Movie Review - "The Highwaymen"

In the ever-changing paradigm of how movies are delivered to the movie going public these days, at least in  the world that includes Netflix, "The Highwaymen" was released to selected theaters last March (I don't believe it ever reached a movie theater in Pittsburgh), then withdrawn two weeks later and made available only to subscribers of Netflix.  I can recall hearing some positive reviews of the movie at the time, so last night, this new Netflix subscriber decided to watch it.

The movie is billed, as you can see in the picture above, as "the untold true story" of "the legends who took down Bonnie & Clyde."  The two legends in question are a couple of aging put-out-to-pasture Texas Rangers named Frank Hamer and Maney Gualt, played by Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson, who are called upon by Texas Governor Miriam "Ma" Henderson, the governor who disbanded the Rangers and replaced it with more modern police and investigators who used more up-to-date methods in tracking down criminals and preserving the peace.  Well, these modern guys were having no luck back in 1934 halting the murderous reign off terror being brought about by the infamous Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, so Henderson (Kathy Bates)  reluctantly agrees to authorize Hamer and Gualt as "highwaymen" to capture and, hopefully, kill Bonnie and Clyde, and makes it clear that she is not all that concerned with pesky little details like due process of law.  So old-timers Costner and Harrelson are off and running using methods that will make Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry Callahan look like some bleeding-heart sissy pinko.  The New York Times review of the movie called is "Grumpy Old Men meet Bonnie & Clyde."

This is a movie that sounded like it could be a lot of fun, but I found it slow moving and at times almost ponderous.  It was kind of fun watching Costner and Harrelson playing the old guys who, if they are now unable trying to chase down a teen-aged kid on foot anymore, they can still kick the asses of bad guys when the need arises.  

Bonnie and Clyde (Emily Brobst and Edward Bossert) are more like MacGuffins in this one rather than full blown characters and are seen full face on in only the climactic scene of the movie.  Unlike 1967's classic "Bonnie and Clyde" with Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, this movie is told strictly from the lawmen's point of view.  In both movies, the criminals are seen as Robin Hood-type heroes by the downtrodden folks of Depression Era America ("Did Robin Hood ever murder someone in cold blood for four dollars and a tank of gas?"), and - spoiler alert! - Bonnie and Clyde come to a similar end in this one as they did back in 1967.

As another review I read stated, the story of "The Highwaymen" may tell a story closer to the truth than did "Bonnie and Clyde", but that doesn't mean that it's a better movie.  The Grandstander agrees and gives this one only Two Stars.

A couple of historical footnotes: 

• Not sure if this is true or not, but it is said that at one point, Hollywood kicked around the idea of telling the story of Hamer and Gualt with Paul Newman and Robert Redford playing the parts.
• The "Bonnie and Clyde" 1967 version is not available on Netflix.  If you want to know the story of the demise of the Barrow Gang, Netflix will only give you their version.
• Not long after the events portrayed in this movie, the Texas Rangers were reconstituted and still exist today.
• In the interest of historical accuracy, here is a picture of the real Bonnie and Clyde.  Beatty and Dunaway, they ain't!

Old Movie - "The Anderson Tapes" (1971)

Through the magic of TCM and the DVR, I watched this 1971 movie the other night. "The Anderson Tapes" revolves around an ex-con, Sean Connery, planning and executing a major heist of a NYC townhouse apartment building. The twist to the movie is that all of his moves have been recorded, either audio or video, by various parties, and no one can put together what is about to take place.  

The movie and the Lawrence Saunders novel upon which it is based attempts to make a statement about "big brother" and how we are always being watched and how our privacy is being invaded and on and on. However, I look at it as just an exciting and thrilling caper flick that holds up great forty-eight years after its release.

Sidney Lumet directed the movie, one of five that he did with Connery, and it also stars Dyan Cannon (was any actress of the time period prettier or sexier than she?), Martin Balsam, Alan King, and, in his first motion picture role, a very young Christopher Walken. In a bit character role, you will also notice Margaret "Wicked Witch of the West" Hamilton.

It's a really good movie, and if you've never seen it, you should make a point to seek it out and watch.

"A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood"

We saw the long awaited "A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood" earlier this week, and we were not disappointed.  As no doubt everyone knows by now, the movie stars Tom Hanks as Fred Rogers, and Hanks is, as he usually is, terrific in the role.  What people may not realize is that this is not a biopic about Fred Rogers.  Nor is it, as my friend Maryellen has pointed out on a Facebook post, a movie to which you would bring your little children in hopes of  them becoming avid viewers of "Mister Rogers Neighborhood".   

It does, rather, tell a very specific story about about writer Tom Junod (identified as "Lloyd Vogel" in the movie, and wonderfully played by Matthew Rhys), who is assigned to interview Fred Rogers by Esquire Magazine for a piece on Heroes.  The hard-bitten and jaded writer, who is experiencing some familial relationship problems of his own, falls under the spell of Rogers' universal lessons of kindness and the unique person-ness (a world that I just made up) that resides in each and everyone of us.  In seeing the effect that Fred Rodgers has had on this one specific person, we also see how he as affected every single person with whom he came in contact, either in person or through "Mister Rogers Neighborhood".  

In a country and a world where kindness seems to be in short, very short, supply, "A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood" gives us a  lesson on what it is to be kind.  That alone makes seeing this movie important and worth seeing.

Director Marielle Heller has made a movie that will no doubt garner multiple Oscar nominations.  She made a decision to shrink the screen to a 4-by-3 aspect ratio whenever the movie depicts the Rogers television show, which is really cool, and the use of miniatures to depict not only Mister Rogers Neighborhood, but the cities of Pittsburgh and New York, are wonderfully whimsical.  This should get Oscar noms for both Heller and for the production designers.  Rhys and Hanks should pull down nominations as well, although Hanks' nomination might very well come in the Supporting Actor category.

This movie gets Three and one-half Stars from The Grandstander.

One comment about Tom Hanks, and it is not an original thought from me.  Have you noticed how Hanks seems to now be portraying only real people in his films these days?  Fred Rogers, Ben Bradlee, Sully Sullenberger, the guy who  negotiated for the spies in "Bridge of Spies"?  Not sure what this means, but it just seems interesting.  Whatever the role, Tom Hanks is no doubt the Actor of Our Times, much like James Stewart and Spencer Tracy were in another time.

Broadway in Pittsburgh - "A Bronx Tale"

"A Bronx Tale" began its life as a one-man play by actor-writer Chazz Palminteri about his life as a young boy and man growing up in  New York City and his interactions with Sonny, the local wiseguy who oversaw various underworld activities in the Bronx neighborhood where he grew up.  In 1993, it became a movie that was directed by Robert De Niro and starred both Palminteri as Sonny and De Niro as Lorenzo, the honest bus driver who strove to keep his son, Calogero, from falling into the life led by Sonny and his crew.  In 2016, "A Bronx Tale" opened on Broadway as a musical, a musical that is now touring nationally and that is now playing in Pittsburgh as part of the Broadway in Pittsburgh series.

We recall watching this movie back in 2011 at the urging of our good friend Bill  Montrose, and we enjoyed it a lot, as you can read here....

https://grandstander.blogspot.com/2011/10/movie-review-bronx-tale.html

However, when we saw that this would be a part of the series this season, we really didn't know what to expect.  As my friend Wendy often tells me, sometimes going into something with reduced or low expectations can be a good thing, and that was certainly the case last night.  Dan, Susan, Marilyn and I were completely blown away by this show last night.  To paraphrase what I wrote about the movie in the post linked above, the play is about the Mob, it's about family values, it's a coming of age story, it's funny, and it's deadly serious, and in this iteration of the story it has some great songs and terrific dancing numbers.  Unless you are a regular listener to the Broadway channel on Sirius XM, you won't know any of the songs, but they are all really good and fit the show perfectly.  Our favorite was the eleven o'clock number, "One of the Great Ones", sung by Sonny to Calogero.

As always, I am in awe of the talent of the actors who perform in these shows.  The names are not familiar to me, but their credits in the Playbill are always a mile long, so I want to recognize the three main stars of this company of "A Bronx Tale":  Jeff Brooks as Sonny, Alec Nevin as Calogero, and Nick Fradiani as Lorenzo.

There are five shows remaining in this season of Broadway in Pittsburgh, and it is hard to imagine that any of them will top "A Bronx Tale".  It gets the full Four Stars from The Grandstander.

To Absent Friends - Michael J. Pollard

Michael J. Pollard

1939-2019

As C.W. Moss in "Bonnie and Clyde"

Michael J. Pollard, who died yesterday at the age of 80, had an acting career that stretched from 1958 through 2012, and an accumulation of 116 acting credits, per IMDB.  It began with appearances on television series over the years such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Andy Griffith Show, and The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, and some minor roles in mostly forgettable motion pictures, but in 1967, he rocketed to stardom and an Academy Award nomination when he portrayed driver and gunsel C.W. Moss in 1967's "Bonnie and Clyde."

With Gene Hackman, Faye Dunaway, 

Estelle Parsons, and Warren Beatty.

Parsons did win the Supporting Actress Oscar 

for her performance in this movie.

He didn't win the Supporting Actor Oscar that year (George Kennedy of "Cool Hand Luke" did), but for the period of time when "Bonnie and Clyde" was wowing movie audiences and critics everywhere, Pollard attained his fifteen minutes of fame.  I seem to recall that Merv Griffin had him on his show almost every other day.

Pollard appeared in some movies of consequence over the years....Melvin and Howard (1980), Tango and Cash (1983), and Dick Tracy (with old pal Warren Beatty in 1990).  He also appeared is  direct-to-video gem in 1983 called "Candy the Stripper."  No awards nominations for that one that I could find.

Anyway, he pretty much worked steadily well into his seventies, which, I suppose, is all that an actor really wants in his or her life, and did achieve some degree of immortality by appearing in "Bonnie and Clyde", one of the greatest movies of its era, and, depending on what critic or film buff you want to read, one of the greatest of all time.  He had to be pretty satisfied with that.

RIP Michael J. Pollard.

Welcome GMBC

GMBC, the New Guy

Word leaked out over the weekend that the Pirates will be hiring Ben Cherington as their new General manager.  The hiring will be formally announced at a Noon presser at PNC Park today.

Cherington, who now assumes the social media acronym among us Pirates yakkers of GMBC, spent the last two seasons in the Toronto Blue Jays front office.  Prior to that, he served as GM of the Boston Red Sox.  During that period, he added a notation to his resume that no Pirates GM has had in several generations: He was the GM responsible for fielding a team that won a World Series (2013).

Cherington's credentials are a mile long, and he certainly seems to be a good hire for the Pirates at this moment.  Unfortunately, the Pirates' front office, in the person of principal owner Bob Nutting, has screwed the pooch so often in the last four years, that it is hard to get excited about anything that they do.  Thanks for that, Mr. Nutting.

But let us give the new guy a clean slate upon which to write and see what he can do.  He did it in Boston when billionaire owner John Henry was writing the checks.  Good luck to him with Nutting setting the fiscal policy of the franchise.  He's going to need it.

To Absent Friends - Vera Clemente

 Vera Clemente

1941-2019

If the Pittsburgh Pirates had a "First Lady", it would had to have been Vera Clemente, the widow of Pirates Hall of Famer, Roberto Clemente.  Mrs. Clemente died this past Saturday, not long after her family announced that she was hospitalized for an undisclosed illness.  As Post-Gazette reporter Jason Mackey put it, Vera, a widow for almost forty-seven years, is now no doubt enjoying a long awaited reunion with her husband.

Vera Clemente never remarried, instead continuing the philanthropic and humanitarian work begun by her husband.  She was a frequent visitor to Pittsburgh, and it was not unusual to see her at Three Rivers Stadium and PNC Park attending Pirates games over the years.

I remember some years back, probably in the early 1980's, a caller to Myron Cope's radio show recounted how when he, the caller, was in Puerto Rico on vacation, he looked up Mrs. Clemente and paid a visit to her home to pay his respects to her and the memory of Roberto Clemente.  Kind of a creepy story on one level, but he recounted how gracious and charming Vera was to he and his family when they called upon her.

RIP Vera Clemente.

What We Are Watching On TV

In the past week, we have committed to throwing ourselves into several streaming television series.  

The first was Amazon's "Modern Love". Eight episodes that we have already finished.  Really delightful take on varied forms of love and romance in a contemporary setting. We found it thoroughly delightful.

Next came Season 2 of "Jack Ryan", also on Amazon. We've been waiting for this one ever since we devoured Season 1 a year ago in about three days. The first episode promises more of the same slam bang action.

Yesterday I re-upped for Netflix (get the first month for free!) as Season 3 of "The Crown" debuted last night.  As followers know, Claire Foy has been replaced by Oscar winner Olivia Coleman as Queen Elizabeth II to show a "more mature monarch" (or the Queen as an "old bat", as she herself stated in Episode 1) as the time frame has shifted to 1964. Other cast members have also been replaced, most notably Helena Bonham Carter as Princess Margaret. The actors playing Phillip and others have also been replaced, but, honestly, who cares about them? Episode 1 was excellent and the new season promises to be a good one.

So far, we have watched only one episode each of "Jack Ryan" and "The Crown." We are going to try to savor these rather than devour them in only three or four sittings Wish us good luck with that.  

We also gave Amazon's "Fleabag" a try, although we are two seasons behind on this Emmy Award winning series. Have only seen one episode thus far, but it was enough to make us want to revisit it and give it a shot.

And, of course, we are very anxious to catch the new season of "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" when it returns to Amazon next month.

Lots of good TV viewing in the weeks ahead.

Browns 21 - Steelers 7

Not quite 48 hours have passed since the that El Stinko of a Steelers loss to the Browns on Thursday night.  The game itself and its results have been overshadowed by they ugly scene between Myles Garrett and Mason Rudolph that you see above that took place with :08 remaining in the game.  Is there really any further need to elaborate on it and the suspensions that followed in its wake?  The entire affair was best summarized by my pal Dan who said that if the preceding Monday Night game between Seattle and San Francisco embodied all that there is to love about the NFL, the scene at the end of the game on Cleveland on Thursday embodied all that there is to dislike about the NFL.

As to the game itself, it exposed the weaknesses and difficulties facing your 2019 Pittsburgh Steelers, namely....

• Playing with a (essentially) rookie quarterback in Mason Rudolph, who definitely had his worst game as a Steeler. Do you give up on him?  Absolutely not, but becoming a star, or even a very good QB in the NFL is a process, and, except in rare instances, it doesn't happen overnight.
• No running game.  James Conner, after missing two games, reinjured his shoulder and was gone in the first quarter.  Other injuries at the position have reduced the Steelers to playing someone named Tony Brooks-James, who was out of the League three weeks ago.
• Injuries to wide receivers.  Both JuJu Smith-Shuster and Dionte Johnson left the game with concussions, and Rudolph was left having to throw to James Holton and Tevon Jones, another guy who was out of work just two weeks ago.

It was a real mess on Thursday, but are the Steelers done for the season?  Well, unless they can overcome the three bullet point listed above, I suppose so, BUT they are still 5-5 and face the Bengals and the Browns  in the next two weeks.  If they can take care of business in those games and sit at 7-5, who the hell knows where it might lead?  And by the way, I can't wait for that rematch with the Browns, who, despite wins over the Ravens and Steelers this year, are still a bad team.

However, they have to get healthy and they have to be able to run the ball, otherwise, well, you can see where this will all end up.

Sara Bareilles

Last evening, Marilyn and I toddled on out the the new Events Center at Robert Morris University to attend a concert given by singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles.  She is currently on tour to promote her latest album (do they still call them albums?) "Amidst the Chaos".

I admit that I came in rather late to the Sara Bareilles party.  Bareilles, who will turn forty next month, released her breakthrough album, "Little Voice", in 2007, and has been a rather big star ever since, but I did not really become aware of her until our great friend, the late Bill Montrose, told me about her and the Broadway musical "Waitress" that she had written and that premiered on B'way in 2016.  Since then, I became a fan, and when it was announced that she would be among the first concert acts at the new RMU Center, we made sure that we would be there.

She certainly did not disappoint.   She performed for close to two hours before the sold out crowd at RMU.  She gave us all of the songs from Amidst The Chaos, as well and several of her older hits, and a series of four songs from "Waitress", including its beautiful Eleven O'clock Number, "She Used To Be Mine."  She was also very personable and friendly in speaking and interacting with the crowd, and, of course, it goes without saying that she has a beautiful singing voice. She was backed by a seven piece band and the staging and lighting for the show was great.  

The new Events Center at RMU passed the test with me as a concert venue.  It's a small arena, seating about 4,400, so Elton John and Taylor Swift won't be performing there, but the size of the place lent it a degree of intimacy that was perfect for a performer like Ms. Bareilles.

The Grandstander rates this as a Three and One-Half Star night.

I will close with this video of Sara Bareilles from performing her anthemic song "Brave" before a live audience back in 2013.  Her performance of this one last night was one of many highlights of the night.

RMU Speakers Series - Bob Woodward

Last night the Robert Morris University Speakers Series presented Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author Bob Woodward of the Washington Post.  As we left Heinz Hall last night, Marilyn said that he was "enthralling" and that summed it up perfectly.

Woodward spoke about he and Carl Bernstein's coverage of the entire Watergate story and how its lessons still relate to happenings today.  He also spoke of his interactions with and coverage with nine United States Presidents (20% of all of the Presidents in our history), his reverence for his one time boss Katherine Graham, and he concluded with an amazing story of how his feelings evolved over the decision of President Ford to grant Richard Nixon a full pardon for the role that he, Nixon, played in the whole Watergate affair.  It was a tremendous story and it led to Ford being given a Profiles in Courage Award from the John F. Kennedy Library some twenty-five years after the pardon.

I will not spell out everything that Woodward spoke of in his lecture last night, as I will stick to my policy to avoid political commentary in this Blog so as to avoid riling people up, but I will mention one comment that he did make.  "Every time that a lie is told, a debt is incurred against the truth, and sometimes the repayment of that debt can be very painful."  That's not an exact quote, but I think I got the gist of it right.

Suffice to say, I could have listened to Bob Woodward speak for another couple of hours last night.

Oh, and he did end on a humorous note.  The final written question from the audience was How cool was it to be portrayed by Robert Redford in a movie?  "You have no idea" Woodward responded, "how many women that has caused me to disappoint over the years."

A New Venue Makes Its Debut

The new Events Center at Robert Morris University made its debut for basketball when the the University of Pittsburgh paid a visit to Moon to help RMU inaugurate the new arena in grand fashion.  The Colonials made it interesting in the first half, leading by 11 at one point, and the teams were tied 27-27 at the half, but alas, even a struggling ACC team is no match for a mid-major like RMU, and the Panthers prevailed 71-57 in the end.

The result wasn't as important as the event itself.  Good for Pitt for making this gesture, the HC's whining pre-game comments aside.  I look forward to seeing many exciting Colonials victories at the new place this season and in seasons ahead.  And I am also looking forward to seeing Sara Bareilles perform there in concert later this month, so this place will be more than just a basketball arena on the local landscape.

A look at some of last night's festivities...

The historic opening tip-off

 The student section, the "Colonial Crazies", were loud and into it.

Hope that they show up in similar numbers all season long. 

Somewhere among them was the Steelers JuJu Smith-Shuster

 They make me nervous when they do these stunts!

Sellout Crowd

NFL Power Rankings, Week 10 - Grandstander vs. FGE

Time to take a look at the NFL Power Rankings according to The Grandstander (GPR) and Frissora Gaming Enterprises (FGE).

Lots of similarities.

First, The Grandstander Power Ratings for Week 10 of the NFL If the NFL Did It Like College Football Does It.

1. Ravens (jump from #4 to #1)
2. Patriots (idle Pats hold down second spot)
3. Saints (loss to Falcons cause Saints to drop two spots - for now)
4. Seahawks (MNF win over SF puts them in the Top 4)

Knocking at the door....49ers, Packers, Texans

Now, the FGE Rankings.  Here is his verbatim report to me:

After this week's action the Top 3 do not change, but the Ravens move up a
notch into the TOP 4.  FGE wasn't buying the 49ers, and not surprised if
they end up 10-6.  Steelers are #12 by the way.

1 - (last week #1) - New Orleans - Everyone is entitled to a bad day at the
office.

2 - (last week #2) - New England - Week off to gear up to close out the
season with 7 straight.

3- (last week #3) - Seattle - FGE has been on Seattle all year.  Not
surprised for a SB rematch with NE

4 - (last week #5) - Baltimore - Breaks the Top 4 after sitting on the edge
last week.  Fun team to watch, both sides of the ball.


Only team close to breaking into this crew are the Packers.

As you can see, we have the same four teams, but in different order.  John has the local team at #12 on his rankings.  As I see it, the Steelers need to win two of next three games (Browns, Bengals, Browns), and possibly even sweep those three, before I have them "knocking at the door."

Steelers 17 - Rams 12

The Steelers beat the Los Angeles Rams (you know, the team that played in the Super Bowl last year) yesterday, 17-12.  The win was attributable in large part to a defensive effort that can be placed on the same page with some of the great performances of the Steelers' Steel Curtain past.

Need I remind you that the Steelers sat at 1-4 a little over a month ago and nobody foresaw that team playing with a back-up quarterback and no running game to speak of would be in such a position five weeks later.  History may well point out that the key to this turnaround came after Week Two when GM Kevin Colbert traded next year's first round draft choice to Miami for second year safety Minkah Fitzpatrick (seen above scoring a touchdown yesterday off of a fumble recovery).  Since then, Fitzpatrick had four interceptions and has scored two touchdowns.  His interception at the end of the game yesterday sealed the victory for the Steelers.  Since his arrival, he has drawn comparisons to Steelers icons Rod Woodson and Troy Polomalu.  He is a legitimate candidate for Defensive Player of the Year in the NFL.

In that same discussion is linebacker T.J. Watt.

Watt's play has been nothing short of astounding with sacks and forced fumbles and the constant pressure he applies to opposing teams quarterbacks.  If I had to vote for a Steelers MVP at this point in the season, it would be a coin-toss decision between Watt and Fitzpatrick.

On the other side of the ball, Mason Rudolph is not making us forget Ben Roethlisberger, not yet anyway, but he does seem to be getting better, and a competent game manager is what the Steelers need most at this point, and Rudolph is filling the bill.  It would help if he had a decent running game (please get healthy, James Conner) and receivers who wouldn't drop passes (four key drops yesterday).  Rudolph did look pretty good during that eight minute fourth quarter drive that led to a field goal yesterday.

Looking ahead, the Steelers could conceivably be favored in their next six games - @ Browns, @ Bengals, Browns, @ Cardinals, Bills, @Jets - leading up to the season finale against the Ravens in Baltimore.  It is unlikely that they will win all six of them and sit at  11-4 on that final Sunday, but would you be surprised to see them at 9-6 and in the hunt for a playoff spot at that point?  Unlike Steelers fans, though, the coaches and players seem to have adopted one-game-at-a-time approach, which is what you they really have to do.

One thing is for sure, though, is that the Steelers have turned this into a very interesting season, and, as I said, who saw that coming after that OT loss to Baltimore on October 6?

********

The Steelers honored their past this weekend by celebrating "Steelers Alumni Weekend".  The celebration produced this very interesting team photo.

The Steelers are always looking forward in their approach to winning in the NFL, but it is nice that they celebrate and honor their past as well.  This picture sure denotes the passage of time, but it brings back a lot of great memories, too.

To Absent Friends - Robert Freeman

Robert Freeman

1936 - 2019

With His Most Famous Photo

The newspaper today brings the news of the death of British photographer Robert Freeman at the age of 82.

Fate struck Mr. Freeman in August 1963 when George Martin and Brian Epstein called upon him to see if he would do a photo shoot for an album cover for an up-and-coming rock and roll band, The Beatles.  With no make up artists or hair stylists present, the four Beatles showed up in a hotel dining room in Bournemouth.  They were wearing black turtleneck sweaters.  Freeman positioned them against a dark background, had Ringo Starr slouch down in the right front and took the black and white photo of the four unsmiling half-in-the-shadows faces that, essentially, introduced The Beatles to, if not the world, then certainly to the United States.

The album With The Beatles was renamed Meet The Beatles for the US market, and the rest, as they say, was history.  What I learned in reading the obit today was that the photo on the album was one group photo of all four Beatles.  I had always assumed that they were four individual photos that were patched together to make the iconic album cover.

Freeman became a kind of quasi-official photographer to The Beatles.  In addition to the Meet The Beatles picture, he photographed the album covers for Help, Beatles For Sale, and Rubber Soul.

He also took the photos that were used over the end credits for the movies "A Hard Days Night" and "Help."

Prior to all of this, Freeman was known as a portrait photographer.  He photographed Nikita Khrushchev in his Kremlin office, and took photos of many famous jazz artists as they performed in Great Britain.  It was these photos that brought him to the attention of Epstein.

RIP Robert Freeman.

Our UK/Ireland Trip, Part V - Wales and Back in England

With this installment, I will wrap up this series of Posts describing our vacation to the United Kingdom and Ireland.  As I have often said, there is only so much that people want to hear about other people's vacations.

On Friday, October 11, our Irish Ferries boat landed in Wales and we headed in towards Cardiff.  After being serenaded with a song from, you guessed it, Tom Jones, a three hour ride took us to this location:

The Glyndwr Vineyard was the location of the final planned dinner of our tour, the "Be Our Guest" meal wherein a local family invites you into their home and prepares a meal comprised of local foods and dishes.  Glyndwr Vineyard is a family owned and operated vineyard.   It is located in an absolutely gorgeous setting, the meal was delicious, the wines were great, and it might have been the best experience that we had on the entire Tour.  Some photos from the night.....

 The gent in the center is Jack, the owner of Glyndwr. 

He was like a character right out of an Agatha Christie novel.

Livestock on the vineyard.  The llamas are there to 

herd the sheep and protect them from predators 

such as foxes and badgers.  Who knew llamas could do that?

 The table settings

 The meal

 Checking out the merchandise

 The product!

 The vineyard, or a portion of it

 Marilyn and Susan with our new friend Susan Cope from Michigan

Dan took a picture of me taking the above picture

After settling into our Cardiff hotel, we explored downtown Cardiff for a bit, and then headed off to bed to prepare for a busy day on Saturday.

The next morning we went to Cardiff Castle.  Yep, one more castle to see.  What was interesting about this one was that it was located at street level right in the heart of a bustling neighborhood.  

When you walk through this gate, the place opens up into an amazing castle courtyard.

Cardiff Castle was for many years privately owned, by the Earl of Something-Or-Other until the family could no longer afford to run and maintain the place.  Sometime in the mid twentieth century the Sixth or Seventh Earl of Something-Or-Other gave up the ghost and turned it over to a government trust which now maintains and runs the place.  It was used as strategic military outpost during WW II.

After leaving Cardiff, we crossed back into Jolly Old England and a stop in the beautiful city of Bath and visit to the ancient Roman Baths.

Some Bath street scenes...

 This guy was singing "The Sounds of Silence"

And while in Bath, we ran into this guy...

This is Marilyn's nephew George Moellenbrock III, or G3 as he is known in the family.  How it came to pass that George, who lives and works in New Mexico, was in Europe at the same time that we were, and how this encounter was planned and executed is a story that deserves its own separate Grandstander post, and I will save it for another time.  Suffice to say that it was it was great to see George on this trip.  We figured that it had been at least two years since we had last seen him, and that he made the effort to be in the same place on the same specific date as us meant a lot to both of us.

After saying good-bye to George, the tour left Bath and headed towards the last stop on the Tour.  

Yes, our final destination was Stonehenge.

Stonehenge is exactly what you expected to see.  A bunch of giant stones that were arranged in some strange patterns over 5,000 years ago.  The most amazing thing about it is that to this day learned men and women still have no idea as to WHY the stones were arranged as they are, or HOW they were put in place.  There still are mysteries in life that will never be solved, and that is kind of cool to realize.

After Stonehenge, it was back on the bus and getting taken to the place where our adventure began - the Park Plaza Riverbank Hotel in London.  Our Trafalgar coach traveled 1,556 miles, plus two ferry boat crossings of the Irish Sea in eight days.  It was time for one more night in England and then journey home.

That evening we found a terrific Italian restaurant called Locale within walking distance of our hotel, and the four of us had a terrific meal on our final night.  On the walk back while walking in a London drizzle, I took this final photo of our trip:

One last breakfast on Sunday morning, a ride to Heathrow and a fascinating conversation with our driver, and gentleman from Zimbabwe now living in London, and before you knew it, after an on time and smooth flight, we were back in Pittsburgh.

It has now been almost a month since our return home, and the memories of our trip keep getting better and better.  On the Monday morning after our return, I made this final entry in a journal that I had been keeping on our iPad, and I can think of no better way to end this series of Grandstander posts:

It was a great trip.  Riding a bus for eight days and changing hotels throughout was a new experience for us.  We had more great times with Susan and Dan, experienced many terrific sites in five different countries, made many new friends, and made many, many new memories. This trip will no doubt be our #1 experience of 2019.