My favorite reissues, box sets, and live albums of 2023

Reissue releases of old music is a huge category and seems to be growing every year, as the rock n' roll cannon relentlessly marches forward. Alongside with new releases, the sheer volume of reissues I listen to every year doesn't leave me much time to go too deep into live releases. But the two that really stood out to me this year were:

Favorite Live Albums

• Meat Puppets' Camp Songs captures a quirky set from the early 90s Too High to Die era. It starts off a little slow but is great the rest of the way. 
• The 1999 live set included in R.E.M.'s Up (25th Anniversary Edition) is a pretty perfect document of the band in its later era.

Favorite Reissues/Box Sets 

• 
  The large majority of the rage for 2023 reissues rightfully belongs to The Replacements' Tim (Let It Bleed Edition), which was both stunning in bringing out big sounds from that legendary classic album and in further illuminating just how crappy that original recording sounded despite the band's perfection throughout. 
• The only other re-issue that matches the Mats' is obviously The Beatles' 1962-1966 (Red Album) and 1967-1970 (Blue Album). Those were my entrypoints as a kid to my favorite band and they become more mastered and masterful than ever with these new issues. 
• I think The Lemonheads' string of 1990s albums is among the strongest streak in rock history, and so the remastering and addition of plenty of additional tracks and acoustic versions for Come On Feel (30th Anniversary Edition) make for an even-bigger enjoyable listen. 
• Acetone's 1992-2001 is a gem that somehow passed me by but was reissued by the surviving members of this L.A. band that out-Yo La Tengo's Yo La Tengo on several of these mellow and hypnotyzing pieces. 
• 
  Neutral Milk Hotel's concise collection Ferris Wheel on Fire explores songs not released during the band's 90s heyday. 
• The Drive-by Truckers' The Complete Dirty South is a classic of Southern rock n' roll and this version adds a few great songs to the tracklist. 
• Frank Zappa's Funky Nothingness is most likely for the diehards (it's a lot to take in one sitting), but that dude was nuts in some of the best-possible ways. 
• Ffa Coffi Pawb's Hei Vidal! is a late 1980s project by Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals and is an impressive psych-rock glance into all the great music to come from him. 
• Bettie Serveert's The Palomine Demos displays the origins of a classic and way-underrated 1990s album, with the four solo acoustic tracks at the end being the real keepsake here. 
• Guided by Voices finally made its debut 7-song release Forever Since Breakfast available on streaming and at least four of the songs foretell what the world is in for with GBV's next 400 (ish) releases. 
• The Breeders' Last Splash gets a 30th anniversary reissue and has a handful of the very best songs of the 1990s, and I especially love the added Divine Mascis, sung by the leader of Dinosaur Jr. 
• 
  Sparklehorse's Bird Machine isn't really a reissue because it was never issued, but it is archival material from right before leader Mark Linkous died of suicide in 2010. 
• Neil Young's Chrome Dreams is another that's not really a re-issue since it was never issued, but it's new stuff from prime-era Neil. 
• The Who's Who's Next: Life House (Super Deluxe) provides a wealth of materials about Pete Townshend's original visions for that music and it's all great but also a ton to digest. 
• The Beastie Boys' Hello Nasty (Deluxe Version) proves that this band remains classic after all these years. 
• Superchunk's Misfits & Mistakes: Singles, B-sides & Strays 2007–2023 is a wild collection of tunes, and anyone who loves this band or is a completist should check it out. 
• The remaster of Mercyland's No Feet on the Cowling displays this 1989 lost classic from an Athens, Georgia band that never recorded again but sounded here like R.E.M.'s pop meeting Husker Du and Soul Asylum's early punk.

Breaking bad habits - not an easy task - is key to improving in life and in tennis

I was recently watching some footage of Rafael Nadal playing tennis as a kid, and it was amazing to see how similar his game then was to what it has been throughout his career. It's clearly an example of someone who built good habits from early on. That meant he didn't have to change much when he was older, and he used all that extra time and energy not tinkering with or worrying about the fundamentals that he had already baked in as good habits. Most of us build bad habits over a lifetime and then it becomes very difficult to break out of them, change, and improve ourselves.

To improve in tennis, it helps to break bad habits, but it also helps to have the right perspective, notes Ian Westermann in his 2022 book Essential Tennis. Part of the right perspective, he writes, is to realize that winning every point and reaching perfection should never be the goal. 

An interesting stat in professional tennis is that, over the years, the person who is number-one in the world averages winning about 55 percent of the total points. Even Nadal, who has won pretty close to 100 percent of his matches at the French Open still is around that 55 percent mark in terms of actual total points won at Roland Garros. It’s part of what makes his competitive fire so impressive. He seems to win the most important points, but he loses plenty along the way. So when your opponent hits a great lob winner or aces you, Westermann advises not to change your game plan or throw a fit but to instead say out loud to yourself, “I guess that was just one of the 45 percent of points they were supposed to win.”

Another important takeaway from the book is that deciding you want to get better at an aspect of your game doesn’t always help. Say you want to work on improving your backhand, so you buy a ball machine and hit backhands with it every day. What might happen is that you reinforce your bad habits. 

I took lessons this weekend from my neighbor who is an excellent coach and he taught us some new and awkward drills that I think is relate to finding new ways to push yourself and improve. He had us consciously step across the line on the court with our front foot as we were hitting the ball, causing us to focus on our footwork rather than the act of hitting. This felt weird but I could already feel the power growing in my shots. Also, he had us jump step with our front foot as we were hitting approach shots. This too felt awkward and is hard to do (at least until it becomes a habit), but the power and control of having good footwork (and consciously thinking about where our feet are and how they’re adjusting to each shot) very well might be a better improvement tactic than hitting a shot that you’ve done all your life (possibly not that well) over and over. Serena Williams’ forehand isn’t as perfect as can be because she’s hit it so many times but rather because she got it right, it became her habit, and now she’s got free time to think about all the other things in life, like testing out a bunch of rackets to make sure she’s using the ones she likes best. 

In terms of my personal tennis improvement, I’ve been working on my serve (especially my second serve) for a long time and I’m finally pretty happy with where it’s at. I think I won’t double fault much anymore. I've put a spin on it and it consistently gives people trouble. There's not much more someone at my level of play can want.

So now I think I have time to work on other aspects of my game that have been long-time bad habits and I don't need to worry about my serve so much anymore. My serve has definitely been taking up an inordinate amount of my time, when you consider how many other important elements there are to having a strong tennis game. 

Net game and backhands are areas I should think about going forward in terms of forming some better habits. My net game has always been a strength. But I’ve been missing too many shots - mainly overhead slams - lately, and I’m also not getting to the net as quickly or as often as I once did. Like many people, my backhand is not as powerful as my forehand and sometimes I don’t make the passing shots with it as well as I would like.

And Westermann importantly notes that these improvements don’t have to always happen on the courts. I use an Eastern grip for my serves and forehands. He writes that I could hold my racket at home sometimes in a Western grip. I’m not sure how he means that will make me better, but it sounds interesting from a muscle-memory perspective. I can also improve my footwork while watching a match on TV by doing a split step - while sitting or standing - every time the player at the top of the screen hits the ball. That will build muscle memory to take into the courts in terms of better footwork.

RIP Aston "Family Man" Barrett, plus my 30 favorite Bob Marley songs

Marley and Barrett

Anyone who has ever listened to a lot of Bob Marley and the Wailers knows that sound. That bounce. That groove. That skronk. Much of that sound was supplied by one of my favorite bassists of all-time, Aston Barrett. He has passed away in Miami at the age of 77 after a long illness.

Barrett joined the Wailers with his brother, Carlton, who died back in 1987 and was the drummer. The two provided a formidable backdrop to Marley's iconic singing and guitar playing. Aston Barrett was nicknamed Family Man because he was the father of 41 children. That feat alone was clearly a form of exercise, but that was one of the reasons he loved playing bass. He said it was like going to the gym for exercise.

I've been revisiting Bob Marley over the last few days and my 30 favorites are:

30. Crazy Baldhead

29. Real Situation
28. Coming in from the Cold
27. Stop the Train
26. Burnin' and Lootin'
25. Concrete Jungle
24. No More Trouble
23. Slave Driver
22. Jammin'
21. Keep on Moving

20. Satisfy My Soul
19. Johnny Was
18. Talkin' Blues
17. Who the Cap Fit
16. Them Belly Full
15. High Tide or Low Tide
14. Lively Up Yourself
13. One Love/People Get Ready
12. Stir It Up

11. Bend Down Low
10. Kinky Reggae
09. Buffalo Soldier
08. Get Up, Stand Up
07. I Shot the Sheriff
06. Waiting in Vain
05. No Woman No Cry
04. Three Little Birds
03. Redemption Song
02. Is This Love
01. Could You Be Loved (that little squiggle in the background kills me every time)

R.E.M. borrows The Replacements’ manager for a little while

Peter Jesperson was working at Oar Folkjokeopus in Minneapolis when one of his distributors gave a hearty thumb’s up to a single by a band from Athens, Georgia. “Radio Free Europe/Sitting Still” by R.E.M. sounded perfect upon first listen. The mysterious and blurred cover art and the garbled singing helpedlead it to becoming a phenomenon at the store, with hundreds of copies flying off the shelves over a couple of months. One thing about R.E.M. was that they definitely didn’t sound like anybody else. 

The band’s first visit to the Twin Cities - the furthest they had thus far gone from home - was on Thanksgiving night 1981. Jesperson, writing about his adventures with R.E.M. in his book Euphoric Recall, and Tommy Stinson of The Replacements went to check it out. The band played an amazing show to about 100 people. When they returned in the spring, the crowd had grown to about 350. At that show, guitarist Peter Buck claimed it was the first time he ever spoke into the mic, uttering “this one goes out to Peter J” before playing the Velvet Underground’s “There She Goes.” R.E.M. - one hard-working band - came back to town a third time that year after the release of their debut EP Chronic Town. 

After following R.E.M. around a bit and seeing them three nights in a row, Jesperson was looking sad when Buck came up to him. Jesperson admitted he was bummed to not be seeing any more of their shows for a while. Buck asked if he could manage their tours for a while in a way that wouldn’t interfere with his work for The Replacements. He couldn’t believe his luck. After a decade working at the record store, he decided, with the ‘Mats’ blessings, that this was a good opportunity. Of course we learn later in the book that Paul Westerberg, whom Jesperson doesn’t always paint in the greatest light, may have held a bit of a long-term grudge about his acceptance of this new role.

Jesperson was paired with Michael Stipe on room assignments and he writes that he really enjoys that time he spent with the soon-to-be-iconic singer. R.E.M. were all-around more civilized than The Replacements, and their entourage slept two people to each hotel room. One of his duties was to get the band paid each night. This became a pretty intimidating proposition for a guy who was still pretty “new to all this” when they hit the part of their tour opening seven dates for The Police in stadiums. R.E.M had one van load of gear compared the The Police’s six semitrailer truck loads. 

All this said, sometimes the band got a little ‘Mats-like. When Jesperson and Buck realized they were out of beer on the drive between Hartford and New York City, they waved down another van in their entourage and got handed beers going 70 miles per hour down the interstate. 

After those big dates, which included Shea Stadium, JFK in Philadelphia, and Six Flags Over Georgia, Buck headed to Minneapolis to record “I Will Dare” with The Replacements. Jesperson has “hazy memories” of Westerberg and Buck wearing eyeliner out around town and enjoying late-night White Castle burgers (a St. Louis tradition as well, I can attest). Not long after that, the band informed Jesperson that they needed someone on a more permanent basis and who was perhaps not so nice. That’s the record business for ya.

Read my first and second articles about this book as well.

"We Are the World" truly might have been the greatest night in pop

When I was 15, I already loved music so much, and it was a time when the “top 40” popular choices still meant something. It was what everyone listened to, and even if you were at heart a punk kid or something else, you had to at least begrudgingly admit that stuff like Michael Jackson, Hall and Oates, Journey, and Huey Lewis was good stuff. But one night, all those superstars and many others stepped into the studio all at once. The new movie The Greatest Night in Pop, just released on Netflix, takes a behind-the-scenes journey with mastermind Lionel Richie, and it’s a joyride for sure.

Harry Belafonte had travelled to see the horrendous famine in Ethiopia in the 1980s and Bob Geldof had just recorded Live Aid's “Do They Know It’s Christmastime?” in England. So he worked to recruit Lionel Richie and Quincy Jones to put together a similar effort in the U.S. They wanted to write a song with Stevie Wonder but couldn’t contact him, so they brought in Michael Jackson. He drove to Richie’s house to write the song, but he had to take practically every backroad in L.A. because Michael didn’t take freeways. 

There were no cell phones in 1985. Things didn’t move quickly. Getting an ambitious group of musicians together was a logistical nightmare. The only way it might happen was if it was in January in L.A. when everyone was in town for the American Music Awards. 

One of the memorable elements of “We Are the World” is how all the artists stood together in the studio. Richie thought they would all sing one by one in the vocal booth, but Jones said that would take weeks. They only had one night. This caused a little troublemaking by the likes of Cyndi Lauper and Wonder. The vocal arranger planned who would sing which parts and the artists had to hit it all quickly after arrival or else there could be chaos. Geldof got in front of everyone once they were situated and told them about what it was like on the ground in Ethiopia. A somber mood fell over the superstars, causing them to behave and not act like spoiled children or even celebrities. He got them to focus and “put what they feel into the song.” 

Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen were some of those who were instructed to sit out of the octaves. And it was getting hot with lights and people - “ripe” someone said - and everyone had to be really quiet to not mess up the tapes. Lauper, for one, had to remove a bevy of beads. Richie’s role was to not let it veer off at any point. If that happened, there could be 47 versions of the song - one for each artist in that building. But there was no time for that in a one-night-only event. Waylon Jennings walked out when someone suggested adding a Swahili bit; he didn’t think it fit his style at all. 

Once they got to the solo parts, Dionne Warwick and Al Jarreau struggled for a bit before Springsteen, Steve Perry, and Daryl Hall nailed it immediately. Huey Lewis was waiting for the end while many of the others were having to redo their bits over and over; he finally suggested they run all the way through so he and the others at the end could get some practice and it was agreed that was a good idea. 

Richie got home at 8 a.m. the next morning and his family all congratulated him on his awards and hosting, but all he could talk about was We Are the World. They didn’t really know what he was talking about, but that evening, the song was played everywhere at the same time. It was sung in many languages by big groups of people around the world. It sold more than a million copies its first weekend. And it won best album and single at the 1986 Grammys. To this day, USA for Africa has raised $160 million and is still going strong.  

5 out of 5 stars

On the road with The Replacements in the mid 1980s

A young Paul Westerberg dropped off a four-song demo one day to a guy working at the Oar Folkjokeopus record store in Minneapolis. That worker was Peter Jesperson, who has written about his life in music promotion in his new book Euphoric Recall. Jesperson was instantly blown away by what he heard. When he offered Westerberg a chance for his band, The Replacements, to record an album, Paul was shocked, thinking he might get a gig out of it, and said, “You mean you think this shit is worth recording?”

Here are some other great nuggets from the book's long section on my fourth favorite band:

The first time Jesperson went to see the band, they were playing a sober show at a church. But when he arrived, drummer Chris Mars said they got kicked out for having pills and booze and wouldn’t be playing, plus their bassist Tommy Stinson fell out of a tree earlier in the day and couldn’t make it. The first time he did see them live, they didn’t have their act together but embodied everything Jesperson loved about rock n’ roll. Tommy was 13 and played well along with lots of jumping and yelling “fuck” into the mic. The next gig was written up in a Minneapolis weekly, and it was the first 'Mats show ever recorded (by Jesperson), and the consensus was that this group had “it.”

While he was making one of the band’s first flyers, Westerberg nixed saying anything about “rock n’ roll,” but approved the phrase “low class rock.” At one of their first gigs, Westerberg announced, “We are the Placemats,” and over time that turned into a shortened nickname for the band: the ‘Mats. 

It’s amazing that the debut album, Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash, took about seven months to make considering it’s a punky and raw record, but the band was getting better every day and so lots of re-recording at various places happened. Plus, Tommy was still in junior high and Bob Stinson had a job as a cook so neither could record on weekdays. Even though Bob was all about being a loud-fast band, when he and the others heard the ballad “If Only You Were Lonely,” - which took about 15 minutes for Paul to record - they all agreed it would make a great B-side to first single “I’m in Trouble.”

Paul’s artistry was beginning to flower as he got to spend more of his time focused on the band. One day in Duluth, he pulled Jesperson aside and quietly told him he had written his best line yet: “I can live without your touch if I can die within your reach.” Those moments were interspersed on that tour with harsher ones, all of which Jesperson witnessed first hand, including Bob getting violently shocked gripping to a mic stand and his guitar in Lawrence, Kansas and Paul being rushed to a Minneapolis hospital after a coughing fit in the car that was diagnosed as the result of his intense singing mixed with amphetamines. From then on, Paul always had to rub Ben-Gay on his chest before performances. That event also led to his writing of “Take Me Down to the Hospital.”

Poster from the rowdy show I saw in St. Louis

Early ‘Mats shows were pretty consistently great. But at a show in Detroit, the band turned their amps up so loud and drove everyone, including the soundman, out into the lobby. Paul kicked a glass of whiskey into Jesperson’s face when he asked the bandleader to fix the volume and the two never discussed the incident afterwards. When they made their way to a week of shows in and around New York City, the author and the Stinson brothers stayed in Hoboken with Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley who were starting their own band at the time called Yo La Tengo. They played with a variety of great bands during that week, including the Del Fuegos, Husker Du, and the Violent Femmes. 

After Jesperson went on the road for a few months to manage R.E.M., the band, especially Paul, seemed to be a little unhappy about his varied allegiances. It didn’t help when the two bands shared several bills that summer of 1983 and Michael Stipe’s band appeared to be universally adored while The Replacements, and their sloppy and loud playing, received lukewarm receptions. At one point Tommy called his mom asking for a plane ticket home so he could quit the band. He was talked into staying and Paul wrote the song “Sixteen Blue” about his young bass player.

They headed into the studio to begin recording what would be Let It Be, and Jesperson’s R.E.M. connection proved valuable when Bob couldn’t figure out a guitar part for “I Will Dare." Peter Buck stepped in. And of course the iconic shot of the band on the cover was taken around this time on the roof of the Stinson house. 

Jesperson outlines many tour stop antics, including how the band always knew to expect the guy in the wild slacks in Oklahoma City, which was Wayne Coyne, who was forming his band The Flaming Lips. During a particularly bad performance at CBGB’s, Westerberg was informed that Gene Simmons was there. The band launched into a very loose version of KISS’s “Black Diamond” and Simmons immediately departed. In early 1985, the band took its first swing through Florida and felt very unwelcome, with a show in Orlando being shut down by police before it even started, with the fuzz declaring that “we don’t want any punk rock in Orlando.” In Oklahoma City again, Tommy Stinson got drunk and a policeman saw him hanging off a backstage door and hauled him in to the station for underage drinking. He missed the show and Wayne Coyne took Jesperson to the station at 3 a.m. to bail Tommy out. An officer also warned Jesperson about himself being so drunk, and Westerberg (of course a drunk himself, albeit a younger one) told him the next day he better watch his drinking or he could lose his job.

As recording for the band’s first album after being signed to Sire Records took off, Alex Chilton produced a bit of the material and even sang harmony on the “dial” part of “Left of the Dial.” Everyone agreed that Tommy Ramone would be the producer. They would have six weeks booked to record Tim, which was an incredible amount of time by ‘Mats standards. As they were about to begin, Westerberg told Jesperson he would not be allowed in the studio and it was only years later that he read the reason being that he had gone on the road and managed R.E.M. back in 1983. Bob Stinson was also not around for much of these sessions, and it seemed he didn’t have his heart in the songs or maybe even the band anymore. Why the band named the album Tim remains a mystery, with the only clue being that Westerberg once told Jesperson that it was such a “nice name.” 

When the band got the call to perform on Saturday Night Live, everyone was flabbergasted. The band was locked into the NBC studios all day on the preceding Thursday to practice and SNL handlers were horrified when Bob Stinson asked for some beer - at 10 a.m.! Jesperson snuck down the block to grab some. Producer Lorne Michaels was livid when Westerberg said the f-word barely audible off mic during the live performance of “Bastards of Young,” but they still played “Kiss Me on the Bus” for their second song and it went off fairly well. They didn’t stay long at the fancy and uncomfortable afterparty.

Back out on tour, the band graduated from van to RV, but when Jesperson returned the trashed vehicle to the dealer, he had to pay a whopping $16,000 for repairs, including the ripped-out toilet the band had thrown onto the freeway. In April 1986, at a band meeting that Chris Mars and Bob Stinson refused to attend, Jesperson was officially fired. No real reason was given, but Jesperson suspects it was because of his excessive drinking or maybe Westerberg thought he had been holding the band back from success. 

He would go through a few more years of addiction before kicking the habit in 1991. Then Jesperson would spend many years transforming Twin/Tone Records and then New West Records both into successes. Some of the great records he’s produced over the years include ones by Peter Perrett, Soul Asylum, and Bash & Pop. 

Read my first and third articles about this book also.

John Lennon's killer doesn't deserve freedom despite filmmakers' efforts

I recently watched John Lennon: Murder Without a Trial on Apple TV and, as a Beatles diehard fan, I kind of hated it. It’s simply tough to look at or even think about his murderer Mark David Chapman. I don't even think this movie is necessary to see for Beatles completists. I can still remember the deep hurt I felt as a 10-year-old listening to the news about John's death in December 1980. I clung for months (maybe years) to my Double Fantasy and Milk and Honey albums - both enjoying those releases immensely and constantly wondering what we were all missing by having one of my heroes no longer in the world to feed the love.

My biggest complaint with the new release is that the filmmakers inexplicably seem to have sympathy for Mark David Chapman. I may not be the most impartial person on the matter, but there is no way Chapman should ever be free amongst the rest of us again.

Some of the people interviewed in the film say he probably wouldn’t still be in prison if he would have killed someone else. But that too is a scary thought, knowing how many untreated people have been released from prison after serving time for violent crimes and are out again roaming the streets, completely undiagnosed, and completely unhelped.

The movie touches on how sad our healthcare system is for people with mental illnesses, and briefly notes the need for gun control. It’s difficult to even fathom how far we still have to go as a species to get these issues right.

Chapman vehemently didn’t want to go into a mental hospital, which is why he pleaded guilty all those years ago. Although he now says, through lots of time in solitary confinement at Attica, God has healed him and brought him back to sanity from his admittedly younger schizophrenic self, there sadly appears to still be no place for him other than prison. He's unfortunately very hard to feel sorry for,

2.5 out of 5 stars

My favorite music EPs of 2023

In recent years, it seems EPs (shorter music releases than full-length albums) have proliferated. Artists don't want to take all the time to put together 10 or 15 songs so they get 5 or 6 and shoot it out to the public. But that process may be getting even more adapted to shorter attention spans. There weren't that many EPs released in 2023. There were tons of singles though. No matter, here were my favorites of the EP breed:

• Geese's 3D Country is one of my favorite albums of the year, and 4D Country is an accompanying EP that may be the freakest entry into the yacht-rock genre ever.
• Duff McKagan's This is the Song is very similar to prime-era Guns n' Roses, leaning heavily on the ballad-y styles of "November Rain" and "Civil War." 
• Spoon’s Memory Dust is pretty inconsequential, but it’s still Spoon and the song “Silver Girl” jams. 
• GROUPLOVE's Eyes provides a couple pop gems and a couple Flaming Lips-ish party tunes; the band keeps on pleasantly surprising. 
• You will remember Dexys Midnight Runners from "Come On Eileen," but the band has been releasing a recent string of killer weird and undeniably intriguing releases, the latest being My Submission, that I would urge everyone to at least try to like it. 
• 
  Joan Jett and the Blackhearts provide a boom of fun on Mindsets, especially on “Rear View Mirror.” 
• Soccer Mommy's Karaoke Night is an entertaining collection of covers by the likes of Pavement, Sheryl Crow, and R.E.M. 
• Mickey Dolenz's Dolenz Sings R.E.M., on first glance seems far from essential and just curious. I didn't want to include it on this list. But it is indeed pretty darn good - just like if the Monkees played R.E.M. songs!

Michael J. Fox is a real inspiration for people with Parkinson's

I was intrigued to watch STILL: A Michael J. Fox Movie on Apple TV because I wanted to learn more about his Parkinson’s, which we have been testing my dad for recently. And while his shaky legs and hands and current struggles with that are a really interesting part of the movie, I found his rise to fame from an active and under-sized trouble-maker with bad grades in Canada to three years of struggle in the slums of Beverly Hills before finally landing on his feet as Alex P. Keaton on Family Ties to be equally touching.

Hardly anyone believed in Fox in terms of having the skill to play what would go on to become, I think, his greatest role. But when the show was performed to test audiences, he slayed them and became an obvious star. It wasn’t long before Steven Spielberg called. Fox would work days at Family Ties and go directly to the Back to the Future studio site all night. For three-and-a-half months, he would experience confusion at times as to which set he was on and wonder “how could any of this shit be any good?”

When Back to the Future was at number one at the box office, Teen Wolf was right on its tail at number two. He won best actor for a comedy for Family Ties at the Emmys at the time too. It was like Actor Beatlemania, and he was hanging with all the coolest actors in L.A.

With his Parkinson’s, all his activity and busy-mindedness have possibly made it tougher for Fox to adapt to his new life. His personal trainer in the film says it’s difficult for him to slow down and his mind gets going faster than his body can handle, making Fox prone to falls as he walks. The trainer repeatedly says to slow down. The way his wife (Tracy Pollan, who he met through their roles in Family Ties) and son and daughter interact with him is beautiful, as they laugh at how he hardly responds to texts. They don't treat him differently because of his iconic status or his Parkinson’s.

Fox was in his late 20s when he was diagnosed, and he told himself, “how can I have this old-persons’ disease?” He had to take lots of pills and didn’t eat a lot. He drank alcohol to escape the situation. Siskel and Ebert start to regularly pan his work. 

He admits he was an alcoholic, but has now gone three decades without a drink. After a couple of years of difficulty adapting to abstinence, Fox got back into TV, with Spin City, and his life began to get back on track. Still, he constantly fretted about when he would need the next pill and what would happen if the last one wore off while he was in the middle of acting. 

Fox knew there was no way out of Parkinson’s. He would punch holes in walls. He had to tell people who would tell him to be careful that “there’s no being careful. You get Parkinson’s and you trip over shit and you fall down.” He finally disclosed his disease on national TV to Barbara Walters. “If you look at me long enough, you get used to it,” he says. It’s kind of an “Axl Rose” thing, he adds, recommending that people envision “Paradise City” when they look at him. Kids would say, "will you quit moving around?” And he would say “I’ll give it a shot.”

He decided he wanted to be in the world and not have Parkinson’s force him to hide from the world. He and Muhammad Ali testified on the Hill and continued to raise the importance of the issue and for finding a cure. 

The ending is really touching and shows his family supporting Fox as they all walk down the beach together. He lurches along and it makes you think about how important it is to take care of your loved ones who, as Vampire Weekend sings in the end credits, “I don’t want to live like this, but I don’t want to die.” Fox is a stunning example of someone who can inspire all those touched by Parkinson’s.

5 out of 5 stars

Reliving our pandemic Colorado ski trip at Copper Mountain

Our extended weekend at Copper Mountain - about an hour west of Denver along I-70 - has been a perfect escape from the post-holidays doldrums. We arrived late Wednesday night after an uneventful day of flying from BWI and got to ski Thursday through Sunday, with a morning of skiing still ahead tomorrow before flying back late into BWI.

Being back at Copper helped us relive the month we spent skiing there during the heart of the pandemic - in December 2020 and January 2021, but that time we stayed a 15-minute drive away and this time we were at the base of the mountain. The two-floor condo was as close at it gets to the Super Bee lift and Christy Sports, where I demoed possible ski choices to replace my ancient but beloved ones. It provided a comfortable and very pleasant setting for my family, our neighbors the Jones’, and my son’s friend Caio.

We didn’t see much of the teens, who were off on the hardest runs and the terrain park and also went to the Woodward skate and scooter facility. These videos show what my son is up to. Meanwhile, I took it pretty easy most of the time, as a casual but proficient skier who mainly likes to do the groomed blues, a few black diamonds, and good helpings of trees and moguls, especially with my 10-year-old daughter, who is a bit of a daredevil herself.

It’s nice to have a great condo because after skiing each day, there’s not much you want to do but eat, drink a little beer and whiskey, and veg out. That said, we also hit the ice rink, dinner with friend Sasha at JJ’s next to our condo, the snow maze, a beer and pool playing one night at the pizza joint in Center Village, and ample candy buying.

I’m already getting excited for our return trip to Copper in the spring.