Welcome Back, Roger

For the last year or so, the world's been amiss. I've particularly been amiss, lost at the movies, in withdrawal, in a malaise without Roger Ebert's weekly witticisms and wisdom, his invaluable commentary. I, nevertheless, have always held a thumb up high for Ebert in his ordeal with cancer, earlier with thyroidal, then with salivary. Now, Ebert, in a Chicago Sun-Times photograph, raises a "Thumbs Up." Dom Najolia's photograph of Ebert (above) is the first of the Chicago Sun-Times journalist and film critic in nearly a year. In an announcement, Ebert says he will be in attendance at the Ninth Annual Overlooked Film Festival Wednesday night at the University of Illinois at Urbana and sure to be a sight for sore eyes. To read Ebert's article about his state of health and still sharp state of mind (with a funny reference to the late Kurt Vonnegut), visit The Chicago Sun-Times. In April of 2001, I was a lucky enough to attend Roger Ebert's Third Annual Overlooked Film Festival. In a blurb: A thrill-a-minute tour-de-force. A college acquaintance of mine had a chat with Ebert about the value, if any, of Steven Soderbergh's "Schizopolis." Billy Crudup, the boyish star of Cameron Crowe's celebratory ode to rock journalism, "Almost Famous," and hidden treasure "Jesus' Son," stood nearby as a guest of the festival. I met, with ecstatic esteem, Mark Borchardt of Chris Smith's documentary "American Movie," too. At various screenings, Ebert was a graceful host, teacher and interviewer in exchanges with Bill Paxton, Billy Crudup, auteurs Wu Tian Ming and Alison MacLean, and "On The Ropes" subjects George Walton and Tyrene Manson. I hold dear two of Ebert's autographs, one on a hefty 1998 "Roger Ebert's Video Companion" and, the other, on the dust jacket of a DVD for Cameron Crowe's "Almost Famous," a festival memento. Roger, you'll always be a rock star to me.