Picture of the Day - 12/31/08

In this the last day of 2008, I'm putting up a shot I took during my staycation (five glorious days where I went nowhere and made plans with nobody). It was swell. I spent some time at Grand Central Station (aka Grand Central Terminal), playing with the shutter speed of my digital camera, trying to turn people into shadows. Here's one of my attempts.

Picture of the Day

So, in anticipation of getting this blog back to some semblance of regularity, I thought I'd start by bringing back the Picture of Day.



This was taken in Central Park on Christmas Day. I decided to eschew the movie and Chinese food and instead went for a walk. There was a woman feeding the birds by one of the ponds near 76th Street(or so), and I snapped this while the bird was coming in for a landing.

Marlon Brando must be spinning in his grave...

Brooke Shields is going to be interviewed by James Lipton for Inside the Actors' Studio. Really? I mean, really??If you're interested it will be airing on Monday at 8P on Bravo.

Okay, props to the Emmy director...

They didn't cut Don Rickles off.

Poor Stephen Colbert...

First he loses to Barry Manilow, then Tony Bennett and now... Don Rickles.

Though, I can't wait to see him guest on Colbert's show.

And, I can't begrudge Mr. Warmth's victory. The mean's a legend...

If they cut him off, there's no redemption for theses awards shows.

For shame!

The Emmy's cut Kristin Chenoweth and Neil Patrick Harris' bit? I am APPALLED!

Watching the Emmys...

Well, I'm flipping back and forth between the Emmys and the last Yankees game at Yankee Stadium.

What was up with the award winner of Best Writer for a Miniseries movie or a Dramatic special getting cut off (and going to commercial!) within 20 seconds of speaking. Ridiculous. Ahhh... Kirk Ellis for John Adams "Independence" was the winner.

Mighty twitchy trigger fingers on the director this year. If a winner even remotely goes towards politics, the music starts up.

Though, I do like that a number of the winner are telling people to make sure they vote on Nov. 4.

Be sure to watch Costas Now on HBO (all this month)

Last night I had the most enjoyable baseball night of my life (while not physically being at a game). Bob Costas was doing a live taping of Costas Now at the Skirball Center at NYU and through the fortune of being on the Syracuse alumni list, I got tickets to go. It was billed as a Town Hall on the state of baseball today.

He had on current all-stars (Evan Langoria, Jimmy Rollins, and a pitcher for the Tigers whose name I'm blanking on) talking about the state of the game today from a players perspective. Rollins had some great stuff to say about the decline of African Americans playing and took the booing from the Met fans in attendance, in stride.

Former all-stars (Dave Winfield, Steve Palmer, and Pete Rose by satellite), talked about the game in their day and the Hall of Fame (whether Rose deserves to be in it and Bonds and McGuire). Andy Van Slyke and Arte Moreno spoke about today's game from a coach/owner perspective.

But, the kicker was the end of the program when Costas interviewed Hank Aaron and Willie Mays. They were supposed to have the last 30 minutes of a 90 minute program (with another 5 minutes of conversation on HBO.com), but they kept talking so much that, after the fact, the show decided to make that section it's own episode, so we got close to an hour of conversation between Aaron, Mays and Costas. Plus, a few asides were thrown in b y Bob Gibson from the audience. It was just amazing. They spoke about playing in the Negro Leagues, as well as how it was playing for MLB baseball when they were either unable to stay in certain hotels or when the hotels were finally integrated, they got the worst rooms. They talked drugs (both amphetamines and steroids) and Barry Bonds. They talked about the most intimidating pitcher they faced... Gibson with Don Drysdale a close second. It was fabulous. They got 3 standing ovations in the 60 minutes. Costas was clearly having a ball.

So, if you like baseball, check it out. And tomorrow night, Billy Joel at Shea. Life is grand.

My greatest live baseball game experience

Baseball season starts soon! Well, in two days anyway if you're a Mets fan. Negative a couple days if you're a Red Sox fan. Of course, I am talking about the start of the new baseball season. And, let's just talk a minute about how ridiculous starting the season in Japan was. Exactly who watched that game? The Japanese and insomniacs. Regardless of who is playing, I love watching the first game of the season. But, because it was a day game, it was the middle of the night even for folks on the West Coast. Just one more of Bud Sielig's bad ideas for the American pasttime. Yay Commish!

So, since the Mets opening game is a day game, I decided to DVR it and while looking for the game on my program guide, I saw that they were airing the 9/21/01 game on Mets Classics. This was the first baseball game in New York after 9/11. And, it remains the greatest baseball game I ever saw live (and this includes World Series games, division playoff clinches and my first live game ever).

A little backstory... My sister and her (then) fiancee were supposed to get married a week and a half after 9/11, but because they both worked in finance in NYC, they knew people who were directly affected by the attacks. They decided to postpone their wedding until the following month because they weren't in a celebratory mood and knew most of their guests would feel the same way. When I found out that the first Mets game was going to be on 9/21/01, I decided to take them to the game, as we are all huge Mets fans and I thought this might help them forget the disappointment/horror of the prior 10 days for at least a couple of hours.

Of course, the pre-game ceremony did everything they could do to remind us of the horror, but it was more to pay tribute to the victims and the heroes (the Fire Department, Police Department and EMS workers - not however Rudy Giuliani no matter what the television broadcast might have wanted us to believe). There was the moment of sllence, the bagpipe rendition of America the beautiful, the singing of G-d Bless America by Diana Ross, the throwing out of the first pitch by members of the FDNY, NYPD, EMS and Port Authority Police Department, another moment of silence, the National Anthem sung by Marc Anthony, and finally the shaking of hands by the Mets and Atlanta Braves before the game started.

And then the game started. It was a low scoring game which only added to the collective funk in the stadium. While everyone got up for the ubiquitous USA chants, it was like we weren't sure how excited we should be for the game itself. Just days before, Shea Stadium had been used as donation sorting site for the rescue effort. When the wind shifted, you could still smell the ash for the WTC site.

The Mets wore hats with the logos of the different rescue departments (hats they would wear until the end of the season and which they wear on the anniversary of 9/11).

Bruce Chen was the starting pitcher for the Mets, while Staten Island native Jason Marquis started for the Braves. Rey Sanchez got the first hit for the Braves in the third inning, and the following inning the Braves scored the first run of the game (scored by Chipper "Larry" Jones). That was when it seemed like the crowd first really got into that not only was this baseball, but baseball against the BRAVES. The derisive Larry chants got started in earnest this inning (though they had been shouted since his first at-bat) and, in my Left Field section we got on Larry everytime he took the field.

The Mets tied the score in the bottom half of the inning, when Mike Piazza scored on a Tsuyoshi Shinjo sacrifice. And that's were scoring paused until the 8th inning. In the 7th inning we had the first instance of the singing of G-d Bless America (by Liza Minnelli). The Braves scored again in the top half of the 8th inning and there was again a lull in the ballpark. But, then Fonzie (Edgardo Alfonzo) worked out a walk in the bottom of the 8th, bringing Piazza with one out and the Braves up 1-0. Desi Relaford pitch ran for Fonzie, but it turned out to be a moot point, as with one out at 10:29 p.m., he got a hold of a 0-1 pitch that he hit out of the ballpark. The Mets took a 3-2 lead, and Shea went crazy. It was cathartic. Shea Stadium was actually jumping from the sheer weight of people bouncing with glee. Armando Benitez who got the Mets out of a bases loaded jam in the top of the 8th returned to pitch the 9th and got Keith Lockhart to hit into a 6-4-3 double play to end the game.

Yes, when we got back on the 7 train and saw the gaping hole where the World Trade Center used to stand, the pain and sadness came flooding back, but for a few brief minutes, we forgot the pain and the uncertainty. Baseball again made us innocent and happy.

The New York Yankees went to the World Series that year, and people all over the media would say that their success was helping the city heal. But on 9/21/01, it was the New York Mets that started the healing process for those 40,000 fans at Shea. They made it okay to cheer for something as insignificant as a baseball game.

The Russell Girl

The Hallmark Hall of Fame umbrella series has a history of putting out some of the most beautifully schmaltzy made for tv movies. And the latest entrant into that series, The Russell Girl is a grand addition. Starring Amber Tamblyn (Joan of Arcadia) and Jennifer Ehle (BBC's Pride & Prejudice), this is a small story of a girl's inner turmoil over a years ago incidence that not only affected her life, but the lives of her neighbors.

Tamblyn stars in the title role, and she embodies the role of someone who just brings so much on herself. When she was in high school, she babysat for the MOrriyssey's across the street and through a serious of unfortunate events, tragedy happens. Sarah can't forgive herself and as soon as possible, she moves to Chicago to get away from the past. Mrs. Morriessey (Ehle) also can't forgive shadow, but really she can't forgive anyone, herself included.

While in Chicago, Sarah learns she developed leukemia and before dealing with medical issue, she decides to go home for the first time in a long time. Her mom is so excited to see her, that she doesn't care why she's home. Her father is worried, as he realizes that she has never recovered emotionally from the earlier tragedy. Sarah elects not to tell her family about her illness.

Sarah's appearance in the house across the street does not sit well with Mrs. Morrissey as all of her old thoughts and feelings bubbled to the surface, distressing her husband and teenage sons. She develops severe migraines that keep her from some of her sons' important events. And Sara does not make things easier as she clearly wants to talk, but doesn't really know what to say.

A lot of what happens is coincidence. Mrs. Morrissey is the first person to realize that Sarah is sick because she keeps running into the girl in town as symptoms keep popping up.

But, the acting (as is often the case with shmaltz) really makes the movie work. Both Tamblyn and Ehle keep their performances small, but that adds to the intimacy. And the supporting cast, Matt Czerny as Mr. Morrissey and Tim Dekay as Mr. Russell brought a sense of caring to the role. They clearly wanted to be their for their wife (in Morrissey's case) and daughter (in Russell's case), but it was never clear what the right thing to do was. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio has a harder role, as she plays Sarah's mother who goes through most of the film in a chipper mood wearing blinders. Everyone watching knows that she needs to take the blinders off to really see what is happening with Sarah. Mastrantonio plays the role fine, it's just pretty thankless until the end when she finally gets her chance to say what she thinks.


The DVD is going to be distributed through the Hallmark Gold Crown stores on Feb. 1. And, I might just have to get a copy. Though, I'm afraid something will be lost with the excision of the Hallmark commercials. Some of the commercials can bring me to tears faster than a sappy movie.