Check out those fly goggles.

The third finger is for his homies.

I miss Charles Barkley.

Most Underrated

Musical group:  The  Band

They were the group that electrified Dylan.  Then they struck out on their own and created gems like “Music From Big Pink” and their eponymous album, “The Band”.  Eric Clapton once said that theirs was the music he wanted to play.  They had 3 amazing lead singers, all of whom played their instruments incredibly well.  Martin Scorcese filmed their last show and made “The Last Waltz”.  (The concert included guests such as Clapton, Dylan, Muddy Waters, The Staples Singers, etc.)  So, what gives?  How come most people born after 1980 have no idea who they are?  Why are they never played on classic rock stations?  This one remains a real mystery to me.

Sport:  Hockey 

It’s got all sorts of things Americans love: violence, speed, some strategy.  My guess is that

a) it’s a sport that most kids don’t play because of climate and expensive equipment

b) it has rules that loosely resemble soccer (offsides, shoot-outs, etc)

c) it’s played indoors.  I realize that basketball is too, but pro and college basketball both trail football and baseball in popularity (even though Americans love it).  We like our sports played outdoors.

Actor (living): Gene Wilder

At first you may say, whoa, that’s a little out of left-field.  But think about it.  He could hold his own next to Richard Pryor, he could sing and dance and be creepy in “Willy Wonka” and was perfect in “Young Frankenstein”.  I feel that he didn’t get his fair shake.  I’ve always thought he could have been great in some serious dramas.

Actor (deceased): Ray Milland

If you’ve ever seen “The Lost Weekend”, you will know what I am talking about.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen a better portrayal of an alcoholic.

TV shows:

- Get A Life

Only on for one season, but Chris Elliot really put out a masterpiece.  Some people don’t see the genius, but I challenge anyone to think of a better premise for a plot than a 30 year old paperboy living with his parents.  Handsome Boy Modeling School, indeed.

- Martin

Does no one else recognize the impact of Martin?  Before that show came on the air, the only “black” TV shows that Americans knew were ones like “The Cosby Show” and “Benson”.  ”Martin” totally took everything to a whole new level.  It was ground-breaking.  And it was damn funny.

Comedian:  Bob Newhart

The man was an accountant before he turned to comedy.  His telephone routines are hilarious.  He had two extremely successful TV shows and continues to do shows on the road into his 80′s.  Certainly he has had plenty of success, but he doesn’t get the recognition he deserves.  Whenever I hear people talk about influences in comedy, they very rarely mention Newhart.  The guy perfected the role of straight man and actually managed to make it funny.  But then again, maybe the whole straight man routine died out.  If it has, then that is a shame.

Noir movie:  Double Indemnity

“The Maltese Falcon” and “The Big Sleep” get a lot of fanfare (and deservedly so) but for my money, I think “Double Indemnity” is the best.  There’s that scene where Barbara Stanwyck is sitting down and she and Fred MacMurray (a close runner-up for underrated dead actor) are discussing the crime, and the light filtering in through the blinds looks like prison bars across her face.  Excellent.

Teen movie:  Dazed and Confused

We all knew a Wooderson in school.  We all drank beer and cruised around and hung out at places like the Moon Tower.  What makes D&C a great teen movie are the interactions between the seniors and freshmen-to-be.  I think it shows the randomness of the events and interactions that shape your time in high school.

There’s more stuff, but I think I’ll stop here for now.  The list could really go on and on.  Maybe this will become a semi-regular series.  Just fighting injustice one post at a time, and all that jazz.

Remember that scene at the end of Ghostbusters II where Egon, Venkman and the crew use ecto-goo to power the Statue of Liberty?  By that point they’ve figured out that the goo is moved either by negative or positive emotions and so they make a music choice that is sure to inspire the most positive of reactions from New Yorkers.  What do they choose?  Jackie Wilson’s “Higher and Higher”.

All of this is to say that soul music, like that of Jackie Wilson, Bill Withers and Otis Redding, is incredibly moving.  It’s great BBQ and Sunday morning music.  I figured that even the most hardened of humans could be carried away by it.  Apparently not.  I have a friend who is a great person.  He’s smart, talented, funny, with pretty good taste in a lot of things.  He is also a huge heavy metal fan, as only someone who spent their adolescence in the 1980′s can be.  Fine.  Excellent.  So not too long ago we got on the subject of soul music and he flat out declared that he didn’t like it.  At all.  Now, I realize that metal and soul are quite different, but he went on to say that it didn’t have any sort of emotional effect on him.  At this point I suspect replicant and would like to subject him to the Voight-Kampff machine.

I have other friends who make similar sweeping statements about music genres.  ”I hate country.”  ”I just can’t get into hip hop.”  ”I don’t really like music before 1981.”  That last one is bullshit because they later admitted to liking Television (and Otis Redding).  But I don’t think that it would be impossible for these folks to find a single song to like in those genres.  Even my Dad, not the biggest hip hop fan in the world, likes RZA’s work on the Ghost Dog soundtrack.

I guess the point of this post is to say, always try to find the exception.  I’ve always said that no one should call San Francisco, “Frisco”.  This is something that San Franciscans really feel.

Don't Do It

The exception, of course, is that Otis Redding can forever call it “the Frisco bay”.

I was reading a short piece in The New Yorker this week about City Island (off of The Bronx) when I got to this description of Hart Island, to the south.  

“Hart Island [...] currently contains a vast city-owned cemetery, a potter’s field, which is used for the internment of still-born infants, unclaimed and indigent people of all ages, and amputated limbs.  [...]  The burials are conducted by prisoners from Rikers Island.”  

I am reminded of the strange tasks that befell the occupants of the London workhouses and the market for goods that now seem more than slightly bizarre (bones and feces come to mind).  Whereas now amputated limbs are buried in a potter’s field (people don’t find it odd that part of them is in a pit with other people’s parts?) there might have been a market for them in the past, maybe with medical students.

I had a friend in college who worked at the infirmary at Rikers Island alongside her mother, like the Chiverys of Little Dorrit.  I asked her once what it was like, working in a prison, and I remember she just shrugged and said that it was O.K.  And that was that.  A job like any other, integrated into the life of the city.

The islands of New York City seem to be a sort of dumping ground for unpleasant government functions.  Caught between the boroughs of Manhattan and Queens, there lies Randalls Island.  It houses a city-run mental institution on one side, next to a renovated sports stadium.  After passing by it for years on the M60, I finally made it there, taking a friend along for maximum discoverability.  The hospital is the sort of institution that somehow managed to defy the mass closings of the 1970′s.  Maybe 10 to 15 stories high, with bars across the windows, it has a Soviet era feel to it.  I imagined that we’d hear tortured cries as we got closer, but no, no signs of life other than the subdued, recently released who were milling around one  of the island’s few bus stops.

The city, for all of its modernity, still bears its history as a part of everyday life.    What New York shares with 19th century London is the ability to seamlessly incorporate progress and decay, side by side.  That’s what makes it so interesting, at least to me.

Addendum:  Should have run this post through spell check earlier.  Oofta.

Not exactly an earth-shattering observation, but something I was reminded of recently.  I’m wondering if others have had similar experiences not only with Oreos, but also with other foods.  Talk amongst yourselves.

Given some of the reactions to the introduction of the budget, might it not be a good idea to send Orszag on the road?  A sort of travelling salesman, peddling a reformed health care system and touting the benefits of a cap and trade system.

Watch him in the News Hour interviews and see if you’re not won over.

The fake phone call is a consistent winner.  Developed off of the fake conversation (which is an art unto itself), the fake phone call succeeds on two fronts: making you look busy and making you look popular.  Not only are you busy, but you’re busy because you are talking to other important people.  Ha!

All this got me to thinking about the nature of avoidance and the objects and techniques we employ in this noble pursuit.  We here in 2009 are the beneficiaries of progress.  It wasn’t all that long ago that the fake phone call would’ve been an impossibility.  In the old days a strategic fake sneeze or coughing fit worked, but it required a lot more skill and timing to make it work smoothly.

The fake conversation has been around for millennia and is great when two or more are trying to avoid some foe.  When alone (and seated) a book is great for looking occupied.  And, hey, you might actually read it.  Digital cameras (again, progress) are great because you can pretend to be absorbed by all the great photos you’ve taken.

I’m looking forward to the holographic fake friend.  You could pull them out when you need some quick back-up.  You could make them ugly or a total goofball, a foil for every occasion.

If all this sounds anti-social, well it is.  But these situations are the exception to the rule.  Usually encountering new people is fun and interesting, unless of course, they aren’t fun or interesting.  And that’s when it is time to dig into your bag of tricks.