One Interesting Summer

You know it is Summer when the day is so unbearable, you need to install your air conditioners.  Luckily, my family and I lasted through June 11 without the need to crank up the AC.  It has taken the first and hopefully last 90 degree day in New York for that to change; to say nothing of an Air Quality Alert that went out today. 

All the same, with the start of summer my memories keep coming back to June-August 2002.  A lot of changes and discoveries had come to a then 19 year old male like myself who had begun to explore his place in the world and just the year before had found out; I had Asperger's Syndrome.  The one big celebrity I followed that Summer was Robin Williams.  It was in 2002 that Mr. Williams came back to doing stand-up comedy with a vengeance; culminating in his HBO special "Live On Broadway."  In the realm of movies, Robin Williams had starring roles in two films that showed a deeper and rather creepier side which we all felt was just for show.  Those movies, the Christopher Nolan classic "Insomnia" and the Mark Romanek  underrated "One Hour Photo", were clearly amongst the best films that year.  There was a hope that Mr. Williams would have received another Oscar Nomination for either of those movies.  Alas, it was not to be. 

Little did we know that those movies showed us a inner look into Robin Williams that opened his darker side.  It was that sort of depression, confusion and despair that had seeped into Mr. Williams life for a great deal of his 63 years which resulted in him killing himself on August 11, 2014.  I can only speak for myself when I say Robin Williams' passing has left a void in this world which has yet to be filled; nor could it ever be filled. 

In the days ahead I will be looking back at Insomnia, One Hour Photo, Live On Broadway and some other appearances and interviews Robin Williams had done that Summer of 2002 when it seemed like he was at the height of his influence and relevance.  This is not to say it went downhill from there; far from it.  Yet, in that year, Robin Williams I think had the pulse on the world in what we were going through; what we were feeling; and our deepest and darkest tendencies.  Little did we know how much this was tearing Mr. Williams apart in his private life.  Now we have the clues and the hints to look back in retrospect. 

To give you an idea of Robin Williams' genius and interesting outlook on life, here is an excerpt from his 1986 Live At The Metropolitan Opera TV special.  It is something we all know too well.

Talk to you fairly soon,

Robert