To Absent Friends - Elwood Edwards

Elwood Edwards died this week, one day before his 75th birthday, and if you don't know who Elwood Edwards is/was, well, all I can say is that THIS is why I do "Absent Friends" pieces.

Edwards was a camera technician and graphic designer at television station WKYC in Cleveland whose wife was working for a then small internet company.  Back in 1989 she suggested that her firm use the voice of her husband to make a recording that would welcome users to this new online platform.  Edwards then recorded four short phrases:  "Welcome", "Files Done", "Good-bye", and the most ubiquitous and most famous one of all, "You've Got Mail".   Hey, let him tell you about it in this YouTube video.

Who didn't make their first stab at going on the internet and using a personal email account with America Online?  Even if you didn't, you most certainly have heard that unmistakable voice saying "You've got mail."  I always thought that it was some computer generated voice.  It never occurred to me that it was a real person that actually said those words.  Edwards' famous words were even made into a terrific Nora Ephron romantic comedy with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.  Edwards also appeared on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon uttering those famous phrases.

AOL paid Edwards $200 for making the recording.  Too bad he didn't think to ask for residuals.

RIP Elwood Edwards.

To Absent Friends - Quincy Jones

 

Quincy Jones

1933-2024

Yes, it crossed my mind right away that I would be doing an Absent Friends post on Quincy Jones when I heard of his death at the age of 91 two days ago.  Just what would I have to say about Jones, I wondered, and then I read THIS COLUMN by  Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson.   I urge you to click on the link and read it, because, unlike The Grandstander, Gene Robinson is an actual professional columnist, and nothing that I could write about Mr. Jones could eclipse what was written in this column.

But let me say a few things anyway.

You know I love movies.  How about this partial list of movies that Quincy Jones scored:

• In Cold Blood
• In The Heat of the Night
• The Wiz 
• Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
• The Anderson Tapes

And those are just movies that I happen to like.  There are dozens more. When scoring The Wiz in 1978, he got to know a very young Michael Jackson, and that led to a collaboration when Jones produced these albums for Jackson - Off the Wall, Thriller, and Bad.  How is that for a Hall of Fame Ballot?

A few weeks ago in THIS SPACE I wrote about watching the documentary "The Greatest Night in Pop" which was about the recording of the song We Are The World in 1985.  Quincy Jones was the driving force behind that recording, and he was the only person who had the ability to make it happen.  From that Gene Robinson column linked above:

Only Jones, the sun in his own musical solar system, could have convened the multitude of performers who assembled in 1985 to record “We Are the World,” an effort to raise funds for African nations suffering famine. What do Michael Jackson, Bob Dylan, Diana Ross, Cyndi Lauper, Paul Simon, Dionne Warwick, Lionel Richie, Al Jarreau, Stevie Wonder and Waylon Jennings have in common? They all came to sing, and to take instruction, when Jones asked.

I urge you to go to your Netflix Machine and watch it to gain a fuller appreciation of what a force Quincy Jones was.

RIP Quincy Jones.

Kritic's Korner - A Musical, A Movie, A Book

& Juliet

We took in the second show in the Broadway Pittsburgh Series last night, & Juliet. The show is a reimagining of Shakespeare's "Romeo & Juliet" with the idea that Juliet does not die at the end.  What comes next for her?   The story is told by Shakespeare himself and his wife Anne Hathaway.  He thinks the play is perfect as he has written it.  She thinks that better story can be told with Juliet surviving.  The whole thing is presented in Jukebox Musical fashion using contemporary songs from artists like Katie Perry, Brittney Spears, Pink, The Backstreet Boys, and others.

The show is colorful, loud, and funny, and Linda and I loved it.   The actors playing Shakespeare and Anne have terrific dialog in their interactions and thoughts on this "new" play, and they keep the story moving along .  One of her great lines in the show to him is "Oh, will you just quit quoting yourself."  And there is a line at the end of their final number had me laughing out loud.  I won't write it down here.  You'll need to see the show yourself.

When I get home from seeing these shows I always go through the Playbill and read about the actors we have just seen, and I am always amazed at the talent and the credentials of these performers.  Foremost in this case was Rachel Simone Webb, pictured above, who played Juliet.  She could belt out a song like you wouldn't believe (Katie Perry's "Roar", for example) and is an absolutely terrific dancer.  Teal Wicks, the actress who played Anne, made her Broadway debut playing Elphaba in Wicked, and was an original cast member on B'way of The Cher Show and Finding Neverland.  Cory Mach, who played Shakespeare, appeared earlier this year in Merrily We Roll Along, a show that won a little thing we like to call a Tony Award.

Four Stars from The Grandstander.

Conclave

"Conclave" is the first movie that we have seen thus far that can be classified as an "Oscar bait" movie.  The movie takes place in the present time, and it opens with the death of the Pope in Rome.  We then follow the conclave that takes place thereafter where the College of Cardinals convenes to elect a new Pope.  Those of us educated in Catholic schools know that when a conclave takes place, it is the Holy Spirit that descends upon the voting Cardinals and guides them as they make this momentous choice.  While the movie acknowledges this precept, it also shows us the these same Cardinals are human beings with human ambitions and foibles, and that the Catholic Church is every bit a political body as it is a spiritual one.

The story can be described as a political thriller, and the acting is tremendous, led by Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, and Isabella Rossellini.  I expect that this movie will get a slew of Oscar nominations including Picture, Director (Edward Berger), and acting noms for Fiennes for sure, and probably Tucci and Rossellini as well.

Interestingly, when I went on the Google machine getting a picture for this post, I saw a couple of articles with words to the effect of "Catholics, you should not see this movie!"  Which is probably an excellent reason why you actually SHOULD see this movie.

Three and One-Half Stars from The Grandstander.

The Hitchcock Hotel

Alfred Smettle is strange sort of fellow, a devotee of filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock who runs a Hitchcock-themed hotel/B&B in the small college town in Vermont where Alfred went to college.  On the one year anniversary of the opening of his hotel, he invites his five friends from his college Film Club for the weekend at his Hotel, all expenses paid.  The six pals have not been together since they left college sixteen years before.

We learn early on that Alfred is a bit of a weirdo, that something bad happened among the six pals during their senior year, and we are left to wonder (a) what was that "something bad", and (b) if it was so bad, just why in the hell do all five of these people show up for Alfred's little get together?

As you might expect, someone dies in this one.  Was it an accident, or a murder?  

What follows is an Agatha Christie-like "and then there were none" type of story.  Who had motive to do such a thing?  What are each of these people hiding from each other?  And what's with Danny, that weird old lady head housekeeper who is always hanging around?

As a whodunit, the premise here is pretty good, but the author Stephanie Wrobel's exposition of the motivations is revealed way....too....slowly.   The allusions to Hitchcock and his movies that are laced throughout the book are fun, though, and it makes for an interesting plot device.  Example: on the grounds of the Hitchcock Hotel is an aviary that houses fifty crows.  Subtle, huh?

Two Stars from The Grandstander.

 

To Absent Friends - Teri Garr

 

Teri Garr

1944-2024

Sad news arrives this week of the death of actress Teri Garr at the age of 79.  

My memory of Miss Garr is somewhat strange.  I was living in the Cleveland, OH area in the mid-1970's at the same time that Teri Garr became well known upon the release of Mel Brooks' "Young Frankenstein" in 1974.  It happened that Garr was born and raised in the Cleveland suburb of Lakewood, and every newspaper or on the air mention of the movie stated that is starred "Lakewood's Teri Garr."  Much like Pittsburgh media goes overboard with mentions of folks like Michael Keaton, Fred Rodgers, Gene Kelly, or Wiz Kahilifa.  Strange memory to have of someone, but there you are.

IMDB list 159 credits for Teri Garr, the last one being in 2011.  Later in life, Garr was stricken with MS, whereupon she became a spokesperson in fighting for research  into this terrible affliction. 

In addition to the aformentioned "Young Frankenstein" perhaps Garr's best known roles came in movies like "Tootsie", "Mr. Mom" (wherein Lakewood's Teri Garr co-starred with Robinson Township's Michael Keaton), and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."  It was a highly successful acting career which was cut short way too soon due to her illness.

Most of the news stories of her death led with her part as Inga in "Young Frankenstein" (above) where many of her lines were double entendres as only Mel Brooks could serve up.  Like THIS ONE.  Or THIS ONE.  Funny stuff from a lovely and talented actress who was dealt a bad hand later in life.

RIP Teri Garr.

To Absent Friends - Fernando Valenzuela

 

If you were around in 1981 and were a close follower of Major League Baseball, or even just a casual follower, you most certainly remember the astonishing debut season of Los Angeles Dodgers rookie pitcher Fernando Valenzuela, and the wave of "Fernando-mania" that swept across the sports world that summer.  A few months ago, I heard LA sportswriter Bill Plaschke on Around the Horn asking people to keep Valenzuela, who for many years served as a commentator on the Dodger's Spanish language broadcasts and telecasts, in their thoughts as he was suffering some "health issues", so the news of his death this week at the way-too-young age of 63 didn't come as total shock, but it still shakes you up anyway.

Valenzuela became a starting pitcher at the beginning of the 1981 season only because Jerry Ruess was injured.  In his first game, he pitched a complete game shoutout, and he just took off from there.  In his first eight starts that year, he was 8-0, pitched five shutouts, gave up four earned runs (0.50 ERA), and here's the best part, HE COMPLETED ALL EIGHT GAMES.  Unfathomable in the Major League game as it has come to be in 2024.

These numbers stand out in stark relief as today's Dodgers prepare to start the World Series against the New York Yankees tomorrow night.  If you have been following the Playoffs, you know that "bullpen games" have become the thing during this biggest stage that MLB gives us.  The Dodgers did two of them in the NLCS, and they will not doubt continue to do so in the coming World Series.  The Dodgers will be starting guys who haven't pitched 72 innings all season, something that Valenzuela did in his first eight starts as a rookie.

He played with six teams over 17 seasons, eleven of them with the Dodgers, and compiled a 173-153 W-L record with a career ERA of 3.54.  In six post season starts, he was 5-1 with 1.98 ERA.  In his lone World Series appearance in 1981, he turned in a complete game victory over the Yankees.   I can remember reading once, and I can't remember who the sportswriter was, who, when writing about a Playoff series game, wrote something like "The lump that kept growing on Valenzuela's buttock throughout the game was the Montreal Expos, whom Fernando was shoving into his hip pocket all night."  What a great line.

Valenzuela's career numbers, good, but not Hall of Fame great, don't even begin to summarize the effect that he had on baseball during that strike-marred season of 1981, and his cultural impact among the Latino community of Southern California. 

RIP Fernando Valenzuela.

 

Russ Cooks. and Other Sporting Thoughts

The talk all last week among the sporting cognoscenti here in The Burgh was Mike Tomlin's not so secret decision to start Russell Wilson at quarterback over Justin Fields.  You could make an argument in favor of fields, who had led the Steelers to a 4-2 record and seemed to be improving each week.  Personally, I was not totally sold on Fields, for whatever my opinion might be worth, and I figured that Tomlin gets paid big money to make these decisions, and if he goes with Wilson, well, then let's just see how it will all play out.

After a first half in which Wilson's performance could be charitably described as "shaky", Tomlin apparently spray coated Russ down with a can of Rustoleum to remove whatever rust had accumulated on him, and both Wilson and the Steelers proceeded to kick the collective asses of the New York J-E-T-S Jets Jets Jets. 

 As I usually do, I stayed off of social media as I watched the game last night, so it was with a wry sense of delight that I looked at my Facebook feed after the game and saw all of the posts that were made throughout the first half of the game (New York led 15-6 at halftime).  Tomlin was being crucified by all the armchair GM's out there.  My favorite was some one who stated that by starting an obviously over-the-hill Wilson in place of Fields, "the Steelers have become the Pirates."  It was quite amusing, actually.   I haven't checked yet today to see if any of those experts retracted any of their statements.

Under Wilson's hand, the Steelers scored four touchdowns in a game for the first time since November of 2022.  They sit at 5-2 and should be considered in the second tier of teams, behind Kansas City and Baltimore, in the AFC.  We will see how it goes with Wilson as the season wears on, but he was throwing the kinds of passes last night that we haven't seen from Fields so far this year, and certainly unlike anything we saw all of last season.

One other Steelers note.  The team had its "Alumni Weekend" where they honored the 1974 team on the fiftieth anniversary of their first Super Bowl Championship team.  

Nice team picture, ain't it?  To observe the occasion, the team wore "throwback" jerseys that featured the block numerals that they wore throughout the 1970's and into the 1990's.    This begs the question:  When will they return to the block numerals permanently?  I don't know of a single Steelers fan anywhere who would not be in favor of that.

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In other sports news....

In the fifth and final game of the WNBA Championship Series, the New York Liberty defeated the Minnesota Lynx to claim their first ever WNBA title.  The final game went into overtime, the second OT of the series, and was a thrilling game right until the final buzzer.  In fact , four of the five games were all decided by razor thin margins.  The competition was thrilling and terrific sports theater.  If you are a basketball fan, but chose not to watch the Playoffs, you deprived yourself of some damn exciting hoops watching.

If it had not attained such status prior to 2024, this year marked the occasion when, I believe, the WNBA has arrived as a full fledged "major league" sport in America.  Many people came to the sport because of Caitlin Clark, but once they arrived, I think that eyes were opened as to just how good and enjoyable the women's game is.  I, for one, will be looking forward to next season.

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In one other event of significance last night, the Dodgers defeated the Mets 10-4 in the sixth and final game of the NLCS, thus setting up a "traditional" World Series between the Dodgers and the Yankees.  That is, if you consider something that hasn't happened in forty-three years a tradition.  

In that deciding game last night, both teams used seven pitchers, continuing a trend that I lamented in my most recent Grandstander post.  As friend Dave Glass noted on social media this morning, a Dodgers win 

"..will be the first time recent memory (and I'd bet ever) that a team won with basically zero starting pitching. Call me an old man but I think baseball is better when the starters matter at least a little.  I don't need Bob Gibson, but 6 or 7 innings maybe?"

Couldn't have said it better, Dave.

One intriguing thing that this World Series does give us it a head to head matchup of the two best hitters in the game today, Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge, and I most certainly do look forward to that.

I'll predict a Yankees victory and hope that it goes seven games.

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I know that many of you are probably asking, "But, Bob, the Jets-Steelers, Lynx- Liberty, and Mets-Dodgers were all on at the same time. How could possibly have taken all of that in last night?"

Well, when your various television sets are no longer tethered to cable boxes, a little unplugging and moving around can turn any living room into your personal Sports Bar.

This solved the problem of the 8:00 PM conflicts, but also came in handy when watching the Penguins in the afternoon up against the 1:00 NFL games, and I even caught some of the Liverpool-Chelsea EPL match game in the late morning.

You may say that you feel sorry for my wife for putting up with this, but actually, movies the two other sets into the living room was her idea.  Those other two sets were returned to the bedroom and the office earlier this morning.

Shouting At Clouds During Baseball's Post-Season

This post is supposed to be my views on the Steelers after six games, but the "action" from Game 2 of the ALCS on Tuesday night is causing me to take a detour into Old Man Shouting At Clouds territory.

Here is a  segment of the box score from that game between the Yankees and the Guardians:

As you can see, Cleveland used eight - EIGHT! - pitchers in that game, the longest stint of any one pitcher was one and two-thirds of an inning.  This was not a spring training exhibition game, nor was it some throwaway game in the dog days of August between two teams playing out the string.  This was Game Two of a best-of-seven series to decide the winner of the American League pennant.  When Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt came out in the six to seventh inning to make a second mid-inning pitching change, I turned off the TV and went to bed, but hey, at least he didn't use a position player to pitch like Derek Shelton might have.  

The Yankees won that game 6-3.  I am grudgingly willing to accept the fact the day of work horse starting pitchers who will start thirty games a season and complete twenty-five of them now reside in the dustbins of baseball history.  Bob Gibson, Warren Spahn, and Bob Friend aren't walking thorough the clubhouse doors anymore.  We'll never see another Jack Morris-John Smoltz Game Seven match-up ever again.  However, has the role of the starting pitcher in baseball now been so marginalized that we see something like the Guardians gave us on Tuesday become the norm in games of such magnitude?   

The next night in New York, Walker Buehler went four strong, shutout innings for the Dodgers against the Mets. He was mowing them down, but he was pulled after the fourth inning, and LA then used four more pitchers to complete an 8-0 shutout over the Mets.  In commenting on that, my pal Brian O'Neill said at breakfast yesterday, "Well, it worked, didn't it?"  I don't have a comeback for that one, other than the fact that I don't have to like the trend just because it works (sometimes).

In Cleveland's 7-5 win over the Yankees last night, the Guardians once again used eight pitchers, but at least starter Matthew Boyd went five innings (hope that won't put him on the disabled list) and the game did go into extra innings.  The Yanks used seven pitchers.  Only seven. 

At least we can still enjoy majestic home runs like the two that Shohei Ohtani has put out of the yard these last two games.