off the leash

Whatever Happened To? Billy Idol

Posted on December 29, 2024 by Ken Dowell

In 1983, William Michael Albert Broad (better known as Billy Idol) released his 2nd album, Rebel Yell. In addition to the title track, he had a string of hits like “Dancing With Myself” and “White Wedding.” His videos were in regular rotation on MTV which, at the time, was enjoying its peak of success. On stage he was “a mix of James Dean swagger, Sid Vicious scorn and futuristic cool.” (Ann Powers, New York Times, April 30, 2001)

Forty years later, Billy Idol, with his sidekick guitarist Steve Stevens, embark on a 20th anniversary Rebel Yell tour. There is no longer anyone looking for him on MTV (nor is anyone looking for MTV). The confederate flag has been buried. And the smirk is maybe not quite so menacing. Yet, all through 2024, while touring Canada, he was up on stage playing his music.

But the road from 1983 to 2024 was not always a smooth one. There are some big gaps in his resume. Ben Raynor of the Canadian Press (March 23, 2005) offered one answer to the question of whatever happened to Billy Idol:

“Rock ‘n’ roll lore recalls few career derailments as spectacular as the one suffered by Billy Idol at the dawn of the 1990s. Perhaps the first performer truly deserving of the description ‘pop-punk.,’ Idol enjoyed a long reign as one of the biggest mainstream hitmakers of the 1980s before an Olympian appetite for heroin, crack and general hard living allowed him to squander his inspiration. his credibility, his family and, very nearly, his life. A couple of dark years at the beginning of the next decade would reach their bleak nadir with the release in 1993 of Cyberpunk, …one truly awful record.”

Idol was the epitome of the drug-fueled, out-of-control, rocker of the era. Here’s one example that happened in Thailand in 1989:

“’We went there to have a whale of a time – a sex holiday, really. But it got out of hand. Bad things started to happen.

“’We were just going to drink and not take any drugs,’ he recalled of his Thai getaway. ‘After about a week, drinking all the time was getting really heavy so we asked this cab driver if he could get us some blow. He went off and came back with this thin vial. It was six or seven inches long. We looked at each other, like, ‘What do you think this is?’ Because cocaine doesn’t usually come in a long thing like that. My friend put his finger in it and had a taste [mimes gingerly dabbing a sample on to his tongue]. It wasn’t blow.’

“This eventually led to Idol trashing his hotel suite while high, with several reports suggesting the damage ran between $140,000 and $250,000, and attempts to manage withdrawal symptoms with over-the-counter pharmaceuticals prior to their return flight to the U.S.

“Idol’s disruptive behavior in the Thai capital is said to have attracted the attention of local authorities, leading to his removal from the country. However, there is discrepancy regarding the manner in which Idol was subdued. While some versions claim Thai police shot him with a tranquilizer, others suggest a local nurse or medical professional likely sedated him.” (Nikki Dobrin, snopes.com, April 22, 2024)

In 1990, Idol suffered a life-changing event:

“Idol was still awake when dawn stretched into his Hollywood Hills living room. He’d been up from the night before thanks to a mixture of drugs, alcohol, and a rebellious attitude that kept him rocking instead of sticking to the everyman’s nine-to-five. This wasn’t any random long night of partying. There was a reason to celebrate. Idol had just finished the album Charmed Life literally that day. The partying had kind of a dark hue for Idol, who says he was feeling pressure now that the album was finished.

“That morning, he decided to take his bike out for a spin and let the air wash all the negative feelings from his mind. The ride was going well until his 1984 Harley-Davidson Wide Glide was struck by a truck while Idol was running a stop sign, according to the Los Angeles Times.” (Nick Vrchoticky, grunge.com, Sept. 29, 2020)

He nearly lost a leg in that accident and had a steel rod inserted into it. Perhaps now he had second thoughts about the lifestyle.

“I really started to think I should try and go forward and not be a drug addict anymore and stuff like that,’ he said of the accident. ‘It took a long time, but gradually I did achieve some sort of discipline where I’m not really the same kind of guy I was in the ’80s. I’m not the same drug-addicted person.’” (Anagricel Duran, nme.com, May 3, 2024)

The changeover apparently wasn’t immediate as it was four years later that he reportedly collapsed from an overdose outside an LA nightclub (Roy Trakin, Variety, Jan. 5, 2023).

The accident cut short what might have launched an acting career for Idol.

“While he was still recovering, he got a call from James Cameron about auditioning to play the morphing, cop-impersonating T-1000 in Terminator 2. Cameron took Idol on a tour of Stan Winston’s visual effects offices, where the singer was excited to see production sketches that already showed the new Terminator looking a whole lot like Billy Idol.

“‘I even acted some of the part,’ Idol says… “I had to act that scene where he goes to the stepparents with the picture… But the trouble is that I had this terrible limp. And James Cameron said, ‘The only problem is, I really need you to be able to run’… And I’m just about walking, you know?’” Brian Hiatt, Rolling Stone, Oct. 31, 2019.

There was one other positive development related to the accident. He ditched the Confederate flag. These two tweets from the @BillyIdol account explain why.

“I never wear the Confederate battle flag ever since 1990 as I realized it symbolizes oppression to certain Americans…”

11:54 AM · Jun 23, 2015

“A black man washed my hair in hospital ’90 & explained his feelings on seeing the Confederate flag, I promised him I would never wear it.”

1:07 PM · Jun 23, 2015

Like many of us, his later years proved to be more grounded. He describes himself now as “California sober,” A concept that apparently means you are almost, though not entirely, sober.

“‘I can have a glass of wine every now and again,’ the former Generation X frontman continued. ‘I’m, I suppose, California sober. I just tell myself I can do what I want, but then I don’t do it. If I tell myself I can’t do anything, I want to do it. So I tell myself, You can do anything you like. But I don’t actually do it.’” (Naledi Ushe, Palm Beach Post, May 3 2024) (The second or third time you read that quote it starts to make a bit of sense.)

A few years ago, he made an appearance with then New York mayor Bill de Blasio to promote an environmental issue:

“The campaign — ‘Billy Never Idles. Neither Should You’ — naturally led to a chant-along led by Mr. Idol, following his claim that “Billy never idles. No way!’

“With music blaring from concert-sized speakers, the two Bills walked toward the lectern outside City Hall. One was indisputably an Idol; the other was Mayor Bill de Blasio.

“What brought the two Bills together was a new campaign that aims to prevent trucks and buses from idling by getting New Yorkers to file complaints with environmental authorities.

“‘You can shut off your engines and save my health, help my lungs. I need my lungs to breath and sing,’ said Mr. Idol, who lives in Los Angeles and said he mostly rides a motorcycle.” (Jeffery C. Mays, Feb. 27, 2020, New York Times)

(I don’t think this campaign really caught on. I live in the New York area and never heard of it until I did the research for this post.)

It may be hard to imagine this hard-living punk-rocker as a grandfather, but that’s exactly what he is.

“When Billy Idol is not performing for audiences onstage, he spends some of his downtime with his grandchildren, and it’s something he loves doing.

“‘It is really lovely. It’s nice, I’ve got the best of both worlds,’ Idol tells People regarding his work and career. ‘But it’s been lovely and it’s all worked out in an incredible way that I could never imagine.’

“The 68-year-old Idol has three grandkids: 3-year-old McKenzie, his son Brant‘s daughter, and 3-year-old Poppy and 2-year-old Mary Jane, his daughter Bonnie’s kids.

“‘[What’s] lovely about being granddad, you’re not disciplining them. You’re more giving them advice if they ask you stuff like that,’ Idol says. ‘So the pressure isn’t the same as being a parent where you’re having to discipline … it’s quite different.’ (kslx.com, May 6, 2024)

But Idol has also not left the stage. Last year he played the first ever show at the Hoover Dam and in August of this year he and Stevens could be found at the Empire State Building.

“Billy Idol and his guitarist Steve Stevens performed an acoustic version of Idol’s iconic hit ‘Rebel Yell’ while tethered to a balcony atop the Empire State Building.
“After playing the first-ever concert at the Hoover Dam last year, Idol went a step further — and much higher — by strapping himself to a narrow balcony on the 103rd floor of the Empire State Building to play the acoustic number. The platform was originally built as a disembarkation deck for passengers of airships tethered to the Empire State’s spire.” (Jon Hadusek, consequence.net, Aug. 5, 2024)

Billy Idol – Rebel Yell – Live From the Empire State Building

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Note on links in story. No links are provided for stories from the New York Times and Rolling Stone since these stories are behind a paywall. Other newspaper and wire service stories cited without a link were accessed through newspapers.com.

Whatever Happened To?

Posted in Whatever Happened To? | Tagged Billy Idol, music, punk rock, Rebel Yell | 8 Comments

Whatever Happened To? Jimmy Connors

Posted on December 22, 2024 by Ken Dowell

Jimmy Connors was among the greatest mens tennis players of all time. He won five U.S. Opens as well as winning at Wimbledon and Australia. At one time in the mid-70’s he was the number one ranked player for 160 consecutive weeks.

But he was known as well for his on court behavior as he was for his accomplishments. New York Times writer James Kaplan (Aug. 23, 2013) described it this way:

“He strutted combatively; he pointed fingers. His displays often crossed the bounds of good taste — he knew better than anyone how to exploit the phallic possibilities of a racket…”

Connors had a long career. While he stopped playing full time in 1991 he did not fully retire until 1996 when he was 43 years old. In 1992 he competed in the much ballyhooed “Battle of the Sexes” against Martina Navratilova. That same year he competed in the Carolina Tennis Shoot-Out exhibition in Chapel Hill with the McEnroe brothers, a benefit for the American Heart Association. In 1993 he was a primary organizer of the Champions Tour for over-35 mens players. It included several other former champions including John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg.

He also made a brief foray into coaching. Top American player Andy Roddick was one of his clients. Connors coached him for 19 months in 2007 and 2008. He then had a brief stint working with women’s star Maria Sharapova. Very brief. After Sharapova lost her first match under Connors tutelage she put an end to the 34-day long engagement.

In 2015 he played an exhibition match against Aaron Krickstein, reprising their famous 1991 dual at the U.S. Open. Steven Wine of the Augusta Chronicle covered that event (Feb.10, 2015).

“Before the match, Connors said it would be his last in public because his hips make it difficult for him to play competitively. He hadn’t competed in front of a crowd in two years. And while he took the court looking fit, he also looked ready for retirement.”

Did Connors mellow out in his retirement? There’s some evidence of that. After the falling out with Sharapova, Kaplan commented in the New York Times: “Connors, showing a side of himself that no one who watched him in his prime would recognize, tweeted from Santa Barbara, Calif., a few days after the loss: ‘Back home in SB — family, pups, and home cooking. Oh — I forgot, and a vodka on the rocks.’”

In covering the exhibition with Krickstein, Wine noted that “Connors willingly played the bad-boy role for much of his career, but the exhibition was a lovefest, and he was on his best country club behavior.”

Steve Tignor, writing in tennis.com (May 20, 2013) recalled catching up with Connors at the Peninsula Hotel as he was promoting his autobiography ‘The Outsider.”

“…he didn’t look out of place among the spiffy tourists and businessmen sipping $20 gin and tonics. Connors was in a dark blue suit himself, and while his hair was edged with gray, none of it was out of place. Listening to him quietly answer questions that he must have been asked 10 times already that day, it was hard to imagine that this was the same man who, 20-odd years ago, had gyrated his way to the semifinals of the U.S. Open in short-shorts at age 39.”

But all was not sweetness and light with Connors, and the aforementioned autobiography told some of that story.

– That ‘Battle of the Sexes’ match? Connors bet $1 million on himself. “Betting on myself was the ultimate gambler’s high. I was out of control and I didn’t realize it, though that bet should have been a big-assed hint.” (tennis.com May 16, 2013)

– That wasn’t the only thing he bet on. “…he would, as he says, ‘piss away’ an untold fortune on sports betting, until Patti finally staged an intervention and sent him to Gambler’s Anonymous.” (tennis.com May 20, 2013)

– Patti is his wife. They’ve been married since 1979. In The Outsider he acknowledges “an affair he had that was so public he even brought the woman to meet his mother in Illinois. Patti took him back, despite his infidelity. ‘I think that it’s been written many times that Patti Connors was a saint to put up with Jimmy Connors.’” (Today, May 7, 2013).

But the part of the autobiography that drew the most attention was his revealing that his engagement with Chris Evert, an equally accomplished tennis star on the women’s side, was broken off after she had an abortion. He apparently had no say in the matter. She apparently had no say in the decision to make it public. Her reaction was what you might expect.

The autobiography, while shedding some light on Connors’ post-tennis life, was less than critically acclaimed. Tim Adams of the Guardian (May 27, 2013) offered this review:

“His book is mostly written in this testosterone-induced spirit. More than once, for example, he tells his gentle reader to ‘fuck off’. The Outsider has little of the tortured introspection of the best example of the genre, Andre Agassi’s Open, or the self-aware wit of McEnroe’s Serious. In its place is an examination of a legendary American pugnaciousness, which veers often, authentically, into boorishness or sentimentality.”

At 72, Connors is no longer out on the court and he never revived his short coaching career. But he still has lots of opinions about what is going on in the sport and he freely offers them on his podcast Advantage Connors where he shares the microphone with his son Brett Connors. In recent episodes he has ruminated about the possible suspension of current top-ranked player Jannick Sinner, the ‘breakdown’ of Rafael Nadal’s body, and Novak Djokovic’ poor play in the U.S. Open.

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Whatever Happened To? Greg Louganis

Posted on December 15, 2024 by Ken Dowell

Greg Louganis was the greatest diver in American Olympic history. He won two gold medals, one in platform and one in springboard, in each of two successive Olympics, 1984 and 1988. He also was the most prominent athlete of his generation to come out as gay. And that goes a long way toward explaining why he didn’t get the level of adoration and wealth of some other Olympic heroes.

Louganis publicly came out as gay in 1994, though his swimming teammates and those closest to him knew of his sexual orientation. A year later, he revealed he had been living with AIDS.

“He was at the center of an explosive controversy, accused of possibly transmitting HIV to other divers when he injured his head at the 1988 Olympics and bled into the pool. How HIV is transmitted was well-understood by 1995, and the CDC said that chlorine kills the virus, that it was diluted in thousands of gallons of water, and that it can’t be spread to people who don’t have open wounds themselves.” (Alex Bollinger, LGBTQ Nation, March 20, 2019

Scott M. Reid of Freedom News Service (Aug 14, 2009) would later write of Louganis’ post-Olympic experience: “He had spent years trying to build walls around the different parts of his life. Instead, he created a maze, a tortured track through depression, abusive relationships, betrayal, alcohol and substance abuse, certain that it led not to an opening but a dead end.”

One of his problems was an abusive relationship. A story in the Guardian by Chris Godfrey (July 9, 2024) describes that:

“Shortly before the Los Angeles Olympics, Louganis met James ‘Jim’ Babbitt at a bar. They began dating, and before long Babbitt became Louganis’s manager.

“The relationship was abusive. In their seven years together, Babbitt drove a wedge between Louganis and his friends and family. He cheated on him, and Louganis would later find out that Babbitt was a sex worker. In one incident, Babbitt raped Louganis at knife-point at home.

“Towards the end of their relationship, Louganis became suspicious of Babbitt’s handling of his finances. A closer look revealed the extent of Babbitt’s deceit: he had transferred most of Louganis’s earnings into his own name, leaving Louganis with just $2,000. In 1989, Louganis ended the relationship and obtained a restraining order. Babbitt’s response was to threaten to out Louganis as HIV positive. The dispute was settled out of court; when Babbitt finally moved out of Louganis’s home, he defecated in the pool.”

Babbitt died of AIDS related causes in 1990.

A 2015 HBO documentary about Louganis touched on his financial issues.

“… it begins with Louganis dealing with bill collectors, creditors, and a bank that’s about to foreclose on the house he’s lived in for 28 years. He’s broke. Not because, like many former stars, he snorted all his massive earnings or pissed it away on reckless adventures. No, in part, Louganis is broke because he was never really rich. An out gay, poz athlete — and even before that, a teen athlete that was perceived to be gay —Louganis never got the big endorsement deals that Jenner and Mary Lou Retton and other all-American types did, even after he won Olympic gold.” (Diane Anderson-Minshall, hivplusmag.com, Aug. 20 2015)

Louganis himself would later say: “A lot of Olympians, they don’t talk…about how after your Olympics are over and that if you’re successful, you have this high-high, but then you have this low-low. Because it’s the question of, ‘Now what? Who am I? What worth do I have?’” (Scott Collins Aug, 4, 2015, Los Angeles Times)

‘Now what’ for Louganis involved dogs, some acting, advocacy, and eventually finding his way back to the pool. In Chris Godfrey’s Guardian story, Louganis talks about how he went to the dogs.

“‘I’ve always done better with animals than I have people,’ he says. ‘It’s where I felt trust and honesty.’ Behind Louganis is a huge painting of him with two of his late dogs: Nipper, a jack russell terrier, and Freeway, a great dane. ‘Those two are my true-heart dogs. They were the reason I got up when I was going through HIV treatments, and through all that they were right by my side.’

“Louganis is the co-author of For the Life of Your Dog, a comprehensive guide to dog ownership, and trains dogs for dog agility competitions. ‘The dogs love it. They’re having fun. And, yeah, I want to be the best that I can be for them.’”

Louganis had majored in theater in college and he had a number of acting roles in movies and in plays. Perhaps most notably he played the role of Darius in the off-Broadway play ‘Jeffrey’ in 1983, a play about living with AIDS. He had a starring role in another off-Broadway play about gay life, ‘The Only Thing Worse You Could Have Told Me,’ two years later.

And Louganis eventually found his way back to the pool.

In 2010, the New York Times reported: “Greg Louganis, a four-time Olympic gold medalist, will make his debut as a mentor to up-and-coming Americans at this weekend’s USA Diving Grand Prix at the Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Center in Florida. His involvement comes nearly 22 years after he defended his gold medals in 3-meter springboard and 10-meter platform at the 1988 Seoul Games.”

In 2011 he was hired by SoCal Divers to coach aspiring athletes. And NBC Los Angeles broadcast this report in 2012. “Now, at age 52, he’s trying to help return US diving to glory. For the first time since retiring from diving after the 1988 Olympics, Louganis is serving as a mentor for American divers.”

Along the way Louganis has continually supported and advocated for LGBTQ organizations and those helping people with AIDS. During a visit to the Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Center last year, he had this to say about Gov. DeSantis’ “Don’t Say Gay” law that started the right-wing governor’s feud with Disney.

“The schools are exactly the place, Louganis believes, where it’s paramount not to sweep ‘LGBTQ’ under the rug.

“‘It should be discussed,’ Louganis said. ‘That’s causing a lot of pain and suffering for young gay kids who are trying to find themselves. There’s a huge, huge influx of suicides that happen because of this stupidity.’” (Marc Berman, Palm Beach Post, Jan. 28, 2023 )

Berman also noted that “he recently announced he would be auctioning off three Olympic medals (1976 silver, 1984 and 1988 golds) with part of the proceeds going to charity, including the Damien Center — the largest AIDS care provider in Indiana.” You can see the Olympic medals put up for action at https://greglouganis.com/auction-items/.

Eventually the accolades came his way.

In 2013, he was inducted into the California Sports Hall of Fame.

In 2017 he was named Grand Marshall of the Rose Parade.

In 2013 he was inducted in the National Gay and Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame.

In 2016, this long overdue announcement was aired on NPR’s All Things Considered:

“Wheaties announced that Louganis — who is openly gay and HIV-positive — along with two other former Olympians, hurdler Edwin Moses and swimmer Janet Evans, will be featured on the cereal boxes as part of the revamped ‘legends’ series.

“General Mills spokesman Mike Siemienas told NPR he couldn’t provide an answer as to why Louganis wasn’t on the box previously because no one who was involved in those decisions still worked at the company. Siemienas said a committee is responsible for determining which athletes are on the boxes.”

Louganis had this to say in an interview for the Harvard Business Review:

“A reporter in Chicago contacted Wheaties back in the 1980s to ask why I hadn’t been on a box, and the response to him at the time was ‘We didn’t feel that he fulfilled our demographics,’ which was basically a nice way of saying, ‘It’s rumored that he’s gay.’

“‘It’s more meaningful now than it would have been in my heyday, because I’m being embraced as a whole person. I’m 56, a gay man, living with HIV, happily married. Who would have imagined that back in the 1980s? I also did some research and found that General Mills is ranked very high in terms of human rights: They have a diversity foundation, and they do a lot for the LGBT community. So the times have changed. We’ve just come so far.’”

In 2015 Louganis told Rick Bentley of the Fresno Bee: “I was diagnosed with HIV six months prior to the Olympic Games in 1988. And so honestly, I knew those were my last competitive dives because we still viewed HIV/AIDS as a death sentence, and I never thought I’d see 30.

“And then 30 goes by. And then 40 goes by. I’m 55.”

And now he’s 64. Whatever happened to Greg Louganis? “He was a hero for many in the late 1980’s, but in a way, it has taken even more effort and honesty, to become the hero in his own life that he is today.” (David Wiegand, San Francisco Chronicle, July 30, 2015)

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Note on links in story. No links are provided for stories from the New York Times since these stories are behind a paywall. Other newspaper and wire service stories cited without a link were accessed through newspapers.com.

Whatever Happened To? Art Garfunkel

Posted on December 8, 2024 by Ken Dowell

During the 1960’s Art Garfunkel teamed with Paul Simon to produce some of the most memorable music of their times. Few have forgotten songs like “The Sound of Silence,” “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” “The Boxer,” “Mrs. Robinson” or my personal favorite “America.” Together they earned eight Grammy Awards, including one for lifetime achievement, and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

But they could never achieve the personal harmony that they could with their voices. By 1970 they were done. Since then they’ve spewed a little venom at each other, vowed to never get back together, then reunited for a handful of special occasions like a 1981 concert in Central Park, a 2003 U.S. tour following the lifetime achievement award and a free concert at the Colisseum in Rome before a massive audience.

What has Garfunkel been doing all these years when he wasn’t swearing off or reuniting with Paul Simon? He did a bit of acting, most notably in the Mike Nichols films Catch-22 and Carnal Knowledge. (It was Nichols who had engaged Simon & Garfunkel to do the sound track for his film The Graduate, including the song “Mrs. Robinson.”) He also did a few random TV gigs.

And he read a lot.

“In June 1968, incidentally the year Simon and Garfunkel released Bookends, Garfunkel decided to start listing every book he read. The singer kept this up through his and Simon’s acrimonious 1970 break-up and four reunions over the subsequent four decades.

“It’s fair to assume Garfunkel is still reading as voraciously as ever and logging each title as he goes. However, in October 2013, he let the public in on his little game, listing the shelf-splintering 1195 books he had read over the past 45 years on his website. Fortunately for us, Garfunkel has distilled the list to just 157 favourites.

“It’s still not a bitesize reading list, but one can get a snapshot of the singer’s refined taste in literature. Alongside dense classics like Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace and James Joyce’s Ulysses are some more culturally contemporary page-turners like Stephen King’s The Shining and Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James.” (Jordan Potter, Far Out Magazine, Nov. 18, 2023 )

When he wasn’t reading he was walking. The guy who sang “America” would later walk it. Hartford Courant rock critic Roger Catlin described that in a story published Aug. 18, 1994.

“…he has been making more headlines lately for his long hikes. Whenever he can fit it in, he’s strolling across the country in weeklong segments, flying in, walking about 100 miles, then flying home. ‘It’s kind of a freaking out, which I think is very healthy,’ he says. After walking across Japan in the ’80s, he started on the United States. ‘And I’m almost finished now. I’ve gone from New York to Idaho. I just crossed into Idaho a few weeks ago.’”

In an interview with the Guardian (June 24, 2015 ) Garfunkel talked about the people he met on his walks.

“The world is a very friendly place. People mind their own business. They all want to get to heaven in their own quiet way. Gangs do not roam the earth – 99.999% of the earth. I had one incident in Ohio. It was Friday night, and that’s very telling. When the sun goes down on a Friday night, people get a little nutty. There were three guys in a car, they threw a beer can at me, it was three-quarters full and it hit me on the sternum. That was an ouch. I thought I’d broken a bone.

“They didn’t recognise me. They were just assholes being mischievous and drunk. It was an Ohio thing.”

Garfunkel would later set off on foot to cross Europe, starting in western Ireland and ending up in Istanbul.

In 1989, Garfunkel published a book. “Still water runs deep for Art Garfunkel, the high, clear voice of Simon and Garfunkel, and ‘Still Water’ is the title of his new book of prose poems. ‘Does it help to feel better about a painful memory by writing about it? Not really. It doesn’t have anything to do with it,’ he said. Some of the 84 poems in the book concern the suicide of his girlfriend, Laurie Bird, in 1979.” (AP, Nov. 29, 1989)

Twice, while in his 60’s, Garfunkel was busted for pot.

“Singer Art Garfunkel, who pleaded guilty last year to pot possession in upstate New York, was charged again Sunday after a marijuana cigarette was allegedly found in the ashtray of his car, state police said.

“The 63-year-old Garfunkel, who lives in Manhattan, was charged after being pulled over for failing to stop his vehicle at a stop sign, The Daily Freeman of Kingston reported Tuesday.

“Upon approaching Garfunkel’s car, a trooper noticed a strong odor of marijuana and a subsequent search turned up a joint in the ashtray, the newspaper reported. He was issued a ticket and is due back in Woodstock Town Court on Sept. 22.

“In January 2004, Garfunkel was charged with marijuana possession after state police stopped his limousine for speeding in the Ulster County town of Hurley, which is near Woodstock some 55 miles southwest of Albany. During that stop, police found a small amount of pot in Garfunkel’s jacket.

“The next month, he pleaded guilty and paid $200 in fines.” (AP, Aug. 30, 2005 )

Garfunkel would later try his hand at a memoir, “What Is It All but Luminous: Notes from an Underground Man.” It got a less than stallar review in the Washington Post (Sibbie O’Sullivan, Sept. 13, 2017 ).

“Garfunkel’s book…is a splattering of 30-plus years of handwritten thoughts, lists, travel notes, bad poetry, confessions, snarky digs, platitudes and prayers gussied up for publication in different fonts and sizes.

“Reading it is like rummaging through a huge junk drawer of the mind. You might find something useful. Garfunkel himself seems doubtful of his endeavor: ‘Maybe my unusual book does communicate.’ Or maybe it doesn’t, which is sad because Garfunkel, the angel-voiced half of Simon and Garfunkel, and a successful solo act, is a talented, educated and seemingly loving man. Unfortunately, the singer — who at 75 continues to tour — is more successful behind the microphone than he is on the page.

Art Garfunkel — 2013 (photo by Adam Schartoff)

“The book is also filled with such gnomic statements as: ‘You can’t discover fuchsia twice.’ ‘Morality played to win is a plate of tin.’ ‘My poetry bits are organs. What is the least connective tissue that sets them in a body?’

O’Sullivan is suggesting, perhaps, that Garfunkel should stick to singing. That is something he never stopped doing, making solo records and touring throughout his lifetime. That is, except for one scary interruption.

“In January 2010, Art began experiencing vocal problems after choking on a piece of lobster at a restaurant. The incident caused him to have a hoarse voice and issues swallowing. After a trip to the doctor, the performer was told that one of his vocal cords was stiff and thicker than the other one.

“’As the weeks ensued, I saw that I couldn’t finesse my singing in the mid-range,’ Art told Rolling Stone in February 2014. ‘I could do the high notes and the low notes. High notes are my stock in trade, thank God. But I couldn’t sing, ‘When you’re weary, feeling small.’ I couldn’t do anything in the middle where you need that finesse. It’s indescribable. I was crude instead of fine.’” (Sanantha Agate, June 1, 2023, Closer Weekly)

He told Bill Nutt of the Central New Jersey Home News (Oct. 9, 2015) “I’ve been singing since I was 5 years old… I have to be a singer.”

Garfunkel did recover his voice and was back on the road touring by 2014. Lately, he has enjoyed being part of a new duo, singing with his son.

“There is a new duo in town: Garfunkel & Garfunkel. If the name seems oddly familiar, well, it is exactly what it appears to be. At the age of 82, the great American vocalist Art Garfunkel has teamed up with his 33-year-old musician son, Art Garfunkel Jr., to record an album of close harmony duets, prosaically titled Father and Son.

“The harmonic blend on Father and Son is gorgeous, as they harmonise and interweave to lush orchestral and band backing on classics of the American songbook, some old 1950s and 1960s favourites of Garfunkel Senior’s by the Everly Brothers and Cat Stevens, and some very effective versions of Eighties pop songs that are favourites of Junior’s (including the first single, an interpretation of Cyndi Lauper’s Time After Time, released today). (Neil McCormick, Chief Music Critic, The Telegraph, Sept. 20, 2024 )

Whatever Happened To?

Posted in Whatever Happened To? | Tagged Art Garfunkel, music, Simon & Garfunkel | 10 Comments

Whatever Happened To? Evel Knievel

Posted on December 1, 2024 by Ken Dowell

Robert Craig Knievel was a small town hustler from Butte, Mont. He once organized a minor league hockey team and managed to get the Czech National Team to play them. Then he absconded with their share of the gate receipts. He started a hunting tour business that lasted until the feds found him leading his customers into Yellowstone. And he once made a big splash working as a salesman for Combined Insurance. He sold 271 policies in one day…..at a psychiatric hospital.

But then Robert Craig Knievel became Evel Knieval, motorcycle daredevil. He was the star attraction of ABC’s popular Wide World of Sports. Ideal Toys sold something like $300 million worth of the Evel Knievel Stunt Cycle toy. He became an action figure, a hero to boys throughout the U.S.

“He successfully jumped his motorcycle 275 times, but crash landed into fame with the 15 he didn’t.” (Jake Nichols. Cowboy State Daily, Sept. 2, 2023)

His most celebrated failures:

“The first of Evel Knievel’s most famous stunts occurred on New Year’s Eve 1967 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. The stunt involved an attempted 141 ft. (43m) motorcycle jump over the hotel’s iconic fountain. It did not go as planned, with Knievel coming off the bike on landing and suffering a crushed pelvis and femur, fractures to various bones, and severe concussion. After ABC bought the crash footage and televised it, Knievel’s fame went to a whole new level.

“Other famous failed Knievel stunts include the time he tried and failed to fly across Idaho’s Snake River Canyon in a steam-powered rocket, and the time he tried and failed to jump a motorbike across 13 single-decker buses in front of a crowd of 90,000 at London’s Wembley Stadium.” (Jack Clayton, April 13, 2018, mpora.com)

After the 1975 London stunt, Knievel announced he was through. Sort of.

The meteoric rise would soon be followed by an equally dramatic fall. “Of all the bones Evel Knievel broke through the years, the costliest may have been the left arm of a PR man by the name of Shelly Saltman.” (AP, Dec. 4, 2007). Saltman was supposedly a friend of Knievel’s and was one of his promoters. But in 1977, he wrote a book about the Evel one with some unflattering commentary that infuriated Knievel.

“…the death-defying motorcyclist approached Saltman in the parking lot of 20th Century Fox on Sept. 21, 1977, and suddenly started swinging a bat. Saltman, then a studio executive, raised his arm to protect his head, a move he says doctors told him probably saved his life. His arm was shattered and is held together to this day with a steel plate and screws.” (AP, Dec. 4, 2007)

Saltman would eventually get a $12.75 million settlement.

“During the ensuing trial, Knievel fired his attorney, pleaded guilty and says, given the chance, he would do it again. He’s sentenced to six months in jail for felony assault, served nights and weekends.

“But the end is near. Ideal pulls Knievel toys and cancels all licensing with the aging star. Revenue streams dry up, the wheels come off and Knievel withdraws from the public eye as most of his assets are sold or repossessed.” (Jake Nichols. Cowboy State Daily, Sept. 2, 2023) By 1981 he would file for bankruptcy.

But chaos would continue to follow Knievel.

In 1982, Ed Bouchette, who would later write about the incident in the Athletic (June 9, 2020), found Knievel parked in a motor home outside Keystone Raceway in Westmoreland County, Pa., where a poster announced “Can You Beat Evel Knievel?”

Bouchette’s attempt at an interview went like this:

“In the midst of him regaling me with stories, a thud struck the side of the home, along with a man shouting from outside. A few more thuds and loud angry words and Evel excused himself to see what was going on. I followed. An angry man with a rock in his hand stood outside. He hollered at Knievel, said he had beaten the celebrity fair and square in the match race and wanted his money. Knievel tried to explain that the man lost on some technicality. The angry competitor was having none of it and squared off against Knievel, who once spent six months in prison for beating his press agent with a baseball bat.” Apparently they came to some sort of agreement before things escalated any further.

“In 1986, he was fined $200 in Kansas City, Mo., on charges of soliciting an undercover policewoman for immoral purposes.” (Richard Severo, Dec. 1, 2007, New York Times)

On Oct. 11, 1994, this story appeared in the Carroll County Times (Westminster, Md.):

“Motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel was arrested for allegedly beating a woman companion, police said Monday. Knieval, 55, was arrested Sunday night after police answered a disturbance call at a motel and found a 25-year-old Florida woman with redness and swelling on her face and neck. She said the former motorcycle stuntman had hit her during an argument.”

AP filed this story on Sept. 25, 1995:

“Superior Court Judge William Martin ordered the 56-year-old ex-daredevil (real name: Robert Craig Knievel) to spend 200 hours coaching youngsters on the importance of bicycle helmets. ‘It’s a tough law,’ Knievel told Martin in pleading no contest Friday to keeping a .44 Magnum handgun, a .38-caliber revolver, two knives and a stun gun in his car trunk. Police found the cache last year after his arrest on a charge of battering his girlfriend. Krystal Kennedy, 25, later dismissed their fight as a ‘tussle,’ and was at Knievel’s side in court.”

Kennedy was at his side again in 1999 in Las Vegas.

“At the same fountains where he crashed 32 years ago, Knievel tied the knot Friday with Crystal Kennedy at Caesars Palace hotel-casino in Las Vegas. Knievel, 61, arrived at the ceremony on a motorcycle, then waited for his 30-year-old bride, who was escorted by Caesar and Cleopatra, of course. Knievel, who underwent a lifesaving liver transplant earlier this year, said he wanted to start his new life in Las Vegas, where his career began. ‘Thanks for meeting my beautiful little wife Crystal,’ Knievel said to the crowd of several hundred that gathered to witness the nuptials.” (Victoria Advocate, Victoria, Texas, Dec. 21 1999)

Evel Knievel's station wagon — Evel Knievel’s station wagon

Knievel had divorced Linda, his wife of 38 years, with whom he had four children, in 1997. Kennedy divorced him two years after they were married and got a restraining order against him. But they eventually reconciled and got back together.

By 2007. Knievel was in serious condition. Salon’s Joshua Seftel (Dec. 5, 2007) made this attempt at an interview:

“’This will be your chance to talk about hepatitis C,’ I told him. ‘A way to promote the issue and to help people.’ Evel explained that’s exactly what he wanted to do. He needed a new liver and there was a good chance he would die. He joked that this was his latest stunt, something his doctor liked to call ‘Snake Liver Canyon.’ The problem was, Evel wasn’t joking. As with all his other death-defying stunts, Knievel wasn’t about to undergo liver transplant surgery for free. He wanted to be paid for it.”

One of Knievel’s last encounters was with the artist formerly known as Kanye West. West had released a music video “Touch the Sky” in which he portrays himself as “Evel Kanyevel.”

“Knievel filed a lawsuit claiming copyright infringement relating to his name and likeness, calling the clip ‘vulgar and offensive’ and damaging to his reputation. Keep in mind this is a dude who leaped things on motorcycles for a living.

“‘That video that Kanye West put out is the most worthless piece of crap I’ve ever seen in my life, and he uses my image to catapult himself on the public,’ he ranted at the time.

“’The guy just went too far using me to promote his filth to the world. I’m not in any way that kind of a person.’” (Nathan Jolly, The Music Network, July 27, 2018)

Knievel seems to have put the vitriol aside and the two claimed to have settled amicably. Shortly afterward, Knievel passed away.

On Dec. 1, 2007, the New York Times published this story by Richard Severo:

“Evel Knievel, the hard-living, death-defying adventurer who went from stealing motorcycles to riding them in a series of spectacular airborne stunts in the 1960s and ’70s that brought him worldwide fame as the quintessential daredevil performer, died yesterday in Clearwater, Fla. He was 69.

“Mr. Knievel had been in failing health for years with diabetes and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable lung condition. In 1999, he underwent a liver transplant after nearly dying of hepatitis C, which he believed he had contracted from a blood transfusion after one of his many violent spills.”

But the Evel Knievel legacy (and the hustle) lives on through his family. This press release was issued in February of this year:

“DESTIHL Brewery and K and K Promotions Inc (The Evel Knievel Family) are leaping to new heights together with a spectacular beer project. True Evel American Blonde Ale and Evel Knievel Imperial IPA will be making the jump to store beer shelves across the USA in the coming weeks! (https://www.brewbound.com/news/destihl-brewery-and-evel-knievel-family-announce-beer-partnership/)

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Posted in Sports, Whatever Happened To? | Tagged daredevil, Evel Knievel, motorcycle | 5 Comments

The sun, the moon, the beach

Posted on November 24, 2024 by Ken Dowell

Providenciales, Turks and Caicos

All photos taken on the properties of Wymara Resort.

Posted in Travel | Tagged Photography, Providenciales, sunset, travel, Turks and Caicos, Wymara | 5 Comments

The Artists of Newark

Posted on November 17, 2024 by Ken Dowell

Radical Reimagining, an exhibit of the annual Newark Arts Festival at the Newark Museum of Art.

Bacalhau a Portjuguesa, Lillian Ribeiro — Bacalhau a Portuguesa, Lillian Ribeiro

La Promesa del Campesino and Sombrero Vueltiao, Bryan Montenegro

POPPASHOT, Jahi Kijo Lendor — La Promesa del Campesino and Sombrero Vueltiao, Bryan Montenegro

Jade, Malik Hill — Guardian of Tranquility, Radisha James

Reimagining Radical Soul, Gregg Banks — Black Girl Magic, Kervin Andre

May I Have Your Attention Please? Cathleen Mccoy Bristol

Brown Boy You are the Universe, Not an Unwanted Weed, Danielle Scott — She Who Is, Barbara Minch

Redman, Ron E. A. Powell — Amilcar Cabral, Maria Estrela

Posted in Art | Tagged art, museums, Newark, Newark Museum of Art | 3 Comments

Backyard Bird Cam: Fall Edition

Posted on November 10, 2024 by Ken Dowell

Blue Jay

Northern cardinal

House sparrow

Mourning dove

Evening grosbeak

With House finch

Purple finch

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged animals, Birds, blue jay, cardinal, dove, finch, nature, Photography, sparrow | 11 Comments

By Plane, Boat or Train

Posted on November 3, 2024 by Ken Dowell

Vintage New York City travel posters.

Poster House, New York

New York/Wonder City of the World — 1927 (Adolph Treidler)

New York City travel posters — Vanity Fair, 1925 (Hugh Gray Lieber) Royal Mail Line, 1925 (Horace Taylor) Cunard White Star, 1935 (designer uuknown)

New York par la Transat — 1955 (Albert Brenet)

World's Fair travel posters — 1939 (Sascha Maurer)

Tomoko Miho poster — Wall St., 1968 (Tomoko Miho)

Posted in Art, Travel | Tagged airlines, art, musuems, New York, Poster House, travel | 5 Comments

MFF24 — Stories, Laughs and Truths, Pt. 2

Posted on October 28, 2024 by Ken Dowell

Apocalypse in the Tropics

Petra Costa’s documentary is about a toxic blend of evangelical Christianity and right-wing politics. Nope, not the upcoming U.S. election. This is about Brazil, a country where, according to the pastors in the movie, 30 percent of the population is evangelical.

The documentary covers the rise and fall of Jair Bolsonaro, a right wing president heavily under the influence of a pastor named Malafaia. These guys offered campaign promises like putting a gun in every home and not one bit of land for indigenous peoples. I don’t think that even Project 2525 hit on that one.

This is really a magnificent documentary. Costa gets amazing access to players on both sides of Brazil’s polarized leadership. Her commentary is thoughtful but she doesn’t try to tell the story, letting instead the words and actions of the people she is filming do so.

As an American, you can’t help seeing Bolsonaro as Brazil’s Trump. So what happens when he loses the election to Lula? He refuses to concede, declares fraud and his supporters break into and ransack the Congressional building. Sounds familiar, right?

(Petra Costa was awarded a special jury prize for Apocalypse in the Tropics)

Micro Budget

A laugh out loud movie. And how often do you find a laugh out loud movie at a film festival?

A guy from Iowa heads west with his nine month pregnant wife to make a movie in Los Angeles, which he assumes will sell because, after all, streamers will buy anything. The title reflects the lack of funds he has to work with. So the caterer he hires to feed the staff shows up with mayonnaise sandwiches. And his visual effects guy’s only previous experience is working for off-brand bowling alleys. His lack of funds is matched only by his lack of ability.

There’s also a guy who’s filming the making of this movie. So it’s a movie within a movie, but really no movie at all.

Somehow our director manages to alienate everyone, most notably his pregnant wife. She’s in the movie but also is cleaning, cooking and taking out the garbage at the AirBNB where he’s filming and housing his cast.

The stupid statements, bad decisions and overall incompetence are a laugh a minute. On a side note, there are a number of cameos, most notably Seal. Can’t explain how he ended up in this movie.

La Cocina

La Cocina is in a large Times Square restaurant with an army of waitresses and back-of-house staff. The kitchen is crowded, noisy, messy, vulgar, abusive and violent.

There are a couple of plot lines in the movie. There is an $800+ shortfall in one pay station that leads to a host of accusations and incriminations. And there’s the affair between a cook and a waitress and the unwanted pregnancy that results. But for the most part, the setting is the story. The staff is made up of immigrants, mostly illegals. I’m literally watching this movie at the same time Trump is holding one of his rallies demonizatig immigrants. What I see on screen are people who came looking for a better life, working crappy, degrading jobs and getting bullied besides. One particularly strong scene was of a group of kitchen workers, from Mexico, Colombia, Morocco and Bensonhurst, sitting in an alley smoking on their break and talking of their dreams. They were anything but grandiose.

The movie is artfully filmed in black and white. That added to the dinginess of the setting and the dreariness of the workday.

The kitchen workers called each other chef, just like in The Bear, but compared to La Cocina, the behavior in The Bear’s kitchen is a model of decorum. There is no doubt in my mind that kitchens as toxic as this one are all too common. But I nonetheless felt the movie was a bit overdone, particularly when in comes to the violence and the scope of some accidents.

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MFF24 — Stories, Laughs and Truths Pt. 1

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Apocalypse in the Tropics, film, film festivals, La Cochina, Micro Budget, Montclair Film Festival, movies, reviews | 1 Comment

off the leash

Whatever Happened To? Billy Idol

Whatever Happened To? Jimmy Connors

Whatever Happened To? Greg Louganis

Whatever Happened To? Art Garfunkel

Whatever Happened To? Evel Knievel

The sun, the moon, the beach

Providenciales, Turks and Caicos

The Artists of Newark

Backyard Bird Cam: Fall Edition

By Plane, Boat or Train

MFF24 — Stories, Laughs and Truths, Pt. 2

Apocalypse in the Tropics

Micro Budget

La Cocina

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