Take one authentic but now outdated Steelers replica jersey.
If you are a fan of the music of Billy Joel, and honestly, who isn't, I cannot recommend to you highly enough the documentary film about the singer now showing on HBO Max. It is presented in two parts, each about two and a half hours long, and it tells everything about Billy Joel, and it tells the story in many different layers, from his growing up in Hicksville, Long Island, NY, and complicated family life, his not graduating from high school, how he kicked it around in various bands as a teenager, his career as a solo performer singer/songwriter, how he got ripped off by his management, his four marriages, his problems with alcohol. Nothing is left out or glossed over, but what always comes through is the absolutely amazing talent of the man.
Joel's grandparents escaped Europe as Hitler's genocidal programs were sweeping through Germany and central Europe. His father was a classical pianist who left the family when Billy was 7 years old, an act with which Joel was never quite able to come to terms. It was only as he was older and successful that he was able to track his father down in Vienna and discover that he had a half-brother. I am skimming over this spect of the film, but it is remarkable. (That half-brother is a classical symphony conductor in Austria. Talk about music being in the genes.)
Joel speaks on camera throughout the movie, and is frank and honest about all aspects of his life. This is great, of course, but the cast of characters who pop up throughout the movie talking about Joel and his talent and influence is positively eye-popping. Jackson Brown, Don Henley, Garth Brooks, Sting, Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, and even Itzhak Perlman, for God's sake. Their testimonies to Billy Joel just makes your jaw drop. Example: McCartney tells us this - "People often ask me Is there a song out there that you wish that you would have written, and I tell them 'Just The Way You Are'."
I am constantly amazed at the genius of musical superstars. Time and again throughout the movie, Joel will tell the story about how an idea came to him while he was driving somewhere, and that by the time he reaches his destination, he can sit at a piano and produce a song that becomes a classic. How these people can do that is so far beyond my grasp as to be positively unimaginable.
Best of all, though, beyond everything else the film contains clips of Billy Joel singing and performing all of those songs that have become the music of our lives. I consider myself fortunate to have seen Billy Joel live twice in my life. The first time was at the Pittsburgh Civic Arena in 1986 or -87. The second time was in August 2022 at PNC Park (read The Piano Man In Concert) in what was truly one of the greatest concert experiences that I have ever had.
As I reread what I have just written about this movie, I can tell you that this write up is hardly doing "And So It Goes" justice. If you don't have HBO Max available to you, find a friend who does and see this documentary film. You will not be disappointed.
A full Four Stars from The Grandstander.
The Pirates just completed a three game series in Milwaukee where they were swept by the Brewers. The scores of those three games:
Behold this photo of the White House Rose Garden as it has been since the Kennedy Administration:
In the past five days, I have busied myself with watching four separate movies, two new, two old. Here we go, in order of viewing.
I think, but cannot absolutely swear to it, that I saw the original "Happy Gilmore", and if I did, I put much of it out of my mind, except for Sandler punching out Bob Barker. Still, we were in the mood for some mindless entertainment, and this one sure qualified as that.
It did have its comedic moments, and I did enjoy all of the cameos that were done by various professional golfers. Like Jack Nicklaus ordering a half iced tea, half lemonade. "Arnold Palmer?" the waiter asks. "No" he replies "I'm Jack Nicklaus, but I get that a lot." And of the current golfers featured, Xander Schauffele, in my opinion, steals the show in his bit while at the tournament banquet.
You don't grade a movie like this using the same curve that you would say, "Citizen Kane" or the latest Scorsese masterpiece, but considering what it is, The Grandstander gives it Two Stars.
Lots of dated ideas in this one, like "Only the husband should be the breadwinner in a family", but still a pretty good movie, and some of the notions, like marrying for money instead of love, can still prompt debate here in good ol' 2025.
Oh, and Thelma Ritter is in this one. It is only her second credited movie appearance, and in it she displays the persona that she did in just about every movie she ever made thereafter, and did you know that she was nominated for SIX Academy Awards over the course other career? I didn't.
The only quibble that Linda and I had with it was that we thought the wrap up to the story seemed rushed and also confusing. Still, we liked it, and I give it Three Grandstander Stars.
I am not going to recount the plot line of the movie here, but it is a terrific story of Hollywood, past glories, and cynicism, and seeing it on the big screen for the first time with all those other "wonderful people out there in the dark" made for a whole new and terrific experience.
As always, "Sunset Boulevard" rates a full Four Stars from The Grandstander.
And then there is "The Naked Gun", and I will tell you right off the bat that I just loved this one. It is a retelling of all of those Naked Gun/Police Squad movies that Leslie Nielsen and George Kennedy made back in the eighties and nineties. In this one, Liam Neeson abandons his action hero persona, or maybe he just embraces it, as Frank Drebin Jr., Nielsen's son, and he is terrific. He's great as he deadpans through all of his bits in this one, even as he and the producers make fun of his own reputed physical gifts, if you get my drift. It's hard to think that this is the same guy who was nominated for an Oscar for "Schindlers List".
I went to a 10:00 AM showing of this one this morning and I was the only person in the theater, which was good, because then I didn't have to stifle myself during all of the time I laughed out loud at throughout this one. There are some great running gags in this one and one that I liked was Drebin and his partner constantly being handed cardboard cups of coffee. Sophisticated it's not, like what the bad guy thinks he is seeing through the curtains of Frank's apartment while using infrared binoculars, and the body cam sequences of Drebin in his squad car after eating several chili dogs, but let's face it, going to see a Naked Gun movie isn't like going to a Noel Coward play.
I also give great props to Pamela Anderson in this one. She plays it for all of its slapstick worth, but there is one scene of her doing some scat singing in a jazz club where she is just terrific. Oh, and stay for the credits. All of the credits. There is a funny scene at the very end, and the movie makers drop some pretty funny fake credits throughout that will make you laugh, and I probably missed a bunch of them.
Like I said earlier, you don't judge a movie like this the same way you would a Spielberg of Scorsese movie, but for what it is, this one is terrific.
Three Stars from The Grandstander.
GONE | ACQUIRED |
Adam Frazier to Royals | Cam Devanney, 28, INF |
Ke’Bryan Hayes to Reds | Taylor Rodgers, 34, P |
Sammy Stafura, 20, INF | |
Jeter Martinez, 19, P | |
Taylor Rodgers to Mariners | Ivan Brethowr, 22, OF |
Bailey Falter to Royals | Evan Sisk, 27, P |
Callan Moss, 21, 1B | |
David Bednar to Yankees | Rafael Flores, 24, C |
Edgleen Perez, 19, C | |
Brian Sanchez, 21, OF |
