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And don’t forget being the Goblin King in the first of Jackson’s Hobbit films.

I got to see his live show back in the late 80s (university gay club outing followed by a night at Heaven - which was a contrast!). The first half was Sir Les and then a quieter routine as a melancholy, reflective ghost. The second half was Dame Edna (“hello paupers” to us in the top balcony). A great night out, the Sir Les routine especially made me laugh so much I couldn’t breathe.

Fred Holywell wrote: Tue Apr 25, 2023 3:48 pm Harry Belafonte

Given his age, it's not a surprise, but immensely sad he's gone. A great folk singer and a greater humanitarian, one of those guys who truly seemed like a god among men. And as someone who watched Beetlejuice many times as a child, his voice made that ending seem like an endless joy - I'd like to think he's spending the afterlife that way.

I hope this prompts more people to check out Buck and the Preacher - Belafonte's performance is far more eccentric and interesting than it needs to be, and his animated scenery-chewing is the primary reason I recommend it at all

therewillbeblus wrote: Tue Apr 25, 2023 5:19 pm I hope this prompts more people to check out Buck and the Preacher - Belafonte's performance is far more eccentric and interesting than it needs to be, and his animated scenery-chewing is the primary reason I recommend it at all

I just watched this for the 1972 list and couldn’t agree more. The brothel scene alone is worth watching the whole movie for. He’s very entertaining in the supplements too!

Looking at his filmography, I was surprised he was actually in so few movies. I guess my view was skewed because I have seen almost every movie he made from the 50s through the 70s. I always thought of him as a real movie star, in addition to being primarily a musician of course, but that wasn’t really the case.

bottlesofsmoke wrote: Tue Apr 25, 2023 6:06 pm

therewillbeblus wrote: Tue Apr 25, 2023 5:19 pm I hope this prompts more people to check out Buck and the Preacher - Belafonte's performance is far more eccentric and interesting than it needs to be, and his animated scenery-chewing is the primary reason I recommend it at all

I just watched this for the 1972 list and couldn’t agree more. The brothel scene alone is worth watching the whole movie for. He’s very entertaining in the supplements too!

Looking at his filmography, I was surprised he was actually in so few movies. I guess my view was skewed because I have seen almost every movie he made from the 50s through the 70s. I always thought of him as a real movie star, in addition to being primarily a musician of course, but that wasn’t really the case.

He had a LOT of clout as an actor, though. Belafonte, in his function as producer/star of Odds Against Tomorrow, hired blacklisted screenwriter Abraham Polonsky to write it and worked very closely with him

Robert Altman looooooooved Harry Belafonte. In one of my Altman books, I think the oral biography, there are a ton of pictures from throughout Altman's life. He looks like he's the life of the party in the first part of the book, and then by the end he looks bored most of the time, except when he's with his wife (pretty happy) or Harry Belafonte (even more so).

Randall Maysin Again wrote: Tue Apr 25, 2023 7:57 pm Robert Altman looooooooved Harry Belafonte. In one of my Altman books, I think the oral biography, there are a ton of pictures from throughout Altman's life. He looks like he's the life of the party in the first part of the book, and then by the end he looks bored most of the time, except when he's with his wife (pretty happy) or Harry Belafonte (even more so).

His performance in Kansas City is just wonderful. So naturalistic and multifaceted. Politically, him and Altman were both very progressive, and it doesn’t surprise me that they got on so well

beamish14 wrote: Tue Apr 25, 2023 8:08 pm Politically, him and Altman were both very progressive

You know something, I have like 5 different Altman books and I really don't remember that much in depth, policy-specific political stuff about Altman in any of them. I mean, I know there's all the anti-establishment stuff in his films, it's just hard to get, for me anyway from what I've seen so far, a really specific sense of how far left he really was. He is very linked to Pauline Kael in my mind, they were good friends for at least a while, and I gather she was more of a centrist. I'm curious, what makes you so sure he was really that progressive?

yoloswegmaster wrote: Thu Apr 27, 2023 2:55 pm Jerry Springer

There's a good Red Letter Media episode on Jerry Springer which gets into a bit of his history before reading out all of the various show titles used to fill up pages of his autobiography (there are apparently a lot of episodes revolving around prostitution, for some completely inexplicable reason!)

colinr0380 wrote: Thu Apr 27, 2023 3:15 pm

yoloswegmaster wrote: Thu Apr 27, 2023 2:55 pm Jerry Springer

There's a good Red Letter Media episode on Jerry Springer which gets into a bit of his history before reading out all of the various show titles used to fill up pages of his autobiography (there are strangely a lot of episodes revolving around prostitution, for some completely inexplicable reason!)

Someone I went to school with, from elementary school all through high school, was on an episode of Springer's show. And, while I never managed to see the episode, it was about prostitution. (More specifically, if I recall correctly, he was pimping hookers at a truck stop.)

I suppose that would be the best place to do it. :-k

Yeah, it likely was.

Either way that sounds like prime material for a finger-wagging social drama in the 50s; a bawdy sex comedy in the 70s that would never resurface again despite being a huge hit at the time; a Springer episode in the 90s; or a piece exploring the exploitative gendered intersection between sex and money made from the perspective of empowering the women involved if made today!

A hard one for us Hosers, but Gordon Lightfoot has left us:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/g ... -1.6828991

I recommend the recent documentary Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind to anyone even casually interested in Lightfoot or folk rock/singer-songwriter music of the ‘60s-‘70s. I only knew him from his ‘70s radio hits, but this doc inspired for me a great appreciation for his work and influence.

As a Canadian child of the 70s and 80s, it was impossible to not have Gord woven into your DNA, whether it was through the radio, SCTV sketches or his Massey Hall concerts.

I thought those interested might like this lovely reflection on the man, written in the mid-90s by Rheostatics guitarist/songwriter, Dave Bidini, back when he had a weekly culture column for the Toronto Star.

Incidentally, Dave’s book, Writing Gordon Lightfoot: The Man, The Music and the World in 1972, is well worth your time.

Also, this may just be one of the funniest things ever:

https://youtu.be/xZpk0A4hZes

Is the difference in Gordon Lightfoot's popularity in Canada and the USA pretty big? I've never heard him much in Quebec french media, I've had to dig on my own a few years back.

That’s a good question. I can’t speak to how Americans feel about him, but in the 1970s, he and Anne Murray were always floating around the background at my Ontarian house, and the houses of all my friends.

I suspect that his popularity is a bit similar to The Tragically Hip’s (a band, outside of a few of their non blues-rock songs, I’m not particularly a fan of); massive, culturally shifting levels of popularity in Canada, and almost unknown to the rest of the world.

But I could be wrong.

Gordon Lightfoot was a common enough presence in (anglophone) Canadian media when I was growing up in Ontario in the 90s. I heard The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald a bunch of times as a kid.

That said, my wife, who’s from the west, had never heard of him.

Lightfoot is definitely one of those acts who is virtually synonymous with Canada, partly because he never became an expat like Neil Young, Joni Mitchell or the Canadian members of The Band. Whenever I hear Lightfoot's name, I always think about the SNL sketch "Amerida," which imagines a world where Canada takes ownership of the U.S. after the outgoing Reagan administration mortgages the country to them in order to make some quick cash. "Stay tuned for Late Night with Gordon Lightfoot!" (First sketch after the monologue, about 7 minutes in.)