Book Reviews in Random Thought Format

Tom Davis' : 39 Years of Short Term Memory Loss

The latest SNL insider book I've torn through. Some thoughts:
- People perpetually seem unable or unwilling to bite the hand that feeds them, aka Lorne Michaels...which either means he's worth the hype, or he's got the power to crush.
- Tom Davis is an outsider and always has been...even when he was that close to the inside.
- He and Ackyroyd are very close.
- Davis' life has been full of adventure but his carreer is pretty much Franken-SNL-post-SNL chilling...including the Coneheads movie
- Reading a slacker's opinion of what's become an institution is interesting because aside from not really whipping Lorne, he can be pretty frank and truthful




Michael J. Fox Always Looking Up
Fox's second memoir...heroic and tear-inspiring
- Like Steve Martin, MJF's writing style is so close to his speaking voice that you can 'hear' him writing the passages...tragically, that includes the quiver and waver we've heard as his symptoms have worsened.
- To hear him tell it, we're thisclose to curing PD and other diseases, if the government would help.
- He doesn't go in depth on his career (his first book Lucky Man included passages about his films right before his diagnosis) ... Some time is spent on MJF leaving Spin City and developing his successful foundation.
- His recollection of the Tour de France, with appearances by Robin Williams, John Cleese and Lance Armstrong is very memorable and demonstrates hs journey but also his humility.



If you're interested in entertainers' memoirs, I recommend both of these books. The first for a different opinion of a monument that seems so universal ('used to be classic, now it sucks' - every season since the second)...the latter a devastating but inspiring book broken up into sections: Family, Faith, Work, Politics - that all blend together.

manoli's daily dose

for gabe. as ever.

8:45 AM - coffee. water. grapes.
11:00AM- egg whites with turkey and vegetables. coffee. banana. yogurt.
2:00PM - greek salad with chicken and egg whites. 1 BBQ rib, 1 slice BBQ steak

Good Friday

We started the shoot at 5am in TriBeCa, Duane St. Most of the day spent in a vacant building we fitted to be "The Boland Initiative", a non-profit the script called for to be the workplace of our Season 19 finale's victim. (Bonus points for the Seton Hall connection, in name only).

After lunch, as we soaked in some of the beautiful weather and avoided pigeon-bombs, who should walk by but Michael Imperioli, late of "Life on Mars" AND masterful on "The Sopranos" as Christopher Moltisanti. Briefly, I expressed my sadness to hear about the cancellation of 'Mars' - moreso for my friends and former co-workers on that show than for him, since I'm sure he'll hop onto another project soon, maybe even David Chase's new project at HBO "Ribbon of Dreams" Michael left quickly. He worked on this show while Jesse L Martin shot the Rent movie. I was very happy to have met him, but as it goes with sightings and meetings, I wish it was in a setting where I could talk to him about his work.

Yadda, yadda, yadda...We finished the shoot, started wrapping out and I was back on the road by about 9:30. Cruising back to Union to be ill-equipped for and 80s-themed event at Geppetto's...I think my days in tights and eye-liner are over. Thank God. Usually Friday night foolery, but without the Union Idol Kareokery provided by Kevin Glackin. Made some connections, some reconnections. Talked. Stayed a while, played a while.

Beefed it in the parking lot while experimenting in my new hobby: skateboarding. Yes, friends, I have embraced my inner 12 year old, the Marty McFly I left behind, to try my hand -or feet- at the Tony Hawk Experience. Make no mistake; I am not good at it. But it is fun, very fun, and since I am at the point in the learning curve where every time I try, I am learning a new element of the basics, it's still interesting and keeping my attention. The only thing I ever did when I first had a skateboard was ride down my driveway on my belly. My fear kept me from eventually becoming the Jeep-trailer hoverboarder I'm sure I would have been. Now I am affording myself that opportunity, despite my age, inexperience and belly-smile.

So, with a bleeding forearm and a smile on my face, I headed onto the main artery, Morris Avenue, to head home. Stopped at the light, I look to my left at the car next to me and Mood Bar/Club/Sushi/Oh Yeah clearing out beyond it and am surprised to see my cousin Elia driving home as well. His family lives about a block and half away. His hair was much longer than the usual buzz he wears and he was wearing all white, a strange figure in the night. As I figured, and would later confirm, he too was coming home from a party after work. Sharing bemused but exhausted expressions, we rolled down our windows and he asked me, straight-faced, the question of the night: Why weren't you at church?


Editorially, I am wondering if I should elaborate on how these unconnected events all crescendoed with that question, or leave it there, fact-based and without analysis for any interested reader to examine themselves. By publishing these things online, they stop being mine and belong to the reader, to make of what they will.

I suppose the goal of this whole project is to gain insight; hoping that by writing things out, a clearer sense of who the writer is will be gained...Right now, though, I haven't made enough progress and I am still scraping my elbows.

The Supreme Court presents Bread Line! (Smile! Smile! Smile!)

Some of you may recall the merriment that was had late December when The Vile Bros, including yours truly, debuted on the stage of The People's Improv Theater in lovely Manhattan with their show Santa's Uneaten Cookies - a sketch comedy romp through the holidays.

Well, now we're back and we're bringing along some new (old) friends and changing our name.

I happily announce:

The Vile Bros are now

The Supreme Court in

Bread Line (Smile! Smile! Smile!) at

The People's Improv Theater in

New York City on

May 16th at

7pm for

$10.

This Whitman's Sampler of sketches comes fresh from the pencils of Matthew Allen, Chris Aurilio, Phil Casale, Meghan Conda, Gary De Noia, Dan Keck, Anik Sood & your favorite Greek-American and is loosely based on the current economic crisis that people talk about on shows my dad watches and also teenage space travel, sex toys and dreams! (and that's already saying too much!)

Check out the event on Facebook!

and while you're there, be our friend!

The Laptop Lives Again!

"I'm too old for this shit." - Roger Murtaugh, Lethal Weapon

I am typing this on my freshly refurbished IBM Thinkpad R52, now and forever wiped of it's Setonian crapware and freshy-fresh thanks to the technical skills of Jason, the husband of L&O's Bahston-bred Location Coahdinatah, Crista. A million thanks to Jason for making it that much easier for me to babble on-and-on on this infernal machine.

I understand it took some elbow grease, like taking out hard drives and making images and transponsters and other things I don't know about, saving me from the walk of shame to the basement of Corrigan Hall, an evil sex-dungeon of computerization that I thought I'd left forever, to beg for a reimage.



Three cheers to Jason!

Hip-hip hooray! Hip-hip hooray! Hip-hip hooray!



Now back to your regularly scheduled programming!







PS Does anyone else out there in Bloggywood find it frustrating formatting entries with pictures...The Aykroyd post drove me bananas trying to format and I still wasn't happy with the result. Everytime I change one thing, the whole thing conks out. What gives?

That's great! Actual, physical contact! Can you move?

Through the magic of convenient timing, Schoch and myself were able to get through crawling traffic and Holland Tunnel magic in time to meet original Not-Ready-For-Prime-Time Player, Blues Brother and once and future Ghostbuster, Dan Aykroyd at his bottle signing in Elizabeth, NJ.

There were lots of people, but after about half an hour we got our minute in front of Beldar.It went something like this:


M: Hello, sir. My name's Manny and I also do sketch comedy.
D: Oh, yeah?...Who should I make this out to?
M: Manoli. M-A-N-O-L-I.
D: Where do you work?
M: Well, right now I work at Law & Order but I want to be on Saturday Night Live.
He sort of chuckles and hands me back my photo.
D: Thanks for coming out...Stick with it!
We shake hands.

Manoli, Rock on! Dan Aykroyd (Ray)

Eventually, I hope to get all four GBs to sign the photo.

He signed photos for Dan and I, and we snapped these shots. There wasn't really time to get 1-on-1 photos but that's okay. The Liquor Store was playing Blues Bros. music and there were fans of all ages there with BB tees, DVDs of Trading Places and Ghost Busters. A pre-teen had memorized a BB sketch for school, but we weren't privy to a performance. We chatted with other fans about where, geographically, Dan, Chevy, Bill & Lorne were from, while in aisle 8 (beers).

Seeing him in three dimensions was powerful. It makes it real. It's good to know real people are the ones creating the material that has been entertaining and inspiring so many people, including myself for over 30 years. Obviously, I wish there was an opportunity to spend more time, but we got in there right before the end of the event and the already brisk pace was really flying by the time we turned down aisle 7 (chips/soda), the home stretch. So many questions I would've liked to ask. About the work, advice. About the stories I've heard about and read about and about Tom Davis' recent book that includes two loving chapters about 'Danny' and his family and most importantly, about comedy and writing and performing...but there'll be another time...

For now, I'm sticking with it.

Reading List

Right now the pile is only in size order, not of when I'll be reading them. Let me know if you've read any of them and what your thoughts are. It'll help me decide an order....

Right now, unpictured, I've launched into Tom Davis' memoir about his career at SNL in the very beginning of the series, 39 Years of Short Term Memory Loss. It's the latest in my recent binge on SNL books, including the oral history Live From New York, The Chris Farley Show, and Jay Mohr's Gasping for Airtime. It'll be interesting to get a survivor's view. And now to the list:

Sandman Keck left these in my car recently and I'm going to read them (Thanks, Dan). Standard borrowing comics etiquette applies. I hear these are legit classic comics, so I'm excited to finally read the first 3 volumes.

Flowers for Algernon One of those school reading list mainstays that I never was assigned. The book was a gift and I'm looking forward to reading it eventually, but I don't feel an urge yet. Also...Matthew Modine?

Visions of Cody The latest in my foray into the Beats (one day I'll tell you about the year it took me to read Kerouac's The Subterraneans...) I'm impressed by his prose style but also his perspective on having creative people around him and his generosity with them: of love, attention, and sharing of ideas while at the same time enjoying the moments as they come.

The Art of War An 'essential' to navigating the professional world, I've made my way through the main text, now I'm onto the annotated section with commentary.

Clapton A Sal. Army snag. Patty Boyd. Tears of Heaven.

An actor prepares Method. Another Sal. Army snag. Emotions. pretention. Strasberg

Middlesex Oprah rears her powerful head. Recommended by a co-worker, this one seems demented and also is written by a sympatrioti, so I'll check it out.

Always Looking Up Michael J Fox's second memoir...he is an very powerful person, with strength, love and perspective. I'll probably cry.

Nobody Belongs Here More Than You I've not given this back to whom it belongs in a long time. I think she replaced it. So I'm going to finish the 2-3 stories I've yet to read and then put it in my bookshelf where it hasn't lived yet.

The Greek War of Independence you know.

The Beats an impulse buy...a graphic history of the movement...I don't know much about it, except there are drawings of some authors I read and plenty of faces I don't know yet either...wondering where I'll land on this when I'm done...Also, makes me think of how they'll visualize the film of On the Road that is being developed for film

Elia Kazan I'm working through this one now, but I've slowed down. Directed some powerful films...hoping this biography will breathe life into the asterisk next to his name in history

McQueen A biography of one of the coolest. It belongs to my uncle from when he used to live here, along with several other Hollywood insiders I'm slogging through. I've watched a doc on him and loved it. Robert Evans The Kid Stays in the Picture featues a memorable, heated exchange between Evans & McQueen over the former's son and the latter's stepson (after McQueen and Ali MacGraw ran off together while shooting a film, The Getaway)

The Yankee Years Joe Torre's NYC memoir - my uncle left it here recently. Since it's here, I'll read it.

The vertical books aren't actively in the list. The film one was a graduation gift. Eventually, I'd like to have seen all the movies featured in it. The poetry book was the text for a poetry class I took in college. I never traded it in, but also haven't opened it nor read a poem in some time.