Pitt 35 - Miami 23....What Lies Beyond?

A few weeks ago, after watching Pitt get outscored by North Carolina, and watching Miami come this close  to beating Florida State, I would not have given Pitt a chance in Hell of defeating Miami, but - drum roll, please - THAT'S WHY YOU PLAY THE GAMES!!!!  Getting in the car after the James Taylor concert last night, I was, well, not exactly stunned, but pleasantly surprised to hear of Pitt's defeat of the 'Canes down there in Coral Gables.  I had the foresight to record the game and have already watched the first half.  

All in all, a great end to what in all honesty has been a disappointing regular season, but the possibility of what could happen in the over-abundant Bowl Season has a lot of people in this corner of the college football world frothing at the mouth in excited anticipation.

The Pinstripe Bowl in Yankee Stadium scheduled for December 27 has ties to down the track finishers in both the ACC and the Big Ten.  Both Pitt and Penn State finished their seasons with 6-6 records, the very definition of "down the track", so what could be more natural than matching up these long time traditional rivals in the fabled Pinstripe Bowl?  I know for certain that Pitt fans would love to see this, and I can reasonably assume that Penn State loyalists will want to see it played as well.

Two long time eastern rivals, playing in New York City after Christmas.  You'd have to believe that alumni of both schools would travel to NYC to attend. The TV ratings would probably be pretty good, too. It would add some real meaning to what would be yet another meaningless bowl game amongst the glut of meaningless bowl games.

In fact, it makes SO much sense to pair these two teams together that I have full confidence that the Bowl officials, the ACC, the Big Ten, and ESPN will somehow manage to screw things up and NOT arrange for this match-up.  The wild card here is the fact that the Pinstripe Bowl, like so many others, also has a tie-in to Notre Dame.  What are the odds that some suit at ESPN or the NYC based Pinstripe Bowl will jump at the chance to take a 7-5 Notre Dame team over Pitt and thus prevent what would be a dream game for the fans of Pitt and Penn State?  Let's face it, ND moves the needle in a way that Pitt and a post-Paterno PSU does not.

We'll see how this played out.

James Taylor Still Sweet

My memory can sometimes be a failing thing, so last night was either the fourth or the fifth time that Marilyn and I saw the great James Taylor in concert.  

The venue last night was the Consol Energy Center, and what can you say?  Taylor and his terrific All-Star Band delivered everything that a fan would want and could possibly expect.  "Fire and Rain", "Up on the Roof", "You've Got a Friend" as well as over a dozen other Taylor standards?  Yep, they were all in there, along with a couple of new songs (a great country blues love song called "Today, Today, Today", for example), some lesser known tracks from old albums, and an old (hundreds of years old, according to JT) Scottish ballad called "Wild Mountain Thyme" to close the night two hours and forty minutes after it began.

We loved the way Taylor talked to the audience throughout the show.  Self-deprecating and humorous, these riffs made the Consol seem like an intimate place.  He told a great story about how back in 1968 he auditioned for some executives for a new record company in London.  The record company was Apple, and the "executives" were Paul McCartney and George Harrison, who immediately signed the twenty year old Taylor to their new label.  He told about how he hung around the Abbey Road Studios that summer recording, while "the lads" were recording what came to be know as the White Album.  "I wish I could remember everything that happened, but I'm sure we all had a great time", he said.

Taylor is now 66 year old.  He has aged very well, and his voice sounds exactly the way it did when you first heard it back in your college days - or my college days, anyway - in the early Seventies.  And what a professional.  How many times do you suppose James Taylor has sung "Fire and Rain" or "You've Got a Friend"?  Thousands? Tens of thousands?  Do you suppose that there might ever be an occasion when he might just go through the motions on stage and phone it in sometime?  Well, he sure didn't last night.

We first saw James Taylor live at the Blossom Music Center in Ohio back in 1976 or -77 when we were living in Cleveland.  I know that we also saw him at Star Lake Amphitheater back in the early '00's, and sometime I believe a performance at Heinz Hall or the Benedum was sandwiched in there, so as I said, last night was either the fourth or fifth time we've seen him, and I can pretty much guarantee that we will see him again whenever the "Country Road" leads him back the Western Pennsylvania again.

A word on the Consol Energy Center.

This was only my second visit to this "new" arena, and it was Marilyn's first.  It really is a nice place.  It was the first time we saw a concert there and the sound, the acoustics, and the sight lines were wonderful.  The blackout curtains were drawn over the upper bowl of the Arena, so the place seemed quite intimate for a huge sports arena.  Very impressive as a concert venue.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

The Grandstander is thankful for, among many other things, all those Loyal Readers out there.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday, one and all!

"The Thin Man Comes to Pittsburgh"

I had mentioned earlier today that Marilyn and I were headed down to the William Penn Hotel for Sunday Brunch and to be  apart of the studio audience for the performance of a radio play of Dashiell Hammett's "The Thin Man".

It was fun experience.

Right off the bat, I have to tell you that attending an event at the William Penn Hotel is really a cool experience.  For those readers outside of Pittsburgh, the William Penn Hotel was built in 1915, and it really epitomizes old style class and luxury in a way that just isn't done any more.

For example, do they build hotel lobbies like this these days?

I don't think so.

Sunday brunch in the hotel's Terrace Room - very nice.  By the way, I am convinced that opulent brunch buffets in fancy hotels is one of the reasons why the rest of the world hates America, but I digress.






We had some time to kill after brunch, so we enjoyed the stylings of a piano player in the lobby while we sat there and enjoyed the atmosphere.

We then proceeded to the Three Rivers Room where the radio "studio" was set for the performance.

Pre-show entertainment was provided.

And then the radio play version of "The Thin Man" was presented.  

The script for this play was adapted from the Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich screenplay for the 1934 film version of "The Thin Man".  The trick here was that this radio script was adapted for a Pittsburgh setting.  For example, Nick and Nora were in Pittsburgh in 1934, not New York, and were staying at the William Penn Hotel.  Professor Wynant did his scientific research for the Mellon Institute. Gilbert Wynant was a student at Duquesne University. The story was interrupted a few times for "commercials" featuring products that played upon Pittsburgh stereotypes (Yinzer Beer, for example).  You get the idea.  The actors played multiple parts, and changed or added small articles of clothing - a scarf or a hat - when they changed characters.  One of the actresses even played Asta!  However, unlike the true old time radio days, all sound effects (ringing phones, doors slamming etc) were provided by the stage announcers lap top!

If you're familiar with the William Powell-Myrna Loy movie version, then you could follow the story.  Like the movie, it was not as gritty as Hammett's original novel, but it was a fun,  breezy, and entertaining show.  A new and different experience for us.

I was able to get this picture of Nick and Nora, as played by husband and wife Chuck and Jeannine Lanigan.

Special kudos go out to Chuck Lanigan as well as he both wrote and directed this play for live radio.

A great start to the Holiday Season!!!

Sunday Plans

Marilyn and I officially kick off our Holiday Season today when we head on down to Pittsburgh's tres chic William Penn Hotel 

for Sunday Brunch,  which will then be followed by being in the audience a performance of a radio play version of Dashiell Hammett's "The Thin Man".  

The "performance" of the radio play will also take place at the William Penn.

I am thinking that this experience will be kind of like stepping back in time to "cafe society" days when Radio was King.

Should be a fun experience.

A Follow Up on Mike Nichols

I just want to make an addendum to my "Absent Friends" post of three days ago about the death of Mike Nichols.

First, a correction.  Nichols won nine Tony Awards, not six. Wow.

As for the addendum, four of those Tony Awards were for directing the following plays:

• Barefoot in the Park
• The Odd Couple
• Plaza Suite
• Prisoner of Second Avenue

What do those played have in common? They were all write by the incomparable Neil Simon.

This raises the question: Could  there ever have been greater convergence of talent in the American theater than the collaborations of Neil Simon and Mike Nichols?

To Absent Friends - Mike Nichols

 Mike Nichols

1931-2014

One of the great show biz talents of the last fifty or so years left us yesterday with the passing of Mike Nichols.

His greatest legacy will be that of the twenty-two movies that he directed, some of them truly landmark films such as "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf", "Catch-22", and, of course, his Oscar winning "The Graduate" (one of my own all-time personal favorites).  The last movie he directed was the very fine 2007 "Charlie Wilson's War" with Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts.

Nichols was much more than that, of course.  He is one of a very select few who have won an Emmy, Tony, Oscar, and Grammy Award.  He was the founder of the legendary Second City Comedy Troop of Chicago.  He has won six Tony Awards, five of them for Directing.  He began as a comedian, and his teaming with Elaine May produced one of the great comedy teams of all time.  Many people have posted YouTube clips on Facebook today of some classic Nichols and May comedy routines.  You could do worse things with your time today than searching some of those out for yourself today.

RIP Mike Nichols.