You know the movie Red River? That's right: The 1948 western starring John Wayne and Montgomery Clift, directed by Howard Hawks. Well, if you know the film, you might also know there was a controversy about its ending and there still is. There are two versions and you could make a good case that either is the "correct" one. My buddy Michael Schlesinger recently wrote a good essay for the Library of Congress about all this and you can read and/or download a PDF of that article here.
Here's another approach to the song from Sweet Charity, "The Rhythm of Life." This one sings the original lyrics — or at least they sing some of them. Part of the performance is in another language…Welsh, I think. It was jazzed up for what I believe is a British TV show that's like The Voice but it's choirs instead of individual singers…
I started to write a post here about what might be in store for us this year from the new order of the government but it got too speculative and depressing so I hit the delete key. Why sour a perfectly good new year before you have to?
Then again, I am not one of those folks who think that we start each year with a clean slate and the chance to build something new. To the extent you can do that at all, you can start just as readily on September 23 or July 9 or October 14 or any day. So far this morning, the most constructive thing I've done is to write in "2017" on the first dozen or so checks in my checkbook. At least I won't get that wrong for a while.
I think we sometimes get too hung up on this "new year" concept. A long time ago, I shared an office with a writer who smoked incessantly. It was as bad an addiction as you've ever seen and he knew he had to quit…so he kept saying, "I'll quit January 1." He was saying this in March. It was an excuse for not quitting March 13 which, as I pointed out to him, was a perfectly acceptable date to quit smoking also. He said, "No, it's easier to quit the first of the year" as he lit up another.
Apparently, last night on a live TV broadcast, there were tech problems that screwed up Mariah Carey's performance. Some people this morning are way too happy about seeing a star embarrassed.
A couple of folks have written to suggest I write about Tyrus Wong. Mr. Wong was an artist of Chinese heritage who at one point in a rough (but long) life worked for Walt Disney and there had a lot to do with the beauty and success of Bambi. It's an extraordinary story but I know nothing about him that isn't properly covered in obits like this one. So I direct you there.
I have a very busy week ahead. I hope the long post yesterday will make up for the short posts that may fill this site for the next few days. And I thank all the folks who made year-end (or year-starting) donations to this blog. Since I switched to a new hosting company, I think we've been "down" a grand total of about ten minutes as opposed to much longer intervals at the first two hosting companies where I had this thing parked. The new company is quite expensive so donations (or using our Amazon links) are most appreciated. See you later.