Monthly Archives: September 2012

Day of Yore, September 21

by bhubbell | Leave a comment

“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.”

So begins “The Hobbit,” which was published 75 years ago today. J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy tale of a place called middle earth, was full of wizards, rings and hairy little people with big feet. The book set the stage for Tolkien’s later work, “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy. Tolkien could have said of The Hobbit, “You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet” (which, incidentally, was released by Bachman Turner Overdrive today in 1974). The Hobbit gets its movie treatment this December.

In other brilliant debuts, (okay, The Hobbit was Tolkien’s second published work, but his first real book), Monday Night Football raised the curtain for the first time tonight in 1970, with the Cleveland Browns defeating the New York Jets 31-21. On the very same night out in Oakland one of the most spectacular starts to a career in baseball history continued when 21-year old September call up Vida Blue fired a no hitter against the Minnesota Twins. Blue’s first start had been 10 days earlier when he threw a 1 hit shutout against the Kansas City Royals. A flame-throwing lefty, Blue would win the MVP and Cy Young awards in 1971 at just 22 years old. And he had a really sweet name.

Sandra Day O’Connor was unanimously approved by the Senate to become the first female member of the United States Supreme Court on this day in 1981.

In a move that probably would have caused even more media today than the Saints and bounty-gate, it was today in 1780 that Benedict Arnold gave the British the plans to the U.S. Fort at West Point and planned on surrendering it over to the Brits. Born in Connecticut, Arnold had become upset that he had been passed over for promotion by the Continental Congress.

September 21, 1990, saw the release of the last album by The Replacements, “All Shook Down.” The song, “Someone Take the Wheel” might have been a sign that the heroes of the musical underground were calling it quits. The band’s entire run is summed up by another song title of the album, “Sadly Beautiful.”

Sadly beautiful might be a way to describe Florence Griffith Joyner, who passed away today in 1998 at just 38 years old. Rumors of steroids dogged Flo-Jo after her body went through a complete makeover in a short period time and she set world records in the 100 and 200 meters that haven’t even been approached since. Fl0-Jo never tested positive for any illegal substances and she died in her sleep from an epileptic seizure.

Birthday wishes go out to many who’ve entertained us over the years: Jerry Bruckheimer turns 67, Stephen King is 65, Bill Murray 62, Faith Hill is 45 and Liam Gallagher turns 40. A special birthday shout out to Dave Coulier who turns 53 today. Coulier was “the other guy” on Full House, but is most remembered for the rage he inspired from Alanis Morissette in the song “You Oughta Know.” The guy had the stones to dump the only woman to play God in a movie (to my knowledge– and I’m not counting Madonna in “Truth or Dare”). The truth is, I just heard that song on the radio and thought it was ironic that his birthday was today (you know, like raaaaaaain on your wedding day)… damn, she was pissed off.

— Bill Hubbell

Posted in: 365 |

IT’S ALL HAPPENING!!! 9/21

by John Walters | 1 Comment

Starting Five

1. Boise State Broncos defeat the BYU Bronco Mendenhalls, 7-6, as Steve Young, Gifford Nielsen, Ty Detmer, Jared Zabransky and Kellen Moore turn away in disgust. Boise state defensive tackle Mike Atkinson scored the game-winning Fat Guy TD on a 36-yard INT return. The Blue Turfers were held without an offensive touchdown (edit: at home) for the first time since joining the FBS in ’96, and they still won.

2. Texas Tech and Billy Gillispie part ways, and Yahoo! sports columnist Dan Wetzel pens an insightful column about where and how Gillispie’s career careered out of control.

3. “I want something thinner, taller, smarter.” Men! iPhone users!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. WALK AND TALK! WALK AND TALK! WALK AND TALK! (Now this is how you run a political ad) (notice the nod to a certain iconic film that Josiah Bartlett starred in shortly before the 3:00 mark)

“They’re baaaaaack.” On YouTube.

5. Natitude! Playoff baseball is coming to Washington, D.C., for the first time since Herbert Hoover was president. (Those Washington Senators, by the way, were led by 26 year-old player-manager Joe Cronin).

Joe Cronin, progenitor of Natitude.

The Reserves

If an NFL game takes place on a Thursday night on NFL Network — even if one of the teams is the defending Super Bowl champion — did it really happen?

Should the Eighties New Wave band The Alarm be receiving royalties from Notre Dame, which is urging fans to “Take a staND”? “Come on and down and meet your maker/Come on down and take a stand.” The Irish are urging their non-student fans to stand during Saturday’s Michigan contest after years of septuagenarian octagenarian experienced ushers playing school marm to anyone outside the student section who dared to be raucous.

Rick Reilly: “What’s the secret to staying single?” Derek Jeter: “It goes without saying, doesn’t it?” Spoken like a G, DJ.

Paging Dr. Crane! Paging Dr. Crane! Kelsey Grammer walks out on scheduled interview with Piers Morgan after host showed photo of his ex-wife while teasing the segment.

We congratulate Bruce Arthur on this encomium, but isn’t the Canadian sports press closing the door on the year 2012 in like, the seventh inning?

This morning’s Google Maps vs. iPhone5 kerfuffle inspires us to resurrect this video of our favorite tune from 2004, which was a pretty darn good year for tuneage.

Pakistanis setting movie theaters on fire in Peshawar to protest “The Innocence of Muslims.” I was moved to do the same after spending $12.50 on “Moonrise Kingdom”, but I respect the concept of free speech.

Geoff versus the volcano: Adventurer Geoff Mackley rappels into an active volcano. Check out the video.

What Dr. Evil might refer to as, “Mmm-agma.”

Flushed out of the Pocket: Arkansas coach John L. Smith is $25.7 million in debt, which is nothing to SMILE! about.

The New York Mess have scored 13 runs in nine games at Citi Field this month. Last night the Philadelphia Phillies scored 16 runs there. Manager Terry Collins, asked if his team has quit, says, “You’ll have to ask them.”

Jimmy Kimmel, who will host Sunday’s Emmy awards and just had his show moved from midnight to 11:35 p.m., is asked if this is the greatest year of his life: “I think the year that I discovered masturbating might be the only one that was better.” Might be?

Yet another Twitter list that (almost) no one is happy about…

Disturbing trend: College football becoming a prime-time event. We are completely fine with the choice college football game of the weekend being held back until prime-time, but not three of them. This weekend Michigan and Notre Dame will kick off on NBC at 7:30 p.m., Kansas State and Oklahoma at 7:50 p.m. on Fox, and Clemson and Florida State at 8 p.m. on ABC. Those six schools represent one-third of the AP’s top 18 teams. We all savor a college football feast, but we don’t necessarily relish the idea of having to be Joey Chestnut.

This is how the networks expect you to devour Saturday night’s college football menu.

Pink performs acoustic-style on The Daily Show (NSFP: “Not Safe For Phyllis [Walters]).

Apparently, “The Perks of Being A Wallflower” extends beyond just being able to procure choice seats to Bob Dylan concerts.

In other film news: The ads certainly do not presage the huge acclaim that Looper (opening Sept. 28) is receiving.

R.I.Pee : Remembering Steve Sabol

by John Walters | Leave a comment

 

 Chris Corbellini toiled for nearly seven years at NFL Films and produced many of the terrific “Hard Knocks” segments that have helped the HBO series stockpile sports Emmy awards. We asked our friend Chris to pen a remebrance of his former boss, Steve Sabol, who died earlier this week of brain cancer at the age of 69.

             There’s no need to rehash all the accolades of NFL Films president Steve Sabol. In the rollicking, dark sea of cynical folks in the sports business, he was a light. Sabol’s family motto was “Let the film flow like water,” which meant spending some extra moolah if the project was worth it. How novel. Even now, despite a recession and that bottom-line corporate mentality of pro football, if the right producer asks, and if the shot was destined to look spectacular on the big screen, then the money to capture it would slip its way into the budget. Sabol painted, he wrote, he filmed, he inspired, he collected Emmys the way kids once collected marbles, and he took pride in saying his shop was the “anti-ESPN.”
He also appreciated a good dick joke.

Other people collect wines…

The second piece I ever produced for Sabol’s cherished fly-on-the-wall HBO series “Hard Knocks” involved a player and a urinal. In the summer of 2007 our subject, the Kansas City Chiefs, were desert-need-water-please desperate for a punt returner. So they brought in veteran Eddie Drummond for a tryout. First, naturally, the organization asked Drummond to submit to a drug test. Only Drummond couldn’t summon the means to do so.
A truly intrepid Films camera man, already there to film the former Pro Bowler because of the return man storyline, captured Drummond confessing as much, and then shot him guzzling four or five bottles of Poland Spring water , then followed him into the locker room bathroom … all the way to the intended destination.
Well now. Sabol believed that if you’ve got something “in your back pocket,” then build a storytelling moment around it.  His senior staff of creatives hammered that home during my first month on the job. This wasn’t a back pocket thing was more of a between the front pockets thing it involved a ZIPPER, but I edited a sequence together anyway. I plopped in a slapstick song, cut a montage of Drummond drinking the water from different angles (I think he burped at one point … THAT was going in), then used one long tracking shot following the return man to the moment of truth. No line of script necessary.
A day later the famous filmmaker sat down in a spare chair to my left, less than two feet away in a t-shirt and shorts, now fixated on my Avid editing screen display. He had a knack for entering my office without me noticing at first (some people have all their weight in their feet, thundering about everywhere, Sabol seemed to walk on air) … did exactly that … and asked me what I had for him this week. One episode earlier I put together a montage of pure football mayhem, a traditional Films slo-mo close up on the spiral, sweat dripping from faces look-in during a full-contact scrimmage. This was North-South different. This was something I had never tried within those four walls in Mt. Laurel. Humor. Bathroom humor. Any kind of humor.
I tapped my Avid mouse, and the sequence unspooled digitally. When Drummond walked into the commode, Sabol actually leaned forward. I still see him leaning forward in my mind’s eye, as I write this. I took the shot all the way to the urinal, then cut away right before Drummond, uh, ACTED.
Sabol loved it.
“OH! I thought you were going to do it! I thought you were going to show EVERYTHING! Ha ha ha ha!”

A cherished note from Sabol to the author.

The sequence made the show, untouched. It’s not TV, it’s HBO. I’ll say this for the guy (because the television critics and NFL types rightly gushed about him enough elsewhere) – he had high-brow passions but wasn’t above low-brow goofiness. And football fans were better for it. RIP, Steve. You were the first and perhaps last artistic genius I will ever work for. My only regret in my six-plus years with you – which included a stretch as your script writer – is not saying goodbye on my last day. You looked one way, and I looked the other as we passed in the hall.
If I could go back, I’d say “We should have kept in Eddie Drummond peeing.”

IT’S ALL HAPPENING! 9/20

by John Walters | Leave a comment

Starting Five

1. “All I do is win, win, win /No matter what…” DJ Khaled Braves pitcher Kris Medlen leads Atlanta to victory for the 21st consecutive time when he starts. Medlen pitches eight scoreless innings in a 3-0 shutout of the Marvins Marlins, raising his record to 9-1 while lowering his E.R.A. to 1.51. Remarkable.

The Braves have won 21 straight when this winner takes the hill for them, or something like that.

2. “This ride doesn’t go very fast.” The Windseeker at Knott’s Berry Farm may soon be known as the world’s largest monument to tort claims.

3. The Romney-versus-Obama battle has been, um, redistributed as Mother Jones versus The Drudge Report.

4. Are you familiar with this man? Yesterday 45 year-old infielder Omar Vizquel passed him on the all-time hits list.

5. Bill O’Reilly versus Jon Stewart on pay-per-view October 6. The bad news? The Miami-Notre Dame tussle from Soldier Field will be taking place simultaneously.

Reserves

Now Stanley Panther (we know him as “Stan Pants”) is just another member of the 47% (via Yardbarker).

Ichiro Suzuki collects seven hits in eight at-bats, including a game-winner, in the Yanks’ doubleheader sweep of Toronto, but glory hound Derek Jeter muscles in on the spotlight by collecting his 200th hit of the season. That gives Jeter eight 200-hit seasons in pinstripes, tying him with Lou Gehrig for the franchise record.

Don’t you think that the residents of Atlantis would dispute this headline?

ESPN’s man of letters, Bob Ley, tweets out the set list of last night’s Bruce Springsteen show at Met Life Stadium.

SI.com released its second annual Twitter 100 yesterday, an idea that may or may not have been inspired by a former employee. We mean, who’s to say? The best part about releasing such a list? Where, oh where, will all the people who feel unjustly slighted by not being included on the list go to vent? Hmmm.

Arianna Huffington with an interesting, and probably accurate, insight as to a simple problem plaguing the Romney campaign (there’s a joke here about, “Take two Romney speeches and call me in the morning” just dying to be made here).

Not bad, Michigan. Not bad.

Ordinarily, the Wolverines wait until the game’s final minute to punk Notre Dame.

 

On the subject of Notre Dame, here’s a podcast of an irrelevant writer discussing an irrelevant football program.

Riles should speak at the next Notre Dame pep rally — and bring his wife!

Okay, we’re on an abbreviated IAH! schedule this morning. Thanks for reading. If we can post more later, we will.

 


Day of Yore, September 19

by bhubbell | Leave a comment

She was a 30-year old single working woman who’d never been married and was more concerned with her professional life than her personal life. And it was 1970.

The Mary Tyler Moore show premiered on September 19, 1970, and it followed the ups and downs and comic folly of a young woman working in a local television news department in Minneapolis. What Seinfeld was to the 90’s and Cheers was to the 80’s, The Mary Tyler Moore show can stake a claim to being the top sit-com of the 70’s, winning three straight Emmys for Outstanding Comedy Series (1975-1977). In a 1997 list of the top television episodes of all-time, TV Guide ranked the MTM episode, “Chuckles Bites the Dust” at number one.

   

In 1981 Simon and Garfunkel reunited for a free concert in Central Park that drew over 500,000 people. The pair hadn’t performed a concert together since 1970.

Today in 1995, both the Washington Post and the New York Times published the Unabomber’s Manifesto, “Industrial Society and It’s Future.” Ted Kaczynski was holed up in Montana and didn’t like where the world was heading. He’d promised more bombings if some reputable outlets didn’t publish his essay.

I’d like to see a duet from two people celebrating birthdays today: Jimmy Fallon turns 38 and Lita Ford turns 54. Ford, the lead guitarist for the groundbreaking girl group The Runaways, had her highest charting hit with the very non-rocking, “Close My Eyes Forever,” which was an even bigger departure for her song-mate, Ozzy Osbourne. It might not have been her biggest hit, but her best song is clearly this one.

  

Ford is definitely a head banger and it was today at Seoul Olympics in 1988 that Greg Louganis banged his head on the springboard, before going on to win the gold medal a few days later.

— Bill Hubbell