Welcome to WeeklyWilson.com, where author/film critic Connie (Corcoran) Wilson avoids totally losing her marbles in semi-retirement by writing about film (see the Chicago Film Festival reviews and SXSW), politics and books----her own books and those of other people. You'll also find her diverging frequently to share humorous (or not-so-humorous) anecdotes and concerns. Try it! You'll like it!
I just read that Christine, Kevin Costner’s wife, who is now pregnant with their second child, encouraged him to take his band (Modern West, I believe) and to appear in some Nashville singing gigs. I can forgive Christine this indiscretion, as she is, after all, preggers, and the hormones must be raging.
But I would advise the rest of you to rent “The Postman” in which Kevin sings to a donkey (or perhaps it was a mule…I can never tell them apart, and they never answer me when I ask.)
This was, without a doubt, one of the most unintentionally hilarious scenes I have ever had the misfortune to sit through during my movie reviewing days (which were long and unproductive, but lots of fun). Kevin does not have much of a voice, and he goes right up there with the others that Jeff Daniels (who actually CAN sing) made fun of in his self-written song (“If William Shatner Can, I Can, Too”): Rusell Crowe, Adam Sandler, the Olson Twins, Gina Gershon, Juliette Lewis and the ever memorable William Shatner.
Jeff Daniels just completed a run at the Goodman Theater in Chicago of a play entitled “Turn of the Century.” He and a lovely singer played “Billy Clarke” and (?) Wilson, a piano player and a singer (she being the singer) who are transported back through time from the Y2K New’s Year Eve to 100 years prior. They promptly begin ripping off the “greats” of the next 100 years, including, but not limited to, Irving Berlin and Billy Joel. It was a novel idea, written by Marshall Brickman (who often collaborated with Woody Allen) and choreographed by Tommy Tune. I enjoyed it, but even Daniels’ pleasant tenor didn’t stack up against the woman he played opposite, who had the real set of pipes.
Trust me on this: Kevin Costner really does not have much of a voice. If you don’t believe me, rent “The Postman.” And, while you’re watching that scene with the donkey/mule, check out how his hair looks in the scene where he crosses a huge mountain gorge with the wind ruffling his thinning-even-then locks. Kevin! Kevin! How could you! We are your FANS! We don’t want to see thinning hair and hear off-key melodies sung to a donkey, for crying out loud!
Again, I urge you to rent “The Postman” and stick it out to the bitter (and it will be bitter…trust me on that) end before you shell out hard, cold cash to hear Kevin and his band play in Nashville (or anywhere else).
There are REAL STRUGGLING musicians out there, who are GOOD. Give us all a break, Kevin, and let the real musicians among us get a life, while you pursue yours, which seems pretty full with movies, a new baby on the way, that large ranch I am always seeing pictures of, and anything…please…anything BUT singing.
I did not add Bruce Willis to the list of singers-who-cannot-sing, because he and Daniels actually sound “okay” when they wander away from their chosen profession for some harmonica-playing on Letterman or wherever. Stay tuned for judgment on Joaquin Phoenix, who, apparently, is our next star-turned-singer.
The second night of “live” bands performing took place at the River Music Experience’s Mojo Coffee House on Tuesday, November 11, 2008 (Veteran’s Day). The weather was horrible outside, so this may have had an effect on the crowd that was smaller than it had been on Monday night.
The first band (which I missed) was Fire Sale. I did meet a very cute young blonde person who told me this was his band. I’m sure they were awesome.
The second band, a heavy metal group called “Through Terror,” were the showmen of the night. Lead vocalist Mike Saviano has been doing his study of classic heavy metal rock showmen. Other members of the band were Brooks Swanson on lead guitar; Chris Kostielney on drums; Jsin Grievous (lead guitar); and Sean Deppe on Bass. The group has played together for about 2 years.
I asked the group if they had day jobs. Jsin works at a guitar center and O’Tool Design; Sean (Deppe) works at Honda; Mike Saviano works at a metal shop (appropriate); Chris Kostielney plays drums; and Brooks Swanson (lead guitar) is working on an engineering degree to help implement solar panel technology as an alternative energy source.
The Dani Lynn Howe Band featured lead singer Dani Lynn Howe (from near Cedar Falls, IA) who has been singing since she was 13. The group has been named favorite C&W group for the past 5 years by the “River City Reader” and Dani Lynne’s alto was very pleasant, with excellent back-up from her band.
“Tapped out!” was a more mature group with Brandon Brown on lead vocals. Brandon had one of the better voices of the night and was ably backed by Kirk Wood on guitar and vocals; Tim Olson on bass guitar; Tom Zick on drums; Steve Svec on guitar and vocals; and Rich Kraves handling sound. “Tapped Out,” which has been together since 2006, played “Just Got Back from Baby’s,” “Smokin in the Boys Room,” “Rebel Yell,” “The Other Side” (by the Red Hot Chili Peppers); and “China Grove.” A very enjoyable group.
The last group of the night, The Ron LaPuma Band, have opened for Blues Traveller, Corey Stevens and Foghat. The group plays a lot of biker gigs and will soon appear (January 31) at McCormick Place at the Chicago Bike & Parts Expo. They will also appear at the Iron Horse Music and Bike Fest in Sabula, Iowa. LaPuma grew up in Chicago at Clark & Diversey and has worked with B.B. King (Ron says he has a guitar signed by B.B. King). Certainly Ron was a guitar virtuouso. The other two members of the band were Steve Hintze and Jimmy VanHyfte. The group played “Choo Choo Mama,” “You Got Me Runnin'”; “I Just Want to Make Love to You,”; “Voodoo Child” and a tribute of “All Along the Watchtower” (Neil Young), which I think they dedicated to Stevie Ray Vaughan. The lead guitar was fantastic and had a great voice. Both of the other 2 backing musicians were very good.
For sheer thrashing showmanship, the young charismatic heavy metal dudes (especially Mike Saviano) scored big, but for musicianship, Ron LaPuma and “Tapped Out” get my vote, with a nod to the pleasant voice of Dani Lynne Howe and her band.
The River Music Experience hosted “live” sessions of five bands on Monday, November 10, 2008 and the sessions were filmed by the Quad City Times for online posting. Arts and entertainment editor David Burke was there to cover the event, which promises to become even better on Tuesday, when the live sessions continue.
I missed the very first band because of an accident on the bridge and the slow traffic on the one-lane River Drive. They were listed as Sinjo Thraw Mash (noise).
Next up were The Unforgiven, consisting of Emily Majetic on guitar and vocals, Paige Kakert on bass guitar, Kayline Malzewski, and Austin Drake on drums. Austin is an 8th grader at Wilson Junior High School in Moline, and both Emily and Kayline are also Wilson Junior High School students. Paige attends Wood Intermediate School in Davenport. All very cute kids. Lots of chutzpah to get up there and sing when they are so young.
Second band was “Bumper Crop,” featuring Craig Smith on vocals and guitar, Justin Moulton on guitar and backing vocals; Dustin Roelle on bass guitar, Joe Hale on drums and Adam Smith on samples and turntables. One of the band members was holding an ice pack to his face moments before showtime and said he’d shut the car door on his head. The drummer for this group was especially good.
“40 Minute Detour” played next, featuring lead singer Chad Clarke, drummer Josh Morrissey and bass player Josh Elmer (AKA, “the new guy”). Josh Morrissey graduated from Wethersfield High School in Kewanee. He spent some time at Augustana before moving to DeKalb and attending Northern Illinois University, majoring in audio engineering. He has a physics degree in that field. When I said I didn’t know that Northern Illinois had an engineering program, he said he had constructed a contract major field where you write up your own major and submit it to the Powers-that-Be and that the field was mostly a physics degree. What does Josh do now for a day job? He works as a metal artist in Bishop Hill, Illinois. Josh is 30 years old, is very cute, and is unmarried.
I asked if he might not find that he has to move to a larger city to pursue his field and he did acknowledge, “I might have to move somewhere else.” One of the band members lives in Port Byron and they practice there “one to two times a week.” When asked what gigs they have played, Josh mentioned the River Music Experience and (in days of yore) the Brew ‘N View (Rock Island.) Both “Bumper Crop” and “40 Minute Detour” (so named because lead singer and songwriter Chad Clarke gets lost a lot and may suffer from “directional dyslexia”) were very good bands.
Also excellent was the evening’s closing act, Tennessee Tony Cavett and Greg Wilde on harmonica. Tennessee Tony has only been in the area about 4 years but that was long enough for him to meet and marry Connie, who works as a surgical nurse at the River Bend Animal Clinic. Born in Chattanooga, Tony said he had been playing music “since I was about 10.”
Tony’s grandmother was the bartender at the only bar at the Nashville airport and, as such, she met a lot of famous singers. She used to take pity on the struggling singers and songwriters she met and she ended up handling all RCA parties for FanFair. “One morning I came downstairs and there was Kris Kristofferson, passed out on our pool table,” said Tony, adding that this was before Kristofferson had made it big. He also reminisced about the time that Brenda Lee sang “Happy Birthday” to him on his 13th birthday. He has met many of the greats in Tennessee, such as Willie Nelson and Ray Charles.
How, exactly, did Tennessee Tony end up in Moline, Illinois?
It’s a long story that involves Hurricane Ike, the Rick Etheridge Tree Service in Moline, Tony’s being out of work and heading to the storm-ravaged area seeking employment. He didn’t find much work, but he met Rick and Rick invited him to come visit in Moline, Illinois if he ever got up here. (Tony was heading to Chicago at the time). One thing led to another and Tony spent the summer in Moline before meeting the lovely Connie and finding employment with a Wisconsin-based telecommunications firm called Network Engineering Techniques, which does all the telecommunications work for Sam’s Club and Walmarts in the Midwest. Tony mentioned “Jason and the Scorchers,” a band that was big in the seventies, and now is in to alternative C&W rock. The “Times” just did a story on them recently.
Tony’s set list, before he left with his lovely bride, included covers of “Midnight Special,” “Singin’ the Blues,” “Talk to Your Daughter,” “Ever Seen the Rain,” “Long Gone Loves Blues,” “You Ain’t Goin Nowhere,” “Hopelessly Hoping” and “Can’t Find My Way Home.” Two original songs that he and his partner sang were entitled “Surrender’s Ferry Lane” and “Painkillers.”
If you read this on Tuesday, stop on down to the River Music Experience where there will be another set of 4 to 5 bands playing “live” and being filmed for the internet. The price was right (i.e., FREE.)
Another attraction will be co-author Mike McCarty (Bram Stoker Finalist, 2005, and Midwest Writing Center Writer of the Year) and me selling and signing copies of our two new books: Ghostly Tales of Route 66 and the sci-fi thriller/romance/adventure novel Out of Time. (For more information on us, go to www.outoftimethenovel.com.) These will make great gifts for those hard-to-buy-for friends, are only $10 and $15 (respectively) and we’ll sign them. (Heck! I’ll even draw a picture of Snoopy on the inside cover if you ask me nicely!) How many other local authors with 80,000 word novels in print can you find while listening to at least five bands absolutely free. With the money you save on a cover charge, BUY A BOOK! (You KNOW you want to!!!)
When I read David Broder’s “Viewpoint” column (Washington Post) on November 6th, I was surprised to read this: “On Tuesday night, I asked two of the wisest and most broadminded people I know in Washington what they thought of Obama’s prospects. One of them, U.S. Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut, had opposed Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination earlier this year. The other, retiring Republican U.S. Representative Ray LaHood of Illinois (Peoria, actually), was an early and ardent supporter of McCain. Both of them are very upbeat about what comes next.”
Ray LaHood was my neighbor for many years in East Moline, Illinois on our 3rd St. B court street. At that time, he worked for the Bi-state Metropolitan Planning Commission, and his son, Darren, was an 8th grade classmate of my son, Scott.
One summer day, Scott came running into the house, breathlessly exclaiming that Darren had built a ramp for his skateboard and, sans helmet, had driven over it at warp speed, fallen and apparently knocked himself out. I was a schoolteacher at the time and home on summer vacation, but Darren’s dad was at work and his mom was not at home at the time. Darren was groggy, but semi-conscious, and it appeared safe to move him by car to the emergency room in Silvis, Illinois (Illini Hospital), which I did. I called Ray, who immediately came to the hospital, and Darren was none the worse for wear.
As for Senator Dodd, when he was campaigning in Iowa during the winter caucus season, he actually moved to a house in Des Moines. He appeared as one of the speakers at the Scott County Red-White-and-Blue Banquet in Davenport, Iowa, along with Joe Biden and Walter Mondale. I also covered him at a downtown Irish pub very near the end of his campaign. The crowd was so small that I got quite a bit of face-time with the then-candidate.
On the night of the Iowa caucuses, I drove to Des Moines, Iowa, as I had done during the year that Howard Dean campaigned for president. My friend’s daughter, Emily, wanted a ride downtown and my Prius in the driveway was blocking their family cars. Emily was in the market for an auto, so I told her to drive my hybrid and we struck off for the downtown, where I would drop her off. With Emily at the wheel, I spied a white-haired man I would have sworn was Chris Dodd. I told Emily, “Stop!” and leaped from the car to chase Chris Dodd for fully 3 blocks through the streets of downtown Des Moines. He was surrounded by a small entourage, but I drew near his left elbow, looked him in the eye, and realized that this man wasn’t Senator Christopher Dodd.
“Hi,” the stranger said, somewhat startled.
“Hi,” I said, sheepishly. I immediately retreated to the car, where Emily was convulsed with laughter.
Emily and I then went to the downtown hotel where John Edwards’ campaign group was staying. we saw Madeline Stowe, Jean Smart and James Denton (the plumber on “Desperate Housewives”) in the lobby. We also ended up in the elevator with Mr. and Mrs. Edwards, John’s parents, and chatted with them about their impending move to New Hampshire on the morrow. [All of this was pre-Reilly Hunter Affair/Scandal days.]
Since the party seemed to be over, Emily and I retreated and I dropped her off at her destination and I returned to my friend’s Des Moines home. But as I drove, I was thinking of the foot race I had run to chase down the bogus Christopher Dodd and how I’d be fending off jokes about that for years to come!
“If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our fathers is alive in our lifetime, who still questions the power of our democracy? This is your answer.” With those words, Obama evoked the title of his best-selling book “Dreams from My Father.” He answered the doubters in the world-at-large who may have thought that the American dream was on its deathbed. “What happens to a dream deferred?” Lorraine Hansberry asked in “A Raisin in the Sun.” “Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?” There had been evidence that immigration numbers were down…that fewer people from other countries wanted to come to the United States—-that some abroad no longer viewed this as the land of opportunity, but they are wrong.
“It’s the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen, by people who waited 3 hours and 4 hours, many for the first time in their lives, because that this time must be different, and they believed that their voices could be that difference.” My daughter voted for the very first time. After careful consideration, she chose to register and vote in her college town of Nashville, Tennessee, which went red, anyway. Young people turned out in record numbers, giving the lie to the label of apathetic that had dogged them. Newly registered voters clogged the polling places, a tribute not only to the outstanding organization of the campaign’s masterminds but also to the determination of a battered and bruised nation to make change a reality.
In his next line, Obama paid tribute to all ethnic groups, including “gay, straight, disabled and not disabled” saying that “Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red states and blue states. We are and always will be the United States of America.” I thought of the American Independence Party, which Sarah Palin seemed to actively support, even from her Governor’s office. I thought of one word: “Amen!”
“It’s the answer that led those who’ve been told for so long to be cynical and fearful and doubtful about what we an achieve, to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more to the hope of a better day.” The fear-mongering tactics that Lee Atwater taught Karl Rove and Karl Rove (“Bush’s Brain”) used over the past 8 years (and which John McCain’s handlers tried to use this year) have been discredited. The majority of citizens figured out that trying to “scare” us out of rational thinking by using color-coded charts and rattling sabers was not the right way to select a leader for this great land. We have, once again, put our hands on the arc of history and bent it to the hope of a better day. Amen to that, also.
In his next paragraph, Senator (now President-Elect) Obama paid tribute to the old warrior who ran against him, Senator John McCain. Both candidates proved to be class acts on election night, although there were times along the way that we all wondered about some of the tactics we were seeing. Guilt by association? We would all go down to defeat if we were held responsible for the sins of every single person we ever met in our lives. Roslyn Carter would be blamed for the crimes of John Wayne Gacy under the reasoning used in some of the ads. There is no question that the final day’s ad using the Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s incendiary comments in an attempt to discredit Barack Obama was among the lowest of many low blows. “Too risky,” it said. What is “too risky” at this point in our nation’s history would have been more of the same.
In his next paragraph, Obama thanked his wife and children and let us all know that a puppy is coming to the White House, I immediately thought of another young president with young children who had horses (a pony named Macaroni) and who played beneath the Oval Office desk. This nation can use the happy sound of children’s laughter and the image of a happy nuclear family in the White House during these trying times. I can almost imagine Caroline Kennedy smiling at the thought, just as I am smiling at the thought.
There were echoes of Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech in Obama’s well-crafted remarks. There were echoes of Abraham Lincoln’s “of the people, by the people and for the people” Gettysburg Address. There was a palpable sense of hope despite adversity, of leadership in tough times, of optimism amongst despair.
I felt proud to be an American last night. I felt proud to have elected the candidate who wants war to stop. I felt glad that I had done what I could to help elect the first African-American, and, some day, I hope to help elect the first female President…just so long as it’s not Sarah Palin, who is the antithesis of nearly every belief I hold. Pretty, yes. Prepared, no.
On this “day-after-the-election” I wanted to share with you, my reader, some of my thoughts and feellings about the historic journey we have all witnessed, and explain my fascination with the cause.
I began covering the candidates who appeared at the Iowa caucuses the year that (Dr.) Howard Dean ran for president. My long-dormant political passion was stoked by drifting across the steet from teaching classes at the Kahl Building in downtown Davenport, Iowa, and wandering into the downtown Dean headquarters. We were urged to stay and share our thoughts and feelings about the state of America. I became hugely disillusioned in the wake of the 2000 election that saw “hanging chads” in Florida and the Supreme Court select George W. Bush as our 43rd president. I found it incomprehensible that one man’s brother (then-Governor Jeb Bush of Florida) could hand the most important office in our land to someone totally unprepared. The process was broken. I, along with many others, felt betrayed. I have felt that only once before…when a 1st Ward Alderman race I had labored long and hard in turned out to be “rigged,” was proven to have had officials at the top playing fast-and-loose with the absentee ballots, but nothing…not one word…was written in the local newspaper, despite the presence of a reporter from same (Jenny Lee of the Moline, Illinois, Daily Dispatch). it is one thing for candidates to cheat and get caught. That happens every day. My point: where is the retribution? Where is the “gotcha'” moment that restores the true, natural order of the universe? It seemed that the sense of decency and honesty in the election process that i had watched my father helped preserve in his races for Democratic County Treasurer of Buchanan County (IA) had evaporated, and in its place was corruption at the very heart of the political process…even in small-town America. If counties like Rock Island County, Illinois, were proven to be as dirty as Cook County in Chicago, what was the world coming to? And if proving it, in court, didn’t bring at least a slap on the hand to the perpetrators, could our national election process be far behind in granting complete impunity to those who would steal our democracy from us?
I live in a divided household, an Arnold Schwarzenegger/Maria Shriver split, with no one but me weighing in as a Democrat or…at times…an Independent. When one family member admits to glee at the time that JFK was shot, the feeling of complete alienation from what is right and what is good becomes pervasive. I have never wished death on a candidate, no matter how corrupt or evil I might perceive them to be. I have the same horror of that kind of thinking as I do for not trying (at least) to see the other person’s point of view.
Many times, my life partner would tell me that, in expressing my support for a candidate that (apparently) did not provide congruency with his own choices, I was or had been “obnoxious.” This meant that I had spoken my mind about the lack of preparedness or the general quality of a Repubican, usually, and I had found them wanting. at the same time, I hosted coffees for a Republican neighbor (Ray LaHood, last out of Peoria) and contributed to more than one Republican candidate (Andrea Zinga, Dave Machacek) so, was I really the blind straight-party voting ticket person that my spouse accused me of being during various discussions that generated far more heat than light? No. I was someone who would weigh the candidates and try my best to select that individual who could best lead our country in troubled times.
No times are more troubled than now. The economy is spiraling downward. We are fighting on two fronts. Our esteem abroad seemed irreparably shattered by a pre-emptive war that should never have been started, begun by a man who wanted to show dear old dad that he could do it better. History will judge if junior did a better job or a worse job than his father, but, as for me, in my semi-retirement, determined to write as I had always planned to do, I became political.
Oh, we still observed the political sticker moratorium, after the years of a Republican bumper sticker being applied over a Democratic bumper sticker ad nauseum, but I was not content to sit idly by and watch my country go down the tubes in the wake of George W. Bush. I became convinced that a president who was determined to ‘win at any costs” and a running mate with little or no foreign policy experience and some very esoteric views about the rest of the world and science and religion spelled certain doom for what remained of this once-great nation.
And I also decided that the best way for me to contribute to the victory of one (of many excellent Democratic candidates (Obama, Clinton, Richardson, Edwards, et. al.) as opposed to the reactionary forces of the Republicans arrayed against them was to throw off the cloak of meek-and-mild indifference and DO SOMETHING. Anything. Even if it was the wrong something, it would be better than a Bush clone in the White House. After all, what more could the man ruin.
It was this decision, made during a previous election run, that led me to ‘blog” for Iowa (www.blogforiowa), which, no doubt, earned me a place on George W. Bush’s enemies list. I took popular song lyrics and turned them into political gems aimed at exposing the Man Who Would be King. With humor, I aimed barbs at “the Decider,” covering Abu Ghraib and all things horrible like it. My journey had begun, and it would not end until November 4, 2008, in Grant Park in Chicago (see video above).
Through the bitter cold of Iowa’s winter, I tracked caucus candidates like Joe Biden and Christopher Dodd and Hillary Clinton and John Edwards and Barack obama to school gymnasiums and people’s living rooms. I listened to their message(s) of change and hope. I contributed cash, but, more importantly, I contributed time and effort, attempting to let others know what I was able to observe, up-close-and-personal. Yes, some of my early heroes turned out to have feet of clay (Edwards, anyone?), but the eventual winner of this marathon race seems like the right man for the job at the right time in history.
The palpable enthusiasm at last night’s part gathering was like a city celebrating a World Series or a Super Bowl victory. Just a few moments ago, sitting in my 7th floor condo on Indiana Avenue near Hutchinson Field, a red balloon, no doubt left over from last night’s celebration, drifted past my balcony door. Today, though I am tired, I feel that, somehow, we, as a nation are back on the right track. It is a given that other nation’s will see Barack Obama as a worthy representative of this nation’s highest ideals. After years of a stumbling, incoherent leader who not only could not speak well, but could not lead well, we will have a well-qualified, well-educated, hard-working man who seems to genuinely love his family and his country in ways that do not visit death and destruction on the rest of the world.
I pray for Barack Obama on this day-after-the-election. I revel in the knowledge that I was “there,” inside, at the Pepsi Center in Denvr, at the Excel Center in St. Paul, at the Target Center for the Ron Paul Rally in Minneapolis, at the Iowa caucuses, at the Belmont Town Hall Meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, and, last night, in Grant Park where Barack Obama started this nation on a brand new journey that I hope will restore this country’s honor and reputation, both abroad and at home.
I just read that Christine, Kevin Costner’s wife, who is now pregnant with their second child, encouraged him to take his band (Modern West, I believe) and to appear in some Nashville singing gigs. I can forgive Christine this indiscretion, as she is, after all, preggers, and the hormones must be raging.
When I read David Broder’s “Viewpoint” column (Washington Post) on November 6th, I was surprised to read this: “On Tuesday night, I asked two of the wisest and most broadminded people I know in Washington what they thought of Obama’s prospects. One of them, U.S. Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut, had opposed Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination earlier this year. The other, retiring Republican U.S. Representative Ray LaHood of Illinois (Peoria, actually), was an early and ardent supporter of McCain. Both of them are very upbeat about what comes next.”