Gold (Jefferson Starship album) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
It helps to be somewhat hard of hearing when you go to a Jefferson Starship concert. If you’re not, don’t worry, you will be for the next one. I really can’t remember the last time I was at a real rock concert…ok yes I can. Last one was about 2004 when I saw Courtney Love in San Francisco and that only counts as half an attendance because I was seated in the reserved balcony seats (relegated to those special friends of a band member) and so the din was more or less concentrated on the mosh pit people. The time before that was about 1990 when I went to a Neil Young concert (don’t ask).
Last night we had tickets to see Tommy James and the Shondels and the warm-up act was supposed to be The Young Rascals. Ok fitting enough for an aging bunch of baby boomers. Well about a week ago, an email went out explaining how the Rascals road trip was taking a detour and Jefferson Starship would be replacing them AND if we wanted out money back we could have it. I really didn’t want to exchange the tickets or return them; The pickin’s were slim enough this year for us.
So far we’ve been to The Raise the Roof benefit concert and The Lettermen, who were just great. Saturday night and the auditorium was pretty full. Out comes a short stocky gray-haired man, a lanky blonde wearing black and white spandex tights similar to a court jester and then a youngish bald-headed guitarist and another aging-hippie type gray-haired guitarist with a bandana around his head. So that’s what a rock group of the early 70’s looks like 40 plus years later!
Jefferson Starship was/is a rock band formed in the early 1970’s by several members of the psychedelic rock band, Jefferson Airplane. I think some of them were still on an acid trip. And for sure the guy sitting behind was definitely pharmaceutically happy. It was a most unpleasant experience! The music was loud and that’s an understatement. The guy behind us was just as loud trying to carry on a conversation with a person two seats away. I didn’t understand ONE WORD they sang.
And added to my general dismay over the music, I wasn’t feeling well either. The night before, I felt a raspy throat and told Peter I was sure I was coming down with something. By Saturday night, I was sucking on hard candy and Hall’s trying not to cough during the concert. Not that anyone could have possibly heard my coughing anyway. Well I did get sick and am still in the throes of a sinus infection post bronchitis. Why do I mention this? This blog was started July 23rd and here we are at August 2nd and I haven’t had the energy to finish this post or write another. I hope to be on the mend soon and back to writing blog posts on a more regular basis.
Bill Ding and his band of clowns are the security patrol for this blog site. He is a favorite toy from the 50*s. By the way sometimes a blog is just an ego-maniacal stream of conscience.
Pbenjay's Blog 
THE BUTLER – Swallow Hard-The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Posted in From My Point of View - Personal commentary on Movies and Books, tagged Academy Award, Barack Obama, Forest Whitaker, Gene Allen, Jane Fonda, Lee Daniel, Oprah Winfrey, Ronald Reagan, Washington Post on September 12, 2013| Leave a Comment »
When I found myself tearing up in the first scene, I knew the next two hours were going to be very long. I had a lump in my throat through out the entire movie and even those scenes that had the tears slowly rolling down my face did little to relieve that tight feeling in my throat
Lee Daniels‘ The Butler is “gut-wrenching and emotionally affecting” – that is the consensus from the web site, Rotten Tomatoes. Loosely based and inspired by A Butler Well-Served By This Election,, an article written by Wil Haygood for the Washington Post.
Here’s the GOOD: Oprah Winfrey gave a fine performance as the likable, edgy and often boozy wife and will probably receive an Oscar nomination. Forrest Whitaker in the starring role of Cecil Gaines is also an Oscar contender. When he looked at the camera and gave us the blank hear nothing, see nothing, say nothing and just serve look, you could never imagine him as the powerful and mad Idi Amin. The sight of the uber-liberal Jane Fonda decked out in Nancy Reagen-red had the audience laughing out loud. The casting of the “Presidents” was interesting; Robin Williams didn’t quite embody Eisenhower, Liev Schreiber isn’t tall enough to be Johnson and his Texan accent was questionable but I sure did enjoy his lines. James Marsden sounded more like Kennedy but was also short of stature and John Cusack was quite brilliant in his sinister shifty-eyed Nixon.
The BAD: The movie is NOT based on a true story. The real-life butler, Gene Allen, did not see his father murdered or his mother raped. He had only one son who served honorably in Vietnam and was not a Black Panther or involved in politics. Allen was born on a plantation in Virginia not in Georgia.
Forest Whitaker (Photo credit: Stephen Poff)
There has been considerable criticism regarding the movie’s portrayal of Ronald Reagan, particularly his position on apartheid in South Africa. There was no reference to the circumstances surrounding his non-action which had to do with the political climate of the day and the specter of yet another country falling to Communism.
If you are “of a certain age” as I am, then the chronological series of historical events was a trip down memory lane. The “events” marked the 34 years Gene Allen served eight Presidents. Unfortunately, we view these historical moments in Gumpian fashion through the eyes of a morally challenged hero rather than the mentally challenged Forrest.
THE UGLY; What was really ugly in this film? Racism is ugly, poverty is ugly, hunger is ugly, classicism is ugly. The true events were ugly because they really happened. Freedom Riders were killed, protestors were beaten and hosed down. College kids who sat in at the Woolworth’s counter were harassed, spit on and knocked down. That in my lifetime, there were still signs that said WHITE and COLORED is really ugly! Yes the truth is that the Ugly parts of this movie were all the true parts.
But that was then and this is now, and Barrack Hussein Obama is our President, who would have believed it?
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