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I was saddened to learn that local hero Danny Glover is living with Alzheimer’s. Watching him tell NBC’s Lester Holt that he can “live with it, in a sense,” was heartbreaking, not least because even with his voice barely there and his eyes dim, the 79-year-old actor remained magnetic.
Glover was the heart of every scene he performed in, even if he wasn’t the star of every film. When the material was beneath him, like the dumb scene in Richard Donner’s Lethal Weapon 2 (1989) when Glover’s Detective Roger Murtaugh was stuck on a bomb-rigged toilet, he remained dignified. That scene feels like a cruel joke, but Glover played it straight. (Watching it on HBO as a kid, I never noticed the sweat on Glover’s brow or realized how depressing it would be to die on a toilet, especially in the company of a person as awful as Mel Gibson.) I still laugh at Glover’s pronunciation of etiquette (“eti-quit”) as Easy Money in Bill Duke’s A Rage in Harlem (1991). In this scene from Jonathan Demme’s 1998 adaptation of Toni Morrison’s Beloved, Glover’s face shifts from joy to terror to sadness and never feels “actor-y.” And, of course, there’s his cameo in Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You (2018), where he uses his confidential voice to perfect effect.
I have a particular fondness for Glover because when I was an undergrad, he was a close friend and collaborator of Manthia Diawara, one of my professors. Together, they made a film called Diaspora Conversations: from Goree to Dogon and Glover served as a visiting artist one semester. I admit I was a little starstruck dropping off a paper and spotting Glover on the couch in the Africana Studies department talking with students, projecting his full-throated laugh through the room. Even offscreen — maybe especially offscreen — his charisma was palpable.
Some people are just stars.
But, hey, Danny Glover is not dead. In fact, he’s still here in the city of his birth. Even in his current state, he lends his star power to good causes like The Shop, the free Tenderloin barbershop and health center opened by Glide Memorial Church in March.
I may never get to see him in another movie, but I sure hope I run into him around town.
Only on Gazetteer SF
FAILED MISSION: Joshua Bote on Fog City Flea Trading Post’s Valencia Street closure.
LOUD AND PROUD: Eddie Kim on a chaotic Pride weekend.
RALLYING AROUND THE FLAG: Joel Rosenblatt on Mayor Lurie’s latest rebuke of the Giants’ pitchers.
TROUBLE AT THE MILL: Olivia Peluso on the fire at a beloved Divis cafe.
SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED: Cydney Hayes on a very unusual bulk order near Rainbow Market.
STILL SWEATY: Nancy Pelosi’s old wristbands.
SAVE THE MILL: Can crowdfunders save the Divis cafe-bakery?
BINGO: Print out this game for your three-day weekend.
SMALL WIN: Market Match secures $15 million in the state budget.
SHARING THE WORLD CUP: Watching US vs. Bosnia-Herzegovina in the Richmond.
Just a reminder: Your tips can go a long way at Gazetteer HQ. Got a good scoop? A fun bit of tea to spill? A nugget of gossip you’re dying to share? Send it our way. We can assure anonymity.
Dispatches from the fog
GOING BROKE ON $365,000 A YEAR: Can anyone afford life in San Francisco? (New York Times)
REPARATIONS: The Archdiocese of San Francisco agrees to pay $395 million to survivors of sex abuse in the church. (San Francisco Chronicle)
MANNY TOO?: Sexual assault allegations lodged against cafe owner and District 8 supervisor candidate Manny Yekutiel. (SF Standard)
REMEMBERING OM: Read these tributes to tech blogger and investor Om Malik. (Google News)
YOUNG PUNKS: When DIY ruled the Mission. (KQED)
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