well, not really, but even better. erin davies, driver of the fagbug, from syracuse, ny, visited eou this past tuesday to show a clip of her documentary fagbug and give a poignant perception into a daring venture in which she has brought hope to many and discomfort to a few. erin has laid it all out on the line and opened up her life since her vw bug was vandalized 6 years ago. she decided against covering up the graffiti, which read “fag” on the door and “ur gay” on the windshield. instead, she began driving all over the usa to spread her own example of why hate and discrimination is the death of society. after one year, the graffiti was finally removed and replaced
with a vinyl rainbow wrap and the script “fagbug” with her website to raise even more awareness.
erin has driven the fagbug to 49 states, with alaska coming up in a couple weeks. in the time since the initial vandalization, the car has been vandalized 12 more times. several times it has been spit on, a few times egged, even once had a stolen dog thrown onto it! add onto that nasty, negative, rude comments and insults. some people have thought the car was cute until they knew what it was about. others have contracted her to speaking engagements, only to cancel when they found out the car wouldn’t be present. others still have asked her to speak with a contract mandating that the car would not be present on their property. she’s seen people so enamored to nearly crash into her trying to take her picture as she motors down the interstate. she’s seen every kind of unreasonable behavior and wishy-washy feeling imaginable from all types of people. and let’s not forget there are always cops! erin has received over $2000 in fines for things such as “improper signage” and “letters more than 2 inches high.”
erin has done more than 500 interviews, and only 5 or 6 of those were adverse, though the people with ill-will usually decline interviews. she has received over 350 notes on the fagbug, and only 5 were negative. what, she can only wonder, would be her job prospects if she tried to change jobs? the rabble rouser believes her prospects to be endless! however, she was fired from a student teaching post after only 9 days because she dared to exert the freedom to be herself. the crowd at her eou talk also saw how frivolously we waste our time. out of 40 people in the room, only three admitted to not having sent a text in the past day. are any of us considerate in the way we interact with others? do we give our encounters the care they deserve? or do we brush them off according to our own perceptions of what they were worth? certainly, my own interaction with erin was very short while other people waited to talk to her and i was headed to another concert. yet she did encourage us to stop and take the time to write handwritten letters. i already make the practice of writing at least one letter per month, but it’s still not easy for me to slow down to do such a task. just try and give that a shot! it might be difficult enough to just to find out where people live. but writing to a friend or a family member is work put in for someone more than a stranger, yet we still can’t do that carefully enough. so, how much are we equipped to help a stranger? or to put that in selfish american terms, how much should we expect a total stranger to be able to help us if we were in a tough spot?
erin could have cleaned off the graffiti on her car and took the simple route back to her own private place, but to how much shame and to how much loss for the rest of us? she was able to share a message to thousands and make immeasurable differences in the lives of more than one person. she understands the importance of strangers that have made everything possible. those of us compassionate enough to empathize with the personal and professional sacrifices she has made to extend her message are those strangers that give her what it takes to keep going. please look up erin and tell her what you think!
find her at her website fagbug.com. the film itself can be purchased on the site, or streamed for free at http://bit.ly/sharfagbug. as any of us who have tried to sell merch know, it is a money losing proposition but still great for raising awareness, so help her out if you can. erin has plans for a follow up documentary called fagbug nation about her trip to all 50 states and a children’s book called rainbow bug. yes! can we please start informing kids about tolerance from the time they begin to walk? for the love of our own kids, like jadin bell, who deserved to grow up in an environment free of hate.
on that note, let's pause to breathe until the next blog about the film bully...
the last blog was an assignment to discuss the top 5 sports songs, which i felt pretty comfortable in my selections. next up, top 5 sports movies of all time. there are a ton of sports movies, made since the 1890s, such that it would be impossible for even a movie "expert" to be able to make such a list. i am not an expert on movies in general, much less sports movies. i have said over and over that the only good movies were made in the early 1930s. after that, they are mostly not worth watching. maybe one per year, or a few essential ones per decade. that is, it is mostly a waste of time to watch movies, even television is probably more valuable than the hollywood motion picture industry. and we all know how much i care about sports in general. so combine the two worlds and i am not likely to be of much help in guiding you to the promised land of the definitive sports movie. that all said, i have still seen maybe as many as 3% of all the sports movies ever made, which is probably more than the average person.
some interesting things that came from this exercise: there were at least three sports movies made in the 1890s. all about the same sport. can you guess what that is? here's a hint to anyone who have read any of my previous sports related blogs this year, it's a "real" sport. evidenced now by the fact that people made movies about it at a time when movies weren't even being made. answer to come. there were at least three movies made in the 1930s about college football players being paid money. there was a football made in the 1970s about terrorism. the more i find out about these movies, the more discouraged i get about being an american. land of the forgetful, where we still have the same discussions 80 years later. why haven't we found a solution to these things? we're still talking about college football players getting paid under the table. we're still worried about terrorism, though the answer is really quite simple. we're still finding ways to make lesser and lesser "sports" bigger and better. we're still we're still looking for answers in the wrong places it would seem. we're still making sports a primarily important part of our lives, though anyone with a strong moral make up would not give sports that much importance. it goes hand in hand with bars and drinking, i would assume.
in line with quitting the drunk talk and starting the discussion for real, i will be reducing my role on the sports show and focusing of things that matter. on june 17, my role will be either reduced. but panda and myself will begin a more socially engaging show. but for now, on with the assignment.
5. heading home (1920)
about the young babe ruth. played by babe ruth. think about how important babe ruth has been to the sports world. think about all of his accomplishments. think about how many people had movies made about them in 1920. then think about the fact that babe ruth didn't even start making a name for himself until 1920 when he debuted for the yankees. the fact that someone made a movie of him starring him in 1920 as opposed to 1930 says that he was a big star before he even became a big star. watch the entire movie above.
4. paper lion (1968)
a film starring alan alda, which i have not even seen, though still confident enough to place on the top five list. george plimpton was a socialite founder of the paris review (also a writer for sports illustrated) who tried his hand at virtually all walks of life. this film was made based off his book about being a quarterback for the detroit lions. there is a documentary called "plimpton! starring george plimpton as himself" (2012, trailer is above) which screened at the eastern oregon film fest and is more wide reaching in scope, covering plimpton's attempts at playing goaltender with the boston bruins, boxing matches with sugar ray robinson and archie moore and other disasters.
3. a league of their own (1992)
baseball is the american past time, something exactly between a sport and a game. directed by lavern (penny marshall) about the women's baseball league that was formed during the war years while the men were away in wwii. casting is amazing, in so much that a cast of all-stars never usually turns out to be very much worth watching. music is composed by hans zimmer, who is normally reserved big theatrical musical opuses like "pirates of the carribean". but the messages of sexism (and even racism - check out the scene where the black woman on the sidelines fires the ball back into the field - that would be mamie "peanut" johnson) in sports underline the story. the characters within a baseball roster are very adequately considered. but the best character play of all, tom hanks as jimmy dugan, a former superstar slugger, now a has been, who could care less about the game or life at all for that matter. he just lets it all hang out and tell people exactly how he feels, such as autographing a baseball for two kids that reads "avoid the clap, jimmy dugan" or declining to show up for games at all due to his drunkeness. this film is carefully constructed and every scene in it is an extreme examination of lives and puts sports on a second tier of importance. that is the factor that makes this film better than "major league" which was popular at the same time. "major league" was less of a social examination and more of a baseball character study. still funny, still important, but not what "a league of their own" was.
2. the hurricane (1999)
starring denzel washington as rubin "hurricane" carter, an african american ex-con who reformed his life to become a title contender in the early to mid 1960s, before his career was ended when he was convicted of a payback murder. after 19 years in prison, carter was exonerated when the improper court case was re-examined. he has been a social activist on different levels since. when it was freshly released, it became one of my favorite movies of all time. however, in hind sight, i put it down the list because it is typical hollywood fare, a feel good story where justice is always served correctly in the end. it gets numerous things wrong. such as making carter look like another mohammed ali, when in reality his boxing record was spotty at best. the film focuses on racism, and while there was some racist problems faced this was more of a "man against the bastard" type story. there were lies. conflicting testimony, recantations, recantations of those recantations, re-trial, re-sentences, celebrity interaction and endorsements and more. bob dylan recorded his song "hurricane" shortly after his conviction in the late sixties.
hurricane carter became a celebrity due to the ordeal and the story of him is very compelling, if the film is not so much. it certainly is worth watching as opposed to this jodi arias crap we are force fed now. and denzel washington shows off terrific skill as an actor with a terrific representation of carter.
1. on the waterfront (1954)
starring marlon brando as an ex-boxer turned a waterfront dock worker fighting the corruption of his gangster boss, who is also head of the union. brando threw a fight to win a bet for his brother and his cronies. it ruined his boxing career. likewise, all the other characters in the film plead "d & d" in court to protect their corrupt union boss. this film follows a thread of people not being responsible for their actions (or inactions). fear dictates what people will do and say. this was an early film to question the merits of the union structure and question whether the union would allow injustice. this film doesn't simply bastardize the role of the informer, but almost gives it high merit in showing the struggles an informer faces. that is appropriate because it has also been said that the film is an allegory for the red scare. and the director elia kazan allegedly played a leading role in being an informer to the government of the other hollywood celebrities being ratted out for supposedly having communist ties.
there is a reason this film is one of the greatest of all time and the above clip is an essential briefing on how sports careers are made and broken, how lives are made and broken, by others policies. a film like this is another reason to care about things more important than sports.
and to answer the above question: what sport is featured in films dating back to the 1890s? boxing.
as i said in the previous blogs about soccer: games happen within the mind, sports are physical. unless you are held directly accountable for your cockiness, trash talking and other sports type mojo, then you are not playing a real sport. soccer and basketball players are particularly infamous for not having to back up what they say. they just get ridiculed by the press if they turn out to be wrong, but they still have a job and get a ridiculous paycheck. boxers and hockey players always think twice about what they say because they will lose teeth for their opinions. their careers will be jeopardized. there is a huge measure of accountability. those are real sports.
DJ YeTi's list is here with the notes on the double y-ed facebook page.
here are few more sports movies that i could have just easily included on this list:
qurterback princess (1983, stars helen hunt as a high school girl in mcminnville, oregon who tries to make the football team. there is a similar more recent film starring ice cube.) slap shot (1977, hockey comedy starring paul newman) raging bull (1983, scorsese boxing film starring robert deniro) the natural (1983, starring robert redford, glenn close & robert duvall about an unkonwn baseball player who suddenly appears with superstar talent) kingpin (1996, starring bill murray & woody harrelson in a comedy about bowling) major league (1989, baseball comedy starring tom berenger & charlie sheen) running brave (1983, story of billy mills, an obscure american indian who wins the 10,000 meters at the olympics in tokyo) bang the drum slowly (1973 baseball film that made robert deniro a huge star) eight men out (1988, stars john cusack & db sweeney in a story about the 1919 chicago black sox scandal)
field of dreams (1989, starring kevin costner who hears voices telling him to build a stadium, another chicago black sox scandal driven film) brewster's millions (1983, comedy starring richard pryor & john candy about a minor leaguer that has 30 days to spend $30 million) bad news bears (1976, comedy starring walter matthau. 2005 remake stars billy bob thornton) the adventures of bob & doug mckenzie: strange brew (1983, comedy starring dave thomas & rick moranis, somewhat about hockey in so much as hockey would be featured in just about any canadian movie)
cool runnings (1993, all star cast in a comedy about the jamaican olympic bobsled team) kansas city bomber (1972, raquel welch playing roller derby) moneyball (2011, starring brad pitt as billy bean who uses a formulaic approach to creating a contending team with virtually no budget) white men can't jump (1992, basketball comedy starring wesley snipes & woody harrelson) the great race (1965, starring jack lemmon, tony curtis & natalie wood about a three continent car race) cannonball run (1981, slapstick comedy starring burt reynolds, roger moore, jackie chan, farrah fawcett, most of the rat pack and may other celebrities about a "sea to shining sea" road race) enter the dragon (1973, bruce lee's final film & the first martial arts film produced by a major hollywood motion picture agency) rocky III (1982, starring sly stallone, this is the one where he beats mr t. although we understand that would never happen in real life just about the same as canseco would never beat shaq in real life, this is still the hands down best of the six-film series) absent minded professor (1961, disney film starring fred macmurray who creates the flubber ball) heaven can wait (1978, starring warren beatty as a los angeles rams quarterback who is taken away too soon & the angels send him back to earth as a different person) remember the titans (2000, starring denzel washington as a motivational football coach) loneliness of the long distance runner (1962, starring tom courtenay as a rebellious youth marathon runner) winning team (1952, starring ronald reagan as grover cleveland alexander) beer league (2006, starring artie lange about a nobody who encourages his softball teammates to pick it up a notch)
...this is the latest assignment that i would never even consider if not for being part of a sports talk show...
top 5 sports songs of all time (yoshida's list, YeTi's list to come...)
1. todd snider - america's favorite pastime
my favorite historical team is no doubt the pittsburgh pirates, and having the most famous portland singer to have a song about the pirates, specifically doc ellis pitching a no-hitter on lsd, makes for about the most perfect song about sports. rabble rouser hall of fame material. another portlander david frishberg recorded a baseball song called van lingle mungo about van lingle and others. and while we're on the subject of baseball and local legends, check out #4.
2.stompin' tom connors - hockey song
the hockey song has been a staple of hockey games all over canada and the NHL for the last 20 years & is the intro song for the toronto maple leafs. written by canadian folk singer tom connors, who had several other hit songs about hockey. connors passed away in ontario on march 6, 2013. (of course the zambonis have songs exclusively about hockey if connors doesn't have enough for you! myspace has a catalog of about seven albums, starting with this one: drop that puck!) 3. ry cooder - third base, dodger stadium
another baseball song, ry cooder sang this one about the struggles of a people to survive when their meager existence is bulldozed by a professional sports organization searching for the cheapest land to build a baseball mecca. chuck brodsky also has an excellent social justice baseball song called the ballad of eddie klepp on racial integration as the first white man to play in the negro leagues. 4.jeff arundel - harmon killebrew
long time minnesota twin harmon killebrew was by far the best baseball player to come from the state of oregon. maybe technically idaho, harmon grew up around ontario. he played five partial and two full seasons with the washington senators getting an all-star nod and an AL home run crown in 1959. after the senators moved to minnesota in 1960, he played 14 more seasons with the twins, appearing in 10 all-star games, winning five more home run crowns and one MVP among many other awards. he retired after playing the 1975 season with kansas city, finishing #2 on the all time american league home run list behind babe ruth and #1 in major league history among right handed hitters. the minnesota twins retired his #3 in 1975. this song was written and recorded by minnesota folk singer jeff arundel. 5.gary glitter - rock n roll part 2
the most famously played song in sporting venues across america is undoubtedly rock and roll part 2 by gary glitter. few people know who actually recorded the song, or the title of it. there is good reason for this. in the late 1990s glitter took his computer in for repairs and was arrested after the techs found it littered with child porn. the song was pulled from most stadiums for a couple of years, only to be slowly re-introduced only without anyone really talking about the artist. after his four months in jail in britain, he fled the country on his yacht, ultimately ending up in cambodia. in 2002, he was deported from cambodia on child sex accusations. he went to vietnam, where in 2006 he was imprisoned for two years on child sex charges. he is currently living a quiet life back in britain and is banned entry to at least 19 different countries. had it been a "top ten" assignment, here are a few more songs that probably would have made the list... cab calloway - minnie the moocher sister sledge - we are family village people - ymca ac/dc - thunderstruck terry cashman - talkin baseball frances scott key - star spangled banner
tune in the double y-ed sports show every monday from noon to 2pm (pacific) on KEOL.
next week's show: top 5 sports movies of all time
well, not really, but even better. erin davies, driver of the fagbug, from syracuse, ny, visited eou this past tuesday to show a clip of her documentary fagbug and give a poignant perception into a daring venture in which she has brought hope to many and discomfort to a few. erin has laid it all out on the line and opened up her life since her vw bug was vandalized 6 years ago. she decided against covering up the graffiti, which read “fag” on the door and “ur gay” on the windshield. instead, she began driving all over the usa to spread her own example of why hate and discrimination is the death of society. after one year, the graffiti was finally removed and replaced
erin has done more than 500 interviews, and only 5 or 6 of those were adverse, though the people with ill-will usually decline interviews. she has received over 350 notes on the fagbug, and only 5 were negative. what, she can only wonder, would be her job prospects if she tried to change jobs? the rabble rouser believes her prospects to be endless! however, she was fired from a student teaching post after only 9 days because she dared to exert the freedom to be herself. the crowd at her eou talk also saw how frivolously we waste our time. out of 40 people in the room, only three admitted to not having sent a text in the past day. are any of us considerate in the way we interact with others? do we give our encounters the care they deserve? or do we brush them off according to our own perceptions of what they were worth? certainly, my own interaction with erin was very short while other people waited to talk to her and i was headed to another concert. yet she did encourage us to stop and take the time to write handwritten letters. i already make the practice of writing at least one letter per month, but it’s still not easy for me to slow down to do such a task. just try and give that a shot! it might be difficult enough to just to find out where people live. but writing to a friend or a family member is work put in for someone more than a stranger, yet we still can’t do that carefully enough. so, how much are we equipped to help a stranger? or to put that in selfish american terms, how much should we expect a total stranger to be able to help us if we were in a tough spot?
