"Masked Prey" by John Sandford

Every spring I look forward to the publication of a new Lucas Davenport thriller by John Sandford. This year, and especially in this year of pandemic and social isolation, was no exception.  So it is with disappointment that I have to say this this 29th tale in the Davenport Saga came as a, well, disappointment. 

(By the way, as Sandford was writing this one, I'm sure he couldn't have begun to imagine the irony of the title of this book released in America in April, 2020.)

Federal Marshall Lucas is called to investigate the seeming threats that are being made by an Alt-Right website against the children of members of Congress.  We are then led into an exploration of these hate groups and the sub-culture of Second Amendment Gun Nuts that seem to be proliferating EVERYWHERE Lucas and his colleagues turn.  That's fine, in and of itself, but then Sandford has Lucas bring the case to a conclusion in what was a disappointing way, to me at least.  I can't say more than that without giving a major spoiler.  If you are a fan of the series, by all means read it, and perhaps you will disagree with me, which is okay.  Let's just say that this is one that I won't be rereading at any point in the future, but hey, even Sandy Koufax got batted around every once in awhile.

The Grandstander gives this one only Two Stars, but I would like to quote one bit of dialog from early in the book that I really liked.  After interviewing US Senator Roberta Coil, whose daughter is one of the threatened, Lucas has this exchange with her:

"...we're dealing with crazy people with guns..."

"Why do crazy people have guns?"  Coil asked.

"You'd know the answer to that better than I would, Senator," Lucas said.

To Absent Friends - Little Richard

Richard Penniman

"Little Richard"

1932 - 2020

A figure on the Mt. Rushmore of American Rock and Roll left us today when Richard Penniman, known to the world as Little Richard, died at the age of 87.  There can be no greater indication of Richard's influence on the musical culture than the tributes that have been appearing on the interwebs all day long.  Artists such as Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr have testified as to the influence that Little Richard had on their music and careers.  Enough said.

Little Richard had a string of hits in the mid-1950's but the hits stopped around 1957, but he never really went away, and songs such as Lucille, Long Tall Sally, and Tutti Frutti will be with us always.

Oh, about that Mt. Rushmore.  It can be debated, of course, but I don't think anyone would strenuously argue if the Mt. Rushmore of American Rock and Roll consisted of Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Little Richard, and Jerry Lee Lewis.  Only Jerry Lee, at age 84, is still with us.

RIP Little Richard...."a wop bob alu bob a wop bam boom!"

Enjoy....

"A Royal Night Out" (2015)

Two days ago in this space, I wrote about the 2016 movie "Carrie Pilby" and its charming young star, Bel Powley.  In researching her, I learned that she had appeared in a 2015 film called "A Royal Night Out" that had an intriguing premise: On VE Day, May 8, 1945, in London, the Royal Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret begged their parents, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth to be allowed to leave the confines of Buckingham Palace to be able to celebrate the momentous occasion with "all the people."

In historical fact, Elizabeth and Margaret did leave the Palace that night, stood in the crowds in front of the Palace and walked the streets incognito as part of a group of sixteen people that included military personnel.  Elizabeth wore her military uniform and Margaret was only 14 at the time.  Neither was recognized and they were both back in the Palace by 1:00 AM.  (Officially, the night "never happened", and the future Queen spent the evening at an affair at the Ritz Hotel.)  That wouldn't have made much of a movie, however, so screenwriters Trevor De Silva and Kevin Hood and director Julian Jarrold takes on a "well-what-if-this-would-have-happened" journey wherein the Princesses shake their bodyguards, get separated, and spend the night trying to find each other, a journey that has them riding on public buses, takes them through Trafalgar Square fountains, a stuffy nightclub, a whorehouse (there is a great scene when a hungover Margaret recounts the evening to her parents and asks "just what is a Knocking Shop?"), dodgy parts of town, a ballroom where they dance to swing music, and other assorted adventures before they somehow manage to return to Buckingham Palace just as the sun comes up.  The future Queen learns the lessons of what everyday Londoners - she hears the King's VE Day address on a radio in a pub - think of the Monarchy and the effects of war on the many who served in it, courtesy of a young hunk of an airman named Jack. 

It was farfetched and kind of ridiculous, but it had its comic and charming moments, and it was highlighted by the young actresses who played Elizabeth and Margaret, Sarah Gadon and the aforementioned Bel Powley.

Sarah Gadon

as

"Subaltern Lieutenant Windsor"

Powley and Gadon

as 

The Princesses Margaret and Elizabeth 

"A Royal Night Out" gets Two Stars from The Grandstander.

"Carrie Pilby" (2016)

Thanks to a tip from friends Dan and Susan, we discovered the 2016 movie, "Carrie Pilby."  I had never heard of this movie, although I don't think that retired folks of a certain age - us! -  were not the target audience for this one.

It is the story of a young Englishwoman prodigy (she graduated from Harvard at age 18) living alone in New York City.  Still shaken from the death of her mother when she was twelve, Carrie is alone in NYC, and as smart as she is, she is having trouble adjusting to life.  In fact, she's pretty messed up.  She is seeing a therapist to help her cope, even though she's too smart to be doing so, she thinks.  At her father's insistence, she takes a job as a proofreader in a law firm, where she meets some "real" people.

This movie could - COULD - have been about an unlikable, over-entitled brat, but in the hands of first time director Susan Johnson and a completely engaging performance by Bel Powley as Carrie, the movie becomes a quite charming and even heartwarming coming-of-age teen RomCom.

Bel Powley is an English actress who was totally unknown to me, but I found her to be thoroughly delightful.  She is somebody for whom I will want to keep my eyes open.  Also in the cast where Nathan Lane as her therapist, Gabriel Byrne as her father, Josh Ritter as a blind date of Carrie's, and as her work girlfriend, Vanessa Bayer, and SNL vet who was a real hoot.

One really great scene is when Carrie and her good looking next door neighbor (William Moseley) take a walk through the New York streets at night.  The scene is shot in one continuous take with the two of them walking towards the camera.   Really nice.

Really fun little movie.  Three Stars from The Grandstander.

To Absent Friends - Don Shula

Don Shula

1930 - 2020

Pro Football Hall of Fame Coach Don Shula died yesterday at the age of 90.  Shula's football life and his passing are noteworthy, to me at least, for a number of reasons.

• His 328 victories as a head coach with the Baltimore Colts and Miami Dolphins are the most in NFL history.  Let me restate that, more wins as an NFL head coach than ANYONE ELSE IN HISTORY.
• HIs 1972 Dolphins are the only undefeated team in NFL history.
• Six of his teams went to the Super Bowl, winning two of them.

• Two of his sons became head coaches, David with the Cincinnati Bengals and Mike at the University of Alabama.   Neither met with the same successes as their Dad.
• He coached three Hall of Fame quarterbacks - Johnny Unitas, Bob Griese, and Dan Marino.
• In 1969, he recommended to Art and Dan Rooney of the Steelers that they hire one of his young assistants, Chuck Noll, to be their new Head Coach.  The rest, as they say, is history.

And here's one more little factoid, courtesy of pal Matthew Algeo....

George Halas coached in the NFL's first season the NFL in 1920.  Bill Belichick will be coaching in the NFL in 2020.  Don Shula coached against BOTH of them, and Shula (328), Halas (318), and Belichick (273) rank 1-2-3 in all time NFL coaching wins.

RIP Don Shula.

Critical Commentary - "Hollywood"

The latest blockbusting, binge-worthy series from Netflix is "Hollywood" which began streaming last week.  The creative force behind this series is Emmy Award winning  producer/director/writer Ryan Murphy, who gave us "Feud", the terrifically stylish and trashy limited series about Bette Davis and Joan Crawford a few years back.  That was enough to peak my curiosity about "Hollywood."  Yes it was stylish, yes, it was trashy, and yes it was quite entertaining, and I watched all seven episodes over a period of three days.

It tells the stories of young people - four actors, a director, and a screenwriter - trying to make it in Hollywood in the period immediately after World War II.  It also gives what can be called, and this is a huge understatement, an alternate history of how Hollywood has dealt with such issues as race and gay lifestyles over the years.  No doubt the frankness with which some of these issues are dealt will turn many people off of this series.  Some will also choose to make a political issue over it, so to those people I say, just don't watch it.  C'est le vie.

The main characters - the kids trying to make it - were pretty much unknown to me.  They are David Corenswet, Darren Criss, Laura Harrier, Jake Picking, Samara Weaving, and Jeremy Pope.  

Harrier, Corenswet, Criss, Pope, Weaving

The young stars of "Hollywood"

All were attractive, engaging, and quite good in their roles.  In other key supporting roles, however, were a bunch of older actors such as Patti LuPone, Holland Taylor, Dylan McDermott, Rob Reiner, Mira Sorvino, and Queen Latifah.  At least two of them, LuPone and Taylor, deserve Emmy consideration for their work in this one, I believe.

Also playing a huge role in this one was Jim Parsons, best known as Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory.  Parsons obviously wanted to break from his Sheldon character by 180 degrees, and he succeeded in doing so.  Playing a gay and sleazy Hollywood  agent and fixer, Parsons was the guy that everyone hated, including  us in the viewing audience.  He played the part so broadly and flamboyantly that it verged on caricature, and it was hard to take him seriously, until, that is, the last half of the seventh and final episode.  His scene at that point with Rock Hudson, whom he had demeaned and exploited throughout the series, was very good and had a lot of depth.  Enough to make you say, this guy is a pretty good actor.

The series includes portrayals of real Hollywood people, Rock Hudson being the most critical one to this story, but others include Anna May Wong, Hattie McDaniel, Tallulah Bankhead, Vivian Leigh, George Cukor, and Noel Coward.

"Hollywood" is a trashy soap opera about, well, Hollywood, but it was stylish and beautiful to look at and had its fun, scenery chewing moments.   It gets Two and One-half Stars from The Grandstander.

And On The 45th Day, There Was Golf

Today, May 1, marks the 45th day of Social Isolation for Marilyn and me, and it also marked the day where the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has begun to open up parts of its economy, including golf courses.

So it was that Dan Bonk and I headed out to Coraopolis this morning and took on the world renowned Scally's Par 3 Course, a perfect place to play your first round of any season to shake off the rust of a long, and even longer one this year, winter.  To be honest, I am still not sure that opening up venues such as this is a good idea, but, having said that, I cannot begin to tell you how good it felt to be out in the fresh, albeit cool and damp, air this morning.   It truly was a huge mental lift to be engaging in such an activity.

We were the first two golfers of the newly reopened 

season to check in at Scally's this morning.

I won't bore you with details of the golf, other than to say that  while I didn't play all that well, I played much better than I thought I would.  I will also make one observation of "socially distant" golfing.  As you may or may not know, you are not allowed to touch to remove pins on the greens, and that a styrofoam insert is in the cup, about a quarter inch below the lip, that allows you to "sink" your putt, but also retrieve your ball without reaching into the cup.  While you may miss the satisfying rattle of your ball going into the hole,   it really isn't a problem at all, and frankly, I hope that the "no hands on the pins" dictum stays on forever.  It will, I believe, speed up the pace of play when everyday hackers - like me - aren't futzing around with the flagsticks as if they are Justin Thomas or Brooks Koepka playing for hundreds of thousands of dollars every week.