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Greetings!
Thank goodness for the Internet and Suzi
Mechler.
We are not regular TV watchers and receiving this email
when I got home from work made for a quiet and satisfying, if
nostalgic, evening of watching quality TV with DH and 28.5 million
other viewers:
As
you settle in for your evening TV tonight, remember to
listen for Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwo'ole's music on
tonight's episode of "ER" on your NBC affiliate.
It's Dr. Greene's poignant final farewell episode, and IZ's
music was the producer's choice!!!
Check your local TV listing for air time!
And thank you for supporting the music of IZ!
*************************************
Suzi Mechler
Vice President
The Mountain
Apple Company |
>>
"On the
Beach" Episode with Photos
Dr. Mark Greene (Anthony
Edwards), the guileless attending ER physician, is dying
of a brain tumor.
In the dark night
of the soul, he reviews a scribbled list of things he wanted to do
in his life and never got around to doing. This is a list that
is worthy of scribbling down now, while we are still walking this
good Earth, capable of doing them before it is too late...
Dr. Mark Greene / Anthony Edwards
Courtesy of NBC
and CNN
A dedicated and
skilled doctor, Dr. Greene is the emotional backbone, moral center
and conscience of the emergency room, ever calm in the midst of its
chaos and tumult.
For those of us in
the health professions, often beleaguered, overworked Dr. Greene is our Everyman.
He is grounding for me. Like us, he is constantly torn between the
demands of one's profession and a personal life that is too often
sacrificed.
Back to that list:
The last thing on Dr.Green's long list of "Wish I'd Done
That" is "Fix Rachel."
Who is Rachel?
Rachel is his teen daughter from his first marriage, once the sweet little
girl who only got leftovers of his time -- the weekend visits and
the two weeks in the summer. He decides to take the reluctant,
impossibly non-communicative, and almost surly daughter to his home in Hawai`i, where he had spent three blissful years
as a teenager when his father served there in the U.S. Navy -- the
longest ever in one place.
My favorite scene
was the surfing scene: Rachel is on a big surf board at Waikîkî
and her father picking the right wave then shoving the big board,
yelling to her to "Paddle!" then "Stand
Up." And Rachel gets an exhilarating, long ride to the
shore.
This was exactly my surf experience a few years ago. Surfing
was one of my "Things I Want to Do Before I Die" list. With
a good instructor, a big board and Waikîkî Beach, it was that easy.
What a great reliving of a peak experience via the TV!
>>
Audio Clip
of White Sandy Beach
by Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwo`ole
would have been PERFECT for the beach scenes!
Courtesy of mele.com
In Hawai`i, Dr.
Greene indulges in life's simple pleasures -- rents a beach house
with no TV on O`ahu's North Shore, cooks meals at home, surfs, buys
a surfboard for his daughter, and takes walks on a stretch of white
sandy beach -- and tries to impart memories, some of which are
bittersweet, and family history to his distant daughter.
She doesn't want to
hear any of it.
She tunes out by listening to the pop music of her generation through
Walkman earphones. Fourteen years old, rebellious, moody and self-absorbed, she just
does not "get it" and fritters away the precious few hours of
Dr. Greene's
remaining days on Earth.
Their arguments
escalate as Dr.Greene's health deteriorates. Then a ray of
sunshine appears. Rachel takes a likin' to a local boy, Kai
("which means Ocean"), who introduces her to island
living, including Hawaiian music and our beloved IZ,
apparently, but I am getting ahead of myself.
When Dr. Greene
collapses in a quivering heap when his growing glioblastoma
triggers a grand mal seizure, Rachel summons her stepmother, Dr.
Elizabeth Corday, Associate Chief of Surgery, who flies over with
their toddler. Not only is she a gifted British surgeon, Dr.
Corday is a gifted step-mother, who helps her step-daughter wake up
to the reality that time is running out.
Love -- even puppy
love -- can thaw the coldest heart. When Rachel overhears her father
softly singing a lullaby as he rocks her little step-sister to
sleep, she experiences a change in heart. The song he's
crooning -- Somewhere Over the Rainbow -- strikes a familiar
chord.
Rachel
remembers. It is the song he sang to her when she was a wee
one.
Finally, the doc
and his daughter poignantly reconcile just before he dies on a bed
that faces open windows with island tradewinds dancing through its
curtains.
Rachel is
fixed. Mission accomplished.
Rachel gently
places the earphones of her Walkman into her father's ears. As Dr.
Greene departs, he is listening not to Judy Garland's version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow,"
but to Israel "IZ"
Kamakawiwo`ole's moving, lilting crooning of ...
>>
Audio Clip
of "Somewhere, Over the Rainbow"
from Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwo`ole's Facing
Future CD
Courtesy of mele.com
>>
"Somewhere, Over the Rainbow" is also on
Israel's posthumously released CD:
Alone in IZ's World
Graphic, courtesy of Aloha
Joe's Store
>>
Lyrics to IZ's version of "Over the Rainbow":
OK, this one's for Gabby:
Ooo oooooo oooooo oooo ooo ooo ooo
Ooooo oooooo oooooo
Ooo ooo ooo
Ooo ooo ooo
Somewhere, over the rainbow, way up high,
And the dreams that you dreamed of,
Once in a lullaby.
Oh, somewhere over the rainbow, blue birds fly,
And the dreams that you dreamed of,
Dreams really do come true.
Someday, I'll wish upon a star,
Wake up where the clouds are far behind me.
Where trouble melts like lemon drops,
High above the chimney top,
That's where you'll find me.
Oh, somewhere, over the rainbow, bluebirds fly,
And the dreams that you dare to.
Oh why, oh why can't I?
Well, I see trees of green and red roses too,
I'll watch them bloom for me and you.
And I think to myself: What a wonderful world!
Well, I see skies of blue and I see clouds of white,
And the brightness of day.
I like the dark and I think to myself:
What a wonderful world!
The colors of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky,
Are also on the faces of people passing by.
I see friends shaking hands, saying, "How do you do?"
They're really saying, " I...I love you!"
I hear babies cry, and I watch them grow,
They'll learn much more than we'll know.
And I think to myself: What a wonderful world!
Someday, I'll wish upon a star,
Wake up where the clouds are far behind me.
Where trouble melts like lemon drops,
High above the chimney top,
That's where you'll find me.
Oh, somewhere, over the rainbow, way up high.
And the dreams that you dare to,
Oh why, oh why can't I?
Ooooo oooooo oooooo
Ooooo oooooo oooooo
Ooo ah, ah, ah... eh ah ah, eh ah ah ah ah...
Nani.
Beautiful.
Mahalo to IZ, who's hanging
out at the 7-11 in the sky, somewhere, over the rainbow with his
Uncle
Moe Keale, Gabby
Pahinui, Dennis
Pavao, Aunty
Irmgard Aluli Farden, and
now, Dr. Mark Greene.
Thank you, ER, for
allowing me to visit my homeland. The shots of Waikîkî, Kûhio
Beach, Mokuleia, North Shore's Hale`iwa and Wai`alua, Pearl Harbor
and the Arizona Memorial and Ford Island (with its
"new" bridge) made me homesick in a good way.
Great show with
lots of Aloha.
Mahalo nui to the producer, Jack
Orman and director and creator, John
Wells. Your taste in music is excellent. Hana hou! (Do it
again! Encore!) You made Anthony Edward's swan song complete
and full with, appropriately, IZ's "Over the
Rainbow."
Aloha a hui hou, Anthony
Edwards. I loved your portrayal of Goose in TOP GUN and
you were my favorite
character/actor on ER. Your conscious choice to "usually
be smaller than life" has not gone unnoticed, and I've
appreciated your
humility.
And instead of life
imitating art, you are creating a happier reality than Dr.
Greene's. That you are leaving the show to spend
more time with your family is laudable. You're taking your
character's advice to heart, as YOU are
being generous with your time, love, life and joy.
You will be dearly missed.
"Life is a Gift."
Me ke
Aloha,
Author
Unknown
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"The
only gift is a portion of thyself..."
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
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