We made it back from Europe.
Here’s some highlights that I haven’t told you about:
Even with all my wining about my discomfort with not being able to communicate because of language problems and thinking that the movie, Sword of Trust, didn’t connect as well as it could have at The Gijon International Film Festival, somehow I won the Best Actor award and the film won Best Script. That’s not nothing even though my brain wants to think it is. There were a lot of films up for consideration. Here I was all worried that the comedy wasn’t working and they were there for the serious undertones of the whole thing. I am honored.
Speaking of acting, I did a lot of reading about and listening to Jerry Wexler, who I am playing in the upcoming Aretha Franklin biopic Respect. The best part about doing all the reading was learning so much about music. There was a lot of his life that coincided with so much about jazz, R&B, rock, the whole thing. I learned about a bunch of artists I knew very little about. I learned about the evolution of the record business. I learned about NYC in '20s and '30s. Great research on so many levels. Now, I just have to nail that old timey NYC Jewish accent and we’ll be all set.
On our way back from Gijon we stopped in Madrid for literally less than 24 hours and we got there and just bolted to The Prado. I’d always wanted to see that museum. They’ve got some serious masterpieces there. Hieronymus Bosch stuff that was so mind blowing up close and I don’t think I ever realized what a thief Dali was. It’s all Bosch, man. We saw a lot of stuff but the highlight for me was Goya’s Black Paintings. Never really knew anything about them. Had seen a couple in books but never associated them with a bunch of others or a series of themes of darkness. It was as mind-blowing as the Rothko room with the Four Seasons painting at The Tate. Heavy and beautiful.
I am happy to be home but sadly when I got here one of my other cats was very ill. Monkey is bouncing back from the hyperthyroid. I got the dosage correct for his medicine and he’s doing well. Now, LaFonda is sick. They’re old. She had a UTI when I got home. I took her to the vet to find that her kidneys are crapping out. They aren’t ‘time to put her down’ bad but they aren’t good. I’m going to try to give her subcutaneous fluids a couple times of week. Hope she has a little bit of life left in her. It’s hard when the pets get old.
Today on the show I talk to Mike Sweeney. I knew Mike as a comic back in NYC in the 80s. He was the head writer of Conan for many years and still wears many hats in the Conan empire. I thought I kind of knew him but I did not, at all. Wild life story. One of the weirdest ones in the history of the show. On Thursday I talk to an old recovery friend of mine, Keith Wager. We talk about his arc from jail to the wardrobe dept and his podcast It’s All Bad. Great talks.
Hope your Thanksgiving turns out ok.
Enjoy!
Boomer lives!
Love,
Maron