Goodbye Supes....

Well....I'm still trying to figure out how to attach links and write in a different frickin' font. Frustrating, yes. But not as frustrating as buying a house, or the 6 other people that get on the elevator with me and hit the 6 floors prior to mine. When I am already a little late. Joy.


News for today. Christopher Reeve passed away. Most peeps already already know the story of his life as well as his accident so I'd like to stay away from that for a second and focus on how Mr. Reeve and the Superman movies burned more pop culture Iconography and good morals into my impressionable little brain.

Star Wars had already been out for a year and had done its damage by turning myself and a generation of kids, teens, and adults into geeks. Since SW had re-defined Sci-Fi, Hollywood thought it was time for a Superhero Movie to swoop in (so to speak) and redefine live action comics. "Supes" was the movie, Donner the director, and Reeve was the Man of Steel. (And Typecasting aside, he was the quintessential Superdude.) Even as a little porkchop, I believed that I too stood for "Truth, Justice, and American Way" (Even though I was much more of a "Great Power comes Great Responsibility" kinda guy). PLUS: He saw Margot "I'm eating bugs now" Kidder's underpants AND got down in the cool underground pool with Miss Tessmacher. Lucky Dog. (At least my 4.5 year old brain thought he was lucky.)

While the movie itself didn't create the merchandising bonanza that Lucas made, it still had a lasting impact on how I viewed right and wrong.
And although, try as I might, to pretend to be the Pre-Schooler of Steel (Complete with blue underoo's and a red towel for a cape) I just didn't capture the same essence with my big mop of blonde curley hair. (It wasn't until William Katt and the Greatest American Hero that I found a superperson who I could do that.)

A few years later, I watched another C-Reeve movie "Somewhere in Time". The only thing I remembered from that movie was that it scared me, and made me sad at the same time. And that pennies from 1978 cause you to loose your mind in 1912. Weird.

A couple of months ago, I was called by my agent to audition for the new Singer directed Superman project. While I know that I really don't fit the demographic- ( I tried telling her "I'm really more of a Hal Jordan/Green Lantern type if we are sticking with the DC cannon of comics"....And c'mon. 5'10"/165 lbs???? Hardly the strapping presence of the Last Son of Krypton. Remind me sometime to tell y'all about my "Batman Forever" audition.)-I went on the audition anyway. How often do you get a chance to read for something like that anyway?

Soooo, I dressed in my most imposing double breasted suit, ate some Chinese Buffet to hopefully puff out my gaunt wee head, parted my hair on the side like a good Clark should....and wore my fake horn rimed glasses. I looked more like Lewis Skolnick from Revenge of the Nerds.

The sides they gave us were right from the movie. Really, it made me way too nostalgic to give it a believable reading. And some of the OTHER dude's that were there? Meatballs. Waaaaay wrong demographics were called out on that day. What can I say? We're not all Christopher Reeves.

I had really hoped that he would walk again. I thought, like a lot of other folks, that if anyone went from a quadrapalegic to a walker, it would be he. It'll be another Superperson who does it one day. Mr. Reeves just set the tone.

I'll miss you Kal-El.