I first saw Roger Ebert on television in 1978, when he and Gene Siskel, this other Chicago-based film critic, were talking about movies on PBS, and there was never really anything like that I had ever seen on TV. I was seriously into movies then (as I still am now), and it was exciting to see an intelligent discussion about the subject in those pre-cable days. In fact, the movie they were discussing was Brian DePalma's "The Fury," his first film after his big breakthrough with "Carrie."
Ebert wasn't generally considered one of the elite critics of the time, maybe because he was based in Chicago and not in New York City. But he and Siskel, as we all know, became cultural icons throughout the 80's and 90's. Siskel died of cancer at 53 in 1999, and Ebert began his battles with cancer a few years later.
Unlike some of those other critics though, Ebert had a Pulitzer Prize next to his name. He also wrote a script for a Russ Meyer triple X film. The more you learned about this guy, you realized how interesting he was.
Always prolific, Ebert became a blogging machine in recent years after his cancer took away his ability to talk. His memoir, Life Itself, was an absolute revelation to me when it came out a couple of years ago – all the stories of newspaper life in Chicago beginning in the late 60's. He was just a giant in critiquing the popular culture, and he'll be sorely missed.
Well, lookie here. After a couple of days of realizing he was standing out as a holdout for traditional marriage, Bill Nelson last night announced that he has become the latest Democratic Senator to now support marriage equality.
I was at the jam packed Hillsborough County Aviation Authority boardroom, where the airport's major new master plan was approved. And TIA CEO Joe Lopano got another boost to his contract, though it didn't come easily.
And CL has a special issue out this week devoted exclusively to the Tampa neighborhood of Seminole Heights. Here's my contribution.
This article appears in Apr 4-10, 2013.