Recommendations: Movie, Music, and Book

Greetings, Friends!

Below are our recommendations. Enjoy!

MOVIE: MY BREAKFAST WITH BLASSIE

Andy Kaufman's response to Louis Malle's My Dinner with Andre, My Breakfast with Blassie was filmed without a script at Sambo's, a Hollywood diner. Kaufman and Freddie Blassie, a former wrestler and the self-proclaimed King of Men, discuss many things, such as the importance of washing one's hands, the vagaries of wrestling, and the demands of stardom, as well as Japan, the Shah of Iran, and herpes. An aburdist delight.

Blassie: What are you gonna have?
Kaufman: Well, um...
Blassie: I’m not much one for steak. I hate steak.
Kaufman: uh-huh.
Blassie: Chicken I only like the white meat.
Kaufman: I dunno—I guess I’ll just have eggs or something
Blassie: yeah, that sounds good
Kaufman: Or maybe pancakes, or
Blassie: Pancakes, eh, they’re not too good for you.
Kaufman: Why not?
Blassie: Like eating a bunch of dough.
Kaufman: Really?
Blassie: Really, yeah, nah,
Kaufman: What about French Toast or Waff—?
Blassie: French Toast, same thing. Don’t eat any—too much bread.
Kaufman: Waffles?
Blassie: Waffles, the same thing.
Kaufman: Well, what’s good then?
Blassie: [laughs] Why don’t you have some turkey, then?
Kaufman: Oh yeah, for breakfast, though? This is breakfast.
Blassie: Oh yeah, that’s right.
Kaufman: Yeah
Blassie: Well, see, I mean, in my business, I mean, you eat breakfast any time of the day, whenever you wake up. So I’m accustomed to eating turkey all hours of the time, makes no difference.
Kaufman: Well, you know wha—
Blassie: You gonna have some eggs?
Kaufman: Is it alright with you if I, if I, uh, take off my jacket?
Blassie: Certainly. I mean, we’re friends of long standing. You can do anything you want. You want to get up and dance a jig, you can dance a jig.
Kaufman: OK
Blassie: Do anything.
Kaufman: OK
Blassie: Been a long time since we seen each other. You’re doing real well.

"The reason I don't like to shake hands with nobody is I don't know if they've been to the men's room, been to the toilet, and their finger went right through the tissue...and I'm gonna shake hands with these pencil-neck geeks?! Some guys only use two or three tissues...I use a half a roll if I've got to go...I'll be darn sure my hand don't go through...plus the fact that I scrub underneath my fingernails very good and everything...but what the hell are we talkin' bout that for? We're eating breakfast...But everything's going real well for you. I'm very happy for you."

"Just because I gave you the autograph, then you keep sitting there...I shouldn't have given you the autograph...Why can't you let people have privacy; we're just like you. We're human beings...I didn't start bothering you...I don't really care...I don't need you, OK?...You know they say always be nice to them on the way up because when you come down you'll need them, well I'm not coming down so what would I need you for?"


(Note: If you want My Breakfast with Blassie on DVD, it's only available as the B-side of I'm From Hollywood, a documentary about Andy Kaufman's wrestling exploits in the South.


MUSIC: JANUARY 11 ROADHOUSE, "MARTIN LUTHER KING AND THE SONGS OF FREEDOM--HOW GOSPEL MUSIC INSPIRED A MOVEMENT."

Those of you who are familiar know that every Wednesday from 6 to 9 PM Pacific Time, Greg Vandy's Roadhouse on Seattle's KEXP features a great collection of Americana--blues, soul, gospel, bluegrass, folk, zydeco, etc.

We particularly enjoyed his show on January 11th, entitled "Martin Luther King and the Songs of Freedom--How Gospel Music Inspired a Movement." Songs by The Staple Singers, Nina Simone, Alabama Christian Movement Choirs, and others are interspersed with speeches by King and others, and Vandy also interviews composer, historian, and civil rights movement participant Bernice Johnson Reagon. The archived show will be up for only another week, so get it while you can. However, we always recommend the archived Roadhouse shows. You can find them here, by using the drop down menu under programs to select "Roadhouse". Of course, you can listen to them live at the aforementioned time simply by visiting KEXP and clicking the "listen live" link.

Bernice Johnson Reagon

BOOK: ADVENTURES IN ARABIA

Much has been written over the last several years on the lack of understanding between the United States and pretty much every Middle Eastern country except Israel. Unfortunately, Rick Steves, the person most qualified to give us these societies through the eyes of a tourist, has not seen fit to take his show further East then Turkey.

Go east, young man!

Thus, we rewind almost 80 years to Adventures in Arabia, by William B. Seabrook. Seabrook travelled to Arabia simply for the pleasure of it, and recounts what he saw and heard with a child's skepticism. Here are a couple of excerpts:

On the camel, generally:

He has the combined malice and stupidity of the worst type of "jarhead" Georgia mule. He is as ugly as sin, and he does not belie his appearance. His black heart is filled with a vicious and melancholy hatred. He frequently stinks, or rather his breath does, like ten thousand constipated devils. And one of his favorite tricks is to vomit his vile greenish cud explosively in the face of the man who may be seeking to do him a kindness. He will bite you, not in anger as high-tempered horses sometimes do, but in casual, cold contumacy. If you are lying asleep, he will walk out of his way to step on your face. A dying camel has been known to drag himself for miles to a spring, not to drink there--so the Arabs take oath--but so that his carcass might pollute the water and poison those who come to drink afterward. If there is a ditch or pit, he will seek it out and fall in, breaking his legs if need be, merely to inconvenience his master. He is lazy and treacherous. Nobody loves him--not even Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate.

Recounting a story he heard of the heroics of the Druse Sultan Pasha:

Meantime, the French had sent three tanks to take the prisoner to Damascus...As we continued to ride twoard them, Sultan Pasha's power surged suddenly within him. With a great shout he urged his white mare into a gallop, and then into a run. When he reached the plain, he was riding on, nearly a quarter of a mile ahead, full tilt, against the first tank.

He was fired on, but escaped untouched, though four bullets went through the folds of his abba. The top lid of the tank had been left open because of the heat. Throwing away his gun, Sultan Pasha rode his horse at full speed against the tank, leaped from the saddle on top of it and with his sword slew the captain and lieutenant who were inside. In his battle fury he was not content to kill with a single downward stroke. Twenty sword thrusts were found in the captain's body afterward.