George Jones (1931-2013): Who's Gonna Fill His Shoes?

English: George Jones performing at Harrah's Metropolis in Metropolis, Illinois in June 2002 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

George Jones, to hear some people tell it, lived his life like a country song.  He had problems with drugs and alcohol, married four times, got into trouble with the law and had health problems.  Through it all, he became one of the great--some say the greatest--country music stars of the 20th century.

The song has ended with Jones' death at age 81 Friday in Nashville.  But the legend lives on.

Through more than 50 years, 60 studio albums and 14 Number One country singles, Jones was pure country.  He didn't dabble much in pop or rock like some of his contemporaries, but he had his admirers in other musical genres.  The songs he sang alternated between pleasure and pain:  "She Thinks I Still Care", "White Lightning", "The Race Is On", and plenty more.

Then there was "He Stopped Loving Her Today", a ballad about a man who died bearing a torch for the woman he loved.  It became a classic that some considered considered the greatest country song of all time, even though Jones initially considered it a throwaway when he recorded it.  "He Stopped Loving Her Today" was named the Country Music Association's song of the year for two consecutive years, in 1980 and '81.

But there was this other side of Jones' life that put people off.  His success in country music and the lifestyle it afforded him sometimes got him into trouble.  He was married and divorced a few times, which included his sometime singing partner Tammy Wynette.  He's had accidents, brawls, substance abuse problems and other things that he somehow survived (not for nothing did he title his autobiography "I Lived To Tell It All").  He also had a habit of showing up late or not at all to his concerts.  Thus the nickname "No-Show Jones".

George Jones had an interesting life and career, and his influence is apparent on today's country stars--even if the likes of Taylor Swift and Lady Antebellum dominate the radio, music downloads and concerts.

But once you heard the voice and music of George Jones, it's no wonder why country music fans will never stop loving him.  So who's gonna fill his shoes?

In Boston, the End of the Beginning

Boston Skyline (Photo credit: brentdanley)

We have a few questions about what happened in and around Boston this past week.  No answers, just questions.

• Out of the millions of photographs and surveillance videos the FBI says they used to get pictures of the Boston Marathon crime scene, they were able to narrow it down to two suspects.  Are they sure they got the right ones?  Or were the alleged suspects fall guys in a larger conspiracy?
• Why would the FBI ask for the nation's help in identifying the suspects when it became clear that they never left the Boston area?
• The alleged suspects were from Chechnya, an area in Russia that's had a history of violence and terrorism, not to mention a thorn in the side of President Vladimir Putin.  What does this revelation do to diplomatic relations between the United States and Russia?  Since nuclear weapons in both countries are still aimed at each other, is a new Cold War coming?
• Was it really necessary to lock down an entire metropolitan area just to find one person?  Are self-appointed arbiters of the law so power-drunk at times like these that they can subjugate the populace to their will?  Are people that willing to give up their freedoms in a moment of crisis?
• Outside of Boston, was it really necessary for the TV networks to go wall-to-wall with manhunt coverage?  What purpose does it serve, scaring the hell out of its viewers?  And what if this had happened in, let's say, Milwaukee?
• Does "if you see something, say something" apply to news reporters who get bad information from otherwise impeccable sources (we'll just have to take their word for it) about arrests that were never made, news conferences that never happened and explosions that turned out to be mere fires?
• An explosion at a fertilizer plant resulted in several dead, and half of a small town in Texas destroyed.  Yet the networks couldn't spare any resources because Boston is just a hop, skip and a jump away from New York, and little old West, Texas is not?
• Could the bombings have anything to do with the U.S. Senate's not having enough votes to enact new gun control legislation?  What will this do to proposed immigration reforms?
• Despite predictions that next year's Boston Marathon will be the biggest ever, won't there actually be fewer runners and spectators because of the inevitable increase in security?
• Finally, aren't you already sick of "Sweet Caroline" and "Boston Strong"?

It Happened on Boylston Street

2011 Boston Marathon finishing line pavillion on Boylston Street. Looking west; runners would be coming from the east. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Within the last 20 years, the days in and around the third week of April have been marked with modern-day American horror stories.  First, there was the U.S. government torching the Branch Davidian compound after a long standoff with David Koresh and his followers in 1993.  Then there was the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building (often seen as payback for the torching).  And then there were the school shootings at Columbine High School (1999) and Virginia Tech (2007).

Now you can add Boston to the list.  On April 15, which was celebrated as Patriot's Day locally (Income Tax Day in the rest of America), two bombs exploded along Boylston Street near the finish line at the annual Boston Marathon.  Three are reported dead, and almost 200 are injured.  There have been no suspects, no motive, nor any claim of responsibility.  No one remembers who actually won the race.

Because of that distinction, it is hard to say whether this was a terrorist attack or not.  The media coverage, when they weren't looping the same video footage from shaky smartphones over and over, have been reckless in calling it terrorism.  Even President Barack Obama has been reluctant to call it a terrorist attack.
The investigation, if we may be forgiven for using a sports analogy, is going to be more of a marathon than a sprint.

There were two bombs that exploded within seconds of each other, neither of which were powerful enough to take down a building.  When you think about it, it's rather easy for somebody to slip explosives inside a building.  All you have to do is to wait for the multitudes of security, marathon organizers and spectators to focus on the finish line, play it cool, do your thing, then go disappear.  Then watch all hell break loose.

Because of what happened in Boston, the National Rifle Association and other gun rights advocates were handed a big gift.  The bombings took the grieving Newtown, Connecticut families, who had joined with President Obama in lobbying Congress for stronger gun regulations on behalf of their dead children, off TV screens and delayed debate in the Senate.  That means the NRA can start working their magic while legitimately claiming that guns don't kill people, bombs do.

Boston will go on.  It has survived the Revolutionary War, violent weather and much worse.  But now Patriot's Day and the marathon will be remembered for something other than a celebration.  Future marathons around the world will now have restricted access to the finish line, and the route runners used may be changed to avoid city streets.

Such is life in the 21st century.  You can run, but you can't hide from terrorism.

Roger Ebert (1942-2013): The Balcony Is Closed

Roger Ebert, american film critic. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As long as there have been movies, there's been movie criticism.  Depending on what publication or website you read, these men and women gave us their views on whether a film was worth seeing or not, which performers impressed them and which did not, all while avoiding what we now call "spoiler alerts".  The reader's job was to decide whether to plunk down his/her hard-earned money for a night at the local Bijou, based on that review.  Many a Hollywood career soared or tanked because of it.  (Of course, some would choose to ignore the negative review and go anyway.)

Roger Ebert, who died at the age of 70 Thursday, wasn't the first film critic to gain wide attention for his work.  He was just the best-known and (according to his peers) the most powerful movie critic in America.  He also happened to be the first movie critic to win a Pulitzer Prize, as well as having a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Over a 46-year career at the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper, Ebert had written thousands of reviews on the movies he saw.  His year-end list of what he thought were the best movies ran the gamut from Oscar winners to art-house specialties.  Most recently, according to Wikipedia, those films that topped his list included "The Hurt Locker", "The Social Network", "A Separation" and "Argo".

Ebert tried his hand at screenwriting early in his career, working for director Russ Meyer in co-writing the notorious cult classic "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls".

But Ebert's real rise to prominence came through his association with Gene Siskel.  Both were film critics, plying their trade at competing Chicago newspapers and local TV stations, having a nice little rivalry.  That's when a producer at public TV station WTTW got the idea of bringing the two of them together.  The result was the program that eventually became "Sneak Previews" on PBS.

For nearly a quarter century (and through three different shows), America got to watch two movie critics from Chicago mixing it up over the film they just saw, then delivering their verdicts with a thumbs up or a thumbs down.  Most of us got our movie education through Siskel and Ebert, who championed some films we never would have heard about in the days before Netflix because they weren't appearing at the local multiplex.

The partnership ended with Siskel's death in 1999.  Since then, Ebert tried other shows in which he was paired up with other reviewers.  But it just wasn't the same.

Today, thanks to Siskel and Ebert, everybody's a critic.  Though reviewers who did this for a living are now few and far between because of downsizing by newspapers and other print media, and by the Hollywood studios' increasing practice of not offering certain movies for preview, the art has been thriving on the Internet through film buffs with blog posts and social media accounts.

As Ebert's health deteriorated following his cancer diagnosis, he was able to continue his career through the Internet.  When surgery took away his voice, he used the new technology to help get it back, sort of.

It's easy to say that there will never be another critic like Roger Ebert.  Instead we now have millions of Eberts delivering verdicts on the movies we watch through words, word of mouth, and our wallets.

And that, as Roger Ebert might say, deserves two thumbs up.