[ Golden Gater Online - November 13, 1997 ]
Lucky
A few of my swingin' friends and colleagues have become transfixed on age lately. A couple of them -- one turns 30 next month, another turns 32 today -- seem to think that it's already time for a mid-life crisis. All of this has got Mr. Lucky -- who himself is a sprightly 29 -- wondering if many of his readers felt the same. You see, the average age of us State students is 28. Which isn't old ... we were just, uh, doing other things after high school, right?
On this campus, it is all too easy to contrast us old-timers with all the young bucks and birds swaggering around this campus. For instance, the strains of Rick Springfield's "Working Class Dog" are reverberating off the newsroom walls as I write this. The writer who is playing it was four years old when that album came out in 1980, and he's graduating with me this spring. I was in junior high when that 8-track (as well as REO Speedwagon's "Hi-inFidelity") came out.
Scarier still:
The average freshman starting college this year was born in 1980, which means Reagan was already in office, and the Iranian hostage crisis occurred before they were conceived. They were prepubescent when the Persian Gulf War was waged.
They watched "Star Wars" when they were kids -- on video. Springfield, Cyndi Lauper, and Culture Club are all considered "oldies" to them, and "music their parents listened to."
Okay, okay, I'll stop. Have a nice day.
FLICKS
This is all you need to know about "The Jackal:" No hats.
At a disastrous preview last Tuesday night, KRON film critic Jan Wahl was seen walking out after some schlep forgot to change reels during the film's climax. Apparently, the culmination of the evening was when the event's emcee -- some ex-Marine from the California Music Channel dressed in camouflage fatigues (please adjust the tint on the faded '80s videos) -- began saluting vets in the crowd. This, along with a blown sound system, the beer-guzzling KMEL crowd and the lackluster film itself was way too underwhelming for Wahl.
Afterward, she was seen shaking her head outside the Galaxy, dressed garishly like Cruella de Ville in striking red and Dalmatian combos, muttering: "No hats."
Meanwhile, across town at the Kabuki, the "Boogie Nights" mirror ball controversy finally came to an end -- the ball was removed after New Line Cinema threatened to pull its critically acclaimed film.
You see, when the film initially opened, the clever managers of the Kabuki thought it would be fun to run a full-blown mirror ball during the film's disco sequences. Although the gimmick was a crowd-pleaser, stodgy Chronicle writer Jerry Carroll complained about it in his daily "Lively Arts" column, claiming the effect was distracting. Some suits at New Line, who obviously don't know how to party, caught wind and threatened to pull the film if the theater didn't stop using the mirror ball.
Considering the film took in $30,787 at the Kabuki last week (bringing it's five-week total on that screen alone to a remarkable $280,504), managers felt obliged to bow down at the corporate knee.
DRINK OF THE WEEK
One of the favorites of Tom Waits' fans and hardened journalists and Gater editors gathered around naughahyde booths at places like the Philosopher's Club and Tommy's Joynt: the Manhattan.
Warning: This is not a foo-foo drink, and unless you're Edna Buchannan, generally not a favorite with the ladies. You will need:
2 1/2 ounces blended whiskey
3/4 ounces sweet vermouth
Dash of Angostura bitters
Maraschino cherry
Combine the whiskey and vermouth over ice in a mixing glass and stir well. Strain into a cocktail glass, garnish with the cherry, and throw on Tom Waits' "Frank's Wild Years."
[ Golden Gater - November 13, 1997 ]