Arts & Entertainment

Anvil Hammers On

Still head banging after all these years,
Robb Reiner and Steve Kudlow have
never stopped rocking.

Curt Schleier

Special to the Jewish News

I

f there is indeed something noble
about staying true to your dream,
no matter the cost, then Steve "Lips"
Kudlow and Robb Reiner are the lord
and duke of heavy metal music. Two
Jewish boys from Toronto, they started
the Canadian band Anvil in 1973. Do
the math. They are, respectively, 53 and
51 years old — and still pursuing rock
stardom.
Their struggles are recounted in the
film Anvil! The Story of Anvil, a docu-
mentary just released on DVD. It is in
many ways a combination of This is
Spinal Tap and Field of Dreams (you play
it and they will come). The pair met as
teenagers and knew what they wanted
from the get-go. And they came this close
to achieving it.
They appeared at heavy metal festivals,
with the likes of Scorpion and Metallica,
and were worshipped by fans. But while
others copied their style and soared,
Anvil stayed behind.
"They should have made it a lot big-
ger," says Guns N' Roses' guitarist Slash
in the film. "Sometimes life deals you a
tough deck."

The film is a roller coaster ride.
There are opportunities that get the
band's hopes up. They go on a European
tour hoping somewhere along the way
they can interest a recording industry
executive, but the film shows it's a lot of
missed trains, getting lost and showing
up late for dates, and club owners who
say they won't pay — after the band
performs. It seems a mess, but Kudlow,
who vacillates between pessimism and
optimism throughout the film, tells the
camera, "At least we got to tour."
They send record producer, Chris
(CT) Tsangarides a CD of new songs. He
produced the band's best record two
decades ago, and they hope he works
his magic again. Tsangarides thinks
the music is great. They fly to England
where he's based, and, yes, he loves
it. But they'll have to raise $20,000 to
produce the record.
Kidlow gets a loan from his older
sister, they record the CD, and both he
and Reiner are happy with the results.
They take it to recording companies, but
while some profess to like the music,
none are willing to invest in two guys
who are almost as old as the Rolling
Stones.
In some ways, the film is sad, watch-

Robb Reiner and Steve Kudlow of Anvil are scheduled to appear at the Crofoot in
Pontiac on Jan. 9, 2010.

ing two grown men constantly knocking
their heads against the wall pursuing
what appears to be — to quote another
musical form — the impossible dream.
They work regular jobs by day and
almost any gig they can get at night.
Ironically, and for much the same rea-
sons, the film is also inspiring. How many
people discover what they want to do with
their lives when they're still teenagers and
go after that with the gusto of a beer corn-
mercial?
The good news is that it all has a happy

ending. The film was a great success in
theatrical release — both in Europe and
the United States. "It had a great impact;
that was the whole point of making the
movie Reiner said.
"We have a real manager now, a real
agent, a real record. We've done shows with
AC/DC."
"If none of this happened, if we didn't
make it, this still would all have been
worthwhile Kudlow added.

ANVIL HAMMERS ON on page 44

v
ews

m am a

Nate Bloom

i i;w---

I
Special
to the Jewish News

Le

xic

Eyeballing 'Goats'

Opening Friday, Nov. 6, is the com-
a) edy-drama Men Who Stare at Goats,
mums which is inspired by a journalist's
account of a real U. S. Army effort to
harness "psychic" powers as a mili-
tary tool.
In the flick, Ewan McGregor plays a
reporter who meets a shadowy figure
(George Clooney) connected to a U.S.
Army psychic unit. Then, a renegade
psychic with his own militia and train-
ing camp (Kevin Spacey) kidnaps the
head of Clooney's character's unit
(Jeff Bridges). The reporter is caught
in the middle of this mess.
Stephen Lang, 57, has a large sup-
porting role as an Army general. In

w

ei

42

November 5 • 2009

Stephen Lang

real life, Lang is co-
artistic director of
the famous Actors
Studio. He is mostly
a stage actor but
has film credits play-
ing two Confederate
generals: George
Pickett in Gettysburg
and Stonewall

Jackson in Gods and Generals.
Lang's father, Eugene Lang, 90,
is a very successful high-tech busi-
nessman who was given the Medal
of Freedom for his incredible philan-
thropy. Ewan McGregor's wife, and the
mother of his two children, is a French
Jewish set designer. Their children are
being raised Jewish, and the whole
family has vacationed in Israel.
Goats director is Grant Heslov, 46,

Clooney's business partner and fre-
quent creative collaborator. In 2005,
Heslov received two Oscar nomina-
tions as the co-producer and co-
writer of Good Night and Good Luck,
a biopic about journalist Edward R.
Murrow that Clooney directed.

Brin Gives
Sergey Brin, 36, the

co-founder of Google
(along with former
Michigander Larry
Page), has donated
$1 million to the
HIAS organization.
Sergey Brin
HIAS, which aids
Jewish and other immigrants, pro-
vided critical financial and other aid
to Brin's Jewish parents when they
fled Soviet anti-Semitism and moved

to the States 30 years ago.
Brin told the New York Times, "I
would have never had the kinds of
opportunities I've had [in the U.S.] in
the Soviet Union, or even in Russia
today. I would like to see anyone be
able to achieve their dreams, and
that's what this organization does."
Brin sees this relatively modest
donation as a first step in building a
systematic way to donate much more
of his $16 billion fortune. His mother,
Eugenia, has joined the HIAS board
and started a Web site, mystory.hias.
org , to encourage Russian Jewish
and other immigrants to post their
stories. P1

Contact Nate Bloom at

middleoftheroadlgaol.com .