TPPM Barthelme: "The Donald Barthelme Story"

Fri Nov 26 12:10:50 CST 2004

   "All things, in any event, will be set right when
the biopic or Donald Barthelme Story is aired at last.
This will be a made-for-cable-TV miniseries starring
Barthelme lookalike Luke Perry in the title role. Paul
Newman, in his first small-screen appearance, will
have a cameo as Norman Mailer, for which he will win
an Emmy. In the picture, Barthelme will return,
sometime in the final installment, to Houston.
Neighbors from long ago will bring him casseroles,
Kiri Te Kanawa and Willie Nelson will come sing
medleys of country classics to him in a vividly lit
Astrodome before a sellout crowd. Ravishing Texas
tomatoes of all shapes and sizes, played by starlets
who think they have to be kind to the second assistant
director, will fling themselves upon the person of Don
B., cooing, squealing, gaga. Bartenders in
sorrowful-looking crossroads saloons, where the
records on the jukebox are all from Barthelme's youth,
will fix him perfect city drinks such as martinis and
Singapore slings, and everything will be on the house.
   "He will go sit in out-of-the-way Mexican eateries
scarfing all afternoon and evening on chef specials
not available to the average customer, featuring
chiles you need a Department of Energy permit even to
plant, and so forth. He will get the key to the city
and a ride on a fire truck. Reviewers who trashed his
work years ago will now fly into town, paying the full
fare out of their own pockets, to apologize abjectly.
All his books will show up again on the bestseller
lists. Mike Ovitz of CAA will call from Hollywood with
high-budget movie plans for some story the author has
forgotten he wrote, and Barthelme will put him on hold
while he goes to the fridge for another beer.
   "As catastasis yields to catastrophe, shots of
Barthelme are gradually replaced with shots of people
talking about him, and shots of the city, parkland,
sunsets, hospitals, and the like. The last we get to
see of him, Barthelme is driving some gray
primercoated outlaw's dream of a Trans-Am, pulling
onto some freeway, softly thundering away into the
evening humidity, Lightnin' Hopkins on the soundtrack
singing 'Baby Please Don't Go,' the camera pulling
back into a helicopter shot, swooping upward as
credits roll, production, technical, Houston and New
York second units, dialogue coaches, duck wranglers.
Lights beginning to come on all across the crowded
prairie. Album is available on Rounder Records. Studio
logo. Two seconds of quiet, neutral darkness. Then a
promo for the news at ten."

http://www.vheissu.org/bio/eng_barthelme.htm

http://www.pynchon.pomona.edu/uncollected/barthelme.html

http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_essays_barthelme.htm

"The Donald Barthelme Story"

Cf., from Vineland (1990) ...

The Clara Bow Story -- with Pia Zadora (14)

The Frank Gorshin Story -- with Pat Sajak (48)

Young Kissinger -- with Woody Allen (309)

The G. Gordon Liddy Story -- with Sean Connery (339)

The Bryant Gumbel Story -- with John Ritter (355)

The Robert Musil Story -- with Peewee Herman (370)

Magnificent Disaster -- an imaginary basketball movie
for TV, with Sidney Poitier as K.C. Jones, Sean Penn
as Larry Bird, Paul McCartney as Kevin McHale, Lou
Gossett, Jr., as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Douglas
as Pat Riley, and Jack Nicholson (notorious round ball
fan) as himself. (371, 377)

http://www.mindspring.com/~shadow88/intro.htm

Luke Perry

http://www.lukeperry.com/

http://imdb.com/name/nm0000580/

Paul Newman

http://imdb.com/name/nm0000056/

Note many early "small screen appearances" ...

Norman Mailer

http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/nmailer.htm

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/mailer_n.html

Kiri Te Kanawa

http://www.emiclassics.com/artists/biogs/kirb.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/profiles/kiritekanawa.shtml

Willie Nelson

http://legacyrecordings.com/willienelson/

http://www.sonymusic.com/artists/WillieNelson/Opener.html

martini

http://members.tripod.com/~MrSuave/themartini.html

Singapore sling

http://www.drinkboy.com/Cocktails/recipes/SingaporeSling.html

http://www.webtender.com/db/drink/5065

http://www.webtender.com/db/drink/828

Mike Ovitz

http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/O/htmlO/ovitzmichae/ovitzmichael.htm

http://www.eonline.com/Features/Specials/Ovitz/One/index.html

CAA

http://www.caa.com/

"As catastasis yields to catastrophe"

1. catastasis (English entry by Thomas Blount 1656)

CATASTASIS: Catastasis (Gr.) the third part of a
Comedy, and signifies the state and full vigour of it.
Tragedies and Comedies have four principal parts in
respect of the matter treated of, I. Protasis. 2
Epitasis. 3. Catastasis. 4. Catastrophe.

http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~ian/saa99/catastasis.html

1.  Catastrophæ  (Latin entry by Thomas Cooper 1565,
fol. R4v)

Catastrophæ, es, fœm. gen. A subuersion: the ende of a
comedie: the ende of any thyng.

2. catastrophe (Latin entry by Thomas Thomas 1587)

Catastrophe, es, f. g. * A subuersion, the ende of a
comedy or of any thing.

3. catastrophe (Italian entry by John Florio 1598)

Catastrophe, the end or shutting vp of a comedie, or
any thing else.

4. catastrophe (English entry by Henry Cockeram 1623)

CATASTROPHE: Catastrophe. The end of a comedie, a
sudden alteration.

5. catastrophe (English entry by Thomas Blount 1656)

CATASTROPHE: Catastrophe (Gr.) a subversion, the ends,
or last part of a Comedy or any other thing: a sudden
alteration, the conclusion or shutting up a matter, or
the inclination unto the end, as Vitae humanae
catastrophe, the end of a mans life. 

http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~ian/saa99/catastrophe.html

SYLLABICATION: ca·tas·ta·sis
PRONUNCIATION: k-tst-ss
NOUN: Inflected forms: pl. ca·tas·ta·ses (-sz)
1. The intensified part of the action directly
preceding the catastrophe in classical tragedy. 2. The
climax of a drama.
ETYMOLOGY:  Greek katastasis, settled state, from
kathistanai, to come into a certain state : kat-,
kata-, cata- + histanai, to set; see st- in Appendix
I.

http://www.bartleby.com/61/59/C0155900.html

SYLLABICATION: ca·tas·tro·phe
PRONUNCIATION: k-tstr-f
NOUN: 1. A great, often sudden calamity. 2. A complete
failure; a fiasco: The food was cold, the guests
quarreled—the whole dinner was a catastrophe. 3. The
concluding action of a drama, especially a classical
tragedy, following the climax and containing a
resolution of the plot. 4. A sudden violent change in
the earth's surface; a cataclysm.
ETYMOLOGY: Greek katastroph, an overturning, ruin,
conclusion, from katastrephein, to ruin, undo : kata-,
cata- + strephein, to turn; see streb(h)- in Appendix
I.

http://www.bartleby.com/61/60/C0156000.html

Trans-Am

http://www.pontiac.com/firebird/index.jsp?brand=&useFlash=N

Lightnin' Hopkins (1912-1982)

http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/HH/fhoab.html

"Baby Please Don't Go"

"On classics like his trademark 'Baby, Please Don't
Go,' his reinvention of Ray Charles' 'What'd I Say,'
and the humorous boogie romp, 'Ain't It Crazy,'
Hopkins appears solo, allowing free rein to his unique
sense of pacing and dynamics...."

http://mfile.akamai.com/6547/rm/muze.download.akamai.com/2890/us/usrm/668/110668_1_12.ram?obj=v10212

http://www.theonlineblues.com/sonny-terry-baby-please-don-t-go-lyrics.html

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