by John Walters

Tweet Me Right

https://twitter.com/Redpainter1/status/1218919425040142338?s=20

I just like that Tom Brady’s kid brother is doing the news…

Starting Five

Red Tide

Chiefs. Niners. Always nice to see two franchises that existed at the time of the first Super Bowl but who’ve never met in a Super Bowl meet for the first time. In Miami. And two quarterbacks who’ve never been there arrive for their first. And yet it’s just another Bill Belichick-trained QB, Jimmy Garoppolo.

And who’s this Raheem Mostert dude that rushed for 220 yards for San Fran yesterday? Turns out he’s 27 and played at Purdue. I didn’t know him. Now I do.

Others have said it, but we’ll add: the most impactful play of the 2019 NFL season was Seahawk tight end Jacob Hollister being stopped just an inch shy of the end zone by the Niners in the last moments of the regular season. If Hollister scores the Niners are a wildcard team and have no home games. Who knows?

Past Midnight Oil

We haven’t mentioned the Australia fires because, honestly, we’re just too heartbroken about it. Some one billion animals have supposedly died, and that’s far too much suffering for innocent creatures for us to want to spend much time thinking about. We’ve been to Australia twice. It’s paradise. Or was.

I think back nearly thirty years to a band, an Australia band, that tried to warn us all and implored its listeners to prevent this tragedy. The band is Midnight Oil. The song, “Beds Are Burning.” Some lyrics:

The time has come to say fair’s fair
To pay the rent, to pay our share
The time has come, a fact’s a fact
It belongs to them, let’s give it back

Once again the artists and the scientists are right. Once again the political leaders and the plutocrats only listen to money. And they’ll only act after it’s too late. Human nature. Sad.

We do have one suggestion, however: A Bob Geldof-ian mega-concert to raise relief funds for this damaged island. Think of the lineup: AC/DC, INXS (get a fill-in for Hutchence), Midnight Oil (who should headline), Men At Work, Air Supply (don’t laugh!), Little River Band, Jet, The Vines, Silverchair, Tame Impala, even Kylie Minogue. I’m sure I’ve missed a couple; fill it out.

Little Women

This morning Twitter is ablaze over the fact that The New York Times couldn’t settle on just one woman to endorse for president, so it named two: Elizabeth Warren AND Amy Klobuchar. Even the mighty NYT, in a matter as simple as a presidential endorsement, had to have a sidepiece.

There’s also the implicit suggestion that it takes two women to equal one man. Either way, NYT, get off the fence and choose one gal (says the lifelong bachelor).

Brad To The Bone*

*The New York Post ran with “Jen Ex” and that’s way better than ours…

For some actors or actresses, awards season comes and it’s just their time. That’s the situation for Brad Pitt, who took home a Best Supporting Actor SAG/AFTA award last night (to add to his Golden Globe and soon-to-be Oscar). Pitt, who was our favorite thing about OUATIH, has been showing off quite a self-aware and self-deprecating sense of humor during these acceptance speeches.

Here he was last night: “It was a difficult part, a guy who gets high, takes his shirt off and doesn’t get on with his wife. It was a big stretch,” said Pitt, who also quipped, “I get to add this to my Tinder profile.”

Ex-wife Jennifer Aniston also won last night for her role in The Morning Show. It sure feels as if Ross and Rachel may just get back together!

Neil’s Odyssey

Two takeaways from the Netflix doc, “Beyond The Lighted Stage,” the story behind the band Rush: 1) Bassist and lead singer Geddy Lee is the son of Holocaust survivors. If things go differently in a Nazi concentration camp, we never get any of these songs (“Closer To The Heart,” “The Spirit of Radio,” “Tom Sawyer,” “Limelight”, etc). Then think that 6 million Jews were wiped out in that abomination. How many other future human contributions were squandered there? 2) When drummer Neil Peart lost both his teenage daughter (car accident) and wife (illness) in a year and a half period, the aloof and hyper-intelligent drummer took off. On his motorcycle. Across North America. And Central America. According to the doc, Peart traveled 55,000 miles on his motorcycle. That’s like going from New York to L.A. and back eleven full times. Apparently he wrote a book about the odyssey, Ghost Rider: Travels On The Healing World, which we’d now like to read.

Five Films: 1997

Each year is better, or at least as good as, the last. This is the fourth consecutive strong year in a row from this decade.

1. L.A. Confiidential: “Forget it, Russell. It’s Chinatown.” The best L.A. film noir since Chinatown stars two then-unknown Aussies, Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce. Great performances by Kim Basinger and Kevin Spacey, who was in the midst of quite a run. 2) Good Will Hunting: Higher than you might think, but the story here is pretty damn perfect and the relationship between Robin Williams and then virtually-unknown (except for School Ties) Matt Damon is much more authentic than the one between Jack and Rose in another film. How do you like them apples? 3) Boogie Nights: And the Oscar for unbridled ambition goes to Paul Thomas Anderson, the director who was only 27 when this was released. The two most audaciously bold, quality films of the decade were both set in L.A. This and Pulp Fiction. 4) Titanic: Lots (and lots) of folks made sport of trashing this film at the time, but it holds up. And ever since Leo has been king of the world! 5) Austin Powers: Allow myself to introduce… myself… I didn’t think Mike Meyers could improve upon Wayne’s World, but he did. Should we shag now or shag later? Yeah, baby, yeah! Silly and just a perfect send-up of James Bond’s entire ouevre.

Aslo see: Wag The Dog, Jackie Brown, Life Is Beautiful (it hurt not to include this last one).