by John Walters
Happy 36th to Barney Stinson’s and George Clooney’s ex, Stacy Kiebler!
Starting Five
Close, Mr. Sign Maker, very close….
1. Bear Market!
2015: Joe Maddon is hired. Ernie Banks passes away. 2+1+5=8, so that “0” and “8” (streeeeeeetch). The Cubs looked more than robust in dispatching the team with baseball’s best record, St. Louis, and also clinching a series at Wrigley Field for the first time in franchise history (Wrigley is only 101 years old).
…Will Ferrell as Harry Caray. It’s eerie.
Joe Maddon and…
Meanwhile, a potential Cubs-Mets NLCS would yield a celebrity harvest of John Cusack, Bill Murray and Eddie Vedder for the North Siders and Chris Rock and Jerry Seinfeld (and JR Moehringer) for the lads from Queens. If the Dodgers win, we get more Magic Johnson. You decide.
Meanwhile, how about Theo Epstein? Did Michael Lewis write the wrong book, Aaron Sorkin the wrong movie? Here’s a man who, before his 42nd birthday, may bring championships to fan bases that waited 86 and 107 years, respectively, for a World Series. Let him work on the tax code next.
Men who appeared in “Singles” and “Better Off Dead
Meanwhile, both the Mets and Dodgers sent ambassadors to watch Game 4.
2. Feel The Bern
“What the hell!?! I thought we were going to see Criss Angel!”
The five Democratic presidential candidates held a debate in Las Vegas last night as elsewhere in the city, EMS workers were grappling with the fact that they were unable to airlift Lamar “Oh, Brothel, Where Art Thou” Odom and his 6’10” frame from the Love Ranch South to a hospital (I hope he did not take a rookie).
I didn’t watch much, but it sounds as if Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton were the only two to walk away from the tables with more money than they walked in with. I like Bernie, even though 78% of the time he fits George Costanza’s description of an angry sea: “Like an old man trying to send back soup at a deli…”
Meanwhile, it may be time to send Curt Schilling over to Syria….
3. Mmm, Mmm, Good Bit
I’ve only seen Stephen Colbert on Late Show in bits and pieces, and so maybe it’a a little early, but my quick take is that I miss the character. In the early part of the show, when he gets to just be the snarkmeister he was on The Colbert Report, he’s fantastic. Once guests come on and he’s simply the decent human being that he happens to be in real life, the interviews need work (unless he’s interviewing a natural foil, such as Trump).
Anyway, this bit on Campbell’s Soup new ad with two dads and the resulting outcry from the “One Million Moms” activist group is classic Colbert Report, right down to the final connection between Campbell’s and a certain pop culture icon. Brilliant stuff.
p.s. I like that Seth Meyers has reverted to a “deskalogue” and realized, Why scrap something I do so well? Here’s hoping that Colbert brings “The Word” to his new venture.
4. Oh, Brother, Here Art Thou
Here’s the thing about Seth Meyers’s younger brother, Josh Meyers, who is an actor: He’s both devilishly handsome AND an extremely entertaining talk-show guest. Last night Josh appeared on big brother’s show and the opening anecdote was about how Josh emailed Seth to tell him that he was in town on Monday so that the two Vermont natives, who are Pittsburgh Steeler fans, would be able to watch the Steelers on on Monday Night Football. “Great,” Seth replied, “What are you doing in town?”
Josh: “I’m appearing on your show.”
Josh also had an interesting take on social media, particularly Twitter: “‘Northwestern just scored! I have an opinion! Let me share it!’ Who cares!?!” (Guilty….and he’s right).
Anyway, Josh Meyers looks and sounds like a guy who is more talented than any of the material he’s been handed thus far (though I’ve never seen him anywhere except on his brother’s couch). Funny guy. Charming. Keep an eye on him.
5. Where In The World?
Jeppestown.jpg)
Yesterday: Crescent Lake, in the Gobi Desert, China
Music 101
Because The Night
I’m sure there are other candidates (“Nothing Compares 2 U,” from Prince to Sinead O’Connor), but this is one of the best examples of a song written by a famous artist (Bruce Springsteen) that became the signature tune of another artist (Patti Smith and, yes, I’ve got Manfred Mann on my mind as well). The “Behind The Music” story of the song is that the two artists were recording in adjacent studios and that Springsteen scrapped it before truly finishing it. Smith wrote a lot of the lyrics that appear on the song that rose to No. 13 in 1978. Still, it’s about as Springsteen-y sounding a song as you will find, and of course Bruce cannot resist playing it himself.
Remote Patrol
Rangers-Blue Jays, Game 5
FS1 4:07 p.m.
Astros-Royals, Game 5
FS1, 8:07 p.m.
“If you need a base hit/And a steady mitt/Lo Cain He don’t lie, he don’t lie, he don’t lie…Lo Cain”
Harold Reynolds is as popular in Canada as Chase Utley is in New York City. Two elimination games, one beginning in the afternoon. I love October baseball!
So, no opinion on Spurrier? Now that I’ve had time to think on it, I still think he QUIT on his team, possibly because he realized that team might have 9 or more losses this season & he didn’t want that to smudge his overall coaching record. Also, he didn’t just surprisingly turn 70, it’s not something you don’t know is coming, so these people that say “oh well, he’s 70”, well he knew how old he was when he started the season. If he wasn’t feeling the passion or that he had the ability to do the job anymore (understandable if you do such a demanding job for so many years), he should have left BEFORE the season started.
I heard someone on TV last night say that he’d be “perfect for Gameday”. Maybe when Corso retires but I wouldn’t add him yet, except for occasional guest visits.
As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t watch baseball but was rooting for the Cubs (when I found out they were in the post-season) because of their ‘poor, sad, frustrating, unlucky, etc’ history as described in TV shows & movies over the last 40 years. Sort of like Charlie Brown as a baseball team. Hope they get all the way to the World Series. When was the last time they were in the WS? A friend of mine who is a baseball viewer/fan said last month that he expected Toronto & St Louis to be in the Series so I’m sure he’s shocked today.
I’m still thinking a lot about ‘The Walking Dead’, possibly because that’s almost ALL I watched on TV for a solid week, 7-8 episodes a night for 5 straight nights plus Sat-Sun from 1:00 pm Sat nonstop till 10:00 pm Sunday. That’s total immersion! I did miss 4 full episodes & 10-30 minutes each of 5 other episodes because of getting home late from work or just felll asleep. Have you ever watched 65-77 episodes of 1 show all at once like that? Not as repeat but for 1st viewing? I think it has impacted how I view the entire series, the episode plots & the characters as compared to the folks who saw the episodes as they originally aired, over the 5 years. For example, you & that reviewer seem to dislike Rick & even though I don’t like all his choices , I think he’s one of the most heroic characters I’ve ever seen on TV. Also, I went to Grantland yesterday & printed out some old episode reviews & was shocked to read that apparently many viewers hate Carl. Well, I like the kid! I do have a quibble with the writers that even though the 8-10 year old boy who started the series is now 14-15 years old in real life, the show has only moved forward about 2 years or so.
I’ll try to contain any future ‘Dead’ comments but do hope you write about this season’s episodes as you did a while back. Confession – I only sorta read what you wrote at the time because I wasn’t watching the show. Sorry, sorry! It’s my loss. IF I’d paid attention, maybe I would have started watching 4 years ago & think Rick is a jerk too. Or not. 🙂
Susie B:
1. “No opinion on Spurrier?” I thought I wrote about him yesterday (the demands people make along with their free subscriptions). Fellow septuagenarian Phyllis thinks SS doesn’t look well, and I happen to agree with her. Whether it’s a serious malady or if he’s just worn down, we’ll know in a month by how he looks. I doubt most people appreciate what a drain recruiting is, just beginning with travel. If I’m 70 (if I’m 50), I want no part of that. Second, I get why people think he “quit” on his team, but really the best thing for program going forward, if u know you’re done, is to leave ASAP.
2. Yes, I bought NVCR. Then I ditched it at $29. No regrets. May jump in again later.
3. “The Walking Dead” is not superior to Mad Men. Or Breaking Bad. You’re high. I love Daryl (Why would u think I didn’t?) but Carl annoys me, too. I miss the cute girl from when they were in the prison who got Zombie’d up. I try to imagine how good WD would be if it had the budget of GoT. Instead, it’s really a production of people running around in the woods of Georgia, playing make-believe on — except for the zombie make-up — a shoestring budget.
Hey jdubs, thanks for replying. You commented the other day that Spurrier was retiring immediately but I just wanted to know what you actually thought about it. I was hesitant (at 1st) to voice my opinion on Spurrier because if he is ill, then it changes the scenario. But if not, it’s a shocking & disappointing way for a highly respected college coach to leave his team & profession.
Congrats on your stock windfall. You always seem to buy/sell a great deal, like a ‘trader’. Have you ever bought a stock for the long haul? What’s the longest holding period of any of your stocks?
As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve never seen GoT so can’t compare. Only saw a few ‘Breaking Bad’ episodes as I rarely enjoy series where the main characters are criminals (nope, never saw ‘The Sopranos’ either). In fact, I usually need to LIKE the main characters or at least think they’re good people. Which is a problem I had with ‘Mad Men’, although I do think it was a very good show – I think there were only 2-4 “good” people on that entire series & Don Draper did not fascinate me as he did you. Basically, I’ve had to deal with enough total-shit people in real life, why would I want to WATCH the fictional version?
Everyone has their own definition of “great television”. For me, I rank on overall entertainment, smart/witty dialogue, characters that I can care about, & is it thought-provoking. Not all good shows rank high in all categories – for example, the Devil may have “gone down to GA” but not a lot of smart/witty dialogue was there to meet him in the woods & backroads, at least post-zombie apocalypse. But in the other categories, ‘The Walking Dead’ is off the charts for me. I do recognize that the way I viewed 5 years of episodes almost all in the same week has influenced how I perceived & appreciate the episodes & series overall. For me, the character evolutions (or metamorphoses if you will) & plot developments all seemed to be following a grand masterplan from the beginning instead of being made up as the writers/showrunners came & went (which I just figured out yesterday when reading some old episode reviews). During last week’s marathon there were no breaks between years, a season ended one night at 8:00 (for example) & at 8:01, the 1st episode of the next season began. There was not much time to gripe about what just happened – who died, wondering if EVERY damn road in GA really look exactly the same (leaf-strewn), the stupidity or naivete of some characters, that Rick booted Carol out of the prison (WTF?!) for doing what was going to have to be done in 1-3 hours anyway & did they really have to show 4 people getting their heads bashed in/throats cut/blood oozing on down the TROUGH at Terminus. (Still haven’t gotten over that & I grew up on a farm where ‘butcherin’ was a part of life).
Sure, part of my fascination is the guilt-free enjoyment of watching our heroes knife/bash-in/shoot the blood & guts-oozing zombies in their melon-squishing heads. And despite the limited budget (which SHOULD be skyrocketing by now as the most-watched drama on TV!), I can’t remember a show in at least the past 20 years that has made me think as much. I’ve seen most if not all the previous apocalypse series (‘Jericho’, ‘Revolution’, ‘Falling Skies’ are 3 of the most recent) & this one makes me think/wonder more than any of them combined (which is actually fostered by my emotional attachment to these characters). Ok sure, the idea of a brain-dead human actually being able to walk more than 1-2 muscle-reflex steps at most is not even remotely feasible 😉 , but some kind of catastrophe that prompts the falling of federal & local governments, laws, power grid, & all societal norms could. Would you have what it takes to survive? Would you even WANT to survive when all your loved ones have died horrible deaths. And most of all, that there seems no end in sight to the hell on earth you are now living.
What did ‘Mad Men’ make you think about? The soul-sucking ‘profession’ of advertising? The horrible job & financial opportunities/status of women & minorities in the 60s & 70s? That a handsome, total-shit man makes it to the top of the soul-sucking profession & despite several “crisis of conscience” is still pretty much a shit guy at the end? 😉
I liked MM but honestly, if given a choice of a TV series to watch repeats, I would much rather watch ‘The West Wing’ or ‘Gilmore Girls’ (which is now airing weeknights on UP, whoo-hoo!) or ‘The Walking Dead’.
Oh & speaking of ‘limited budgets’, the final season of “Falling Skies’ seemingly had their budget hacked by Michonne’s katana. And although I’m a sucker for happy endings, the ending of that show this past summer was SO LAME, SO AWFUL that I’m still pissed.
I’m a huge Cardinals fan. Born and raised in St. Louis (though moved to Colorado as an adult), so consider myself part of the “Best Fans in Baseball.”
That playoff series loss was rough, mainly because it was to the rival Cubs. Did I mention that my wife is from Chicago and she and her family are huge Cubs fans (why, oh why couldn’t they have been White Sox fans, instead)?
But, the more I’ve thought about it, the Cardinals were a shell of themselves by the time they got to the playoffs. Sure, they did win 100 games. But, they went into the playoffs held together with duct tape. The starting pitching was missing a starter (Carlos Martinez). The 2 of the other starters were trending down (pitch count, innings count, who knows why?). Then the starting lineup had several guys (Molina, Holiday, Grichuck, Piscotti) who spent some significant time on the DL and were trying their best to be more than just a shell of themselves.
Really hoping that the Cubs find a way to “Cub this one up” so I don’t have to hear about it all winter long …