When I came to my office in downtown Chicago this morning, there was a lot going on. As it turns out, the film Transformers 3 was being shot here.
If what I saw was any indication, it appears that Chicago will suffer much damage because of these transformers. The streets were full of “craters” which looked like bombs had fallen on LaSalle and Washington Streets. Some craters contained parts of cars or bicycles. In the meantime, twenty year-old kids, wearing baseball hats, were telling the passers by that they could not take photographs. The rebels among us took pictures anyway. But most people submitted to this pretentious display of authority and put their cameras away.
Helicopters flew overhead, presumably taking some shots of my destroyed city. Motor vehicles moved very s-l-o-w-l-y around the craters, but no doubt they will appear to be moving at forty or fifty miles per hour when the film is finally released. A forklift pushed a van sideways on its tires. I can only guess that in the movie this van will have first been hit by something or other.
A lot of people seemed to be working on this film. Trailers were everywhere, but alas, no stars. Perhaps they were sleeping in at The Four Seasons while lesser beings completed the grunt work. And transformers? Not a single one in sight.
I did not see Transformers, or for that matter, Transformers 2. I do not expect that I will see Transformers 3 either. Or maybe curiousity will get the best of me because of what I observed this morning. Maybe Transformers 3 will even be in 3-D; God knows everything else is.
I love movies, but unfortunately cannot find anything to see. Everything at the theater has a 2, 3 or 4 tagged onto the title. Or the film is about vampires. They call these “popcorn” movies. That means you don’t have to think as the reel unspools; you just have to eat.
Somewhere in this great country a man or woman is shooting a full-length feature film with an HD digital camera. But downtown Chicago has not been blocked off for the effort, nor has traffic been redirected. No permit has been secured, and if the police ask what’s going on, the canned response is that they are shooting a wedding video. The film may or may not be autobiographical, but at the very least it will be deeply personal. It will be character driven and will most likely deal with a major change in somebody’s life, or maybe even redemption. The entire cost of he film will be less than one of those “craters” I saw this morning.
Sorry Transformers, but that’s the film I want to see.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Herman's Hermits
In the 1960’s there was a “British invasion” of music into the United States.
It started with the Beatles of course, followed by other talented performers that included The Dave Clark Five, Gerry & the Pacemakers, Freddy and the Dreamers and of course, Herman’s Hermits.
The lead singer of Herman’s Hermits was then a teenager by the name of Peter Noone. Peter is now 62 years of age, but he still tours with a band that continues to be called Herman’s Hermits. Last night he performed in a small park adjacent to the Village Hall in the suburb in which I live, Elk Grove Village, Illinois.
The park was also next to the public library. Before the show I was killing some time in there. At one point I was in the same room as an Asian man of about 40, who looked out the windows and wondered about the commotion outside. He asked me what was going on. I told him that Herman’s Hermits were about to perform.
“Who?” he asked?
“Herman’s Hermits.”
“Who are they?”
“You know. Sixties band. They sung songs like Mrs. Brown You Have a Lovely Daughter.”
He had never heard of that song.
It was to be a free concert, but the weather did not cooperate. It rained. And when the band started to perform about half an hour late, it was on a small, portable, covered stage with the Union Jack serving as a backdrop. Peter then began to sing The Ballad of New Orleans, an old Johnny Horton song about the war of 1812.
We fired our guns and the British kept a comin’
There wasn’t quite as many as there was a while ago.
Suddenly Peter quit singing. “I always hated that song,” he declared. But later he would congratulate America on its July 4th birthday. Then he followed this up with a reference to the musical British Invasion of the 1960’s, “which was more successful.”
But here’s the thing: in the 1960’s Peter Noone and Herman’s Hermits were a headline act. In 2010 they were a freebee concert in the park. And yet the show that Peter put on with his current version of the Hermits was as enthusiastic and uncompromising as any performance I have ever seen. One sensed that Peter just loved singing the old songs; his and others.
And then the magic occurred. My wife and daughter moved up close to the stage and I followed. They then began to dance, not with each other but by themselves. As I watched my wife move, she did so in the exact same way as when she was a teenager and we were dating. Then Peter encouraged everybody to sing with him and everybody did. All of the hits: Silhouettes, Henry the Eighth, There's a Kind of Hush and more. And for one miraculous instant, time flipped backward.
Yes, we were all young again. In that wonderful, marvelous, magical rain.
It started with the Beatles of course, followed by other talented performers that included The Dave Clark Five, Gerry & the Pacemakers, Freddy and the Dreamers and of course, Herman’s Hermits.
The lead singer of Herman’s Hermits was then a teenager by the name of Peter Noone. Peter is now 62 years of age, but he still tours with a band that continues to be called Herman’s Hermits. Last night he performed in a small park adjacent to the Village Hall in the suburb in which I live, Elk Grove Village, Illinois.
The park was also next to the public library. Before the show I was killing some time in there. At one point I was in the same room as an Asian man of about 40, who looked out the windows and wondered about the commotion outside. He asked me what was going on. I told him that Herman’s Hermits were about to perform.
“Who?” he asked?
“Herman’s Hermits.”
“Who are they?”
“You know. Sixties band. They sung songs like Mrs. Brown You Have a Lovely Daughter.”
He had never heard of that song.
It was to be a free concert, but the weather did not cooperate. It rained. And when the band started to perform about half an hour late, it was on a small, portable, covered stage with the Union Jack serving as a backdrop. Peter then began to sing The Ballad of New Orleans, an old Johnny Horton song about the war of 1812.
We fired our guns and the British kept a comin’
There wasn’t quite as many as there was a while ago.
Suddenly Peter quit singing. “I always hated that song,” he declared. But later he would congratulate America on its July 4th birthday. Then he followed this up with a reference to the musical British Invasion of the 1960’s, “which was more successful.”
But here’s the thing: in the 1960’s Peter Noone and Herman’s Hermits were a headline act. In 2010 they were a freebee concert in the park. And yet the show that Peter put on with his current version of the Hermits was as enthusiastic and uncompromising as any performance I have ever seen. One sensed that Peter just loved singing the old songs; his and others.
And then the magic occurred. My wife and daughter moved up close to the stage and I followed. They then began to dance, not with each other but by themselves. As I watched my wife move, she did so in the exact same way as when she was a teenager and we were dating. Then Peter encouraged everybody to sing with him and everybody did. All of the hits: Silhouettes, Henry the Eighth, There's a Kind of Hush and more. And for one miraculous instant, time flipped backward.
Yes, we were all young again. In that wonderful, marvelous, magical rain.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)