Travelin' To Chicago

Back in June when we made the decision to go to Chicago to see "Hamilton", our friend Tim Baker, who, ironically, is an airline pilot, said, "Hey, you ought to go to Chicago by train!"  Now this was a thought that had never occurred to us, but the more we thought about it, the more we liked the idea - taking a long passenger train trip had long been on our bucket list - so we called Amtrak, and purchased our tickets   on the Capital Limited.....

....for a room in a sleeper car, that also included a private bathroom with a shower.  It would be an adventure!

Our train was to leave Pittsburgh at 11:59 PM on Tuesday, and it left right on time.  

 Boarding in Pittsburgh

Our sleeper car was roomy until the Porter folded out the bench seat into a bed.  Then things got a little tight:

Marilyn channelling her inner Eva Marie Saint.

(That makes me Cary Grant!)

When that seat you see above was converted to a bed, the space between the bed and the sink shrunk to about six inches.  The bed sleeps two (there is an upper bunk that can fold down, which we opted not to do because that would eliminate any headroom that you had).  The bed is slightly wider than a twin bed.  In all honesty, it was not the most comfortable of sleeping arrangements, and we had to figure our some tricky configurations to get into positions that made sleeping a viable option.  It was okay, but let me put it this way, you don't want to spend your honeymoon riding in one of these cars, if you get my drift.

Then there was the combination shower and lav.

Yep, the john is in the shower, but it wasn't like showering in a phone booth.  A phone booth would have been much bigger!  Still, we both managed to take a shower, although not at the same time (remember what I said above about this not being good for a honeymoon), which we considered quite an accomplishment.  (NOTE TO SELVES: We are NEVER going to move into a Tiny House.)

We have had a lot of laughs over the entire thing, but the trip truly was the adventure we thought it would be.  The ride itself, the motion of the train cars as they traveled over the tracks was quite relaxing and even soothing.  The food - we had breakfast on the way to Chicago and dinner on the return trip to Pittsburgh - was quite good.  At both meals we dined with other couples, both seasoned train travelers, and had very interesting conversations.  The treatment and the service we received from Amtrak was excellent in every step of the process.  And because the train travelled at night, we were able to have two full days in Chicago while spending only one night in the city.

I will tell you that the Amtrak station in Pittsburgh is pretty dinky and not at all special, but in Chicago, well, that was something else.  We arrived into and departed from Chicago at the landmark Union Station, and it was beautiful.

It was elegant and you just sense that you are in a space that was built for another age in American history, space that has been preserved for the 21st century.  It was like something you would see in a movie, and speaking of movies, we actually entered the Station using these steps:

You may recognize them from the Kevin Costner/Sean Connery movie, "The Untouchables".  I was disappointed that we didn't see a woman with a baby carriage attempting to get down these steps, although my maneuvering a forty pound wheeled piece luggage down them probably came close to what the lady in the movie had to do.

One observation. We all know how onerous air travel has become these days with all of the security concerns, baggage examination, metal detectors and such, so the fact that there was none of that boarding the trains - NONE! - sure was convenient.  I mean you got to the station, checked your ticket, and walked onto the train.  It was nice, but at the same time somewhat disconcerting.  Shouldn't there have been some checking of what was being brought on board?  That suitcase I was lugging on board could have been filled with fifty pounds of plastic explosives and no one would have been the wiser.  Like I said, a little disconcerting when you thought about it.  In Chicago, we did notice that Union Station was patrolled by lots and lots of Chicago police, each with a dog (you can see one in one of the photos above).  Presumably, these were bomb sniffing dogs.

As I said, the train trip was every bit the adventure we thought that it was going to be.  Would we do it again?  We have asked ourselves this several times in the last few days.  I don't think that we would do it for a long cross country, multi-day trip, but we have discussed the possibility of doing it for a short term trip, possibly to New York City or Washington DC at some point in the future.  We shall see.

The Big Engine that could, and 

did, pull us to Chicago!

And I can't write about our transportation on this trip without mentioning UBER.  In all, we made five UBER rides (to and from our house and the Amtrak station in Pittsburgh, and three rides while in Chicago) on this trip and spent about $65 in doing so.  We didn't have to pay to park anywhere, didn't have to rent a car, or put several hundred miles on our own car to get there.  It was great!  It was, as friend Dan puts it, the Cat's Ass!

I have one more Post in me on this trip, and that will concern what we did while in Chicago before and after seeing "Hamilton".  That one will come in another day or two.

We See "Hamilton"

At some point in 2016, I can't pinpoint the exact date, Marilyn and I fell under the spell of the music of Lin-Manuel Miranda's "Hamilton", almost to the point of obsession.  Talking with some people who had the good fortune to see it on Broadway, seeing the show, and seeing it sooner rather than later, became an unspoken goal of ours, and when friends described seeing the production in Chicago this Spring, we went proactive and ordered tickets.  This past Wednesday, October 11, the date finally arrived.  We were at the CIBC Theater in Chicago, with tickets in hand to see "Hamilton".

When you anticipate something for so long and with the highest of expectations, there is always the risk that when the moment finally arrives, it will never live up to those expectations, and you will experience a letdown.  So, what happened?

No letdown, and those high expectations were actually exceeded.  Far exceeded.

Having listened to the cast recording of the show, with Miranda and all the original cast members doing the singing, I wasn't sure if I would be able to accept the voices of anyone but Miranda, Leslie Odom, Jr., Chris Jackson, Daveed Diggs, Philippa Soo, or any of the others of the original cast in those parts.  That notion ended shortly after the Chicago cast members first appeared and began singing.

We have listened to the music of "Hamilton" countless times over the last year and a half, but what struck us on Wednesday night was just how much more there is to "Hamilton" when seeing it in person.  The music from the orchestra, the acting of the cast, the choreography, the costumes, the interplay between actors, not only with each other, but with the audience, well, if you think that listening to "Hamilton" is an extraordinary experience, actually seeing it performed takes that experience to an entirely different level of "extraordinary".

There are some people, I suppose, who may close themselves off from this show and it's music because it's rap music , because it's hip-hop music.  I would plead with you, DO NOT DO THAT! Listen to this music, listen to the patterns and the rapidity of the intricate rhyming schemes that Miranda wrote and that the actors perform.  Hey, this show has made 66-year old me very much appreciative of the art form that is rap and hip-hop.  It is simply amazing. 

And it's not just rap and hip-hop.  "Hamilton" gives you traditional Broadway-style showstoppers with "My Shot", "The Room Where It Happens", and "What'd I Miss?".  You like Beatles-style music? Listen to "You'll Be Back".  Girl Group songs? Listen the "The Schuyler Sisters" and "Helpless".  Love songs?  Try "Dear Theodosia".  Heartfelt ballads? "Burn" and "It's Quiet Uptown" will bring tears to your eyes.

And I am only scratching the surface with the songs named above.

At this point, I need to list the names of the talented principal cast members that we saw in Chicago, each of whom was terrific:

Miguel Cervantes....Alexander Hamilton

Gregory Treco.....Aaron Burr

Ari Afsar....Eliza Schuyler Hamilton

Jonathan Kirkland....George Washington

Chris De'Sean Lee....Marquis de Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson

Wallace Smith....Hercules Mulligan/James Madison

Jose Ramos....John Laurens/Phillip Hamilton

Montego Glover....Angelica Schuyler

Aubin Wise.....Peggy Schuyler/Maria Reynolds

Alexander Gemignani....King George III

All backed by an incredible cast of supporting actors and chorus members.

Someone asked me, who was my favorite character in "Hamilton"?  Impossible to pick, but I do want to specifically cite young Chris De'Sean Lee in the dual role of Lafayette/Jefferson, and when I say "young", I mean it.  

Lee was a junior in college when he auditioned for and won this role for the Chicago production. He is now all of 22 years old.  I am sure that he is on the way to becoming a huge star in the years ahead. His performance in "Guns and Ships", "What'd I Miss?", and "Cabinet Battle #1" were just fabulous.

As for Miguel Cervantes in the title role, how hard must it be for an actor to play a part that has already become so closely associated with one actor?  The temptation is to say, well, he's okay, but he's no Miranda, and that is just so unfair.

However, as soon as Alexander asked "Pardon me, are you Aaron Burr, sir?", you knew that Cervantes was going to be a very good Alexander Hamilton, and he was.

In talking to friend yesterday, he asked if this was the kind of show that you'd want to see more than once, to which I answered, "If I could go see it again tonight, I would", and I do hope to see "Hamilton" again in the future.  The show will begin touring next year.  It is scheduled to be in Cleveland in 2018, and in Pittsburgh in 2019.  I am hopeful to be able to see it in one or both of those cities then.  Also, sometime after 2020, "Hamilton" will be licensed to local theatrical companies and schools for production.  It is not beyond possibility that within the next five years, we will all be able to see "Hamilton" as a high school musical.  In fact, Lin-Manuel Miranda wants to see "Hamilton" mounted by high schools and colleges, and he hopes that the diversity of the casting of the roles that has made this show unique and special, will be maintained as it is performed into the future.

"Hamilton" was not the first Tony Award winning hit show from Lin-Manuel Miranda (that one was "In The Heights"), and he has been called everything from a genius to a current day Shakespeare.  I admit that I am totally in the tank for him, and I can't wait to see what he does next.  With "Hamilton", Miranda has given us a cultural gift that will surely outlive us all.  I hope that everyone reading this will some how, some way, some day get a chance to see this extraordinary show.   It is a true work of art.

Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story.

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And to close, I found this forty-eight second promotional clip from the cast of the Chicago production.  It may give you an idea of the energy of this show:

To Absent Friends - Jimmy Beaumont

Pittsburgh doo-wop and rock & roll legend Jimmy Beaumont died today at the age of 77.  In 1958, Beaumont wrote and then his group, The Skyliners, recorded the classic love song, "Since I Don't Have You".  The song became a national Number One hit.  The song is still played today, and remains a favorite, not only locally here in Pittsburgh, but around the world.  A Wikipedia entry for "Since I Don't have You" listed over twenty different artists, ranging from Johnny Mathis, The Four Seasons, Ronnie Milsap, Ricky Nelson, Barbra Streisand, and Guns and Roses, who have recorded this song, and I daresay that there are no doubt dozens more who have done so.

RIP Jimmy Beaumont, and The Grandstander sends you off accordingly....

To Absent Friends - Connie Hawkins

Connie Hawkins

1942 - 2017

I never got to see Michael Jordan, Bill Walton, Magic Johnson, or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar play live and in person, although I did once see a hobbled Wilt Chamberlain play in a game at the Civic Arena, and there is still a chance that I might one day get to see LeBron James play in the flesh, but until that happens, I can say without equivocation that the absolute best basketball player I ever saw play in person was Connie Hawkins, who died yesterday at the age of 75.

Ostracized from both collegiate basketball by the NCAA and the NBA for supposed involvement in a point shaving scandal, the Brooklyn-born Hawkins first appeared on the scene in 1961 with the Pittsburgh Rens of the American Basketball League.  Both the Rens and the ABL lasted only one season, but that was long enough for the 19 year old Hawkins to be that league's Most Valuable Player.  There followed a several year tour of duty with the Harlem Globetrotters, before Hawkins appeared on the Pittsburgh scene once again with the Pittsburgh Pipers of the American Basketball Association 1967.

As the picture above shows you, the Pipers played mostly before empty seats that first season, but I attended probably a dozen or so of those games that season, and I saw Hawkins do things on the court that I have never seen anyone duplicate.  He was simply amazing.

The Pipers won that initial ABA championship that season, then moved to Minneapolis.  This was an example of bungling and greedy ownership that deserves a full length chapter - or maybe even its own book - in Pittsburgh's inept history of professional basketball.  

Anyway, Hawkins, shepherded by Pittsburgh lawyers David and Roz Litman, soon won a landmark legal battle with the NBA, and he moved on to that league and the Phoenix Suns.    Hawkins became a four time all-star with the Suns, although injuries and age prevented both the NBA and it's fans seeing him at his absolute best, and trust me, at his best, Connie Hawkins was as good as anybody, before or since.  

Long after his move to the NBA, Hawkins continued to spend a lot of time in Pittsburgh, and the "Connie Hawkins Summer League" was a staple of the Pittsburgh sports scene for over forty years.

Of course, The Hawk's playing days were done well before the establishment of ESPN, so few people know of him, and filmed highlights of him are hard to find, which is a shame.  To learn more about Hawkins and his story, I highly recommend the excellent 1972 biography of Hawkins, "FOUL!" by David Wolf.  A terrific book.

RIP Connie Hawkins.

So, What Have I Been Reading Lately?

I am saddened to say that the twenty-fifth and penultimate book in Sue Grafton's series about private investigator Kinsey Milhone proved to be a big disappointment.

The crux of this story involves a ten year old crime that involved a videotaped sexual assault, and left one teen aged girl dead, and sent two teen aged boys to prison.  Ten years after the fact, the young man has been released from prison, but the tape has resurfaced and the young man's family is being blackmailed. There is also a secondary story that picks up a loose thread from the prior Milhone novel.

The story of the ten year old assault and murder is told in flashbacks, and that is a pretty neat technique, but it takes way to long to tell it (the book is 480 pages long), and when you combine the secondary storyline, it really takes too long to tell it.

I love this series, and am saddened to know that it will end when "Z is for_____" will be released in 2019, but if "Y" is any indication, perhaps it is time for Kinsey to call it quits.   

It pains me to do this, but only one star from The Grandstander on this one, but that won't stop me from buying "Z" the moment it becomes available.

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This book consists of series of essays by Pulitzer Prize winning Miami Herald columnist Dave Barry wherein, as the title suggests, he "defends his homeland", the state of Florida.  The essays include ones on various Florida attractions that are not part of Massive Corporate Theme Parks.  Things like Gatorland, a town whose main business is psychics, and a park that features mermaids, among others.  Perhaps the best essays, though, are ones describing the town of Key West, and another that describes The Villages, the enormous senior living community.

Three Stars from The Grandstander.

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Through the magic of Facebook, I have gotten to "meet" a number of interesting folks, including author Lou Sabini, a teacher and author who administers a terrific classic movie site on Facebook called "My Reel Life".  Lou has authored the above book that catalogs over 100 films from Hollywood's "Pre-Code" era, before the notorious "Production Code" was put into effect, a code that had all married couples in the movies sleeping in twin beds, if you know what I mean.  The book includes listings of cast and crew, as well as a synopsis of each film, and photographs from each movie. 

If you are a fan of movies, and classic movies in particular, this book belongs on your movie reference shelf.  You  just might discover, as I already have, that that unfamiliar title you see on Turner Classic Movies some night, just might be an unknown gem from the Pre-Code era.  

"Sex In The Cinema" is available through amazon.com and also from bearmanormedia.com.

Four stars from The Grandstander.

A Trio of Absent Friends

The Grandstander has been away from his post for the last eleven days, but that hasn't stopped the "Departure Lounge" from filling up......

Founder of the Playboy magazine empire and America's foremost hedonist High Hefner died last week at the age of 91.  There can be no doubt that Hefner contributed largely to a shift in American values and mores when he launched his magazine back in 1954.  Whether that was a good thing or not is a point that can be debated, and in the last week, you could find all sorts of commentary both praising and condemning Hefner and his legacy.  Perhaps the best one was a Facebook post from my friend in Ohio, Susan Petrone:

"Hugh Hefner was a great entrepreneur who championed progressive causes and created a massive publishing empire. Too bad he did so at the cost of instilling a societal view of women as decorative sexual objects. I have very mixed emotions about his death."

Well said, but I won't be a hypocrite here.  Like most American males of my age, I read (yes, I read the articles, too) Playboy over the years, but I can honestly say that it has probably been twenty years or so since I have bought or even looked at or read an issue of the magazine, and my question is, Who is actually reading Playboy today, in the year 2017?  The sexuality that was so salacious in my 1960's and -70s youth now seems quaint and almost prim.  Playboy and Hefner wrought a sexual revolution, alright, but that revolution passed both Hef and his magazine by a long time ago. When you look at pictures of Hefner from the last twenty or so years  in his silk robe and captain's sailing hat, surrounded by bevies of women decades younger than he, it called to mind an old saying of my mother's: There's no fool like an old fool.

By the way, a trip to the Google Machine tells me that, according to CNBC, Playboy's circulation peaked in 1972 at 7.2 million copies.  By 2015, circulation was at 820,000.  Like I said, just who is buying Playboy these days?

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Game show host Monty Hall died last week at the age of 96.   Game shows are game shows, and "Let's Make A Deal" was as shlockey and as any of them, but it was and remains immensely popular and it made creator and host Hall a multi-multi-millionaire, so good for him.  His obituaries also detailed how Hall then spent the latter part of his life as philanthropist and charitable fundraiser, responsible for raising hundreds of millions of dollars for various charities over the years, so Double-Good for him.

I was also surprised and interested to not the that one of Hall's daughters is the actress Joanna Gleason.

She is a Tony award winning actress and has appeared in dozens of movies over the years, including several for Woody Allen ("Hannah and Her Sisters" and "Crimes and Misdemeanors").  Like I always say, you learn the most interesting things reading the obits.

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Finally, death claimed rock & roll superstar Tom Petty at the age of 66.

Petty and his Heartbreakers came on the scene in the 1970's at a time when I was early in both my marriage and my working career, so my attentions were elsewhere, and I missed the dawn of Petty's career.  I can claim being familiar with some of his songs, but I can't claim to be a big fan or any authority on his career.  

His death did prompt me to visit YouTube and find his complete performance at the halftime of Super Bowl XLII in 2008.  It's good stuff, and I include it here for your enjoyment.

RIP Hugh Hefner, Monty Hall, and Tom Petty

In The Area of Critical Commentary - Beautiful, E.T., The Big Sick

Random Critical Commentary.....

I didn't want to let too much time pass before talking just a bit more on "Beautiful, The Carole King Musical" that we saw last week on our one day visit to New York City.

The play has been running on Broadway for over four years and has also begun touring nationally.  It tells the story of singer-songwriter Carole King, her life and romance with husband and collaborator Gerry Goffin, and, to a lesser degree, fellow songwriters Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil.  The music that they wrote was the music of a generation that has spanned from the late 1950's and into the 1970's.  If you are my age, there is a good chance that you owned King's seminal album "Tapestry" in your youth, and you no doubt still have it stashed away on one of your digital play lists.

The show was fun, lively, wonderfully performed and acted by the entire cast.  This is a show that will undoubtedly be performed on the High School Musical circuit in the years ahead, even though today's high school  students probably have no idea who Carole King is.  It has everything that would make it perfect for high schools - great songs, lots of dancing opportunities, and a large cast.

A week before we saw the show, actress Chilina Kennedy returned to the title role.  This is Ms Kennedy's second run as King in the show on Broadway, and while she did not originate the role, she has played the part longer than any other actress on B'way, and she has toured with the show as well.  She bore an uncanny resemblance to the young Carole King, and she was simply terrific in the part. Her Playbill bio lists a lengthy summary of her acting credits.  Like many actor and performers from the New York theatrical scene, she is no doubt unknown throughout most of the country, but she is amazingly talented, as was the entire cast of "Beautiful".  

Shortly after we returned home, I purchased the Original Cast Recording of "Beautiful", so I can return to this wonderful show again and again, and I hope that I will have the opportunity to see it on stage again someday.

Chilina Kennedy

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Last week we took in Steven Spielberg's 1982 classic, "E.T., The Extra-Terrestrial" as a part of the TCM Big Screen Classic series.  The movie was as delightful now as it was 35 years ago, and I was glad to have the chance to watch it once again.  While it was an amazing technical achievement when released, you could see how it might be different and perhaps a bit jazzier if made today, given the advances in CGI and other movie making technology. I hope, however, that no one ever attempts to remake this one.  It is just about perfect as it is.  Similarly, I am glad that Spielberg never chose to make a sequel to it.  It was a huge money-making hit, so there were no doubt offers for him to do so.

My buddy, Dan Bonk, asked me if anyone in that movie went on to become a big star.  The obvious answer to that question was Drew Barrymore.  She was six years old when she played little sister, Gertie, and could not have been cuter.  She has gone on to star in, produce,  and even direct feature films in the thirty-five years since "E.T."

The real child star of "E.T.", though was eleven year old Henry Thomas, who played Elliott, the boy who found and befriended E.T.  Thomas never became a big star, but he has steadily worked in movies and television ever since.  IMDB show 62 acting credits for him.  Perhaps the most well known films in which he has appeared were "Legends of the Fall" (1994) and "Gangs of New York" (2002).  In 1990, he played a young Norman Bates in a TV movie called "Psycho IV: The Beginning", and in 1982, the year before "E.T." was released,  he and Joe Greene played the title roles  in "The Steeler and The Pittsburgh Kid", a TV movie based on Greene's famous Coca-Cola commercial.

Barrymore and Thomas (with Spielberg)

Then and Now

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Last night we once again watched "The Big Sick", this time on DVD.  When we saw this movie this past summer, I said at the time that it was the best movie that we had seen thus far in 2017, and seeing it again last night only reinforced that opinion.  If you have not seen it, please do so soon.  It is a terrific movie.

It is also worth seeing for the truly wonderful performance of Holly Hunter, who plays the mother of Emily.  Hunter's performance is one of the best acting performances that I have seen all year, and she surely deserves an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress in this one.