It's Never Too Late to Mend!

The special screening of "The Blues Brothers" commemorating the 25th anniversary was loads of fun.

Sadly, the sound for the satellite feed was COMPLETELY screwed up for the majority of the live interviews and Q & A session. This should have been a real disaster, but most everyone in the theatre had a great sense of humor about it and while I can't say we were a well-behaved audience, we were one funny one during that time. Besides, they got the sound together in time for the film and after it was all over everyone received two free movie passes for our trouble.

Seeing "The Blues Brothers" on the big screen again was glorious. I actually cried a couple of times, I was so happy and filled sith sentiment.

The Blues Brothers is one of my all-time favorite movies, and it is certainly my favorite movie musical. There are only a couple of films I can lay claim to over 500 viewings and that is one of them ("Airplane!" is the other if you were curious).

I recall my mother taking me (age 10), my younger brother, and one of my classmates to see the film. Nobody knew how much profanity was in the movie and it was rather a source of conversation around the house. My parents were both pretty cool about judging worth & content and after seeing the film they knew that the film had more value as a comedy and as a music history lesson than a glossary of swear words and they never balked at the prospect of showing us the film.

We saw the film in the theatres a few times back when it was out and then many times on video afterwards. We had a friend with numerous connections to Hollywood at the time and we had a Beta copy of "The Blues Brothers" YEARS before anyone was even allowed to RENT videotapes. With that, we would watch the film, learn the script, study the conedy, and of course, become intimately familiar with the fantastic music within.

After seeing this movie so many times and one day finding myself making some money at gigs as Jake Blues, you would think there's nothing new for me to see in that film. WRONG!

Closer examination of the film on a theatre screen reveals that Jake's trademark black sunglasses are actually DARK BROWN! Yep, dark brown. Elwood's are black, but Jake wears dark brown sunglasses, frames and all, throughout the entire film. How's that for completely useless information? Of course, I could have found that out simply by searching online.

What else do you learn? Since there were very few ladies and only ONE black man in the whole theatre, I can surmise that "The Blues Brothers" is possibly the ultimate "white guy" movie. I found this a bit astounding since I know so many women that like the film and I get such great responses from so many people of varying races when performing as Jake. It was odd to say the least, especially during the Illinois Nazi scenes.

In any event it was a genuine treat to be able to see the film on the big screen and enjoy the movie with so many other fans. My childhood memories are still holding on strong 25 years later.