Wild Card Weekend Predictions

Yes, it is time for the Annual Grandstander Predictions for the NFL Wild Card Weekend Playoff Games.

Raiders at Texans.  While it is ingrained in my DNA to never root for or, even worse, feel sorry for the Oakland Raiders, it is hard not to feel just  bit of sympathy for the Silver and Black this year.  After years of ineptitude, the Raiders had the look of a genuine Super Bowl contender this season, right up until QB Derek Carr broke his leg in the 15th game of the season. Then backup Matt McGloin goes into concussion protocol.  Now, rookie Conner Cook makes his first ever NFL start in a playoff game.  The Texans QB situation isn't much better, but they do have a strong defense.  The TEXANS  to win this one.

Lions at Seahawks.  After a good start, the Lions back into the playoffs after losing the final three games of the season.  The SEAHAWKS  win this one.

Dolphins at Steelers.  The Dolphs come into frigid Heinz Field, and the STEELERS avenge that early season 30-15 loss in Miami on their way to the Super Bowl.

Giants at Packers.   This may well be the best game of the weekend.  The Packers are on a roll, winners of six straight, but the Giants have shown an ability in recent years to overcome conditions at the Frozen Tundra of Lambeau Field.  The Grandstander plays a hunch and says that Eli outplays Aaron, and he GIANTS win.

BONUS PREDICTION - CFP CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

CLEMSON VS. ALABAMA.  I am going to guess that this game may well be more highly contested and more entertaining than any of the four NFL games that precede it this weekend.  An interesting sidelight of this one was Nick Saban jettisoning OC Lane Kiffen on the eve of this game.  Man, those two must have really hated each other.  And while Saban is not exactly the most lovable guy in the universe, I must confess a personal dislike for Clemson HC Dabo Swinney.  This traces back to a game last year, I believe it was in the ACC Championship game, when the Clemson punter made some horrendous gaffe in the game, and Swinney chewed him out as he came to the sideline.  That was somewhat acceptable, but then Ol' Dabo sought the kid out while he was sitting on the bench and then went totally bat-shit crazy on the kid.  On the punter.  Swinney is one of those pious guys who love to invoke the name of the Lord after Clemson wins, but then acts in just about the most unchristian manner imaginable and play tough guy with his punter.  It's not easy to make Nick Saban look like the sympathetic good guy in a given match-up, but in my mind anyway, that's what he is when compared to Dabo Swinney.

So, that's how I'll be rooting.  A Clemson win would make Pitt's season look a bit better since Pitt beat the Tigers at Clemson (remember that one, Dabo?) in November, but I just don't see it happening.  It will not be an easy win, but ALABAMA gets Saban his umpteenth national championship with a win over Clemson on Monday.

There you are....Texans, Seahawks, Steelers, Giants, and Tide are winners.  As always, watch, but don't bet.

Movie Review - "La La Land"

There sure is a lot to like about the movie "La La Land", which we saw this afternoon.  Among them...

• Great performances and chemistry between stars Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone (who just may be the cutest woman in the movies today)
• Terrifically staged song and dance numbers, including one on a Los Angeles freeway and another at the Griffith Observatory
• A great girl-meets-boy motif
• Some really good music
• A story about living and fulfilling your dreams
• Did I mention just how gosh darn cute Emma Stone is?

This movie is making everybody's Ten Best list and many are calling it the best movie of the year.  We went prepared to absolutely love it, and we were loving it....until the end.

Oh, it was yet another terrifically staged number to end the movie, but the actual ending of the story itself left both of us disappointed.  I won't spell it out and spoil it for  those who haven't seen it, and I do recommend that you do see it, but if anyone wants to explain their thoughts on the ending, I am more than happy to listen.

Two and one-half stars from The Grandstander.  (A different ending might have gotten this one three and one-half or even four stars.)

"Mary Astor's Purple Diary"

Are you a fan of old movies and movie stars? Do you like reading about scandals involving the stars of Hollywood's "Golden Age"?  If the answer to those questions is "yes', then I highly recommend that you read this fun little book by Edward Sorel.

Most people know Mary Astor for playing Brigid O'Shaughnessy, the femme fatal who went up against Humphrey Bogart's Sam Spade in1941's "The Maltese Falcon", but like many people, particularly glamorous movie stars, Mary Astor had a life off of the screen, and a "past".  And she kept a diary, which got her into trouble and set off a media feeding frenzy back in 1936 when she got involved in a child custody hearing with her ex-husband.

Mary Astor came from humble, very humble, circumstances, but her striking beauty got her noticed and she began acting when she was teenager in silent movies in the early 1920's.  She also had the misfortune of having two not-so-great parents who managed to bilk her of most of the money she earned, and, as often happens, she also was very unlucky when it came to picking husbands.

This led to Mary seeking "comfort" elsewhere, and led to an affair with George S. Kaufman, one of America's foremost playwrights.  When you think of  masculine good looks and virility, you would not think of Kaufman, but, apparently, in addition to his great wit when it came to writing plays and screenplays, he was also possessed of skills in the boudoir that most men can only dream of, and Miss Astor fell hard for him and took full advantage of said skills. And she kept that diary.  At the time all of this was unfolding , Astor was filming a major motion picture at MGM and the thoughts of how such a scandal would hit the ticket-buying public was scaring the bejeezus out of the studio honchos, who in turn tried to exert their considerable political clout on the judge in the custody trial.

How it all unfolded makes for a great story, and how Sorel, an illustrator by vocation (in fact, his illustrations throughout this book contributes greatly to the enjoyment of it), came to unearth the story and set about writing this book, essentially a Valentine to Miss Astor, makes for a most breezy and entertaining read.

I learned about this book when someone posted on Facebook a New York Times book review that was written by none other than Woody Allen.  Allen's review was most entertaining, and prompted my to read the book itself. 

Here is Allen's review:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/22/books/review/woody-allen-edward-sorel-mary-astors-purple-diary.html?mwrsm=Facebook&_r=0

And, of course, I cannot leave you without a picture of Mary Astor herself in her most famous role.

Good book worth two-and-one-half stars from The Grandstander.

Old Movie Review: "Postcards From The Edge"

The deaths last week of Carrie Fisher and her mother, Debbie Reynolds (see http://grandstander.blogspot.com/2016/12/two-absent-friends-carrie-fisher-and.html ), prompted us to seek out and watch the 1990 movie, "Postcards From the Edge", screenplay by Carrie Fisher, based on her novel of the same name.

Directed by the great Mike Nichols, the movie stars Meryl Streep as  young actress Suzanne Vale and Shirley MacLaine as her mother, Doris Mann, a one time star of movies and cabarets.  Suzanne has never quite been able to escape the shadow of her famous mother and this has led to a life filled with "mother issues", and, oh, yeah, drug addiction.  The movie opens with Suzanne screwing up on a movie set because of her drug issues and ending up on a rehab center.  In order to get work in a shlocky movie, the producers insist that she live at home with her mother for the duration of the filming.  This opens the entire can of worms that Suzanne has struggled with her entire life.

It was no secret at the time that Fisher's novel was published that this story was autobiographical in nature.  I didn't read the book, but the movie pulls no punches in describing the rocky nature of the Mann-Vale/Reynolds-Fisher relationship.  It is biting and at times quite uncomfortable to watch the two fight and struggle to come to terms with each other, even when the daughter is now a middle-aged adult.  (Funny bit of dialog:  When Streep tells MacLaine that she, Streep, is now middle-aged, Shirley responds by saying that "you are young; I'M middle-aged", to which Streep replies "How many 120 year olds do you know?")  Turns out that Mann/MacLaine, now a past her prime star, has some mother issues of her own, and a fairly serious drinking problem, which, of course, she denies while castigating her daughter for her drug issues.

Smaller parts in the movie are played by Annette Bening, Richard Dreyfuss, and Gene Hackman.  Hackman's part is pretty key, actually.  He plays a movie director who threatens  to see that Suzanne never works again because of her drug issues, but who turns out to play a key role in helping her out, not only in her career, but in her relationship with her mother with this particular exchange of dialog:

Lowell: You know, you're not going to get a lot of sympathy. Do you know how many people would give their right arm to live your life? 

Suzanne: But that's the problem. I can't feel my life. I look around me and I know so much of it is good. But it's like this stuff with my mother. I know that she does these things because she loves me... but I just can't believe it. 

Lowell: Maybe she'll stop mothering you when you stop needing mothering. 

Suzanne: You don't know my mother. 

Lowell: I don't know your mother, but I'll tell you something. She did it to you and her mother did it to her and back and back and back all the way to Eve and at some point you just say, "Fuck it, I start with me." 

Suzanne: Did you just make that up? 

Lowell: Yeah, well, I was working on it when you came in. If you'd shown up a half hour later like you were supposed to, it would have been better. 

Suzanne: It's pretty good as it is. 

Lowell: Yeah, you just like it because it sounds a little like movie dialogue. 

Suzanne: That's right, I don't want life to imitate art, I want life to be art.

The very best scene in the movie may well be the final scene wherein Suzanne, acting an a new movie, sings a slow country ballad called "I'm Checking Out".  The entire movie crew is taken by the performance, including Doris (MacLaine), who is on set watching her daughter during filming. It is a triumphant performance, and it ends the movie "Postcards From The Edge", but without breaking stride, and seemingly in one take, Streep performs the song again, this time in a rocking up-tempo manner as the film's closing credits roll.  It is absolutely terrific!

As one might expect, given the people involved, Fisher's script, and Nichols' direction, the acting is terrific in this one, and, yes, Streep did receive one of her twenty (or is it twenty-one?) Oscar nominations for her performance in this one.  This movie is now twenty-seven years old, long enough ago that Streep was able to play the daughter  in it.  Given the nature of Hollywood, and the attention surrounding both Reynolds and Fisher due to their deaths, I can just picture someone in some studio boardroom pitching this one...."Hey, let's strike while it's hot and do a remake of "Postcards From the Edge", only this time, Streep will play the mother."  Would that surprise anyone?

Three stars on this one from The Grandstander.

Steelers and Panthers and Lions, Oh My

A brief look at the recently completed weeks, and in two cases, seasons for three of the local football teams.

STEELERS

Everyone knows that the Steelers, with nothing to play for in Week 17, sent out the junior varsity against the Browns in order to avoid key injuries as they head into the NFL post-season this coming weekend.  Incredibly, the awful Cleve Brownies jumped to a 14-0 lead and had the Steelers on the ropes in that game.  However, some poor decision making on the part of either the Browns' coaches or QB Robert Griffin III, combined with some equally poor play and execution demonstrated just why the Browns managed to lose fifteen games this season, and the Steelers prevailed, 27-24 in overtime.

The big winner in that game was undoubtedly Steelers backup quarterback Landry Jones.  After an pretty bad first half, Jones rallied in the second half, and in the overtime, he was positively Ben-like in leading the team on a 75 yard do-or-die drive, completing a pass on fourth and two to continue the drive, and then throwing the TD pass to win the game.

Jones' rookie contract expires at the close of this season, and he will be an unrestricted free agent.  Will his big game on Sunday  cause some Desperate-for-a-QB  NFL team to shower Jones with a big money contract? Seems unlikely, but look at what Houston did last year with Brock Oswieler.  Jones made the most of his opportunity, so I hope it works out for him.

PITT

The Panthers 2016 season ended in pretty much the same fashion as the 2015 season did with a loss in a bowl game that gave them a finishing record of 8-5.  Unlike last year's bowl, when they were clearly outplayed by Navy, this loss to Northwestern was frustrating due to the fact that stars James Conner and Nate Peterman were lost for much of the game due to injuries.  You can only wonder "what if" had those injuries not occurred.

It was a fun and entertaining season that Pitt provided its followers, including big wins over Penn State and Clemson at Clemson.  A lot to be excited about and look forward to in 2017, but Pat Narduzzi and his staff really need to get some help on the defensive side of the ball next year. And, oh, yeah, find a QB to replace the solid Peterman.

PENN STATE

When Penn State lost to Pitt in the second week of the season, and got pasted by Michigan two weeks later, most of the talk centered around who would be the next coach in Happy Valley after James Franklin, who was sure to be fired after the end of the season.  We all low what happened then...nine straight wins, including beating undefeated Ohio State, and a Big Ten Championship, and a tough loss in the Rose Bowl to USC last night by a score of 52-49, certainly the most entertaining and best game of the New Year's weekend, if not the entire Bowl season.  Certainly a better game than either of the two CFP games on Saturday.    I mean, Alabama and Clemson will have a long way to go next Monday to top that Rose Bowl game.

To me, James Franklin appears to be a really good coach, despite the curious propensity of this years' team to seemingly phone it in in the first halves of games.  A couple of years ago he was being talked about as a possible NFL head coach.  I haven't heard such talk this year, but if you were an NFL owner in need of a coach, why wouldn't you consider Franklin? Seems to me that that is what PSU fans should be worrying about insofar as their football coach is concerned.

The Books of 2016

Yes, it is that time for my eagerly awaited summary of the books that I have read in the recently completed year.  2016 saw me read 45 books.  Mostly fiction.  Mostly for relaxation.  Mostly the kind of stuff that I enjoy when I am reading it, but usually forget what it's all about once I am done.  However, some books do stay in your mind long after reading, so allow me to share them with you one final time.  If you want to know more about them, just type the name of either the book or the author into the search box in the upper left corner of this page.

So, in no special order of significance.....

Non-Fiction

"American Pharoah" by Joe Drape.  The story of the thoroughbred race horse that won the Triple Crown in 2015, from the moment of his conception (yep, that's exactly what I mean) to his retirement to a Kentucky stud farm.  Great study, not only of American Pharoah himself, but of his owner, trainer, jockey, and all of the characters that populate the Sport of Kings.

"I'd Know That Voice Anywhere: My Favorite NPR Commentaries" by Frank Deford.  The title of this one should be self-explanatory.  A collection of commentaries over several years by perhaps America's best and most literate sportswriter.

"The Arm" by Jeff Passan.  A study of arm injuries to pitchers, primarily in Major League Baseball, but extending all the way down into amateur baseball played by young teenagers. Why are there so many serious injuries to baseball's most precious commodity, and what can be done to prevent them?  Interesting and disturbing at the same time.

"Hamilton the Revolution" by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter.  A series of essays surrounding the creation and presentation of the transformative Broadway show, "Hamilton", that also includes the complete libretto of the musical with footnotes from Lin-Manuel Miranda.  Read the essays, and then read the lyrics on a printed page while listening to the music.  It gives you an entirely deeper appreciation of this epic work.

"American Heiress" by Jeffrey Toobin.  The story of the kidnapping, search for, and the arrest and trial of newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst.  It was one the biggest ongoing news stories of the 1970's, and it is pretty much forgotten about today.  Thoroughly researched and wonderfully written by the author.  

Fiction


"The Maltese Falcon" by Dashiell Hammett.  I reread this classic 1928 detective story, and make no mistake, it is a classic.  If you've only seen the movie and never read the book, do yourself a favor and read it.  Hammett is considered the father of the classic hard-boiled American detective story, and "The Maltese Falcon" shows you just why that is.

"Miller's Valley" by Anna Quindlan.  Not the sort of novel I usually read, but this was truly a terrific story about a young girl's life and dreams while growing up on a small farm in a central Pennsylvania valley, and twists, turns, and breaks, both good and bad, that are dealt to her on her journey to adulthood.  Great book.

"Better Dead" by Max Allan Collins.  Collins delivered to us a new novel in his series of Nathan Heller "memoirs".  This one involved, among others, Joe McCarthy, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg,, and Dashiell Hammett.  Collins and Heller never disappoint.

"The Last Days of Night" by Graham Moore.  A novelization of the real life battle between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse over "who invented the light bulb".  Sounds simple, but it wasn't.  Truth really can be stranger, and more interesting, than fiction.

I also discovered a series of police novel by an author named James Hayman.  They feature Portland, Maine police detectives Michael McCabe and Maggie Savage.  There are four of them out there, and I believe that a new one is scheduled to be released this month.  Can't wait for it.  See http://grandstander.blogspot.com/search?q=James+Hayman

The past year also saw the following novels published by some of my favorite authors:

"Breakdown" by Jonathan Kellerman
"Extreme Prey" by John Sandford (a Lucas Davenport story)
"Escape Clause" by John Sandford (a Virgil Flowers story)
"Razor Girl" by Carl Hiaasen

There you are. If you are looking for something to pass the time in the cold winter months ahead, you could do a lot worse that reading any one of the books listed above. 

Welcome, 2017

Welcome one and all to the brand new year of 2017.  Yesterday, my pal, Tim Baker, shared on Facebook the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip that you see above.  I could think of no better way to welcome in this brand new year than to place it in the first Grandstander post of 2017.

This, incidentally, was the final original strip of this classic Comic by Bill Watterson. It ran on December 31, 1995.

Happy New Year, one and all!