Anxieties Everywhere

Thursday January 17, 9:36 a.m.

The latest translation is coming along slowly but steadily. However, I'm not a huge fan of TRADOS or at least the learning curve for me seems to be a right angle. I tried to send over a sample file to the boss only to be told that the file didn't have any translation along with the source. Well, I have 16 hours of solid work to prove that I was working on it! Something similar happened to me when I did my first translation on the software, so using another trick, it was able to pull through. I'm hoping that the same thing did the trick this time. In any case, the deadline for this one seems to be rather distant and amorphous so neither the boss nor I are particularly in panic mode. But I'm still unsure.

Japan has been having to deal with a couple of crises in the last few days. The new old Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, would only have had to deal with the usual economic woes infiltrating his country if these situations hadn't happened. But both ANA and JAL have grounded their Boeing 787 Dreamliner fleets like itinerant teens since the batteries on some of the planes have been turning into (smoke) bombs at the very least. Of course, Boeing stock has been going boing at the news....and that is in the bad way. And then there is the ongoing hostage incident in Algeria in which some Japanese nationals have also been taken, although I may have heard that some of them have been released.

Buried within all that is the 18th anniversary of the Kobe Earthquake. Some events will always be remembered....the people in Kobe and the surrounding region certainly haven't forgotten. And as someone who had felt a fraction of the Tohoku Earthquake a couple of years ago in Tokyo (and that fraction was enough to sear itself into my memory forever), I can attest to that.

At the end of this, I also have to mention that Conrad Bain from "Diff'rent Strokes" has passed away. To be honest, I hadn't heard anything about him for years so that I thought he had already left this mortal coil, but he was able to live a good long life. I had no idea that he was actually born in Lethbridge, Alberta. I used to watch the show with him, Gary Coleman, Dana Plato and Todd Bridges on Thursday or Friday on NBC. It's a pity that Bridges is the only surviving member now from that series.

Now that I know Bain's connection with Canada, I can understand a bit more about his brother, Hank, being brought into that old "SCTV" sketch involving the station and alien cabbages.

Learning How to Slide/Nagisa Oshima

Tuesday January 15, 10:15 p.m.

Well, it's been about a couple of days since the big snow hit the Kanto Region. And the consequences are starting to befall commuters. Yup, the traffic on the major highways has been snarled up....kinda like looks like the Gardiner Expressway here on a bad day...which is usually everyday. But the NHK report also told of over 1,500 incidents of people falling over on the sidewalks or floors since Sunday. Looks like it's not just cars that need the chains....and yep, tires in Japan often get the chains for snow driving. I haven't seen chains here on car tires since the 1960s....and that was through ancient Canadian Tire catalogs. Anyways, I'm not laughing....we may be getting some of the white stuff as well in a few days. It would be appropriate, though....NHL season is coming back on Saturday.

As soon as I entered the living room this morning, I caught the news on NHK that director Nagisa Oshima had passed away from pneumonia at the age of 80. His name is not particularly a household one on this side of the Pacific. But for some of the veteran cineasts out there, he was the auteur who had directed the controversial "In the Realm of the Senses" back in the 1970s and "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence" with David Bowie and Ryuichi Sakamoto in 1983. Never saw the latter one, but I remember it making news for the fact that Bowie was in it, and at the time, he was hitting another peak in his career in his incarnation as MTV-friendly pop star. Sakamoto was also cruising fine as one-third of the Yellow Magic Orchestra back in Japan. Actually for me, the theme song, also created and performed by Sakamoto, is the most well-known part of the movie for me.

Not sure how long this video will stay up on YouTube, but here is a series of commercials that the director actually appeared in. Some of them match the image of zaniness that Japanese commercials have cultivated. But that was the thing about Oshima. As one of his friends pointed out today on the news, Oshima had no taboos about anything. He showed that in his movies, his interviews (his friend also remarked that Oshima would fight with anybody anywhere anytime), and even the commercials. He may have been an intimidating high-level director but his ego wasn't so big that he would pooh-pooh the idea of appearing in a TV ad.

I used to see him in my early years in Japan on TV shows regularly. At the time, I hadn't even known it was Nagisa Oshima. I saw this cheerful, talkative old guy as a panelist on a number of game shows, not realizing that this was THE Nagisa Oshima. Still, when I finally did see him at work in some documentary footage, he was the scariest sumbitch. He probably had the power to reduce yakuza to tears if they didn't act like he ordered. People did not cross this man intentionally.

There was a Saturday night program called "Hammer Price" which was hosted by the comedy duo, Tunnels (one of whom is Takaaki Ishibashi, who had his brief 15 minutes of Hollywood by playing the insane baseball import in the last few movies of the "Major League"franchise). It was an auction comedy game show of sorts where the studio audience could bid on some crazed piece of pop culture whether it be a sample of bathwater that a buxom actress had sat in or Robert DeNiro's attempt at calligraphy (both true). Well, one night, someone bid and won the opportunity for his child's graduation ceremony to be filmed by Oshima himself. And Oshima actually did it....with crane shots and all of the energy and anger that he brought to all of his other projects. It was quite the scene...no pun intended.

Anyways, I leave you with the theme from "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence" which is one of the de rigueur Xmas tunes heard everywhere in Japan during the Holidays.

And this is "Ai no Corrida", the Quincy Jones disco tune from "The Dude". It's one of my favourite songs from that era of R&B, and the original version was written by Chaz Jankel and Kenny Young. "Ai no Corrida"was the original Japanese title from Oshima's "In The Realm of the Senses", and according to Jankel in his first album, he decided to adopt the title for the song.

Changes

courtesy of
canburak
 

Friday December 28, 7:46 p.m. (All photos from Flickr)

Since Jack Klugman's passing, there have been a few more departures from this mortal coil. The King of Character Actors (what the press releases have been describing him as), Charles Durning, passed away. Usually with the prolific and respected character actors, viewers will point, snap fingers and exclaim "OH! Where did I see him? What was his name again?" But with Charles Durning, a lot of times people would known him by face and name. He's played many, many roles but I will always see him as the burly cop....both bad and good.

courtesy of
jpequal1

I knew General H. Norman Schwarzkopf from Desert Storm, of course. And of course, the media were more than happy to give out tons of details about him. Had no idea that the man had been sick, but it's been years since I had heard anything about him. Obviously, CNN, BBC, CBC will be talking about his military achievements and how he earned his stars. But for me, I remember a story about the time he proposed to his then-girlfriend by stating plainly that she would probably never get rich marrying him but that he promised he would keep a steady roof over their heads.

courtesy of billh

And then I was surprised to hear about the reluctant father of Supermarionation, Gerry Anderson, passing away. I was never a fan of "Thunderbirds" or the other examples of marionettes playing military heroes, and supposedly he wasn't too thrilled, either. But the theme song and "Thunderbirds are GO!" are etched into my memory. "Thunderbirds" is practically a legend in Japan.
But there were also his live-action series such as "UFO" and "Space: 1999" which were also part of my childhood growing up. The former often scared the bejeebers out of me and the latter thrilled me in the pre-"Star Wars" era. And being somewhat attuned to theme songs, both of those programs' songs are still pretty fresh in my minds.

I mean, especially with the theme for "Space: 1999", there must've been some serious ganja being passed around in the scoring room to come up with that theme....even in the era of progressive rock. Brilliant! Too bad the show hasn't dated all that well.

And since it is a Friday....and in the middle of The Holidays, for that matter....why not a disco mix?

Jack Klugman (1922-2012)

courtesy of Gary Dunaier
from Flickr

Monday December 24, 11:26 p.m.

I was about to sign off for the night when I came across the headline that Jack Klugman had passed away. I knew that the man was well on in years, but it still kinda hit me about his death, especially so close to Christmas....as corny as that does sound.

Jack will always be Oscar Madison to me. I knew he'd had a career on TV, movies and stage long before the TV version of "The Odd Couple"came out and became the long-running hit on ABC. But that Noo Yawker face and voice which could show hilarious anger and a goofily adorable smile at the prissy Felix Unger (the 70s Sheldon Cooper) was a vital ingredient to that sitcom's success. I remember certain scenes with pristine clarity: when Oscar went on a sleepwalking rampage because he was trying to suppress his usual frustration at Felix, when he was trying to play the drums, when he had to deal with another frustration in the form of his slouchy secretary, Myrna Turner.

I also watched and enjoyed most, if not all, of his episodes as the famed TV medical examiner on "Quincy". Though humour did pop up in the show, sometimes his character's fiery earnestness kinda made me wish to take another viewing of his old sitcom. Certainly, SCTV's Joe Flaherty often liked to take a poke at Quincy because of that.

Having talked about "The Odd Couple", there is a "Twilight Zone" episode, "In Praise of Pip" that will always come across as one of the most poignant, throat-lumping ones in the history of that legendary series. Klugman had done a number of episodes for Rod Serling, but this one had him as a low-rent wheeler-dealer who gets in too deep to survive AND finds out that his son has been seriously injured in Vietnam. The ending is a killer. Not too many episodes of any show can get me to start the lachrymal fluid flowing, but this would be one of them.

It was good to have known ol' Jack. Hope he and Tony get together for an eternal blast.

Goodbye, Dave!

Thursday December 6, 11:07 p.m.

Well, it's been a pretty quiet week although no less busy. I've gotten a fair amount of translation work in the past few days, and in fact, I even got to meet my fellow translators for a powwow last night over a beer. But it's been interesting now that I really no longer need to go downtown anymore....not too bad a thing considering that TTC token prices will be going up next year. Still, the odd trip downtown would be nice just as a bit of a respite for being at home most of the time. Did meet a bit of the urban residents before and after the meeting. While I was waiting for my two colleagues, a homeless man approached me for some money. Nice enough fellow and fairly erudite...I just gave him what little change I had in my pocket; I'm sure he didn't get nearly enough for that Burger King Whopper Set he was looking for, and I'm not sure if that's what he was aiming for, but at this time of year, I'm not gonna pooh-pooh a man for being hungry and cold. On the bus ride home, a clearly deranged lunatic was trying to pick a fight with the driver over some sort of "injustice"he had suffered in some sort of fight with another TTC employee which supposedly cracked the crackpot's tooth. I got off before anything major happened but considering I didn't see anything on CP24 this morning, I assume there was no other follow-up to the first fight.

Got the first of my Japanese CDs that I'd ordered through Amazon.jp the other day. Not nearly as easy to get them anymore obviously since I'm back in Canada but certainly far better than 20 years ago.

Speaking of music, my hat is going off to Dave Brubeck. I came across his surprise obituary in the Toronto Star today. He lived a good, long life. And he's part of the reason that I got into jazz, along with Bill Evans. I think "Take Five" is a great song to get into the genre with. It's probably one of the most recognized jazz songs for even non-jazz fans.

Kanzaburo Nakamura XVIII

Tuesday December 4, 7:33 p.m.

I only heard the news on NHK just half an hour ago, but kabuki actor Kanzaburo Nakamura XVIII passed away less than 6 hours previously in hospital. I was never a kabuki fan but his face and name were very well known to anyone who watches TV in Japan due to his fairly frequent appearances on talk shows and commercials. Of course, his stock in trade was on the stage portraying his various characters.

An acquaintance of mine back in Tokyo was his acupuncturist, and he told me that the actor had always been a very introspective deep thinker. The story of his death was the top story on NHK, and it looks like a lot of the commercial stations' morning shows were scrambling to get a fitting tribute story done for him. I was surprised to hear that he had passed since he was only 57 years old, although I knew that he had suffered from early stage esophagal cancer.

I think this video of him and his troupe performing in Berlin back in 2008 will give a tiny insight about his life as a kabuki actor.

Larry Hagman (1931-2012)

I was surprised to hear of Larry Hagman's passing this morning. It looked like the new "Dallas" was running full steam ahead, and he had just done a Piers Morgan interview only recently. From what I remember, he looked elderly but was in pretty hale condition when I saw him. Had no idea of his throat cancer.

Of course, he will always be known as J.R. Ewing, television's most famous psychopath, decades before "Dexter"hit the screen. But since I was never all that much of a drama fan (saw "Hill Street Blues" and "St. Elsewhere" in small bits and pieces), the only real interest I ever had in the original "Dallas"was when the "Who Shot J.R.?"cliffhanger came out, and even non-fans of the series had no choice but to listen to it since it completely subsumed TV and print media.

For me, Hagman will always be astronaut Major Tony Nelson on "I Dream of Jeannie". It might be  hard to imagine for those who only knew him as the evil J.R., but Hagman could play a completely comedic and harried straight man to Barbara Eden's kooky Jeannie. He was as good as Dick York in "Bewitched".

Then, even before that, there was the thriller "Fail Safe" in which Hagman played the Russian-to-English interpreter for Henry Fonda's US President. Absolutely serious, Hagman's interpreter looked haunted especially in the eyes as he realized the nuclear devastation that was about to be rained on both Moscow and New York City.

But getting back to "Dallas", reruns of the original were playing regularly on the local cable channel in Japan, Super Drama TV. And yet, I'd read somewhere that when the prime time soap had first premiered there, it had gotten a lot of flack from critics and viewers alike since apparently Charlene Tilton's character laughed out loud without doing the proper thing of covering her mouth when she did so. Not sure how much of that was urban legend. It's certainly not a problem now since if that so-called faux pas had held up to the present day, pretty much every female tarento in Japan would be having weekly press conferences of apology.

Not sure how the new "Dallas"is going to be able to continue much longer without J.R. I've heard that some of the Season 2 episodes had already been filmed. Perhaps it would be better that all of the plot lines be tied up by the end of the season and just have the series end right there, although the bean counters in Hollywood would burn me in effigy if they ever heard that from me.

Mitsuko Mori (1920-2012)

Mitsuko Mori
courtesy of Ken Mat
from Flickr

Thursday November 15, 12:28 p.m.

Over the last couple of days via NHK, I heard that veteran actress and show business queen, Mitsuko Mori, passed away on the 10th at the age of 92.

She was in so many stage plays, TV shows and movies. And for those who saw the Hayao Miyazaki classic, "Princess Mononoke", Mori played the role of Hii-sama, the wise woman of Ashitaka's village, in the original Japanese version.

I wasn't particularly a fan of hers but she was ubiquitious on the screen. Until the last few years, various channels seemed to make it an annual custom of showing her in her most famous play, "Horoki" where her character was required to do a gleeful somersault. And that is where I admired her. This is a lady...well into her 80s....who could pull off a move like that, let alone keep up the hard schedule of appearing on the stage daily or nightly. For a society that still reveres age to a certain extent, Mori must have seemed like a divine inspiration to many.

Unfortunately, in the last few years, even she couldn't stave off age indefinitely. That sparkly glint in her eyes disappeared as she entered her 90s, and her speech slowed a fair bit so that she decided to retire a few years ago. But she still retained that youthful lustrousness right up to the end.

This is Mori back in 1978 singing enka karaoke favourite, "Love Letter from Canada" with the David Bowie of Japan, Kenji Sawada.

Herbert Lom

courtesy of snapper31
from Flickr

Friday September 28, 9:16 p.m.

2012 is started to seem like the Year of Celebrity Deaths. Every year has its share of famous folks leaving this mortal coil, but it just feels like this year has had an especially big bumper crop. I mean, just a couple of days ago, it was crooner Andy Williams.
And now it's actor Herbert Lom. Unfortunately, I only came across a small rectangle of an obituary in today's Toronto Sun, although admittedly it's been a few decades since the heyday of "The Pink Panther"series, but I loved the first few entries. I've only known Lom almost only for that series (the only other movie I've seen him outside of it was "The Ladykillers"with Sir Alec Guinness). His harried portrayal of the increasingly insane Chief Inspector Dreyfus was one of the highlights of every movie. In the very first "Pink Panther", he, and Inspector Clouseau (Peter Sellers), played it both quite straight which reminded me of how the similar series "Get Smart"started off with Agent 86 and The Chief.
But then from "A Shot in the Dark"onwards, it was total mayhem between the two. A couple of my favourite highlights: in "A Shot in the Dark", after one near-meltdown by Dreyfus, he calmly asked his assistant to help find his nose. And then in a later entry at a sanitorium, Clouseau had to rescue his old boss from the pond and while he was administering mouth-to-mouth, a couple of old ladies physically remonstrated the pair for indecent activities. Just some classic comedy.

I heard he passed away at the age of 95. Hopefully, it was a good life as well as a long one.

Goodbye, Andy

Wednesday September 26, 10:45 a.m.

Heard the somewhat surprising news of Andy Williams' passing just this morning coming back from my ultrasound appointment. Mind you, he was 84....but still, my impressions were that the legendary singer had the stamina of a bull. He was giving performances all the way in Japan not that long ago.

His golden voice was one I heard regularly on TV and stereo. He had those Xmas specials which came on NBC just about every year just like those for Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. Mom had an album of his love songs which she played fairly often. And while I was in Japan, his old TV show, which I may or may not have seen as a toddler, was being re-broadcast on one of the local cable networks every Sunday night. He was one of those entertainers that seemed to have had a more successful legacy in that country than in his native one. The Carpenters can be added to that list.

It was interesting watching "The Andy Williams Show". The broadcasts tended to jump all over the 60s timeline. One episode was from 1963, so Andy and all the guests looked like they just got drafted into the military while wearing dapper suits....then the following week, it was the late 60s with Andy's hair a big shaggier and wearing somewhat more wilder shirts sans tie.

In any case, "Moon River"is just going to get more poignant now.

Lost another Andy....first, Griffith and now Williams.

Neil Armstrong -- The Man on the Moon

Hero
(courtesy of snapper31
from Flickr)

Monday August 27, 11:56 p.m.

It seemed strangely apropos to hear about the passing of astronaut Neil Armstrong while the FanExpo was going downtown during the weekend. While the rest of us guys (attendees, stars, artists) were having our love-in with science-fiction, here was a guy who had been reluctantly thrust into a permanent limelight because of science fact.

His name has become so famous, so seared into our collective consciousness, that hearing those two names said together has become virtually mundane historically. Of course, that's the guy who went to the moon. We all say it as a matter of historical and scientific fact, as if Neil Armstrong was more myth than man, as if he didn't really exist. But of course, he existed and lived, but the myth grew because the man didn't want to have anything to do with the celebrity of what he had accomplished.

And yet in 1969, he did what had been considered impossible. He and Buzz Aldrin went on a mission that supposedly had only a 50% chance of success (i.e. survival). They were alone out there heading to Earth's only natural satellite, and yet they were probably the most-watched two people in history up to that point. And when Armstrong took that first step onto the Moon and uttered those legendary words, the life of everybody on his planet of origin changed. People didn't have to fantasize about going to space, about going to an alien piece of rock anymore. Armstrong and Aldrin and all those people at NASA proved it was possible. People needn't have dreamed anymore; if they wanted to , they could go as well. Armstrong was truly a hero in that sense.

My regret was that I was too young to remember the Moon landing.

Now, taking a page out of my fellow Canadian, Diana Krall, who played this song at a concert in LA in honour of Armstrong, I leave you with another version by Kei Kobayashi.

William Windom

courtesy of michael
vance 1
from Flickr

Tuesday August 21, 9:59 a.m.

Was watching CP24 this morning when the news scroll suddenly showed the announcement that veteran character actor, William Windom, had passed away at the age of 88.

He was probably more well known to TV watchers as crusty Dr. Seth Hazlitt from "Murder, She Wrote", but I also knew him in his far earlier days portraying a regular heavy on episodes of the original "Mission: Impossible". He was always the sinister foreign politico with the secret agenda to destroy Western civilization as we had known it.

But for me, Windom struck me for just one role....a role that he never played again (except in one of those fan-based labours-of-love productions) but had a huge impact on the world of "Star Trek". He played the tragic Commodore Matt Decker of the USS Constellation on one of the Classic Trek classic episodes, "The Doomsday Machine". His appearance on the show was the first time I'd ever seen him, and looking at his other TV guest appearances over the decades, Matt Decker gave Windom the opportunity to really lash out; in those other roles, he played them crusty or evil but there was always a cap of control anchoring the performances.

What impressed me about Windom's portrayal of Decker was that he didn't play the role as complete hero or complete villain, and I can't even really peg him as an anti-hero. Commodore Decker was just this horribly traumatized starship commander who had lost his entire crew to this extra-galactic ultimate weapon, while he could only helplessly watch from his crippled ship, and simply went insane. The tragedy was that underneath all that rendered insanity was once an excellent captain....something that Windom allowed to show in parts. Watching the episode, I have always wondered if Commodore Decker was a reflection of what James Kirk could have ended up as if Kirk had been the one to face the weapon first rather than Decker. Of course, the "Moby Dick" allusions were spread on pretty thick here.

It wasn't the first time that the crew of the Enterprise had to deal with crazed Starfleet officers, but it was the first time to see a command officer go off the deep end, and it was intriguing to witness this gradual deterioration of a once-proud man due to something that even a Starfleet captain could not handle. "The Doomsday Machine"has regularly been voted as one of the very best Trek episodes of any of the series. The music, the story and the battle against the beast along with the battle of wills inside the Bridge amongst Decker, Kirk and Spock were all responsible for its high favour with Trekkies. And inside all that, it was William Windom's half-hour portrayal of that one character that made this episode one of the classics.

Tony Scott and Phyllis Diller

Monday August 20, 3:48 p.m.

courtesy of snapper31
from Flickr

It's been a busy one for CNN on the entertainment front. First, we get the shocking news of director Tony Scott's apparent suicide. I watched his movies such as "Man On Fire", the "A-Team" re-boot and "Top Gun". And Movie Buddy and I once discussed his style back in Japan; Scott had a thing for jump cuts and all sorts of MTV-ish effects.

courtesy of
pcuneo
from Flickr

Then, just a few minutes ago, I read on the CNN website that comedienne Phyllis Diller has passed on at the age of 95. I've known her since I was just barely a foetus. That whacked-out hairdo, the feathery boa and that nutso cackle....and she had those one-liners which included her late husband, Fang. She lived a good long life. The last time I even heard from her was as Peter Griffin's mother on "Family Guy".

Goodbye, Horshack!

Tuesday August 14, 11:19 p.m.

I heard about the passing of Ron Palillo on the news today. As a kid growing up in the 70s, I used to watch that ABC sitcom, "Welcome Back, Kotter" with Ron, a very svelte John Travolta, Robert Heyges, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs and of course Gabe Kaplan. Sweathog Vinnie Barbarino may have been the ratings magnet, but I always liked Arnold Horshack since he was such an appealing weirdo....something that I could relate to.

After the series ended, Palillo fell prey to that terror that any actor could face after a successful run on any series: typecasting. Noone could or would hire him after such an iconic character as Horshack. He had a long period of depression and just stayed cooped up in his home for years. He seemed to be able to crawl himself out of it after the 80s, but unfortunately today, he suffered a fatal heart attack....and at 63. He was in his early 20s when he did "Kotter". Time has just warped by.

I didn't even know that Robert "Juan Epstein" Heyges had passed on.

Marvin Hamlisch The Entertainer

courtesy of Officer Phil
from Flickr

Tuesday August 7, 10:55 p.m.

There have been quite a few celebrity deaths over the past couple of weeks. Chad Everett of "Medical Center" fame and George Hemsley from "The Jeffersons" have passed away.

Then there was the news this afternoon that composer Marvin Hamlisch died at the age of 68. I was surprised by the age...still plenty young to go so soon. He was younger than either of my parents. I hadn't seen the man in a few decades but he was a fairly common fixture on TV during the 70s. Hamlisch gained a certain amiability from the audience not just for his works on projects like "The Sting" and "A Chorus Line", but also for coming off in front of everybody as this likable nebbish...a musical Woody Allen, so to speak. He had this nonstop nervous banter whenever he was behind the keys in front of an audience. Nothing exudes sympathy more than open neurosis.

I've always like "The Entertainer" and I always liked this entertainer.

Goodbye Panda, We Hardly Knew Ye

Thursday July 12, 10:25 a.m.

Well, despite all the hoopla and celebration and newspaper extras last week heralding the arrival of the first baby panda born in captivity in 24 years at the Ueno Zoo in Tokyo, there was tragedy  a couple of days ago. It's been announced that that baby panda died rather suddenly due to pneumonia after some of her mother's milk got stuck in the little one's trachea. I'm sure there was a full court press. NHK covered it pretty well, including a press conference to report on the death. The director of Ueno Zoo was nearly in tears.

I think the news was delivered home that raising a baby panda is at best a tricky affair and not at all guaranteed. However, as sad as the news was, both parents are still young and there are many more opportunities in the future.

Goodbye Ernest and Anthony

courtesy of Jimmybigpotatoes II
from Flickr

Tuesday July 9, 8:37 p.m.

Along with Andy Griffith, we lost another old TV icon from the 60s. I heard about the passing of Ernest Borgnine yesterday. He was probably one of the most famous and wide-ranging character actors that ever was. He could play rough-but-lovable folks that you could see yourself having a drink with, and he could play the meanest bastards. He was Quinton McHale (McHale's Navy) and Dom Santini (Airwolf)...and of course, he was Marty Piletti...the starring role that got him his Oscar back in 1955.

He may have had a wide range of characters but with those sparkling eyes, bushy eyebrows and gap-toothed smile, I can only see him as a teddy bear. He had a good long life, and I'm hoping that he and Andy are having that drink right now somewhere.

courtesy of John Biehler
from Flickr

The passing of Anthony Sedlak was a shock. He was only 29. Whenever I returned from Japan for the Holidays, I often voraciously watched The Food Network, and Sedlak's "The Main"was one of the shows that I caught in the morning. Like most of TFN's hosts, he was a very amiable and welcoming fellow in his kitchen, enthusiastically making all sorts of dishes. The one thing that stood out to me about him was his accent. I couldn't quite place it....was he from New York, New Jersey or New...foundland? As it turned out, he grew up in North Vancouver. I would've loved to have been one of his guests at a home party.

Wherever Andy and Ernest are, I hope Anthony is whipping up a fine meal to go with their drinks.

Andy Griffith

courtesy of North Carolina
State Archives
from Flickr

Wednesday July 4th, 10:00 a.m.

Perhaps it is somewhat fitting that I write this entry on the 4th of July, since it deals with the passing of an American TV icon. Not to say that Andy Griffith should be compared to Abraham Lincoln or George Washington. I'm well aware that he was an actor, singer and pitchman for Ritz Crackers, but whenever I think of my early days as a TV watcher, Sheriff Andy Taylor will always be that fictional but comfortable figure of Americana for me.

It's been recently said that as one gets older, one can only remember the last half of life with good clarity. The first half of life's memories ends up becoming mere flashes of images. Still, one image that has still remained crystal clear in my mind all these years is the opening credits for "The Andy Griffith Show", with Andy and Opie walking down to the nearest pond for a round of fishing while the theme song is being whistled. Even in this day and age of Bieber, Gaga and Rihanna, that simple tune can be remembered by most people above the age of 20, I assume.

As I was watching the tribute feature on him on the CTV News last night, the reporter pointed out that even when the show was being aired for the first time, it was already being labeled as nostalgic...like something out of the 30s. And watching reruns of the show over the decades, I can only imagine what life must've been like in a small North Carolina town where apple pies could be seen cooling on the window sill, the local lawman could be seen more often brandishing a guitar than a gun, prisoners were actually lovable, and locks were merely seen as optional on doors. Most likely a very fictional scenario even back then, but wasn't it nice to see such a peaceful town as Mayberry?

Andy Griffith may have started out his career as a slightly eccentric happy-go-lucky guy with a guitar, but he would always strike me as the ideal patriarch/career professional. Laconic, friendly, sage and leaderly (if such an adverb exists....according to my Spellcheck, it does not). He even brought some of that into his Ritz ads and "Matlock".

I don't know if "The Andy Griffith Show"ever made it out to Japan, although in the early postwar period, a lot of American TV programs did get out there to make up for the lack of domestic programming at the time. However, "Matlock"was a fixture on local cable TV.

It would be too maudlin....and false....if I said that with Griffith's passing, another link to an innocent time has been severed. Instead, with all of today's technology and archiving, Andy Taylor and that theme song will continue to go on and welcome viewers to his small imaginary town.