Spent the day dozing, reading comics and consuming Sinatra: All Or Nothing At All a 4 hour HBO retrospective on the man and the legend.

What a life. Dude needed a 4 hour doc because he defied the typical celebrity reduction. Whenever a celebrity passes away they get reduced to this one movie or these handful of songs. Not Frank Sinatra.

As a musician and Artist he basically issued concept albums. He recognized the contributions blacks had made to popular music.

Sinatra rejected the status quo…he believed bigotry was a disease. Try speaking out against that in the 50s. And didn’t just hang out with Sammy…Miles Davis, Belenfote and others. That’s like Entourage history!

He created Reprise records where Artists could keep their own masters: astonishing business idea.

He mashed Lauren Bacall, Ava Gardner etc. (granted some of that was while he was married so he loses some points for being a crappy husband still you gotta admire his taste).

Yet the aspect I find the most utterly fascinating…he was on his own! Sinatra became popular in the late 40s, as the depression and World War II were ending. Who was popular at the time…Glen Miller? You think kids had Glen Miller posters on their wall?!

Youth culture didn’t properly flourish until the 1950s that post-war boom where suddenly everybody had money and Happy Days. So Sinatra basically had nobody on his walls, he had no guides no idea how this would all turn out or what his fame would be like.

He got famous…without a Sherpa. Now that is inspirational.

Greatest Of All Time. We don’t have celebrities like Frank Sinatra anymore…overflowing with talent; thoroughly uncompromising: fashioning a legacy not just a career and some worthless tweets. Just because the times change doesn’t mean we hafta as well.

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