minutes. That’s a shame. Even though his time on earth itself was brief – he was murdered at the age of 24 – his influence on hip hop is lasting.

In his induction speech, Sean “Diddy” Combs called the Notorious B.I.G. as the “greatest rapper of all time.” You expect some hyperbole when someone inducts an artist into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but didn’t Snoop Dogg say pretty much the same thing about Tupac Shakur three years ago? Let’s not start another East Coast-West Coast challenge. We all know how that ends.

The Notorious B.I.G. had more aliases than any other inductee this year: Christopher Wallace, Biggie Smalls, the King of New York, Big Poppa, etc., etc., etc.

How touching that the testimonials include his mother, his wife (Faith Evans), Nas, Jay-Z (who will likely be inducted as soon as he become eligible – next year?), and even Lin Manuel Miranda, one of the creators and stars of Hamilton, the Broadway show steeped in hip hop culture and style. And how touching that his daughter and son accept the award on his behalf, each of them having been so young when he was killed.

Depeche Mode

Depeche Mode were inducted by Charlize Theron, who claimed that “they should have been there twenty years ago.” Again, there are some musical superstars who have waited a long time to be inducted, so perhaps presenters should retire this cliché. Everyone who should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame hasn’t made it yet. And I don’t think Depeche Mode was technically eligible twenty years ago. Performers are eligible twenty-five years after their first recording is released, and Depeche Mode’s contribution to the sampler album Some Bizzare Album came out in 1980. You can do the math yourself.

The footage from when the band was first making a name for itself shows some very, very young band members. They look like they were still teens.

Is Depeche Mode a New Wave band or an electronic music pioneer or both or neither or something else entirely? I realize it probably doesn’t matter overall, but it would be interesting to see the arguments for each side.

The lineup for testimonials on Depeche Mode’s induction is a who’s-who of contemporary (and classic) music: Chris Martin of Coldplay, Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, Lauren Mayberry of Chvrches, and Win Butler of Arcade Fire.

The tribute video includes old footage from an event at the Beverly Center, which hasn’t had a record store in more than two decades. Where would fans mob a group like Depeche Mode nowadays? Wal-Mart? Target? Amazon headquarters? Spotify headquarters?

The video also includes footage from a recent (?) Hollywood Bowl concert. I suspect that one of my friends from work was in the audience. She never misses a Southern California appearance by her favorite band of all time even if it means she won’t get much sleep before coming to work the next day.

Three members of Depeche Mode (Dave Gahan, Andrew Fletcher, and Martin Gore) accepted the award on behalf of the five members who were inducted. That’s seems a bit fairer than what happened with the other groups. They seem to enjoy still being together in a band. They joke around with each other, with Fletcher saying that if it hadn’t been for Depeche Mode, Gahan might be stealing cars. Gahan’s response? He agrees he would be doing “something dodgy.” Gore comments on the lack of performances this year by saying through Zoom: “Aren’t we doing the concert now?” Oh, if only.

The full list of inductees: Vince Clark, Andy Fletcher, Dave Gahan, Martin Gore, and Alan Wilder.

The “In Memoriam” segment lasted just seven minutes, but it started with guitar virtuoso Eddie Van Halen and ended with the legendary rock and roll pioneer Little Richard. Between the inclusion of those enormous talents, we realize that 2020 (and 2019) left us with painful losses of some great musicians. I do wonder how the makers of the video tribute decide who gets to be alone on the screen, who has to share the screen with another person (who may have no connection to the other artist at all), and who has to be one of three people on the screen at the same time?

Jon Landau

Another Ahmet Ertegun Award? And to another manager/agent/producer? Who is it this time? Jon Landau, who started as a music journalist before he began working with Bruce Springsteen. Landau famously wrote, “I saw rock and roll future and its name is Bruce Springsteen” after seeing the rock star perform in 1974. He and we have heard it far too many times since then.

After beginning his writing career at a magazine called Crawdaddy, Landau got hired by Jann Wenner to come to Rolling Stone. Wait, doesn’t Wenner have a lot of say over who gets into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? Hmm…

Landau’s most famous client was, of course, Springsteen, but he also worked with Jackson Browne. He’s responsible for helping shepherd at least two great rock albums to fruition: Born to Run and The Pretender.

Don’t the voters of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame really like Springsteen too? Didn’t they induct the E Street Band on its own after lobbying by Springsteen? Hmm…

T. Rex

If you watched the video package on T. Rex, you might be surprised to learn that lead singer Marc Boland was not the only member. In fact, four members of the band were included, but Boland is clearly the focus of the induction ceremony.

Ringo Starr inducted T. Rex, using “finally” to describe the occasion. As he later puts it, there’s “no doubt they belong in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.” Perhaps not, but they’ve been eligible for a long time and hadn’t made it yet, so there must have been something that kept them from being included before now.

Glam rock was about the marriage of style and substance. You might have been able to dress like Boland, who was a bit of a peacock. You might even put on makeup, including glitter on your face, and some fingernail polish. However, if you don’t have the musical talent to back it up, you’re not helping the genre progress. Marc Boland and T. Rex certainly had the chops to back up the look.

Old footage from Elton John and David Bowie is always welcome, as are testimonials from Joan Jett and Johnny Rotten (yes, from the Sex Pistols, who notoriously criticized their own induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame). But the highlight had to be Billy Idol talking about his early appearances as a member of Generation X on Marc’s television show. The footage of a very young Idol is fascinating. He already had the sneer.

Roland Bolan accepts for his father, who died decades ago in a car accident. He includes a phrase that his father used at the end of each episode of his TV show: “Keep a little Marc in your heart.” Very sweet.

The full list of inductees: Marc Boland, Steve Currie, Mickey Finn, and Bill Legend.

Why do we need a three-minute promotional video for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? Is it open in the midst of this pandemic? No, thanks. I’ll choose life over rock and roll. And where did they get the people in this video? They all think they might (or should) be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame someday? That’s nice, but come back when you have something as iconic as the guitar John Lennon played on The Ed Sullivan Show, or Jimi Hendrix’s guitar, or the only set of drums that Keith Moon from the Who apparently didn’t destroy. Seeing those items was more interesting that the aspirations of people I’ve never heard of (and will likely never hear from again).

Whitney Houston

Alicia Keys inducted Whitney Houston into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. At first, Keys calls Houston the “greatest voice of all time.” Later, she modifies that to “perhaps the greatest voice of all time.” I wouldn’t quibble with the second characterization, but describing anyone as the “greatest of all time” invites controversy.

Houston seemed destined for a career in music. Her mother, Cissy Houston, was in several gospel and soul groups and even sang back up for Aretha Franklin at one point. Her cousin was the legendary Dionne Warwick. She was surrounded by singers from the beginning of her life. Why wouldn’t she join the “family business”?

The testimonials for Houston’s induction include Clive Davis, the legendary record producer who “discovered” her and groomed her for success, and Jennifer Hudson, who has been so obviously influenced by Houston’s singing. There’s also a touching remembrance from Kelly Price, a fellow gospel/rhythm & blues singer who was onstage the last time Houston sang, the night before she died.  

It’s heartbreaking to see footage of Houston with her young daughter, Bobbi Kristina Brown, who died just three years after her mother passed away.

Cissy and Pat Houston accepted the award on Whitney’s behalf. Pat was Whitney’s manager as well as her sister-in-law. Cissy is now 87 years old, and the tragedies she’s experienced seem to have made her very fragile.

 

Understanding (?) Hamlet

The last time that I taught our Introduction to Literature course, I assigned Shakespeare's Hamlet in order to discuss performance. I call it "Night of a Thousand Hamlets," and it involves showing numerous clips of the "To Be or Not to Be" speech done by various actors (Olivier, Branagh, Gibson, etc.). I also give a reading quiz to see that everyone in class has kept up with the assignments.

Among the questions I asked were "How does Ophelia die?" and "What does Hamlet ask of Horatio at the end of the play?" I'm usually stunned by the answers. Even if you've not fully read the play, you'd think there are enough cultural references to Hamlet out there for someone to guess correctly. Not quite.

I did not correct any misspellings or grammatical errors in the following answers.

How does Ophelia die?

• “Being grazed by the poison sword”
• “May have been grased by the sword”
• “Ophelia dies by drinking poison”
• “By poison”
• “Ophelia commits suicide”
• “She is murdered”
• “She kills herself”
• “Ophelia dies”
• “Ophelia goes insane after her father’s death and kills herself"

What does Hamlet ask of Horatio at the end of the play?

• “Hamlet asks Horatio to avenge his death”
• “He asks Horatio to look after his mother”
• “Hamlet asks Horatio to sneak him out of the palace”
• “Hamlet asks Horatio that country”
• “Hamlet asks Horatio to defend him”
• “To flee the kingdom”
• “Hamlet asks Horatio to give him the cup to drink”

You'd think grading short reading quizzes (just 3-4 questions each) would be simple, perhaps even boring. However, the answers above would indicate that it's never dull, no matter how simple the answers might be.

End-of-Year Confusion

Sometimes when reading student work, I am completely confused. I'm never certain if some of the confusion results from the ubiquity of AutoCorrect or a lack of comprehension from the writer.

For example, what follows is the concluding paragraph from an essay about Target's marketing strategies. It was not, however, indented in the original so that you could tell it was the start of a new paragraph.

"This only proves that target has use many strategies to take a bandage of the marketing to breakfast from kiss from keep customers ethical marketing to. In being all onions to their store to buy products that they need."

I read the entire essay that this paragraph allegedly concludes, and I can honestly state that I have no idea what the writer was trying to say here.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2018

Let me start with an admission: I do actually like the band Bon Jovi. I saw them perform at Mississippi State’s Humphrey Coliseum (a.k.a. “The Hump”) in 1988 on the Slippery When Wet tour, and it was a great show by a band that already knew how to entertain even though it was their first national tour as headliners. I also have to say that was the wildest concert audience I’ve ever witnessed. I remember that it had been a particularly rough semester, but that crowd was ready to party.

However, Bon Jovi’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame took up more than forty-nine minutes of the three-hour televised portions of the ceremony that recently aired on HBO. By comparison, the Cars got just thirty minutes, Nina Simone and the Moody Blues each had twenty-nine minutes, Dire Straits only got nine minutes, and the great Sister Rosetta Tharpe got a scant eight minutes. I mean, Bon Jovi is a very popular band and all, but they don’t deserve six times a much air time as Sister Rosetta Tharpe when both are being inducted into the same Hall of Fame.

Part of the problem had to do with the person inducting them, Howard Stern, who took more than nine minutes to induct them. His speech was ridiculous, comparing of the number of people who died from bubonic plague (50 million) and in the Civil War (625,000) to the 130 million albums that Bon Jovi has sold. There was even a reference to “Harry Chapin’s jizz” that was just weird and rather pointless. Also pointless? The digs at Cream, Blondie, and Leonard Cohen, all of whom sold fewer albums than Bon Jovi but who were inducted earlier into the Hall of Fame. Of course, album sales are no measure of true worth of an act’s lasting musical influence or impact, and Leonard Cohen also had to wait quite a long time to be inducted.

Then Jon Bon Jovi took more than ten minutes to recount almost his entire history in the music business and to thank, seemingly, every single person in the audience at the ceremony individually. As intriguing as it is to discover that he sang backing vocals on the Star Wars Christmas album, when Jon’s overarching point was about how important time is, should he have taken up so much of our time recounting every minuscule occurrence for the past 30 years? Apparently, he actually spoke for almost twenty minutes at the ceremony itself, and half of it was cut for the broadcast. It’s tough to imagine what else he could have included. Stern mentioned and Jon seemingly was responded to a prevailing theory that Jann Wenner, founder and publisher of Rolling Stone, had prevented the band from being inducted earlier. Even if that’s true, it doesn’t mean that the induction of Bon Jovi is such a life-altering moment for the rest of us. How indulgent of the hall and the other members of the band to let Jon take the spotlight away for his self-serving speech.

And now on to the rest of the ceremony…

THE CARS

Brandon Flowers inducted the Cars, claiming that they were the first band he fell in love with. It’s good to see some of the New Wave and MTV-era bands starting to join the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I'm not certain I would have chosen the Cars compared to others from the same era (Duran Duran, for instance). The members paid lovely tribute to their parents and grandparents who instilled a love of music in their lives. Ric Ocasek, a founder and lead singer of the group, was loose and funny, joking that he was “supposed to be the good looking one in the band” until Benjamin Orr joined them. Orr passed away almost two decades ago, but his son was in the audience, and he was even more handsome than his dad. It’s sad that he wasn’t allowed on stage to accept the award on behalf of his father. It’s also sad to learn that Ocasek and his wife, Paulina Porizkova, who was so happy in the audience that night, are now separated after almost three decades of marriage.

Performances: “Just What I Needed,” “My Best Friend’s Girl,” and “You Might Think”

As an aside, it was odd to see a performance of “You Might Think” without the visuals associated with the award-winning video. It’s not quite as impactful, to be honest.

SISTER ROSETTA THARPE

The “Godmother of Rock and Roll” was inducted by Brittany Howard from Alabama Shakes in the category of “Early Influences.” That’s a rather condescending category for someone who taught most of the early rock stars how to play electric guitar. Sister Rosetta was the heart at the intersection of rock and gospel music, and she was, as Little Richard noted, “hot as cayenne pepper.” It’s a shame that the ceremony didn’t mention Tharpe’s bisexuality, given how inspiring that might have been to queer artists and music lovers, but it’s actually rather amazing that she was included in this year’s class of inductees anyway.

Performance: “That’s All,” performed by Howard, a most appropriate choice given that she is a successor to Tharpe’s legacy of soulful guitar-accompanied singing.

DIRE STRAITS

I’m not certain that Dire Straits truly deserves to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but despite my (and other people’s) personal feelings about their worthiness, they were ill-treated by the organizers of the event. No one was there to induct them, and because Mark and David Knopfler were both absent, there was no performance by the band. It’s sad that they can’t get along with each other and the rest of the band for even one night. Several bands that have been inducted have had bad blood among the members, but for a couple of hours, you’d think they might take the honor of being inducted as reason enough to acknowledge the prestige of being one of the few musical acts selected for inclusion. (I mean, Richie Sambora joined Bon Jovi for their performance five years after splitting from them.) Even the televised portions of the ceremony gave the members of Dire Straits who were in attendance just a few minutes of air time.

NINA SIMONE

The amazing and long-overdue Nina Simone, the “High Priestess of Soul,” was inducted by the amazing Mary J. Blige, and Simone’s award was accepted by her brother, Dr. Samuel Waymon, who almost stole the show by telling the audience that Simone’s spirit was in the area: “She’s sitting next to you!” He also gave some advice that his sister would have given: “If you want to be a queen, you are a queen. If you think you’re a king, you are a king.” Simone was a huge influence on music and one of the most politically engaged performers of her time. She was, along with the Moody Blues and Sister Rosetta Tharpe, arguably the most deserving of this year’s inductees.

Performances: “”I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free” and “I Put a Spell on You” by Andra Day and the Roots. “Black Is the Color of My True Love’s Hair,” “Ain’t Got No – I Got Life,” and “Feelin’ Good” by Ms. Lauren Hill.

Day is one of the most exciting performers today, and she took everyone to church, as the younger generation says. Hill had a true diva moment (with the dress to match) as she rapped and scatted her way through Simone’s songs, proving that they are just as relevant today as they were when first performed.

THE MOODY BLUES

The Moody Blues, inducted by Ann Wilson of Heart, had to wait almost three decades after becoming eligible before becoming a part of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The prog rock pioneers released their seminal album Days of Future Passed the same year as Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by the Beatles. They’ve had a long successful career due to the unwavering support of their fans, whom they thanked more profusely than the other inductees in attendance. Drummer Graeme Edge also thanked all of the people who had helped the band over the years, but he also (rightfully) said, “To all the people who haven’t helped me, screw you.” Loved it.

Performances: “I’m Just a Singer (in a Rock and Roll Band),” “Nights in White Satin,” and “Ride My See-Saw.”

That last song was an unusual choice. Why not something from the band’s 1980s-era comeback? Maybe "Your Wildest Dreams," one of the band's three Top 10 singles from throughout their career?

BON JOVI

I have already mentioned that Bon Jovi was inducted by Howard Stern in a speech designed to suggest that the delay in including the band in the Hall of Fame was one of the greatest slights ever to occur in the history of music. However, having the bandmates introduce each other was a nice touch, and keyboardist David Bryan talking about bringing his bowling ball along on their first tour “because I AM from Jersey” was quite funny. 

Performances: “You Give Love a Bad Name,” “When We Were Us,” and “Livin’ on a Prayer”

SINGLES

Steven Van Zandt (a.k.a. Little Steven) introduced a new category at this year’s ceremony: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Singles. The selected records can’t be performed by an artist who’s already in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Other than that, it seems like this is an attempt by the hall to include work by artists who, honestly, seem unlikely ever to make it into the Hall of Fame on their own.

“Rocket 88” by Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats (1951)

“Rumble” by Link Wray and His Wray Men (1958)

“The Twist” by Chubby Checker (1960)

“Louie, Louie” by The Kingsmen (1963)

“Whiter Shade of Pale” by Procol Harum (1967)

“Born to Be Wild” by Steppenwolf (1968)

TRIBUTES

The opening of the broadcast featured Brandon Flowers and the Killers performing Tom Petty’s “American Girl” (and a little bit of “Free Fallin’” at the end but done at the same tempo as “American Girl”).  By the way, Flowers looks so much like Matt Damon from the School Ties era. Well, maybe the Good Will Hunting era. Either way, it was disconcerting to see him with his crooked smile.  

This year’s “In Memoriam” honored several artists who are members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: Fats Domino, Pete Moore of the Miracles, Walter Becker of Steely Dan, Dennis Edwards of the Temptations, Nokie Edwards of the Ventures, Tom Petty (again), Malcolm Young of AC/DC, Yvonne Staples of the Staples Singers, Greg Allman, and, tragically, Ray Thomas of the Moody Blues (who died in January and was mentioned several times by his bandmates during their induction).

The highlight among the tributes was a performance of Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun” by Ann Wilson and Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains. Cornell, who was the lead vocalist for Soundgarden and Audioslave, committed suicide in 2017, and Wilson’s rendition plumbed the the emotional depths of the song. It was a touching moment.

Taking Stock 2017

Sometimes when you look back on a year like 2017, you don’t pay as much attention to your experiences with popular culture. Politics takes center stage, and you perhaps realize that you might have neglected, say, to read as many books as you would have liked because you were preoccupied with seemingly weightier matters. For the record, I managed to read twenty-three books last year, not even an average of one every two weeks. I hope to do better in 2018, particularly since I went on a purchasing spree of used books during the final months of 2017.

I fared somewhat better with my movie-going. I saw thirty films in movie theaters, not a bad number, but when you add the additional 109 that I watched on television and eight more on DVD or Blu-Ray, the total of 147 sounds rather impressive. That’s an average of almost three per week. I haven’t in the past kept track of short films, but I made a concerted effort this year to make a list, and the final tally was an impressive 172! I guess they are easier to watch because they don’t take as much time.

And, now, on to the superlatives for 2017:

Favorite Non-Fiction Books: Anatomy of a Song: The Oral History of 45 Iconic Hits that Changed Rock, R&B and Pop by Marc Myers and Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson. Myers is a music columnist for the Wall Street Journal who selected forty-five hit songs to discuss, everything from “Lawdy Miss Clawdy” by Lloyd Price to “Losing My Religion” by R.E.M. He interviews the songwriters, the performers, producers, a host of other people involved in the creation of these records. It’s illuminating and entertaining, and I want to read it again, this time listening to each individual song before and after reading the chapter about it. Stevenson is an attorney whose Equal Justice Initiative works with death row prisoners who were wrongly convicted, and his book primarily recounts his efforts to get one of those men, Walter McMillian, freed. Filled with statistics and stories that demonstrate just how thoroughly unbalanced our justice system is for those who are poor and/or non-white, the book makes occasional digressions to discuss the way women and children are poorly treated. It’s enough to make you angry and perhaps take action. It also makes you realize just how unlikely it is that we will address these kinds of disparities in the current political climate.

Favorite Fiction Book: Spence + Lila by Bobbie Ann Mason. I was a huge fan of Mason’s work when I was in graduate school in Mississippi, and I think I might have even read this book before, but when you reach my age (54), sometimes it’s like reading something for the first time (echoes of Norman Thayer in On Golden Pond…). This short novel recounts how the family of the title characters, a rural couple in Kentucky, deals with the breast cancer diagnosis and treatment of the family matriarch, Lila. So many moments resonated with me, both from time spent in hospitals with family members waiting for good news and from having grown up in an environment much like the one so vividly detailed here. It’s a slim but powerful story, and Mason’s attention to the emotional life of the couple’s children further enriches the narrative.

Favorite Performances by Female Actors: Aubrey Plaza in Ingrid Goes West, Gal Gadot in Wonder Woman, and Charlize Theron in Atomic Blonde.  Plaza walks a fine line between dark comedy and horrifying drama as the title character in Ingrid Goes West. Her Ingrid is obsessed with social media who forcibly befriends a California woman who’s an Instagram sensation. I saw the film with a friend who was so repulsed by Ingrid’s behavior that he started divesting himself of some of his accounts. I, however, just found her fascinating and unnerving at the same time. In Wonder Woman, Gadot takes one of the most iconic superheroes of all time and invests her with such heart and humor and action and dignity. I found it to be one of the best films of the genre ever made, and Gadot is primarily responsible for its success since so much of the film rests upon her shoulders. And how could I forget Theron’s performance as Lorraine Broughton in Atomic Blonde? The entire film is like getting a shot of adrenaline, and I loved watching Theron as a kick-ass (literally kicking ass) action hero. Putting this performance with the one she gave in Mad Max: Fury Road makes me excited for this phase of her career.

Favorite Performances by Male Actors: Timothee Chalamet in Call Me by Your Name and Armie Hammer in Call Me by Your Name. For me, it’s almost impossible to determine who gives the stronger performance in this lovely film about a summertime romance between Chalamet’s Elio and Hammer’s Oliver. Their interactions build in intensity throughout the film, and their pairing is perfect for demonstrating the joys and difficulties that come with first love. Chalamet is quite a find, and this film should catapult him to the top of everyone’s list of potential young leading men. Hammer, of course, has been a star since at least The Social Network, but here he brings a new depth to his characterization. Both are lead performances, but I’m certain that the somewhat larger amount of screen time for Chalamet is what makes people consider Hammer’s to be a supporting performance.

Favorite Films: Call Me by Your Name and Get Out. I’ve already spoke above about the high-quality acting in Call Me by Your Name, but it’s also one of the most beautifully photographed films in recent years and it manages to give almost every supporting role a significant amount of character description so that they seem more realistic than the kinds of stereotypes or sketchily drawn characters we sometimes get in films. Get Out was released earlier in the year, but it still makes me think about the important questions it raises about race relations in the United States. Far from being polemical, though, this film mixes horror with comedy very delicately, and Jordan Peele’s screenplay and direction, both remarkably self-assured, gives us a satire for our times.

Favorite Theatrical Experience: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles. I read the book upon which this play is based years ago; in fact, at the time it was our college’s book selection for the entire campus. As familiar as I was with the book’s plot about an autistic teenager’s attempts to discover the murderer of a neighbor’s dog—and this show does follow the novel’s events very faithfully—I could not have imagined how the staging would be so revelatory. In its attempts to recreate for the audience the interior of the lead character’s mind, the show dazzles. Lights, sounds, choreography (even though this is not a musical) all blend into a quite magical several hours of theater.

Favorite Musical Performances: Howard Jones at the Greek Theatre and Gladys Knight at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts. I bought tickets for me, The Boyfriend, and two of our friends to attend the Retro Futuro show at the Greek this summer; it featured a series of acts that gained prominence during the 1980s (a.k.a., my college years): the English Beat (“I Confess”), Modern English (“Melt with You”), Paul Young (“Every Time You Go Away”), Men without Hats (“The Safety Dance”), and Katrina of Katrina and the Waves (“Walking on Sunshine”). However, the highlight was the final performance of the night. Jones played most of the songs that people were familiar with (“What Is Love?” and “No One Is to Blame,” to name just a couple) and a few newer songs. He also put on quite a show with lights and video and electronic music, and it was a spectacular end to a fun day. I never got to see him or the others during their heyday on the music charts, but he perhaps more than the rest truly demonstrated that talent does not necessarily diminish with time. Similarly, I have loved the music of Gladys Knight, with and without the Pips, since I was a child and first heard “Midnight Train to Georgia.” At the age of 73, she has lost none of the vocal power she had in the 1960s and 1970s. The entire evening was a bit of a lovefest between Knight and the audience as she sang hit after hit. She told stories about the backgrounds of some of her biggest hits, and she did some revelatory interpretations of newer songs like “I Hope You Dance” and “Stay with Me.” She and her male backup singer performed a duet of “When I Was Your Man/If I Were Your Woman,” and Knight showed the younger singer how it’s done. It only took me 54 years to get to see her perform live—and I had to go by myself because of The Boyfriend’s work schedule and because of a party most of my friends were attending—but I regret absolutely nothing. A week or so later, I was talking to our head of campus security at work, and I asked him if he hadn’t also been at the show. (I thought I had seen him as everyone was exiting the theater.) He got just as excited as I had been, saying that it was one of the best shows he’d ever attended. High praise indeed, and I readily concurred. 

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The Music...The Mem'ries...The Magic! Streisand at the Staples Center

I have now seen Barbra Streisand perform live four times over the past twenty-two years. I sometimes joke that I always go to all of her farewell tours, but given her age now (74), I cannot be certain that she won’t give up touring at some point. She still seems to enjoy the engagement with the audience, and she always seems to find new ways to interpret and present and contextualize the songs she performs. The audiences show their appreciation loudly and perhaps too often, so she has to be aware of how much beloved she remains. However, I fear that at some point she might decide to retire from public singing and I won’t have seen her one last time before that occurs. So when the chance to purchase tickets for another tour arose, I logged on and purchased as quickly as possible. I can’t say I got the best seats in the house, but given that the top ticket prices could almost rival a month’s rent, I got the best I could afford.

Tuesday night’s performance at the Staples Center was easily the most emotional of her concerts that I have seen (including her triumphant return to touring back in 1994 at what was then known as the Arrowhead Pond). Lots of people will remark on how her voice has lost some of its strength, but I cannot imagine any other 74-year-olds who have the ability to master notes the way that she can. And her selection of material to cover during the evening was unparalleled. She knows her fans are deeply familiar with her catalog, and she continually surprises us with choices that amaze us and resonate with us.

The first half began with the song that everyone now expects her to sing at some point in the show: “The Way We Were.” Not many performers would begin with a song so closely identified with them, but she walked out to raucous cheers and quickly dispensed with it as if to suggest that there were other, just-as-exciting songs to come. And she then followed up with a song from A Star Is Born. No, not “Evergreen”—that came later in a lovely duet with Babyface (Kenny Edmonds). Instead, she sang “Everything,” the song in the film that shows her character’s desire to be a success at every aspect of life. It’s a stunning choice, one I’ve never heard her perform outside of the film, and it was a magnificent choice to set off a series of unexpected “deep cuts.” It also gave her the chance for some self-deprecating humor, revealing that she knows the reputation she has for being a perfectionist. (It didn’t help that someone left out the straw from the cup of tea she always has on stage. That was quickly remedied during intermission. Or else...)

She could easily spend 2½ hours just singing her greatest hits. That would fill more than just one night, and everyone would feel satisfied. However, instead, she mines the archives of the thousands of songs she has recorded and picks ones that fit within the narrative that she constructs for each show. For example, rather than sing “All Is Fair in Love” from the album that had to be retitled Barbra Streisand featuring The Way We Were so as not to confuse the record-buying public, she instead did a fresh take on “Being at War with Each Other” accompanied by images of the violence and protests that have become such a part of our culture. It was a daring restaging of a song about a couple having relationship trouble, and it was a powerful moment.

This tour is ostensibly a tribute to Streisand’s albums that have reached Number One on the charts. She’s done this feat in each of the past six decades, an unparalleled achievement and one not likely to be surpassed any time soon. It’s also a bit of a promotional tour for her upcoming release, Encore, even though she only did two numbers from that album in the second act. The emphasis is truly upon the musical journey on which she has taken us since her start in the early 1960s. So the first act includes such favorites as “Stoney End” and “Woman in Love” and “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers,” which she sings just as beautifully as a solo. She also shared many stories throughout the evening about her career, including one about how a disc jockey in Kentucky spliced together hers and Neil Diamond’s individual performances of the song and made it into a hit record. She also joked about her constant struggles with the record company regarding the cover art for her albums, including one where the bump in that famous nose was airbrushed out of the image and another where she wanted a shot of her facing away from the camera and looking out to the horizon (People). She lost the first battle but won the second. Such are the small gems of her long career that you get to discover when you attend a concert.

For me, the emotional highlight of the first act was her rendition of “Being Alive,” the first of three songs by Stephen Sondheim she would perform. Sung by a man in the theatrical productions of Company, this song gets completely reconceptualized by having it performed by a mature female singer with a history of romances both successful and failed rather than a younger man struggling with his inability to commit to a relationship with one person. It’s a show piece for her, one which she frequently uses in her concerts to demonstrate that she truly is, as she described herself once in the 1960s, “an actress who sings.”

The first act ended with one of her more personal songs, “Papa, Can You Hear Me?” from the movie Yentl. Given her challenges in getting the film made—and her deep affection for the father who passed away when she was such a young girl—the song takes on greater emotional heft each time I hear it. I’m not generally a fan of this song, honestly, and I didn’t particularly enjoy the staging of it during the movie, but I can’t deny the power with which she displays the rawness of the emotions she has when she sings it.

We had a brief intermission during which two friends and I kept gushing about how much we were in awe of her singing and how much we were enjoying the concert. The youngest of us, who is in his early 30s, had never seen her perform live and shared with us that this was the greatest performance he had ever seen. By anyone. Ever. I reminded him that he needed to start going to see people like Streisand. One day, when she has retired, he will be glad that he did.

Act II began with a charming rendition of “Pure Imagination” from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Streisand was joined on stage by Seth McFarlane, who sings the song with her on the new album. It’s a delightful song made all the more charming by having them sing it without irony. Ever the liberal activist, Streisand used the song as an opportunity to speak against climate change and to encourage the audience to dream of saving our world from destruction. McFarlane has a lovely singing voice, and even though he might not be Streisand’s equal in vocal prowess, their duet served as a sweet reminder of how well she can match her partner’s range.

A duet of “Who Can I Turn to?” featuring the video image of Anthony Newley must have taken a lot of careful planning. I’m not sure from where the footage came, but she managed to keep the tempo of the song consistent with Newley’s performance. It’s a shame that she didn’t record more duets during the first half of her career with people like him; their theatricality complements each other’s vocal stylings quite well. At least she’s made up for this by recording a series of duets albums, and she’s included some surprising partners along the way. When Jamie Foxx joined her on “Climb Every Mountain” from The Sound of Music, the crowd erupted. Foxx has a stellar voice, and his prowess clearly challenged Streisand to reach the upper range of her voice. It was stunning to see how these two staggeringly different singers can work so well together.

Streisand revisited two songs from Funny Lady, a film she didn’t want to make but was contractually obligated to do. She selected “Isn’t This Better” and “How Lucky Can You Get?” to represent the movie’s plot, and even if she were a little fuzzy on the details of where “Isn’t This Better?” fits into the film’s plot, the emotional heft of both songs was just as strong last night as it was in the 1975 film. I hope that she decides to revisit some of her other less-favored projects in the future. Perhaps she will address some of these in the autobiography she claims to be writing. That book is sure to right some perceived wrongs from a long career.

For me, the two greatest highlights of the evening occurred during the second half of the show. She took a song that has been performed too many times by too many bad performers and that has been given “definitive” performances by some of the greatest singers of the Broadway stage, “Losing My Mind” from Follies, and managed to draw out the most powerful emotional response of the night. I was in tears throughout most of the song. I know others, including dear, close friends of mine, who would argue that others have sung the song better, but I think anyone who puts her version of this song against the others would be hard pressed to disagree that she managed to show greater depth and clarity in the lines about the impact of lost and unrequited love. It was a show-stopper, and I didn’t know how she would top it.

She came mighty close with another song from A Star Is Born, “With One More Look at You.” In the film, the song encapsulates Esther’s emotions over the loss of her husband, John Norman Howard (played by Kris Kristofferson) and caps the film (paired with “Watch Closely Now”) in a powerful way. The video behind her performance on Tuesday showed the arc of the characters’ relationship throughout the film. However, even without the accompanying images, Streisand’s selection of this song was a powerful gift to those who have seen every movie and listened to every song and watched every television special. She picked a song that would truly reach those fans who could instantly recognize and engage with the emotions she brings to it.

The show ended with a powerful grouping of songs designed to showcase how well Streisand can sing despite all of the harping from her detractors. I agree (and have said before) that her voice is huskier and perhaps even raspier than in the past, but after listening to the latest rendition of “Children Will Listen,” the third and final Sondheim song of the night, I would still rather hear Streisand than almost anyone who populates the radio airwaves these days. Arguably her greatest song, “People” has managed to change with each performance and her understanding of it has certainly deepened. She told the audience that she initially questioned if people who didn’t need people weren’t actually the luckiest people in the world. You can see her point—and that must have taken some strong will for a teenager to question Jules Styne over a lyric—but her rendition last night shows that she gets it now. The last song of the night, “Happy Days Are Here Again,” is one that she’s been singing for more than fifty years, but in this charged political environment, her choice of it to end her show reveals the depth of her commitment to the Demoncratic Party and its principles. You have to admire the consistency with which she has used both her music and her status as an entertainer to champion the causes in which she believes.

The applause at the end of the night was so strong that she had to return several times to take bows. She didn’t add any encores, but even without additional songs, the audience was reluctant to leave even when the lights came on. Some of them had been quite vocal during the evening, shouting at rather inopportune times. I think they get to see her so rarely and just love her so much that they cannot help themselves. When a beloved star like Streisand goes on tour these days, the crowds still show up. She might not sell as many records as the twentysomethings who dominate music nowadays, but the appreciation for what she has achieved and what she still represents is ever present at one of her performances.

It took almost two more hours for my friends and I to recover from the show. We walked around downtown Los Angeles (DTLA, as it’s called now) and had drinks at a couple of bars, neither of which I’d ever seen before, Bar Mattachine and Precinct. There was a lot of going over of the highlights. There were a few criticisms here and there—I personally could have done without the “mentalist,” Lior Suchard, whose act ground the first half of the show to a halt—and a few reconsiderations of earlier criticisms. I have no doubt that such conversations were taking place all over the city by those who attended and those who wished they had attended. It was a magical night, one which I will not soon forget. 

Poem in Your Pocket Day 2016

Each year, as a part of National Poetry Month (April), I celebrate Poem in Your Pocket Day. It's really as simple as it sounds. You fold up a piece of paper with a poem on it and stick it in your pocket. When you have a chance to share the poem with someone, you take it out of your pocket and read it.

This year's selection is Christopher Bursk's "Why Latin Should Still Be Taught in High School."

Because one day I grew so bored

with Lucretius, I fell in love

with the one object that seemed to be stationary,

the sleeping kid two rows up,

the appealing squalor of his drooping socks.

While the author of De Rerum Natura was making fun

of those who fear the steep way and lose the truth,

I was studying the unruly hairs on Peter Diamond’s right leg.

Titus Lucretius Caro labored, dactyl by dactyl

to convince our Latin IV class of the atomic

composition of smoke and dew,

and I tried to make sense of a boy’s ankles,

the calves’ inquiring

resiliency, the integrity to the shank,

the solid geometry of my classmate’s body.

Light falling through blinds,

a bee flinging itself into a flower,

a seemingly infinite set of texts

to translate and now this particular configuration of atoms

who was given a name at birth,

Peter Diamond, and sat two rows in front of me,

his long arms, his legs like Lucretius’s hexameters

seemed to go on forever, all this hurly-burly

of matter that had the goodness to settle

long enough to make a body

so fascinating it got me

through fifty-five minutes

of the nature of things.