A Second Interview with Actor Patrick Gorman

Patrick and I at the World Premiere of “G & G” in July.

It is not often that I get the opportunity to have a follow-up interview with one of my favorite actors, but veteran Patrick Gorman assured me that we would have to do another one after we finally met back in July, at the World Premiere of the Gods and Generals Extended Director’s Cut. It took a long time because of our busy schedules (his being more exciting than mine, of course), so we decided to do one by email rather than phone, to recount his experiences at the premiere and reenactment of First Bull Run, as well as his planned participation in the upcoming television mini-series To Appomattox. Also, we must not forget the vampire film we talked about last spring, which many of us are anxiously awaiting to see!

Patrick’s original interview with me, which you can read here, is also up for nomination for my blog’s “Interview of the Year” Award, the voting for which begins tomorrow, December 1st. Please keep checking back on this site to vote for Patrick, as he goes up against many co-actors and crew from Gods and Generals and Gettysburg, as well as other Civil War historians and filmmakers.

On the Rink with Gootz: Coaching the Danbury Whalers

By Guest Blogger Chris “Gootz” Hoeler

Sometimes opportunity knocks on the door of your life and offers itself to you…other times it kicks the door down and just walks in. In my case, it was the latter. For those who do not know I had the opportunity to stand behind the bench of the Danbury Whalers of the Federal Hockey League (FHL) for three games while Head Coach Phil Esposito was suspended. His suspension was as a result of a bench-clearing brawl that occurred when the Whalers played the Danville Dashers up in Maine. If you haven’t seen the video for this you can find it on YouTube when you search Danbury Whalers bench brawl. Here is the story:

I was on the train up from NYC to Danbury for the weekend to help out at the two games the team was to have that weekend, the second half of a stretch of four games in four nights. Pros in the higher levels don’t do those kinds of schedules so these guys are absolute warriors. But while sitting on the train I got a call from coach asking about my plans for the weekend. Obviously going up to Danbury for the weekend to my first Whaler home games of the year. He hung up and said he would call me back.

Concert Review: Andre Rieu at the Prudential Center (11/28/11)

I only wish I was sitting this close!

Upon leaving the Prudential Center after an evening with Andre Rieu and his Johann Strauss Orchestra, a feeling of celebration came over me. Strange, I thought, what was the occasion? There was no holiday or birthday to be commemorated, so why this sense of joy? Then I realized, music; that’s what we just celebrated—music. Very simply, very happily, we had just come from a two and a half hour celebration of some of the greatest classical pieces in history, all performed with the Rieu touch, as if he was performing personally, for each and every person in the audience.

“Music is the most important thing in our lives.” Rieu told the audience on several occasions, during one of his many conversations with the crowd. Perhaps that is why such a special feeling could be felt inside the arena, because after every song, he would speak in a very calm, relaxed manner, either explaining why a particular song is important, or giving a little bit of history. More importantly, he reveled in the interaction with fans, and seemed to love poking fun at the audience. Famous (or infamous, depending on how you look at it) for his punctuality, after the first song, the camera would zoom in on audience members walking to their seats late, and he would talk about them until they realized it by looking up at the big screen. This generated a decent amount of laughter, and he continued to make jokes throughout.

Musical Monday: Andre Rieu and the Johann Strauss Orchestra

Because I will be seeing world-renown violinist Andre Rieu and his famed Johann Strauss Orchestra tonight at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, I figured I would get back to a “Musical Monday” post with one of my favorite pieces of his music. It is hard to believe that I discovered him accidentally, a little more than a year ago, when I was looking for a certain piece of music on Youtube, and his name popped up in the suggestions sidebar. Having some free time, I decided to watch that video; then another, and another, until finally, I was completely hooked. As I wrote last October, Andre Rieu is one of those rare figures who can actually make classical music fun for those who consider it dull. I have always liked it, so he did not have to be so persuasive on me, but it seems after the feedback I have gotten after writing that article, many people became fans of him having never listened to classical music beforehand.

Moment of the Day: Lawrence Meets a Christmas Tree

Today was the unofficial start to the Christmas season in our house, as we began to put up decorations and outside lights, which we will finish tomorrow. Though I was never a fan of rushing things in November, I will be away next weekend (a trip to Lancaster, Pennsylvania) so we wanted to get things done now. This will also be our first holiday season with Lawrence, my ever-nosy and troublesome cat, who seems to always do something destructive on a daily basis. If you have read my “Week in Review” articles from the past summer and spring, then you are well aware of his antics, and how he was named after Union General Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. Over the last few weeks, I have been anxiously awaiting his reaction to my family putting up a Christmas tree. Whenever we bring something new into the house, he has to pretend he is Inspector Clouseau and check everything out—the “bomb-sniffing cat”, as we call him. Because he always finds ways to get into trouble and have fun with decorations, I was very nervous about our tree. We decided to not put up the big tree in the family room just yet, until we get back from Pennsylvania, because he would probably find a way to destroy it.

“Ancient Aliens” Tackles the American Old West

It seems that accidentally, this week has turned into a Let’s-Bash-Supposedly-Educational-Television-Week here on FNYTSF, so why not continue today with the most credible show of them all?

Last night, I sat down with a friend to watch an episode of Ancient Aliens that I had recorded the day before on my DVR, a rerun from earlier in the season titled, “Aliens and the Old West”. At first, I was in disbelief that it was actually referring to our old west, the one with cowboys, Indians, outlaws, etc, but then I realized, “This is the History Channel we are talking about. They’re probably going to tell us that Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday were from the planet Mars.” While this episode did not go that far, some aspects were very, very close to such. I had a notebook in hand as I jotted things down as they went along throughout the hour-long episode. I never thought I would actually be doing this, but since my last breakdown of Discovery’s Channel’s upcoming Civil War series was such a hit, I figured I would do another blow-by-blow analysis of the show that makes us question our origins…and our sanity.

Happy Thanksgiving 2011 from FNYTSF!

To all my readers, who I am very thankful for, I would like to wish you the happiest of Thanksgivings! This has been a heck of a year, and I’m sure all of us can appreciate finally having a day off to spend relaxing [and eating] with friends and family. Let’s hope for no family arguments or oven catastrophes this year, eh? As always, I would also like to share this link with you, which is an excerpt from a book written by American Indian activist Russell Means, called Where White Men Fear to Tread, which tells a Thanksgiving story that you may have never heard before. I am not going to villainize the pilgrims now as I have in years past, but I just want to show that there are two sides to every story.

Now It’s the Discovery Channel’s Chance to Screw Up the Civil War

I knew I would be in for a heck of a morning when I log on to Facebook to find a link posted on my wall by Civil War author and historian J. David Petruzzi. Atop the link to a video, he wrote, “Oh goodie! The History Channel is getting a run for its money. My head is starting to hurt all over again. Someone please help.” Yes, that is the word to use: help! As if the Gettysburg documentary that aired as a part of Ridley and Tony Scott’s production for the History Channel back in May was not enough to ruin Civil War history by making up facts as they went along, and using the most tragic war in American history as nothing more than a vehicle to show blood-bursting special effects, now its time for the Discovery Channel to jump on the bandwagon with Fields of Valor, a four-part series which is supposedly going to be so amazing, they are burying it on one of their sister networks, a 3D channel called 3Net. I have over 800 channels with my cable provider and I do not have this network (nor do I have a gimmicky 3D television, so I am going by the trailer here). The series will premiere on December 3 at 9pm, which is very disappointing to me, because children may still be awake and accidentally stumble upon it.

What History is Left on the History Channel?

It seems that the History Channel has been the brunt of jokes since time immemorial, whether it was when people dubbed it the “Hitler Channel”, due to their seemingly 24-hours-a-day broadcasting of all things Adolf, or in more recent years, their featuring of endless specials on the Mayan Doomsday and how aliens are responsible for everything humans have ever built on planet earth. No matter how you look at it, though, non-stop specials on Nazis seems infinitely better than Giorgio Tsoukalos giving us mind-numbing “facts” on how extra-terrestrials built the great pyramids, or how Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence after being visited by Martians. This leads me to ask, just how much history is actually left on the History Channel? It seems the only dosage of good programming we get is when they replay some of their older shows, or when we venture on over to their sister network, H2, which has yet to be totally corrupted. So, let’s take a look at some of the programs running on this wonderful network.

Congratulations to My Friend on His Professional Hockey Coaching Debut

Chris behind the bench with the Danbury Whalers.

Chris Hoeler, a friend of mine, who has been contributing hockey articles to this blog for his column, “On the Rink With Gootz”, has served as the Assistant Director of Player Personnel for the Danbury Whalers since the off-season, for the Federal Hockey League. However, due to the coach’s absence Friday night (and for the next two games) he stepped up to take over the helm, and his first two games were both victories; 6-1 over the Vermont Wild and then last night, 5-3 over the Cape Cod Blue Fins. He will continue his coaching stint  Wednesday night, when the Whalers visit my home state to take on the New Jersey Outlaws. Ironically, I actually have another friend that works with the Outlaws, helping to keep stats. Had it not been the night before Thanksgiving (and the arena is a far drive away) I would have loved to go and see the two teams play.