Throwback Thursday to an ’80s Cultural icon: SONY Walkman

"I remember going to work with one of those enormous, 
brick-like Walkmans that we all used to have..." 
- Damian Lewis on NPR
source: LA Times
source: LA Times

One of the great things about writing on Damian Lewis is that he’s from my generation. This essentially means I very easily relate to a lot of things about him, from the football team he supports, the pop culture references he makes, his sense of humor or the music he likes — I know some people have found his music taste “unsophisticated” on Desert Island Discs, but hey, we both grew up in the 80s, cut us some slack please ☺ And so some of the stories I write are mine as much as his… like… this one!

Today’s throwback takes us back to 1980s, to a big cultural icon and a real coolness symbol when we happened to be teenagers: SONY Walkman… And to some “tasteful” 80s music as well! 🙂

Continue reading “Throwback Thursday to an ’80s Cultural icon: SONY Walkman”

Revisiting Dick Winters

A week or so short of the 14 year anniversary of the airing of the first episode of Band of Brothers, let’s revisit my second post on this blog, “Before Nicholas Brody, there was Dick Winters”. Seems the love for this series has never abated and in the months since I published this post, the remembrances of Damian Lewis as Dick Winters are still steady and strong. Enjoy!

Damian Lewis’ first role as an American was in the role of Dick Winters in Spielberg/Hanks’ Band of Brothers. (Fun fact: the title Band of Brothers is taken from Shakespeare, from Henry V’s speech to his troops: “We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he to-day that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother”)

Source: HBO
Source: HBO

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Bobby Axelrod: A Man of Two Worlds in Billions, Part I

“What’s going to be interesting about this story is specifically this story… So who will Bobby Axelrod turn out to be? And what is he prepared to do to retain power?”

– Damian Lewis, TCA 2015 Panel on Billions

source: Getty Images
source: Getty Images

In case you missed it, I did a first sketch of Bobby Axelrod a few weeks ago here using the little information we had in hand at the time from interviews with Damian Lewis accompanied with a few hints from the first 60-second long teaser. Now we had the Billions panel with the show creators and the cast at TCA 2015 in which Damian Lewis gave more than a few hints about Bobby Axelrod, the first full-length series trailer is out and we have a premier date, too! Billions is coming to Showtime on January 17, 2016 — just a few days before my birthday! Well, I happily accept the best gift ever from my favorite actor and expect it to be repeated for a number of years. Thank you, Damian 😀

So… With the new information at hand, it’s time, my friends, to form and re-form opinions and do a re-sketch of Bobby Axelrod! And given that how much I could write with the little information I had last time, this one should be a two-part post! Continue reading “Bobby Axelrod: A Man of Two Worlds in Billions, Part I”

Make Music like Damian Lewis: He plays, He sings & He dances, too!

Ah, the lovely pictures of Damian Lewis at the piano and on the drums from TV Critics Association (TCA) 2015 Summer Tour… I really really wish someone had recorded and posted his singing online for us, the mortals… Alas, we just need to live with the pictures and imagine his sweet voice, quoting my partner JaniaJania, “with a hint of Cabernet” in our ears 😀

source: Whitney Friedlander @loislane79 Twitter
source: @loislane79 and @SHO_PR Twitter

Well, Damian LOVES music! He plays the piano, he sings and he dances, too!

Damian sang in a chamber choir at a young age — days that he remembers fondly at the Music For Youth Schools Prom at Royal Albert Hall in 2013 where he presented awards to inspirational music teachers: Continue reading “Make Music like Damian Lewis: He plays, He sings & He dances, too!”

Four Corners Make a Quadrangle, Right?

You know, friends, we walk a thin precarious line as fans of a real life man. Of course, there is the contingent of fans who send this real life man all kinds of nice things in the mail (start the vid at about 3:00 to see what I’m talking about). And there is the contingent of fans, particularly on this blog, who can’t stop talking about Damian’s projects, imagining new projects for him, postulating character development, the way he has developed the characters given to him, the way we can develop character in our own writing, not to mention forensically examining the positioning of his feet dependent on the role (but, I know, that last one is just me…)

The thin line comes in when we start to talk about him as a romantic lead. Because, squee, it’s all too much, isn’t it?  Seeing him in certain cable-ready circumstances: a bucolic cabin in the woods, a seedy hotel room, drunken parking lot, codpieces un-retouched by Puritanism, etc. etc.  We have the utmost respect for him as an actor and as a man.  So, when we enter a certain territory, there is an..ahem…danger of going too far, no?  All of this to say: we are all anxiously awaiting Damian’s return to cable.  Billions, a show airing on Showtime? Our imagination is aflutter.  The fantasy lives large, friends, and it burns vivid.

Continue reading “Four Corners Make a Quadrangle, Right?”