— Cashel slept over my house on Saturday night. This is a first. I planned for it as though a Head of State was passing through.<\/p>\n
— As we careened through the Lincoln Tunnel together (in the crazy little bus), on the way back to Jersey, he said, in a tone of humorous awe, “It’s weird that I’m going to be in a different state than my dad!” I told him about the line in the middle of the tunnel – where it says New York on one side and New Jersey on the other. So we kept our eyes open for it – so we could be aware of the moment when we were actually in two states at the same time! When we saw the line, I glanced down at Cash, and I could see this huge grin on his face – as he was briefly picturing himself being split down the middle between 2 states.<\/p>\n
— Cashel was amazed at how tall the Empire State Building is. “It makes the Chrysler Building look so small!” he exclaimed in his enthusiastic mouse-voice.<\/p>\n
— He kept commenting on the cultural differences between my neighborhood and New York. “This feels like Maine,” he said, as we tromped along the sidewalks to my house. “Really, buddy? Maine?” I asked, kind of doubtful, to tell you the truth. He said, thinking about it, “Yeah! It’s quiet. Well … it’s quieter than Times Square!” That is always a good point of comparison. Is it quieter or louder than Times Square?<\/p>\n
— I think my favorite moment was when I brought him into my place (he’s never been here before), and he came into my main room – sat down in the most comfortable chair (well – er – it’s the ONLY comfortable chair – but he picked it!!) – took out his book and started reading. Immediately. SUCH an O’Malley moment. Yeah, whatevs, nice apartment, Auntie Sheila, I’m gonna read now. He didn’t care about the TV until I mentioned it later. He didn’t immediately sit down, pick up the remote, and turn on the TV. No. Out came the book. So I sat on my bed and read my book (which basically should be called The Black Death for Dummies<\/i> – but oh well. I don’t know much about the Black Death, so I guess you could call me a dummy. It’s fun to read, believe it or not – even though the author talks to me like I’m retarded and don’t know what bacteria is.). We sat in companionable silence and read for about an hour. I kept glancing up at him, I admit, so I could watch him read. The serious face, the long eyelashes, the big book … I asked him questions about the book. He was forthcoming. “And this kid … is endowed<\/i>.” Cashel said. Excuse me? “He is?” “Yeah. He is endowed with magical powers. And … some crazy things<\/i> happen to him.” “Wow.” Endowed.<\/p>\n
— Topics we discussed:
\nthe Museum of Natural History, and the primates therein.
\nIllegal immigration. (Cashel brought it up.)
\nhis best friends – who they are, and what their virtues are as friends
\nthe Far Side (he’s very into the Far Side) Once he gets started on the Far Side, it is a runaway train. Pretty hard to stop it.<\/p>\n
— I made him a sandwich. Mr. Picky Eater completely approved of the mustard, and asked me, as though he is a culinary connoisseur, “What kind of mustard is that?”<\/p>\n
— I know all I write about him are little teeny moments like that, but I love him and he kind of is a reminder of how miraculous life is. Small moments like that. There he is – this small person in my apartment – and it’s kind of a miracle.<\/p>\n
— Then came the coolest thing. After dinner – with the amazing mustard – we turned on the TV to see what was on the History channel. You know, see if we could catch up with the Sumerians or something. And lo and behold – there was a 2-hour special on the entire history of Superman. We both got so excited!! Cashel is a Superman afficianado – and lectured me briefly on the importance of DC Comics, mentioning the names of the creators, casually, as though he knew them personally. So we were really psyched. I got him some ice cream. He sat on my rug, and I sat on my bed, and we watched. Occasionally we discussed. It was fanTAStic. Did anyone else see it?<\/p>\n
— Cashel had some comments: “I am REALLY interested to learn that the original Superman was evil!” This then led to Idea #1: He thinks it would be a great idea to have a movie where the original evil Superman battled the later good Superman. Almost like a Jekyll & Hyde thing.<\/p>\n
— Another idea he had was to have a movie where the cartoon characters created by DC Comics would battle the cartoon characters created by Marvel. Sort of an apocalyptic inter-comic-company war. Marvel vs. DC! Opening summer 2008!<\/p>\n
— We discussed the so-called Superman’s Curse. I felt a little bit weird talking about suicide with Cashel – and George Reeves committed suicide – but Cashel seemed okay with it. Even baffled. “Why would someone want to kill themselves, Auntie Sheila?” Oh boy. We were on a commercial break, so I said, simply, “I guess he was just sad that he wasn’t really <\/i>Superman, Cash.” Cashel thought about this, and then went back to his ice cream. Not really satisfied with the answer, but not pursuing the subject further. Hmmmm.<\/p>\n
— We laughed at the failed TV show “Super Pup” – which was put togehter in the wake of Reeves’ suicide. I guess the producers thought: We can’t have any more Supermans bite the bullet – so let’s do the same Superman story, with the same cast, only let’s have them all be dogs – only not real dogs – let’s put midgets in dog outfits!!!!<\/p>\n
Yeah, cause that’s exactly the idea I would have in order to keep the franchise alive. I would hire midgets and make them wear dog costumes. Makes perfect sense!<\/p>\n
— We saw a bit of the pilot of Super Pup – which was ludicrous. Lois Lane was a poodle. The dog-heads were hard – made of some kind of hard thick plastic – and you just knew that there was some sweating midget inside. It was bleak. The narrator (Kevin Spacey) said, “This rarely shown pilot blah blah blah …” The next day when Cashel was telling his dad about Super Pup, he rattled off, “We saw the rarely shown pilot!” Frankly, I can understand why it is “rarely shown”.<\/p>\n
— Cashel has not seen the original Superman with Christopher Reeve! This is a must-see. We saw many clips from it. We saw Reeve’s screentest – which – are always amazing for me to watch. I love seeing actors auditioning for the parts that eventually would make them famous. First of all: he was so hyped up and probably nervous that he had huge sweat stains in his blue leotard. Second of all: the performance that I saw in the screen test (and I think he was actually acting with Leslie Anne Warren who was up for the part of Lois) – was exactly the performance he ended up giving in the film. His audition had that much certainty to it – that much fullness. He had researched it to death – he knew what Superman represented – he knew what he had to embody – and so he DID that. He WAS Superman, and that was just his screen test. It just goes to show you that as an actor you always need to “show up” 110%. It’s just a job interview … but what they are looking for is the final product – and that may seem unfair – but that’s the way it goes, and those actors who are sure enough of themselves to deliver that – will go far. It was great to see Reeve be so effortless in his screen test (only the sweat stains gave him away.)<\/p>\n
— When they showed the clip of Superman flying with Lois Lane near the Statue of Liberty – Cashel exclaimed (and it’s a good point), “In Metropolis<\/i>???”<\/p>\n
Anyway – as you can see we had a great time with this special. We just ate the whole thing up ravenously – and were still talking about it the next day. Cashel is probably talking about it right now. Either that or the Far Side.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
— Cashel slept over my house on Saturday night. This is a first. I planned for it as though a Head of State was passing through. — As we careened through the Lincoln Tunnel together (in the crazy little bus), … Continue reading