Gloria Gaynor: I Will Survive

Year 18, Day 191 - 7/10/26 - Movie #5,371 - SQC DOC BLOCK FILM #10

BEFORE: I just added to my Star Wars autograph collection, I got a signed Jimmy Smits ("Bail Organa" from Episodes 2 & 3) photo in the mail so my count is now up to 131 different signed 8x10's from all 11 major arcana SW films. So far I have not collected anything from the "Clone Wars" feature, but it's a direction I can go in the future - and I have not collected any autographs from "The Mandalorian" yet, because it's new and (semi-)popular and the prices are at a premium. Would I love to have a signed Pedro Pascal in the collection? Of course, but not at these prices, I can probably get a Billie Lourd at a more reasonable cost. And Sigourney Weaver? Forget it, there's only one photo available at $260, too rich for my blood. I've got to focus on Episodes 1 to 3, and what I can get at a discount, without breaking my budget. Also I like when it's more organic, I feel like Pedro's going to appear at the theater one day during a premiere and maybe I can hit him up, even if that means I get fired. JK. But this collecting thing is ongoing, it's a process that will maybe never end, until I do. 

But the Doc Block is here for a limited time, just like the McRib. I'm 10 films in so we're 20% done for this year, and tonight I've got a dilemma on the "Get to Know a State" profile. Gloria Gaynor was born in New Jersey, but I need that state for a different doc - NO GUESSING because it's not going to be about Bruce Springsteen. She got famous playing in NYC discos, but I already profiled New York, and she lives in Tennessee but, you guessed it, I need that state for a different doc, too. My choice is going to be made based on these recent events - "I Will Survive" was accepted into the Library of Congress' Registry of notable National Recordings in 2016, and she performed there at a celebration of disco music in 2017. And last year President Trump named her as one of the honorees for the Kennedy Center Honors, held in December 2025. I know, considering who the President is and how he annexed the Kennedy Center, this honor doesn't mean as much as it used to. But the signs are (semi-)clear, the chain wants me to profile WASHINGTON, DC. 

(I know, I know, it's not a state, it's a district. And yes, this is going to throw off my numbering, now I have 51 things to profile and 50 documentary intros to do it. Don't worry, I have a plan, and if it works, this will all make sense at the end...this is a logistical puzzle in progress and this is my weird way of solving it)

Date admitted to the U.S.: Trick question, it wasn't, but it was authorized July 16, 1790, so it's got a 236th birthday coming up... DC, you don't look a day over 200...

Claim to fame: A wretched hive of scum and villainy. But you know, the Smithsonian is cool. 

Nickname: District of Columbia, or "the room where it happens"

Prevalent language: Nonsense. Also anarchy.

District Motto: Y.M.C.A. or M.A.G.A.

District Flower: American Beauty 
District Fruit: Lindsey Graham

District Reptile: Mitch McConnell

District Bird: The bald eagle? Nope, it's a wood thrush.

District Tree: Scarlet Oak

District Beverage: The Rickey

District Dinosaur: The Capitalsaurus, I'm not kidding. Were you expecting Joe Biden?

Notable Sports Teams: Somehow they have them - the Commanders (formerly Redskins) and the Wizards (formerly the Bullets), the Nationals (formerly the Expos), the Capitals in the NHL, and the Mystics in the WNBA. 

Fun Fact: John Adams, the second President, was the first to live in the White House, George Washington never did. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were frenemies, like the Evert & Navratilova of the day and they died on the same day, July 4, 1826, exactly 50 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Probably each one died disappointed that they didn't outlive the other. Efforts have been made to turn D.C. into a state since the 1880's, it's always been "Umm, we'll get back to you on that" but as a result citizens of D.C. are taxed like everyone else but they are NOT represented in Congress, which seems a bit unfair. They get one delegate who can't vote, so what's the point? I mean, I get that we don't want an odd number of stars on the flag, but get over it. 

I have been to Washington, DC - stopped there on a family trip when I was a kid. We visited the Smithsonian and the Air & Space Museum, everything else I think we saw from afar. It still counts, so my record goes up to 8 and 2. I think I know how many states I've been to overall, but I'm going to keep you in suspense. 

Dinah Shore carries over from "Chris & Martina: The Final Set" via archive footage. 

THE PLOT: After overcoming traumatic events in her own life, Gloria Gaynor rebuilt by earning a degree in psychology and investing her own resources to produce the gospel album Testimony, which earned her a second Grammy 40 years after her first. 

AFTER: Everything is connected, after all - obviously disco is a bit of a theme this year, what with Earth, Wind & Fire and Diana Ross jumping on that bandwagon at some point. But that means the infamous "Disco Sucks" Blow-up-your-records night is shown here, too, and that was profiled back in January when I watched "The Saint of Second Chances". (Just remember this, OK? I watched a documentary back in January, because I didn't think I could link to it during the Doc Block. This could turn out to be very important...). Another connection, Gloria Gaynor appeared on "The Masked Singer", just like Paul Anka, after years of people guessing her name.

Back in 2005, Gloria Gaynor broke up with her husband and manager, Linwood Simon, for several reasons, explained in this doc. At first, she was afraid - she was petrified. She probably kept thinking she could never live without him by her side. But then, she spent SO many nights thinking about how he did her wrong, and a funny thing happened - she grew strong, and she learned how to get along. Hmm, it's too bad she didn't have some kind of SONG that would tell her what to do in such a situation, you know, kind of an anthem about dealing with breakups and how to survive them. Oh, wait, she totally did. Still, it was probably a very tough time, it happens to all of us at some point, I suppose. 

The song "I Will Survive" is absolutely iconic - from the number of people who showed up at her book signings and backstage meet-and-greets it's helped THOUSANDS of people get over. Gay people, straight people, homeless people, people with AIDS, each decade has brought new crises and reasons for people to need to find motivation to survive. Now, when I was a kid I heard the song on the radio, and I'll admit I misheard the lyrics. Instead of "Walk out the door," for some reason I heard "O, Commodore" and I thought it was a song about a lady breaking up with her husband or boyfriend who was a naval commander - and that didn't seem weird, except I thought that guy's probably got a well-paid job and a government pension, is she SURE she wants to break up with him? I didn't even know the singing group the Commodores at the time, otherwise I might have thought she was singing about Lionel Richie. (Even worse, when I heard "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" performed by the Rolling Stones, I thought Mick was singing to Aunt Jemima. But that's another story.)

Gloria had some medical problems, quite possibly related to a fall she took years ago while on stage at the Beacon Theater in the 1970's. This film also documents the radical spinal surgery she had in 2018 with the help of an orthopedic surgeon, which finally enabled her to stand up straight for the first time since 1997. This was great news, though I would like to know more about how this happened, and was this injury covered by insurance, was the Beacon Theater held responsible for the accident, like I still have questions. But I'm glad it all finally worked out, and she didn't crumble, she didn't just lay down and die. (Sorry, can't help it. Last time, I promise...)

She could have just stayed on the nostalgia circuit, there's a case to be made for just touring and singing "I Will Survive" at state fairs and such, but instead she turned her attention to Gospel music, I mean she is a person of faith (and a Republican supporter, which I guess explains the Kennedy Center Honors, but I'm willing to overlook that, just this once.) and why not keep growing, keep learning, and put a Gospel album together? It worked for Elvis, and he got more awards for his gospel music than he ever did for his rock and roll records. So she and her new manager hired some of the biggest names in that genre, like Jason Crabb, Mike Farris and Bart Millard, to sing on the album. It's almost like she completely didn't take into account that I would need to link to and from this documentary in a Doc Block one day.

She also completed her college degree in psychology from Walden University, at the age of 71. She already held an honorary degree in music, awarded to her by Dowling College in 2015, but kudos to her for sticking with it and achieving in her later years. Congratulations to this multi-talented, multi-award winning, multi-lingual performer of one of the biggest, best-selling singles in music history. Sure, it was disco but we can forgive that. She's got all her life to live and all her love to give, as do we all.

Directed by Betsy Schechter 

Also starring Gloria Gaynor, Yolanda Adams (last seen in "Ride Along 2"), A.R. Bernard, Bill Civitella, Jason Crabb, Mike Farris, Stephanie Gold, Margi Kent, Georg Leitner, Hooman Melamed, Bart Millard, Jackie Patillo, Hasanna S. Proctor, Robin Roberts, Shannon Sanders, F. Reid Shippen, Chris Stevens, Tony Tarsia 

with archive footage of Dick Clark (last seen in "Paul Anka: His Way"), Steve Dahl (last seen in "The Saint of Second Chances"), Jay Ellis, Redd Foxx (last seen in "Summer of Soul"), Harold Melvin, Linwood Simon

RATING: 6 out of 10 cover versions of "I Will Survive" (I recommend the one by Cake, or the one by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes)

Chris & Martina: The Final Set

Year 18, Day 190 - 7/9/26 - Movie #5,370 - SQC DOC BLOCK FILM #9

BEFORE: This was a last-minute addition to the Doc Block, something to increase the total number from 43 all the way up to 50. At first it didn't look like it would fit in anywhere, at least not without tearing the whole structure down and rebuilding it, which, again, I did not want to do. But then I kept looking and I saw exactly where it could fit in - it means jumping from music to sports and then back to music, but if that's what I have to do, it's fine. And this year's Wimbledon tournament is going on RIGHT NOW, so how perfect is this scheduling? The finals will be this weekend, in addition to all the other sports stuff going on this month.

I've watched other docs about tennis stars like Arthur Ashe, McEnroe, Venus & Serena Williams, and Billie Jean King, even though it's not something I'm into. So let's knock it out. Dinah Shore carries over from "Paul Anka: His Way". Jimmy Connors too.

I thought I might be in trouble here, finding a state to profile with this one, like Martina Navritalova comes from the Czech Republic, but then I learned she lives in Miami, and Chris Evert lives in Fort Lauderdale, so that really made things easy. That means tonight's "Get to Know a State" subject is FLORIDA. I was trying to hold it for a certain rock star's concert film, but I'll work out something else. 

Date admitted to the U.S.: March 3, 1845 (27th state)

Claim to fame: Just Disney World, right? I mean, what other reason would anyone have to go there? I guess for retired people it's like heaven's waiting room, only too damn hot.

Nickname: Sunshine State - oh, like the other Southern states don't get any sunshine? You don't get a monopoly on THE SUN if everyone there is against solar power for political reasons. 

Prevalent language: Crazy

State Motto: In God We Trust (Yeah, that tracks)

State Flower: Orange blossom

State Reptile: (Please be a turtle, please be a turtle...) Nope, it's an alligator.

State Bird: Northern mockingbird. (again, totally tracks)

State Insect: All of them, I'm guessing.

State Mammal: Florida panther

State Fish: Florida largemouth bass (freshwater) or Atlantic sailfish (saltwater)

State Beverage: Orange juice. duh. 

Notable Sports Teams: Are the Miami Dolphins still a thing? Marlins, Rays, Tampa Bay Bucs, Jacksonville Jaguars, Miami Heat, Orlando Magic, and Lightning AND Panthers in the NHL? Damn, they got all the sports teams down in Florida. If you're old and enjoy watching sports, it's probably the place to be. Still too damn hot though. 

Fun Fact: Florida is the only state other than Hawaii to have a tropical climate. Also every animal down there wants to kill you, starting with gators and those Florida panthers, right on down to the flamingos and manatees. Yes, I'm sticking by that. Florida experiences more lightning strikes then any other state, and if you're religious and conservative, maybe God's trying to tell you something? It's also the most hurricane-prone state, just saying. Earthquakes there are rare but I think that's very little consolation, all things considered. 

I've been to Florida four times, once as a kid my family drove down there from Massachusetts to visit Disney World and Busch Gardens. We had a great time but then it was a long drive back, which we didn't really think about at the start. The other two times I was just down there to board cruise ships to the Caribbean. My wife and I were planning to go back for Disney World's 49th Anniversary in March 2021, but then COVID happened and nobody was flying anywhere for a while. I think we cashed in those tickets and took a trip to Chicago in June of that same year. But we did go back and stop there on a cruise last December, just to visit the Kennedy Space Center - which was cool. OK, so two things of value in that state. Anyway, out of nine U.S. states profiled, I've visited 7 and avoided 2. 

THE PLOT: Tennis icons Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova discuss their paths to stardom, their rivalry and friendship, and how they support each other through cancer treatment. 

AFTER: Honestly, I wasn't that enthralled with the tennis footage here - I know some of it was important, because it came from the Wimbledon Finals or the U.S. Open Finals, and that was kind of a big deal. But I wasn't as excited about it as I would get watching footage of a boxing match, or even a baseball game. Plus we the audience were often watching Chris & Martina watching the footage, and that was all a bit weird. What's weirder is they were rooting for themselves, but this was footage of games they played already, like rooting for themselves isn't going to change the outcome. It's fine if they enjoyed watching themselves win, but cheering for themselves seemed very strange. 

The case is made here that their rivalry wasn't just the biggest one in tennis, but the biggest one in ANY sport, and it's hard to disagree. But comparing them to Larry Bird vs. Magic Johnson or Tom Brady vs. Peyton Manning seems weird, too, because basketball and football are team sports, and Brady and Manning were probably never on a football field at the same time, because you wouldn't have both quarterbacks out, the defensive players for one team would be on the field at any given time. I'm sure they played each other a lot, but comparing tennis and football is like apples and oranges, two very different thing. Now, boxing, that's another story, you might have to call the Ali-Frazier rivalry a tie for intensity with Evert-Navratilova. (Hmm, I know chess boxing is a combo sport, has anyone suggest tennis boxing? Like whenever both players are at the net, they can punch each other. I'll workshop it.)

They also take us through several decades of the friendship that developed over time between these two tennis players, they did play as a doubles team, however then they had to go back to playing against each other in the singles matches, and, well, one of them was unable to do both. Evert decided at one point that she couldn't both be friends with Martina and then also play against her, it kind of had to be all or nothing. But then after cutting her friend Martina out of her life she went through bouts of depression, so what does that tell you? Even your frenemy is your friend, half of the time, anyway. 

There's also the question, since my Doc Block this year seems to be all about American stuff (except for a Swedish band and a few Canadians), of who is more American, among these two tennis players? Evert was born in Florida and that image of the all-American girl, pretty and straight (for a tennis player, anyway) and signing endorsement deals here and there, wearing a short skirt - while Martina seemed at times like her polar opposite, a citizen from a Communist country who defected, not as concerned about her looks, definitely giving off a different vibe, and since middle America wasn't comfortable with the whole lesbian thing yet, well she just hit different. BUT Martina liked fast cars and junk food and working out and also making money. And a whole lot of Americans are immigrants - so who was more American? Trick question, because they're both Americans. Americans are gay and straight, born here and born somewhere else, people who work out obsessively and others who don't, people who were born into money and also people who had to go and earn it. 

The argument is also made here that they could be friends only because they were equally as successful - one may have one more Wimbledons, but the other then maybe won more French opens. They pushed themselves to be better and in so doing, each pushed the other one to be better. Chris Evert had three husbands over time, and Martina had a bunch of different girlfriends, that can be someone's motivation or it can be someone's downfall, only time will tell. Both tennis stars battled cancer, too, and in the end that united them once again. Doesn't matter what kind, cancer is cancer and you do whatever it takes, chemo or radiation or surgery, and you hope for an early diagnosis so you have more ways and more time to fight back. Sure, they relied on their spouses but they also stayed in contact with each other and celebrated each other's victories, and you know, that says a lot. 

Evert and Navratilova faced each other in 80 matches between 1973 and 1988, and they faced each other in the final matches SIXTY times. Could you imagine if each one won thirty finals against each other, and it was some kind of endless tie? It wasn't, one beat the other 36 to 24, but I won't say who's on top, you can look it up. The endless question over who had the number 1 ranking for all that time, and it seems like it kept switching hands, but for nearly 12 years straight, it was always one of them or the other. Evert won more times on clay courts and Navratilova won more on grass, while on harder courts, they were dead even. Look, I have no idea what all this means, I'm not a tennis guy. 

This is also the tricky bit about sports - if somebody beats you, are you going to HATE them, or are you going to respect them for it and use that as fuel to train harder and maybe be better next time? On the team sports, I don't know how they deal with the fact that the guy you're playing against today could be traded to the same team as you next season, or even tomorrow. So I imagine they have to maintain some emotional distance and not hate their opponents, because that just causes awkwardness and maybe trouble down the line. Tennis is an individual sport (umm, unless it's a doubles match) so I suppose then it's much more likely to get personal, which it did. It's great that Chris & Martina get along now, maybe it was a long, complicated road getting there, but it's great that they got there. 

Directed by Rebecca Gitlitz

Also starring Chris Evert (last seen in "Billie Jean King: Portrait of a Pioneer"), Martina Navratilova (ditto), Mary Carillo, John Evert, Steve Flink, Zina Garrison, Sally Jenkins, Bob Kain, Billie Jean King (last seen in "Martha"), John McEnroe (last seen in "Jack and Jill"), Andy Mill, Jana Navratilova, Pam Shriver,

with archive footage of Muhammad Ali (last seen in "Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything"), Larry Bird (last seen in "Fyre"), Tom Brady (last seen in "80 for Brady"), Jimmy Connors (also carrying over from "Paul Anka: His Way"), Nora Dunn (last seen in "Drop Dead Gorgeous") Joe Frazier (last seen in "Ali & Cavett: The Tale of the Tapes"), David Hartman (last seen in "Dear Ms.: A Revolution in Print"), Peter Jennings (last seen in "Big Miracle"), Magic Johnson (last seen in "Pee-Wee as Himself"), Nancy Lieberman, John Lloyd, Peyton Manning (last seen in "You're Cordially Invited"), Harry Reasoner (last seen in "Rather"), Burt Reynolds (also last seen in "Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything")

RATING: 5 out of 10 women who have completed a Career Grand Slam.

Paul Anka: His Way

Year 18, Day 189 - 7/8/26 - Movie #5,369 - SQC DOC BLOCK FILM #8

BEFORE: Today's documentary came out late last year, a few months too late to make the 2025 block, but as soon as it aired on HBO I grabbed it, this was like a must-watch. Like if I don't get Paul Anka represented here, what exactly am I doing? Who else has charted at least once in each of the last 7 decades? If there's any information about how to survive in show biz, it's going to be here - just like with the docs about Norman Lear, Carl Reiner and (upcoming) Mel Brooks and Dick Van Dyke. But crap, I'm trying to do a U.S.-themed Doc Block this year for the big 250, and Anka is Canadian. What can I do, except try to speed up Trump's looming annexation of our Northern neighbor? 

AHA, you can't think about Paul Anka without thinking about Las Vegas, I bet back in the day Paul Anka was the one who told Sinatra to maybe check out this cool place in the desert as a business opportunity. Sure enough, Mr. Anka lived near Vegas for the entire decade of the 70's, so tonight's "Get to Know a State" profile choice is simple - NEVADA!

Date admitted to the U.S.: October 31, 1864 (the 36th state)

Claim to fame: Las Vegas, the place where everyone comes by plane and leaves by bus. Also the Grand Canyon and the Hoover Dam are pretty cool, but nothing beats Sin City.

Nickname: The Silver State, as in "insert all your quarters here"

Prevalent language: cold hard cash, baby

State Motto: "Place your bets"

State Flower: Sagebrush
State Fruit: Liberace

State Reptile: Desert Tortoise (you know, why don't we just assume it's always going to be a turtle)

State Bird: Mountain bluebird

State Mammal: Desert Bighorn sheep

State Tree: Bristlecone pine 

State Beverage: Whatever it is, it's free as long as you keep betting.

Notable Sports Teams: Just in the last couple of years, the Raiders moved there from Oakland, they got a hockey team, the Golden Knights, and in the WNBA there's the Las Vegas Aces. 

Fun Fact: "Nevada" means snowy, and I can't think of a state with less snow. Like it's 100-plus degrees there all year long, I hear. Also I just learned that people who visited Vegas shortly after gambling was legalized would step outside to watch scheduled nuclear bomb tests, which sounds like fun until you realize how deadly that was. Good times.

I've been to Vegas twice, most recently in 2019, just a couple months before COVID hit. The first time we took side trips to Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam, but the second time we stayed at three different hotels so we could visit a larger number of casinos, and we hit five different buffets in 8 days. We went to fake Paris, fake Venice and fake New York casinos, stayed in a fake Egyptian pyramid, and then we got tickets to the "Legends" show and saw performances by fake Elvis, fake Pat Benatar, fake Lady Gaga and fake Freddy Mercury. Can you tell what everything had in common? So my record goes up to 6-2 for states I've visited. 

The Beatles carry over again from "ABBA: Super Troupe", and I'm pretty sure they never played Vegas, they never had to. 

THE PLOT: Born in Ottawa to immigrants, Paul Anka exhibited early musical talent. At 16, he ambitiously headed to New York. Unlike other teen idols, he wrote his own songs. His multi-genre, multi-decade success resonates across generations.  

AFTER: Same riddle as yesterday - how do you know when a guy has written one of the most iconic songs of all time, performed by Frank Sinatra? Don't worry, he'll tell you. 

The film starts with Anka's first hit singles and appearances on TV at the age of 14. In retrospect, somebody really screwed up when they cast Jeremy Allen White as Bruce Springsteen in "Deliver Me from Nowhere" because when I look at the younger Paul Anka (like 19-21, after he stopped being a chubby kid but before he was 30 and looked 50, Anka just screams Jeremy Allen White to me. The problem might have been that nobody was making a biopic about Paul Anka, like why would they? But I'll bet there are a lot of stories to be told...

I was marvelling at how old Anka must be, but then I looked it up on Wikipedia, he's only 84, that's not so uncommon. So why do we see him telling someone in this doc that he's 98? Is that supposed to be funny? Does he feel like he's 98? Is everything OK with him mentally? Or is this some kind of trick to get people to say he looks good for his age, when he really looks like he's 84? Look, I know this guy has some form of "artist brain" because he's incredibly self-centered and obsessed with his own fame, but this is a case where he has the talent and the experience to justify it, by my standards. The surest indication he has artist brain is the fact that his first wife asked him to retire, after he'd been in show business for 45 years and they'd been married 37 years. He didn't feel old or see the need to slow down, so naturally he divorced her. Yeah, that reminds me of my animation job, I made the similar mistake of suggesting to my 80-year old boss that he had the option to get out of the business, move upstate and stop chasing little golden statues. Turns out he had a different opinion on the matter, and I got sacked.

Paul Anka appeared on the Masked Singer back in Season 4 - one of the few performers I knew RIGHT AWAY, like as soon as they started singing. (see also Paul Shaffer and Penn & Teller). Anka, dressed as a huge headed stalk of broccoli, started singing and I just said to my wife, "Oh, that's Paul Anka, duh." It helped that I own his 2005 album of cover songs, "Rock Swings", that's how I knew his vocal style - but I also knew that this was exactly the kind of thing Anka would do, to stay relevant and on everyone's radar, without realizing that the joke was kind of on him. Yeah, people with Artist Brain will also do almost anything for a buck and not pick up on the fact they're being made fun of. Some of the "Rock Swings" cuts made it into the 2023 film "Old Dads", and I suppose shortly after that Bill Burr interviewed Anka for his podcast, and some of that footage is included or replicated here. Paul Anka might be the only 84 year old person who knows what a podcast is - but, you know, he tries to stay hip to trends. 

Anka learned a long time ago to change with the times, he was one kind of singer when he was 15 and when he felt that the teen idol thing was going to wear thin at some point (and he was probably right) he became a different kind of singer. He figured out early on that having songwriting credits and publishing rights was the best way to make money and have consistent income, again, he was right, and he held on to most of the publishing rights to his music, with the exception of the song he wrote for Buddy Holly (he gave all future royalties to Holly's widow) and the theme for Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show" (he split royalties with Johnny in order to secure the gig). Anka also became an actor during the 1960's because he felt it would be an easy gig - I'm right there with him, if you can get parts in movies, even cameos, you should do that. And yes, he was one of the first pop singers to perform at Vegas casinos. Anything to increase his brand and his presence and stay relevant. 

Another surprise comeback came in 2009, just after Michael Jackson's death, and the posthumous release of a song called "This Is It", which was co-written by MJ and Anka back in 1980, as part of a batch of songs that Jackson put in the vault and decided not to release. Once it became a hit, Anka recognized it as a re-titled version of a song called "I Never Heard" that he wrote with The King of Pop. Anka decided to sue MJ's estate for credit and royalties, and at that point whoever was in charge ran a couple other songs they found in the vault by him, and Anka suddenly remembered that he co-wrote those, too. One of those was "Love Never Felt So Good" which was later recorded by Justin Timberlake. 

This is all more proof that everyone is connected - Paul Anka worked a bit with Ennio Morricone, which connects him to Sergio Leone. He hung out with Sinatra and wrote "My Way" for him, which connects him to the Rat Pack. He played a casino pit-master who hated Elvis in the film "3000 Miles to Graceland", which connects him to Kurt Russell and Kevin Costner, and by extension, Goldie Hawn and Whitney Houston, I suppose. He guest-starred on "That 70's Show", and so did Gloria Gaynor and Tommy Chong, their documentaries are coming up later in this chain. And he shared songwriting credit with Johnny Carson, which connects him to just about everybody, plus he's Jason Bateman's father-in-law, to boot. He sang a song on "The Simpsons", made appearances on "Kojak", "The Fall Guy" and "American Idol"m but for some reason he can't or won't stop working, he still feels like there are more worlds to conquer. There's that "artist brain" kickin' in again...

But damn if simply everyone hasn't sung "My Way" at some point - hell, I even sang it at my parent's 30th anniversary party one year, by special request. 

Directed by John Maggio (director of "Mr. Saturday Night")

Also starring Paul Anka (last seen in "Muscle Shoals"), Alicia Anka, Ethan Anka, Frankie Avalon (last seen in "Diana Ross: Supreme Sensation"), Irving Azoff, Bill Burr (last seen in "I Am Sam Kinison"), Michele Kahl, 

with archive footage of Will Arnett (last seen in "Next Goal Wins"), Jason Bateman (last heard in "Zootopia 2"), Joey Bishop (last seen in "Albert Brooks: Defending My Life"), Pat Boone (last seen in "Beatles '64"), Sammy Cahn, Bobby Cannavale (last seen in "Ezra"), Johnny Carson (last seen in "I Am Mother"), Dick Clark (last seen in "Luther: Never Too Much"), Jimmy Connors (last seen in "McEnroe"), Anderson Cooper (last seen in "Trainwreck: Poop Cruise"), Roger Daltrey (last seen in "If I Leave Here Tomorrow: A Film About Lynyrd Skynyrd"), John Entwistle (ditto), Keith Moon (ditto), Pete Townshend (ditto), Bobby Darin, Sammy Davis Jr. (last seen in "Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary"), Quincy Jones (ditto), Anne de Zogheb, Celine Dion (last seen in "Love Again"), Drake (last seen in "Think Like a Man Too"), Irvin Feld, Flavor Flav, Aretha Franklin (also last seen in "Luther: Never Too Much"), Mick Jagger (ditto), Matt Lauer (ditto), Annette Funicello (last seen in "Pee-Wee as Himself"), Justin Timberlake (ditto), Andy Warhol (ditto), Jackie Gleason (last seen in "Dear Ms.: A Revolution in Print"), Arthur Godfrey, Merv Griffin (last seen in "Martha"), Skitch Henderson, Buddy Holly, Michael Jackson (also last seen in "Diana Ross: Supreme Sensation"), Brian Jones (last seen in "Stevie Van Zandt: Disciple"), Bill Wyman (ditto), Tom Jones (last seen in "Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind"), Harvey Korman (last seen in "Outstanding: A Comedy Revolution"), Peter Lawford (last seen in "Brats"), Peggy Lee, Jerry Lee Lewis (last seen in "Elton John: Never Too Late"), Dean Martin (last seen in "Roberta"), Frank Sinatra (ditto), Jules Podell, Elvis Presley (last seen in "Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything"), Meredeith Vieira (ditto), Flo Rida, Ryan Seacrest (last seen in "Capitalism: A Love Story"), Dinah Shore (last seen in "Rather"), Nina Simone (last seen in "What Happened, Miss Simone?"), Ed Sullivan (last seen in "Here"), Sid Vicious (last seen in "Dare to Be Different"), Bokeem Woodbine (last seen in "Mom and Dad")

RATING: 7 out of 10 of his songs released in Italian - hey, he's multi-lingual, too!

ABBA: Super Troupe

Year 18, Day 188 - 7/7/26 - Movie #5,368 - SQC DOC BLOCK FILM #7

BEFORE: It's about that time in the Doc Block when the Beatles start to take over - I don't have any films ABOUT the Beatles, I must have watched all of them, but they appear in archive footage in nearly every doc about pop and rock music, there's no getting around it. It's almost required, it all goes back to that Ed Sullivan show, and there's a doc about Ed Sullivan coming up, so we'll see them again. Maybe I should have moved that doc here, but I'm inclined to keep my chain just the way it is because I'm 99% sure the links are solid right now. So last night there was a mention that when the Beatles came to America, they wanted to meet the Supremes - I can only imagine why, we know what the Beatles were like when they were in Berlin. Anyway, the Beatles carry over to today's film about ABBA. Hey, how about a Doc Block Birthday SHOUT-out to Ringo Starr, born July 7, 1940 and turning 86 today!

It's very hard to find a U.S. state that lines up with a Swedish pop group - I'm going to have a worse problem when I get to the doc about Led Zeppelin, and by then there won't be many states left to profile. Zep's going to have to just get whatever random state is left at that point, sorry. Now for ABBA I could go with Minnesota, it's the U.S. state with the most people of Swedish descent. They also did one big North American tour, back in 1979, I could pick any city from the tour. But I'm going to punt here and pick IOWA, because there is a city named Waterloo there. It's a tenuous link, sure, but it crosses a tricky state off the list. There should be an annual ABBA-themed festival in Waterloo, Iowa, but I think they're busy hosting the National Cattle Congress and being the home to John Deere and Tyson Foods. 

Date admitted to the U.S.: December 28, 1846 (29th state)

Claim to fame: I think I already mentioned it, John Deere and Tyson Foods

Nickname: Hawkeye State (no connection to M*A*S*H or the Avengers, sadly)

State Motto: Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain. Umm, sure. You do you, Iowa.

State Flower: Corn
State Fruit: Corn

State Bird: Eastern cornfinch

State Tree: Corn

State Beverage: Corn juice probably

Notable Sports Teams: None, unless you count those ghosts of baseball players that come out of the corn somehow. 

Notable people from Iowa: Johnny Carson, and Adam Devine from Waterloo!

Fun Fact: Iowa was claimed by the French and was a French territory until 1763, at which point ownership was transferred to Spain, who didn't really care for it either and allowed British and French traders in, then Napoleon got it back for the French in 1800, so he could sell the whole Louisiana Purchase territory to the U.S. in 1803, but we didn't do anything with it until at least 1809. Which makes it kind of the red-headed stepchild of U.S. states, and you wonder why it needs to have the first caucus in every election? It needs to feel important somehow - but come on, CORN! We all love and need CORN! We wouldn't have popcorn without it, I think.

I've never been there, so now I'm 5-2 on visiting these profiled states. There seem to be a bunch of museums there, art centers, botanical gardens and then there's those covered bridges in Madison County. There's also an annual Great Bicycle Ride across the state. Not really my thing - but I do love state fairs and there are casinos there, so never say never, I guess. 

THE PLOT: Bursting on to the scene at the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest, ABBA took the world by storm, going on to sell over 300 million albums and singles and giving birth to the billion-dollar franchise "Mamma Mia". 

AFTER: A riddle - how do you know when a band has won the Eurovision Song Contest? Don't worry, they'll tell you. This is the starting point of today's doc and really, the starting point of their career in the 1970's. Bjorn and Benny struggled for about a decade to write pop hits under the not-very-well-thought-out name "Bjorn and Benny", the special sauce turned out to be adding their girlfriends to the mix, singing back-up at first, and then their manager getting tired of using all four names in the band's name, and coming up with the idea to just use their initials to spell "ABBA". Just think, the band could have been named BABA or BAAB or ABAB, and then, where would we be? Worse, Anni-Frid could have gone by "Frida" and then they'd have been FABA or BAFA or AFAB, and that would have been just terrible. 

Instead, they went with ABBA and became the most successful Eurotrash pop group of all time, maybe even a little TOO successful, because Sweden has one of the highest tax rates in the world, so making all that money selling records and going on tour meant they owed a lot to the government, so they did what a lot of bands do, they had to create a corporation centered on the band, one that would pay the expenses of going on tour and buying costumes and studio time to make more records, but still, that wasn't enough, they were making money faster than the company could spend it. At one point I think their corporation was responsible for 50% of Sweden's GDP, and really, that's a lot for four people and a manager. So the company had to invest the excess money, into real estate or oil or pickled herring, it didn't really matter, the money had to be laid out and invested into something or it would be taxed. 

Later on, after the group had broken up, and both couples had divorced, Benny and Bjorn were working on making a Broadway musical, "Chess", which was quite successful. Great, more money coming in that needs to be invested somewhere else. Shortly after that, they were approached to turn the ABBA catalog of songs into a jukebox musical, which became "Mamma Mia", an enormously successful Broadway hit. And then THAT became a film and a sequel film, which were also enormously successful, in fact when you combine the Mamma Mia musical and film revenues, they are greater than the total that the band made while they were active and touring and selling records. This is like some weird wacko version of "The Producers", where these composers couldn't fail even if they wanted to, everything they do just led to more income and more income. I mean, it's a nice problem to have, but also, mo' money, mo' problems, right? 

Let me back up just a bit before I call it a night - I just got back from working at Barclays, there was a WNBA game, and I'm exhausted so I'll try to keep this short. Like the Beatles, ABBA started as a skiffle group, called the Hootenanny Singers, with songs composed by Bjorn. They kept crossing paths on the fair circuit with Benny Andersson's Hep stars, and jeez, that moment when Benny and Bjorn tried to write a song together is probably up there with Lennon meeting McCartney at that church social back in 1957. Stig Anderson, who managed the Hep Stars, encouraged them to write more songs together, they played in each other's bands when somebody couldn't make it to a concert, and the Hep Stars submitted a song to the Eurovision Song Contest in 1969, representing Sweden - and it came in second place. 

Benny met Anni-Frid, he produced a single for her, and Bjorn met Agnetha filming a TV special in 1969, and they got married in July 1971. Meanwhile Benny and Bjorn collaborated on an album together in 1970, the couples would go on vacation together and sing on the beach - hey, maybe there's something there, right? They'd all done so many solo albums that together they basically had enough material for a cabaret act, and more recording sessions just brought them all closer together - musically, at least. You know, Sweden was very liberal so who knows how close they all really were, right? The foursome put out a single, "People Need Love", and then debuted the next one, "Ring Ring" at the 1973 Eurovision thing. However, it didn't even qualify as the Swedish entry. 

Ah, but they learned and tried again, and "Waterloo" won the whole damn thing a year later - suddenly the international spotlight was on them, and it only took five years to become an overnight success. The next single, "Honey, Honey" was a minor hit in several countries, then came a European tour, more singles like "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do" and "Money, Money, Money" (have you spotted the formula yet?).  Then, of course, the super mega-hits "Fernando", "Knowing Me, Knowing You" and "Dancing Queen".  They maybe released their "Greatest Hits" album a bit early in 1976, but since that album had the new single "Fernando" on it, nobody really minded all that much. 

More major tours in 1977 of Europe and Australia, but by the time they announced a North American tour in 1979, they were also announcing the divorce of Bjorn and Agnetha - don't worry, they'll all still work together as a band (Hey, it worked for Fleetwood Mac) and they still managed to stay together long enough to get "Chiquitita" and "Does Your Mother Know" out into the world. They were supposed to release a new album in 1982, but instead they changed plans and released a Christmas album that year - really, it's a common sign that a band is over, when they put out a Christmas album. A lot of the stuff that the band WOULD have recorded, if they had stayed together, instead ended up in that Broadway musical, "Chess". So the band really died sometime in 1982, but the obituary didn't make it to print until about 1984. Fans would have to settle for more live albums from the archives and greatest hits compilations. 

Movies like "Muriel's Wedding" and "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert", kept their music alive, in addition to "ABBA Gold" and those live albums - but after that it was the 1999 Broadway debut of "Mamma Mia" and the 2008 film version that made the band members not just superstars, but legendary. It's amazing how nostalgia can kind of snowball and grow and grow, with ABBA, Elvis and The Beatles probably making more money now from their song catalogs than they did while they performers were actively touring. ABBA was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010, and the band did come together again to announce new music in 2018, however it didn't get released until 2021, only part of that delay can be attributed to the pandemic, I think. 

Directed by Piers Garland (director of "Frank Sinatra: One More for the Road")

Also starring Dave Ambrose, Stig Anderson, Benny Andersson (last seen in "Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again"), Ulf Elfving, Agnetha Faltskog (last seen in "27: Gone Too Soon"), Anni-Frid Lyngstad (ditto), Paul Gambaccini (last seen in "David Bowie: Out of This World"), Elaine Paige, John Tobler, Bjorn Ulvaeus (last seen in "Tom Hanks: The Nomad"), 

with archive footage of Christine Baranski (last seen in "The Night We Never Met"), Pierce Brosnan (last seen in "The Love Punch"), Cher (last seen in "Music by John Williams"), Dominic Cooper (last seen in "The Lady in the Van"), Colin Firth (last seen in "Austenland"), Bobby Fischer (last seen in "Pawn Sacrifice"), Boris Spassky (ditto), Andy Garcia (last seen in "Wrath of Man"), Lily James (last seen in "The Iron Claw"), Colin Powell (last seen in "Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything"), Cliff Richard (last seen in "If These Walls Could Sing"), Amanda Seyfried (last seen in "Love the Coopers"), Stellan Skarsgard (last seen in "Boogie Woogie"), Meryl Streep (also last seen in "Tom Hanks: The Nomad") and narration by Gerry Conway (last heard in "Frank Sinatra; One More for the Road").

RATING: 5 out of 10 touring companies of "Mamma Mia!"

Diana Ross: Supreme Sensation

Year 18, Day 187 - 7/6/26 - Movie #5,367 - SQC DOC BLOCK FILM #6

BEFORE: We made it past the holiday weekend and ALL the bombing going on outside our window - sorry, you call it "fireworks" and I treat it like there are home-grown terrorists with explosives right outside. It's a fine line. We also had a heat wave and a celebrity wedding here in NYC, let's just say it's been a good week to stay indoors. Today I'll have to leave the house and not just to get milk - but first let's watch another documentary and get to know another U.S. state. Diana Ross was seen in yesterday's film, presenting a Grammy to Roberta Flack, so this one's easy, Diana Ross carries over. 

She was born in Detroit, and was a hit with the Supremes on the Motown label, which of course is based in Detroit, so Michigan would be the no-brainer choice here BUT I need Michigan for another famous person coming up, so today I'm profiling ALABAMA. When she was seven, Diana's mother got sick and she was sent to live with family in Bessemer, Alabama for a time, and she learned, like I did, that nobody famous ever came from Alabama, so when her mother recovered she went back to Detroit, home of all that famous music and neighbors like Smokey Robinson. Smart. 

Date admitted to the U.S.: December 14, 1819 (the 22nd state)

Claim to fame: Ground zero in the battle for Civil Rights, all those marches from Selma to Montgomery that I've seen in just about every documentary. 

Nickname: "The Heart of Dixie"

Prevalent language: Alibamu, which is a Muskogean dialect, and I'm not kidding

State Motto: Audemus jura nostra defendere, which means "We dare defend our rights" - you know what, just keep driving, I hear Georgia is nice.

State Flower: Camellia
State Fruit: Blackberry (oh, how ironic)

State Reptile: Alabama red-bellied turtle

State Bird: Yellowhammer

State Vegetable: Sweet potato, that tracks

State Mammal: American black bear (again, just saying...)

State Nut: Pecan, well who doesn't love pie? 

State Legume: Peanut - why am I not surprised there's a state nut AND legume?

Notable Sports Teams: "Roll Tide"

Fun Fact: Cotton plantations, slave labor, Jim Crow laws, really, what's not to hate? They also have Alabama "white sauce" on their barbecue, which should be avoided at all costs. I mean, I know what it made of, but I also know what it looks like it's made of.  This is the first state profiled that I have NOT been to, so my record is 5-1.

THE PLOT: From being the queen of Motown to taking on the world stage, this "Supreme" diva has sold over 100 million records worldwide. Her career has spanned decades, attracting generation after generation of loyal fans. 

AFTER: So the short path to success in the music industry for Diana Ross seems to have been - Step 1, move back to Detroit. Step 2, live next door to Smokey Robinson and befriend him. Step 3, start a secret relationship with the head of Motown Records. Look, I'm not saying she didn't work hard, and that as one of the Primettes she didn't show up at the Motown recording sessions for other artists, willing to sing back-up or just clap her hands on their records, I'm just saying it's clear that some shortcuts were taken. You know, it was a different time - like if you found out that somebody like Sabrina Carpenter or Ariana Grande was in a relationship with an older man with six kids who was also the CEO of her record label, questions would be asked, there might even be an investigation. But back in the 1960's that was just something people did if they wanted to get ahead.  Why and how did The Supremes become "Diana Ross and the Supremes", hmmm?

This is one of those "stockumentaries" that was made entirely out of licensed footage, and the attempts to land famous people to weigh in on Diana's career and legacy were minimal at best. Who the heck is Bonnie Greer? Apparently she's a writer who's also served as Chancellor of Kingston University in the U.K. - OK, so she's African-American and grew up in Chicago, but what part of her background gives her the right to comment on someone in the music industry? The Beyonce interview that took place around the time of "Dreamgirls" was clearly filmed by someone else, and that's it, no stars were inconvenienced at all during filming. 

This film runs 45 min. max, which makes it great for filling up an hour on Fuse Music or AXS, once you add a bunch of commercials. Well, it sure won't take up a lot of your time to watch it, you can probably just fit it in while you're channel surfing and looking for something better listed in your on-screen guide. Look, we already KNOW that Florence Ballard got cut from the Supremes and was replaced by Cindy Birdsongs - there were probably a dozen women total who worked as Supremes from time to time, Motow tried to keep the group going for a while after Diana Ross went solo, but the writing was really on the wall by that point. 

They did have hits, starting in the spring of 1964 with "Where Did Our Love Go", which hit number and surprised everyone, including the Supremes themselves. Then came "Baby Love" (which is really the same song with new lyrics, I'm pretty sure) and "Come See About Me", and "Stop! In the Name of Love". But to me this is all kind of tainted, if Diana Ross had to cheat to get there, I'm again reminded that Spielberg was never hired at Universal, he just walked in and set himself up in an office and everyone assumed he belonged there. He did not work as hard as he should have had to in order to get what he got. And it's much easier to score a home run if you steal second and third base, it turns out. Is this the message we want to send out to our kids, just fake it till you make it, or when you get that audition with the record company, be sure to have sex with the man in charge? 

But I guess that's America, we're a nation of people who see what they want and then make plans to get it, by any means necessary. Eff the rules, right? If we need to harvest cotton cheaply, let's just take some people in another country away from their homes and call them our property, so they'll pick the cotton for no pay. If we need more land, we'll just take it from the Native Americans and call it a new state. Where's the harm? In the case of Diana Ross getting the spotlight, the pressure from Berry Gordy to succeed caused her to have anxiety and anorexia, which is not mentioned in this doc, of course, because there's just no time. 

Ross spent the 1970's making solo albums, and also appearing in films, "Lady Sings the Blues", "Mahogany" and of course, "The Wiz". The film version of that all-black musical based on "The Wizard of Oz" had to change Dorothy from a school girl to a school teacher, in order to shoehorn the adult Diana Ross into the role. Playing opposite her fellow Motown artist Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow, the adaptation was both a visual marvel and also the most expensive film musical ever made. Really, there was no way the film could be profitable, but it did become a cult classic. She wrapped up the decade with some TV specials, disco hits like "I'm Coming Out" and "Upside Down" before leaving Motown Records for RCA, and (presumably) Berry Gordy for a new sugar daddy. 

A few more concert specials (the one filmed in Central Park was directed by the guy who made the infamous "Star Wars" holiday special, remember, everything is connected) and in 1982 she sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the Super Bowl, then popped up on "Soul Train". Gee, it sure seemed like she'd take any gig, like she had something to prove. By 1985 there was clearly a struggle to stay relevant, appearing on the "We Are the World" single helped, but that won't make up for a stinker song like "Chain Reaction" or "Eaten Alive", which had a music video that was modeled after "The Island of Dr. Moreau" - even without seeing the video, I can tell you that was a horrible idea. 

What's weird is that there's so much more to Diana Ross's story, but the documentary doesn't seem to discuss anything after 1985. You can literally learn more about her career by reading her Wiki page that you can from watching "Supreme Sensation". And it was made in 2023, so that's like 38 years of her career that the doc doesn't even want to mention. I mean, sure, there was rehab and a couple comeback tours, also a DUI, in the interest of fairness, I think we have to discuss all the ups and downs of someone's life in order to get a clear picture. Otherwise we're just making propaganda films, is that what we're doing here? Jesus Christmas, we're not even going to mention she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? This is some sloppy, sloppy work, man. 

Directed by Oliver Elphick

Also starring Beyonce Knowles-Carter (last seen in "Earth, Wind & Fire"), Bonnie Greer, Adam Mattera, Krysta Wallrauch 

with archive footage of Frankie Avalon (last seen in "Pee-Wee as Himself"), Florence Ballard, Bette Davis (last seen in "Faye"), Marvin Gaye (last seen in "Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary"), Smokey Robinson (ditto), Berry Gordy (last seen in "Dionne Warwick: Don't Make Me Over"), Jean Harlow (last seen in "The Public Enemy"), George Harrison (last seen in "Here"), Paul McCartney (ditto), Ringo Starr (ditto), Audrey Hepburn (last seen in "Blake Edwards: A Love Story in 24 Frames"), Billie Holiday (last seen in "Billie"), Janet Jackson (last seen in "Listening to Kenny G"), Michael Jackson (also last seen in "Earth, Wind & Fire"), Jacqueline Kennedy (last seen in "Killing John Lennon"), John Lennon (also carrying over from "Roberta"), Frankie Lymon, Betty McGlown, Nile Rodgers (last seen in "Luther: Never Too Much"), Ted Ross, Rupaul Charles (last heard in "Nimona"), Nipsey Russell (last seen in "The One and Only Dick Gregory"), Twiggy, Mary Wilson (last seen in "Hitsville: The Making of Motown"),

RATING: 3 out of 10 appearances on The Ed Sullivan SHow

Roberta

Year 18, Day 186 - 7/5/26 - Movie #5,366 - SQC DOC BLOCK FILM #5

BEFORE: I'm back on docs about music performers for a few days - I did warn you that I'd be bouncing around quite a bit with the subject matter this year, because the chain came together very naturally JUST LIKE THIS and I'm hesitant to tear it apart, because the fear is that it may come together in a better organized fashion, but something will have to get dropped in the process because the linking won't be there. And this year I'm already cleaning up the booted films from last year, and I want to hit fifty, so unless there's a break in the chain, I'm trying to preserve the natural order. 

This is a great opportunity to appreciate how all things, all people are connected in this great big occasionally beautiful world. For example, Clint Eastwood carries over today from "Sergio Leone: The Italian Who Invented America". What does Clint Eastwood have in common with Roberta Flack? It turns out Clint was making a thriller movie called "Play Misty for Me" and during production, he was driving his car and heard a song on the radio, and that was "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", and he loved it so much that he almost crashed his car, he just HAD to get it in the movie. They already had the song "Misty", but that song sucks, so he made some calls and got the Roberta Flack song and that ended up being huge for her career. It's all connected, man...

Speaking of that, I've started profiling all 50 U.S. states during my review of FIFTY docs, and up until now it's been very easy, just look at where the movie was filmed or where the band was formed and pick that state, all good. But it's about to get tougher - because looking at what's coming up, several films have a claim on states like New Jersey or California, and meanwhile I can't see any connections yet to states like Oklahoma or Wyoming. I'll keep looking, and I guess I'll match things up as best I can, but there are at least 15 films with no obvious connections to states and a LOT of doc subjects from Canada, it turns out. At some point I'll just have to assign the leftover, flyover states randomly. What I did was create a puzzle that I just can't solve, so now I have to cheat. 

Tonight's choice is easy, though, since Roberta Flack was born in North Carolina, a state I've been to a lot since my sister and then my parents moved there. Her family moved to Virginia when she was five years old, but I need Virginia for another night, so let's "Get to Know" North Carolina as part of the Happy Birthday America program (I'm trying to get a grant, but it's probably too late.) 

Date admitted to the U.S. November 21, 1789 (the 12th state, right after New York)

Claim to fame: beyond Roberta Flack, I guess that whole Wright Brothers airplane thing, they're pretty proud of that.

Nickname: The Old North State, which is only weird because they're in the South. Just me?

Prevalent language: Barbecue 

State Motto: "Esse quam videri" which is Latin for "Look, it's another Waffle House!"

State Flower: Flowering dogwood
State Dance: Carolina shag (sounds like a euphemism for something else)

State Amphibian: Pine Barrens tree frog

State Bird: Cardinal

State Insect: Western honey bee

State Mammal: Eastern gray squirrel (come on, NC, are you north, south, east or west?)

State Tree: Pine

State Beverage: definitely BBQ sauce, but you have to chug it

Notable Sports Teams: The Carolina Hurricanes seem to be doing well, and don't even get me started on the college rivalry between Duke and NC State. Be very careful if you go there. The Charlotte Hornets are another team (I want to say basketball?) and they got their name from the Revolutionary War, when British General Cornwallis described Charlotte as a "hornet's nest of rebellion", apparently. 

Fun Fact: The land was initially chartered by Sir Walter Raleigh, who had helped defend England against the Spanish armada and suppressed rebellion in Ireland, so they gave him a chance to colonize America, and he promoted the growing of tobacco to bring back to England, thereby becoming one of the biggest mass murderers in history. As John Lennon sang about him, he was such a stupid git. 

Personally, I think it's a great state - we've been to the N.C. State Fair three or four times now, and it's a "can't miss" event on our calendar now, we plan our visits around it. There's also a second fair in May in the same spot, it's not as big and it's agriculturally themed, but the fair food is still great, there's just a bit less of it. But if you want brisket and mac-and-cheese rolled into balls and then deep-fried with BBQ sauce on the top, it's the place to go. The breakfast sausage on a stick, dipped in waffle batter, fried and covered in country gravy, bacon and cheese was also good. Look, I've had great BBQ all over this country, and North Carolina is, I think, the only state that has TWO distinct BBQ styles - there's Eastern NC BBQ and Western NC BBQ, and they're both great, the Western is just a bit greater.

FOLLOW-UP TO: "Luther: Never Too Much" (Movie #5,088)

THE PLOT: Roberta Flack's place in music history was assured when she became the first artist to win back-to-back Grammy Awards for Record of the Year, with her songs "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" and "Killing Me Softly With HIs Song". 

AFTER: This documentary ran as part of the "American Masters" series on PBS, and I try to keep one eye on whatever they're running, because they do license a bunch of great docs about music and film stars that tend to fit right into my programming. The downside then, of course, is that there are sometimes TWO listings in the IMDB for the same exact film, a second one gets created when that doc becomes an episode of "American Masters" and I don't see why they have to change the title a bit and they can't just duplicate the IMDB listing that was already made. From the timeline, it seems like this film was released in 2022 and went nowhere, but then Ms. Flack died in early 2025 and suddenly PBS was very, very interested in it. 

From what I can tell, Roberta Flack seemed like a very down-to-earth person, like success came maybe as a bit of a fluke, so it didn't change her much or give her "artist's brain", she made a lot of friends in the business and helped others coming up, like Peabo and Luther and Donny Hathaway. She was classically trained and she worked as a music teacher, and really, come on, music teachers are the best people except for the one who inspired "Whiplash". 

It's also a big accomplishment to win a Grammy for Record of the Year ONCE, and she did that twice, in 1973 and 1974. Like everything came together and the stars aligned, having the right song written by the right songwriter and then sung by the right person to really hit big and become part of the culture. Twice. Like I remember when Paul Simon won that for "Graceland" and that was a year his music was EVERYWHERE - like you could not get away from it, that's a Record of the Year. (It's a confusing award, or I guess it was confusing to me then because "Graceland" was both the name of the single and the name of the album. I double-checked, this award goes to a single or album track.) But other winners are songs like "Beat It" or "Kiss From a Rose" or "Get Lucky" or "Rolling in the Deep", that's how big a song has to be.

I said before how everyone is connected, and that's because each person's life touches so many others, if you do it right. So Roberta Flack lived for years at the Dakota in NYC, and her next-door neighbors were John Lennon and Yoko Ono. They were friends, and Roberta was a comfort to Yoko after John died. Sean Lennon is interviewed her about his "Aunt Roberta" and I just saw Sean Lennon live at the theater a couple weeks ago, he produced a film that was in the Tribeca Festival. Way back in the day I worked on an early HD video starring Sean Lennon that was based on the art of M.C. Escher, but I did not get to meet him back then. I did, however, once see Yoko from a distance at a sound studio. I'm connected, man, everybody is connected. 

They detail Roberta's first marriage here, it seems she was married twice but also divorced twice. There's no Luther Vandross-like revelation at the end here about her orientation, but if there had been, I wouldn't have been too surprised. She was a champion for gay rights and sang at a lot of gay bars early in her career. Perhaps I'm seeing something that's not there, but she did keep her private life very private, and I'm just saying there could have been a reason, not that it matters now. What's a little bit more weird is the fact that she had an alter ego named Rubina Flake, who sometimes received credits on her album. Umm, so which parts of Roberta manifested themselves as Rubina? This is another thing that I wish the doc could have explored a little more, but it might have made her appear a bit crazy. Sorry, neuro-divergent. 

We do learn, however, the identity of the famous singer that "Killing Me Softly" was written about - the songwriter was Lori Lieberman, and she said in an interview here that she wrote the song about Don McLean, you know, the "American Pie" guy. There's apparently a whole controversy because her management team took credit for writing the song and she lost out on millions of dollars of royalties. She had a secret affair with one of her managers, so he might have just been trying to avoid her, it's tough to say - but why not give her the credit and money she's due if you don't want to draw attention to your affair with her? It makes no sense. To be fair, Roberta Flack did speed up the song a bit and play around with the chord structure, but who can tell what makes a hit record a hit record? Sometimes it's just the right singer at the right time. 

Directed by Antonino D'Ambrosio

Also starring Bette Braxton, Peabo Bryson, Angela Davis, Bill Eaton, Jesse Jackson (last seen in "Luther: Never Too Much"), Valerie Simpson (ditto), Jason King (last seen in "Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary"),  Sean Lennon (last seen in "The U.S. vs. John Lennon"), Lori Lieberman, Emily Lordi, Steve Novosel, Ann Powers, Sonia Sanchez, James Whitmore, Buddy Williams, 

with archive footage of Roberta Flack (also last seen in "Luther: Never Too Much"), India.Arie, Dan Aykroyd (last seen in "Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story"), John Belushi (ditto), Tony Bennett (last seen in "The 100th: Billy Joel at Madison Square Garden"), James Brown (also last seen in "Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary"), Paul Simon (ditto), Bob Dylan (last seen in "The Beatles: In the Life"), Joel Dorn, Art Garfunkel (last seen in "Becoming Mike Nichols"), Donny Hathaway, Lauryn Hill (last seen in "Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit"), Martin Luther King Jr. (last seen in "Nickel Boys"), John Lennon (last seen in "Here"), Mildred Loving, Richard Loving, Bob Marley (last seen in "Nothing Compares"), Dean Martin (last seen in "Groucho & Cavett"), Les McCann, Gene McDaniels, Don McLean, Donna Mills (last seen in "Nope"), Yoko Ono (last seen in "Dear Ms.: A Revolution in Print"), Maxi Priest, Diana Ross (last seen in "Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything"), Frank Sinatra (ditto), Luther Vandross (also last seen in "Luther: Never Too Much")

RATING: 6 out of 10 hours spent recording demos for Atlantic Records in 1968

Sergio Leone: The Italian Who Invented America

Year 18, Day 185 - 7/4/26 - Movie #5,365 - SQC DOC BLOCK FILM #4

BEFORE: So far so good with my SemiQuinCentennial review of 50 films, representing our great 50 states. But I think I'm going to be in trouble very very soon - I will explain tomorrow. Today a number of prominent directors carry over from "Jaws @ 50" - let's keep the focus on Martin Scorsese because he was in the recent "Star Wars" movie, too. At one point I was trying to figure out which film to try and land on Independence Day, and then I noticed one of my proposed docs had the word "America" right there in the title - well, that's the one, then, isn't it? And I made it work out. There's the TINIEST connection between Sergio Leone and one of our U.S. states, it's UTAH! Huh, so far it's been all states that I've lived in or visited, imagine that...

Date admitted to the U.S. January 4, 1896 (the 45th state)

Claim to fame: Parts of the Sergio Leone film "Once Upon a Time in the West" were filmed in Monument Valley, UT, although most of the film was shot in Spain.

Nickname: The Beehive Hairdo State

Prevalent language: Mormon

State Motto: "Industry"

State Flower: Sego lily
State Fish: Bonnevill cutthroat trout (WTF?)

State Reptile: Gila monster

State Mushroom: Porcini

State Drink: probably postum, which is fake coffee

State Insect: Western honey bee (which lives in a beehive, duh)

State Mammal: Rocky Mountain elk

State Tree: Quaking aspen

State Dance: None - nobody in Utah is allowed to dance

Notable Sports Teams: Umm, Utah Jazz? Is that a thing?

Fun Facts: The Puebloans, the Navajo, the Shoshone, the Goshute tribes, and then the Spanish conquistadors and European trappers all avoided the Utah territory for hundreds of years. I'm sure they all had their reasons. People stayed away in droves until the Mormons, who like the Puritans, had been kicked out of just about every place else, including Illinois, for being so religious and uptight, reached Utah in 1847 and began to practice polygamy until the LDS church banned it in 1890. Damn, that could have been such a fun state...

I visited Utah three times, not for Bryce Canyon or Zion or Arches or Monument Valley, but for the Sundance Film Festival in 1998 and 2001, and the Slamdance Festival in 2004. I have not been back since, and now Sundance is moving to Boulder, Colorado so I have no plans to return. 

FOLLOW-UP TO: "Once Upon a Time in America" (Movie #3,419)

THE PLOT: An homage by various film professionals to the legendary Italian director Sergio Leone, director of "Once Upon a Time in America" and famous for the creation of the subgenre "spaghetti Western". 

AFTER: I realize that it might seem a bit weird to turn over our nation's birthday - and the big 250th one at that - to a documentary about an Italian man. But think about it for a minute, we are nothing if not a nation of immigrants, so people of ALL nationalities make up America, plus we do owe some debt to two other Italians, Christopher Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci. Hell, our country is NAMED after an Italian man, so there you go. It's also the whole point of the documentary, to show that this Italian man had something of a unique take on the Western movie, which supposedly documents our country's history, but of course it never really did. Leone's take on Western movies was a re-invention of the tropes about good guys and bad guys, cowboys and Indians, farmers and cattlemen, and of course history was never really like the movies to begin with, so it's a re-imagination of another imagination, so at least two degrees removed from reality, but damn, if the movies aren't a lot more fun than boring old reality. 

Here's what I've seen out of Sergio Leone's films - the Clint Eastwood Western "non-trilogy" of "A Fistful of Dollars", "For a Few Dollars More" and "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly", and about five years ago I watched "Once Upon a Time in America". That's it - but I didn't let my avoidance of Bergman films prevent me from watching "Trespassing Bergman", I just caught up with a bunch of Bergman films the following year. I have "Once Upon a Time in the West" on my DVR now, the hard part is linking back to a film from the 1960's - I thought that maybe I would take a break from the Doc Block and squeeze that film in, along with "How the West Was Won", but then when I took a look at the linking, it wasn't going to happen, my Doc Block came together a different way - you could say it kind of organized itself, and I couldn't fit in both movies. Anyway it seemed a bit weird to stop the Doc Block right after getting started, just to knock off a Western. I'll get to both of those classic Westerns some other way. Maybe. Someday. 

Sergio Leone was born in Rome in 1929, the son of an actor who used the stage name Roberto Roberti and silent film actress Edvige Valcarenghi, and he spent a lot of time on film sets as a child, so you can say he was kind of destined to be a film director himself. He studied law for a bit at university, but of course dropped out to work in movies. He worked as an assistant to the director of "Bicycle Thieves" and then wrote screenplay for the "sword and sandal" historical films that were hot in Italy during the 1950's. This led to A.D. work on "Quo Vadis" and "Ben-Hur", which were filmed in Europe but backed by American studios. He helped complete a film called "The Last Days of Pompeii" when the director got sick, and then got a chance to direct a film called "The Colossus of Rhodes", and by this time he knew how to make low-budget films that looked like large budget epics. 

When historical epics became less popular, he shifted his attention to Western films, and his style became known as "spaghetti Westerns", with some Japanese influence in addition to all the nods to the American West. If you watch those "Dollars" films, the characters are a lot more complex than those seen in traditional Westerns, everyone is somehow self-serving, it's like every man for himself, plus everyone looks dirty and unshaven and makes you glad the film was not made in Smell-O-Vision. He cast Clint Eastwood as the "Man With No Name" and since Clint had a month off from his TV work on "Rawhide" he gave it a go, and they ended up working well together, even though one spoke only English and the other spoke only Italian. Each film was more complex and technically well-made than the last, they kind of made each other better or something, Clint became his muse just like Harrison Ford did for George Lucas, together they just clicked and made something innovative and fresh in a genre that was pretty worn-out. 

Leone then got the chance to come to the United States and make "Once Upon a Time in the West", though as I said above it was mostly filmed in Spain and Rome - parts of Spain that looked amazingly like the American Old West landscape, plus a little bit filmed in Utah. I'll try to get to this film and then maybe I'll have more to say about it. Then Leone got an offer to direct "The Godfather", but he turned it down because he wanted to make "Once Upon a Time in America", and spent the next 10 or 11 years developing it, finally shooting a four-hour epic version that KILLED at the Cannes Festival, but was deemed too long by the studio, who then made a cut that was only two hours long, you know, for the American market because of the short attention span of dumb Americans. (well, the studio wasn't wrong...). People who have seen the entire four-hour epic cut, however, get a lot more out of it and I'm thinking the movie makes a lot more sense that way. 

He never made another feature after that, and died in 1989 - he had plans to make another epic about the Siege of Leningrad, but I think we can assume that he was creatively "stuck" after Hollywood tore the film he worked on for a decade and a half to shreds. What a terrible place Hollywood is, I bet he wished he never went there and had just stayed in Rome making the films he wanted to make. 

Directed by Francesco Zippel

Also starring Fausto Ancillai (last seen in "The Grand Budapest Hotel"), Dario Argento, Darren Aronofsky, Jacques Audiard, Damien Chazelle, Jennifer Connelly (last seen in "Jim Henson: Idea Man"), Robert De Niro (last seen in "The Comeback Trail"), Enzo Dililberto, Clint Eastwood (last seen in "Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything"), Gian Luca Farinelli, Christopher Frayling, Andrea Leone, Francesca Leone, Raffaella Leone, Arnon Milchan, Frank Miller (last seen in "Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope"), Giuliano Montaldo, Noel Simsolo, Steven Spielberg (also carrying over from "Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story"), Quentin Tarantino (ditto), Giuseppe Tornatore, Hark Tsui, Carlo Verdone, 

with archive footage of Sergio Leone, Brian Bloom (last seen in "Smokin' Aces"), Charles Bronson (last seen in "Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists"), Claudia Cardinale (last seen in "Effie Gray"), James Coburn (last seen in "Faye"), Jack Elam (last seen in "Kismet"), Henry Fonda (last seen in "Stevie Van Zandt: Disciple"), Ennio Morricone, Woody Strode (last seen in "Trumbo"), Lee Van Cleef (last seen in "High Noon"), Eli Wallach (last seen in "The Hoax"), James Woods (last seen in "Too Big to Fail")

RATING: 6 out of 10 extreme close-ups