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David Fair: This is 89.1 WEMU. It is your community NPR station, I'm David Fair, and the theme is the indicator. It's time for this week's edition of Cinema Chat. And on that note, I'd like to point out this is the last edition of Cinema Chat that I will ever host before I step into retirement. And I wanted to do something a little special. And there's no one more special to me when it comes to these kinds of things and in friendship than Russ Collins. We spent better than three decades together talking about all things movies. Today, we're going to talk about, well, exactly that--three decades of movies and chat together.
Russ Collins: Absolutely!
David Fair: It's good to see you, Mr. Collins! How are you?
Russ Collins: Good to see you!
David Fair: I see you're wearing a tie-dye, and that has to be for me.
Russ Collins: Absolutely! It's a tie-dye day for Russ anyway, the Grateful Dead tribute that I don't usually do. But this is my special tribute to Dave and his love of the Grateful Dead.
David Fair: And just as an aside, I did take Russ to a Grateful Dead-related show at Pine Knob to see Bob Weir and RatDog, and he did not make it to the end.
Russ Collins: And I forced David to see a Star Wars film or two, which is against his cinematic karma, and even show up in a Darth Vader mask for a screening that was extremely painful for our dear radio host.
David Fair: Indeed, it was! Indeed, it was! But you know what? Anything for fun and anything for a good cause. And in particular, that cause was the listeners of 89.1 WEMU!
Russ Collins: That's right. It was a fundraising challenge, and we had a few of those things. One of them that happened from time to time was something about the Michigan and Ohio State football game.
David Fair: Yeah! You blue people have it out for me! That is for sure! During one of the fundraisers, Russ, without telling anybody, he had this plan in place.
Russ Collins: Always improvisation. It's a jazz station.
David Fair: And you did quite well! You are a maestro! He said, "Well, if you'll help us raise $5,000 in the next 10 minutes, then I will make David Fair wear a Michigan jersey to Ohio Stadium for the Michigan/Ohio State game.
Russ Collins: And Dave is an Ohio State fan. For those of you who may have forgotten, his father actually played for Ohio State, so it's a genuine thing for the Fair family.
David Fair: So, in any case, listeners wanting to cause pain and agony actually came up with more than that $5,000 in less than five minutes.
Russ Collins: Yes, they did!
David Fair: And I kept my word. I wore that I wore that sweatshirt, and it was all for a good cause.
Russ Collins: Yeah, absolutely! David is a game fellow. And so, that was a lot of fun to do the movie shows all these years. I got to teach film appreciation at Eastern, so I'm extremely grateful to WEMU and to EMU for the opportunity, and it's just been a blast! When we started Cinema Chat over 30 years ago--
David Fair: We were on reel-to-reel tape. We were doing it live, but, I mean, it was reel- to-real tape. No internet.
Russ Collins: No internet.
David Fair: No cell phones. None of that.
Russ Collins: And I would bring in newspapers that were published earlier in the day. So, I hate getting up early, and I had to get up extra early to go to the Ann Arbor News and pick up a paper, so that I could lay it out in front of me. And that was the script for Cinema Chat for the first few years.
David Fair: Time marches on, doesn't it?
Russ Collins: It does. It does. For sure.
David Fair: There's been a lot over the 30 years, not all of it movie-related, that really was poignant in our conversations.
Russ Collins: Absolutely! Movies and the arts in general are entertainment, but they also express a deep sense of humanity. And when our lives, our humanity, is disrupted like it was on 9/11 in 2001, you have to stop and think about what it is that happened. What happened to the people? What happened to society? And we talked about that on Cinema Chat.
David Fair: Yeah. Not only did we talk about it, but we set aside the arts and the culture for a moment to talk about who we are, where we stand, how we're doing, and where we're going, and how to start to process and think and move on. Because, ultimately, whether you want to or not, we do have to move on. And it was quite a serious conversation, but cathartic in many ways.
Russ Collins: Absolutely! And movies, in a sense, are all about telling a story. And our brains process things through story more than anything else. And so, that seemed like an important thing to do, and it did seem to resonate with the listeners, which was great. And then, there was a pandemic when nobody knew--
David Fair: Shut down your industry altogether.
Russ Collins: Absolutely! And shut down a lot of life. And again, more improvisation as we went along. The theaters were closed. The Michigan was closed. The State was closed. The commercial theaters were closed. But we still carried on with some special online programs and also just kind of recording, in a sense, what was happening at that point in time, which was a complicated reality.
David Fair: And at the same time, in a time in which there was so much uncertainty and so much concern and so much worry, there were moments of levity.
Russ Collins: Absolutely!
David Fair: And there were moments of humor.
Russ Collins: We needed them.
David Fair: Exactly! And we could all relate to that--that need of wanting something that isn't so dark and heavy.
Russ Collins: Absolutely! And occasionally, we took Cinema Chat on the road and did it at the Michigan Theater.
David Fair: Which was always fun! You know, I am used to being in a studio alone or with one person having a conversation. Understanding people are listening, when there's a group of people standing and staring at you while you're doing it, it is an entirely different sensation.
Russ Collins: This is not a problem for me. Having an audience is exactly what you want in a theater space. But it was a little dislocating for our friend, David Fair.
David Fair: That is right. I am meant to be heard and not seen, and that is the way it's been the better part of our 32 years. You are listening to my final ever edition of Cinema Chat here on 89.1 WEMU. For more than 30 years, I did this conversation series with my good friend Russ Collins. And this is our final time together, I would imagine.
Russ Collins: Yes.
David Fair: For this program.
Russ Collins: Well, I would imagine, too. And that friendship piece, I think, is something that I hope the listeners tapped into. This was more than David going, "OK, I got this guy coming in to talk about the movies, but I got all this important news and the community information and all of those things to do." You seem to like having Cinema Chat as one of the things that you did--the many, many, many things you did. And I certainly adored the opportunity to come in to talk about the movies but talk about them with you because you just interrupted me all the time.
David Fair: Well, there's a reason for that, Russ Collins, and that is after the introduction, if I did not interrupt you from that point forward, you would have just done the show all by yourself.
Russ Collins: I have to plead guilty to that. I do talk too much. That is true.
David Fair: You never talk too much, but I did want to remind people where they were listening. And I did one to interrupt your apparent fascination with Star Wars.
Russ Collins: Well, well, yes. And you know, I think we don't want to overplay the Star Wars things, but that was a very fun thing to poke at. So, Star Wars started before Cinema Chat, but the last two of the trilogy were released when we were doing it. And it was a lot of fun to be able to play with that.
David Fair: But, you know, taking a look at all of these movies we've talked about, all of the movies we presented to people and gave information about, what it really is about, for both you and I, was reaching out and finding ways to engage and to connect and to talk about things we cared about, things we wanted to see, things that we wanted learn and giving the opportunity to this entire amazing WEMU audience to have the same opportunity and to become interested and intrigued. And that relationship with audience has been as important to me as anything else, not only in my professional life, but in my personal life. To be embraced and to feel a part of the community, as you do, is extraordinary! And we live in a unique, diverse, and amazing community that I'm proud to call home.
Russ Collins: Absolutely! And that's where the Venn diagrams of a public radio station and a community performing arts and cinema space overlap because they're both about community. They're about building community. They're building friendships and relationships to the arts and relationships to each other. Community is what WEMU and the Michigan Theater Foundation was about.
David Fair: I think that what we're talking about with friendship, with community, with engagement and working with one another, that's been a hallmark of our dialog. And I'm so grateful that we had the opportunity to do this together for more than 30 years. Now, you and I are going to continue these conversations.
Russ Collins: Yes, we are!
David Fair: We're just not going to do it in front of a microphone.
Russ Collins: That's right. No audience. Just a few friends.
David Fair: On Thursday mornings, we're going to call each other.
Russ Collins: That's right! That's for your Thursday morning. I look forward to that and look forward to getting together with folks over the years that have played a role in WEMU and in Cinema Chat.
David Fair: You know, as we look back over 30 years, it wasn't just you and I. This really started off with you and Joan Sylvie, my predecessor some 33 years ago.
Russ Collins: That's right!
David Fair: And Clark Smith was the news director at the time, and he was a conduit to making this happen and often filled in and hosted with you even when I was away and when Joanie was away.
Russ Collins: Yeah!
David Fair: So, you had great conversations with him and some other members of WEMU staff as part of.
Russ Collins: Absolutely! The other retirement fellow here of this week....
David Fair: Mr. Jewett! The one we're really going to miss!
Russ Collins: Absolutely! He's a movie buff as much as he is a jazz aficionado. And it was a great joy to do that! And with all of the folks that filled in from time to time. So, we look forward to listeners continuing to listen to Cinema Chat, continuing with Nick Alderink and the new hosts. And we'll hope to see everyone around the community now and then at concerts, at movies, and all kinds of things. And, David, I look forward to seeing you for the next 30 years. Well, maybe not 30 years, but...
David Fair: Indeed, you will! And I'm not going very far, so you'll see me around the community, and I will be involved in one way or another. So, on behalf of Russ Collins, on behalf of WEMU, I thank you for all of your support over more than three decades here at your community NPR station. It is 89.1 WEMU Ypsilanti. And for a final time, thank you for listening to Cinema Chat! I'm David Fair.
Russ Collins: Ta-ta from WEMU!
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