Bill Walsh

Coming from the Bay Area in the 80's, I heard about the genius of Bill Walsh for half my life. And the indomitable spirit of Joe Montana. And the "Catch" by Dwight Clark. I heard so much about it I really didn't care much for the 49ers. It didn't help they had so many fair weather fans, when I first started paying attention to football they were 2-14 and had four fans that I knew: My next door neighbor, his son (worshipped Paul Hofer-no, thought he WAS Paul Hofer), a guy named Joe in the 8th grade and my Dad.

My Dad took me to a 49er game in 1982. It was cold, it was long (I never realized every radio and tv commercial resulted in a time out) and the lady behind me got excited that Steve Deberg dropped back for a pass and spilled her entire beer on me. What's colder than Candlestick Park in winter? Candlestick Park in winter doused in overpriced beer that you're too young to drink anyway.

Despite these things, I did enjoy going to the game with my Dad. It was really cool to see a live football game played by professional players. That part is a nice childhood memory, a father/son thing that I would recommend to any, um, father and son. Thanks Dad! And my Dad was a real fan, he wasn't obnoxious about it and he always followed what the team did and discussed what their strategy was. He watched their games regardless of their win/loss record for as far back as I can remember.

But the game reinforced my aversion to all things 49er. They were something like 3-2 after losing the game we went to, still good enough to get the local population excited. They started having more fans who would then give you crap for not being a fan (I liked the Atlanta Falcons, they threw bombs and blitzed constantly. Plus the Quarterback's name was Steve Bartkowski. Say it. Bartkowski. Sounds like Power!), then the bottom fell out and they ended at 6-10 for the year. Their fan base receded back to the four people I knew before the season started.

The rest of the 80's saw the 49ers grow into a dynasty and their fan base grew immensely. Suddenly, they had more than four fans, everyone was a fan and had been a fan since way back when they were 2 -14. I could not stand the 49ers at that point, though looking back I guess it had more to do with their fans than the team itself. They would talk so much trash, the same people who put them down when they were losing were now loyal fans "forever". It was so annoying.

But Bill Walsh, I had respect for him. He took a nothing team and built it into a World Champion franchise through shrewd strategy and drive. How do you defeat a 1980's zone defense? Throw a whole lotta screen and short yard passes. It was ingenius, Dwight Clark and even running back Earl Cooper would lead the league in receiving with less than a thousand yards receiving because they were catching three yard passes. Walsh was willing to buck the macho ethic that every play had to have a big yardage pay off. He understood there was only one statistic that really mattered, the win/loss column.

So, ironically I had respect for the person chiefly responsible for giving those fair weather fans something to get excited about. I stopped following sports about the mid-1980's, but you would had to have been blind and deaf to not know how the 49ers won Super Bowl after Super Bowl the rest of the decade. Like the fancy talking guy in The Matrix, Bill Walsh was the Architect. He was, ergo, they won.

I was saddened to hear of his passing, he had been discussed so much by friends and family for years that he seemed like someone I knew. Like a famous Uncle you never met. I guess I just want to say, thanks for the memories Bill Walsh.

Chicago - Stay The Night

I'm determined to bring back the 80's...one video at a time! This video got me hooked on Chicago back in '84, I thought this was one of the last clever videos to be made. The movie was shot like an episode of Chips with car chases, crashes and a lot of bad acting. Peter Cetera did an excellent job of playing the moon faced leading man chasing down the dangerous hard-to-get girl (or in one shot, obviously a male stunt driver). This video started my obsession with the aging balladeers, the song had a playful mood that translated well and David Foster's dramatic sense of over Production. I also love the part where the cars chase through the dried up LA Aquaduct system (Grease and Terminator 2 did the same). So flip up the collar to your Izod polo shirt and get totally gnarly, 'cause here's Chicago in 1984's Stay The Night!

Jet Li's Fearless-Fearless I tell you!

Last weekend I happened across Jet Li's Fearless, a 2006 flick I had an interest in seeing last year. It was hailed as Jet Li's last martial arts epic. After Fearless, there would be no more half shaved heads with ponytails and philosophical tea drinking for this guy. The commercials had me pretty pumped, but the iffy reviews it received made me cool my "jets". Time went by and I forgot all about it.

Fast forward to last weekend, I started watching this movie just to fill some time in the middle of the weekend. I thought it would be one of those movies where I see the beginning, end and then the middle in different segments (I've almost pieced together The Sixth Sense this way. Ohhh, Bruce Willis is dead, that's why his wife won't talk to him. Killed by a New Kid on the Block no less). My wife walked in and was interested, so we decided to watch it together later.

Jet Li's Fearless is a return for Li to his best style of Martial Arts movie, the historical drama full of Chinese pride and cultural superiority over the West. In many, many ways it's reminiscent of Li's classic Once Upon A Time In China series. But in some important ways it's different. In the China series, Li's character is constantly trying to do the right thing. With Fearless, Li spends the first third of the movie almost being a villian-a sympathetic villian, but a villian nonetheless.

Fearless tells the story of Huo Yuanjia, an unbeatable martial artist who thinks the key to life is winning every fight. The story follows Yuanjia from childhood, where he witnesses his Martial arts master father beaten in a challenge and then gets his own butt whipped by the son of the guy who beat his dad (follow that?). Yuanjia becomes bitter and dedicates his life to never losing a fight.

The movie skips to young adulthood with Li as a twenty something Yuanjia. Li's too old to pass for twenty, but he turns in his best acting performance ever in this movie. I'm not saying Li = DeNiro, but for him it's really good. Li captures the desperate need and impetuous arrogance of Yuanjia. Some tragic stuff happens that leads to Yuanjia getting lost in the country before finding his way back with the unselfish purpose of bettering China against Western occupation. Li handles the transition smoothy and is convincing in his role throughout.

The action is terrific, Li can still do chop-socky with the best of them. This was done with some great wire work courtesy of the legendary Yuen Po-Wing (read: the guy who choreographed the flying people in The Matrix and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). Best of all, the fight scenes actually serve a purpose in the story showing the evolution of Yuanjia as a character/person (it's based on a real person).

This movie had a lot to say about the importance of personal integrity and fighting both physically and spiritually to be a better person. It falls a little short of the first Once Upon A Time In China movie but still is both visually entertaining and emotionally moving. I definitely recommend this movie.