HAving managed to answer Dennis Cozzalio's previous quiz, it is time to try his Halloween quiz - more precisely, PROFESSOR ABRAHAM SETRAKIAN'S VIRULENTLY VAMPIRIC, MALEVOLENTLY MONSTERIFFIC SUPER-STRAIN HALLOWEEN MOVIE QUIZ. In fact, he has another quiz up - a screen shot quiz - which - might be quiz too far for me... But this one - I can try. I do fear that as horror is not my favorite genre, this will not be the most enlightning set of answers... But one has to try:
1) Edwige Fenech or Barbara Bouchet?
A: This is what I mean - not being a particular fan of horror movies, I don't dig that far into the genre - so... even though I have heard of them, and probably seen them - how could I answer this?
2) The horror movie you will stand up for when no one else will
A: How about Stoker? It kind of got shrugged off when it came out - but it's actually pretty good.
3) Your favorite horror novel
A. Dracula, the original, Bram Stoker. With Let the Right One In as a more than honorable contender.
4) Lionel Atwill or George Zucco?
A: Lionel Atwill - he's generally worth a spark when he turns up in a film.
5) Name a horror film which you feel either goes "too far" or, conversely, might have been better had been bolder
A: I suppose there are a fair number of films where the gore or sex or sex an gore is ridiculous - and plenty I haven't bothered to see - no idea, frankly, whether The Human Centipede or Hostel "goes to far" - never expect to find out... but - I suppose I can answer - the Japanese film Organ struck me as being particularly unsuccessful mix of gratuitous grossout stuff and dimwitted filmmaking. So there.
6) Let the Right One In or Let Me In?
A: Let the Right One In (and the book is even better)
7) Favorite horror film released by American International Pictures
A: I see they released Black Sabbath - that'll do.
8) Veronica Carlson or Barbara Shelley
A: Another one I can't quite answer. (Comparing what I can answer - kind of points out that, for deeper genre cuts - I am a bit better off with the older stuff. That's accurate - I dabble in post-1950s horror, but not much, and what I've seen tends to be very auteurist - Bava and Argento, mainly, and some Japanese horror, like Kurosawa; my pre 1950 horror experiences are spotty, but there's a better chance I've seen a bit more variety...)
9) Name the pinnacle of slasher movie kills, based on either gore quotient, level of cleverness or shock value
A: A sub-genre I don't bother with much, and don't really remember when I do - I've seen some of those Freddy movies, and Halloween and the like, but I don't remember them. Gory specifics tend to be torture scenes - the end of Audition, the stuff in Funny Games - or - wild nonsense, like in Stuart Gordon's films ("more passion!"), or Dead Alive... So - screw it: Janet Leigh in the shower - has anyone topped that? no.
10) Dracula (1931; Tod Browning) or Dracula (1931; George Melford)?
A. Tod Browning - I used to come across lots of talk about how the Spanish version is better, but the facts do not bear this out. The Browning film, though uneven to an extreme, has elements that soar - Lugosi and Frye (especially Frye), some of the atmospherics - and most surprisingly, an admittedly intermittant and inconsistent, but none the less brilliant, sound design. You always hear Renfield before you see him. The Spanish version is smoother, missing some of thew weird jumpiness of Brownings version, but it's also duller (and longer, and somehow ever stagier.) even some of the problems with the English version - the weird continuity problems - help, giving it a creepier atmosphere, keeping you just a bit off balance.
11) Name a movie which may not strictly be thought of as a horror film which you think qualifies for inclusion in the category
A: Well - a recent one might be Martha Marcy May Marlene
12) The last horror movie you saw in a theater? On home video?
A. Last in a theater - I have been trying to see Crimson Peak for a ocuple weeks, and managed to miss it - even today (ironically, it was pre-empted today by a horror marathon). So that means the answer is Goodnight, Mommy - which is no slouch. On video - I have been watching a lot of Val Lewton this month, so when I started writing this, the answer was The Body Snatcher - then, it was Isle of the Dead - but I just watched Evil Dead II, so - there's your answer.
13) Can you think of a horror movie that works better as a home video experience than as a theatrical one?
A. This seems unlikely in general.
14) Brad Dourif or Robert Englund?
A. Brad Dourif, obviously, though outside of horror.
15) At what moment did you realize you were a horror fan? Or what caused you to realize that you weren't?
A. Not really relevant. I like horror films, but not in any special way.
16) The Thing with Two Heads or The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant?
A: I am innocent of both.
17) Favorite giallo or giallo moment
A. Suspiria is the best; moment? I am thinking the scene in Bird With the Crystal Plumage where the writer sees an attack in a glass gallery - it's been a long time since I have seen it, so I'm not sure I remember it, but it is something, isn't it?
18) Name a horror remake, either a character or an entire film, that you prefer over its original or more iconic incarnation. (Example: Frank Langella's Dracula/Dracula > Christopher Lee's Dracula/Dracula)
A: I suppose Evil Dead II sort of counts... the first ones tend to be the best, of the films I watch - assuming you could the iconic ones as the first one. Some, like Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde, were made before the iconic one appeared - but still...
19) Your favorite director of horror films
A. James Whale? along with Bava and Argento, I suppose. (And Lewton, but he's not a director.)
20) Caroline Munro or Stephanie Beacham?
A: And again - I can't really help.
21) Best horror moment created specifically for TV
A: Well, The Kingdom was created for TV. The best moment in all that - oh, man, there are too many - Bondo and his liver, maybe?
22) The Stephen King adaptation that works better as a movie than a book
A: I don't know. The Shining probably counts - ahuge book about writers' block is just not something I intend to find out about.
23) Name the horror movie you most want to see but to this point never have
A: Abominable Dr. Phibes? could be.
24) Andre Morell or Laurence Naismith?
A: Nope.
25) Second-favorite horror film made in the 1980s
A. This poses a problem - my favorits of that decade are the comedies - Raimi and Gordon - Evil Dead(s) and Reanimator/From Beyond. Are they horror films? I suppose so - but also comedies. If I tried to go with something closer to straight horror - I still get some oddball stuff. Possession would take top spot - #2 would be Chow Yun Fat and Brigitte Lin in Tonay Au's Dream Lovers - a hell of a film, too.
26) Tell us about your favorite TV horror host and the program showcasing horror classics over which he/she presided/presides
A: Never really watched those kinds of shows. I am glad Ghoulardi existed, fathering PT Anderson, and inspiring all those Ohio bands I love - Pere Ubu and Devo and the like. Though I suppose I could quite honestly say Count Floyd:
********************************************
Saturday, October 31, 2015
Friday, October 30, 2015
Friday Notes on Passing Time
Another week in the books, almost another month in the books - and getting close to putting another year in the books. Yikes. Time passes. Yikes. Tomorrow is halloween, and I find my reaction against all the horror movie posts in recent years might have become an overreaction - nothing about horror films whatsoever on this blog! in three years! sad. Well - that will not last! As noted - there's another quiz to answer, and that should be forthcoming.
Meanwhile. Politics? Another Republican debate, another desperate scramble to find someone other than Trump or Ben Carson for the "Party" to get behind. It's Marco Rubio this time, I guess. With Jeb! Bush the designted whipping boy. And the Liberal Media! Maybe they should nominate the Liberal Media. This might be something like an argument for waiting until some actual voters cast some actual ballots before getting too worked up about elections... someone will get the nomination, probably neither Trump nor Carson, both of whom are pretty obviously in it to sell books. Whoever wins is going to lose in the general, assuming voters get out of bed on a Tuesday - presidential elections tend to draw good crowds - the voter suppression tacts are usually forced into the open and become an incentive to vote and so on. 60% turnout probably elects Hilary Clinton in a landslide. 50% or less is a more terrifying proposition. Possibly to the Republicans - it's hard to see exactly why they would want to win the presidency. They control the House, they can stagnate government without shutting it down (though they can raise money on making noise about shutting it down). They don't have to govern. Money will continue to be redistributed upward with a Democrat in the white house. If they can get Clinton elected, they will have perfect material for fundraising. They have to talk like that hate Hilary and Obama and liberals and such, and want to win every election - but not winning seems to give them a lot more. Nothing changes; the money flows - they are happy. It is all a grift. And even if it isn't, if they really believe it - what difference does it make? They still lose, and the money still comes in...
Okay: politics is a sad topic to hang a post on. Sports! The World Series is underway - I got the last round completely wrong, but those were cheering interests as much as predictions, and neither predictions or rooting were all that strong. Mets and Royals are both deserving teams, and I don't mind either. Now - Royals have jumped out 2-0, winning twice at home - 2-0 isn't insurmountable, but the Royals aren't known for giving up leads - they should carry it through. It's been noted this is the first time 2 expansion teams have met in a World Series - a bit shocking, when you think about it - the first time one of the original 16 hasn't made it to the Series? It is odd - it's still the old franchises that tend to boss the series. Since 1969, the Mets, Jays and Marlins have won it twice - the only expansion clubs to win that many. Since 2000, the Red Sox and Giants have won 3 each, Cards 2, Yankees 2; since 1969 - Yanks have won 7, A's 4; Reds 3, along with the Sox and Giants - granting that a lot of the expansion happened in the 90s, but still - a good chunk of those teams have been around 45 years or more, and not won a thing - Astros, Rangers, Nats, Padres, Brewers - not to mention the newer teams that haven't won... Interesting.
All right - music time:
1. Pylon - Crazy
2. Robert Johnson - Stop Breakin' Down Blues
3. Public enemy - Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos
4. Mudhoney - Dead Love
5. Jane's Addiction - Ocean Sized
6. Rush - The Camera Eye
7. Nation of Ulysses - Spectra Sonic Sound
8. Tom Waits - 9th and Hennepin
9. Frank Sinatra - Old Man River
10. REM - Shiny Happy People
All right - a couple videos to keep us going: Here's Pylon:
And maybe REM, rehearsing for SNL:
And as it is almost Halloween - Roky Erickson, with I Walked With a Zombie:
Meanwhile. Politics? Another Republican debate, another desperate scramble to find someone other than Trump or Ben Carson for the "Party" to get behind. It's Marco Rubio this time, I guess. With Jeb! Bush the designted whipping boy. And the Liberal Media! Maybe they should nominate the Liberal Media. This might be something like an argument for waiting until some actual voters cast some actual ballots before getting too worked up about elections... someone will get the nomination, probably neither Trump nor Carson, both of whom are pretty obviously in it to sell books. Whoever wins is going to lose in the general, assuming voters get out of bed on a Tuesday - presidential elections tend to draw good crowds - the voter suppression tacts are usually forced into the open and become an incentive to vote and so on. 60% turnout probably elects Hilary Clinton in a landslide. 50% or less is a more terrifying proposition. Possibly to the Republicans - it's hard to see exactly why they would want to win the presidency. They control the House, they can stagnate government without shutting it down (though they can raise money on making noise about shutting it down). They don't have to govern. Money will continue to be redistributed upward with a Democrat in the white house. If they can get Clinton elected, they will have perfect material for fundraising. They have to talk like that hate Hilary and Obama and liberals and such, and want to win every election - but not winning seems to give them a lot more. Nothing changes; the money flows - they are happy. It is all a grift. And even if it isn't, if they really believe it - what difference does it make? They still lose, and the money still comes in...
Okay: politics is a sad topic to hang a post on. Sports! The World Series is underway - I got the last round completely wrong, but those were cheering interests as much as predictions, and neither predictions or rooting were all that strong. Mets and Royals are both deserving teams, and I don't mind either. Now - Royals have jumped out 2-0, winning twice at home - 2-0 isn't insurmountable, but the Royals aren't known for giving up leads - they should carry it through. It's been noted this is the first time 2 expansion teams have met in a World Series - a bit shocking, when you think about it - the first time one of the original 16 hasn't made it to the Series? It is odd - it's still the old franchises that tend to boss the series. Since 1969, the Mets, Jays and Marlins have won it twice - the only expansion clubs to win that many. Since 2000, the Red Sox and Giants have won 3 each, Cards 2, Yankees 2; since 1969 - Yanks have won 7, A's 4; Reds 3, along with the Sox and Giants - granting that a lot of the expansion happened in the 90s, but still - a good chunk of those teams have been around 45 years or more, and not won a thing - Astros, Rangers, Nats, Padres, Brewers - not to mention the newer teams that haven't won... Interesting.
All right - music time:
1. Pylon - Crazy
2. Robert Johnson - Stop Breakin' Down Blues
3. Public enemy - Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos
4. Mudhoney - Dead Love
5. Jane's Addiction - Ocean Sized
6. Rush - The Camera Eye
7. Nation of Ulysses - Spectra Sonic Sound
8. Tom Waits - 9th and Hennepin
9. Frank Sinatra - Old Man River
10. REM - Shiny Happy People
All right - a couple videos to keep us going: Here's Pylon:
And maybe REM, rehearsing for SNL:
And as it is almost Halloween - Roky Erickson, with I Walked With a Zombie:
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
Mr. Dadier Back to School Quiz
This is terrible - it was been almost a month since Dennis Cozzalio posted his (almost) latest quiz, Mr. Dadier’s Juvie-Ready, Tough-As-Nails Blackboard-Bustin’ Back to School Movie Quiz - and I am only now getting around to posting answers? I don't know what it taking me so long - it is shameful, and inexcusable - but I am, by god, going to take the shame, and post it anyway. I missed the last one, back in April - never posting any response. What is wrong with me? [Well - in April/May I was writing a paper about Ivan the Terrible for an actual class - that's almost excusable...] (And I missed the one before that too - the music one. What is wrong with me?) In any case - late as it is - I have to stop these bad habits, so here this one is. And with a bit of luck - I'll be bacl before the month ends to essay his Halloween quiz!
1) Favorite moment from a Coen Brothers movie
A: Donnie’s funeral in the Big Lebowski always floors me... But on a brighter vein - the recording session in O Brother Where Art Thou has it all - the singing, “damn, Tommy, I think you really did sell your soul to the devil!” - Clooney scamming an extra $10 ("Mert and Aloisius will have to sign X's, as only four of us can write") - it’s got it all.
2) Scratching The Ladykillers, Intolerable Cruelty and The Hudsucker Proxy from consideration, what would now rate as your least-favorite Coen Brothers movie?
A: The Man Who Wasn’t There, I think. Burn After Reading gets the edge - I like their madcap side. Hudsucker Proxy is not remotely in contention for their bottom three, though; it is a very lovely film. (Though also a collaboration - didn’t catch that point at first)
3) Name the most underrated blockbuster of all time
A: Do failed wannabe Blockbuster's count? Ishtar? Maybe for something really horrifying - Batman and Robin? I don't know why - it has a weird B movie energy, the actors seem to get the point (Uma Thurman especially). If it were 70 minutes long it might be a fun guilty pleasure...
4) Ida Lupino or Sylvia Sidney?
A: I'll say Ida Lupino.
5) Edwards Scissorhands—yes or no?
A: Yes
6) The movie you think most bastardizes, misinterprets or does a disservice to the history or historical event it tires to represent
A: Life is Beautiful - totally disgraceful.
7) Favorite Aardman animation
A: The creature comforts shorts are wonderful in themselves - but I think I must vote for The Wrong Trousers, in the end.
8) Second-favorite Olivier Assayas movie
A: Carlos
9) Neville Brand or Mike Mazurki?
A: I may be stumped here...
10) Name the movie you would cite to a nonbeliever as the best evidence toward convincing them of the potential greatness of a favorite genre
A: Drunken Master II - kung fu; Jackie Chan.
11) Name any director and one aspect of his/her style or career, for good or bad, that sets her/him apart from any other director
A: Ozu's editing - crossing the line (ignoring the line), the graphic matches, the jokes, the disorienting directions, the pillow shots - no one else looks like him, no matter how they try.
12) Best car chase
A: Gone in 60 Seconds (the original)
13) Favorite moment directed by Robert Aldrich
A: All those feet in Kiss Me Deadly.
14) The last movie you saw in a theater? On home video?
A: Kind of depressing - looks like it's going to be Rock The Kasbah in theaters; Things to Come, at home.
15) Jane Greer or Joan Bennett?
A: Joan Bennett
16) Second-favorite Paul Verhoeven movie
A: Black Book
17) Your nominee for best/most important political or social documentary you’ve seen
A: The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On
18) Favorite movie twins
A: Paul Dano and Paul Dano in There Will be Blood, maybe?
19) Best movie or movie moment about or involving radio
A: When the truth is found to be lies and all the joy within you dies - more Coens - Danny gets his radio back in A Serious Man.
For a whole movie about radio - I am strangely fond of Tune in Tomorrow. No patch on the book, but a very likable thing. Peter Falk, you know.
20) Eugene Pallette or William Demarest?
A: A cruel choice to make - but - how can I choose? Pallette? that voice...
21) Favorite moment directed by Ken Russell
A: Um - he annoys me too much - though truthfully, the moments are what make his films. They're always amusing to look at in clips. Say -
I don't know if I can take the whole movie, but - most of them are full of scenes like this, really gripping in short bursts.
22) All-time best movie cat
A: Ulysses?
23) Your nominee for best movie about teaching and learning, followed by the worst
A. Best = Kind of a wild card, but what about Henry Fool? Education of a poet, and all that...
Worst = how about Fight Club? take away the cheesy insanity, and it is a film about a mentor and pupil - and a pretty dumb film about it at that. Though it's worse with the cheesy insanity. Blech.
24) Name an actor/actress currently associated primarily with TV who you'd like to see on the big screen
A: I'd like to find out what Nikolai Coster Waldau would do in a movie; or Rory McCann. Or Sophie Turner. Being about the only TV show from the last 10 years I've actually watched...
25) Stanley Baker or David Farrar
A: Stanley Baker, for Accident if nothing else.
26) Critic Manny Farber once said of Frank Capra that he was "an old-time movie craftsman, the master of every trick in the bag, and in many ways he is more at home with the medium than any other Hollywood director, but all the details give the impression of a contrived effect."
What is the Capra movie that best proves or disproves Farber's assertion?
And who else in Hollywood history might just as easily fit his description?
A: I suppose quite a few Capra films fit this - especially in the late 30s - Mr. Deeds and Lost Horizon and You Can't Take it With You, Meet John Doe. All of them pull out the stops on the style, but also the preaching - they wear on you. I have to agree with the good side of Farber's comment - I think Capra really was the great American master director - and specifically in synthetic style: he understood everything about filmmaking, he used everything at his disposal. Photography, sound, acting, stories, music, editing - everything, and used everything the parts offered - so deep focus, tight shots, moving cameras, sequence shots, fast cutting, set design, lighting design - everything. There are other directors who did this - Lang, Hitchcock, Kurosawa - but I don't think even they were as good at everything, or as able to exploit everything the way he did. And most comparably great directors - Ozu and Mizoguchi, Murnau, Eisenstein, Dreyer, Hawks, Renoir, etc. - tended to work in a somewhat narrower style. He used everything - to good effect, but sometimes - yes - it's all a bit too clean, too smug about its skill and its messages.... it becomes heavy (which is fatal, almost, to later comedies, like You Can't Take it With You or Arsenic and Old Lace).
But then again - when it works: It's a Wonderful Life, Mr Smith Goes to Washington, Platinum Blonde, American Madness - by does it work. Calling those films contrived is completely beside the point - "contrived" starts to mean something like the same thing as "fiction" - a story, told a certain way, to convey ideas and emotions - everything is contrived. They have emotional depth, they have ideas, they have a complex way of looking at the world, and all of it is conveyed through Capra's mastery of the medium. So - when he doesn't quite get it, Farber has a point. When Capra does get it - the films are just masterpieces.
1) Favorite moment from a Coen Brothers movie
A: Donnie’s funeral in the Big Lebowski always floors me... But on a brighter vein - the recording session in O Brother Where Art Thou has it all - the singing, “damn, Tommy, I think you really did sell your soul to the devil!” - Clooney scamming an extra $10 ("Mert and Aloisius will have to sign X's, as only four of us can write") - it’s got it all.
2) Scratching The Ladykillers, Intolerable Cruelty and The Hudsucker Proxy from consideration, what would now rate as your least-favorite Coen Brothers movie?
A: The Man Who Wasn’t There, I think. Burn After Reading gets the edge - I like their madcap side. Hudsucker Proxy is not remotely in contention for their bottom three, though; it is a very lovely film. (Though also a collaboration - didn’t catch that point at first)
3) Name the most underrated blockbuster of all time
A: Do failed wannabe Blockbuster's count? Ishtar? Maybe for something really horrifying - Batman and Robin? I don't know why - it has a weird B movie energy, the actors seem to get the point (Uma Thurman especially). If it were 70 minutes long it might be a fun guilty pleasure...
4) Ida Lupino or Sylvia Sidney?
A: I'll say Ida Lupino.
5) Edwards Scissorhands—yes or no?
A: Yes
6) The movie you think most bastardizes, misinterprets or does a disservice to the history or historical event it tires to represent
A: Life is Beautiful - totally disgraceful.
7) Favorite Aardman animation
A: The creature comforts shorts are wonderful in themselves - but I think I must vote for The Wrong Trousers, in the end.
8) Second-favorite Olivier Assayas movie
A: Carlos
9) Neville Brand or Mike Mazurki?
A: I may be stumped here...
10) Name the movie you would cite to a nonbeliever as the best evidence toward convincing them of the potential greatness of a favorite genre
A: Drunken Master II - kung fu; Jackie Chan.
11) Name any director and one aspect of his/her style or career, for good or bad, that sets her/him apart from any other director
A: Ozu's editing - crossing the line (ignoring the line), the graphic matches, the jokes, the disorienting directions, the pillow shots - no one else looks like him, no matter how they try.
12) Best car chase
A: Gone in 60 Seconds (the original)
13) Favorite moment directed by Robert Aldrich
A: All those feet in Kiss Me Deadly.
14) The last movie you saw in a theater? On home video?
A: Kind of depressing - looks like it's going to be Rock The Kasbah in theaters; Things to Come, at home.
15) Jane Greer or Joan Bennett?
A: Joan Bennett
16) Second-favorite Paul Verhoeven movie
A: Black Book
17) Your nominee for best/most important political or social documentary you’ve seen
A: The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On
18) Favorite movie twins
A: Paul Dano and Paul Dano in There Will be Blood, maybe?
19) Best movie or movie moment about or involving radio
A: When the truth is found to be lies and all the joy within you dies - more Coens - Danny gets his radio back in A Serious Man.
For a whole movie about radio - I am strangely fond of Tune in Tomorrow. No patch on the book, but a very likable thing. Peter Falk, you know.
20) Eugene Pallette or William Demarest?
A: A cruel choice to make - but - how can I choose? Pallette? that voice...
21) Favorite moment directed by Ken Russell
A: Um - he annoys me too much - though truthfully, the moments are what make his films. They're always amusing to look at in clips. Say -
I don't know if I can take the whole movie, but - most of them are full of scenes like this, really gripping in short bursts.
22) All-time best movie cat
A: Ulysses?
23) Your nominee for best movie about teaching and learning, followed by the worst
A. Best = Kind of a wild card, but what about Henry Fool? Education of a poet, and all that...
Worst = how about Fight Club? take away the cheesy insanity, and it is a film about a mentor and pupil - and a pretty dumb film about it at that. Though it's worse with the cheesy insanity. Blech.
24) Name an actor/actress currently associated primarily with TV who you'd like to see on the big screen
A: I'd like to find out what Nikolai Coster Waldau would do in a movie; or Rory McCann. Or Sophie Turner. Being about the only TV show from the last 10 years I've actually watched...
25) Stanley Baker or David Farrar
A: Stanley Baker, for Accident if nothing else.
26) Critic Manny Farber once said of Frank Capra that he was "an old-time movie craftsman, the master of every trick in the bag, and in many ways he is more at home with the medium than any other Hollywood director, but all the details give the impression of a contrived effect."
What is the Capra movie that best proves or disproves Farber's assertion?
And who else in Hollywood history might just as easily fit his description?
A: I suppose quite a few Capra films fit this - especially in the late 30s - Mr. Deeds and Lost Horizon and You Can't Take it With You, Meet John Doe. All of them pull out the stops on the style, but also the preaching - they wear on you. I have to agree with the good side of Farber's comment - I think Capra really was the great American master director - and specifically in synthetic style: he understood everything about filmmaking, he used everything at his disposal. Photography, sound, acting, stories, music, editing - everything, and used everything the parts offered - so deep focus, tight shots, moving cameras, sequence shots, fast cutting, set design, lighting design - everything. There are other directors who did this - Lang, Hitchcock, Kurosawa - but I don't think even they were as good at everything, or as able to exploit everything the way he did. And most comparably great directors - Ozu and Mizoguchi, Murnau, Eisenstein, Dreyer, Hawks, Renoir, etc. - tended to work in a somewhat narrower style. He used everything - to good effect, but sometimes - yes - it's all a bit too clean, too smug about its skill and its messages.... it becomes heavy (which is fatal, almost, to later comedies, like You Can't Take it With You or Arsenic and Old Lace).
But then again - when it works: It's a Wonderful Life, Mr Smith Goes to Washington, Platinum Blonde, American Madness - by does it work. Calling those films contrived is completely beside the point - "contrived" starts to mean something like the same thing as "fiction" - a story, told a certain way, to convey ideas and emotions - everything is contrived. They have emotional depth, they have ideas, they have a complex way of looking at the world, and all of it is conveyed through Capra's mastery of the medium. So - when he doesn't quite get it, Farber has a point. When Capra does get it - the films are just masterpieces.
Friday, October 23, 2015
Friday Music and Stuff
So how lazy am I this Friday? Pretty darn lazy. Anything to write about? Sport? Cubs are done - I guess Back to the Future was not right about that, any more than the hoverboards. Jays are still alive, hanging on against the Royals - all those bats, and the pitching they have, they are never going to be easy to get rid of. Still hope, for semi-Canadian me! Speaking of Canadians - congratulations to Justin Trudeau, newly elevated Prime Minister - blessed, it seems, with his father's political skills, and his mother's looks. And blessed with an absolute majority in parliament, so maybe he can stop Canada from turning into the USA. Stephen Harper sometimes seemed to be dreaming of Texas...
Anyway - that's all I have today. Here are some randomly selected songs to think about:
1. Mark Stewart - Radio Freedom
2. Sunn O))) - Bathory Erzsebet
3. Q and not U - Hooray for Humans
4. Shonen Knife - Insect Collector
5. The Go! Team - Friendship Update
6. The Red Krayola - Zukuntsfleiger
7. Boris - My Neighbor Satan
8. Six Organs of Admittance - They Called You Near
9. Pat Dinizio - Behind Blue Eyes
10. Ray Charles - Drown in My Own Tears
And video: Ray Charles, needless to say:
And for something completely different, with Halloween coming up - some Boris:
And since no Halloween can be complete without somehting from SunnO))) - well - here's 10 minutes of very good footage of the boys making an unholy din. Not sure what song it is, but I'm not sure songs are precisely the relevant unit of interest where SunnO))) is concerned. Feedback in your friend!
Anyway - that's all I have today. Here are some randomly selected songs to think about:
1. Mark Stewart - Radio Freedom
2. Sunn O))) - Bathory Erzsebet
3. Q and not U - Hooray for Humans
4. Shonen Knife - Insect Collector
5. The Go! Team - Friendship Update
6. The Red Krayola - Zukuntsfleiger
7. Boris - My Neighbor Satan
8. Six Organs of Admittance - They Called You Near
9. Pat Dinizio - Behind Blue Eyes
10. Ray Charles - Drown in My Own Tears
And video: Ray Charles, needless to say:
And for something completely different, with Halloween coming up - some Boris:
And since no Halloween can be complete without somehting from SunnO))) - well - here's 10 minutes of very good footage of the boys making an unholy din. Not sure what song it is, but I'm not sure songs are precisely the relevant unit of interest where SunnO))) is concerned. Feedback in your friend!
Friday, October 16, 2015
Friday Music and Sports Rapture
We have come to another Friday, here in the middle of October. First round of the baseball playoffs are done - things worked out pretty much as I expected, or hoped - I wish Houston had beaten KC, but I don't mind KC; the other three series all went the way I hoped. (And mostly expected - Dodgers are notorious chokers; Cards were ripe for a fall.) So now? I continue to think Toronto will win out in the AL. NL is harder - Cubs are a better balanced team, but the Mets have al that front line pitching, and a kind of drive to win... One must always steer around the Cubs' history - but that's mostly a product of organizational ineptitude, that makes it so they only get a half-chance every decade or two - post-season appearances are rare enough that their failings are just normal. So - with a real good team (not the first real good team they're fielded), they are as likely to win as anyone. So all right - Cubs and Blue Jays it is; Jays win it all.
And I can't not mention the 7th inning of that Toronto/Texas game. How do you describe that? So Martin throws the ball back to the pitcher,but it hits Choo's bat - the umpire calls time, but the the runner on third comes home. The Umps talk - they realize the ball was alive, they should not have called time, so the run scores. The Jays go wild and play under protest - the fans start showering the field with garbage. The inning plays out. Bottom of the 7th, a simple grounder to Andrus, he kicks it. A simple grounder to first and Moreland bounces it to Andrus. 2 up, 2 errors, 2 on. A bunt, Beltre fields it, routine toss to third, where Andrus drops it. 3 up 3 errors 3 on. Then - a force at home, and a hard slide, and a long debate about whether the batter should be called out because of the slide. (He wasn't.) Then Donaldson hits a simple pop up/soft liner to second but Odor misses it - but Choo throws out the runner at second, run in, 2 out, runners at the corners. Joey Bats comes up. The ball goes a mile - the bat goes half a mile - the crowd goes wild. After the celebrations start to settle down, Encarnacion comes up - trying to calm the crowd, who are still throwing shit around... The pitcher comes in to whine. Benches clear. Game resumes. Inning ends, pitcher get Tulo on a pop up, and comes in and gives him a friendly butt pat - benches clear!
It is a beautiful thing. Being a Blue Jays supporter (in the absence of the Sox, obviously), I am inclined to point and laugh - except Texas is kind of the other fall back team when the Sox aren't around, especially with Cole Hamels, who I like as well. I feel sorry for them - especially Hamels - he must have thought he'd just woken up and the last 2 months were just a dream - he was still on the Phillies! kicking the ball around the infield.... But still. Attempts to gin up "controversy" about Bautista's bat flip are amusing - that home run in that situation - what is he supposed to do? There's nothing on earth he could do that isn't "styling" right there - he puts his head down and runs the bases, it's every bit as much as act as throwing the bat. Now - that said - ca you blame the pitchers? especially Hamels, who can't exactly say, if the manager left me in there - if the other guy hadn't served up a meatball.. They are doing what pitchers do - batters celebrate; pitchers whine; both are right and proper parts of the ritual of a big post season home run. And I suppose we should always keep a few old fogie sportswriters around to wring their hands and shake their hoary heads and write think pieces about culture.... But the rest of us can just sit back and enjoy it.
All right - and some music....
1. Loren Connors - Airs No. 18
2. Pavement - Newark Wilder
3. Liars - Too Much, Too Much
4. The Rolling Stones - Let It Loose
5. Franz Ferdinand - Treason! Animals
6. Modest Mouse - Ocean Breathes Salty
7. The M's - Good Morning, Good Morning
8. Blondie - Rapture
9. Spoon - Goodnight Laura
10. PJ Harvey - Down by the Water
Video - we do need some Blondie today.
And I can't not mention the 7th inning of that Toronto/Texas game. How do you describe that? So Martin throws the ball back to the pitcher,but it hits Choo's bat - the umpire calls time, but the the runner on third comes home. The Umps talk - they realize the ball was alive, they should not have called time, so the run scores. The Jays go wild and play under protest - the fans start showering the field with garbage. The inning plays out. Bottom of the 7th, a simple grounder to Andrus, he kicks it. A simple grounder to first and Moreland bounces it to Andrus. 2 up, 2 errors, 2 on. A bunt, Beltre fields it, routine toss to third, where Andrus drops it. 3 up 3 errors 3 on. Then - a force at home, and a hard slide, and a long debate about whether the batter should be called out because of the slide. (He wasn't.) Then Donaldson hits a simple pop up/soft liner to second but Odor misses it - but Choo throws out the runner at second, run in, 2 out, runners at the corners. Joey Bats comes up. The ball goes a mile - the bat goes half a mile - the crowd goes wild. After the celebrations start to settle down, Encarnacion comes up - trying to calm the crowd, who are still throwing shit around... The pitcher comes in to whine. Benches clear. Game resumes. Inning ends, pitcher get Tulo on a pop up, and comes in and gives him a friendly butt pat - benches clear!
It is a beautiful thing. Being a Blue Jays supporter (in the absence of the Sox, obviously), I am inclined to point and laugh - except Texas is kind of the other fall back team when the Sox aren't around, especially with Cole Hamels, who I like as well. I feel sorry for them - especially Hamels - he must have thought he'd just woken up and the last 2 months were just a dream - he was still on the Phillies! kicking the ball around the infield.... But still. Attempts to gin up "controversy" about Bautista's bat flip are amusing - that home run in that situation - what is he supposed to do? There's nothing on earth he could do that isn't "styling" right there - he puts his head down and runs the bases, it's every bit as much as act as throwing the bat. Now - that said - ca you blame the pitchers? especially Hamels, who can't exactly say, if the manager left me in there - if the other guy hadn't served up a meatball.. They are doing what pitchers do - batters celebrate; pitchers whine; both are right and proper parts of the ritual of a big post season home run. And I suppose we should always keep a few old fogie sportswriters around to wring their hands and shake their hoary heads and write think pieces about culture.... But the rest of us can just sit back and enjoy it.
All right - and some music....
1. Loren Connors - Airs No. 18
2. Pavement - Newark Wilder
3. Liars - Too Much, Too Much
4. The Rolling Stones - Let It Loose
5. Franz Ferdinand - Treason! Animals
6. Modest Mouse - Ocean Breathes Salty
7. The M's - Good Morning, Good Morning
8. Blondie - Rapture
9. Spoon - Goodnight Laura
10. PJ Harvey - Down by the Water
Video - we do need some Blondie today.
Friday, October 09, 2015
Can You Help Me Occupy My Brain
Happy October, and time for another band of the month - and who better for Halloween's month than Black Sabbath? I have to admit up front, this is a very front loaded Band of the month - their later material has its attractions, but they never came close to the first 3 - maybe even 2 - records. Later - they were a more than decent metal band; Ozzy had a more than decent solo career - but that's it. Not my favorite type of music - not the best of the style.
But at the beginning - that's different. They are heavy metal, they are inventing the stuff - whatever counts as the shift from hard rock to metal, it's in those first three records. There were other bands playing heavy music in 69-70, but they still sound different. Heavier, rawer. Heavier than what a lot of metal would become - there's a lot of melody in later metal - just listen to Ozzy Osbourne's solo stuff. Who do you blame that, or Def Leppard, or Motley Crue on? Deep Purple maybe? I don't know. Not Sabbath, anyway. It's Black Sabbath haunting the hard music I like, though - and I like a lot of it - and almost all of it Sabbath inspired. Butthole Surfers - Melvins - Boris - Earth - SunnO))) - groups dear to my heart, and groups rooted very firmly in early Sabbath. I don't know where the sound came from - maybe they were just trying to play hard blues, like Cream or Fleetwood Mac, and didn't have the chops - or had to work harder at it, and slowed it down, atomized it - cause that's what it feels like. The riffs, the sounds, isolated, set adrift like zombies wandering through a foggy moor - something like that. (No - less a foggy moor than a post-apocalyptic factory, where all the people are gone - or turned into zombies - but the machinery is still running. Actually, that's probably just a documentary of their early lives. Birmingham, you know.) It is so extreme - so slow, so dominated by the low sounds, the falling bends Iommi likes to play (think Iron Man) - they seem to be coming from Mars.
They were very good. They got whacked by the critics in real time, but things aren't always apparent in real time. (I've said before - the punks redeemed a lot of these bands: changed the way you could hear them. I heard Sabbath in high school, and didn't much care - I heard them after I became a punk fan and loved it.) They were good. The riffs on the first few records are absolutely stellar - Black Sabbath - NIB - War Pigs - Paranoid - Hand of Doom - Iron Man - Children of the Grave - guitar lines as memorable and cool as they come. And the rest worked too - the clobbering, relentless rhythms; even the lyrics - not as poetry, but as raw slices of id and anger at the world, are all first rate. Better than the Zep, I am afraid, and almost as funny. They set the standard for all the hard rock to follow - a standard for heavy metal everyone else fell short of. Most punk falls short of it too (even as punk - Paranoid might as well be punk.) The best punk and best metal takes off from it.
And they make a nice Halloween band. The first time I heard War Pigs I had nightmares for weeks. That is how it should be - you hope someone with their taste in movies would be able to deliver on it. They are certainly a reminder that the best horror movies are made by good Catholic boys, too - they master the imagery as well as Bava or Argento or the like. The music feels like a horror film - those slow, hammering riffs, Ozzy's tuneless yelp - and they looked the part. I had a poster of them back in college - not sure where I got it - someone might have told me it was Led Zeppelin, though I knew better than that... had it on the wall - 4 guys in black, wearing big crosses around their neck, all that hair, standing out in a field somewhere (I think it was the gatefold art from Paranoid - not sure; it has long since disappeared) - it was very neat...
And so - 10 songs, all from the first three records, not that I can even pretend to know more than a couple songs from after that... But that's all right. They were great at the beginning; they may have behaved badly after that, but they kept plowing along, making music, and not bad music, for decades after that. I can respect that.
1. War Pigs
2. Paranoid
3. Wasp/Behind the Wall of Sleep/NIB
4. Black Sabbath
5. Iron Man
6. After Forever
7. Planet Caravan
8. Children of the Grave
9. Hand of Doom
10. Sweet Leaf
Video - I may have posted this before, I don't know - this is a live TV gig from 1970 - hair, leather, hammering riffs and drums - clean and sharp and marvelous, with most of their best songs from the first two records, sounding better than the records do (at least the crappy CD versions I have.):
Children of the Grave in 1974 - they're in California, and the wardrobe seems to reflect it - oh, the 70s!
War Pigs, when it was Walpurgis, more horror film than politics at this point, filmed in Germany, in front of a cowd of what look like random bystanders... The riffs are all there, though, and good go, isn't this a riff. Later, they play Iron Man in a boxing ring...
And finally - Black Sabbath - 2013. I can't say they've aged with dignity - at least Ozzy (Tony Iommi seems like he's aged pretty well) - but they can still bring it. I've heard Ozzy talk plenty the last 20 odd years, and never understood a word he said - but he's clear as day, singing. It's like it all comes back, up there on stage... God bless you all!
But at the beginning - that's different. They are heavy metal, they are inventing the stuff - whatever counts as the shift from hard rock to metal, it's in those first three records. There were other bands playing heavy music in 69-70, but they still sound different. Heavier, rawer. Heavier than what a lot of metal would become - there's a lot of melody in later metal - just listen to Ozzy Osbourne's solo stuff. Who do you blame that, or Def Leppard, or Motley Crue on? Deep Purple maybe? I don't know. Not Sabbath, anyway. It's Black Sabbath haunting the hard music I like, though - and I like a lot of it - and almost all of it Sabbath inspired. Butthole Surfers - Melvins - Boris - Earth - SunnO))) - groups dear to my heart, and groups rooted very firmly in early Sabbath. I don't know where the sound came from - maybe they were just trying to play hard blues, like Cream or Fleetwood Mac, and didn't have the chops - or had to work harder at it, and slowed it down, atomized it - cause that's what it feels like. The riffs, the sounds, isolated, set adrift like zombies wandering through a foggy moor - something like that. (No - less a foggy moor than a post-apocalyptic factory, where all the people are gone - or turned into zombies - but the machinery is still running. Actually, that's probably just a documentary of their early lives. Birmingham, you know.) It is so extreme - so slow, so dominated by the low sounds, the falling bends Iommi likes to play (think Iron Man) - they seem to be coming from Mars.
They were very good. They got whacked by the critics in real time, but things aren't always apparent in real time. (I've said before - the punks redeemed a lot of these bands: changed the way you could hear them. I heard Sabbath in high school, and didn't much care - I heard them after I became a punk fan and loved it.) They were good. The riffs on the first few records are absolutely stellar - Black Sabbath - NIB - War Pigs - Paranoid - Hand of Doom - Iron Man - Children of the Grave - guitar lines as memorable and cool as they come. And the rest worked too - the clobbering, relentless rhythms; even the lyrics - not as poetry, but as raw slices of id and anger at the world, are all first rate. Better than the Zep, I am afraid, and almost as funny. They set the standard for all the hard rock to follow - a standard for heavy metal everyone else fell short of. Most punk falls short of it too (even as punk - Paranoid might as well be punk.) The best punk and best metal takes off from it.
And they make a nice Halloween band. The first time I heard War Pigs I had nightmares for weeks. That is how it should be - you hope someone with their taste in movies would be able to deliver on it. They are certainly a reminder that the best horror movies are made by good Catholic boys, too - they master the imagery as well as Bava or Argento or the like. The music feels like a horror film - those slow, hammering riffs, Ozzy's tuneless yelp - and they looked the part. I had a poster of them back in college - not sure where I got it - someone might have told me it was Led Zeppelin, though I knew better than that... had it on the wall - 4 guys in black, wearing big crosses around their neck, all that hair, standing out in a field somewhere (I think it was the gatefold art from Paranoid - not sure; it has long since disappeared) - it was very neat...
And so - 10 songs, all from the first three records, not that I can even pretend to know more than a couple songs from after that... But that's all right. They were great at the beginning; they may have behaved badly after that, but they kept plowing along, making music, and not bad music, for decades after that. I can respect that.
1. War Pigs
2. Paranoid
3. Wasp/Behind the Wall of Sleep/NIB
4. Black Sabbath
5. Iron Man
6. After Forever
7. Planet Caravan
8. Children of the Grave
9. Hand of Doom
10. Sweet Leaf
Video - I may have posted this before, I don't know - this is a live TV gig from 1970 - hair, leather, hammering riffs and drums - clean and sharp and marvelous, with most of their best songs from the first two records, sounding better than the records do (at least the crappy CD versions I have.):
Children of the Grave in 1974 - they're in California, and the wardrobe seems to reflect it - oh, the 70s!
War Pigs, when it was Walpurgis, more horror film than politics at this point, filmed in Germany, in front of a cowd of what look like random bystanders... The riffs are all there, though, and good go, isn't this a riff. Later, they play Iron Man in a boxing ring...
And finally - Black Sabbath - 2013. I can't say they've aged with dignity - at least Ozzy (Tony Iommi seems like he's aged pretty well) - but they can still bring it. I've heard Ozzy talk plenty the last 20 odd years, and never understood a word he said - but he's clear as day, singing. It's like it all comes back, up there on stage... God bless you all!
Monday, October 05, 2015
Baseball Postseason and Post Mortem
Another year in the books. The local nine have protected their traditional (3 out of 4) last place position, though it took losing 4 in a row at the end of the year. Still - a richly deserved last place most of the year. I may have picked the Crimson Hose to finish first, but it was not the most optimistic prediction - their complete collapse in the early months was surprising only in that they did it by not hitting a lick. That was surprising (the horrible pitching was not) - and didn't last. They shed the old timers and let the kids play and started winning; they brought up young pitchers and seemed to straighten out a couple of their awful starters, and got a whole lot better - coming almost all the way back to .500 before the dip at the end. They purged the front office that built those 3 out of 4 last place teams. It bodes well for the future, though maybe not well enough to be too excited - yet. They have no bullpen; they still have a bunch of #3 starters (if they are lucky) and some kids who could be better than that. They are still paying Hanley Ramirez and Pablo Sandoval a lot of money to eat and sulk and hit .250. So - we shall see. But hope springs eternal, and there are reasons to hope here. They have some fine young players - Betts and Bogaerts are very good now, the rest of the opitfield showed real ssigns, Swihart and Vazquez are promising young catchers. They have some solid old timers (Ortiz and Pedroia when he's on the field), good parts (Brock Holt and maybe Travis Shaw.) They have a couple very nice looking young starters who showed stuff in the majors, in Rodriguez and Owens. Porcello didn't look half bad once he got healthy. Miley and Kelly showed the occasional sign. So - they probably need a #1 starter, and they need a lot of bullpen help - and they need to either lose Hanley and Panda or have them come back - which is not impossible - vets tend to revert to the mean, so they are quite capable of getting better... so - a fun offseason is in store, and then we can try again.
For now though - well - all right. So how bad did I do guessing? Sox? nope. The Blue Jays did indeed slug their way to some wins, then added David Price and became world beaters. I'll take it. I was deeply wrong about the Yankees, to my sorrow. (Sorry Sam.) I was completely wrong about the Central - lord. Royals played very well this year - though I'm still not sure how they got what they did from their starters. Bullpens help, of course. And out west - probably should just delete those predictions - Sox, Tigers and Seattle? One of those teams did not finish last! Actually - looking at the records of those teams - notice how bunched the AL was this year. Oakland'
s the only team to lose 90 games - Toronto and KC the only ones to win 90... Maybe I have an excuse there. I had the Texas teams 4 and 5 instead of 1 and 2 - but basically, they got the breaks and performed -t he Houston pitching was better sooner than they expected - I'm certainly glad to see them win.
Predictions? I certainly hope the Astros beat the Yankees - Keuchel has been fantastic all year, so there is hope. Tanaka has also been good - it's a good matchup. Then? Blue Jays beat the wld card team - I think that's safe. KC will probably win the other series, but Texas has Hamels, who has been there before - they've been very hot down the stretch as well - they were outscored through the beginning of September, but turned that around. KC has the team and the pen, but are their starters good enough? In the end - the winner there should fall to the Jays - they look like an awful good team. Hammering the ball, running out 3 or 4 first rate starters - if form holds, they are the real deal.
And NL? So I thought Washington was the easiest pick int he majors back in April? they should have been. That was without Bryce Harper turning into Mike Trout, and Max Scherzer throwing 162 consecutive no-hitters. Let us use the work Choke. I thought the Mets were close to respectability - like Houston, their starters got better a little faster than expected - and Cespedes reminded them how to hit. They did well. (Look at all the teams who finished with a rush - Blue Jays, Texas, NY - all came on like gang-busters in the second half.) In the Central - I got those right! I underestimated the Cubs - but about the only thing I got right this year was assuming SL and Pittsburgh would pick up where they left off. And the Cubs just did what everyone else expected. Out west? Bought the San Diego hype - sorry. But the Dodgers did what they were supposed to do.
Playoffs? I can't pick between the Pirates and Cubs - Cole and Arrieta - it's a strange case: the 2nd and 3rd best teams in baseball playing a one game playoff to face - the best team in baseball - all in the same division! Yeah. Pirates and Cubs are the teams I want to see come out of the NL - but one will be gone day one. Dodgers and Mets? no idea, though the Dodgers have been excellent chokers in recent years. Cards vs wild card? Again - best two teams left in the playoffs, playing the short series. Sad. Whoever wins it would seem like the favorites,but it might be the Cubs... I;m not going out on that limb.
I know what I want: Blue Jays beating the Pirates. Cubs if they must. It's got a pretty good chance, right? Meanwhile, there are some very interesting matchups. I'm sure the TV guys are salivating over a subway series. Me - that would be the most horrible thing imaginable - unless the Mets win. That - ah. I am, after all, a yankee hater second... NY/LA would go over well. I imagine a Missouri series would have its fans - and would be a showcase for the joys of solid, fundamental baseball - those two teams do play a good game. At the other extreme - Cubs vs Houston might be a true sign of the apocalypse - and I suspect if Pittsburg and Houston get there, Fox execs will be on suicide watch. Anyway - go Toronto!
And finally - I might as well offer up my season awards:
MVP - AL: Mike Trout was as good as ever - I suspect Josh Donaldson will win it, having better counting stats and playing on a better team. That would not be unfair: I think I would vote for him myself.
NL: If anyone votes for anyone other than Harper at the top, they should lose their credentials. (I picked Standon before the season - I might have been right, if he had gotten through the year unscathed. Though probably not: Harper was immense.)
CY Young: AL - the usual suspects pitched well, but Price and Keuchel put some separation up - I would vote for Keuchel, and he will probably win. He has the most wins - he has the best WAR - he pitched his team to the post-season. He deserves it.
NL: There's a pretty nice collection of candidates there - though wins and all the other numbers narrow it down to Greinke vs. Arrieta. (The supporting numbers keep Kershaw and Scherzer and de Grom in the hunt - but they aren't better than the guys with wins this year, so let the wins separate them.) If Arrieta wins, it won't be a travesty. If Greinke wins, it will be well deserved. If I had a vote - crap: Greinke, I guess. Let his battingbe the tie breaker - he hit 2 home runs; he slugged .343 - better than 2 of the Royals' regular starting lineup; 2 points behind Jacoby Ellsbury! It's worth half a run above replacement! Go Zach!
For now though - well - all right. So how bad did I do guessing? Sox? nope. The Blue Jays did indeed slug their way to some wins, then added David Price and became world beaters. I'll take it. I was deeply wrong about the Yankees, to my sorrow. (Sorry Sam.) I was completely wrong about the Central - lord. Royals played very well this year - though I'm still not sure how they got what they did from their starters. Bullpens help, of course. And out west - probably should just delete those predictions - Sox, Tigers and Seattle? One of those teams did not finish last! Actually - looking at the records of those teams - notice how bunched the AL was this year. Oakland'
s the only team to lose 90 games - Toronto and KC the only ones to win 90... Maybe I have an excuse there. I had the Texas teams 4 and 5 instead of 1 and 2 - but basically, they got the breaks and performed -t he Houston pitching was better sooner than they expected - I'm certainly glad to see them win.
Predictions? I certainly hope the Astros beat the Yankees - Keuchel has been fantastic all year, so there is hope. Tanaka has also been good - it's a good matchup. Then? Blue Jays beat the wld card team - I think that's safe. KC will probably win the other series, but Texas has Hamels, who has been there before - they've been very hot down the stretch as well - they were outscored through the beginning of September, but turned that around. KC has the team and the pen, but are their starters good enough? In the end - the winner there should fall to the Jays - they look like an awful good team. Hammering the ball, running out 3 or 4 first rate starters - if form holds, they are the real deal.
And NL? So I thought Washington was the easiest pick int he majors back in April? they should have been. That was without Bryce Harper turning into Mike Trout, and Max Scherzer throwing 162 consecutive no-hitters. Let us use the work Choke. I thought the Mets were close to respectability - like Houston, their starters got better a little faster than expected - and Cespedes reminded them how to hit. They did well. (Look at all the teams who finished with a rush - Blue Jays, Texas, NY - all came on like gang-busters in the second half.) In the Central - I got those right! I underestimated the Cubs - but about the only thing I got right this year was assuming SL and Pittsburgh would pick up where they left off. And the Cubs just did what everyone else expected. Out west? Bought the San Diego hype - sorry. But the Dodgers did what they were supposed to do.
Playoffs? I can't pick between the Pirates and Cubs - Cole and Arrieta - it's a strange case: the 2nd and 3rd best teams in baseball playing a one game playoff to face - the best team in baseball - all in the same division! Yeah. Pirates and Cubs are the teams I want to see come out of the NL - but one will be gone day one. Dodgers and Mets? no idea, though the Dodgers have been excellent chokers in recent years. Cards vs wild card? Again - best two teams left in the playoffs, playing the short series. Sad. Whoever wins it would seem like the favorites,but it might be the Cubs... I;m not going out on that limb.
I know what I want: Blue Jays beating the Pirates. Cubs if they must. It's got a pretty good chance, right? Meanwhile, there are some very interesting matchups. I'm sure the TV guys are salivating over a subway series. Me - that would be the most horrible thing imaginable - unless the Mets win. That - ah. I am, after all, a yankee hater second... NY/LA would go over well. I imagine a Missouri series would have its fans - and would be a showcase for the joys of solid, fundamental baseball - those two teams do play a good game. At the other extreme - Cubs vs Houston might be a true sign of the apocalypse - and I suspect if Pittsburg and Houston get there, Fox execs will be on suicide watch. Anyway - go Toronto!
And finally - I might as well offer up my season awards:
MVP - AL: Mike Trout was as good as ever - I suspect Josh Donaldson will win it, having better counting stats and playing on a better team. That would not be unfair: I think I would vote for him myself.
NL: If anyone votes for anyone other than Harper at the top, they should lose their credentials. (I picked Standon before the season - I might have been right, if he had gotten through the year unscathed. Though probably not: Harper was immense.)
CY Young: AL - the usual suspects pitched well, but Price and Keuchel put some separation up - I would vote for Keuchel, and he will probably win. He has the most wins - he has the best WAR - he pitched his team to the post-season. He deserves it.
NL: There's a pretty nice collection of candidates there - though wins and all the other numbers narrow it down to Greinke vs. Arrieta. (The supporting numbers keep Kershaw and Scherzer and de Grom in the hunt - but they aren't better than the guys with wins this year, so let the wins separate them.) If Arrieta wins, it won't be a travesty. If Greinke wins, it will be well deserved. If I had a vote - crap: Greinke, I guess. Let his battingbe the tie breaker - he hit 2 home runs; he slugged .343 - better than 2 of the Royals' regular starting lineup; 2 points behind Jacoby Ellsbury! It's worth half a run above replacement! Go Zach!
Friday, October 02, 2015
Friday Music and fewer Guns Please
Friday. Another week, another mass killing here in the good old USA. The knee jerk reaction is, get rid of the guns. Living in a time when crime rates are falling, murder rates falling, violence is falling, mass shootings stick out all the more - it's hard to put them down to whatever societal malaise causes crime. I don't know what it is. But they would be a lot harder to pull off if getting guns was harder. And - at the risk of venturing into mind-reading - if guns weren't treated quite so fetishistically, if they weren't linked so much to the idea of power and virility and freedom - you might have fewer sexually insecure losers going on shooting sprees. So - yeah: get rid of them. Or take "get rid of them" as the starting point and make the gun defenders come up with a better plan. Some plan at all...
And - I don't trust too much psychological profiling in cases like this, but you can't get around this fact: more or less all of these massacres are perpetrated by men. Seem to be mostly white guys at that, though that's not anywhere near as hard a rule (like this one, perpetrated by a mixed race guy). But male - that's pretty much a rule.
All right. No more about that for now. Let's have some music.
1. Jay Farrar - New Multitudes
2. Television - Beauty Trip
3. Velvet Underground - Some Kinda Love (live - Quine tapes)
4. The Strokes - Killing Lies
5. Nick Cave and Bad Seeds - Hiding All Away (live)
6. Pavement - Zurich is Stained
7. Husker Du - I Don't Want to Know if You Are Lonely
8. Six Organs of Admittance - Bar-Nasha
9. Butthole Surfers - American Woman
10. Egg Hunt - We All Fall Down
and some video. Lots of New York rock on there - here is the least of them, though still pretty good - The Strokes:
Maybe not the Velvets,but the next best thing, when it comes to New York rockers. Richard Lloyd gets a nice solo here:
And we should not neglect the great midwest - Husker Du:
And - I don't trust too much psychological profiling in cases like this, but you can't get around this fact: more or less all of these massacres are perpetrated by men. Seem to be mostly white guys at that, though that's not anywhere near as hard a rule (like this one, perpetrated by a mixed race guy). But male - that's pretty much a rule.
All right. No more about that for now. Let's have some music.
1. Jay Farrar - New Multitudes
2. Television - Beauty Trip
3. Velvet Underground - Some Kinda Love (live - Quine tapes)
4. The Strokes - Killing Lies
5. Nick Cave and Bad Seeds - Hiding All Away (live)
6. Pavement - Zurich is Stained
7. Husker Du - I Don't Want to Know if You Are Lonely
8. Six Organs of Admittance - Bar-Nasha
9. Butthole Surfers - American Woman
10. Egg Hunt - We All Fall Down
and some video. Lots of New York rock on there - here is the least of them, though still pretty good - The Strokes:
Maybe not the Velvets,but the next best thing, when it comes to New York rockers. Richard Lloyd gets a nice solo here:
And we should not neglect the great midwest - Husker Du:
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