"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, February 28, 2004 ::

Not That Anyone Cares...

... but I thought I'd weigh in with a few Oscar picks before tomorrow night's show, which has been moved up a month so it falls into the February "rating period", thus generating big $ for ABC.

I'll just mention the main categories (Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Director and Best Picture), since those are the ones most people pay attention to, and besides, I don't know that much about the minor ones anyway.

Best Actor

Who Should Win: Sean Penn, "Mystic River". This was a powerful performance in a movie that was very true to the gritty Dennis Lehane novel it was based on (read it, by the way, if you haven't)

Who Will Win: Penn. Ben Kingsley has a chance, and though some people have mentioned Bill Murray, I can't see any reason to vote for him except to get a really funny acceptance speech.

Best Actress

Who Should Win: Keisha Castle-Hughes, "Whale Rider". Yes, this is her first film, and she is only twelve years old. But the performance carried the entire film, and she has an incredible screen presence, something you have to be born to. This is also a must-see film, incidentally.

Who Will Win: Charlize Theron, "Monster". Theron took a lot of risks with this role, and did a terrific job. She's the critics' choice, and the studio has put a lot of clout behind her, and these awards are often political. I'm not saying she shouldn't win, but Castle-Hughes' performance was better.

Best Supporting Actor

Who Should Win: Djimon Hounsou, "In America". Here's another movie that didn't get much notice, but Hounsou, who first got raves as the slave rebellion leader in "Amistad", puts in an incredible range here as you first think he's going to be an evil presence in this film, then he turns out to be central to the lives of all the characters in a positive light. Go see this movie, incidentally. It should have gotten more nominations.

Who Will Win: Hounsou. The Academy sometimes likes going out on a limb and this is a category they could easily do so this year.

Best Supporting Actress

Who Should Win: Shoreh Agadashloo, "House of Sand and Fog". Agadashloo is Iranian, and doesn't even speak fluent English. Yet her quiet dignity lit up the screen in this movie. It would be a real triumph for her if she won.

Who Will Win: Agadashloo, though there are a couple of dark horses in Marcia Gay Harden ("Mystic River"), and Renee Zellweger's kind of over-the-top performance in "Cold Mountain", which I liked a lot.

Best Director

Who Should Win: Clint Eastwood, "Mystic River". Eastwood has proven that he is one of the top directors of our time, with his Oscar for "Unforgiven", but this directing job is even better than that one.

Who Will Win: Peter Jackson, "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King". The Directors' Guild award went to him and only five times in Oscar history has the Academy not honored the same person. It won't this year, either.

Best Picture

What Should Win: "Mystic River". This movie had everything: a great script, a great director, some great performances, and a terrific novel that it was based on. But it won't win, unfortunately, because of a juggernaut this year.

What Will Win: "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King". I have to be honest -- I didn't like the first film in this series. I wasn't into the books, and as a result I didn't bother watching the other two films, including this one. From what I hear, it was well made and faithful to the story, and those who are into the Lord of the Rings trilogy loved it.

I just wouldn't have voted for it myself.

:: posted by Al at 8:22 PM [+] ::
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More On Cubs Ticket Sales

This is the price we pay for success.

At this writing approximately 70 games have NO bleacher tickets available; I'd expect the bleachers to completely sell out within a couple of weeks for the entire season.

29 dates are completely sold out. It is possible the Cubs might sell out the entire season by Opening Day. 500,000 tickets were sold yesterday, which is nearly double last year's record of 260,000.

Here's something I received from Joe Baker in Philadelphia, which seems pretty representative of the problems 99% of Cub fans had trying to get tickets yesterday:

I can imagine how tough it is in Chicago at Wrigley Field with the wrist bands to get tickets. But try getting tickets using only the web and the phone.
Last year, I was able to call into a Tickets.com 800 number in a location far away from Chicago and was able to get tickets to the games I wanted. It only took me 15 minutes after they went on sale over the phone and web. This year, I tried the same thing with 3 different Tickets.com 800 numbers in locations far away from Chicago and I got the same answer from all 3 people I spoke with, I had to call the special Cubs number. Which is next to impossible to get through on! I know for a fact they have access on their computers in any Tickets.com call center for Cubs tickets because I got my tickets last year that way. Why the change this year!?!? Ticketmaster lets you order tickets for any event across the country on any ticketmaster phone number. Why not Cubs tickets on Tickets.com? Guess they have to save some seats for the "ticket agency" the Tribune runs!

I thought I was going to have some luck over the web this year and it started out well. I got bleacher seats for the Saturday 7/31 Cubs-Phillies game 10 minutes after they went on sale over the web. I, then, spent the next 6 hours in the virtual waiting room. I lucked out on the Sunday 8/1 Cubs-Phillies game and got seats. But the Friday 7/30 was sold out before I could through. So I bit the bullet and bought some seats from a ticket agency.

There has to be a better way to handle this!

Yes, there does. Hopefully, by next season the Cubs will find that better way.

:: posted by Al at 12:17 PM [+] ::
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Cub Ticket Sales

[a rant]

Wellllll.... I have some pretty strong opinions here, and the strongest of which, I think I'll keep to myself.

But frankly, the tickets.com method simply is not fair to the vast majority of people.

Yes, I have season tickets, but I usually get extras for my friends who do not have their own, plus, people are always asking me for tickets.

Demand, obviously, is much higher this year. So many friends got wristbands. Only one was lucky enough to get within 800 of the chosen first number, and even he had to wait about five hours. By then several games were already sold out. Jeff and Howard are still there as of this writing, and they'll get some tickets for themselves and a few for me too.

The problem is with the way tickets.com runs their website and phone banks. There are many tickets.com phone numbers nationally, but if you call one outside of the official Cub number, they won't let you order. Note I say "won't", because with computer technology, they surely could process these orders, but they refuse to do so. If they did, this would make it so much easier to get through on the phone.

Online, they have come up with the much-reviled "Virtual Waiting Room", which is nearly impossible to get out of (reminds me of the old red room on "Twin Peaks", actually), and even if you do, you can only order one game at a time, which means that you have to pay a separate shipping charge for every game. The other national ticket site, Ticketmaster, will let you save your tickets in a "shopping cart", then pay for them when you are done with all games. Or you can print your tickets at home.

Yes, I know the Cubs are trying to be fair to everyone, and no doubt, they will sell more tickets today than they have ever sold on a single day.

But the system sucks.

[end rant]

:: posted by Al at 5:03 PM [+] ::
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Movie Review: "Girl With A Pearl Earring"

This movie has been out for a while, and I actually missed two free screenings of it in December and January, but I really wanted to see it, so before stuff like "50 First Dates" squeezes it totally out of the theaters, I hied down to the Esquire on Oak Street tonight.

Johannes Vermeer's painting, from which this film gets its title, is on display at The Royal Cabinet of Paintings in Mauritshuis, in The Hague, The Netherlands, and someday I'd like to see it. But the story that this film is based on is fictional -- from a novel by Tracy Chevalier. No one really knows who the model is who Vermeer painted in 1665.

The movie takes you right into the times, as the girl (with the odd name "Griet"), played marvelously by Scarlett Johansson, who ought to have received an Oscar nomination for this role (and who, incidentally, at age 19 has already established herself as one of the top actresses of today), suddenly is swept from her middle-class family and forced to work as a maid for the Vermeer family, haughtily ruled over by Vermeer's overbearing mother-in-law and wife. The film shows how poorly servants were treated, even by the children in the family, one of whom in particular you'd like to throttle. Oddly, at one point you get the strong feeling that this child is going to suddenly become a hero to Griet, after tormenting her, but it never happens.

Slowly, Griet, who probably doesn't speak 100 words in the entire film, is drawn into the confidence of Vermeer (played understatedly by Colin Firth), who paints for money only, not really caring much about his subjects, only that his wealthy patron Van Ruijven, played overstatedly -- and that's a compliment, incidentally, not a complaint -- by the terrific English actor Tom Wilkinson, who's almost unrecognizable behind his long hair and goatee. Vermeer's wife is played as a selfish, catty woman and you find yourelf wondering why he even bothers staying with her, then it becomes evident that it's the wife's family who provided most of his support and the patron who pays him well for his paintings.

And then, so subtly you almost don't see it yourself, Vermeer realizes that he might have a great subject for a painting in Griet, but there are other intrigues here, including the desire of Van Ruijven for her... but she's got a young man friend, who you wonder why she doesn't run off with, as he has a profession (he's a butcher's son), and a way for her to have a real life.

It's not really made clear exactly why Griet has to leave her family; there appears to be some issue with her father's health, and perhaps he cannot work so that they need the money she can earn, but this is almost glossed over.

That's about the only complaint I have with this lush film, which did get nominations for costume design and cinematography. It ought to have gotten one for the music too, and I think I might even run out and buy Alexandre Desplat's soundtrack, recorded by the Hollywood Studio Orchestra.

This is a good film to have watched as a prelude to the Oscar telecast this Sunday, and perhaps if I have some time I'll post some of my choices for those awards.

Oh, and I got another stinking parking ticket. The city has choice ways of hiding the parking regulation signs, and that's what happened here. This one, I think I have a fair chance of fighting off.

AYRating: *** 1/2

:: posted by Al at 8:21 PM [+] ::
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Stuff I Don't Want To Talk About

1) Dusty Baker's "McCarthyism" comment in regard to steroids. Frankly, we just have to let this play out. To me, it's just another way of reporters trying to fill slow news days.

2) The scheduled destruction of the Bartman foul ball tomorrow. I mean, really, talk about a photo op. For heaven's sake, this thing is going to be live on MSNBC tomorrow at 7 pm CT.

3) The movie "The Passion of the Christ". No. Seriously. Not a word. I do NOT want to talk about it. No, I'm NOT going to pay money to see this movie. No. Not talking about it.

Well, there's the stuff I don't want to talk about. Can you see I really need a ballgame?

One week from today, my friends, on ESPN, 1 pm CT.

Also, I should report that it took 90 minutes to get through the line for wristbands being handed out at Wrigley Field today, for the ticket sale which begins Friday morning. This year they are handing out twice as many wristbands as last year (20,000 as opposed to 10,000), though they still may run out by the time they finish handing them out tomorrow at 10 pm. If you are in the Chicago area and want one, I'd recommend getting there today or early tomorrow.

:: posted by Al at 4:04 PM [+] ::
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