Honor the Dead by Singing and Dancing: Have You Seen This Celebrity Tearjerker of a Clip From 2013's Ebertfest?

I have not written a proper movie review since the passing of Roger Ebert. I cannot believe he is gone. Sitting down to write a critical essay about any of the many movies I have watched since his passing seemed somehow dishonest, or alternatively, a disappointment based on his memory, and the standard he established.

I was watching some of the clips from this year's "Ebertfest," the eponymous film festival held in honor of Roger Ebert, and was moved to write my Iron Man 3 review. 

I had another extended essay on Ebert's legacy and the color line that one day I will perhaps publish here or elsewhere as a more formal article. I did not know him personally; yet, like his fans, I am sure we all felt that we knew him very well. Thus, there is a real feeling of loss. Ebert was so real, that in my heart I would like to imagine that he was not that different from the person we saw on the TV, or chatted up here when we saw him out in public in Chicago. 

I always wanted to go to Ebertfest and kept saying "next year" as my excuse. 

I regret that choice.

This is a lesson: we should follow through on our impulses towards those we admire because there is no guarantee that their timeline is the same as ours. What if the objects of our praise choose to move along before we are ready for them to do so?

I miss Roger Ebert. I smiled and cried while watching his partner Chaz and his friend Tilda Swinton lead this sing along. When my time comes, I hope that my folks and people give me this type of going home ceremony.

We all miss you Roger Ebert. I am sure you are reviewing movies from whatever plain of existence you have found yourself on, as you sit, eating from your prized rice cooker, and talking with Gene Siskel and those other people you counted as friends.