Quickie Critical Commentaries

On this, our 19th day of self-isolation (with the exception of doctor visits and trips to the grocery store), I offer for your consideration, three movies and a novel......

"Snowpiercer" (2013).  This movie was directed by  Korean filmmaker  Bong Joon Ho.  After he swept the Oscars this year with his movie "Parasite" (which I enjoyed, btw), and upon the high recommendation of my pal Alan, I sought this one out on Amazon Prime, and watched it last night.  

After a cataclysmic event causes the earth to freeze and all life to become extinct, only a handful of humans survive and do so while residing on some sort of super train that endlessly circles the now frozen earth.  While I can appreciate the filmmaking - depiction of the train and the apocalyptic remains of Planet Earth are pretty neat - this just isn't my kind of movie.  I watched it on our downstairs TV while Mrs. Grandstander remained upstairs.  When it was over and I came back upstairs, she said "From what I could hear that sounded awful."  Pretty much so, I had to agree.

There were some names in the cast - Octavia Spencer and Ed Harris to name two, and the star was Chris Evans, who has gone on to make a name for himself in all those Captain America / Avengers movies.  In this one, he seemed to be trying to do nothing more than make himself a look-alike for U2's The Edge.

Two Stars from The Grandstander.

The next two movies are oldies and came to me courtesy of Turner Classic Movies and my DVR.

Based on and Agatha Christie play and novelette, "Witness for the Prosecution" (1957) was directed by the great Billy Wilder and starred Charles Laughton, Marlene Dietrich, Tyrone Power, and Elsa Lanchester.  Laughton plays distinguished English barrister Sir Wilfred Roberts who is being urged to retire for health reasons. Lanchester is the nurse who is constantly nagging him to slow down, take a nap, get his shots, and stop smoking cigars and drinking brandy, all of which Laughton delightfully ignores.  He is drawn into one last case defending American ex-GI Power against a murder charge, and Dietrich plays his wife, who may or may not be devoted to him.  It's a terrific courtroom drama with a fabulous Christie twist.  Its as nominated for six Oscars including Best Picture, Best Director (Wilder), Best Actor (Laughton), and Best Sporting Actress (Lanchester).  It did not win any Oscars, but that doesn't make it any less enjoyable and fun to watch.

Three and One-Half Stars from The Grandstander.

Based on a novel by John Godey, "The Taking of Pelham One Two Three" (1974) was directed by Joseph Sargent and starred Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, Martin Balsam, Hector Elizondo, and Jerry Stiller.  It is the story of a ruthless gang of four bandits, led by Shaw, who hijack a New York City subway train and hold it and seventeen passengers for $1 million ransom, and, oh yeah, if the money isn't delivered in one hour, they're going to start killing the hostages.   Matthau is great as the Transit Authority police lieutenant  who must negotiate with head hijacker Shaw.  Matthau plays the dramatic tough guy cop while still being, well, Walter Matthau, and he's great.  He even wears an Irish tweed hat similar to the one I bought for myself when we were in Ireland last year!  Also great in small parts of this movie were actors Lee Wallace, Doris Roberts, and Tony Roberts as the Mayor of New York, his wife, and the Deputy Mayor.

This is always a movie that is brought up when the subject of Remakes of Movies is discussed.  In 2009, someone in Hollywood thought that this movie should be redone, and it was, with Denzel Washington and John Travolta in the Matthau and Shaw roles.  Some remakes of movies are good ("Murder on the Orient Express" comes to mind), some put a different twist on a story that makes it delightful ("His Girl Friday" and "The Front Page), and others are flat out awful.  The 2009 version of Pelham One Two Three was one of them.  My own memory of the remake was the constant and incessant cursing that took place it.  It was terrible.

Stick with the 1974 Walter Matthau version.  It gets Four Stars from The Grandstander.

And for you readers out there....

Alison Thomas is the gorgeous, somewhat snotty, and affluent 18 year old daughter of a Westchester, NY family on a Christmas vacation on the Caribbean island of Saint X (a fictional place for the purposes of this recently released novel).  On the last night of the trip, Alison goes missing, and a few days later, her dead body is recovered.  Two Saint X natives who worked for the high end resort where the Thomases stayed are held and then released for lack of evidence.  

How does such an event affect the lives of those upon whom it touches?  That is the story of this novel. 

The story quickly flashes forward eighteen years, when Claire Thomas, the younger sister who was seven years old when Alison was killed, is now 25, lives and works in New York, and goes by her middle name, Emily, hops into a NYC cab and sees that her driver is Clive, one of the then young men who was arrested for and then released after the death of Alison.  Thus begins the crux of the story as Emily tracks down and develops a relationship of sorts with Clive in an effort to find out THE TRUTH behind her older sister's death.  She also needs to learn just exactly who her sister Alison was, and why her death has shaped who she, Emily, has become.

The story is then told through both Emily's and, to a lesser extent, Clive's point of view, and author Alexis Schaitkin also offers snippets of points of view from some of the people who are a part of this story....the Saint X police chief, a news reporter, other vacationers at the resort at the time of the death,  and a host of others.  It's as really clever device, I thought.  I also thought that the opening chapters, where Schaitkin describes the island and the people who inhabit it, both natives and vacationers, and what lies just below the shiny veneers of these tropical paradises, we're brilliant.  It was what hooked me from the get-go on this book.

The story also touches upon other topics - white privilege and  tabloid journalism, among others - but the most intriguing is the existential question of timing of little events in a person's life when a seemingly minor decision can effect the entire course not only of that person's life, but the lives of countless others with whom they come in contact.  It was those little moments that caused this book to stay with me after I finished it.

There were parts of the story that dragged on a bit too long for me, and might have been a bit superfluous, but I still liked the book and would recommend "Saint X"  to anyone.

Three Stars from The Grandstander.

Of Tigers and Patriots

Despite my comment in my previous post, I have watched some television over the last few days.

You haven't been able to swing a metaphorical dead cat on social media this last few days with hitting a reference to the recently dropped Netflix seven episode documentary series, "Tiger King."  I watched one episode on Saturday, four yesterday, and finished with the final two this morning.

It was compelling in a train wreck sort of fashion, watching the collection of whacky, strange, bizarre, and criminal oddballs who make up this true story of the world of collectors and exhibitors of wild and exotic animals.  (More tigers are privately owned in America today than exist in the wild, according to this series.)  Animal abuse, the black market in owning and selling these creatures, the mysterious disappearance of one of the player's (wealthy) husband, and murder-for-hire are all part and parcel of this one.  It is tabloid television at its Best, or Worst, depending on your point of view.

And, oh yeah, they've set the table for a follow-up to this one, and given the buzz surrounding "Tiger King", I expect that we shall see the sequel in late 2021 or early 2022.

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While going through the TV remote yesterday, I discovered that Fox was showing a replay if the telecast of Super Bowl LI between the New England Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons.  I landed upon this at the precise time when Atlanta scored late in the third quarter to go up 28-3 on the Pats.  There were under three minutes to play in the quarter, and, even knowing how the game played out, I could not tear myself away from watching this.  Besides, don't we all need a Joe Buck Fix during this time of No Sports in the World?

You all remember what happened.  The Pats scored a TD, missed the extra point, made a field goal, then scored a TD, made the two point conversion, then with less than a minute remaining, scored another TD and made another two point conversion (all of which concluded a 91 yard drive with a little over two minutes left in the game) to send the game into overtime, which the Patriots won on a seven play drive that ended thusly:

James White scores on OT

Patriots 34 - Falcons 28

And all of this played out with the Falcons giving one of the supreme choke jobs in the history of sports.  And how much fun was it watching Arthur Blank, who left the owner's box to celebrate, prematurely as it turned out, on the sidelines with his team?  As my pal Tim remarked, "All three pieces of Arthur Blank's $3,000 suit looked depressed."

Regardless of how you might feel about the Patriots, Bill Belichick, or Tom Brady, watching how New England, and especially Brady, took control of this game and won a game that they surely should have lost was, if you really admire and love great football, a joy to see.  

And we have another chance to do something similar here in Pittsburgh tomorrow (Tuesday) night when AT&T Sports will be showing the complete television broadcast of Game Seven of the 1960 World Series, Pirates vs. Yankees.

How We've Been Coping

As we begin Week #3 (or is it #4?) of self-isolation, I thought I would let you know how time is being passed in the now empty Grandstand.  Rather than become total prisoners of the television - we have actually reduced our TV viewing time - we have dusted off some of our collection of board games and have whiled away the evenings with....

Poker's Wild.  A pretty cool game wherein you score points by making poker hands by laying out the cards on a board.  No actual gambling is required, but we began playing for money last night.  A dime a point.  We split two games last night, but Marlyn came out ahead $.70.

Scrabble.  It had been years since we last played this, but we hauled it out last night.  We played an entire game and we both used all of our tiles.  Incredibly, the final score ended in a tie at 230 points each.  What are the odds of that, I wonder? (We were playing for a dime a point in this one, too, but no money actually changed hands.)  By the way, the directions said that the total points in a normal game should range between 500 to 700 points, depending on "the skill of the players", so we are a bit embarrassed that we only managed a total of 460. Definitely room for improvement there.

Blackjack.  We played for big stakes in this one.  Each chip was worth a dime.  We went through two six deck shoes.  Once again, Marilyn came out ahead, winning $1.30.

Yahtzee.  An easy way to pass a couple of hours.  We didn't play for money, and I, uh, can't remember which of us actually won the six round game that we played.

According to my Games-maven pal Fred Shugars, this game was invented by people while sailing on yacht, and no, I don't know why they left out the "C" in the name.

Connect 4.  Easy, simple, fast and fun.  It can also be aggravating when you miss a very simple move that causes your opponent to win the game.  Not that I'd know anything about that.

Pentago.  We picked this game up at some store in a resort town while on vacation a few years ago.  Can't even remember where, but I'm thinking the Jersey Shore.  It's one of those games that, according to the box, "takes seconds to learn, and a lifetime to master."  When I posted this on Facebook, Susan Shugars, wife of Fred, said she never heard of this one.  The implication that I might possess a game that Fred does not own is one that I consider a victory of sorts.

Transamerica.  The object is to connect five cities across the USA by railroad tracks.  A game introduced to us at Fred's Gamesfest a few years back.  This game is really a fun one.  It can be played as a two person game, but is more fun with three or four. 

Oh, and I actually won this one when we played!

We have also spent time as many have, according to all of the Facebook posts, doing a 500 piece jigsaw puzzle, one of a Steelers helmet.

I don't live to do jigsaw puzzles, but somewhere along the way I inherited part of my grandmother, Katie Madden's, puzzle DNA.  Seems like she always had one going on a card table in her dining room.  Once I do sit down with a puzzle, I'm hooked.  Hours can pass by without even thinking about it.  This particular puzzle was a tough one in large part, I think, because there were no straight edges surrounding it.  Like I said to someone, it would have been easier to run through the Steel Curtain than it was to complete this one.  We did it over four days, and probably about 18 or so person-hours between us.

Okay.  Time for a nap.  We've taken a lot of those, too.  

To Absent Friends - Woody Widenhofer

Woody Widenhofer

1943 - 2020

The passing of anyone associated with the Super Bowl Steelers of the 1970's is always worth noting.  So it is that we note the death earlier this week of former Steelers assistant coach Woody Widenhofer at the age of 77.

Widenhofer served as a defensive coach on Chuck Noll's staff from 1973 through 1983.  As a linebackers coach, he can fairly be given credit for coaching and developing two Hall of Fame players, Jack Ham and Jack Lambert.  His time on the Steelers staff encompassed all four Super Bowl victories by the Steelers during that period.  In 1979 he was promoted to Defensive Coordinator, and it was his defense that won the fourth and final Super Bowl for Noll's Steelers in 1979.

He left the Steelers after the 1983 season to become Head Coach of the USFL's Oklahoma Outlaws, and he also had stints as a HC at the University of Missouri, his alma mater, and Vanderbilt University.

We are now only three months through this calendar year, and Widenhofer now becomes the third former Steelers coach from the Seventies Super Bowl teams to die, joining George Perles and Dan Radakovich who had died earlier in the year.  How's that for an eerie coincidence?  If I'm Dick Hoak, I'm thinking very carefully about leaving the house any time soon.

RIP Coach Woody Widenhofer.

Opening Day and Baseball in 2020

"Tough  Call"

Norman Rockwell 

(1949)

When baseball games were 

postponed for more prosaic reasons

Okay, so the original plan for this afternoon was to plant myself in front of the tube and watch the Pirates begin their charge to the World Series in the Opening Day clash with the Tampa Bay Rays in that dump they call a ballpark in St. Petersburg.  However, as we all know, all of organized baseball has been put on hold for at least the next eight weeks for reasons that we all know and that don't need to be restated here.

This doesn't mean that we can't still read about the sport we love, and more specifically, about how MLB is scrambling with plans to provide some type of baseball season in 2020, however truncated it might be.  Both today's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Washington Post have interesting stories on the subject of Baseball in 2020.  Eight weeks, the current length of the postponement period, from today takes us to May 21.  Let's allow for a "Spring Training 2.0" to allow the players, particularly pitchers, to ease back into shape, and let's then say that the new Opening Day for 2020 will take place Monday, June 8. 

At that point in time, the Pirates will have lost 65 games from the 2020 schedule leaving a total of 97 games remaining, and for the purposes of this discussion, let's assume that this would be the case for all of the twenty-nine other teams, give or take a couple of games.  Let us also assume that the MLB will stick to the original schedule, rather than trying to create a whole new schedule.

So, here's the question.  Will a schedule with varying numbers of games for each team, ranging from, say 95 to 105, games be fair or sufficient to determine a champion, or, specifically, teams worthy of competing for a championship in the post-season?  If that is how MLB chooses to go, then the answer is "well, yes, it's just going to have to be sufficient."  And if some players and some owners and the legions of hidebound traditionalists and purists, don't like it, then send them all a T.S. Slip.

Another thought might be to have teams make up a sufficient number for games so that all teams will conclude the season having played an equal number of games, let's say that number would be 115 games.  In the example of the Pirates, that would mean shoehorning in an additional 18 games over sixteen weeks.  Certainly doable, but it might mean giving up some previously scheduled off days, and adding scheduled double headers to the card.  The Players Association might balk at this, but these are tough times and unusual circumstances, to say the least, so they'll just have to suck it up for a season.

The idea of double headers is seriously being considered, and the idea seriously being considered with them is the idea of they would consist of two seven inning games, something that is done in the minor leagues.  I have a couple of thoughts on this, should this concept come to pass....

One, if double headers are scheduled, will the greedy, money  loving Lords of Baseball possibly be able to bring themselves to make these single admission events?  You know, you buy one ticket for both games, making these double headers true "bargain bills", as they used to be called.  Or, will they continue making them split admission events?  The idea of giving the paying customers a "twofer" probably already has Bob Nutting throwing up in the executive washroom at 115 Federal Street.

Two, I can't wait to hear the angry howls of protest coming from the Purists and Traditionalists over the idea of seven inning games, never mind that it makes a whole lot of sense (you know, like saving extra wear and tear on the arms of pitching staffs) given these extraordinary circumstances.   It will just be so much fun to watch the fulminations of the Purists.  It might be even more fun than the games themselves.

Oh, and here's another one floated by Jason Mackey in the PG this morning.  To avoid the possibility of, say, a 17 inning game on the night before a scheduled double header, MLB might consider beginning all extra innings with a runner on second base.  Personally, this is not a rule that I favor, but given a truncated schedule in a compressed timeframe, it might be something worth doing for this season only.  And if THAT does occur, people who still can't handle a Designated Hitter fifty years after the fact will probably just hurl themselves off of the highest bridges that they can find rather than see such an abomination.  The anguished posts and rants on social media platforms and sports talk radio will be positively delicious.

And let's not even begin to think about post season games being played in warm weather, neutral sites during Thanksgiving Week.  Hey, even I can only take so much change.

Anyway, it's good that MLB is even thinking about such contingencies in the hopes that some form of a baseball season can be played in 2020.  We can all only hope that it comes to pass.

Lost Arts

As we begin the second - or is it the third? - week of COVID 19 isolation, one thing we know is that we have all been given a chance to take stock in what the priorities in life are and should be.  Good health, the love of family and friends, faith.   Another lesson is that we should never take for granted the little things, things that may not be important in the overall grand scheme of things, but things that, nevertheless, make life pleasant and fun.  The other day in this  space I mentioned about the lack of Sports these days.  Today, I want to speak about the general topic of "The Arts."

As readers know, we are subscribers to the Broadway in Pittsburgh series.  Last week, the performance of the multi-Tony Award winning "The Band's Visit" that we were to see was canceled, and who knows if we shall ever have a chance to see that show again.  In fact, all Pittsburgh Cultural Trust events through April 6 have been canceled but who at this point knows what lies beyond that date?  We currently have tickets for two more Broadway Series shows, two plays at the Pittsburgh Public Theater, and this concert scheduled for June 16 at PPG Paints Arena:

At this point, I am guessing that none of these events will now take place.  And, of course, there are all the movies that will NOT be opening and that we will NOT be seeing until the movie theaters open once again.  While "heartbreaking" is not the right word to use in this instance, it is certainly disappointing.

In the wake of a public health crisis, are losing these events a tragedy?  No, of course not, but losing any opportunity to enjoy "The Arts", however one might define that term, is a loss that diminishes the soul.

Reflections on Isolation, Week 1

Random thoughts after a surreal week......

As readers know, I love a good cliche, especially when writing about sports, but I generally eschew them, or try to, in normal conversation, but I am going to use one here.  New Normal.  Don't like that one, but it is one that Marilyn and I have been faced with on more than one occasion of late, and this past week of isolation, quasi-quarentining, and social distancing (the latest new buzzword)  has been surreal to say the least.

Hey, we're retired, so it's not like we have a job to go to, or classes to attend, or kids to raise, so what else are we going to do all day, right?  However, when you are, if not ordered to do so, then strongly advised to stay home and do nothing, you find that it's HARD HAVING NOTHING TO DO!!!

So far, this has been our week....I have finished two books and have started on a third, Marilyn has read at least that many, we are halfway through a 500 piece jigsaw puzzle (pictures to follow upon completion), and have brought out the board games (Parcheesi and Poker's Wild so far).  Lots of naps, never a bad thing, but strangely enough, not a lot of television watching.  I did watch a 1971 Lt. Columbo TV movie called "Ransom for a Dead Man" (Lee Grant was the special guest killer.  Man, she was pretty!), and on Monday I watch four episodes of "Family Guy" on TBS.  "Family Guy" is rude, lewd, juvenile, and totally tasteless, but,  God help me, I can't help but laugh uproariously every time I watch it.  I'm not proud of that, but there you are.

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Sports are gone.  No  sports to watch.  While I didn't often plant myself in front of the tube and watch four solid hours of sports every night (with some exceptions, of course), it's remarkable how much you miss by not being able to watch a couple of innings of a baseball game, or a half hour or so of a basketball or hockey game, or spend a Sunday afternoon watching a golf tournament.  Life's pleasures are often taken for granted, and we are certainly missing those sporting pleasures now.

I did watch, and you read about it here a few days ago, a DVD of the complete telecast of the Steelers win in Super Bowl XIII in 1979.  That was fun, and there are five other of those games that I can watch at some point in the days ahead.

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There are two sports in the news.  One is the National Football League, so far unaffected by COVID-19 postponements.  The NFL "year" began this past week with a splash of free agent signings.  The biggest of which was the severance of the twenty year connection between Tom Brady and the New England Patriots, and his signing with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  It is almost inconceivable to imagine Brady in anything but a Patriots uniform, and the odds are that this second act will not end well for him.  True, an aged Peyton Manning left Indy for Denver, and took the Broncos to two Super Bowls, winning one of them, but the odds are that the many tropes posted in the last week (Willie Mays as a Met, Johnny Unitas as a Charger, Franco Harris as a Seahawk, the list goes on) will be the more likely end for Brady, the G.O.A.T.  

A guy like Brady deserves the right to call his own shots as to when and how to end his career, so good luck to him.

Also, we shall now get to see how great a coach Bill Belichick is without Tom Brady as his quarterback. If I had to bet, I would bet that Belichick will prosper more than will Brady in the years ahead, but we shall see.

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In the other sport in the news, the money grubbers at that comprise the International Olympic Committee are continuing to insist that, despite a worldwide pandemic, the Tokyo Summer Games will go on as scheduled come July 24.   Today I read that the USA Swimming, the governing body of that sport in the United States, has called for a postponement of the games.  That appears to be the first significant fissure in the dam that is the IOC, so, again, we shall see.  As my pal Matthew stated in a Facebook post the other day, he often has a hard time deciding who he hates more, the NCAA, the IOC, or FIFA.  Today, the IOC is in the lead.

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I close this post with a picture of a statue of Winston Churchill that stands in Parliament Square in London.  I took this photo when we visited that city last year.  Why am I doing this?  Well, I just finished Erik Larson's terrific new book, "The Splendid and The Vile" (reviewed on this Blog earlier in the week), that detailed Churchill's first year as Prime Minister, a year when Great Britain was at war with Hitler's Germany, and the city of London and all of Britain was being bombed on a nightly basis by the Luftwaffe.  To read how British citizens lived through and survived that horror, and to read that one of the reasons that they were able to come through all of that was the extraordinary leadership of Winston Churchill, offers a large dose of inspiration and perspective.  It did for me, anyway.

Stay well, Loyal Readers.