Six Degrees (Below Zero) of Separation

When an event occurs half way around the world, my husband and I frequently joke what is the “Minnesota Connection”? We typically only need to tune in at 10:00 pm to our local television stations to find out, they unabashedly report with this angle on a regular basis. It’s a scoop if the cousin of a passenger on a downed flight can be interviewed. A former babysitter, hairdresser or Tupperware Lady to the stars comes with it’s own cachet in Minnesota.

The winters here may be brutally cold but our affections for those who lived here, loved here, died here or simply passed through here are warm.

Last weeks passing of Prince, our native son of funk (who not only was born and raised here, but never left) continues to cast a purple shadow over our airwaves. Just when you think that any story that could be told has been shared, a local radio station will take a call from a former McDonald’s employee who served Prince at the drive-thru once. Saturday night (I guess that makes it all right) the best man from our wedding shared his remembrance of being a young dad in Chanhassen Minnesota over twenty years ago. After being awoken one too many times by his eldest son (crying over being unable to locate his pacifier) he drove to the 24-hour grocery store and bought the entire display of glow-in-the-dark pacifiers, and ran into Prince. His wife shared more typical memories of being an ’80s club kid. She’d gone to Washburn High School, I’d gone to Southwest High School and Prince had graduated five years ahead of me from Central High School. We were all Minneapolis kids, went to the same beaches, took the same buses, roamed the same streets.

As speculation continues over the cause of Prince’s death, I question what criteria makes a person’s HIPPA rights go away. Some have suggested that pain relievers for hip and ankle discomfort had contributed to his plane making an emergency landing in Moline Illinois the week prior to his death. Rumors abound that rather than being treated for the flu, that he had been administered an Opioid antidote. Prince was notoriously private when not on stage and while I understand the curiosity of his fans, I question the necessity and legality of such disclosures. Just like with Michael Jackson and Elvis before him, I am saddened that a contributing factor was potentially a product intended to improve quality of life, not end it. I am not a doctor, I’m not a lawyer. I’m simply a fan who wants to remind people that all celebrities, all icons, are simply people too, with vulnerabilities despite their immense talents and contributions.

As a kid it was actress Judy Garland who I recall being my first known Minnesota celebrity. The Wizard of Oz remains my favorite movie to this day. Born Frances Gumm in Grand Rapids Minnesota, she left long before she became a household name. She was nominated twice for an Academy Award but only ever received a juvenile version. She was the first person I was aware of who died as the result of drug use. Her death was described as an accidental Barbiturate overdose. I was just shy of my sixth birthday.

The year after Garland’s death not only was my state on the map but the very city I lived in. The Mary Tyler Moore Show was a situation comedy about a single woman living in Minneapolis who worked at a local television station. The show ran until I was a teenager and likely had some impact on my decision to be a Mass Communication TV/Radio major in college. Wholesome, though edgier than other shows of the era, the best part of the show for me was the opening credits with fictional Mary Richards driving around familiar parts of my city and ultimately tossing her  knit beret in the air. It was not a raspberry beret, Mary was fashionable but not a second-hand store sort of character.

In the last week I’ve seen many references regarding Bob Dylan being a native Minnesotan, most with the the tagline “but he left”. Grief can make people bitter but it’s true that where Bob Dylan rejected his roots, Prince embraced his. Prince’s many talents and pop culture contributions do nothing to take away from the talents of Robert Zimmerman, the impact was just different. Prince hit notes Dylan would never dream of trying to and most of his lyrics wouldn’t make your parents blush and question if you knew what that song was even about. Prince might have referenced used clothing in a song but Dylan looked like he might have acquired his wardrobe from the dumpster behind a second-hand store. Prince impacted youth fashion unlike any other male of the era. As I noted in my blog-post on the day he died; he was wearing fancy gloves in the late ’70s, much earlier than Michael Jackson who is often credited with the trend. I had friends whose parents were the same age as Bob Dylan, Prince was our contemporary. Dylan is bad hair and good harmonica, his essence can be captured in black and white. Prince was at his best in full color, he was was both audio and visual!

Minnesota is a percolator for talent and creativity of all types. We produce writers for TV and movies, musicians, photographers, artists, comedians and authors. Realistically there are reasons people take their skills elsewhere, for some it’s a logistical situation. We as Minnesotans love to claim those who were born here, we embrace those who stay and accept those who choose either Minnesota as their home or Minnesotans as their significant others:

Lizz Winstead the co-creator of The Daily Show graduated a couple of years ahead of me at Southwest. She is back in town annually for a New Year’s Eve stand-up gig. She was a sorority girl and young comic at the University of Minnesota when Prince was only known locally. Both she and Prince can credit First Avenue with memorable moments in their early careers. Gene Winstead, her brother, is my mayor.

Tracy McMillan who graduated a year behind me from Southwest wrote for United States of Tara, Mad Men and other projects you would recognize. Oprah has interviewed her. She’s written a memoir and more recently published her first work of fiction. For two years she had the most read Huffington Post piece Why You’re Not Married…Yet.  She was a youthful patron of First Avenue as well.

The Coen brothers were raised in the neighboring suburb of St. Louis Park. Like Prince, they are also Oscar winners.

Pete Docter of Pixar grew up on the next block right here in Bloomington, where I reside. His parents still live in the house where they raised him and his sisters and come to our annual block party. You recognize his name from Toy Story, Up and more recently his Academy Award for Inside Out. His entire family was inducted into the Bloomington Kennedy High School Hall of Fame a few years ago. He returned to Minnesota (as did his sisters) to receive the recognition before a school play.

Comedian Louie Anderson (who portrays Christine Baskets on the outstanding FX series Baskets) grew up across the river in St. Paul. He was back in town just last week to perform.

Tiny Tim opted to make Minnesota his home with his wife Miss Sue later in life. My peers recall the unusual looking and oddly voiced performer for his ukulele backed song Tiptoe Through the Tulips. I recollect his appearances on shows like Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In and his 1969 marriage to Miss Vicki on The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson (it was viewed by 40 million people). He died nearly twenty years ago and his remains are located in the mausoleum at Lakewood Cemetery. If you’re ever in Minnesota, you can locate him under his given name of Herbert Khaury. The historic cemetery is adjacent to Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis, between the Linden Hills neighborhood I grew up in and Uptown. I have a number of my own relatives buried in the sprawling urban cemetery, going all the way back to 1888, which doesn’t have the same musical ring to it that 1999 seems to.

I know many people have made pilgrimages to Minnesota this last week and many more will come. It’s a beautiful place, with lovely lakes, fantastic museums, amazing theaters, good restaurants, fun bars, losing sports franchises and a good sense of humor about itself. Come tiptoe through the tulips, in the purple rain and you might think you’re somewhere over the rainbow! Maybe it’s not just our news stations that find the “Minnesota Connections” wherever they can.

 

Oscar and Me Don’t Always Agree

Despite having had parents who spent their Saturdays  seeing double-features at the velvet curtained theaters of their youth, I did not go to movies much as a child. During World War II it was at the cinema where news reels provided information about world events, coupled with cartoons, movies with large musical numbers and intermissions which allowed time to purchase more refreshments. The first movie I saw in a theater was Bambi. Despite the fact it was released in 1942, I did not see (part of) it until about 1965. On a rainy weekend at the cabin my parents took my brothers and I to Frederic Wisconsin. I recall the darkness, the texture of the red seats which I wanted to push up and then put back down and I recall how exciting it was when my father took me by the hand and walked me up the slanted aisle where I mistakenly assumed I would be getting more popcorn. I did not see another movie in a theater until 1968 when our family went to see Yours Mine and Ours, starring Lucille Ball. My attention span had grown and I remained seated throughout the show.

I enjoy watching the Academy Awards each year but my early movie viewing in theaters has tended to foreshadow my movie preferences. It seems that Oscar does not always correspond with my favorites or even those that I have seen. Bambi was nominated for three Academy Awards, all for music and sound. I can be agreeable, the sound award went to Yankee Doodle Dandy that year, a Sunday afternoon favorite of mine and the Best Song went to White Christmas from the movie Holiday Inn. Though Lucille Ball did take home a Golden Globe for Yours Mine and Ours she was never nominated for an Academy Award and most often was recognized during her career with Emmy’s.

By the time I was old enough to go to the movies with my friends we attended mostly comedy films, horror movies or movies in the 1970’s with John Travolta; Saturday Night Fever, Grease and Urban Cowboy. Entertaining but not necessarily award winners.

During college I did not see many movies at all and by the time I was married we rented our movies at a video store and watched them at home. Once kids came along there was a period of time we saw no movies at all and then there was an era where we saw only animated movies, repeatedly, in a way that made me appreciate that The Wizard of Oz was something that I had to wait a full year between viewings of while I was growing up.

With my kids grown, I have rediscovered the joy of watching movies in a theater and as a result, this is my second year of seeing several of the Academy Award nominees prior to the award show. I have particularly enjoyed that both the films of 2013 and 2014 provided several features based on real people and real events. When attending a morning viewing a few weeks back I had noticed several school buses and was met with a concession area filled with middle-schoolers. Scanning the movies I nodded knowingly to the ticket-person “Selma?” referring to the students and was disappointed when he shook his head and answered “Paddington Bear“. I was hoping for at least a movie based on a book they had perhaps read in class or the more obvious educational choice of a well done production of an important historical event. Don’t get me wrong, I love Paddington Bear but am missing the educational value that warrants taking time away from school to see a movie based on it.

In a quick perusal of the Oscars history I learned that originally the big award was for “Outstanding Picture” for a few years before it was changed to “Outstanding Production”, followed by the title “Outstanding Motion Picture” and later yet “Best Motion Picture”, finally in 1962 the current term “Best Picture” was settled upon. The first year there were only three nominees in that category. 1939 was an amazing year with Gone with the Wind taking the major award against The Wizard of Oz. The next movie to attract as many ticket sales as Gone with the Wind was The Best Years of Our Lives in 1946. A movie portraying the struggles of returning veterans that features an amazing performance by a double-amputee who won multiple awards for his performance. If this is a movie you have not seen,  I would recommend it for the historical significance alone.

Another year that I find significant is 1967. In the Heat of the Night took home Best Picture that year against what I consider to be the most stellar list of nominees in my lifetime to date; Bonnie and Clyde, The Graduate, Guess Whose Coming to Dinner and Doctor Doolittle were all nominated.

There was an era in the nineteen-seventies that I find almost difficult to take seriously when during three consecutive years we have as nominees; The Exorcist, Towering Inferno and Jaws. A scarey era to go to the movies, the beach or tall buildings.

I am not always a fan of the nominations and frequently have either not seen the winner or am disappointed when I do. The winner in 1980 was Ordinary People which I found incredibly boring and was more enthusiastic about Elephant Man. In 1994 I think there was no choice but to give it to Schindler’s List which despite being incredibly painful to watch was so well done. This coincided with what my husband and I still refer to over twenty years later as the worst ever nomination of our marriage. “And the loser is…” The Piano. Clearly we are not part of The Academy because it took home Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress which we might have given to the coat in Schindler’s List which evoked more emotion from us. We have this theory that when members of the Academy don’t understand a movie they vote for it, so as not to appear lacking in their knowledge of the film arts. We confirmed that a few short years later when The English Patient took the Best Picture. It is perhaps the most detested winner of our marriage and thinking of it reminds me of eating Pecan Sandies as a child without a beverage. A lot of blowing sand and awkwardness is all I recall nearly twenty years later.

Last year my great disappointment was that Gatsby did not get more attention. It was a beautiful movie and visually a better match to my imagination when I read the book in high school than previous cinematic efforts. Thankfully it won for costuming which brings me to the annual debate with my husband each year when he proclaims “they didn’t design that” and then acknowledges the era the film was set in. In his mind only a fantasy or futuristic film should be able to win but I disagree and think that a film requires the vision of the costume designer even when it is set in a distinct era, including the present. Since I typically see more of the movies than my husband, it is one of our few areas of conflict. He gives his predictions based on political message and commentary he has heard and finds it somewhat amusing when I yell at the TV set in the same way that I do watching pro football when I think the refs have made a bad call.

Two recent areas of agreement though are that Leo should have won last year for Wolf of Wall Street and that The Lego Movie got robbed this year. Granted, there are special rules for how animated nominations are conducted. Unlike actors nominating fellow actors and editors nominating editors, the animated characters do not nominate each other. The Wolf of Wall Street scene at the country club where the Quaaludes kicked in was Oscar worthy on its own. The Lego characters held their own in a well written and totally fresh film that a family of four adults thoroughly enjoyed, which can not be said about all animated films.

As we head into the homestretch as the Academy Awards approach in two weeks I have seen half of the Best Picture nominees, four out of five films with the Best Actor nominees and three out of five of the best Actress nominee motion pictures. I know there has been some controversy regarding the lack of diversity in the nominees but in a year where a film like Selma is in the Best Picture category I would think that Dr. King himself would want nominees selected by the content of their performance and not the color of their skin. I think sometimes it is hard for people to separate their strong beliefs in a person or an ideal from the art of acting and cinematography. I don’t believe Ben-Hur beat The Diary of Anne Frank in 1959 because it had a more compelling story. People have portrayed presidents, kings, queens and Jesus Christ without getting an Oscar nod. Gandhi however, different story, swept in ’83!

Despite being based on true stories, the pulse of this year’s nominees is different than 2014 when American Hustle, Dallas Buyers Club and Wolf of Wall Street were big and loud films with outrageous behavior. Most this year have the more personal feel that Philomena had or the more delicate tapestry of a story that was offered by last year’s August Osage County for which Julia Roberts received a supporting actress nomination and where I was first intrigued by the talents of Benedict Cumberbatch. Based on the movies I’ve seen this year, if anyone is missing from the nominations I think it might be Amy Adams for Big Eyes (yet another based on a true story film).

I’m making no predictions on who will win in two weeks and the results will have little impact on my preferences. Some years the competition is thicker than others. A decade ago I saw none of the nominated films, prior to the awards or after;

“The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”
“Lost in Translation”
“Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World”
“Mystic River”
“Seabiscuit”

My favorite movie that year was Miracle, the only award it won was an EPSY. I love the Academy Awards but some years Oscar and I just agree to disagree.