A music-filled retirement party for Army Col. Eric Crawley took place Aug. 1 at club eleven44 on Bethel Street. Crawley was a much-respected doctor at Tripler Medical Center for the past 15 years. He was chief of pulmonary and critical care medicine at Tripler and had 25 years of Army service, including deployment to Zamboanga in the Philippines and Afghanistan.
His official Army retirement ceremony took place July 31 on the General’s Lanai at Tripler. He is now with Straub Hospital. Crawley’s talented, artistic wife, Lynn “Skinny” Crawley, organized the eleven44 big bash that drew about 175 people. Eric Crawley’s parents, Joe and Carolyn Crawley from Homosassa, Fla., flew in for the party as did close friend Tom Nicholson and his wife, Kristi, who flew in from Seattle.
The doctor plays guitar and sings in Skinny’s band, Twenty Years Too Late. Tom was the band’s singer. The dance band for the party was Project Jazz Monday led by bassist Bob Hernandez. Other PJM members are Pat Koh, a fine vocalist; Elliott Maker on keys; Robert Fazzari on drums; Dennis Ouchi on guitar; Randy Wheeler on sax and percussionist Bobo B. These guys have a big sound and are hot.
Local singer Dana Land sang a few numbers. Pianist Dan Del Negro was in the house but did not perform. After the band said goodnight about 10:30, a DJ kept the crowd dancing until 1 a.m. …
The movie “Ricki and the Flash” is one of the best pictures I have seen in years, and I have seen many of them. It has plenty of listenable rock music, drama, loads of fun, some heartbreak and the incomparable Meryl Streep, who really sings well and plays suitable back-up guitar. Streep portrays Ricki, who left her husband (the always enjoyable Kevin Kline) and three young children about 20 years ago to become a rock star. One of the kids she left is portrayed by Mamie Gummer, Streep’s real-life daughter.
Gummer stands out as Julie in scenes with Streep, Hollywood’s best actress, who is brilliant throughout the picture. Ricki never made it big but is fronting a band called the Flash, made up of real professional musicians and co-star Rick Springfield in an ordinary club in Tarzana, Calif. Springfield is an actor-musician-singer playing Greg, who shines in the film as Ricki’s lover and with his singing and lead guitar work.
Ricki’s day job is working as a harassed cashier in a market. This is where we find her when out of the blue comes a call from her ex-husband begging her to come home to Indianapolis because their daughter is having a breakdown over her failed marriage.
After seeing the show Saturday, three elderly ladies with white hair, 650 AM’s Quintessential Jazz host Robb Jazzbro Peterson and his girlfriend, Anna Mori, and Murphy’s waitress Jan Diehl separately all told me they loved the picture. I’m telling my friends that if they see just one movie all year, make it “Ricki and the Flash” …
I’m happy to report that Emma Stone, the actress who was terribly miscast in “Aloha,” is perfectly cast and soars high as a college student in love with a professor (Joaquin Phoenix) in Woody Allen’s “Irrational Man.” It starts slow but interest picks up when it rolls toward a murder …
Ben Wood, who sold newspapers on Honolulu streets in World War II, writes of people, places and things. Email him at bwood@staradvertiser.com.
