On Season II: Remembering Heston

Basketball season closes the doors tonight with the championship game between Memphis and Kansas. I probably care less than you do, but if you have not been reading my hoops writing, just know that once the teams without all the money and conference advantages are out, I simply do not care who wins. I can still enjoy the high-level hoops, the Final Four, and the crowning of a champion, but I honestly do not care who wins.

Anyway, that means it is not the off-season for this blog, but the ON-season! And, I have to start this on-season with a tribute to Charlton Heston.

You may or may not know that my band, Redfoot, ends most every show with a song I wrote called, "For John Charles Carter" (Heston's given name). It is a tribute to Heston's movies. I wrote it three years ago after seeing a commercial for network television's annual showing of the Cecil B. Demille classic The Ten Commandments. Before the days of VCR's, my family always made time for two annual television events: The Wizard of Oz (usually in October) and The Ten Commandments (usually around Easter). Watching Ten brings back so many good memories of family and the spectacle of DeMille's films. Once my family bought a VCR in the mid-1980s, we taped Ten from television and my brother and I must have watched that film at least 30 times. We loved it and, in retrospect, I think it was because it made a very familiar Bible story very real to us visually.

In addition to Ten, Planet of the Apes is one of my favorite books (by Pierre Boulle--MUST READ!) and favorite movies. Heston's starring role in the 1968 film is part camp, part anti-hero, part social commentary, and I love it. One of the interesting components of Heston is that he somehow was viewed as a "great actor," but he often seemed so over-the-top with his acting that it was comical. Yet, he pulled it off in a strange way and this is nowhere more evident that in Planet of the Apes. Remember: "It's a madhouse! A MADHOUSE!" Good stuff.

The song I wrote references many of his films (Ten, Ben-Hur, Soylent Green, Planet of the Apes), and while the song might be taken as poking fun at Heston, I wrote it more with tribute in mind. There might be some sarcasm and subtle jabbing in there regarding his acting style and politics, but his work truly influenced me from my earliest days and I greatly appreciate his work in film.

Fun with Death

Deceased rock star and catalyst for my rock-n-roll awakening Kurt Cobain is the subject of a new documentary. Friends Brandon, John, and I went to Nashville's Belcourt Theater to see About A Son last night. The film consists of video/images of Washington towns Aberdeen, Olympia, and Seattle, and audio from Cobain himself. Cobain's voiceover is taken from Michael Azerrad's interview tapes for his book Come As You Are. The film gives insight into the mind of Cobain and the childhood, physical ailments, contradictory personality, and general grouchiness that so heavily inspired his music.

There are no Nirvana songs. No live footage of the band. No entertaining of conspiracy theories about his death. No chest-beating about how they changed music. It is a very real portrait of Cobain and the towns, landscape and culture that molded him. Check it out if you can.

On a not-entirely-unrelated note, check out this highly entertaining and informative cartoon on the death industry and the impact of our decaying bodies on the earth. If Cobain made cartoons, they might have looked something like this. Fascinating stuff.

About A Son

Did the band Nirvana serve as an efficient conduit for your teenage angst? Did you enjoy watching hair metal die a not-so-slow, excruciating death? Did you buy a $150 Lotus guitar, a stomp box, a beat-up crap amp and start plowing through songs from the "Nevermind" album, willingly shredding your vocals chords on a daily basis?

YOU DID?!?!? Well, then you might need to see Kurt Cobain About A Son. It's a new documentary about Cobain and it seems that all of the dialog in the film is his own voice. It's lifted from clips of interviews and recordings largely unheard to this point.

I think I want some water to put out the blow torch of my excitement.