Tall in the Saddle

1. Elmore Leonard died last week. He was 87. Most notably recognized for his crime/noir fiction, Mr. Leonard's (he is esteemed and ranks high in my pantheon therefore, 'Mr') works first caught the attention of Hollywood in the 50's. However, it was a novel, 'Get Shorty' and a subsequent movie in 1995 that catapulted Mr. Leonard into the public eye. Another novel, 'Rum Punch' attracted Quentin Tarantino, who adapted and cast Pam Grier into the title role and called the film, 'Jackie Brown,' arguably the best movie that QT has ever made. A short story of Mr. Leonard's, 'Fire in the Hole,' is the underpinning for the successful cult series, 'Justified.' But back to the 50's. I'll bet that only true aficionados knew Mr. Leonard was a prolific short story Western writer. His dialogue and his obvious fondness for Western genre became a source, a flowing river of gold, for films such as: Valdez is Coming, Hombre, the classic 3:10 to Yuma, Joe Kidd, and a movie I recently watched, and which some refer to as the best Western of the 50's, The Tall T. Elmore Leonard. He was old school. Colorful. And a man among boys.

2. Best summer reading: 'Canada' by Richard Ford. 'The Art of Fielding' by Chad Harbach.

3. Monday. Honor Labor.

Uh, Who dat...

1. From personal experience, the poetry/lit circuit...was both fascinating and brutal. All alone on stage, or behind a podium in a well lit room, being 'on' never felt comfortable to me. The intellectual property was there; I owned it. Committed to paper. It was crazy. Sometime, I was so ebullient from the read, it would carry me for days. Other sessions were tainted by....intense stage fright. Which brings me to the best movie I've seen all year, '20 Feet from Stardom.' An indie production which
'fronts' the backup singers, most notably, Darlene Love, Lisa Fischer, Merry Clayton and Judith Hill who we've all heard behind Luther Vandross, Springsteen, the Stones, David Bowie, Sting etc. but never really knew who exactly some of them were until now. From the opening beat of Lou Reed's 'Walk on the Wild Side,' to his iconic line: 'and the colored girls go, Doo do doo, doo do doo, doo do doo.' this movie will enlighten and blow your mind. Anyone who has hummed a melody or sung lyrics from a radio tune should see this indie, and shame on you if you don't. Face it, it takes a gigantic ego to front a band; on the other hand, the backup singer (s) are unique quasi mysterious partners. Who give it all up to let it rip behind the lead vocal. It is the ultimate 'having their backs.' You might be humming after you see this film,  but music will never sound the same
again. This is a great enriching tribute.

2. The accompanying photo: left to right: Jo Lawry, Judith Hill and Lisa Fischer.

3. Completely comatose on my couch the other night, I was awakened by the Amber alert which exploded from my cell phone. That was some scary gloom and doom shit. Who knew the phone was linked into the alert???