Wednesday, September 8, 2010

born 8 September 1970

Anthony Henslee, Arlington, Texas, writer/director/actor

Benny Ibarra, Mexico City, musician

Bradley Cain, Asheboro, North Carolina, professional wrestler

Chris Cutrone, Valley Stream, New York, video artist

Huw Jenkins, Cardiff, Wales, film editor

Latrell Fontaine Sprewell, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, hero/basket case

Lightfield Lewis, Hollywood, California, actor

Margot Brabants, birthplace unspecified, Belgian actress

Motoko Kumai, Tokyo, Japan, animation voice talent

Neko Case, Alexandria, Virginia, musician

Robbie Pethick, Tavistock, England, soccer player

Rosearik Rikki Simons, Fontana, California, animator

Stacy Porter, Albany, New York, property master

Wendy Brouwer, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands, actress



With all due respect to the two certifiably successful musicians born today – as well as the property master for the movie Grand Theft Parsons, which has me wondering whether Johnny Knoxville or any of the other folks who worked on that odd misfire of a film were ever tempted to steal the Gram Parsons prop corpse for a funny goof between takes – there can be only one winner today.


If I were a singer/songwriter myself, I’d compose an album’s worth of songs about this man. He has more in common with the subject of a borderlands cowboy revenge ballad than just about anybody born this year that I can think of. A mythic figure.


Partial lyrics taking shape in my mind:


Lead with your chin

Be where you’ve been

Keep your options overblown


Then tell me

How to feed my family

How to feed my family


Last best offer

Blink, twitch, cough, purr


I love this man unabashedly, really I do. The fact that he’s forty and will never see a basketball court again fills me with a bittersweet mixture of sadness and delight. Sadness for the lack of his electrifying presence, and delight that due to his own cussed nature, he resigned from the game before we had the chance to see his skills slip away. That and the fact that he’s probably drinking beers on a houseboat with strippers in Lake Michigan right now.


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