Rant #2,541: The Beat Goes On

Welcome back!
 
It was a good Thanksgiving Day weekend, and a relaxing one too.
 
I am so relaxed that I overslept today.
 
I rarely do that, but I certainly did today, and that is why this Rant is a bit late.
 
I guess I am tired at all that we did—and didn’t do—this past weekend.
 
Did my family celebrate Thanksgiving?
 
Yes we did.
 
First off, I did what I always do on Thanksgiving Day … I watched “March of the Wooden Soldiers,” in black and white of course.

 
It is such a great movie, and the final about four minutes of the film—when the soldiers are used to ward off Barnaby and his allies—remains among the greatest film endings of all time.
 
And then, later in the day, my family and I went to my sister’s house, as we always do, to have our Thanksgiving feast.
 
It was a total of eight of us that were there, and we have been around each other plenty of times during the past months, so we felt there was no reason not to go and enjoy the day. My sister lives just a few miles away, so it wasn’t like we jumped on a plane to get there.
 
It was fun, and it went quickly.
 
Then we had the rest of the holiday weekend to just relax, and that is what we did.
 
Black Friday was a pretty big nothing of a day for us.

 
I did go out a little early to my local record store on the annual Record Store Day on Black Friday, but I hardly bought anything, because there really wasn’t too much that I wanted.

 
You can’t go wrong with George Harrison and Nancy Sinatra, but beyond that, I was in and out of the store in about 10 minutes, if even that long.
 
And then we did not much of anything the rest of the holiday weekend, other than do food shopping and watching some movies on TV.
 
One of the movies my wife and I watched was “The Rose,” the Bette Midler opus based on the life of Janis Joplin, which we watched yesterday.

 
I had not seen this film in about 40 years, or since watching it on HBO way back when, so it was almost new to me.
 
It is very dated, but the film still holds your rapt attention for its more than two-hour length.
 
I later found out something that I did not know about the film, so tidbits that I had no idea about.
 
Jessica Lange was supposed to star in the movie, at least originally, and the film was supposed to be a direct bio pic of Janis Joplin, but her family would not allow any rights to be grated to use her story, so it then morphed into a fictional story about a Joplin-like character, portrayed to perfection by Midler.
 
Yes, the Internet is a valuable tool when it is used in the right way.
 
So my family had fun and relaxed this weekend, but there was something missing from our fun and relaxation.
 
That something was a big toothy smile, a quick wit, and a prominence that was second to none in my family.

 
My father wasn’t with us for this holiday.
 
He passed away on Labor Day, and it is hard to believe that it is two months since he left us.
 
There was a big void at the Thanksgiving table, and even though we ate and laughed and had fun, he wasn’t there with us physically, but I know he was there in spirit.
 
Today, he would have celebrated his 89th birthday like he always did, opening birthday cards and enjoying whatever presents we go him to celebrate his big day, usually gift cards to Burger King, food that he absolutely loved and a gift that he really cherished, believe it or not.
 
He was that kind of guy, enjoying what he called “the good life” with simple things that some might roll their eyes at, but which he truly loved.
 
I miss my dad, and we all missed him on Thanksgiving this year.
 
So on his birthday, I just want to wish him all the peace that he deserves.
 
I hope he is looking down at us and smiling that wide grin that he had as I write this.
 
Happy birthday, dad, we love you, and you will always be in our hearts and minds and souls.

Rant #2,540: The Turkey

Happy Thanksgiving!
 
With one day to go before the big holiday, what do we have to be thankful for in this pandemic world that we live in?
 
2020 will be a difficult year to celebrate Thanksgiving, like no other year in anyone’s memory.
 
We are fighting a horrible pandemic, and fighting it with mixed messages from our supposed leaders.
 
They tell us to stay home, they tell us to isolate ourselves from the rest of the world, they tell us to talk turkey only amongst our closest family members.
 
Yet, the don’t practice what they preach, such as the self-appointed governor of the coronavirus, Andrew Cuomo of New York, who told his constituents again and again to isolate themselves during this pandemic Thanksgiving, yet was going to celebrate the holiday by being with a few family members, including his 92-year-old mother, so non-isolation and some travel would be involved in his holiday musings.
 
Of course, once word got out that he was going to do this, he backtracked, stating that on second thought, this wasn’t going to happen after he received a tremendous backlash on social media.
 
I mean, this is also the guy who has traveled out of state yet tells others not to do so, so you kind of expected it from him.
 
And he had the audacity to blame his mother for his meanderings, stating that he did it for mom because “how many Thanksgivings does she have left (my paraphrase),” related to his mom’s advanced age.
 
And you wonder why so many in this country, young and old, do not take this pandemic seriously?
 
Wishy-washy leaders will do this to you. You simply do not know who—or what—to believe.
 
My family and I will be celebrating the holiday as we normally do, with a small get-together at my sister’s house. We have been in contact with her and her family numerous times since the pandemic hit, so we do feel safe, but we will take the proper precautions—as will she—to ensure a nice feast.
 
But what do we have to be thankful for this year?
 
Honestly, this is not such an easy subject to contemplate or to answer right now, as this has been a horrid year for all of us.
 
Personally, my son and I were out of work for very long stretches, but we are both thankful that someone believe in us enough to give us a shot, so we are both thankful for those people who went out on the limb for us, even after months and months of inactivity.
 
And even more personally, I am thankful for my father—who we lost just a few weeks ago—for in his own way setting me on the right path to get something before he left us. He went out knowing that his son was employed, even in a part-time, remote way, and at least I was able to show him I still had “it” while he could appreciate it.
 
I am certainly thankful for my immediate family, for sticking with me during a horrid period of my life. While others shunned me, my family backed me up 1,000 percent on my quest for employment.
 
I have the best wife, the best children, and the best parents one could ever dream to have, and they backed me, listened to me, gave me shoulders to cry on, and were there when I needed them, so yes, I am thankful for them.
 
Sure, they did not have much of a choice, but whenever I needed to talk or to vent, they were there, which is more than I can say for some others in my life who treated me as if I had some type of catchable disease separate from the coronavirus.
 
And yes, I am thankful for my health and the health of my family during this pandemic.
 
We had a scare, we survived the scare, we had family members who suffered from the illness but survived, and at the moment, we are all doing well, so yes, I am thankful that our health has stood up during this horrible time when so many people are suffering.
 
And I am thankful that even when I was at my lowest point, I was always able to put food on the table, unlike others we see today who have nothing—no job, no means of support, and no way to provide for their families.
 
I often wonder why they are in such circumstances. Even at my lowest point, I was careful with whatever money I had, as was my son. I know that everyone’s circumstances are different, but I think the situation that we are in shows how many people live on the edge.
 
I watch the newscasts showing hundreds of cars in food lines, and I see all the late model cars in that line. I wonder with unemployment payments, and with the thought that you do have to put away money for a rainy day, why so many people who were of means just a few weeks or months ago are currently on food lines.
 
I have been bankrupt in my life. My wife and I went through that a few years back, when the money walls came tumbling down on us.
 
We learned a lot during this period, including the fact that the good times can only last so long, and that things can be just around the corner to upset your personal applecart.
 
From what I am seeing, even wealthy people with good jobs were living from paycheck to paycheck, not saving one dime when they lived their over the top lifestyles.
 
Then the gorilla from around the corner—the pandemic—hit, they lost their jobs, and their savings accounts which had been nil were even “nil-er” now, even with unemployment payments.
 
Yesterday on the CBS Evening News, they had a story on these food lines, and how many people on these lines were there for the very first time.
 
They interviewed several people, and they asked one woman if she had any savings going into her current unemployment that could have prevented her from her current situation on a food line, and she quickly and succinctly told them “No.”
 
Living beyond your means is fine as long as you can cover it, but take it from me, when you can’t, there is no sugarcoating it.
 
I simply wonder how many people on those lines, like that woman, never prepared for a rainy day. My wife and I didn’t a few years back, but we certainly did after we sunk to the lowest depths that we could sink to.
 
And through my own situation, while I came close to collapse—in particular, early on when for weeks the New York State Department of Labor refused to budge and would not give me an unemployment insurance because of an error they made 25 years ago on my account—I never bent, and I always had enough—barely—to hold on.
 
How so many people cannot say the same thing is bewildering, but not al all surprising.
 
So I am thankful that myself and my family go through all of this in one piece.
 
I think that that pretty much sums it all up.
 
We managed, what can I say?
 
I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving, even if you are just having a turkey dinner alone in front of your television.
 
Stay safe, and I will speak to you again on Monday.
 
And please, be safe on Black Friday.
 
This year, “shopping ‘til you drop” has taken on a different meaning than in other years, and I do want all of you to be healthy and happy for the remainder of this year into 2021.
 
And no, at this point, I do not even want to contemplate what Thanksgiving 2021 will look like.
 
Let’s take one year at a time. 

Rant #2,539: I Want To Hold Your Hand (Not)

Today is November 24, and we are right in the middle of Thanksgiving week, although this year’s celebration will certainly be so much different than any other Thanksgivings we have ever experienced.

 
But today, we are going to give a shout out to someone who fits this year’s bill more than ever.
 
He was a guy who was part of the party, invited to the party, but then dumped from that party for a variety of reasons and wasn’t around when the big celebration happened … sounds like some people on our Thanksgiving guest list this year, doesn’t it?
 
Today, we are talking about Pete Best, the Beatles’ original drummer, who turns 79 years of age today.
 
Yes, way before anyone knew who Ringo Starr was—and probably before Richard turned to Ringo—Best was the drummer for the fledgling Liverpool group, one that just months later would become one of the all-time global phenomenons of our, or any, generation before or since.
 
There are a lot of stories why he was not the Beatles’ drummer when they hit pay dirt, and his dismissal wasn’t as cut and dry as that of Stu Sutcliffe, the other forgotten Beatles member, who pretty much left the band on his own accord and passed away soon after.
 
But with Best, it really was an amalgam of stories that led to his dismissal.
 
Among the stories are that he was simply an incompetent drummer, and a rock and roll band needs a good drummer as the backbeat of the band. He was also not a very good singer, and the strength of the band was that each member could carry a tune. Best was supposedly uncomfortable as a singer, so he did not fit into the band’s career plan.
 
Starr, who had been with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, had become available, and even though he was a few years older than John, Paul and George, when Starr became available, Best became disposable.
 
Starr was not exactly the greatest drummer at the beginning, either, being left off a few recorded tracks and relegated to tambourine playing, but this dovetails into another explanation for his dismissal—that he was too good looking for the other Beatles to handle, in particular, Paul McCartney, who saw the girls gravitate to Best rather than to him, even though he was out front when they were on stage.
 
Even though Best was in the background as the drummer, the focus, McCartney though, was on him, not the others, and as young lads, this bent the other band members out of shape, and in particular, McCartney, or so the legend goes.
 
It also lends credence to the reason they chose Starr to handle the drumming chores, as he was not exactly a Hollywood casting leading male type, but of course, as a Beatle, there was a point that he was certainly on the par of popularity with the others, but because of his talent and good naturedness, but not for his looks.
 
And although he wasn’t much of a singer, he was competent and comfortable enough to handle the vocal chores on occasion.
 
And then there is another rumor that once Brian Epstein became the Beatles’ manager, he had a dislike of Best for whatever reason, and therefore, he had to go.
 
But what became of Best as the Beatles took over the world?
 
He soldiered on as a musician, having a number of bands including the aptly named Pete Best Combo, but these were not very successful.
 
As the Beatles became the talk of world, he left the music business, and worked as a civil servant in England for 20 years, serving as a living and breathing footnote to Beatlemania.
 
But over the years, he was constantly hounded for his Beatles connection, and in the late 1980s, he started the Pete Best Band to capitalize on that association that simply would not go away.
 
And over the past 30 years or so, he has become a popular figure in Beatles folklore and history, appearing at Beatles conventions and being portrayed in a number of films about the Fab Four.
 
Although Best came to terms with his brush with international fame quite early on, there have been some bumps in the road.
 
He was due royalties for the numerous recordings he drummed on, but up until the release of the “Anthology” series of CDs in the 1990s, he never saw any money from those recordings.
 
It also came out that Paul McCartney was the band member who most wanted him to leave the band, but it also was rumored that all those years later, it was McCartney himself who contacted Best about the money he was owed, which amounted to a few million dollars.
 
However, Best denies that McCartney was the one who put this into motion, stating that it was actually Beatles confidant Neil Aspinall who contacted him about the owed royalties in 1995. In fact, Best claims that he and McCartney hadn’t spoken since he was dismissed from the band.
 
So Best took the royalties that were owed to him, forever being a Beatles footnote, but proud of what he did in the formation of the band that literally rocked the world.
 
So yes, he is the perfect person to honor this year on his birthday, right before Thanksgiving and one who was part of the party but who, due to circumstances beyond his control, was quickly disinvited.
 
Social distancing between the Beatles?
 
“Yes It Is.”

Rant #2,538: Dead Men Tell No Tales

The Undertaker rang up his last victim last night, and it was—
 
Himself.
 
Mark Calaway, who portrayed the iconic anti-hero fro the past 30 years in first the WWF and now the current WWE, has left the tombstone behind, finally, and retired for good.
 
He did it on the wrestling organization’s Internet platform, the highly successful WWE Network last night after the final match of the WWE’s pay-per-view Survivor Series match was over, and the character was finally laid to rest.
 
It seems that even if you are not a WWE or pro wrestling fan, you have at the least heard about the Undertaker, a sort of anti-hero/villain/good guy for the times we live in, and undead wrestler who always rose to the occasion, and did away with opponents with obvious glee.
 
Calaway is an imposing figure to begin with, His 6 foot, 10 inch, probably well over 300 lbs, figure would scare the heck out of anyone, but he took the character that he helped craft to new levels, winning the WWF/WWE heavyweight championship seven times.
 
He was the perfect anti-hero for the crowd that loved horror movies like “Friday the 13th” and “Halloween.” He was sort of a distant wrestling cousin of Freddie Krueger, with an imposing figure and one step in death and the other in life.
 
Calaway actually wrestled under different monikers with other wrestling organizations before reaching the then WWF, but once he got to the big time in 1990, there was absolutely no looking back for him.
 
And when he teamed with manager Paul Bearer, the WWE came up with so many wild gimmicks for the two. The sky was truly the limit for Calaway, and the WWE pretty much went past the sky—and some would say to Hell and back—with the character, who was introduced as a heel but soon became just about everyone’s favorite morbid grappler.
 
He debuted his character at Survivor Series 30 years ago, so it was fitting that he would close the book on the character at that event in 2020, a year where morbidity became all the rage because of the coronavirus.
 
I mean, the Undertaker fit right into that, in such a macabre way.
 
The WWE sent him out on the red carpet last night. After announcing a group of classic wrestlers who attended the final appearance of the Undertaker—including Ric Flair and Booker T—Chairman of the Board Vince McMahon came out and made a speech, clearly with a tear on his eye for his organization’s greatest creation.
 
After he made his speech, everyone was cleared out and the Undertaker had the floor to himself, and in a short speech, Calaway never broke character amidst the lights and the fog and his theme music and his classic ring attire, pretty much saying with his character’s dead-on, gravelly voice that while the Undertaker put out the lights for so many wrestlers during the years, it was now time for him to dim his own lights.
 
And when he was done, he strode off into the darkness, never to be seen again in this character.
 
Wrestling retirements are sort of like Cher retirements, where wrestlers can leave the ring and then show up interminably over months and years, never really fully retiring.
 
But for Calaway, it appears that it is truly the end of the road.
 
He is 55 years old, but all the ring wear has made his body a mass of surgically repaired body parts, and he looks way older than those years.
 
His 21-0 streak in Wrestlemania way behind him, except for a few bouts here and there, he mainly appeared on WWE shows as nothing more than a guest star and a draw, usually just appearing and then leaving as quickly as he came.
 
He did have some bouts over the past five years or so, and even if he didn’t have bouts, he did put his signature Tombstone move on many wrestlers, but you could see how labored these recent moves were—Calaway simply could not do it anymore, and when he pushed himself, he further hurt himself, making his body a mess not worthy of the Undertaker name.
 
So he finally bowed out gracefully last night.
 
For the past few years, he has been mainly a trainer with WWE, so he will probably continue in that capacity, only fully retiring from the ring.
 
He is married to another former wrestler, Michele McCool, so she full well knows what her husband has gone through over the years.
 
So, with the Undertaker’s retirement, even the undead need to take a break and step aside for younger, more agile talent, and Mark Calaway did just that last night, and did it with a lot of grace and a lot of panache.
 
Will he ever return as the Undertaker? As I said earlier, I wouldn’t bet against it, but for all intents and purposes, last night was it for him and the character.
 
My son and I watched his final bow together, and again, it brought two generations together to celebrate a personality that has touched both our lives.
 
We were fortunate to actually see him perform live at the Nassau Coliseum a few years back, and in person, his presence was not only seen but felt in person.
 
Callaway was the real deal.
 
He was not, as some proclaim, the top wrestler ever.
 
There were others, like Bruno Sammartino and Hulk Hogan, who clearly transcended the sport and brought it to new levels.
 
He was not as good as Ric Flair, not as good as Stone Cold Steve Austin, not as good as the current glimmering light of pro wrestling, Roman Reigns.
 
But his character was the greatest creation of professional wrestling, and he lived up to every promise that that character was pointed to and was primed for.
 
So goodbye to the Undertaker …
 
REST … IN … PEACE.