Ramblin' with Roger

An off-year for the Oscars and me

see The Queen Of Basketball and The Long Goodbye

Historically, 1) I would see lots of movies in the theater throughout the year, and 2) I’d try to see whatever movies I’d missed after the Oscars were announced. This year, though, is an off-year for the Oscars and me.

For one thing, I saw far fewer movies in an actual cinema, always my preferred venue. For another, I’d make dates with my wife to watch some films on a streaming service, but the plans would fall through. I DID see a few online by myself, but I just didn’t have the mojo for doing that too often.

What DID I see that were nominated? I linked to my reviews in the BEST PICTURE category, or elsewhere if not nominated there.

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
JAVIER BARDEM in Being the Ricardos, which I watched a day ago and requires a full review
ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
CIARÁN HINDS in Belfast
TROY KOTSUR in CODA. Based on all of the other awards, I’d think Kotsur is a near lock, which is fine by me.
J.K. SIMMONS in Being the Ricardos

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
PENÉLOPE CRUZ in Parallel Mothers
ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
ARIANA DEBOSE in West Side Story JUDI DENCH in Belfast. I was pulling for Caitríona Balfe, who played the mom in Belfast, but she wasn’t nominated

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
FLEE – Jonas Poher Rasmussen, Monica Hellström, Signe Byrge Sørensen and Charlotte De La Gournerie

CINEMATOGRAPHY
WEST SIDE STORY – Janusz Kaminski
COSTUME DESIGN
WEST SIDE STORY – Paul Tazewell

Auteur

DIRECTING
BELFAST – Kenneth Branagh
DRIVE MY CAR – Ryusuke Hamaguchi
LICORICE PIZZA -Paul Thomas Anderson
WEST SIDE STORY – Steven Spielberg
I saw all except Jane Campion for THE POWER OF THE DOG. Of the four, I’d pick Branagh.

DOCUMENTARY (FEATURE)
ATTICA – Stanley Nelson and Traci A. Curry. Just saw this. Very thorough but greatly unsettling.
FLEE – Jonas Poher Rasmussen, Monica Hellström, Signe Byrge Sørensen and Charlotte De La Gournerie. Has there been an animated film nominated as a doc feature? Powerful. More soon.
SUMMER OF SOUL (…OR, WHEN THE REVOLUTION COULD NOT BE TELEVISED) – Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, Joseph Patel, Robert Fyvolent, and David Dinerstein, which was splendid

DOCUMENTARY (SHORT SUBJECT)
THE QUEEN OF BASKETBALL – Ben Proudfoot. You can watch it at this link. I didn’t write about this because I expected to see the others in this category. The IMDB description: “an electrifying portrait of Lucy Harris, who scored the first basket in women’s Olympic history and was the first and only woman officially drafted into the N.B.A. Harris has remained largely unknown – until now.” I found it quite informative and touching. Also sad, since Lucy recently died.

FILM EDITING – NONE

INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM
DRIVE MY CAR (Japan)
THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD (Norway) – just saw this; worthwhile. More in days to come.

MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING – NONE

MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)
PARALLEL MOTHERS -Alberto Iglesias
MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG)
DOWN TO JOY from Belfast; Music and Lyric by Van Morrison.
I’m rooting for DOS ORUGUITAS from Encanto; Music and Lyric by Lin-Manuel Miranda

The big category

BEST PICTURE
BELFAST – Laura Berwick, Kenneth Branagh, Becca Kovacik and Tamar Thomas, Producers
CODA – Philippe Rousselet, Fabrice Gianfermi, and Patrick Wachsberger, Producers
DRIVE MY CAR – Teruhisa Yamamoto, Producer
LICORICE PIZZA – Sara Murphy, Adam Somner and Paul Thomas Anderson, Producers
WEST SIDE STORY – Steven Spielberg and Kristie Macosko Krieger, Producers
Not having seen DON’T LOOK UP, DUNE, KING RICHARD, NIGHTMARE ALLEY, or THE POWER OF THE DOG, I’d pick CODA, though BELFAST would be a fine choice.

PRODUCTION DESIGN
WEST SIDE STORY – Production Design: Adam Stockhausen; Set Decoration: Rena DeAngelo

SHORT FILM (ANIMATED) – NONE
SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)
THE LONG GOODBYE – Aneil Karia and Riz Ahmed A powerful film that you can watch here or here

SOUND
BELFAST -Denise Yarde, Simon Chase, James Mather, and Niv Adiri
WEST SIDE STORY – Tod A. Maitland, Gary Rydstrom, Brian Chumney, Andy Nelson, and Shawn Murphy

VISUAL EFFECTS
SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME – Kelly Port, Chris Waegner, Scott Edelstein and Dan Sudick

WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)
CODA -Screenplay by Siân Heder
DRIVE MY CAR – Screenplay by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Takamasa Oe
WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)
BELFAST -Written by Kenneth Branagh
LICORICE PIZZA – Written by Paul Thomas Anderson
THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD – Written by Eskil Vogt, Joachim Trier. My favorite of the three.

It’s likely that I’ll get a short-term subscription to Netflix and see tick, tick…BOOM!, THE POWER OF THE DOG, and THE LOST DAUGHTER. Maybe catch some other films somehow.

The Hollywood Reporter: Who Will Win, Who Should Win

The follow-up post: ice, COVID, more

Half a block away

This is a follow-up post about what I’ve written about, most recently.

Remember that our car was stuck in the ice in February? Of course, you do. After we got out, and the snow and ice subsequently melted away, we discovered that our neighbor’s sidewalk was still very wet. There was water bubbling up from the intersection of their sidewalk and the walkway to their house.

Apparently, someone from the city or from National Grid, the power company, nicked the waterline. Their water bill must have been terrible for that quarter. The owner had to contact a company to use their backhoe to dig up a couple of sidewalk panels so that the leak could be fixed.

This explains why there was SO much water around our car thawing and refreezing since our car was essentially in front of their house.

Grandma Agatha

I’ve been trying to access the records of the court case involving my grandmother, Agatha Walker (later Green), and my biological grandfather Raymond Cone from October 1926.

Alas, I got word that they can’t find the records. They may have been misfiled or destroyed. And I know, from the conversation I had with the person at Family Court, that they are very interested in this case.

The unmasking

I’ve noted that our church had been masking during worship. However, the Session, the ruling body of the congregation, had commissioned a group of folks, expert in these things, including current and former members of the state Department of Health. The infection rate in Albany County, NY is presently at Green, or low, as is all of New York State. (Green is good, as we know.)

The bottom line is that, as of March 20, masks are optional during worship. The choir, for instance, had a discussion at the beginning of the St. Patrick’s Day rehearsal. Most chose to unmask while singing. BUT no one had to. I tended to keep my mask on while NOT singing but to take it off when I was.

Moreover, congregational singing was allowed, which made them, and me, very happy. And they passed the peace by moving around, rather than just waving at each other.

I will say that my comfort level with unmasking was based on the fact that the choir members are fully vaccinated. Moreover – and I don’t know how to say this without sounding pretentious – our congregation is of a demographic, educational, and political composition that most, if not all of them have gotten the vaccines and likely wearing masks frequently.

Now I know this could change with the BA.2 variant of Omicron in Europe, Asia, and Africa. The recent BAFTA awards in England may have been a super spreader event. And there are more stringent rules in place at church if the CDC guidance for our county goes to Yellow or Orange.

Former governor

Speaking of my church, you probably WON’T remember that I wrote about New York Governor Martin Glynn nearly a decade ago. The Glynn Mansion is half a block from my church! I have walked by it a few dozen times since writing that post. But only recently did I notice the commemorative plaque.

Sportscaster Bob Costas turns 70

Later

Bob Costas has covered a LOT of sporting events. Hockey, basketball, boxing, golf, football, just to name a few. But most people who have followed his career know that his great, first love is baseball. For years, he carried a Mickey Mantle baseball card in his wallet. Once, he hosted an interview show called Studio 42 with Bob Costas, 42 being Jackie Robinson’s number.

Costas is also well-known as a host for a dozen Olympics between 1988 and 2016, with a vast knowledge of sports. And other topics, as I discovered when he hosted Later, a late-late talk show (1:30 – 2 a.m.) he hosted on NBC between 1988 and 1994. He won one of his first of about two dozen Emmys for his last season of the program.

Brooks and Marsh describe the show: “Each telecast was devoted to a single guest, whose life was profiled with film clips and who then joined Bob in later’s overstuffed chairs.” I set my VCR to record episodes that interested me, so quite often. The guests were “TV celebrities, sports stars, with a few newsmen and politicians thrown in.” IMDB calls him “a smart interviewer with encyclopedic knowledge and a devilish sense of humor.”

Roots

“His father’s roots are Greek…and his mother is of Irish and German descent.” He was born in Queens, New York City, and grew up in Commack in Suffolk County on Long Island. He worked in Syracuse, NY radio and television even before he graduated in 1974 from Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

Much has been made over the years of his appearance. “Don Ohlmeyer, who at the time ran the network’s sports division, told 28-year-old Costas he looked like a 14-year-old.” Additionally, at 5’7″ (170 cm), he is a man of modest height.

He has appeared in about two dozen TV programs and movies as Bob Costas, and in Cars and Cars 2 voicing Bob Cutlass. This doesn’t count the hundreds of times he served as a host, guest, or announcer. In 2021, he has a new show on HBO called Back-on-the-record with “interviews with the biggest names in sports, entertainment, and popular culture, which he discussed on the 7 November 2021 episode of CBS Sunday Morning.

His Wikipedia page lists some of his many accolades. I imagine, though, that receiving the Ford C. Frick Award from the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2018 has to be the highlight.

For Lent, Ask Roger Anything

I have wisdom, I’m told

For Lent, people have been giving up something. But some years ago, I heard a sermon and decided that the way, or at least, A way to go, is to take on something.

I’ve heard that some people decide to engage in random acts of kindness. That’s admirable, I suppose. I always try to engage in random acts of kindness, throughout the year. The trick is that you have to have your eyes and ears and mind open to it.

The opening of the TV show The Odd Couple came to mind. Felix Unger (Tony Randall) tries to help an older woman and the woman slugs him with the purse. Then a Boy Scout also pokes him. I don’t want to be a Felix Unger.

Part of the Ash Wednesday Prayer of Confession at my church this year includes this. “We forget that we are called, invited, and loved with all that we are—including our mess, our beauty, our faith, and our doubt.”

Especially doubt. Most sane people have it. I related to this recent John Green video titled Hard week, which incorporated grief with hope.

When Easter is on April 22

(A random fact: Ash Wednesday was on my birthday in 1962, 1973, and 1984, though I have no recollection of this. It won’t happen again until 2057 when I turn 104. I’m sure I’ll be surprised.)

I would probably have quit blogging long ago except for your likes and comments, and suggestions. I was taken but a comment to this post from December 2020 about Handel Messiah and the book of Isaiah chapter 40. And I received, this month, a response from an old FantaCo colleague who used to go by Matt: “Wow, all glory to God. Here I am researching Isaiah for a Bible study and lo and behold, it’s wisdom by my old friend and mentor Roger Green. Wow. God is great. Always wonderful to think of you Sir. Your influence on my life continues. It is now profound. Love and Grace my brother.”

I found it quite touching. And, to paraphrase Sonny Curtis, it took a nothing day, and suddenly made it all seem worthwhile.

We have all been here before

I ask y’all to Ask Roger Anything because it gets me out of my own head, and into yours. What are YOU thinking about right now? What’s going on in your life that generates such a question?

And I’ll answer your queries, generally within a month. Please leave your questions, suggestions, et al in the comments section of the blog. OR you can also contact me on Facebook or Twitter. On Twitter, my name is ersie. Always look for the duck.

You may remain anonymous, or preferably pseudonymous, but you need to share that. E-mail me at rogerogreen (AT) gmail (DOT) com, or send me an IM on FB and note that you want to be unnamed. Otherwise, I’ll attribute the queries to you.

Baseball’s coming, with some new rules

end of the designated hitter

Baseball’s coming, and I’m happy. Actually, it’s more the absence of the negative. I was less excited by the return of the “National Pastime” than annoyed by its potential suspension.

And there are experimental rules rolling out for the 2022 season in Minor League Baseball. Not for all leagues but usually the majority. “Many experimental rules were first tested on a limited basis in 2021.” Most I think are fine. But one I rather despise.

PITCH TIMER: “On-field timers will be used… to enforce regulations designed to create a crisp pace of play, with batters required to be ready to hit and pitchers required to deliver the pitch within allotted periods of time. With runners on base, pitchers will have additional allotted time for each pitch but will risk automatic baserunner advancement if a third pick-off attempt or step-off within the same plate appearance is made without recording an out.”

This is a really good idea. Pitchers and batters take too much time fussing. A half dozen throws by the pitcher to keep the runner close is BORING.

LARGER BASES: “The size of first, second, and third base will be increased from 15 inches square to 18 inches square… to reduce player injuries.”

This may minimize collisions at first between the fielder and the batter. And the change appears to modestly increase stolen bases, which is a fine thing.

AUTOMATED BALL-STRIKE (“ABS”): “In select games…, ABS technology will be used to call balls and strikes.”

While the purist in me is mildly unsettled, seeing so many umpires have their “own” strike zones, and worse, inconsistent ones, allows me not to hate this.

On the other hand

DEFENSIVE POSITIONING: “…the defensive team must have a minimum of four players on the infield, with at least two infielders completely on either side of second base. These restrictions on defensive positioning are intended to allow infielders to better showcase their athleticism, to increase batting average on balls in play, and to restore a more traditional set of aesthetics and outcomes on batted balls.”

Yeah, it’ll almost certainly increase batting averages. But the solution to the shift (three fielders on one side or the other of second base, is to “hit it where they ain’t.” I’m not happy with this.

On the Major League level, the new contract has finally brought the end to no designated hitter in the National League. I’m no fan of the DH. But when MLB ended up with 15 teams in each league, requiring at least one interleague game every day of the season, I knew that pitchers who bat would soon be gone. Unless they’re really good at both.

Meanwhile, see the ball attendants snag some foul balls.