Dino Fever!

Do I have Dino fever? You bet jurassic! And after the events of this past week, it’s a good thing! The week began with some hoodlums/gangsters/punks/n’er do wells breaking the passenger side window of my beloved car. What angered me most was they didn’t even take anything! It was just a random, senseless act of destruction!

But that was fixed. Later in the week the back end of the one-two punch landed when someone stole the bike out of my garage! It was an old Schwinn, which weighed more than I do, complete with those ugly curly handlebars, but the real value was purely sentimental. (Just think of all the places we traveled together!)

So how did I handle the setbacks? How did I work through the anger and loss? I tried thinking like a dinosaur! Such things seem rather trivial and insignificant when you are facing extinction! How would a dinosaur have handled this past week? I figured they would have watched a couple of movies. (Old movies of course!)

DAVE’S "DINO-MITE VIDEO PICK OF THE WEEK: "Awakenings"

Someone somewhere in Hollywood saw the success and acclaim "Rain Man" achieved. Thus the germ of an idea-another movie about a "handicapped" person teaching a "normal" person a lesson in life-was born.

Although Robert DeNiro’s performance isn’t as effective as Dustin Hoffman’s, and Robin Williams’ isn’t nearly as good as Tom Cruise’s, "Awakenings" nonetheless has its charms. The movie is based on a true story about a doctor who finds several patients residing in a mental hospital afflicted with similar symptoms. Rigidly staring off into another world, behaving like statues (the clinical diagnosis), their days and years drift away.

The doctor, played by Williams, researches the medical backgrounds and discovers each patient was a victim of Encephalitis, "sleeping disease", never awakening from the inflammation of their brains. He treats them with an experimental drug and awakens them from their slumber. DeNiro plays one of the reborn and his ensuing journey makes for the essence of the movie.

Directed by Penny Marshall, the movie isn’t as effective as it could have been. (What is the state of Hollywood when two of its most powerful directors were one time known as "Meathead" and "Laverne"?) The movie never captures the spirit of the re-awakening, the miracle that these people are still alive after all the years gone by. And the crux of the story- that DeNiro teaches the sad and lonely Williams, who is a victim of a self inflicted isolated and pointless existence, what the miracle of life is really about-is never achieved. Williams doesn’t seem that bad off and never seems to appreciate what is happening to DeNiro’s character.

Yet, the movie does contain an undeniable impact. More than one tear fell at the conclusion of the story (and it wasn’t a crocodile’s tear but rather a dinosaur’s).

DAVE’S DINO-MITE ONE BUCK MOVIE PICK OF THE WEEK: "The Sandlot"

A couple of years ago, James Earl Jones played an integral role in "Field of Dreams". That movie was an overly romantic look at the game of baseball. Based on WD Kinsella’s wonderful book, Shoeless Joe, "Field of Dreams" captured some of the wonder but none of the sense of wonder of the journey into a mystical thread of the American landscape.

"Field of Dreams" didn’t want to be realistic but went over the edge of credibility. Who could believe that Kevin Costner’s wife, played by Amy Madigan could smile and say "sure honey" when Costner decides to ruin his farm by building a huge ball field, drive cross country with a radical stranger in search of a dead ballplayer" Some wives might be wonderful and supportive but Madigan’s love is stuff movies are made from.

Jones’ most recent role is in a follow up movie, "The Sandlot". This movie is one boy’s look back to the days when the events at a neighborhood sandlot were larger than life. Baseball was the center of the universe for the group of kids that gathered every day at the sandlot. The wonderful secret of the movie (no it isn’t that the girl is really a man) is about the monster dog behind the field that eats all the balls hit over the fence, or boys that dare to venture behind it.

Like "Field of Dreams", the events are silly and absurd, but "The Sandlot" doesn’t take itself too seriously and thus succeeds better. This is supposed to be fun and nostalgic and it is. The only flaw is the casing of Jones as the player who know the Babe, the Bambino, the Sultan of Swat, as "George Herman" and who could have been an even bigger legend had he not been blinded. The issue of baseball’s black eye, its long time color line, is not addressed and the glaring omission seems to be almost deliberate. Even baseball isn’t as simple as it seems.

Still "The Sandlot" is one of the few "Baseball" movies that succeeds in capturing the spirit of the sport. Even Barney can appreciate that: this movie gets three scales off his tail…

But seriously what did get me through a most difficult week? Well, it was nice being recognized for a year’s worth of work. And to top it all off, one of my favorite young artists, gave me her latest drawing and poem which will appear in these pages soon. Smiles all around…

What is the definition of a neighbor? This weekend, my favorite family of four moved into a house a few blocks from my apartment. Do they qualify as neighbors or technically speaking, are the other dwellers in my complex my only "true" neighbors? I had a caller ask me where "approximately" the Secretary of State’s office was located. Snidely I responded (although it was a reflex, honest), "Forget approximately, I can tell you exactly where we are." The remark wasn’t appreciated.

My answer to last week’s Fridley rap question: DJ Jazzy Jeff, Hammer, and Vanilla Ice.

The final installment of "Late Night With David Letterman" was wonderful. I only wished Hawkeye hadn’t lost his sanity.