By Nate Bloom
Contributing Columnist
“Before” is a 10-episode Apple+ series that begins on Oct. 25. Here’s the official premise with an “asterisk”: Eli (BILLY CRYSTAL, 76) is a child psychiatrist who, after losing his wife, Lynn (JUDITH LIGHT, 75), encounters Noah, a troubled young boy who seems to have a haunting connection to Eli’s past.
The asterisk indicates that the trailer released last week makes it clear that this series is a spooky, sometimes violent thriller.
I am not surprised. The end of October is prime time for Halloween/scary thriller series. I believe that it’s the first time that Crystal starred in a dramatic thriller.
“Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band,” a documentary, begins streaming on Hulu on Friday, Oct. 25. The advance publicity says it’s “The most in-depth look ever at the creation of legendary live performances featuring unprecedented behind-the-scenes access to their 2023-24 world tour.” The release goes on to say that fans get a real look at the creative process of Springsteen and his band, and there’s lots of interviews with Springsteen and his band members.
Over the years, Springsteen’s connection to the Jewish community has been the subject of several, probably too long articles in Jewish newspapers. Here’s the five most repeated topics in these articles: (1) The name Springsteen “sounds Jewish,” but he’s not Jewish. His ancestry is Italian, Irish, and Dutch, and he was raised in a practicing Catholic family; (2) Two Jews have been with the E Street Band since 1974: ROY BITTAN, 75, and MAX WEINBERG, 73. Weinberg plays drums and Bittan plays organ, piano, accordion and synthesizers; (3) Bruce has had two manager/music producers during his pro career: Mike Appel and JON LANDAU, 77. Appel did score a record contract (1972) for Bruce and the band. But he and Bruce had a falling out and he was replaced by Landau in 1975. Landau worked creatively with Bruce for decades. Appel is described as Jewish in all the Jewish newspaper articles. However, in a 1992 memoir that Appel co-wrote, he said he had a Jewish grandfather, but he was “3/4 Irish” and was raised Catholic; (4) Many Springsteen songs have Biblical imagery; and (5) A bit of the fun stuff: Springsteen has often played Hava Nagila at his concerts (usually around a Jewish holiday).
The World Series began this week and for real fans, here’s some baseball stuff I just discovered. I saw a Western film in which the song “Streets of Laredo” was playing. It’s a beautiful lamenting song about a young man’s death and the lyric reprise is “bang the drum slowly” (for the dead young man). It reminded me of “Bang the Drum Slowly” (1973), one of the best baseball movies ever made. It follows the friendship of a top pitcher (Michael Moriarty) and a much less talented catcher (Robert DeNiro) who is also much mentally slower than the pitcher. The catcher is the butt of jokes by his teammates. But when they learn he has a fatal disease, the joking ends and the team gels on the field. The film ends with the catcher going home to die and the team in the World Series.
I looked up the film. It was based on a 1956 novel written by MARK HARRIS (1922-2007). Harris also wrote the screenplay for the 1973 movie. He was born Mark Harris Finkelstein in a New York suburb. He was a novel writer, journalist, and college teacher. “Bang the Drum Slowly” was one of five novels he wrote that featured “the pitcher.” “Bang” was the most popular of the five and the book is always in lists of the top sports books of all time.
Another thing I didn’t know: in 1956, PAUL NEWMAN starred in a TV production of “Bang” and amazingly, a video of that production can be viewed on Youtube. Just search for “Bang the Drum Slowly” and you’ll find it.
I was surprised that two American Jews won 2024 Nobel Prizes and I couldn’t find this information in American Jewish papers (it was in two Israeli papers/websites). Of course, I didn’t check every paper.
For the record: DAVID BAKER, 62, a bio-chemist, was one of the three chemistry Nobel winners and GARY RUVKUN, 72, a molecular biologist, was one of the three medicine Nobel winners. If you Google their names, you’ll find better summaries of their work than I can provide here.
Here’s a fun fact: Baker was born in Seattle, got his B.A. at Harvard, and he got his doctorate at UC Berkeley. Ruvkun was born in Berkeley, went to UC Berkeley undergrad, and got his doctorate at Harvard. Both schools can “kvell”!