May Day
Attention fellow goombah’s: that’sa nicea headline from foxnews.com: “McDonald’s debuts chicken sandwich with fried mozzarella patty…” Only available in Singapore — peccato.
Friday night’s movie fix was of the apocalyptic variety, Greenland (2020). A comet explodes and begins reigning down debris on planet earth, inciting the familiar fight for survival seen in every movie of its kind. The special effects are first rate. The performances are solid. It just doesn’t have a feeling of freshness about it, although its refreshing to have a disaster flick not about climate. Gerard Butler, Morena Baccarin, Roger Dale Floyd and Scott Glenn are the principal players. The family’s goal is to get to an underground facility in Greenland. I guess U.S. politicians didn’t have the foresight to build any — no surprise there. Ric Roman Waugh directed, his eighth stint at the helm. He has extensive experience in the business, 48 titles under his name at IMDb in the category of Stunts, seven as Writer and six as Actor. Chris Sparling wrote the screenplay. He has 15 to his credit. One, Buried (2010), I really liked. He also has five credits as Director and seven as Producer. 77,000+ users at IMDb have rated Greenland, forging to a consensus of 6.4 on a scale of ten. It was a winner at the box office, returning $52 million on a budget of $35 million. No doubt its take has been boosted nicely by DVD sales and rentals and streaming. It runs two hours. Not a must-see but a decent time-filler. There is violence but it’s tame compared to that of many works.
RIP Olympia Dukakis, 89, a great actress at home on the stage and big or small screen. Born in Massachusetts to Greek immigrants, she earned a Masters in Fine Arts at Boston University. She began in summer stock and made her Broadway debut at 30, equally adept at classical or modern works. There are 123 titles under her name at IMDb. In 1983 she did a 39 episode run on the soap opera Search for Tomorrow. She made at least six appearances on six other series. She co-founded The Whole Theatre Company in Montclair, New Jersey, with her husband, actor Louis Zorich, and ran it for 19 years, directing and producing old and new works. She will be remembered most for her turn as Cher’s mom in Moonstruck (1987), for which she won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar. She published a memoir in 2009. Well done, madam. Thank you.
RIP Pete Lammons, 77, a key cog as a TE in the NY Jets 1968 dream season, which culminated in the stunning victory in Super Bowl III in January ’69. Tragically, he drowned during a fishing tournament. He played college ball at Texas and was selected in the eighth round of the 1966 AFL draft. He was with the Jets from ‘66-’71 and ended his career in ’72 with the Packers. He caught 185 passes and scored 16 TDs. Well done, sir. Thank you.
My thanks to the kind folks who bought and donated books on this gorgeous day. I picked up a lot of nice kids stuff, some primo non-fiction and Russian books. Here’s what sold: Plunder and Deceit: Big Government’s Exploitation of Young People and the Future by Mark R. Levin, The Fifth Agreement: A Practical Guide to Self-Mastery by Don Miguel Ruiz; The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James, brother of novelist Henry, book first published in 1902; Self Matters: Creating Your Life from the Inside Out by Dr. Phil McGraw; and The Banks Sisters, urban lit by Nikki Turner.
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