David G. Cookson's Blog, page 18
May 21, 2018
Caddyshack
Caddyshack: The Making of a Hollywood Cinderella Story by Chris NashawatyMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Caddyshack, a classic comedy from 1980 featuring Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, and Rodney Dangerfield, has a backstory that is as interesting as the movie itself. And Chis Nashawaty’s book may serve as the definitive chronicle of a drug-addled party that was the filming of Caddyshack.
(Ok. So I’ve never actually seen Caddyshack. But I’ll probably give it a look now. My guess is that I will not be blown away by it because anytime something is billed as a classic or a must see or whatever is about when I realize that my taste and sense of humor is not quite in the same wheelhouse as others. Example: I cannot stand Adam Sandler movies, and shockingly enough, I am not really a 3 Stooges fan, either.)
I hope I’m wrong about how I’ll feel about the movie, because the book is a hoot.
Nashawaty delves into the whole story of the making of the film, how first time director Harold Ramis (Spengler in Ghostbusters) basically tried to make the most of the anarchic wit of his players, including the irrepressible Bill Murray. He starts with the founding of National Lampoon Magazine, (with the strange and ultimately sad tale of Doug Kenney) and how that led to Saturday Night Live and then movies.
But where the book really soars is in the tale of the film shoot in Florida, where the dream of making a movie that would at once be about class warfare but then strangely turn into the tale that somehow involves the use of a animatronic gopher (like I said, I haven’t seen it yet.).
This book is fun, but I will warn the overly sensitive: this movie and everything surrounding it was a product of the 70s. It’s not always a pretty picture.
Now…onto the movie!
View all my reviews
May 19, 2018
The Rise and Fall of the Parochialist (part two of three)
Looking back…I never had a shot at this. I know this now. But at the time, it was a huge labor that I spent quite a bit of time trying to make happen. I’m not above putting my energy behind a stupid or hopeless cause. After all, what is the point of living if you aren’t willing to do something pointless at a 100 miles an hour once in a while? I made flyers, I blogged about it, I posted to my Myspace page (because that was still a thing at the time), I told all my friends from the Pub where I worked, I shoved ballots in front of people to get them to vote for me…it was a push like I’d never pushed before. I tried so hard, in fact, that when I didn’t win so much as an honorable mention, I just said “to hell with it.” And while I can’t say it was the whole reason for project, it was at least a catalyst.
The First post included this explanation for what I was attempting to do:
"There are things in the CP that I do like to read, such as Savage Love, Political Animal, This Modern World, etc. Not to mention that CP is a free source for what’s going on in Baltimore on any given week. How can I still get this information without having to resort to picking up the paper that irritates me so much?
Well, here’s where my plucky resourcefulness comes in. I am making my own bastardized version of the City Paper, for my own personal use, (minus their snotty, annoying commentary) and you can too! Print it out for yourself, add your own columns!"
Since City Paper came out on Wednesdays, The Parochialist came out on Thursdays. The rage that led me to that first post kept up for several weeks, and by the end of the month I stumbled across a hook that kept the fans into it for several weeks. It was my top 5 reasons why I was boycotting the City Paper. For the record, here they were:
5. The Handling of a local club’s closing. I didn’t like the way they smeared someone in the way they did. 4. They reviewed a Weird Al show in a very snarky manner. Which REALLY upset me. 3. Their “Short Fiction Contest” after-comments…which were typically snotty. 2. Their Borat Movie review. Admittedly, I never saw that film. But this review was typical of their style at the time. Unhelpful to simply call a movie bad and offer no explanation. 1. They ignore me. Yeah…this one was the driving factor.
In retrospect…I think at least 4 of those reasons were valid. I’ll let you guess which 4. That might have been the highpoint of the blog’s run. Towards the end of that year, I had called off my boycott. It didn’t make sense for me to dedicate time to making fun of a paper that I wasn’t even reading. I played a CD release party, to relative success. My girlfriend and I flew to Vegas over Christmas to get married in secret…
The First post included this explanation for what I was attempting to do:
"There are things in the CP that I do like to read, such as Savage Love, Political Animal, This Modern World, etc. Not to mention that CP is a free source for what’s going on in Baltimore on any given week. How can I still get this information without having to resort to picking up the paper that irritates me so much?
Well, here’s where my plucky resourcefulness comes in. I am making my own bastardized version of the City Paper, for my own personal use, (minus their snotty, annoying commentary) and you can too! Print it out for yourself, add your own columns!"
Since City Paper came out on Wednesdays, The Parochialist came out on Thursdays. The rage that led me to that first post kept up for several weeks, and by the end of the month I stumbled across a hook that kept the fans into it for several weeks. It was my top 5 reasons why I was boycotting the City Paper. For the record, here they were:
5. The Handling of a local club’s closing. I didn’t like the way they smeared someone in the way they did. 4. They reviewed a Weird Al show in a very snarky manner. Which REALLY upset me. 3. Their “Short Fiction Contest” after-comments…which were typically snotty. 2. Their Borat Movie review. Admittedly, I never saw that film. But this review was typical of their style at the time. Unhelpful to simply call a movie bad and offer no explanation. 1. They ignore me. Yeah…this one was the driving factor.
In retrospect…I think at least 4 of those reasons were valid. I’ll let you guess which 4. That might have been the highpoint of the blog’s run. Towards the end of that year, I had called off my boycott. It didn’t make sense for me to dedicate time to making fun of a paper that I wasn’t even reading. I played a CD release party, to relative success. My girlfriend and I flew to Vegas over Christmas to get married in secret…
The Rise and Fall of the Parochialist, Part one.
In an old version of my zine, I was going to put this out as a feature, but I've decided to let it rest here, on the blog. My new zine, Davezine Number Fourteen: the Bad Roommates Issue is available here. http://davecookson.tripod.com/DavezineNumber14.html
On October 11, 2007, partly based on a whim but partly based on some real grievances I had built up against the local Baltimore City Paper, I launched a little blog known as The Parochialist…a cheeky little poke at CP that billed itself as an alternative to the alternative, including links to many of the same syndicated columns as well as my own “bully pulpit” take on the many issues of the City Paper. The Parochialist got its name from the ideals on which it was founded…dedicated to the idea that possessing a narrow view, with blinders to all distractions was the way I would proceed with this project. I was single-minded, I was hungry, and I was FOCUSED. To understand the forces that led to my launching of such a ridiculous project (I mean, who is trying to take down a lousy Alternative Weekly all by himself? A Quixotic quest at best) I have to tell you a little about my mindset back then....
I had been doing a little musical project called Davey G and the Keyboard, which I billed as “Weird Al on a 3 dollar Budget.” In reality, it more closely resembled the late Wesley Willis, with me playing along with keyboard pre-sets and making up funny songs. I’d been doing this off and on since 2000, but I’d had a renewed interest in 2005 that led to a series of live performances. I’d had at least a small amount of success doing this, playing at small clubs in town and releasing a few CD’s. In 2007, I set about recording my masterwork: a polished and well produced album of new work.
I know it sounds stupid now, but in 2007 I really thought this would be my ticket to…whatever the hell it was I wanted. I had fans, I had shows, and I had momentum. People liked what I did, even if it wasn’t a large group of people. It had cult appeal. A well-produced and well-distributed album would go a long way to achieving that larger success I hoped for. So with the help of Reverend Alex and C. Camp, as well as the photography studio at Sears, I made the most polished Davey G album to date. That was “Chairman of the Keyboard.”
Long story short, this effort to push my musical “career” at the exclusion of all common sense led to my quixotic effort to try something I had never seriously tried before: I wanted to win City Paper’s Best Musical Artist....
May 15, 2018
More from a future issue of the zine
a little bit I've written about the solo musical act I had going for awhile. Eventually will make its way to the new Davezine.
The Davey G and the Keyboard act was always an invention of whimsy, an absurdist delight that you could accept for what it was, or not. It was always just me behind a relatively sophisticated (for its time) keyboard which made it easy for me to have a live show. I would argue that in getting up on a stage and playing for people with just the barest of knowledge of how to play my instrument yet still managing to entertain a crowd, I was pulling off an act of Chutzpah and embodying the spirit of punk rock that I had been raised in. The chance meetings I had with the people who became my lifelong friends had formed me and made this person who did these things, who transformed himself on stage and culminated 90 percent of his acts in a gratuitous splaying of lotion on his half naked body….
Like stuff like this? I have a new zine you can order.
http://davecookson.tripod.com/Davezin...
The Davey G and the Keyboard act was always an invention of whimsy, an absurdist delight that you could accept for what it was, or not. It was always just me behind a relatively sophisticated (for its time) keyboard which made it easy for me to have a live show. I would argue that in getting up on a stage and playing for people with just the barest of knowledge of how to play my instrument yet still managing to entertain a crowd, I was pulling off an act of Chutzpah and embodying the spirit of punk rock that I had been raised in. The chance meetings I had with the people who became my lifelong friends had formed me and made this person who did these things, who transformed himself on stage and culminated 90 percent of his acts in a gratuitous splaying of lotion on his half naked body….
Like stuff like this? I have a new zine you can order.
http://davecookson.tripod.com/Davezin...
May 11, 2018
A Higher Loyalty
A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership by James ComeyMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
The former FBI director gives his take on his many years of service with the Bureau and the events leading up to the contentious 2016 election, leading to his eventual ouster.
Comey is a controversial figure, at times loved and hated by many of the same people. I read this book because like so many others, I wanted to know his side of events relating to the Clinton e-mail scandal and Russia and all points in between as it all related to that election.
I am an avid reader, and as these sort of things go, it’s okay. In less charged political times, where everyone is so aggrieved and then the people who aren’t aggrieved are mad that they aren’t more aggrieved, this memoir about leadership would be serviceable but would most likely attract very little notice. But let’s be honest: the current occupant of the White House is a good subject for this sort of thing.
As books you need to have in your library to complete your Hate Trump collection, this one is actually much less explosive than some of the other ones out there. Much like a movie that gives away all the best lines in the trailer, so goes this book. By the time you get to the Trump chapters toward the end, you already know what has been said. Still, the Trump stuff is the best part.
Comey has great insight on leadership, and his comparisons of the presidents he has worked with is interesting. I just think anyone salivating to hear something they haven’t heard before may leave this one a little disappointed.
For what it’s worth, Comey comes off as fairly credible and wise in these pages. But the case he builds through the whole thing about leadership will probably not be the thing that this one gets remembered for.
View all my reviews
May 8, 2018
Sidebar before The Sidebar: Early Dave
Read along as I slowly recount the history of my act...this is going Wayyyyyy back...
While 2000 to 2002 is part of the official history of my musical act, and is the first time I ever played solo for other people, it was not the first time I ever made music on my own. I was banging out tunes and making up songs a full ten years before all this started…
From 1990 to 1992 I was a prolific songwriter and musical experimenter. Starting with an acoustic guitar we had lying around (again, probably belonged to my brother) I strummed incompetently, regardless of tune or fingering, and wrote an album called NOW UR PISSING ME OFF. Which my future band-mate jumped on and generously donated his skills to make a tape cover…unfortunately, lost to the ravages of time and messy rooms.
Over the next two years as the band left equipment at my house between practices, I made up songs…keyboard, toy guitar, toy xylophone, feedback from amps, even a hilarious (at least I thought so) spoken word album…and a foray into Modern music. I was heavily influenced by Karheinz Stockhaussen and Henry Cowell, two modernist composers who seemed to be doing whatever the hell they wanted…so, at the onset of my early teenage years, so did I…
All this culminated in an album that I actually sent in to Dr. Demento, the radio host. That Album was entitled “Wicked Personal Experience” and opened with a song that I revived for an early Davey G and the Keyboard show(“Everything Annoys Me”). The good Doctor ACTUALLY WROTE ME BACK and said he while he liked what I was doing, he couldn’t play it “at this time.” His criticisms and suggestions came from a place of love, and I could tell he actually did listen to it. He praised my bright sense of humor and my “economy of form” (I know when to shut up.)
It was pretty awesome…. (IF I find the letter, I’ll post it…)
Hey! you! Buy my zine! It's Awesome!!!
http://davecookson.tripod.com/Davezin...
While 2000 to 2002 is part of the official history of my musical act, and is the first time I ever played solo for other people, it was not the first time I ever made music on my own. I was banging out tunes and making up songs a full ten years before all this started…
From 1990 to 1992 I was a prolific songwriter and musical experimenter. Starting with an acoustic guitar we had lying around (again, probably belonged to my brother) I strummed incompetently, regardless of tune or fingering, and wrote an album called NOW UR PISSING ME OFF. Which my future band-mate jumped on and generously donated his skills to make a tape cover…unfortunately, lost to the ravages of time and messy rooms.
Over the next two years as the band left equipment at my house between practices, I made up songs…keyboard, toy guitar, toy xylophone, feedback from amps, even a hilarious (at least I thought so) spoken word album…and a foray into Modern music. I was heavily influenced by Karheinz Stockhaussen and Henry Cowell, two modernist composers who seemed to be doing whatever the hell they wanted…so, at the onset of my early teenage years, so did I…
All this culminated in an album that I actually sent in to Dr. Demento, the radio host. That Album was entitled “Wicked Personal Experience” and opened with a song that I revived for an early Davey G and the Keyboard show(“Everything Annoys Me”). The good Doctor ACTUALLY WROTE ME BACK and said he while he liked what I was doing, he couldn’t play it “at this time.” His criticisms and suggestions came from a place of love, and I could tell he actually did listen to it. He praised my bright sense of humor and my “economy of form” (I know when to shut up.)
It was pretty awesome…. (IF I find the letter, I’ll post it…)
Hey! you! Buy my zine! It's Awesome!!!
http://davecookson.tripod.com/Davezin...
May 3, 2018
Once in a while, somebody has to say something good about Baltimore...
This is a small bit for something I am writing for my new zine. If you want to read the current issue, check out the link at the bottom of the post!
In so many ways, the city I have made my home is a very difficult place. Crime and murder, bad city Government, an underlying level of mistrust among hardened souls. It is easy to become jaded and apathetic about everything. But conversely, I can’t think of a better place for an artist trying to learn his or her craft.
In many ways, Baltimore, home of John Waters and the Visionary Arts Museum and Hampden and the Pigtown Races was the perfect place for an act like mine to get started. Unlike New York or L.A, the atmosphere is not cutthroat or even very competitive. The natural tendency of anyone performing in this town is to understand ones’ place in the universe. Which is to say, while there are those who rise to the top and move on, there are those who simply exist and that is okay, too. In my time here I have seen one man bands, noise groups, punk bands who could barely play their instruments, even a little girl who used to perform with a man who played guitar for the adults.
There is plenty of room even for a guy like me, who doesn’t even play an instrument...
Davezine Number Fourteen: The Bad Roommates Issue, available now!
http://davecookson.tripod.com/Davezin...
In so many ways, the city I have made my home is a very difficult place. Crime and murder, bad city Government, an underlying level of mistrust among hardened souls. It is easy to become jaded and apathetic about everything. But conversely, I can’t think of a better place for an artist trying to learn his or her craft.
In many ways, Baltimore, home of John Waters and the Visionary Arts Museum and Hampden and the Pigtown Races was the perfect place for an act like mine to get started. Unlike New York or L.A, the atmosphere is not cutthroat or even very competitive. The natural tendency of anyone performing in this town is to understand ones’ place in the universe. Which is to say, while there are those who rise to the top and move on, there are those who simply exist and that is okay, too. In my time here I have seen one man bands, noise groups, punk bands who could barely play their instruments, even a little girl who used to perform with a man who played guitar for the adults.
There is plenty of room even for a guy like me, who doesn’t even play an instrument...
Davezine Number Fourteen: The Bad Roommates Issue, available now!
http://davecookson.tripod.com/Davezin...
April 30, 2018
The Future of Humanity
The Future of Humanity: Terraforming Mars, Interstellar Travel, Immortality, and Our Destiny Beyond by Michio KakuMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Michio Kaku, futurist, theoretical physicist and frequent consultant on many, many science related TV shows, writes a book about the direction of humanity in the somewhat near future and then projects it to thousands, even millions of years.
Welcome to Michio Kaku’s World! It’s your world, too! A place full of science, reason, and unlimited possibility!
This book is broken up into three parts, the first of which being about what it will take to fulfill our destiny as a species and get ourselves settled on other worlds, a step he says is key to preserving our kind. The science is still at its infancy, but we are getting there.
The next section is about going to other stars, and the final section is about as wacky as anything you may ever read, about the destiny of the universe.
Michio Kaku writes of science that may go far over the average person’s head, but he writes it in such a straightforward and easy way that one of a normal average intelligence (a-hem) can follow along without getting lost.
I am a big Michio Kaku fan, I have used his likeness as a character in my stories, and I love his enthusiasm. This book is on par with the great Stephen Hawking Classic, “A Brief History of Time,” and Kaku shares Hawking’s gift of writing well for the layman.
While I am often struck by how little hope there is for the human race, it is nice to know that there are people out there who believe we will get better. And those people are the people who believe in the power of science. Love this book!
View all my reviews
My zine about Bad Roommates is available now on this site that I made myself. http://davecookson.tripod.com/Davezin...
April 28, 2018
The Dream. How it rose and fell and humbled.
A little excerpt of what I'm working on for the next zine: How I survived 10 Years as a Solo Performer in Baltimore. Out next year maybe?
What I really thought around the 2007 mark was that I was going to break through. That I was going to be on the level of at least the lowest minor musical celebrities….maybe written about in music zines or finding my way into a blurb in the paper or website or...something…where my peculiar brand of low budget musical comedy would be seen for the enduring and durable act that it was.
For years I had been doing my act and garnering praise and drawing modest numbers on the busiest night of the week (largely due to many wonderful and loyal fans.)
It was all true. But it was also so much harder than I could have imagined. After all, this was still just Baltimore we were talking about…
If you like things that I write here, I have a zine that you might like to check out! Davezine Number Fourteen: The Bad Roommates Issue available now!
http://davecookson.tripod.com/Davezin...
What I really thought around the 2007 mark was that I was going to break through. That I was going to be on the level of at least the lowest minor musical celebrities….maybe written about in music zines or finding my way into a blurb in the paper or website or...something…where my peculiar brand of low budget musical comedy would be seen for the enduring and durable act that it was.
For years I had been doing my act and garnering praise and drawing modest numbers on the busiest night of the week (largely due to many wonderful and loyal fans.)
It was all true. But it was also so much harder than I could have imagined. After all, this was still just Baltimore we were talking about…
If you like things that I write here, I have a zine that you might like to check out! Davezine Number Fourteen: The Bad Roommates Issue available now!
http://davecookson.tripod.com/Davezin...
April 24, 2018
Maybe my generation has always held me back…
Had a crazy thought that I felt the need to express: Perhaps my generational values have always held me back.
The voice in my head that says nothing comes easy and that nothing should ever come easy is a voice that does not seem to apply to the newer generation.
I have nothing against millennials or boomers, or Gen X (my generation), or whatever. I happen to believe the fastest way to sound like a cranky old person is to bitch about people younger than you. I think everyone’s generation has a knock against it…the knock against mine is that we are over educated and work below our potential and have very little ambition (guilty, guilty, and…it’s complicated). Even the Greatest Generation had an unhealthy supply of institutional racism, sexism, homophobia and what have you. But does that negate or diminish the fact that the Greatest Generation literally saved the world? I think not.
I see people on YouTube who supposedly are making a lot of money at it, and I can’t help but wonder if that is the norm, or if these people are the exceptions. Like maybe for every one you tuber who makes a living, there are a million more who go broke trying or something…? I see people getting into easy relationships with little emotional resonance and I just wonder if I would have turned out the same way if some of the modern dating/hookup apps had been around when I was younger and single. For the record…I have no regrets about how my life has turned out…
But I know that maybe I have missed the boat at some point. I’m years past the point where I might have been able to make the easy living the kids are talking about, if that even exists. Or maybe it is the opposite, and I am more prepared for the eventual crash that would accompany anyone who has sought out the easy path in life and work and jobs…
All I know is that I write and I create and I keep it up regardless of monetary success or audience. Maybe in another time and with different choices, I’d be in a better place and farther along in my writing and have more readers and be making more money. Or maybe there really is no substitute for putting in the hard work. Or maybe, just maybe, I’m not that good at what I do (though I highly doubt that at this point).
We live in a world where I can reach more people with a clever tweet at the right person then with any of my publications (Trump, love him or hate him, is a great target for a tweet, because literally millions of people will see it.) My cleverly placed tweet will reach more people than will ever read my zine or my book or hear my CD or really anything that I put out via “old media” which I prefer (though tweets don't make me any money) : the tool of my generation…which, if you have been paying attention to the rest of this essay, is holding me back.
When I was growing up, I had jobs, I shoveled snow, I worked in a laundromat for my parents’ friends, and before any of that I rode my bike around town collecting cans that I could cash in for a nickel a piece under the Bottle Bill in my native Massachusetts. I did this all because I was instilled with a good work ethic and didn't have much that I didn’t earn on my own.
But…work for the sake of achievement beyond money never was part of the plan…
So I continue to work hard at the things that I care about, and not care about the things that I don’t. I’m comfortable with who I am, even as I’m aware that the generational forces may have kept me from being something more.
I feel like there should be more to this, but I'm late for my nap and my Gen Xer ass is too lazy to continue. Whatevs...
Read my latest zine!!! http://davecookson.tripod.com/Davezin...
Then read my hit novel!!!
http://davecookson.tripod.com/PainCen...
The voice in my head that says nothing comes easy and that nothing should ever come easy is a voice that does not seem to apply to the newer generation.
I have nothing against millennials or boomers, or Gen X (my generation), or whatever. I happen to believe the fastest way to sound like a cranky old person is to bitch about people younger than you. I think everyone’s generation has a knock against it…the knock against mine is that we are over educated and work below our potential and have very little ambition (guilty, guilty, and…it’s complicated). Even the Greatest Generation had an unhealthy supply of institutional racism, sexism, homophobia and what have you. But does that negate or diminish the fact that the Greatest Generation literally saved the world? I think not.
I see people on YouTube who supposedly are making a lot of money at it, and I can’t help but wonder if that is the norm, or if these people are the exceptions. Like maybe for every one you tuber who makes a living, there are a million more who go broke trying or something…? I see people getting into easy relationships with little emotional resonance and I just wonder if I would have turned out the same way if some of the modern dating/hookup apps had been around when I was younger and single. For the record…I have no regrets about how my life has turned out…
But I know that maybe I have missed the boat at some point. I’m years past the point where I might have been able to make the easy living the kids are talking about, if that even exists. Or maybe it is the opposite, and I am more prepared for the eventual crash that would accompany anyone who has sought out the easy path in life and work and jobs…
All I know is that I write and I create and I keep it up regardless of monetary success or audience. Maybe in another time and with different choices, I’d be in a better place and farther along in my writing and have more readers and be making more money. Or maybe there really is no substitute for putting in the hard work. Or maybe, just maybe, I’m not that good at what I do (though I highly doubt that at this point).
We live in a world where I can reach more people with a clever tweet at the right person then with any of my publications (Trump, love him or hate him, is a great target for a tweet, because literally millions of people will see it.) My cleverly placed tweet will reach more people than will ever read my zine or my book or hear my CD or really anything that I put out via “old media” which I prefer (though tweets don't make me any money) : the tool of my generation…which, if you have been paying attention to the rest of this essay, is holding me back.
When I was growing up, I had jobs, I shoveled snow, I worked in a laundromat for my parents’ friends, and before any of that I rode my bike around town collecting cans that I could cash in for a nickel a piece under the Bottle Bill in my native Massachusetts. I did this all because I was instilled with a good work ethic and didn't have much that I didn’t earn on my own.
But…work for the sake of achievement beyond money never was part of the plan…
So I continue to work hard at the things that I care about, and not care about the things that I don’t. I’m comfortable with who I am, even as I’m aware that the generational forces may have kept me from being something more.
I feel like there should be more to this, but I'm late for my nap and my Gen Xer ass is too lazy to continue. Whatevs...
Read my latest zine!!! http://davecookson.tripod.com/Davezin...
Then read my hit novel!!!
http://davecookson.tripod.com/PainCen...
