Rambling Threads

A few random things regarding big names that all have some connection to me:

Paul Newman
I recently asked Sandra Church, my next-door neighbor when I lived in New York City and also the star of my 1990, 1992 video, "Steinhoff's Dostoyevsky's 'Uncle's Dream'" (Parts 1 and 2) about Paul Newman, as once upon a time she had a leading role in the play in which he made his debut as an actor, "Picnic". She explained that, "He (Newman) was the boy my mother in the play wanted me, Madge, to marry, and then Ralph Meeker came along and I ran off with him. Paul met Joanne Woodward in this play. She was the understudy for Janice Rule, whom I replaced. She read for the part but didn't get it." When one considers the occasionally strange behaviorisms of the human heart, it almost seems possible that, had Joanne Woodward gotten the part in "Picnic" instead of Sandra, rather than just being the understudy of Sandra's predecessor, and thereby had the opportunity to play opposite Newman night after night onstage, the specific chemistry that led to their marriage might never have taken form. What would Dostoyevsky say?

Paul McCartney
In my March 23, 2009 blog, I mentioned, among other things, that I had suddenly received a communication from someone I went to high school with over 35 years after high school. An interesting, 35-year old anecdote regarding this person, which I didn't consider relevant at the time of the blog, concerns Bob Dylan. The reason I would now like to relate this anecdote is that it appears to me that Paul McCartney has chosen to play off of it, 35 years after the fact.

When I attended Elisabeth Irwin High School, a small, private high school in New York City, Bob Dylan's children attended the elementary school connected to the high school, the famous left-wing school, Little Red School House (separated by Sixth Avenue and a few other things). In order to interview Bob Dylan for the high school publication, this person I knew got ahold of Dylan's phone number from someone in the school office. Dylan not only refused the interview, but called the school and said that if they should ever give out his phone number again he would stop giving money to the school.

About a month after this person contacted me after 35 years, Dylan put out the word through a Rolling Stone interview that he would like to collaborate with Paul McCartney. McCartney promptly put out the word through an interview that he too would like to collaborate with Dylan. This was followed by the media presuming that they would therefore collaborate, which led to McCartney putting out repeated denials, stating that it would have to occur organically, and that he couldn't possibly phone Dylan because it would be uncool, a violation of proper conduct/protocol. This would sound like a strange attitude for Paul McCartney to take, as he has a somewhat extensive history over the years of suddenly introducing himself to various well known people, particularly in music, for the purpose of collaborating (not to mention the fact that he and Dylan previously met, that Dylan and Harrison were Traveling Wilburys, etc.). It sounds less strange if you are as familiar as I am with Paul McCartney often playing off of things that are going on with me, and my fairly recent mention of this person in my blog would certainly be enough for McCartney to interpret that this person in the anecdote had taken on relevance in relation to me.

I might also mention that a few days ago I posted a comment to an article on Huffington Post in which I expressed the idea that the Oscars try to hype up the idea that Hollywood product is high art. The following day an article about McCartney appeared with the word "hype" in the title. I recognize that this looks a lot like random chance, yet I cannot presume that it necessarily is chance that made this word appear twice in two days thusly. It is my personal experience in relation to McCartney articles that this could be his way of touching on my comment. It is additionally relevant here to make mention that is has become my surmisal that there are certain articles about McCartney wherein he has played a major part in the putting together of the article, beyond just being the reporter's subject: this includes exact release time of the article, insertion of certain key elements without it being left to chance as to whether the reporter would prefer that such elements be included, article titles, etc. I'm sure no one sees anything intrinsically wrong with a person of his stature taking steps to avoid being left wide open to everyone to whom he grants an interview.

Jennifer Aniston
I expect most will think this next videoclip has about as much to do with Jennifer Aniston as the word hype in the McCartney article title had to do with my posting the word the day before. Well, my experiences tell me different things than what other people's experiences tell them. I also find that an idea that emerges here contains a certain poignancy in relation to the referenced movie title, "He's Just Not That Into You", if you look at the idea of blocking someone from leaving their mark as existing in contrast with being into someone.

Also, allow me to provide this link to the "Steinhoff and Aniston" posting on YouTube mentioned in the videoclip.




Drew Barrymore
The following videoclip, the result of my recently seeing the movie, "He's Just Not That Into You," pretty much speaks for itself, though one might also want to see the videoclip in my blog of June 28th, where I also mention Drew Barrymore.