On April 10, 1992, the comedian Sam Kinisondied in a car crash when his car was hit by a pickup truck in California. Kinison, who had just married his girlfriend five days earlier, was 38 years old.
Although Kinison started out like his father as a Pentecostal preacher he eventually changed careers and began appearing in comedy clubs. His first national break came when he was in his early 30s in 1984 when he appeared on an HBO comedy special devoted to young comedians. His 1984 breakthrough performance on the HBO Rodney Dangerfield’s Ninth Annual Young Comedians Special introduced him to much of the world. Then, the following year, he had another big break with his first appearance on Late Night with David Letterman. The world of comedy was never the same.
Rodney Dangerfield introduces the new comedian Sam Kinison to the world in the following video. Check it out.
While a week ago Google was punking everyone with their new “products” for April Fools’ Day, this new video seems to be the real thing. The video presents a view from Google’s “Project Glass” eyewear, which allows one to have all kinds of information accessible from the moment you wake up. As more and more the computer age integrates into daily life, it almost seems like the logical next step.
Don’t look for the eyewear at Best Buy right now. It is an ongoing project and the video is meant as sort of a teaser to get everyone buzzing. Still, a commentator on CNN this morning predicted that the product could be available in the next 12-24 months. And PC Magazine has a photo of Google co-founder Sergey Brin wearing the device. While I want the device right now, I am a little worried that it will lead to a lot of problems with people not paying attention where they are going. But I suppose there will be an app to warn you if you are going to get hit by a car. Then again, maybe it is a little creepy to have that much technology controlling our lives. I guess we will just have to wait and see. Would you try this device? What do you think of Project Glass? Leave your two cents in the comments.
In popular culture, most references to Moses focus on the high points of his life. These include him leading the Israelites to freedom by parting the Red Sea and his trip to Mount Sinai to bring forth the ten commandments. But in the final scene of the film The Ten Commandments (1956), the film ends with a less celebratory scene. The movie ends with Charlton Heston’s Moses left behind, paying for what seems like a minor transgression.
I remember watching the movie as a kid, seeing the low-key ending as a letdown after the excitement of the action of the parting of the Red Sea. I also found it confusing because the entire movie shows Moses as special to God and then all of a sudden God is punishing him.
Perhaps my confusion about the ending of the movie is one of the reasons I immediately fell in love with Bruce Springsteen’s “The Price You Pay.” Springsteen captures the tragic sadness of that moment in his song from The River (1980).
Little girl down on the strand, With that pretty little baby in your hands, Do you remember the story of the Promised Land? How he crossed the desert sands, And could not enter the chosen land, On the banks of the river he stayed, To face the price you pay.
Similarly, in “Adam Raised a Cain,” he explains that the notion of sin and punishment is so deep that paying for our own sins is not enough: “You’re born into this life paying / For the sins of somebody else’s past.”
But Springsteen, who both embraces and rebels against his Catholic upbringing in his songs, does not let the story of “The Price You Pay” end there. Although there is nothing Springsteen can do about the story of Moses (or Cain and Able), in “The Price You Pay” the singer rebels against the rules that say we must always be paying for sins. But just across the county line, a stranger passing through put up a sign That counts the men fallen away to the price you pay; And girl before the end of the day, I’m gonna tear it down and throw it away.
In some ways, “The Price You Pay” is a sequel to Springsteen’s “The Promised Land” from Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978). In that song, the singer sang of faith in a promised land and a coming twister that will “blow away the dreams that break your heart.”
The idea of escape from punishment for sin is present in much of Springsteen’s music. In “The Price You Pay,” though, he connects the past and present in a way where the present-day hero is not crushed by old rules. Instead, he rises up and rebel not only for himself, but for the sinners of the past, including Moses. It may be nothing more than tearing down a sign, but he rejects the notion that life is about paying for sin.
Whether or not you celebrate one of the holidays this month, may you have a year free from the haunting of past sins. And at the same time may you tear down the sign and forgive others for their burdens.
What do you think is the meaning behind “The Price You Pay”? Leave your two cents in the comments.
On April 7 in 1915, Eleanora Fagan was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As a young 13-year-old girl, Eleanora learned songs and began singing while working in a brothel. After getting arrested and serving time in a workhouse, the girl began seeking a singing career and adopted her new first name from the actress Billie Dove and her last name from a jazz guitarist who was her father, Clarence Halliday (although that name later transformed into “Holiday”).
By 1946, Billie Holiday was so well-known for her singing that she appeared in the film New Orleans with Louis Armstrong, where she sang “The Blues are Brewin’.”
After a lifetime of facing racism, drug abuse, drinking, and abusive men, Holiday died in 1959 suffering from liver and heart disease. She was only 44. While she was in the hospital dying, police raided her room and arrested her for drug possession. Despite her troubled life, she had a unique influence on American music, much like Louis Armstrong. Thanks Eleanora.
After he sang, he graciously noted that he did not deserve all the credit for his reinterpretation because he took much of it from the band Quietdrive. If you’re not familiar with the group, the band is an alt-rock group from Minneapolis that formed in 2002 and has released several albums. Here is their interpretation of “Time After Time,” which was in the soundtrack for the 2006 film, John Tucker Must Die.
“Time After Time” is one of those songs that seems like it has been around forever and lends itself well to covers. I suspect most people are like me and prefer Lauper’s original above all others. I was fortunate to see her perform the song in a small club in Cleveland before “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” took her to superstar status. While she will always be most associated with “Girls,” it is “Time After Time” that probably will always be covered by other artists. Some of the versions of the song are by Eva Cassidy, Matchbox Twenty, and Sarah Mclachlan. One of my favorite interpretations is by Miles Davis.
“Time After Time” is timeless.
What is your favorite version of “Time After Time”? Leave your two cents in the comments.
