I made a rare visit (only the third this year) to a poetry venue near me last night.
The host there has the great virtue of being quick-witted enough to riff on just about anything (a previous poet's work, a remark from an audience member).
But he can sometimes be stumped.
Case in point: The host (in his late thirties) made reference to a Friday gig in Santa Monica. He quipped that he would have dinner there with his spouse, do the reading and then walk into the ocean.
A renowned poet (in his fifties) in the audience made a reference to the movie A STAR IS BORN--I'm presuming it's the famous 1954 version where James Mason as failed actor Norman Maine walks into the Malibu-area Pacific waters after feeling he's been a burden to the life and career of wife Vicki Lester (Judy Garland).
The host didn't catch the renowned poet's reference. And there was a silence that reminded me of an egg toss where the egg isn't caught and falls to the ground with a quiet splat.
No intention to slight the host at all, but it does seem like the abiliity for people of various age ranges to have shared memories of and love for older movies is something fast disappearing in a corporate-dominated culture celebrating the disposable, the ephemeral and the mockery of easy targets (celeb starlets and reality show regulars being prime examples).
Another case in point: the James Cameron megafilm TITANIC, loved by millions and hated by thousands, recently celebrated its 10th anniversary.
If one remembers the passionate pro-and-con opinions on its original release, it seemed a safe prediction that TITANIC would be considered a beloved recent classic of popular entertainment.
Paramount did give TITANIC a recent 10th-anniversary DVD reissue, but a low-key one.
And Time Warner's ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY only gave two skimpy pages to the film's anniversary, mostly babbling about the big-budget films that have followed in its wake (the coverage being on the level of how much more common $200-300 million "tentpole" event films are these days).
So it's easy to see that the 1954 A STAR IS BORN will become a casualty just like TITANIC, E.T. (which didn't even receive a 25th-anniversary DVD reissue) and......
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