Becky’s Best Vol. I

By HMA Team on June 21, 2021

Welcome to Becky’s Best!

I thought it would be fun to periodically share with you what I’ve been watching, listening to, cooking, or reading lately.  This is the first version of hopefully more blogs to come.  Grab your popcorn & I hope you enjoy!

I’ve always been an avid film buff, but this past year, I also tried to hone my cooking skills via the tube, on Zoom and reading magazines or visiting social media websites. Giada on Instagram! Then, I finally got around to reading several fascinating books that are still hibernating on my Kindle. Plus, my Dad left me a huge record collection of artists I started following on Pandora. Some of his musical tastes ultimately rolled over into favorites of my other categories.

I’ll explain.

Have you watched Green Book? It is one of my favorite movies and I’ve watched it many times. The gist is it’s inspired by the true story of an odd couple relationship between classical and jazz pianist Don Shirley and his Italian American driver and bodyguard, Frank, Tony “Lip” Vallenlonga. My Dad had his Trio album. The movie documents their journey through the Mason-Dixon line in 1962 to several of Shirley’s scheduled music gigs. The name “Green Book”, comes from a travel guide created by Victor Green that showed which hotels and restaurants were safe for African American travelers until it was expunged in 1964.

The misdirected friendship shows how the two men frowned, laughed, and cried together; hesitating yet ultimately accepting each other’s culture and complexities. They were lifelong friends, dying within months of each other in 2013. The movie won best picture in 2019 at the Oscars with Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen playing the lead duo.

I was attracted to not only the storyline, it’s careful message, but also the artistry of Shirley’s music as soon as his finger touched a key on his piano – undeniable that he was truly gifted. I started listening to his music and dove into his background for more interesting tidbits of his life. I found out he was a painter, spoke eight languages and had a doctorate in psychology from the University of Chicago. He also lived above Carnegie Hall. Tony on the other hand, worked at the Copacabana in New York and was a cigarette-dangling talker which earned him the nickname “Lip” because he could talk his way out of everything. It’s worth checking out.

The chicken wing scene is everything to me.

-Becky