Please Call Home: Movie Review

Okay, what's the 'movie' about? Well, it's supposed to be about the Allman Brothers band, circa 1970-1972 when they used to hang out at 'The Big House' in Macon, Georgia...

And it is, mostly.

The movie's basically a series of interviews with some of the surviving band members, roadies, family and friends. At times the interviews are conducted to camera. At other times you're treated to a slideshow of band photos (and occasionally snippets of film) taken at around that time.

This one's definitely for the fan-boys. There are no explosions, no sex scenes... nothing garish to grab the attention. Much like the various books written about the history of the band, there are some stories that are told, some that are missed out. I can't say that I learned much more, but it was a pleasant trip down memory lane.

For obvious reasons, the bulk of the show concentrated on Duane Allman and Berry Oakley. I was surprised how little time was spent on Dickey Betts, who split from the band in 2000, but who was arguably as intrinsic to the Allman Brothers signature dual lead guitar sound as Duane was. About all that was said was that he was 'mean'! Hey ho...

I'm glad I watched it, but it's not going to be on weekly rotation in my DVD collection. Maybe once a year...

Ow, Ow and Thrice OW!

More eye problems. Another trip to A&E. More time off work during a period I can ill afford it.

I'm used to the drill by now. Left eye starts feeling funny. Vision goes a bit squiffy. Start getting increasingly photo-phobic to the point where any bright lights make me want to run away screaming. Accident & Emergency doctors get ready! I'll be seeing you soon!

This time around the on-call doctor took more time with me, possibly because it was my 5th... 6th... trip to the hospital in under a year. Methinks they're getting tired of me. I KNOW I'm getting tired of the routine. After sucking in air over her teeth for a good 15 minutes and asking me to look up, down, left, right (fight, fight, fight) and scanning through the notes from my umpteen previous visits she said that she thinks the root cause of my issues is some corneal scarring which has dodgy edges and which might keep being lifted and then infected by the bacteria living on my eyelids.

Cue a few more minutes of air-sucking and she went in.

Now, I can actually believe her diagnosis! The problems are always with the same eye and the pattern of redness always seems to be the same, consistently starting off in the region she did her thang. Based on that, I'm happy she did what she did. I do, however, wish that she'd at least have warned me that I would be off work for a couple of days.

Pretty much, she said that the scarring on my cornea had dodgy, sticky-up edges. To 'correct' that, she attacked me with some foreceps (tweezers), stripping off bits of cornea around the problem area to smooth things out and to hopefully give me a nice flat scar instead of a jagged one, I guess.

What she waited to tell me was that the local anaesthetic she used would wear off in about an hour, at which time I'd be in a WORLD OF PAIN. I managed to go back to my office and stay there for about two hours before my thresholds were totally eclipsed and I headed back home to find some darkness for me to scream into. My journey home was almost comical. I could just about make out buses, so I took one. Taxis were far too small to register! Needless to say I didn't make it into the office yesterday.

I'm hoping that this will be the simple cure for all the problems I've been having... and not just the start of a saga of "oh, it still didn't heal right, let's have another go..." That would SUCK! I can't afford any more time off work right now. The perils of being contract scum.

I guess we'll just have to wait and... see... or not!

Oh, and do you want to know what really sucks? My DVD copy of "Please Call Home" arrived and I've not been able to watch it (for obvious reasons!)

Please Call Home - Update

I noticed recently that this site gets a lot of hits from people looking for the movie "Please Call Home".

"From 1970 to 1973, the Allman Brothers Band called the Tudor-style mansion on Vineville Avenue in Macon, GA, their home. “The Big House,” as it came to be known, quickly became the communal hub for the band, their family and friends, and that magical era is brought back to life in the long-awaited DVD release of Please Call Home: The Big House Years. This wonderful film, shot in stunning Hi-Def, captures all the joy and sorrow, triumphs and tragedies that the Allman Brothers Band experienced under the roof of the Big House."

Allman Brothers, new footage, me wantee! Until now I've had difficulty finding out what happened to the movie as it seemed to just drop off the face of the planet. Given the number of "Please Call Home" related hits I was getting I did some more digging and I just found out this morning that the film is available for purchase on region-free DVD.

For those interested, follow the "Buy DVD" link from the movie's website, here. I've placed my order already, so hopefully I'll get to finally see it soon!

"Please Call Home" The Movie

Okay, this one came in under my radar. Apparently a documentary has been made about The Big House, which is where the Allman Brothers Band and their families called home during the years they were starting to build up their following and working on 'the sound' that Duane Allman had been searching for all his life.

The movie's supposed to be less a band biopic and more a snapshot of what it was like living as part of the extended Allman Brothers family, down in Macon, Georgia.

I say it came in under the radar as, being an Allman Brothers Band fan I tend to hear about this kind of stuff pretty quickly. I only got to hear about the documentary, though, when I was sent an email saying that this Friday's premiere in NYC has been postponed.

For those interested, there's a trailer on the movie website. Check it out. It looks like it's based around band photos and monologues, but hey, for a fan it should be interesting. For those interested in The Big House itself, which is now a museum, their website is kind of neat, with lots of stories, pictures and virtual tours.