Happy Anniversary to me. It was 1 year ago today that I had my back surgery. It was supposed to be a simple lumbar fusion, like the one I
had 25 years ago. It turned out to be anything but simple.
I try to remember the pain I was in going into surgery, as I
try to answer some simple questions.
Would I do it again?
Probably not, if I had known what the complications were going to be, but
after addressing the staff infection, my new doctor thinks the bones are now
going to fuse.
I don’t. We’ll see.
After the hospitalization and 8 weeks of antibiotic infusion, I
had about 3 weeks of very minor discomfort.
I was feeling good! Then, about 8/12,
right before we were leaving to go to help David and his family move into a new
house, I twisted my back, putting me to bed with leg and nerve pain that exceeded
any previous pain I’ve had. It has
slowly calmed down, but I’m on pins and needles about the future nerve
pain. Hint – today was a rough day.
Would I advise people to have back surgery? Simple – avoid until you just can’t take
it. Surgery should be a last resort.
Things I learned in the last year.
Facebook is a game changer.
We complain about it, but so many are wired in. Because my pain was front and center, and I
was writing about it like a whiney baby, I heard from hundreds of people –
people that 20 years ago would have had no idea what was going on. I communicated often with people I haven’t
seen in 40 years. It was a joy and a
delight and a needed distraction.
Speaking of Facebook…you can’t get rid of adds or see all your friends by
copying and pasting anything, especially if it starts off with the words “It
worked!” What is that? A premonition? To see your friends – interact with them, hit
a “like” on their page and watch what happens.
You’ll see more. You’ll also see
other friends less. Let the logarithms work. And as
for ads – you are going to see them.
That’s how META makes money. But,
if you don’t like the ads you’re seeing, just hit those three little dots in
the upper right-hand corner of the ad and go to work. It will knock out what you don’t want. For example, every time I opened Facebook I
would get a DirecTV ad first thing. Same
ad, so I finally went in and told them to stop giving me DirectTv ads. So they did.
They replaced it with something else just as aggravating.
Speaking of DirecTV, did you notice India landed on the moon
yesterday? That call center money must
be big. DirecTV, Caremark pharmacy, and
several others I deal with use an Indian call center and I just can’t
understand what they’re saying, and I don’t care how well they’ve been trained
they usually can’t help me. I immediately
ask for someone in America. I felt bad
about it, but when you’re delirious and someone sounds like they are blowing
your name through a pipe, I just can’t.
But the Call Centers aren’t the only ones I can’t make out. Is everybody using Closed Captioning as much
as me? There were many days when I just gave up on the sound, even British
programs, well especially British programs, and turned the sound down and just
read it. I don’t like to do this, because
I think it lessens the impact and sometimes the print precedes the words. To make matters worse, my bedroom TV
sometimes goes out of sync by 5 seconds or so.
So, just imagine me in bed, in pain, on painkillers, watching this,
trying to read the words on a scene that has already ended.
Medically for just a minute, I sure learned a lot about modern
medicine. Modern Medicine is mostly what
I call “conveyer belt” service. You
think you are getting personal care, but you usually aren’t. Some are great, but some are just trying to
move you along. I’m just going to say
this: I must have researched and read
100 articles and easily watched 500 videos over the last year. YOU MUST TAKE CHARGE AND HAVE THE RIGHT
QUESTIONS. You know how so many commercials
start with “ask your doctor about?” Well,
you better. They don’t seem to mind
anymore when you refer to the internet and start a sentence, with “I googled
it, and it said grapefruit would help.” As
for asking questions, like “How long before I can go cartwheeling,” don’t think
they are going to tell you without asking.
My number one complaint is not what they tell you, but what they don’t.
It’s really hard when you go through a year like this,
because you miss so much. This was
certainly not the “retirement plan.” I certainly
didn’t want to miss a jazz fest. There
were people that I would’ve normally helped but couldn’t, and some tiny little
people that needed my attention. I did
it because I thought it would pay off in the future. I sure hope so. If you know me you probably thought “well, he’ll
just watch movies,” and I did, but not nearly as many as you would’ve thought. It’s not that much fun to be drugged and drowsy
and it’s hard to concentrate, especially with that hearing problem I was talking
about.
Lastly, it’s really hard to go through something like this
without someone who has vowed “in sickness and in health.” I don’t like to need attention, but my wife
never blinked, never left her post. She
stood on that wall because I needed her on that wall. I couldn’t have survived this without
her. Through 3 emergency room visits,
and at least 40 doctor appointments. If
you don’t have a spouse like Liz, get one.
Hard to find, but well worth it.
Recently there was a poll on Facebook asking for the best
lines in Movie History. There were hundreds
of great lines but here’s a sampling: “You
want me on that wall, you need me on that wall,” “You want the truth…you can’t
handle the truth,”
Yes, there were several from one movie, one movie where it
was great actors cutting loose. I
watched it again just to be sure, but guess what isn’t in that wonderful
courtroom scene – a thunderous soundtrack.
It’s a simple, great scene, with some background music that
only starts as Jack Nicholson is lead away.
Let’s give that movie the Christopher Nolan treatment. The courtroom scene would be 3 hours long,
with flashback scenes interspersed telling the story with black and white,
ghostly effects, a sex scene in the courtroom, maybe even the actual code red
acted out. It would be emphasized with a
thunderous soundtrack, a sonic boom after each Cruise line, and maybe violins screeching
over Nicholson’s speech.
Make no mistake, times have changed. The theater experience will never be the
same. What could have been a straight-line
story (God Forbid) collides with what I guess is the hyped-up expectations of
today’s audience. Oppenheimer is a
marvelized super hero movie, just without Batman. There’s a great movie here, certainly a great
story, trying to get out. The effects
and mostly the horrible soundtrack that dominate this movie are an assault on
the senses. It’s a Nolan movie so it
jumps around through time like a bumblebee looking for whatever it is they look
for. There are some great scenes in the
movie. I loved the story. I saw no reason for the show-off special
effects, as entertaining as they might be.
For example, the wonderful Emily
Blunt has a big scene at the end of the movie where she’s being interrogated. There’s great byplay between her and the
questioner, played by Jason Clarke (also great as the bad guy.) But, Nolan can’t just let it go and trust his
actors. He has to juice it up with
totally unnecessary rapid cuts. In fact,
all the acting is great in the movie, but other than Robert Downey, Jr, Nolan
just doesn’t trust them, particularly Cillian Murphy as Oppenheimer who gets
the brunt of the soundtrack where his pensive thoughts are accompanied by
thundering herds, or those screeching violins. It’s like a fourth Batman,
except you can’t tell the villain by his cigarettes. Everyone kind of looks alike and it’s hard to
get a grasp on the many scientists.
Nolan should have gone all the way, and played an individual theme song
for each, like relievers coming out of the bullpen.
I fully understand that Oppenheimer has been a critical and
commercial success, with many awards ahead for those who participated. Sorry, for me it was a 3-hour hearing test.
Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning part 1 – 7
There is no bigger fan of this franchise and Tom Cruise than
me. He loves movies and is dedicated to
giving the audience all he’s got. The
last episodeof MI, “Fallout” is for me the greatest action picture I’ve ever seen. But I now realize that at the end of Fallout,
Director Christopher McQuarrie uses a gimmick that he falls in love with – dueling
action scenes. Thus, almost every action
scene in this movie has one wild scene after another spliced together in a two-for-the-price
of one adventure. It’s not enough to be
on a zip line. There has to be crocodiles
underneath with a helicopter about to crash into the zip line while the two
operators of the line are slashing each other with butter knives. In the middle of the movie we are treated to two
great fight scenes: Tom Cruise’s Ethan
Hunt in a tight alley with Pom Klementieff (she’s terrific, and we’d love to
see more of her – but we won’t) and a very important and heartbreaking fight to
the death on a bridge. The scenes are
both critical to the story and I’d love to see them in their entirety, but
no. Cutting back and forth, two fights
at once. I just wanted to yell at the editor, “Stop.” The truth is, the alley scene had a lot of
blurry motion that may have been telling us that those wonderfully choregraphed
Cruise fights of the past are just too much for Cruise in his 60’s. Cruise says he wants to shoot these into his
80’s. He’s gonna need a stuntman. Ask Indy.
This goes on throughout the movie, and it’s just too much.
What else is over the top?
Well, it’s time to retire the face-making briefcase. How does it make hair anyway?
It wouldn’t be a Tom Cruise Movie without him running. But his lungs must be phenomenal, because
once again he’s running for miles at a full sprint, and not out of breath when
he reaches his destination.
In his 60’s. Geez, my
standards aren’t that high, I just want a little believability, and there is no
“stunt” he does like the running, heavily edited. Here’s an idea. Mission Impossible: The Training Movie. This I gotta see.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny - 7
What does it say about a movie that
features an 80 year old actor doing such far-fetched action scenes that when
the movie turns into a time travel saga, that’s the most believable part? Let’s just say I spent the first two thirds
of this movie laughing at the ridiculous things Indy can still do. Or should I say, his stunt man does, and it’s
pretty obvious. Here I am at 70 and if
someone told me to “Run!” I’d look at them like they’d lost their mind. Having said that, in the last half hour there’s
a time travel wrinkle that I really liked.
The destination was a wonderous piece, and it only made me long for what
could have been. Next up, Indiana Jones
and the Wheelchair of Doom.
Asteroid City – 9
And the movie I expected to like the least was the one I
liked the most. Wes Anderson has never
been one of my favorite directors, but I love what he’s doing here. The first half is hilarious as you are
introduced to a city like no other, where aliens seem to have dropped their asteroid. It takes place in the fifties, so a family is
on vacation and their car breaks down in this magical town. Because back in the day, the annual road trip
with a breakdown, and a search for a mechanic, accompanied by the exasperation
of my father, was par for the course.
Luther: The Fallen
Sun – 8
Idris Elba returns to his role as Luther, the London DCI,
super “copper” who starts the movie by going to jail. Luther had made a promise to a mother to find
her son and he had failed. So the
killer is not only going free,but working quite nicely as a serial
killer. So, what would you do? Well Luther breaks out of jail to continue to
hunt, while being hunted himself. So,
there. All the Luther touches are
there.
What is almost funny as Indiana Jones, is that Luther is
always in this big heavy overcoat, fighting, even swimming and you want to yell
“take that coat off!”
Pretty much up to the standards of the series, while cashing
in on its binge popularity.
Memory – 8
Wouldn’t it be nice if we all found our mission late in life
like Liam Neeson has done? Here’s
another one of his churn-outs, but the surprise is, it’s better than most. He’s a hit man who is trying to face down
memory loss, and it’s actually pretty good.
The Mauritanian – 8
A true story about lawyers played by Jodie Foster and Benedict
Cumberbatch getting ready to duke it out over Guantanamo detainees after 9/11
when they begin to realize some pretty nasty things have gone on. Wait for it.
The closing credits where they tell you the stats. Unbelievable.
Extraction 2 – 8
This extraction is better than the last one. Surprisingly.
Creed III - 8
Creed has retired to a life of luxury when he gets
challenged by a boyhood chum who’s been locked away in a prison, hitting a
heavy bag with a lot of anger. No
surprises here, as Michael B Jordan shows some promise as a director. Just as good as the first two, but let’s not
beat a dead horse. It should be over.
The Trip - 8 The Trip to Italy - 8
Pretty funny. Two
guys travel and write about England, and Italy, eating the local cuisine and while
I wish they would talk more about what they are eating instead of Michael Caine
so much, I really enjoyed these. The
British sense of humor is on full display.
BINGING
The Blacklist – 10
I’m not going to jump up and down over the final episodes of
this series, which just wound up season 10, other than to acknowledge the
amazing storytelling and execution for 10 years and over 200 episodes. It held my interest until the end, and perhaps
as people discover it streaming, like I did, it will become an American
Classic, and James Spader’s portrayal of Red Reddington, whoever he was, will
go down in TV history as one of the greats.
I hope so.
Hijack – 9
Speaking of Idris Elba, here he is as a negotiator stuck on a hijacked flight
and having to lead the passengers in a quest to stay alive. This is a 7-episode
Apple series told in real time, which makes it interesting to me. It started off as good, and really accelerated
at the end. Apple TV is going to
challenge the other streamers for quality offerings.
Suits - 10 so far
How did I miss this? Why didn't anybody tell me? I'm only into season two but this one has the potential to join the pantheon of great law shows like from The Good Wife to Perry Mason. Really Enjoying it, every night.
DOCUMENTARIES
The Luckiest Guy in the World - 10 Stephen Curry:
Underrated – 9 Quarterback – 9 Arnold - 8
The Luckiest Guy in the World is Bill Walton, or so he says
over and over in the 30 for 30 ESPN 4 parter on his career and life. This is a terrific remembrance for me as I
watched those dominant UCLA teams win title after title. Injuries derailed Walton’s career, but I
remember his championship year with the Portland Trailblazers because I had
never seen a center pass like he did as his team hit layup after layup.
Bill Walton was different, and this documentary got me
listening to The Grateful Dead channel on Sirius.
The Steph Curry piece is mostly about his doubters. The Walton and Curry docs have one thing in
common. Feet. Their early NBA careers were derailed by injuries
to the lower extremities, which is good to know for Pelican fans “Waiting for
Zion” which would be a great book title.
What I love about both of these is the brief glimpses we get into their
workouts and what they had to do to overcome.
Quarterback is a Netflix coverage of 3 NFL quarterbacks throughout the 2022
season. The season ends dramatically different for each of the three, but unfortunately, you already know that. Again, the most interesting part is in the preparation.
And then there’s Arnold Schwarzenegger. His life story is pretty amazing as he came
to America solely on the basis of the work habits that transformed his
body. He then parlayed his success at bodybuilding
into the movies, and then, in the most amazing of flukes, was elected Governor of
California.
Obviously, I enjoy sports-related documentaries, and all 4
of these were more enjoyable than my movie theater sojourns.
Wham – 8 Music Box – Jason Isbell:
Running with Our Eyes Closed – 9
And as we all know I’m also a sucker for music documentaries, and
here’s two artists that I wouldn’t have on my cassettes (call back) but they
still have fascinating stories of perseverance, talent, and dedication.
CLASSICS
Jeanne Dielman -9
What, you never heard of this movie? Neither had I until it jumped to the top of
the Sound and Sight critics’ poll as the number one, best movie of all time. It’s basically a three-hour long examination
of a woman moving around her apartment.
Oh, and she’s receiving male friends if you know what I mean and I think
you do. And she’s tired of what she’s
doing for a living and seems to have had enough. But it’s pretty subtle, until a surprising
ending. It’s a good movie, and it did
hold my attention for 3 hours
Night Train to Munich – 8 There was a lot of cloak and dagger going on in the 40’s,
and here’s a pretty good movie about the lead up to WWII. Starring Rex Harrison with a lot of plot twists, it’s as good as any of
these you could catch.
Nights of Cabiria – 7
Fellini’s 1957 film about a young prostitute named Cabiria
(Giulietta Masina, played by his wife) is an interesting character study. Masina won a Best Actress award at Cannes for
this, and I didn’t even know they give out such awards. She’s a bright face in what was for me a
sluggish movie.
Elevator to the Gallows – 9
As I try to work my way through many of the neo-noir classics as
TCM is insisting, I found this one to be better than most. A guy commits a crime of passion and is then
stuck in an elevator for hours while he gets implicated in another murder. Can he get away with murder? Will the police figure this out? Great story that would make a worthwhile remake.
Storm Warning – 8
A young Doris Day and an aging Ginger Rogers play sisters,
great casting, and they are up against the KKK in a small southern town. Decent, and predictable.
Beau Travail – 8
This is a 1999 French film based on the novel
Billy Budd that I had never heard of until it kept coming up on lists as the
movie with the greatest ending of all time.I don’t know about all that, as I’ll stick with The Sixth Sense, but it
is also ranked #7 on the Sight and Sound Poll of the all-time best.Don’t know about that either.It’s about the French Foreign Legion as they
prepare to go to war.Maybe I just didn’t
get it.
Here's the latest Sight and Sound poll by critics: https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/greatest-films-all-time
Here's the critics' poll: https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/directors-100-greatest-films-all-time
Finally, if you've read this far, you deserve a special gift. Check it out because I promise you will never see anything like this again:
