#wil wheaton

Movie of the Day: Stand by Me

This movie was such a gift. I didn't see it in the theater, but I saw it when it hit cable in 1987 and watched it over and over again. I was 11 when I saw it, which is the perfect age for this movie. I didn't exactly have 50s nostalgia--never been to the 50s--but I grew up listening to my parents' oldies and, honestly, if the nostalgic approach is sincere enough, I'm always drawn into a story about childhood experiences. I had already been turned into an outsider, so seeing a movie about an outsider who used to fit in but doesn't anymore was really powerful. Through the main character, Gordie LaChance (Wil Wheaton in a great performance), I really felt like this movie saw me. Even River Phoenix's character, Chris Chambers, reminded me of my friend John.

The scene where Gordie breaks down and cries about his brother's death hit me so hard as a kid and always made me cry because I also thought my parents wouldn't be sad if I died. When my half-sister died in 2006, I felt that scene fully. The survivor's guilt lasted a very long time.

Stand by Me had its premiere in Los Angeles 40 years ago today, on August 6, 1986.

This movie is so sensitive, but so true to how unreliably you remember your own past. This was only Rob Reiner's third film as a director, but you almost wouldn't know it. His next film was The Princess Bride, and for a while there, it felt like he could do anything. Stand by Me, based on Stephen King's short story "The Body," has so much grace and is so deeply affecting. Just talking about it now makes me want some cherry-flavored Pez.

It also has one of my favorite soundtracks, which brings me to...

Album of the Day: Stand by Me (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

The soundtrack only has 10 songs from the period, but it's a really good 10 songs. I bonded with my grandpa over this a little bit. This was in the 80s when my grandparents on my mom's side lived on Guam. At the time there were about four radio stations you could get, so you used to hear the same songs over and over again, and when we went to visit, we stayed for months because it was such a long trip.

One of the tapes my grandpa had was this soundtrack. I dug the music, so I used to listen to it a lot. I really loved my grandpa (he passed away last year), and he especially made my time on Guam fun, taking us to caves, hiking, surfing, riding water buffalo, jetskiing, sailing, opening wild coconuts, just all sorts of fun stuff for a 12 year old boy. He let me have the tape; he wasn't really into the music, and someone had given it to him, so he let me take it back home to Chicagoland.

Great soundtrack, but there's a personal connection for me that really makes it special. I think about him every time I hear any of the songs from it.

Video: "Stand by Me," the classic song by Ben E. King that gives the movie its title. King had been a lead singer for the Drifters; he sang lead on three of their best and biggest hits: "There Goes My Baby," "This Magic Moment," and "Save the Last Dance for Me." He wrote this quietly beautiful song with the classic team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, and it hit number 4 in 1961. This movie's popularity put the song back on the charts in 1986, going to number 9.

I like this video, which starts with 1961 footage of King performing and gives way to King in a classroom in 1986, featuring River Phoenix and Wil Wheaton.

When driving between clients' homes this summer (because teachers need more than one job and this system SUCKS but at least I run my own business and have two full time jobs through the year instead of needing to hunt for a new job every summer) I caught up on the last episodes of It's Storytime with @wilwheaton. He is a reader I love and picks phenomenal stories to share, but because they are short stories you have more "said" or "shouted" or "whispers" or what have you in them at good frequency, which means that sometimes I have to listen to the story twice. (NOT a hardship!) Why? The characters are shouting my driving directions at each other.

A couple episodes ago I got this example:

What did that woman say to you?

She said, *At the light, turn left onto Farrington Road!*

Or something similar to it.

Sometimes it makes total sense, like the time one character said confidentially to others that they should turn right at the next light and then later someone was unsure about turning right.

These are just little joys that one person can give another person without even knowing it. How can anyone reading a story aloud assume their performance will merge with google maps directions to make someone laugh out loud on some random country road in North Carolina? I can be super frustrated with a situation with a home I just left, be stuck in traffic, or just be having a sad day, and those coincidences make things so much better.

Even though I am often behind the scenes at cons and cruises, I am usually just with my Trek family and have never met Wil. From what I see and hear of his public voice, his joys seem to align with mine, so I felt like this was something that needed sharing. I get to swoon over his work at the world and maybe spread some happiness along with it.

We all need a little extra happiness in our lives.

(That's a staged photo, it is not where the line happens in the story. Can't take a picture while driving.)

h a p p y b i r t h d a y

Wil Wheaton

29 July 1972

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