Passages

[agnamaracs]

Astrud Gilberto

[beamish14]

Pianist George Winston

[flyonthewall2983]

The Iron Sheik

[CSM126]

The Iron Sheik

Heaven just became very, very humble.


If you will.

[bearcuborg]

The Iron Sheik

I feel like his hatred for Hogan kept him alive for the last 10+ years. RIP Bubba.

[flyonthewall2983]

His massive strength and body conditioning helped too. Even still considering what he had went through being one of the most hated bad guys 81 is perhaps quite a stretch considering some of the things he went through even in the relative safety of the ring. This match with Andre is as much proof of his toughness as even the clubs.

[Lemmy Caution]

Circa 1986, a friend & I were heading into NYC to catch a Fellini film. We got to the train station and there was a kid with a sign Death to Iran. Another had a sign maligning a sheik (The Shiek is a Freak ... or somesuch). And for a minute or two, it made no sense why pre-teens would be protesting against Iran in central Jersey.
Then I realized it must be wrestling night at MSG.

We experienced some tunnel delay, only arriving at Penn Station just at the films starting time, so made no sense to head downtown and be 20 minutes late. We picked up a NYTimes and scanned for live music or whatever, but if any good live jazz or soul was on tap that night, we would probably have chosen that over a film. Without any luck or ideas, we pivoted and decided to see the wrestling. I guess we had the Iron Sheik and anti-Iranian suburban kids to thank for that. Dont recall the ticket price, but Knick games were usually around $10 at the time.

What I recall most was that Rowdy Roddy Piper was the main attraction. When I was getting some beers, fans themselves were pretty rowdy, and I considered yelling out Piper Sucks! just to get in the spirit and rile folks up, but then thought better of it. Some fans were fairly passionate and drunk. One guy started fighting with a cement wall just next to the beer line, which confirmed my good sense in keeping my mouth shut. Overall, it was impressive how the crowd all reacted in unison knowing just when to boo the bad guy and cheer when the good guy proclaims he'll rip the legs off the bad guy or whatever. Very effective crowd manipulation like some Manichaean sport playing out.

The other notable incident was after my buddy lit up a joint. A youngish usher walked over and with a bemused look on his face wordlessly handed us a card stating that smoking was not permitted in Madison Square Garden. It was orange and looked like one of those old Monopoly chance cards, but with an MSG logo. Kept it for years, but haven't seen it in decades. Uh, don't have any specific recollections of the Iron Sheik that night, but I'm sure he was booed lustily.
Championship wrestling is such a weird cartoonish phenomena. My father has been a fan for decades, but switched from WWE to AEW wrestling for reasons he couldn't really articulate.

[CSM126]

Pat Robertson

[flyonthewall2983]

The mental image of him arriving at the Gates of Heaven only to be humbled by The Iron Sheik is a good thought to wake up to

[CSM126]

The mental image of him arriving at the Gates of Heaven only to be humbled by The Iron Sheik is a good thought to wake up to

“He suplexed me!”

“Uh huh”

“And then he put me in the camel clutch!”

“Mmm-hmmm”

“He broke my back”

“Oh yeah, I bet”

“And then he fucked my ass!”

“Feeling pretty humble right about now, huh?”

“Yeah. And hot. Who are you anyway?”

“Satan”

[bearcuborg]

First we lose Iron Sheik, now Pat Cooper. Two great Howard Stern guests...

We lost a lover and a friend.

[Kracker]

Three counting Pat Robertson with the number of times Howard Stern lampooned him on his show.

Guess his show on Monday is going to be all eulogies, might tune in for the first time in many months.

[bearcuborg]

Three counting Pat Robertson with the number of times Howard Stern lampooned him on his show.

Guess his show on Monday is going to be all eulogies, might tune in for the first time in many months.

Howard: "Robin, I was just about to write notes to Pat Cooper and Iron Sheik..."
Robin: "What?! Nobody told me..."

Followed by 2 brief, and watered down clips of their appearances on the show when it was good. There, I saved you precious minutes of your life.

[jazzo]

Cheektowaga’s long-standing weatherman and children’s variety show host, Tom Jolls, (Commander Tom) also meant the world to many of us Ontarian kids receiving the WKBW signal out of Buffalo back in the 70’s and 80’s.

https://www.wgrz.com/amp/article/life/ ... 47fa79d574

RIP Commander.

[domino harvey]

Unabomber Ted Kaczynski

[otis]

Silvio Berlusconi

[beamish14]

Silvio Berlusconi

The three features he is a credited producer on are unmitigated pieces of shit, with Mediterraneo perhaps being the worst Best Foreign Language Oscar-winner ever. It is a kind of glimpse into his career as a politician, though, as the film is basically a revisionist take on Italy’s role in the Second World War

[MitchPerrywinkle]

It's also worth adding that Mediterraneo has the distinct honor of being the only film Roger Ebert claimed to have walked out on before it was finished. A fitting footnote to Berlusconi's rancid legacy.

[beamish14]

It's also worth adding that Mediterraneo has the distinct honor of being the only film Roger Ebert claimed to have walked out on before it was finished. A fitting footnote to Berlusconi's rancid legacy.

Ebert AND Gene Siskel walked out, and the cut they saw is 10 minutes shorter than what Italian audiences were tortured with

It looks like he may have walked out of a few others

[colinr0380]

Berlusconi did also make an attempt in the 1980s at doing a Rupert Murdoch avant la lettre by setting up an Italian TV network to directly challenge the national broadcaster RAI, presumably (as with Murdoch and Sky television in the UK) to better control media channels that would disseminate certain favourable takes on his rise to prominence in other spheres.

And tangentially related but at the time that she appeared (and has a spectacular final act death scene where she literally spraypaints the white walls red with blood) in Argento's classic 1982 film Tenebrae, the actress Veronica Lario was apparently already involved in an affair with Berlusconi before eventually becoming his second wife in 1990 until 2009.

[flyonthewall2983]

Treat Williams, after a motorcycle crash. 71. Damn, he was good, and from what I saw of his Twitter a nice guy to fans.

[Rayon Vert]

Just listened to his commentary on Hair the other day. He sounded like a great guy.

[therewillbeblus]

As a kid I always recognized him as that guy who was in terrible 90s movies, yet made them somewhat bearable with inviting screen presence. But anyone who hasn’t seen his bold perf in Smooth Talk should remedy that immediately

[hearthesilence]

Richard Kind once said that Williams paid him his favorite compliment. They were in the same post-production studio for different projects and Williams was there viewing something he was in. Kind went over to visit him and Williams wouldn’t let him into his room, telling him “I can’t let you see this, you’re too good!”

This came up while Kind was talking about “Prince of the City,” so needless to say, the respect was mutual. For my money one of Lumet’s and Williams’s best films.

[Aunt Peg]

Treat Williams was one of my favourite actors to emerge during the late 1970s. The Ritz, Hair, Prince of the City, Why Would I Like?, Smooth Talk & The Deep End of the Ocean remain perennial favourites for me.