Nothing wakes you up to the reality of growing older than the passing of celebrities that were part of your formative years.  Sure, some of the greatest of all time have passed in the last 30 years, but I had always viewed them as part of a different generation.  Then those that I have always know begin to pass.  While John Hughes’s passing earlier this year was a shock, this one hurts more.

I remember the summer of my senior year in high school in 1987.  Dirty Dancing came out and became the hit nobody saw coming because they were focused on Beverly Hills Cop II.  While Swayze was in The Outsiders and Red Dawn, Dirty Dancing was his breakout role.  Mom wanted to see it because of the story; Dad was interested because he had liked Swayze’s acting in North and South; and I went along because it was a free movie.  I ended up enjoying the movie like most everyone else.

Jump to 1989.  Next Of Kin comes out with Swayze and Liam Neeson.  Not a great cinematic piece, but just a fun movie to watch with the guys.  Then one of my favorite guilty pleasures in movies, Road House, came out.  Say what you will but I can not change the channel once this pops up on TV.

Point Break hit and further cemented Swayze as an action star, but he wanted more.  He returned to his romantic roots with Ghost, which along with Dirty Dancing, made him the “guy” all women wanted.  After Ghost, his career was up and down and he seemed to lose interest in the “biz”.

A whole new generation got to discover him with his A&E show, The Beast.  It is a shame that it came so late such that we had only one season to enjoy it.

Well, Mejo, I’ll wrap this up now so that you can save Baby from being placed in a corner by an angel…

Wow…

One of the unfortunate tasks of this site is to write obituaries for those that had an impact on movies that have passed on.  This is one that is tough for me…

I was born in 1970, which means my middle-school and high-school years took place in the heart of the 80s.  Sure, we had Spielberg and Lucas doing their thing, but it was John Hughes that made the movies most relatable to me.  My first date was to go see Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.  The Breakfast Club showed me that kids are kids, period.  Some Kind of Wonderful showed me that we are all fools when it comes to teen love.  Nate and Hayes was my mom’s favorite pirate movie and made us watch it several times.

No one has come close to what he did with his movies: defining the high school generation….

However, the moose now says that this chapter is now closed…..Hughes……Hughes……

I know this is a couple of months late, but better late than never.

I watched a lot of TV as a kid and, depending on where that TV was located, I would be stuck watching movies instead of the cartoons I was always looking for.  One afternoon at my grandmother’s, I found this movie playing where a guy was trying to eat a bunch of eggs.  I didn’t know who Paul Newman was at that time, but I recognized George Kennedy from an appearance on The Love Boat, so I kept watching.  While I was too young to understand the entire movie, I could tell that I had watched a good one.  I ended up catching Cool Hand Luke in its entirety on a different visit to my grandmother’s house.

On a Christmas visit to my grandmother’s house, we all decided to go to the movies one night.  Paul Newman had a new movie out, Absence of Malice.  Being only 11, I did not enjoy the movie as much as the “adults” did, but some scenes that I have seen since may have me revisit it at some point.

Then my parents started doing the VCR thing in the mid-80s.  One of the first movies they rented was Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.  Again, I found another movie that was entertaining on different levels.  it also removed the “bad” taste in my mouth from Absence of Malice.

Over the years I had opportunities to see other Newman movies.  He was a great villain in The Hudsucker Proxy.  One night, after a group of us had gone to the Orlando Solar Bears game, we watched Slap Shot and I was introduced to the Hansen Brothers.

While the man was great on-screen, it is his efforts off-screen that truly define his greatness.  His work with kids and the amounts of money he raised for various charities changed the lives of many.  One of the local radio hosts discussed a charity event that was saved at the last minute by Newman.

The next time you have a drink, raise one up for a man who made his mark on several generations…

When I was young, my mom let me watch Grease way too many times.

I am glad she did; otherwise I would have missed out on many fun performances.  Dody Goodman played the high school secretary to ultimate airheaded fun.  She did this again in Grease 2 and then a variant in Splash.

She excelled at playing the ditz, much like Grace Allen did.

Here are two quotes from Grease, said so innocently by a sweet old lady:

Principal McGee: Blanche, do you have the schedules?
Blanche: Yes Ms. McGee, I just had my hands on them.
Principal McGee: Oh good, they’ll be nice and smudged.
Blanche: Oh here they are. If they would have been a snake they would have bitten me.
Principal McGee: Blanche, these are the schedules we had for last semester. Maybe next year you’ll find the ones for this semester.

Blanche: When I hear music, I just can’t make my feet behave.
Sonny: Thinks she’s Tinkerbell.
Blanche: Hush, Sonny.

This one surprised me.

There are actors/actresses that we think are timeless and that we will always have around: George Burns, Jimmy Stewart.

For most people, the reactions is “they were still alive?” — then it changes to “oh man I really liked…”

Irreverent but brilliant, Carlin provided commentary wrapped in humor that took many of us many years before we realized the true meaning of his words.  In movies, he delighted us, whether as Bill and Ted’s guide or as a Cardinal in Dogma; he never failed us.

While many will cite his landmark “7 Words” monologue, a much different one holds a special place in my heart.  It was the first routine I ever saw of his and, thanks to the baseball almanac site’s transcript, I am able to post it here.  As you read it, imagine a silly voice for the baseball parts and a gruff, deep voice for the football parts.

Baseball is different from any other sport, very different. For instance, in most sports you score points or goals; in baseball you score runs. In most sports the ball, or object, is put in play by the offensive team; in baseball the defensive team puts the ball in play, and only the defense is allowed to touch the ball. In fact, in baseball if an offensive player touches the ball intentionally, he’s out; sometimes unintentionally, he’s out.

Also: in football,basketball, soccer, volleyball, and all sports played with a ball, you score with the ball and in baseball the ball prevents you from scoring.

In most sports the team is run by a coach; in baseball the team is run by a manager. And only in baseball does the manager or coach wear the same clothing the players do. If you’d ever seen John Madden in his Oakland Raiders uniform,you’d know the reason for this custom.

Now, I’ve mentioned football. Baseball & football are the two most popular spectator sports in this country. And as such, it seems they ought to be able to tell us something about ourselves and our values.

I enjoy comparing baseball and football:

Baseball is a nineteenth-century pastoral game.
Football is a twentieth-century technological struggle.

Baseball is played on a diamond, in a park.The baseball park!
Football is played on a gridiron, in a stadium, sometimes called Soldier Field or War Memorial Stadium.

Baseball begins in the spring, the season of new life.
Football begins in the fall, when everything’s dying.

In football you wear a helmet.
In baseball you wear a cap.

Football is concerned with downs – what down is it?
Baseball is concerned with ups – who’s up?

In football you receive a penalty.
In baseball you make an error.

In football the specialist comes in to kick.
In baseball the specialist comes in to relieve somebody.

Football has hitting, clipping, spearing, piling on, personal fouls, late hitting and unnecessary roughness.
Baseball has the sacrifice.

Football is played in any kind of weather: rain, snow, sleet, hail, fog…
In baseball, if it rains, we don’t go out to play.

Baseball has the seventh inning stretch.
Football has the two minute warning.

Baseball has no time limit: we don’t know when it’s gonna end – might have extra innings.
Football is rigidly timed, and it will end even if we’ve got to go to sudden death.

In baseball, during the game, in the stands, there’s kind of a picnic feeling; emotions may run high or low, but there’s not too much unpleasantness.
In football, during the game in the stands, you can be sure that at least twenty-seven times you’re capable of taking the life of a fellow human being.

And finally, the objectives of the two games are completely different:

In football the object is for the quarterback, also known as the field general, to be on target with his aerial assault, riddling the defense by hitting his receivers with deadly accuracy in spite of the blitz, even if he has to use shotgun. With short bullet passes and long bombs, he marches his troops into enemy territory, balancing this aerial assault with a sustained ground attack that punches holes in the forward wall of the enemy’s defensive line.

In baseball the object is to go home! And to be safe! – I hope I’ll be safe at home!