STARTING FIVE
For many, these guys represent the most dangerous gang in urban areas
1. Cop Land
–IFC aired Cop Land on Tuesday night, which was prophetic.
–The New York Post headline today is “It Was Not A Crime.” Were they trying to be cute? Ironic? Play both sides? Or just play to their demo?
–The Staten Island grand jury? Ironically, they choked.
—Jon Stewart, who had to go on air minutes after the grand jury decision came down, put it best and succinctly without having much time to pretty up the script: “I think what is so utterly depressing is that none of the ambiguities that existed in the Ferguson case exist in the Staten Island case and yet the outcome is exactly the same.”
“If comedy is tragedy plus time (Alan Alda in Crimes and Misdemeanors), I need more (bleepin’) time,” said Stewart. “But I would really settle for less (bleepin’) tragedy.”
–Someone wrote me to say that the hold that Officer Daniel Pantaleo applied to Eric Garner was not technically a “chokehold.” Two things on that: The New York Times referred to it as a “chokehold” in its lede sentence in this morning’s above-the-fold story and 2) if a victim says 11 times “I can’t breathe” and those are his final words, does it really matter what you call it?
If it looks like a chokehold and it has the same effects as a chokehold…
–The good people at The O’Reilly Factor felt last night was the time to give props to this video made by a black man named Frederick Wilson. Because, you know, that was the lesson we should all take from this. I don’t disagree with Mr. Wilson’s thoughts; just found FOX’s timing impeccable, as always.
–You know how certain news networks and anchors (ahem, item above) always wonder why all the “good Muslims” remain silent as ISIS and Al Qaeda commit atrocities? Where are all the good cops, where is just one, who will come out and state that the cops in Staten Island completely mishandled and unnecessarily escalated a non-lethal situation? Where are they?
Which cop are you?
–The only thing I’ll say on the other side is this: Arguing with a cop on the street is just stupid. You want your day in court in terms of how a cop treats you, wait until you actually get to court. The idea of arguing with a cop on the street is dumb (Sheriff Taylor is not walking through that door). You shouldn’t have to pay for it with your life, of course, but you’re going to lose that battle every time. And if you happen to win, well, things will only get worse real soon.
–Officer Pantaleo was stripped of his gun. That was never the problem.
–One of those Laws of Thermodynamics: For every reaction, there is a reaction. This will not stop at peaceful protests. The decision that was rendered in Staten Island yesterday will cost innocent people or good cops their lives. Book it.
2. No Habla Espanol
Yamila Diaz Rahi and her fellow Argentines deserve better…
Yesterday the U.S. Senate confirmed two new foreign ambassadors, appointments made at the behest of POTUS. The first is Noah Mamet, who was named U.S. Ambassador to Argentina. Senor Mamet has never been to Argentina (in that sense I am more qualified) and he speaks no Spanish.
The Senate also confirmed Colleen Bell as U.S. Ambassador to Hungary. Ms. Bell is a soap opera producer (The Bold and the Beautiful, which isn’t even one of my top three; I mean, sure, if it were Days of Our Lives I could understand…). Dear POTUS: My good friend Tom V. is a first-generation Hungarian, speaks the language, graduated from Stanford and has worked for the U.S. State Department for approximately 20 years. When you sober up, please replace Ms. Bell with Tommy. I’ll give you the last name when I hear from you.
Couldn’t we have named Al Hrabosky (“The Mad Hungarian”) ambassador? Who wouldn’t have supported that?
So how did Mamet and Bell land these gigs? Each raised at least $500,000 for POTUS’ reelection campaign. Honestly, when your REAL-LIFE ambassador makes less sense than Teo Leoni as Secretary of State, we’ve got a problem…
3. Where Was Mad Bum?
Herndon crosses finish line. A big burp is ahead
The Beer Mile World Championship was staged in Austin last night. Corey Gallagher, a 27 year-old from Winnipeg, ran four laps and chugged four beers (one after each lap) in 5:00.23, breaking the tape. In the Women’s division, Elizabeth Herndon, 29, a geology professor, crossed in 6:17. And let’s face it: we all want to know more about Elizabeth Herndon because she sounds like the perfect woman.
If you want to learn more about the Beer Mile, here’s a piece from The New York Times and another from The Atlantic.
4. A Shocker in SLC
That’s Jakob Poeltl, who had 12 points and 11 boards for the wayward Utes. He’s a 7-footer from Austria. That’s Alps, not Barrier Reef.
Yes, Notre Dame beat No. 19 Michigan State for the first time since 1979 (it was the first time these two relatively close schools had met since 1979). Yes, Duke beat Wisconsin in Madison. Yes, even the Sick Sirs won.
Buried beneath all that? No. 25 Utah ended the nation’s longest regular-season college win streak by beating No. 8 Wichita State in overtime, 69-68. The Shockers were on the free throw line with a chance to tie and win with 7.5 ticks left in OT, but Fred VanVleet missed the front end of the one-and-one.
(The game also featured the second incident this week of a referee being knocked down or out during a jump ball. Elbows in, guys.)
By the way, I really liked when ESPN’s Dave Flemming (? I think), calling the Irish game with Doris Burke, noted that the two of them would also be calling Saturday’s game in South Bend between UConn and Notre Dame, women’s edition: “So we get to stay here until then,” said Flemming. Good humor. If they’re smart, they headed immediately to Chicago at least for today.
5. Serial: It’s Not Just for Breakfast
Sarah Koenig, creator and host
If you could’ve purchased stock in any form of entertainment the past two weeks, you’d have bought “Serial,” the podcast which was spun off from NPR’s This American Life. I haven’t listened to it, but it’s basically a review of a 14 year-old murder case in Baltimore, kind of a Whodunnit after the fact. Seems that the convicted suspect, Adnan Syed, may not actually be the killer. Former Baltimore Sun journalist Sarah Koenig is the host.
Serial has become the most popular podcast in history, No. 1 on iTunes for a number of weeks.
Reserves
Yeah, maybe I shouldn’t have said that. But sometimes you cannot resist a good line…
Just wanted to note here that Jim Harper (John Gallagher, Jr.), the least-liked character by every female who reviews The Newsroom, got off two good lines in a matter of minutes in the most recent episode. First, “Dear Penthouse, I’ve never written a letter like this before…” was followed just a scene later by “No one would ever know you two were a couple.” And he also nailed Hallie to the wall on the balcony (“I have your Samsung Galaxy, what else do you got?”).
Methinks Jim is more Aaron Sorkin than anyone on the series. Sometimes that’s a good thing, sometimes it’s bad. I was on his side this week. Totes.
Remote Patrol
Lars and the Real Girl
Sundance 10 p.m.
He’s thinking, She’s no Eva Mendes
Never seen it, so this Ryan Gosling vehicle is more for me out of curiosity. As a sports scribbler, I’d be remiss if I didn’t tell you that the NBA’s two brightest new luminaries, Anthony Davis and Stephen Curry, meet on TNT at 10:30 p.m. If they held the MVP balloting right now –and why would they?– these two would finish one-two in either order.
You are spot on with your screed about killing a guy over less than a pack of smokes. You just can’t win fighting cops on the street. On the other hand some cops can be assholes. It’s all an ego thing for the kids and the cops. And no, we can’t all just get along.
This is a critical forum for me to better understand “Peter Pan Live!” and its motives.
Like who exactly thought it needed to be three hours?
And who thought a 71-year-old Christopher Walken would bring, say, an ounce of energy? Yes, it gives you a free plug or two on Jay Mohr’s radio show, but otherwise … how?
re : who thought Peter Pan needed to be 3 hours? How else do you get those 50 Walmart commercials in there? 🙂
As for Walken – just my 2 cents but HOW could that character be any more MISCAST? I was screaming for “MORE COWBELL, MORE COWBELL!” every time he attempted to sing ( a la’ Rex Harrison?). But it wasn’t just the singing, it was his entire take on the character. He appeared & moved like a slightly melted wax-figure version of Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack. His dancing was actually far better than his singing and acting but overall, my “timbers” & pretty much every other part of me ‘shivered’ every time he appeared on screen. At least the rest of the pirates were great.
I did love the sets, many of the musical numbers, the not-seen-enough clock-ticking, Hook-eating gator & even though (as I’ve grumped here before) I really can’t stand that Peter is oddly almost always played by a woman in this musical, I thought Allison was GREAT! She was by FAR the best thing in the entire show.
What say the rest of you? Medium Happy? Or Largely Unhappy?