Tribute: Corey Haim

Posted on March 10, 2010 at 10:39 am

In “Lucas,” Corey Haim played a smart, sensitive boy who has bravado but struggles to find confidence, ultimately finding the hope of love and a place to be himself. I wish his real life had as happy an ending. For decades, this talented actor and his friend Corey Feldman were better known for failures off-camera, and then on-camera in their can-they-make-a reality show, “The Two Coreys.” And now he is dead of an apparent drug overdose. He is probably best remembered for a vampire film, “The Lost Boys.” Today, that title feels sadly apt. “Lucas” is an outstanding family film, and I am glad we have that to remember him by.

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Farewell to the Music Greats of 2009

Posted on December 29, 2009 at 10:19 pm

The New York Times has a superb video tribute to the music greats we lost in 2009, from Michael Jackson to Koko Taylor, Mary Travers, and Sky Saxon, all in under five minutes. Well worth a look.

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Tribute: Soupy Sales

Posted on October 23, 2009 at 1:00 pm

Kids’ television pioneer Soupy Sales died this week at age 83. Back before there were whole channels devoted to children’s programming, and back way before children’s television was certified wholesome and educational, Soupy Sales was just plain deliriously silly, pie-in-the-face fun with some first-class jazz accompaniment, and the children of the 1960’s loved his anarchy and the way he left a lot to the imagination (we only saw the paws of some of the characters). He said he had been hit with more than 25,000 pies. And it was funny every time.

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Tribute: Patrick Swayze

Posted on September 14, 2009 at 10:43 pm

Patrick Swayze died today as he lived and performed, with class and grace.

Swayze’s association with iconic appearances in Dirty Dancing, Road House, Point Break, and Ghost
are so towering that we forget sometimes what range and skill he showed as an elegant drag queen in To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything Julie Newmar, as a motivational speaker with a dark side in Donnie Darko, and as an eager finalist for a job as a Chippendale’s dancer on “Saturday Night Live.” No one could say that line about putting Baby in the corner and make us believe it like Swayze. He was a superb performer and a class act. He handled his illness with dignity and courage. I wish there was a psychic like the one Whoopi Goldberg played in “Ghost” who could bring him back for just one more dance.

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Tribute: Teddy Kennedy

Posted on August 27, 2009 at 1:34 pm

The essence of Sen. Kennedy’s political power was crystallized by Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, one of many Republicans who worked with the late senator to forge compromises on bills. Alexander called Sen. Kennedy “at once the most partisan and the most constructive United States senator. He could preach the party line as well as bridge differences better than any Democrat.”

This quote in the Washington Post obituary for Teddy Kennedy seems to illuminate the essence of a man who was an idealist and a pragmatist, a man who battled enormous public and private challenges. His example will continue to inspire all who believe that the dream will never die.

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