The Tao of Bill Murray: Real-Life Stories of Joy, Enlightenment, and Party Crashing - Couverture rigide

Edwards, Gavin; Sikoryak, R.

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0812998707 ISBN 13 : 9780812998702

Editeur : Random House, 2016

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The First Principle
 
Objects are opportunities.
 
The greatest misadventure ever involving alcohol and a nontraditional motor vehicle belongs to country-music legend George Jones: When his wife hid his car keys so he wouldn’t drive to the liquor store, he made the eight-mile trip on a John Deere lawnmower. Bill Murray, however, gave the singer a run for his money in August 2007, when he went to the Scandinavian Masters, a golf tournament in Sweden. Late enough on a Sunday night that it was actually Monday morning—around 3:30 A.M.—Murray was spotted in downtown Stockholm, driving a golf cart through the streets. This was a sufficiently unusual mode of transportation that he got stopped by the police on suspicion of drunken driving. (Even if he had wanted to outrun them, he was in a golf cart.)
 
Apparently the golf cart had been on display all week outside Bill’s hotel—until Bill and some friends commandeered it for a party at the Café Opera nightclub, about a mile away.
 
The Café Opera manager, Daniel Bodahl, said Bill “was a very good guest.”
 
The man in charge of the Scandinavian Masters, Fredrik Nilsmark, said, “I don’t hold any grudge against Bill Murray for borrowing our cart for a while.”
 
Detective-Inspector Christer Holmlund of the Stockholm police force said, “I have done this since ’68 and I’ve never experienced anything like this.”
 
Bill’s explanation? He hadn’t personally borrowed the golf cart, he claimed—he had started off as a passenger, being driven to a party. (Which sidestepped the question of whether the people driving him had permission to use that golf cart.) “I was taken to the party by people who did not feel they could drive the golf cart back,” Bill said. “They said, ‘We can’t drive back—we’ll lose our license.’ I said, ‘I won’t lose my license.’ That’s what America used to be famous for: helping out, pitching in.”
 
So he drove the golf cart through the streets of Stockholm sometime after 3:00 A.M. A “twilight drive,” Bill joked—being so far north, Stockholm has incredibly long days during the summer. He had about six passengers crammed into the back of the cart and he was dropping them off at various destinations, like a bus driver. To complete the surreal scene, two drunk Swedish guys were hanging on to the very back of the cart, singing the 1970 Cat Stevens song “Father and Son.”
 
The last two people on the cart wanted to be dropped off at a 7-Eleven. “I didn’t know they had 7-Elevens in Stockholm,” Bill commented. In front of the 7-Eleven, the police spotted Bill behind the wheel of the golf cart and called him over, assuming that he must be drunk. Bill’s explanation that he was a golfer proved insufficient.
 
Holmlund said that when the police officer smelled alcohol, Bill declined to take a Breathalyzer test, “citing American legislation.”
 
“Or as Bill told the story, he told the police officer, “I’m sorry, but where I come from, you have to act stupid or goofy or hit something or drive erratically or something—you’re just assuming that I’m drunk because I’m driving a golf cart at three-thirty in the morning.”
 
Holmlund agreed that Bill wasn’t visibly drunk: “There were no obvious signs, like when someone is really tipsy.”
 
The confrontation migrated to the police station. “They said, ‘We’re going to take your blood now,’ and I said, ‘What if I politely decline?’ ” Then, Bill said, “They introduced me to this guy, Gunther or somebody...who had a smile on his face, but not the smile you want to see.” Bill submitted to Gunther and the police administered a blood test; Bill signed a document conceding that he had been driving under the influence and authorizing a police officer to plead guilty on his behalf if the matter ever came before a judge. Bill was then released and allowed to leave Sweden.
 
When the blood work ultimately came back, Bill’s blood alcohol content was around 0.03 percent—way below the general American DUI standard of 0.08 percent but above the strict Swedish threshold of 0.02 percent. He had to pay a fine. “For having any amount of alcohol and having a golf cart, you have to pay something,” Bill said. “It’s just a courtesy, I guess.”
 
 
 
Producer Joyce Sloane founded the Second City Touring Company, where the junior performers of Second City would take the group’s Chicago-tested material on the road, with everyone piling into a van. She said that in the early seventies, after the tour hit Notre Dame, one of their performers disappeared for about a week—apparently, Bill Murray had discovered that Saint Mary’s College, a women’s-only college, was next door. Even when Bill stayed with the group, he was a force of chaos.
 
The troupe did a show at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana, which went extremely well: They were even invited to a reception at the president’s home. But as the van pulled away and headed out of town, the entire cast had the giggles. Soon enough, Sloane figured out why: “Bill had taken it upon himself to take the Oriental rug from the president’s home and put it in the back of the van.”
 
Dan Patrick, revered sportscaster on ESPN and other venues, tells this story:
 
We were doing a pub crawl in New York, an A-to-Z pub crawl. I run into Bill Murray at a place in the Village, and I said, “Billy, we’re going to go on a pub crawl and do you want to go with us?”
 
He said, “Sure.” So we’re walking down the street, there’s Antique Boutique, and he goes, “Hold on.” He runs in and comes out with an orange tie.
 
I said, “What’s this for?”
 
He says, “Didn’t you say on SportsCenter that the hardest thing about being the coach of Tennessee is trying to find those god-awful orange ties?” He said, “Put it on!”
 
I put it on, we went on the A-to-Z pub crawl, we got to the letter L...and there’s a street cleaner, the street sweeper; the machine is on. And Bill goes, “What are you thinking?”
 
I go, “I don’t know. Am I thinking what you’re thinking?”
 
He said, “Let’s steal this thing.”
 
I wasn’t thinking that. I wasn’t. I was thinking, let’s get to the next bar. I didn’t even know the thing was running, and Billy goes, “Let’s get in it.” So he starts to climb up in the street cleaner.
 
And this guy runs out and he’s like, “What are you doing? I’ll lose my job!”
 
And he sees it’s Bill and I think Bill said, “Don’t worry.” He said, “Can I just take it down the street a little bit?” So we just inched along like a tank down the street.
 
 
Lorne Michaels, creator and executive producer of Saturday Night Live, analyzed Bill Murray’s location in the comedy firmament: “So much of my generation’s approach to comedy was a reaction against the neediness of performers. When Bill was onstage, he didn’t much care whether they liked him. Because of that, he had enormous integrity.”
 
Michaels discovered, however, that integrity wasn’t the same thing as reliability. In the summer of 1979, Michaels needed to get his Volkswagen Super Beetle from Los Angeles to New York; the producer had left it behind when he relocated to Manhattan for SNL. Bill volunteered to drive the car across the country—and he did, but on his own timetable. “Remember, I was his boss,” Michaels said. “Occasionally I would hear from Bill on the road. He’d be in Florida, and I’d say, ‘But, Bill—is Florida on the way?’ Or a week later, he’d be in Aspen and I’d say, ‘But, Bill...’ ” Bill may not have treated the driving mission with the focus Michaels expected, but he did ultimately deliver the car, and with a bonus. The car arrived weeks late, and had accumulated hundreds of unexpected miles on the odometer—but Bill had installed a top-notch stereo.
 
In 1985, Trine Licht was a young Danish woman living in New York City, delighted to have gotten a job as an assistant at Punch Productions, Dustin Hoffman’s personal production company. She worked in the Directors’ Guild building, on 57th Street, helping to find novels and screenplays that Hoffman might want to star in or direct. After she had been on the job for a few months, she had a surprise visitor in her office: Bill Murray poked his head in and said hello. (Hoffman and Murray were friendly, having recently played roommates in Tootsie.) Bill became a semi-regular visitor. Licht said, “He had an office down the hall but was not always there, only between shooting films. I think he read screenplays and novels there; maybe he did other things too. But he did occasionally ask, ‘Have you read this’ or ‘Have you read that,’ and he always looked like he was reading.”
 
One summer day, Bill dropped by Licht’s office, as was his custom—only this time, he asked, “Want some popcorn?”
 
When she said that she did, Bill disappeared. He was gone for long enough that Licht assumed he had forgotten about the popcorn. But when he came back, he didn’t just have a bucket of popcorn: He pulled a cart full of warm popcorn into the office. Bill had gone down to the street, negotiated with a popcorn vendor, and bought his whole operation.

Revue de presse

“Reading The Tao of Bill Murray is like spending time with Bill, but probably safer.”—Danny Rubin, screenwriter of Groundhog Day

“When confronted by life’s challenges and opportunities, we should all be asking ourselves, ‘What would Bill Murray do?’ This book actually has the answers.”—Jay Duplass, writer, director, actor, fan of Bill Murray

“[Gavin Edwards] captures Murray’s enigmatic, comic genius.”—The Washington Post

“Rib-tickling.”—Newsday

“There have been greater, weightier testaments to the art of cinema published in 2016 . . . but for sheer dopamine release, [The Tao of Bill Murray is] hard to beat.”—The New York Times Book Review

“I enjoyed the book so much. Edwards shows us how Murray uses his star power to bring surprise and delight into random people’s daily lives. Whether it’s showing up uninvited to a NYC kickball game or stopping in to a bachelor party to give unsolicited advice on love and marriage, it does seem Murray is trying to tell us something about joy and spontaneity. So, I think it’s high time we all listened.”—NPR

“A must for any fan of Bill Murray . . . Shoot, [Edwards] has sat through every Bill Murray movie, including Where The Buffalo Roam and Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties, so he deserves credit for that endeavor alone. Credit is also due, though, for this paean to Bill Murray.”—The Free Lance-Star

“If you are among the multitudes who have a Bill Murray story (viz: ‘I was in the airport bar, and who sat down next to me but Bill Murray?’), The Tao of Bill Murray will speak to you.”—Elle

“Murray is an endless delight, and his knack for bons mots and non sequiturs will keep readers laughing before revealing an unexpectedly poignant vision for happiness. . . . A fun and revealing look behind the charm and mythos of Bill Murray that will only strengthen his legend.”—Kirkus Reviews

“This book is bursting with anecdotes that underline Murray’s unconventional and fun-loving life. . . .  Murray’s fans are sure to savor [it] and walk away with a deeper appreciation of the actor and his work.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“I just can’t fathom how anyone could not like the man. He lives as much as possible by his own rules; this is a guy who doesn’t buy round-trip airline tickets because he prefers to make decisions on the fly. That old question of the three people you’d most like to have dinner with? I’d pick Bill Murray and leave the other two chairs empty just to see who he pulls over to join us. . . . You will love The Tao of Bill Murray. Period.”—GeekDad

“A hilarious read—occasionally heartwarming, sometimes head-scratching. . . . Sure to please Murray fans.”—Library Journal

“Everybody has a Bill Murray story. Okay, not everybody, but author Gavin Edwards found enough people with quirky tales of the infamously impulsive actor to fill a book. . . . An enchanting and insightful collection of everyday moments turned magical thanks to Murray’s sly pranks, beneficent deeds, and delightful intrusions on the hoi polloi.”—Crave
 
“Hilarious and profound.”—Shelf Awareness

“As much as I love Gavin Edwards’s wonderful The Tao of Bill Murray, I can’t help but feel sad that Bill Murray has never covered my eyes on a street corner.”—Moby

And other Tao writers welcome Gavin Edwards to the brotherhood:

“Bill Murray seems to have shambled, stumbled, joked, surprised, party-crashed and acted his way to the Tao. However he got there, we’re all better off for him having demonstrated his unique way.”—Gary Dudney, author of The Tao of Running

“Capturing the spirit of a man who actively defies logic is like chasing a mustang through the desert in your skivvies. Luckily Edwards had some help: In this rowdy little book, he collects potent tales from people who experienced something strange and intangible: the zany antics of a trickster whose improvisation skills on stage and screen are nothing compared to his sometimes gallant, sometimes ridiculous, always dauntless improvisations with life.”—Linda Kohanov, author of The Tao of Equus

“Mercurial, paradoxical, spontaneous, contrarian, whimsical, benevolent, lighthearted yet deadly earnest: these terms aptly describe both the precepts of the Tao Te Ching and the man known as Bill Murray. Moreover, Murray embodies all of these qualities without even knowing it, easily qualifying him for Taoist of the Month. This collection of bizarre, heartwarming, and hilarious stories will give his fans greater appreciation of his unorthodox approach to life.”—Ali Binazir, M.D., M.Phil., author of The Tao of Dating

“This book defies description, like Bill Murray himself. That’s oddly appropriate, since the Tao is beyond words. Murray has certainly blazed a unique and unusual path through his life. May this book inspire you to do the same through yours!”—Derek Lin, author of The Tao of Daily Life

“The practice of a Taoist is to make his Way on earth groove in balance and harmony with the Great Way of Heaven. The Way of Bill Murray is to find heavenly humor in the most mundane affairs of life on earth.”—Daniel Reid, author of The Tao of Health, Sex, and Longevity

“#intoxicating #strangerthanfiction #murrayforpresident”—Mark W. Schaefer, author of The Tao of Twitter

“I thought I knew the true path to enlightenment—until I read The Tao of Bill Murray.”—Mary Buffett, co-author of The Tao of Warren Buffett

“The principles of Tao make sense in relation to recovery—who thought it was a good idea to discuss some comedian in those terms?”—Jim McGregor, author of The Tao of Recovery

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Random House
• Date d'édition: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0812998707
• ISBN 13: 9780812998702
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 368