I was gonna get up and bitch about having to go back to work today after being off for about 10 days. Then I saw the news about Robin Williams, and I guess I don’t feel like complaining about work. When I was a projectionist, we ran the hell out of ‘Dead Poets Society’ after having run the sneak for it a couple of weeks before it officially came out (one of the rare times the production company actually called after the show to ask about the audience reaction).
I remember seeing Robin Williams on several of his Tonight Show appearances. It was like watching an unstoppable force of nature – he was so fast and so funny it was exhausting just to watch. His stand up shows were no different (just longer and even more exhausting). He made a ton of exceptional movies (I even liked Popeye – so sue me) as well and I ran a couple of them back in the day – aside from DPS (where I had to teach one of my ushers that it’s “i before e except after c or even after what sounds like ‘see'” because he spelled it “Sieze the Day” on the side of the marquee – which I always like to think of as the Marquee de Side. Fun fact, a few years before DPS, Williams was in the movie adaptation of Saul Bellow’s “Seize the Day”), there was Good Morning Vietnam, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen .
Ah, we were both so much younger back then.
I guess Robin found a kindred spirit in the late, great Jonathan Winters. I’d have loved to have been on the set of Mork and Mindy to watch those two together off stage. I think maybe to be that funny, you have to have a lot of pain in your heart.
And the world is suddenly a lot less funny today.
I was really shocked when I heard about Robin Williams. I had to listen again to make sure I heard it correctly.
That day RW was in our office, he conducted his phone interviews in an office with a big glass window. He did not do most of them sitting. Being a good employee, I was actually out in the field most of the day but the ladies out front had a ringside seat all day.
Robin Williams quotes
pj, is this the first day at the new job? I lost track.
Yep, first day on the new job. Though I’m sitting at the same desk and using the same computer for now.
That clip made me laugh so hard I cried.
pj, I thought your new job was in a different building, no?
Nope, same IMT dept, same building. At some point I’ll be going to another windowless office a few doors down the hall. There’s talk that they’re going to be moving all of us to a new place downtown (I realize referring to “downtown” Syracuse is kind of a joke to you folks who live in real cities, but we’re out in the ‘burbs at the moment, with free parking) when the lease runs out on our current digs in May. But we’ve been on the verge of moving about five times in the past four years, so I’ll beleive it when I see it. I’m actually looking forward to it happening so I can start taking the bus to and from work.
That was where my confusion may have begun, the discussion of the impending (sort of) move.
And now Lauren Bacall. Who will #3 be?
Listening to all the clips of Robin today while at work just made me more sad. Then watching the news.
It was an abrupt ironic change of mood yesterday after listening to Marc’s great interview with Bob Newhart who has an easy laugh and was able to enjoy his career and life which is not easy for comics or actors.Salon.com cited Maron’s touching tribute to Williams and provided the link Vernon posted yesterday.
I’m off to KC to put my dad in a nursing home. I wish he was enjoying his life but that’s moved several years past a possibility.
Safe travel, Art, I don’t envy you.
Thanks OKat.
http://youtu.be/QSgqrrWyF0Y
Sorry, I don’t know why that became a reply instead of a separate post.
Good luck, Art. That is a tough one. My Dad could no longer take care of himself and I had to ‘drag’ him to an assisted living facility. It took a lot of negotating and convincing. By the time he got there his dementia was far enough along he didn’t notice the difference and my sister and I were very relieved. Man cannot live on Stouffer’s frozen spinach souffles and chipped beef on toast (SOS) alone.
http://youtu.be/QSgqrrWyF0Y
Actually, the edit function is gone and the embed doesn’t want to cooperate so let me just say thatpersonally the passing of Lauren Bacall is harder for me than Robin. Must be those formative years.
Farewell, Ms. Bacall and thanks!
See emos above. Click on link.
Yeah, after the last WP update (which now happens automagically w/o any intervention on my part) the edit plugin was disabled (not that I noticed it). I enabled it, and got nothing but a blank screen on the plugin admin page so I was forced to get rid of it entirely. I’ll have to shop around for something new. In the meantime, i guess y’all just better get it right the first time.
I’ll try one more… Not looking good.
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Bacall to Arms 1946 by alpacalover67214
I can’t say that Lauren Bacall didn’t help me form my early excpectations of the ideal woman with a husky voice, world weary and having a way with a cigarette.
My sister just texted me that my dad tried to eat the wrapper on some fast food.
The hardest thing will be extracting my 96 yr old step-mom who has enabled his diabetes to the edge of the grave with unending
supplies of sweets and desserts. She’s the more funtional of the two and is in pretty good shape for a 96 yr old.
Lawrence O’Donell on The Lst Word just played some of the Maron interview with Robin and said some very nice things about Marc and WTF.
Mr FK and I listened to the interview tonight. I am glad Marc was let in to Robin William’s world so that we could get a glimpse of the man that was Robin Williams.
Johnny Ray Allen, founding member of the subdudes, dead at 56
Johnny Ray Allen, a founding member of the subdudes, a Louisiana band that spent its formative years playing the Boulder-Fort Collins-Denver music scene, died at his home in New Orleans on Friday, Aug. 8.
Allen’s wife, Martha Reggett Allen, told The Times-Picayune of New Orleans her husband was found dead of unknown causes. She told the newspaper he had a heart condition and that an autopsy was scheduled for Monday. Results are pending.
Art, you have all my sympathy and good wishes. I know what it was like when I had to care for my mom and I am horrified at the idea of doing that to my kids.
PJ, I hope that move happens and the new site has windows galore.
I watched O’Donnell. last night. He said he has listened to all the WTF podcasts.
I alsdo learned that Bacall came from Brooklyn..
PJ, mr fk is up your way this weekend. He’s speaking on Saturday.
Does he need a projectionist?
Hee!
Sent here twice in one year? He must’ve pissed somebody off.