Arts and Lifestyle Wednesday Presented by Cinematic Visions-Deep Appreciation with No Aptitude
Last night my wife and I concluded our evening of television viewing together (before she went to bed and I dug into some games) by starting a concert with Steve Winwood from perhaps a decade ago. It was, and will be when we resume, fabulous. The guitar and piano wiz, who became famous as a teenager as a part of the band Traffic, was clearly a precocious prodigy from the jump. That would be in stark contrast from me, one of the most enthusiastic fans of the arts that you can imagine, with a remarkable lack of any aptitude in any of it.
When I started this website in November of 2018, I knew that my reputation as a sports broadcaster would mean that there would have to be some emphasis on that aspect of interest because that is, in part, what would be expected, and what the audience would feel that I had the expertise to entertain them with. But I wanted to do something more eclectic, because I also knew that folks did have an appreciation for that aspect of what I brought to the table in my broadcasting work. So thus became, on one of the “Presented By” days, “Arts and Lifestyle Wednesday” presented now by Cinematic Visions. It has, and will continue to, include podcasts on music, the arts, buddies hangouts, couple’s lifestyles, and blogs, essays, and reviews. It has been very well received, and I have plenty of joy in doing it, slipping away a bit from my passion from all things sport.
Sports commentary comes with the territory. I grew up with a deep love of it, have participated to a reasonably high level, so there is some tangible understanding of how it works even at heights far greater than I could achieve. But digging in to movies, music, and art comes purely as a wide-eyed admirer. From the time I was a young boy, any venture into almost any aspect of that area as a participant was a complete debacle, which is funny, because I was pretty much a natural at most other things.
When I was in the fourth grade my Mom tried to start the process of having me learn a musical instrument with lessons. For whatever reason, in my day that started with you trying out the accordion, I guess for the knowledge of chords, and the like, before you moved into some other instrument of interest, since even then oompah bands weren’t exactly the rage. After about five lessons, the music teacher flatly told my mother to stop wasting her money, her boy just didn’t have it. It didn’t bother me, I had plenty of other things I enjoyed, but in retrospect it seems strange. If there is any musical ability I have, I DO posses a good ear. I have always recognized excellence, and you would have thought that might have translated to some ability. But so be it.
I have two brothers who are good musicians. My brother Jim and I were only a year apart and very close for a long time. He plays the guitar and is a good singer, and he would periodically try to get me to sing some harmonies with him. i just didn’t get it. All I would do is starting singing falsetto, despite his vigorous instructions. He would eventually give up, and I would ended up being satisfied to request that he play “Over the Hills and Far Away” by Led Zeppelin again. I absolutely love to listen, my admiration for quality in any musical genre is vast.
Perhaps it is fitting that I am married to an opera singer. My wife Jayne sang professionally for a long time at very high levels prior to our meeting, before deciding to no longer make it her profession. But she never stops singing, and still does recitals and concerts on a regular basis, all while being a successful businesswoman. In fact today, she is going to Lawrence for a full rehearsal for an upcoming event. She sings most days, with the delightful braying of our corgi accompanying her.
Prior to meeting her, I was no fan of opera, and I really still don’t fancy the actual music that much, but I admire the craft so greatly that I still can find tremendous enjoyment. There is no improvisation or fiddling around, you must hit the notes. It’s a very high bar and there is definitely a thrill in seeing people strive for it, and achieve it. Mediocre opera singing can be far more galling than in other genres. I have the pleasure of something far greater in my world, but still, my favorite number that my wife often performs is “Summertime” from “Porgy and Bess” which, of course, is a show tune.
I have been fortunate that well into my time on this earth, two passions entered my life, one in sports, and one in the arts. Soccer, and Broadway. I feel very lucky that something new and treasured became part of my world. We have friends who have a condominium right in the heart of the theater district in New York, and that makes (or made, until our recent travails) trips to the Big Apple far more viable. And when we do go, I want musicals! In a week long visit we might see three shows. The level of ability of the singers and dancers is jaw dropping, and the theaters are small enough that virtually any seat is a good one, and great seats are stunning. I’m further astounded that I enjoy this so much since my father played albums and bellowed show tunes often when I was a kid, and even though he actually was a good singer, I heard far too much “Carousel” for my liking.
We are all desperate to return to a world where we can see live events, and in this case live music at all levels. I have two tickets to a concert by The Mavericks, which has been moved from May of 2020, to September of 2020, and now to May of 2021. Unfortunately, even that date many months from now doesn’t seem rock solid, but whenever we can return, it will be glorious.
Not surprisingly, my wife also has outstanding taste in virtually every area. Our fairly modest home is raised many levels by her keen designing eye, and taste in art. Just like the other areas we are exploring, I am a simpleton. I know what I like, but couldn’t give you much explanation, but it seems that what suits my eye, fits in with what more keen observers also fancy. The first time I went to a museum by my own choice was in my early twenties in Boston. It was on a wildly varied day where I went to a court appearance, saw Ted Kennedy announce a presidential campaign, and took in an exhibit by the French master of still life Chardin. His exquisitely simple visions of common folk, table scenes, and the like just blew me away. For whatever this is worth (not much), I still consider him my favorite artist. Just don’t ask me why.
To this day, when I go to an art museum, I am enthralled by the works where if you are standing a foot away from the painting, it appears to be just random dots of paint that have no form. Then you step back to the distance where they are supposed to be viewed from, and, hell, it’s a cathedral within a cityscape. I have no handle on how the artist who is painting it up close figures this out, and frankly, I don’t really want to know, because maybe it would take away some of the delightful mystery.
In the world of film, I CAN say I am a dedicated student of it. Now, in keeping with this piece, I have zero acting ability. I have a daughter who is attending a prestigious acting school in New York (again, not surprisingly, on hiatus), and she is something of a natural, but she sure didn’t get anything from me. But from the time I took a class in college where seeing a film from the forties was required (something detailed in the blog “Watching the Detectives” which you can find here) I was ultra-hooked. I always liked films, and one of the fondest memories of my early relationship with my Mom was sitting with her watching “Frued” with Montgomery Clift when I was about ten, while my brothers and sisters watched some childhood ditty with my father, but that college event turned up the heat bigtime.
I have gobbled up as much material on classic cinema through the years as I have had time for, and I feel that I am pretty learned. But mostly I just like it. I reviewed films professionally for a bit in my twenties, and I do so now in this space, and can’t wait to return to it when theaters re-open. But I very much can enjoy movies as a fan, while also seeing them through the prism of what I would tout as a discerning eye. Maybe it wasn’t that discerning during the dozens of times I stayed up all night watching three in a row, but that’s another story. Old and new, drama, thriller, comedy, mystery, or action feature, it’s all good to me when it is good. I very often watch great movies that I have seen in the past these days, and their qualities even seem to grow with each viewing.
These are times for reflection, and I just feel fortunate that I get so much delight in things that are in many ways not on the surface very important. But what would our lives be like in a world without them? We have felt what it’s like without live sports and it really did suck. But at the worst of times, I literally openly said to myself, “Well, I sure am glad I have music like that to boost my spirits”. I was driving home last night and flipped on the Tom Petty Channel on Sirius. Back to back to back, came Tom and the Heartbreakers dealing out “Running Down a Dream”, a cover of Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away”, and then Neil Young popped in with “The Loner” I was giddy, and was compelled to share the joy with several friends by text.
They responded with nice comments, and agreements, and that was nice, but it was really my little moment. And little moments like that are……..big.