My father died. He was the greatest person I ever knew. The smartest, sweetest, most compassionate, old school, open to knew things, always there for you like a rock kind of man. He brought as much of Brighton Beach Brooklyn to Los Angeles as he could. I'm honored to carry the light lilt of the accent I got from him. It goes largely unnoticed but it's a testament to him and his time when someone asks me "are you from N.Y.?" I am his legacy. My sister and I. Charles Gordon was his name, I called him dad or chuck and his good buddies called him Charly, I wish I had called Him Charly. When he went into the hospital I only called him Daddy.
He lived and workd only a couple of miles from where I lived. We had coffee together often (Black regular coffee with 1 Sweet and Low - he was an old school sacherinne drinker, shooting the shit, talking about politcs and culture and family and movies and me and him and us together. What he did wrong in raising me and what I did wrong in growing up. These conversations, though sometimes heavy, mostly took on a tone of amusement. What we always came to. time and time again was that we loved each other dearly. unconditionally. we were bonded to each other by our connection as father and son and a very powerful, capt. marvel lightning bolt-like bond.
I miss going to the movies with him so much. to say it like that makes it sound as if I can't find my remote control. The thought of never being able to see another movie with him, to never walk in the the hallowed halls with the perfume of popcorn permeating the place, to sit in a darkened theatre and share that experience, sometimes good, sometimes not with him - that's something that will never stop hurting on a level deeper than I previously knew existed.
Here are some of the movies we've seen together:
The Sound of Music
Revenge of the Creature from the Black Lagoon
King Kong
Earthquake
The Towering Inferno
The Kids are Alright
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Midway
The Man Who Would Be King
The 3D version of Creature from the Black Lagoon
Countless James Bond movies.
Outland
Futureworld
Jabberwocky
Rocky
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Fun with Dick and Jane
2001: A Space Odyssey (at the Cinerama Dome when I was 12 no less)
Harold and Maude
Kagemshua
In seeing Public Enemies, I was again reminded that I will never see a nother movie with my Dad, Charly. This is a picture we would have loved watching together. I cried watching it. I miss my daddy.
