VH1 Behind The Music: The Black Crowes

     This episode of Behind The Music happened in the 2nd season and was filmed in 1999. As has plagued their early relationship in the band, Chris and Rich Robinson are at each other's throats, and are famously 'not filmed together' during the episode. Chris and Rich fought about everything. Their wonderfully famous first album Shake Your Money Maker, the brothers Robinson are going to pick up their manager at the airport in Atlanta. Rich Robinson is driving and saying, "I'm going I75 to the airport." Chris is saying, "What are you talking about? Why not take Peachtree?" On the way back it's the same thing. "You don't know what you're talking about!" "Well, you don't know where you're going!" 

    According to their Mom, Chris came out of the womb in Marietta, Georgia in 1966, dancing,  and hasn't stopped since! Rich, who is three years younger and normally thought of as being quieter and introspective, was actually known for being more disruptive in school. Rich was correcting his teacher's grammar and being antagonistic in school and getting sent home. However, both Rich and Chris were asked to leave school at different times. However, in 1983 for Christmas as Chris is turning 17, Mom and Dad Robinson decide to get Chris a bass guitar and Rich a regular guitar and what has famously been called "The Black Christmas" began. Noise pollution and anarchy reigned in the Robinson household. They sounded awful. But Rich did have some talent in learning the guitar and Chris had an extremely soulful, mournful voice and their cousin got a drum set the same Christmas. They called themselves Mr. Crowes Garden after a childhood nursery rhyme. For their first gig, they were paid by check. Chris and Rich gave the check to mom to put it in the bank for them and it bounced. Mrs. Robinson went on the warpath to the gig promoter and got their money back. Then in New York while performing a gig, record producer George Drakoulias heard them and saw the potential despite the flat sound. He started to work with them and record company Def American president Rick Rubin wanted them to change their name to Kob Kounty Krowes, emphasizing the KKK, Chris and Rich were incensed. The name change never happened however, band member Steve Gorman has said that he did have to do two loads of Rick Rubin's laundry and wax his car because The Black Crowes were not contract members of Rick Rubin's record company yet. And it's hard to find out there, but the first million records of Shake Your Money Maker does not have Rick Rubin as Executive Producer on it, or anyone else for that matter. If you find a copy like that, it was paid for with two loads of laundry and a wax job for Rick Rubin's car.  

   After Shake Your Money Maker, the brothers Robinson are now wildly famous. They have money that they never had before and did what they wanted with it. Chris got involved with the drug scene and over indulged. During the production of their following albums,  The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion and Amorica, Chris overindulged to excess. Rich Robinson, the rarely seen or heard younger brother, became increasingly annoyed with Chris's behavior which was enhanced by his drug taking. It eventually got to the point during their last tour that Rich refused to ride in the same tour bus with his brother Chris. 

    There have been several 'small' break-ups of the band.  But in January of 2015 Rich Robinson announced the final break up of the band due to too many disagreements with Chris. 

    In 2019, on The Howard Stern Show, Chris and Rich admitted during an interview that they had resolved their differences and were planning to tour again in 2020. However COVID breakout made this impossible. The tour resumed in 2021 and 2022.  

What's Love Got To Do With It (1993)

 

     In celebration of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, I thought I'd review  What's Love Got To Do With It? from 1993. I remember watching this film with my Mom and sisters. This was right around the time when compact discs became popular and Private Dancer by Tina Turner,  her first solitary album,   was one of the first compact discs my family owned.  I,Tina  is Tina's autobiography that she co wrote with Rolling Stone & MTV's Kurt Loder which is where the movie came out of and is based on. 

     Anna Mae Bullock was raised in Nutbush Tennessee in the early 1950's and BECAME Tina Turner in 1960 at the behest of her boyfriend and bandleader of the Kings of Rhythm, Ike Turner. They recorded a song together, A Fool in Love, and Ike thought it was appropriate for he and her to have the same name. Anna Mae was barely out of high school. But he was very nice to her in the beginning, he bought her lots of clothes, told her that she can sing good, gave her a place to stay, took her to the dentist and doctor when she needed it. That's a lot  for a girl that grows up poor in rural Tennessee! So they got married in Tijuana. And the Ike and Tina Turner Revue was a huge success, and the song was a hit. They have a child together, and they were also raising two of Ike's children from a previous girlfriend. 

      And while using advance money from the record company to build a recording studio at home, Tina confesses to Ike that Ike's music all sounds the same. And he beats her shamelessly in front of their now 4 small sons. In 1966, Tina's impressively strong vocals get noticed by Phil Spector and he asks to record a song with her. River Deep-Mountain High was the song and following that, Ike and Tina re recorded Creedence Clearwater Revival's Proud Mary at Tina's suggestion. Ike didn't really want it. However, because Tina is now becoming the star of the show, he accepts her suggestion.  And because of their rendition of the song and opening for The Rolling Stones in London, Ike and Tina become an international sensation. The attraction the world now has for Tina Turner and not Ike is now perfectly clear and this causes tension at home as Ike has now moved on to an expensive drug habit of cocaine. 

 

 

    They record Nutbush City Limits in 1973 which Tina has written and Ike violently rapes and beats Tina. The increase of the number of beatings and the severity causes Tina to overdose on sleeping pills. While in the hospital, a former back up singer of Ike's inspires her to become Buddhist. And Tina regains newfound strength. But this strength is noticed by Ike and the beatings continue. However, Tina for the first time is starting to show resistance and annoyance openly toward Ike. And on the way to a show in Dallas, they get into an all out back and forth fist fight with Tina actually throwing punches back at Ike! When they arrive at the hotel, Ike goes to sleep on the couch and Tina runs for her life out the door of the expensive hotel to across the street to a lesser expensive Ramada Inn and announces to the manager of the hotel "Hello I'm Tina Turner. Ive just been in a fight with my husband. I have 35 cents and a Mobile gas card. But if you would give me a room, i swear I'll pay you back. " And furiously starts taking off her rings to give them to the manager for payment. He gives them back to her and says, "Mrs Turner, Id be honored to give you a room."  

    In 1976, this event started her life without Ike Turner. She is still as good as she ever was on stage. And she gets a record deal with Roger Davies. And in 1984, she turns out Private Dancer, which has the hit song What's Love Got to do With It on it. 

  

      Private Dancer, Tina's first solo album, sold over 12 million copies and won four Grammy Awards in 1985. It is considered her best selling and most popular album. 

Rocketman 2019

         Well, I haven't been back here for a while. And I've been going thru a lousy time emotionally and I sure could use a pick-me-up! Elton John's Rocketman seems to fit the bill. 

       I've always enjoyed Elton John ever since my mom gave me her cassette tape entitled Elton John's Greatest Hits Volume I & II. It had every great tune of Elton's from Your Song to Nikita.  Along with Billy Joel, they are both my favorite artists when it comes to 'killing me softly with his song'. Elton is emotionally personable with his music and at other times he's flashy and very sassy and a lot of fun. 

     From the outset of this film, which Elton had been trying to get made for twenty years, you can tell he's trying to bring back the musical. Like from the great era of musicals, the 1950's and 60's. It becomes clear to us that the man we have come to know as Elton Hercules John, who was born Reginald Dwight, has always thought his life would be best told in a musical. 

     The film starts out with Elton in a truly ridiculous stage costume dressed as a devil in bright orange and red. The story is that he was in New York , and even though he always made piles of money and sold out stadiums, he was unhappy and strung out on drugs. Its a community rehab meeting and he starts talking about his life and the substances he's addicted to and how he first became turned on to music as a little boy. Elton has a lot of great tunes but he bursts through the rehab meeting room doors to the street he grew up on in England to "The Bitch is Back". I knew it was going to be a great film. Possibly even better than Bohemian Rhapsody. 

      By the time he talks in rehab about admitting to his mother about being homosexual in which she tells him he'll never be loved properly, Elton, played awesomely by Taron Edgerton, has taken of his devil costume and he's in a robe. In other words, its Elton stripped of his masks and what he uses to cover his shame. 

       Elton tells us at the end of his film how he's retired now from performing, making records, and touring to raise his children. And while I think he deserves it and has certainly worked hard enough for it, I don't really believe it. A world class performer like Elton, the world doesn't let him just go away. Like Frank Sinatra, the world won't let him really retire.  

Guilty by Relation pt. 11

     "Welcome back" said the therapist. "Its been a while." 

    "Yes, well I have had a lot going on. I was considering divorcing my husband and am still considering it." 

    "I am sorry to hear it. I know it's difficult whether you're the one instigating it or not. I've been thru a divorce myself. Why have you not gone thru with it?"

    "He was unemployed for a while, which was leading to a lot of other problems as well, financial, mental and emotional. I was encouraged to seek family counseling with my daughter and husband and we have. Its still ongoing. I was amazed that he actually went. He also agreed to marriage counseling. We've had one appointment with that. I am keeping the filing of the divorce papers on hold for this reason. I've also thought for a very long time that my husband needs individual counseling to deal with the residual feelings of his problematic childhood when he was 5 or 6 and there maybe some other natural mental issues unrelated to his childhood going on. He said he would try and I gave him the phone number but I haven't heard anything about that since. I told him this individual counseling for him is a deal breaker for me. So I  am still skeptical."

    "Wow, you have had a lot going on. As long as you're still keeping up with your writing. It'll help to get everything out."

    "I know. And it does help. But so does meeting and talking with you. Let's keep doing this."

\    "Absolutely." said the therapist.  

The Quick and the Dead 1995

    In honor of Mr. Gene Hackman passing away recently, I thought I'd review one of my favorites where he plays the bad guy. It didn't have great reviews at the time of its release. But it has gained some praise in later years. The first film I ever saw withe Gene Hackman in it was Superman where he played a lovable version of Lex Luthor. In this film he plays the villain John Herod properly, a man the audience is supposed to hate. 

         I enjoy the parallels in this film to Christianity; John Herod, and a town named Redemption. Sharon Stone plays a female gunslinger riding into an Arizona town called Redemption, which is run by a man that used to be a ruthless outlaw and is more or less trying to retire. Herod is holding a quick draw contest and Sharon's character that is only known as "The Lady" wants to join.  

     As audience members, we can sense that The Lady has some kind of history with the cocky Herod. In flashbacks, we find out that her father was the town sheriff of Redemption and Herod and gang killed him with his little girl who is named Ellen and is now "The Lady" all grown up, watching. A former member of Herod's gang is Cort, now a preacher from a nearby town who is said to be extremely good at shooting, is played very well by Russell Crowe. 

    Sharon was fresh off the success of Basic Instinct when she signed on as co-producer and to play the lead role. Sony, as the production company, was hesitant about Crowe and a young, inexperienced Leonardo DiCaprio to play "The Kid" a cocky, young gunslinger that is supposed to be Herod's unclaimed son. But Stone was confident in the choices and even agreed to pay for DiCaprio's salary.   

Bombshell 2019

                 I enjoyed this idea of this film the moment I heard about it. Bombshell from 2019 is about the true story of the scandal that erupted in 2016 concerning FOX News CEO Roger Ailes and the women that accused him of sexual harassment, one of whom is popular anchorwoman and lawyer Megyn Kelly. 

                The film starts out as a tour and introduction with the character of Megyn Kelly played by Charlize Theron taking us through the New York offices of FOX News and explaining about "The Second Floor" being Roger Ailes' office and "The Eighth Floor" belonging to FOX News owner Rupert Murdoch and his sons, who ultimately have power over even Roger. 

                Almost better than the film, Megyn Kelly herself presented a 30 minute discussion response on her podcast with some of the people represented in the film like Rudi Bakhtiar and Juliet Huddy who also experienced sexual harassment from others at FOX News at the same time.

                Largely, this is Megyn Kelly's story. However, Gretchen Carlson, played in the film by Nicole Kidman, was the one who initially start suing Roger, as it was explained that she couldn't sue FOX News as written in her contract.

                Margot Robbie plays Kayla Pospisil, a mostly fictional character that is a basically young attractive female up-and-comer ambitious starlet that puts herself in Roger Ailes' den to try to get an anchor job at FOX News.  

                On Megyn's show after watching the film, a panel of other female ex-FOX employees and Megyn's husband weigh in on the facts and fiction of the film after watching the film together. Mostly, the response was good, and seen to be truthful. Obviously, a few liberties were taken. But not enough to take away from the main story points of the film. 

                My favorite part of the film deals with how Gretchen Carlson's lawsuit comes to a conclusion. While Roger Ailes denies all of Grechen's claims, it is revealed that she recorded her conversations with Roger to back up her quotes in the lawsuit and to undermine Ailes' credibility when he denies the claims. As such, Roger Ailes settles Carlson's lawsuit for $20 million as well as being fired by Rupert Murdoch. FOX has to pay the victims of the sexual harassment suit $50 million. HOWEVER, FOX pays both Roger Ailes and Bill O'Reilly $65 million in severance. Was it worth it? Was justice served?

 

The Irishman 2019 (Netflix)

 The 2019 film 'The Irishman' is based on a book by Charles Brandt,Frank 'The Irishman' Sheeran 's lawyer.  It is basically a death bed confession of the killing of his best friend and employer, Jimmy Hoffa. 

The film starts out with Frank Sheeran (Robert DeNiro) in a nursing home recalling how he met mobster Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci) on the side of the road and offered to help him fix his truck. Not long after that, he started working for the Philadelphia crime family led by Angelo Bruno (Harvey Keitel) working as a hitman. Frank gets a respectful reputation at his job for painting houses, a euphemism for contract killing, as well as doing his own carpentry, or clean-up after the job is done. 

Sheeran is soon introduced to Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino) who has financial ties to Bufalino's crime family in Philadelphia. Hoffa is already president of The Teamsters and is having problems with the government and other Detroit Italian mobsters that are Teamsters like 'Tony Pro' Provenzano. So Frank goes to Detroit to become Jimmy Hoffa's bodyguard. 

So Jimmy and Frank become good friends and their families become good friends as well. 

There are other famous mob-linked happenings that Frank talks about that he was privy too, like personally pulling the trigger on 'Crazy Joe' Gallo in front of Umberto's Clam House in New York and personally running guns to Howard Hunt in Florida a few weeks before President Kennedy was shot. 

Most of this film is shot while Sheeran and Bufalino are driving from Philadelphia to Detroit for Bill Bufalino daughter's wedding in late July of 1975, which took three days.  During this time, Russell is having Frank call Jimmy Hoffa to try to convince him to talk to Tony Pro about not running for Teamster President. Jimmy didn't want to talk to Tony Pro because Tony Pro wanted money back from the Teamster pension fund that Tony felt was his. Jimmy said he wasn't getting the money. The argument goes back and forth until Jimmy points his finger at Tony and says 'You people. . . ' Tony takes great offense to that because Jimmy has no Italian heritage and Tony does. And he feels Jimmy was trying to belittle the Italian mob. 

Russell and Frank finally convince Jimmy to talk to Tony Provenzano. Only Jimmy isn't really agreeing to a meeting with Tony. Frank now has to fly up to Detroit by himself  and get in a car and pick up some other mob guys from Detroit and go and get Jimmy who's been waiting at Machus Red Fox Restaurant in Bloomfield Hills almost an hour. Pick Jimmy up and take him to a house nearby for the meeting. Frank follows Jimmy into the empty house and shoots him in the back of the head. 

I enjoy the film as an important part of Detroit history. Everybody in Detroit has a running joke on where Jimmy Hoffa is buried. "Yeah, I got Jimmy Hoffa buried underneath the front porch . . ." And then the FBI shows up. Giants Stadium in New Jersey, 50 gallon drums, you name it, its been said. 

A couple of reliable sources has said that Frank Sheeran's confession to killing Jimmy isn't true. Like Michael Franzese the former New York mobster and the gangster researcher from Detroit Al Profit.  I happen to believe Frank Sheeran's story. Why? 'The Irishman' came out in 2019. The book I heard you paint houses came out in 2004. Nobody started talking about whether it was true or not until the movie came out. Where were their opinions in 2004?

Spencer Confidential 2020 (Netflix)

My next review comes from a four year old film Spencer Confidential. I happen to think that ever since the 1990's, whatever Mark Wahlberg touches seems to turn to gold. That's not because I am a woman, because he's married and I'm married and he has more kids than I have fingers and toes.  I call it an acting crush. I enjoy the stories he tells and how he does it. Maybe its because he placed this film in his beloved Boston, or maybe its because this is a remake of the '80's TV show Spencer For Hire.  

    Spencer, played by Mark Wahlberg, is an ex-cop that gets incarcerated for assaulting his supervising officer Captain Boylan. Being put in general population as a former police officer made him very popular.  

     Spencer gets out of prison on the very day that Captain Boylan is killed and is questioned about it. Spencer isn't arrested for the murder but another cop that Spencer remembers as being a a good, honest cop is murdered and is identified as being Boylan's killer. Spencer is suspicious and talks to officer Graham's widow. 

    The people helping Spencer are his friend Henry Cimoli (Alan Arkin), new roomate Hawk (Winston Duke), and ex-girlfriend Cissy(Iliza Shliesinger). Working against Spencer is his former partner Driscol(Bokeem Woodbine) and former cellmate Squeeb (Post Malone). 

     Spencer finds out that the killings are a cover -up for a police drug smuggling operation being used to fund a casino at a former dog racing  track called Wonderland.  And its being led by his former partner Driscol. 

      

 There's a lot of fist fighting and a lot of language. Naturally, because its Boston. But its still good fun and a good action film for those who like that type of stuff. 

 

      

Guilty by Relation pt. 10

Herbert B. More's email to the patient's therapist

 

" Thank you for getting in touch with me regarding your patient. Indeed I have seen her professionally as a patient before though it was many years ago. Most of what I know of her family background and history is confidential as you well know, though I'm sure you know most of it already from talking to her. I will break with tradition to tell you a small, short tale from her time with me.

It concerns the one time I decided to have a 'family counseling session' with your patient, her mother and father and of course myself. 

She started talking about some family incident which now escapes me and most likely has no bearing on the outcome here. The father then interrupts, 'YOU SEE, THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I WAS AFRAID OF! SHE IS SETTING ME UP AS THE BAD GUY! SHE IS MANIPULATING THE SITUATION TO MAKE ME THE BAD GUY! SHE HAS YOU WRAPPED AROUND YOUR FINGER! WELL, I'M NOT GOING TO SIT AROUND FOR THIS!

And he walked out. The mother followed quietly with the patient not saying a word more.  

Our sessions ended not too much longer after that. I only tell you these things out of caution for you in dealing with the man." 

 

9 to 5 1980

 I remember the first time I watched this film in a film appreciation class in probably 1993 when I  was going to community college.  Then I saw it again a few years later when I transferred up state to a university for a Social Work class as a successful example of a corporation in America. 

The idea of the film came from Jane Fonda who portrays Judy Bernly. An old friend of hers started a business in Boston made up of women office workers called '9 to 5' .Fonda did a lot of research for the film once it was green lit. She focused her research on women who had begun to work late in life due to divorce or being widowed. She worked closely with the screenwriter/ director eventually coming to the conclusion that a script needed to be written that shows 'you can run an office without a boss, but you can't run an office without secretaries!' 

My favorite scene in the film came after the hospital visit and focuses mainly on Lily Tomlin's character Violet Newstead. they've just noticed that the body they stole from the hospital wasn't their boss Franklin Hart. They've just come up with a new idea to get rid of the body when a motorcycle cop tries to to pull them over. When the cop pulls them over, they are extremely nervous and Violet is still wearing the white hospital coat. She manages to talk her way out of allowing the cop to look in the trunk by speeding off to the hospital convincing the cop that the Doralee and Judy are poisioned.

 

Some interesting things I found out about this film while writing. The Consolidated offices were located at the corner of West 6th Street and South Flower Street in downtown Los Angeles. However, the opening sequence with Parton's tune 9 to5 was filmed in downtown San Francisco, including the famous Market Street clock. Dolly Parton eventually came up with the beat of the tune by the clicking of her lovely long acrylic nails together on the typewriter as she was working on set. Because the movie had a late December start date, it missed being nominated for most of the awards shows.  However, Dolly cashed in big in 1981 and 1982's Grammy's which won Country Song of the Year and Female Country Vocal of the Year. 

Erin Brockovich 2000

This is truly one of my favorite films with Julia Roberts. Probably because she isn't playing her normal 'sweetheart' of a character. Its what made her a great actress and won herself the Oscar for the biographical true story of the single mother turned legal clerk Erin Brockovich. 

 Erin Brockovich is an out of work, single mother in her thirties that gets in a car accident on the way home from a job interview. She decides to sue the man that hit her and her lawyer, Ed Masry expects to win. Erin's emotional outburst in court looses the case. She continues to try and look for a job and Ed Masry stops taking her calls. Then we come to one of my favorite scenes in which she just shows up at her lawyers office and convinces Ed Masry to hire her as a law clerk.

 

 He gives her a new case to start a file on and she reads it and has trouble understanding it so she goes and contacts the plaintiff directly to ask why there are medical bills in a real estate pro bono case. She finds out the local gas & electric company paid for the doctor's  bills. Which is very generous of them considering the wife has been getting noncancerous tumors and her husband has Hodgkin's lymphoma. Why would they pay, wonders Erin. "Because of the chromium" says Mrs. Jensen. So Erin starts learning all she can about chromium. She speaks to a toxicologist at a college and he tells her there are different types of chromium. But the most dangerous in hexavalent chromium which is carcinogenic. It is used by utility companies to clean the pistons.  Erin starts wondering if this is what is making the Jensen's sick. As she continues to do research, more neighbors of the Jensens start coming to Erin to tell them about how they've been sick too. With the combined gas and electric company in town that only offered to buy their houses initially while paying for their doctor visits while they consider their offer, the sick neighbors of the Jensens start piling up and it looks like it could turn into a major class action law suit. Ed Masry starts looking to other law firms to help with the cost of the law suit. But the small town neighborhood doesn't like the stuffy, flashy people that come walking in to talk to them. They like Erin because she understands them because she knows what its like to be down on your luck. 

With as many plaintiffs that are involved it the lawsuit, the new lawyer decides that they best way to get all these people the money they need quickly, a binding arbitration is the fastest way to get them the most money quickly. This is in which the judge takes the case from the jury's hands and gives a final judgement in which there is no overturning. It requires an agreement that must be made among most if not all of the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs of the town of Hinkley are still leery of the new lawyers so Ed and Erin have to sell the entire town on the idea of the binding arbitration. They get most of the signatures they need in one night after a town hall meeting on the lawsuit. They have to go door-to-door to get the rest. At this time Erin meets Charles Embry who used to work at the gas and electric company with his cousin. The company asked him to shred a bunch of documents. "But as it turns out, I wasn't a very good employee." says Embry and produces a document that shows that the groundwater has been contaminated since 1966 and the corporate office in San Francisco was aware of it. 

Pacific Gas & Electric ended up paying a settlement amount of $333 million dollars to the townspeople of Hinkley, California in 1996.