Musical Saturday Morning

When you make a new friend, trying to learn about one another, one question seems to pop up - at least with those I know: "What is your favorite movie?"

There are quite a few films I do LOVE:  Trenchcoat, The 48th Parallel, any of the Tremors series, Touching The Void, Three Amigos - and those are just some starting with the letter "T"!

But, for favorite of ALL time: Real Genius.

I like Val Kilmer as an actor, or in this case, as a smart ass.  He is me.  Albeit, I did my laser work in 8th grade and part of my 9th grade year, then moved on to building a politically incorrect device to show what a terrorist was capable of with just documents in any public library - which got me into great trouble with the US Government and my thermonuclear father!  It was 1969 and I was just ahead of my time, by about 30 years I guess.

But, yes, I was that smart ass, my 6th grade was spent in German University and Kilmer's film side kick was actually the character I played in real life.  Trapped between cultures, age groups, and an outcast in every regard.  All I longed for was to be accepted, for me ... and that was never to ever be.  I was allowed only the freedom to allow my mind to run wild - and why I ultimately crashed and burned.  No one could follow the why's or wherefores of where my mind traveled - far too random and not controllable by my keepers.  I was demoted into a US High School to die of boredom.

So, when Real Genius came out, I thought, hmmm, " I wonder what the popular idea of what is a genius is in Hollywood today?"  So, I gathered up some friends and we went - and completely died of laughter!  We all knew people whom fit in so well with the characters the film portrayed!

And for each of us, this song really hit home.  We all desired to be Number One, to be the best, to do something meaningful and of value - not to continue to contribute to the tripe touted as advancement in our particular fields.  Dutchman was into electronics, you use his creations daily: Erickson cell phone and the Microsoft ribbon keyboard were both of his 1980's developments.  Swede was into rocketry, you certainly have heard of his creations: jet cockpit escape systems and Kevlar parachutes.  For me: random disk drive addressing, computer based training and hyperlinks.  Gaelic Girl's work back then was in the thermodynamics of structural geology and profoundly changed the search for ore deposits.  And brother Bruce, no way to describe him, other than Bruce.  He was into polyester resins and created some very interesting adhesives and composite structures.  Today his discoveries are the basis of everything from carbon-fiber fly rods, competition racing bikes, to car body panels!

Dutchman was the only one of us to make and have any money, the rest of us have been comfortable, most of the time.  But, because we have been family for decades, we care for each other through life's downturns.  But, we still seem to strive to be number one ...



"Number one is the one way to salvation, I do, my best, to beat, the rest, and be, the best in the nation ..."