"People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do, I stare out the window and wait for spring." - Rogers Hornsby

:: Saturday, January 31, 2004 ::

Correction to Movie Review

As my dad reminded me, Ben Kingsley was indeed nominated for Best Actor for his role in "House Of Sand And Fog". He was terrific and could indeed win, though I think my vote goes to Sean Penn in "Mystic River".

:: posted by Al at 1:44 PM [+] ::
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Movie Review: "House Of Sand And Fog"

This is a complicated movie about complicated people.

The basic plot is simple enough, and it's one that a couple of reviewers have gotten wrong: Kathy (Jennifer Connelly, who is almost too beautiful for this role, a woman who is a recovering drug addict and alcoholic) has lost her house because she didn't pay taxes to the fictitious Bay Area "Pacific County". What some of the reviewers got wrong is that there's a further subplot here, letting us know that she didn't owe the taxes in the first place; it was a bureaucratic mistake.

Of course, she'd have known this if she opened her mail, something we learn very early that she doesn't do. She has family "back East", but they seem to care little about her, only that they are visiting "on the 18th" (we never do learn how soon that is), and that she doesn't want to let them know that her husband left her months ago, and that she has lost the house, been evicted on a moment's notice, and the house is meaningful to her not only as a place to live, but because her father left it to her and her brother when he died.

If you think I'm revealing too much, you're wrong. And I'm going to tell you more.

Enter Ben Kingsley, playing Massoud Behrani, who used to be a colonel in the Iranian army under the Shah (we at one point find out he was very close to the Shah), but has been living in the USA (now a citizen) and working two menial jobs (construction and in a convenience store) to support his wife (Shohreh Aghdashloo, who received the only acting Oscar nomination this film received for her performance, which is indeed powerful, though she speaks virtually no English during the film) and teenage son. He also has a daughter, recently married, for whom he wants to keep up "appearances". He was apparently wealthy in Iran, and so swoops in and buys Kathy's house for a fraction of its real value, because as we learn, he is rapidly running out of money, trying to keep up a lifestyle he can't afford.

Now is where I stop revealing details. Both Kathy and Massoud alternate between being sympathetic characters and people you would just like to throttle, and the entire film is more complicated by a sheriff's deputy named Lester (Ron Eldard), who initially shows up to help with the eviction and winds up falling in love with Kathy. Yes, even though he has a wife and kids of his own. Oddly, he winds up driving the entire plot, though you wouldn't suspect this at any time up to almost the very end.

You sympathize with Kathy and then get pissed at her when she won't take even the smallest proper steps to help get her house back.

You get angry at Massoud because he is being such a hardass and then there is one scene in which he performs an act of such overwhelming kindness and gentleness, that you realize that ... well, life is complicated.

The ending of this movie is very hard to deal with for many reasons, and so I won't say anything more about it, other than it doesn't feel like a "movie" ending; rather, it's one that follows logically from the story, which spins out of control even while you are sitting there hoping that someone will rescue all these tragic characters.

Hey, if you want neat packages with Hollywood endings, go see "The Big Bounce" (which I am, incidentally, not necessarily recommending -- for one thing, I haven't seen it!).

But if you want to see well-drawn characters, a fascinating story that rings so true in the modern world, and some of the best acting of the year (it's really a shame that more of the actors in this film didn't get nominated), go see "House Of Sand And Fog". I know that due to the 21st Century way of getting movies released, this one may not be playing everywhere. But if you can see it, by all means, do, and if it's not playing where you are, rent it when it comes out on video.

AYRating: ****

:: posted by Al at 11:02 AM [+] ::
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Wrigley Field About To Be Landmarked

A Chicago City Council committee has approved a deal worked out between the mayor and the team to make certain parts of Wrigley Field a landmark, which would mean the club would have to have city approval to change it.

Paradoxically, this makes it easier, supposedly, to change certain parts of the park, including, possibly, the immediate approval of the 200 "premium" seats that the Cubs want to add behind home plate. The deal, according to the Sun-Times article linked above, might also be in time for the Cubs to add the four additional night games they want in the 2004 season.

One of the first things that might be changed, and I'd be in favor of this, is the removal of the ugly 1950's-era concrete panels that are on the Addison St. side of the park, perhaps to be replaced by a more attractive brick.

It's been suggested that this will make it easier for the Cubs to get the bleacher expansion that they say they must have. But wait -- the deal supposedly landmarks "the uninterrupted sweep of the bleachers and grandstand". I'd say that the city, which has to approve any use of the city right-of-way, meaning the sidewalk over which any bleacher expansion would have to be constructed, could invoke this clause to block any bleacher expansion.

We will see. In any case, this is the first time in the more than two years that this has been up for discussion, that there has been any sort of agreement between the city and the Tribsters.

:: posted by Al at 1:40 PM [+] ::
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A Bit Of Baseball

And who doesn't need that on a day when it's 23 degrees here in Chicago and snowed all day?

As you know if you have read this blog since last spring training, I have consistently ranked Ho Ho Kam Park as the worst of the spring training parks in the Phoenix area, and one of the main reasons is the food -- poor quality, poor selection and high prices.

One of my friends, Ron, who also goes to spring training regularly, got the idea that some of us who are regular visitors to the Valley of the Sun, should write to the City of Mesa and see if we could get some public groundswell behind changing the concession menu at Ho Ho Kam.

So, having been well armed with the e-mail addresses of Mayor Keno Hawker (and with a name like that, what's he doing in Arizona instead of Nevada?) and the Mesa City Council, I sent one off, and received the following reply from the "Assistant to the Mayor" (yeah, sure, like the mayor could ever actually respond to an e-mail):

Mayor Hawker read your message and requested that I respond. He appreciates your e-mail and shares your concern regarding the concession contract at Hohokam Stadium.

The City of Mesa currently contracts with Cactus Concessions for food and beverage provision at Hohokam. The City entered into a 10-year contract with Cactus Concessions that expires after the 2006 spring training season. The contract the City agreed to states that no outside food or beverage will be allowed in to the stadium on event days. However, the City negotiated a provision to allow one bottle of water per person recently, but it costs the City of Mesa to allow this provision.

The Mayor agrees with you and would also go as far to say that the concession prices for spring training games are high. Prior to each season the concession prices are compared to all of the other Cactus League facilities. They are all higher than he would like for a simple hot dog and drink.

Thank you for your comments; the Mayor will keep them in mind when the contract is up for renewal. Despite the issues, the Mayor is really looking forward to Spring Training and having the Cubs back in Mesa. This season is sure to be one of the best and he'll be volunteering as an usher on the 3rd baseline, so please stop by and say hello.

Sincerely,
Julie Rice
Assistant to the Mayor


Well, at least my message got read. I read into this reply that the city of Mesa (not to mention the Ho Ho Kams themselves, who were in part behind the impetus for some sort of changes) is counting the days till they can get rid of Cactus Concessions as the food and drink supplier at Ho Ho Kam Park.

That'll make the spring training experience so much better, and will absolutely change my opinion of going to games at Ho Ho Kam.

35 days till the first spring game...

:: posted by Al at 7:48 PM [+] ::
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Theater Review: "Hairspray"

As part of a fundraising event for my kids' school (and that gave me the opportunity, at the lunch that occurred before the show, to see Rachel dancing with the other kids, something she usually does not do), we all hied down to the Ford Center yesterday to see this high-energy, fun show that is in Chicago for only a short time (till February 15).

It's not the greatest Broadway show ever, in terms of impact, but the dancing and the songs are so infectious, you can't help but enjoy it.

It's yet another film ("The Producers" also being one) that you'd never have thought would be adaptable to the stage, but they did it, and did it well. Harvey Fierstein made the role of Edna famous on Broadway, but he is not in the touring company.

They made a very wise choice, at least for the Chicago audience, by choosing Bruce Vilanch, a Chicago native and long-time comedy writer (he's written the Oscar TV show for many years, among others) to play this role. He's terrific, as is 19-year-old Carly Jibson, who plays Tracy Turnblad, a Baltimore teenager in 1962 whose only ambition, at first, is to appear on a local TV show to dance, like all the "cool kids".

But this show turns into something much more, as you see the beginnings of what is to become the protests of the 1960's, when Tracy's "competition", Amber, and her mother, who is the producer of the TV show, conspire to keep a group of young black kids off the show, even though, as Tracy says, "all we want to do is dance together."

As I said, the songs are fun and the whole show is very high-energy and staged well, with the lighting and the costumes full of bright primary colors. Many of the jokes are well over the heads of the kids who were in the audience, but they weren't "off-color", and you can easily take school-age children to this show.

Bruce Vilanch got off a couple of really good lines when a gimmick didn't work exactly as expected; it involved a rubber chicken (you have to see this to get it), and when the chicken just sat there, Vilanch paused a moment, then yelled "AFLAC!!" at it, and then said "I guess this doesn't work on Sundays"... paused again, then said, "Gee, just like those trucks that sit around all day here doing nothing." That got a big laugh, but he capped it off by saying, "And here I paid that former governor all this big money to make sure they got their licenses... I can't pronounce the new one!"

That's the mark of a real professional, who can take a live theater performance that doesn't quite work the way it's supposed to, and turn it into big laffs for the audience, in a totally unexpected way.

Like "The Producers" and "The Lion King", this show is only in Chicago for a short time, and that's too bad. For some reason, recent touring shows haven't stayed long here, even though they could have easily sold out for a year or more. It goes from here to Minneapolis, St. Louis, Phoenix (Tempe), San Francisco, San Diego and Los Angeles later this year, so if you're in any of those towns, go out and have a fun time at the theater.

AYRating: ***

:: posted by Al at 1:46 PM [+] ::
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